The Penn's Grove record., 1911-03-17
HOW FRISCO WON
SUPPORT OF TAFT
Pacific Coast Leaders Promised
That the Anti-Japanese Agi-
tation Would Stop.
QUICK ACTION ON TREATY
General Feeling Around Capital That
Taft Is Playing Politics, Says Alb
bot-Crane Now Adviser-Hun-
cry Horde of Lobbyists No
Longer Beset Congress.
By WILLIS J.. ABBOT.

Longer Beset Congress.
BY WILLIS j. ABBOT.
Washington am informed that
two things actuated President Taft
In throwing all the influence of the
administration to the California
side, in the contest for the Panama
exposition. One was a certain tele-
gram Sent him that California would
be a doubtful state in the next cleo
ton unless his aid was extended to
its greatest present ambition. The
other was a definite promise that If
San Francisco won the exposition
there would be a complete cessation
of the anti-Japanese agitation in Cali
fornia for some years to ONE AS
the most violent anti-Japanese agi-
tators were prominent San Francis
cam who came here to urge the claims
of their city, 1t is apparent that the
pledge was capable Of fulflment. Any
how 1t seemed like a curious coinci-
dence that within a week of signing
the exposition bill Taft sent in the
draft of the treaty, and after a few
Intellectual and incoherent roars the
Pacific coast senators voted for it.
Was it the president who played
clever politics in this instance? I'm
not sure. 1t looks to me as If the
Pacific coast took a prize away from
the gulf coast by rendering a certain
concession that they would have had
to grant in any. event.
They might have talked the treaty
out of this session, but 1t would have
been renewed as soon as the extra
session met and would have been
easily carried. By the reported prom
Use made to the president San Fran
cisco got the exposition and at pres
ent 1t is thinking more Of that than
of the dangers of Japanese immigra-
ton.
Taft Playing Politics.
There is a general feeling around
the capitol that in the past two weeks
Taft for once in his presidential ca
reel has been playing politics and
playing %cleverly. Men are asking who
Is the new adviser who has aided him
to put himself in a position of domi-
nance instead of the place Of almost
impotence he long occupied. Hitch
cock has obviously been dethroned
and wise ones say that Senator Muir
ray Crane has succeeded to his hon
ors and his responsibilities. Among
political journalists here Crane Is
looked on with both admiration and
respect.
Quiet and keen, he is nevertheless
always approachable, always popular
with the newspaper fraternity in
Washington. He trusts them and
they trust him. He is apt to tell the
facts without any effort at conceal
ment, but he is equally apt to ask that
what he has said may be kept In con-
fidence. That part of his disposition
does not endear him to newspaper
writer's who prefer to be able to say
In print what they know. Neverthe-
less you will find that the press gal
lery today looks upon the wiser po-
litical policy of Taft in the last few
days as due almost wholly to the
Crane influence. The journalistic end
of the Capitol is not fond of Hitch
cock. He has come up from nothing
and has been inclined to haughtiness
since he attained his presenter shall
| say his recent status-as a political
advisor of this administration. Most
of us think that substitution of Crane
for Hitchcock will greatly strengthen
Taft. A senator of the United States
said to me this morning, a Republican
of course, eve hope that at last Taft
is going to come into his own. If we
riculum could not be better devised
than the course of training he has
had. If we wanted to pick out a man
on whom the cap of Fortunatus rested
Taft would have been the man. And
yet today he is the least popular presi-
dent that we have had at the end Of
half of his term of Office"
Not Seething With Lobbyists.
Mr.. Clifford Pinchot has made the
charge that Washington is seething
with lobbyists. To quote him literally,
as a Washington newspaper does
quote him, he really fears for the lib
critics of the American people. Mr..
Pinchot is quoted as saying:
"My experience of Washington o
ers fifteen years. In all that time |
have never known a more umerou
or a hungrier set of lobbyists than
the swarm which besets the dying
hours of the present congress. The
4th of March will mark the close of an
era as well as the end of a congress,
and for many a man and many a pro-
ject this is the final chance. Water
power men are in Washington eager
to acquire without due compensation
the property of all of us. Sheepmen
are there also to ask that their graz
ing fees for pasturage on the national
forests, already but a fraction of the
actual value, shall be still further re-
duced. OF the numerous tribes OF
those who make it their business to
prey upon the Indians, 1t would ap-
pear that few can have remained
away from the feast of rich fees and
richer lands. In a word, Washington
is crowded with men trying to get
A pECnPnEP E0P n0MpncEPS