Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-04-30
THE LEAK IN THE DYKE

Do you remember the story of the little Dutch boy who found tiny leak in the dyke that keeps the sea back from Holland, and who saved the country by keeping his finger in the hole and thus preventing the inrushing waters iron widening it and destroying the dyke? It used tC be in the school readers, and surely everybody remembers it.
 President Taft seems to have that story il mind He is casting himself for the small boy part. The dyke is the standpat republican or ganization, the protected land is the tiny strip o territory on which stand those protected by the organization, and the raging sea that is threaten ing to batter down the dyke and overwhelm the land is the awakened, independent, clear-seeng and patriotic people.
 This conclusion must be drawn from the an nouncement that the Taft administration pro poses to defend itself and its advisers and its acts and theirs in strenuous campaign that is to begin at once, and that will prepare the way for the coming congressional elections.
 It is a little unusual, and exceedingly signif cant, that an administration should be forced tc take up campaign of self-defense when only a little more than fourth of its period of power has elapsed. It is still more significant that those who are to participate in the rally are those who are allied with the reactional organ ization of the republican party. No Murdock no Cummins no La Toilette and no Beveridge is invited to take part in this campaign of self defense The president will begin in the cam paign by speech in Washington Saturday. Sen ator Lodge, one of the high priests of standpat ism, Attorney General Wickersham, Congress man Mckinley of Illinois, standpat chairman of the standpat republican congressional commit tee, and self-seeking and salaried heads o1 standpat republican organizations are to be the speakers.
 It is easy to imagine what kind of roaring tumuIt this is going to be. "Rally round the battle flag of the Grand Old Party will be its battle cry; and it's motto will be: My party may she ever be right; but be she right or wrong, my partyn' We shall hear again the resoundng and empty periods of the stump speaker, cracking the party whip over the backs of the rank and file and demanding, in apo plectic frenzy, that they get back into the line and march at command, regardless of what they may think about how the party is being run. ''Theirs not to reason why' is the creed of the partisan; theirs but to heed the voice of their master the party boss, and to vote his will at the polls.
 President Taft egged on by the Aldriches, Cannons, Lodges, Hammonds and Cranes, has his finger stuck in the hole in the dyke, trying to hold back this irresistible flood of popular disapproval that grows in strength and in i'm patience day by day. The party appeal for the coming congressional elections is to be made in the voice of the standpatter Insurgents are to be classed as democrats and defeated by hook or crook. The voice of party protest against party prostitution to the service of privilege and plutocracy is to be drowned by the sonorous operations of the oldtime Grand Old Party shouter.
 We fear that that dyke has grown so rotten and shaky, and that the flood that beats against it has become so impetuous and so powerful, that President Taft and the unfortunate gang of looters that surrounds him are engaged in an impossible task when they seek to stop the leaks.