The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-03-17
TAFT THE WINNER.


Walter welIman's washington Special
to Chicago Record Herald.
without making any formal or open
the issaS element II the Re
publican party have yirtua1ty sven t ~
the struggle Publicly: tnsy say cone ene
Tess Tess that unless ONE sFsaf and unex
pected change comes over the sat ~ ~ ~,
Taft is q sure winner, some OF tnem
suilen; and the suilen spirit Of the op-.
popenfs OF the administration Is IN part
Responsible for the do-nofhingism o.
the oppositiorl to the admsnistration's
political program found Its head ana
center. Among these men there Is
Welt has not played the game altogether
fairly. but they admit he has played II
successfully, and success may hide q
Their charge Of unfairness lies in Mr..
Rooseve1t's undssguised efforts to make
Judge Taft his successor. They charge
hs Il oct e. the Ssa ssss to q
leader for his favorite--that what Mr..
bsnss e soge e eS res ana open
and let the best man win.
But this accusation against the Presi-
fec dos p1t SDPe Subtle IL
people hear 1t and say: Yes. we knew
all about that. but we are for Teddy
and Taft just the same
It has at last dawned upon the oppo
nents OF the administrator that the
battle has gone against them and IN
the central. dominant features OF the
campaign--see them with perfect hind
sight clearness, though none q ! them ne.
These may be listed thus:
]. The extraordinary popularity o.
President Eoseyeli NTH ths bss NOT Of
been equaled in our day and genera
r. The ease with whioha large part
transferred TO Taft. the. people, almost
everywhere saying; IF we can't get
Teddy. we are for the man Teddy
3. The gradual. but steady growth Of
a belief that Judge Taft Is a big man
fpEhts own right. man of fun presk
in fitness and experience and character
over any one of his rivals.
4. From these cases the rise and
spread of the Taft movement into truly
national proportions. in every State and
Territory. even In the States which have
"favorite sons.
strong enough with the people to make
any considerable headway outside of his
s. COLLAPSE of the Foraker BLUFF in
4. Discovery that the national Re
publican committee is two to one with
the plot to capture the South through
contesting delegations is doomed to
failure.
Why the opponents OF the admins
tration could not have foreseen these
developments of the campaign, or the
Their presence or their coming was
writ so large upon the political skies
that any man should have been able to
of Se rhs ReeorSu Hsra eiSs win ren,en1bsr
that they were described and given
their proper significance in these dis
g PATH e "a months ago redt wSi mot d 1ar
the doing Of 1t. Any man with q fair
knowledge of American public opinion
should h have BEEN s able to see What sGAs we
saw and set forth at the beginning OF
ThaE me Repablican party was a
That the administration had given the
country the dominant issue OF the cam
paign, shall the Roosevelt policies be
That on this question the people were
Overwhelmingly with the administra-
That the administrator thus had the
only living, vital issue. and that in
Roosevelt or Taft II had the only strik-
ing, commanding personalities.
That under such conditions the ad,
ministration could control the national
convention and the national commit
tee, make the platform and name tn
ticket. II 1t chose to do So.
That It did choose to do so.
That Taft would be the nominee--or
II any accident happened to him, then
the nominee would be the President
All this has been borne out by suisse
quent developments. II is now pri-
vately admitted by the very men who
laughed 1t to scorn sixty days ago.
Some of them say they are amazed.
dumbfounded, even yet they cannot un-
derstaud. These are Eastern or New
England men. Again. must note tn
extraordinary fact that few New York
and New England men, no matter how
able and slSilful really know and under
stand the United States and the people
and the politics thereof. 1t seems to
this part of the country, they call the
West. do really know their own cour-
try In the West. in the great heart
and seat OF empire of this nation, there
is no surprise over the success of the
administration program; there Is only
surprise that anyone else should be
surprised.
But in the East they are just begin
ming to wake up, rub their eyes and to
ask Something has been gong on
what is it," It is strange thing that
TO this day half the people Of Pennsyl-
do not know that Roosevelt and Taft |
have won, that the battle for control |
of the party is virtually over. The |
people Of course depend upon the |
newspapers for their political informa |