The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-07-07
MAY HOLD CLOTURE
RULE IN ABEYANCE
Compromise Agreement For
More Effectual Handling
of Tariff May Be Made
DEMOCRATS DENY
ANY FILIBUSTERING
Want To Propose Some Amendments To
BiII-Cloture Would Prevent Their
Doing It-RepubIicans Want To Throw
Responsibility On Opponents.
By DAVID LAWRENCE.

BY DAVID LAW KEN CE.
Especial Dispatch to The Reformer.)
Copyright 1922,
Z WASHINGTON, July IF the Dem
ocrats really wanted to delay the passage
of the pending tariff BILL the adoption of
dozen cloture rules couldn't prevent it.
There are more than 100 amendments
proposed by the Republican members of
the senate finance committee and all the
Democrats would have to do would be to
demand a roll call on each amendment
when the vote is taken or call for
quorum and the actual time consumed in
that process irrespective of incidental de-
bate would postpone the final vote for at
least two or three months.
But Senator Underwood, Democratic
leader told this correspondent that the
Democrats have absolutely no intention
of filibustering by that method or any
other He insisted that the adoption of
the eloture rule would hurt the Republ-
cans more than ii would help them be-
cause by limiting the debate to one hour
for each senator it would be impossible
| for the bill to get thorough consideration.
Lack Information.
Few men in the senate are equipped
with sufficient information to debate a
tariff bill The rank and file depend
upon these experts to do the debating.
| While much of the talk is futile as the
! Republicans have enough votes to pass
any bill they please, nevertheless the rec
ord of the debate thus far shows that as
| consequence of discussion the Republi-
! cans have corrected many of their own
mistakes and in some cases the Republi-
can majority has failed to support the
/ finance committee recommendation and
beaten their amendments. Twelve hun
| dred amendments are still to be consid-
cred. They did not come from the Demo
! Gratis but from the Republican members
| of the finance committee. Should a clo-
| ture rule be enforced most of these amend
ments would have to be passed over with
out debate on their merits.
Apart from the 100 Republican
| amendments. the Democrats have not had
| a chance to present any at all They
/ naturally want the opportunity that is
| given minority party to make out q
case against the bill and Justify Their
| votes. Indeed the Democrats would
| rather save that chance than see the bill
| defeated for they figure the passage OF
| the bill will be of political value to them
at the polls this autumn just as the min.
| GRITTY party has always benefited at cleo.
! ton Immediately after the passage of d
| tariff law.
Hard TO Fix Responsibility
Responsibility for the delay thus far
| is difficult to fix The amendments
| emanated from Republican sources: Dem
| ocrats and Republicans have consumed
! time in debating them. The bill is not
| yet in shape for passage. Even its cham
| pions will concede that ii will be i'm
| proved by further study and that the de
4 bate may be helpful In fact two of the
/ most important schedules-thoSe on WOO
| and cotton-have not yet been touched
| Democratic leaders predict that the Re
| publlcans viii not venture to go before
| the countrE with a hastily considered
! schedule on wool and cotton. and vet
/ under a cloture rule the debate would not
| only be limited as to sections or provi
| sions but each senator would have only
1 an hour. This means a total of 90 hours
/ for debate, or total of IL working DAYS
/ ar eight hours each. The canvas yes
| terday showed that about 80 senator's ar,
| ready to vote for a cloture rule. Sixty
| four are needed to pass as a two-third,
| vote is required. Three Democrats vii
| vote with the Republicans because the!
favor the pending bill-they hail from
states which are anxious for the imposi
| ton of certain duties in the bill Blu
] there are at least three Republicans, ant
possibly more, who viii not vote for clio
ture. Developments over night ma
change the situation. of course, but TIL
last poll showed an insufficient number t
pass the rule. The hope of some of tn
Republicans is that the defeat of th
cloture rule may be attributed to the Dem
ocrats and thus the responsibility for de
laying the measure imposed upon them
To the suggestion that it would be wise
for the Democrats to aid the cloture rul
and hurry the tariff bills passage in it
present form, the Democrats reply tina
they feel it their duty to propose corr
amendments as record of their effort t
change the bill before its passage and tina
if they supported cloture it would seem a
If they favored the addition of the bill a
il stands.
Purely as a move to hurry things III
and cut off unnecessary debate the pet
ton for eloture may have a good effec
though it would not be surprising if
vote on the rule were postponed and
compromise agreement reached eventually
for a more efficient handling of the tim
that ought really to be given to the re
Of