The Washington herald., 1911-12-31
Comprehensive Story of World'S Progres!
TN 1911 Told to Focus AttentfOn ON
Matters of Greatest Interest -

221 to 100. despite the opposition OF w. }.
Bryan. who demanded free trade as the
Democratic policy and charged Under
WOOD with party treachery. By. these
tariff revision bills the Democrats sought
to make a record and place Taft il the
| difficult dilemma OF delaying revision or
SigEing Democratic measures. Taft was
charged by the insurgents with surrender
ing TO big business"
Coalition Dominates Senate
What would the senate do with the
tariff bills? This was the great question.
The free list bill, after being barely
beaten by a tie vote in the senate, was
passed in amended form, August !, IS TO
80, under Democrauc-progresslye coai-
ton led by La Toilette 1t was the most
radical tariff reduction ever enacted by
congress. The final house vote on this
August Is was 206 10 80. more than enough
to overcome a veto. The bill was vetoed
by the president on the ground tnat reNi-
sion should await the report of the tarln
board in December 10 be scientific.
The same coalition forced through the
senate the wool and cotton tarln Oils
which also were vetoed by Taft on similar
grounds.
The other big fight of the extra session
was over the statehood enabling act tor
Arizona and New Mexico, which the
house promptly passed, but which me
senate fought. Finally, near the end, the
( bill passed the senate without DISTURBING
| the judicial recall in the Arizona constltu-
|
| later q statehood bill was put through
| leaving the recall question out, and TINS
was signed. The house passed sweeping
| campaign publicity bill, SS to q.
The direct election of senators bill again
was killed in the house after having
passed the senate with the BrlStow
amendment giving congress control c
| elections.
Investigations Galore
| How TO deal with the trusts? This was
! the real problem involved in the reclproc,
Iity tariff revision, electoral reform ana
other contests of the session. But IN Sll
other ways the trusts were pltch1 M .o5l
| into public discussion. One Was IN Co h
| necton with the various committee pEoD-
Inss authorized by the party returned 10
power.
character about the steel trust and ITS
history were made before the Stanley
committee, beginning in June, by suca men
as Gates, Gary, Perkins, SchWao. hooSeI
vel. and other officials. And on the stand
| both Gary and Perkins said tiatly that tne
gov eminent must control the big corPoSI d
lions. even to the extent OF prices rdt1er
than that business should return 10 uS
strl,ctiVe competition All this was "IdeIy
exploited in the press long before the
prosecution of the trust was started IN
November. (See under legal secton) Inc
attack on this trust giant was further
strengthened 10y the Knox report showing
its policy Of mOnOpoAZlng the sources o.
ore supply. All this tended TO dlscredlt
IL
in permitting the Tennessee purchase III
1891 and in regarding the Steel Corporation
IS d model trust.
Roosevelt Cuts Loose From Taft
1t was this situation that brought Theo-
dore Roosevelt into the game In self
defense and to attack the Taft admins
trGtIOn on the score of unfairneSS and IN
efficiency. In his sensational editorial in
the Outlook November IS Colonel Roose-
welt plainly took issue with Taft by in
ssting the trusts should and could be
CurbeG by the executive power IhuS
Roosevelt won plaudits from the big busl-
ness heads once more, and virtually went
Oh record as against the renomlnauoh OF
Taft for a second term. Talk of Roose-
velt's nomination revived. and he denied
he was forpaft or himself.
The Stanley committee late in Novem-
be- drew from the Merritts, OF Duluth, a
story of how Rockefeller had robbed
them of iron lands on call loan. Rookie
Teller made public denial and cited a
formal exoneration signed by the Merritts.
Not only the steel trust but the wool
ans sugar trusts nave been probed by
congress committees off and on since
May. in each case a vast amount of data
being accumulated for use in the coming
campaign. Most of this showed the mo-
nopclistic character of and methods pur-
sued by these corporations.
Plot Against Wiley Fails
In the course of investigation of the
government departments. charges pre-
ferred by the agricultural department
against DR.. Harvey w. Wiley, the
pure food champion, were fully sifted to
the discredit of Wileys enemies. and, de-
spite an adverse, view given by Attorney
General WickerSham, the president was
, forced by facts and public opinion to sus-
tain Wiley and give him more power than
ever.
In spite of the seating of Lorimer by
the extra session. the bipartisan graft
scandal connected with his election would
not down. a new investigation by the
. Illinois senate O0irtpa brought light
highly sensational evidence of a 100000
corruption fund having been raised by a
number of big corporation heads, with
Edward Tilden. of the meat trust, as the
holder Of the bag. The findings of this
committee and the public outCry moved
the senate of the new congress to start
a fresh investigation by a committee di-
rectly responsible TO the open senate. Its
report has awaited as the year end
( drew near.
Besides this. another senate seat was
under Investigation. that of Stephenson,
of Wisconsin, who admitted spending over
$780, 900 OH his election. The Wisconsin
committee report forced the senate to
act The extra session came to an end on
August -
Work of Regular Session Begun
On December the siXty-second con-
gress began its first regular session and
received d message from the president
devoted entirely to the trusts, defend
ing the Sherman law as amended by the
court. approving the tobacco trust reor-
ganizatiOn and again urging a federal
incorporation law. second message,
December I, dealt with foreign relations.
Others on the tariff were to follow.
The presidents reinsurance about nego-
tiations with Russia were barely uttered
when the public demand for action TO
compel that nation to respect American
passports. regardless Of race or religion,
grew so insiStent that the house, De-
cember l3, passed, with only one dissent
ing voice, a Sulzer resolution, asking the
president to denounce the treaty of 1882
with Russia. This the president did on
December Is. at the same time suggesting
a new treaty.
On December IL the house passed the
Sherwood service pension bill, 229 to 80.
Underwood and eighty-three other Demo-
Gratis joining eight Republicans in Oppos-
ing il.
ing the eight-hour day TO government
work by private contract, passed the
house without a division.
The overshadowing issue of trust regu-
lation was kept before the public by the
hearings of the senate commerce COM
mittee. George W. Perkins making his
formal appeal for the federal bureau 10
keep the big concerns in order and
Lawyer Brandeis showing by statistics
that all monopolies are wrong whether
controlled by the government or not, that
they have hurt real business and the
working man.