The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-28
PRESIDENT TAFT HARD HIT BY
 SEN. BOURNE
His Former Intimate Friend and Go..irg Companion Makes Bitter Attack-irOubIe Over Patronage
Special from United Press.)

NOpeCid1 lTOIu OnllGO FTGSS.1
 Washington. Feb. 28.-Declared by many, today, to be the greatest sensa- ton of this session of Congress. all of ficialdom, today, read with interest the speech of Senator Bourne, (Rep., Ore.,) president of the Progressive Republican League, in which he charged President Taft with using Federal patronage to influence Con- gress and read the law to show that "it is crime for any person to offer or give anything of value to a mem- Der of either house of Congress with intent to influence his vote."
 In his address in the Senate, last night, Bourne also gave warning that the Federal power was being used to pointed out how President Taft, with the aid of Postmaster General Hitch cock, chairman of the Republican Ma tional Committee. might almost com pei his renomination.
 After reading the famous Beverly letter written by Charles D. Norton, secretary to the President, in which Norton said that Taft had decided not thereafter to withhold patronage from Congres smen opposing his Congress sional program, intimating that he had done so in the past, Bourne said:
  on the proposition that all men are equal I would have as much respect for a common ward heeler who buys votes at the polls as for the President of the United States who uses his ap- pointing power as a means of forcing or persuading members of Congress to determine or change their course of action.
 "One transaction is as dishonest, as corrupt and as depraving as the other but the latter is more dangerous, more insidious more pernicious than the foundation of free institutions, sets a precedent for corrupt methods and all official life and marks the beginning of dictatorship and decadence of the nation"
 Describing the operation of the Federal machine, Bourne said:
 While the President is the actual head of the Federal machine, the chairman of the National Committee or the cabinet officer or both in one. is usually his chief agent for its operations. Backed by the Presi- dential power to distribute Federal patronage. he starts his organization with the committeeme from dis tricts and territories having no votes and from those southern states that always deliver delegates but never deliver electoral votes to the Repub- ican party.
 National conventions are not rep resentative of the wishes of the mem bers of the party who are depended upon to cast the votes to elect the ticket. Tn the 1908 National Repub- lican Convention 9S0 delegates were admitted under the terms of the Ma tional Committees call The south ern states and territories giving no electoral votes, with the exception of Maryland, which gave Taft and Sher- man two out of eight, had 33S votes. leaving only 153 to be secured to give a majority. The combined states of New York, Pennsylvania. Illinois, Ohio. Massachusetts, Indiana and Iowa, collectively, have but 334 dele gates"
 Bourne said that the original plan of electing delegates to national con- ventions by popular vote and paying their expenses not to exceed $200 each, if adopted nationally, would end the power of the Federal machine and prevent President from naming hi, successor or forcing his own re- nomination.