The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-06-14

CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
1.-THE Tariff and the Old Political Echo
THE tariff bill as finally agreed on In conference be-
Aeen the two houses Friday passed the senate through
he process Of adopting the conference report. The vote
las A to q.
sRecently the nomination Of Judge John J. Parker for
he supreme court bench was rejected by an almost SINH
Rr vote-4l to 39-in the senate.
In neither case was the vote along strictly party lines.
zome Democrats voted for the tariff bill and for the
sarkcr nomination and some Republicans split like
wise, voting against the tariff and the ~judgeship nomina-
Ion. -
Was it odd that in two matters SO far apart in their
nature that the senate should divide SO nearly alike2 Or
vas the division so deliberate in both instances as not to
De surprising, but rather accountable by one and the
4ame explanation Of motive? +
II the roll calls are compared, in both cases they read
,ery much the same. In the case Of the tariff there was
some deviation among Republican senators. Capper,
couzens, Deneen, Glenn. McNary. Robinson. steiwer,
vandenberg and Cutting shifted their opposition in the
parker case to support in the matter Of the tariff bill.
Norbeck, who had supported the Parker nomination, did
not support the tariff bill. Tranmel and Kendrick, DEM
,crats, voted for the tariff bill agreement, but had voted
against Parker.
Otherwise the roll calls read very much in duplicate.
Why should the nearly solid mass Of the Democratic
senator's and q bloc of senator's sitting under the Repub-
ican label be of one state Of mind on matters as wide
apart as an economic issue and administrative principle?
There can be only one answer ana that is that a state
of prejudice with a basis outside Of the actual questions
passed upon motivates their votes. They are ~prejudiccd
in such divergent instances by something In the back
ground. F~ All
There were just two fa~ctorscommon to both cases that
one can find in the background as explanation and they
amount to thea same thing In the final analysis. They
were Herbert Hoover and politics. The president NOM
mated Judge Parker, he asked for tariff revision. With
. congressional election coming on in five months and a
presidential campaign two years beyond that, politics
could be very advantageously played by discrediting the
president. Parker was rejected-butw without harm to the
president. Is he promptly nominated Owen ]. Roberts
and the senate dared not reject the prosecutor Of the
oil scandals.
Meanwhile the game Of discrediting the president was
played through the opening made by certain old guard
senators from the East. who insisted on trying to revise
the industrial schedules, when the white house plan wns
merely to revise the agricultural schedules so that the
farmer might be aided in the effort to give him the re-
lief which the president had undertaken to set up. Using
Nl-advised injection Of unnecessary tinkering, the whole
structure Of the tariff revision bill was ~pretudiced by soap
box appeals to stir the political passions of the people
and arouse their suspicion that the measure was one Of !
vicious greed In the case Of the industrial schedules and
: betrayal Of the farmers in the agricultural portions Of
its duties. It also was attempted to load up the measure
with riders for which it was known the president would
not stand. The plan was to make the people think the
bill was discreditable and then discredit and stultify the
president either way he dealt with 1t when it came to his
turn to- sign or veto it.
Thus politics in the senate produced two nearly similar
roll calls In the dhssinilar matters Of a judicial nominal
ton and a tariff bill. The nearly solid bulk Of the DEM
ocrats and . bloc Of senator's led by Borah formed the
coalition which defeated the Parker nomination, but could
not defeat q bill they arc prepared to fight in their sec
ond line trenches as a bad BILL now that their first line
trenches have been lost.
The state of mind of this opposition to the president is
we'll hit Oft by = story they tell of Borah in washington.
It is to the effect that the 1dahoan is Of such a tempera-
mcnt that he does not want to 60 In the same direction
. anyone else. They say he was horseback riding in
Rock Greek park in Washington recently, when it sud-
denly dawned on him that he and the horse we're going
IN the same direction. Thereupon Borah dismounted
from the saddle and walked back to Washington.
This Is the story Of the new tariff bill. The picture
Of the politics in which 1t is enmeshed is clear and per- |
ceivable to all who will analyze the situation even super
ficially. But the story Of the prosperity or adversely it
bears in its disputed rates Is not clear. That can only
Be told when It gets Into operation, perhaps not even
then, for economic prosperity and adversely are complex
facts sometimes. and in this age Of machines and stan
dardiEation and mass production more so than ever OBJ
scured. There are some who feel that the largely in
creased agricultural produce duties will not operate to
~ Ieuci ano OenclIt OF the farmer. Is 1t certain that
increased industrial rates win raise the cost Of living,
crafty avariciousness Of manufacturers and pillage the
common people to the enrichment Of vast industrial en-
tespr1ses7 Or are one or both Of these prophecies lust 50 |
much mirage Of political bias3
Which brings US around to the one certainty Of the
situation and that is that the tariff revision has served a
c~nnvenlent political purpose for the enemies Of President
1oover.
The woman who sued for $25.0 900 because she was kissed
against her uishes was awarded but six cents. And GER
tAinly that's cnother smack In the face.
NOW that the Navy Department has forbidden girls
- Kiss Naval Academy seniors on graduation day, sou