The Washington herald., 1917-05-18
What Leading Newspapers
Say on the War Situation
Attitude of the TarIf Commi..I0h.

New York Timesl
The new Train Commission had been
organized and at work several weeks
when the Ways and Means Committee
reported to the House a tax bill whose
tariff provisions were correctly de-
scribed by the committees chairman as
the most unscientiac and the most in
equitable ever written in the books" 1t
is this commissions duty to advise con-
cerning legislation affecting duties on
imports. Here was It's opportunity, 70
it would be difficult to find in Chairman
Taussig's published history of tariff
legislation anything more at variance
with accepted economic principles and
standards than the sweeping tax on ali
raw materials now free Of duty. Surely
this assault upon free list of care
fully chosen products and the foreseen
effect Of such a tax in many important
industries must have excited interest in
the commission. Did the chairman and
his associates have opinions about the
proposed legislation, and were these ex-
pressed to the House Committee?
There is no published evidence that the
unscientific and ineQuitable taxes were
opposed or criticised by the commission
in what II said to the committee, but
dispatches from Washington say that
after the bill was laid before the House.
was to recommend that the 10 per cent
duty should be made effective from thG
date of the committees report. TO dis
courage a rush of imports by those who
desired to avoid the new tax. The COM
mission is not responsible for legisla-
tion, but when its advice is sought. as Il
was in this instance. its plain duty is to
counsel caution as to tariff provisions
.uht Lob
harmful to the country's industrial in
terests.
The First Forty Days.
Boston TrsnsrTirtD
The 5000. 10000 loan bill is the only
war measure that Congress has enacted
into law since the declaration OF war
some forty days ago. Always a dawdling
body more given to talk than to action.
the worst record of Congress in time OF
peace has been more than matched by
Its behavior in this war. Leadership is
lacking in both houses, and the attitude
Of the executive toward the legislative
branch OF the government leaves much to
be desired. Between the White House
and Capitol Hill few amenities are ex-
changed, and the President appears t.
be averse to the establishment OF con-
hdential relations between Senators and
Representatives who. could they COM
mand his confidence, would be able to
bring to his support many recalcitrants
among their confrereS Particular eX-
ception has been taken by veteran law
makers to the executive practice of en-
trusting the drafting Of war measures to
underlings in the various departments or
to members of the Cabinet whose COM
potency for their tasks is recognized
only by the President. Instead of treat
ing Congress as an equal, the President
is disposed to dictate and to drive in a
way that doubles his difficulties in deal
ing with 1t. More and more, Senators
and Representatives are showing their
resentment of the attempt from the other
end of Pennsylvania avenue to discipline
a coordinate branch of the government
by the application of the ferrule.
Russia.
(Chicaso TribuneD
We think this war is being fought for
the preservation of a democratic scheme
in human life. We are not prepared to
like the thought that it might be for the
establishment of a universal democracy
in any international form, but we think
II is a war now between the democracies
and the autocracies, and, as such, one
with a tremendous purpose and bound
to have q tremendous result.
Russia is the irony in 1t. BY achieving
democracy it has weakened the cause Of
democracy. Few persons understood, az
first, why a conflict between Teutonic
and Slavic Impulses, reaching out In the
direction of the East, along the old trade
routes for which men have fought for
centuries, should bring the Atlantic
nations into such a deadly and destruc-
tive conflict
why should English boys out Of Oxford
and Cambridge die in France and FIand-
srs because It was q mattsr of i'm