New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-10-28

TAFT AND BRYAN CONTRAST,


The speeches which Mr.. Taft and Mr. Bryan
have been making TO New York audiences en-
nbasize the contrast which The Tribune drew
on Sunday between their respective anus W
methods on the stump. AS the campaign mas
advanced Mr.. Taft has gained IN effectiveness
because he has persistenty hewed 10 the Hile
end talked TO the point. He has SAID franh9
| and courageously what he had 10 say, conuoh-
ing nothing and avoiding nothing whlIe NJ,
BRYAN has grown wagner and wagner, coh0e"
ing with all sorts of oratoricai expealeh's us
unwillingness TO go clearly on record Oh Tue
| noints most at issue In this campaign Notu-
ing for instance. could have been more stralshl-
forward and admirable than Mr.. TafCs eApiala-
ton at the Brooklyn Academy OF MUSIC oi
| Monday of his attitude toward injunctlons In
| labor disputes He had absolutely nothing u
conceal. He believes Ii square deal TOT Ine
1ohor unions end svmpathizes with their Efforts
10 assert their rights and secure q larger ue
Gran of indanendence But he holds that the
fuU rights OF labor can be secured ny peacel III
and orderly processes and without huiiincH-
zion of the rights of other equally deseI' lils
classes in the community.
! Mr. Taft vigorously opposes the oiachiSl anu
tho secondary boycott. Those instruments OIL
coercion strike at the outsider ana 40 HIep
arabic injury TO persons not at all cohCeiheu III
tbe dispute in which they are employeu' Ine
1To+i,ns arc Ike the innocent bystanders IN
ir1red in q street fight of whose cause anu
| tbav ere entirely ignorant No man with
| so,oo of iustice could approve of licensing two
conbatants 70 destroy the property or take the
Iivas Of neutraIs. Why, then, should any one
favo- Iaqalizing for common use two such
devastating processes as the blacklist ana lhe
secondary boycott? Mr.. Taft has eXnlblted
tho eminent fairness and honesty when nave
cborac+erized all his public dealings IN re1us-
i,,r n coucede TO the labor unions the right 10
advance their interests by expressing otherS
Rut where does Mr.. Bryan stand! he says
he is bound hand and foot by the Denver pat
form. Yet he refuses TO interpret me laooF
Injunction plank of that PLATFORM letIlhs on0
oroun of his supporters say that its purposely
enicna+fo language pledges the Democratic
marty to Iecalize the blacklist and the second
airy boycott and another group TO say that the
language used does no such thing
In his speech at Madison Square Garden MT.
Rrron took credit TO himself for having con-
trihuted TO lift American politics to higher
plane. He said:
IF there be Republicans here let me say this
n them that they may defeat me II they Will
but they cannot deny TO me the creolt tnaI ne
tory will give me for helping 10 give an mp"
10 honest politics
The Tribune has often acknowledged MT
Rrvan's services as a practitioner in politics OF
omen dealing and plain speaking. In the cam
paigns Of 1896 and 1900 he never shirked de-
cIaring himself on public issues and facing the
consequences. In 1904 he bitterly censured the
Democratic National Convention and the Demo
cratic Presidential candidate for trying TO de-
ceive the voters He advocated then poncy
of consistency and frankness, whether that
poIicv should lead TO victory or defeat. But
to-day he has so fer yielded to his surround
ings and to his ambitions to be willing to
conceal and palter and equivocate. He has
tried TO shoulder on the Denver convention re-
sponsibiIities which he ought himself 10 assume
and he has failed on the stump TO attract and
convince his hearers because he has failed TO
exhibit the qualities which made him so formid-
able in his earlier campaigns. The American
people do not like a dodger. They have seen
Mr. Bryan lodging and twisting this year as
never before and they have turned with pleas
IRE 10 consider the record of consistency,
downrightness and candor made by Mr.. Taft