The Hartford Herald

HARTFORD HERALD
WEDNESDAY.
July 5

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MERRY WAR PROBABLE
Tariff Sure to Bring Division
to Republican Ranks.

ACTION
OF CANAL COMMISSION
Worst Blow the Protection Element
Has Received In Years—Stand Pat
Crowd Angered Over Expose of
Tariff-Robber Prices In Connection
With the Panama Enterprise.

The sorrows that have fallen upon
the Republican camp these halcyon
days of the verdant springtime have
developed a condition which may have
important bearing upon the presidential
aspirations of at least two eminent
Republican leaders.

That the Republican party is badly
split up over the expose of tariff robber
prices in connection with the Panama
canal enterprise there can be no
question. The announcement that in
the absence of positive action to the
contrary by congress the canal com-
mission will make its purchases in the
markets of the world, thus forcing
American manufacturers to meet com-
petition from abroad, has proved the
worst blow the high tariff element has
received in years, and that such a blow
should have been delivered by a Re-
publican administration has made the
stand pat crowd howl out loud and
threaten dire things.

There are wheels within the admin-
istration wheels, all of them more or
less political. Immediately the old
tariff leaders like Uncle Joe Cannon.
General Grosvenor and John Dalzell
gave evidence of resentment toward
the action of the canal commission and
the administration, our old friend Les-
lie M. Shaw, secretary of the treas-
ury and foxy politician of the Iowa
stripe, thought he saw his chance. He
has been quietly nursing a presidential
boom for many days. With the mighty
Taft implicated in this "treason" to the
blessed tariff wall, why was not this
the chance of Uncle Leslie's life? So
he thought, and at once he jumped to
the fore as critic of the action of the
"traitor" commission and the "traitor"
secretary of war.

Uncle Leslie began by repudiating
the suggestion that President Roose-
velt endorsed this Panama business.
Since it has been shown that the pres-
ident himself approves the policy out-
lined by the commission and the secre-
tary of war, he has refrained from dis-
cussing his chief in connection with it.
but he is none the less positive in the
position he has taken against this "In-
iquity" of taking from the trusts the
opportunity to unload their products
upon the canal builders at their fancy
American prices.

He believes thor-
oughly in the righteousness of this gov-
ernment's paying the steel trust, to il-
lustrate, extortionate prices for machinery and
materials which that benevolent organ-
ization would sell to foreigners at $20.

The secretary of the treasury sees
ahead the possibility of securing for
himself the backing of that high pro-
tection element which would add to
the tariff wall rather than subtract
from it, and he is happy. He should
not, however, heap congratulations
upon himself too early in the game.
It may not be as good politics as he
now thinks to shove Mr. Taft into the
limelight as the representative of that
sensible tariff revision policy implied
in the canal commission's action. Mr.
Taft is a coy young thing who says he
has no presidential aspirations, but
sometimes a man who is not anxious
to jump to the center of the stage is
willing enough to be shoved there.
and a presidential candidate who
stands on a platform of good, sound.
business sense is a dangerous oppo-
nent—even inside the Republican
party.

This tariff controversy is sure to
bring about serious divisions inside
Republican ranks. The stand patters
will attempt to force the Republicans
of congress to repudiate the action of
the canal commission, and a merry
war is in prospect. This may over-
shadow the present division between
the secretary of the treasury and the
secretary of war, or it may operate
to push these gentlemen to the fore as
leaders of the two factions in the
great scramble for the Republican
presidential nomination.

Just now, however, this Shaw-Taft
disunion is the biggest thing of its
kind in sight, and we strongly incline
to the opinion that the American peo-
ple are with Secretary Taft.—Atlanta
Constitution