Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-09-26
HARD RAPS FOR ROOSEVELT IN FORAKERS REPLY;
SENATOR FROM OHIO SPEAKS IN HIS OWN DEFENSE

constituents and the whole country to
disregard the instructions of the ONO
legislature most of tho members of which
body had probably ST aided the questions
involved very little If at all.
l do not agree with Judge Taft that
senator should be controlled by the
legislature of his state against his in
telligence. his conscience and his JudS
ment about a great public question OF
far-reaching serious consequences.
| think a senator who would thus yield
to public Clamor and do violence TO ms
conscience his intelligence and his JudS-
ment would I've unfit to represent great
commonwealth in the Congress OF the
United States
Having such views 1 felt that it was
my duty to present them to the Senate.
and not be coerced into surrender or
them. or to cast a vote in conflict with
them
| need not repeat the arguments l have
50 often made to show that turning the
control of the rate-making power over TO
a commission was calculated to and mas
impaired confidence in railroad securities
to such an extent to stop railroad con-
struction and do much injury to all kinds
of business. from which it Will require
us a long time to recover.
Already the commodities clause has been
held to be unconstitutional by one of the
most respectable courts in the country
1t Is commonly acknowledged that IL Will
be an absolute disaster to the whole
country if the Supreme Court should re-
verse this decision.
There were other serious objections to
the rate bill that are now making them
selves painfully felt.
The announcement was recently made
that because of the abolition of low
through rates for our foreign commerce
our transContinental lines have practical
ly abandoned competition for oriental
trade. and that all ships flying the Amer
lean flag on the Pacific going out of
commission. From the same cause rates
OF shipments of grain for export have
been advanced from Buffalo to all north
eastern Atlantic ports from 3 to 312 cents,
and as a result it was announced two
or three weeks ago that for the week
from Montreal than from all the ports
of the United States. Other evil results
might be noted, but that is unnecessary
for present purposes.
Without disparaEinE genuine morality
1t can be truthfuly said that less i'm
aGinnry and professional Brightness Of
action" and "mOraI awakeninE' and
more common sense In the policies of
the administration would have been
better for the country and would have
excited less of that opposition of which
Mr.. Taft's letter complains.
At any rate, in the presence of the de-
cision on the commodities clause and the
unfortunate consequences resulting from
the enforcement of the rate law as to
foreign commerce, l do not think / need
make any apology for voting against the
rate bill; certainly l do not think 1t was
an offenSe of such a heinous character
that / should be read out of the party
on account of it, as Judge Tafts letter
practically proposed.
Empty Dinner Pals.
I have in mind not the stopping indefi-
ntely of adequate railroad construction
at time when it is so badly needed,
nor the losses amounting to billions of
dollars which have been sustained on &C
count of the shrnkage in values of all
kinds of securities, but the empty dinner
pals and suffering families of unem-
ployed wage workers and the humber
classes of people to be found by thousands
in every section of the Union.
Responsibility for such results is seri-
Gus. 1t is the first time we nave had
anything like it under a republican ad
mnistration. Who caused all this? Not
Providence. He has been generously
indulgent. All our natural conditions
favorable to a resumption OF the
fullest prosperity. and yet it does not
come. million brimful dinner pals
have been kicked over. We know that
the policies of the republican party
filled them. Whose policies cmptied
them? l am at least thankful, pro-
foundry so, that no one has ever ch1rg-
ed-not even my bitterest enemy-that
any dinner pail has ever been emptied |
or that any wage worker has ever lost |
Il days wages by reason of any act or
speech or vote of mine. 1t WAS because
i thought i fOresayv all these disasters
that 1 would not be stood up by the
President shoulder to shoulder with the
democratic senators to vote in support
of policies that they rightfuliy, as 1
thought, claimed rs their own.
But what manner of man is Judge Taft |
anyhow? 1 have known him for great
many years. and l thought intimately.
and yet at times I feel as though l did
not know him at all.
July 20, 1907, when he wrote the letter
the President publishes he was so devoted
to the truSt-Smashing policies of the adj
ministraton that he could not consent to
be maze President a part of the same
movement. | was to be honored with a |
reelection to the Senate because of my
opposition to that special feature of my |
policies and now, since the Standard |
Oil Company matter. there is manifested
the most unusual indignation.
Apparently every man who has any re- |
lation to the company is to be driven out
of public life. If so, l shall probably
have a great deal of company.
Taft and Standard Oil Men.
Only one month ago when Mr.. Taft |
visited Middle Bass and Toledo he was |
the guest of Mr.. c. T. Lewis of the law |
firm of Doyle & Lewis who have been
the attorneys of the Standard Oil Com |
pany for many years. standing next in
rank in that relation to Mr. Virgil T. |
Kline and when Mr.. Taft had occasion |
to pass back and forth between Middle |
Bass and Toledo, where l had the pleas |
ure of meeting him. he travelled on the |
yacht of Mr.. Richardson prominent I
maSnate, of the glass trust, and while het
doubtless paid his fare, at least the pa |
pers so announced when travelling from |
lot T'S,1n hi
die Bass, yet nevertheless he rode in the |
road OF which also Messrs. Doyle & Lewis |
are attorneys. What series of unpar- |
donabe crimes.
There did not seem to be any such |
righteous dislike of these Standard Oil
and other trust repre-. cntAtiNes ranking |
in the bosom Of Mr.. Tai, o.I the occasions |
to which | refer. On the contrary, he |
acted like a good. square. sensible hon
est-minded man who really enjoyed the |
company he VAS keeping and the enter |
ta.nment he WAS receiving, and who rec
ogniZed the late Senator Hanna was |
accustomed to say. that there were good |
trusts as well as bad and even decent |
people in the employment of the Standard |
Oil Company we'll as Objectionable peo- |
pie. and all that is to his credit
1t is also highly to his credit that when |
three years ago the President had occa- |
sion to appoint United States district |
judge for the northern district of Ohio |
Mr.. Taft. knowing the abilities and high |
character of John II. Doyle of this Stand
ard Oil firm of Doyle & Lewis, did not |
hesitate to recommend him to the Presi-