Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1911-07-21

! port of Bryan would have carried uat
| Inflated ticket to victory. But an
other such snub administered to La
Toilette next year as he encountered
at Chicago in 1908 can hardly be tol
Grated by that man of political de-
| termination. II there shall be a revolt
| of La Toilette and his followers the
| chances Of Republican success will be
SO small as to be not worth count
| ing
That Is why the general feeling In
Washington Is that the Republican
party Is doomed to defeat. It Is not
because Of criticism of Taft or doubt
that the country thinks well of him.
But it Is the general belief that Taft
| and La Toilette, the standpatters and
the progressives, cannot get together
In time to win in the next presidential
election
Cotton Schedule Next.
Chairman Underwood's call to tbs
members of the ways and means COM
mittee to get together and prepare
| the revised version Of the cotton
schedule sounds like business-and
business has been an uncommon phe-
nomenon about the capital of late
The day the call was issued there
were not one hundred representatives
In the chamber-probably there were
not that many in the city. The abb
sence of quorum was SO patent that
had any business of Importance come
before the house 1t would have been
forced to adjourn for lack of power to
act.
1t Is not probable that schedule one.
the cotton schedule, will awaken the
controversy that still RACES over the
wool schedule. Just now raw cotton
and cotton waste are on the free list
which may have proceeded from the
fact that recent tariffs have been
made by Republicans, while cotton is
grown exclusively In Democratic
states. In the main, however, the
south has been contented. Cotton is
our greatest agricultural export and
for 1t protection is held by Democrats
as quite as useless as protection for
our wheat.
There Is to be an effort, however,
to slip in the thin edge Of the protec-
ton wedge by putting q slight duty
On cotton of certain quality, grown
on the sea islands along the Atlantic
coast. Some Floridians believe that
with slight duty on Egyptian cotton
they can raise this variety profitably,
and determined effort is to be made
to accomplish this end
PJIf hnr fc Vryh0 -
ptecemeal revision comes in. Florida
has but three votes. If it could bar
ter this support for aid from lumber,
| wool, steel and other sources, 1t
might get what it wants. AS it is, the
| cotton proposition must stand or fall
| on it's merits and the committee will
be loath to take an article of purely
southern production from the present
free list and impose a duty upon it.
Gossip About Vardaman.
The spectacular progress Of James
K. Vardaman through the streets of
Meridian, Miss. in white car drawn
by bodyguard of 100 men all clad
in white has started gossip anew in
Washington about the ex-governor Of
Mississippi. 1t cannot be said that
the apostle Of "the white mans rule"
is precisely popular in congress, to
| which he hopes to come as the next
United States senator from his state.
Among his own delegation only two
or three speak Of him with tolerance
and ona Only, Representative Sisson,
with real enthusiasm.
But the impression is growing and
is freely expressed that he is pretty
| likely to attain the goal Of his ambi-
ton. To begin with, he has failed
| only narrowly OF success twice. When
John Sharp Williams, with the pres
tige o. national reputation and the
added glamour Of being leader of the
Democratic minority in the house,
was a candidate for the senate, Var
damaI gave him such a tussle that
it was days after the primaries had
closed before it could be told which
| Of the two was victorious.
White Supremacy His Platform.
The present Vardaman campaign is
| in its character like some of the Pop
| ulist campaigns in the more spectac-
ular days Of that party His platform
consists practically of single plank
white supremacy. People Of the
north who are accustomed to think
| that that ideal has been pretty thor
oughly attained in the south already
| find it hard to understand the almost
hysterical madness to which Varda-
| mans hearers are reused by his con-
tinual harping on this chord. His
| enemies insist that he has but one
| speech which he repeats everywhere
and that If lured away from this text
| he is unable to acqu1t himself even
| creditably on the platform. This his
friends naturally deny. But it is a
fact that he has kept himself befc.
the public for years by promising that
| if sent to the senate he would secure
| the repeal of the fourteenth and fif-
teenth amendments-a promise about
as capable of fulfillment as the earlier
one of the carpet baggers" to every
negro-four acres and a mule.
1t Is most common to hear Varda-
man likened to Senator jeff Davis Of
Arkansas, but the comparison is bit
terly resented by the friends of the
| Missisippian. They admit his ex-
travagance on the platform, but in
sist upon his quiet and courtesy in
| personal intercourse. If the taste in
dress which leads him to wear white
1 {o %0I Is