The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1910-02-17


| bill has nothing TO do with the sky.
scrapIng prices Of the necessities of
/ life
II can be said definitely that Mr..
1 Taft believes that if the investigating
committee which of course vii! be
dominated by Republicans. shall make
/ II appear by the trend of their inquiry
| that they are concerned first witt
"roying that the tariff is sinless, the
| Democrats will make the most Of the
/ circumstance. and will go before the
| country in the congressional cam.
| paign to tell the people that the in.
vcstigation was begun and carried
through simply to whitewash a Re.
publican tariff bin.
Wants Straight investigation.
The president has conferred in the
last day or two with many OF the Re.
/ publican members of the senate com.
mittee on finance and of the house
committee on ways and means and
has told them that il is his sincere de.
sire that their efforts shall be bent
| solely, in conducting the investigation,
to discover the true reasons, If It is
| possible to discover them, why II
costs nearly twice as much to live to.
day as II did n few years ago.
Those who are close TO the admins.
tration say that the president cannot
for n moment allow II to appear to
the men who are to conduct the cost
OF living inquiry that he has any sus-
picion that they simply wish to clear
the skirts of the taTiff. II must be
taken for granted. the presidents ad.
yisers say, that members of congress
sworn TO do their duty will do It with.
out having any Interior motive in
view. Unquestionably Mr.. Taft would
like to have It proved definitely that
the tariff has nothing to do with the
| advanced prices, because last summer
he declared that the tariff bill was the
/ best that the Republican party had
ever passed, and to n considerable eH.
| tent this has been considered an IN.
dorsement Of the tarffmaking efforts
Of Mr.. Payne, Mr.. Aldrich and the
other high protection believers who
framed the measure and who put Il
on the statue books.
The speakership Situation.
Several senators and representatives
in congress are keeping Presi.
dent Taft informed as to the
speakership situation in the house
There are one or two members of the
upper house who have close relations
with the members Of their state dele.
cations in the lower house, and these
members keep the senators informed
as to the trend Of speakership events
The president will take no active part
in the matter of securing a successor
to Speaker Cannon when the time
comes to elect one. but he is deeply
interested in having 1t made as Ger.
tain as such things can be that the
next speaker shall be man who will
in no way obstruct the legislation
which the administration intends &c
recommend on behalf of the country.
Idea Is TO Unite Factions.
or course the sole idea of the ad.
ministration is to try to influence Re
publican members TO elect a man who
will be able TO unite the factions so
that there will be no such trouble as
there has been during the last two
years Of Mr.. Cannon's incumbency.
br. Taft IL very much concerned to.
day lest the fact that there are fac.
hnttgp nf faf
shall imperil some OF the measures
which he has recommended for pas.
sage, and his hope is that in the next
congress. II there is a Republican ma.
jority, the fight over the rules will
have been settled and that some man
to the liking of both regulars and in.
surgents shall sit in the chief seat.
In all human probability the next
Spcake: OF the house will be con
sentative. The insurgents are not
strong enough yet TO elect a speaker
out of their own ranks and they make
admission to-day that they are not
likely to recruit enough strength at
the next election to give them caucus
control OF the next house. They do
say, however. that they will have
enough recruits TO make 1t certain
that change in the rules Of the house
will be made before the present con.
gress becomes a thing of the past.
Speaker cannon's Position.
Speaker Cannon has enough loyal
followers to make It seemingly certain,
provided the next house is Republican
and of about the same factional make.
up that 1t is today, that no man who
is not to the liking of the present
speaker car be elected to the chief
official place. No man ever left
high Office without at least some curl.
osity as to who was to come into his
place Mr.. Cannon has more than
mere curiosity at stake. He has
steered n certain course during his pr.
lotage of the house affairs, and he
thinks unquestionably that the most
praise that can be bestowed
upon his work as a pilot will be to
have the relieving pilot steer practi
cally the same course. In other words
Mr.. Cannon would like to name the