The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-04-10
VIGOROUS DEFENSE.

VIGOROUS DEFENSE.
Straight out from the shoulder At
torney General Wickersham delivered
the most telling blows that have recent
~ been landed in the realm Of politics
when he addressed the Hamilton club
at Chicago last night. Mr.. Wickersham
is a Republican, without any qualifi-
cations as to party history or any
hedging on the cardinal principle of
protection. The attorney general re-
viewed the first year of the present
administration and declared that every
pledge of the Republican platform of
1908 had been fulfilled to the limit Of
the extent Of executive action Then
he challenged all corners to point to the
accomplishment of so much in so short
a time by any other administration.
Mr.. Wiekersham did not merely gem
eralize or make bald statements He
took up the platform promises of the
Republican party one by one, and
pointed to the action of President Taft
in each and every case. He defended
the tariff as a revenue producer that
had no equal, and pointed to the figures
of the treasury department to prove his
statement. He declared that 1. was
the purpose of the administration TO
wage unrelenting warfare upon all IL
legal trusts and monopolies and in
stanced the prosecution of the Ameri-
can Sugar Refining company and to
the cases against the Standard Oil and
American Tobacco conn anies, now
awaiting decision in the supreme court
of the United States. He took up the
Presidents special messages to Con-
gress recommending amendments to
the interstate commerce law, federal in
corporation, postal savings banks,
changes to make the employers liabil
ity act more easy to enforce intelli-
gent conservation laws, readjustment
of mail rates and revision of the Gus
toms laws, and expressed the belief
that Congress would follow the lead of
Mr.. Taft.
By far the significant portion of Mr..
Wickersham's address, however, related
20 the so-called insurgents. The time
has arrived, said the attorney general,
when every Republican must choose
whether or not he was with the Re-
publican party and the President. He
was still more emphatic when he said:
Treason has ever consisted in giving
aid and comfort to the enemy. If any
one wishes to join the Democratic
party. let him do so; but let him not
claim to be a Republican and work in
and out of season to defeat Republi
can measures and to subvert the in
fluence of the Republican President"
That is precisely what Beveridge. La
Toilette. Cummins, Dolliver, Bristow
and others have been attempting to do.
If these men had been allowed TO have
their way at the extra session of Con-
gress instead of having a tariff law so
constructed as to protect the industries
and labor of the United States. the bars
would have been let down and the
country would have been swamped with
the products Of the foreign nations; the
wool, lead and other industries OF Utah
ftilQ JULIET WC6lcAia STATES NOuiu nave
been practically annihilated, and the
conditions prevailing under the admin
istration of Grover Cleveland would
have returned.
Attorney General Wickersham be-
lieves the men who call themselves Re
publicans should give earnest and loyal
support to party measures and prin-
ciples, or go over to the enemy at once,
and quit bushwhacking. One thing is
certain. The real Republicans do not
propose to parley with the individuals
above mentioned. In the halls of Con-
sress. on tho stump and in the public
press they will be met with the neces-
sary figures TO show the utter fallacy
of their contentious. There will be no
compromise with principle no abandon
ment of the doctrine of protection of
home industries and no backward step
in the policy Of conservation. The in
surgentss or progressives, or whatever
they may choose to call themselves,
have reached the parting of the ways
Whether they go or stay viii not
swerve the regular Republicans from
the path of duty or cause the party
even temporary embarrassment. Com
mon decency, however, should compel
them to choose at once.
The Republican Senator's who have
been upholding President Taft's hands
realize that the tariff is national is
sue. not a sectional one. They have
looked at the broad interests of the
whole people and not of their own little
six feet square. If the alleged pro-
gressives would do this, their value to
the nation would be on the credit side
of the ledger.
WILL MEET AT CAREW VILLA,
Clifford Pinchot, self-constituted