The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1907-01-10
BATTLE ROYAL
FOR PRESIDENCY
Secretary Taft Will be Roosevelt
Candidate
Clash i'm Next Convention Between
Radicals and Conservatives,

AhS "hiiSopoiio coui udi SpSSldi
Washington correspondent, w. w.
Jermane, gives a comprehensive re-
view of the present political situa-
ton, as viewed in the nations cap
ital, and predicts a division of the
republican party into two factions of
radicals and conservatives, with
battle royal for control of the 1908
convention. He writes thus to his
paper:
Washington, Jan. 2. Secretary
Taft's statement that he is at least a
passive candidate for the republican
presidential nomination in 1908 has
not created much of stir among
politicians in Washington where his
position has been thoroughly under
stood for long time. The "objec-
tions to his availability TO which he
refers in his formal statement to the
press, means. in part, certain decis-
ions which he rendered while federal
Judge in Cincinnati. These decis-
ions first asserted the validity of the
doctrine since affirmed by federal
courts generally that the injunction
is proper weapon for the restraint
of organized labor when engaged in
the more violent forms of strikes.
The campaign which organized labor
has made for the repeal of
the injunction statute grows directly
out Of the Taft decisions, and so
Taft has supposed that as a candid
ate for the presidency he would
carry handicap, which might en-
barrass his party. It has been the
opinion of the president and many
OF hers for long time that Taft was
unduly sensitive about these labor
and strenuous efforts have
been made to convince him that his
being eminently just,
would not amount to a handicap.
His statement, however, indicates
that these efforts have been only par
TALLY successful. Another "objec-
tion to his availability, is the active
part he has taken in defending the
presidents discharge of negro
troops.
RooseveIt's Favorite
Secretary Tafts statement was
called out by an article in the Cleve-
land Leader from its Washington
correspondent, and supposed to have
been inspired, in which it was stated
boldly that Taft would be candid
ate in 1908.
Notwithstanding Secretary Taft's
statement, it is well known that ne
is the favorite of President Roose-
velt, who has been quietly doing all
that he could for many months to
get him into the limelight and keep
him there.
AS presidential candidate, Secre-
tary Taft will stand for a continual
ton of the Roosevelt policies; in
short. he will be candidate of the
radical element in the republican
party as against some such man as
Vice President Fairbanks, who will
be the candidate of the conservative
element.
Already Secretary Taft has made
himself a name as the most brilliant
ly successful exponent of a presi-
dents policies who has been in the
American cabinet for a generation.
He has on numerous occasions taken
hold of che policies, first of Mckinley
and then of Roosevelt, and in explain
ing and defending them in public ad-
dresses and state papers made them
seem to be his very own. In fact,
so successful has he been in this res
pect that the charge is sometimes
heard that he lacks initiative; that he
has no invention; and is nothing more
than tactful and resourceful fol-
lower of whoever happens to be his
leader. Taft's friends, however, in
sist that this charge is grossly un-
fair, and that their man is as ag-
gressive and as resourceful as Roose-
welt himself, and the only man now
mentioned whose election would
insure a continuation of the policies
for which Roosevelt has stood for
years.
Hostility Expected
1t is this feeling which has brought
Roosevelt himself to the support of
Taft for 1908, and in that year it is
very likely that the conservatives
and the radicals of the republican