Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1904-04-26

chairman OF the mouse commit
tee on ways and means and
therefore eX officio floor leader
Of the Republican majority, recently
acted as permanent chairman Of the
New York state convention, and, of
course, sounded the keynote" They
all do it. The dispatches inform us
that This speech was received with
great applause" and no wonder for it
was the richest humor-of which he
was unconscious no doubt-that has
fallen from human tongue this year.
After claiming every good thing for
the Republicans and eulogizing Presi-
dent Roosevelt for enforcing the anti,
trust law in the Northern Securities
case, Brother Payne said:
The result has called halt on unlawful
enterprise. It has improved the business
tone. 1t has brought security to legiti-
mate enterprise. The administration will
proceed with careful investigation. 1t
will indulge in no gallery play Those
engaged In lawful business have no cause
for alarm. Unlawful combinations only
will be attacked In a word the law will
/, be impartially enforced.
Wonder what Mr.. Hartman, presi-
dent of the Union Pacific and Southern
Pacific railroads, who goes to the Chi
cago convention as delegate from
! Mr.. Payne's district along with Mr..
i Payne himself, thought of that? Does
Mr.. Hartman subscribe to the doctrine
that the antitrust decision of the SUI
preme court "has called n halt on un
lawful enterprise?" How Mr.. Chair
man Payne must have laughed in his
sleeve when he rolled off that polished
sentence, and how Mr. Hartman must
have slapped his thigh in ecstasy.
OF course to such as Mr.. Hartman,
who is in the play, no explanation was
necessary, but to reassure any trust
magnate who might be scared by his
eulogy Of the president and supreme
court for the antitrust decision, Mr..
Payne then declared, 1.-The administra-
tion will proceed with careful investi.
CATION" etc. OF course it will, for did
not Mr.. Attorney General Knox Inn
mediately upon the rendition of that
opinion undertake to reassure the
trust brethren that the administration
had no idea Of running amuck on the
trusts? It will be observed that Mr..
Payne diherentiates the trusts into
good and bad. He might with equal
propriety differentiate fiends into good
and bad. OF course the trusts and the
Republican leaders thoroughly under.
stand each other; no opera bouffe ever
put on the stage was as preposterous
as the Republican warfare on the
trusts. Having disposed Of the trusts
In this happy fashion, by first singing
postomce department have been "thor.
ough and complete" Now, If that ia
true, why have Mr.. Payne and the Re.
publicans in congress refused every
proposition OF the Democrats to insti.
tute genuine and thoroughgoing in
yestigaion? The very suggestion of
congressional investigation throws
them into an ague fit. On at least a
dozen occasions the Democrats in
mouse and senate have tried to have
an investigation that will investigate,
but the Republicans stand like a stone
wall against 1t. Wherefore? Because
they fear that If there should be an
investigation from top to bottom
enough corruption would be found to
rout the Republicans, horse foot and
Dragons, in the coming election.
Mr.. Payne delivered himself on the
tariff question as follows:
| We are welded to no schedules. Ours ID
party OF progress. We produced the
Oingley act, the best tariff law ever en-.
acted. The next time we tackle the tariff
we propose to improve upon that. But so
long as the present law works well and
produces sufacinet revenue the prosperity
OF the country lasts and the welfare of
the wage Garner is secure we shall "con-
t1nue to let well enough alone"
That surely is great deliverance.
we are welded to no schedules" says
Mr. Payne. No, indeed, but If some
1nqu1sltfve person had arisen and ask
ed what schedule the Republicans were
willing to charge by lowering the rates
ne would have been completely stump
co. Tor there is not one rate that they
are willing to cut down. After saying
that the Dingley bill is the best act
ever passed he then proceeds to de-
clare for what must to him be an i'm
possibility by saying, 1.-THE next time
we tackle the tariff we propose to i'm
prove upon that" But when do the
Republicans propose to tackle It? Judg-
Ing by their actions, they will perform
that feat few days after the mil
lennium shall dawn and not before.
He finally wound up with his old CRY
TO continue to let well enough alone.
which Is only one way of voicing the
stand pat" doctrine. On the whole.
MI. Payne is to be most heartily con-
graduated on his very skillful efforts
to please both the friends and associ-
ates OF the trusts, to please the tariff
reformers and the stand patters. In
me pending campaign when Repub-
llcan brother Is speaking to a Repub-
lican audience Of tariff reformers he
can quote with eclat one part of Mr..
Payne's speech, and when addressing
the stand patters he can quote anoth-
or part Of 1t. The same caper can be
performed with reference to the trusts
A Gay psesivsr.
This 10 queer world, my masters. 1
Tor instance, the Des Moines nal
Soi',tai' an ardent stand pat organ, re-
Gently contained this remarkable edi. {
sorial squib: Champ Clark believes
lnat when tariff duties are too high
they ought to be reduced and fiat
wnen they are too low they ought to {
pc raised. Champ, old boy, seems to I
os "eil qualified to write platform on :
progressive Republtcaulsm.'" I re.
pea. tnot that is remarkable sauib-
v tact. most remarkable. I said no
'ucl thtng-nothing that by tho ,yiIda.t