Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1911-08-15

chances are they will find plenty to
keep them busy without Juggling in
extraneous subjects, wholly irrele-
want and immaterial.
When the time and the occasion
for the sale of the Tennessee Coal &
Iron Company to the United States
steel corporation are taken into con-
sideration, fair minded men must
concede that Roosevelt was right in
not trying to block the transaction.
That was in 1907, when the little
panic was on and when men were
looking with suspicion upon every
transaction. Had not the United
States Steel corporation gone to the
rescue the Tennessee company
would have failed, carrying down a
number of banks with it, thus
spreading the panic. Roosevelt
simply served the interests of the
people when he permitted the sale.
During panics, as in time of wars,
extraordinary steps are permissible
If progressive senators and rep
resentatives have not been entirely
consistent in dealing with the reci-
procity proposition, President Taft
was not consistent in consideration
of the income tax problem. Mr..
Taft favored it in his letter Of ac-
ceptance, declaring, that in his
Judgment, an amendment to the
constitution was unnecessary. Yet
when he was safely seated in the
white house and when Senator Cum
minis presented an income tax bill,
Mr.. Taft became convinced that the
constitution would not stand the
strain and at once set about to Sc
cure the passage of the corporation
tax law. The president performed
fine somersault stunt, defeated the
income tax and demonstrated that
he was not strong stickler for con-
sistency. With this record behind
him the president and his friends
ought to be little more charitable
in referring to the assumed incon-
sistency of others.
The Freeman-Tribune hopes that
no Iowa farmer will be lured to
Canada by the specious pleas of
real estate men of quick fortunes In
Canada lands, ION account of reci-
procity." Good soil is going to in
crease in value all over North
America and Canadian lands will
no doubt prove a good investment
| in the future as they have in the
past. But Iowa soil is still the
most promising. 1t is doubtful If
land in any other country has in
creased in value to the extent It
has in this state during the past
dozen years. The increase of the
best grades has been in the neigh
borhood of 500 per acre in that
time. Farms that could have been
bought in Hamilton county twelve
years ago at $50 and $50 per acre
are now held at $3.50, and even
higher, and they are selling at that
price. In two or three years from
now the people of this state will
look back to 1911 and wonder why
they were alarmed at the trade
agreement between this country
and Canada.
In versatility, aptness to occa-
sion, grace of finish, as well as in
substance, we have never had a
president who equaled or closely ap-
preached Benjamin Harrison in the
fine art of addressing the promiscu-
Gus public in long series of
speeches.-Sioux City Journal.
The Freeman-T Tribune is glad the
Journal has taken occasion to say
this much for former president Har-
rison. This paper has felt that Ben
jamin Harrison was not fully ap-
preciated by the American people.
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