The Bienville Democrat., 1922-05-11

DEBATE OVER IT MAY NOT BE
VERY LONG FOR SENATORS
ARE TIRED OF TALKING
BONUS BILL GOING THROUGH
Action Of Upper House on Measures
Reducing the Army and Navy to
Useless Proportions Cannot Yet Be
Predicted.
By EDWARD B. CLARK

Predicted.
BY EDWARD B. CLARK
Washington.-When the senate gets
through with the tariff bill ii will bear
| comparatively little resemblance to the
measure as it passed the house. Of
course a good deal Of interest centers
| iD the American valuation clause,
which has been discussed to the tir-
ing point time (after time. As things
are, however, dairy men want higher
rates on eggs; bakers are asking TOR
reduction on eggs; dye men want an
extension of the period fixed for the
embargo; soap men want something
done in the matter of vegetable oils
which are imported for saponaceous
purposes; and then there IS trouble
over the rate proposed on raw stock
picture films.
In the senate these days there are
being repeated the scenes Of the days
of the Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. Vari-
GUS interests are represented here, each
in its own behalf to beg for special
provisions to protect this industry or
that industry against what each man
says is destruction.
Tariff discussions in open house and
senate are apt to be dry affairs, but
the hearings are not altogether sleep
producing. Occasionally the petition
ers, pro and con, enliven the proceed
ings with personalities and with do
ings which look as If they might cul-
inmate in old-fashioned rows. The
public is showing more interest In the
tariff proceedings in the room Of the
finance committee Of the senate than
1t did in those in the ways and means
room of the house. So far as the rep
resentatives are concerned, Mr.. Ford
ney, the ways and means chairman,
seemed to have made up his mind
what he and his colleagues were 60
ing to do, and so the representatives
of the various interests thought 1t USE
less to make much of a fight. Things
are different over in the senate.
Senators Too Tired to Talk Long.
1t begins to look today as If the
tariff bill will not consume as much
debate and argument time as It was
at first supposed would be the case.
This is not because senators have no
strong opinions on this, that or the
other provision of the bill, but because
every one Of them Is tired out, and
some Of the most labially active ones
seem to be talked out. Perhaps they
will get q second breath before the
time to start the wind mills into action
shall come, but there is every evidence
today Of actual fatigue in the senate
chamber, something which has not
been in evidence there for a good
many years.
Not long ago it was believed that
the senate either would postpone &C.
ton on the bonus bill until another
and a more convenient season, or
would change It materially, probably
cutting out the cash or near cash feat.
ure Of the measure. Today the SEEM
Ing wiseacres declare that the senate
will pass the bill in pretty much the
form in which 1t passed the house, and
that President Harding under pressure
Of party persuasion will give 1t his
endorsement.
Just what the senate will do with
the measures on which the national
safety depends, those which would re.
duce the army and navy to the point
Of uselessness, remains to be seen. but
If the majority Of the senators prove
as panicky as was the case with a
majority Of the house men, they may
endorse the propositions to cut the
army and navy down to proportions
which, while they will cost a good deal
Of money to maintain, will make them
Of little service to the government. In
other words, the President seems to
believe and so do all army and navy
men, that if the proposed reductions
are made it might be just as we'll to
60 further and wipe the army off the
earth and the navy off the sea.
Harding May Save Army and Navy.
Within few days fiat statement has
been made by men who seem to know
the administrations mind that If the
senate Shall DO what the house wants
It to do, and provide for a pigmy ar1ny
and navy, President Harding will veto
the bills. Not even in the days pre-
ceding the entrance Of the United
States into the war with Germany
we're the evidences of extreme pacifsm
more salient than they are In Wash.
ington today. Congressman seem to
hold the thought that because the
treaties have been ratified by the sen.
ate, there no longer is any need for
an American force, either on land or
on sea. They seem to have the con.
fdence of babes that nobody is going
to hurt them or theirs in the future
President Harding, it is said. believes
that the action Of the house in army
and navy matters is purely political
and that the members are not such
fools personally as they appear to be,