THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16325, 22 August 1913, Page 6

THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

De Woodrow Wilson's Tariff Bill is making very slow progress in the- Senate, where the Democrat majority is a slender one and "the interests" are powerful, but apparently the advance is sure. The free sugar clause which was expected to present special difficulties owing to the determined opposition of a well-organised business combine has been passed] and the free wool proposal is now to bo considered. A cablegram published this morning suggests that a favourable vote is expected, and if the Democrats are successful on this point the real battle will be over. Dr Woodrow Wilson has performed miracles of organisation and direction in the first engagement of his war with the Trusts for the rights of the people. He has kept a rather unruly body of Democrat legislators firmly in hand and he has met the attacks, open and covert, of "big business" with skill and courage. His uncovering of the "lobbying" which was being done by the paid agents of the Trusts was a particularly effective pieco of strategy, since it appealed to the imagination of the publio and left no hiding place for the legislator who might bo tempted to "moderate" his views under the influences the Trust magnates know well how to use. The Tariff Bill seems practically cortain now to reach the Sta.tute Book within the next three or four months and when it gets there

the new President will bo able to feel that an important part of his work lias, been done.