Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1908-03-27
Mr.. TAFT'S CAMPAIGN
Money Used LavishIy to Force
His Nomination.
PUBLIC DUTIES NEGLECTED..

PUBLIC DUTIES NEGLECTED.
Seerstary Of War Spends Most Of His
Time Travelling Over the Country In
the interests of His Candidacy.
Print Paper Users Will Get No Re-
lief From Congress - Concerning
Yachts, Public and Privats-cest Of
Our Naval Estahlishmsnt-PIans OF
the Stand Pattsrs.
BY WILLIS J. ABBOT.
--QHe-ofS the curious features Of news
gathering in Washington is the rapid
ity with which a story, at first merely
hinted% at; passes quickly from the
realm of rumor to the point of publ
cation.ss A few days ago it was ru-
mored that the facts concerning the
enormous expenditures of money being
made to secure the nomination for the
presidency of Secretary Taft were like
ly to be made the subject of investiga-
ton by a widely circulated weekly pa
per. Within forty-eight hours the story
of the Taft money campaign was told
In full fnSa New York newspaper.
Secretary Taft is fortunate in having
a brother who is enormously rich, who
attained his fortune partly through
marriage, and partly because of a
shrewd combination of politics and
business and the successful manipula-
ton of public service franchises in Gin
cinnati. Two weeks ago people in
Washington who professed to know
told me that the Taft campaign for the
nomination was costing in the neigh
borhood Of SSO0,D0O. The investigators
for the New York paper, proceeding
along, as have reason to know, entire
~ distinct lines, fix 1t at $750,O00. This,
be it known, is the expenditure up to
date, yet the real work of controlling
convention has only just begun.
While there have been men travelling
all over the United States in the in
terest of Taft while he has had head
quarters in Washington and in Column
bus. yet what has been done up to the
present time does not represent half
the expenditure that will necessarily
have to be made IL his brother is to
buy the nomination for him. The con-
vention is nearly. three months off, and
these three months will be the time
that, If 1t does not try mems souls, will
try their pocketboeks.
Many people on the Republican, side
of the house and senate think that Sec
rotary Taft would have done better
to have made his. campaign without
this lavish expenditure of money. A
Kentucky congressman living almost
directly across the river from him said
to me today that two of the issues
likely to be raised against Taft are his
apparent neglect of the duties Of his
Office while travelling all over the Unit
ed States In the interests of his can
didacy and the lavish use Of money to
force his nomination upon an unwill-
ing party. At present Secretary Taft
says nothing in answer to any criti-
cism but If he shall be nominated he
will have to explain whence came the
money that paid for his extravagant
campaign and how he was able to Sc
cure from q civil service reform presi-
dent the leisure to go to all parts of
the world for self advertisement and
political purposes.
Dodging Free Paper.
The newspaper publishers and own
ers of the United States who have been
pleading with this congress for relief
against the extortiOns of the paper
ch
when they learn that the Republican
majority has agreed to put an item i'll
the agricultural appropriation bill for
their benefit The huge sum of $4,000
is to be asked for the investigation of
new substances from which paper may
be made.
l happen to know the proprietors of
three or four different newspapers of
Calculations ranging from $4,000 to 25,-
600 daily who say that the recent i'll
crease in the price of paper has cut
down their net earnings from $4,000
to $4,000 annually. You can imagine
what it must have meant to papers
like the Chicago Tribune, the New
York World and the Philadelphia North
American, with five times that circula-
ton.
The Newspaper Publishers associa-
ton asked that print paper and the
raw materials necessary for the manu-.
facture of print paper should be adj
mitted to this country free of duty.
They sent q committee to interview
President Roosevelt on the subject,
and he tossed them a wilted bouquet
by saying in his next message that
this should be done in crasz tc/protect
our forests. The Republican congress-.
or, rather, the five men who run ii, de-
cided, however, that to touch the tariff
on paper or on wood pulp would be to
open the tariff question. Therefore
nothing is to be done on the subject
except the appropriation of $4,000 to
secure information which will be quite,
as valuable to the paper trust as 1t
will be to the newspapers now ground
under the heavy heel of that trust,
What are the Republican papers re-
sponsible for the president who be-
trayed them and for the congress
which ignored them going to do about
1t?
Yachts, Private and Public. =
A New York newspaper the other
day printed half page of pictures, Of,
steam yachts owned by millionaires of
that city that were offered for sale
because of the financial stringency now
existing. They are beautiful big ships,
two or three of them requiring
crews of from thirty-eight to fifty men,,
exclusive of officers, and all employed
for the comfort and luxury of one man.
and his guests. They are bigger than
the caravels with which Columbus dis
covered America or the ship with
which Commodore Perry opened japan
to western civilization, but they are
nothing more than floating pleasure
houses.
If President Roosevelt had done moth
ing worse than to cause panic which
compelled the millionaire owners of