The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1908-12-17


and it is Now q Question of the
South Voting for What it Wants.
Important Conventions In WASH
ington-The Commission Appoint
cd by the President 10 Inquire Into
the Conditions of Farm Life Will
Make It's Report to the President i'm
a Few Diys-Speaker Cannon Has
Agreed to Tariff Revision.
Special to The Caucasian.
Washington, d. c., Dec Is, 1908.
1t is now about settled that Can
non viii be Speaker. but this was
former letter to The Caucasian until
President Taft knew where he was
standing on the tariff revision and
the other reform policies of the ad-
ministration.
When President Taft reached
Washington Speaker Cannon at once
called upon him and assured the
President on every point. Mr.. Taft
was not. even satisfied with this, and
requested that the Whole Ways and
Means Committee of the House would
call him and make similar assur-
ances, especially with reference to
the tariff. This was done the next
day, and after these conferences it
was given out that there would be no
objection made to Cannon.
However, there is a pretty fight
going on in the House to change the
rules which have given the Speaker
such arbitrary power, and it now
looks as if some modification would
be made.
Important Conventions in Washing
ton.
During the last week the Deep
Waterways Congress, the Rivers
and Harbors Congress. and the Con-
gress for the Conservation of Ma
tural Resources, have all been in
session in Washington The meet
ings were well attended and great
interest was shown by the delegates
and members of Congress- Much
good is sure to result from all of
them.
In few weeks the Commission ap-
pointed by the President to inquire
into the conditions of farm life and
to make recommendations for a gen.
eral uplift of agriculture will also
make its report to the President.
1t is generally stated that the &C
ton of the President in creating
this Commission, and also in organ
izing the Congress to consider the
conservation of natural resources,
along with the building of the Pan
anna Canal, will go down in history
as three of the greatest acts of Presi-
dent Roosevelt's administration. Of
course, it is also admitted, at the
same time, that he will be given the
credit for starting the great and
much needed reform in the regula-
tion of trusts and monopolies.
The Panama Canal Charges.
Recently there have been publish
ed several stories and charges to the
effect that there was graft in the pur-
chase of the Panama Canal These
charges have gone so far as to inti-
mate that some members of the ad-
n CT a fo 70
the Government to buy the canal
from France, and that they got some
of the money. The President has in
dignantly denounced these charges,
stating that the Government bought
the Panama Canal from the French
ed by the board of engineers appoint
ed by the United States Govern
ment; that the Government got what
it wanted at a price considered rea-
sonable, and paid the money to the
French Government, and that no one
connected with the administration
was interested in the deal except in
the interest of the Government, or re-
ceived a cent of the money, and that
outside of this, if the French Govern
ment should have paid any of the
money to any agents or to any Amer
| lean citizens, it is not known to the
administration and is not a matter
of concern
Protection for the South.
More evidence similar to that
quoted and commented upon in the
letter to The Caucasian of last week
has been given by Southern witness
es before the Ways and Means Com
mittee in favor of protection for the
raw materials and manufactured
| products of the South.
| Several Congressman, in comment
| ing upon these facts in connection
with President-elect Taft's speech in
New York. say that this evidence
shows that the President will not
have to convert the South to the
:, benefit of Republican policies, that
they are already converted, and that
| it is simply now question of the
South in the future voting for what
it wants.
| Friction Over Secret Service.
| Considerable feeling has been
aroused in Congress by a paragraph