THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES Tariff Revision — A Sample TO Senator Dolliver of Iowa, perhaps more than to anyone else, is due the credit of exposing the increases being perpetrated by...
...Cloths counting one hundred to one hundred and fifty are put in a higher paragraph, and so on...
...It would seem obvious to any school boy who has studied simple arithmetic that this amendment of the Finance Committee very materially increases the duty on the cloth to which it applies...
...These increases are made far greater by general provisions elsewhere provided in the bill...
...Bourne Flint Scott Depew Nixon Smith (Mich...
...of the importations of cotton cloth, have been cleverly increased by amendment changing the method of levying the duty, and in a manner which was thought would render the increases incapable of being shown...
...per square yard...
...the Senate amendment fixes the duty at 2 1/4 cents on all...
...But these are only the increases that appear upon the face of the bill in the paragraphs providing the duties for the various grades of cotton cloth...
...Twenty-five per cent...
...The 25 per cent...
...ad valorem...
...Dixon Oliver Warren Paired against the increases...
...valued at over 12 1/2 and not over 14c...
...Let us see...
...per square yard...
...It was only on the following evening, when Senator La Follette had spoken for another day, piling facts upon facts, evidence upon evidence, proving conclusively the increases in the schedule, and with Senators on both sides of the chamber demanding that Senator La Follette's charges be answered, that Senator Alrich took the floor to defend the schedule...
...The Dingley duty amounts to 2 1/2 cents to 3 1/8 cents per square yard...
...ad valorem...
...Aldrich Clark (Wyo...
...At the evening session, Senator La Follette being absent and no other Senator being prepared to address the Senate upon the cotton schedule, Senator Aldrich sought persistently and by all the insistence at his command, to force the pending schedule to a vote...
...per square yard, 2 1/4c...
...His speech was an admission that he was "caught with the goods on him...
...Senator Smith of Michigan announced in the Senate chamber during the course of Senator La Follette'S speech on Thursday that he would vote against the Finance Committee's amendments if it were shown that they increased the Dingley rates...
...valued at over 9 and not over 10c...
...He could not alter the facts...
...In the highest paragraph it was 40 per cent...
...He had not made his much-promised statement showing that there were no increases in the duties, and when Senators suggested the propriety of his making such a statement before the vote was taken, he refused and resented the suggestion...
...The rates of duty on these cloths, which constitute about 70 per cent...
...There are five paragraphs of countable cloth duties in the cotton schedule...
...On cloth of this count not bleached the Finance Committee's amendment provides as follows: "Valued at over 7 and not over 9c...
...on this bracket, under the Dingley law, would make the duty 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cents per square yard...
...the Senate amendment fixes the duty on all cloth in this bracket at 3 cents per square yard...
...Brown *Fletcher Nelson *Stone Burkett *Frazier *Newlands *Tillman Clapp Gamble *Overman *Clay *Gore *Owen Crawford *Hughes *Paynter Faired for the increases...
...The Senate amendment provides 7 cents but not less than 25 per cent...
...D.) Root Briggs Dick Jones Smoot Bulkeley Dillingham Kean Stephenson Burnham Du Pont Lodge Sutherland Burrows Elkins McCumber Warner Burton Foster *McEnery Wetmore Carter Gallinger Page Voting against the increases—29...
...But he did not show, and he could not show that the duties were not increased...
...It was shown from the tabulation of estimated revenues of the Finance Committee that the duties were increased...
...per square yard, but not less than 25 per cent...
...per square yard, 7c...
...It must be assumed, therefore, that he did not understand that they increased the rates...
...the Senate amendment imposes a duty of 4 3/8 cents...
...In his speech Friday night he merely claimed that it could not be shown that they increased the duty...
...THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES Tariff Revision — A Sample TO Senator Dolliver of Iowa, perhaps more than to anyone else, is due the credit of exposing the increases being perpetrated by Senator Aldrich and his "associates" in the already excessive duties in the cotton schedule of the tariff law...
...He had been forced by exhaustion resulting from speaking several hours in a heated and intensely oppressive atmosphere to discontinue his speech and absent himself from the evening session, announcing that he would continue on the following day...
...The next bracket is cloth valued at over 9 and not over 10 cents...
...Beveridge *McLaurin *Taliaferro *Chamberlain *Rayner *Taylor *Davis *Smith (S...
...the Senate amendment imposes a duty of 5% cents...
...of the importations of countable cotton cloth...
...When the roll was called he anounced a pair and said, if not paired, he would vote for the amendments...
...valued at over 14c...
...For purposes of levying duty, cotton cloth is classified in the tariff schedule according to the number of threads it contains per square inch, the larger the number of threads and the finer the cloth, the higher the duty...
...per square yard, 5 1/2c...
...And so it comes about that Senators who have come here to help reduce the tariff in compliance with a wide-spread public demand find themselves constrained by the situation with which they are confronted to plead on the floor of the Senate that the Dingley rates shall be allowed to remain undisturbed and that the Senate reject the Aldrich amendments increasing the duties...
...It was shown from the bill that the duties were increased...
...The above amendment provides, first, for a duty on cloth valued at over 7 and not over 9 cents per square yard...
...Guggenheim Penrose Borah Crane Hale Perkins Bradley Cullom Heyburn Piles Brandegee Curtis Johnson (N...
...over the Dingley rates...
...It was shown from tabulations of the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor that the duties were increased...
...The effect of the other fourteen amendments on cloths of different count and condition shows exactly the same character of results...
...In the lowest paragraph it was 25 per cent...
...The major portion, it is said, of the cotton cloth imported is mercerized...
...and that the average duty that would be imposed under the Senate Bill would equal 43.6 per cent., an average increase of 13 per cent...
...The calculations were read into the Record in detail by Senator La Follette...
...He tried to justify the increases in duties...
...Under the Dingley law the rate is from 3 1/2 cents up at 25 per cent...
...Within the paragraphs the cloth is again classified according to its condition, whether not bleached, bleached, or dyed, printed, and so forth, and also classified according to its weight...
...He sought to minimize them...
...Under the Dingley law the rate of duty above the dividing line of count-and-weight duties was a straight ad valorem rate...
...These duties are called "count and weight" duties, but in each paragraph it is provided that if any cloth of that count exceeds a certain value per square yard it shall be dutiable according to its value...
...On all cloth mercerized, the Senate bill provides a new and additional duty of one cent per square yard...
...The last bracket contains all cloth of this count and condition valued at over 14 cents per square yard...
...Senator Aldrich claimed at first that these amendments did not increase the duty...
...In place of these ad valorem duties the Finance Committee has introduced in each paragraph and on cloth in the various conditions of manufacture amendments providing duties at so many cents per square yard varying according to the value of the cloth...
...Shively * Bailey Cummins La Follette *Simmons Bristow Dolliver *Money *Smith (Md...
...Thursday Senator La Follette made a speech bringing more facts and evidence to bear, showing how the duties had been raised...
...A different rate is imposed in each paragraph for cloth in each stage or condition and on the different weights...
...These tabulations of the Bureau of Statistics showed that the average duty on approximately $14,000,000 of cotton cloth imported in 1907 under the present law equalled 38.6 per cent...
...ad valorem of the Dingley law gives a duty on this cloth of 3 1/8 cents to 3 1/2 cents a square yard...
...per square yard, 3c...
...per square yard...
...Voting for the increases—39...
...This promise he renewed from time to time whenever the evidence deduced showing the increases seemed to find lodgment in the senatorial intelligence about him...
...In these five paragraphs the importations in 1907 of cloth dutiable by count and weight, amounted to $3,634,492...
...Bacon *Culberson *Johnston (Ala...
...The amount of importation in these five paragraphs of cloth valued above the dividing line of count-and-weight values and subject to ad valorem duties in 1907 was $8,467,857...
...The bill provides further for increases of duty by increasing the count of threads in the cloth when such threads are introduced or superimposed upon the cloth to produce figures and patterns...
...Cloths counting less than a hundred threads are put in one paragraph...
...The next bracket contains cloth at over 12 1/2 and not over 14 cents per square yard...
...Under the Dingley law the duty on cloth in this bracket, at 25 per cent...
...ad valorem...
...There are fifteen amendments of this character in the schedules on cotton cloth, and the importations to which they apply equal about 70 per cent...
...The next bracket is cloth valued at over 10 and not over 12 1/2 cents per square yard...
...But the roll is called and the amendments are adopted...
...On the amendment explained above the roll call was as follows: (Democrats indicated by asterisk...
...It was shown from samples of cloth representing every paragraph in the schedule, samples appraised and with the duties stated upon them by the officers of the New York Custom House, that the duties were increased...
...At the conclusion of Senator Dolliver's able and convincing argument, in which for two days he unfolded to the Senate the various schemes and provisions by which these increases are affected, Senator Aldrich rose in his place on the floor of the Senate and solemnly announced, "I expect to show, when I take the floor, that there are no increases in the cotton schedule of the bill at all...
...And the duties are further increased by a new provision which fixes the value of the cloth not upon its cost according to the invoice, but according to the market price which may be established by the American manufacturers...
...ad valorem, would amount to 1 3/4 cents on the lowest to 2 1/4 cents on the highest priced...
...For example the Dingley Law imposed a duty of 25 per cent ad valorem on all unbleached cloth above seven cents per square yard in value and under a hundred threads to the square inch...
...valued at over 10 and not over 12 1/2c...
...per square yard, 4 3/8c...
...per square yard...
Vol. 1 • June 1909 • No. 23
