The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-14
LETTER HUNG ON
A MONTANA MAN
Roosevelt Comes to the Rescue
of Taft With a Long,
MINDED EpistIe.
SPECIAL APPEAL TO LABOR
REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE MAN
FOR SONS OF TOLL.

Following is the long expected letter
of President Roosevelt endorsing Judge
Taft as his successor. 1t is addressed
to Conrad Kohrs of Helena. Mont, and
purrorts to be a reply TO an inquiry
of that individual as TO the Republican
candidate:
Sycamore Hill. Oyster Bay. n. Y, Sept
3. 19eS.-My Dear Mr.. Kohrs: i have re-
ceived your letter about the candidacy
of Mr. Taft. the man who / feel is in an
especial sense the representative of all
that in which / most believe in political
life.
Every good citizen should desire 10 see
both prosperity and justice. prosperity and
fair and righteous dealing as between
man and man. obtain permanently in this
great republic. As people we are justly
proud of our business industry. of our
energy and intelligence in our work; and
II is entirely right that we should ask
ourselves as to any given course of con-
duct, "Will it be profitable?" But ii is
also no less emphatically true that the
found in Abraham Lincoln their especial
champion and spokesman. regard the
question. rs this morally right?" as even
more important than the question is
this profitable?" when applied to any CIV
en- course of conduct Indeed. in the long
run our 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 The last
few years have seen a great awakening
OF the public conscience and the growth
OF a stern determination to do away with
corruption and unfair dealing, political,
economic. social.
Reform Should Go On.
1t is urgently necessary that this great
reform movement should go on. But no
re, movement is healthy If it goes on
by spasms: if il is marked by periods of
frenzied advance followed, as such periods
of frenzied advance must always be fol-
lowed, by equally Violent periods of re-
action. The revolutionary and the re-
dictionary really play into one another S
hands, to the extent that each by his ex-
cesses necessarily tends to arouse such
disgust, such feeling of revolt. in the
minds OF quiet people, as temporarily to
restore the other to power. To permit the
direction of our public affairs to fall al
ternately into the hands of revolutionar-
les and reactionaries. of the extreme rad
icals of unrest and of the bigoted conser-
natives who recognize no wrongs to rem
edy. would merely mean that the nation
had embarked on feVerish course of vio-
lent oscillation which would be fraught
with great temporary trouble. and would
produce no adequate good in the end. The
true friend of reform. the true foe of
abuses. is the man who steadily perse-
veres In Fighting wrongs. in warning
"
training are such that he never promises
what he cannot perform, that he always
a little more than makes good what he
does promise. and that while steadily ad-
Vancing. he never permits himself to be
led into foolish excuses which would
damage the very cause he champions.
Taft a Second Solomon.
In Mr.. Taft we have a man who COM
bines all of these qualities TO a degree
which no other man in our public life
since the civil war has surpassed. To a
flaming hatred of injustice. to scorn of
sympathy with the oppressed he unites
entire 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 SER
vice. The honest man of means, the hon.
est and lawabiding business man. can feel
safe in his hands because of the very fact
that the dishonest ngin of great wealth.
the man who swindles or robs his fellows
would not so much as dare to defend his
evil-doing in Mr.. Tafts presence. The
honest wage-worker. the honest laboring
man, the honest farmer. the honest me-
chanic or small trader or man of small
means. can feel that in a peculiar sense
Mr.. Taft will be his representative be-
cause OF the very fact that he has the
same scorn for the demagogue that he
has for the corruptionist and that he
would front threats of persona; violence
from mob with the unquailing and lofty
Indifference with which he would front
the bitter anger of the wealthest and
most powerful corporations Broad though
his sympathies are. there is in him not
the slightest tinge of weakness. No con-
sideration of PERSONAL interest any more
than of fear for his personal safety, could
make him swerve a hairs breadth from
the course which he regards right and
in the interest of the whole people.
Policies Are Alike.
I have naturally a peculiar interest in
the success of Mr.. Taft, and in seeing him
backed by a majority in both houses of
congress which will heartily support his
policies. For the last ten years, while
| have been governor OF New York and
president. i have been thrown into the
closest intimacy with him. and he and /
have on every essential point stood in
heartiest agreement. shoulder TO shoulder.
We have the same views as to what Is de-
manded by the national interest and hon
or both within our own borders. and as
regards the relations of this nation with
other nations. There is no fight for de-
cency and fair dealing which l have
waged in which l have not had his heart
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