Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-15
EASTERN REPUBLICANS
DO NOT BELIEVE ROOSEVELT HAS
ADOPTED IOWA IDEA"
Is the Iowa Platform to Be in Har-
mony With the National Dec
laration in 19O4p

Prominent republican officials, men of
emenince in party councils and personally
close to President Roosevelt, declare that
they believe that either Governor Cummins
or one of his friends Is responsible for
newspaper stories recently emanating from
Iowa that the President and the governor
understand each other perfectly as to the
Iowa idea of tariff revision. Cabinet Off
Gals and other republican leaders have not
communicated with the President since he
was in st. Louis. which was just few
days after his tour through Iowa. Conse-
quently none of them is in position to
speak authoritatively to thu story that
the President has embraced the tariff doc
trines of the aggressive governor of Iowa.
They do however, declare that they do not
believe anything of the kind, and are salts
fed that If Governor Cummins and the
President take the same road together on
a tariff plank for the national platform next
year 1t will be because Governor CumminS
leaves his own pathway and goes over to
that of the President These eastern adj
vccates of non-action as to the tariff assert
that the President aligned himself with the
"Stand-pat' element of his party during
the last session Of Congress, and that he
proposes to stay with this element unless
his convictions undergo change as a
result Of his trip through the west. 1t is
in the west that the tariff revision senti
ment predominates among republicans, and
the President may have some new ideas
| on the subject when he returns, but the
stand pa tiers of his own party, and
| among these are men who say that they
knew his opinions a month ago, declare
in his absence that they have not the least
idea that he will favor tariff revision in
any form upon reSuming his work in the
White House.
Stand pat" republican opinion IL that Gov
ernor Cummins and his followers in Iowa
and elsewhere will have to garb their idea
to, hat ftrVon nvf
year or it will not harmonic with the uni
| form to be worn by the national republican
| tariff creature. 1t is also limited by them
that Governor Cummins is beginning to
| arrange to let himself down easily and is
| not objecting to the numerous stories be-
| ing sent out from Iowa that he has con-
| verted the President to his way Of think
| ing. 1t was pointed out today that Gov
ernor Cummins is big in his state,
| but his tariff ideas are opposed by such
other big Iowa men as Secretary Shaw,
former Speaker Henderson and the ma
| jority of the House delegation. Nearly
all these men are favorable to a platform
that will hold out the promise of tariff
revision at some future time, when needed,
but at the same time will remove from the
Iowa platform of last year the charge that
portions of the tariff system afforded shell
ter to monopolies. Eastern republicans es-
pecially oppose this idea, inasmuch as they
know that If the country should come to
the conclusion that this was true there
would undoubtedly be a revision of some
kind demanded. The "stand-patters'
sert that the shelter proposition con-
tanned the gist of Governor Cummins' iowa
idea it will have to come out in the next
state platform unless the governor can con-
vince the republican national leaders that
it has a wise place in the policy of the
national republican party.
The claim of "stand-pat" republicans is that
the present tariff system does not afford
shelter for monopolies, which are being
forced to their knees by the legal depart
ment of the government This department,
they argue, is doing all that the people de-
mand in the way of teaching the trusts
lesson, and the country will not sanction
the tearing up of tariff provisions to get
at some corporation that is protected by
the tariff and is maintaining a monopoly.
The tariff reyisioniStS of the middle west.
who think with Governor Cummins and
sustain the Iowa idea, have repeatedly de-
MED the charge that the doctrine that the
tariff is the mother Of the trusts is part
of the Iowa idea" They have pointed out
that while the Iowa platform declared
against a tariff schedule, If 1t became a
shelter for monopoly. there is no allega-
ton that any schedule in fact furnished
such shelter. They point to the removal of
the tariff from coal in line with the
Iowa suggestion. They assert the belief
that the President still retains his former
views on the subject of judicious tariff re-
vision, though he may consider actual re-
vision ineXpedient and untimely on the eve
of a presidential election