The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-07
TARIFF TROUBLE IN SIGHT.


of a poor old party these days when
he sees the Republican leaders strug-
Cling with the impetuous Mr.. Roose-
welt. Like an animal which has had
a taste of blood, he has been encour-
aged by his party's acquiescence in
his unwarranted exercises and arbi-
trary extensions of executive power to
trespass upon the party's liberties as
freely as he has ignored legal re-
straints. The result is that no ropes
can bind him, and that the Republican
party is being treated to dose of one
man power quite as nauseous today
as that which was lately administered
to the country.
The president quietly tore a treaty
to tatters and abrogated the best es-
law in the Panama affair; and his par
ty, lined up behind him, said 1t was
well done. He authorized by a stroke
of his pen and without the slightest
warrant of law the expenditure of an
unknown sum, probably from $40,000,000
to $60,000,000 year, in pensions, and
his party was so tickled with his pre-
cocity that it refused even to legalize
the act by proper legislation after
ward, leaving it to stand on it's naked
merits as a bit Of absolutism. Is it
any wonder that the president is Of
the opinion that at this moment he is
the rough rider and the Republican
party is the broncho, deserving only
such treatment as all bronchos ex-
pect to receive?
Now Mr.. Roosevelt has some ideas
about the tariff. They are not very
wise or very profound, but they are
more sensible than those of his party
in general. In a nutshell, the president
sees the danger, to which his party is
willfully blind, of giving the people
no satisfaction and no promise with
reference to tariff reform. He is not
SO much interested, perhaps, in the re-
lief Of the public by this means from
unjust impositions as he is in the polit-
zeal fortunes of Roosevelt himself He
is smart enough to see that if the
stand pat policy is followed out rigidly
there is very great danger of his own
defeat. hence he is wrangling in lively
fashion with the tariff protected trusts
who own the Republican party and do
with it as they will.
Now we know exactly what is Mr.
Roosevelt's idea of tariff reform, and
what he is at present insisting upon.
He believes that the tariff should be
changed in some respects according to
the will and pleasure of Mr.. Roose-
welt. He wants to do with the tariff
exactly as he has done with other mat
tiers quite as grave. He proposes the
same system of absolutism for that
He wants the party to turn the bust
ness over to him to be used as cleo
ton material at his pleasure, and we
think it not at all improbable that he
will eventually force it to his way Of
thinking.
1t is the natural end Of such reIa-
ton as that existing between Presi-
dent Roosevelt and his party with a
man Of his temperament. He is total
ly unfit for any high position in con-
stitutional government. No matter
how good his intentions, his conception
of government itself, of methods and
Of measures, is all based upon and
colored by the idea of a one man
power. He would be the government.
The party has bent before his i'm
perious viii so far. that there is little
possibility of its retreat
We predict that Mr. Roosevelt Will
have his way about the tariff as he
has had about other things. and that
the sulking barons will be obliged to
follow his chariot wheels in their
chains. 1t viii only renew and empha-
size the serious question in the minds
of the public how far man who rep-
resents this militant and despotic idea
of government, and how far the party
that permits and bows to it, should be
trusted with authority in a free gov
eminent by the people.