, 1908-09-14
PRECEDENT ROOSEVELT WRITES
TO MONTANA FRIEND PRAIs-
ING REPUBLICAN cANol-
DATE FOR OFFICE.



tana cattle man and one Of the most
prominent citizens of Montana. He
n the president came into close re.
lationship more than twenty years ago
when they were both members of the
Montana Stock Growers association,
the president being at that time the
representative OF the Little Missouri
intimacy has been kept up ever since.
Mr.. Kohrs. Is one OF the pioneer citi-
zens of the northern Rocky Mountain
region and one Of the men who has
taken a leading part In its great devel-
opment.
Presidents Letter.
Sycamore Hill. Oyster Bay, N. Y, Sep
TENDER 8, 1908.
My Dear Mr.. Kohrs:I have receiy-
ed your letter about the candidacy of
Nj. Taft, the man who l feel is in an
especial sense the representative OF all
that in which / most believe In politi-
cal life.
Justly Proud Of industry.
Every good citizen should desire
to see both prosperity and justice,
prosperity and fair and righteous deal
ing as between man and man, obtain
permanently in this great republic.
As q people we are Justly proud Of our
business industry, Of nj energy and
intelligence in our work; and It is
entirely right that w should nsk our
selves as to any given course OF con-
duct, will it be proAtaDle?"
Right Before profit.
But it is eiso no less emphatically
true that the bulk OF our people, the
plain people who found in Abraham
Lincoln their especial champion and
spokesman, regard the question, rs
this morally right?' as even more i'm
portant than the question, lis this
profitable?" when applied to any given
COURSE Of conduct. Indeed, in the long
run III people are sure to find that
in all dealings, alike in the business
and the political world, what is really
profitable is that which is morally
right.
Doing Away With Corruption.
The last few years have seen a great
awakening to the public conscience
and the growth of a stern determine
ton to do away with corruption and
unfair dealing, political, economic,
social. 1t is urgently necessary that
this great reform movement should go
on. But no reform movement is
healthy if it goes on by spasms; If it
is marked by periods of frenzied ad.
vance, followed by equally violent Pc
RODS of reaction.
Revolt in Minds of Quiet Peop,e.
The revolutionary and the reaction
airy really play into one another's
hands, tt the extent that each by his
excuses necessarily tends to arouse
such disgust, such a feeling of revolt,
in the minds of quiet people, as tenn
porarily to restore the other to power.
To permit the direction of our public
affairs to fall alternately into the hand
OF revolutionists and r-eactionaries, of
the extreme radicals of unrest and of
the bigoted conservatives who recog-
n,ze no wrongs to remedy, would
merely mean that the nation had en-
barked on a feverish course OF violent
oscillation which would be fraught
with great temporary trouble, and
would produce NJ adequate good in
the end.
True Friend of Reform.
The true friend of reform, the true
foe Of abuses, is the man who steadily
norcayoroc in riuhfinp wronpc In war-
ring against abuses, but whose char
acter and training are such hat he
never promises what he cannot per-
form, that he always a little more
than makes good what he does prom
Use, and that, while steadily advanc-
ing, he never permits himself to be
led into foolish excesses which would
damage the very cause he champions.
Combination of Good Qualities
In Mr.. Taft we have a man who com
bines all Of these qualities to a de-
gree which no other man in our public
life since the Civil wal has surpassed.
To q flaming hatred of injustice, to a
scorn of all that is base and mean, to
Q hearty sympathy with the oppressed,
he unites disinterestedness, courage
both moral and physical Of the very
highest type, and a kindly generosity
of nature which makes him feel that all
Of his fellow-countrymen are in very
truth his friends and brothers, that
their interests are his. and that all his
great qualities are to be spent with
lavish freedom In their service.
Honsst Men an safe.
The honest man of means, the hon.