The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-02
TALK
HALE AND CANNON ARE AGAINsT
 ssrARIFF TINKERING."
Powerful Position of the Speaker Makes His View of Special Importance.
 President Roosevelt h Seeking Light.

| severe jolts this week. one came rom I Senator Hale and the other from Speak- | CT Cannon, who made known his oppo- l sition to "tariff tinkering' as soon as he reached town. The powerful posi- l tion of the Speaker makes his attitude of the utmost importance and signin- canoe. He has showed himself entirely | opposed to the position of President Roosevelt, in that Mir. Cannon Is against change in any schedule. The most significant thing said by him was | when informed that there was grow ing sentiment against revision Tn the Senate. This was in his remark that legislation in the Senate was py unan- imous consent" Senator Hale has shown that he at least, was not on the consenting list.
 l It is a pretty situation, and 1t Is en- gendering no end of discussion as to what will be the outcome. VIII there l be a row among the Republicans? That is the common question. Was not the | election an overwhelming popular en- dorsement of President Roosevelt! or was 1t an unprecedented approvai or the high protection Ideas of extreme Republicans involving continued shell ter for the trusts? These are other patent inquiries.
 With them goes the necessary con cession that in his letter Of acceptance. | President Roosevelt said nothing that could be construed as favorable to re- vision except the mere expression that reform of abuses of measures should be entrusted only to those responsible | for such measures
 Roosevelt Seeking Light. Yet MT. Roosevelt has made it known that he is not tied to the notion that | there is inviolable sacredness in every | item of the tariff. He has been giving audience of the most attentive and re- spectfuI kind to leading men of his | own party who are pronounced revts- ionists, and they have come away from his presence distinctly encouraged by his reception of their views.
 Both Speaker Cannon and Senator Hale contend that the election was l complete endorsement of Republican policies as a whole and upon those is- | sues about which the Democratic party made most ado-the tariff, the handling of the trusts the currency and impe- | rialism.
 l For the special edification and guid- ance of President Roosevelt, it is be- lieyed, Senator Hale made this shrewd essay of observations:
 | q have no information as to the Presidents feelings or intentions, but he stands today as the representative. l not of the grumblers and critics of the l party, inside it's lines, but of the great masses who have expressed their con- | fidence in him and in the party and its principles The President is no novice in politics. His observation Is both keen and wise. In this hour of its tri- umph I do not think the party need fear that he will do anything to weak en or disrupt 1t. and any attempt. at tariff revision will certainly do both." | Attempt to Platter President. This is generally regarded here as | an astute attempt at hattery or MT. Roosevelt, combined with a warning that he would better try to live up to the compliments vouched. But Pres1- dent Roosevelt has just renounced poii- | tics. as far as his own further advance ment is concerned. in his refusal in ad- vance to consider another nomination bv his party, and in his repeated dec- laration that he intended to be Presi- dent of the whole people. President Roosevelt's sincerity Is bound to be measured by the way in which he meets the standpatters, like Cannon Haie anu | the rest.
 If he yields to them, prudent politi- cal opinion Is that the Democrats may well take courage and make ready to receive heavy endorsements If ne 1 does not yield and will take the great national vote given him as warrant of confidence from the whole people 10 serve their interests in treating the tariff question. he can win a great vlc- tory for himself and will be cheerfully accorded the approbation of the people
 Saying nothing in his letter or ac- ceptance on the revision matter, Presi- dent Roosevelt indirectly only referred to the tariff in his last annual message to Congress, that at the beginning of | the second session of, the Fifty-eighth Congress Then his message bore upon it only in its discussion of the work proposed for the Bureau of Corpora | tions of the Department of Commerce and Labor in its relation to obtaining publicity of the affairs of the trusts and also indicated a possible connection between the tariff and what he had to say of the receipts and expenditures of the government.
 | Speaking of the functions of the new | department he said in his message: | "Commerce between the nations is steadily growing in volume, and the tendency of the times is toward closer l trade relations"
 Not for PrOhibitive TariR.
 This at least may be taken as indi- eating that MT. Roosevelt does not sub- scribe to a prohibitive tarin, and that he rather leans to the conservative | position that more iVio- l tions with foreign countries are con ducive to commercial progress here as elsewhere in the world. For he says further: Constant watchfulness is needed to secure to Americans the chance to participate to the best ad- vantage in foreign trade"
 "Publicity," said MT. Roosevelt, can do no harm to the honest corporation. The only corporation that has cause to dread it is the corporation which shrinks from the light and about the welfare of such corporations we need not be oversensittve."
 It is pertinent to remark that 1t Is the Democratic theory also that publicity of the affairs of the corporations is a most important desideratum, especially such publicity as will expose the fact that certain manufacturing corpora tIons sell their products cheaper to foreign than to domestic consumers. This Is as far as President Roosevelt has officially gone in disclosing his views as to revision. What he has 1 recently said to the revisionists of his own party who have been visiting him is only to be implied from the manifest l encouragement which they have ex- hibited as they came from their inter- l views with him. Some time ago, when he was writing volume after volume about notable Americans and the things l that most concerned them in the ques- 1 tions of their day, he was anything but