The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-10-31

ment on President Roosevelts letter to
Conrad Kohrs of Montana yesterday,
prepared a reply to Mr.. Bryan in which
lie made the most direct and pointed
attack on the democratic candidate
he has yet delivered in this campaign.
Judge Tafts statement follows:
In my notification speech and in
other speeches made since | attempted
to make clear my position on all the
| issues of the campaign. If Mr.. Bryan
has been unable to understand them l
cannot make them clear. | stand on
my record in office and on which 1
have said.
BRYAN'S RECORD ATTACKED.
Mr.. Bryan should devote a little
time to his own record, from which he
| seems to be struggling to separate HIM
self with all the adroitness acquired in
twelve years hunt for an issue on
which he can be elected President. The
readiness with which Mr.. Bryan in sue
cessive presidential campaigns passes
from one paramount issue to another
shows that the chief consideration
which has affected his selection of an
issue has been its FEASIBILITY in at
tracing votes
He presents the remarkable spec
tacle of one who has been seeking the
presidency for - years without sue
cess and without official responsibility
and without the opportunity to test
the various propositions which he has
advocated for reforms, and yet of hav-
ing the event demonstrate what a CO.
lossal failure he would have made in
each instance had he been permitted
to carry his proposals in the policies
of the country.
FORMER ISSUES DROPPED
He does not now say whether he is
still in favor of the free coinage of
silver. He does not now answer the
question whether if he were President
and an eXigency should arise in which
he would be called upon to exercise
his discretion affirmatively to main
tanning the party between gold and
silver, he would exercise that discre-
ton.
He has not permitted himself to dis
cuss in this campaign the issue of anti
Imperialism, which was the paramount
issue in 1900, as he declared, and in re-
spect TO which the policy of the re-
publican party has been indicated by
the event so that tranquility and a
good government exist in the Philip
pine islands, and even the independis-
tias prefer republican victory to Mr..
Bryans promises.
ATTITUDE TOWARD RAILWAYS.
He now says that he favors the
more rigid regulation of the railroads
In 1906 he expressed the view that the
railroads could not be regulated, be-
cause the railroads would own the
regulators appointed by law, and there.
fore he was in favor of government
ownership. We hear nothing from hin
on this subject. Instead, by describing
his platform not only as an announce,
against uncomfortable issues, he has
attempted to give bond to keep the
peace with respect to government own
ership, which, by its mere announce
ment, showed its lack of the vote,
catching quality,
) He processes to have been the faith
er, and now to be the heir, of the
\ Roosevelt policies, and yet in no cam
paign of three in which he has takeI
part, and two of which he himself led
did he make them the paramount is
sues. Indeed, in the Parker campaign
he took occasion to charge Mr., Roose
welt with militarism and with beini
completely subject to the influence o
corporations, only to see him win tn
greatest peace triumph of the worlt
and secure such an effective stamping
out of corporate abuses as to elicit tn
admiration of the entire country.
BRYAN AND LABOR.
"Mr. Bryan processes to be the grea
friend of labor, and yet he was one o
the chief supporters in the passage o
the Gorman-Wilson bill that made la
: Dor helpless for four years. He the
proposed as a remedy for the disaster
to which labor was thus exposed tn
issuing of a fifty-cent dollar, whicI
-, would have cut in half such wages a
there were and would have led to tn
hardest kind of struggle on labor's par
to restore its wages to its proper equi
valent under the gold standard.
a 1.-THE country has been most for
e tunate, indeed, if the danger of fou
r years depression, to which 1t woul
y be exposed in case of Mr.. Bryans cleo
ton, may be averted, and If by lie
r publican success in November, and sub
9 sequent prosperity and by clinchin
n OF the Roosevelt policies, he may b
o again shown to be prophet withou
honor"