The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-21
ROOSEVE[T'S POLICIES
 CAST ID FOUR WINDS
Republican Convention Turned Down Many Measures Advocated By the President and Left Out
 Others Entirely.

Lincoln, Neb., June 20.-(Special.)- "In Full Retreat" is MT. Bryans diagnosis of the work of the Chicago convention. In an editorial for the Commoner, released for publication to- day. he says
 The republicans who attended the national convention as spectators an1 joined in the demonstration in favor of President Roosevelt and Senator La toilette must have felt indignant as they watched the panic-stricken dele gates running after each other in their efforts to get away from the Lafollette reforms, some of which had been in- dorsed by the President himself.
 Minority of One.
 Congressman Cooper of Wisconsin, representing the Lafollette men, brought in a minority report signed by himself alone. Fifty-two members of the committee signed the majority and one signed the minority report The republican party will find the ratio of 52 to 1 a very embarrassing one to deal with in the coming cam paign. MT. Cooper's report contained
  to campaign funds It was lost by d vote of 8S0 to 94, more than to T, and yet the President had been advo- eating legislation in favor of publicity as to campaign contributions, and Sec retary Taft wrote how fortunate It was that Secretary Taft's letter was finally discovered and published; Sen ator Burrows, the man to whom the Taft letter was addressed. was the tenn porary chairman of the convention and the convention over which he presided turned down the publicity plank by d vote of to l. Who will deny that on this subject the republican party IS retreating?
 Another rejected plank of the La toilette platform authorized the ascer- taining of the value of the railroads. And yet President Roosevelt has ad- vocated this very proposition. Here Is retreat on the railroad question.
 ''The injunction plank adopted by the republican convention is retreat from the position taken by the Pres ident and from the position taken by Secretary Taft in his speeches. alth ough neither of them went as far as they have gone in their effort to pre- Tt what is known as government by in- junction. Here is the third retreat.
 Income Tax.
 "The President has advocated the in come tax as means of preventing swol- len fortunes and of equalizing the bur dens of government. The republican ,,Io fn ic ell cih Na e the President right in the position he took? If so then the convention was wrong in not indorsing him. Will the republican voters follow the President in his just demands or will they fol- low the republican organization in re treating from it?
 "The President advocated an inheritance tax, but the republican convention IS silent on that subject. Was the Presi- dent ahead of the republican party in advocating this reform, or has the re- publican party receded from the Presi- dents position. Did the President give a false alarm on this question, or has the party sounded retreat?
 ''In the Presidents message to con- gress last spring he presented an indict- ment against the conspiracy formed among the great law breakers to prevent the enforcement of the law and to evadc the punishment provided by law The platform adopted by the republican con vention contains no intimaton of dan ger. If there are any conspiracies, the convention did not see them; if there are any combinations it has not heard of them; if there are dangers ahead, it was unconscious of them. Was the President mistaken when he issued his defiance, .or are the republican managers deceived when they think an aroused public will calmly contemplate the encroachments of predatory wealth? This is retreat num- Der six
 Plank Rejected.
 'The convention by vote of S66 to Il, more than 700 to l. voted down the plank in favor of the popular election of United States senators. It is true that the Presi- dent and Secretary Taft have never ad- yocated the popular election of senators, but the most popular reform in the United States is the reform that has for it's ob- ject the election of United States senators by direct votef Ut has five times been en- dorsed by thk Irrational house of repre- sentatives tH zee times when the house was republicaf. It has been endorsed by nearly two-tp rds of the states of the union and tli re is probably not state in the uniopyin which it would not be endorsed al a popular election and yet, in spite of the record adopted in the house of representatives and the various states, this reform Is rejected by 700 to 1 vote in a republican national convention.
 Here are seven propositions upon which the republican party in national conven- ton assembled, have retreated from the position taken by the party in congress. or from the position taken by the Presi- dent. What have Roosevelt republicans to say? The President has awakened a spirit of reform within his party; he has at least revealed to the world that there are reformers in the republican party. Can the republicans quell that spirit by n stand-pat convention? Millions of re- publicans have enlisted at the President $ . call to arms and are ready to march for ward. Z Will they furl their banners and ,,rn .Jack merely because the President aoquiesces in the sounding of retreat?'
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