endent voting that revealed the
weakness of party ties. Four Democratic governors were elected in States
that were carried by the Republican national ticket.

The Administration of President Taft was greeted with cordial good will
by the progressive elements in both parties. His courage and sincerity
had never been questioned. Roosevelt was unlimited in his praise. His
judicial training made impossible for him types of political activity
that had made enemies for his predecessor among many conservatives, yet
his devotion to policies of administrative reform was beyond dispute. He
immediately fulfilled one pledge of the Republican platform by summoning
Congress to meet on March 15, 1909, to revise the tariff, and on this
subject he had for several years avowed a desire that revision should be
downward, to remove all trace of special tariff privilege.

The movement for tariff reform had begun in the Middle West about 1902,
and had spread with the feeling against the trusts. Roosevelt had
indicated a sympathy with it in 1902 and 1903, and had fought Congress
for tariff modification in the interest of Cuban reciprocity. But most
of the party leaders had opposed tampering with the protective system.
Speaker Cannon was an avowed protectionist and defended the attitude of
the stand-pat tariff advocates. After 1904 the President had ceased to
discuss the tariff, confining himself to other schemes for reform. He
left the problem of revision to his successor.

The tariff of 1909 bore the names of Sereno E. Payne, of New York,
chairman of the House Committee of Ways and Means, and Nelson W.
Aldrich, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. As it passed the
House it embodied numerous reductions from the Dingley rates. In the
Senate it was reframed and became an instrument of even greater
protection than the existing law. It was debated in a stronger glare of
public interest than any other tariff, and its details were explained
and fought by a group of Republicans who refused to accept the control
of the inner circle of the party, and who were determined that the
revision should be downward and sincere. They did less to affect the
bill, however, than President Taft, who forced the conference committee
to accept a few reductions in the rates, notably on hides and lumber,
and to include a provision for levying an income tax on corporations. A
constitutional amendment, authorizing a general income tax, was a part
of the agreement