OCR Text |
Show TARIFF TALK IS LEADING ISSUE AT WHITE HOUSE President Wilson and Representative Underwood Peep Into Archives of Legislation For Something Some-thing New Washington, April 3.. President Wilson nnd Representative Oscar W. Underwood wero In conference for several hours at tho White Houso tonight to-night over features of tho proposed tariff revision. Tho conference was requested by tho president, who nad been studying ,tho now tariff bill for several days and familiarizing himself him-self with many of tho questions about which controversy has been raised. Other conferences which nro to follow fol-low with Mr. Underwood nnd Senator Sena-tor Simmons, chnlrman of the sennte financo committee, will settle tho status of the -sugar, wool and ngrl- I cultural schedules, so far as tho party par-ty leaders can settlo them; and will decldo whether one goncral bill, or scparato schedule bills shall be presented pre-sented to tho houso. Tho opponents of free sugar, chiefly chief-ly representing tho catio growing sections sec-tions of tho south, have made strong representations to tho president ngalnst removal of all duty from that product. Goes Into Detail Slncojhls first conference with Mr. Underwood, President Wilson had gono over tho tariff bill In Immediate Immedi-ate detail with Secretary Redfleld, of tho department of commerce, for whose tariff views ho has high regard. re-gard. It was understood that few dotall-cd dotall-cd rates wero under consideration at tonight's conference; but that tho general questions ns to tho freo admission ad-mission of raw materials, and tho ox-tent ox-tent to which tho duty should bo removed re-moved from agricultural products and articles largely consumed by tho public, pub-lic, wero discussed fully. Efforts to bring tho senate and houso Into accord before tho details of tho now tariff bill becomo public, are to bo made lato this week. Senator Sen-ator Simmons will ask Democratic members of tho senato flnnnco committee com-mittee to meet Friday for a preliminary prelim-inary consideration of the tariff. At that time It Is expected that a copy of tho bill prepared by the house ways and meanB commltteo will be submitted to tho Democratic senators and considered in detail. Objectionable Features Should tho sennto committee determine de-termine that certain features of he bill would not bo acceptable In the senate, efforts will bo made to have the draft of tho bill changed by the house commltteo or by tho Democratic Democrat-ic membership of tho houso when It meetB in caucus next week, so that houso and senato may bo brought into in-to as complete accord as possible in support of tho public bill Senator Owen, chairman of the new Benato currency committee, had a talk with President Wilson today about currency legislation. Senator Owen said afterwards they discussed no details', but laid tho foundation for future conferences. Ho oxpreesed the opinion that while several Individual bills would bo Introduced In-troduced ono measure would be clothed with administration support. |