The Washington times., 1911-11-18
GUN FIRED
BY PROGRESS|VES
IN WAR ON TAFT
Medill Mccormick, Publish
er, Severely Arraigns Pres
ent Administration.
BY THEODORE T1LLER.

In direct shot at President Taft,
the progressive Republican campaign
committee, through Medill Mccormick,
one of the managers of the La Toilette
boom, fired the first big gun Of the ap-
preaching campaign today. Mr.. Nc
Cormicks statement severely criticises
the Administration of President Taft,
declares that he has been a disappoint-
ment and sets out reasons why many
Republicans who supported him four
years ago now are aligned with the
progressive movement.
Mccormick, formerly editor and now
part owner of the Chicago Tribune, is
devoting his entire time to tho La Fol-
lette campaign, and says that he and
other progressives "are glad to ex-
plain the reason for our common
sense"
Tariff Disappointment.
Tho statement arraigns the President
for signing the Payne-Aldrich tariff
bill. and declares that there was
great body of Republicans who were
bitterly disappointed when he signed
Il. '.
Later they were startled by his
praise of Senator Aldrich, whom they
held responsible for the tariff law which
hs By se Of Wha the Pa spee They
But even then. like others, felt
that the President had made the mis-
take Of q man who. although long In
fiticai leadership. We all felt that he he
would profit by his costly. blunder and
that he would realize that he was be-
ing gravely deceived by men about him.
some In lbs Cabinet, some in Congress,
and some influential in the business
world"
The Mccormick statement rext takes
up the Ballinger- Pinchot controversy.
1t refers to the ante-dating of the Wick
ersham report, by dill ection Of the Pres
ident which, Mccormick says made him
begin to doubt Mr. Tafts uualifca-
tons for an office like the Presidency"
Railroad Measure. .
The Administration is raped for the
manner In which it framed the railroad
bill sent to Congress during the closing
session of the Sixty-first Congress. The
bill. it will be recalled, was unspartngIy
Iorses and when 1t finally became a
law bore little resemblance to the orig
inal draft.
"Nobody will deny" says Mccormick,
whatever one may think of its merits
and demerits as introduced, that it was
drawn In series of executive confer
ences. Senator Cuinmins was called to
attend these cauctiscs. but after the first
were railroad presidents who were called
to The White House and who Joined the
President and Attorney General in the
consideration OF .he measure. The bill
Wh!ch was originally considered when
Senator Cummins IVES called TO WASH
ington, was amazingly different from the
measure which emerged from the At
torney Generals office after the confer
tEces with the railroad Presidents"
b. Bill Is Amended. r..s
Mr.. Mccormick charges that the bill
as sent to Congress legalized pooling
and controlling ownership Of stock by
one line in another competing with It;
in short that 1t eliminated competition
in the railroad world and meant a
policy in the Industrial world.
Progressives Of both houses. the state
which came labeled mot to be
nized finally as an administrator
measure, except for the Commerce
Court clause.
For this bit of legislative intrepidity,
administration bill, the President SO far
progressives." says the statement.
Mr.: Mccormick then recounts the
surgents. afterward restored, as set
forth in the Norton letter, after the
1910 primaries. In this matter of
patronage the Presidents course can
be commended neither for it's morals, its
logic nor its political wisdom"
"Has Opposed People"
In conclusion the Mccormick state
ment says that in every one of the
problems confronting the President,
he has sided with those opposed to the
legitimate demands of the people, moi
that he is not a well-meaning Presi-
dent. but because he is unable to un-
lerstand the needs of the times and
aspiration of the American public. He
is unable to appreciate his own incon-
sistencies, and would legalize the trans
portation trusts which he pronounces
the miasmic Sherman law, adequate
legislation for the industrial trusts.
The Presidents statement that 1t needs
no supplementary legislation is not in
accord with the Republican platform,
nor with the views of other Republican
public men, standpat and progressive.
personally. l believe in reciprocity
with Canada, but none of us was able
TO recognize jamming through the re-
ciprocity bill, with little or no investi-
cation by the tariff board, while the
President postponed revision of the
long-discussed, well understood, and
outrageous schedules for a report from
the hoard" ,"