The Washington times., 1913-04-30
MR.. MURDOCK'S CHARGE.

1t is just trlfe surprising That so much excite
ment should have been stirred up in the House by
Victor Murdocks charge that the Republican leaders
Of that body not sincerely in favor of the tariff
commission plan of 1911, and that when they
brought it forward with pretense of wanting it passed.
they really had plans carefully made for the slaughter
that was duly administered
1t would have been just as startling if Mr.. Muir
dock had animadverted in sharp terms to the part
Brutus played in putting the late C. J. Caesar out
of the way, or had stirred up row by intimating
that Napoleon had been accused of completely in the
death of the Due d'Enghien. Some Congressman
will be precipitating riot, one of these days. by
observing that Benedict Arnold did not make the
cause of American independence the full contribu-
ton Of which he was capable.
From the very beginnings of the fight for tariff
commission the old tory Republican leadership was
opposed to it. There was no mystery about it. 1t
perfectly understood the emasculated provision
for tariff board was written into the tariff bill
by Mr. Aldrich as ridiculous shadow Of concession
to the national demand for a real commission. The
insurgent Republicans were demanding the commits
sion. Beveridge and La Toilette and Cummins were
leading the struggle for the commission. Aldrich and
the other old guard leaders, in Senate and House,
alike were determined there should be no commission
with real powers. They wanted to grant nothing what
ever of concession Forced at last to yield something
they gave just enough to make the whole commission
idea ridiculous President Taft for took matters
into his own hands and insisted on making as much
as possible out of the board but he didn't succeed
very WELL for about the same reasons that he didn't
succeed about anything else.
The incident of the 1911 legislation merely proved
that the tory opposition of 1909 still nsstent
as ever. The tariff commission measure passed the
Senate in the last hours of the session, and
the House. Long before it went there it was per-
fectly understood that it would not pass. 1t was
DELAYED in the Senate-and this was part of the plan
which current report of that day perfectly under
stood was framed up by the standpat leaders-unt
so late that there could be doubt of its death in the
presence of flibuster at the House end The
flibuster conducted by Democrats 1t is not
necessary to charge that they were privy to the
arrangement Of the Republican leaders. That was
not necessary. The Democrats were frankly and
openly opposed to the measure. All the Republicans
needed was to get the business engineered into such
a status that, with the tariff commission measure
dumped in at the last moment, it could be maneu-
vered out of a chance to reach a VOTE That was
very skillfully DONE the had to be Withdrawn
and the standpat aggregation won True, the thing
was done in such manner that the responsibility
could be foisted the Democrats, who didn't at
all object to it. Speaker Clark, being asked the
direct question whether he believed there was
conspiracy to kill the measure, replied that if there
was, ne wasn't party to it. But he admitted that
he understood the leadership of the old House was
all opposed to the bill
The Speaker is undoubtedly perfectly frank about
the thing. He and his party didn't need to be parties
to the job. They knew that the Republican manage
ment, in both House and Senate wanted the bill to
fail Everybody else knew it at that time; it doesn't
require memory longer than snub-nosed mans
proboscs to recall that such the universal under
standing But gentlemen who infuriate themselves
now over the plain statement Of the facts are
assuming that nobody has any memory at ALL or else
that the community is composed exclusively of
gudgeons.
The things the country has been doing lately to
standpatism ought to have taught them better.