Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1907-11-29
WASHINGTON LETTER.
trrom our Regular GORE pond enl.)

dealing intelligently with the question
of financial legislation in the coming
session as they have for the past ter
years continue to multiply. In biz
public letter to Secretary CortelyoU
the President said be had assurance
that the leaders of Congress were con
sidering a measure of this character
and that be expected legislation at ar
early date. When asked later who
we're the leaders to whom he referred
the President could think of only two
or three wholly uninfiuential Repub
lican Senators, such as Beveridge
Bourne of Oregon and Switzerland of
Utah. He said however that be count
ed on the support of Speaker Cannon
Now the Speaker has arrived in Wash
ington and says be has no plan under
consideration and intimates that be
does not expect any early legislation.
OF course che fact that Mr. Cannon Is
a banker and man whose private
fortune exceeds $4,000, 900 may In part
account for his unwillingness to take
any step which might curtail the profits
of the bankers in times of financial
stringency. But from every quarter
comes the same information. No one
of the leaders OF Congress has even
considered financial legislation and
Mr.. Roosevelt Appeals to have been
lulled into q feeling of security by the
assurances of men whose influence
ends with the passage of few private
pension bills.
1t is interesting to note the extent
to which the belief IS gaining ground,
as has already been intimated in these
letters, that the New York bankers
and big financiers have been almost
wholly responsible for the money
stringency in the west. The bankers
loaned their funds to Wall Street
gamblers and then when they lost
money they cried stringency, tied up
their reserves, loaned only small
amounts at exorbitant rates ofinterest
and made the west whistle for its
money. OF course Mr.. Roosevelt did
not appreciate the game that was be-
ing worked. He says himself, quite
frankly, that he knows nothing Of
finance. 1t is probable that Mr.. Cor
telyou knew nothing. of it either. The
Secretary Of the Treasury has but one
end in view, the promotion of his own
presidential ambitions. His only
strength Is with the Wall Street and
the banking interests. He has never
had business experience and he is, of
course, willing il an innocent tool in
the hands of the men who rule 1.-THE
street." Fortunately. however. ad-
vices have reached the President from
various sections which are beginning
to outweigh that of bis Secretary of
the Treasury and in the face of Secre-
tary Cortelyou's protests Mr.. Roose-
welt is insisting that proceeds from
the sale Of the Panama bonds and the
Treasury certificates shall be distri-
buted in the west instead of being
poured into the bottomless New Y ork
rathole.
The Republicans are viewing the
coming session Of Congress with con-
siderable anxiety. Thew are Begin
ming to remember the bitter denunci.
alton they poured out upon the head
of Democratic President who issued
bonds in time of peace and they ap.
preciate the difficulty they will have
in defending the course of President
Roosevelt from the logic of their own
words. Nor will it be any excuse for
them to answer that no other course
was open because of the weakness OF
the financial laws, for Mr.. Bryan
pointed out that weakness nine years
ago and the Republicans, although in
power in both houses of Congress prac.
tlcally ever since. have never had the
courage or the intelligence to remedy
the defects. They have never even
made an honest effort to do so.
There is good deal of amusement
in Washington over the blind attempts
OF Senator Foraker to injure Secretary
Taft. 1t has been charged on more
than one occasion that it was only the
Democrats who, when politically ruin.
ed themselves, sought to drag down to
defeat the man who had proved more
successful. But Mr.. Foraker is giving
a magnificent example of the dog in
the manger policy. Ruined and dis.
credited in Ohio himself, he Is persist.
ing in probably futile effort to pre-
vent OhiO's other favorite son, William
Il. Taft big Bill Taft, they call him
now from winning the Repu blican
Nomination. 1t has been suggested
that possibly Mr.. Foraker is seeking tc
make unto himself friends of the Nam
mon of Unrighteousness and that II
he can even succeed in bringing about
the nomination of a rcactionarY by
the Repu blican party he will. although
defeated even In his race for the Sen.
ate, be received into their ever lasting
mansions by those corporate interests
which he served so faithfully before
entering public life, in their efforts te
despoil the tax payers of Ohio anG
which paid him for his effective WORK
with seat In the United States Sen.
ate. Second only to his efforts to In
jure Mr.. Taft, are Senator Foraker q
efforts to blast the reputation Of ths
people OF Brownsville, Texas, and to
prove them guilty Of the murder and
assassination of the white residents of
that city which was perpetrated by the