The Sauk Centre herald., 1910-12-01
BY DR.. J. A. DUBOIS

|
l have been asked to give my opini
on as to the causes bringing about the
result of the late election, and also
as to the effect this expression of the
people will have upon the future.
| The former is easy since the principal
cause is plainly apparent; and the
Ilatter ought not to be difficult task,
for it merely takes one into that de.
| lightful, I'm is ty mid-region" of
prophecy, where one mans forecast
Is quite apt to be as good as another's.
! The action of the American people
in the election of 1910, will always be
interpreted as rebuke to the ruling
faction in the republican party head
led as it is by the president of the
United States.
! When Mr.. Taft entered upon the
duties of his office the utmost good
will OF the people accompanied him.
Everywhere throughout the land was
manifest desire to accord him every
facility to make good. For party ties
had grown so lax and partisanship
had become so sensible, that good re-
publicans were complimenting the
work of good democrats done in the
service of the public, and good demo-
Gratis were fond of extending their
approval to republicans who were
loyal to the responsibilities placed up
on them. But in the days of a de-
clining partisan spirit the president
soon began to show himself the rank
est kind of a partisan.
1t was not long before he was ac-
cused by certain independents within
his own party lines of having at heart,
first, the interests of his party organ
ization, and, last, the true interests
of HIS country. Two factions COM
posed the republican party, the one
the dominant one arrogant, drunk
with sense of power, and hand in glove
with the great corporate institutions
whose servants and in many instances
paid retainers they we're: the other
faction few in numbers, but young,
brainy, resolute, and enthused with a
great desire to lead the party they
loved back to representative govern
ment.
Consistent with his natural in
stincts Mr.. Taft allied himself with
the former faction, and began at once
by a base use of official patronage,
and other prerogatives of his great
office, an attempt to punish and
coerce the recalcitranJ and insurgent
group. But his efforts were futile.
He had run against that species of
American patriotism which ever re-
refuses to yield to the dictatiOn of
party chiefs when the popular welfare
is at stake.
But unwisely the president persist
ed in his unworthy course. The in
surgents had appealed to their consti-
tuences, and into these districts their
opponents sent in swarms, emissaries
of instruction, ex-congressmen, and
jobless politicians, who, in return for
the wages paid them, should by their
specious arguments convince vhe peo-
| pie of the error of their ways. 1t
would be rare information to ascer-
tain how much good money the re-
publican congressional commi tee
burned up in this educational process.
/ should like to have kept the books
for these gentlemen, for it would
have required no special experience.
Upon the one side enter the charge
s.. Upon the other the only
strictly appropriate entry that could
be made would be Vanderbilt's IA
nous dictum "Damn the people,"
Strike the balance and on to the next
piece of political hocus-pocus! +
But there never was a record of
poorer investment of money, time,
and effort. The great prestige even
of the presidential Office was thrown
into many of the states. Vice-presi-
dent Sherman was sent into the state
of Wisconsin to organize the opposi-
tion to Senator Robert M. LaFollette.
Mr.. Taft himself saw fit to make a
personal appearance at Winona in
Congressman Tawney's district, where
he came, he said, not to apologize for
Tawney, but to endorse him. This is
not the only endorsement of which
Tawney has been made the recipient.
Wall Street also cheerfully admits
that he is statesman of the genuine
kind.
The president in his Winona speech