The Washington herald., 1911-02-12
By JAMES b. MORROW.

A theatrical phrase about thorns, sa-
gaciously worked out before the occasion,
but spoken with inspirational frenzy and
suddenness, made the issue of 1896. Nc
Kinley, waiting and tuning his voice in
his cottage among the trees of Canton,
and Mark Hanna commander-in-chief of
the commissariat supposed all discussion
would center on hard times and a protec-
tive tariff. They could not foresee the
uplifted hand and the two defiant eyes,
nor forehear the wild call to arms COM
pressed into few brief but maddening
words.
No ingenious oratoricaI outburst, fol-
lowed by an emotional explosion will
oyerturn the plans now being laid for
the mighty campaign of 1912. The DEM
ocrats will storm the electorate with
single main issue-revenue reform. They
will also, in passing. observe traditions
and rebuke extravaganza. There will be
plenty OF subsidiary Observation-Disclosures
immigration, the rights of labor, pensions,
the Stars and Stripes, ard so forth, eye
full and readable planks put in to orna-
ment the platform. But tariff for rev.
cnue, as against a tariff for protection,
will be the one paramount subject of all
stump speakers and party writers. The
Democrats will attack. The Republicans
will explain and defend.
The first session of the Sixty-second
Congress will convene in December this
year. The House of Representatives will
be Democratic: the Senate will be Re-
publican, and Mr.. Taft will still be Pres
ident If Democratic tariff bill should
pass the House and then the Senate, with
the help of about five insurgent Repub-
licans- it could be vetoed by Mr.. Taft,
in which event ii would only be valuable
as a curiosity. Therefore, tariff legisla-
ton, started by the Democrats is log
icaIly impossible until after the election
of 1872, and will not be possible then un-
less the Republicans lose the Senate and
the Democrats elect Gov. Wilson. Gov.
Marshall Gov. Harmon, or some one else
to succeed Mr.. Taft.
Democrats After Thrift.
Nevertheless. the Democrats of the next
House intend to pass a number of tariff
bills, not with the expectation Of chang
ing or repeating the Payne-Aldrich law,
but to provide themselves and their
party with campaign arguments The
bills will strike at particular schedules
wool and cotton, for example-and will
give Congressional orators opportunity TO
enumerate and describe the so-called in
iQuities of protection. The speeches will
be circulated during the national cam
paign that is TO follow and will be guides,
as to theory and fact, for all speIlbinders
and editors throughout the country.
Tariff legislation. by a provision OF the
Constitution, must originate in the House
of Representatives. The Committee on
Ways and Means, in that branch of Con-
greSs. writes the bill, and the bill as
matter of verbal convenience and general
identification, is given the name of the
chairman-thus, the Mills bill. the Nc
kinley bill, the Wilson bill, the Dingley
bill, and so on. Oscar w. Underwood,
of Birmingham, Ala, has already been
chosen, as the chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee of the Sixty-second
Congress.
There will not be an Underwood bill.
however, because the present tariff law
is to be attacked in spots. Instead. there
will be a series of Underwood biIls-pop-
guns, Thomas B. Reed once called such
measures, mingling wit with irreverence.
The word Underwood, accordingly will
be heard all over the land for at least
two years TO come. And Underwood him
self will be much discussed, both as a
man and as a Democrat.
Geographically and indusrially, Ala
bama sounds rather isolated and free
radish. New England. roaring with ma
and the Middle West, alight |