Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-06-30
COLONEL WATTERSON
ON TAFTS NOMINATION
Man of Straw-PIatfOrm of lmpOSture and
tariff Reform! Good Lord"
Louisville Courier-Journal.


Republican party has set a man OF
straw-a very portly and pleasing
man of straw-and has said 10 the
voters, Behold in William Howard
Taft the neutrality-suspicious. OF
Theodore Roosevelt"
The answer which the voters are
likely to make in November may be
found in the first chapter or the
Horn-Book of Common Sense, which
translated from the original vulgate
into modern English reads, the
voice is Roosevelts voice, but the
hands are the hands of Rockefeller"
Thus, after many centuries we
have the recurrence Of famous pas
sage of Holy Writ made political and
brought to date, i'm the last instance
as in the first, a great fraud and
mess of pottage, playing the leading
parts.
At length the Republican party has
had to disguise itself as populist'
and to join in the cry of stop, thief
in order to escape the consequences
of its own acts.
We mean no disrepect to the secre-
tary of war. He is gentleman OF
noble character, an official OF signal
service and merit, a citizen OF un-
blemished reputation. He was a typ
ical Republican of the school or
sherman, Garfield and Mckinley, un-
til he began to temporize with Roose-
Welt and got the presidential bee IN
his bonnet
James Schoolcraft Sherman, chosen
as his running mate, is like unto hlm'
a gentleman of character, OF hlsh
connections and man of straw. he
Is a New York congressman and the
president of a New York trust COM
pany There is plenty of ruftie to his
shirt, lust as considering Mr.. TAFT
ruffie. there is too much ruff1e. to the
whole ticket Mr.. Sherman Will De
depended on to see that every cOrpor-
poration in and about Wall street
does it's duty. The after-thought,
however, will cut little figure in the
campaign. Everything will centre in,
and about, Mr.. Roosevelts designated
successor and heir-apparent, the sec
retary of war.
The platform on which they have
placed Judge Taft cOntradicts his rul-
ings as a judge on the bench. His
party in congress has falsified his at
titude toward our insular dependen-
cies. He is put forward as the star
performer of an enterprising and
spectacular manager who has sue
ceeded in adapting rag-time music to
the serious business of the state and
in turning the government OF the
country into comic opera, the White
House his theatre and the Federal Of
ficials his scene shifters, civil service
reform, though sadly torn and tar
nished, the fantastic drOp-curtain re-
lied upon to conceal, but not conceal
ing. the mechanism of the stage-car-
penters and the meaning of the stage
setting.
For the second time in its history
militant Republicanism goes to the
country without conviction and with
out enthusiasm. In 1884 the candi-
date was the handicap. In 1908 the
handicap is the issue. That issue as
defined by Mr.. Roosevelt and accept
ed by Mr.. Bryan, as originally defined
by Mr.. Bryan and accepted by Mr..
Roosevelt, is the encroachments of
predatory wealth.
The people will question themselves
and one another, they will ask the
politicians why, if Mr.. Bryan means
it and Roosevelt means it, there
should be any need Of the turmoil
and outlay of a presidential cam
paign: why the two parties should
not equally divide the offices and
share the expense; Bryan to have the
first four years in the White House as
guarantee Of good faith. with Taft a
sure bond to follow, thus not only re-
storing to the government the lost
pOiSe and balance of parties, but Civ
ing hostage to the many against the
depredations of the few.
As the Republicans frame the situ-
alton somebody is to be fooled might
lily. Who is it likeliest to be. Rookie
feller and company, who will provide
the sinews of war, or the masses OF
the people. who are expected to pro-
vide the votes? That is the sum of it
whichever way we take, or consider
il.
We are promised a change of poll
cies. OF which policies--the policies
of the Republican president, or the
policies of the Republican congress:
The Republican party can not be true
to the one without repudating the
other. 1t can not at one and the same
time keep step with Roosevelt, the
radical. and Cannon. the standpatter
with tariff reform and the gospel oi
protection; with the trusts of the eaS
and the farmers of the west: with the
tain glittering generalities of the pres
Republicanism for ali it's arts and re-
sources can not serve both God an(
MammOn.
When the Republican congress re-
fused to enact a law Of publicity. un
der whose operation blackmail coulC
no longer be levied upon any interes
by the managers of either organiZa
ton. it proclaimed the purpose of th'
Republicans to lay tribute upon thu
corporations and to fry the fat out o
the manufacturers, again to sell tn
foreign embassies to the millionaire
and promises of no real interference
to the trust magnateS. as a return 70