The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1922-11-29

eA lobbyist, who has piled his trade
y IN w ashington since the early days
of the tariff bill that recently became
Jaw Of the land, lately had this to
8 as%y to one of my friends: Two
I months ago my mind was made up to
s,legye Washington Immediately upon
the tariff bill becoming law; but the
! special provision in the act giving the
S President authority to rise or lower
Z any rate in the bill not to exceed 30
per cent of the rate carried in the bill,
sand to apply the American valuation
plan, opens up such a rich field that /
ffaye decided to remain indefinitely"
3, He advised my friend to get busy
and make few connections with in
terested concerns in the United States
y and go into the lobbying business,
assuring him that the years during
whic hthe tariff act will be in effect
/, will be the richest and most fruitful
in the history Of tariff lobbying at
1.-the national capital.
5fLBut it probably will not be so easy
ed from the coarse methods of de-
cade ago, when whiskey and wine, din
ners and dollars, and women and
8Witchery brought home the bacon for
the lobbyists. Those old, raw and
disrcputable days are pest.
' Tariff lobbying is now one Of the
fine arts, except that none of the 9TH
tier fine arts is quite so lucrative.
- The "fexible" tariff arrangement
splaces decisions as to increases or de-
creases in rates in the hands of the
Federal Tariff Commission and the
President of the United States, and
they will be subjected to the wiles,
Ssmiles, opportunities and arguments
nf Nn 1nI ,,HJsy fc l.
will require smoother and more ex-
pert individual to deal with them than
with Senators and Representatives
con the hill"
tM Well See Permanent Lobby
1t will not be a very wholesome
spectacle-this thing of flock of
lobbyists soliciting the President and
the Federal Tariff Commission, for it
may be expected that additional
swarms of specialists and experts in
Various chemical, industrial and other
lines will be found permanently cam
ped in Washington after the Fordney-
McCumbcr tariff act shall have gotten
into full operation, as the "hexible"
provision in that act opens up posi-
0bilities hitherto undreamcd of.
1T may be of interest to attempt to
learn just what lobbyist is and
what lobbying is, and in the pursuit
of this information let US go back to
n 1913, when the Underwood Tariff Bill
xwas being considered, and when ex-
haustive hearings were he'd before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on the
p"Maintenance of lobby to influence
legislation" Sixty-third Congress,
First Session.
Every member Of the United States
Senate at that time appeared before
the committee, and each was subject
ed to a set of questions in the form of
!, printed QUESTIONABLE. One of the
questions was as follows:
What do you mean by the words
lobby" and 'lobbying'?"
These Senators were men of expcr-
ience, and it will be interesting to
know how some of them, who are,
with two, exceptions, in the present
Senate, defined the subject Let us
take them in alphabetical order.
Senator Ashurst, Democrat, of Ari-
zona, said: "a lobbyist, I consider,
is man who attempts to influence
the action of member of Congress
by means other than printed or writ
s>ten argument or appearing before
committee Of Congress. If man
wishes to urge measure, he should
90 before a committee. The occas-
lonal lobbyist may come to Washing
ton to do definite job. The lobbyist
who makes it bis business to live in or
stay about Washington for the pur-
pose. of influencing legislation, max
ing his living in whole or in part, is