Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1910 — EHAT WILL DEMOCRATS DO WITH THEIR POWER? [ARTICLE]

EHAT WILL DEMOCRATS DO WITH THEIR POWER?

Confronted with Responsibility They Are Planning to Hold Early Conference at Washington. • Democrats from all over the United States that have been elected to congress are beginning to gather at Washington and before congress convenes on Dec. Ist they will have held many conferences and probably have adopted a program of legislation and general conduct that will follow during the short session. They are confronted now by all the problem which their platforms of recent years have proclaimed and while they will not be in absolute power owing to the fact that the Senate will be repub ■ lican, they will, nevertheless, be in virtual command, and it is probable that the Senate will not obstruct legislation which the democrats pass in the lower branch when the new members are seated. It is not probable that the democratic house will be altogether harmonious. It is certain that there are a lot of aspiring politicians in the house and that while all are anxious that the party shall make good there will be a lot of different ideas as to what the “make-good” program shall be. The party is pledged to a tariff revision along tariff for revenue only lines; it is pledged to bust the trusts; it is pledged to establish a government guarantee of banks; it is pledged to pass legislation providing for the election of senators by the direct votes of the people; it is pledged by action in some states to the passage of a dollar-a-day pension bill, to the retrenchment of government expenses, and will undertake to carry out all these promises for the purpose of making good and giving themselves a guarantee of success at the polls two years hence. They will, of course, try to reduce the cost of living while preserving wages and protecting the interests of the agricultural and manufacturing centers. They will try to reduce the cost of living while making everything the producer has to sell bring as much as ever. The Repullcan pronounced this an impossible paradox during the campaign and we have not changed our opinion, but it will be interesting to watch these democrats possessed with power and imbued with ambition try to bring this condition about.

Democrats will also elect a speaker of the house to succeed “Uncle” Joe Cannon, and they are already talking of hedging some against the insurgent program of taking the committee appointing power away from the speaker; they are talking of making Champ Clark speaker and giving him plenty of power, because they think Chamn won’t abuse it. Already they are making an admission that there was nothing serious the matter with the house rules, but it was just one of the plans of objection by which they were seeking to secure election. It is proposed that the bit will be applied to the frightened donkey and this is interpreted as meaning that they will not carry out their tariff revision along the strenuous lines proposed and that they will consult some of the big interests of the people whom they have pronounced the pillagers before they take a crack at the employment institutions which have grown up during the past fourteen years. The solution of the anti-in-junction plank proposed by the last democratic national convention will also receive some attention and Samuel Gompers will bo trying to influence a radical step against the invocation of the injunction against strikes.

So democrats will be busy and when they get busy and try to be diplomatic it means that they will forget a lot of their campaign pledges, and, as the Indianapolis News says, “troublesome times are ahead.”