The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1910-07-28

a few weeks ago there is no question
about it to-day. President Taft has made
good. Few men realize what fiXity of
purpose, what strength, sagacity, good
humor and patience were required TO
bring order out of the chaos that existed
during the closing weeks of this session
of congress. Some people mistook his
good humOr for weakness, his patience
for pliability; events have proved how
sadly mistaken they were. To-day there
are few who do not know that the Taft
smile is but a mask for dogged determl-
nation and an iron will.
Included in this legislation are the reyi-
sion of the tariff, the railroad bill, the
establishment of postal savings banks,
the creation of a tariff commission, the
provision for the investigation of railway
accidents and for monthly reports there
Of; the creation of a bureau OF mines, the
extension of laws requiring safety appli-
ances on common carriers, suppression
of the white slave traffic. the conserVa-
tion bills, a campaign publicity bill, and
the admission of Arizona and New Mex
leo to statehood
Mention should be made too Of legisla-
tiOn for the Improvement of the ONO
river. Legislation of supreme Importance
to those of us who live in the Ohio valley.
1t means the abandonment OF the DIG
piecemeal system, which might have gone
on interminably with no substantial re-
suit. In the river and harbor bill passed
at this session, the government is deh-
ntely committed to the completion or the
entire improvement within twelve years.
Before twelve years have passed the ONO
river will be lock canal, never less than
nine feet deep from its headwaters to the
Mississippi.
No such program of constructive and
progressive legislation has ever been
enacted at any session of congress in
American history. 1t Is a record of mag
nificent achievement and the glory be-
longs first to the president of the United
States.
Every one of these are measures of
substantial progress. Almost any one OF
them, and especially the railroad, poStal
savings bank, and conservation Iollls'
would have been heralded by itself, as
distinct constructive achievement for any
session of congress, not many years ago.
The principle conservation bill gives to
the president power to withdraw all lanos
in the public domain subject to settle
ment by the operation of the law and TO
hold them for any public purpose.
Since the passage of that bill the presl-
dent has withdrawn more than seventy
one million acres of land-Water-sltes'
coal, phosphate and oil, and it Is now TO
to be considered what are the best meth
ods for their proper disposition. Think
what this means In less than two
months from the day the bill was passed
there has been set aside for the beneht
of all the people a vast domain, in area
nearly three times as large as the state
of Ohio.
The postal savings bank bill will he OF
the utmost value to people or very 'nou-
crate circumstances throughout the coun-
try. There are thousands of such VINO
are not disposed to deposit their savings
in the banks because of modesty, perhaps,
or overcaution, and the result is that
they are apt either to waste their saw
ings or to put them in stockings or cup
board corners, so that this money is not
put to any useful purpose. portion OF
the money deposited in these postal saw
ings banks will be invested in the local
banks, both state and national, on secur-
ity to be approved by a committee con-
sisting of the postmaster general, the
secretary of the treasury and the attOr-
ney general. The result of this bill will
by offering to them the safest conceivable
depository, backed, as it is, by the credit
of the United States government.
The railroad bill is great forward step
in the policy inaugurated by the RooSe-
welt administration in the direction OF
more complete regulation by the govern
ment of the operation of the rallroads;
One of its new features is the creation OF
a commerce court for the determination
of the legality of the orders made by the
Interstate commerce commission This
court will be composed of judges espe-
cially versed in the principles of the In
.erstate commerce law.
The railroad bill was amended by both
the so-called regulars and the so-ca!led
insurgents, and in my judgment is an i'm
provement over the bill as originally in
troduced.
The postal savings bank bill was made
exactly as it stands to-day in a three
night session of the Republican caucus
by regulars and insurgents alike, both
sides yielding in many instances to the
views Of the other. So eXcellently drawn
did this bill prove to be that it was ac-
cepted without any amendment whatever
by the senate.
These bills were not made by reac-
tionaries or by radicals they were not
made by regulars or by insurgents they
were made by Republicans. They are
Republican measures, as such they were
signed by a Republican president, and
as such we stand for them.
| have never asked a man to leave my
house because he did not happen to
agree with me upon everything that /
thought right. l have never been In
sympathy with the proposition to read
men out of the Republican party because
they have not upon all occasions voted
with the majority My general course
in the last congress has been that Of a
so-called regular, because | believed that
in so acting [ could best help to effective
ly promote the policies of President Taft.
| have no quarrel with any man who
thought otherwise.
There are insurgents and insurgents.
There may be a few who act from selfish
motives and are not deeply concerned in
the welfare of the Republican party. But
a great majority of the so-called insur-
gents I know to be men who are ami
mated by patriotic motives only, ana
who, I have not the slightest question,
are just as anxious for the welfare of the
Republican party as l am.
| Let me give you two examples of insur-
gent. One in the house and one in the
/ senate. In the framing of the postal savings
bank bill, for example, l believe that my
| good friend Victor Murdock helped to
make the bill better than It would other
wise have been and thereby did good
service to the Republican party. Victor
L., 1nI of bn V1onG
radical of all the insurgents. However
| that may be, he is in the Republican
| party. and l hope he will never leave 1t.
In a neighboring state there is being
/ waged fierce contest for a senatorship,
a Republican and a Democrat have been
named by their respective parties as
| candidates. The Republican candidate
voted against the tariff bill at the last
session Of Congress, as | believe mis-
/ takenly through dissatisfaction, l am
| convinced with only some of the details
of the bill and not because he did not sup
port the elemental principles upon which
! it was based. In those, L am convinced
! we are in hearty accord The sole ques-
| ton in Indiana is whether Republican
| or a Democrat shall be senator. If I lived
in Indiana, 1 would be for Senator
Beveridge.
! war cries is that the Republican party
Of to-day is under the domination OF
! bosses. who are, in their turn either In
| control of or suDSerVient to special in
terests. If there were anything needed
to utterly refute this claim it would be
/ the reception accorded to great Re
! publican leader upon his return to this
! country not long ago. Members of his
/ party of all shades of political opinion
/ have sought his advice and counsel. II
/ is that type of leadership that the rank
! and file Of the Republican party are CON
/ tent to follow, no other. During his
administrator the Republican party be.
/ came, if it had never before, the only
( political party in this country with a
/ fixed and definite progressive policy. We
/ have followed and we shall continue tC
| follow the policies of Theodore Roosevelt
! I do not propose in this speech to refer
I to state issues. Not that they are unim-
: portant or are to be at all disregarded in
/ this campaign. 1t has been difficult fol
! those of us who have been in close at
tendance upon the long session of con-
/ Nress to devote the attention to home