Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-02-16
Taft in Self-Defense.

! President Taft's address delivered
I Saturday night in New York was amaz-
| ing in its weakness as a defense Of the
/ present administration and was almost
/ startling in the brazen manner in
which the president takes issue with
public sentiment and champions the
Aldrich-Cannon combine.
A praiseworthy pIatitude indeed was
that uttered when he declared: IF
enforcement Of the law is not consist
ent with the present method OF con-
Quoting business. then methods must
be changed to conform to the law"
But Of what avail are such words if
unaccompanfed by aggressive law en-
forcement? IN what respect has the
republican party failed in its conduct
Of the government and enactment Of
laws to perform its duty" boldly asks
President Taft.
Has he the nerve to call the enact
ment of the worst tariff law ever per
petrated upon the people a perform
ance of republican duty"
It may be performance Of duty TO
the trusts and to monopoly, but surely
ia not performance of duty toward the
people
Those promises" declares Taft, re-
ferring to the republican platform
upon which he was elected. have
either been substantially complied
with or the party is about to perform
in the present session Of congress"
He refers perhaps to the proposed
ship subsidy grab by which the re
publican party in power through the
agency of the Aldrich-Cannon combine.
proposes to turn colossal sums of pub
lie money over to multi-milIionaire
ship builders as subsidies, under the
pretense that the grab is perpetrated
in the interest Of the merchant marine.
Then the president goes the limit
when he declares Of the upward re-
vision OF the tariff despite promises of
downward revision: Nothing was ex-
pressly said in the platform that #
was to be downward revision"
Then why did Taft and his campaign
lieutenants in their addresses declare
in favor of downward revisiOno Why
did they give the people to understand
there would be a downward revision Of
the tariffs as a whole? Was it a plan
to get votes under false pretenses?
The speech of President Taft bears
out the statement that the monopolis-
tic powers which controlled the last
republican national convention wrote
the tariff plank into the platform prom
Using revision, and emitting to say
'dOwnward' revision for the very DUR
pose of deceiving the voters Of the
land.
Why doesn't Mr.. Taft quote his cam
paign speeches instead of the platform
on this subject? He will find he in
serted the word downward" in his
campaign pleadings.
President Taft's tariff speech is
nothing more nor less than a defense
of the untenable position of Aldrich
and Cannon. If the infamous tariff
law is defensfble. then Aldrich and
Cannon must be Taft's heroes.
But what do republicans think or
this?
The Chicago Tribune is significantly
answering this question A poll of
republican and Independent newspa-
per editors in the territory lying be
tween the Alleghanies and the Pacific
shows widespread reputation of the
very men and the very measures which
President Taft rises to defend in the
face of public disapproval.
The AIdrich tariff law is repudiated.
Taft defends AIdrich and his robber
tariff.
BY vote of five to one. the republl-
can editors repudiate Cannonism.
Taft defends him and his autocracy.
Well may the republicans be alarm
ed, not only at the reputation of the
Aldrich tariff and the Cannon gavel.
but at this latest development-the
republican president openly defending
the very wedges which are splitting
the party in twain.
Mr.. Taft, by his New York utter
ances. becomes more definitely and
more openly the champion of Cannon
ism and the foe of progressive" re-
publicanism; more vigorously the
champion of Aldrich and more openly
in defiance of public sentiment; more