Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-08-31
SECRET PACT PUT
UP TO PRESIDENT
FOR EXPLANATION
Deal Intimated by Underwood
Calls for Answer from
Taft.
GIVES HIS VIEWS ON
RECIPROCITY PASSAGE
Tells OF Agreement Made by
Taft Before Extra Ses-
sion Call.

ATLANTIC CITY, Aug. 51.-Without
referring in any way to Presldenl
Taft's personal attack upon him III
the Presidents speech at Hamilton
Mass. Congressman Oscar w. under-
who'd. of Alabama, chairman of the
WAYS and means committee OF the
House of Representatives n hoor
leader. showed yesterday hat the
President made a secret agreement
with the tory Republican leaders 10
veto all other tariff bills, this prior TO
the massage OF the false pretense reel
procity bill.
In other words, to obtain the passase
OF his pet bill. the reciprocity Dill
President Taft entered into a d1cker
with the tory Republicans.
No Such Thing as Tariff Board
SIN the first place." said Congress-
man Underwood, there is no sucn
thing as a tariff board in existence
When the President says that he must
wait until December. by which time
his tariff board will have concluded It's
study of wool, cotton and other tarllr
schedule features, he tells this country
that it must wait for downward reVl-
sion of the tariff until certain of his
personal clerks do what he directs.
.'Such a course as this means that
the executive will usurp the power OF
tariff legislation which the constitution
imposes upon congress. The makers
of the constitution tried in every way
to prevent this very thing, going even
to the length of declaring that all rev.
enue legislation must originate in the
House of Representatives, the branch
of congress nearest the people.
"When the Payne bill created this So
called tariff board it provided for a
minimum and maximum tariff, the
minimum to be that fixed by the bill
and the maximum 25 per cent. higher.
This board was to adjust the tariff
supposedly between the minimum and
the maximum. But the bill also pro-
yided that the President should gain
concessions from other countries by
treaty or apply the maximum against
them.
80 President Taft proceeded to get
all other civilized countries bound 10
the country by tariff treaty, giving
each one of these countries the mimi
mum rate and not gaining any con-
cession worth mention. When he did
this he took away from that tariff
board all that it had been created to do
and left it an idle, useless body, only
another set of clerks in the Presidents
office. 1t is then a mere evasion to say
that downward revision is waiting for
this tariff board.
Taft Side-stcpped.
"When it was proposed to call an
extra session of congress the President
sent for Mr.. Clark and myself and we
called upon him. He asked us If con
gress would pass the reciprocity bill
in case he called an extra session. We
answered hat we would pass that bill.
This was our part of the agreement, If
there was an agreement.
"But right there and then we in
formed him thai we proposed to pass
tariff bills thai would meet our pledges
to the people. We told him hat the
people had voted for downward re-
vision and that was instruction enough
for us, and that if the special session
was called we should pass tariff bills
giving that substantial downward re-
vision that he had then declared he
favored.
NOV the President did not say he
would sign those bills. He did not say
either, that he would veto those bills,
We understood this because he could
not then foresee what the bills would
be. They would be passed by a Dem
ocratic House and must then &c
through a Republican Senate, and
what the outcome might be no person
could ~foretell.
but what he did say was that he
would give us every assistance in his
power. To prove that he meant 1t, he
offered us all the data his tariff board
had secured, and 1t had been at work
many months.
"That he meant just what he said
was shown later, when his tariff board
did give us all the information it had
gathered concerning wool. 1t was not
much Information it had; but, then, any
one may judge of that, because w
printed what 1t did give us in the
report. 1t did not have anything like
the information we got from our own
clerks and our own sources.
Change of Front.
Between that day and the day when
the President vetoed our bills a mighty
change came into the man; in fact
he was turned right about. We could
tell in Congress just about when the
change was made. There came a
day when all the resistance to the