The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-07-17
Demands a Measure in Line
With Parry Platform and
Pledges
PR0MOUNCEMEMT PROVED A
B0MBSHEll TO CONGRESS
Nothing Left for Higher Reyisionists
to DO But Get on the Band Naeon
and Pass the Kind Of q Bill the
President Will Sign, H.,

Washington, July 17.-President
Taft's emphatic declaration yesterday
that he regarded the Republican plat
form as meaning and the sentiment
of the whole people as demanding q
revision downward" eclipsed in In.
terest all minor and specific details
OF the tariff struggle in all circles
here today. The statement issued
late in the day after the delegation
OF congressman had appealed to the
president for the maintenance of pro.
lection upon raw material, particular.
ly iron ore, wool, hides, oil and lum.
Der, purported to be an outline report
of the discussion which took place
during the visit of the delegation and
especially of what the president said
to the visitors. But the very fact that
such statement was issued at all.
and in particular, the emphatic con-
clusion OF the remarks of the presi-
dent thus restated. made it clear to all
who studied the pronouncement that
the president intended it virtually as
an ultimatum.
Many read into the statement the
barely concealed threat on the part
of the president that if the bill reach
ed him in the form which he regarded
as unfaithful to the promises of his
party and disobedient to the sentiment
of the mass of the people, he would
veto it. Few of the prominent men,
bers Of either house of congress would
discuss the statement for publication
and most of the utterances intended
for quotation were of perfunctory
character. But in confidence many
talked freely, and some of the conser-
vatives very bitterly. Some went so
far as to say that the presidents
stand meant nothing less than the
defeat of the bill, although one man
said:
Now the standpatters will become
insurgents. The lines will all have
to be reformed and nobody can FORE
cast the outcome"
Those less excited were inclined to
the view that the president had SIM
ply made long foreseen move, es-
sential to the logic of the game" and
that it would mean the speedy dissolu-
tion of the opposition to downward
revision and the termination of the
long fight. with the bill at last in the
presidents hands substantially as he
has all along desired and intended It
should be-
increasingly the white house state
ment is regarded as in some sort an
informal message to congress at a
critical juncture such as Roosevelt
often chose for many of his directly
addressed messages. 1t is conced-
ed even by the most bitter opposition
that by his attitude thus far of hands
Of President Taft has attained a po-
sition of enviable independence and
that he has chosen an advantageous
moment when each house of congress
has fully discussed the question and
placed itself unmistakably on record,
and their joint product is in the hands
of the conference committee, to pre-
sent his views. not only generally to
the people at large but specifically
to those who are in position to act
Idecisively upon the subject matter.
The general feeling today is that
the presidents pronouncement would
inevitably have a profound effect not
only Immediately upon the conference
committee. but in the time intervening
before the final vote in the two houses
of congress, upon those representing
both wings, especially Of the Republi-
can majority, whose official action now
and whose political future after they
go home is SO deeply involved In the
Outrome