Canal Legislation Dooms Tariff Bills.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 14, 1912:
Senate's Decision to Take Up Waterway Measure Ends Revision Prospects.
FREE TOLLS A CERTAINTY
Merits of Panama Bill Not a Factor In Vote — Hot Fight Looked For Over Provisions.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON. July 13.— The death knell of tariff legislation for this session  was sounded this afternoon when the Senate, by a vote of 40 to 34, decided to take up for consideration the disputed
Panama Canal bill instead of the bill revising the woolen schedule. Except for Mr. McCumber of North Dakota, who sided with the Democrats, the vote was strictly partisan. That marked the complete return of the Senate insurgents to party regularity on the very question that heretofore had most widely separated them from the reactionaries.
    Interest in the Panama bill had little to do with the vote in question. It had been realized all along that the Panama measure, in fairness to the commercial world, should be passed at this session, and the British protest against free tolls for American bottoms has not changed the situation. But the canal bill in itself is not a political measure— in spite of some controversial provisions tacked to it. The insurgents, in voting to take it up instead of the tariff measure, are but taking the second step in the direction they started , a week ago, when they voted solidly with the regulars against the Chemical Tariff bill.
    Senator Penrose and the regulars smoothed the way for the return of the insurgent to party allegiance in tariff matters by appending to the Steel bill when it passed the Senate an amendment repealing Canadian reciprocity and imposing a duty upon print paper.
    That amendment at once killed all Democratic interest in the bill. They refused to pass it in the House as amended, and the Senate Republicans, united at last, refused to consider passing it without the amendment. To make sure of his new recruits, Mr. Penrose let it become known that he intended to add that amendment to every tariff bill that showed any signs of passing the Senate. If any more tariff measures do pass, it will be with the Canadian amendment attached, and the House will then drop the subject.
    With that threat awaiting them, even the Democrats, are not very anxious to proceed with the tariff bills, though they have to make a showing of pressing them. At bottom they are glad to let those bills stop where they can blame their failure to pass upon the Republicans without having the issue drawn too closely between the bills that came from the House and the amended Senate product, which the House refuses to accept. The Democrats will then appeal to the country, and as the time for making that appeal draws near, they are glad of any excuse to pass the necessary bills and go home.
    To-day's vote to take up the Panama bill was not, of course, a vote upon the merits of that measure, and a hot fight will certainly be made on many of its provisions. The point raised by Great Britain that free passage for American bottoms through the canal is an infringement of the treaty will prolong debate on the international feature without having much influence on the result. The only point that is certain with regard to toils, however, is that American coastwise vessels will be granted free passage. The British protest makes no objection to them, as already the coastwise trade is by statute an entirely American affair, and the free tolls in that trade will not be a discrimination in favor of American against British ships. And that provision is indorsed in the Democratic platform.
    But in regard to ships in the trans-oceanic trade the matter is more complicated. In general the division in the Senate is between the old ship subsidy faction on one side and the anti-subsidy faction on the other. The subsidy men now want the free tolls as a sort of bonus to the ships. But the complication arises from the fact that the transcontinental railroads, formerly favorable to the general idea of subsidies, dislike the idea of giving favors to ships that may compete with the railroads' cross-country traffic. This dislike is intensified by the likelihood of railway-owned ships being forbidden passage through the canal or else being excluded from the free toll provisions.
    To-day's vote simply made the bill the unfinished business, and it will come up for debate on Monday. Senator Burton will probably speak then, though not directly to the question of tolls.