Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1908-04-20
trous. Indeed, publicity given to such
innocent and charitable contributions

us were ulaue Dy the insurance COM
panies to Mr.. Roosevelt's cam
paign fund or even the general knowl-
edge that practical man like L. Ii.
Hartman had been called to the White
| House and asked to raise S2J0,0O0
three or four days before election to
carry New York might really create in
! the minds OF the voters some question
as to the entire good faith of the party
adopting these methods.
So 1t would seem that the omission
OF any recommendation for the public
ity bill and the insistence upon tariff
commission rather suggest scheme
to raise money by devious ways for
use In an election which now the Re-
publicans themselves look upon with
apprehension.
Some White House Gossip.
A Republican senator from the mid
die west says that in a recent CONVEX
sation with the president the latter re-
iterated with vigor his expressed deter
mination not to be candidate this
year. He declared that all he could do
would be done for Secretary Taft. and
Indeed the extreme activity to this end
of the federal ofiiceholders notwith-
standing the civil service reform law
seems to justify the presidents asser-
ton. But the interesting point is that
my Informant came away from the
White House with the very fixed opin-
ion that the president was not hopeful
| Of the election of Taft, however hope
full he might be Of his nomination. In
deed, it is the belief among keen poll
| ticians about the capitol that the
| chances for the success of any Repub-
lican this year are SO exceedingly small
that gentleman with the spectacular
| instincts of Mr.. Roosevelt would be
quite likely first to seek the credit of
nominating successor even though
he might possibly fail, then make
regal tour Of Europe and return to
politics four years hence to become the
savior Of his party and his nation from
Democratic rule.
1t sounds much like Roosevelt. No
man in public life is more thoroughly
| self seeking than he and none plays
| shrewder politics. The close of his adj
ministration finds the country facing
business depression such as has not
been known since 1893. 1t followed
upon panic which paralleled the one
| which nearly fifteen years ago was
| charged to Democratic policies. Mr..
Roosevelt has had for seven years al
| most unhampered control Of the gov.
| eminent of this nation. He has had a
| congress which, while of late covertly
hostile, was long only too eager to do
his bidding. His party and himself are
| responsible for the business situation
in the United States today, which led
more than $4,000 people in New York
on recent Saturday to join in dem
onstration for the unemployed. Mr..
Roosevelt is a shrewd politician. He
knows that the times are precariOus
for his party and even more doubtful
for himself. To thrust forward the
good humored Taft would mean that
in the doubtful result of success he
would be hailed as the sponsor of the
successful candidate, while defeat
would merely eliminate Taft, but leave
the only living Republican ex-president
in position to seek the limelight in
other fields of activity and return to
plague his party once again. This is
the feeling among, should say, almost
majority Of the Republicans in the
house and senate. To any one who has
studied the Roosevelt character and
career it sounds like plausible expla-
nation Of his present attitude.
The Black List and tho Boycott.
Much Of the pressure being brought
to bear upon congress for radical
amendment of the Sherman antitrust
law is due to the belated discovery Of
the large corporate employers of labor
that some of the decisions recently
rendered in courts against unions
| which have attempted to boycott goods
| manufactured by certain firms may be
appealed to by unions to destroy those
corporations which are maintaining a
black list, so called, of workingmen
For time members of labor unions
who had any property whatsoever
were panic stricken after the decision
of the Danbury matters. One of them
said to me few days after that deci-
sion: 81 belong to a union, and must
belong to union to work at my trade
and secure fair wages. l own little
house, but under this decision if my
union shall compel me and my fellows
| to strike and advise a boycott Of the
goods Of the firm for which we have
been working 1 am made individually
| liable. The firm could select such
| members Of the union as it knew were
at all financially responsible and strip
them of their property
| 1t seemed like hard case, and I'M
der the decisions as they now stand it
| is possible one now. But the very
! employers who are fighting the boycott
| and the concerted strike do maintain
| black lists. The heads of the labor I'M
ions have within the past few days
| secured legal advice to the effect that
any union whose members are dis
eliminated against because of their
membership in that union can proceed
| against the corporation which has
| blacklisted them. OF course what a
court will do is not determined until
the court has done 1t, but it Is alto
2ether probable that within few DAYS