Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1910-03-08

oiC AuioC bus III OildC oPillI TIC tliltS
Ny DEAR COLONEL
| want to write you about some
things in current politics that |
think are interesting to both of us.
1t is quite evident that we must
nave political parties. / am sure
we would both like to have the demo-
cratic party strengthened in every
legitimate way. 1t looks as though
democrats in the coming campaign
would be asked to support republi-
cans who have rebelled against the
tariff policies of the republican party.
CHIEF among the sirens who will sing
dulcet songs to democrats will be
Senator LaFollette and various re-
publican candidates for congress
and the state legislature. We can
have no quarrel with these republi-
cans for getting votes in this way
We can approve their support of
democratic doctrines. But this is
no reason why democrats should
vote for these men either at the
primary, or the election following it.
| cannot see why Senator LaFollette
has any claim on democrats. He
helped frame the Mckinley tariff
law, was elected governor and sena-
tor on party platforms which praised
the Dingley law. 1t is true some
reason came to him when confronted
with the iniquities of the Payne
Aldrich tariff law. Yet each one
was vicious-each succeeding one
more vicious than its predecessors.
Each one was a logical and evil step
in the enormous growth of tariff
privilege that has sprung up since
the war. So tariff taxes on many
commodities have become prohibit
tive. To supply the deficit in public
revenue, resort was had to the fed
eral corporation income tax, gro
tesque measure, that was never at
issue in any campaign and that was
put into the tariff law as rider.
A considerable body of republicans
are in open or secret revolt against
the party. Insurgents in congress
and out have worked themselves into
a state of mind, and are plotting
and planning, talking treason and
heresy, vowing themselves with all
too much emphasis on the altar of
political independence. Democrats
are egging them on and assuring
them of aid and comfort. What
does such rebellion amount to? Ac-
cording to history, nothing
People who dearly love to embody
things in a phrase or in some man,
have done so with the word Can
nonism." This is intended for an
opprobrious epithet. 1t don't reilly
mean anything, especially as Cannon
is no better and no worse than a
thousand other leaders of his party.
Most of the republicans who dislike
Cannon and his ways are too timor-
Gus to do more than to voice their
dislike in whispers. On the other
hand, those who approve of him
hardly dare say so among their con-
stituents. Most of them spend all
their time making faces at Cannon
without doing him or his organiza-
ton any harm. These are family
squabbles, entertaining, but not
worthy of the serious attention of
anyone, least of all of any democrat.
At this time there is hardly nook
or corner OF our foreign commerce
free from tariff tyranny. If by in
advertence some article is left I'M
taxed in a prior tariff law, it is RENE
died in the next with apologies to
the genius of protection. The pas
sage of every tariff law turns Wash
ington into a sly of swinish clamor
for privilege. The slave power was
not more naughty and tyrannical
before the civil war than the tariff
power is now. Every tariff law that
the republican party has passed has
been an opera boufe affair, posed in
the beginning as an honest attempt
at tariff reform, ending in tariff
prostitution. Every battle in the
republican party over this question
has been a sham battle. The troops
of republican tariff reform have al
ways marched vaiiantly up the hill,
and then meekly marched down
again. Thereafter the Protection
lists Mutual Admiration society poses
in affecting tableau, emphasized by
the slapstick of good fellowship
1.-THE best tariff law we ever had, "
calls Aldrich.
Taft in softer strain" Best tariff
law we ever had.
BEST tariff law we ever had, re-
cites the mendacious party platform.
This is the history of republican
tariff reform and so it will be world
without end, unless the party shall
suffer defeat. OF course the rebels
are noisy for a time. Thisperiodicity
of rebellion is a common fashion.
The rebels are taken seriously by no
one but themselves, and few fol-
lowers of mixed political breeds. AS
the campaign warns up under the
influence OF party discipline, and
ringing party shibboleths, and party
catch-calls, the ranks will close.
The great mace of party authority
will be carried around among the
mutinous members, and the waves
of trouble will be stilled. The in
surgents viii resurge back to ia
miliar moorings. In the next presi-
Dental campaign it is certain that
we shall find the Cummins and La
Follettes, Aldrichs and Cannons,
hand in hand, moving joyously for
ward, and assuring each other that
despite some temporary estrange-
ments their hearts we're always true
to Poll. Jointly they viii felicitate
- Al / lI,-i-l J.,