The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1911-07-31
THE ELUSIVE LITTLE PEA.


Stories are told every now and then
about how countrymen who have gone
to Greater New York have been much
impressed with their own personal
Importance by the friends" who have
heard of them before they left their
homes and who because they were OF 50
much consequence back in the coun-
try could not do enough for them 10
make their visit to the Metropolis an
occasion never to be forgotten. 1t is
an old trick but it is a good trick and
rarely fails 10 ind some sucker.
The game is to tell under which
O, the little thimbles the innocent
looking little pea has been placed. and
with that confidence which is char-
acteristic of so many of the people
from the provinces the visitor is will
ing to trust his eyes If all else should
fail But out in the growing west
there are also little games and shrewd
plavers. and some of them have gone
into politics. notably among them the
DISTINGUISHED Senator from Wisconsin.
the Hon. Robert NJ. La Toilette. who is
playing for the Presidential nominal
ton. and has been working the Demo-
Gratis in the Senate to turn. AS, for
example. the other day when he got
them all to vote for his bill to revise
the wooden schedule in the Payne
tariff bill. rather than to hold fast to
the Underwood bill which has passed
the House and has the approval of
the Democratic caucus, and after they
had failed to carry through the I'm
derwood proposition they went over to
La Toilette. 1t was a clever play by
one of the most persistent and clever
players that has appeared in politics
for a long time. We are told. how
ever, in a dispatch from Washington.
that the Democrats in the House arc
not disposed to have the wool pulled
over their eyes so successfully as the
Democrats in the Senate. and that they
will insist that La Toilette shall come
to them rather than that they shall
go 10 him. The Democrats in the House
are right about 1t. 1t would be mis-
take for them TO hook up with La
Toilette. to surrender free trade. or
revenue producing measure, for the
one evolved from La Foilet;e's inner
consciousness and conceived without
any accurate knowledge, a s-rol!ing
measure pure and simple. II they can
not pass their own bill they should not
take his.
We do not know what the President
would do about it II either the IN
derwood bill OF the La Toilette bin
should pass. Probably he would veto
either or both OF them, although we
think 1t far more likely that he would
think about the Underwood bill when
ne would smash the La Toilette
measure without mercy; but, however
that might be. as a general PROPOSE
ton we would say that we should
make the Preetdent.. responsible for
his course in TIE matter and not ar
ford him the opportunity OF helping
himself or his party by making the
good excuse he could offer for the
disapproval OF the La Toilette bill. We
think he should give his approval 20
the Underwood measure. 1t has been
well thought out. 1t is in the line Of
the Presidents own thought that the
wool schedule in the present tariff
law is not we'll constructed and should
be revised. hut again. we would ven
ture to say that we should far rather
lose with the President than to win a
worthless victory with La Toilette; for
we believe that the President Will play
the game straight,