The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1911-07-16
BY RoDERick CLIFFORD.

the Senate. Republican leaders were
the selection of new leader. Many of
the venerable members of the Senate
shook their heads and said There is
only one Aldrich in a generation"
They expressed great fears that the
Republican party had suffered an ir-
reparable loss by his retirement.
The thing that gave them most con-
Germ was who was to succeed Aldrich
as chairman of the finance committee
There We're many who said that the
Presidents pet measure. Canadian
reciprocity. was doomed without AL
drich to guide its passage. President
Taft had pledged himself to the pas
sage of the measure, and failure to
succeed in having it made law
meant public acknowledgment of
the weakness of the administration
and defeat of the Republicans.
During the short interval between
the close of the last session of Con-
gress and the convening Of the extra
session called for the express purpose
of passing the reciprocity pact. many
star chamber" conferences were
held by the Republican leaders to de-
termine upon the man who was to
head the life or death struggle of the
measure in the Senate.
With the announcement of Senator
Penrose, of Pennsylvania, as successor
to Aldrich as chairman of the finance
committee and Republican whip. ex-
pressions of surprise and doubt as to
his fitness We're heard on all sides.
Many declared reciprocity doomed.
All of this in no way intimidated
Senator Penrose. He assumed the lea
dership of the fight with the same de-
termination to win that has character
lied him in every thing that he has
undertaken. He realized the RESPONSE
bility imposed upon him, and was pre-
pared to stake all of the outcome His
political future depends upon the pas
sage of the bill.
1t is a new Penrose who is now
chairman of the finance committee.
True the leopard does not change his
spots in a day, and 1t could not be ex-
pected that Penrose. boss of the Re-
publican machine in Pennsylvania,
would undergo a complete transfer
nation in a few weeks. Still he is
showing qualities of leadership as
head of the finance committee that
are worthy of his renowned predeces
sor. He has displayed many sterling
qualities which even his closest friend
oi, for
Recently when Senator aBiley came
near executing a plan to have the free
list and the wool bill voted upon in
the Senate before reciprocity, and
when Senator Penrose was about to
give his consent to it, there was some
disposition to make light of the Penn
sylvania Senator, and say that the
Senate needed an Aldrich back in it's
midst. But there are two sides to the
question. and it is not improbable that
if the plan had gone through, the ses-
sion would have ended quite as expe-
ditiously as it will end and perhaps
reciprocity would have been just as
safe from amendment as it now is.
Few politicians who have been call
ed upon to lead their party have been
more roundly 1ambasted than Senator
servative one He is much less czarlike
than Senator Aldrich, who went down
and out of the Senate without perceiv-
ing that the old-fasnioned way of
things had passed.
Senator Penrose is a younger man.
He has learned the lesson that the
Senate can no longer be dictated to or
ridden over by one man. History tells
of the downfall of too many of the past
rulers of the Senate for him to at
tempt to become dictator over it.
He relies more on persuasion than up
on compulsion.
Senator Penrose's policy is not to
antagoniZe any element of the Re-
publican party if he can possibly
avoid. He realizes that the party has
been weakened by strife within it's
must be perfect harmony hereafter. In
order to prevent the Democrats from
sweeping it away in the 1912 election,
it will have to present united front.
During the past two years it has been
rent in twain by international dissen-
sions and greatly weakened. Hence he
is inclined to placate rather than stir
up strife. He is attempting to hold
back the Old Guard leaders who want
to continue the method of Aldrich,
and is trying at the same time to
smooth over the feeling of the insur-
gents and bring them into the fold
This is a strange role for a Senator
who was generally supposed, back in
the days of the Aldrich regime to be
going about with club looking for
those Senators who were of the pro-
gressiye order. However strange it
may seem, Senator Penrose has adapt
ed his personal feelings to suit his
cause. He realizes along what lines
he must work and is acting according
ly. A month from now when he has
safely piloted reciprocity through the
Senate there will be many who will
shake their heads and say they never
thought it was in him.
The changes that time will make in
man are strange. Not long ago, a
friend of Senator Penrose was startled
to hear him speak in a complimentary
way of Senator La Toilette. the ag-
gressive leader of the progressives
Senator La Toilette was not the SUBJ
ject of the conversation. The friend
merely alluded to the fighting Senator