Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-10-09
PRESIDENTS FIRST TROPHY
The Tariff Bill Achievement Has
Given Him Prestige.
Favored "Iutcrests" Lost Stronghold
in the United states Scnatc-For-
cign View of Effects Of hill
A Political surprise.

The Washington correspondence OF the
New York Evening Post comments as
follows. The most remarkable thing
about the attainment of what amounts
practically to final enactment of the dem
ocratc tariff bin is the fact that that
attainment arrives so quietly. When Rep
resentativc Underwood presented to the
House to-day the final report Of the con-
ferrees on the bill, with the announcement
that It represented agreement between
the House and the Senate upon everything
except the proposed tax on transactions
in cotton for future delivery, there was
hardly ripple The House was in ses-
sion scarcely fifteen minutes. The whole
thing was taken for granted.
The only openly dlscordant note was
struck, as was expected. by Senator La
Toilette. who in the morning meeting of
the conference declined to vote on the re-
port for the extraordinary reason that
he did not know what was In it, The 9TH
er republican members Of the conference,
who. like Senator La Toilette were face
to face for the first time with the finish
cd work of their democratic colleagues,
voted against the report, for the more OBJ
vious reason that, while they knew about
it no more than La Toilette did, they
knew, anyway, that II was n democratic
product, which, so far as they were con-
cerned, was enough for all practical pnr-
poses
BILL A POLITICAL SURPRISE.
The specific changes made in the bill by
the conferrees have all been announced
from day to day as the work proceeded ;
therefore, the report as It goes to- and
presumably will be passed by, the House
contains no surprises in detail
Yet the whole measure IS itself a sur
prise. When 1t Is laid at last upon the
Presidents desk for signature. as no
doubt it will he next week. II will have
been six months 'in the works" and for
nearly every minute of that six months
IT has been a political surprise When the
extra session began, and INesdent WILL
son made his first personal address to
Congress. he would have been a bold
man who rronhcsied the extent to which
the first Of October would ind the Pres
ident's desires all but an accomplished
thing
Day after day week after week, there
| have been wars and rumors of wars;
compromises and defeats were the sub
| iects of daily prophecy. once only Mr..
Wilson himself showed signs of STAN
pedo. That was the day of his moment
| Gus declaration about the lobby. And
with that declaration whatever serious
Effect the lobby might have had vanish
ed and from that day to this never has
returned.
Undoubtedly, there are in the bill many
instances in which, by one means or
another. the general intent of the tariff
revision programme has been evaded and
private interests unduly advantaged
They are not conspicuous. 1t is beyond
question that the bill as a whole, is
the first approach to an honest piece OF
work in tariff revision that the present
generation has seen.
INTERESTS HAVE LOST THE sen.
ATE.
For the first time in recent years the
protected interests have been powerles'
in the Senate, where from time out o
mind they have had their stronghold. I
was the general and the natural eXpeC
tatlon that when the measure got int
conference these interests would be abb,
TO accomplish what thy failed to accom-
plish in either house. That is what al
ways has happened before. Contrary Il
this expectation, most of the change
made by the conference were in the di
reCton of lower duties.
Even the camor of the localities, AM
, democratic localities at that failed {
check the tendency. The metal, wool, cot
ton, chemical schedules have all bee
: emasculated of the old extreme prOteC
ton For good or Ill, the United state
comes out from behind its tariff ram
parts. Not so far perhaps, as extrem
free traders would like; but far enoug
t for something like n fair trial of tn
new policy.
There will stu be talk before the oi
reaches the President. The republican
have yet to place themselves finally o
e record before the measure goes upon II
y passage. They will sing songs of dir
ruin; of industries about to be sweT
away. Of multitudes of American work
S ngmen about to get their daily suster
V ance from the soup-kitchens of publ
: and private charity. Serene Payne an
other political ichthyosaurians and trilC
y bites will forecast with grim delight II
II forthcoming political revulsion over Il
10 tariff which as they affect to believe NJ
. return the republicans for another lor
lease of power
NOBODY REALLY KNOWS EFFECT
But the candid men, republicans al
others, in Congress admit that they {
ii not know I'm the least what will be Il
l. result of the new tariff law The absen
NJ thus far OF any profound disturbance
business attributable in the pending r
- vision lends most of them to believe tn
W the political results will be unimportar
a. Representatives of foreign nations, pa
i, ticularly Great Britain ana Canada, WI
might be expected to hail with dehg
n any measure calculated to destroy Al
ercan industries in favor of their oW
20 are strikingly reserved in their common
upon the bill. one of tho most discern
~ mating of these said to-day, after
ut careful examination Of the conferen
T. report:
THE BEGGAR.
Always beside me as | go my way
4, Ii, -,