The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1911-06-08
PRESIDENT SCORED
4 lin WOOL REPORT
House Democrats Submit the
Underwood Bill.
SAY EVILS REST ON TAFT
Asserted That Any Further Delay In
+, Revising Schedule Would Be OBJ
i jected to by the
~ Public.

Washington, June 7.-Sharply criti.
cising President Taft, the Republicans
and the tariff board, the report on the
Underwood wool bill was submitted to
the house by the Democratic members
OF the ways and means committee.
Quoting President Tafts addresses
after the passage Of the Payne-Aldrich
bill, in which he declared that the
wooden schedule is indefensible and
/ propose to say So" the report says:
Had the president made these pub
lie admissions earlier, while the tariff
of 1909 was under consideration, by
congress, his declarations would have
been of real service to the people and
would have enabled them to protest
against the betrayal of the public well
fare TO private greed.
The presidents silence at that time
and his approval of the act of 1909
make it impossible for him to evade
his full share of responsibility for the
failure of revision which he now ad-
mits.
The report deals at some length
with the attitude of the administra-
ton in not communicating to congress
data on the steel trust" and other in
dustries now being Investigated, and
the failure of the tariff board to COM
municate data on the wooden industry.
Board Is Criticised.
THE position of the tariff board ap-
pears to be-" says the report, that
wi
the sole control of the president, shall
be the sole judges as to what part of
the data they collect may be likely to
be of service for purposes of legisla-
ton; and this situation must be con-
sidered with reference to the view
point of the president concerning tar
if legislation.
1T is, therefore, not impossible that
there may be some such delay in the
communication to the congress of sta
tistical Information collected by the
tariff board concerning wool and wool
en- goods as there has been in COM
municating to congress or making pub
lie the data by the bureau of corpora
lions concerning investigations of the
steel and other industries"
Points Out Evils of Delay.
The report maintains that any
further delay in the revision of the
wool and wooden schedule would be
Objectionable to the public.
In explaining the determination of
the committee not to put raw wool on
the free list, but to reduce the pres
ent duty to 20 per cent. ad valorem,
the committee insists as the Demo
cratic caucus did that the duty lis not
to be construed as an abandonment of
any Democratic policy"
THE present situation of the treas
ury,~ the report states, following a
long course of unwarranted extrava-
gance by the Republican party and the
appropriations already made by the
Sixty-first congress, which the Demo
cratic minority could not limit, re-
quire that the revenue from customs
duties in the immediate future be
maintained at approximately the total
of the fiscal year 1910"
Calls II Great Burden.
The committee states that there is
no sufficient reason for continuing the
complicated and troublesome system
of classification of raw woods, char
acterizing 1t as a great burden and
annoyance to the customs service and
adding to the expense Of collecting du-
ties on raw wools."
A minority report is signed by
Messrs. Payne, Dalzell, Needham and
Longworth. For purely political rea-
sons" it says, this coldblooded
measure is brought forward. If it
could become law it would slaughter
sheep as in 1894 and close the mills
much more universally"