The fall of Mr. Cannon is only one of many
symptoms that the Republican Party is in a position of great difficulty. It is not certain that when the Rules Committee is appointed by the House instead of by the Speaker Mr. Taft's policies will advance more quickly. It was generally said when Mr. Taft became President that although his power did not equal Mr. Roosevelt's, he would show that he had a more delicate hand in driving a difficult team. So far events have proved nothing of the sort. Mr. Taft daily contemplates a Republican Party split asunder, and he is haunted by the imposing menace of a tariff war with Canada. The Washington correspondent of the Times says that there is practically no popular opinion in favour of such a war, and yet the United States Government cannot easily retreat from the ground which it has taken up. Mr. Taft has allowed himself to become almost ostentatiously committed to the Payne Tariff,—a tariff voted under the sway of Speaker Cannon, about whose managership an unmis- takable opinion has now been recorded.
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