Iron County register., 1905-03-16
THE PRESIDENTS PROGRAM
If Carried Out Will Necessitate Some
Repairs in the Repub-
lican Party.

The presidents programme for the
direction and governing of congress is
being sadly interfered with, not to say
upset. by the disposition of both houses
to have minds and wills of their own,
says the st. Paul Globe. The special
correspondent of the Globe points out
the radical changes that the president
has felt obliged to make since he
first decided what congress ought to
do, and laid his wishes before it; and
the changes he is still to make are
beyond a doubt as numerous and as
important as those to which he has
already consented He did not sue
ceed in jamming through the legisla-
tion indicated in his message affecting
railroad rates. He will be no more
successful. we fancy, in his present
plan of passing a rate bill this fall and
a tariff revision bill during the win
ter, The thing indeed, is on the face
of it absurd
The reception of his rate legislation
by congress has tanned even the i'm
petuous temper of the president. He
sees that this is a matter requiring
deliberation; that there are sane and
temperate views among both those
who want and those who do not want
legislation, and that no extreme meas
ure is going to carry He has been
taught that to urge this matter further
by calling an extra session immedi-
ately would be to invite certain defeat.
He has succeeded in very remarka
bic manner, considering the vote given
to him a few months ago, in alienat-
ing congress altogether. The house is
to-day scarcely less hostile to him
than the senate, though it has succeed
ed in concealing its temper and in
sinuating the knife more dexteriously.
He has learned enough by this to see
that the extra session must be post
poned until fall.
| Now this is equivalent to the aban.
donment of his programme as a whole
altogether. 1t is going to put the re-
| publican party in thoroughly unten-
| able position. The months of the con-
gressional recess will be filled with
| discussion of the railroad rate oues-
ton. That having been brought be-
fore the public and still remaining in
the air, public attention will be fixed
upon it to the exclusion of almost
everything else. The committees of
the two houses and special commit
tees, if such be created. will be busted
sitting the evidence and modifying the
various proposals made; and congress
will come next fall with a better ma
| tured opinion to the consideration of
| this question. but without having
| given the slightest thought to any
thing else. Now this situation makes
action upon the tariff impossible
! 1t is known that the president wise
| ly considers some tariff changes indis-
pensabe before another general cleo
ton arrives. Had he insisted. as he
first intended. upon forcing this issue
upon congress last fall, it would now
have right of way, and a tariff bill
could be matured this summer and
passed early in the next congress. 1t
is practically impossible to secure any
such legislation now. The tariff is a
big subject to tackle. From six months
to a year are required every time in
work upon the different schedules, in
harmonizing differences, placating paid
interests and satisfying all the legis-
lative favorites. Taking up the mat
ter de novo next fall, congress will not
get around to the passage of bill be-
fore the congressional elections OF
1906. The next national campaign
therefore, will find the country thor.
oughly dissatisfied; with certain rail
road legislation either passed or held
up, with a hot tariff debate on hand
and with the country stirred up over
this question and the people dissatis-
fled at the failure to make practical
progress.
These are the inevitable tangible re-
suits of the programme which the pres
ident so hastily and unwisely mapped
out for himself. Notwithstanding the
vote that was given to him he is not
big enough to run the country and his
party without some outside help, He
has plunged both into morass where
they will be found struggling two
years from now. The reputation of the
republican party as the one that docs
things" is going to need some repairs.