The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1909-01-15
PUBLIC GETS OFF
/. IN MUD IN ROW
At CAPITOL
FIGHT BETWEEN PRESIDENT AND
STATESMEN BEING WAGED AT
EXPENSE OF WHOLE PEOPLE
TARIFF FORGOTTEN.
BY ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.

a topic. Also the question is begin
ming to be asked by ones whose only
interest is the mild interest OF lockers
on. what public gooc is 10 come of II i!
The public harm is apparent enough.
In the controversial hubbub excited.
the tariff has already been lost sight
OF. Other questions OF moment have
also been sent To the rear.
Were congress and the White House
animated by public reasons, it might
not be so bad. while far from being
good. But the fued is wholly private
In It's character 1t Is no better than
just case of mutual hates, mutua!
antipathies.
One of the worst features is that
this Donnybrook business is being
waged at the expense OF the pubic
and with public weapons. IL is like n
row between roughs In the street,
wherein the blocks intended for paw
ing and making better the causeway
become missile weapons and the artil-
lery of private offeEse.
The world, the American world,
would come out better of If our viva
cious ones in high places would think
oftener OF the country. less frequently
Of themselves, and not permit the gen.
eral good as motive with them 10
ploy second fiddle 10 their petty vanl-
ties-play IL with q soaped bow. too.
Mr.. Tillman has defended" him
self and done himself no good. MT
Roosevelt did himself no good by at
tacking Mr.. Tillman. He might have
done so had there not been so many
more than Mr.. Tillman whom he mas
not attacked. And now, with this at
tack which failed, plus this defense
which failed, il Is to be supposed that
the business may end.
And so ending, what public need mas
been served, what public injury either
righted or revenged?
Accusation Falls Short.
Going up Forty-second-st. in New
York the other day, my eye fell upon
a great plate glass window that hau
been broken. A card pasted on the
broken pane read:
"This window was broken by two
drunken women. They were fined ~.
The window cost us $3.50. Where
do we get off?'
In this White House-congress war
the query pertinent becomes: Where
does the public get off?" Doubtless "
gets of where II usually gets on
yidelicet, in the mud
That presidential accusation OF
misuse of the ranking privilege
leveled at Mr.. Tillman fell short, "
not fat. 1t might have carried
farther were It not SO thoroughly
known that the ranking privilege Is
misused, and has been for years, III
every angle of the arrangement. from
White House and cabinet 10 senate
and house.
And now Mr.. Tawney, over in the
house. as chief of the appropriations,
is to engineer through Mr.. Olmstead
and committee an Investigation
into the secret service expenditures or
the score or more departments. lhey
say. or rather Mr.. Tawney says, that
the aggregate of these disbursements
q la Fouche reaches $20,000,OOO. Very
likely! What then? Will II be less
next year because of the Olmstead-
Tawney inquiry? Have these gentle
men any thought OF making II less?
Or do they so much as care? Or are
they brought to these sudden gusts OF
economy and fiscal virtue by any
higher, nobler motive than merely to
fling an appropriational dead cat at
the president?
The great loose screw with both
White House and congress is that they
look too often In the mirror. too sell
dom from the window. Like Kipling's
gorilla. they suffer from an overplus
Of ego in their cosmos.
The Tawney-Olmstead investigation
Beyond making copy" for the news
papers. beyond affording fieeting
glimpses of those feet OF clay which
appertain unto our various Republican
gods, what benefit will it work? What
benefit was ever worked by any con
sressional investigation? One time
and another. putting the years to-
gether. there have been a gross Of
these inquiries. Not one OF them ever
PANIED out They accomplished moth
ing. led nowhere. Commonly these in.
vestigations themselves are as At sub
jects for investigation as the affairs
which they assume to probe.
Should Forget II.
The Tawney-Olmstead hunting on
the trail OF secret service expenditures
will be no better, end no better than
it's futile. not TO say suspicious. prede.
cessors. The common veal would be
best served were the Roosevelts and
Tillmans, and Tawneys and what
others are involved in all this sod
paving and demonstrating to turn their
hacks on the whole affair and devote
themselves to tariffs and appropria.
tons and what other matters such
governmental trickery as White House
and Congress were instituted 10 con
slider and conserve.
Over the hubbub OF barbecue. the
wild halloo of 'possum hunt. and the
savage shout OF triumph as finally the
latter ferocious quadruped is brought
TO bay and slain, comes the clear bell
like word from Mr. Knox (Taft) that
Mr. Wynne, present consul general 10
London, will not be renamed for the
place. This. aside from what native
interest II is bound to possess for Mr..
Wynne, will prove exciting 10 what
hundreds among our citizens would
like to hold this latest OF fat Jobs
LOOMS is REAPPoINTED.
LANSING. Mich. Jan. l4-Maj. Ar
thur p. Loomis, of lonia, has been ro-
-.