The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-05-09

is in politics up to the elbow and in cor
 ruption up to the armpit. Hence that
 episode fin the Illinois legislature. We
 all reeolleet some 30 years ago when the
 Standard oil company bought a seat in
 the United States Senate from a demo- cratic legislature Of Ohio, and Standard oil even had the effrontery to attempt and it narrowly falled--to buy a nonina-
 tion for President of the United States
 from a democratic national convention. And this lumber trust is as deep in pol-
 ties now as Standard oil was then. It opposes reciprocity
 My friend from Fort Worth adds:
 I've expressed the opinion that Senator Bailey opposed the Canadian agreement because he does not believe in granting special tariff favors to any country. be- cause it is wrong in principle and likely to invite reprisal by other countries not so favored. But, it seems, we can't get an argument out of Savoyard on this point"
 Wrong in principle. I don't quite fol- low. Is it that we must not make an ad- vantageous trade with Canada unless all the other nations join and share the ben efts? What principle! Does the Rec ord mean to hold that if Senator Bailey swaps horses with one man he must swap horses with all men: I believe the senator sometimes deals in horses. Must our republic submit it's sovereignty to the award of the nations and get their assent | before one of our citizens shall be allow | ed to swap basket of potatoes for kit | al, 1I.Sft A1e if r be put under glass. It is not safe for it to adventure outside the yard gate. Even | Bailey himself cant harness that ''prln- l ciple.
 I take appeal from Bailey to a man born in the state of which am a native, and who shed unfailing lustre on the state of which MT. Bailey is a native. Jefferson Davis dominated the admins tration of Franklin Pierce as complete ly as Andrew Jackson did that of Martin Van Buren, or John Sherman that of R. B. Hayes. The administration of Pierce was perhaps the most democratic of all the democratic administrations of our history. It negotiated reciprocity treaty with Canada that the republican party put an end to over the protest of every democrat in America No democrat Of that elder, and mayhap better day, ever said reciprocity was unprincipled. AS for '.reprsals by other nations not so fla vored." Boshl The suggestion is be- heath the dead level of hopeless absurdi- ty Does the Record believe in that re- publican sham, the maximum and mini mum, as incorporated in the Payne-Al- drich monstrosity? Perhaps. That na- ton is a fool that increases the burdens of its own people by any such "reprisal." Does the Record believe In 'hants."
 Now listen. It is a well established %I.t l.o4 Senator Bailey is the only man in Con- gress fit to expound Robert J. Walker, and even he fails to venture upon com ment of the Walker report of 1S4S, which recommended reciprocity with Canada and Mexico. For what? To give the American manufacturer cheap raw ma terials.
 All my friends will tell you that I am never guilty of bad manners, and I hope it will be held no breach of good manners to appropriate the Records one little elo- quent and jocose satire, and invite it, and Senator Bailey, too. to give an "an- swering chirp" to Robert J. Walker on that proposition. ..-.'
 As for Senator Bailey,s inconsistency, I care not continental for it. I have perfect contempt for any man who sub ordinates conviction to consistency; but the Fort Worth Records apology for MT. Bailey's votes for free raw materials IS string of words confusing even to. it. self, If, indeed, such a paper can be con- fused by anything
 What are the facts? MT. Bailey was member of the Fifty-second Congress, and while he was a more or less conspic- uous public man at that time, he never said word in opposition to free raw ma terals, though even then he was looked on as one of the orators of Congress, and would have met with no difficulty in ob- 1. v1i vote he lined up with Mills and Bryan, Carlisle and Cleveland. William l.. VII son and Henry C. Turner on that propo- sition. If In the Fifty-second or the Eff ty-third Congress he was in heart one of the garrison of the citadel of protection. he kept 1t a profound secret, and the public never dreamed that he was not In accord with William l.. Wilson on the tariff until after he was chosen leader of the democratic minority upon the death of Charles F. Crisp, when MT. Bailey had been In public life for years.
 His action in these two congresses can not be set down to the modesty that breeds stage fright, for he pertlnaciously insisted that Congress turn out legisla- ton by the yard. by the bushel, by the dozen. and by the pound, when day In and day out he sought to dock the sal aries of members for absence from the deliberations. Of course, we all charged that to the account of adolescence and carried it to the ledger of profit and loss. But if MT. Bailey was not for free raw materials Up to the enactment Of the Wilson bill, he was not frank with his associates. He has changed his views since then, and l have no quarrel with him for following his convictions. have changed my opinions repeatedly, but have never failed to proclaim the change from the housetops.
 But tkat is of no consequence. Does the Fort Worth Record deny that the ultimate consumer pays the tariff on raw materials? There is the meat in the egg I will not insult the intelligence of this Fort Worth paper by believing that fl does not know that the farmer who fol- lows the blow pays every cent of tarif on every particle of raw material or which that blow is constructed. And 1t is the same with every other manufac- tured article the consumer buys.
 And do not forget that the four great est secretaries of the treasury the dem ocrtic party has furnished-Albert Gal latin, Robert J. Walker. James Guthrie and John G. Carlisle-all recommended and argued for free raw materials
 Does the Fort Worth editor really be- lieve that Texas should be protected from Mexico? They say the elephant shrieks with terror in the presence of a mouse.
 Washington, May 1.
 O