Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-07-30
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent


efforts of President Taft to induce his
party leaders in Congress to make good
the pledge of the party platform, and |
of himself as the presidential candi-
date, for tariff revision downward. The
situation is, of course, susceptible of
change at any moment, but the indica-
lions today. are that the President will
conclude to accept number of COM
promises between the rates he has so
mistakenly demanded and the extor-
tomato duties imposed by the Senate.
The pressure exerted on the President
has been something tremendous and
less optomistic believer in the protec
tive policy must long ere this have be-
come convinced that method of legiS-
lation which can submit the Chief Ex-
ecutive and the members of the domi-
nant party In Congress to such power
full influence is intrinsically wrong and
can never be administed with single
ness of purpose and the goodness of the
whole people always, or even general
ly, uppermost.
1t is asserted, not by Democrats or
by insurgent Republicans, but by Or
ganization Republicans and protection
lists in good standing, that every five
cents imposed as a duty on iron ore
will net the parties to the ''gentlemen's
agreement" which stands for the Steel
Trust 100000 year. This means
that the Dlngley rate Melted the trust
$16, 0O0,0 900 a year and that whatever
rate is adopted, but if 10 cents ton, or
even cents ton, as now seems prob
able, will sufficiently augment the
profits of the trust to make it well
worth while to maintain an expensive
lobby in Washington to exert the pro-
per sort of pressure ON the members of
both houses of Congress.
The apparent Willingness of Presi-
dent Taft to entertain any sort of COM
promise proposition on those commodi-
ties on which he has taken so positive
a stand is the occasion of serious disap-
pointment to many of his admirers.
His willingness to do so indicates to
the full the extraordinary cleverness of
Senator Aldrich who has taken Mr..
Taft's measure with his usual astute-
ness and has perceived that to oppose
81, Ia fafo 70
interests which the Senator from Rhode
Island, has at heart. Instead of oppos-
ing the President Mr.. Aldrich has eX-
pressed the most cordial sympathy
with his aims and ideals, although de-
ploring the. blindness with which many
of his colleagues refused to do the same
He has apparently labored valiantly
to induce his colleagues to agree to the
Presidents recommendations and has
finally thrown himself at the Presi-
dents feet worn out with his labors,
and begged in plaintive accents for
some respute from the hercuIean task
which ''his leader" has set him. And
in this way he has touched the Presi-
dents sympathies which are ever up
permost and where opposition would
have reused all the antagonism in Mr..
Taft's nature, this seeming compliance
has won from him no small measure of
consideration and sympathy.
The leaders in Congress still predict
that the tariff session will come to a
close by July 81, but the prospects for
adjournment by that date are far from
encouraging. Adjournment before the
end of the following week, the week
ending August 6, is, however, regarded
as a safe prediction. Senator Culber-
son took occasion this week to have
printed in the Congressional Record a
tabulated statement of the various
votes on the tariff schedules which is
intended to correct the popular impress
sion that the Democrats have been re-
sponsible for many of the Senate in
creases. Among other things, Mr..
Culberson submits that had it not been
for Democratic opposition, the Repub-
licans would have imposed a duty on
tea and coffee, or at least would have
provided for such duty under the
maximum and minimum provisions
of the bill.
The President has taken the first
step in policy which he expects to
eliminate in the establishment of
Department of Insular Affairs, similar
to the British Colonial Office He has,
by an executive order, under authority
conferred on him in the Porto Rican
bill recently passed by Congress, trans
ferred Jurisdiction over Porto Rico from
the Department of the Interior Of the
War Department and has there confid-
ed it to the bureau of Insular Affairs
which has long exercised jurisdiction
over the Philippine Islands and which
has supervision Of the administration
of Cuba during the American occupa-
ton of that island. About the middle
of August, the Secretary OF War, ac-
companied by General Edwards, Chief
of the bureau of Insular Affairs, will
make tour of inspection of Porto Rico
to be followed by the recommendation
of necessary changes in the Foraker
Act, under which the island is govern
ed
Washington's Plague Spots
lie in the low, marshy bottoms OF the
Potomac, the breeding ground of ma