r, " .
The Commoner.
MARCH 12, 19 0
&d, but as a manner of. support for the allies
Rvlio wore trying to defeat Roosevelt. He was
mart enough to let It bo known to Mr. Taft
that there was nothing serious in his candidacy,
and Taft made him secretary of state. Knox's
trongest supporter and backer ' is Henry C.
fFrick, the coke and steel magnate. That shows
what line his advice is likely to take when mat-
ters come up in the Taft cabinet. Moreover,
?Mr. Taft reaes greatly on Knox1, on his acumen.
his wide knowledge of the law and his masterly
Pfrrinn nf fnvfjrnmontnl n'ffnlra Tftinv la nn mnrn
2 m O -.& a vvm i)A.v J ..M-lS. U J A-AJL VA. VJ
of a radical than Root is. He will advocate the
simple life for our president instead of the stren
uous. Wbat-Knox and his people want is quiet
and a chance 'to breathe. And that is what ho
will advocate.
Murray Crane, the third member of the soft
pedal triplets, is a big manufacturer of paper,
always a business man, who has had success in
Massachusetts politics and who has come to
be a power in the senate since he was elected
as successor to George Frisbie Hoar. He has
never been in sympathy with President Roose
velt nor his policies, and he has never made any
secret of it. He .has contended, that irreparable
injury was done to the business interests of the
country by many of the acts of President Roose
velt, and he has always been opposed to what
ever end of those policies the senate has had to
consider.
He is a small, quiet, soft-spoken man, of in
credible modesty, who seems always trying to
efface himself. That, however, is but hi3 man
ner. As a matter of fact, lie gets around more,
knows more people, can find out more things
and has more influence than any other new sen
ator and many of the older ones. He was op
posed to the renomination of Mr. Roosevelt, and
was really the backbone of the movement of
the allies, which didn't amount to much, but
which is now bobbing up as a strong factor in
the Taft regime. He took hold of the Taft cam
paign when it was in the doldrums and put
life and vigor and sense into it. He pulled it
out of the hole at the critical movement last
September when it seemed that everything was
gone to sixes apd sevens, from the republican
viewpoint. After he had moused around for a
while and had told Mr. Taft a few things, he
got the campaign into its swing and, from that
moment, there never was any doubt about Taft's
election.
It would be odd if he were not strong with
Mr. Taft, and he is. The big president likes
him and has a great admiration for his ability
and for his uncommon brand o.f commonsense.
All of Crane's sympathies are with the business
people. He is a business man himself, a man of
large affairs. His strength in the senate is con
stantly increasing. He is always with the
Aldrich-Hale combination, and he hates his col
league, Lodge, with a fervor that will keep that
gentleman guessing, ,when his principal prop,
Mr. Roosevelt, leaves public life.
No More Rough Riding
These are the tendencies and the attributes
of the soft-pedal triplets, Root, Knox and Crane,
the three men who, when the administration
starts, will have most influence with the new
president. Shall we have any more rough-riding?
Not if they can prevent it, and they will
try almighty hard. Tranquility tranquility,
peace and rest are their watchwords. Let it
simmer down.
Meanwhile Mr. Taft has inherited from Mr.
Roosevelt a large and assorted bunch of actions,
policies, crusades, commissions and contentions.
He is the residuary legatee for as fine a collec
tion of uncompleted forays as ever a man who
came into power has taken over. He has actions
against about every trust of any size in the
country, in various stages of completedness. He
has gunning expeditions unfinished against all
sorts of combinations and individuals. "He has
partially completed expeditions against rail
roads,, against public service corporations of all
kinds, against individuals and against associa
tions. Since election, Mr. Roosevelt has started
some new ones and stirred up all the old ones.
He will leave libel suits, land prosecutions, and
more sorts of variegated trouble than could be
recited in a page. Poor Taft has to take them,
all over. They are willed to him by his very
kind and loving friend, T. R.
Being of patient and judicial mind, Mr. Taft
will proceed to untangle things as well as ho
can. Although he was for years Mr. Roosevelt's
secretary of war, nobody knows just how far
he goes in indorsing all the Roosevelt crusades.
What will happen undoubtedly is that the soft
pedal triplets will get together with him and
advise him to stop as many of the crusades as
possible, and hurr7 the rest of them to comple
tion. It is pretty tough to become president
and find enough work on hand to last any rea
sonable person all his term, none of it initiated
by the man who comes in.
However, the soft-pedal triplets will do the
work. They will bo on hand with advice, coun
sel and suggestion. Any person who thinks
they will be remiss in pointing out to Mr. Taft
that it is bettor for all hands to quit for a time
and -let things Tesumo the normal does not know
tho inherent qualities of mind of theso eminent
statesmen. They have snuggled up to the throne
for that exact purpose. The reactionaries are
going to have an inning, or going to try to have
one; at any rate.
Tho Aldrich-Hale crowd In tho senate arc all
chirked up over the outlook. They think they
will have support in the White Houso now,
whereas they had nothing but a succession of
swift kicks heretofore. They do not anticipate
any trouble with Mr. Taft, either soon or in
the future, and they are laying plans accord
ingly. This may be due to a false impression
they have of Taft, but it is the fact, nevertheless.
Every one of them will draw a long breath at
noon on March 4th, dance a few jig steps and
say: "There; that's over. Now let's get back
to the regular order of things and go along -in
our accustomed way."
To prove it they are going to revise ,010 tariff
for Mr. Taft revise it, but not so much that
the revision will bo'visiblo to tho naked eye.
They will change a schedule here and there,
but, in tho end, the sacred policy of protection
won't be harmed any. It may have a few bow
windows and ells built on It, but it will bo, in
trinsically, the same old thing. They will do as
Mr. Taft will request them to in his message
convening congress in special session, and re
vise. But that word revise has an odd meaning
in the lexicons of Nelson W. Aldrlch and Eugene
Hale. Besides, we must have revenue. Think
th,at over.
And tho soft-pedal triplets are getting ready
to operate under their felting franchise.
S-s-sh-h-h! Not so loud! Keep quiet! Let us
have peace! They have tan-ibarked every ap
proach to the White Houce, padded tho wralls
of the cabinet room and put mattresses on the
floor. Mr. Taft couldn't make a noise if ho
wanted to. Rest is what we need, they say,
rest. H-u-s-h!
5
CIRCULATE THE COMMONER
Charles Donohue, Mayor of New Rich-
mond, Wis., writes: "I firmly believe
that if The Commoner could be placed
in the houses of one-fourth of the lntelli-
gent voters of this country we would win
the next national election. There are
many intelligent, fair minded republi-
cans whose minds are so poisoned by tho
subsidized press against Mr. Bryan that
it is hard to get them to read The
Commoner, but as sure as they do read
it they soon become converts to our
party. Therefore, I don't think our
working democrats can do any more
effective work for "tho party than in-
crease the circulation of your paper."
CHARLES NAGEL, TRUST BUSTER
c " """
Mr. Taft's secretary of commerce and labor,
the official who will be in chief charge of the
work of gathering information concerning the
trusts, is Mr. Charles Nagel of St. Louis. Mr.
Nagel was, at the time of his selection for a
cabinet office, attorney for the Standard Oil
trust. He figured somewhat in the campaign
of 1908. It will be remembered that Mr. Roose
velt charged that corporation representatives
were supporting Mr. Bryan. Being called upon
for particulars Mr. Roosevelt named Judge
Priest of St. Louis as one of the corporation rep
resentatives that were supporting the. demo
cratic candidate. It was pointed out at the time
that while Judge Priest was attorney for a
prominent oil man in a particular case Charles
Nagel, the attorney of record for the Standard
Oil trust, was connected with tho republican
national committee and that Mr. Roosevelt did
not appear to be greatly alarmed on that ac
count. In Its issue of January 19 the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, republican, printed from its
Washington correspondent a dispatch predicting
that Mr. Nagel would bo chosen secretary of
commerce and labor. In that dispatch the
Globe-Democrat correspondent said:
"It was also assorted today that no member
of tho Taft cabinet will como into his place with
loss of wiro pulling and solicitation in his bo
half. It is said that after a dignified presenta
tion of Mr. Nagel'a name from tho right quar
tors, no campaign was carried on in his behalf,
and that tho only further representations mado
woro at tho solicitation of Mr. Taft, who sought
additional information."
It-is plain that all that was necessary to se
cure for this Standard Oil trust lawyer a place
in Mr. Taft's cabinet was "a dignified presenta
tion of his name from tho right quarters."
' Can it be possible that tho Nagel appointment
was ono of tho subjects under discussion when
Messrs. Taft and Rockofellor mot in Georgia dur
ing the month of January?
W w' fcr
DOES ESMERALDA COUNTY, NE.VADA, GET)
THE MULE?
"Major Mlnnamascot," tho mule offered by-Mr.
Bryan during-tho campaign of 1908 to tho pre
cinct showing the largest per cent of gainv locat
ed in tho county showing tho largest per cent of
gain, will go to Esmeralda county, Nevada, unless-some
other county can establish -a bettor
claim.
Tho Commonor has carefully considered all
claims submitted. Tho basis for tho computa
tion of results was made in this way. Tho vote
of 1908 was compared with tho average of tho
three preceding elections, 1904, 1900, anjl 1896.
Esmeralda county, Nevada, cast 384 votes for
tho democratic electors in 189G, 289 in 1900,
380 In 1904, or an average vote of 351 for tho
three campaigns. The voto in 1908 was 2,787.
Subtracting tho average of 351 from 2,787
leaves a net gain of 2,430. Dividing tho not
gain of 2,430 by the average voto of 351 gives
the remarkable average of 094 per cent.
Williams county, North Dakota, stands next
with 573 per cent.
The average attained by Esmeralda county U
not approached by any county, even by compari
son with the 1904 vote alono. Montgomery
county, Ohio, shows a remarkable gain of 16,663
votes over 1904, or 423 per cent; compared with
tho average of three preceding campaigns brings
it down to a little over 72 per cent. Lancaster,,
Mr. Bryan's home county, shows a gain of over
331 per cent over 1904, and a gain of over 92
per cent over tho three preceding campaigns.
These percentages are computed from official
election returns in New York World Almanac
of 1909.
If there ore any protests against this ruling
they should bo filed with The Commoner at an
early day.
t5 v 5 w
REPUBLICAN EXTRAVAGANCE
Here Is an Associated Press dispatch in which
republican extravagance is confessed:
During the sessions, Chairman Tawncy of the
appropriations committee in tho houso declared
that tho expenditures of the government had at
no time except in war increased as rapidly as
during tho past eight years, primarily caused
by popular and executive demands upon con
gress for appropriations for the exercise of rights
and functions belonging to the states and the
abnormal and unnecessary war expenditures in
time of peace.
Appropriations during the past eight years,
including the fiscal year 1910 he said were equal
to $7,007,839,183 and he declared that at tho
end of the present fiscal year there would bo
a deficit of $150,000,000. He severely criticised
the ' executive branch for submitting estimates
of expenditures far in excess of estimates of re
ceipts. He placed the appropriations of the ex
piring administration at $1,044,014,298.
Mr. Livingston, of Georgia', the ranking mi
nority member of the committee, characterized
the appropriations as stupendous, saying they
exceeded last session by $35,616,754 and great
er than at any two sessions prior to 1898. He
declared congress had been commended for tho
millions it had refused to appropriate, "not
withstanding the pressure brought to bear
by the executive and the badgering of Innumer
able interests on all sides clamoring to get their
hands into the treasury."
Senator Culberson submitted a statement cov
ering the past seven years, stating that tho in
crease of appropriations for 1910 shows an in
crease over those for 190? of over $328,000,000
or about 51 per cent and that the treasury's
estimated expenditures for, 1910 exceed by over
$375,000,000, an increase of 63 per cent in
eight years.
.- 4-.