Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-09-13
WASHINGTON LETTER
RY H;R. lAM STIR STAFF
WALKER tEElzAdsl2 RESPONDENT

from the White House by Senator
A. B. Cummins, of Iowa. The writer
was present.
DO you mean, Albert" drawled
Dolliver, that the President does
not intend to permit a senator of
the United States to exercise his
constitutional prerogative of rising
in his place to offer an amendment
to one of these bills or to express
his conviction concerning them?'
II so understood the President" ad-
mitted Cummins.
well, then" replied Dolliver, 81
rather think the President is going
to be somewhat disagreeably sur
prised.'
Senator's of the majority party who
haven't exactly liked the idea of be-
ing used merely as rubber stamps to
put their o. X. on legislation framed
by the President and his personal ad-
visers have been telling each other
that it wouldn't last On the tariff
they have said it was necessary for
somebody to settle the program and
to make il a partisan measure. Some
of them are urging that the currency,
too, Is sort of emergency companion
| bill to the tariff revision, needed by
the country to prevent a tariff panic,
and that any methods that will lass
| it quickly would be justified. WhAp
the regular session comes along. how
ever, senator's who talked this way
have been saying there would I'M
doubtedly be no effort on the part of
the White House to dictate legisla-
ton in detail
Within a day or two Democrats
who held this view have had some
what of a shock over the announce
ment that the President and Attor-
ney-General McReynolds are now
planning to send to Congress next
winter set of bills for the regula-
ton of corporations, along the line of
4 the New Jersey Seven Sisters
which are to be urged as administra-
ton and party measures. and to be
damned through in caucus. A set
of railroad measures will, IL Is re-
ported, be sent along in the same
way. In fact, it is dawning upon
Congress that President Wilson in
tends to- continue exactly as he has
begun; that he purposes making the
| party program and forcing the adop-
ton of his program by the party.
| For all of which reasons there is
much specula ton in the Senate as to
just how long the President can keep
it up, and what the end of it is going
! to be. So far, with the possible ex-
ception of Hitchcock, no Democratic
senator has shown Il disposition to
| fight the President openly. There is
a strong and growing insurgent
movement in the Senate against
White House dictation, but it lacks
| leadership If Oscar Underwood is
elected to the Senate from Alabama
| H. l. IL
assume the Democratic leadership
through sheer ability, and there are
those who say that Underwood. with
an eye on the nomination in 1916 is
ready to disagree with the admins
tration and lead a fight against
White House methods and program
whenever the time seems ripe for him
to do so to advantage.
~ believe the dispensary system is
the best plan yet devised for handling
the liquor traffic" said Senator Ben
jamin Tillman, as he talked in remi-
niscent mood of some of his earlier
fights. when he was referred to in the
newspapers as "Pitchfork Ben," and
''the Senate firebrand."
! 1t is just about twenty years since
Senator Tillman was elected governor
of South Carolina, and attracted i'm
mediate national attention by putting
! the dispensary system into operation.
IF people will drink liquor" con-
tinued the veteran senator, they
ought to be able to get good liquor at
reasonable price, and it ought to be
sold to them by responsible parties.
The dispensary, under public opinion,
is just a place to get liquor, not to
drink it, and it destroys the lives and
other evil resorts where people drink
too much and learn vice and crime"
But the system didn't work in your
| State?' it was suggested.
NO" admitted Mr.. Tillman. lit
didn't-that is, it worked badly in
spots. The trouble is to get honest
men to run the dispensaries and keep
out the graft and the grafters. 1t
looks. though, as if the people were
coming back TO the idea. There are
some counties in South Carolina where
! they've kept the dispensaries right
along, and just the other day there
were elections on the subject in ten
counties, of which seven declared for
| dispensaries.