"vr-
MAT 13, 1910
The Commoner.
'""-, ,R,'Vi tf:JWii"l(i. ' V "'
gruide a guide appealed to by all republicans.
The promises of that guide are plain and direct.
Can not both wings revert to the platform and
its spirit? Can. not differences be adjusted and
the essential legislation enacted? Is the genius
lor constructive action dead in tho party? A
truce to charges of 'trickery 'villainy vanity
and demagogism. Blunders have been made
by both sides, by all sides perhaps. But they
can be retrieved; they must be retrieved if the
party and administration are, in November next,
to have a leg to stand on, a shadow of an hon
est claim to the further confidencoof the voters."
PRESIDENT TAFT delivered an address at
St. Louis, May 4. Referring to that ad
dress, the Associated Press report says: "Mr.
Taft launched into a vigorous speech in which
he paid his respects to Mr. Bryan for hl3 report
ed criticism of Governor Hughes, and decried
the 'cant of the demagogue' and the 'disposition
of public journals to make unjust charges
against men In public life. Mr. Taft added:
Now, I do not like to be invidious In my re
marks or to quote what may have been a mis
quotation, but I did hear or see a criticism of
one appointment on the ground, as I understood
it, that the appointee was not -an implacable
foe of wealth and corporations. I think, per
haps, that criticism has been misunderstood
and that the ntterer of it did not intend to give
it the meaning that thus stated it seem3 to have.
I believe that all democrats and republicans, re
publicans and insurgents, who are patriotic citi
zens and we all are that are in favor of hav
ing upon that bench men who are foes of noth
ing but what is wrong and are in favor of equal
justice to everyone, whether that be an organi
sation of men doing business under the law and
using the instrumentality of a corporation to
promote the industries of the country or be the
humblest citizen struggling with his hands to
earn a livelihood for his family. I do not
mean to say that men by their habits of life
may not acquire a' bent or a prejudice in one
-direction or another, and it is not wise to se
cure for the highest tribunal men who have not
such a bent and, who have not in their makeup
the danger of prejudice to ono interest or
against another, but I do mean to say that there
is in the public journals and In what I may call
the cant of the demagogues, a disposition to
charge that kind of bent in favor of corporate
"wealth and corporate greed and corporate mon
opoly when there is no justice for the charge
nt all. This assumption of peculiar honesty
manifested by class declaration and the stirring
up of class spirit is something that ought to be
deprecated in our republic, or else it will lead
to great danger. We ought to take up the dis
cussion of the public questions and discuss their
effect with judicial calmness and not have our
minds diverted by charges of prejudice and cor
rupt motives I say charges utterly unsupport
ed by evidence of calm consideration.' "
THE DUBUQUE (la.) Telegraph-Herald says:
"Indicating that Mr. Bryan is not alone In
his criticisms of the president's selection of
Governor Hughes of New York for membership
in the supreme court of the United States is
the fact of the protest entered against his con
firmation by the anti-trust league, which de
clared that Hughes is a friend of the trusts, as
"demonstrated by his opposition to the income
tax, his veto of the two-cent fare law and his
acceptance of campaign contributions from cor
porations. The protest availed nothing, however
asthe senate on Monday confirmed the appointment."'
ONE BY ONE the standpat republicans are
hecoming conscious of a revolution among
the Tahk and file of republicans. A Harris
burg, Pa., dispatch to the Philadelphia North
American follows: "Even Marlln B. OJmsted,
of this city, cold-blooded and unwavering in
support of 'the interests' during his years of
service at Washington, who has been able to
get re-election after re-election without serious
fighting, now appears among the Cannon con
gressmen who have reason to worry about what
the voters will do. Olmsted, as one of Speaker
Cannon's principal instruments in congress, has
been supremely indifferent to popular demands,
relying on the strength of the republican ma
chines in Dauphin, Cumberland and Lebanon
counties to keep him in his seat under any cir
cumstances, and up to this time that reliance
has been justified. Now, however, there are in
dications that he has carried the same too far.
Mutterlngs against Olmsted are arising all over
tho district, and they become more igenoral as
he heaps on provocation by his acts in the pres
ent congressional session. Of lato ho has fig
ured conspicuously in attempts to uphold the
sway of the tottering Cannon, and has even
been advertised as a man entirely acceptable
to 'the Interests' for the speakership when Can
non i3 finally forced out. Those things have
stirred up the resentment of peoplo who believe
in progressive republicanism, and tho district
is full of men of that k'lnd. Olmsted's latest
performances, as one of the defenders of 'the
interests' on the Ballinger-Pinchot investigating
committee, have Increased measureably tho dis
favor in which he is held at homo. From the
start of this inquiry he ha3 been one of tho
republican committeemen apparently bent on
protecting Secretary of the Interior Ballinger
and discrediting ex-Fore3ter Pinchot at any cost.
Yesterday he 'went the limit' in voting with the
others of the Ballinger guard to refuso the de
mand of counsel for Pinchot and Glavis for the.
production of Attorney General Wickersham's
written statement to the president, on which
the discharge of Agent Glavis from tho govern
ment service is alleged to have been based, in
order that that questioned document might bo
put in evidence. If a Ballinger whitewash re
port is made by the committee, there is no Tea
son to believe that Olmstead will not be one of
the machine majority to render it."
WOODROW WILSON, president of the
Princeton University, Is in danger of be
coming a radical. He delivered an address be
fore the Princeton alumni and created a sensa
tion. Tho following report is taken from tho
Chicago Inter-Ocean: "If she loses her self
possession America will stagger like France
through fields of blood before sho again finds
peace and prosperity under the leadership of
men who understand her needs In a vivid
word picture, of which this sentence was the
climax, President Wilson depicted the future
which he believes is immediately before this
country and urged the alumni of the university
whom ho was addressing to render themselves
and their institution more democratic and par
ticipate in the work of regeneration, which ho
declared must be performed. President Wilson
said in part: 'JHo.w does the nation judge
Princeton? The institution is intended for tho
service of tho country. Ana It is by the re
quirements of the country that it will be meas
ured. I trust I may be thought among the last
to blame the churches, yet I feel It my duty to
say that they, at least the Protestant churches,
are serving the classes and not the masses of
the people. They have more regard for pew
rents than for the souls of men. They are de
pressing the level of Christian endeavor. It
is the same with the universities. The processes
to which, the college men are subjected do
not render them serviceable to the country as a
whole. It is for this reason that I have dedi
cated every power in me to a democratic re
generation. The American college must become
saturated in tho same sympathies as the com
mon people. The political parties are going to
pieces and only those leaders who seem able to
promise something of a moral advance are able
to secure a following "
THEY ARE "kicking" in Kansas and also in
Missouri. Samuel G. Blythe, writing in the
Saturday Evening Post says: "'If the presi
dential election were to be held this year Mr.
Taft could not carry a state west of the Alle
gheny mountains Colonel William R. Nelson,
editor and owner of the Kansas City Star and
the Kansas City Times, took his pen in hand
one day, not so long ago, and wrote that sen
tence. Then he put it on the front page of his
papers in imposing italics, which is the extreme
in typographical emphasis that Mr. Nelson -allows
himself. Now, the significance of that re
mark lies in the fact that Colonel Nelson was
one of the original Taft men of the west, that he
helped secure his nomination, fought for him,
advised with him during the campaign und dur
ing the period between election and inaugura
tion, was a bosom friend and counsellor. Tho
colonel's papers, while first for Kansas City, are
really Kansas papers instead of Missouri papers,
having the widest circulation in Kansa and gen
erally reflecting Kansas views. They specialize
on Kansas; for Kansas City, although in Mis
souri, really is the big city of Kansas. The
colonel had been a real Taft man, fond of him
personally, and he had high hopes of the presi
dent. The explosion was heard after the presi
dent made his Lincoln day speech In Now York.
There had been minor crashes before in the
vicinity of Nelson, but tho grand display enmo
when tho colonol read that Now York speech.
There are thoso In Missouri and Kansas who
say the reason Nelson shifted on Taft Is becauso
Taft would not appoint him ambassador to
Franco, but that Isn't true. Tho roason Nelson
shifted on Taft Is because ho holds that Taft
shifted on Nelson. Also, becauso Kansas Is of
the opinion that Taft shifted on Kansas. And
when you find a statomont iiko that in a paper
llko the Kansas City Star it affords opportunity
for thought at tho White House, for it voices
tho opinion of many republicans In Kansas; not
all, to bo sure, but more than a majority of tho
total republican vote, at any rato. Meantime,
while Nelson is pounding at Kansas City, Bill
White -is detonating at Emporia, Senator Bris
tow is concussing at Salina, tho Topcka Capital
is exclaiming regularly, and many other papers
in the state are viowlng with alarm and pointing
with pride. Added to all this Is Governor
Stubbs, who is pyrotechnic to a high degree.
Whether or not they have as many votes as they
claim, tho insurgents in Kansas certainly havo
most of the noise-making facilities and they aro
making a rumpus that suroly can be hoard at
Washington. Kansas is kicking and kicking
hard, so far as the insurgents aro concerned,
putting up tho long yell, domanding tho de
capitation of Cannon, the elimination of Aldrlch,
the real continuance of tho Roosevelt policies,
and what tho Insurgents call tho redemption of
party pledges."
IT IS REPORTED that in tho event Senator
Aldrlch retires. Senator Lodge, of Massa
chusetts, will succeed him as republican leador.
Former Sonator Patterson of Colorado, writing
in the Denver News says that Lodge is partic
ularly well qualified for tho place. Ho quotes
from an article written by Samuel Hopkins
Adams and printed in the Amorican Magazine:
"In tho winter of 1907-8, when tho prosperity
panic was still abroad in tho land, the Boston '
Steamship company, good friend of Senator
Lodge, of course, found itself with a couple of
idle and expensive steamships on its hands.
These were the Shawmut and tho Tremont, ly.
ing in harbor in Seattle, and accumulating ex
penses and barnacles. Nobody wanted such
ships, least of all the then owners. Business
was s,o dull that one couldn't even get a cargo
for tho boats, so as to send them to sea and then
sink them, and thereby take It out of the under
writers. But, of course, Senator Lodge's friends
never thought of so crude a scheme. They had
a friend at court. They spoke to their friend,
and Senator Lodge introduced this little amend
ment to the sundry civil bill: 'To enable the
Becrotary of war to purchase for the Panama
Railroad company two steamships of American
register,' each to be of not less less than 9,000
gross registered tonnage, and at a cost not to
exceed $1,550,000 Of American register, and
not less than 9,000 gross registered tonnage.
There were just two ships in all the world which
fulfilled those specifications, the Shawmut and
tho Tremont, belonging to the good friends of
Senator Lodge. The two boats were bought at
a price of $1,157,000, and it cost $56,000 more
to get them to New. York. When finally put
at the service of the Panama officers. It proved
that the Shawmut and Tremont were not fitted
for the work. They were three knots slower
than lighter boats, which could have been had
at half the cost, and they drew so much water
that they could not get into the harbor at Chris
tobal; the cargo had to be taken off In lighters.
But think of the profit and convenience to tho
Boston Steamship company, those good friends
of Senator Lodge. Morally, politically and in
his equipment of friends, Senator Lodge is emi
nently well fitted to succeed the passing Aldrlch.
And more than this, deponent sayeth not."
AN INTERESTING editorial which appeared
in the London Daily Chronicle and is re
produced in the New York Sun may be serious
or it may be humorous. The editorial follows:
"The Munchner Post pays a tribute to Herr
Joseph Fischer, who for forty years without a
single break has been a daily customer at the
Dietl brewery in tho town of Straubing and dur
ing that period has spent $4,000 in beer and
$115 In tips. 'Such men as these,' remarks tho
Post, 'are the pillars of our native brewing In
dustry, the steady upholders of our patriotic
traditions. The chair in which this modest hero
daily sat for forty years should one day find a
place of honor in the town hall of Straubing,
to be venerated as a memorial of ono imbued
with a profound love of his country, who fulfilled
in a faithful and unassuming manner the real
duties of a citizen "
m
rH