Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
PHRASES SURE TO COUNT
LARGELY In TARIFF WAR
Public Not Familiar With Terms of Bill
and Draws Its Ideas From
Leaders Arguments.


/ the Communists combined"
That again was to the Westerner:
ammunition from the mouth of the
enemy Senator Wheeler of Montana
read the letter in the Senate. I'm.
p;shly he asked of the Pennsylvania
Senator. (which Senators from the Yves
| he thinks are far more dangerous tt
our economic system than Communists
| g.. Does he mean my good friends
! from Idaho, Senator Borah and Sena-
] tor Thcmas?"
! Senator Reed said that his remark
was general. Senator Wheeler pressed
his obvious advantage. The Pennsyl-
vania Senator was in a difficult posi-
tion-though he had the resourcefulness
to do as well for himself as, under
the circumstances. he. could. Il will
leave that" he said. ito the conscienceS
of the several Senators themselves
and to the observation of the coun-
try. =. My denunciation is not going
to make anybody feel uneasy"
The Pennsylvania Senator got out OF
it as ingeniously as anybody could. But
he spoke more truth than he thougnC
when he said that his denunciation
would not make anybody feel uneasy"
On the contrary, his phrase and his
whole letter were good campaign ma
terial for the Western Senators. II,
printed and broadcast through the West.
There were several other contribu-
lions to the curious battle of BOOM
erang phrases. The final one that mace
the Western Senators happy came from
Senator Moses of New Hampshire whea
he spoke of some of the Western Seh-
ators as sons of wild jackasses." The
phrase did not irritate the Western
Senators at all. They grinned about
E2,,k nf IL
That phrase really precipitated the
latest development Of the fight, when
a large body Of so to speak, neutral
Republican Senators determined no
longer to follow the misadventurous
leadership of the Eastern Senators.
Political Potency.
without any doubt, phrases have
political potency. Often and often they
have won political battles. Almost as
often they have lost political battles.
Any one familiar with politics accepts
the condition, and comes, as part OF the
game, rather fopAdmire the expert use
of this kind Of ammunition. OF course,
one may have neutral reservations as to
whether the results of emotions stirred
by phrases constitute necessarily the
best possible conclusion to anything 50
intricate as tariff bill.
Phrases had equal weight in the tariff
fight of 1909. At that time the now
venerable Senator Warren of wyoming
was active, and had an interest in tn.
tariff on raw wool. He had an interess
on behalf of his State, which was :
wool-raising State, and he had also
or was accused of having personal
interest as a sheep raiser himsen.
Under these conditions the late senator
Dolliver Of Iowa (who was the Boran
of that day., invented phrase. He
called Senator Warren the greatest
shepherd since Abraham" That Uhrase,
in 1909, has the same kind and degree
of reverberation and effect as MI.
Grundy's backward States" in the
present fight.
In the 1909 fight the wool schedule
was made an outstanding bone Of con-
troversy. In the formal classification
of tariff schedules it was called "Sched-
ule K" Hardly any one today, who
does not personally remember, can Inn
agine the political potency that cryptic
phrase had. Something in the very
sound Of it VS. made to seem sinister,
evil.
Million Repetition.
It was repeated, in debate and in
print, literally millions of times. 1t,
with some other phrases, measurably
crystallized public opinion in the tariff
bill of 1909-to the great detriment OF
the Republican party, who lost the en-
suing congressional election of 1910.
It was the same Dolliver, in the same
1909 tariff fight, who characterized
President William H. Taft (now Chief
JUSTICE, as IAN amiable man closely
surrounded by persons who know ex-
actly what they want" The phrase was
damaging both to Mr.. Taft and to the
tariff with which he, to his misfortune,
became identified.
And when Mr.. Taft, after the bill was
enacted, described 1t as the best tariff
in our history" that phrase was picked
up, was used over and over as an cpl
thetic boomerang, and became an
agency in the chain of events that de-
prived Mr.. Taft of a second term.
What has been said so far may
| indeed does-overemphaSize the rela-
tive weight of phrases in a political
fight. More than by phrases, the pub
lie comes to most of its conclusions
about public affairs through placing
faith in individuals, leaders.
Details Not Understood.
The bulk of the public. not under
standing the details Of a tariff bill. will
take one side or the other, because one
public man or another Is identified with
that side.
We have not as many just now. as
| we have had in some periods past, OF
the type of man who becomes leader
in this sense, who is taken on faith
| by a large number of people, whose
| position on a public. question is &C
cepted more or less automatically by
his followers.
In the present Senate we have very
! few such leaders. The most conspicu-
Gus of them is Borah. That Borah
has larger public following; that there
is larger number of voters who will
| take a stand because they see Borah
take it, than in the case of any other
Senator-that goes almost without say
ing. Borahs role in public life is pretty
important. The other side in this tariff
] fight has no equivalent of him.