Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-05-03
TAFTS TRIP TO OHIO.


now centered on Secretary Taft's trip
to Ohio and the outcome of the con-
test there which will have such an
important bearing on the next contest
tor the presidency. There have been
some things written IN malice, and a
great many IN ignorance, about the
Ohio contest. Secretary Taft has been
sent there az the choice of the presi-
dency. Also he has gone there on his
own account from pure ambition.
First, the president has been strongly
supporting him. Then the president
had withdrawn his support and Taft
was to be left entirely to his own
resources. Chiefly it was to be hot
fight and the outcome was to decide
whether Roosevelt or Foraker senti-
ment was TO triumph in 1908.
Most of this is entirely overdrawn.
Secretary Taft is going to Ohio and
will make contest with Senator
Foraker for the convention delegation.
He will have the moral support of the
president because he stands for the
policies the president stands for. He
is considered by the president to be a
safe, honest man, who, if he goes into
the White House, Will not go there
wearing corporation collar of any
sort. But the Ohio fight, while 1T is
important, is not All epoch making
event. Secretary Taft is in the race
for the presiden sial nomination, and a
man who st2rts in race that sort
goes in t. win. At the same time he
is not on fire with political ambition.
The chief judgship of TIE supreme
court would suit him good deal better
than the White House, and it is a
thing he could have for the asking So
long as Roosevelt remains president.
As to Presidential support in his Ohiv
campaign, he will have it as friend
of the president and as man who
would suit the president as his success
sor in office. But the support of
President Roosevelt has never been
pledged to Secretary Taft more than
it has to any other good man, and so
the talk of the president having with
drawn his support is nonsense. Fur
Their. if Secretary Taft should be beaten
IN Ohio, it dues not necessarily end
his race for the nomination. 1t would
be serious handicap IN getting the
other state delegations, but some of
these are pledged to HIM already, SO
that Ohio is not the first and last
necessity to make him q factor before
the national convention. The Ohio
contest will not be directed from the
White House and stubbornly contested
as though 1t were last ditch fight.
n fact, it is merely the first skIrmish
of the campaign, and SO far as Presi-
dent Roosevelt is taking part In it, he
is taking a rather more passive part
than he usually takes in thing he is
interested in. He is rather letting
things drift, not for any lack of en-
thusiasm in Taft's cause, but because
he wants to see just how general SEN
timent is going to drift. 1t is
primarily contest between Roosevelt
ism and Forakefism. 1t will be so
with Secretary Taft as the candidate,
and it would be so with any other
administration candidate. The result
is important in that respect and 1t
rather argues for the confidence of the
president IN his position that he is
letting the thing go very quietly to see
what sort of popular verdict is going
to be given.