The daily Alaskan., 1914-03-13
Discussion Over Intention tO
 Repeal Free Toll Feature.
PLATFORMS TO GET IN ON"
Works Opposes Tendency to Take Too Much Money Out of Treasury-Why Lane of Oregon ls Called "Enfant Terrible" - Tassart Says Pacific .. coast's Defenses Are Weak.
By ARTHUR ". DUNN.

! Washington, Feb. 23.-lSpeclal.I- When are platform declarations bind ing? is a query that is interesting Washington just now. There are va. rlous discussions regarding platform pledges in and out of congress, and some members of the Democratic party are free and frank in calling attention | to instances where the platform is be- | ing ignored. Pretty soon we will be hearing that old story about political platforms are like the platforms of railroad cars; they are made to get in on, but not to stand on."
 Discussion of platform pledges arises over the avowed intention upon the part of the administration to repeal the l free tolls provision for cOastwise ship ping passing through the Panama ca nal Then Democrats of the house call ed attention to the specific declaration regarding publicity of inducements for iudgeship appointments at the time the ! house reversed its position on that sub | feet. After all. it is not important, for | 1t would be impossible for any one ad- ministrutiOn to carry out all the plat form declarations made in a national convention.
 Uncle Sam Must Pay. Interesting. though somewhat sur prising, was q speech made by Senator Works of California in which he took exception to the trend to take money out of the treasury to pay for every thing under the sun. Works has been considered rather progressive in his | ideas and tendencies, and nearly all of 1 the things he criticised are the out growth of progressiveneSs. Particu- larly is that true regarding COmmis- sions, the reclamation service, all kinds of conservation, the building of a rail road in Alaska and many other prof ects.
 Senator Works rather dolefully closed his remarks by saying that he had no hopes that anything he might say would change the trend of legislation, and he is about right.
 A Constant Surprise. l Somebody has called Senator Harry Lane of Oregon the "enfant terrible" | This because he Is constantly doing some unexpected and oftentimes em- barrassing things. As a Democrat 1t | is naturally supposed that he would support Democratic ideas. 1t so hap pened during the discussion of the az ricultural extension bill that the race issue was injected and became acute. One day when Senator Hoke Smith of Georgia was talking Lane broke in and started telling a story and got as far as "an old negro down south"-
 "I do not yield to the senator for anything further" said Smith sharp ly. "I do not believe a word of that story"
 But Lane stuck around" as Boies Penrose would say, and he told story of an old negro somewhere in the south who had made q great sue cess at farming and had become a well to do citizen.
 From Unexpected Quarters.
 When the war scare begins to brew we hear from unexpected quarters re- garding the defenseless condition Of the country. Consequently 1t was with surprise that observations from Con- gressman Taggart of Kansas were made to the effect that the United States was at the mercy of any power that would attack us. on the Pacihc side. General Sherwood of Ohio tried to pin the Kansan down to the spe- cifc mention of a nation which threat ened us in the Pacific, but Taggart would not say that little word "Ja- pan," although everybody knew that was what he meant.
 Standing From Under.
 The compiler of the Congressional Di- rectory Is in no sense an editor or an author, but simply puts together that which is turned into him, in accord ance with the foOtnOte at the begin ming of the biographical sketches of senators and congressman, which says, Biographies are based on informa- tion furnished by the respective sena- tors and congressman"
 No doubt the compiler does this to show that he is not responsible for some of the silly things which con gressmen say of themselves in biogra- phies.
 A Matter of State Rishts.
 How on earth can any man recon ciIe the dealing by the federal govern ment with the civil subdivisions of the states as being anything else than going over the heads of the states?' That was the question which Congress man Borland of Missouri propounded during the discussion of the good roads bill. It appears that the United States government not only deals with states regarding the construction of roads, but that it also deals with villages, townships and municipal corporations, which is going a long way in the face of declarations for state rights. But