The free lance. (Fredericksburg, Va.) 1885-1926, 1909-10-30
UNCLE JOE FEARS
FOR HIS FUTURE.
Speakers Friends Ask Taft to
Endorse Him.
DEEP WATERWAYS OBSCUREO
Trip Down the Mississippi Develops
Into a Political Junket to Discuss
Interstate observation-disclosures De
bate Conservation Of Forests.

Helena. Ark. Oct. 2S.-The ghost OF
President Taft's speech in Boston
praising Aldrich is haunting him.
Uncle Joe Cannon's friends in con
eress now ask that Mr. Taft give the
same sort of a public certificate 10
him. They have held meeting on
the steamboat Quincy. of the presl'
dents Mississippi fleet. and have de-
Cided to urge Mr.. Taft to say some
thing in Uncle Joe's favor before the
deep waterways cruise ends.
The speakers friends argue that ne
is as deserving as Senator Aldrich oil
the presidents o. X. and that ne
stands in much greater need OF II.
They add that the speaker and the
senator have stood for the same thing.
and that II Mr. Taft indorses one he
ought to be willing to extend sup
porting hand 20 the other. Some OF
the speakers friends fear that the
tariff agitation is going to develop
solely into a fight against Uncle joe
and they would like to have helpful
word or two from the president.
Taft Not Likely to indorse Cannon.
II Is unlikely that Mr.. Taft viii be
drawn into any public expression on
Speaker Cannon. The subject is loaded
with too much dynamite. especially in
the middle west. The presidents In
dorsement of Aldrich is the most I'M
popular thing he had done on his trip.
and one experience undoubtedly will
be enough.
The great deep waterways excursion
has developed into a political junket
and an occasion for discussing inter
state problems. Occasionally a look at
the muddy river brings TO the minds
of the junketers the real purpose OF
the trip. but that proposed fourteen
feet channel has got TO be largely an
afterthought Mr. Taft himself had
the temerity TO suggest that the deep
waterway agitators pause and discover
whether they really want the Missis-
sippi deepened. whether the merchants
themselves don't prefer rail to water
transportation. II made the deep wa
terway boosters gasp. this Taft state
ment. and they have come to the con
clusion that the president isn't very
enthusiastic over their pet s2O0,0OO.oOO
project.
Practically the only topic OF CONVEX
sation on the. boat bearing the III con-
gressmen has been Uncle Joe's future.
Frost as insurgents and Regulars Meet.
The insurgents are represented on
the boat by six men. including Victor
Murdoch OF Kansas. and Cooper. OF
Wisconsin Many stories of Murdock'sa
unpleasant life while cooped up with
the Cannon supporters have been car
ried to the other boats II is said that
he and Uncle Joe pass by without
speaking and that when they sit down
TO dinner the frost almost freezes the
fee cream.
On the steamboat St Paul where
the twenty-five governors hold forth.
the deep waterways talk has long since
given place TO a discussion Of the con-
servation OF the nations forests The
governors held a meeting similar to
the one that was held in Washington
at the instance of President Roose
welt. Clifford Plnchot, chief forester,
told them Of the work OF his bureau,
and the governors discussed means OF
cooperation Between the states and
the federal government in protecting
the forests. If anybody had raised the
cry Fourteen feet through the Missis-
sippi valley" he would have been fired
out of the meeting. yet they call this
deep waterways excursion.
Mr.. Taft in his speech at Memphis
punctured the idea that anybody is
going to learn anything practical about
the Mississippi by this cruise from ST.
Louis to New Orleans. IAN inspection
and an investigation OF the Mississip-
pi" is the way the deep waterway
boosters have described the trip.