The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-02
Former Government Official
 Tells How He Stands
BRYAN IS THE RIGHT MAN
Prof. Bancroft Shows How Republican Administration Has Gone Awry and Gives Reasons for Sup
 porting Policies of Bryan.

recruit from republican ranks in the per-
 son of Frederic Bancroft, LL D., of 1 Washington, D. c. Dr. Bancroft was
 chief of the bureau of rolls and the li-
 bray of the department of state, a lec- i turer on law and politics in divers col leges and is now editing and completing 1 the Memoirs of Carl Schurz," being pub l lished in McClure's Magazine.
 1 In answer to a letter from a college ] professor Dr. Bancroft writes the fol- | lowing letter. which affords fine sum- mary of certain of the issues in the cam
 paign which appeal to men of his type
 My Dear Professor Dodd:-I have your letter of the 10th inst, asking what l think and where I stand in this cam
 paign. Party interests and ties usually
 mean but little more to me in politics
 than in history My earliest and most
 lasting political enthusiasms have been
 for the non-partisan reforms advocated by George William Curtis David A ] Wells and Carl Schurz-civil service re-
 form and tariff reform with the ultimate aim of a strictly revenue system. Much 1 later this school of reformers led the i opposition to what is generally charac-
 terized as imperialism, that is, opposition
 to foreign conquests, a colonial system
 and an extravagant and aggressive en- l largement of the army and navy To the | monopolistic and interruptions trusts and | corporation and to the secret use Of vast sums of money in politics the opposition has recently been thoroughly popular. Only individuals and organizations that hoped to profit by these evils have ven tured to defend them. Such seem to
 me to be the leading issues of the cam
 paign. I could not favor the election of
 Judge Taft without feeling that l was
 on the wrong side of each of these inn portant questions. Here are my reasons;
 What grosser violation of the spirit | of civil service reform could there be
 than for the President, who holds one
 of the most dignifed offices on earth
 and is the nations representative, and as such is given special prerogatives and
 respect, to misapply the great powers of
 this public trust by pressing upon his party the nomination of member of hls
 cabinet who otherwise would have had
 no prospect of success? One violation |
 have seen and are sure to see until the
 end of thls campaign. The President,
 after taking dictatorial control of the re- 1 publican national organization and, by
 employing his presidential functions as personal asset, is trying to compel the
 nation to approve his usurpations and
 to accept his favorite. The executive
 branch of the peoples government IS
 given to, and forced upon, party. The
 White House, with rent, clerk hire and
 governmental resources, all free, has now
 become republic -n headquarters Here
 the nations ca oinet-when it's members | are not haran guing from the stump
 meets not as formerly to consult solely
 about the national welfare, but chiefly
 to scheme and plot in the interest of a
 party-no-of a party dictator and of his chosen political heir. Here party man.
 agers of high and of low degree Ire
 summoned and furtively slip in by night
 and by day to give reports, to receive
 reproofs and to take instructions as to how to be more effective partisans Thence
 secret emissaries are dispatched, pas
 sonate and undigniied denunciatons and
 ardent appeals are cast to the four winds
 and party bulletins are daily, often twice
 daily, sent forth by the should-be Pres | ident of the whole people.
 | Foger and New York.
 "In 1882 President Arthur was sup posed to have forced the republicans of l New York to take his Secretary of the
 Treasury, Judge Folger, man of unques- l bair candidate for the governorship. By heap | ing up a plurality of nearly 100000 votes 1 in favor of 1rover Cleveland, the demo-
 cratic candidate, the New York repub-
 licans of 26 years ago reminded the amia- ble Arthur that 1t serious offense 1 for a President to interfere with the | popular selection of candidates for office. 1 A few years ago we saw Governor Odell l try to combine the highest executive | office in New York with the chairman l ship of the republican state committee.
 He was soon hurled from his high estate
 and is hardly more likely than Lucifer
 to rise again. Certainly President Roose- welt merits a rebuke tenfold more em-
 phatic and fa--reaching than President 1 Arthur or Governor Odell received And
 Judge Taft. who Is voluntarily the occa- i sion and beneficiary of President Roose-
 vet's violations of the traditions of an | almost sacred office and of decent civil
 service, deserves to be the object of the
 rising popular indignation.
 Concerning the Tariff.
 "As to the tariff Judge Taft Is no
 longer taken seriously by persons who | wish to see it revised in the direction
 of a strictly revenue system. with most
 raw materials on the free list. After the 1 example of President Roosevelt he once
 ventured to sound the keynote of true tariff reform; but the deep and eternal 1 silence on that subject soon became one
 of the most profound of my policies
 and the caution judge now sings only 1 of protection The whole scheme of this | so-called protection has been one of l favoritism for the rich, the strong and
 the artful, at the expense of the mass 1 of people; and nearly all tariffs devised
 by the republicans have surpassed in ] favoritism and folly the original tariff | of aboninations' of 1928. Yet Judge Taft ! has latterly become on enthusiast for this i absurd and vicious system and is con i fldent that sooner or later he can induce
 the south to long for this gold brick i devised for the benefit of the few but
 paid for by the many Therefore. inde- | pendent newspapers, like the New York | Evening Post and the Times. and the | Springfield, Mass, Republican, which l started to support him with vigor, are
 now ridiculing him for his ignorance and