Bisbee daily review., 1912-03-07
HARMON REFERS ID OWN RECORD
Sounds Warning Note ir His Speech Before the Ohio State
 Legislature
FIRST TO INVESTIGATE

| or Judson Harmon sounded a new note in his address recently before | the Kentucky legislature at Frank fort when he warned the legislators and all public officials to analyze their own records to see just how much they were responsible for the unrest which is demanding innova- tions in government.
 Whatever We think of the innova- tions in government we are hearing so much about, said the governor, 1t behooves every one who holds public position to make diligent self search to find whether any shortcom- ings on his part figures in the unrest which the proposal of these changes signifies. For, while some doubtless advocate them for reasons, the great. CT number would not lend an ear with. out some real or supposed ground for discontent with public agencies as they are.
 And it must be noted that all are involved in the measures in question. Direct legislation is aimed at the law makers as a body and the recall at the individual members as well as at executive officers and judges. And it may fairly be said that the support these devices receive varies with the real or supposed need of them, as well as with opinions about the balance of advantage in them
 This assertion by Gov Harmon shows that he sees beyond the froth on the political surface of the pres ent unrest in this country, and that ne Is a deep student of public affairs This is the first utterance by a prom inent public man that perhaps the office-holders would do we'll to try tn ind out whether they are conducting their public trusts has anything to do with the impending political upheaval in this country next Novemb Der.
 There is no doubt that much of the dissatisfaction among the inde- pendent voters is due to the manner in which federal office holders, all Of them republicans, have been running the government from President Taft down to the smallest postoffice. This Is especially so in the south and vest, where it is believed the demo crats in the national election will make a clean sweep of the republL cans at the polls
 There is also great dissatisfaction among the voters with the senate, which ever since if has had a republi can majority has been the stumbling 1 block over which legislation desired by the people, has fallen. The senate is an example of the most fossilized thing on earth. Privilege, monopoly, and interest are firmly entrenched in the senate. and this conditions will continue until enough of the stand pat senators are driven from the up- Der house and the majority now con trolled by predatory wealth and spe- 1 cial privilege is destroyed.
 The senate. however is not the on- ly cause of dissatisfaction of the peo- 1 pie. President Taft and some mem bers of his cabinet are even lower in ! the estimation of the independent vot- CT than the senate. The fact is that 1 the Taft administration has been a failure from start to finish. Both Of | Tafts pet policies, Canadian reciproc- : ity and the chimerical arbitration i treaties are flat failures. Resiproc- | ity was kicked out of the back door ! by the. Canadians and the arbitration ! treaties now appear to be only a shat tered dream Taft has done one thing. though. He has become the champion railroad traveller of the world-at the peoples expense. That s about all that can be said as 10 what the present occupant of the White House has accomplished in four years
 The president has also been unfor. tunate in his advisors in the cabinet. Ballinger voluntarily" retired as the result of the Ballinger- -Pinchot row, but in reality ignominiously for ced out Of the cabinet, was the first mistake the president made. It was a mistake to have ever put a man like ! Balhnger in the cabinet Pinchot' 8 discharge, when he was in the right I was another mistake. Wickersham' S selection as attorney general meant the advent of a real wild man in the official family. Wickersham's course as head of the department of justice has done more to make enemies for the Taft administration than any other cause. This pert little Wan street lawyer, as soon as he got in the cabinet. seemed to become ob- cessed with the idea that every cor pOration in the country was a viola tor of the Sherman law. Prosecutions by the wholesale resulted. and while a few bad trusts got what was
 their due. the anti-trust agitation caused an immense shrinkage in the
 value of stocks Of all kinds, which
 were held by the public. Wicker
 sham caused all these stockholders tc
 lose and immense sum in the aggre gate. This took real money out of
 the pockets of the people. If the at
 tCrneygeneral and President Taft
 imagine that this policy of grand
 stand plays" against the trusts is popular. they are bady mistaken.