Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1910-04-01

claim as causes for surprising result, IL
indicates that the trend OF popular
opinion has gone so far that nothing
but miracle or Roosevelt can save the
House next fall to the party in power.
Let it be said with whatever emphasis
can be brought to bear, that the party
in power is not responsible for high
prices or for unsatisfactory business
conditions. Inasmuch as the party in
power, Democratic or Republican, al
ways claims credit for whatever good
thing happens, it must face the re-
sponsibility for some of the bad, even if
it should be bad crops.
So great has been the excitement over
the rebuke of Cannon in the lower
house of Congress that the Ballinger-
Pinchot investigation has been to a
great degree forgotten. Mr.. Pinchot,
since he has testified, has started to
Europe and is now well on his way
thither. 1t is reported that he is going
IN answer to cablegram from eX-Presl
dent Roosevelt That one SO near the
ex-President as eX-FOrester Pinchot
should be the first to get the ear of Mr..
Roosevelt, is subject of considerable
anxiety to the other side, or at least to
certain individuals of the other side.
So far, Mr.. Roosevelt has been as silent
as the Sphinx which yesterday night
he saw by moonlight. Another sig
nificant fact is that during Mr.. Gar
fields residence in the city two weeks
ago he was the guest of Mr.. Pinchot,
and he only yesterday made an address
to the Tippecanoe Cleveland Club in
Cleveland, very temperate address,
but one in which it was plain to see
that his sympathles were with the in
surgents and that his advocacy was for
a more enthusiastic support of the
Roosevelt policies than it is possible
for President Taft to accomplish, handi-
capped as he is by those in the House
and the Senate with whom he has elect
ed to consort. 1t is curious situation
and unprecedented in our political his
tory that a self-eXiled ex-President is
at this moment more potential in the
political affairs of the country than the
genial gentleman in the White House.
What he may say or do when or before
he lands here in June IS matter of
keen solicitude to regulars, insurgents,
Democrats and to everyone interested
in current politics.
Mr.. Garfield, in his speech in Cleve-
land, made severe arraignment of
those Republican leaders guilty of a
policy which he thinks is certain to
lead the party to defeat. He insisted
that the average American realized that
present conditions pointed to some
thing radically wrong. He urged pro-
gressive action and pointed out that
when party fails to be progressive its
usefulness has begun to wane. "It is
our duty" said Mr.. Garfield, "to
lsquarely face the situation and to stand
up and be counted for the policies that
are in sympathy with the best progress
sive thought of our country, and the
people are justly calling upon us for a
fulilment of that policy. They will
not be satisfied with inaction and
makeshift legislation" These words,
coming from "Jimmle," as Mr.. Roose
yelt was wont to call this member of
his regular cabinet and of his tennis
court or kitchen cabinet also, after
close communion as guest of Clifford
Pinchot, than whom none was closer
to Mr.. Roosevelt, naturally raise the
question as to who are the representa-
tive of the Roosevelt policies. 1t is
useless to deny that Mr.. Taft is or was
Mr.. Roosevelt's chosen successor and
political heir. Nothing like such Sc
lection has ever before occurred in
American history, and the facts and
the event are SO recent that everybody
knows and realizes them. The situa-
ton cannot but be embarrassing to the
ex-President. Politician, statesman
and historian as he is, he cannot but
appreciate the difficulties with which
the President has had to contend and
is contending. No president has ever
been more sincerely anxious to carry
out the policies bequeathed to him by
party platform than President Taft,
and it is not mere fiction to place the
odium of failure, if failure it must be,
on his wicked advisers.