REPUBLICAN PARTY DIVISIONS

837

The Election

refrain from public speaking, but the people were so insistent that they gave up their design. During the last two months of the campaign both candidates spoke frequently and to of 1908. large audiences. Bryan's reception was enthusiastic, but the spirit of Roosevelt was behind Taft, and he was elected triumphantly. The democrats carried all the Southern states except Missouri, together with Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oklahoma, a total of 162 votes. Taft carried the rest, 321 votes. Of the minor candidates, Debs, the socialist, had the largest popular vote, 420,890.

TAFT'S ADMINISTRATION

Aldrich Law.

The last session of congress under Roosevelt was marked by a series of messages recommending measures in keeping with his advanced ideas, to all of which congress showed ill-disguised contempt. The country greeted his successor heartily. The PayneAlthough he was a Roosevelt man, he was of a mild disposition and it was thought he would be less irritating than his predecessor. March 15 congress met in extra session to consider the tariff, according to the recent republican platform. The country expected reform, and the house, under the leadership of Congressman Payne, quickly passed a bill making notable reductions. In the senate it encountered opposition from a group popularly called "standpatters," led by Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island, who were able to raise the rates of the Payne bill. A long wrangle followed when the bill went to a committee of conference. The result was uncertainty, and the business world ere long demanded that the politicians settle their contentions. Meanwhile there was much speculation about the action of the president. He was in constant consultation with Aldrich and other members of congress and sought to have the rates lowered. His efforts were unavailing, and the bill as it passed was an Aldrich victory. Many Western republican senators wished a more decided revision, and urged Taft to apply the veto. When he finally sent his approval they were disappointed, and charged him with going over to the standpatters. He was undoubtedly very unwilling to prolong the party breach Roosevelt had precipitated, and when he had once acted felt it his duty to stand by his decision. In September, a month after the bill became a law, he made a speech at Winona, Minnesota, in praise of the recent tariff bill, and this further irritated the Western

men.

The Payne-Aldrich law did, in fact, divide rather than unite the republican party. Taft said it was the best tariff law ever made by his party, but its reductions were very slight, and it made a large portion of the people think little could be hoped from the policy of revising the tariff by its friends. To have vetoed it, however, would have arrayed the majority of the party against the president and would not

have removed the uncertainty which the business community considered the worst phase of the situation. In signing it Taft thought he had taken the less of two evils, but he soon found that the insurgents, as the Western men now began to be called, were capable of severe hostility. They were not numerous, but by combining with the democrats they could make much trouble for the adminstration.

Corporation

Tax.

A significant feature of the bill was a tax of one per cent on the income of corporations whose net earnings exceeded $5000. It was to yield a considerable revenue, but its greatest importance was that it recognized the principle that congress could tax the great corporations. Taft wished, also, to tax the incomes of individuals, but was restrained because the supreme court had decided that the income tax of 1894 was unconstitutional. He contented himself with suggesting that congress submit to the states an amendment permitting such a tax. Congress acquiesced, and in 1913 the desired amendment was accepted by the necessary number of

states.

Ballinger

In August, 1909, Gifford Pinchot, head of the forestry bureau, department of the interior, attacked his superior, Secretary Ballinger, for reopening for sale certain lands which had been withdrawn and Pinchot. by Roosevelt. Ballinger was also charged with unduly favoring the rich Cunningham syndicate in regard to the patents of valuable coal lands in Alaska. After an investigation, Taft supported Ballinger. Pinchot was in sympathy with the insurgents, and was an old Roosevelt supporter. His friends took up the quarrel, which became so bitter that at Taft's suggestion an investigating committee was appointed. Before it reported, Pinchot wrote an outspoken letter, in which he condemned the secretary and was at once dismissed, January 7, 1910. The committee exonerated Ballinger by a partisan vote. Later investigations, however, resulted in canceling the Cunningham claims. The Ballinger-Pinchot controversy added to the discontent of the insurgents, and promoted the belief that President Taft was not a good judge of men.

In the spring of 1910 insurgency won its first notable victory, and at the same time broke the overweening power of the speaker. The

The Power of the Speaker.

authority of this officer rested on his right to appoint the house committees and on his membership on the rules committee, which by reporting new rules as exigency demanded controlled legislation. Reed, who filled the office from 1889 to 1891, and 1895-1899, had held these powers, but he was a broad-minded man and used them for the general good. Cannon, speaker from 1903-1911, was a clever and relentless exponent of the standpat doctrines, and was bent on perpetuating his control over legislation. Under him the speaker was chosen by a small number of kindred spirits who were rewarded by important committee assignments. To many protests against the system he replied that he was

AN INSURGENT VICTORY

839

the servant of the house, which could remove him whenever it saw fit. In truth, he was responsible to a majority of the party caucus, and could only be removed when the caucus so decided or when a group of the majority party united with the minority party, in ordinary times an unlikely occurrence.

Its Re

duction.

But 1910 was not an ordinary time. The insurgents, goaded by the speaker's attempts to punish them for their resistance, were willing to unite with the democrats to break the tyranny from which they suffered. March 19 they introduced a resolution to enlarge the rules committee from five to fifteen members and to leave their appointment to the house. Objection was made that the resolution was out of order. Cannon knew the insurgents expected the support of the democrats, and refused to pass on the point of order until he was sure of a majority. The session was prolonged through the night in fruitless wrangling, and then the house adjourned for a day. But the insurgents resisted all overtures, and when Cannon again faced the house he was defeated. He ruled that the insurgent motion was out of order, and was promptly reversed by his allied foes. A new rule was promptly adopted, eliminating the speaker from the rules committee, enlarging it to ten members, and providing that it be chosen by the house. In the moment of defeat the speaker announced that he would entertain a motion to vacate the chair. A democrat moved his dismissal, but enough insurgents voted in the negative to defeat the motion. Cannon was thus retained in the chair, but was shorn of his great power. The rule of the house "oligarchy" was broken, and in the future a mere majority, by amending the rules when it sees fit, can carry through the measures it desires. The next house was democratic. It maintained the advance gained in March, 1910, and further reduced the speaker's authority by leaving the selection of committees to the house itself, each party nominating a portion in

caucus.

Meanwhile, the president urged several important measures on congress, some of which became laws. A commerce court was created with authority to pass upon cases investigated by the inter- Other state commerce commission, postal saving banks were Measures. established, a law was passed requiring the publication of the campaign expenses of candidates for congress, and the powers of the interstate commerce commission were enlarged in a new railroad bill. The insurgents supported all these bills but the last, which they thought too lax. A measure recommended by Taft for the federal incorporation of interstate corporations was allowed to die in its early stages, the opposition being, apparently, on the part of the regulars. During the same year public interest was stimulated by a common outcry against high prices. There was an attempted boycott of the socalled "meat trust" and a futile prosecution of the National Meat Packing Company. The "interests," it was said, were intrenched

behind the political machines, and in many sections nominating primaries were demanded. Governor Hughes, of New York, a leader of the liberals, took up the fight against the machine in a campaign to secure an efficient primary law. Defeated by the regulars in the state legislature, he called the assembly back for an extra session, but even this expedient was unsuccessful.

A Democratic House.

In this condition of popular unrest the autumn elections were held, and the result was republican defeat. The democrats carried the house by a majority of sixty-seven, and elected governors in the usually republican states of New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. It was a rebuke to the party of Cannon and Aldrich, and President Taft, who could not well repudiate his political friends, was involved in their disaster.

Let us now return to Roosevelt. March 23, 1909, he set out on an expedition to bunt big game in Africa. His actions were kept before

Return.

the country by a vigilant newspaper press, even while he Roosevelt's was in the most inaccessible jungles of the Dark Continent. March 21, 1910, he emerged from the jungles and reached Khartum, returning to the United States by way of Europe, where he was entertained by princes and statesmen. He arrived at New York in June and received a tremendous demonstration of welcome. His old friends were now prominent insurgents and urged him to enter politics in their behalf. Outwardly he expressed friendship for Taft, but he threw himself with energy into the campaign in New York. He was able to control the republican convention of the state, delivering a stinging defeat to the party organization under Barnes. His candidate for governor was Henry L. Stimson, who had risen into prominence by conducting an able prosecution of the Sugar Trust. But the defeated machine proved indifferent to Stimson, who was defeated by Dix, the democratic candidate. Roosevelt's enemies, among them the leading New York dailies, joyfully declared that he was eliminated as a political leader.

The elections in the West had not injured the standing of the insurgents, and they came to the capital when congress assembled in December as pleased as the democrats. Taft, though he felt the rebuke he had received, bore himself with dignity. His message suggested a suspension of plans to regulate corporations until the operation of laws already in force could be observed. He seems to have had in mind suits recently brought against several trusts, among them the Standard Oil and the American Tobacco companies. This suggestion was well received by business men, but the insurgents looked at it with suspicion.

January 26, 1911, the president sent congress the outline of a Canadian reciprocity treaty. It provided for lower duties or none at all on many food products and some manufactured articles, and in return it was expected that Canada would make similar concessions on Ameri

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP

841

The

can agricultural implements as well as on other commodities. large portion of the public who favored lower rates hailed the treaty with pleasure. Some saw in it cheaper food products and Canadian

Reciprocity.

others an entering wedge for general tariff reform. The insurgents opposed it on the ground that it sacrificed the grain-growing Northwest in behalf of the East. They could not prevent its passage in the house, but defeated it by diligent obstruction in the senate. Taft, however, called an extra session of the new congress, in which the democrats controlled the house and nearly controlled the

senate.

Democrats.

The situation was now unusual. A republican president was asking for a reduction of tariff rates under the guise of reciprocity and his only hope of success was the acquiescence of his opponents. Plan of the But the situation was equally delicate for the democrats. On the wave of a popular upheaval all their hopes for 1912 depended on handling wisely the measures then in hand. If they angered the insurgents and drove them back to the regular republicans, their affairs would be confused in the upper house. In this dilemma they found an able leader in Oscar W. Underwood, of Alabama, chairman of the ways and means committee. His plan was to accept Canadian reciprocity, which his own majority could carry through the house and which would be passed through the senate by the democrats and the Taft republicans. To offset the displeasure of the insurgents he would pass other bills lowering rates on articles manufactured in the East, which the democrats and insurgents acting together could carry through the senate. It is true the latter bills might be vetoed by Taft, but that would only put the onus of blame on the regular republicans and give the democrats a fair ground of combat in the struggle of 1912. The scheme was well conceived, and was carried through successfully. Canadian reciprocity was enacted, and close after it came a "farmers' free list bill," then a woollens bill, and a cotton schedule bill. All but the first were vetoed on the ground of 1911. that they were not scientifically drawn. A tariff commission was a feature of the Payne-Aldrich act, and Taft announced that he awaited its report. The democrats replied that laying taxes was a high function of government confided by the constitution to con- ' gress with careful restrictions, and that it ought not to be left to the determination of a small number of men, however expert they were in finance.

Tariff Bills

When the extra session adjourned August 22, 1911, Taft seemed to be in a good position politically. His reciprocity measure was the greatest tariff concession a president had wrung from the party of protection. His friends felt that time would Reciprocity Rejected. justify its wisdom, and wipe out the unpopularity that arose from the Payne-Aldrich law. September 21 all these hopes fell with the announcement that Canada had defeated reciprocity. The action