The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1910-05-11

erence in his Chicago Press club
speech to statesmen correspondence"
had O'LaughIin in view. II begins to
look more and more rs though there is
something III all this and that there
may be political fireworks on Roose-
velt's return. My own guess is that he
will support TAT, in the main. but that
he may have something to say OH the
conservation row.
Returning to the cabinet and to the
charge that Wickersham is its domi-
naEt figure. here is one fact that may
or may not have any bearing on the
case. Whenever the president goes to
| New York he is Invariably the guest of
his brother. Henry w. Taft. whose law
Office is at 40 Wall street. Henry ".
Taft and Wickersham were formerly
partners. That is n side of the case
The other is that Wickersham is writ.
ing all the Taft bills for congress-, was
recently the administration spokesman
in Chicago and Is quite the most po-
tent force in the cabinet.
There has been a strange undercur-
rent of talk to the effect that a GER
tain faction Of the majority party
would prefer to see the Democrats in
control Of the next house. 1t was said
that the regulars would rather have
the Democrats in charge than to con-
time the present condition. where the
insurgents are the balance of power
To put 1t in plain English, either fac
ton Of the Republicans would rather
see the Democrats win than to have
the other wing of their own party in
control. AS Il result of all this the
talk has become general that the
Republican congressional committee
would not help the insurgents, willie
the progressives In turn have planned
to fight every stand pat member where
there was any chance of beating him.
On the other hand. a few Of tn.
Democrats do not seem any more
eager to control the house than sorr,
of the Republicans. They realize that
with a Republican president and prob,
ably a Republican senate against thcui
they would have the Responsibilities
without being able to accomplish any
thing. With the politicians thus un.
certain as to what they want. it oug.i,
to be an excellent time for the voters
to rise up in their might and say what
they want. In justice to the majority
of the Democratic members of con-
gress, however, it should be stated
that they intend to so in and fight to
win and are in favcr Of the party as
a whole doing the same.
The latest insurgcnt blow struck at
Uncle Joe Cannon was to deprive him
of money to run his ;utoiuuti.e. 1t is
not probable that the speaker resent
ed this as much as he did his removal
from the rules committee, vet some
automobiles are expensive, and Uncle
Joe probably dislikes paying for his
out OF his W pocket. Indeed, the
Cannon machine is very expensive.
llasmuch as ii WIS proposed to vote
$1,000 n year for its running and keen
This refers, Of course, to his motor
and not his Legislative machine, al
though that is expensive also. What
with striking out the cllaufTeurs for
the speaker aud the vice president and
the maSSeur for the senators this SEES
sion is developing Il thin streak of
economy. after all. Still, no loud crow
ing should be done. The senate has
increased the rivers and harbors
pork bin a paltry $4,000 900. and
that would pay for several regiments
of chauffeurs and masSeurs.
Considerable of the attention Of
Washington is focused just now on
Rochester. where a campaign is in
progress to fill a vacancy in the house. |
Some of the u%ttcrances of James S.
Ravens. the Democratic candidate,
sound Il trife strange in political ears. |
but they have a power of stirring the
blood for all that. Here are two para |
graphs from a recent speech by him
that are almost as significant in one |
direction as the Dalzell quotation is in
the other. Said Mr.. Ravens:
BOSSES must stand together or they |
will be upset separately. And whether |
they stand together or not their day |
has passed. Yesterday Cannon was