Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1909-09-23
PRESIDENT TAFT
FAY0RS PAYNE BILL
IN SPEECH AT WIN0NA, MIMI, He De.
FENDS PAYNE BILL-BEST EVER
PASSED.

made since his occupancy of the
White House, President Taft here
last night, in the state which is
the hotbed of the ''insurgent''
movement within the republican
party, defended the Payne bill as
the best tariff measure ever passed
by a republican congress, and
hence the best tariff bill the peo-
pie have ever known. The presi-
dent boldly asserted that the in
surgents who voted against the
bill had abandoned the Republican
party.
"Was it the duty of the men,
Der of congress who believed that
the bill did not accomplish every
thing that it ought to accomplish,
to vote against it?'' asked the
president.
Il am here to justify those who
answer this question in the mega
tive. l am not here to defend
those who voted for the Payne bill
but to support them.''
To this statement the crowd in
the Winona operahouse responded
with cheers that could be heard
down the street. 1t was given by
adherents of Representative Jas.
A. Tawney of this district, chair
man of the house committee on
appropriations, who has been on
the defensive ever since the ad-
journment of congress because he
did not vote with the other men,
bars of the delegation from Min
nesota, both in the house and SEN
ate against the bill.
Mr.. Tawney met the president
at Lacrosse in the afternoon and
accompanied him to this city, his
home town. 1t had been reported
for some time that the president
intended defending Tawney, but
there were none to predict that
the president would 60 so far as
he did tonight in characterizing
the position taken by the insur-
gent senator's and representatives.
The president had met Senator
La Toilette in Wisconsin, one of
the leaders of the insurgent move
ment, and mad greeted him quite
cordially.
ITO make party government ef-
fective," said the president,
members of that party should
surrender their personal predilec-
tions of comparative less impor-
lance. l am not here to criticise
those who felt so strongly and be-
lieved so intensely that it was
their duty to vote against the tar
if bill, because it did not contain
all they thought it should.
1T was a question for each
man to settle for himself.
In matters of this kind it is a
question with a party representa-
tive whether he shall help main
tain party solidarity for accom-
plishing its chief purposes, or
whether departure from the
principle in the bill, as he regards
it, is so extreme that he must in
conscience abandon the prrty."
Further along the president
gave final word to the insur-
gents: ...
II am glad to see that those who
voted against the bill still insist
tnat they are Republicans and
that they intend to keep up the
fight for still lower tariff rates
within the party.
F.. ''Tbat is their right, and their
view of things is their duty.
y, ''AIl / have to say in respect to
Mr.. Tawney's action in voting for
the bill and my action in signing
it, is that l believe that the inter
ests of the country, the interests
of the party, required me to sacri-
flee the accomplishment of certain
Things in the revision of the tariff
which I had hoped for in order to
obtain party solidarity, which |
believe more important than the
reduction of rates in one or two
schedules of the tariff 49,.