Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1904-02-25
A new START IN 1908
It Will Be q Year of Political
Readjustment.
Three Terms of Mcf<inIcy. ROosevc1t
Regime Will He Completcd-Dem-
Ocrnts Also Look to That Ycnf
Secretary Shaw Il PrOn,is.
Ing Timber.

The year 1905 will be one Of political re.
adjustment Nearly everybody assumes
that the Roosevelt administration will
nave another four years. making com
pact three terms of the Nick mlcy- Roose-
welt regime which came into being as Il
result of the frce-silver upheaval. but will
ihst long after that issue il wholly for
gotten. The politicians who do not like
Inc present President have decided to ac-
'opt nm for another term. Then obliga-
tons will be Settled and the party lead
ors can rcadjust affairs more 20 their
liking and start forth for the battles
OF another decade or two TO l90S they
look for this new start. says n Washing
ton correspondent of the Boston Tran
/ script.
similarly the democrats count on 1905
as the year of their deliverance. They
do not really expect victory in 1901. with
so largo At part OF the country in the hands
OF their opponents. I;ut they plan to
carry the House of Representatives. in
the off-Sear elections of 1896 ana the
presidency two years later. They never
yet carried the country in a presidential
battle when they had not elected the
House two years before. One of their
chief concerns to-day over the coming
nomination is to select someone who will
not have an embarrassing claim for re-
endorsement in 1870. on the strength of d
vigorous though unsuccessful fight. For
that reason they prefer "A candidate now
who by 1905 will be too old for serious
! consideration. They want Il clean slate
for that year. just the republicans
/ expect to have.
! 1t seems likely that after eight years
! of Roosevelt the demand will be strong
! in the Republican party for Il Western
candidate The West by that time will
be more than ever necessary to offset the
growing strength of Eastern cities. which
tend to be democratic. Two men stand
out prominently to-day as in limo for the
republican nomination of l90S-William II
Taft of Ohio and Leslie NJ Shaw of Iowa.
There may he others, hut as yet no dis
tinguished party leaders seem to be get
ting into line Fairbanks does not arouse
| enthusiasm. The Senate is not good
place from which to select Presidents. as
convention after convention has shown.
| Foraker and Spooner each have warm
admirers but for different reasons. They,
too. are in the Senate and will he there
in all proba bility beyond 1905. The
chances are that the republican conVcn-
ton will look outside the membership of
that body
Governor Taft's Variability mas already
been discussed in these columns. Unless
he goes to the Supreme Court of the
United States. TO succeed Chief Justice
+ UlIer, he Will inquire prominently, &C
cordng to present appearances. in the
preliminary plans of four years from
to-day But few people have realized
the extraordinary availability of Mr..
shaw who. although secretary Of the
treasury now is too good n politician to
remain in that office very close to the
time of the nominating convention. He
is geographically about what the repub-
Leans will want. AS an eX-member of
the Roosevelt cabinet he will doubtless
represent about the degree OF identified
ton with the administration which good
politics would dictate.
But what is vastly more important is
the fact that Secretary Shaw has been
little less than Il wizard in meeting the
wishes of two ends of the republican line,
ordinarily supposed to he antagonistic.
He is one of the few secretaries of the
treasury to come from what is distinctly
the agricultural section of the West
The newspapers of the great belt have
in consequence. chronicled his various
movements unde- the flaming headline
shaw Dcfcs Wall Street" III point OF
fact no secretary of the treasury has 50
liberalized the law in the supposed in
tercsts Of high finance as Mr.. Shaw, If in
deed all the secretaries combined have
done as much. As set forth in these
columns at the time. he has made the In
dependent treasury system practically in
operative by his decision to segregate in
ternal revenue receipts from customs re.
ceipts and thus to accumulate a FUND
within the treasury for deposit in case OF
emergency in the national banks His aC-
coptanoc of State and municipal bonds
as security for public deposits was n ster
in the same direction which none Of hi,
predecessors In recent years had dared T.
take. His intimation that during the crop
moving season the banks need not always
he careful to hold their full reserve,
oil
the Same line. Most of these things wer,
changes for the better, from a common
sense point of view. but to any of hi:
predccos sOrS they would have seemed lik,
notorious concessions to the money power
and SO on political grounds greatly to b'
dreaded MIR Shaw's deposits with tho
national banks have reached an aCgrc
gate threefold that for which the first
cleveland administration was condemned
in republican platforms from ono end OF
the country to tho other Mr.. Shaw ha:
been able to do these things in the fac.
of wcll-e established precedent because o
his equally we'll established reputation as
a dealer of Wall Street Such name i.
of utmost value to an administration OF
; hccr. and he has made the most of it
Nor is there tho slightest reason foi
thinking the newspapers of the rural 500
tons will ever lose confidence i'll his deter
mination to fight the minions of hgl
finance.
Mir. Shdws relation to the subsidy pro
iect is another case in point He ncVc,
makes "A speech of Importance that h.
docs not come ont strongly for the sub
sidY. The sea of upturned faces seems
to- inspire him with desire to launch
ship. And Yet his own Iowa is the loas
in favor of this legislation of any rcpub
lican State in the Union. The two Iowa
senator's were among the six republican!
to Vot" against Mr.. IIanna's bill Speak"
Henderson Of Iowa was always regarded
| as an obstacle To subsidy legislation. arC
made no secret Of his belief that its wis
dom was decidedly open to question
Now the subsidy interests will becom,
very ripe by 1905 even though much o