Arizona republican., 1908-01-12
PHoENN ARIz.. JANUARY F, 1908
MIR. FoRAKER,s RECORD.

''Wags." the Evening Outcast. seeks to excuse its ingratitude to Senator Foraker by the plea that he Ifs fight ing the battles of the vested interests and opposes the policies of Roosevelt, which Taft stands for" As we have hitherto remarked. what "Wags'' may think or utter is in itself of no earthly consequence. but in this case the bay ing of "wags" has given voice to an error which has been given wide cir culation and which deserves correc- tion That Is, 1t has come to be widely believed that Sehator Foraker was a representative of the vested inter ests," the corporations. the railroads. not matter but many sensible people have been led into the same misunder- standing which may be easily correct ed by the record.
 Until the rate bill was brought up in the last congress there had never been the slightest suspicion that MT Foraker was a representative of any corporation. As lawyer he had never been connected with any other corpo ration than a Cincinnati street railway company. For a generation he had been almost continuously in the pub lie service and he had never partici- pated SO conspicuously in any legis- lation particularly affecting corpora tions as to attract especial attention to himself though he had long been a foremost figure in national legislation.
 But at the beginning of the Fifty ninth congress he violently opposed two of President Roosevelt's policies" One was joint statehood, and the other the rate bill ThereuDon the presi- dents clacuers, most of whom af- terward came to be known as muck rakers. set up the cry that MT. Fora ker was the champion of the railroads. They did not enter into specifications as to the railroads represented by him, though it was vaguely hinted that he was in the employ of John D. ROcke- . was taken up, and in the general mis- information which prevailed in the country at that time. those not famil- jar with the relations of NIT. Foraker were easily led to believe that his op- position to the rate bill was based up- on his friendliness to the railroads. the Standard oil company and the other corporations which would be af- fected by it.
 His declaration that he was opposed to the measure because of its uncon- stitutionality in part; because of the unwisdom O. it: because it was un- necessary. since the Elkins law already afforded the chief protection designed to be secured by it; because it would hamper railroad development without affording relief to the people; all were pronounced by the presidents friends and claquers to be spacious pleas.
 At length the bill was amended in a form acceptable to the president if not quit satisfactory to him. It was ac- ceptable to every other republican sen ator except Senator Foraker It was acceptable to Senator Aldrich, the father-in-law of John D. Rockefeller Jr. and of whose relations to the Standard oil company there was no ceptable to Senator Spooner and to every other senator who had been def initely accused of kindly interest in various corporations. It must be un- derstood that these senators were con vinced that the bill Tn its then pres ent form was harmless to their friends outside. and so, useless. as Senator Foraker without any corporate attach ] ments, contended it was. The year and half which has elapsed since its enactment, has not demonstrated that MT. FOraker was wrong. The govern ment has consistently avoided a test :. of the laws constitutlonality. Not prosecution has been begun under It. ! and the provisions of the rate bill have
  piled to the lowering or equalizing of rates which are generally higher now ghan they were eighteen months ago. ,
 There is one other policy" of the , pr 'sident which MT. Foraker opposed. ] one as We have remarked. is joint state hood in which the vested inter ests" could not have been concerned. Is that one of the policies of Roose- velt' which ''Wags" thinks Taft stands for?"
 Sometime after the passage of the rate bill over the solitary protest of MT. FOraker, he publicly alluded to the charge that he had championed the in- terests Of Rockefeller and Hartman.