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In answer it is asserted that President Taft declared the Payne-Aldrich tariff law to be the best ever passed upon the subject, and that his advisers and supporters in all of the congressional contests over vital measures were the senators and representatives known as reactionaries or standpatters.
It knew that the Interests had crawled back and dictated the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, and it surmised that, although he prosecuted the Trusts diligently, they did not feel greatly terrified. But nobody whispered or suspected that he was not honest. While President Taft slowly lost his hold on the American people, he gained proportionately with the Republican Machine.
It was not against party organization that the insurgents finally raised their lances, but against the arbitrary use of the machinery of the organization by a small group of intrenched "standpatters." The revolt began during the debate on the Payne-Aldrich tariff, and in the campaign of 1908 "Cannonism" was denounced from the stump in every part of the country.
While conditions within the organization were such as were indicated by the hostile criticism of the Payne-Aldrich act, by the Pinchot-Ballinger controversy, the overturn of Speaker Cannon and the disintegration of the Aldrich-Hale group, the congressional election of 1910 took place. Signs of impending change had already become evident.
Finally, after some discussion between the House and the Senate a discussion which did not lessen the enormities of the measure the Payne-Aldrich Bill was passed by Congress and signed by President Taft, and it enjoyed the bad eminence of being worse than the McKinley and the Dingley tariffs which had preceded it.
President Taft, who recognized too late that he had antagonized the growing low-tariff sentiment in the United States by his support of the Payne-Aldrich tariff, decided to attempt a stroke for freer trade. He proposed a broad revision of trade relations with Canada.
Ever since the passage of the outrageous Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act our people have been discovering the concealed meanings and purposes which lay hidden in it. They are discovering item by item how deeply and deliberately they were deceived and cheated. This did not happen by accident; it came about by design, by elaborated, secret design.
The Payne-Aldrich law is a Protective measure, as it was intended to be. The Progressives, in both the Senate and House, sought at every step to reduce the schedules, but generally without success.
Coincidently with the disagreement over the Payne-Aldrich act, there raged the unhappy Pinchot-Ballinger controversy. One of the last acts of President Roosevelt had been to withdraw from sale large tracts of public land which contained valuable water-power.
The question of the "recall" is a serious one. In some municipalities Los Angeles, for example it has operated well. How it will work in the national government, where it will affect the judiciary, is a problem. It seems well that any such step should be taken with extreme caution. The progressive senators were active in their opposition to the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill of 1909.
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