Whereupon Senator Aldrich replied, "Unquestionably." Senator Bacon dwelt further upon the subject and inquired of the senator from Ehode Island if he heard him, whereupon Senator Aldrich answered that he did. And Senator Aldrich further stated:
I think the senator will agree with me, even from that standpoint, that this information ought not to be gathered by men with a partisan bias. I can imagine nothing which would be more detrimental to the purposes which we have in view than a partisan commission sent out to gather information with reference to one political view or one economic view or another. I think it would destroy the usefulness and the purpose of this commission, or whatever you please to call it.
This occurred before the clause was changed in conference between the two houses of congress. When the clause came back in the form in which it was finally passed, it was the subject of a long debate in the senate.
Several senators, among others, Senator Newlands, of Nevada, called attention to the bill as it had passed the senate and then inquired of the chairman of the finance committee, Senator Aldrich, how the change came to be made. Senator Aldrich said that the house conferees objected in toto to it. He said:
The inclusion of the words was a compromise between the two houses. I will say to the senator from Nevada, of course with due deference to his judgment to the contrary, that the provision contained in the bill itself is even broader than it was in the senate, in my judgment. It allows the president to employ whomever he pleases without limit and to assign such duties to them as he sees fit within the limitation of the maximum and minimum provision, and to assist the customs officers in the discharge of their duties. Now these two purposes, especially the latter, cover every conceivable question that is covered by tariff legislation.
Whereupon Senator Newlands inquired whether the bill as it came from the conferees would warrant the president in appointing men who will inquire into and ascertain the difference in the cost of production at home and abroad, of the articles covered by the tariff. Whereupon Senator Aldrich answered:
Unquestionably it will, for the reason. . . the home valuation as well as the foreign valuation of goods is a matter which has to be determined by the customs officers, and that involves, of course, all collateral questions. I have no doubt myself that the provision as it now stands is, as I have already stated, even broader than the provision which passed the senate.
Senator Beveridge then asked Senator Aldrich if he did not differ from Senator Hale when the deficiency appropriation bill was being passed, and Senator Newlands said he was about to ask the same question, to which Senator Aldrich answered that he was not present
