The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-11
By LINCOLN STEPHENS.

has made this great country what 1t it--great." Since he is humorist, thought at first that he was joking" but he seemed very serious andsI put it down to habit till by and by it dawned on me that he was trying to deceive himself as we'll as me. half believe he half believes the G. o. SP. brings up good crops. But said one thing that is true: "That is govern ment by parties
 It Is. As I left the room, John Sharp Williams, the minority leader, entered. They work together, these two, for government by parties. We have bipartisan system here as we'll as in the cities and States The pension bill graft goes to Democrats as well as Republicans; no party difference there. If there's River and HarbQr Bill, the Democrats get their "divvy." They doD't get so much as the" party gets but--there's no difference m pork" which, mind you. is treated as graft" So with the other pork barrel. the Public Buildings Bill. Toledo needs right now a federal building, so does Atlanta, and other places, but they can't have what they need till there's enough money to go around to all the Congressmen of both parties who voted right. And they vote right here with out any precise regard to party. The speaker put ms Eul1ipplHS DtAA tnAOoSh only with the help of the Democrats; and Rice. the last special interest "tak- en care of' by Uncle Joe" Cannon in his -frec trade measure, was excepted to win over enough Southern protection Democrats to overcome the insurgent high tariff Republicans. The party line there is as confused as that sem terce. And, as for the Hepburn rate bill, everybody voted to pass that <o ha ta fn he fixed. So there's no difference there.
 And, taking tn Senate, whats the difference between Aldrich, tin Repub- lican leader, and German, the Demo- cratic leader? Or, between Clark, Dertocrat, of Montana, and Wetmore, Republican, of Rhode Island? Bailey, of Texas, is a Democrat, but he Is not so much of a Democrat as La Toilette, a Republican, of Wisconsin. And. cer- tainly Deliver, Republican, of Iowa, is at least as Democratic as McLaurin, Democrat, of Mississippi
 There are differences among these men, and those differences are polit- teal. Thy are broad nough to build political parties on. But the old polit- iSal parties are not built upon them. The new parties will have/to be and. as a matter of fact, the new parties are being built upon tn m now, here as elsewhere, in the United States.
 What are those differences? What is the line the President and MT. Ald- rich could not draw in words? What is the American issue?
 Out in Chicago some twelve years ago, a group of reformers undertook to clear the boodlers out of their eoun- cil The street railways. which needed corrupt council in their business, were in politics and they fought re- form. The fight has been waging ever since. Municipal ownership" is the form the issue has taken out there but the fight Is really between the public service corporations and the people for the control of the govern ment; and men divide according as they are for special interest or the common interest.
 Ia Cleveland the story is essentially the same The form of the issue is "Three-cent fares" but the fight which has extended into the State, is be- tween the railroads and other public service corporations on the one hand and the people on the other for rep resentation in the government, and the voters are dividing as in Chi cago.
 In Wisconsin, Robert M. La Toilette undertook to tax the railroads like any other property. They resisted. He taxed them. They were going to take it out of the people of tho State by means of higher rates. He undertook to regulate rates. The issue there was, as in Chicago and Cleveland. represen- tative government; the light was be- tween priviliged business and the peo- poe, and the voters abandoned the old parties, and took sides according as they were for the special interests Of the common interests.
 Everett Colby, Mark Pagan, George L. Record and their friends In Jersey are just beginning to tax the rail- roads. Their cry Is equal taxation" But the people of Jersey are really fighting against the special interests for the control of their government in the common interest of all of them.
 In Wisconsin the common interest party calls itself Republican and 1t controls the Republican organization, but the La Toilette Half-breed party contains many Democrats. In Ohio the reformers call themselves Demo- crats, but they won with Republican votes In Jersey the Republican party is the party used, but in the last elec- ton the voters paid no heed to old par ty lines. They were for themselves. And so 1t has gone in Pennsylvania, Missouri and elsewhere. Wherever the people have found a leader who would lea1, they have crossed all party lines to follow, and they are forming a new party. For Folk (DemO and Colby (Rep0; John Weaver (Rep.) and Tom Johnson (Dem.) It Toilette (Rep.) and Dunne (Dem.); all belong to one party. differ though they may in ideas, in wisdom. in the slogans they have rais- ed and the symbols they vote under, they all are fighting one fight. raising one issue. They are dividing old par ties into new parties. and all that Is needed to complete the realignmont is national leaders to bring them togeth- CT.
 And the same thing Is happening here in the same way and from the same cause. When the President undertook to pass a rate regulation bill he open ed up that old crack which runs across the front of both the old parties. That bill is called an attack on the railroads It isn't. It may not be a wise bill. but 1t isn't unfair. Purporting to empow- CT the Inter State Commerce Commis- sion to regulate railroad rates, 1t will do nothing of the sort. The best friends of the Hepburn bill, as 1t passed the House, do not pretend that it will solve the railroad rate problem; the most that they claim for it is that it Is "a step forward" and the advocates of the effective regulation of rates want to amend the bill to make 1t do It's work. So while in ebill may be weak, 1t is not harsh But 1t was challenge to the power of the railroads in the national government and they prepared to oppose it's passage.
 Public opinion put the bill through the House, and the railroads hoped to avoid an open fight by "fooling" the President into accepting amendments. Everybody thought that they would succeed In this. but they didn't. The