Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-05-08
WHAT Will SON WANTS
TARIFF BILL is SURE TO PASS
AS OUTLINED BY THE
PRESIDENT.
LITTLE CHANCE TO CHANGE IT
democrats Declare Their Measure Is
Not a Free Trade Bill Except in
Parts-Receive Many "Episties of
Protest"
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

Washlngton.-Lis TO the de
bates on the tariff bill in the lowe
mouse these days it is heard from ont
side Of the chamber that the measur,
now under discussion is to brinE
eventually better living conditions anC
lower prices for food and raiment
While from the other he hears tha
the measure is sure to be the fore
runner of deep damnation for the
country" 1t is a case at the present
time of taking your choice of opin
ions, for as probably most people viii
agree, the relief" or the deep damna
ton are matters which the future
must decide.
Republicans and Progressives il
congress have learned by this time
that all the party efforts to make g
change in the Underwood bill will be
unavailing, certainly as far as the
representative chamber is concerned
IL is more and more apparent also thai
the changes which will be made in
the senate are to be comparatively few
and 1nconseQuential. The Democrats
OF the upper house seemingly have
worked out scheme Of party har.
mony and unanimity of voting on the
tariff, and while debate will be pro
tracted as it always is in the senate
the chances seem to be that the meas
ufe will go through very much as MIR
Wilson wants it.
democrats in congress say that their
measure is not a free-trade bill except
in parts, and if the American who is
not ordinarily given to reading tariff
measures in all their provisions will
peruse the present one it is likely that
he will make up his mind that the
Democrats are telling the truth.
Not So Many Free Traders.
1t takes only few days of listening
to the speeches made by the members
Of the dominant party in house and
senate at the present time to learn
that the out and out free-traders
among the Democrats are not as many
as once they were. The leaders say
that this condition has been brought
about by economic changes in the
country during the last twenty years
It has just leaked out in Washington
that the Republican members of the
ways and means committee some lit.
tie time ago prepared amendments to
the WOODEN and cotton schedules of the
Democratic bill. 1t is said that these
amendments were prepared on the
strength of information which was
gathered by the lately defunct tariff
board. The Republicans of the com
mittee accepted the amendments
which one of their party men had pre-
pared, and intended to offer them as
substitutes for the Democratic pro-
visions on the wooden and cotton
goods imports.
1t is said that when the details of
these Republican amendments were
made known to the business interests
concerned in the, principal schedules
there was a great commotion, and the
Republican representative who had
prepared the substitute provisions was
told in a hundred kilograms that his
amendments would bring about vir-
the Democratic bill was "a heap sight
better" 1t seems that the amend
ments were prepared under a condi-
ton of misconstruction of just what
they would do. The Republicans kept
quiet about their mistake, but later
the details of it were learned and the
Democrats are laughing over what
they call the high protectionists' eff
fort to introduce free-trade in wooden
and cotton goods.
Big Business Interested.
1t may be that the average Ameri-
can who is not engaged in manufac-
turing or any other lines of business
which are quickly and vitality affected
by tariff changes may be tired read
ing what are perhaps considered the
dry details of schedule-making but
there is every evidence in Washing
ton that the heads of business con
Germs and the heads Of producing com
panies of all kinds are intensely inter
ested in the tariff proceedings.
Thousands of letters are coming in
10 uSu1DS1S u COISISoo5 AACopCSCAfC
of party. from all parts Of the United
States A great many Of these letters
are "epistIes of protest" against the
lowering of duties on this thing and
that thing, while many others are let
tiers of commentator for the tariff
bill as drawn by the Democratic ma
jority in the house. Democrats and
Republicans say after reading these
letters that the division Of opinion in
the country is just as it always has
been on the subject of the tariff, and
that no one will be convinced either
that he is right or is wrong until final
proof Of the righteousness or upright
eousness of new tariff legislation is
adduced by actual trial.
The new party men in the house, the
Progressives, while they are not for
midabIe in numbers, have been max
ing themselves formidable as a fight
ing organization They are not such
high protectionists as are the Repub-
licans, but they are higher protection
lists than are the Democrats. The
chief endeavor of the Progressives at
the present time is to try to focus pub
lie attention on what they consider
the absolute necessity of creating a
genuine tariff commission which shall
be removed from politics.
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