The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-05-09


for the presidency.
While Mr. Taft was seeking the pres
idency he constantly sought to appear
as stanch and true progressive. But
on that November night in 1908 when
the count of the votes showed that he
had been elected to tile presidency. he
ceased to 2lake any effort actually to
be Il progressive. For some time he
continued to wear mask as Il pro-
gressive, but in the last two years of
his presidency he has not kept up even
that feeble effort to deceive the people
of the country. BY his constant asso-
citation with the Aldriches, the Can
mons and the Lorimers, by his ready
submission to their influence and ad-
vice. by his active support of the meas
ures they devised and favored; by his
cooperation with them in matters of
patronage. and by his unbushing at
tempt to coerce the real progressives
through the braZen use of federal pat
ronage, he has stamped himself openly
as the reactionary which he has al
ways been at heart.
a single illustration will suffice for
the demonstration of this proposition.
In his speech at Cincinnati, in July,
1908, accepting the nomination for the
presidency, Mr.. Taft took occasion to
reiterate his Endorsement of Mr.. Roose-
welt and to enUmerate some of the acts
which he regarded as the distinctly
beneficial achievements of his prede-
cessor. In that speech he said:
He (AIr. RoOsevelO recommended
the passage of a law. which the Re
publican convention has since specif
ically approved. restricting the future
issue of stocks and bonds by interstate
railways to such as may be authorized
by fcredal authority. He demonstrate
ed to the people by what he said, by
what he recommended to congress, and
by what he did. the sincerity of his
efforts to command respect for the
law, and to save the country from the
dangers of a plutocratic government,
toward which we were fast tending"
In numerous speeches during the
campaign Of 1908 Mr. Taft declared
his cordial support Of Mr. RooSevelt's
proposition to secure the enactment of
law controlling the issue OF securi-
ties by interstate carriers. When he
became president, he pretended to
make such law one Of the paramount
measures of his legislative program.
He caused to be prepared, with much
advertisement and publicity, bill pur-
porting to contain provisions aimed at
such control of the issue of securities
This bill was drafted BY the eminently
successful corporation lawyer whom
Mr.. Taft had placed at the head Of the
department of justice The moment
that bill was read by the genuine pro-
gressives of the senate and house. they
denounced it's provisions to control the
issue of securities as intended really
to further the designs of the railroad
reactionaries and the special interests
whom Mr.. Taft has steadily sought
to please from the day he was inaugu-
rated
After a hard fight in the house,
the Taft-Wickersham provisions were
stricken from the bill and substitute
provision was adopted which at least
embodied a recognition of the prin-
ciple of federal control over the issue
of such securities. and was. therefore,
distinct step in advance. When that
measure reached the senate, Mr. Taft's
allies and crOnies there were vastly
distributed by this provision. Aldrich,
Crane, Penrose, Gallinger and all the
other Representatives of the special
interests in the senate at once pro-
tested against it. These were the
men with whom Mr. Taft was asSo-
ciating intimately, with whom he was
working constantly. and upon whom
he was relying for support in the
senate.
They were the same men who had
most vigorously opposed his nominal
ton when they. like Nj Roosevelt. be-
lieyed him to be real progressive,
but already they had learn that his
progressiveness was merely a mask
worn for the purpose Of securing the
presidency. They knew now that he
was as good a reactionary as any Of
them and they counted upon his sup
port in defeating this provision for
the control Of the issue of securities
by interstate carriers. They did not
| count in vain.
With Mr. Taft's knowledge and CON
niyance, they arranged a deal with the
Democratic opposition in the senate
whereby they not emily struck from the
bill this provision which was in ac-
| cordance with the Republican platform
and the many speeches Of Mr. Tafts
campaign, but they stopped the further
efforts of the real progressives in the
senate to make the railroad bill, Of
which this provision was part, a
genuinely effective and valuable meas
ure. Then they inserted in the bill as
a sop to the public clamor for real
legislation provision for the appoint
ment of a commission which was to de-
| termine not the method by which the
| government was to eXeriSe its right to
control the issue of securities by inter-
| state carriers, but whether or not the
government had such power The ap-
| pointmcnt of this commission was a
qualification of the RpDublican Mat