The Washington herald., 1911-08-30
TAFT Is DEFIED
BY PROGRESSIYES
Continued from Page One.

Continued from Page One.
the Taft assault or the progressive Re
publ cans. and IL is possible according
to friends here. he may come out in
opposition to the denomination Of Presi-
dent Taft.
Others Condemn Taft.
Other progressive leaders are on the
firing line defending their position, ex-
planning their politics and policies. and
condemning the President. Representa-
tive George W. Norris. of Nebraska, has
been for a week in the interior OF Penn
sylvania, and his letters to progressive
leaders hero tell OF large and interested
audiences.
Senator Penrose, leader OF the Repub-
lican old guard and standpat leader Of
the Senate, is having his own trouble
with revolving Republican voters in
Philadelphia. He has been forced to
throw down the machine choice for
mayor OF Philadelphia, George H Earle.
jr.. that the party may not be led into
defeat. PrOgressives hold that this con-
ditiOn exists in the Republican party
throughout the State.
Progressive speakers are in Wisconsin.
Minnesota. North and South Dakota, and
Iowa, and they report the country afire
with party revolt. Much interest is man.
ifested here in the reception to be given
President Taft when he makes his visit
to that section this fall and the results
of that visit
Progressive leaders hold they can
swing all those States. and possibly
others which are awakening to the pro-
gressive idea. against the denomination
of President Taft. but they do not think
at this time that they can defeat the
denomination. They believe. however,
the protest can be made so positive and
important in the nominating convention
that influential leaders may be brought
to the point where they will be willing
to consider the advisability Of selecting
some other compromise candidate. This
is the real aim and purpose OF their
fight against Taft.
Mccormick Issues Statement.
Medill Mccormick, former editor of the
Chicago Tribune who was in Washing
ton recently. gave out the following state
ment yesterday:
1T is plain from the Presidents speech
at Hamilton last Saturday that he has
learned nothing from the election OF last
November. First nominated by Roose-
velt then nominated by Aldrich, he now
would be the censor of Republicanism.
He would prescribe every one who diff
fers with him.
NO wonder that, from New Year un-
til adjournment, the overwhelming ma
jority of the two Houses Of Congress,
Democratic and Republican. standpat and
progressive, has been of the opinion that
II Taft were renominated, he could not
be reelected.
They remembered that his eulogy of
Aldrich and his defense-ef the Payne
tariff law was followed by the landslide
Of 1910, when more than eighty standpat
Congressman lost their seats and the
progressives in the House doubled their
numbers. II Taft had been running in
that campaign he would have polled as
few electoral votes as Bryan did In 1908.
'Neither has anybody forgotten the
Norton letter, which confessed that the
President had tried to intimidate and
coerce the progressives by taking pa
tronage from them. He failed to drive
them once-and now he proposes to try
again. He is going to invade the pro-
gressive West, to explain away his
tariff inconsistencies, his haste to put
through reciprocity, which affects farm
ers' products, while he blocks the reduc-
tion of the schedules affecting manu-
factured products; to defend his Alaskan
attitudes. and his lack OF an antitrust
programme.
His swing around the circle two
years ago revealed his weakness then.
His second trip will measure its degree
this time"
Mr.. Mccormick is one of the most
prominent and powerful progressives in
illinois, and is in thorough sympathy with
the movement engineered by Prof. Mer-
riam, State Senator Jones. and other
leaders in that State to take the dele
CATION away from Taft.