New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-10-04
OF PROTECTION
Mary c. Francis Shows Evils of
Free Trade in Play.
TAFT OR THE SOUPH0USE
Republican Woman Inspired by
Intrusion of Wilson Club in
Long Acre Square.

There vas wild excitement in the wom-
ans department OF the Republican Ma
tional Committee, in the Times Building.
Theatrical League had the nerve to ded-
icate a flag at AID street and Broadway.
almost directly under the windows Of the
woman's department
The headquarters of the Wilson and
Marshall thespians are in the Hotel Cad
lilac. across the corner from the Times
Building. and the flag, which is imperti-
nently large, faunts the names OF the
Democratic candidates in the very faces
of the ardent feminine workers for Taft
When Miss Helen Varick Boswell,
chairman of the womans department,
and Miss Mary Wood, its secretary, saw
that flag being run up. and heard long
haired actors denouncing the Republicans
from automobiles down below and Insult
ing the protective tariff. maybe they
weren't mad They hastily discussed the
ACCESSIBILITY OF showering the invaders
with high tariff leaflets. but unfortunately
the wind was blowing the wrong way. and
some trial Republican confetti they sent
out sailed down toward the Metropolitan
Opera House.
Then Miss Mary c. Francis, the poetess
OF the department, had bright idea
She can write prose when she has to.
though poetry comes easier, and she re-
solved to build a three-act play around
the tariff motif. and dedicate It to Au-
gustus Thomas, who Is director OF the
new league. The play, which she ran of
then and there on the typewriter, has a
workingman's home for It's scene. Act !
is picture OF peace and plenty under a
protective tariff Mother Is working and
sewing by shaded lamp. Father is read
ing the paper. with his feet encased in
nice l0-cent cotton socks. elevated on a
chair, and daughter Mamie Is displaying
beautiful pair OF Scent silk stockings
she has just bought.
Father says the whole family can have
silk stockings II the protective tariff Is
retained. But II isn't. A mistaken pop
ulace votes II down, and Act III shows
the same home with everything in II gone
TO the pawnshop, Mamie out OF job,
and the children crying with hunger.
Father comes feebly In with pail Of
soup from a free soup house, and tells
son Bobby that this Is what comes OF
free trade, and should be lesson 10 him
always, when he grows up. to vote tho
Republican ticket
In Act III Taft is President again. We
are not told just how this change comes
| from the free trade era, but that Is
poetic license We are shown the same
home. happy and more cheerful under the
protective tariff, with everything re-
claimed from the pawnbrokers. Through
the windows a political procession Is seen
passing. with father In front carrying
Taft banners and singing. TO the tune OF
Aud Lang Syne:"
We've had good time under BIZ. Let
Bill go In again.
Miss Francis SAYS that II Augustus
Thomas-to whom she is sending the man
uscript-doe sn't stage the play. and she
doesn't suppose he would have the cour-
age TO show such home truths about free
trade, why then the woman's department
Of the Republican National Committee
will form a company and go on the road
In It themselves, and turn the receipts
into the campaign fund