The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-02

'ER 2, 1908
 perhaps the greatest and almost the only great beneficiary. He has been it's chief administrator and is now it's main stay and official defender. Should he tomorrow promise to favor the in- dependence of the Philippines under our protection, or under international neu- tralization, a great majority of the re- publicans, even, would rejoice and our difficulties, our army and our expenses in those distant and unhappy islands would rapidly decrease and ere Ions disappear. Because of a false pride no one who is in any way responsible for the cruel and spendthrift blundering in the Philippines will face about and help bring it to an end. Having no defense that will appeal to sober minded persons, Judge Taft sophisti- cates and talks worn-out cant about duty and destiny. He holds the anti imperialists, whose leaders were such men as Carl Schurz and Charles Francis Adams, responsible for the continuance of war that would have been impos sible if their policy had been adopted. Carl Schurz wrote when supporting MT. Bryan in 1900 that that story of our attempted conquest of the Philippines is a story of deceit, false pretense, brutal treachery to friends, unconsti- tutional assumption of power, betrayal of the fundamental principles of our democracy, wanton sacrifice of our soldiers for an unjust cause, cruel slaughter of innocent people. and thus of horrible -guiltiness without parallel in the history of republics" As means of spreading civilization in the Orient" Judge Taft would continue to the second and the third generation our wrongs upon this simple people, whose sole crime has been that they have tried to emulate us in seeking freedom and independence when we were only one-third as numerous as they are. And to defend this policy and the colonial system of which it is a part, a wider and wilder extrava- gance in appropriations for the army and the navy has been and will be de- manded year after year. Here. in deed, Judge Taft would be. if elected, a true executor of the worst of my policies"
 Campaign Publicity.
 Great political reforms usually come slowly and after much argument and agitation. But by rare exception and good fortune the greatest reform move ment of our generation has come like a freshet and may soon be triumphant. Of course I refer to the prediction publication of campaign receipts and expenditures, By demanding large contributions from corporations party managers have commonly blackmailed them, and large corporations have often practically bribed legislators and ex- ecutives by giving eXorbitant sums as campaign contributions. In each case favorable Legislation or special protec- tion was the understood consideration In these sins the republicans have been tenfold the greater offenders, because of their greater opportunities Compel. reelection publication of campaign accounts and these practices will soon die out. Deprive politicians of such corrupt and corrupting funds and they will begin to treat the tariff and the great interstate corporations and trusts solely as problems in national econo- my and public welfare. Only gnor- ant persons do not know that the zeal ous and effective champion of this re- form is MT. Bryan, and that the most conspicuous opponent of it in both practice and theory is President Roose- velt who four years ago shamelessly induced the collection of s260. .000 in his own behalf and then brazenly pre- varicated about 1t at a critical moment just before the election. Very natur- ally he insists that it would not be safe to let the people know the amount or course or disposition of campaign funds until after election. when the knowledge would be of no practical value to them. Even horse thieves. after they are safely mounted. have no objection to the locking of stable doors. This corrupt but doomed prac- tice of keeping secret the source and use of campaign funds until they have performed their perfect work is one of the most inglorious of my policies Yet Judge Taft of course stands both proudly and sophistically pat"
 M. Bryan's Position.
 MT. Bryan seems to me to be on the right side of all these questions. A re- publican civil service reformer of un- questionable veracity told me that it was within his personal knowledge that Mr. Bryan, just before the Denver con- vention promised a civil servide com missioner that the democratic platform should contain frank pledge to civil service reform and the promise was kept MT. Bryan first attracted public attention after coming to the House of Representatives by a very lucid, force full and eloquent speech for tariff re- form, and he has never varied a parti cle from the sound reasoning of that speech. Except when he favored rati- fication of the treaty with Spain, which made possible our subsequent cruel follies in the Philippines, he has been a steadfast opponent of our policy in these islands; and, among. candidates for high office he has been almost the only bold. consistent and intelligent an- tagonist of imperialism.
 Best of all. as to the publicity of campaign contributions, MT. Bryan is not only right but he is herocally so. in that he has exposed how the Presi- dent four years ago tricked the peo- ple's confidence and how he now at tempts to trick th cir reason with shall