The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-09-10
COMMITTED A
FATAL BLUNDER
: POLITICALLY
BELIEVED THAT PRESIDENT TAFT
HAS COMMITTED POLITICAL
SUICIDE IN RENEWING HIS
WARFARE ON THE INSURGENTS.
Special to The journal

Special to The journal
Washington, Sept. 9.-Has Taft
committed suicide? Has he, in renew
ing his warfare on the insurgents,
committed a fatal political b1under both
for himself and the republican party
generally?
These queries have aroused discus
sfons that are raging like a blizzard of
words in political circles all over the
United States.
Still another question that is being
asked and re-asked, especially by re-
publicans. is: If the president does
succeed In driving the progressives out
of the republican party, where will he
drive them to?
And the conclusion most generally
reached is that 1t is written on the
cards that the next president is to be a
democrat. 1t is practically agreed that
If a standpatter is nominated, the pro-
gressives will smash him; and If a
progressive is nominated, the stand
patters will smash him.
! What makes the situation still more
hopeless for the republicans Is that the
the one subject on which the two fac
tions can not get together.
la Toilette After Tafps Scalp.
Senator Robert M. La Toilette will
give President Taft a hard race for the
1912 nomination. 1t is declared that
u16 WlBCOuSlu senator DelleNeS ADSO-
htely that he will win.
The progressive republican or La
Toilette headquarters in Washington is
q beehive OF industry. From this
headquarters the progressives are being
organized in every nook and corner OF
the country. It is possible to present
today the substance Of the claims
which the insurgents make. They de-
clare they expect to control, well in
advance Of the republican national
convention, the delegates from Wis
consin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ok
lahoma, California, Washington, Kan
sas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana,
Oregon and Iowa Gin part).
There viii be big aggressive fights
for Illinois, Indiana, Wyoming and Me-
yada-
3 The southern states will be pressed
to take up the anti-Taft fight on the
ground that Taft's nomination will be
equivalent to defeat, and that II the
party hopes for continuance Of the
leaves and fishes Of patronage Of south
ern states, 1t must give its support to
the nomination of man with chance
70 win.
A Kept Promise.
When the democratic house Of rep
resentatives convened Speaker Champ
Clark announced that a saving of $751;
600 would be effected by the applica-
In the running Of the house. The re-
publicans scored at the idea. They
said it couldn't be done. But on the
Z day Of adjournment Chairman Fitzger-
aid Of the committee on appropriations,
announced that instead of the promised
was $22S,0O0. I'VE do not believe that
we crippled the house by abolishing a
place in the house organization which
had been held for years by a 16 year
old girl who never came to the capitol, =
declared Congressman A. Mitchell
Palmer Of Pennsylvania in explaining
the methods by which the 1928, 900 was
saved. I'VE do not believe we crippled
the operations of the house by abolish
ing the positions Of a couple of tele-
graph operators who had not put their
hands to an instrument in years. We
do not believe we crippled this house
by abolishing about 20 policemen who
never could be found around the capt.
toll or by abolishing places supposed to
be held by men in this building and
carried on the payrolls, drawing 5000
to $1,000 year, who were working at
the same time in real estate Offices in
the city of Washington. We have sim
ply made the operation of this house
honest"
Taft's Record "IndefensibIe.D
Nearly three fourths of Mr.. Taft's
term of Office has passed into history.
He has had sufficient time to have
made progress on lines along which
Nhe promised to proceed when he was a
candidate for the high office he holds.
he made his campaign on a tariff re-
Vision downward issue, and today the
tcountry is in the grip of a higher tariff
tax than ever before in its history. in
spite of the fact that the president has
had two separate and distinct oppor-
tunities to keep his word. In his three
~ ~
credited w ithhaving kept Ballinger in
ONCE until the country was nauseated;
to have almost succeeded in his at
tempt to give Alaska away to the Gug-
genheims, and with having quietly CO.
operated with the food dopers in their
campaign to drive DR.. Harvey w. Wiley
out of public life. To this 'indefen-
sibIe" record should be added the pres
dents action in framing rejected peace
treaties with two nations with whom
we are not 1 nthe slightest danger of
I ever going to war.
Mail Clerks Prosecuted.
How are the railway mail clerks to
make effective their protest against
having to work in wooden cras when
they are forbidden by departmental
gag rules to criticise their condition
or disclose ii to the public or even to
petition congress for relief? This is a
query that promises to perplex the
railway mall clerks as long as Post
master General Hitchcock remains at
the head OF the service. There are l.
600 wooden mall cars in use. They are
r1ln between heavy al1-steel cars. or
between steel car in the rear and the
engine and tender in front. In the
event Of a collision or derailment the
wooden mail car is invariably crushed
like an egg shell. Yet Mr.. Hitchcock
vyho is outdoing the Father of all the
v,-.,cls,ss' in his frnpositfon of q des-
Thousands Of government employees
I aver whom his word is law. says the
IIf Your Head Aches