The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-20
AN ANAL [YS|S 0F RECENT ELECTIONS How Gov. Wilson Has Dis rupted His Party in
 New Jersey
To the Editor of The Age-Herald:

TO the Editor or The Age-Heralo. The recent elections should serve as guide posts. They point the way, and 1t is the part of wisdom to not only study tho lesson taught, but also to profit by 1t.
 In Kentucky and Massachusetts the subject of taxation was the basic is- sue. Both parties claim to favor a down. ward revision of the tariff. So that the last analysis makes it clear that the mode was the living issue.
 President Taft as the representative of his party by his veto and accompanying message, and in two of his addresses on his recent tour, has made plain that he and his party opposes a formation Of schedules looking to a lessening of tax ation until his "board of experts gives data to him, so that he may be able to predicate an opinion and form a just con- clusion as to the equities in the matter"
 The chairman of the ways and means committee has been so old fashioned that he has been called fogy because he fol- lows the examples of the fathers, because he follows the constitutional mandate that the House shall formulate and present the scheme of taxation.
 The difference is radical. In Massachu- setts and Kentucky the tariff was dis cussed, debated and the voters decided that President Taft and his party were in the wrong. and that Chairman Under wood and his party were right. That the democratic party gained victories where this issue was paramount will not be denied by anyone. The logical con clusion in relation to President Tafts contention is that the friends of protec- ton shall frame the laws relating to tax ation so as to protect protection.
 If this view is correct, then million- aires and bankers should frame our fnan- cial system; brewers and dstillers should formulate our sumptuary laws and Nor mon elders should present expert testf. mony as to laws relating to polygamy But this view was not accepted by the voters in Kentucky and Massachusetts. The Presidents plan was not accept able to the voters, the old constitutional method was favored.
 In New Jersey the democratic party lost the state. It is charged that the loss was due to the fact that the Hon James Smith, democratic member of the bipartisan oligarchy, controlled Essex county. and that the aforetime boss al- lowed or aided in the defeat of the menl- bers of the legislature from Essex. If the ex-boss is powerful enough to name in an open primary candidates to his liking, he would want them elected Sd as to favor him and oppose Governor Wilson. if the charges against him arg true But Morris, Union. Bergen and even Mercer, the capital county. all went against the magnificent expounder of isrns. In fact, in 13 out of F counties, the democrats elected their executive of hcers, and yet lost the legislature-lost to Governor Wilson.
 Assume, if you will, that Governor Will son as an expounder of theoretical gov ernment is not only the equal of Jeffer- son or Hamilton but their superior, yet the cold facts show that he has dis ruptcd his party in his own state; that he ignored the tariff that he preached new doctrines. and went down in an in- glorious defeat. Would it be wise to name q candidate that has disrupted his party |? Would not the "old boss" and the 'new boss have the fight over. and with the same results? In Ohio. New Jersey. New York. Maryland and Philadelphia the To- cal fights were against bossism. In all the states except New Jersey the old bosses were reproved. Tammany met defeat, fraud and corruption met their Waterloo in Philadelphia President Taft's aid for the boss in Ohio was sought. He proclaimed with trumpets that he would not consent, yet consented-but the voters downed the big boss and rebulzed the President.
 The people demand men as their serv- ants who will not favor either the classes or the masses, at the expense of the other. They seem weary of legislators controlled by greed. They will not favor men that corporations dominate or an- archists awe. They want their represen- tatives "To hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may"
 Chairman Underwood has by his course his actions, compelled belief in his sim cerity and honesty of purpose. He has no fads to present, no isms to defend He has not favored bossism nor has he practiced 1t. Unlike Governor Wilson he unifies his party. and can tell, if the learned writer of textbooks cannot, the difference between Jeffersonian democ- racy and republcanism even If labeled progressive.
 ernor Harmon's boom is six years old ; that Governor Wilson's is 16 months old: that both have press bureaus, and that Chairman Underwood has not yet con- sented to allow his friends from every state in the union to announce his candi- dacy; that the people in the last six weeks have not ceased to demand that he shall be their leader-and today Chair man Underwood's leadership overshadows all the aspirants, however long or much they may have been boomed.
 R. H. LEINAD.
 Birmingham. November 19, 1911.
 
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