Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-05-26
FROM THE
PLEADING WITH THE SPEAKER.
MIR. BRYAN,s PAPER

Newspaper dispatches say that Pres-
ident Roosevelt invited Speaker Can
non to the White House, May B, and
bluntly told him that unless he allowed
tho house to do something for the pub
lie interests he would be responsible
for Republican defeat. The president
particularly wanted the wood pulp bill
passed.
Referring to the conference between
the president and the speaker. Walter
Wellman In dispatch printed In the
Chicago Record-Her says:
why pass bill simply because the
newspaper publishers want 1t? The
country will declare ewe have discrim'
mated in favor of the newspapers ana
we will receive the righteous swattlng
of the voters because we have done
something for them and not for the
rest of the people"
This, in substance, is understood to
be the Cannon argument, or excuse,
for not yielding to widespread pres
sure anent free-listing pulp and paper.
1t is an excuse, however, that has been
readily met by the new plan OF action
at the White House.
"If you want to do something for the
rest of the people as well, you have
the chance" That was in substance
the answer given to Speaker Cannon
| to-day. Here's the postal savings
! bank proposition. 1t has been urged
by the administration, is in the inter
est of the whole people, and the peo-
pie, having studied the matter, want
| the system established. They want
! that just as much as the publishers
want wood pulp and print paper on the
free list. You alone stand in the way
of both propositions. Act in both mat
tiers, or get off the lid and let the
house act and then 1t cannot be said
that congress was discriminating in
favor of any single interest"
4 This must be interesting reading for
Republicans who yet believe that the
/. Republican party intends to represent
the people.
Here tbs president of the United
States invites the speaker to the
White House and pleads With him tc
give Republican publishers-and, Of
: course, publishers generally-reliel
from tariff imposition. And when the
speaker says that wood pulp bill
would be dangerous object lesson TO,
voters who yet imagine that the for
eigner pays the tax and that "the rest
of the people" WILT then demand some
relief, the president says he might
give "the rest of the people" the
postal savings bank. Uncle Joe" is
right so far as the object lesson is con
cerned. A great many Republicans
who have for years patiently submit
ted to tariff exactlons are very likely
in the face of tariff revisions for the
benefit Of the newspaper publishers-
. to ask why not tariff revision for con
sumers generally"
And why not tariff revision? If i
4 is good for the newspaper publishe!
why not give 1t to the consumers gen
orally? And how does 1t happen tha
this great political organization, whose
leaders insist thai it is the party O
the people, the party Of God an6
morality" cannot be persuaded tt
legislate in public interests?
1t can hardly be coaxed to give
enough in the way of remedial legisla
ton to which the Republican politica
: managers may point as an excuse fol
the reelection of their party to the
: control of the national government?