The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-12
KN0x's POSITION KNOWN.
.Conservatlsm in Speech at Yale Not .
 Surpftse in Washington.,

SUrp310e ID W0onln8tO0.
 Washington Special to N. Y. Times. Senator Knox's speech yesterday has
 been hailed with satisfaction by those
 politicians here whom the President calls "reactionaries'' and whom some other people call conservatives" While 1t was cautious. and did not name the President, 1t Is well under | stood that no candidate for the Pres idency could go further than Mir. Knox did with any hope of success.
 l At the same time. the speech was not watched for here as 1t was else where in the country. for the reason that the line of campaign which Mr. Knox would take Aas been well known among politicians here since last Feo- ruary. When his boom was launched not at the Harrisburg convention this | month, but in this city. long ago-Mr. Knox made 1t clear that he would make | hts canvass as the candidate of the
 conservative element. presenting the
 reaction against the tendency to re- form all social evils by means of the constitutional lines-the tendency. m short, of the President and his sup porters in the Senate and House. On February 28 Representative Elias Deemer of Pennsylvania gave din-
 ner to the Pennsylvania delegation for
 the purpose of launching MT. Knox as a Presidential candidate. and the Har- risburg conventions action was the outgrowth of that dinner and the move-
 ment started there. Representative
 James F. Burke of Pittsburg was se-
 lected as the man to propose MT.
 Knoxs candidacy to the delegation and Representative J. Hampton Moore of Philadelphia was to follow him with Q demand that the delegation should go forth from the dinner pledged to se- cure Pennsylvanias support for Knox.
 Representative Joseph c. Sibley of Franklin, was to be the toastmaster.
 and MT. Knox himself was to make a l speech defining clearly the platform on
 which he was to stand.
 This program was carried out to the letter. MT. Knox made a carefully pre- pared speech in which he emphatically made himself the representative Of the conservative reaction. Back to the Constitution" was the keynote of his speech.
 "The nation." said Mir. Knox. seems
 to be approaching time when. in the
 face of storm, it will permit the char
 ter to be cast overheard. A serious
 duty devolves upon the guardians of
 the republic to rally to the Constitu-
 ton, and I appeal to you. as members
 of Pennsylvanias delegation, to be in
 the forefront of the defenders of the
 great chartAg of our liberty.
 The wholer speech was of the same tenor as this extract. Not a thing was said which indicated approval of any of the present radical policies of the administration. and the dominating note was that the time has arrived to call a halt.
 This speech was delivered directly after Mir. Burke had placed Knox in
 nomination as Pennsylvania's candi- date ,and following 1t MT. Moore made his speech demanding united action to secure Pennsylvania's endorsement for him. MT. Knox's speech on this occa- sion was much stronger than his speech yesterday. but the difference Is &C., counted for by the fact that it was speech at a private dinner. while yes- terday's was a pubic speech delivered after his candidacy had been formally made by the action of State conven- tion The two speeches are. however. on identical lines, and those who were aware of Mir. Knox's speech in Feb ruary are satisfied that as a candidate he will take no backward step from the platform he then laid down.