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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 23 August 1910, Page 6

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AMERICAN POLITICAL AFFAIRS. MR TAFT AND ME ROOSEVELT. THE NEW YORK STATE FACTIONS. Association —Copyright.] (Received A 23, S.o a.m.) SEW YORK. Monday. Mr Griseom, ex-Anvbas-sador to Japan, on behalf of 111' Roosevelt, is proceeding to Beverley to confei ■with. President Tai't. The visit is de-

scribed as one of coneiliation and enlightenment. Mr Griscom intends to emphasise the necessity national administration remaining reutral between tlie New oik State factions. The Republicans' dissension is visibly reaching in favour of the Democrats in Xe'w York and New Jersey. A DIVIDED PARTY. Writing of the outlook for the Congressional elections in November, a New York correspondent said on July 10: —The ides of November are at hund, and rarely in; the pa-;; has the political future been so uncertain. Both parties are undergoing a ' weeding-our ' process. The good Democrats and good Republicans are for the moment almost everywhere stronger than their party organisations; and to save themselves from ruin each machine must send its bad mea-io the rear. All chances seem to be in favour of a Democratic majority in the Lower House, but thv return of Mr Roosevelt has made

even this still a matter of doubt, fur possibly the unpopular ma'ehine Taft TJepublic-ans may be replaced, not by Democrats, but by a sort of thirdparty Roosevelt men. "At any rate, Roosevelt has again already- plunged into active polities; r..nd the newspapers give counter-lists daily of pilgrim-callers upon.Mr Taft at his modest Massachusetts summer house at Beverley, and upon Mr Roosevelt at his even humbler villa at Oyster Bay. Xo insurgents, and only ery regular Republicans and officials, ~ visit Beverley; no officials, all insurgents. and a surprising! y large jiunrber of regular and organisation Republicans, with now an occasional Democrat, visit Oyster Say. Last week, bv a single vote, a measure in the New York Legislature favoured bv Mr Roosevelt was beate.v. but forthwith the men most prominent in beating it made engagements to call on the ex-President — presumably- to explain their votes. But. so far from there being any open hostility between the two great chiefs, they have already met in ti.*." 1 presence of a single mutual friend— Governor Hughes, of Xew York; and a recent authentic though formal note beginning. 'My Dear "Will.' and signed "'T.R..' has found its. way into the newspaper s :. Still, the removal from office of Roosevelt men 'has not stopped, and in some conspicuous cases of men wlvo have earn. «d a national reputation by good work.'' A XEW DEAL WANTED. Mr Roosevelt's return (wrote the "Morning Post'' on June ]3) is apparently to be the signal for a remarka'ble departure in American politics, nothing less, in fact, than the formation of a new party. The announcement was made oil Saturday hy Mr Pinchor. who. it will be remembered, was formerly United States Forester., and the most promi- i rent exponent- of the Roosevelt

forest- conservation policy, and was dismissed by Mr raft 0:1 the ostensible ground of insubordination, but in reality, it is alleged, for attempting tb .orevent th-_> alienation ol public lands in Alaska and elsewhere. Mr Pi-Hchot is a personal friend and devotee~-of the ex-Presi-dent, and is fresh from conversations with him in Europe, and may in fact be regarded as Mr Ruoseveii's chief benchman. The new party will be led by Mr Roosevelt, in conjunction with MiMr Garfield, ex-Secretary of the Interior, and Mr Pinchot. It will presumably be formed out of tlv.? ranks of the "insurgent"' Republicans, who •liav-e revolted against the high tariff. But the tariff question ir> ■only a specific application of thr wider doctrine of restoring purity to the national politics, summed up in the phrase, "A new deal aiul square deal."' The representative system of America, it appears. had failed. Members of Congress at the present time represent not the voters, jjut the great commercial monopolies, and are under their control. The Americans, according to Mr Pindhot. can no longer trust Congress, wh:digs careless of the interests of the people, and the new party will devote itself to the maintenance of •popular rights as against the vested interests. MR TAPT'S NEW COURSE. In its review r" tiie American political sotuation. the "American Review of Reviews'' for Juiy says:— Mr Taft's disposition to read t'hose Senators and Representatives out of tbe party who voted against the I'avne-Aldrich tariff has ibeen the most disruptive and unfortunate thing that the Republican part}' has had to encounter in its r cent history. The Republicans of the Middle "West who have been stigmatised as "insurgents" li-.ive for the most parr had a long record of farty loyalty and service; and to have tried to break them down in their own com/niunities ifor voting against the 'Tariff Bill, was to have shown great lack -of political discernment, as well •as a lack of tolerance and humour. The word * ' insurgen z'' arose in a different waj*. and ought not to have ■been applied where it did not fit the •case. The insurgents wera simply •those members of the House who ebose to make the fight against Speaker Cannon's control of •business under the existing rules. One by one the worst features of the lule-s'liave been modified, without urduly weakening the system required for the dispatch- of -business. The House insurgents have made thingvery livel\ r thus -far in the present Congress, and the storms they 'havr 1 created have done a great deal of

good and very little harm. It would never have been guess-d that Mr Taft. of all men, slvuildl, have become the intolerant champion of the old-time party leaders in the two Houses, to the extent of showing a willingness to use patronage and the multiform power of the Executive for the overthrow of the spirit of political independence. There is some reason to think thai Mr Taft already sees a new light. and that he will prefer to be the eoiintrv's President rather than 'the avowed chief "t t' l " P-ii"ty._ including its progressive two-third*. rnthcrVmin to the wing of the party ir'hns; 1 leadership, if uiidisiKi t eel. mean defeat h.\vond any reasonable hope. The spirit of the Republican partv is progressive: and Mr mfi will never find himself in a very h'appy or congenial atmosphere until he makes it entirely plain to everybody that the progressive thought and leadership of the country i.j to 1-e welcomed and tolerated, whet Ivor •it agrees with his views in all mulcts of detail or not.