The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-22
THE sTANp.pAFs, LOW TONE

rather than aggressive, positive def
ancc. The tone of il can he judged
!: by the following extract from n speech
delivered bv an Iowa "stsnd .patter
who urges all Republicans of his dis
trict to vote for his denomination be
cause of the following alleged facts:
Every man who voted on the present
tarin law was voting. not for the new
law so much as on the question whether
the law was better than the old.
| Every man who voted against tho pres
cnt law voted to pcrpetuate the Dingley
law. Every man who voted against the
new law voted for high duties on every
thing produced by the Standard OIL COM
/ pauy and every such vote was against
I tho maximum and minimum tariff, by
which for the nrst time We arc getting
fair trade relations with foreign coun-
! tries. Every vote against the present
! law was against the tax OF corporations.
which now brings a revenue OF about
twenty-five million dollars year.
Well if that was tho dilemma, who
shaped it up so9 II is humiliat-
! ing confession for a stand patter' TO
make that he and his fellow stand
pattcrs' in Congress were not able to
do better than this, The ''stand-pat'
crowd had n clear majority in each
house of Congress, on every test vote
on tho tariff bill. II it was not pos.
sible for them TO frame a measure that
would present better alternative
than this. what in the name Of com
mon sense is the point in their plead.
ing that inability TO do so, as n de-
Tense for themselvesl Why should
they urge in their own favor their i'm
potence in dealing with this questions ?
for that is what confession such as
this amounts TO,
The whole field of legislation was
open to the Republican majority in
both Houses of Congress. 1t is sheer
imbecilitv to plead that they finally
found themselves in dilemma such
as described in that quotation. Who
put them therel Certainly nobody else
but themselves Why should such a di
lemml as this have arisen at all2 Why
should the bill, as framed by the
"stand-patters themselves, and so
forced through both Houses of Con.
gress, be bill that could present moth.
ing better than such an ineffective and
impotent conclusion as this! Was it
not possible for the nd.patters - to
frame and pass n bin of which some
thing better could be said than that it
was simply an alternative between two
evilsl
In presenting an attempted exculpa
tion like this before intelligent voters,
certainly the man who presents il must
have lost his powers of comparison and
reason. He could hardly fail to know
that the voters he was addressing would
see the absolute imbecility of such
presentation as that With tho whole
matter in their own hands. the "stand
patters y could do nothing better than
TO present choice of distssteful evils,
and then urge as the reason why they
had voted for one of these evils that
they themselves had prepared the very
evil which they were now urging as the
excuse for their votes There has been
nothing in American politics so abso-
Iutely ridiculous and absurd as excuse
and reasoning like that. II anything
were needed to assure the absolute de.
feat Of the Republican party in the
next Representative election, certainly
this reason alone. ridiculous, inconse-
quential, illogical as it is, for voting
for this new tariff bill, would afford
the crowning cause.
1t will be noted that reference is
made TO the corporation tax (Which
now brings a revenue of about $2j 0OO.- |
10 he
This, however, is a good deal like count !
ing chickens before they are batched |
because the validity Of that corpora
ton tax is now pending in the United |
States Supreme Court, and the opinion
Of many of the best lawyers in the |
country is that this court will declare |
the tax unconstitutional The argument
for unconstitutionality certainly seems
a great deal stronger than that in favor
of its validity. But at any rate, as to
this particular point, it would he well |
for the stand patters. = in the homely
adage. "not to holler before they get
out of the woods. -
The stand-patters Will certainly |
have to do good deal better than this |
If they expect or hope to find favor |
with the people, It is impossible to con
duct real campaign with an admission
that the person urging the plea, and
those who acted with him in Con
gress, so shaped matters as to put
themselves into a sack and sew up
the sack from the inside. so that they
were rendered helpless. Something more
positive, something more reasonable,
more Indicative of mental vigor and |
positive effort viii have to be shown
than such petty admissions of turpitude |
and impotence as appears in this pre-
liminary shot from the "regular' gun. |