Show SERVED AS A STRENGTH Off Vest Declares That the Retroactive Clause of the Pending Tariff Bill i Illegal and Beyond the Power of Congress Washington April 14Theflrst skirmish skir-mish on the tariff question occurred in the senate today I was followed by a votewhich served as a test of strength of the various elements of the senate The vole occurred on a motion by Mr Morrill Rep Vt chairman of the committee on finance to refer a resolution reso-lution by 111 Vest one of the Democratic Demo-cratic members of that committee This made the issue between representatives repre-sentatives of the two leading elements in the senate Aside from this the resolution was in the nature of a criti cism of Secretary Gage and declared illegal his recent order relative to goods imported After April 10 when a change of tne retroactive clause in the pending bill the new tariff rates are to apply Mr Merrills motion then prevailed by the close vote of 24 to 23 The detailed de-tailed vote was as follows YeasBaker Burrows Carter Clark Cullom Davis Foraker Frye Gal linger Hawley Hanna Hansbrough Hoar MoMillln Mantle Mason Nelson Nel-son Platt of New York Pritchard Prootor Quay Spooner Warren Wellington Wel-lington 24 Nays Bate Butler Cannon Chand dler Chilton Cockrell Gorman Gray Harris of Kansas Heitfeld Lindsay McEnery Martin Mills Morgan Pascoe Pettigrew Pettus Rawlins Raw-lins Turner Turpie Vest and Walthall Senator Kyle whose position is a question of interest and Senator Allen i Pop Mo also were absent The affirmative af-firmative vote was given by Republicans Republic-ans including one silver Republican Mr Mantle of Montana The negative vote was made up of Democrats Populists Popu-lists and two silver Republicans Petti grew of South Dakota and Cannon of Utah Prior to the vote a breezy discussion dis-cussion occurred on several phases of the tariff The subject came up first when Mr Mantle presented a memorial from woolgrowers urging ample protection to their industries He referred in this connection to reports that Secretary North of the Wool Manufacturers association as-sociation was acting as secretary of the finance committee Mr Merrill denied de-nied the statement saying that this gentleman had been summoned as an expert to give information on the wool question Mr Hoar responded to seme of the criticisms of Mr Mantle He said he had hoped to see the wool schedule arranged ar-ranged to the satisfaction of wool growers This should b done without Igrowers This should lie l done without arraying the woolgrowers against the wool manufacturers Their interests were identical Certainly no wool grower would desire to have a dutv on manufactured wool which did not afford adequate protection The whole question must be settled by the sound and sober judgment of both interests Mr Hoar referred to the fact that woolgrowers were without their watchful representatives when the tariff bill was before congress and he thought the argus eyes of Judge Lawrence Law-rence would see that this interest did not suffer Mr Gray Dem Del said he desired to call public attention to the remarkable remark-able proposition coming from the other side of the chamber Senators had made clear that there was a compart wellmanaged organization for the purpose pur-pose of putting the taxes to the highest point on their respective lines of goods Both of these industries w r represented repre-sented according to the statements made but the great body of American people who were consumers of betaxed goods were not represented here Mr Merrill succeeded in cutting off the debate by calling for the regular I order but i soon broke out again on Mr Vests resolution directed against the secretary of the treasury Mr Vest declared that the retroactive retroact-ive clause of the pending tariff bill was illegal and beyond the power of congress con-gress He characterized SecYetary Gages recent order a a nullification of the existing laws and a move to intimidate In-timidate the importers of foreign goods Mr Morrills motion to refer the resolution reso-lution to the finance committee brought the question to an issue with the result re-sult stated Mr Morgan of Alabama endeavored to have a time fixed for the final vote on his Cuban resolution Mr Hoar objected and 111 Morgan the resolution would gave notice that resoluton be pressed until a final vote was reached The Indian appropriation bill was then taken up I afforded Mr Gorman of Maryland an opportunity to speak of the disorganized condition of the senate The president had stated in his inaugural address that the condition condi-tion of the country required the strictest strict-est governmental economy And it was proposed to pass an appropriation ap-propriation bill aggregating more than 73000000 without the consideration considera-tion of a duly organized committee of the senate Mr Gorman said that careful consideration con-sideration of these bills might lead to their reduction by 10000000 Appropriations Appro-priations were piling up increasing and doubling within the last 12 years until the stupendous figure of a billion dollars for a single congress had been reported I was time to call a halt In these vast expenditures There should be a limitation of expenditures on the j I navy and on fortifications now that an I era of peace appeared to be at hand I was time too to limit the expenditures expendi-tures nn rivers and harbors Mr Gor man said the Democrats could do no more than call the attention of the senators on the other side to the urgent need of retrenchment The senate should enter upon a thorough and complete consideration of these appropriation appro-priation bills 50 that no question of extravagance could be raised The formal consideration of the Indian bill was then proceeded with The committee amendment opening the Uncompahgre Indian reservation to the public entry led to a long contest con-test A point of order was made against it by Mr Jones of Arkansas and pending the decision the senate at 5 p m went into executive session and soon after adjourned |