Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-03-17
PRESIDENT BELIEVED POLICY OF
INSURGENTS FRAUeHT
WITH DANGER.
FEARED DEFEAT OF TARIFF
LOSS OF NEXT CONGRESS
House Regulations as Amended Con-
tinue Control Of Republican Party
Constituents of congressman Both
Indorsins and Finding Fault With
Their Attitude.

| Washington, March 17.--The amend
ments adopted by the house yesterday
do not materially change the order of
affairs in that body. Indeed they do
not go beyond what the house organi-
cation from the beginning, almost, has
been willing to concede. They may be
an improvement in giving members a
chance to push forward the bills in
which they have particular interest
and they may not.
importance) they do not leave the
house rudderless and inefficient on the
eve of tariff revision, and this is what
the business world is most interested
in. 1t would have been most unfor-
tupate If the house had entered upon
u wrangle over the rules with unfore-
seen consequences when It's efforts
should have been directed toward
speedy revision of the tariff schedules.
Taft With Regulars.
during the insurgent movement has
been widely misrepresented 1t is not
true that he was assuming a neutral
attitude or was secretly .lvoring the
insurgents. During the whole fight he
was doing all that he could In support
of the house regulars, and In their be-
half he summoned to the White House
not only members of the house but SEN
ators also, asking all OF them to do
what they could to restore peace and
not permit the struggle to continue.
There is high authority for the state
ment that the president believed the
insurgent movement fraughr with the
most direful consequences TO the re-
publican majority. He felt That if the
insurgents were to get what their radi-
cal leaders had demanded 1t would not
only have seriously interfered with
tariff revision, IN fact, perhaps MAX
ing satisfactory revision absolutely i'm
possible, but that it would have meant
the defeat of the republican party In
the elections of 1910, and the control of
the Sixty-second congress by the DEM
ocrats.
ImperiIled Tariff Legislation.
in more or less sympathy with what
the insurgents were demanding, but at
no-time did he permit this sympathy to
cloud Mis- vision and betray him into
support of what he regarded as CHM
erical movement, highly unwise and
brought on at the worst possible time
in the world.
Speaker Cannon was more OF less OF
a load on the republican party during
the last campaign. His rule over the
house has been more or less arbitrary.
He has played favorites on many occa-
sions, and thus made the harsh rules
seem more harsh. All these things he
has done and more, but the president
as the leaG Of his party could not af-
ford to permit these considerations,
weighty as they were, to influence his
Judgment as to what should be done
during the present fight. Believing
that the insurgent movement, If victor
ious, would practically disrupt the
party in congress just as his admins
tration was beginning, he threw the
entire weight of his influence to the
side in favor of the regulars and this
fact, which Is stated on authority,
should be known in all parts of the
country, where there are insurgent re-
publican members.
Constituents Take Hand.
The insurgent members have been
receiving many letters from ;admiring
constituents, indorsing their position
and telling them to stand pat and over
turn the house organization. These
members of the delegation who have
foy ho
reasons which have actuated the pres
ident, have at the same time been re-
ceiving many letters of criticism from
their constituents
Some of the letters have been abus-
i've and the writer's have Invariably as
sumed that the president was either
secretly or openly in sympathy with
the insurgent movement.
For these reasons it is of some i'm
portance to state, as is stated here,
just what the position of the president
has been, and to say in connection
that he is very glad that the fight came
out with the regulars as the victors.
There is not the slightest question
but the insurgent movement would
have gathered strength and perhaps
been successful, had it come at any
other time than when it did. There is
authority for the statement that scores
of regular republicans were at heart,
like the president, in sympathy with
the insurgents and would have been
glad to support them could they have
done so without imperiling the rule of
the republican party. This is particu-
larly the case with almost all of the
Minnesota and Dakota members who
met Yesterday with the regulars