The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1908-09-23
PRESIDENT URGES
ELECTION OF TAFT
REMARKABLE TRIBUTE PAID TO
rHE NOMINEE OF THE RE-
PUBLICAN PARTY.
HELD UP AS MODEL
CITIZEN OF NATION.

IN a Letter to His Old Friend, Mr.
Conrad kohrs Of Helena, Montana
the Chief Executive Appeals to thu
Party to Support the Man Best
Fitted to Carry On the PoIicie.
inausurated by the Present Ad
nnnistration.
| Mr.. Conrad Kohrs. of Helena, Mon
tana. is an old time Montana cattle man
| and one of the most prominent citizens
| OF Montana. He and the president came
into close relationship more than 20 years
| ago when they were both members of the
Montana Stock Growers association, the
president being at that time the repre-
sentative of the Little Missouri Stock
Growers In the association. The init
macy has been kept up ever since. Mr..
kohrs is one of the pioneer citizens
of the northern Rocky mountain region
ana one of the men who has taken a
leading part In its great development.
Sycamore Hill,
Oyster Bay, N. Y, Sept 8. 1908,
MY Dear Mr.. Kohrs:
have received your letter about the
candidacy of Mr.. Taft, the man who 1
feel is in an especial sense the repre-
sentative of all that in which I most
believe In political life.
Every good citizen should desire to see
both prosperity and justice. prosperity
and fair and righteous dealing as be-
tween man and man. obtain permanently
IN this great republic AS a people we
are justly proud of our business indus
Try. OF our energy and intelligence in our
work: and it is entirely right that we
should ask ourselves as to any given
course of conduct: will 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 spokesman, re-
gard the question:: "Is this morally
right as even more important than the
questions: "1s this proftable?" when ap-
piled to any given course of con-
duct: Indeed, in the long run our
people Pc are sure to find that in
all dealings. alike in the business
and the political world, what is really
profitable is that which is morally right.
The last few years have seen a great
awakening of the public conscience and
the growth of stern determination to do
away With corruption and unfair deal
ing, political, economic. social. 1t is ur-
gently necessary that this great reform
movement should go on. But no reform
movement is healthy if it goes on by
spasms: II 1t is marked by periods of
frenzied advance, followed, as such peri
DDS of frenzied advance must always be
followed, by equally violent periods of
reaction. To permit the direction of our
public affairs to fall alternately into the
hands of the revolutionaries and reac-
tionares, of the extreme radicals Of UNI
rest and of the bigoted conservatives who
recognize no wrongs to remedy, would
merely mean that the nation had en-
parked on feverish course of violent
oscillation which would be fraught with
fnt >lo
duce no adequate good in the end. The
true friend of reform. the true foe Of
abuses. Is the man who steadily perse-
Vers in righting wrongs, in warning
against abuses, but whose character and
training are such that he never promises
what he cannot perform, that he always
a little more than makes good what he
does promise. and that, while steadily
advancing, he never permits himself to
be led into foolish excuses which would
damage the very cause he champions. |
In Mr.. Taft we have q man who COM
bines all OF these qualities to a degree
which no other man in our public life
since the civil war has surpassed. The
honest man of means, the honest and
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 robs his fell |
lows, would not so much as dare to de-
fend his evil-doing in Mr.. Taft's presence.
The honest wage-worker, the honest la
boring man, the honest farmer, the hon.
est mechanic or small trader, or man of |
small means, can feel that in a peculiar |
sense Mr.. Taft will be his representative |
because of the very fact that he has the
same scorn for the demagog that he has
for the corruptonist. and that he would
front threats of personal violence from a |
mob with the unegualing and lofty in
difference with which he would front the |
bitter anger Of the wealthest and most |
powerful corporations.
I have naturally a peculiar interest in
the success of Mr. Taft and in seeing
him backed by a majority in both houses
Of congress which will heartily support
his policies. For the last ten years, while
have been governor of New York and
president, I have been thrown into the
closest intimacy with him, and he and
have on every essential point stood
IN heartiest agreement, shoulder to Shout
Ter. We have the same views as to what
is demanded by the national interest
md honor, both within our own borders,
and as regards the relations of this ma
ion with other nations. There is no fight
'or decency and fair dealing which I
nave waged in which I have not had his
leartiest and most effective sympathy
Ind support and the policies for which
stand are his policies as much as mine.
Mr.. Taft can be trusted to exact justice
rom the railroads for the very reason
hat he can be trusted to do justice to
he railroads. The railroads are the chief
of interstate commerce in
he country, and they can neither be
leid to proper accountability on the
me hand nor given proper protection on
he other, save by the affirmative action
f the federal government. The law as
aid down by the federal courts clearly
hows that the states have not and can
lot devise laws adequate to meet the
robems caused by the great growth OF
he railroads doing an interstate COM
nerce business, for more than four-fifths
# the business of the railroads is inter-
tate, and under the constitution of the
United States only the federal govern
nent can exercise control thereover. 1t
$ absolutely necessary that this control
hould be affirmative and thoroughgong.
III interstate business carried on by the
treat corporations should, in the interest
# the whole people, be far more closely
supervised than at present by the ma
ional government; but this is especially
rue Of the railroads, which cannot eX-
st at all save by the exercise of powers
,ranted them on behalf of the people. and
which, therefore. should he held to a Pc
uliar accountability to the people. 1t is
n the interest of the people that they