Springfield weekly Republican. [volume], November 17, 1910, Page 2, Image 2

About Springfield weekly Republican. [volume] (Springfield, Mass.) 1851-1946

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THE DEMOCRATIC OPFORTUNITY,
It is easy now to see that the widespread
democratic victories were not so surprising
by half as their failure to come would have
been Conditions had so shaped themselves
that no other result was possible; and all
that remains to astonish one is that so com
plete a reversal in the political form of the
two great parties should have taken place
within the brief space of two years. In
1908. the republicans carried the House of
Representatives by a majority scarcely less
than rhe majority which the country lias
now given to the democrats, and in the va
rious state elections republican majorities
ran higher than the democratic majorities
have this.week. Yet so swift has been the
change in conditions since the election
of President Taft that, while few ventured
to predict what has now happened, the ex
pectation of widespread reverses for the
party iu power was never more prevalent
nor more confidently held.
Beyond reminding ourselves that a party
so hopelessly divided as the republicans had
become, and laboring as they were under
such a heavy weight of responsibilities in
the public mind, could not win. provided its
opponents rose to their opportunity witli an
ordinary show of patriotism aud decency, it
is not necessary to go in considering the
causes of the republican defeat. The demo
crats, meanwhile, had grown less conten
tious among themselves and. after many
years of retirement from places of power,
had gaiued in party unity aud also in the
desire to win the public confidence by their
nominations of candidates. The issue of
Bryauism. if not dead, had become far less
menacing to democratic harmony, both be
cause of Mr Bryan's diminished personal
aggressiveness and because the nation had
defeated him so often that it had ceased to
fear him The time had come when the
country, finding the "party of government"
disrupted, could safely make use of the j
opposition: and there can be no doubt that I
the administrative, success of democratic |
governors like Harmon of Ohio. Marshall i
of Indiana, the late Mr Johnson of Minne- i
sola and Mayor Gaynor of New York city
had encouraged independent voters every
where to believe that the democratic party
contained men fully capable of bearing the I
burden of government in the largest and !
most comprehensive sense, if only they i
could be brought to the front and made the
accepted leaders of the democratic masses.
Probably the greatest blessing to the
country, as the result of the elections of
1910, is the fact that a new set of demo
cratic leaders have finally appeared, who
can command public confidence and "bo
are endowed with qualities of leadership
which must distinguish statesmen worthy
of the guidance of great purties in a mod
ern democracy. It seems to tis that every
citizen, whether republican or democrat,
may take fresh heart and find new rea
sons for cniouragetneut concerning his
country in the development as leaders of
the democratic party of such men as Dr
Woodrow Wilson. Gov Harmon of Ohio,
John A. Dix of New York and Judge
Baldwin of Connecticut. Of these Dr Wil
son and Gov Harmon seem to take a fore
most rank in their national prestige and
future possibilities. Under the leadership
of each, an extraordinary victory has been
achieved. The governor of Ohio in secur
ing a second term in a state which counted
a president of the United States, belonging
to the opposing party, as one of
its own citizens. has accomplished
something unparalleled in Ohio during an
entire generation. With his personal tri
umph has come also the ejection of a dem
ocratic United States senator.
Dr Wilson's achievement is no less strik
ing. His magnificent plurality indicates
that lie would run equally well in New
York state. A democratic United States
senator has been one of his trophies in the
battle, also. And bis admitted abilities as
a speaker now need only to he reinforeed
by demonstrated success ns an administra- i
tor of an important commonwealth to pro
ject him as possibly the most desirable na
tional leader of his party in the coming dec
ade. It seems almost too good to be true
that in Moodrow Wilson this great politi
cal party, so long denied the confidence of
'the American people. may Imre at last
found a chieftain capable of reinstating it
in the place that it is entitled to bold by
, virtue of its traditions and its numbers.
He occupies, however, an idea] position, iu
some respects, as a claimant for the na
tional leadership. Of southern birth and
breeding, he may command, it would seem,
the support of the South: and quite as
northern as southern in his workaday as
sociations and his personal contact with
the problems of American life, he fuses in
his character the two sections as no Amer
ican democrat since the civil war has been
able to do it.
But if the elections hare brought to the
front new leaders from whom the demo
cratic party may hope much in the interest
of its future usefulness and service, very
serious are the difficulties which the party
must overcome in various directions before
it can become again a united, strong and
aggressive organization, capable of com
manding the confidence of the nation. Its
leadership in the next Congress may not
rise to the full reach of the opportunities
presented. Nor can one ignore the diffi
cult problem of bringing upon a common
ground its radical and conservative wings
and making them fight for a single object
with a single purpose. The unity of the
democratic party has bj- no means been
achieved by last week's elections. The
new eastern leadership could not absolute
ly ignore Mr Bryan, even in the period of
his political decline, without risking the
annihilation of the party's hopes of suc
cess in future contests in the western
country.
There are possibilities of widespread
changes ahead in the line-up of the great
parties; and it is a serious- question for
democrats now to consider whether they
can afford to become a party of reaction or
of ultra-conservatism. In Dr Wilson's New
Jersey campaign we have noted signs that
he, at least, is essentially progressive, that
he is a democrat of the 20th rather than
of the earlier 19th century. Il is a pro
gressive leadership.-prudent and safe, yet
forward iu its outlook and purpose—that
the democracy must have. And the next
two years may determine whether such a
leadership can be developed within its
lines and Ite accepted by nil elements of
its varied membership.
AROUND THE CIRCLE WITH T. R.
Other statesmen have been subjected to
the harrowing experience. Mr Reed, in
. 1890, made a trail of stump oratory which,
after election, was blazing from end to
end with the fires of democratic victories.
Mr Bryan again and again has demon
strated that the tracks of his whirlwind
tours run red with the glow of his op
ponents’ bonfires, after the votes have
been counted. It was Mr Roosevelt's
turn.
Mr Roosevelt’s political campaign for
mally began with the Saratoga convention.
By personal intervention, he made himself
> an issue in the election contests of many
I states, and of all those commonwealths
New Hampshire is the only one that re
' sponded in the least to his appeal. Mr
| Bass's 0000 is the solitary trophy that the
I colonel can possibly claim as his own. The
other pelts are missing.
He talked in Boston to 10,000 uproarious
people and said that Mr Foss was a stock
gambler. M& Draper, he maintained, was
the ideal governor, and the immaculate
Senator Lodge stood for everything that
was good. Massachusetts, as a consequence
more or less remote, lias ttndergmie one
of the greatest upsets in its history. The
wicked Foss supplants Gov Draper, and
everyone can see that, if this state had
choset a United States senator last week
by direct vote of the people. Mr Lodge
would now be at the end of his political
career.
He discovered a "retrogressive" judge in
the person of the democratic candidate for
governor of Connecticut, and in denuncia
tion of that gentle jurist and estimable
citizen, he launched four campaign thun
derbolts. each one more awfully damaging
(to himself) that the preceding one. The
result is that Judge Baldwin has been
elected by the aid of 20,000 -voters who
supported President Taft two years ago.
He threw himself into the Indiana con
test. in the effort to insure Senator Bev
eridge’s re-election, aud the senator will
lie a senator no more. He talked for the
progressive Congressman Grilk tn lowa
and advised the re-election of the reac
tionary Gov Carroll in his speech at Des
Moines. The outcome is that lowa's nor
mal republican plurality of 75,000 has dis
appeared. He assailed Judson Harmon in
Ohio as n rogue and a cheat, and Ohio re
elects Mr Harmon by the largest majority
ever given to a democrat in the state and
one that makes the governor a formidable
presidential possibility in 1912.
In his own commonwealth, he luridly
pictured Mr Dix as the tool of the corrupt
alliance of Wall street and Tammany hall,
as a business beneficiary of an infamous
trust and as a cruel oppressor of labor. I
And 10l Mr Dix not only carries the state |
by upward of 70,000, but also carries Mr !
Roosevelt’s home election district, which
gave Gov Hughes 700 majority, and Mr
Roosevelt's own county, which for years
has been uniformly republican. Even Oys
ter Bay. where the last campaign speech
was delivered well after midnight on elec
tion day, surrendered to the democrats,
while no less a person than the faithful
Cocks, who has so devotedly represented
Sagamore Hill iu Congress,—yes, even
Cocks—fell by the wayside.
It used to be said of Mr Bryan, after
one of his greatest battles, that he had lost
his own state, his own county, his own
city, his own ward and his own precinct.
Mr Bryan now has distinguished company.
Mr Roosevelt may even join him at an
other point, later on—that is to say, in
losing the United States.
THE RECENT SOCIALIST GAINS.
The very marked socialist gains in the
recent elections put to a severe test Mr
Roosevelt's frequent assertion that the
way to fight socialism is to yield some
thing to it. Mr Roosevelt may not have
stated his idea in exactly that form, and
he might object to such a statement of his
views. But. certainly, he has often de
fended his own brand of radicalism as
something that must be accepted if much
extremer policies are not to prove trium
phant. The plausibility of the argument
which he has presented has been im
pressive, and it must be said, too, that
there are times when concessions to radi
cal forces become simply Imperative if
disastrous convulsions are to be avoided.
Radicals and socialists themselves, how
ever, must be inclined to smile at the
notion that their ideas can be snuffed
out, or their influence destroyed, by grant
ing in partial measure the soundness of
their position. Bismarck's socialistic legis
lation for the working class in Germany
was intended by him to cheek the political
advance of German socialism, but, from
that point of view, it has failed utterly.
Bismarck lias been dead 12 years; he has
been 20 years out of office, and the social
ists of the empire are stronger as a politi
cal force than ever they were in the great
chancellor's time.
A complete test of the Roosevelt policies
as a check to socialism in America can- i
not be had until the republican party be
comes thoroughly impregnated with the
Rooseveltiau ideas. But the recent elec
tion furnished a partial test which is
worthy of exuminatiou. There were four
prominent states in which the socialists
had to contend against that progressive
school of republicanism, which has pop
ularly been known as “insurgent” in some
parts of the country. One of the four,
New York, is on the Atlantic coast; an
other, California, is ou tbe Pacific coast;
and (be remaining two, Indiana and Wis
consin, are in the middle section of the
land. In New York. Mr Stimson was Mr
Jloosevelfs own personal choice for gov
ernor. and he had exceptional indorsement
as a progressive of tbe purest Rooseveltiau
type. In California. Hiram Johnson, the
insurgent republican candidate for gov
ernor, had been indorsed most emphatical
ly by Mr Pinchot and Mr Garfield. In
Indiana. Senator Beveridge, whose fight
for re-election was the central Tact of the
political situation, was enthusiastically
commended by the ex-president. In Wis
consin, the La Follette republicans are
i nothing if not progressive. Now let us
see what happened in the four states to
tbe socialists.
In New York, the socialists east 65,01)0
: votes, as compared with 38.451 two years
ngo.
In California, lite socialists cast about
। 00,000, as compared with 18,370 two years
' it go.
j In Indiana, the socialists east 20/HX), as
compared with 13,470 two years ago.
In Wisconsin, the socialists <qrst abou)
00,000, as compared with 28,140 Jan years
Ugo.
The figures here given for the socialist
rote in California.' Indiana and Wiscon
sin are estimated from the incomplete
returns, but they are said to be approx-
THE SPRINGFIELD WEEKLY REPUBLICAN: THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 17. 1910.
imately accurate. Attention should i*
called particularly to some interesting de.
tails. It was in Wisconsin, where in
surgent. or progressive, republicanism has
been most active and most uniformly tri
j umphnnt. that the first and only socialist
congressman was elected: ami it is worth
noting, too. that Victor Berger's repub
lican opponent was Congressman Coeh
ems. a well-known House insurgent and
follower of Senator La Follette. Mr
1 Russell's success in almost doubling the
I socialist vote in the Enqure state was
I accomplished in the teeth of a most furi
! ous gale of Roosevelt oratory. He "had
j almost reached the limit of human en
; durance.” said Mr Roosevelt iu the last
week of his stumping tour.
These are facts, not hypotheses or the
ories of political tendencies. It is not in
the least evident that Mr La Follettes
10 years of radical agitation iu M iscon
sin hits checked socialism; on the con
trary. socialism in Wisconsin is a more
formidable political force by far in that
state than it was a decade ago. Aud it
may be doubted that, if Mr Roosevelt
for the next 10 years could have his way
absolutely unimpeded in carrying out his
plans, the socialists would fail to show,
in that time, an increase of strength cor
responding to their gains in the imme
diate past. The recent political experi
ence of the United States does not teach
the socialists that they should fear Mr
Roosevelt's later radicalism. They have
reason to welcome his propaganda, how
ever much they may distrust him as a
ruler, or a statesman, on account of Ips
temperamental qualities.
FOR NEXT LEGISLATURE TO DO.
The United States Senate, for reasons
best known to its legislatively elected mem
bership, has for years blocked the way of
submitting to the states a constitutional
amendment for the election of senators by
direct popular vote. Several times has a
resolution of submission of such an amend
ment passed the national House by over
whelming vote, aud'as many times has it
been shelved in the Senate.
But the constitution also provides another
way of bringing about the submission of
' amendments. On the application of the
Legislatures of two-thirds of the states,
Congress “shall" call a convention for pro
posing amendments, which will then go to
the states for ratification or rejection. There
are now 40 states, and the Legislatures of |
31 of them can compel Congress to call a
eonventiOQ. The Legislatures of some 29
states have already made application for
the calling of a convention to submit an
amendment providing for the popular elec
tion of United States senators. Only two
more state Legislatures need to act in a
similar way to clinch the matter. With
Arizona and New Mexico admitted, only
three more state Legislatures are required.
The Massachusetts Legislature elected
last Tuesday should be one of these neces
sary two or three. The United States Sen
ate has blocked the way to this desirable
reform long enough. It can now easily be
compelled to stand out of the way, and a
resolution of application to Congress, adopt
ed by the incoming Massachusetts Legisla
ture, will likely inspire similar action on
the part of two or three other eastern Legis
latures and effect a submission of the pro
posed amendment.
Not in years, apparently not since before
the civil war. has the Massachusetts Legis
lature been so closely divided between the
two great parties as it will be this winter.
The large democratic membership is com
mitted to the popular election of senators,
and hence to such a resolution as suggested,
by the party's state platform. Hardly more
than a dozen republican votes, properly dis
tributed between the Senate and House,
would suffice to turn the scale. There must
be more than that number of republican
members-elect who favor popular election of
senators. The anti-Lodge republicans should
favor the resolution, and some of the Lodge
republicans may also favor it.
The party's extreme bourboniem in Mas
sachusetts on this as well as on the income
tax amendment must by this time have come
to impress its legislative membership as a
trifle dangerous to be longer continued. This
state has so far escaped the greater evils of
legislative election of United States senators
largely because of the one-sided party char
acter of the Legislature. They will become
more manifest as parties in that body be
come more closely divided. They might
easily become manifest in a situation such
as is now developing over the re-election of
Mr Lodge. Decisive votes become too few
and too valuable in such a situation. It
should not be; and the people, moreover,
are fairly entitled to a direct voice in the
election of United States senators as in the
election of United States representatives. If
the democracy of the fathers fell a little
short of this requirement, the democracy
of their descendants need not forever fail
to meet the lack. Let a resolution as sug
gested be brought up at the forthcoming
session and pressed for passage.
NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT.
The census gives New Hampshire a
population of 430,572, which represents an
increase of 1M,984. or 4.0 per cent, since
1900. This is a larger relative increase,
than the adjoining state of Vermont made
during the same time, but it is not up to
the New Hampshire average, as may be
seen from the following comparison which
includes the relative changes in Vermont's
population for the same period:—
ver-
Increase mont's
Population. Increase, per cent. Increase.
IPIO ... 430.572 18,984 4.« 3,«
I*X> ....411.588 35.058 9.3 3 4
1800 ... .378,530 29.539 8.3 >O.O
1880 . 348.091 28.891 9.0 o.#
18TO ....318.309 *7,773 *2.4 4 9
18o<> ....328,973 8.007 2« 0.3
1836 317.970 33,402 11.7 7 8
1840 ....284,574
•Decrease.
| Of the New Hampshire increase of
I about 19.000 in the past decade, the cities
I of Manchester and Nashua alone eontrib
] uted over 15.000 ami Manchester, alone
| contributed above 13.000, Coucor<^|p‘ortH-
I mouth and some of the other larger places
! have 110 doubt made up the rest of the
I state's population gain, and more too,
I leaving for the agricultural tonus a loss
on the average. One curious feature of
। the comparison between Vermont and New
Hampshire is that in the decade of
1800-70. when Vermont made one of Its
larger gains, New Hampshire eported a
decline in population; while from 18S0 to
1890, when New Hampshire made one of
its largest gains. Vermont.reported a alight
loss Oess than one-tenth of 1 per cent).
There seems to be no accounting for
these shifts between the two slates. But
both have been dominated in population
changes by the state of sericulture. As
that fms prospered er declined the two
states have advanced or slackened iu impu
tation growth; hut manufacturing, under
the great water-powers of the Merrimac
and two or three other rivers, has been
more of an offsetting element .-gainst ag
ricultural retrogression in New Hampshire
than in Vermont. The two states, how
ever. started off in 1790 with just about
the same difference in population ns now
exists. Now Hampshire had the earlier
start by virtue of being in closer proxim
ity to the sen, and it has mnintuineu that
lead, after losing much of it in the early
decades of the last century, largely no
doubt by virtue of its location nearer the
great highways of commerce.
Both of these states of mountains and
hills and narrow valleys should hereafter
fare better than they have in the develop
ment of manufacturing industry. Water
powers have become more available for use
through the possibility of transmitting
them over long distances in the form of
electrical energy. But there should also
come to both states a revival of agricul
tural industry which has there been on
the down grade ever since the civil war.
The higher commodity prices caused by
gold inflation arc themselves a great stim
ulus to the restoration of the bill farm
lands which for 40 years have been under
the depression of depreciating values and
abandonment for the more favorable op
portunities of the western regions. The
great development of science in agriculture
must also help tremendously in restoring
to profitable industry the old places where
the Yankee fathers were able to live well
and raise large families. Northern New
England must also find advantage in great
er freedom of trade with Canada and a
consequent larger movement of commerce
north and south through that section. The
present decade should see for noth these
states an advance such as has not come
to them in the same length of time since
the adventurous days of their settlement.
LORDS' VETO CONFERENCE.
The official announcement of the failure
of the Lords' veto conference will confirm
many in the opinion that the conference
was never expected by its promoters to
succeed. That it was designed to be more
than a stop-gap, in the period of the na
tional mourning, can now scarcely be be
lieved. It was a success to a certain ex
tent, most surely, for a very decent truce
between the parties has been maintained
during the months since the king's death,
and the secrecy of the discussions of the
conferees has forced political quietude
upon the country. But present appear
ances are that the pretense of peace can
no longer be cultivated even to please the
new monarch, who has been credited with
the desire to prevent a renewal of the
party struggle until after his coronation
in June.
While the precise mode of procedure to
be taken by the liberal leaders has not
been made clear, it is generally agi-eed
that they have nothing to fear from another
general election the coming winter. Po
litical conditions seem more favorable to
them than they did a year ago, when they
appealed to the country on the Lloyd
George budget and the action of the House
of Lords in rejecting it, for since January
last the budget has been enacted into law
and its operation has naturally proved less
terrible than its foes had predicted, and
meanwhile, also, the finances of the gov
ernment hare been strengthened with the
revival of trade, domestic and foreign. In
dia has become quieter in the last days
of the Morley administration, and the
federation of South Africa under liberal
auspices has been successfully accom
plished and its new government inaugurat
ed. In colonial and foreign affairs, gen
erally speaking, the empire's prestige has
been maintained by the liberal government
during the five years of its power, and the
opposition's batteries must be confined to
home issues, if weak spots are to be
found. Even the German war scare has
played out, for the present government is
satisfying the majority of the people by
its policy of naval increase, and the alarm
ists find poor picking when they compare
the strength of the two powers in Dread
noughts.
But. worse still for the opposition, the
protective tariff movement bus suffered a
check not only in the improved trade of
the United Kingdom, but in the growing
tendency of the United States to demand
tariff reduction. The fiscal movement in
augurated by Mr Chamberlain six or seven
years ago, and forced upon the reluctant
Mr Balfour, derived not a little of its
popularity from the stiffly unyielding atti
tude of foreign countries in maintaining
high duties against imports from Great
Britain. The movement began to weaken
somewhat the moment that the insurgent
republicans in the United States Senate
began their assault upon the Payne-Aldrich
bill, and every subsequent sign of the pop
ular demand for lower duties in America
has made trouble for the English tariff
agitators. The democratic landslide in this
country the other day completed their dis
comfiture, inasmuch as in Great Britain
the American democrats are regarded as a
low tariff party. Not long ago, the Lon
don Times made a special study of the
sentiment of the north of England con
cerning the country’s fiscal policy, and it
reported that there was no hope of turning
the great manufacturing section of the
kingdom against the liberal party on the
tariff issue.
Political strategy, therefore, seems to
dictate to Premier Asquith the forcing of
a general election nt an early day. His
position in the present House of Com
mons. it will he recalled, is exceedingly
unstable. The liberals were able to form
a ministry, and are now able to remain in
office only with the consent of the Irish
nationalists, who hold the balance of
power. If a general election would so
increase the number of liberal members ns
Io make the ministry less dependent upon
the nationalists, the election could not Ito
hohl too soon for the premier’s comfort.
Still, Mr Asquith must upiwal tn the coun
try on the issue which Mr Redmond
forced him to make immediately paramount
when the spring session opened. The
House of Lords' veto cannot now be ig
nored, were the premier personally dis
posed to make it less conspicuous. The
radical wing of his own party, as well as
the Irish and the laborltes, are insistent
tipou forcing u verdict from the country on
the constitutional quarrel between the two
houses. Mr Asquith's own program, as
vnnounced before King Edward's death,
loft little else in the field of politics.
The premier, in April last, introduced the
Lords’ veto resolutions and, on April 14,
the bill embodying their purpose was read.
The resolutions at that time were passed
by the Commons, hut the bill itself has
not yet been sent up to the House of
Ixirds. If the premier should now ask the
House of Commons to pass the veto bill, he
would evidently be bound to follow the
couase which lie outlined in the spring,
in saying authoritatively:—
If the House of Lords fail to accept
our policy or decline to consider it when
is is formally presented to that House,
we shall feel it our duty immediately to
tender advice to the crown as to the steps
which would have to be taken if that pol
icy is to receive statutory effect in this
Parliament.
What the precise terms of that advice
will be it would <>f course be improper
for me to say now.
If we do not find ourselves in a posi
tion to ensure that statutory effect shall
be given to the policy in this Parliament,
we shall then either resign our offices
<>r advise a dissolution of Parliament.
But in no case could we advise a dissolu
tion except under such conditions as will
secure that in the now Parliament the
judgment of the people ns expressed at
the elections will be carried into law.
The premier had in mind advising the
king to create enough new peers to carry
the veto bill through the upper cham
ber, in case the Lords should reject it.
But inasmuch as the king might decline
to undertake so drastic a procedure with
out another general election, the premier
called attention to the probability that the
elections would be precipitated either by
a dissolution or by the ministry's resigna
tion at the appropriate moment. It re
mains to he seen how rigidly Mr Asquith
will adhere to the program announced in
April and how insistent he may he upon
an early determination of the issue be
tween the two houses of Parliament.
MR ROOSEVELT’S TREACHERY.
To the Editor of The Republican:—
Won’t you kindly particularize iu your
continued indictment of Mr Roosevelt for
’’treachery to President Tuft”? Is it
treachery to withhold approval when one
can't honestly accord it? And admitting
that President Taft and Secretary Bal
linger may be right in their ideas of con
servation. would it not be a physical and
moral impossibility for Theodore Roose
velt to agree with them. Could ho be
Roosevelt, and “stand for” the abolition
of the college of forestry and the re
moval of Pinchot? Then why talk of
“treachery”? What he could approve he
did. And anent your editorial squib this
morning: ’’lf the colonel attempts to name
the next president, as ho did in 1908,
the people will be justified in demanding
that he will see him through.” How
would it be to choose a president that
will sec himself through? Roosevelt al
ways did. even with a hostile Congress,
and-Jjkewise did Gov Hughes with a
hostile " Legislature. President Taft took
the chief magistracy with the strongest
popular backing any president ever had.
for even Washington hud strong de
tractors while Taft, though opposed on
party lines, had none. We know what he
did with it in one short year. Please
cease the nauseating prattle about
"treachery.” We know what Roosevelt
did for Tnft. What has the latter ever
done in a self-sacrificing sense for Roose
velt? Gbobof. H. Allyn.
Holyoke, November 12, 1910,
The term "my policies” is an elastic one,
but it will be conceded to include as chief
features conservation, closer railroad regu
lation. trust regulation, postal savings
banks and income tax or an amendment to
empower Congress to levy such a tax
without apportionment according to popu
lation. Tariff revision and reduction was
rather a Taft than a Roosevelt policy.
As Mr Roosevelt had evaded that Issue
throughout his term of office, did it be
come him well to throw his recent great
influence with the insurgents in their
quarrel with his friend and chosen suc
cessor in the presidency because the re
vision actually achieved was not quite
radical enough to suit them in all
particulars? Yet this was the substantial
or moral effect of the position lie took
after Iris return from Africa.
Let us. however, proceed to the Roose
velt policies themselves. First, conserva
tion. President Taft secured from Con
gress an act authorizing the withdrawal
of public lands from entry and the with
holding of the same from entry as tbe
public interest, on due examination, might
dictate. This legalized acts done by the
Roosevelt administration without adequate
authority. Mr Pinchot was dismissed be
cause hq invited dismissal by deliberate
acts of insubordination which uo presi
dent, having respect for himself and hie
office, could overlook; and the practice of
sending out attaches of the forestry of
fice for instruction here and there at the
public expense was stopped because it was
unauthorized by law. Mr Taft's ad
ministration was to be law-abiding, but
the policy of conservation was finding full
support within the law and through the
law as amended and extended. Did those
who, with a fanaticism better becoming
a crusade to recover the holy sepulchre,
were assailing Mr Roosevelt's friend aud
chosen successor for his indisposition to
override and go beyond^ the law quite
merit the tacit or other support of the
ex-president? Y’et it was given.
As for trust regulation President Taft
.fairly leaned over backward in support
of "my policies.” Mr Roosevelt had
thought only of using the interstate com
merce power of Congress to this end.
Mr Taft proposed to invoke also the
taxing power of Congress, and to this end
forceri through a mischievous aud possi
bly unconstitutional corporation income-tax
law. He then submitted a national incor
poration measure under the interstate
commerce power, to the same end, but it
was of so radical a character as to fnil
of serious consideration in Congress. Was
the president iu all this faithless to the
policies? As between himself and those
who were trying to discredit his ad
ministration as reactionary where would
naturally go the influence of one devoted
to the snid policies? But the influence
of Mr Roosevelt went not to the Taft side
of the party quarrel.
Again, railroad regulation. “My policies”
demanded public control of interstate rail
road capital issues, and conceded rate
agreements to the roads under the super
vision of the commerce commission.
President Taft's railroad bill as it went
to Congress included these cardinal
features. Both were knocked out by the
republican insurgents from the hill ns
enacted—supervision of capital issues be
ing passed on for • future consideration.
And still the Roosevelt influence was
thrown to the insurgents. President Taft
won from Congress a postal savings bank
law and submission of an income tax
amendment. And still the Roosevelt in
fluence went to the insurgents as against
the presidept. his friend and successor.
“What he I Roosevelt) could approve he
’did." So? 11c approved <»f nothing in re
lation to or for tbe credit of the Taft ad
ministration. He was asked repeatedly
where he stood as between that administra
tion aud its assailants within the party.
Not a word. It is understood that even in
that meeting of the two men at Beverly
last June a private word of congratulation
or commendation of what had been done at
Washington for the policies was wanting.
And then, with the party still divided and
about to enter an important campaign, Mr
Roosevelt went on his personal stumping
tour talking of what "I will do” to bring
corporations and others "to time," as if no
one else was doing anything ;—saying not
a word in support of the Taft administra
tion, but letting all his influence go to the
support of the assailants of that adminis
tration. He did not get around to indorse
the Taft administration until this came to
be needed to help him out in his personal
fight in New York state, and then the in
dorsement was perfunctory and in general
terms.
If all this was not treachery to his
friend and chosen successor in office, what
was it? If this did not show greater devo
tion to the personal ambitions of Mr Roose
velt than to his policies, how shall we ex
plain the failure to recognize and rejoice
over what had actually been done to
“clinch” the policies? The Roosevelt par
tisans may deny as they will the extent
and loyalty and importance of President
Taft's achievements to date for the said
policies; the facts are against them. “What
‘has Taft ever done in a self-sacrificing
‘sense for Roosevelt?” For one thing he
received him personally at New Haven,
after all this display of treachery, and lent
what aid he could to help the ex-president
out of his desperate situation iu New Y'ork
state. He received him when evers’ instinct
of n self-respecting man and chief magis
trate dictated a refusal.
THE DEATH OF JOHN LA FARGE.
Jolin La Farge, one of the most distin
guished and original of American artists in
his own peculiar fashion, a man of multi
farious gcaiius of expression, and in one
specialty a muster,—a writer of singular
grace and character, and personally one of
the most attractive and interesting of men,
—this remarkable man has just departed
this life, being more than 75 years old.
French of course in his origin, and always
retaining the race impress to whatever he
did. he was an American by nativity and
in purpose. He was at home all over the
world. Devoted to beauty from his earliest
years, and imbued deeply with the re
ligious feeling,—he was a devout member
of the Roman Catholic church—his work
in the various forms of art he essayed
was always deeply- grounded in that senti
ment, arid he was inspired by beauty chiefly
in its religious significance.
We have had no other artist equally
touched on this side of human nature, and
we must recognize in him an extraordinary
revival of the medieval religious spirit.
He was quite outside of our materialistic
view; he was never rightly classed as im
pressionistic, however nearly he might
come to that treatment, and indeed while
he was president of the society of Amer
ican artists when they began their revolt
against the deal level of mere aeademistic
rule, he was not of them. He had no no
tion of painting things for the sake of
their technic,—he respected technic, but
only us a means, and never in his own use
for ends. Yet, of course,—it was of course
because he knew both human nature and
the nature of the art experiment,—he did
not frown upon the experimenter, knowing
well that whatever might be tried, the
final result must be sanity, and that the
shallow could but lose itself, whatever the
tffcri. Thore has probably been no man
among our artists who so little disregarded
the vagaries of the wanderers.—for he
knew t'-at the love for beauty tended to
the same worshipful end, by many a way,
and coat all was essentially for God.
Mr La Farge in his youth studied archi
tectural decoration; then he went to Paris
and was Couture’s pupil in painting; later
he studied with William Morris Hunt. He
did a deal of journeyman work in illus
trating for books and magazines; painted
flowers and made portraits (not good ones),
and produced much mural painting,—for
example, the impressive walls of Trin
ity (Phillips Brooks’s church) in Boston,
and the great chancel painting of the
church of the Ascension in New York.
His distinctive public work was in many
churches and a few public buildings, in
the making of stained-glass windows after
his own methods, which are known in
Europe as "the American style,” adopted
since his invention by many other church
decorators in this country, and by a few
in England- This is one of the interest
ing American intrusions in European art.
For it is not merely staining glass, it is
a superposition of glass over glass, so as
to produce such effect of color upon color
as in a measure to approach a painting.
A striking example of this invention of
La Farge is the “Mary Magdalene at the
Tomb” in the parish house of Christ
church in this city, which is not sur
passed anywhere. Mr La Farge regarded
this picture as one of his best works.
La Farge was made a national academ
ician in 1869: was for a time president
of the society of American Artists; pres
ident of the society of mural painters;
honorary member of American institute
of architects; chevalier and in 11)01 offi
cer of the Legion of Honor; author of
“Artists Letters from Japan," "Lecture
‘on Art,” nnd other fugitive essays in
magazines, He married Margaret Perry
at Newport. R. L. nnd his home re
mained there. His sons, who are active
in art life, are the noted architect. Chris
topher Grant La Farge, of the firm of
Heins A La Farge. architects of the ca
thedral of St John the Divine, nnd of
other important churches, and Bancel
La Farge, who has been his father’s na
siatant for several years and hns capacity
for tine work.
John La Farge was one of the moat stim
ulating nnd strengthening of American art
ists M hile we may not call him great, us
we call a number of the masters, we must
lift him pretty high,-for instance above
Whistler, who is now so praised (riot un
justly). To those who catch the deep un
derlying sentiment of La Farge, there is
something of more importance than (he
skill and grace and /torsy of color aiid light
that are in Whistler. There is a amt I.
This is even impressed upon those who
view Ins water-colors of the ^outh Sea
islands, which somehow at first seem mere
ly sensuous, but after a little white ooe
discovers an age-long history in the strange
dances of the Samoans and the Tahitians./
What is this peculiar feeling? It is the!
sentiment of the Roman church in Ln,
Purge's heart, which transfigured all his
work.
THE OUTBREAK IN MEXICO.
The violent attacks by Mexican rioters
upon American residents and the insult
to the American flag in Mexico City, much
as they are to be deplored and condemned,
were the natural sequel of the atrocious
performance by our fellow-citizens at Rock
Springs. Tex., in burning a citizen of
Mexico at the stake because lie bad mur
dered n ranchman's wife. Our white sav
ages are a sorry national asset. They
have grown so accustomed to lynching
negroes, even by the slow torture of tire,
that they recklessly use tbe method on
foreigners who can justly claim the pro
tection of treaty rights: and thus they
bring upon the whole country serious in
ternational difficulties.
If Dr Crippen had been burned at the
stake in Trafalgar square. Instead of be
ing given an impartial trial, for murder
ing his wife, some 90,000,000 Americans
would have been ready for Immediate war
with Great Britain. Not a British con
sulate in this country would have been
safe from assault by mops. There is, to
be sure, a very wide difference between
London and Rock Springs, Tex., iu the
elements of civilization and respect for
law, yet the Mexicans can be expected
to be no more serene than Americans after
such an act of savagery committed upon
a fellow countryman iu a foreign land,
professing to have risen above the plane
of barbarism.
The United States government, it seems
clear, must take into account the extreme
provocation offered, when it demands from
the Mexican government the usual apolo
gies and reparation for the outrages com
mitted upon Americans in Mexico City.
Our own government has need to apologize
for the indefensible act of the Texas mob.
The ease, in short, is one which both gov
ernments cannot fail to handle with all
the discretion required for assuaging re
sentments and quieting passionate emo
tions. Justice needs to be done on both
sides: and there is no occasion for high
handed or drastic measures on the part of
our secretary of state.
The lynching in Texas is but another re
minder of that signal weakness in our sys
tem Of government which has been de
plored again and again for many years.
After the New Orleans “Mafia massacre"
in President Harrison’s administration, the
president recommended that Congress
should confer upon federal courts jurisdic
tion over criminal offenses against the
treaty rights of foreign subjects resident
iu this country; and, during the last Cleve
land administration. Secretary Olney ad
vised once more that this change be made.
President Taft is on record in favor of it.
also. Hitherto, Congress has not permitted
the necessary legislation to be enacted, ow
ing to opposition by the extremer defend
ers of state rights; yet the need of it is
very clear. Under present conditions, the
federal government is invariably embar
rassed in giving to foreign governments,
whose subjects have been outraged by
mobs in- the United States, the satisfac
tion which they always are justified in de
manding; for the processes of the state
courts are often slow, and local juries may
be in sympathy with the perpetrators of
the crime. If foreign governments must
deal with the federal government alone in
such matters, it is proper that the federal
government should be empowered to take
punitive measures against those who vio
late its treaties.
The incident now under consideration
is particularly regrettable owing to its
very bad effect upon the relations of the
United States with all Latin America. Oue
such episode may in a day destroy the
results of years of patient and laborious
work by diplomatists and presidents in
fostering cordial international relations.
ROBERT REID’S MURAL PAINTING
"the unveiling Friday evening of Robert.
Reid’s fine mural painting in the assembly
hall of the central high school was a nota
ble event. It marks, one might almost
say, the beginning of u new period. This
is the first mural picture, with a single
exception, to be executed for a public
school building in this country. Moreover,
while that picture was the gift of a single
person, this has been the gift of the pub
lic, both high school graduates and others,
proud of Springfield’s model building, and
eager to see it embellished with an at
tractive work of art which will be a perma
nent influence upon the succeeding gen
erations of pupils. When one considers
the thousands of them, the cost, consid
erable in a lump sum to those who have
had to raise it. becomes insignificant.
There is hardly any day in which such
ample returns can be got for a given )
outlay as in a permanent work of art put >
where great numbers of people will year ■
after year take pleasure iu it.
To many this tiue allegorical picture by
Mr Reid will be their first experience of
mural painting, their first revelation of its
purpose and possibilities. What Saint
Gaudeus’s noble statue of "The Puritan”
hns done for another art. "The Light of
’Education” will do in creating a taste for |
painting. Other pictures will no doubt fol- !
low in time, for America seems to be J
ready at last for the evolution of a ua- I
tional school of mural painting. It has |
had to wait upon architecture, upon the I
slow creation of a public demand, upon ;
funds available for decorative work. But ;
all these things are coming, and the way I
already begins to open. Our cities have I
become more citified, our public buildings '
are finer and handsomer, and the logical'
next step is their enrichment with pic- '
tures, nn embellishment for which the
Classical and renaissance architecture now
in favor for such edifices is peculiarly
adapt eri.
Though our artists have had scant op
portunity to practice this kind of paint
ing. they have shown a capacity for it
which seems to point to a groat future
for American art. Springfield was for
tunate Indeed to have the services of
Mr Reid. The admirable quality of his
design has already boon pointed out; Friday
evening the audience was also struck by
the beautiful and harmonious coloring-
Ever since the high school was built we
have all been waiting to see the blank