The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-21
WESTERN
HE PRESIDENTS
SPEECHES.
THE

The speeches of the President in the
! West will be scanned with much keen
er interest than were those which he
| delivered in New England and the
South, for the reason that there is an
impression that Speaker Henderson's
refusal to accept a denomination makes
it necessary for him to treat the tariff
and trusts somewhat differently from
what he had intended. 1t is said in
some of the Western papers that, ex-
cept for Mr.. Henderson's action, il is
probable that he would have expressed
strongly his approval of the Iowa
idea," namely. that some of the trusts
that are monopolies are sheltered by
the tariff, and that the quickest and
best way to reach them is by reducing
those tariff schedules which give them
protection.
1t is claimed that he cannot take that
position now without seeming to take
sides with a faction, thus widen
ing the breach that exists in the ranks
of the Republicans of Iowa and, per-
haps, of other Western states. The
Chicago Chronicle takes the position
that the real reason for Mr.. Hender-
sons action was to prevent the. Presi-
dent from giving his approval to the
Iowa idea" In the course of its ar
ticle it says: IF We are content to wait
until the Presidents Western tour is
over and he has sought to close the
breach instead of widening it, it is
probable that we shall find Mr.. Hen
derson accepting a new nomination on
high tariff platform, and running for
the House and the speakership as
though nothing had happened"
This is a very interesting explanation
of Mr.. Henderson's action, but it does
not seem to US to be the true one. The
President will find as he advances into
the Middle West that the sentiment in
mis- own party in favor of tariff revi-
sion, especially in favor of reducing
the tariff on trust-made articles, is
much stronger than he thought it. He
will discover the reason Mr. Henderson
declined a denomination to be the fear
that he would lose his district, or at
least that the Republicans would lose
control of the House and that therefore
he could not be reelected Speaker.
The Republican papers of course give
very different reasons for Mr.. Hender-
sons action, the most of them saying
that he could not endure having his
old political friends criticise his polit-
ical course. Some of them are less
charitable, and insinuate that he had
discovered that he could not be re-
elected Speaker, that it was practical
ly certain that he would be turned
down. All of them, however, are
doubtless more than half convinced
that the real reason for his action was
that stated, namely, fear of defeat
They know that a wave of sentiment
in favor of tariff revision is sweeping
over the West. The Republican lead
ers are doing their best to check it,
They have not met with much, If any
success. They realize that it threat
ems their party with the loss of the
next House and of the presidency In
1904.
The best method of checking it is
the revision of the tariff. The Re-
publican party is so completely in the
power of the trusts, however, that it
cannot adopt that method. Perhaps
the President will be able to satisfy
his party in the West that if it places
confidence in its leaders it will have no
reason to complain, but there is plen-
ty of room for doubling that he will.