The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-09-29
FRON OTHER PENS

CHAMP CLARK AND THE TARIFF
Champ Clark supplies his party with
what may be called a national plat
form for this year. He has authority
to speak because of his position and
prospects. If a Democratic house is
chosen-a thing almost conceded by
the Republicans-Mr Clark will pre-
size over it, and exercise all the inf1u-
enee attaching to the office of speaker.
The committee will be named by him,
and he will be consulted from time to
time during the session about the
shaping of the more important meas
ures.
The Clark platform carries ten
items. Eight of them need not oc-
cupy much space in discussion. Econ
omy in expenditures, conservation of
natural resources, popular election of
United States senators, a hrmer treat
set down as general. Both parties say
amen.
Item ten in the enumeration calls
for a word. Mr.. Clark declares for a
comprehensive inquest as to Republi-
can conduct in office. He proposes "a
ments are to be investigated and the
results laid before the country This
is meant to supply the presidential
campaign with spice.
But item one carries the blue rib
bon. Mr.. Clark makes the tariff the
paramount isuue, and declares for q
revision for revenue only He has al
ways denounced protection as robbery.
At time when the speakership was
not reckoning, he took the most dis
| tinct free trade ground. He probably
still occupies it. But as speaker will
he go as far as his words now commit
him?
A tariff for revenue only has been
Democratic doctrine for a great many
years. For forty years it has been a
continuous cry. The Tilden platform
uttered it, and the Hancock platform
repeated it. Mr.. Carlisle on that is
sue defeated Mr.. Randall for speaker
of the Forty-eighth congress, and Mr..
| Cleveland was three times nominated
for president and twice elected on a
pledge to reduce the tariff to a revenue
| basis.
And yet no tariff measure introduced
! in congress in that long time by a
| Democrat has redeemed the pledge
The Morrison horizontal bill did not.
| The Mills dill lacked a great deal of
doing so. Mr.. Springer's popgun bills
were of no consequence, while the Will
son bill, which became a law, was de-
betrayal OF party promises even before
Mr.. German and his friends laid
hands on it and made it more objec-
| tionable than ever.
Mr.. Clark, therefore. has a job or
his hands. VIII he be able through
his lieutenant Mr.. Underwood to re-
deem a promise which baffied Morri-
son, Mills, Springer and Wilson? We
must wait for his bill. But his prom
Use is clear--Washingto Star.
| o
A WIDENING BREACH
1t would please most of the practical
politicians on the Republican side of
the house to see the breach between
Roosevelt and Taft closed. They de-
sire harmony, no matter on what
terms, because they know what dis
order means at the polls. They have
the record of the fight between the
Stalwarts and Half Breeds, some tWen-
ty years ago, to guide them to a right
conclusion, and if they had forgotten
what that historic controversy amount
ed to, they would be made alive to the
consequences of factionalism by the
more recent performances on the Dem
ocratic side of the house. In plain
terms, they are convinced that the
presidency will be won by. the Demo
Gratis two years hence, if the animosi-
ties now raging between the conserva-
tives and radicals, led respectively by
Taft and Roosevelt, are not subdued
1t was the Stalwart and Half Breed
diSsension that gave the state of New
York to Cleveland when he ran fol
governor, and a little later enabled him
} to carry it for the presidency.
, There is little reason for believing
| that the harmony aimed at can be eff
fected in any important degree. There
is a real difference of view. The rad
icals cannot be brought into line by
: the use Of patronage, and 1t is no les:
certain that the conservatives will no
support the Roosevelt program. Tit
chances, therefore, are not in favor O.
? compromise. AS Mr. Roosevelt ha,
} said, it is "a fight to the finish :
statement that applies quite as clearly
: to the nation as to the state.-Brook
lyn Citizen.