Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-21
Tariff Has Iona Been q Fighting Word
By Froncis P. DouaIos


are drawn out. the greater is the i'm
preston that the Nation may be in for
an old fashioned row over protection OF
the American market.
Probably Congress and the country
will be spared the ordeal Of the writing
of tariff bill with specific duties on
the floor. But the hearings before the
Senate Finance Committee, and the
earlier hearings on the House side, are
developing demands for quota restric-
tons on certain imports.
1t is likely that some of these will
, come up on the Senate floor. 1t is also
possible that the proposed act to extend
trade agreements authority for three
years and to permit the President to
negotiate moderate tariff reductions
may end up quite different from what it
was originally.
Records of tariff legislation offer in
stances where tariff revision started out
in one direction and, ended up in an
other. The course of the present bill
so far offers an interesting parallel to
the early history of the Tariff Act OF
1894. That was in Grover Clevelands
second administration.
The present bill got through the
House without amendment, chiefly Que
to the efforts of Speaker Rayburn.
Similarly, the bill of 1894 got through
the House handily. 1t was a bill OF
moderate reductions. 1t was introduced
December 10, 1898. 1t was passed by
the House February l. 1884.
Then the Senate took over!
It took five months for the Senate to
produce its version of the bill. First,
in response to a Democratic caucus,
moderate tariff protection was given
sugar, coal and iron ore.
Then there started parade OF rep
resentatives of industries. The shirt
and collar manufacturers of New York
wheeled into the fray. There came the
iron and steel men of Pennsylvania and
the glass and pottery interests Of New
Jersey.
The Democratic majority in the Sen
ate was slim. The leadership figured
it had to give some ground to win votes
for the bill.
The yielding reached the proportions
of a general retreat. In May 1894, a
caucus decided to support 408 amend
ments. One member of Congress is
said to have remarked, This is free
lunch counter; walk up and help your
self" In the end the bill, after being
amended 600 times, finally passed the
Senate in July Many of the House
scheduled tariff reductions were revised
upward. The then sugar trust got
such sweet treatment it was scandal.
President Cleveland hoped that in
conference the House would prevail to
restore the bill to something like its
original appearance. He was disap-
pointed. The House gave way and the
measure was finally adopted in August.
The disguised President wouldn't sign
it; he let it become law without his sig
nature
That tariff writing can have political
repercussions was well known in 1894.
The high-tariff Mckinley Act had been
passed in 1890 during President Harri-
sons administration. Prices advanced
even before the provisions of the Nc
Kinley Tariff Act took effect. Those who
put up their prices said the tariff was
to blame. Even such a additionally
American industry as the manufacture
OF wooden nutmegs for the Connecticut
trade advanced the price of the product
and blamed it on the tariff.
The act became law in October, 1890.
Next month came the off-year elections.
In place of the Republican majority,
the voters elected 235 Democrats to the
House and only So Republicans.
Similarly in 1894 the Democrats lost
the control they had gained in 1892
when Cleveland was elected over Harri-
son. The 1894 elections returned 244
Republicans to the House and 104 DEM
ocrats. The Republicans won a slim
lead in the Senate
President Hoover, too, had an I'M
happy experience with tariff legislation.
The Smoot-HaWley Act of 1880 was the
result.
At that time there was no real
demand for a tariff revision, up or
down. There was demand to do
something to relieve the plight of the
farmers. A special session was called
in June 1929. That was boom period,
but not for the farmers who had been
put through the wringer. The President
suggested to Congress only that duties
on agricultural products be raised to
help the farmers and that where manu-
featuring industries were depressed,
they. too, might be helped.
The special session dragged into the
regular session, which began in De-
cember in those days. The House Ways
and Means Committee started out con-
sidering Limited revision" But the
bill it reported went far beyond that
and on the floor there were more re-
visions upward.
In the Senate, Reed Smoot, chairman
of the Finance Committee, was real
prctectionist. He also wanted good treat
ment for the beet sugar of his State,
Utah. To get it he had to allow other
Senators what they wanted for their
States.
Limited revision" had now disap-
peared. Prof. F. w. Taussig remarks in
his tariff history that Mr. Hoover might
have headed off what occurred had he
announced early that if the measure
went beyond the bounds of limited
revision he would veto 1t.
The agricultural forces, when they
saw what was happening, became angry
The measure which was to have helped