The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1913-10-09
WASHINGTON LETTER.

| SreSSlOnal RECORD is mucH dDuSeu
publication, but it serves a worthy
purpose occasionally when it brings
to light views expressed on public
questions in times past by members
of Congress who since have shown
a change of front. Take the case OF
Senator Cummins for instance. The
| Senior Senator from Iowa few
weeks ago filled several pages of the
Congressional Record with an argu-
ment by which he sought to snow
that the Underwood tariff bill dis
eliminated against the farmer. To
reduce the duty on the products OF
the farm, he declared with vehem-
ence, was grossly discriminatory.
In the Register and Leader of Sept.
21st, he repeated this charge, declar-
ing that in the Underwood bill the
agriculturalist is Disseminated
against" because, $50 per cent of
1owa's products are on the free list.
He added that at present There Is
little importation of agricultural
products, but when the tariff bill be
comes a law butter from Siberia and
Australia and cattle from Argentine
will be offered for sale in American
ports''
In a speech in the House showing
the fallacy of Senator Cummins' ar
gument Congressman Pepper OF the
second Iowa district set forth two
general propositions:
First, that the tariff on farm pro-
ducts has never been of any benefit
| to the farmer, and therefore its re-
moval from such products In no way
| INJURIES him or discriminates against
him.
Second, that the real and substan-
tial reduction of the tariff on manu-
featured products, covering practl-
cally everything the farmer has to
buy, directly benefits the farmer by
enabling him to purchase his goods
in a competitive market rather than
| in highly protected and monopo-
listic one.
But Congressman Pepper did not
have to rely on his own argument to
answer Senator Cummins. He permit
| ted the Senator to answer his own ar
gument by quoting from the Congress
sional Record, volume "A page 3,O93,
where Senator Cummins in speech
opposing the Payne tariff bill on
June II, 1909, said:
|
North Dakota, (Nr. McCumber)
does not agree with me in respect to
these things, but L do not believe
that we in Iowa receive any direct
benefit for the 400 100000 bushels of
corn that we raise every year; l do
not believe that we receive any direct
benefit on 100000 or 100000
hogs that We market every year;
do not believe that of the $70O,000,-
900 of agricultural products that we
pour every year into the channels of
trade, protection advances the price
of a 1.-THE of them. We will this
year supply the people of the United
States and the people of the world
with a product that will surpass in
value 100000, and it is idle for
even an enthusiast to assert that the
price of these products is directly af-
fected by the protective tariff.
Congressman Pepper simply called
attention to this to show that Sena-
tor Cummins, who now claims that
his principal objection to the Under
wood bill is that it discriminates
against the American farmer, did not
then attempt to claim that the tariff
on farm products was of any benefit
to the farmer.
National Committeeman M. ].
Wade and State Chairman N. F.
Reed of Iowa, and Jerry B. Sullivan,
now appraiser of the port of New
York, were in Washington last week,
and before the arrival of Judge Wade
Messrs Reed and Sullivan, together
with State Senator Chris Schrup, of
Dubuque, were guests of Congress-
man Maurice Connolly of the Third
district at dinner at the Army and
Navy Club, at which Secretary of
the Treasury McAdoo was guest.
During the closing hours of the tariff
debate Iowa was much in evidence,
for while Chairman Reed and other
Iowans were in the gallery as Mr..
Pepper was making his tariff speech,
Congressman Connolly was presiding
in the speakers chair, where he had
been summoned by Speaker Clark,
who wished to get a little rest after
day in the chair. +.
| Congressman Kirkpatrick of the
Sixth district has introduced bill
in the House which will make it go
hard with government officials or
clerks, or officers of the army and
navy who gamble. His bill provides
that they shall lose their positions
upon proof of gambling being sub
mitted to their superiors. The bill
was inspired by disclosures of hand
book gambling in the Washington
| navy yard.
Chairman Reed while in Washing
ton expressed the greatest confidence
in the outlook for political success
| in tho conversational elections in Iowa
| next year. National Committeeman
Wade shares this confidence. Chair
man Reed in an interview expressed
the belief that the next United States
Senator from Iowa will be a Demo-
GRAFT. He also prophesied that Iowa
Democrats would increase their rep
resentation in the House next year
by two members and perhaps three.
while retaining the three present
representatives of the party now in
L