East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-07-29
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WHAT la TOILETTE WILL DO.
(Oregon Journal.)


The newspapers are widely spec
ulating on what La Toilette will do
presidentially.
La Toilette is a progressive pro-
gressive., His progressivism is not a
matter of today, yesterday of tomor-
row. He was one of the pathfinders
He was the Bryan of republicanism
He was the lightholder. He built the
signal fires and kept them lighted. He
fought reaction when he had to do it
with his back to the wall and fight
alone.
1t isn't what La Toilette may do
today or tomorrow that tests out his
prQgressiveness. He cannot be the
kind of progressive that Mr.. Roose-
welt is. Their policies are as ire
cncilable as the antipodes. Roosevelt
doesn't want the antitrust law en-
forced to compel competition La Fol-
lette does. Roosevelt doesn't want
trust magnates sent to jail. La Fol-
lette does, if they disobey the law La
Toilette declared that if president he
would call together all the federal dis
trict attorneys and require them with
in three weeks to stop illegal prac-
tices by trustdom, and that if they
didn't do it he would remove them.
Roosevelt has declared for the
| George w. Perkins plan of regulat-
ing the trusts by a commission. He
says the La Toilette plan is wrong.
Judge Gary Of the steel trust says the
La Toilette plan is wrong, and that
the Roosevelt plan is right.
| 1t is one irreconcilable difference
] between Roosevelt and La Toilette.
! Three are others La Toilette made
great fight for physical valuation
of railroads, and is still fighting for
it. Roosevelt, as president, opposed
! him, and at time when ROosevelt's s
support might have won the issue.
Roosevelt has never favored re-
| duction of the tariff. La Toilette has
always demanded it. Roosevelt has
declared that the tariff has nothing
to do with the high cost of living. La
Toilette insists that it has everything
to do with the high cost of living.
The difference between Roosevelt's
progressiveness and La Follettts pro-
| between La Toilette progressiveness
and Boss Barnes reaction. They can
never act together. They are opposite
They are antitheais. They are oppon-
ents.
Whatever La Toilette does, he will
never join the Roosevelt movement,
and he will never counsel his follow
ers to join it. His position requires
no blast of trumpets now. He is to
be a senator for the next five years,
and the great chamber at Washington
Is where he will prove his progress
siveness.
Nor will there be doubt as to where
he stands. Nor will there be question
Of his progressiveness His plans are
exactly what they have been for
twenty years. His fight will be ex-
actly what it has been for twenty
years, and nobody doubts what that
fight was and Is to be.
La Follett's plan is exactly du-
plicated in Woodrow Wilson's plan.
Their views are almost identical
What La Toilette did in Wisconsin,
Woodrow Wilson is doing in New Jer-
sey. Both beat the bosses. Both
fought and won a primary law. Both
fought and won direct selection Of
senators by the people Both went d.
Grated their states. Both went d.
rect to the people for the reforms
they sought to bring about.
Both hold almost identical views
in national affairs. Both are for pub
licity Of campaign contributions. Both
are for revising the tariff downward.
Both oppose the taking Of crooked
money from crooked business in alli-
ance with corrupt politics. Both be-