The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-09-17
Democrats Have Thrown a
 Scare Into the Senator
VOTERS ARE READY TO ACT
People of Massachusetts Are Tired of High Cost of Living and Will Ex- press Themselves at the Bal-
 lot Box I'm November
BY wATrERsoN sTEALEY

 Washington, September 16.-(Spe-
 cial )-When Henry Cabot Lodge of
 Massachusetts opened campaign head
 quarters In Boston seven weeks ago
 his friends thought he had been fright
 ened by the announcement of Repre- sentative Butler Ames' candidacy to
 beat him for the nomination. Conse-
 quently they dropped into headquarters,
 the first opened by any senatorial can
 didate in this state within the mem
 ory of the present generation, and said:
 Why don't you shut this place up. Ames couldn't touch you with 40-foot pole There's no fight on you It's joke" MT. Lodge smiled wisely and
 said he guessed he would keep the shop open. Now the state politicians rec ognize that Lodge in establishing his headquarters gave another sign of his political shrewdness, for he saw coming | the trouble that today besets him.
 There Is a chance that the preposterous
 may come true. Lodge may lose his seat in the Senate. He or his success
 sor will be chosen by the legislature
 elected next November.
 There Is a strong chance that the |
 practical certainty if they unite
 strongly on their man who will be | chosen for the nomination in the state | convention, October 6, next, in Boston,
 they stand a show to win out in the l legislature, because 1t costs a lot of money to eat and wear clothes and | pay rent in Massachusetts these days.
 It costs more than 1t did year ago
 lots. Up there are thousands of voters, as there are in any other state who know nothing about the details or | the sch hedules in the tariff law as It stands today. But they have a very definite Idea that the tariff is the thing | which has boosted up the price of meats and garments. Every time they go to
 the grocery store or run down to buy | a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes
 they say things about the tariff. It makes no difference whether the tar ! if is as innocent of the trouble as anything possibly could be. The peo- pie Nf Massa ehusetts blame that lay, l Incidentally, as this is 8 state where all voters are well educated and wide l ly read, they express their sentiments | in terms which cannot well be misun- 1 derstood. In brief, insurgency IS strongly pronounced throughout the
 state among the masses of the people. l It middle west, which runs wildly after
 new doctrines and the most modern
 principles of political economy, but it | is the insurgency which comes from Ideep-rooted dissatisfaction with the po- | litical party now In power. It is the
 expression of the dissatisfaction which comes from the increased cost of nV- ing. So we'll recognized Is this spirit | of unrest that many of the regular | republicans are not enthusiastic over
 the coming visit of Theodore Roosevelt
 to speak in the state in behalf of Sen
 ator Lodges renomination.
 They cannot figure out how the colonel
 can make a speech without increasing the dissatisfaction which now exists
 among the voters.
 | Taft's Letter Too Late
 The letter of the Presidents secretary, MT. Norton, announcing that hereafter | in the matter of patronage insurgents and regular congressman are to De on | the same footing is a distinct backdown
 on the part of the President, but prob | ably comes too late to appease the insur- | gent faction. The main reason Is that | in nine-tenths of the cases the patronage | has already been distributed. The in | surgent congressman were last winter deprived of the principal postoffices in | their districts and had little to say In the naming of the larger federal officehold- CTS. Now there is little if anything left. | This action was taken by the President during the last sessions of Congress in | order to whip into the Aldrich band wagon the nsurgent senators and drive | into Speaker Cannon's hands the insur- | gent representatives. There Is ground | for the belief that in number of in stances, especially on the House side, 1t hut in vi n r. gent republican victories at the polls | the policy has been utterly repudiated, | the policy was bitterly assailed by insur- | gents at the time of its promulgation | and caused much comment throughout | the country generally.
 | Democrats see in the Norton letter rather cheap and ineffective attempt on inc part of the President to curry favor with the insurgents vote, which Is all ready lost to him. That the letter will do the President no good with the regu- lars goes without saying.
 Underwood's Good Work
 This statement was given out at dem- ocratic headquarters today:
 Hon Oscar w. Underwood of Bir mingham is doing some excellent work in Pennsylvania. From letter received ot the democratic headquarters from
 Thomas H. Greevy of Altoona. Pa.. dem- rA nominee for Congress, we extract | the following:
 q" 'The Hon. Oscar w. Underwood of | Alabama was present at a democratic meeting held in the city of Pittsburg | today and delivered one of the best ad- dresses on the tariff question ever made | in this section of the country Mir. Un- derwood. after MT. Clark, Is the ranking member of the ways and means commit | tee of the House of Representatives, and with a democratic House and MT. Clark sneaker, will unquestionably be chairman | of that distinguished committee. He has the confidence of the entire House of
 Representatives, republican as well as | democrat, and Payne and Dalzell con-