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Show oo SENATE CORRECTING HOUSE BLUNDERS. With the passage of the recent Underwood Un-derwood tariff bill in the house by a vote of 281 to 139. the second etage of its legislative consideration whs commenced In the senate the bill faces a greatly different situation from that in the House. There is no limitation upon the time which senator may consume In discussion of any phase of the bill except the limitation which nature puts upon his physical endurance It will therefore be Impossible to shut off senators who are asking information from the ad vocates of the measure by invoking a "five minute rule" as was done so many times in the House. This means that, while the bill ir, in th senate, there at luast will be opportunity for the country to become acquainted with the provisions, of the bill, even il senators are not able to arrive at sound conclusion as to the effect of some, or all. of" these provisions. provi-sions. It is hardlv to be hoped however, that the senate debate will elicit much information concerning the factors that determined the ways and means committee in fixing the rates of duty levied by the bill and In agreeing upon its other provision The ways and means committee may have supplied to the Democratic meln bers of the finance committee some of this Information, which they surreal fully avoided making public during the debate in the House, but it Is aoj likely that senators will be able to extract much of it from the members of the finance committee. Present indications point strongly to the passage of the bill in the senate without material change ol an) pro visions regarded as important b) Hie president and Mr Underwood There will be n considerable number of mi nor Changes, however, depending more or less upon the temper and COmpla cencj of the Democratic members ol the finance committee. There already is much private complaint among these senators over the refusal of Mr f nderwood am' his colleagues of the ways and means committee to adopt certain obvious amendments while the bill was in the House It has been show n In a number of cases that the rates carried by the bill as reported to the House do not conform to 'ho announced purpose of the Democrats in drafting their measure These er rors have usualh come from acting upon insufficient information or with out sufficient conrlderntion of the In formation In hand VrtlclOS wldei. differing in price and in cost of pro duction, have been subjected to in.-same in.-same rate, apparentlj on the thro, that this gave them similar treatment I In numerous cases, it hns happened that, upon this error being pointed out to Mr. Underwood and t lie member of his committee in charge of tin pur ticular schedule affected, they have consented either to ;issiu in th--adoption of a proper amendment in the senate or at least not to oppose such action by the senate In other words, they have put it up to the senate sen-ate to rectify mistakes even in case where thev knew the error before the bill passed out of their hands This makes some of the senators very unhappy And naturally For the senators feel that It puts them In a very awkward predicament They will bo obliged to sponsor amendments increasing rales of duty while Mr Underwood will be entitled to great credit for cutting rates. From their point of view this gives Mr Un j derwood a clear record with which to go to the country' for re-election, but it puts them badly in the whole,' aB they fear. They would not have minded it so much in the days before the direct election of senators but thev point j out now that they are obliged to go i before the people and make a public I canvass just the same as Mr Under wood and his colleagues must do Se era of these senators face the test of re-election next year just as the ( House Democrats do and they do not think it is fair to them to bo obliged to carry the burden of correcting er rors in the bill which were known he fore it left the House and which the House leaders should have corrected on their own responsibility nn I |