The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1911-09-14
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Washington Correspond
ent of The Times.

BY Clyde H. Tavenncr.
Washington, D. Con- the tenth
day of May, 1902, the government
filed petition for an injunction
against the beef trust in the fedora
court at Chicago. On July 9Th, 1911
the packers, after having obtained
forty-two delays and -postponement'
in the intervening nine years, AGAR
pleaded not guilty, and for the forty
third time their trial was postponed,
this time until November Goth of this
year.
The status of the beef trust prose
cution, therefore, is exactly where il
was the day the first papers were
filed nearly decade ago. The much
heralded "prosecution'' of this gigan.
tic trust-a prosecution which has
been directed by one Republican at
torney general after another-has
amounted to less than nothing.
Every man, woman and child in the
country is convinced that the trust
operates in violation of the law, both
statute and moral, and yet nothing
has been accomplished in the alleged
campaign to stop these violations ex-
cept the disbursement of thousands
of dollars in fees for special trust
busting attorneys.
"Big Stick" in New Role.
What the people of Arizona really
have to do to obtain statehood, is a
story that the American people have
never fully heard. Information has
gone out over the wires from WASH
ington that President Taft will permit
Arizona to enter the union by simply
striking the recall of the judiciary"
provision from its constitution.
But only when these facts are con-
sidered can the full significance of the
Presidents action be grasped:
First, that the people Of Arizona by
a vote of three to one declared in
favor of the recall.
Second, that in order to obtain
statehood the people of Arizona must
60 to the polls again and vote against
a principle of government that they
have already voted in favor of, and
which they believe to be right.
By thus coercing the people to vote
against a thing which their best judy
ment tells them to be wise, threaten
ing to withhold from that people, un-
less they vote as the chief exec
utive dictates, rights to which
they are justly entitled under the con-
stitution, President Taft has committed
himself to an action which is without
precedent in the history of the Amer
lean republic.
The President has said to the people
of Arizona, in effect: "No matter
whether the majority believe that the
recall of judges is wise or not; unless
that majority goes to the polls and
pretends that it is against the recall, l
will deprive the people of Arizona of
statehood. Yes, | will deprive the
people of Arizona of statehood wheth-
er they are entitled to it under the
or not, unless they vote,
not the way they may desire, but as l
command them to vote. ~
While this method of forcing the
people may be compatible to the
mental workings Of an executive with
a judicial temperament " isn't it
after all making farce out of repre-
sentative government?
President Makes Another Mistake.
1t is difficult to see how President
Taft's 49, mile swing around the
circle can end in anything but sorry
spectacle for himself.
If he tells the people the truth about
how he vetoed the honest attempt of
both branches of Congress to reduce
The high cost of living in this country;
how upon taking office he filled his
cabinet with men connected with the
law breaking trusts, and how he tried
and nearly succeeded in giving Alaska
away to the land grabbers, he will
liscredit himself.
If Mr.. Taft juggles the facts in the
slightest degree, the Insurgents,
swinging along in his TRAIL" will
point out his Misrepresentation with
such truth and logic that the Presi-
lent will be more discredited than if
he had remained at home.
The record of the Taft administra-
ion is one that cannot be debated with