The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-02-04

before the public Monday morning At
that time it was not known that the
House would soon be ready to adopt
resolution of rebuke But by Friday
morning Of last week it became plain
that that was just what the House
would do and that very morning it was
announced that the President would
give the Tillman report to the public
for publication Saturday morning con-
temporaneously with the story of the
House censure.
This angered Senators. They under
stood fully the principle on which the
President was proceeding. 1t is well
recognized among makers of newspa-
pers that the man who gets to the
public first with a. story usually gets a
better hearing and that, as a rule,
that which has most ginger in it or
raises good laugh at somebody ex-
pense is most widely read. When the
correspondence between the President
and Hartman over campaign contribu
tions for 1904 was making a great stir,
the President came to the front at
once with the sensational 5000, 600
conspiracy dinner. The public saw that
the conspiracy story was fresher and
looked bigger than the Hartman mat
ter. They forgot forthwith about Har-
riman and began to denounce the rich
capitalists who were willing-so it has
been said by a nebulous somebody-to
spend $5,000,000 to down their Pres
ident.
Reached the Public Promptly.
The President got to the public with
his denunciation and exposure of Till
man along with the story of his CEN
sure by the House. Mr.. Hale had not
then appointed his special committee
of investigation, but as soon as the
President made that move the Senator
allowed no grass to grow under his feet.
The committee is now going to work
with a vengeance. Whatever Mr. Till
man many faults may be, the Senate
recognizes his sterling integrity. If he
has erred, the Senate believes it only
an indiscretion. They resented in the
Senate the summary manner in which
the President proceeded against a mem
Der of their own legislative body.
In the meantime there had been other
.sdoings'' to stir the staid old Senate.
largely for political purposes undoubt-
edlv, had secured the passage of
resolution, asking the attorney general,
in effect, why there had been no prose
cution of the United States Steel Trust
for absorbing the Tennessee Coal and
Iron Company during the panic months
of the autumn of 1907. The President
came right back at the Senate. He told
them that he had acquiesced IN that
transaction on representations made to
him by E. H. Gary and FL. c. Prick.
He furthermore rebuked the Senate for
addressing an inquiry to one of his cabl-
net officers instead of to himself. He
had told Attorney General Bonaparte,
he said, not to answer that inquiry.
This, too, angered the Senate. The
way in which it was done, as well as a
| belief that the President was mistaken
in denying the right of the Senate to
address inquiries to his cabinet officers,
| augmented the resentment. The speedy
and emphatic rejoinder of the Senate
took form in the passage of resolu-
| tom directing the Senate Committee
| on Judiciary to inquire whether the
! President was warranted in permitting
/ such a consolidation to be made with
his approval The Judiciary Commit
| tee, composed of the Senate's ablest
| LAWYERS, is now at work on the lnvestl-
! CATION. Its report is naturally awaited
! with the keenest interest. If the re-
| port is adverse to the President, as 1t
| is understood it will likely be, that will
| be tantamount to a rebuke and may be
! quite as forceful as the rebuke admin
istered by the House. For it is very
serious thing to have an official pro-
nouncement that a President has ex-
! ceeded the law, which he is sworn to
enforce and obey.
Two Unfriendly Verdicts in Prospect.
| These two Senate committees there
| fore are sitting on matters involving
| quaIrels with the President, and there
| is every probability that the high state
| of feeling there will manifest itself in
| ways which can not be commendatory
| of the occupant of the White House.
! But there are quite as vigorous ac-
| tivisies at the House end of the Capitol.
| The "chiding committee as the
special committee appointed before the
holidays to investigate the offensive
Secret Service paragraphs, has come to
be known, completed it's labors when
Chairman Perkins had reported IN
favor of a rebuke and that resolution
had been adopted. The very next day,
a Saturday, Chairman Tawney of APP
preparations, whom the President had
assaulted for urging the passage of the
provision restricting the operations of
the Secret Service to the Treasury De-
partment during this fiscal year, which
provoked the President IS outburst in
| his annual message, introduced and
had enacted a resolution for a special
committee of investigation. This reso-
luton is drastic and comprehensive in
its terms. 1t authorizes an inquiry into
statements that the President made re-
garding members and employees of the
House and also a most searching in
| quiry into the operations of the Secret
Service Bureau. Ii is so sweeping that
the special committee has authority to
drag into the light every record of the
Secret Service Bureau. The signif-
canoe of that can only be appreciated
| when it is remembered that it has been
regarded as almost impious to pry into
secrets of that bureau. Even the names
of the Secret Service men are withheld
from the public. OF course, few of