Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-09-07
Senator CUMMING, Indiotment.

vent the presidents denomination
sums up in this one sentence-that the
president does not take the progress
sive view" of things. In support of
the charge he enumerates various
measures of legislation on important
subjects embraced within the presi-
Dental program put through rather by
the votes of the regulars than by the
votes of the insurgents. Reading on
through the bill OF particulars, how
ever, Senator Cummins' complaint
seems to be that the president has not
turned insurgent, but has preferred to
lay out a progressive program, and Sc
cure Its enactment by enlisting what
ever help he could get.
Senator Cummins declares, for ex-
ample, that in the making of the
Payne-Aldrich tariff law the chief
agencies in congress were Mr.. Aldrich
and his followers in the senate, and
Mr.. Cannon and his followers in the
house, but he very unfairly suppresses
the we'll established fact that these
leaders were not permitted to have
their own way, and that all the ma
terial concessions in the direction of
downward revision were procured or
saved in the conference committee by
the personal interference and influence
of the president.
Senator Cummins finds fault with
the presidents position on the bill in
creasing the powers of the Interstate
Commerce commission. But here
again he omits to say, what everyone
knows is true, that were it not for Mr..
Taft no legislation whatever would
have been had for further railroad
regulation.
Senator Cummins complains because
the president preferred the certainty
of the corporation tax to raise needed
revenue over the uncertainty Of an in
come tax Of doubtful constitutionality,
and to procure the income tax through
the safe process Of constitutional
amendment. Whether this was the
progressive view or not, 1t unquestion-
ably was the sensible view, and the
only view sure to produce practical re-
suits.
Senator Cummins accuses the presi-
dent of being out of harmony with
those who were regarded before his
advent as the best opponents of the
conservation policy" but comedies that
his appointment of Secretary Fisher
commanded the approval of the pro-
gressives throughout the country. The
only inference from this specification
is that nothing the president could dc
for conservation would fully satisfy
the insurgents.
Senator Cummins admits that there
is a wide difference of opinion as to
Canadian reciprocity. The public gen.
orally, however, regard it as a pro
gressive move, and have been from the
first puzzled that the chief opposition
should come from the insurgents who
had been loudest in demanding tariff
reduction.
Senator Cummins cannot even sup
port the presidents arbitration treat
les, whose popularity we do not believe
he will question, but he has not the
hardihood to make out that their tend.
ency is opposed to the progressive
view.
Senator Cummins' chief lamenta'
tions rest on the presidents vetoes Of
the democratic tariff-for-politics bills
and Arizona-New Mexico statehood
His fear is that the democrats will not
give the president chance to sign an.
other tariff bill prepared in the light
of tariff board investigations. But, Il
so, the grievance of the insurgents will
be with their democratic allies rather
than the republican president.
Senator Cummins says that he per
sonally does not approve of the recall
of judges, but stands on "the one pro
gressive proposition" that congress has
no right to prescribe the constitution
for incoming states. If Senator Cum
Minis will read up on the history Of
Nebraska he will find that right here
in his neighboring state congress
struck the word white" out of oul
constitution when the state sought tt
come in with negroes debarred from
participation in the suffrage.
The real truth is that all the pro
gressive legislation we have had since
Mr.. Taft entered the White House
and it makes a notable LISTS the re
suit of the presidents activity, and Il
in any of It he has had the support Of
reactionaries, it is because he com
PEELED them to move forward to keel
his pace.