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Show if REPLIES TO WM. TAFT Bf I Champ Clark Gives the St v President a Severe AD Trouncing yB' 5X1 Qulncy, Ills,, Aug. 29. Champ v Glark, speaker of tho national houso W' of representatives, before leaving hero MM? early today, replied emphatically to .mf President Taft's speech of defiance uML; to insurgent Republicans and Demo- Nl; crats, delivered at Hamilton, Mass., HB. , last Saturday. WmF In a signed Interview, the speaker twK? acused the president of not stating MHr facts. He said he did not reply for fgy the- insurgent Republicans,, who, "no Wmm doubt will take up the cudgels in Bk their own behalf." SB1-" He declared, among other things, Sf that if the tariff board is to be used K- as a pretext for delaying 'tariff re-nX re-nX vision downward, the Democrats will jHjj cut off its supplies. JSp "President Taft's speech at Ham-TB? Ham-TB? Ilton, Mass., last 'Saturday," said I'jjff Speaker Clark, -'can only he described S as remarkable, when the history of H? vthe recent past Is taken into conslder-fSm conslder-fSm ation. He essayed the rather large HK' 'stunt' of running amuck among both jjK? the Democrats and the insurgent Re-yRV Re-yRV publicans, in congress, singling out iBBj; Mr. Chairman Underwood and'myself MR particularly as Democratic targets. MB? "I accept his onslaught as a badgo t- of honor. Wi , '"lhe President and I are personal Wi friends. Ho has done me many klnd-Jmll klnd-Jmll nesses and I have tried to repay B(L them so far as opportunity has served. m' He is as a rule a most amiable gentle-Uv gentle-Uv man, but at this time he seems to Kkj have been in a had temper because 4H& be sees defeat staring him In the face. K I would vsay nothing unkind about l him, hut I cannot and will not permit K his personal strictures and his bald iH misstatement of historical facts to BjB' go unchallenged. R "My observation and experience JKk -prove to my mind that Senator La-Kk La-Kk Follette and the Insurgents. So I K. to take care of themselves. So I Hf leave them outof thiB Interview. They Hp will no doubt take up the cudgels in R. their own behalf. rtf., "The .President's criticism of Mr. fRtfUnderwopd and myself, which Is es-jE: es-jE: eentlally a criticism of alL Democrats HKJn .the house- ajidenatebecamiejlall' Ptr Democrats stood "together, Js abso-H abso-H lutelv uncalled for and Is an ungrate-Ww ungrate-Ww u a P'3rforiIance as I can remember: ftr tot, if it had not been for the ac-1; ac-1; tion of the Democrats in the house in both the Cist and the 62nd congresses lw? Jn lining up almost unanimously In 5a& favor of reciprocity with Canada, he SJh would have been the most thoroughly UM' discredited and humiliated president s,nce the days of Andrew Johnson 9i "With all the influence and-patron-Ie age n's Sreat office, he could not WW. muster a majority of house Republic-fl Republic-fl ans for rec,Proc't3r in either the 61st PjM or the 62nd congresses. After we pulled him out of the hole in the 61st jJBP congress, he wrote a letter of thanks H' to Mr. McCall of iMassachusotts. and the Republicans and not a word of MJ thanks to the Democrats. 9m' "When we repeated the perfor-sM. perfor-sM. mance of pulling him out of the hole M n the C2n( congress, he did divide "umWt ' tne thanks between the Democrats WW and Republicans. That was after I JL and other Democrats had expressed H our opinion with considerable force I and bluntness about his letter of H I thanks to Mr. McCall. y l "The President says thatjwe didn't i play politics about reciprocity but 'v that we did playjiolltics about the JL S tariff. The only politics we played P i was to keep faith with the people and H to redeem the promises we made In I order to win the election In 1910, which Is the best and noblest sort of politics. If any politics was played on reciprocity, the President himself played It persona at that "He 6eems to think that wo ought to have adjourned as soon as recipro-' recipro-' 'city was disposed of that 1s, he seems to think that congress Is com '' posed of a lot of schoolboys to be ' ordered about by him as head teacher; teach-er; but he was forewarned, both by Mj-. Underwood and myself, that If he called tho extraordinary session, we would pass tariff measures and such other bills as the Democrats deemed advisable. "He "will not deny that statement. . "it we had done less than .we did we would not have been worthy of such a great proportion of public confidence con-fidence ds wo now enjoy. We made the best record of constructive statesmanship states-manship made by any congress In the S :' Eanie length of time in a generation B ' and that fact Is precisely what caused lM , the President to assail the Democrats fK ; in congress. rg "He had said the rates of the wool 9 ' schedule in the Payne-Aldrlch tariff bill wore too high and ought to be re-i re-i duced. We reduced them. In the teeth of his "Winona speech and his other declarations to the effect that 2l said rates were too high and ought H I to be reduced, he vetoed our wool H bill, which largely reduced the expen-jS expen-jS :" ses of the people by giving them i much cheaper clothing and blankets. pi , He etoed it, thereby going over, WJl ' boots and breeches to the 'Stand-gX 'Stand-gX patters.' JHC "Wo cheerfully meet him on that W. Issuo. We stand for the be3t interests jm, of the masses; he utands for a band- ful of protected tariff barons and by Mm his vote enables them to continue to V levy unjust and exorbitant tribute up-iS up-iS on the consumers of the land. He B appears to hope that the consumers mt', will kiss his band, which is the hand Mu, that smote them solely X "The President endeavors to con- 1k voy the impression that Mr. Under-1 jBj, wood a:nd I advocated his tariff com-E com-E mission. We did no such thing. What H Underwood and I did advocate kand, I' ote for. nas a board of tariff experts Hi to be governed by and made respon-m respon-m ' Eive to the house In general and tho K committee on ways and means in par- T '' ' tlcular; because the house la charged by tho sonstitution with the duty of originatng revenue bills "We were never in favor of a tariff board or commission under the control con-trol of tho President alone arid responsive re-sponsive to him. The congressional Record will fully and clearly prove my contention. "The President's - tariff board is composed of able and well Informed men in a general way I know that tmy friend Hon. Wm." Howard Is I served in congress with h.m many years, and rate his capacity high, but he is not a tariff expert So far as I have been able to learn, the others are not experts. "On the other hand, several members mem-bers of the house, both Republicans and Democrats, including Mr. Underwood Under-wood and myself, have spent half a lifetime studying and debating the tariff. Many of us participated In do-bate, do-bate, on the Dingley bill; manv of us participated Iaer in the hearing and. debates on the Payne-Aldrich-Smoot bill, which the President has declared is the best tariff bill ever passed, and which I confidently assert is tho worst "The service of some house and senate members even goes bdc,$ to (Continued on Page Four.) HE REPLIES TO WM. TAFT (Continued from Page One.) the McKInley bill, tho Springer bill,' tho Mills bill, and tho Morrison bill. Then why should we wait for the verdict ver-dict of tho President's board of tariff non-experts' ., Payne-Aldrlch Bill. "It will be noted that while the President's conscience would not permit per-mit him to sign a bill revising ovon one schedule tho wool schedule, tho rates of which he declared to bo too high and In need of reduction, without with-out recommendation from his board of non-experts ho promptly signed tho outrageous Payne-Aldrlch-Smoot tariff bill without the counsel, advico or tuition of any tariff board whatsoever whatso-ever ''That bill was so had that in a house- with a Republican majority, we iacked only five votes of killing it by recommitting it. That day twenty-four" patriotic .Republicans voted with us, among them Hon. J. R Mann, the present Republican minority leader, I was privileged, as Democratic minority leader, to load In that' great and righteous fight, which will be a consolation consol-ation to mo so long as Hfo laBts. "Alt might as well be understood now, as later, that If the tariff board Is to be used as a pretext for delaying delay-ing tariff revision downward, as the President Is now using It, Instead of expediting genuine and salutary tariff revision, its days will be few, for we will cut off Its supplies. This board has already cost three or four hundred hun-dred thousand dollars and has not given giv-en to congress any Information to aid In revising the tariff "Mr Underwood and I did say that wc would gladly rocelve information on the tariff from anybody possessing it; but we never did say, and never will say, that wo, together with other members, well Informed on tho subject, sub-ject, must wait until the President's board or any other board, got ready to mako recommendations. Taft No Tariff Expert. "The President himself Is a man of large general Information, as well as a man of groat ability, but certainly he is not enough of a tariff expert to Justify him in votolng tnrlff bills which passed the house by majorities of more than two to one It is not a flippant or unfriendly thing to sny that he possessed only the 'surface information' in-formation' on the tariff, as Gov. Diflg-lcy Diflg-lcy denominated it, which is possessed bv every citizen, well Informed in n gonoral way, "The President implies that he refused re-fused to sign the wool bill because It was Introduced nnd rushed througn without due consideration Lot's sec. Tho caucus of Democratic members-elect members-elect to tho C2nd congress, met Jan. 19, and selectcl the Democratic 'members' 'mem-bers' of the committee on ways and means, making Mr. Undorwood chairman. chair-man. They personally -and with their helpers at once began to assemble Information In-formation on tho wool schedule. The bill was reported to the house a"bout tho middle of April, a period of threo months, on the preparation of on schedule out of fourteen, whereas the hearing on the P.iyne bill, with fourteen four-teen schedules, began Nov, 11 and the bill was reported to the house March 18, a period of ft little over four months, devoted to fourteen schedules. Any tyro In nrlthmetlc knows that as we devoted three mouths to one schedule and tho fram-, LM?:wi- 'rMJmwMEiL! i i , ers of tho Payne bill devoted on th J ' average only 2-7 of one lonth to 1 each schedule, wo devoted 10 1-2 times as much time to a schedule as dl I Brother Payne and his Republican co- adjutors on ways and mean3. .Nev- ' crtheless and notwithstanding, the ; President signed the Payne-Aldrlch- i Smodt bill and? vetoed ours. j O'pen to Debate. ),' ". "In this connection, Jt should not be forgotten that When Mr. Under- j wood reported the wool bill, eery ' line, paragraph and section was thrown open to debate and amend- ment and that the debate continued jj until the membors discussed it all they wanted to. Instead of being j slapped together hastily without duo consideration It was one of the most, thoroughly and Carefully considered i tariff bills ever presented to any ; president for his signature. ; "In View of tho foregoing facts, It ' surely must be that'"the President, In hiB zeal to reform tho broken lines ii of the Standpatters, forgot that all i men were entitled to a squure deal - when ho uttered this monstrous and f preposterous sentence- " 'The bills bear internal evidence j of the fact that they rested on a basis j of not tariff for revenue only, but V tariff for politics only.' "Really I do not see how he could w p. find it in nls heart to utter tho fore- ' going words for which there is no V basis of fact in the universe. " 'Never In the history of the gov- eminent, I cnture to say, have Im- T portant public Interests been dealt with In such a light-hearted way with such absolute ignorance of the" effect j of legislation, and with such willing- ness to sacrifice business Interests li political exigencies.' "That Is as reckless and unfair a statement as has been put in print since Guttenburg Invented movable tjpo and is a personal reflection on tho sense, honesty, Integrity, bona fides and patriotism of every man, Democratic or Republican, who voted I for these bills. As such I resent thorn, 1 not for myself alone, but for all who m voted as I did. m "That was a queer and sucgestlvo 1 picture for Democrats and tariff re- form Republicans to contemplate. W the President making a 'standpat' II speech at Hamilton. Mass , on the farm of my good 'Standpat' friend. l : Hon. Augustus Peabody Gardner, fU flanked on one side by Brother Card- 1 ner himself and on the other by Gard. h nor's renowned father-in-law, Senator h Henry Cabot Lodge, chief of protec- j' live tariff highbinders, Thnt was enough to make the angels weep. X "The President rushed In to creatfl f an issue. We pick up the glove flung j,' Into our faco and tho faces of tho , consumers of tho land. Wclndlv ac- cept his gauge of battle. We confident- , ly believe that the people will en- . dorse our cause and give to us- the i victory, for we have right and truth 1 and justice on our side " i |