The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-09-14
President Roosevelt I'm Letter
to an Old Friend
Sets Forth Reasons for Want
ing the Judge Elected.
A CHAMPION OF RIGHT
And a Despiser of Wrong in
Every Form.
Can Be Depended on to Do More
Than He Promises.

Oyster Bay, N. Y, Sept. 14-President
Roosevelt has addressed a letter to
Conrad Kohrs of Helena. Mont, an old
time cattleman of Montana and the
Northwest, and a friend of the presi-
dent for 20 years, relative to the cam
didacy of Judge William H. Taft for
the presidency. In the letter the quail
hcations and motives of Judge Taft
are given high praise by the president.
The letter was called out by the state
ment of Mr. Bryan that he, Bryan, was
the logical successor to Mr.. Roosevelt.
The letter is as follows:
Sycamore Hill, Oyster Bay, N. Y, Sept.
8. 1905
My Dear Mr.. Kohrs:-I have receiv-
ed your letter about the candidacy of
Mr.. Taft, the man who 1 feel is in an
especial sense the representative of all
that in which most believe in politi-
cal life.
Every good citizen should desire to
see both prosperity and justice, pros
perity and fair and righteous dealing
as between man and man, obtain per-
manently in this great republic. AS a
people we are justly proud of our busi-
ness industry, of our energy and in
telligence in our work; and it is en-
tirely right that we should ask our
selves as to any given course of con-
duct, viii it be profitable?" But it
is also no less emphatically true that
the bulk of our people, the plain peo-
pie who found in Abraham Lincoln
their especial champion and spokes-
man, regard the question, rs this NOR
ally right?" as even more important
than the question, rs this profitable?"
when applied to any given course of
conduct. Indeed, in the long run our
people are sure to find that in all deal
ings. alike in the business and the po-
litical world, what is really profitable
is that which is morally right. The
last few years have seen a great awak-
ening of the public conscience and the
growth of a stern determination to do.
away with corruption and unfair deal
ing, political, economic, social. 1t is
urgently necessary that this great re-
form movement should go on. But no
reform movement is healthy if it goes
on by spasms; if it Is marked by per
iods of frenzied advance. followed as
such periods of frenzied advance must
always be followed, by equally violent
periods of reaction. The revolutionary
and the reactionary really play into one
another's hands. to the extent that each
by his excesses 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 alternately into
the hands of revolutionaries and reac-
tionaries, of the extreme radicals of un-
rest and of the bigoted conservatives
who recognize no wrongs to remedy,
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.
True Friend of Reform.
The true friend of reform, the true
foe of abuse, is the man who steadily
perseVereS in righting wrongs, IN war
ring against abuses, but whose charac-.
ter and training are such that he never
promises what he cannot perform, tnat
he always a little more than makes
good what he does promise, and that,
while steadily advancing, he never per-
mits himself to be led into 1oolsh ex-
cesses which would damage the very
cause he champions. In Mr. Taft we
have a man who combines all of these
qualities to a degree which no other
man in our public life since the civil
war has surpassed. To flaming hatred
of Injustice, to a Scorn OF all tnat Is
base and mean, to a hearty sympathy
with the oppressed he unites entire dis
interestedness, courage both moral and
nhysical of the very highest type, ana
a kindly generosity OF nature Wnlcn
makes him feel that all of his fellow
countrymen are in very truth his
friends and brothers, that their inter-
ests are his, and that all his great
qualities are to be spent with lavish
man of means, the honest and law
abiding business man, can feel safe IN
his hands because of the very tact tnat
the dishonest man of great wealth, the
man who swindles or RODS mis- 1elloWs.
world not so much as dare to defend
his evil-doing in Mr.. Tatts presence.
The honest wage-worker, the honest Ia
horing man, the honest farmer, the
honest mechanic or small trader, or
man of small means, can feel that in a
oecu1iar sense Mr. Taft will be his rep
resentatiye because of the very fact
that he has the same scorn for the
demagog that he has for the corrup-
ZIONIST, and that he would front threats
of personal violence from mon with
the unouailing and lofty indifference
with which he would front the bitter
anger of the wealthiest and most pow
erfuI corporations. Broad thougn ms
svmpathies 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 safe
" could make him swerve hairs
breath from the course which he re-
CARDS as right and in the interest OF the
whole people
Has Peculiar Interest.
I have naturally a peculiar interest
in the success of Mr.. Taft, and in see
ing him backed by a majority in both
houses of congress which will heartily
support his policies. For the last ten
wears. while I have been governor OF
New York and president, 1 have been
thrown into the closest intimacy with
him. and he and 1 have on every es-
sential point stood in heartiest agree
ment. shoulder to shoulder. We havs
the same views as to what is demand
ed by the national interest and honor,
both within our own borders. and as
regards the relations of this nation
with other nations. There is no fight
for decency and fair dealing which l