Senate And The Wilson Bill

The friends of tariff reform have a stubborn fight on their hands in the Senate. To begin with, they have to encounter the determineer opposition of organized capital and trusts, and that, too, in a body composed largely of millionaires and representatives of corporations. Already the agents of aggregated capital and local interests are assembling in Washington, intent upon no other object than to defeat the will of the people in the matter of tariff reform. Iron kings, coal lords, sugar trust barons, and representatives of the wealthy manufacturers are on the ground, all urging their Senators to get them a hearing before the finance committee. Then there are among the majority in the Senate a number of weak kneed representatives of tariff reform some of whom desire the elimination of the income tax, while others desire the retention of the duty on fron and coal and still others who are opposed to the removal of the sugar bounty. The great majority of the májority, however, are uncompromising advocates of revenue reform without regard to local interests and influences, and under the leadership of such men as Mills, Vilas, Gray, Vest and others, they will put up a great fight for the retention of free raw materials, free sugar and an income tax. In view of all these complications and the extremely narrow majority in the Senate, the situation is a deeply interesting one.