Omaha daily bee., 1910-05-06
Crisis in Congress.

Crisis In Congress!
The striking thing about the whole sit
uation TO the impartial observer is the
evidently sincere conviction on the part
Of each side that 1t is itself loyal to re-
| publicanlsm and wholly In the right and
| that the other. either wilfully recreant or
fanatically self deceived Is more or less
consciously band Of public enemies.
The Associated Press in its dispatch
from Washington has thus summed up
all there is to this hubbub in congress
| between the so-called regulars and
"insurgents"--a fight for personal ag-
grandizement on each side instead of
a faithful effort to further the inter
ests of the republican party and sub
serve the public welfare by carrying
out the Taft program of legislation.
Ii Senator Cummlns and Senator
Aldrich could step aside-if that be
necessary to harmonious, successful
actlon-and let things proceed on their
merits, there might be no occasion
whatever for this apprehension as to
the fate of the Taft measures and II
these factional leaders had the inter
est OF their party and people as much
at heart as they have their own per-
sonal interests, they would be willing
to step aside.
The great trouble is that ambitious
| leaders in their rivalry to win have
read into the presidents proposals
and measures much that he never
i placed there or intended should be
there, and have read out of them
much that he did insert. What the
president recommended to congress is
what the republican party promised
J the people in its platform in 1908,
and what the people said they wanted
when they gave the republican party
their votes. The people, therefore,
can have no interest in the selfish am
l bition of the leaders on either side. OF
their taking up the time that should
be devoted to business with private
\ quarrels, the country is heartily sick
and tired. What it demands is real
action and IL is sure to manifest its
approval or disapproval, as the ulti-
mate case may be, at the polls this
fall.
themselves the right of voicing the
Roosevelt policies and attacking the
regulars as the enemies of those poll
cies, have bitterly condemned the pool
tn tn he Dat
they must be deluding themselves to
think that the people have forgotten
Mr.. Roosevelts position on this very
proposition. In his message to con-
gress December 8, 1905, the former
president said:
The antitrust law should not prohibit
combinations that do no injustice to the
public, still less those the existence of
which is on the whole of benefit to the
public.
In that same message he also said !:
Often railroads would like to combine for
the purpose OF preventing a big shipper
from maintaining improper advantages at
the expense of small shippers and of the
general public. Such combination, in
stead Of being forbidden by law, should be
favored.
Since the insurgents have chosen ia
criticise President Taft and attack the
regulars in congress on the charge that
they are not carrying out the Roose.
welt policies" 1t is welr that we turn
back to some of these policies and see
just what they are. The truth is there
hnn
: much sophistry, and not enough down.
right honesty and fairness in this fac.
tional fight and the men who have
talked loudest about Roosevelt poll.
cies" may not after all be the ones
who have done most for those policies