The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1908-09-29
Mr.. ROOSEVELT
LAUDS TAFT.
True Friend Of Reform and
Foe of Abuses.
NAMES HIM POLITICAL HEIR

Republican Candidate Stands For
Same Policies a. Present Admins
tration-Can BE Trusted to Do Justice
TO Both Capital and Labor-A Cham
plon Of the Right and True Repre-
sentative of All the People.
In the following letter Of President
Roosevelt TO Mr.. Conrad Kohrs Of
Montana he tells why voters should
support William II. Taft at the polls.
Mr.. Conrad Kohrs Of Helena, Mont,
Is an old time Montana cattleman and
one of the most prominent citizens OF
Montana He and the president came
into close relationship more than twen-
ty years ago, when they were both
members of the Montana Stock Grow
ers' association, the president being at
that time the representative Of the
little Missouri stock growers In the
association. The intimacy has been kept
I'D ever since. Mr. Kohrs Is one of
the pioneer citizens of the northern
Rocky mountain region and one of the
men who has taken leading part in
its great development.
Mr. Kohrs' letter was called forth by
Mr. Bryan's statement that he (Mr.
Bryan was the presidents heir and
natural successor:
Sycamore Hill.
Oyster Bay, N. Y. Sept. 8. 1908.
MY Dear Mr.. Kohrs-I have received
your letter about the candidacy of Mr.:
Taft. the man who feel is in an especial
sense the representative of all that In
which most believe in political life
Every good citizen should desire to see
both prosperity and justice. prosperity
and fair and righteous dealing as between
man and man, obtain permanently in this
great republic. AS a people we are justly
proud OF our business industry OF our en-
ergy and intelligence in our work. ana II
is entirely right that we should ask our
selves as to any given course OF CONDUCT
ssWiu 1t be profitable?' But 1t is also no
less emphatically true that the bulk OF
our people. the plain people who found In
Abraham Lincoln their especial champion
and spokesman. regard the question, rs
this morally rightT' as even more impor-
tant than the question, is THIS pronea-
ble?" when applied to any given course OF
conduct Indeed, In the long run our peo-
pie are sure to find that In all dealings,
alike In the business and political world,
what is really profitable Is that wnicn Is
morally right. The last few years nave
great
science and the growth of stern deter
mination to do away with corruption ana
unfair dealing political, economic, social
1t Is urgently necessary that TINS great
reform movement should go on But no
reform movement Is healthy II 1t goes on
by spasms, II it Is marked by periods OF
frenzied advance. followed. as such peri
DDS of frenzied advance must always De
followed by equally violent periods OF re-
action The revolutionary and the reac-
tionary really play into one anotners
hands to the extent that each by his ex-
cesses necessarily tends to arouse sucn
disgust. such feeling Of revolt, In the
minds OF quiet people as temporarily 10
restore the other to power.
To permit the direction of our public at
fairs to fall alternately into the hands OF
revolutionaries and reactionaries, OF the
extreme radicals Of unrest and of the big
oted conservatives who recognize no
wrongs to remedy, would merely mean
that the nation had embarked on fever
ish course of violent oscillation which
would be fraught with great temporary
trouble and would produce no adequate
good in the end. The true friend of re-
form, the true foe of abuses. is the man
who steadily perseveres in rlgntlng
wrongs, in warning against abuses. out
whose character and training are sucn
that be never promises what he cannot
perform. that he always little more than
that. while steadily advancing. he never
permits himself to be led into foolish ex-
cesses which would damage the very cause
he champions. In Mr.. Taft we have
man who combines all OF these qualities
to a degree which no other man In our
public life since the civil war has sur
passed. To flaming hatred of injustice,
to a scorn Of all that is base and mean, 10
a hearty sympathy with the oppressed,
he unites entire disinterestedness courage
both moral and physical OF the very high
est type and a kindly generosity of nature
which makes him feel that all of his fell
low countrymen are in very truth his
friends and brothers. that their interests
are his and that all his great qualities are
to be spent with lavish freedom In their
service. The honest man OF means the
honest and law abiding business man, can
feel safe in his hands because Of the very
fact that the dishonest man OF great
wealth, the man who swindles or RODS MS
fellows, would not so much as dare TO de-
ferd his evil doing in Mr.. Tafts presence
The honest wageworker, the honest Ia
boring man, the honest farmer. the honest
mechanic or small trader or man OF small
means can feel that in a peculiar sense
Mr. Taft will be his representative be-
cause of the very fact that he has the
same scorn for the demagogue that ne mas
for the corruptionist and that he would
front threats of personal violence from
mob with the unquailing and lofty indif-
ference with which he would front the
hitter anger of the wealthiest and most
powerful corporations. Broad though his
sympathies are, there Is In him not the
slightest tinge Of weakness NO CONSIDER
alton of personal interest, any more than
Of fear for his personal safety, could make
him swerve a hairs breadth from the
course which he regards as right and In
the interest OF the whole people
have naturally peculiar interest In
the success Of Mr. Taft and In seeing MIN
backed by a majority in both houses OF
congress which will heartily support his
policies For the last ten years, while
have been governor or New YORK ana
president, have been thrown into the
closest intimacy with him. and he and
have on every essential point stood In
heartiest agreement shoulder to shoulder
We have the same views as to what is de-
manded by the national interest and hon
or both within our own borders and as
regards the relations of this nation with
other nations. There is no fight for de-
cency and fair dealing which / have
waged in which have not had his heart
fest and most effective sympathy and sup
port and the policies for which I stand
are his policies as much as mine.
1t is not possible in the space of this
letter to discuss all the many and inf
nitely varied questions of moment with
which Mr. Taft as president would have
to deal. Let him be judged by what he
has himself done and by what the admin
lstration in which he has played so con-
spicuous a part has done. But to illus
trate just what his attitude Is let me
touch on two matters now prominent in
the public mind.
Mr.. Taft can be trusted to exact justice
from the railroads for the very reason
that he can be trusted to do justice to the
railroads. The railroads are the chief in
struments of interstate commerce in the
country, and they can neither be held to
a proper accountability on the one hand
nor given proper protection on the other
save by the affirmative action of the fed
eral government. The law as laid down
by the federal courts clearly shows that
the states have not and cannot devise
laws adequate to meet the problems caus-
ed by the great growth of the railroads
doing an interstate commerce business,
for more than four-ffths of the business
of the railroads is interstate. and under
the constitution of the United States only
the federal government can exercise con-
troll thereover. 1t is absolutely necessary
that this control should be affirmative and
thoroughgoing.
All interstate business carried on by the
great corporations should in the interest
of the whole people be far more closely
supervised than at present by the national
government. but this is especially true of
the railroads. which cannot exist at all
save by the exercise of powers granted
them on behalf of the people and which.
therefore. should be held to a peculiar &C
countability to the people. 1t is in the in |
terest of the people that they should not |
be permitted to do injustice, and 1t is no |
less to the interest OF the people that they |
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