The bill is a surprise in that it had. been expected. thatthe Republicans, learning wisdom from the first disastrous effects of the McKinley tariff of 1890, would content themselves with moderate protection now, and indeed it would hardly be unexpected if Congress should somewhat temper the extravagance of the protection idea as embodied in the bill. The programme of the administration is to push the measure through rapidly, planning to have it pass the House of Representatives by the middle of next month, and pass the Senate in a couple of months more, s0 that it may be a law of the land by the close of the fiscal year, June the 30th, With the powerful assistance of Speaker Reed of the House, which is already pledged, the first part of the sche-due may be-expected to be carried out. The Senate, with its customary dilatoriness and its haunting fear lest its dignity be impaired or trenched upon, is a more uncertain quantity, particularly as the Republicans, lacking a clear majority, must count on the tolerance of some section of the Opposition in order that this measure may be tried.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.