The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-21
Led By AIabamian, Demo- crats Pass Measure By
 Vote of 221 to 100
TAFT SENDS SPECIAL
 MESSAGE TO HOUSE
President States Information Desired By House Could Not Be Furnish ed at This Time-24 Repub-
 licans Vote for Bill

 Washington, June 2o-The House oi | Representatives by a vote of 221 to 10 today passed the Underwood wool tarln revision bill providing for a reduction of the duty on wool and manufactures of wool. Twenty-four republicans voted with the democrats for the passage of the measure and one democrat, Repre- sentative Francis of Ohio voted against it.
 Many amendments were offered and voted down, the only one adopted being a slight change in phraseology. Almost five hours were spent by the House in debate under the ive-miruff rule. Immediately preceding the finn vote, motion offered by Representative Payne of New York that the bill be re- submitted to the ways and means coni- mttee, with instructions that 1t wait a report from the tariff board on the wool an industry before making final report of the bill was lost by vote of 1s9 to IlS
 Representative Underwood, chairman of the ways and means committee and in charge of the bill, kept his forces well together in their opposition to all amend ments. While some democrats proposed amendments, with one exception they voted with the party when the bill came to passage.
 | Representative Murdock, one of the in- surgent republicans who finally voted for the bill, proposed several amendments placing certain grades of wool on the free l list
 His purpose In these amendments, he stated, was to give the American people protection from the .tworsted trust" by making free those articles which enter into the manufacture of trust controlled woolen products"
 | Mir Murdock appealed to Representa- tive Harrison of New York, a democratic member of the ways and means commit tee and to others of the party who had favored placing wool on the free list, to support him. MT. Harrison replied that he would vote for the bill, although he } would have placed raw wool on the Tree 9 list if his personal desires had prevailed" Special Message From Taft
 After the bill had been passed a mes sage was read from President Taft in response to a request which had been made for certain information from the tariff board in regard to the woolen ques- ton. The message stated that the de- sired information could not be furnished | at this time
 The republicans who voted for the bill were: Representatives Anderson, An thony, Davis of Minnesota, French, Hau- | gen, Helgezen, Jackson, LaFollette, Len root, Lindberg, Madison, Miller, Morse, Murdock, Nelson, Norris, Rees, Sloan, l Steenerson, Stephens of California; Vol stead, Woods of Iowa and Young of Kan | sas.
 l The bill places a duty os 20 per | cent ad valorem raw wool imports as against an average duty of a lit tie more than A per cent ad valorem under the present law. On partly man. ufactured wool and on products manu- factured in whole or in part from wool | the average duty under the proposed law would be about 42.h per cent ad valorem as compared with the present average ad valorem duty of more than l 90 per cent.
 | The ways and means committee has estimated the bill would reduce the an nual revenue under the woolen sched- ule of the tariff by a little more than s, ,000,0 ,000.
 | The measure prescribes 1t shall be in effect January 1 next. but it is not believed the bill will pass the Senate at this session.
 , In his special message President Taft } stated that the tariff board would not | be reaQY to SuDTull d ic- port on woolen and cotton schedules of the tariff law until next December. He declared the board was instructed, when reorganized last April, to be ready to report in December, and that in the meantime it was not in position to transmit anything except some figures | already sent to the House ways and means committed The Presidents mes sage was called out by House resolu- ton requesting him to transmit at once all of the information procured by the | tariff board relating to wool and the manufacturers of wool.
 | MT Taft's message found the House engaged in final discussion of the Under wood tariff revision bill | President Taft said he transmitted the | House resolution to the board, which, in | reply, prepared a statement enclosed with the message. giving the status Of the | board inquiry.
 In this statement the board said that statistics covering the production, dis tribution and consumption of raw wools 1 and wooen manufactures had already been transmitted, on request. to the | House ways and means committee and used by it.
 | Information Fragmentary
 This information the board says, | necessarily is fragmentary in character. and if transmitted to Congress would not be only of doubtful utility. but act  ually misleading We shall develop the essential facts in relation to both the wool and cotton schedules in time for forwarding to Congress next December; and in this endeavor we are not only working to the limit of the present ap- propriation but to the utmost capacity of our entire force."
 | The President says in part: This language and an examination of the detailed account of what tho board is doing, contained therein, will show that they have no further in- formation than that which has already been transmitted to the committee on ways and means in any form or com diticn proper for transmission.
 'The board of experts was first en- gaged in assisting the executive in the discharge of his duties under the maximum and minimum clauses of the Payne Aldrich tarin bill. It's attention was then directed to accumulation of infor mation for use in connection with the reciprocity agreement made with Canada and especially the comparative cost of commodities in Canada and in the United States, the price of labor