Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1909-10-06
PRESIDENT TAFT's TOUR.

II
sent to young lady. typical of tn
west, bunch of flowers named afte
the things he has favored in hi
speeches, and the young lady wa,
ing him aside with the remark. "W
call those things weeds out here"
AT Denver Mr.. Taft, in deliyerin,
a speech in support of the corpora
ton tax, made an extended argumen
against the income tax. In brief hi
statement was that while he hopee
the income tax amendment to tht
constitution would be adopted he /.
not in favor of imposing the ia,
which this amendment will authorize
except in the event of war or some
other great national calamity. Re
ferring to this speech, the Omaha
World-Herald says:
"All this from a president who was
believed, by millions of people, to be
in favor of an income tax when he
was candidate for their suffrages.
All this spoken in behalf of party
that only yesterday excused itself
for defeating the income tax law on
the plea that it was afraid" it
wouldn't be constitutional.
The mask is torn off by the can.
did Mr.. Taft. There is an end to
pretense. Besides, it is no longer
necessary to deceive the people. The
election is over.
1--WE invite the attention of pro-
gressive republicans to this great re-
form leader of theirs, under whose
unsullied banner they so triumphant
ly did up the Aldrich- Cannon crowd
in the national convention hardly
more than year ago.
I'VE must have no income tax now,
he tells us boldly, because it will in,
terfere with the protective system.
1t will be sacrilege to the false
idols of high tariff 1t will provide
so much revenue, out of taxes lev
led on wealth. that there would be
less and less excuse for tariff taxes
on poor folks sugar and shoes and
S. kings and clothes. The income
tax would be menace to the steel
trust, the oil trust, the big profits
of the woolen and cotton mills-anad
SO is to be considered only as last
resort. Only in case of dread and
srim necessity, If the land were run.
ming red with blood, If all the taxes
it was possible to pile onthe bowed
shoulders of the poor still fell short
of meeting the awful need of the
government-only then would viii.
liam Howard Taft consent to tax
on the incomes of the nations rich
men; only then would he consent to
allow this wicked menace to the pro-
tective fetish for a little while to
stalk the earth.
The Taft who faces the great and
progressive west today. smilingly de,
fiant. politely insolent to its dearest
ideals. cheerfully scornful of its most
cherished principles and policies, is
different Taft from that one who
came among us as candidate a
twelvemonth gone. That Taft car
ried the Roosevelt aegis before him.
The Roosevelt halo was above his
head. With a brawny arm he hugged
a Roosevelt nursing bottle to his
breast. From his lips fell dulcet
words of encouragement and hope to
those who were gnashing their teeth
because the LaFollette platform had
been trampled under foot in the Chi
cago convention.
But now that same Taft is using
the planks of the LaFollette plat
form for golf balls, while Joe Cannon
and Nels Aldrich are his appreciative
and admiring caddies."
The Literary Digest thinks that
president Taft's outspoken support
of the Payne Tariff, his condemna-
tion of the Western Republicans who
voted against 1t, and his avowed op-
position to more tariff revision in
the near future, are thought likely
by many to make the Winona speech
a landmark in the history of his Ad.
ministration: Its vital paragraphs
were quoted in these pages last week
This speech, says one paper. will
provide both his friends and his foes |
with their best ammunition in next
years Congressional campaign. 1T
will be recalled that seven Republi- |
can Senators and twenty Republican
congressman, mostly Western, Joined |
the revolt against the Payne-Aldrich
Bill, and their action is taken to in
dicate similar restlessness among |
a large part of the Republican voters.
Into the region OF chief disaffection
went President Taft, and there deliv.
cred an outspoken Endorsement OIL
the Tariff Law, declaring 1t the best
the country has ever had.
The Chicago Tribune, one of the
most Influential Republican organs Of
the Middle West, calls upon the party
to answer this speech "by retiring
stand-patters and electing in their
stead men of progressive tendencies
to revise the tariff in the next Con-
gress. 1t is perfectly clear" to the
indianapolis Star Qnd. Rep.) that
President Taft is out of touch with
American public sentiment .op the
tariff question" The whole purport
of his speech, it adds, "is a condo
nation of outrageously high duties,
which should have no defnese," and
"on this sort of tariff doctrine the
President could not have carried In
diana" "His words will be profount