The Attack on the Senate
Williams, Michael
THE ATTACK ON THE SENATE IN WASHINGTON harsh words are addressed to the Senate. The idea, apparently, is that the misfortunes of the Republican party at this moment can best be attributed to the...
...But what kind of a tariff bill...
...The administration leaders answer, if we interpret them correctly, that any kind of a tariff bill will do, so long as it comes soon...
...Political confusion and technical inexpertness made it impossible for the Senate to proceed at more than a snail's pace...
...The coalition now in control of the Senate is an easy selection...
...asks Senator Harrison, and it seems to us that this is a fair query...
...It refused him the power of revision, but the effect of its attack on the industrial schedules was to give him what he had said he wanted, and what the country certainly wanted, instead of a bill which had been written as if in defiance of his wishes, and in contempt of public sentiment everywhere...
...Consider this: the President asked for a moderate upward revision of the tariff, and he was answered with the Haw-ley-Smoot bill, providing for the most extravagant increases in industrial rates, with concessions to agriculture which were not at all satisfactory to the West and Middle-west...
...If we may say so, it is too late to put faith in expedients...
...Even the President, temporarily forgetting the fact that the bill which the coalition was evolved to oppose in no way meets the purposes for which he called the special session last spring, is reported to have considered issuing a statement of reproof...
...Win or lose, if he does this, he will find public sympathy flowing to him in large measure...
...Whether they realize it or not, what they are asking for is anything at all to save face...
...what the bill needed was rewriting all down the line...
...And it is pointless to blame the Senate for being slow...
...For the logic of the situation at present is largely against him, and in favor of the coalition...
...It is an answer which reveals as well as anything could the plight in which they find themselves...
...In the Senate it was attacked as sentiment throughout the country demanded that it should be attacked...
...Whether it would be wise or whether it would be possible to proceed more rapidly with a document so objectionable are things to be forgotten at a time when the all-important consideration is to find a scapegoat...
...he must speak out, firmly, for the kind of tariff which he thinks it will be of advantage to adopt...
...But the fault is not with the Senate, any more than it is with the President...
...If it did not see its way clearly, there is the excuse that the administration forces themselves had lost contact with the President...
...But any kind of a tariff bill will not satisfy the country in its present temper...
...And, if we may say so, the President must take upon himself responsibility for tariff leadership...
...It is really a service to be grateful for...
...Without the coalition we should have had that bill long ago...
...He has contented himself with urging a speedy enactment of a tariff bill, saying that industry is more sensitive now than ordinarily to legislation, and that its recovery from the mid-winter depression will be retarded unless a tariff bill is hurried through...
...Wise economists have always held that it should not be a congressional function...
...And it ought to be remembered that the coalition in many ways was proceeding in line with tariff principles which the President himself had enunciated at the time of taking office...
...If he does not, it will be futile to attempt to concentrate blame on the coalition...
...Hoover says we do need it) and neither the President, nor Congress would now have it to worry about...
...Revision is hardly the word for the task which the coalition set itself...
...that it should be out of politics entirely and in the hands of a commission which could alter the tariff schedules from time to time according to the changing needs of industry and commerce...
...The idea, apparently, is that the misfortunes of the Republican party at this moment can best be attributed to the unhurried pace with which the senior body pursues its revision of the tariff bill...
...If it did not work rapidly, there is the fact to be considered that it had a bill of some twenty-one thousand items to deal with...
...The trouble really lies in our method of determining tariff rates...
...Such a commission composed of experts and empowered to apply their knowledge, would have had the new tariff ready for us ages ago, if we needed it (as Mr...
Vol. 11 • March 1930 • No. 18
