Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-09-05
r :
POLITICS
OF THO DIZZY.
Democrats Encouraged.

Everything tends to encourage DEM
ocrats that the time is ripe for the re-.
forms they stand for. The corruption
and graft in all departments of the
government demands a change of adj
ministration, for experience proves
that no party has been able to cleanse
its own skirts President Roosevelt
may do all he can, but corruption is
too deep-rooted in his party for him to
be able to accomplish such task.
Here and there he may succeed in
stopping corruption in places where it
has been forced into the light, only to
find that still other exposures show the
canker still exists. Every case of cor
ruption exposed has been through =
disagreement amongt the thieves, and
not through official investigation. On
all sides he is surrounded by RepubIi-
can leaders, who are interested in
monopoly. The tariff barons and the
railroad magnateS have their spokeS-
men in both houses of Congress, and
even the Presidents cabinet is not
clear of them. The minor officials and
clerks of the government see graft in
high places, and very naturally some
of them have come to believe that as
opportunity offers they should make
the most of it.
This graft era can only be overcome
by the people changing the party in
control from time to time, for long
lease of power has ever bred extrava-
gance, corruption and looting of the
treasury by favored interests. How
powerless even the President is to
overcome this corrupt disposition OF
his party. is shown by his surrendering
to the demands of the leaders on his
expressed determination of calling Con-
gress together at an early date, which
he has now been obliged to postpone
until within three weeks of the regular
time of meeting He may recommend
to Congress that it reform the tariff;
that it give power to the Interstate
Commerce Commission to regulate I'M
reasonable railroad rates; that it ratify
reciprocity treaties with foreign cOun-
tries; that it reduce the Philippine tar
iff; that it pass the necessary legislation
to curb the trusts; but his words will
be as the idle winds to the corporation
controlled Congress he has to deal
with. Similar recommendations by the
President to the two last Congresses
were UNDECIDED by the Republican
leaders.
1t is encouraging to Democrats that
all these reforms mentioned are the
policies that have been Endorsed by
the Democracy in their platforms, or
has been the expressed policy Of the
Democratic members of Congress. The
Republican leaders point 70 this, Sc
cretly at least, as sufficient reason why
they should not adopt such policies
and the tariff beneficiaries, the trusts
and the railroad corporations are busy
in backing up the position of the Re-
publican leaders. They talk of the
President as a trouble breeder" and
are prepared to spend millions to de-
feat the legislation mentioned.
Will President Roosevelt stick to his
determination to stand by the people,
or will his strenuousness vanish before
the avOwed purpose of many of the
Republican leaders to ''stand pat
that is, do nothing of consequence to
hurt their friends, the corporations?
If President Roosevelt is determined
enough to force his policy upon his
party he will have a large following
but such a course might split the Re
publican party and lead to the cleo
ton of a Democratic House of Repre-
sentatives next year and Democratic
President in 1905 One of two things
must happen-either the Republican
party must be cleansed of grafters ana
give the people the reforms they de
sire, or the voters will turn the rascals
ont