The Penn's Grove record., 1910-03-18

A few days ago the House of Rep.
resentatives passed a resolution dele
eating to the Committee on the Lii
brary the duty of replacing the seven
teen hideous crayon por-
Painters ON traits of ex-Speakers
the Job. which make of the lobby
a chamber of horrors"
with creditable oil paintings of the
former Gears" Representative Nc
Call is chairman of the Library Com
mittee.
Next day he came into the Capitol
with blood in his eye.
'Is there any directory of Ameri-
can portrait painters?" he demanded
of a House employe.
Mr.. Mccall was told that there was
no such publication at hand.
well, send a man over to the
House Office building to take their
census now, for every blamed painter
in America is standing outside my
door waiting to get a chance at this
new job"
X X X
There is no Disgusting the pes
simistic tone in which all we'll posted
Republicans discuss the prospects for
the next House. They are all fearful
of a reversal of the pres
Discussing ent Republican majority,
the Next and some go 50 far as to
House. say that 1t is only a ques-
ton of how much may
be saved from the wreck. In some
quarters there is a conviction thai II
Mr.. Cannon would announce positive
ly that he would not again be a candl-
date for Speaker, well in advance OF
the election, the Republicans might
retain a bare majority, but the con-
viction that nothing else will save the
party in the lower chamber is hecom-
ing alarmingly general.
That Senator Root believes the
time has come when a halt should be
called on the wholesale pension sys-
tenn which has SO long been practiced
was made, manifest when
Root Mr.. Root made inquiries
Opposes regarding a bill on the
Pensions. calendar, explaining that
when the Curtis bill
granting pensions to widows of vet
Grams whose marriages occurred sub
sequent to June 26, 1890, should
come up he desired tn be heard. Ac-
cording to the estimate of the Pen
sion Bureau, the passage of the Curtis
bill would add twenty thousand wild
ows of veterans to the pension rolls
the first year. If that estimate is cor
rect, tho cost would be $2,SS0,000 a
year. The limitation of June 26,
1890, was made to prevent women
who married old veterans from en-
joying pensions as the result of their
marriage. Mr.. Root indicated that
he would oppose the measure when
II came before the Senate.
X X X
1.-THE people Of the United States
do not want me for their next Presi-
dent" Mr.. Roosevelt once declared in
private conversation. They may
think they dc, but they
Theodore DON'T" he continued.
Roosevelt's at am a pioneer. l WELD
View. an axe and have blazed a
trail through many for
ests and over many obstacles. Now
the country wants a careful, construc-
tive engineer, who will convert my
corduroy roads into we'll built and
permanent macadam highways, along
which the business of the country
may proceed without jar and without
interruption. The man who can fill
the bill is VIII Taft" That was in
the fall of 1907, and 1t is a safe pre-
diction that those who view with I'M
prejudiced eye in the fall of 1911 the
achievements of President Taft will
have occasion to reflect that the pres
cience of Theodore Roosevelt four
years before was as trustworthy as
the experience of most of his contem-
poraries.
Has President Taft's course been
popular with his eighty million con-
s%tituents? Do they respect his OBJ
of the limitations imposed
upon the Executive by
Popular the Constitution? Would
Judgment they have preferred a
on Taft. President who exercised
every power he could
command to drive Congress to choose
a more progressive Speaker; a Presl-
dent who utilized the press and the
rostrum to compel a more adequate
revision of the tariff; who ava1led
himself of the patronage he controls
and the influence he can exert, not
only to secure a fulflment of the
platform pledges, but to compel h
enactment of all the legislation which
his progressive judgment dictates as
important to the public welfare? asks
G.. G.. H., in the New York Tribune.
Without attempting, at this early day,
to answer these questions, it is per-
haps pertinent to suggest others
which logically follow. Do the pee
pie of the United States believe in a
one-man government? Are they
ear of the responsibility imposed
on them by the Constitution for the
character of the legislative branch?
Do they demand that the Chief Elk
ecutive of the future shall exercise
that responsibility for them? In
short, has the Constitution. with its
provisions for three coordinate and
Independent branches of the Govern
ment, grown obsolete? Can a mega
tive answer be given to the first OF
these questions-those which apply
directly to the administration of Pres
ident Taft-without Inevitably imply
ing affirmative answers to the latter?