The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-07-17

and the appeal for votes to sustain the i
administration and continue a Repub- |
lican House of Representatives in |
power will be to the conservative /
rather than the radical wings Of the !
Republican party.
And in that connection many poll /
tician here is already wondering just |
how active President Taft is likely to
be in helping his party at the polls. |
President Roosevelt would fight the |
conservatives to a standstiH In Con-
cress, but when the campaign rolled
around he was ready to 60 TO almost
any length in aiding conservatives and
radicals alike to get back to the House.
Tt has been generally believed around
Washington that Mr.. Roosevelt WAS
tower of strength to many Represen-
tative seeking a reelection In close
district He undoubtedly resorted TO
methods, that a more careful man would
have avoided, but without injuring his
general popularity.
The present occupant of the White
House has been observing law and ira
ditions SO carefully In his administra-
ton that less is expected from him IN
the next campaign. At least the poli-1
tieians thinks they will have to take
their coats off and work as they lave
not worked before at q by-election in
ten years. They feel some uncertainty
about the popular enthusiasm over a.
decadence of Tadicalism in the White
House, for this appealed to a large class
of voters, who otherwise could not DE
counted upon to support the Repnb-
hcan ticket.
Ever since March 4 the radical mem
bers of Congress and the opponents Of
that political faith throughout the
country have been well received at the
White House, but, at the same cine,
they have been made to understand
that the President sides with the regu-
lar organization of his party in Senate
and House. Those regulars Of both
legislative branches are among the
strongest conservatives the Republicans
can muster They are the ones who
fought President Roosevelt, not alon
for his unconventional ways of doing
things, but also for the things he want
ed done.
| These radicals, Senators and Repre-
| sentatives, who prefer to call them
| selves progressfves, are muttering
much because they are given no com
I
4 dire predictions, which make the con-
servatives laugh.
tThere viii be so much prosperity
after this tariff bill has passed, said
Finance Committee Senator the other
day, to a grumbling Western Progress
/ sive, that the people won't have any
time to listen to your grievances. The
i people won't even care whether the
tariff bill is good or bad, -
There is less and less talk about or
ganized Republican opposition to the
tariff bill ON its final passage. The
have to defend the tariff bill in the
inext campaign, whether they like it or
not. The people then may or may not
| be particularly interested in tariff, but
the Aldrich-Payne bill will be talked
about in the campaign. Accordingly,
many of the Westerners, including Sem
ator Cummins of Iowa, have been try
ing to break the fall. Senator Aldrich
has been kind enough in some instances
| to cooperate with them to that end.
But while most of the progressives
will vote for the bill on its final pas
sage, they are alert to the fact that it
will go out to the country as a con-
sentative standpat measure, enacted
by standpat Republicans, and that it
will be regarded as new evidence of
the conservative character of the new
administration. So many voters read
the newspapers nowadays, that it will
be difficult to obliterate the impression,
Enow disseminated broadcast, that the
progressives did not have the eoopera-
tion Of the White House in making the
kind of tariff bill they wanted.
The President s cooperation with
Congressional conservatives has yet to
undergo the test of another session of
Congress, when legislative questions
more Rooseveltian than the tariff, will
be up for consideration. Will that
legislation bear the conservative O. K.
as distinctly as the tariff bill2 If the
progressives should get some consola-
tion next winter and find the President
recognizing their efforts with more en-
thusiasm, their ardor for the campaign
will be augmented. Otherwise there is
certain to be more or less indifference
among the progressive leaders, and for
the first time since the days of Me-
Kinley national campaign will be
| waged along oldtime conservative lines.
Il