The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-30
TAFT WILL FIND
 TROUBLE AHEAD War On Insurgents Will Be
 Heard From LAFOLLETE Is BUSY Friends Consider Hamilton Speech Indiscreet Just Before His Tour Into Heart of lnsurgent
 Territory
By WALTER HARPER

Washington, August 29.-tSpecial l--ln one breath in his Hamilton, Mass. speech Saturday, President Taft denounces both the democrats and the insurgent repub-
 lcans Regular republicans had coun- seleu and had hoped that the President. would make an attempt to oonciliate thar. wing of the republican party that has
 not been in full sympathy with him on tariff questions, but he seems determined to fight them and fight them to the end or to the very doors of the next national convention.
 Some politicians about Washington are trying to argue that the President had feeling of personal resentment against LaFollette and his followers In his sys- tenn and just had to get it out; that he gave utterance to his personal feelings at Hamilton and does not intend to carry the antagonism with him on his western tour which will carry him into the very home Of insurgency.
 But MT. Taft can never get away from his Hamilton utterance. He can no more get away from it than he can get away from a particular utterance he made some time ago at Winona Somehow these ut terances of Presidents get into the records and cannot be eliminated
 Mr BaF'ollette, MT. Bristow, MT Norris and others of the insurgents will not let the President drop the matter or allow the people to forget.
 MT. LaFollette has already announced that he will have something to say on the Presidents Hamilton speech during an address he is to make next Thursday at the Pennsylvania State Grange conven- ton at Harrisburg. few days later Representative Norris of the House wing of republican insurgency will follow up the question in a speech at the Nebraska state fair.
 The war in the republican ranks is on and there Is no hope now that the an tagonism will be healed. The President has drawn the sword when it might have been sheathed and when it was most ad- visable that he should rather placate the opposition in the party than antagonize it.
 There is another significant deduction to be drawn from the Presidents utter ances at Hamilton and his very evident bitterness of feeling against both insur- gents and democrats
 If the President really intends to ad- wise real tariff revision at the next ses- sion after he has had some sort Of report l from his tsriff clerks ii is hard to under stand his bitterness and persistent an- tagonism after the matter had been set tied with his vetoes If he intends to do any real revision at the next session he will need the support of the insurgents in the Senate. though they will be com pelled to accept any real suggestion for tariff revision from the President or prove | themselves insincere.
 Without any effort on the part of any politician. legislator or faction Of a party 1 the President Is fin a hole" And it is | 2 hole Of his own digging. If his prom | ised message based on information from | his tariff clerks to Congress in December | recommends tariff revision downward it | will simply amount to a confirmation of the democratic programme and the de- Inands Of the people which he has repu dated without Information If he advises | thef Congress should stand pat on tarin revision even though he Is backed by fig | ures produced by the tariff board he will | be in the uncomfortable position If re- pudiating his own expressed iudgrtent of some striking features of the Payne law. The people will have but little faith in any report that may come from the tariff board unless it's figures ire backed up by substantial facts and proof that cannot be questioned.
 The iounderings of the republican lead CTS and press in their efforts to find themselves is one of the tragedies of the present political situation. They do not seem to be able to keep up with the Pres dent They do not seem to know where to meet him in his short cuts across hedges. Everybody thought he had his hands full in the Underwood democrats and that he would seek to reconcile the insurgents. a
 The regular republicans seem 10 De amazed that he seeks an opportunity to stir up the animals in the insurgent camp. But the insurgents are more than willing for him to keep up the fight. They gained strength in the last elections when they were opposed by Mir. Taft and his followers. There was better po- litical reason for his opposition then than now in view of the fact that the insur- gents gained wonderfully In those last elections, and also in view Of the fact that insurgency is growing stronger and stronger in the west by reason of the Presidents attitude on the tariff and especially on reciprocity, which is noth-
 ing more nor less than a tariff revision that the democrats got through because the President gave them the opportunity through some distortion of sentiment that no one seems to be able to understand.
 The insurgents in Congress are not all the insurgents that MT. Taft will find dur ing his western tour He may find it very embarrassing to condemn their attitude In some sections that he is to visit in the next e0 days. The audiences that he will address are quite different to that which faced him at Hamilton in Massachusetts of tn-ffI fot, h hfc