The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-08
LaFollette, Octopus Chaser
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ish. The same Is true of numefous other
 Northern States: but when the Democratic party deposed Cleveland. Wisconsin deposed the Democratic party. That is how it came that La Toilette got to be governor and Spooner got back his job as Senator. There were but three first-class men in the lette as governor chased the octopus and would have been glad to put spooner out of job; but Wisconsin remembered how she had taken Carpenter out of the Senate, some twenty years earlier and elected a legislature that stood by her greatest living Republican.
 But La Toilette had his eyes on the Sem ate. and when another vacancy occurred he took it. after debating for long time in his mind whether octopus chasing at Wash tngton was to be preferred to octopus chas- ing at Madison He decided for the national capital. and entered the Senate Tn January, 1906, just as the grand octopus chase of the Fifty-ninth Congress was about to begin. When the rate bill came to be heard, the new Senator participated. He made a great speech on the subject that proofreaders of the Government Printing office read. The gist fit was that the American Republic has gone to the dogs, and that the Ameri- can people are undone. I have heard that speech some 10000 times and have written miles and miles of that sort Of stuff for the newspapers myself. ,et %~
 The President of the United States was the leader of the octopus chase with the Hon. Ben Tillman chief huntsman in the Senate and the Hon. Bill Chandler whpop- ing things up on the outside. The Republi- cans were much disconcerted when they found their President in the Democratic camp, but Uncle Allison came along and fixed things so that, the President got back home, not. however until there was held A stormy chapter of the Ananias Club. where knights of mendacity were hurled against one another like so many Hollands and Oii- vers When Senator Aldrich saw the Presi- dent safely rescued from the camp of T1ll- man, Bailey. and the other Democratic octo- ntIR n hA mi fr Errrn Clx4a adjourned. and the country fell to it's old trade of President nt-making.
 In the Democratic camp there is an abso- lute autocrat to whom everything must be referred. Nothing Is Democratic of which he disapproves. Certainly he will make the platform: doubtless he will head the ticket. There was some brave talk of a Southern man; but Mir. Bryan met 1t with a sheer that put that talk to silence. However. some things might happen between dog days. 1907, and the convention of 1908.
 On the Republican side of the hedge the situation is more interesting. Never before were there so many candidates active and receptive-Taft, Fairbanks, Cannon. Knox, Hughes, Cortelyou, Cummins Crane. Shaw, Spooner Foraker. Scott. and La Toilette. Then there is the third-term talk. and ev- erybody knows that Roosevelt can have it for strongest man of the whole layout on the day of election. but it Is doubtful if he can get the nomination. The opposition to the or Cannon t,r or Knox. possibly on Rasaes. new Cummfns La Toilette. At this writing the Cortelyou boom has the floor, much to that gentleman's disgust, who would gladly have postponed hfs stunt un- til corn-pianttng time next year. There is a tradition that he s regular Napoleon of politics, and that veteran bosses stood aghast at some of the strateges he success | fully practiced when chief of staff of the party in 1904 He has been head of the | Department of Commerce and Labor and l knows the corporations from skin to core; | he has been head of the Post-Office Depart l ment that has most of the bread and but | ter. He is now head of the Treasury De- pertinent that has ramifications in every 1 community from ocean to ocean. He plan | ned and executed the victorious campaign | of 1904. If he is endowed with the genius | for politics he ts suspected of possessing 1t l will necessarily follow that he VIII make | monkeys of the rest of lem at the conven- ! tion.
 La Toilette is the radical candidate. | La Toilette would be. Bryan himself is not [ set bit more digging. The rate bill got | La Foiiette's vote, but 1t was not half baked | in his opinion. He claims to be tariff | reformeT, too. this man who sat at the feet | of Pig Iron" Kelley and absorbed the po- | lltical economy of Henry c. Carey, that Is | the mother of every trust that is not di- reetly traceable to paternalism fin govern l ment, and a protective tariff is the upper | crust and butt out ofs all paternallsm. Here | we are on the brink of socialism, and by 1924 this republic will have to fight for its | very existence against socialism. which can point to the paternalism of the Repub- lican party. chiefly the tariff, as precedent for it's frenzy. MT. Bryan's "ultimate" gov- ernment ownership of railroads is but the legitimate fruit of the paternalism we have had for forty years The Beveridge child labor bill, which MT. Bryan indorses. Is pure paternalism and a total annihiiation of States rights
 La Toilette purposes to reform the tariff by the friends of protection As D. w. Car mack pertinently said, there VIII be no re- form of the tariff until 1t is accomplished by the friends of the tax payers. When the Republicans reform the tariff Nelson w. AIdrich will boss the job in the Senate, and John Dalxell will superintend 1t in the House They will reform 1t "up' as Mo- Kinley did 1t 1890. When rowdy negroes carry safety razors the Republicans will reform the tariff.
 There is to be a long session of Congress in this town beginning December 2--tremend- ous anniversary--ahd maybe a glorious sun of Austerlitz will that day rise, suspicious of tn ecareer of some great statesman, who will lead us out fthe wilderness. again enthrone the Constitution. and save the rep resentative republic founded by the fathers.
 He is not yet visible to the naked eye.
 (Copyright, 1907, by E. ". Newman)