Evening star., 1927-05-03

| President, said Uncle Joe Cannon in
| continuing his story of Theodore
/ Roosevelt. But he did toy with the
idea. On the last day of November,
1904, after his election to the presi-
| dency, he wrote me a long letter about
the future policy of the party, and in
1t was paragraph inquotation marks
suggesting tariff revision. He did not
say that it was a quotation from the
message he was about to send to
Congress, but he did say that he
thought of making such a recommen-
Gation to the legislative branch, and
invited my opinion.
| II received the letter just as / was
setting out for Washington. and
when / arrived / called on him and
discussed his letter. / agreed with
some Of his proposals, but advised
against opening the tariff question in
/ December, when 1t could not be dis
posed of before Summer. / don't
| know what effect my argument had,
| but there was nothing about the tariff
| in his message.
White House Conference.
| ~ J ,
! shortly before the adjournment of
Congress, he toyed with the idea again
and for the last time. At that time
| there was agitation for tariff re-
vision from, strange 20 say, the very
men who, as a class, have always been
opposed to tariff tinkering.' A group
of manufacturers of agricultural i'm
| plements in the West thought they
| saw large field abroad IL they could
| get cheaper steel, and from them the
| agitation started.
Their arguments had been pre-
sented to me, but was net impressed.
/ have never believed that the tariff
| should be framed in the interest of a
class or a group; it should be for the
benefit of all, of manufacturers and
workmen alike. The country was
prosperous. We knew from long eA-
perience, too, that no matter how
great an improvement a new tariff
may be, it almost always results In
| the party In power losing the next
election.
well, about the middle of F'ebru-
ary, 1905, l got an invitation to the
White House When l arrived was
shown into the cabinet room, where
I found, sitting about the table,
group of the leading members of both
Houses Senators Aldrich Of Rhode
Island, Allison of Iowa, Hale of Maine,
Platt of Connecticut, Cullom of Hi.
nois and Penrose of Pennsylvania,
and Representatives Payne of New
York, Dalzell OF Pennsylvania, Gros-
nf nf Minnesota
and Dolliver of Iowa.
Asked for Advice.
"The President came in. buoyant as
always, and seemingly with nothing
more important on his mind than a
game of tennis. He explained briefly
that a good many people had urged
him to say something in his inaugural
address about the tariff, and he was
inclined to favor the idea of advising
Congress to take up the matter OF
revision when ii met the following
December. It could not, of course,
take it up in the few remaining days
of its existence, but such a reeommen-
dation in his inaugural address would
put the whole subject before the
country for discussion
"He asked us to give him our views
and he turned to Senator Aldrich to
start the ball rolling. Aidrich. you
remember. was chairman of the finance
committee, which deals with such
subjects. I knew he had made his
arrangements to go abroad almost i'm
mediately after the adjournment of
Congress, March a, and spend several
SY1or
rency systems. Therefore, was sur
prised when he briefly commended the
idea the President had suggested.
Only Two i'm Opposition.
ST knew, or thought / did, that he
was opposed to any tariff revision at
the time. Either he did not want to
lead the opposition to what he sup
posed TO be the Presidents views, or
he thought it would be more polite to
wait for a better opportunity. Any
how, to my establishment, he Endorsed
the idea, and so, almost as much to
my surprise, did Allison and Hale,
though they were not overenthusi-
astic.
Then the President turned to the
Representatives, and Payne, the
chairman of the ways and means
committee, which initiates all tariff
legislation fell right in line and in
dorsed the Presidents idea. So did
Tawney and Grosvenor. All this time
Roosevelt was sitting on the table,
swinging his legs, listening, asking a
question now and then. but for him
remarkably quiet.
Now he turned to Senator Oryille
Fl. Platt, and Platt spoke out Wig.
| orously in opposition to any tariff re-
vision. He put his opposition in the
most forceful terms. The president,
still swinging his legs, listened. with
out an interruption, and when Platt
got through asked me for my views
| said: Senator Platt has expressed
my opinion
1.-The President got off the table,
grinned broadly, and said in his in
cisive way: 1T is evidently the con-
sensus of opinion that the tariff should
not be revised until after the next
presidential election
Never Heard of Again.
| ale did not ask another question,
and that was the end of the great and
mighty discussion over the tariff. The
subject was not only postponed until
after the next presidential election,
three years and nine months away,
but was never again heard of as long
as Roosevelt was in the White House.
AS we drove away from the White
| House we all laughed consumedly
over his consensus OF opinion'-the
consensus consisting Of Orville Platt
and myself.
II don't think, at that, that he was
influenced by what we two, or rather