The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-07-28
Declares William II. Taft in
Speech Of Acceptance.
THE PARTY STRENGTH
Lies in the Work Done by the
President.
Must Maintain Standards and
Not Interfere With Business.

Iart was today officially notified of
his nomination for the presidency and
responded as follows:
Senator Warner and Gentlemen OF the
Committee:
am deeply sensible of the honor
which the Republican National con-
ventlon has conferred on me in the
nomination which you formally fem
der. 1 accept it with full appreciation
OF the responsibility 1t imposes
Maintenance OF Roosevelt Policies.
Gentlemen. the strength of the Re-
hand is the fact that we represent the
policies essential to the reform of
known abuses, to the continuance of
liberty and true prosperity, and that
we are determined, as our platform
uneQuivocally declares, to maintain
them and carry them on. For more
than ten years this country passed
through an epoch of material develop
ment far beyond any that ever occur
red In the world before In its course.
certain evils crept in: Some prominent
and influential members of the COM
munity, spurred by financial success
and In their hurry for greater wealth,
became unmindful of the common rule
of business honesty and fidelity and of
the limitations imposed by law upon
their action. This became known. The
revelations of the breaches of trust,
the disclosures as to rebates and dis
ordinations by railways, the accum-
ulating evidence of the violation of the
antitrust law by number of corpora
tions, the overissue of stocks and
bonds on interstate railways for the
unlawful enriching of directors and
for the purpose of concentrating con-
troll of railways in one management,
all quickened the conscience of the
people, and brought on a moral awak-
ening among them that boded well
for the future of the country.
What Roosevelt Has Done.
The man who formulated the ex-
preston of the popular conscience and
who led the movement for practical
reform was Theodore Roosevelt. He
laid down the doctrine that the rich
violator Of the law should be as amen
| able to restraint and punishment as
the offender without wealth and with
out influence, and he proceeded by re-
commencing legislation and directing
ciple good in actual performance. He
secured the passage of the so-ca1led
rate bill, designed more effectively to
restrain excessive and fix reasonable
rates, and to punish secret rebates and
determinations which had done much
to enable unlawful trusts to drive out
of business their competitors. 1t Sc
cured much closer supervision Of rail-
way transactions and brought within
the operation of the same statute ex-
panies, fast freight and refrigerator
lines, terminal railroads and pipe lines
and forbade in future the combination
of the transportation and shipping
business under one control in order to
avoid undue discrimination.
President Roosevelt directed suits to
be brought and prosecutions to be in
stituted under the antitrust law, to
enforce it's provisions against the most
powerful of the Industrial corpora
tions. He pressed to passage the pure
food law and the meat inspection law
in the interest of the health of the
public, clean business methods and
great ultimate benefit to the trades
themselves. He recommended the
passage Of a law, which the Republi-
can convention has since specifically
approved, restricting the future issue
of stock and bonds by interstate rail-
ways to such as may be authorized by
federal authority. He demonstrated
to the people by what he said, by what
he recommended to congress, and by
what he did, the sincerity of his efforts
to command respect for the law, to
secure equality of all before the law.
and to save the country from the dan
gers Of a plutocratic government. to-
ward which we were fast tending. In
this work Mr.. Roosevelt has had the
support and sympathy of the Repub-
Iican party, and its chief hope of sue
cess in the present controversy must
rest on the confidence which the peo-
pie of the country have in the sin
cerity of the party's declaration in its
platform, that it intends to continue
the policies.
Necessary to Permanently Secure
Progress Made.
Mr.. Roosevelt has set high the
standard of business morality and
obedience to law. The railroad rate
bill was more useful possibly in the
Immediate moral effect of it's passage
than even in the legal effect Of its very
useful provisions. From it's enactment
dates the voluntary abandonment OF
the practice of rebates and d1scrimina-
tions by the railroads and the return
by their managers to obedience to law
in the fixing of tariffs. The pure food
and meat inspection laws and the
prosecutions directed by the president
under the antitrust law have had
similar moral effect in the general
business community and have made
| it now the common practice for the
great Industrial corporations to con-
| suit the law with view to keeping
within its provisions. 1t has also had
| the effect of protecting and encour-
aging smaller competitive companies
| SO that they have been enabled to do
profitable business.
nary working of human nature If we
did not recognize that the moral
standard set by President Roosevelt
will not continue to be observed by
| those whom cupidity and a desire for
financial power may tempt, unless the
requisite machinery is introduced into
the law which shall In its practical
| operation maintain these standards
and secure the country against de-
| parture from them.
| Must Clinch What Has Been Done.
The chief function of the next ad-
ministration, in my judgment. is dis
/ tinct from, and progressive develop
ment of that which has been perform.
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