The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-04
THE NEXT PREsIDENT.

/ THE NEXT PREiSlDENV.
william Howard Taft of Ohio will
be inaugurated president of the United
States on the next fourth of March.
The free and untrammeled suffrages
of the people of the entire country
have so determined. His majority of
votes in the electoral college, while not
known exactly at this time, will be
sufficiently large to make 1t most de-
| cisive, and much larger than a good
many persons who had no doubt of his
election, had reason to believe that 1t
would be This majority has been Sc
cured as the result OF a campaign
which is rather epoch-making in the
political history of the country. 1t has
been a campaign of education on is
sues which have been new to politics
and likewise a campaign in which the
personalities of the candidates have
figured more largely than in those
which have gone before it.
! And the whole people of the nation
can now settle down to the serious
business of life and preparations for
participation in the great prosperity
which is coming with the reasonable
assurance that the affairs of the
United States will be in safe hands
| during the next four years. Even the
most bitter political enemies of Mr..
Taft can we'll think so. In his theories
of government he may not have advo-
| Gated measures to cure existing evils
of as radical a nature as they seem to
desire, but he surely can not be ac-
cused of having advocated anything
which will interfere in any way with
the progress of the people of the
country and their enterprises.
That he will do his part to correct
such evils as exists throughout the
land with such legislative and other
weapons as already exist and with
others which he will ask congress to
provide him with, there can be no
doubt. He has pledged himself
strongly to carrying out the public
policies which Mr.. Roosevelt has
gained fame for advocating. He is
Just the man to do this work. Mr..
Roosevelt has blazed the trail for
these reforms and it needs a man with
Mr.. Taft's governmental experience, a
man with his judicial temperament, a
man with his insight into the nations
needs, to formulate the ways and
means to bring about these reforms
and to execute them. In fact, Mr..
Roosevelt has been credited with the
statement that he believes Mr.. Taft to
be better fitted and equipped to do this
work than he is himself.
So with Mr.. Taft at the helm of this
nations ship of state there need be no
fear on the part of any one that there
will be hasty or ill-considered legis-
lation or other efforts to, cope with
such corporate, railway, labor and
other evils as need attention; efforts
that might prove exceedingly harmful
to extensive interests that are innocent
of any wrong doing; efforts that might
retard the wheels of progress, that
might throw the country and its bust
ness activities into commissions that
would be exceedingly disastrous to the
every man, woman and child in the
nation.
Rather is it certain that Mr.. Taft,
without fanfare of trumpets and noisy
shoutings, will pursue the ways of re-
forming the things which need it in a
manner that will be sure and lasting
and with an equita Bile regard for in
terests of all who are concerned in
them, with an ample charity for all
and an equally positive favor to none.
He and his party are pledged to a re-
vision of the tariff which Is so sorely
needed in many particulars and there
is every reason to believe that this
revision will be adequate. protecting
American industries as much as they
need but relieving the people of great
burdens in the several regards where
the tariff is over-protective, where it is
taken advantage of by rapacious
trusts and monopolies. He is pledged
to take steps for the better safeguard
ing of the rights of labor in the fed
eral courts. He is pledged to see that
there is a rigid enforcement of the
existing laws for the regulation of
trusts, monopolies and all offensive
corporations, and for an adequate
regulation of the railroads great and
small. And he is also pledged to Sc
cure a strengthening of these laws in
order that they be made more eff
fective. He is pledged to the estab-
lishment of postal savings banks. He
is pledged to numerous other things of
more or less Importance, but when he
takes the oath of office as president of
the United States he will be pledged
to administer the affairs of the nation
and all OF it's laws to the best advant-
age of every man. woman and child I
and every corporation in it. and no one
has any reason to suspect. from his
brilliant record of the past of doing his
duty faithfully and we'll. that he Will
not keep this pledge to the best of his
abilities, which are great
There has been a fair fight for the
presidential honors. 1t has been de-
cided honestly and William Howard
Taft, when he becomes president of
the United States in fact, is entitled to
the undivided support of every citizen
of the country. regardless of what his
political convictions were on election
day. The voters duty does not end in
voting. He must lend every hand an
help in every possible way to uphold