The Owyhee nugget. ([Silver City], Idaho) 1905-1984, 1908-09-18
CANDIDATE TAFT.

In nominating William Fl Taft for
president of the United States at the
Chicago Convention, the republicans
chose the weakest stick in the whole
forest of presidential timber. That Taft
is weak man is shown by the fact that
he went down into Oklahoma at the
behest of the president to urge the peo-
pie of that territory to reject their pro-
posed constitution when it was none of
his business and not part Of his
official duty. A stronger man would
have declined to have been used in any
such manner Then his enumeration
of Grants failures and weaknesses in
his memorial address at Grants tomb
shows him to be utterly wanting in tact
and in that delicacy of feeling which
instinctively impels the we'll bred per-
son to abstain from remarks that are
disagreeable, painful or humiliating to
his hearers If it had been absolutely
necessary to make mention of those
failures he could have put it in so much
more palatable form. He could have
said that Grant arose above failures and
weaknesses that would have been the
ruin of almost any other man and be-
came, in spite of them, one If the great
est, if not the greatest general of his
age. From these remarks we might
expect that if, as president, it became
necessary for him to make treaty
with some power, he would begin me-
gotiations by reciting to its represent
alive few chapters of the most humili.
ating or discreditable events in the
history of that countryl If for instance,
the country were England, we might
expect him to remind it's representative
of the material escapades Of Henry
VIII; that we made his country pay the
Alabama claims; that we made it back
down in the Venezuelan matter; that
we had licked it twice aud could and
would do it again if occasion offeredl
What gave Taft his lead over other
presidential candidates was Roosevelt's
endorsement. But what is the value of
that endorsement? The president has
had numerous controversies with men
in whom at one time he placed great
confidence; and in every instance he
has called the other fellow liar. If
the president has been right in every
instance then he has been badly mis-
taken in his judgement of those men,
and may be just as badly mistaken in
his judgement of TAFT. The fact is that
the president is violent in his likes and
dislikes. He has conceived a violent
liking for Taft, and like the love-sick
girl whose imagination endows her
lover with many noble qualities that
exist nowhere except in her magma
ton, his friendship has invested Taft
with the possession of many abilities
and capabilities that exist nowhere ex-
cept in the presidents imagination
Taft was made secretary of war, not
because of his peculiar tittedness of the
office, but because of the presidents
friendship In other instances, too, the
president has shown a disposition to
consult his own likes and dislikes and
the advantage of his political party,
rather than the good of the people.
This was seen in the city election CT
cleveland. He used his influence to
try to elect Burton mayor, not because
Burton was better or an ADLER man
than Tom johnson, but because he was
Burton's friend, and because, forsooth,
to use his own statement, it would be
to the advantage of the republican
partyl
The president, in his capacity as pri-
vate citizen of the United States, has as