The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1910-06-29
Plson Gardner Finds Amazing Diff
ference Between Measures Presi-
dent Placed Before Congress
and Bills Passed.
lsurgents Deserve Much Credit Fol
Good Legislation Passed By
Recent Congress.
BY OLSON GARDNER,

onths absence. have devoted q
eek TO seeing what has been done.
had been writing. before / went
way. Of the Taft program for legisla
on. Coming back, was greeted
18th claims that this program had
sen forced on congress by the
rensth OF Taft, and that loyal regu
n Republicans had served their coun
~ we'll ind that the loyal regu
n" Is the member Of congress who
las stuck to Aldrich and Cannon
trough thick and thin.
! got out the old administration
lis as introduced and compared them
It'll the printed copies Of the bills al
assed. ! am amazed.
The record Of the administration
Fhen thus viewed Is rather short.
The record is far different from the
rogram.
Some good legislation has been
laced on the books. but examination
hows that 1t was placed there by the
ombined efforts Of the Republican In.
urgents and the more decent Demo
rats.
Some bad legislation, proposed and
ushed by Taft. has been kept on the
ooks: also by the insurgents and the
progressive Democrats.
Some questionable legislation has
cen put upon the boks by the united
orces OF Taft. Cannon. Aldrich and
he administration Democrats.
The thing that strikes me hardest
, the absolute wiping out OF party
ines. There have been new lines
rawn. There are two new parties
Standpat and Progressive--and there
re Republicans and Democrats In
ach. Reading the roll calls can see
he Aldrich Democrats and the Can.
hon Democrats AZ plain as day. 1t II
he line that separates the common In.
|erest Of the country from the special
interests OF the few. That line has
crown since went away. II In getting
wider and blacker every day.
Here's another curious thing. It II
hat the Taft program has been re-
Fiaed from week to week, and every
piece OF legislation that was sure of
passage has been labeled as an item
in the Taft program. Those doomed
for defeat have been quietly dropped
but of sight.
Which paved the way for the pres.
bnt game, which Is to claim all credit
FOR al accomplishment, and to 90 be-
fore the country az the greatest get
Ter that ever got.
The big thing-the item about which
the administration clacque Is prepar-
ling to make the most noise--is the
railroad rate bill.
I was present In Washington when
ATTY. Gen. Wickersham sent the ad-
|ministration bill to congress. Now,
latter Ave months absence, I have had
Ia chance to compare that bill with the
new law. The law today resembles
1.-THE Wickersham-Taft bill only In the
|enacting clause. The insurgents have
rewritten the law. They have struck
|out Wickersham's repeal OF the anti
trust law; his legalization Of railway
mergers; his plan to let the attorney
general over-rule and veto the inter
state commerce commission; his per-
mission to water stock and validate
previous water; and half dozen SINH
lar jokers. They have cut out the
Wickersham jokers In the paragraph
creating the commerce court; have re-
written the long and short haul
giving authority to the commission to
regulate rates.
But II Is almost" After proposed
Increases In rates have been checked
for a couple OF months It Is doubtful
II the commission has authority to
prevent the increases desired by the
railroads.
The new law has no valuation
feature. 1t creates an expensive and
rather useless court. And its prin-
cipal merits consist In Its failure to
do what the TaftWickersham bill pro-
posed should be done by item No. /
In the Taft program.
So much for item No. l. The next
number Is the postal savings banks
law. President Taft should be given
credit for recommending and continu-
ously urging postal savings bank
bill. But again the law as he desired
II Is quite different from that passed.
The president seemed to have in mind
from the first one thing only, namely.
the collection of much money from the
poor folks dimes and nickles with
which to redeem and thus make q
market for the 2 per cent bonds which
have become a drug on the market
and a poor investment for the national
banks. In eliminating this feature
from the Taft bill. the insurgents
caused Taft to lose enthusiasm for the
present law, and he tells his con-
fidential callers that the present law
will hardly warrant anything more
than the establishment OF three or
four experimental banks In so many
large cities.
The creation Of commission to in
quire into stock and bond issues by
railroads is a Joke. All this informa.
ton is already in the records OF the
interstate commerce commission. What
Is needed Is a cure rather than dupli.
cate information.
The creation Of q bureau OF mines
Is a step TO get rid OF the present de-
partment OF government, bureau In
the geological survey. which Is doing
the work. It's chief, Mr.. Solmes. ia
a Pinchot conservation man, so he ID
to be displaced by a Ballinger-Gug'
genheim person.
The bill granting authority to the
president to withdraw from entry Ger.
tain public lands was so shaped un.
der administration influences that II
legalize only future Withdrawals. and
brings into legal discredit and ques
ton all conservation steps taken by
the Roosevelt administration.
This was, no doubt, Its chief pur'
pose., *
The bill granting separate statehood