The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-06-16
next STEPS
FOR TARIFF
UNCERTAIN
Mark Sullivan Says Gossip
that Trickles Out Indicates
Higher Wall Than Ever
Before.
OPENING FOR LEADER
BY MARK SULLIVAN

WASHINGTON, D. c., June 16.-it
any leader in either party thinks he
can foresee what turn the coming
tariff debate will take, he has not
enough confidence in his foresight TO
make him feel comfortable. The Dem
ocrats taunt the Republicans with not
knowing what they want in the way CT
a new tariff. The Republicans could
with equal reason taunt the Demo
Gratis with not Knowlng what they
want Unhappily for the Republicans,
however, it is they who have the re
sponsibility for writing the bill.
They are busy at it now. The ways
and means committee consists of 10
Republicans and 10 Democrats. 1t is
the Is Republicans who will detern-
inc the bill of those Is; only two,
namely, Longworth of Ohio, and Ford
ney of Michigan, have had any expert
ence in tariff making. All the other
! Republicans are comparatively new
men.
Gossip TrickIes Out.
Among the Republican members of
| the ways and means committee there
is an understanding that no informa-
| ton shall be given out as to specific
! rates on different schedules until the
| bill as a whole $ complete.
| Nevertheless, there is constant
! trickle of disquieting hints that the
! figures now being fixed will compose
/ on the whole higher tariff than ever
| had before.
| The mere fact that this information
leaks out. and the fact that il create@
disquiet among the rank and file OF
! the Republican members of the House,
| if proof of uncertainty of mind.
Positions Shifted.
Not only are the leaders uncertain
as to just what they want, the various
blocs, also seem uncertain. When the
emergency tariff bill was up, most of
the momentum in favor of it came
from Senators and Representative of
western farming communities. Sen
ator McCumber, of North Dakota. was
especially conspicuously in advocacy
of it
On the other hand. now that the per-
manent measure is coming under dis
cussion, the opposition TO high rates
seems to come from exactly the same
territory that favored high rates in
the emergency bill.
The insurgent movement, which
overwhelmed the earliest proposal put
out by the ways and means committee.
was led by a congressman from North
Dakota, George NJ. Young, and the pro-
tests which have been made against
the tariff on lumber have come from
this same middle-west district.
i Fordney oId-Fashioned.
, OF the two leaders of the ways and
means committee, Fordney of Michi
gan is commonly accepted as a thor
ough-going, old-fasihoned protectionist
; whose motto is the higher the bet
ter" Longworth represents a newer
school. which favors the principle OF
protection but recognizes the fact tha;
, Americas new relation to the rest Of
the world aud our need for foreign
trade makes the situation different
from that it was before the war
That there will be opposition to ar
extremely high tariff from Republican
. senators from New England and the
= east can be taken for granted Some
. of it has already been expressed, and
: more of it is champing for a chance al
: expression, It is safe to say that the
! discussions of the ways and means
committee have not revealed unity
: among the Republican tariff makers ir
: that body, nor is there likely to be
r until among the Republicans on the
r floor when the bill arrives there
There is great opening in the lower
house for some one who has the nat
! ural qualities of leadership, includirs
I the Indispensable one OF KNOWN,
n what he wants.
Copyright 1921 by the New Yorl
Evening Post)