Life — September 16, 1909 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SEPTEMBER 15, 199 VOL. Liv. Published by ISHING COMPANY A. Mittin, See'y amd Treas W West Thirty-first Street, New York. OT entirely without friction does the present tration pro- ceed on its more beneficent course. The Democrats are at peace with all the Ef 2% world, In na- ~ tional politics they have nothing to fight over; no principles in particular, no re- sponsibilities, no expe Hav- ing nothing to gain by fighting Demo- crats, the Republicans feed their nat- tral hy appetite for contention by fighting a little among themselves Mr. Congressman Fowler lambasts the venerable Uncle Cannon with a whole arsenal of epithets and accusations; Sceretary Achilles Ballinger and Chief Forrester Pinchot have it in for one another about water right reserva- tions; Assistant Secretary of Com- merce and Labor Ormsby McHarg explodes a declaration hostile to the efforts of Mr. Pinchot and abdicates his office; Secretary of Agriculture Wilson meets the embattled hosts of Pure Food Wiley on the heights of Denver and wins a round for benzoate of soda. And so it goes. There are blisters on the hands that hold the helm of State. Considerably so. But that is only natural, and they are only blisters. Forsan hacc, All these matters will get straightened out in time. Thanks to Mr. Pinchot, nothing can be done in the dark al -at the water rights, and what is d- e in the open will doubtless stand investigation. Ben- zoate of soda may lawfully be intro- adminis- or less ations. man -LIFE° duced into food, but we need not eat the food unless we want to. If only the folks who put it in must mention it on the label (as, we believe, the pure food law requires), those of us who like it can consume it, and those of us who don’t can abstain. These disputes and retail antago- nisms in the Republican party are serious only as they represent the great conflicting purposes that the party now The drive at Uncle Cannon is important because it is much more than personal. It is part of the revolt of the Progressive Republicans against the control of the party by business men for their own The complaint against the high-protection clement in the Re- publican party al with the complaint against Tammany—that includes. business ends. is almost iden it is a business organization that uses power for the enrichment of its own group, to the prejudice of the inter- ests of the rest of the people. There is hardly anything more important for a government to consider than busi- ness ends, but its consideration of them must be as broad as the country. The Progressive Republicans ard the Middle West, where most of them hail from, do not consider that Uncle Cannon and Mr. Aldrich and their crowd are sufficiently broad in their consideration of business ends, and they propose to widen them, though it bursts the hoops off of the party. 3 ORTH fares President Taft into the West and all around the na- tional parish to see the people, and see what he can do to keep the hoops on the Republican party. He is as good a man for that work as one can think of! If he can't hold the Re- publicans together, who could? It is going to be very hard to keep the Pro- gressive Republicans and the High- Tariff - for - Our - Clients Republicans harmonious under the same tent. Their political intentions are abso- lutely antagonistic. The wrangle be- tween them is to determine which group shall carry with it the great body of Republican voters. If the even Progressives cannot wrest the leader- ship away from Aldrich and Cannon they will get out. Otherwise Aldrich and Cannon will have to get out, and that, we suppose, is what will happen. The high tariff crowd won four-fifths of the late battle over tariff revision. Aldrich and Cannon got for their clients most of what they wanted. The Progressives, for the most part, were licked. And yet the sentiment is pretty general that high protection for favored interests and taxation of the many for the benefit of the few has come to the turn in the road znd must take the back track. Mr. Ta’r knows that and will doubtless disclose his knowledge in the course of his Southern and Western pilgrimage. It is going to be interesting to read what he says. Ideas take clear shape in his mind, and we don’t think he will dis- guise them much in his utterances, @ ZROPLANE tests and competi- tions continue to take up a large share of papers. The next great man-flight show is billed to take place here, and we shall be glad to see it. It may do good, in one particular, by diverting interest. from space in the automobile races, which, as lately held in various places, have been calam- itously destructive to life and limb. The sooner we get all the speed en- thusiasts cavorting in the sky the bet- ter for them and for the public nerves and the public safety. Man flight is a momentous innovation, charged with no one knows what effects upon civilization. It is worth risking one’s neck over, and the men who, as pru- dently as may be, take chances in it have the sympathy of thoughtful minds in any accident that happens to them, We think of them as pioneers in great discovery and applaud their cautious fortitude. About the chaps who break their necks in automobile smash-ups we don’t feel so at all, holding that the chances they take are mere chances of sport, and very re- motely associated with scientific prog- ress. Inasmuch as they are courageous persons, and since it is a pity that dar- ing should be wasted, the sooner their flights go skyward the better. comicbooks.com