Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-09-26
A Club in Their Hands.

There are many indications that
the demand for tariff revision which
found voice prominently in the
Iowa and Idaho republican platforms
and is being echoed in many quarters
| is to be the rock upon which the repub-
lican party will split into pieces. The
announcement of President Roosevelt
and his advisers that there must be
no revision of the tariff schedules by
the present congress or in the near
future has put a club into the hands
of those republicans who would like
TO hit the present administration and
just now these gentlemen-or some
of them-are manifesting a disposi-
ton to use it.
Speaker HenderSon's letter and his
subsequent comments upon the Iowa
political situation, indicate that he
feels deep resentment towards Gov.
Cummins and his state satel-
lites for having stirred up the tariff
question, it being the speakers
idea that they had done this solely
for the purpose of giving trouble to
the old line politicians who have
heretofore swung things i'm Iowa.
Whether this is true or not about
Iowa. it is certainly significant that
the tariff revision cry is being gener-
ally taken up by those republican
politicians who have no love for the
Roosevelt administration, says the
Atlanta Constitution.
Take Cyrus Leland, for instance,
Cy was mighty until Roosevelt came
on the scene, when he was promptly
endorsed from his fat federal job
and a strong effort was made TO add
him to the list of political back num-
beers. He refused, however. to be put
there. Now he has joined in the cry
for tariff revision in this way:
IL believe that American labor
ought to be protected. but l see no
use in keeping a tariff on lot of the
truck which we do not produce,
simply to enrich the eastern trusts.
What does Kansas get out of the tar
iff bill, anyway? Only two things pro-
duced here are protected-hides and
gypsum. Where does Kansas reap
any benefit from the tariff on sugar
and lumber and a lot of other stuff
that is protected and pours into the
pockets of the trusts? ] tell you,
there has got to be a revision of the
tariff. 1t had better be made by the
friends of the tariff-the repub-
licans-before the people get tired
and turn the job over to the demo-
Gratis to do. / was a member of the
committee on resolutions at the
Wichita convention and expressed
my views on the tariff just as / do
now. but the committee thought we
I,o1 hot Tor. CT ri nm a 70 mi
tation. The Iowa platform has start
ed it. however l am for the Iowa
platform. 1t suits me. Iowa is al
ways right on republican politics"
Leland was for many years Kan
sas member of the republican nation
al committee and he is still recogniz-
ed as the republican boss of the
state. He has demonstrated that. de-
spite the opposition of President
Roosevelt and his friends, he is still
the greatest power in Kansas. His
talk is. to say the least of it, not
conducive to that harmonious ST.
Ience on the tariff question for which
the president and the republican
parry leaders continue to plead.
The tariff revision question offers
an excuse for which lot of re-
pubIicans have been waiting-an eX-
cuse for opposition to the Roosevelt
administration. Echoes of Mr.Le-
lands talk will doubtless soon be
heard in a number of the southern
states In Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Alabama. and Missis-
sippi the old line republican crowd,
which six years ago led the shout
for higher tariffs, may be expected
to join in the revision" cry, in view
of the shifting of things that has
come within the g. o. p. If it is true
that Hon. James F. Clarkson has been
taken into the administration fold for
the purpose of corralling southern
delegates. he had better loose no time