Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1910 — A CANNON SHOT. [ARTICLE]

A CANNON SHOT.

House Bos* Promulgates New Test For Republicanism. Joe Cannon, the boss of the house of representatives, has promulgated a new test for stalwart Republicanism. He says in his address at Kansas City that those who do not agree with him that the Payne tariff law is the best ever passed must not be regarded as Republicans and must be fought “just as we fight Mr. Bryan and his following.” He further opines that we always have demagogues with us. He does not define exactly whom he means, but we take it that any one who does not regard him as being as supreme among speakers as the Payne bill is among tariffs is In that class. It Is too bad that Uncle Joe’s mind ceased to grow twenty-five years ago. It ossified without his being aware of It. He thinks it is a perfectly normal machine and that those who criticise him when stating the foregoing perfectly obvious fact are full of “envy, mallow and all uncharitableness.” He Is Instinctively opposed to all advance. He hung on like grim death to the Dingley bill as to the ark of the covenant. Then when public opinion compelled a change he transferred his affection to its successor, the Payne bill, which he is now prepared to defend as stubbornly as he did its predecessor. One can see the deprecating smile with which he says: “The Payne bill is not perfect. It is only as near so as human genius and foresight and statesmanship can make it.” Yet there is at least one flattering word which may be said of the speaker of the house. When the house bill was reported In the senate Aldrich is reported to have remarked, “Cannon is a radical.”