MARCH 18, 110
3
The Commoner.
represents Iowa sentiment. Accordingly the
president's fight is to begin on Dolliver.
Mr. Taft summoned some people to the White
House today to frame up the fight. Ho called
Representative Walter Smith of Iowa, a stand
patter in congress and a member of Speaker
Cannon's committee on rules. He called Rep- .
resentative Kennedy of Iowa, another conserva
tive. With them were former Representative
Hepburn and Representative McKinley of Illi
nois. Mr. McKinley is chairman of the repub
lican congressional committee. Hepburn is an
old-time congressman who was defeated by the
insurgents.
. They would not discuss their visit to Mr. Taft,
When they left, but from all. of them, to quote
none, it was gleaned that Dolliver is to be fought
by all of them and that the fight is to be against
the whole insurgent idea, with Dolliver as the
immediate target.
Dolliver's seat is not in immediate jeopardy,
because it will not be vacant until 1913. But
the Dolliver idea is to be opposed. The opposi
tion is to be directed against insurgency with
Dolliver as the type of insurgent.
The campaign management does not think
that insurgents are bad, but it does think that
some insurgents are not representative.
. Among them is Dolliver. He is not regarded
as 'an insurgent, and, is not respected as such
by the administration. He is held to be an
"opportunist," and he is going to be shown up.
The men who went into the conference today
will have to carry the burden of making the
Taft campaign in Iowa this fall. They will go
into the fight with the Taft banner, and the
president of the United States wishing moro
power to their elbows.
"THE END OF ROOSEVELTISM"
Washington dispatch to the New York Herald
(Taft organ) :
Can it really be that the wave of "Roose
veltism" has run its course in congress? ' Is it
possible that the insurgents have concluded to
work within the republican party? Is it con
ceivable that "the Back from Elba Club" has
been forced to disband because of non-payment
of dues?
Washington began to rub its eyes today over t
a realization that the party weather is likely to
change. The signs of spring were, not the only
portents of a shift from bleak days. Nor was
the passage of the postal savings bank bill in
the senate yesterday, with the solid republican
vote behind it, the most important of these other
signs of evolution.
True, the passage of a bill favored by the
president, with the votes of Senators Dolliver,
Cummins, LaFollette, Beveridge, Burton and
Clapp cast for it, is of itself an event of con
siderable importance after a period of loudly
heralded insurgency. But that incident does
not stand alone in this first burst of political .
springtime on the Potomac.
. Coming from the house are rumors that there
Is not the slightest doubt of the postal savings
bank bill passing that body. Coming from the
senate are reports that when the interstate com
merce bill comes to be put to a vote it will pass
and Senators Cummins and Clapp may do their
worst and Senator Dolliver may talk about the
government being run by "amateurs" until the
rafters ring.
Back again to the house and Representative
Mann, whose truculent attitude has always sug
gested the question, "Who said administration?"
it is said will not go to the extent of opposing
the Taft railroad measure or even advancing
the cherished schemes nutured in his own bill.
In plain language, the "insurgent" ice jam
seems to be broken. It has not taken anything
like as much dynamite as was used at the
Herkimer Bridge, but the current is passing
through.
One must not be unkind, yet it is impossible
to describe this situation without making a
passing allusion to the evil fortune that has
befallen Mr. Gifford Pinchot. It is, perhaps,
significant that the change came over the sen
ate about the same time that Mr. Pinchot passed
from the stage in the investigation of the interior
department. The unconscious humor of Mr. J.
7. Vertrees, counsel for Secretary Ballinger, of
addressing the deposed forester as "Mr. Roose
yelt" had in it more melancholy association with
reminiscences than with aggressive intentions
for the future.
Somehow the impression is going abroad that
the "Back from Elba Club" has been "busted."
Those who admire Mr. Pinchot for his course
in bringing forward the importance of conserva
tion are disposed to let rest in peace the collapse
of the movement that was to disrupt President
Taft's cabinet and bring confusion and ruin on
tho Taft administration.
Whether tho senate will bo equally kind as
tho public when tho agricultural bill comes up
for discussion tomorrow and an opportunity is
afforded for discussing tho various violations of
tho law done under the head of "executivo
order" and tho "exercise of official discretion"
is another question. There are some who never
like to hit a man when he's down.
The whole situation here would seem to indi
cate that strong reports have come from tho
western country that republicans are in favor
of upholding tho republican president. This
certainly will bo true of Indiana, if reports are
to be believed. On no other ground can bo ex
plained the action of Senator Beveridge in mak
ing tho political welkin ring with appeals to
Mr. Taft to come and. Bavo his re-election in tho
Hoosler state. His friends are now laying tho
danger in which the brilliant senator from IU
"diana Is believed to be at tho door of the cor
porations rather than at the door of tho repub
lican voters in tho state who believed in not
too low a tariff.
President Taft appears ready to fight It out
with the "insurgents," who havo made trouble
through tho entire extra session of congress
and three months of this session by employing
tactics known as "Rooseveltism." Tho wither
ing sarcasm which he has directed in every con
versation at the "insurgent" senators during tho
postal savings bank debate for taking a position
against the banks, as if banks were not neces
sary to the nation's business, and solely becauso
they thought enmity to tho banks would bo pop
ular, shows that ho is likely not to forget the
men who have been seeking to wreck his admin
istration and the party at the same time.
Hereafter the "Insurgent" senators and rep
resentatives who have been talking so loudly of
"Cannonism" and "Aldrichism" in their home
states and districts will havo to alter their tac
tics or else also inveigh against "Taftism." Mr.
Taft clearly intends to fight his fight for his
legislative program and for his renomination
on the lines laid down in Now York in
February.
Ho is not supporting Senator Aldrich and
Speaker Cannon any more than he is any other
member of congress working for the republican
policies. But he has turned his back definitely
on the insurgent senators who would go to him
and say: "Wo are seven in the senate; if you
will come with us we can get enough republi
cans to work with the democrats and beat Aid
rich and those fellows. We are twenty in the
house, if you will join us we will be enough
to work with the democrats, depose Speaker
Cannon and havo things our own way."
ROOSEVELT'S RESPONSIBILITY
Editorial in Indianapolis News (rep.):
We trust that those reformers and progres
sives who are now criticising President Taft so
severely, and for tho most part so justly, have
memories long enough to carry them back to tho
summer of 1908 when the national administra
tion was exerting every power it possessed to
force the nomination of Mr. Taft. The action
was justified on the ground that it was neces
sary in order to save tho people from falling
a prey to the interests. We were told that if
the president did not choose his successor tho
Interests would pick the nominee and then all
the fat would bo in the fire. So Mr. Hitchcock,
even beforer he retired from the office of first
assistant postmaster general, and much more
after that time, worked night and day to round
up delegations for tho president's candidate.
Primaries and conventions, notably In the south,
were packed with federal officeholders. The
president issued his orders and the men in office
obeyed. The convention was controlled from
Washington. And thus, for tho first time In
our history, we saw one president dictate tho
nomination of his successor.
When the campaign began it was again Mr.
Roosevelt who was in control. The campaign
was his campaign. It was he who summoned
labor leaders to the White House, his purpose
being to break up the labor vote. One of the
men so summoned was, immediately after tho
campaign, appointed to an important federal
office.' For a time we had almost daily letters
and bulletins from the White House. The bat
tle was one, not between Bryan and Taft, but
between Bryan and Roosevelt. Nothing like it
was ever seen before in the history of the coun
try and we trust that nothing like it will ever
be seen again. It seems strange now to think
of it, but all this was done to insure the carry
ing out of tho Roosevelt policies, and, as we
have said, to save the people from tho interests!
It seems specially strange when wo reflect that
tho first piece of legislation enacted under tho
now administration tho tariff bill wan made
by tho interosts. But there is worse to como.
For tho first timo in our history wo havo a
"presidential program" embodied In bills draft
ed by the oxecutivo and sont to congress to bo
passed. Even this program has been whittled
down to tho vanishing point, and it is doubtful
whether wo shall get oven tho residuum. '
Such aro tho fruits of tho personally conduct
ed campaign of 1908. Aro thoy really worth
while? Can it bo said that tho violation of all
our principles and precedents has even the mean
justification of success? It seems to us that
tho events which aro writ so large in our recent-
history ought not to bo forgotten or passed over.
For thoy aro "profitable for doctrine, for re
proof, for correction, for instruction in right
eousness." Who is in control of tho senato
if not Nelson W. Aldrich, tho chief representa
tive of tho interests that were supposed to havo
been defeated; Aldrich, without whoso consent
and permission the president himself admits that
ho can do nothing? Who is dictator of tho
house if not Speaker Cannon, a' man who has
always stood in tho way ot all reform? And
what can be said of tho president himself, If
not that he Is doing what he can, to discredit
tho Insurgents, ' the very men who wero Mr.
Taft's most earnest and zealous s :pporters? In
short, wo havo done evil that good-might como,'
and tho good has not yet arrived.
PLUTOCRACY DOOMED
Editorial, in Indianapolis Star (rep.):
Events aro moving so rapidly at Washington
that it is almost profitless to speculate upon tho
outcome of the present crisis, which hangs so
portentously over everything and everybody
there, over congress and tho president, over
both parties. Tho president's program is not
moving in proportion to his blind and stubborn
faith in Aldrich and Cannon; the Ballinger in
quiry is obviously surcharged with electrical and
dynamic possibilities. No one can tell what a
day may bring forth.
For eight years insurgency has been conquer
ing a continent like a now evangel. Tho voice
of Theodore Roosevelt, crying in a wlldness of-stand-pat
desolation, has stirred the universal
heart. Every book that falls from the press,
every play that occupies tho boards, has beaten
and driven in upon the national conscience the
wrongs of shipper, producer, consumer, tax
payer, and tho guilt of organized privilege.
Looking out upon the fields white unto the har
vest, tho people asked for a master husbandman
and Roosevelt pointed to Taft.
When the Venezuelans would make a sword
for their deliverer, they made a virgin anvil and
laid upon it a bar of iron from a fallen meteor
ite; but tradition tells us that the sword of Boli
var was sheathed in ignominy amid the execra
tions of his countrymen. Such is not the sit
uation of Mr. Taft; yet though the popular es
teem of him as a man and patriot has never
turned or failed, disappointment is well-nigh
universal that his praise seems always for the
exponents of organized privilege and his re
bukes for those who aro trying to uphold tho
people's cause.
Out of the Ballinger Inquiry and the legisla
tive grace of Aldrich and Cannon shall como
what shall' come. On this score all Is specula
tion and uncertainty. But on tho fact that In
surgency is spreading over the land from Maine
to California and from Maryland to Texas, no
discerning observer can entertain a doubt. It
is the logical thing that of this reform spirit
of tho hour the republican party, by its inherit
ance and recent leadership, should become the
exponent, the custodian and the instrument. It
may do this and gloriously succeed, or it may
neglect to do this and miserably fall.
It is a time when party shibboleths and pro
fessions of party loyalty count for Httlo or noth
ing at all, but when Individual character counts
for much; and when tho men of both parties
are apt to sift the wheat from tho tares. Tho
dominion of plutocracy its doom Is set as much
as that of slavery in 1860 or the dishonest dol
lar in 1896.
MR. TAFT AND INSURGENCY
Washington, D. C, March 4. Dispatch to the
Chicago Record-Herald: "Insurgency, the presi
dent believes and openly declares, Is a menace
to the fulfillment of the policies which he has
set himself to carry out, and in terms more un
mistakable than any previously stated, he has
made his feelings in the matter known to visi
tors within the last few hours. A point has been
4
)
t
1
i
