The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1908-09-18
TAFT SCORES
COMMONER.
Bryan VIII hOut Record Of
Responsibility.
Voted For G0vnian-WilSO Bill
WITCH Made Labor
Helpless.

At Cincinnati a few days ago Judge
Taft replied TO Mr.. Bryan's comments
on President Rooscvelt's Taft letter"
in the following vigorous language.
In my notification speech and in
other speeches made since, attemp-
ted TO make clear my position on all
the issues of the campaign.
'If Mr.. Bryan has been unable to
understand them | cannot make them
clear. stand on my record in office
and what have said.
Mr.. Bryan should devote little
time to his own record, from which h
seems to be struggling to separate
himself WITH all tlc adroitness ac-
quired in a twelve years hunt for an
issue upon which he can be elected
President
The readiness with which Mr..
| Bryan in successive Presidential cam
paigns passes from one paramount
issue TO another shows that the chief
consideration which has affected his
selection of an issue has been its
plausibility in attracting votes.
! He presented the remarkable spec
tacle of one who has been seeking the
Presidency for twelve years without
success and without official RESPONSE
bility and without the opportunity TO
test the various propositions which he
has advanced for reforms, and yet of
having the event demonstrate what a
coossal failure he would have made
in each instance had he been permit
ted to carry his proposals into the
policies of the country.
! He does not now say whether he is
! still in favor of the fress coinage of
silver. He does not now answer the
question whether if he were PresideT
and an exigency should arise in which
he would be called upon TO exercise hi
discretion affirmatively to maintain
the parity between gold and silver, he
would exercise that discretion.
He mas not permitted himself f.
discuss in this campaign the issue o.
anti-imperialism, which was the para
mount issue in 1900 as he declared,
and in respects to which the policy of
the Republican party has been indi-
Gated by the event, SO tnat tranquilli-
ty and good government exist in
the Philippine Islands, and even the
Indepenistas prefer Republican victory
to Mr.. Bryan's promises.
He now says that he favors the
more rigid regulation of the railroads.
In 1896 he expressed the view that
the railroads could not be regulated
because the railroads would own the
regulators appointed by law and there
fore he was in favor of Government
ownership.
! We hear nothing from him on this
subject. Instead by describing his
! platform not only rs an announce
ment of principle bul as a protection
against uncomfortable issue, lie has
attempted to give bond to keep tne
| peace with respect to Government ow-
nership. which by its mere announce
ment showed its lack OF the vote-catch
ing quality.
He processes to nave been the E.
Their and now to be the heir of to"
/ Roosevelt policies, and yet, in no cam
paign of the three in when ..e Ad4 ,...-
en part aud two of wnich he himself
/ led, did he make them the paramount
issue.
! Indeed in the Parker campaign, lie
| took occasion to charge Mr.. Roosevelt
! with miltarism and with being com
pletely subject to the influence OF cor
porations only to see him win tire
greatest triumph of the world. and Sc
cure such an effective stamping out OF
corporate abuses as to elicit the ad-
miration of the entire country.
Mr.. Bryan processes to be the great
friend of labor and yet he was one OF
the chief supporters in the passage
of the Gorman-Willson bill that made
labor helpless for four years.
He then proposed as a remedy for
the disasters to which labor was thus
exposed, the issuing of fifty-cent
dollar which would have cut in hall
such wages as there were and would
have led to the hardest kind OF strug'
gle on labor's part to restore its wages
to its proper equivalent under the golt
standard.
The country has been most fortu