The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-09-21
TARIFF RATES
PLACE BURDEN
ON PRESIDENT
Manufacturers Expected to
Bombard White House for
Changes Republicans Re-
ly on Flexibility Feature.
CRAVE CONCERN ARISES
BY MARK SULLIVAN


various provisions for changing the
rates from time to time without the
action of congress. In every discus
sion of the probable effect OF the bill
on business and on politics, this fea-
> ture is brought to the front.
It is the flexibility of the bill and
on the power of the president to
change the rates from time to time
that the Republicans rely to meet
criticism They believe they are in
a position to say in answer to any
attack made by the Democrats on any
rate that this rate is not final, but is
subject to revision by the president
at any time
But aside from arguments about any
specific rate, many thoughtful per-
sons including both Democrats and
Republicans find cause for grave con-
Germ in this flexibility feature and in
the way it is to be administered.
They put forward two objections.
Pressure of Politics.
One objection is that the flexibillty
feature affords room for the pressure
of politics and for yielding to special
interests to a greater extent than did
tho 6xed rates which have character
lied all previous tariff bills.
The second objection has to do with
the added burden put upon whoever
holds the office of president. They
foresee that in the actual working out
of the bill any manufacturer or any
person affected by the tariff who
thinks he could make more money If
the rates were changed, or who thinks
his business is endangered by foreign
competition will at once appeal to his
state senator or local congressman.
The latter will bring him to Washing
ton and ask for an interview with the
president. A request for an interview
mace under such circumstances is not
easy to refuse.
Places Added Burden.
Thereupon there will be put upon the
president in addition to his already
TOO numerous burdens the work of
listening to a discussion of the inf
mite complexities involved in any tariff
rate whatever. If the president is
disposed to conserve his time and
vitality he can reply merely that he
will turn the matter over the tarlT
board for decision, and whatever the
tariff board recommends, he will dc.
But anyone familiar with the way
such things go knows that the parties
interested will continue to lombard
the president with requests for per
sonal hearing and review and any man
in the White House would find it diff
ficult to avoid the infinitely burden
some business of focusing his mind on
question of tariff rates in hundreds OF
involved and technical fields.
Menace of Addition
During the debate on this feature o.
the tariff bill Republican senator re
marked in a private conversation
This provision is going to be adopt
ed; but after it is l shall never want
to be president"
The menace of this addition to the
claims on the presidents time and at
tention will be realized by the many
thoughtful persons who feel that al
ready the immense number of involved
questions put up to the president as
a part of his daily work is beyond thc
capacity of any one human being.
Any intelligent effort intended tC
make the government at Washington
more efficient would concern itsel
with subtracting from the number o.
things the president must do rather
than adding to them. In matters O.
the weightiest craftsmanship, calling
for the strongest and most delicate
Judgment the difference is great be
tween a decision made by a restec
man and that made by a tired one.
When the Brain is Tired
The influence on the course O.
events caused by the fact that deci
sions are somttimes made by mel
whose brains are tired is not otter
taken into account by the general pub
lie. but is we'll understood by observ
ers close to the events. An English
,yNman commenting on the state of Lore
9Northcliffe's health during his closinE
year said:
mo one can read his story will
penetrating intelligence who does no
reckon with the influence of persona
health on public events. Instanc
Chathams gout and Napoleon's oh
secure malady. The one lost Amer
lea. the other Waterloo"
Leaders Were Tired.
To go back no more than a yer,
short time there need be little doub
that on some vital points the peac
conference at Paris would have takel
a different direction if it had not beel
that all OF the principal character
who took part in it had already bee
worn out intellectually by their burd
ems in carrying on the war. This i
more generally realized in the case O
Mr.. Wilson than in the case of tn
others But in one degree or anothe
it applied to all of them.
Mr.. Wilson's breakdown in healt
did not reach the point where it wa
obvious to the world until some month
after the peace conference ended. Blu
the later historians who will study tn
peace conference minutely will realiz
that Mr.. Wilson had come to be
little below his best in vigor som
weeks before the peace conferenc
began.
Wilson FatiDued.
If the Wilson of 1919 had been tn
Wilson of 1915 a good deal of tha
Welding to what was called by one {
Lloyd Georges official British asso,
n iates 'the bamboozlement of Wilso
! by Lloyd George would not have hal
= pened Any experienced observer ha
seen cases where important decision
in craftsmanship were influenced az
(Please Turn to Page Thirteen)