Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-01-05

Tariff Legislative Program and
Selection of Committees for
Next Session.
NEW TREATY TO END SCARES
Pending Pact With Japan Relied on to
Insure Long Peace With the Is
Ianders-Prospects of the
Ship Subsidy Measure.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

/ that the Democrats OF the house when
| they meet in caucus in the middle Of
/ January will appoint a tentative"
ways and means committee 1t is un-
| deTstood that all the Democratic mem
! bers elected to the new congress will
/ be present at the caucus. although
/ of course the new members can have
| no voice in legislation until the pres
ent congress dies. They can, and will
| be, taken into consideration, however,
/ in caucus matters which have to do
with the program of the party when
1t comes into full power in the rep
resentatiVe chamber.
| 1t is altogether probable that the
| tentative committee will become the
| legal ways and means committee
when the subsidiary bodies Of the
next house finally are appointed. 1t
| is to be the duty of this tentative COM
| mlttee to frame such tariff legisla-
! ton as the Democratic party finally
! concludes it will take UP for consid-
GRAFTON next December.
| 1t has been disclosed also that to
the tentative body will be given the
work of what is to be known as a
! committee on committees. In other
words, because Champ Clark, the next
! speaker. of the house, has agreed that
| the committee-appointing power shall
pass from his hands, it will be trans
m1tted to the ways and means com
| m1ttee, which will undertake the task
/ OF ASSIGNING RI
| positions and report the results of its
work to house caucus of all the party
members.
| Delicate Task for Committee.
The chief legislative duty of the
tentative ways and means committee
will be the planning for tariff revi-
sion under Democratic auspices, but
this work will not be much harder
| than that Of naming the membership
OF the committees of the house. This
| latter labor not only will be hard, but
| 1t will require the exercise of caution
and of rare diplomacy, for there is
| great jealousy in the matter of com
m1ttee appointments. The RepubIi-
cans found this to be the case and it
Is hardly possible that the Democrats,
| being human like the enemy" will
be any less susceptible to the prompt
| fngs Of personal ambitions and to the
showing of keen disappointment at the
failure of personal hopes to be rea-
| lized
| Congress may use its good Offices
| to prevent the establishment of a re-
| formatory institution almost under
| the shadow of the walls of the house
! at Mount Vernon where Washington
! lived and died. Few projects of re-
| cent years have attracted more atten-
ton in the capital than this one to es-
tablish penal institution close to
! what most Americans consider ground
of an almost sacred nature. It is
probable that another location will be
| found for the reformatory.
Rely on New Japan Treaty.
Washington officials hope and be-
l1eVe that when the new treaty with
| Japan is signed, and ratified by the
senate of the United States and by
the emperor's council, the main trou-
bles out of which it was feared war
might spring will be removed from the
! field Of friction.
The Japanese officials and to some
extent the Japanese people never have
forgotten that it was the United States
Which gave to the empire the fmpetus
| to modern civilization. While the
masses OF the Japanese people were
and still are angry because of discrim-
nations made in America against the
| islanders because of their color there
nave been some leaders of the people
VINO have seen fit to remind them con-
stantly of what America did for Japan
III the year 1854, when Commodore
Perry at the mouth of the guns of his
SHIPS opened the Japanese ports to the
trade of the world and let In not only
trade, but civilization.
1t is thought probable that tba now
treaty with Japan will in certain din
iomatlc ways touch on the question of
Japanese exclusion and will so arrange
matters that the western coast. and
the rest of the country, too for that
matter, need no longer fear that labor
is 10 surer because of the influx Of the
islanders. If this matter can he ar.
ranged by treaty so that further racial
troubles can be avoided, the Washing
ton feeling Is that Japan and America
Will remain friends for years to come
and that the recent war scare will
serve only to remind people of how
easy 1t is to conjure up trouble out of
! conditions of Deace
Civil Service Pension Bill.
Representative Goulden of New
York has introduced a retirement men,
sion bill for government emnlovees
under the civil service. This is on1v
one Of several bills of the kind which
nave been introduced, but It gains
prominence from the fact that It's
sponsor is a Democrat and because If
the present Republican house does NOT
pass the measure, it will fall to the LOT
or a Democratic house either to mass
or reject the legislation.
There is an immense amount Of