The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1921-07-15
WASHINGTON LETTER

providing for recess of Congress I'M
til July %, which was defeated by the
narrow margin of three votes, drew
from Senator Fletcher Dem. Fla.) an
excellent summary of what the Re-
publican Congress had done to date.
He thought perhaps lapse of TWEEN
ty days might give the majority time
to get together on some sort IF pro-
gram. He said:
eve passed an Emergency Tariff
Bill which everybody recognizes as an
arrant fraud, humbug, a pretense,
1t does nobody any good and was
never intended to do anybody any
good, perhaps, on the part of great
many.
1.-THE next thing they have done was
to pass a Budget Bill, which, OF course,
was called for by the past administra-
ton. In fact. everything that amounts
to anything that has been done by
this administration. both with refer
ence to our domestic and foreign af-
fairs, has been done in pursuance of
the principles and policies of the
Democratic administration"
Referring to the passage of the
Peace Resolution and the blot made
thereon vixen President Harding sign
ed it, he said; "The blot on the sigma
ture of that joint resolution is sym
boic of the blot on oIr national honor
and the marring of our good faith.
Instead of a real dove of peace we
have a dove in a wooden cage passed
around for exhibition"
On proposed tax and tariff legisla-
ton he said: "Our friends onthe other
side of the aisle wanted to press for
ward first tax legislation; they in
sisted that the tax laws should be
s;mplifed, modified and revised. That
was urged by the last administration
The majority party in the other body
1.-THE House, insist that tariff legisla-
ton shall preccde tax legislation, and
there we are. THUS far nobody has
agreed on what shall be DONE
On Army and Navy appropriations
he said:
"First there came up, of course, the
army appropriation bill. Our friends
on the other side could not agree as
to the size of the army. In the House
they could not agree as to the size OF
the army. In conference they could
not agree as to the size of the army.
Finally we got through a bill which
satisfies nobody. The same thing is
true as to the navy bill. We have not
passed the navy bill yet, although we
have been in session here for three
months.
"The proposition now is by the Re-
publican majority in the House to pass
a tariff bill-a high protective tariff
bill. Every manufacturer, every mer-
chant, every banker, every business
man, every producer, every man en-
gagged in industry of any sort, knows
that there is no need at this time for
any high protective duties in this
country. He knows that there is no
demand for that kind of legislation.
He knows perfectly we'll that if you
want tariff bill to raise revenue all
YOU have to do is to get around the
table and in half an hour you can
write bill imposing so per cert duties
on coffee, cocoa, tea. silk, rubber, w.
Ory, precious stones, and on other
things not produced in this country,
and raise $50O,000,000 of revenue, if
that is what you want. But no; you
want protection-protection! A great
giant, here, with all the gold in the
world and all the credit in the world,
demanding protection against the
weakly cripple on the other side OF the
sea-protection against the cripple
and protection to such an extent that
you do not propose to allow the Grip
pie to be strong enough to pay you
what he owes you. So that is about
what we have accomplished thus far"
The tariff bill referred to was laid
before the House July 6. A House
Republican conference fixed July Fl as
the date for vote and agreed to per-
nit only few schedules to be amend
ed from the floor; the others are to be
closed to amendment under a gag rule.
In general terms the bill is to re-
turn to the old Payne-Aldrich tariff
methods, which resulted dioastrously
for the Republicans after its passage
in 1909. A long debate is expected in
Ithe Senate.
\ Representative Frear (Rep, Wis.,
filled minority report criticising I'M
necessarily high duties and saying the
= bill will increase the burdens Of the
consumer.
Treaty Must Follow Peace Resolution
Now that the Porter-Knox "Peace