MARCH 26, 1910
The Commoner.
fl Washington News I
President Taft attended the fu
neral of a brother-in-law, Thomas
McK. Laughlin, at Pittsburg.
Mrs. G. J. Diekema, wife of Rep
resentative Diekeraa of Michigan,
died at the national capital.
Perry Belmotlt of New York, pres
ident of the national publicity asso
ciation, declares that the McCall bill,
providing for publicity of campaign
contributions was reported out of the
house committee only by the per
sistent efforts of the democratic
members.
Senator Tillman Is slowly recov
ering and has been removed to his
home in South Carolina.
Senator LeRoy Percy formally
took the oath of office as a senator
from Mississippi.
William J. Calhoun, the new
United States minister to China, has
left for his post at Pekin.
Word has been received that Ho
race G. Knowles, United States min
ister to the republic of San Domingo,
was assaulted on the public, streets
of Santo Domingo.
President Taft visited Chicago on
St. Patrick's day as the guest of the
Irish Fellowship club.
prossed the remaining undisposed in
dictments. Mr. Baker told the court
that George W. Beavers, former su
perintendent of salaries and allow
ances, and August W. Machen, su
perintendent of rural free delivery,
had served sentences for Bimilar
offenses and that the government
had no desire to further prosecute
them.
It is generally believed that the
United States supreme court deci
sion in the Standard Oil case will
not bo rendered until next May.
An agreement between the United
States and France has been reached
on all tariff differences. The presi
dent has signed a proclamation giv
ing France the 25 per cent reduction
on rates provided for in the Payne
Aldrich bill.
President Taft has invited Finance
Minister Fielding of Canada to meet
with him in the hope of adjusting
differences.
The last chapter in the postoffice
scandals of 1903 was written when
United States Attorney Baker nolle
When Moses A. Haas and Frede
rich A. Peckham of New York, in
dicted for conspiracy in connection
with the cotton leak scandal of 1905,
appeared in criminal court, they were
re-arrested on other Indictments
pending against them. Justice Gould
fixed bail at $6,000 for each and the
men returned to New York. Their
attorneys took out a writ of habeas
corpus which Justice Gould made
returnable on April 1.
Prospects for a Democratic House
Hon. Champ Clark In Norman E. Mack's National Monthly
It is an old saying that in this
country one campaign is scarcely
finished till another is begun. It is
ten months till the November election
but already npt only are forecasts be
ing made but preparations also, for,
while it does not always hold true, it
general does, that the party which
wins in the congressional election
preceding a presidential election wins
that presidential election also. Con
sequently, while the republicans will
hold the White House and senate un
til March 4, 1913, much interest
attaches to the complexion of the
house of representatives in the Sixty
second congress not only because of
the political power which goes with
it but as a forerunner of things to
happen in 1912.
To state the case modestly the
signs are that the democrats will
elect the next house unless a foreign
war should unfortunately Intervene.
Revising the tariff is always a ticklish
performance for the party in power,
ending under normal conditions, in
the defeat of that party. Republi
cans revised the tariff in 1874 and
lost in 1874. They again revised it
In 1890 and lost. Democrats revised
It In 1894 and lost. Republicans re
vised It in 1897 and won but they
won only by the skin of their teeth
and by reason of the Spanish war.
When the house elected In 1898 con
vened, It had only thirteen republi
can majority which was promptly in
creased by the simple but effective
plan of throwing out democrats who
were elected and putting in republi
cans who were not elected, for re
publican leaders can always be de
pended upon to commit any outrage
which will give them a political ad
vantage from the shift of the presi
dency as In the TIlden-Hayes contest
down to petit political larceny. In
the election of 1898, a change of
only seven would have given the
house organization to the democrats,
but a miss is as good as a mile. The
house organization went to the re
publicans and with it the presidency
in 1900. No man in full possession
of his senses can doubt that the
Spanish war gave the republicans that
narrow margin of thirteen in the
house elected in 1898. Democrats
did as much fighting as republicans
but it was conducted by a republican
administration and the republicans
were helped politically thereby. It
gave President McKinley several
thousand fat offices to dispose of with
which to reward the faithful, heat
up the lukewarm and poultice the
sore heads of those disappointed and
disgruntled by his. original disposi
tion of official pap.
The trend of events is toward a
democratic house. In the Fifty-ninth
congress, elected in 1904, the repub
licans had a majority of 114. In
the Sixtieth congress, their majority
was fifty-seven. In the present con
gress, the Sixty-first, they have forty
seven majority. Both the Fifty-ninth
and the Sixty-first congresses were
elected In presidential years, when
the republicans had the benefit of
enormous campaign funds and when
the whole of Theodore Roosevelt's
influence and popularity were exert
ed in favor of a thoroughly united
party. The true measure therefore,
of the trend towards a democratic
hoiisA Is found In the reduction of
I the republican majority of 114 in
the Fifty-ninth congress to fifty-seven
in the Sixtieth. A like change at the
ensuing election will give us a demo
cratic house by a small majority.
That would probably bo the result
under ordinary circumstances with a
united republican party; but the
party instead of being united, Is di
vided into factions whidh are fighting
each other to tho death. So wo seem
justified in expecting a democratic
house by a good working majority.
While President Taft was elected
by a majority of moro than a million
of the popular vote, his majority was
much less than was Roosevelt's in
1904. Notwithstanding Taft's largo
majority, democrats inado certain
notable gains in 1908. In addition
to cutting down tho renublicau ma
jority in the house from fifty-seven
to forty-seven, democrats elected gov
ernors in Ohio, Indiana, North Da
kota, Nebraska and Colorado to suc
ceed republican governors, whilo the
republicans elected their first gover
nor in Missouri for four decades by
reason of a democratic row over tho
gubernatorial nomination, which also
accounts for tho fact that President
Taft carried Missouri by 629 plu
rality in a poll of over 750,000. Lo
custs come every seventeen years, but
republican governors of Missouri are
selected only every forty years. So,
in the elections of 1908, democrats
made a net gain of four governors.
They also elected those splendid dem
ocrats, Shively of Indiana, and Cham
berlain of Oregon to succeed republi
can in the senate of the United States
which reduced the republican sena
torial majority by four.
The elections of 1909 also show
democratic gains. In Kentucky the
legislature, which elected that ran
takerous republican, William O.
Bradley, to the United States senate
by the aid of four democratic bolters,
is succeeded by a legislature In
which the democrats have more than
a two-thirds majority In both houses.
They not only carried every legisla
tive and senatorial district which
usually goes democratic but many
which usually go republican. Whilo
the present legislature does not elect
a United States senator, the state
senators elected in 1909 hold over
and participate in tho election of a
senator. As the democrats have a
majority of eighteen of the hold-over
senators,. it is certain that a demo
cratic United States senator will bo
elected.
Gratifying as that result in Ken
tucky is, the most significant gains
were made In Massachusetts, where
the paramount issue was the Payne-Aldrich-Smooth
tariff bill. The re
publican majority on the governor
ship was reduced from 60,000 to
8,000. Still moro significant than
the vote for governor, however, was
the vote for lieutenant governor.
Eugene Fobs, the democratic nomi
nee, was defeated by a plurality of
only 5,000 and Foss is one of tho
boldest tariff reformers in the land.
He tried for years to force the re
publicans to revise the tariff down
ward, but finding all his labors In
that regard In vain in the republican
party, sensible man that he is, he
abandoned the g. o. p. and cast his
fortunes with the democracy of the
old Bay state. So strong is the tariff
revision downward sentiment in Mas
sachusetts that Senator Henry Cabot
Lodge has the fight of his life on his
hands for the senatorship. Young
Butler Ames, Representative In con
gress, son of General Adelbert Ames
and grandson of General Benjamin
F. Butler, is hotfoot after the toga of
tho senator from Nahant. As both
are millionaires there is liable to be
a hot time In the old commonwealth
this fall. Let us hope that out of It
may come a democratic state admin
istration, a democratic United States
senator and more democratic repre
sentatives In congress.
It will be remembered that as a
result of the passage of tho McKinley
tariff bill a majority of Now England
representatives In congress, elected
in 1890, were democrats, and his
tory has an Incorrigible habit of re
peating Itself. In this connection It
should not be forgotten that the
Payne-Aldrich-Smoot bill Is worse
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F"OR SALE
Cheap land in Old Mexico and Rio
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A Clinncc to Make Money
Yes, elegant free homesteads can still
bo had In Mexico where many Ameri
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flvo acres of fruit trees planted within
Ave years. For Information address the
.Tantha Plantation Co., Block G90, Pitts
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Good Land Free
As government homesteads, deeded
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Official book with full information
will bo sent free on application to
J. H. HILL
State CommtHwfoncr of Agriculture,
niSLENA, MONTANA
THE BEST ASSET OP A BANK
is honest officials; the best se
curity of depositors is tho Okla
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are not always honest. Tho
state banks of Oklahoma aro
all operated under the Guar
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know about it ask for our
booklet.
GUARANTY STATE BAHK
Muskogee, Oklahoma
M. G. HASKELL, Cashier