The Penn's Grove record., 1911-03-31
ACCUSES TAFT Of
PLAYING POLITICS
Willis ]. Abbot Sees Significance
in Appointment of BaIIinger's
Successor.
BATTLE IN EXTRA SESSION
Revenue Measures viii Cause Fight
Within and Between Parties-Demo-
cratic Members of Ways and
Means Committee Have Busy
Days 81 Did Taft Bunco
Democrats?
by WILLIS J. ABBOT.

Democrats?
by WILLIS J. ABBOT.
Observation-Disclosures was much
Interested in the coming to the
capital of the new Secretary OF
the Interior, Mr.. Walter l.. Fisher of
Chicago, whose whole life has been
spent in reforming matters like
primaries, elections, corrupt councils
and the like. But 1t was more inter
ested in the manner of his appoint
ment and its political significance.
No governmental secret was ever
more carefully guarded than the
standing resignation Of Ballinger-
unless it was the identity of his sue
cessor, with whom negotiations were
evidently pending for weeks. But
what chiefly entertains the politicians
is the tenor of the correspondence be-
tween President Taft and the outgo-
ing secretary. Nobody could have
been bowed out of the door with more
fulsome fattery and high expressions
of regard than was Ballinger-but
when the door re-opened 1t was to
admit a man exactly opposite to him
in type, the bosom friend and the de-
voted idolator Of his enemy, Clifford
Pinchot.
The Taft correspondence and the
Fisher appointment could only be
adequately satirized by Mr.. Dooley,
but a cynical congressman-Demo-
crat, of course-did not do so badly
when he summed 1t up to me thus:
As a CynIc Sees the Matter.
"Taft's letter reduced to its lowest
terms, and rewritten in the light of
the subsequent appointment, might
be paraphrased this way:
"My Dear Secretary: Never have
1 had in my cabinet a more earnest,
patriotic, unselish and unbiased Of
ficer than you. For all your surpass-
ing qualities l have the highest ad-
miration and esteem. You were the
victim of a ~scoundrelly combination
Of politicians and publications bent,
for their own selfish purposes, upon
bounding you out of public life. Your
urse has had my entire approval
and your present plight my %sincerest
sympathy. For these cogent reasons
/ have determined to appoint as your
successor a gentleman who disap-
proves of all you have done, and who
is further a trusted ally of Mr.. Pin
chot, who fomented the plot l have so
righteously denounced"
My friends somewhat cynical COM
ment on the Fisher appointment did
not much overstate the case, as any
one who read the Ballinger letter and
the accounts telegraphed from Chi
cago concerning the intimate rela-
tions between the new secretary and
the recent chief forester can under
stand. He did not stop to discuss the
presidential politics involved, but
these are the days when the expert
enced Washingtonian judges every
public act by it's bearing on the next
presidential campaign.
Playing Politics.
Ballinger Is extremely popular on
the Pacific coast and that northern
tier of states through which run the
Jim" Hill roads. Taft will need both
delegates and electoral votes from
that section. The Ballinger letter
will help.
Pinchot Is idolized in the east, and
peculiarly popular in those states in
which there are left no forests to con
serve. The appointment of his Chi
: cago disciple will aid in getting dele
gates there. More than that, it will
help to avert the shadow ever loom
ing larger on the presidents horizon
of Roosevelt a potential candidate,
and Pinchot a possible one.
AS a longtime resident of Chicago
I am familiar with MI. Fishers earn
est and effective municipal work and
his admirable character. But l would
advise his friends not to proceed on
the theory that his appointment was
based on the question of personal fit
ness alone.
Always Politics.
Amid the bray of the trumpet, the
roll of the drum, the thunder of the
captains and the shouting that fill the
newspaper columns in these days Of
the invasion of Mexico, Washington
still talks politics. Just now there
is a feeling that despite the clever
politics of the last half of the Taft
administration there will be three big
tickets In the field in 1912. Taft can
renominate himself, of course-any
president with the southern Office
holders at his disposal can do that.
But already such thick and thin de-
voices of Rooseveltism as Golfers
and the Kansas City Star are de-
nouncing him as a r~eactionary and
demanding a progressive Republican
candidate. Senator Jonathan Bourne's
political activities in this direction are
bearing plenty of fruit-whether 1t
will ever ripen is the question. Taft
will find it hard to get Republican
delegates from California, Washing
ton, Oregon, the Dakotas, Kansas and
Wisconsin If LaFollette should enter
the race. as undoubtedly he will.
Should the administration succeed in
this preliminary task the president
Transmitted Qualities.