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The Commoner.
5
APRIL 15, ltlt
WW,lBriiFm'WBWFWW "
THE PRESENT STRUGGIiH
Senator Camming of Iowa, In Everybody!
Magazine for December, defines the coming
rtruggle in these words:
"The real issne that will bo fought out in thp
Immediato futuro is whether the republicans
of our part of tho country will accept the leader
ship of Aldrich, Hale, Cannon or whether
they will adopt tho views and follow tho coun
gels of the men who have acquired tho nam
which Borne people use to disparage them, but
which I UBe with a good deal of pride 'in
surgents "
Senator Cummins states it as an issue of
men. And, in its simplest form, an issue of
men it is. But it is due to tho intelligence of
the public that the issue be Btated in terms of
principles and conditions. That can be don
with tho following letter as a text:
"Tho White House, at Oyster Bay, N. Y., July
25, 1908. Dear Bonaparte: I want to congrat
ulate you on the admirable stand you havo taken
in this matter. If the electric interests are not
joined in an illegal combination if there is not
a conspiracy between the General Electric and
the Westinghouse people, which has enlisted
strong moral support of the telephone and tele
graph interests and the street railway interests
why need there be alarm over a private in
vestigation? It shall go to the bottom. . There
must be no deviation. If some of my good
party friends should feel embarrassed, it should
surely be no fault of ours. Really, there seems
to be no end to tho influences which are being
operated in this case. What a scoundrel
must be to try open bribery! And how refresh
ing it is to know that there is so much money
at hand by 'prostrate industries', which might
be put to proper use in an honest way! If
comes to you again I shall bo really de
lighted to have you tell him straight, from me
that the investigation will be pressed with tho
utmost energy to a conclusion, and that this
will be done whether his clients contribute a
million for the election of Taft or a million
for the election of Bryan, or whether they fail
to contribute a cent to either side. I would
really like you to give him just this message
from me, and put it in writing if you desire.
"Yours admiringly,
."THEODORE ROOSEVELT."
This letter, as the date shows, was written
during the last presidential campaign. The in
vestigation referred to was instituted by Roose
velt to determine whether there was a trust,
composed of the electric interests of the coun
try, seeking to monopolize the water power sites
of the nation. The letter was made public by
the New York World. It is a pity tho World
did not fill in the blank. But no one familiar
with high politics can fail to read between the
lines that the man referred to is one who is at
once powerful in finance and powerful in re
publican politics sufficiently powerful to go to
the attorney general of the United States, and
even to the president himself, with demands
and threats. Now it is this sort of man that
dominates the republican party today. A list
of the men who at once occupy places of power
in the sugar trust and in the republican organi
zation, would be an amazing illustration of the
interlocking of the trusts and high republican
politics. Men of this type dominate the repub
lican party in the house, in the senate, in the
cabinet, in the republican national committee,
and in the state committees of the east.
The present struggle is to determine whether
the republican party and congress shall be con
trolled by men of this kind, or by men like
Beveridge of Indiana, Cummins and Dolllver of
Iowa, Clapp and Nelson of Minnesota, LaFollette
of Wisconsin and Bristow of Kansas. In this
struggle, within a year, every voter in the United
States will have a chance to cast his ballot. Be
tween June and December of next summer every
member of tho lower house of congress must
go before his constituents for re-election or de
feat. In every district the dominant question
should be: Will you voto with Cannon or
against Cannon? And every voter in the coun
try should cast his ballot knowing the candi
date's answer to that question. Collier's
Weekly.
f many will decline to agreo with Mr. Gordon.
Unquestionably ho looks a bit too lightly upon
porno things that aro just now of great impor
tance to tho American people, but thero ought
to bo general approval of tho beautiful senti
ment Mr. Gordon uttered when ho heaped coals
of Uro upon tho Idaho senator's head. "I lovo
him, I lovo everybody, I am a happy man, I
never let hato get into my heart so as to make
mo unhappy. That is tho reason I havo lived
and kept young."
That portion of Mr. Gordon's speech ought
to be read and re-read to tho men and women
and to the children of America. Hero Is an
extract from tho Gordon speech:
"I want to say In kindness and my regard
for tho senator from Idaho, Mr. Heyburn, that
I want him to come down south and come to
my cottage and prairie, and I will show hlra a
little of the southern life, and that when wo
get through with it wo will come back hero
and wo will walk into Statuary hall, and what
will I say to him? I will say, 'Help mo per
suade the senator from Indiana to take tho
Lew Wallace statue out of hero and hide it
away in some river or pond whore it never can
be seen any more, and build him a statue worthy
of so great a man as Lew Wallace.
"I havo admired him ever since I read 'Ben
Hur' and ever since I heard of him getting a
little out of temper at the battle of Shiloh. I
reckon he must have had a good deal of hu
man nature In him, and ho is a man that I was
very fond of, and I am fond of his memory, and
I want to see him have a grand statue, and I
will como up here and see them sot it up; and
then, after they do that, I want to walk with
the senator from Idaho, after ho has seen tho
south through my spectacles I will lend them
to him on that occasion to como back hero
and stand before Grant, and stand before Lee,
and I will pull off my hat and hurrah for Grant,
and I think he will holler, 'Leo was a pretty
good fellow,' and he will say, 'Hurrah for Leo.'
"That is the kind of feeling I want to culti
vate with him. I want you all to understand
that what I say to the senator from Idaho I say
with no feeling in my heart against him. No,
I love him. I love everybody. I am a happy
man". I never let hate get into my heart so as
to make me unhappy. That is tho reason I have
lived and kept young and retained my youth
and beauty while you have gotten old and ugly,
some of you.
"I have not lost my hair yet, but it Is falling
out, and I am going to leave here to keep from
losing it altogether. I am going to leave here,
for many of you have got all the hair off your
heads and I think I had better go home.
"When the time comes that you think I told
tho truth I want you to write to me and say:
'Well, Gordon, old fellow, we will help you.' "
MR. HEYBURN IS ANSWERED
Mr. Heyburn of Idaho, who made the vitriolic
speech against the resolution providing for the
loan of tents to Confederate veterans, received
his answer in the speech delivered In the senate
by Senator Gordon of Mississippi. That speech
has been called "Jim Gordon's Swan Song."
Rather should it be called "a love song." With
somo of the things touching economic problems
"DISRUPTING TAMMANY"
The New York Herald Insists that Mayor
Gaynor of New York has disrupted Tammany
Hall. In support of its claim tho Herald prints
the following statement showing how, in its
opinion, the mayor has systematically weakened
the famous political organization:
January 1 In appointing Thomas Higglns as
park commissioner of the 'Bronx Mayor Gaynor
said: "It is now understood that every one ap
pointed must belong to a political club and pay
dues for its support. Let all that be stopped.
Let no political influence interfere with your
work."
January 3 and 4 The mayor announced the
appointment offifteen men to have charge of
tho administrative departments. Some were
democrats and a few were republicans, but only
one Tammany district leader, and no other prom
inent man in the Tammany organization, was
named.
January 5 A non-partisan board of civil ser
vice commissioners appointed and instructions
given that it must be kept free from politics and
its work be in strict conformity to civil service
rules.
January 5 The mayor wrote to Rhlnelander
Waldo, fire commissioner: "Banish all political
and outside Influences from your department;
tolerate no such influences in the trial of tho
men; let promotions and appointments be made
without political influence."
January 6 In appointing John J. Walsh as
third deputy police commissioner, in charge of
trials, Mr. Gaynor said: "All bad men must
be driven from the force. Do not let clergymen,
or any politicians, or any person, high or low, ap
proach you concerning the trials of the men."
January C In reappointing Michael J, Ken
nedy aB park commissioner for Brooklyn Mr.
Gaynor said: "You never had any padded pay
rolls in your dopaTtmont Tills thing must come
to an end in this city."
January 10 In swearing In tho now tax com
missioners tho mayor said: "Favor no ono and
seo that your department favors no ono for
political influence, lovo or monoy. Politics must
bo banished from your department. Try to
find out somo owner trying to corrupt a deputy
and wo will havo him indicted."
January 12 Tho mayor started his fight
against the police "systom" and began a reorgan
ization of tho polico department by instructing
Commissioner Baker to begin warfare against
brutal policemen, saying: "Tho quicker all men
capablo of misuse of their power arc driven from
tho forco tho bettor for tho force."
January 13 and 14 Mr. Gaynor mado a per
sonal Investigation of cases of alleged brutality
by policemen and ordered tho suspension of
several men pending trial on charges.
January 1G In approving tho dismissal of
Michael C. Paddon, who was water register, and
ono of tho strongest of the Sullivan clan, tho
mayor wroto to Commissioner Thompson, of tho
department of water supply, gas and electricity:
"My wish is that you act with a purposo single
to tho complete reform of tilo office."
January 19 In replying to Rhlnelander
Waldo, fire commissioner, who Informed him
that the department was burdoncd with politics,
tho mayor said: "All politics and politicians
must be drlvon from tho department."
January 19 In appointing a new board of
assessors Mr. Gaynor said he would not permit
incompetency or dishonesty In tho bureau and
declared that tho making of grossly excessive
awards to those with influence must stop and
that awards must bo mado solely on value.
January 20 Taking up land condemnations,
Mr. Gaynor said that all official favoritism and
graft must cease.
JanuaTy 21 Commissioner Edwards, of tho
department of street cleaning was told by tho
mayor to probe Irregularities to the bottom, no
matter who was hit.
January 28 The mayor served notice that In
troubles between capital and labor tho polico
must be neutral.
January 29 In addressing laborers In tho
street cleaning department the mayor said: "You
must bo as honest when working for the city
as when in private employment. Show mo somo
ono who has used a padded payroll and I will
see that somo ono suffers."
February 3 to 9 Mr. Gaynor took personal
charge in the fight against tho polico "systom."
He summoned captains, inspectors and others to
the city hall and ordered tho suspension of flvo
policemen.
February 11 Tho mayor began an Investiga
tion of tho city record and the system of supply
ing stationery to tho city.
February 17 In dismissing tho aqueduct
board Mr. Gaynor said of tho commissioners:
"They have been doing trivial things or seeking
to stir up things to do in order to make the pre
tense that their work is unfinished."
February 18 The mayor told the board of
water supply that he would not look on with
silence while tho board scattered money without
respect to the source of supply.
February 19 The mayor denounced as a
criminal offense the padding of a city payroll
and the employment of unnecessary persons, and
ordered the re-organlzatlon of the system of con
demning land in tho Adirondacks for the water
supply.
A SOLEMN ESTIMATE
In an article entitled "The President and tho
People," and printed In the World's Work this
solemn estimate of Mr. Taft's administration Is
given:
"Now, right or wrong, thero is no doubt that
public opinion has fast withdrawn approval from
the administration since last summer. For tho
people feel that the administration has gone
out of touch with them. They are saying that
the cabinet has not a single man who has ever
held an elective office of importance, not a man
except the non-political, venerable secretary of
agriculture who knows the people or whom tho
people know. The president has able counsel
a famous Pennsylvania lawyer, a successful New
York lawyer, an able Tennessee lawyer, a St.
Louis lawyer, another lawyer from the state
of Washington. These gentlemen have all won
distinction as counsel for corporations and rail
roads. They are serving ably as counsel. But
the people, right or wrong, feel that as counsel
for their government a fear that these gentle
men may not know their case that their point
of view may, with perfect honor and with all
good intentions, bo a point of view out of sym
pathy with the people."
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