Everybody Settle

The tariff bill is settled, so,

     Let’s settle down to work;

The worried minds are settled now

     Of manager and clerk.

The tariff bill is settled now

     Let’s settle up our bills;

It is the only settled way

     To settle people’s ills.

The tariff bill is settled now,

     The talkers gone to town;

Let’s scratch around and settle up

     And then we’ll settle down.

Aug. 6, ‘09

Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act, 1909, passed by the U.S. Congress. It was the first change in tariff laws since the Dingley Act of 1897; the issue had been ignored by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Republican platform of 1908 pledged revision of the tariff downward, and to this end President Taft called (1909) Congress into special session. The House promptly passed a tariff bill, sponsored by Sereno E. Payne, which called for some reduced rates. The Senate substituted a bill, fathered by Nelson W. Aldrich, which made fewer downward revisions and increased numerous rates. After a sustained attack on the Aldrich Bill by a group of insurgent Republicans in the Senate, a compromise bill was adopted, which somewhat moderated the high rates of the Aldrich bill; the measure was immediately signed by Taft. It lowered 650 tariff schedules, raised 220, and left 1,150 unchanged. Although the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act was less aggressively protectionist than the McKinley Tariff Act (1890) and the later Dingley Act, it was, nevertheless, protectionist. (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.)

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