Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-03-23
Democrats Shout Sugar
To Sweeten Campaign.
The 25-pounds- -a-doIIar Plan
May Prove Boomerang.
Congressman Slipping Away to Re.
pair Their Political Hedges.


tives has been through hammer and
tongs sort of experience. 1t is just
emerging again into the comparative
calm of trying to enact few more
appropriation bills and catch up with
business 50 as to make. adjournment
possible within three or four months.
There was the free sugar bill, over
which congressman banded words
like savages, seeking one another $
hearts blood, and after it came the
excise bill Tin reality an income tax
bilD over which there was a like per-
Torrance.
All this is very radical legislation,
calculated. of course, to catch unwary
voters. The Republicans know 1T and
they have fought with great despera- :
ton. The arguments over the WOODEN
bill and over the cotton bill were
threshed out at the last session of
Congress. Those were measures likely
to appeal to many people, anxious to
get commodities as eheaply as may
be without much regard to how the
general welfare may be affected.
The steel revision and the chemical
revision contained paragraphs of great
tariff Importance but not of a char
acter to appeal so strongly to the
masses. BY no means everybody is
building great structures where the
duty on steel Orders is directly notice
able or conducting a great dyeiuS
establishment, where sulphurie acid
costs are to be reckoned. But when
it comes down to free sugar and to
taxes on incomes, there is an argu-
ment, made red hot for use upon the
hustings las the Democrats we'll know
and it stirred the Republicans to un-
usual activity in showing how the
price of sugar might not be lowered
by such action and how the proposition
might not work out in real practice.
This new coup by the Democrats
and their acclaim about % pounds of
sugar for dollar will have to be met,
of course. with campaign of educa-
ton and that the Republicans are al
ready preparing for They will see tn
it that the voters hear both sides of
the question between now and next
November 1t will be told how the
fortress of protection is assailed be-
cause while free sugar will not directly
affect any industry in New England
or many other states, it strikes at the
cane industry in Louisiana and the
beet industry in Michigan, Colorado
and California. And as has been en-
phasized so much during the last
twelve months, when Congress begins
striking down the protection TO in
dustries in one particular section, the
day can not be far distant when there
will be reprisals and before long the
entire protection system will be
threatened.
Democrats think they have fine
campaign issue in free sugar. They
state 1t BADLY that this takes part of
the tax off the people and similar ac-
ton on other commodities of food are
promised before the present session of
Congress adjourns. But the Republic
cans say the brethren of the opposi-
ton are reckoning too hastily and that
before the campaign is over. there Will
come realiza ton, that free sugar is
a boomerang. The free sugar bill
probably will not pass the Senate, al
though that is not altogether certain
yet. But it will not pass the White
House, which is the important con-
sideration. 1t was brought out clearly
during the recent debate that the
American people now get more sugar
for dollar. relatively, than any other
people in the world.
Something to stir the American Con-
gress out of the rut of mediocrity was
rather wished for. Matters had be-
come very dull and uninteresting and
it was not altogether an unmixed evil
that the free sugar bill was launched
by the Democratic leaders. 1t made
the biggest row inside their own ranks
which has occurred during the life of
the present Democratic Congress. The
Louisiana Democrats fought against
it like tigers, but to no avail, and had
the support of three Democrats from
Colorado. These Coloradoans are
pretty lively scrappers themselves
when anybody starts something.
They fought their way into about
every speech in favor of free sugar
and kept hammering away for the
proposition that the proposed legis
lation meant the closing of numerous
factories in that state
Congressman are beginning to slip
away now and then to their districts
on fence fixing errands. The attend
ance on the daily sessions accordingly
is thinning. 1t runs at about SOC
ihCiiiDSlSr UT lHtSc
fourths of the whole House. The
conventions for the nomination OF
delegates to the Chicago convention
are now assembling frequently. These
call to Republican congressman and
deplete the ranks on the minority side
Bye apd bye the Democratic conven-
lions will also be in full swing ano
that status will focus the eyes OF the
Democratic congressman.
Speaker Clark and Minority Leader
Underwood, both of them full fiedget
presidential candidates, are finding il
harder and harder to concentrate upor
their duties in the House. Thei'
friends are making demands upor
their time which can not easily bs
shaken off. Leader Underwood had t.
yield point the other day when III
consented to go down to Annapolis
and meet the members of the Mary
land legislature. He had been assert