Show TELEGRAPHIC NEWS T52E TARIFF BILL Uepubliciin RepreiceDtRUveS Agree to TaLe It np at Once and Past it Washington 19A caucus of republican repub-lican represnlaives was bald in the chamber of the House this afternoon to decide upon a plan of action regarding be tariff One hundred and thirty repre entauvcs were present and the proceedings proceed-ings were arkcd with a unanimity of spirit end action that is seldom known in a party conference Far a week past the assertion has bean made and repeated that republicans were divided as to the 1 wisdom of adopting the bill proposed by the ways and means committee and that democratic free traders could avail themselvEs them-selvEs of republican dissension to defeat the passage of the protection bill The action of the caucus of today shows bat this story was without foundation founda-tion It 13 no secret that a considerable iderable number of democrats are determined to oppose the bill They will prevent if possible any revision that is not in accordance with their view It is expected by republicans that there will be a sufficient number of democrats opposed to the delay to join the miaority in passing the bill After the caucus was organized Kelly chairman chair-man of ways find means committee said ho wishes to direct the attention of members mem-bers to the tariff bill As to claEsifica Lions and Echedule the bill follows the commission bill Considering the brief tmo allotted the commission for its work he regarded the bill as admirable There were several inaccuracies in the commission bill which probably resulted from the haste with which it was prepared prepar-ed Different schedules wore allotted to various committees and in some cases it was impossible for the full commission to meet Owing to the advance in eci once art and manufactures since the present land was created it was necessary ary to malta a new clarification and rearrange re-arrange the schedules McKinley said republicans of the com miss ° on favored the bill and voted to report re-port it to the House Hakfll of Kansas followed with along a-long and eflaclivo speech in favor of tho bil l He said that with an exception the Potter committee had reduced in the ig grf gate the rates in every schedule He estimated that the bill as reported reduced re-duced the duties below the present rates 25 millions and these reductions were made on articles of prime necessity Sugar had been reduced between 12 and Hi millions woolen goods silks and metals about three millions each and other reductions of a more sweeping character char-acter He had made n careful examination examin-ation of the present tariff and found 2000 changes had been made in its provisions since its enactment by treasury rulings decisions of courts etc The intervention inter-vention of the law nad been destroyed in many particulars apparently in the interest of free trade and to the ruin I of many industries He called attention to the advantage to which the maintenance mainten-ance of protective rates of duty had heen to consumers of imported articles citirg i among many things as illustration the plate glass trade The price of French plate before the Indiana industries were established and protected was 156 per square foot sinco then the price has been reduced to about 1 Haskell called attention to the suggestion that i i the the tar if commission bill should be adopted by Congress as a uibstitule for the bill prepared by the ways and means committee Ibis he declared wouldnt do It would plunge the House into a difficuty aud the commissions bill was hurriedly prepared and needed revision The commission lacked time to thoroughly thor-oughly revisa its labors Haskell explained ex-plained why the committee had reduced the duty on tin plate wire rods hoop iron etc bolow the figures recommended by the commission The articles entered into the manufacture of goods largely consumed by the people The reductions ia the sugar schedule wore doubtless on the recommendation of the tariff commission commis-sion As a rule the reductions of the I ways and means committee were more than thaw recommended by the tariff commission but upon a few articles the rates had been increased Mr Haskell called attention to the charge that has been made in western newspapers that the rates bad been increased upon Heel that enters into the manufacture of plows and other agricultural implements Those statements ho said were entirely untrue The rates upon low grades of steal had beer lagely reduced bat the committee had not made reductions upon the finer grades of crucible steel that enter into the manufacture of fine goods He said that the reason for increasing the duties ou pottery was that foreign potters were selling their wares at lower rates in the United States markets that elsewhere in the world They wished to freeze out American potters and obtain control of the market Haw wools Haskell said had been reduced about 10 per cent and wool associations had agreed to this re duction Belford Colorado said ha wished that fact to ba announced on the floor oft of-t le House as he bad understood that a member of the association had said otherwise Continuing Haskell said the way and means committee bill does discriminate discrimi-nate in favor of American industries Some things in the bill L opposed in the committee some amendments I offered were rejected but as a whole it is a vast Improvement on the present law It protects American interests it is a re ducing bill and I believe it is of more importance that it should be passed without with-out delay than any other measure that has come before Congress for years pastor past-or that will be proposed for years lc come Hs was loudly applauded Kelly said that be should recommend that general debate be limited to one day and that the House should take up the bill section by section and consider it Speaker Keifer moved the following i resolution i Resolved That it is the sense of this caucus that the bill reported by the House committee on ways and moans shall be taken up at as early a day tiS possible not later than Tuesday next and it consideration continued from day to day till concluded subject only to such interruption us may be absolutely neces nary to consider and pass appropriation billsThis This resolution was adopted unanimously unani-mously and the caucus adjourned |