The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-27
BID FOR VOTES.
President Taft Has at Last Hit
Upon a Plan
BY Which He Hopes to Save the
Party From Defeat.
WILL MAKE A PROMISE
To Reform the Tariff in the
Interests of Masses.
On the Recommendations of the
Tariff Commission.
WILL MAKE A PROMISE

Washington, April 27.-Threatened
With one of tine most dire defeats in its
history. the Republican party will bid
for the country's Endorsement in the
coming congress-, nal elections by prom
i<iDg L revision of the tariff along sci
entific and accurate lines. The prom
Use will come from the lips Of Pres1-
dent Taft himself.
Results of the elections in New York
and Massachusetts recently have con-
WINGED Mr. Taft and the leaders of the
congr5 ssional campaign committee that
the tariff is the thing which presages
ruin III the elections next fail. Mr.. Taft
will make the statement on one of his
Forthcoming trips into the west that he
viii have a tariff con- omission when
VIII enable him to make recommends
tons to congress for alterations III
those schedules which work hardshipS
CT the mas ses of the people.
Not only do the party leaders rely
on this move to win the votes of the
country, but they look upon 1t as the
one thing which will heal the breaches
in the party organization The insur-
gents are now insurgents because OF
the tariff alone, since they have been
successful in their fights against Speak
er Cannon ard also because the resdg-
nation of Senator Aldrich next March
will prevent their being so acrimonious
their OUIcrX against lu6 SO-Cdllcu
Cannon Aldrich legislative machine.
These statements, which are, in brief
the first published summary of the
campaign plan of the Republicans,
come from the leaders in the congress
s=Onal committee, and they are author
ity for the statement that Mr.. Taft
will make such tariff promises as viii
remove any pos sible reason for dis
sgreenle nts within the party. They re-
aiize that they are doomed to defeat
unless they can unite the two ele-
Inents-
Consequently the campaigns which
Will soon open will have the feature of
the same issue being used by both of
the great political parties of the coun-
try The Democrats have already made
H. evident that they will use the tariff
as their principal argument for
change in the control of power. Now
come the Republicans with plea
which is, in effect. this:
We revised the tariff as best we
could with the information at hand.
Now, however. we hope to have such
legislation as will give us a tariff COM
mission which Will enable us to fix the
schedules SO that they viii work no
hardship on the consumer and viii at
the same time protect American man
ufactures in a legitimate manner"
1.-THE enforcement of the blue laws, as
suggested by Mayor Billiard of Topeka"
Gays the Washington Herald. in an edi-
torial may offer an interesting sreci-
men for the political laboratory of the
present day" The Herald says:
Mayor Billiard, of Topeka, has views
of his own regarding Sunday observ-
ance. Elected three weeks ago under
the commission plan Of government, he
has begun the enforcement of the Sun
Gay laws to such an extent as to insist
that no paid preacher work on Sunday,
no :alaried choir sing, no papers be
printed or sold, no street cars run, and
10 service at the hotels be paid for.
1diotic as such things may sound. there
nevertheless are found on the statute
books such stringent laws as to bar ev-
Cry vocation IN which money is earned.
1t is Mayor Billiards. intention pri-
1narily to have liberal Interpretation
of the law, and he hopes soon to make
his meaning clear. During the cam
paign he was attacked as q candidate
for the W ide-open'' ele-1lt mt, but imme-
'liately upon taking office he suspended
all the blind tigers in the city.
He is now seeking a more liberal in
depreciation for the benefit of the work
1nguan. who heretofore has been. in
his estimation. denied the necessary
recreation and amusement. Mayor Bill
lard is in favor of Sunday baseball and
Sunday theaters. BY making the blue
laws so obnoxious as quickly to result
in their repeal, the mayor hopes to at
tain his point. His opponents, on the
ether hand. threaten TO take advantag
Of the recall provision of the charter
and hold an election in which they will
ettempt to oIst him from office. The
mayor welcomes this issue, and is will
ing to go before his constituents on a
platform such as they outline for him.
He has asked for a special election on
the question of the observance-law re-
real, and it is probable that at this
time his official head will be demanded
by his enemies.
With insurgency rife throughout the
country, with an awakening of the pub
tic conscience. with a desire for liberal
INSTRUMENTATION of the law and with a
breaking down of party lines, Topeka
may offer an interesting specimen for
the political laboratory of the present
day. The unrest which is evident in
all sections of the country seems not
TO have missed Topeka, and Mayor Bill
lard may have a POLITICAL future be-
yond his present hopes or ambitions.
Near Lacrosse, Kan, the west has
10 better example of what changes can
be brolght ABOUT in a generation than
IN the case of the Russian Mennon-
ties" observed Charles S. Clark, of
Kansas City, who is in the city for a
few davs
Thirty years ago the first settlers
came to Kansas wearing sheepskin
coats, Russian caps and boots. They
huddled on the station platforms and
I could speak no English. They were
afraid of the customs of America and
acted as if fearing to be jailed on the
slightest Gretext.
"The other day" continued Mr.. Clark.
ten touring cars We're drawn up in a
country road, and every one of them
was owned and driven by a Russian, all
sons of the men and women who hud-
died in sheepskins a third of century
ago.
in December and January a certain
hardware dealer in the little town of
Otis, in the midst of the Russian set
tlemen-, sold so automobiles, nearly all
tc farmers. They paid cash for them.
too, and are getting a good deal of
Measure out of their nerr Ma rrt 1nir,crs.