The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-05-22
THE BIC STICK
FREELY SWUNG
CNau Special to the Advertiser.)


WASHINGTON, D. c., May 4-The
Speakers power is broken. The Speak
er's power is not broken. The Presi-
dent has Congress at his feet. The
President has a recalcitrant Congress
on his hands and will have a big fight
before the session is over He will not
get what he wants. He will get what
he wants. The Republican party is
split wide open. The Republicans are
fighting like grim death but will fix
il up in the course of a few weeks and
be as harmonious as a prayer meeting
by late May.
These are some of the very diversi-
fed conclusions that are being drawn
as the result of the big conflict of the
last ten days between the President
and the House of Representatives. 1t
is undoubtedly a conflict of historic
proportions, although it remains to be
seen whether the Republican voters
generally will know much about it or
Will care to be reminded of it when
the Presidential campaign has begun
in earnest.
The conclusions one may draw to
date depend very largely upon his tenn
permanent and point of view. The Pres
ident and the Speaker are certainly at
il good and hard and, of course, there
must be some outcome. 1t will hardly
be drawn battle. Just at present the
Senate has little to do with this latest
development of executive interference
! II fought the four ship program for
the navy to a standstill, was enraged
. because the President and Senator
I Beverage gave out statements that
they and not the Republican Senators
had won a victory because two ships
were voted, and is now waiting to see
what the House is going to do with
! regard to the Presidents legislative
program.
Unquestionably the President broke
the Speakers power in the House the
other day when he and his friends,
allying themselves with the Demo-
tcratic minority, forced an amendment
upon the Sundry Civil Appropriation
bill providing $780, for special agents
to inspect the books of railroads to
ascertain whether they were comply
ing with the uniform accounting pro-
visions OF the Hepburn railroad rate
law. The Speaker and his House lead
ers were willing to give but $4,000 for
that purpose and the President insist
ed that would in effect emasculate the
railroad rate law. The combination of
House Democrats and administration
Republicans by which that amendment
was enacted unquestionably constituted
a severe setback for the House or
ganization. 1t was a matter of bad
generalship, however If the Speaker
and Chairman Tawney had quietly
compromised on some intermediate
figure, the Presidents attitude on the
matter would hardly have become
known. or at best would have attracted
little attention.
But the issue was Joined. the Presi-
dent won clearly, after having sum-
moned a number of Democratic and
Republican representatives to the
White House. On the heels of this de-
cisive victory he began to make last
ditch fights on all his other legislative
propositions. The Speaker had to take
notice Of this belligerent attitude. The
House Democrats were ready to join
with administration. Republicans to
make a majority to pass other meas
ures the President wants. These Demo-
Gratis had. along with the President,
scored when the S35OOOO' amendment
was forced through and they were ac-
cordingly all the more eager to en-
courage the warfare within the Repub
lican party.
Representative Townsend, of Michi-
gan. the Republican who led the adj
ministration forces on the floor of the
House. naturally got himself cordial
" disliked in the Speakers private
room. This. however, did not feeze
him and he started out to organize for
other measures that the President
wanted. The Speaker took note of all
that and before long it became known
that steps were being taken to carry
the administration measures before a
conference of House Republicans. Two
of those conferences are being held
this week. One Tuesday night will be
over the compromise currency bill, au-
thorizing clearing house commissions.
Another Thursday will be upon amend
ments to the Sherman antitrust law
and upon anti-injunction bills.
The Speaker said he was willing to |
submit these or any other measures to
a Republican conference of the House. |
That was taken as a signal he had |
surrendered. Some of the chronicles, |
exceedingly friendly to the President, |
exuberantly proclaimed it as an AFFECT |
surrender. It was hardly a correct
Characterization. The fact that a bill |
has been submitted to a House con-
ference by no means assures that it will |
be enacted into law. The fact is quite !
as likely to signify that the Speaker |
has set a trap, into which the Presi- |
dent and his Republican friends of the |
House are cheerfully walking. In the |
first place the compromise currency |
bill is favored quite as much by the |
Speaker and his lieutenants as it is
by the President and there is no sur
render whatever in placing that be-
fore the conference. The leaders have
been working for weeks with members,
them to the significance of
the currency leislation-a subject on
which most members are woefully
ignorant-and just as certainly as these
leaders can feel certain of a Republican
majority for that bill it will be brought
in and passed The effort in the con-
will be toward getting such
majority. The Presidents friends and
the Speakers friends will be working
to the same end.
But when the second conference is
held-upon the Sherman law amend
rnautS and fbe anti-iniunctiOn hilIS-it |