The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-10-06
TAX, TARIFF
BILLS TO Be
MAkESHIFTS
Leaders Admit They Are All
at Sea = Harding Might
Change Things if He Would
Lead.
LACK PARTY DISCIPLINE
BY MARK SULLIVAN


being said about the condition of
things in congress is true. At least,
all of it is true except a good deal of
what is said in the way of defense
or excuse
When one prominent Republican
senator states that the present tax
bill is mostly temporary one, and
that a new and permanent bill will
be passed next year; and when an
other prominent Republican senator
says that they can't pass a permanent
tariff bill yet because the conditions
are too unstable to make accurate es-
Inmates, both those explanations be-
long in the category of reasons in
vented after the event.
They illustrate that apnorism or as
tuteness which says, Never give your
reasons for ooing thing before you
do it. because you will be able to find
much better reasons afterward."
If the Republicans really intended
not to pass a permanent measure or
permanent tariff measure until
1922, they ought to have said so dur
ing the campaign, or they might have
said so in President Harding's inaug-
ural address. The fact is, of course,
they fully intended to have passed
one of these measures some time ago
and to have passed it before the end
of November AS to the tariff bill,
there is some scIndness IN the theory
that it is impossible to pass now
measure which will work satisfactor-
lily for several years to come.
Will Hays Theory
This theory was first put forth by
Will Hays in a speech he delivered at
Cleveland in September He said that
so long as the conditions of foreign ex-
change are so chaotic we must go
along with temporary measures.
Even so, this is a reason which was
discovered after the event The Re-
| publieans fully expected to write a
permanent tariff this year. To over
come the fluctuations in foreign ex-
change, they invented the device of
American valuation" Mr. Hoover
then pointed out to them that this de-
vice would not work satisfactorily, and
! thereupon there wasn't much to do
! except to wait
AS to taxation there is no excuse
1 whatever for writing make-shift
/ measure three years after the end of
! the war with a complacent gesture
! postponing the writing of real peace
time tax measure until four years af-
/ ter the war is over.
No Measure At All
The taxation measure which the
senate is now considering is not a
measure at all. 1t is the original war
/ time measure, with the addition OF
! amendments which cumber it rather
than clarity it. and which repel bust
ness men rather than satisfy them.
Even so nobody in Washington can
! say that the taxation measure, as it
now stands or even approximately as
| 1t now stands, is the one that will
! ultimately be made into law. The
lack of leadership in the senate is such
! that 1t is possible at any time for a
group to arise which will write a
materially different kind of measure
1t is this lack of strong party dis
/ ClpllHe IN DOLn Ile lower mouse dnC
the senate which is at the root of the
whole matter. 1t may be that this
lack of submission to leadership is
the fruit of an agitation that has beer
going on long time.
i Flying to Pieces
Most of the politics of the years i'm
mediately preceding the war were con
cerned with breaking up party discip
line, with robbing Uncle Joe" Can
non and Boss" Aldrich of their pow
er Then, during the war. for pur
poses of compact defense, there wa!
resumption of solidarity. Nov
; everything is flung to Iieces.
AS to what will come out of it, no
body can say. Nobody can see any
change in sight But a change viii
come, simply because things canno
go on as they are. Otherwise, tn,
; government will come to stagnatio,
or be the football of a number o
purely selfish groups working in com
bination with no more exalted idea o
craftsmanship than is expressed il
the slogan, I'VE want ours"
The most obvious cure, of course
would be for President Harding to as
sumo leadership himself. If he ha
that in mind, there is as yet no out
ward sign of .--(Copyringht, 1921
, by the New York Evening Post, Inc