The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-12

ucaOt0 ouClh y pppuiHuS'
Some day the Society for the Sup
preston Of the Beautiful will conquer
Italy and destroy its art treasures.
He Sat on ThemI
President TAFT administered n tre-
mendous shock to some of tho citizens
of Washington last Saturday night. The
occasion was festive, the Chamber Of
Commerce and the Board Of Trade Of
the city having rendered to the Presi-
dent a banquet. 1t is q retail town, but
rich In commercial bodies with high
sounding titles suggestive Of smoking
chimneys and many sweatshops and
great fleets Of galleons and argosies, 50
tho hosts appeared In largo numbers
and the illustrious guest was welcomed
with eKusion, and they all had a very
good dinner indeed. we hear.
1t wa at the nuts and wine stage that
a gentleman "arose In his place., as the
Grand Young Man Of Indiana would
say, and delivered himself Of what many
present supposed was the authorized
utterance OF the combined Chamber OF
Commerce and Board Of Trade there
assembled. In this they may have been
mistaken, but the speaker was a Judge
Of the District Supreme Court, a forc9ful
and polished orator, and his address
was so carefully prepared, SO profound
and comprehensive, that the trencher-
men were at least justified in assuming
that it was deliberate and representa-
tive. Certainly there was loud and con-
tinuous applause and every indication
Of proprietary pride and interest. His
theme was suffrage for tho District
citizens He portrayed tho quail
fic~ations Of the individual, the imper-
ishable germ Of patriotism that finds it's
expression at the ballot box, the bsnefts
! the local government would derive from
the fearless, enlightened and altruistio
impetus of a newly created electorate,
and then he sat down, pale, exhausted
but victorious. The dishevelled but
uproarious juhilation OF the company
rather went to strengthen the idea
that he had spoken as the inspired ad-
vocate Of the great mercantile bodies
that had conceived and materialized the
banquet. Suffrage for the District has
long been a dream Of academic gentle
men in Washington who look at thinss
through remote, scholastic glasses, and
Of non-academio gentlemen who, having
nothing in particular to do in connection
with any legitimate object Of the cham
Der or the board, prefgure a condition
under which they may become sraat
political leaders, with all the power and
privilege involved. At all events. the
speech was made and hilariously ap-
plauded, and then Mr.. TAFT, like the
poet after the rain, got up upon his
scornful legs,
Probably it was not meet and beoom-
ing that the President Of the United
States should lose his temper at what
had been widely advertised as a love
feast, and maybe he didn't do exactly
that; but the way he riddled, houted and
stamped upon the plea for District, suf-
frage exposed it's feebleness and do
nounced its utilities to the Queens
taste He didn't dwell upon the fact
that countless thousands Of eligible
voters now resident in Washington
Government employees, in fact-are
voters in various States and
therefore could not vote in Washington,
nor did he dwell upon the assured recall
citrancy Of the fashionable set who
never return to their homes until De-
cember, Tor did he say very much about
the condition that would ensue with the
conferred and nobody to e1er-
else it but a few retail merchants, a
handful of students and the vast popula-
ton Of the purlieus and the slums. He
addressed himself to higher and more
essential things and showed that Wash
the capital of the nation and in
fact a mere Federal reservation, should
never be surrendered to the mutations
and caprices OF a local electorate with
nothing at stake and no inspiration to
patriotic action.
MIR. TAFT made his speech--quite un-
prepared, by the way-and we shall
probably hear no more of District suf-
frage agitation during his term in Office.
A very wholesome and attractive pros
pect, by the way.