The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-09
DEMOCRATS SPLIT ON RICE RATES IN
 PROPOSED TARIFF
Senator LaFoIIette ReneWs His Attack Upon BiII-SayS Time Not Yet Ripe
 For Revision
By Associated Press

By Associated Press
 Washington, July S.--There was another and wide split today among the democrats in the Senate on the tariff measure, a number of them joining with the republicans in re- jecting the lower rates on rice writ ten into the bill by the finance com mfttee majority The House rates were approved on motion of the com mittee, which receded from it's amendments. Those rates are:
 Paddy or rough rice, 1 cent a pound; brown rice, 1 A cents pound; milled rice. ? cents pound; broken rice and rice meal, l cent pound.
 Separate votes were had on each rate, but roll calls were demanded on only two, those on rough rice and on milled rice. On tho first roll
 call Senators Ashurst of Arizona, Brousard and Ransdell of Louisiana, Caraway and Robinson of Arkansas. Jones of New Mexico, Kendrick of Wyoming, and Sheppard of Texas, voted with the majority, while Sem ator LaFollette, republican, Wiscon- sin, voted with the remaining Il dem oerats in favor of the lower commit tee rate.
 On the second roll call, Senator Ashurst was not recorded as voting, while Senator Caraway was not in the chamber. The vote on the rough rice rate was 3S to 12, while that on the milled rice rate was 37 to 12.
 While the rice paragraph was be- fore the Senate throughout the day, the debate took a wide range. Sen ator LaFollette renewed his attack on the bill and particularly on the cotton schedule, speaking for three hours. He declared this was not the 4Rr fluctuating conditions In the business world Also, he invelghed against the present system of tariff building, under which he said "the tariff grab bers" went before congressional com mittees, asked for the rates they wanted and "as rule were given exactly what they asked for"
 No Benefit to Labor Disputing the claim that tariffs protect the wages of the workers, Senator LaFollette said that "laaor never gets any benefit from tariff if the manufacturers can prevent 1t. Wool was brought into the dis cussion by Senator Gooding of Idaho. chairman of the republican agricul- tural tariff bloc. He presented let ter signed by Conan, Goldman X Co.,. clothing manufacturers of New York city, and sent to clothing dealer in his state who declared that the proposed duty of 33 cents a pound on raw wool would result in an in- crease of about s4 in the price of a suit of clothes. The letter explained that the tariff rate would be in- creased to $1 by the time the wool reached the clothing wearer, because of the overhead and profits of the successive handlers.
 Wool Rate Lower
 Senator Lodge of Massachusetts, the republican leader, suggested that the wool rate proposed was eight cents lower than that now In force and under which clothing was being maintained.
 Senator Gooding said that was the csae and added:
 If what this letter says is true. every wool dealer, every manufac- | turer of cloth and of clothing and every retailer is profiteer and a crook. If what is, says Is not true. the man who sent 1t is criminal and should be prosecuted.
 '"rhat is the kind of propaganda that has been circulated against this l bill by the importers and others" The controversy over the rice rates | was dlInoSt 6ACluSiNEly Oll khC ucDlO- cratic side Senators Ransdell and | Broussard speaking in support of the House rates and Senator Walsh, democrat. Massachusetts, opposing | those rates as unnecessary, because of the growing volume of rice exports | from the United States.
 Senator Ransdel reviewed the his | tory of rice production in this coun- | try. telling how the first rice had
 been smuggled in and the industry I started along the coasts of North
 and South Carolina. Now, he said, l little was grown there. the industry having been transferred to Louisiana. Arkansas. Texas and California. | The Louisian senator reviewed also | conditions in the rice industry in | Asia and declared 1t was not possible for American producers to compete
 with the Hininese-Oriental. On this point Senator Walsh argued that rice | was cultivated in this country by machine methods. whereas as In Asia
 the cultivation was by 'laborlous
 methods"