River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1921-07-28
Our Weekly Letter
From Washington
BY James A. Frear, Nj. G.

Every effort has been made by this
administration to cut down appropri-
ations. The strenuous efforts Of peo-
pie all over the country to secure APP
preparations for special purposes are
not well understood until they are
footed up by the proper officers. Then
it is discovered that hundreds of mill
ions of dollars in the aggregate must
be added to the tax bill if we meet
small part of the requests. Some
things are beyond criticism but it is
not an easy task to meet the demands
on the one hand and hold down the
tax bill on the other. That is what
Congress and the new budget system
will have to do, but when millions OF
dollars have been disallowed in count.
less small items it is disheartening to
the economists of the House to find
that the SHIPPING Board is demanding
three hundred mi-iion dollars with
threatened alternative of going out of
business. How many hundreds of
millions of dollars have been wasted
by the Shipping Board no man can
tell but it is known to reach fabulous
amounts.
When the writer made short trip
through a dozeL ship yards of the
South during the war, practically ev-
erybody consulted declared waste was
general and enormous because the
wooden vessels under construction
were even then not regarded as sea-
worthy. The Hog Island ship yard
and other scandals have left scar
on our war preparation record worse,
if possible than our failure to provide
any fighting air ships, although Gen.
gress, it will be remembered, furn-
ished over billion dollars fol that
purpose.
A strenuous day wound up TIE tar
if discussion last week and record
votes on various amendment. On
three separate amendments hard
fight had been made in the Ways &
Means Committee by the writer and
afterward in the Committee of the
w irst it, was insisted that
duty of 15ns should be levied on hides
imported from Mexico and other
countries that compete with Ameri-
can farmers product. The bill placed
hides on the free list but that action
was reversed in committee after de-
bate. On record vote the duty was
TIA for and 239 against. Next came
the motion to strike out the dye enl-
barge which had been urged by the
writer against majority of the COM
mittee. For several days it had de-
bated and many thousands of copies
of speeches of the writer against the
embargo had been sent out by the AM
erican Protective Tariff League which
had fought the embargo or dye mo-
nor6ly from the outset. This vote IN
committee had been 122 to 106. On
record vote the embargo was stricken
out by a vote of 209 to 1913. The eff
fort to strike out duty on asphaltum
that only benefits the asphaltun
trust was won without record vote,
A duty on oil and long staple (1A
inch lengthy cotton were given separ-
ate votes and then the vote came on
the bill proper. The writer has pre-
pared a brief statement of his opinion
of bill on which many months Of
hard labor was had by the committee.
Local interests have been consulted
in determining some features until it
is fitting demonstration of General
Hancock's claim that the tariff is a
local issue. Agricultural interests
are reasonbly well cared for--far bet
ter than the free list of the Under
wood bill but no excuse could be offer
ed for saddling a six million dollar
potash duty on farmers who use fer
tilizer and other injustices pointed
out in the writer's views printed on
the bill Every Republican desires
to stand for the measures recommend
ed by his party committee and altho
the measure has Objectionable fea-
lures, nothing fundamentally wrong
w&s left after the dye raonopcly was
stricken out. The writer received
congratulations from many members
over that result but it came about en-.
tirely through the good judgment OF
those who voted to strike out the Oh