The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-01-28

! their cause indirectly. The Repub-
! licans are confident that with suf-
ficient pledges to the country that
Cannon will not be reelected Speak
er they will get together and be
! returned to power, even though it
/ be with a small majority
! The pressure on Speaker Cannon
| to voluntarily announce that he
will not again become a candidate,
| despite his recent aggressive state
ment, continues. This is superin-
duced by the fact that it has been
discovered that the Democrats and
! Insurgents have made cast-iron
coalition and have a majority of
| three votes over the regular Re-
| publicans. In the House there are
! 219 Republicans and 169 Demo-
Gratis Three Democratic seats are
vacant. Filled, the combination
has a majority of six. caused by the
| fact that in the Insurgent camp are
| twenty-eight dyed-in-the-wool op-
ponents of Cannon and the present
] House rules. The lineup on a test
vote would be 1877 Democrats and
Insurgents to 191 Republican regu-
/ lars. This fact accounts for the
willingness of the regular Republi-
/ cans to make a concession, giving
| the Insurgents one member of the
| Ballinger investigation committee.
/ 1t also accounts for the strenuous
| efforts made by the President to
force them into a position where
/ they will have to vote for the meas
] l.
| the party. He can put through none
of those measures without them.
The breach is still wide.
During the week the President
talked with Representative Hayes,
of California; Murdoch, of Kansas,
and Gardner, of Massachusetts,
all of them Insurgents. He gave
them to understand that he, too, had
his back to the wall and that he
meant to do something" in the
way of getting his measures adopt
ed. He made it clear to them that
his test of their Republicanism
would be a vote for the following
measures, which he regards as
pledged by the party at the last
convention and in the campaign:
The limitation of the use of the in
junction power by the federal
courts; the enactment of amend
ments to the railway rate laws and
those to the laws which regulate
interstate commerce.; the establish
ment of a system of postal savings
banks; separate statehood for Ari-
zona and New Mexico; conservation
of the national resources, and
federal incorporation act.
Despite the direct assaults on
| Cannon and the meetings here dur
I ing the week of the governors of
the states and the National Civic
! Federation, the forthcoming Bal
linger investigation has been kept
| to the fore by additional charges
on the part of Representative
| Hitchcock, of Nebraska, against the
| Secretary of the Interior, on the
/ ground of alleged mismanagement
! in his department. The charges
incidentally allege that funds of the
department have been improperly
used in paying the private travelling
| expenses of Secretary Ballinger's
| second cousin. The investigation of
these charges next week by the
House Committee on Expenditures
in the Interior Department is look
ed forward to with interest because
| of its bearing on the larger inquiry
! of the joint committee on which
| Senator Root will represent the Ad-
ministration. This latter fact alone
shows the Importance. of the inves-
! tigation in determining the success
or failure of the Administration SO
! far as the near future is concerned.
| The decision by the Republican
caucus to stand by the selection of
Ollie James, of Kentucky, one of
the most radical of the Democrats
of the House, as member of the
same committee, though it refused
to accede to the election by the
Democratic caucus of Rainey, of
Illinois, who raised such a rumpus
in the Panama canal charges, indi-
| Gates that the aggressive opposition
to Secretary Ballinger will be mani
tested during the hearings.
A significant fact also in this
connection was the ovation given
| Clifford PinchOt by the assembled
delegates to the meeting of the
Civic Federation when he addressed
them from the same platform as
President Taft and made a plea for
conservation, emitting all mention
of the particular controversy which