Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-10-23
IF TAFT WINS.


ing election cannot be foretold, but we
have every reason to believe it will be
for Mr.. Bryan. Suppose, however, it
should not, what will happen Well,
nothing Immediately. There will be
no sudden explosion, save the tiny fire.
works some enthusiastic Republicans
will put off. But very great deal will
have happened. The people will be
told that they have triumphed, that
the sane portion had made everything
safe and confidence has been restored.
Just how confidence lost out or strayed
away from the fold under the glorious
auspices of Roosevelt, Cannon, Sibley,
Aldrich, and an Overw helming major
ity in both houses of Congress, 40 NOR
tai man can explain. That it did go
away under Roosevelt and is to return
under Taft we are told, so let that
statement pass for what it is worth.
But should the Republicans succeed,
where will the people be? We are not
an alarmist, nor given to predicting
direful things, but everybody knows
we will have a weakling in the White
House promising to carry out "my
policies" not knowing the meaning OF
the term. .My policies" will be any
thing and everything, SO that chaos
will reign as never before. The trusts
and criminal combines strengthened
in the belief that they have triumphed,
knowing that they have really done so
for four years, will be holder than ever.
Their demands will increase as never
before, and as they increase in power
$50 will the people be crushed. The
hope of dislodging the Republican par
ty which is nothing more than the
trusts, criminal combines and money
power in one great combine, will van
ish, and that party will never be dis
lodged short of revolution. This may
seem to be strange propaganda. Itmay
seem and may be called visionary But
if that party is not beaten this time,
good bye to all that is dear to the peo-
pie. Good bye constitution, good bye
liberty. Already Taft is talking of that
sold fashioned instrument" the con-
stitution, and in the Phelan case
when he put labor leader in Jail six
months for some alleged contempt Of
his court committed outside the court,
he spoke of how embarrassing that old
fashioned instrument was. The old
fashioned, embarrassing instrument
will be wiped out by Mr.. Taft and his
followers, and the ends will always
Justify the means. He imprisoned only
"lawless labor leaders," so said Judge
Taft in his Richmond speech. But
all labor leaders will be lawless when
it suits trust controlled judges to i'm
prison them. They seem to be the only
people in the dispute who are invari-
ably wrong. The people who complain
of the times and conditions to follow if
Taft is elected will always be outlaws
and those benefited by his construc-
ton of the Roosevelt policies will al
ways be right. Of course to hear Judge
Taft tell it, his decisions were always
right, his treatment of public matters
wise and beneficent. But there are
those who differ with him, there are
those who dare now assert that the
laboring man has no chance save as
his employer metes it out to him, or as
a federal court permits. Four years
added to the long reign of Republican,
ism will so entrench that party that no
man living will see its overthrow short
of revolution. This is spoken in NO
spirit of alarm. 1t is uttered in spirit
of sadness. People will live under ii
and grow rich, and upon these the pub
lie will gaze for the proofs of the glo-
ries of the government. Those who
have grown poor and are oppressed
will be forgotten or told that their con-
dition is better than it should be, just
as when miners were butchered in
West Virginia by federal officer and
posse, leading Republicans stood by
and said "Damn them they need kill
ing" All will be right that the pow
ers do, all will be wrong when done by
others. Men live in Russia, men live
in Africa, but they never knew what
freedom meant. Men are forgetting it
here. Poverty debases and drives out
spirit. Success of Republicanism will
mean more serfs, more poverty, more
misery. 1t will mean in our opinion
ultimate revolution.