The National tribune., 1910-01-13

The NA11ONAl
! of the Roosevelt Administrations. wer
never quite sure of the President:
fealty to them. Senator Aldrich seemed
to be. All during the tariff ielibera
! tiOns he felt that he had the confidenct
OF the President. Then there came thu
Boston speech. in which the Presiden
: apparently left no room to doubt tha
ne stood squarely with the Senator
from Rhode Island, and consequent!
with the Republican organization o
the Senate and the House.
Speaker Cannon had a somewhat
similar experience as the recognized
Header of the House. The Presidents
communications and conferences with
him displayed complete confidence. I:ut
the House is elected by popular vote
the President is naturally alert for ed
vantage in winning approval at elec-
tions, and there has been a series ct
incidents indicating that at times he
Iwavered in allegiance to Uncle joe
| While as President-elect he was at Hot
Springs Mr.. Taft undoubtedly encour-
aged a vigorous anti-Cannon campaign
| He talked it with so many reputable
men that there could have been no
misunderstanding his attitude. But as
the date for the assembling of Congress
|
the Speaker had ceased the President
made plain his disapprov;,l of the
House insurgents, which amounted TO
| his sanction of the Speakers re-elec-
tion to a fourth term.
| During portions of the Western trip
the President, impressed by the anti
Cannon sentiment in that section, SEEM
ed to be little offish with regard to
Uncle joe" That caused the insur-
/ IN fo1- hIIt
came down to Washington again for
| the present session of Congress they
still found only formal welcome ac-
corded them at the White House Of
fees. So the wrath of the insurgent
Senators and Representatives grew, and
altho their ranks were decimated by
the tactics of the President and the
and there, they were provoked, in fact,
forced to extreme measures.
Position of the Regulars.
Meantime the regulars. including
Senator Aldrich and Speaker Cannon
and their influential associates in Con-
gress, were forced into more aggressive
support of the President. AS he had
demonstrated his disapproval of the
insurgents, with whom they were tat
Ting in Congress, it was UP to the
regulars to do something to establish
his Administration firmly in popular
esteem. They went about it cordially,
but all the while their confidence in
the President was not as substantial as
1t might have been. He co-operatc1
with them, but IL numerous political
matters he operated without them.
They never became entirely reconciled
to the taking of two Democrat into
the Cabinet. One of them, the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury, Mr.. MacVeagh, is
widely known as low-tariff Democrat.
His office is very powerful in determine
ing the character of interpretations of
the tariff act. He put in charge of the
administration of customs q low-tariff
Democrat like himself Mr.. James +.
Curtis, a young man from Boston with
out experience in that line of work. 1t
was a serious blow to the regular Re
publicans, who had been thru the fierc-
est Congressional battle of recent years
to get that tariff law upon the statute
books. The Finance Committee is nov
holding up the nomination of Mr.. Cur
tbs. He will not be confirmed for the
present.
The confidence of the regulars in
Congress was shaken by the Presidents
of an Associate Justice for the
Supreme Court, ]but they rallied to his
support, confirmed the nomination, and
made no particular complaint beyond
their queries as to who the
Presidents, political advisers could be.
On top of that came the Ballinger-
Pinchot investigation. The leaders had
taken a stand against such an investf-
CATION. They did so after consultation
with the President. He declared unal-
terabiy against the Investigation till
within a few days Of the adjournment
of Congress for the Holidays. Then the
leaders had to right-about-face But
. fl,rVr Golf H. u
such a situation with more tact from
the political standpoint.
Right on the heels of that episode
came the pronunciamento regarding
Federal patronage in States and dis
tricts represented by insurgents. While
sympathizing fully with the Presidents
attitude thereon, there was a feeling
that the situation had been handled in
a manner likely to offend a large con-
tingent of Civil Service reformers and
Independents, who have been voting
steadily of late years with the Repub-
lican Party 1t gave excuse for a criti- |
cism that the President had returned |
to the spoils system of Andrew Jack |
sons day, and was in effect saying to |
the insurgents in the House that If |
they would support his legislative meas |
ures during this session at its close |
some of their Endorsements for Post |
masters would be honored.
In other words, the doubts prevailing |
with many people thruout tie country, |
as voiced in the numerous newspaper |
to determine whether Taft |
was making good" have been growing |
up in the minds of the leaders at Wash |
ington in closest contact with him and !
upon whom he must rely for aid in the |
execution of his plans.
A Forward Movement.
Therefore, while the cry for for
ward movement on behalf of the Ad- |
is sounding forth and the |
leaders in Congress are girding them
selves to swat insurgents heavily. purge |
the party Of the malcontents and have
The forces drilled for a winning Con-
gressional compaign, there are muir
The regulars see that there I
IS but one role for them. They must /
stick it out. They concede that in the
Dredicament in which the President
now finds himself he is doing the only
thing possible for him to do. He must |
AIRY on his warfare against insurgents.
he must have Ballinger investigated
and appeal to the country next Noyem-
Der for Vindication. I
But there is a most insistent demand |
Tor more tactful politics. Plain talk
ln that subject will be made to the
President. If the President had in his
cabinet seasoned politician, identified
by experience with ways and means Of
reaching popular sentiment, the rcgu-
ars would rest easier. President Roose-
,elt' one OF the most, astute politicians
ms country has ever known. was not /