Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-09
REPUBLICANS PLAN
LOWER TARIFF BILL
Action of Regulars in Senate
Causes Doubt of Good Faith
in Some Circles.
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

The recent group of statements from
Democrats about the tariff bill Is a
consequence of a recent change in the
Republican Senate attitude on the bill.
To state the situation chronologically.
when the bill entered the Senate, the
expectation was that the regular Re-
publican Senators would keep sub
stantially all the raises that had been
made in the House, and add many more
of their own. That expectation was
practically universal. It has now been
reversed.
The new intention of the regular
Republicans in the Senate Is to write a
bill conspicuouSly lower than the House
bill Such program is so unexpected
and so unprecedented as to cause cyni-
cal expression of doubt about its good
faith. There are many expressions of
suspicion. One suspicion says the
change of program is made merely to
stop adverse criticism throughout the
country, and that as soon as the pres
ent wave OF e8i6cism is stopped, the
Senate Republicans will thereafter per-
form as usual by raising the rates.
Suspicion Is Unfounded.
Taking politics as politics, that sus-
picion about the change being a politi-
cal maneuver was not unreasonable
The fact. however, is that the suspicion
Is unfounded. 1t may be case of be
lleve 1t or not" but the fixed fact is
that the regular Senate Republicans
have abandoned their early intention.
and now intend to write a tariff bill
lower than the House one. They in
tend, according to their lights, to write
tariff bill that will be reasonable and
will seem reasonable to the public.
1t is this that gives rise to the recent
Democratic statements. So long as the
Senate Republicans were expected to
revise the bill upward, the Senate
Democrats had course which, though
subtle, was nevertheless concrete and
simple. This previous course of the
Democrats was summarized, with dis
approval. by the political correspondent
of the Democratic Baltimore Sun, who
put 1t thus:
One of the risks to which the Demo-
Gratis in the Senate are now exposing
themselves in their attitude toward the
tariff is the effort to be subtle, always
mistake. Their basic desire
is to get tariff bill sufficiently bad to
cause popular reaction in the country
against the Republicans and at the
same time not bad enough to cause Mr..
Hoover to veto it."
That policy could exist only so long
as the intention of the regular Repub-
lican Senators was to write a con-
spicuously high tariff The policy. how
ever becomes obsolete with the present
intention of the Republicans to write
reasonable bill.
Fight Flexible Provision.
In the light of this development, one
can find the new Democratic policy in
the statement of the venerable Senator
Simmons of North Carolina, who. as
respects the tariff, is the most highly
placed Democratic authority. 1t is evil
dent from Senator Simmons statement
that the Democratic course will be to
center their fight on one provision Of
the tariff. That focus of attack will be
the flexible provision which gives the
President power to make tariff changes
from time to time upon recommended
ton of the Tariff Commission.
The Democrats. in centering their
fight against the flexible provision, will
get support from at least few extraor-
binary Republican sources. Not only
will the insurgent Republicans in the
Senate oppose the provision. That goes
as a matter of course. In addition.
the most scholarly and one Of the
most respected Republicans IN the
Lower House, James M. Beck, has
already voted against the tariff bill as
a whole, solely because Of the flexible
provision in it.
Because Of the Democrats making
their attack on the flexible provision
conspicuous, there will be ample venti-
lation of the objections to it and of
its merits. Briefly, it is controversy
between business and strict 1nterpreta-
ton of the Constitution. Under mod
ern conditions, business may find any
one item on the tariff to be Anticipated
within six months. Business, wishing
one item changed, cannot wait seven
years or SO until Congress makes a
general revision. On the other hand,
almost any flexible provision. and Ger
tsinly this one, gives the President
rather more power than the Constitu-
ton makers contemplate. In the ven
tilation about to take place the phrase
FLEXIBLE tariff" and its meaning will
become as familiar as reciprocal
tariff" did some years ago. What Will
happen is that the principle Of hexi-
bility will be accepted. Indeed, the
Democrats already have practically ac-
cepted the principle. Modern condi-
tionS make that imperative. There
after there will be a struggle by the
Democrats to have the tariff commits
sion report to Congress instead of to