THE ROLL CALL
THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES A Rough and Rugged Road to Travel AT this writing four weeks have passed since advocates of the income tax began making efforts in the Senate to get a vote, or...
...Cummins: I very much hope the Senator from Rhode Island will not make the unanimous consent impossible...
...The fencing of these experts has got me a little confused, though I think I smell something up the creek...
...Oh, no...
...Aldrich: Mr...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...May I ask the chairman of the Finance Committee when this substitute will likely be reported to this Chamber...
...Gallinger: We will find that out on the vote...
...Most of the taxed corporations will simply shift the burden upon the public, which consumes their products or requires their service...
...In the week that followed, the efforts of Mr...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...Meanwhile the income-tax amendment is postponed...
...I do...
...Senator Bailey again told the Senate why he was anxious for an early vote, saying, "I am perfectly sure that the quicker we vote on it the more votes it will receive, and I make no concealment of that fact...
...When the income-tax amendment, the Bailey and Cummins amendments having been consolidated, was brought up in the Senate on the 18th, the same efforts were again made to have an agreement to dispose of it by a direct vote at the conclusion of the tariff schedules...
...Again Senators Bailey and Cummins asked for an agreement that the income tax proposition be taken up at the end of the tariff schedules and disposed of by a direct vote...
...I do not intend to make any agreement as to any particular disposition or as to any votes upon any particular amendment or proposition...
...I will say very frankly that it is my purpose and my expectation, when the matter is taken up, to offer a substitute for the proposition of the Senator from Texas...
...Its constitutionality is hardly more clear than that of the income tax itself...
...Laughter.] I want to ask somebody who may be willing to answer, if we have men here who are willing to vote for an income-tax amendment who will prefer to dodge it by voting to postpone it...
...The indications are, at any rate, that if put to a vote at that time the income tax proposition would have carried...
...I now move that the further consideration of this amendment be postponed until the 18th day of June...
...Instantly Senator Alderich sprang to his feet and moved that the consideration of the amendment be postponed until June 10...
...Aldrich: Mr...
...Mr...
...On June 10 the wool schedule was under consideration and the income tax went over until the 11th...
...President, I am willing to agree that this amendment and that all amendments with reference to the income tax shall be postponed and taken up immediately after the agreement upon the schedules of the bill, to be then proceeded with and disposed of according to the rules of the Senate...
...President, a question...
...Mr...
...And the motion was agreed to...
...Borah...
...Tillman...
...We are not informed whether Senator Aldrich's championship of these measures in the Senate is affected with any agreement to see them through the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses after they are adopted in the Senate, and the income tax thereby defeated (maybe...
...Senator Cummins tried to effect a compromise by asking for a unanimous agreement that the income tax amendments be postponed until the duty schedules of the tariff bill should be completed and that they then be disposed of in the Senate by direct vote on their merits...
...But some Senators who would not go on record against an income tax without a plausible defense will vote for this combination of "good things" as a substitute for it and thus Senator Aldrich hopes to defeat the income tax...
...As for the substitute, the Committee will offer, this much is certain,—that the corporation tax will not bear so heavily upon the rich as would the income tax...
...There is always danger that an investigative Senator may in that time "smell something up the creek...
...Twenty-four hours, gentle reader, is a long time to allow any one to study one of Senator Aldrich's amendments before being called upon to vote for it...
...The amendment was read at length from the clerk's desk and the Vice-President put the question upon agreeing to it...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...Aldrich...
...Aldrich answered, "I cannot consent to the suggestion of the Senator from Texas...
...But the income taxers had their suspicions, too...
...On that day it became again in order, and Senator Bailey, after some preliminary skirmishing with Senator Aldrich and the Vice-President, managed to get his amendment recognized as before the Senate...
...If there is such an agreement, we would like to see it expressed...
...The results were the same as before except that Senator Aldrich said he would not move to refer the amendment to a committee, but would offer a substitute amendment...
...Bailey: Now, Mr...
...Doubtless, too, in many instances it will fall a heavy burden on some people of small means...
...So now, when the income tax amendment does come before the Senate for consideration, the Finance Committee will offer as a substitute an amendment embodying a corporation tax and a constitutional amendment to be submitted to the states for ratification...
...Mr...
...Mr...
...So he wanted to postpone consideration until a propitious moment, at which to make a motion to refer the amendment to his Committee on Finance, ostensibly for consideration, but really for refrigeration...
...As for the constitutional amendment, if there are twelve states out of the forty-six in which legislatures or conventions can be brought to reject it, we will have no amendment...
...Under the rules of the Senate, would the Senator from Rhode Island have the right to move either to postpone or to refer the proposition to a standing committee...
...I have no other purpose in view at all, and I expect the matter to be continued from day to day until it is finally acted on...
...As soon as it can be perfected, it will be presented to the Senate...
...There's the rub...
...Aldrich...
...Aldrlch...
...Also he came to the conclusion that a tax on the earnings of corporations would be a good means of raising revenue and he sent a message to Congress accordingly...
...President— "The Vice-President...
...Mr...
...The outcome of the day's discussion was that the Aldrich motion to postpone until June 10 was adopted...
...President, it would be impossible to get unanimous consent to that suggestion...
...It is more time than Senator Aldrich has allowed for explanation of many, if not most, of the Committee amendments he has offered to his tariff bill in the course of this session of Congress...
...Bailey...
...Aldrich and his friends at the White House were re-doubled and the President was brought to see finally that he had been wrong in the view expressed in his speech accepting the Republican Presidential nomination that an income tax would be constitutional...
...What it was all about was suggested by Senator Tillman in his characteristic manner: "Mr...
...Borah...
...Aldrich: Unquestionably...
...Does the Senator from Texas yield to the Senator from Idaho...
...The parliamentary skirmishing began when Senator Bailey offered his income tax amendment on May 27...
...THE ROLL CALL ON MEN AND MEASURES A Rough and Rugged Road to Travel AT this writing four weeks have passed since advocates of the income tax began making efforts in the Senate to get a vote, or an agreement to vote, on that proposition...
...Not that Senator Aldrich wants either of these things...
...He was brought to see that a real income tax law could not be constitutional and that a constitutional amendment was necessary...
...It is my purpose to report the substitute as soon as possible, certainly within twenty-four hours at least, before the matter is taken up...
...Also the indications are that Senator Aldrich had suspicions of this state of affairs...
Vol. 1 • June 1909 • No. 25
