Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-05-12
TARIFF BILL MAKING
SLOW PROGRESS

lAhlE + DILL
SLOW PROGRESS
Washington political cor.
~ respondent predicts that the
tariff bill in the senate will not be
passed until late in the summer.
He a y that the tariff bill with its
2,057 amendments made by the SEN
ate will probably be debated more
thoroughly in all Its details than
any tariff bill in many years.
The debate may extend we'll into
the late summer and interfere with
the campaign plans of senator's and
congressman who r candidates
for reelection.
That this Is realized by many Is
shown by the fact that it is diff
cult to get a quorum in the senate
without an appeal to the sergeant
alarms and an unusually large
number of republican congressman
are absent from the city looking
after their districts-many of them
panic-stricken by the defeat In the
primaries of Ira p. Copley OF 1lli-
nois, one of the administration and
reactionary leaders.
This panicky condition among re-
publican representatives may also
have an important bearing on the
tariff bill when it goes to confer
ence and cause further delay or
even 4 postponement of the sub
ject.
Although the minority report of
the democratic senator's has not
been presented at this writing, the
manner in which the minority mem
bers are doing their work indicates
that the report will be a thorough
analysis of the defects Of the pend
ing measure. Senator Simmons, the
ranking minority member of the
finance committee and formerly its
chairman, in his recent speech open
ing debate on the democratic side,
made Fourteen Points" against the
bill, which have been given wide
publicity, and the leading repub-
lican papers are attacking the meas
ure principally for the same rea'
sons alleged by Senator Simmons
that it will increase the cost OF
living, destroying what is left OF
the foreign market and add to un-
employment by curtailing local pro.
duction. Also that the bill is un-
scientifically framed. the theory or
principle of protection, adopted by
the republicans after their defeat
resulting from the Payne-Aldrich
tariff, having been abandoned and
the present rates based upon un-
stable and constantly fluctuating
values.
Senator Jones of New Mexico,
who has a comprehensive knowledge
of many phases of tariff making,
has also joined in the debate against
the bill, attacking the provision Of
the bill empowering the president
to shift to the American valuation
plan and has scored against his op-
ponents by forcing M of the lead
ers, Senator Smoot (Rep., Utah),
, to admit that under this plan duties
could be levied as high as 900 per
cent.
Two other democratic senator's
who are masters of the tariff sub
ject, Senator Pomerene of Ohio,
and Senator Underwood of Ala
bama, will also present the demo-
cratic side of the case.
The republicans, on the other
hand, are lacking in leaders who
understand either economic prin-
ciples or facts, and it is expected
that the burden Of unfolding this
bill, already known as the Calamity
Tariff bill, and drafted, as the New
York World says, by economic
morons," will rest upon the should
ers Of Senator Smoot, who, what
ever his failings, does not lack abil-
ity or fairness or frankness, being
one of the few men on that side
| willing to admit a fact when COM
PEELED to face it.
THE PRESIDENTS