The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-16
PENROSE SHOWING
 FINE LEADERSHIP Has Surprised Everyone by
 His Tact HELPS RECIPROCITY No One Thought He Was of Large Enough Calibre to Take Senator Aldrich's Place on the Fi-
 nance Committee
ELPS RECIPROCITY
By RoDERIcK CLIFFORD

| thrown into state of confusion over the
 selection of a new leader Many of the venerable members of the Senate shook
 their heads and said There Is only one Aldrich in a generation" They ex-
 pressed great fears that the republican party had suffered an irreparable loss by his retirement
 The thing that gave them most concern was who was to succeed Aldrich as chairman of the finance committee. There
 were many who said that the Presidents pet measure, Canadian reciprocity, was doomed without Aldrich to guide it's pas sage. President Taft had pledged him self to the passage of the measure, and failure to succeed in having 1t made a
 law meant a public acknowledgements of
 the weakness of the administration and defeat of the republicans.
 During the short interval between the
 close of the last session of Congress and theS converting of the extra sesion called for the express purpose of passing the
 reciprocity pact, many star chamber
 conferences were held by the republican leaders to determine upon the man who
 
 | the measure in the Senate.
 With the announcement of Senator Pen- | rose of Pennsylvania, as successor to | Aldrich as chairman of the finance com
 mlttee and republican whip, expressions of surprise and doubt as to his fitness
 were heard on all sides. Many declared reciprocity doomed.
 l All of this in no way intimdated Sena- | tor Penrose. He assumed the leader | ship of the fight with the same deter
 imitation to win that has characterized
 him in everything that he has under
 taken. He realized the responsibility i--a-
 posed upon him, and was prepared to
 stake all on the outcome His political future depends upon the rassage of the | bill.
 | It is a new Penrose who is now chair | man of the finance committee. True the | leopard does not change his spots in | day, and it could not be expected that 1 Penrose boss of the republican machine | of Pennsylvania, would undergo 8 com | plete transformation in a few weeks. | Still he is showing qualities of leader | ship as head of the finance committee | that are worthy of his renowned prede-
 cessor. He has displayed many sterling
 
 did not give him credit for possessing. | Recently when Senator Bailey came | near executing a plan to have the free | list and the wool bill voted upon in the
 Senate before reciprocity, and when Sen l ator Penrose was about to give his con- | sent to it, there was some disposition to
 make light of the Pennsylvania senator, | and say that the Senate needed an Ald- l rich back in its midst. But there are | two sides to the question, and it is not l improbable that if the plan had gone 1 through, the session would have ended | quite as expeditiously as 1t will end, and perhaps reciprocity woul' have been just
 as safe from amendmei as 1t now Is. | Few politicians who have been called
 upon to lead their party have been more
 roundly lambasted than Senator Penrose,
 and yet his policy is a conservative one. 1 He is much less czarlike than Senator | Aldrich, who went down and out of the
 Senate without perceivlng that the old
 fashioned way of bludgeoning the Senate
 into doing 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 attempt to be- come dictator over it. He relies more on | persuasion than upon compusion. |
 tagonize any element of the republican party if he can possibly avoid it. He | realizes that the party has been weak | ened by strife within it's ranks. and if 1t | Is to hold it's own there must be per | feet harmony hereafter. In order to | prevent the democrats from sweeping 1t away in the 1912 election, it will have to present united front. During the past | two years it has been rent in twain by 1 international dissenson and greatly weakened. Hence he is inclined to pla-t | cate rather than stir up strife. He Is attempting to hold back the old guard | leaders who want to continue the meth
 ods of Aldrich. and is trying at the same | time to smooth over the feeling of the insurgents and bring them into the fold. | This is a strange role for a senator who was generally supposed, back in the days of the Adrch regime to be going
 about with club looking for those sen ators who were of the progressive order. | However strange it may seem, Senator
 Penrose has adapted his personal feel l ings to suit his cause. He realizes along what lines he must work and Is acting accordingly 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, friend
 of Senator Penrose was startled to hear l him speak in a complimentary way or
 Senatois LaFollette, the aggressive leader
 of the progressives. Senator LaFollette was not the subject of the conversation | The friend merely alluded to the fight l ing senator from Wisconsin. and senator l Pcnrose saw fit to pay LaFollette com pliment It has not been so long since | Senator Penrose on the floor of the Senate
 harshly criticised Senator LaFollette. 1 That Senator Penrose should come out | as the champion of reciprocity and admit | that the time has come for general l revision of the tariff, has caused much l comment around the Capitol. Few poli- | ticians a year ago would have given any | credit to the statement that Senator Pen- rose would aid in starting the republl-
 can party to revising the tariff There are many persons who do not believe | Senator Penrose sincere in his desire to see the reciprocity pact passed. They claim that he is doing 1t only in hope of staving off democratic victory in 1912. Failure on the part of the republicans 1 to pass the measure after the stand that | President Taft has taken would mean
 certain defeat at the polls in the coming
 election. It is death struggle with the republican party.
 Of course the action of Senator Penrose poles not mean that he is getting ready to break away from the ranks. of the regulars and become an insurgcnt. It does mean, however. that the Pennsyl- Evania senator has reached the conclu- sion that the leaders of the old guard must pursue more liberal policy than they have in the past. The insurgents
 have gained an amount of strength that