The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1908-09-15
Sycamore Hill,

Sycamore Hill,
Oyster Bay, N. Y, Sept. 8, 1908.
My Dear Mr.. Kohrs:
l have received your letter about
the candidacy of Mr.. Taft, the man
who l feel is in an especial sense the
representative of all that in which
most believe in political life
Every good citizen should desire to
see both prosperity and justice, pros
perity and fair and righteous dealing
as between man and man, obtain per-
manently in this great Republic. AS
a people we are justly proud of our
business industry, of our energy and
intelligence in our work, and it is en-
tirely right that we should ask our
selves as to any given course of con-
duct, 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 spokes-
man, regard the question, is this
morally right" as even more i'm
portant than the question, us this
profitable?" when applied to any
given course of conduct. Indeed, in
the long run our people 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 dealing, politi-
cal, economic, social. 1t is urgently
necessary that this great reform
movement should go on. But no re-
form movement is healthy if 1t goes
on by spasms; If 1t is marked by per-
iods of frenzied advance, followed. as
such periods of frenzied advance must
always be followed, by equally violent
periods of reaction.
The true friend of reform, the true
foe of abuses, is the man who steadily
perseveres 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 little more
than makes good what he does prom
( Use, and that, while steadily advanc-
ing, he never permits himself to be
led into foolish excuses which would
damage the very cause he champions.
In Mr. Taft we have man who COM
bines all of these qualities to de-
gree which no other man in our pub
lie life since the Civil War has sur
passed. To flaming hatred of injus-
tice, to y scorn of all that is base and
mean, to a hearty sympathy with the
oppressed, he unites entire disinter-
estedness, courage both moral and
physical of the very highest type, and
| a kindly generosity of nature which
\ makes him feel that all of his fellow
countrymen are in very truth his
! friends and brothers, that their inter
ests are his, and that all his great
/ qualities are to be spent with lavish
freedom in their service.
1t is not possible in the space of
4 this letter to discuss all the many
and infinitely varied questions of mo-
ment with which Mr.. Taft as Presi-
! dent would have to deal; let him be
! judged by what he has himself done,
and by what the administration, in
which he has played so conspicuous a
part, has done. But to illustrate just
what his attitude is, let me touch on
two matters now prominent in the
public mind.
Mr.. Taft can be trusted to exact
/ Justice from the railroads for the
very reason that he can be trusted to
do justice to the railroads. The rail-
roads are the chief instruments of in
terstate commerce in the country, and
they can neither be held to a proper
1 accountability on the one hand nor
given proper protection on the other,
save by the affirmative action OF the
Federal Government 1t is absolute
| ly necessary that this control should