The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-28
ATTACKING THE CABINET NOW.

ATTACKING THE CABINET NOW.
Now that Senators A1drich and Hale
have made known their intentions to
retire from public life in the near flu
ture. and the ''insurgent' movement in
the house of representatives has been
somewhat successful with the aid of
the Democrats in impairing the ma
1orfty machinery in that body, the NAL
contents in the Republican party have
trained their guns on the Taft cabinet.
1t must be Ieorganized immediately
from top to bottom If it is to suit their
fancies. With the possible exception
Of Mr.. Wilson, the secretary of agricul-
ture, every one of the members of the
cabinet is being classed as an unde-
sirable; as an intimate representative
of this or that collection of trusts and
working for the interests of predatory
wealth all the time and against the
interests of the people whom they have
been appointed to serve.
And it wasn't so very long ago that
some of the most severe critics of the
cabinet were commanding it as being
something of an ideal body of advisers
for the business at hand. To an I'M
prejudiced observer that is how the
cabinet, generally speaking, looks to-
day. This is an era in the history Of
the United States when constructive
craftsmanship Is the thing that is need
ed. Many and grave questions concern
ing the regulation of corporations, the
conservation of the nations resources,
etc, are up for settlement. That set
Element must be brought about by leg
islation which will be fair and honest
to all interests, legislation that will
- - - ~ -
Roosevelt began the agitation for the
settlement of most of these questions.
He expressed the opinion that Mr.. Taft
was better fitted than he was by tenn
permanent and training to put these
policies" into practice.
To help him do this work of monu-
mental Importance and of intricate
legal detail, Mr.. Taft selected a cabinet
made up in the main of some of the
best equipped lawyers of which the
United States can boast. That these
selections were not in vain has been
evidenced again and again by the form
and the terms of the proposed laws
which have been submitted by the
cabinet officers to congress as models
for legislation that needs to be enacted
If the important questions of the day
are to be settled in the right way.
These proposed laws are more stringent
than any others of like nature which
have ever been submitted to congress.
There is nothing in them to suggest
that they have been drafted in the in
terests of the big corporations and
against the interest of the people.
But those se1f-called Republicans
who are all SO bitterly opposed to the
Taft administration and everything in
connection with it, can not see things
in that way. Mr.. Wickersham Is held
under suspicion because a law partner
of his some years ago did some legal
work on his own hook for the Sugar
Trust. Mr.. Dickinson is looked upon
in the same light because he was once
a prominent railroad attorney. Even
Mr. Knox, who serves in the McKin-
ley and Roosevelt cabinets, is held I'M
der like suspicion for a no better rea-
son than that he halls from Pennsyl-
vania where corporations have been
running things for years in their own
way. And so on and SO forth. But, as
Colonel Roosevelt said in his lecture
at the Sorbonne, it is not the critic
who counts.