Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1910 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political Gossip of the National Capital. Washington, July 19.—Regular republicans are declaring more boldly than ever that Roosevelt will indorse Taft. Vice-President Sherman says that Roosevelt “will indorse .the Payne-Aldrich tariff law and the Taft administration in every particular.”, I do not believe it. I dee not believe it because I read Roosevelt to be too clever a politician to put his O. K. on such a band of criminals as that which dominates r the Republican party. I wish to make no apology for the use of the word “criminals.” I employ the term advisedly. The Republican party is to<iay controlled body and soul by the sugar trust, the steel trust, the harvester trust, the lumber

trust and other similar organizations, each and every one of which is in existence in violation of the anti-trust laws of the country. Having no legal right to exist, each Of these greedy monopolies is a criminal- corporation, and if the attorney* general of the United States would do his full duty they would be forced to dissolve. But if Roosevelt does indorse the Taft administration it will be and ought to be his Waterloo, following in the due allotted time his triumphant “return from Elba.” If Roosevelt openly indorses such standpatters as Taft and Senator Lodge of Massachusetts it will mean that he deceived 7 the people as to his true sentiments as completely as the prizefighter Jeffries deceived the sporting World as to 'his rea. physical condition. Taft Past Redemption. Roosevelt will not dare indorse Taft for these reasons: First. Taft personally promised revision downward, and then personally signed a tariff bill which revised the tariff upward. Second. Taft personally aided Boss Aldrich to cheat the people out of an income tax, which would take some of the burden of taxation off of the poor and place it upon the rich. Third. Taft personally used all the power at his command to prevent Speaker Cannon from being dethroned. Fourth. Taft upheld Ballinger after the latter had been exposed and discredited as having given aid to Alaska coal land grabbers. J ; ifth. Taft counseled with Aldrich. Lodge, Hale. Guggenheim, Penrose, Flint, Cannon. Fordney and other representatives of the special interests, and refused to accept advice from such men as LaFollette, Dolliver, Cummins, Clapp and Murdock. 1 Sixth. Taft is personally seeking to defeat LaFollette and other genuine insurgents because they endeavored to revise the tariff in conformity with the pre-election speeches. Aldrich’s Exact Words. Senator Aldrich on February 21, 1910, in the Senate, when speaking on the subject of government expenses, said: "There is no intelligent observer in Congress or out of it who does not know that the executive departments of this Government are carried on either tinder obsolete business methods or without any business methods at all. There is no man who has given this subject any attention whatever who does not know or believe that at least 1U per cent of the thousand million dollars which we are appropriating annually can be saved by the' adoption of business methods. This question of saving $100,000,000 per year—and it can be demonstrated, in my judgment, 'that the saving will be much more than that—is a matter that should receive the serious attention of Congress. If I were a business man and could be permitted tb do it. I would undertake to run thi> Government for $300,000,000 less than it is now run for.”

Lodge and Teddy Are Pals ! Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts is posing as rliie bosom friend of Roosevelt. He savs T. R. will campaign for his re-election, and Roosevelt ha*, not denied that he will go to Lodge’s rescue. It, was only recently that La Follette of W isconsin, in a speech in the Senate, exposed this same Lodge as the unscrupulous tool of the railroads and other special, interests. Lodge is by training and nature unfitted to represent any part of the United States in the Senate. He can't "Outgrow the ancient illusion that the business.of the Senate is to legislate for the rich, regardless of rthe rights oi the poor. Unless all signs- read falsely. Mr. Lodge, of Massachusetts. who declares the consumer is a myth, will be retired to private life. yea. and regardless of whether the ex-president indorses or refuses to indorse.

“Uncle Joe” Has Not Retired. “God willing, I’ll be back in Washington next session, and it will be for the Republican majority to determine w*ho shall be speaker.” So spoke “Uncle Joe” Cannon the other day. Speaker Cannon has not the least intention of retiring from the speakership, and the public is only fooling itself to think otherwise. Cannon has serveci the corporate inter-

ests of the country long and faithfully, and if the next House should be Republican, “Uncle Joe” will no doubt be rewarded with another term as speaker. Hiding High Prices.

To prove that the new tariff has not increased the cost of Life's necessities, standpatters cite schedules in which the quoted prices of manufactured articles are the same as before the Aldrich-Taft law was passed. The absurdity of this attempt to deceive consunier- is manifest. It is notorious that the textile trust took heroic measures to keep price quotations normal for thi> season by making lighter weight goods, and usifig poorer materials.

Their example was followed by foreign makers who exported to this country a cheaper grade of cotton stockings at the old prices. The net result, of course, is that the copsummers must purchase more frequently, because shoddy goods wear out quickly. Obviously, the aggregate cost of Life’s necessities grows steadily as articles bought deteriorate in quality. This method of hiding high prices has been boldly justified by eastern trust officials as legitimate business.