Los Angeles herald., 1908-09-26
PRESIDENT RoOsEvELT'S
INCONSISTENCIES


mitted his interest in the candidacy OF
Mr.. Taft for president to cause him to
abandon the Judicial poise which
should always govern the acts and ut
terances of man occupying his high
position at the head of a nation conn
! posed of all the people and enter the
lists of partisan politics.
AS president endeavoring to enforce
the law, Mr. Roosevelt has been all
that is admirable, AS a person en-
deavoring to influence the voters OF
the country in favor of the candidate
whom he personally favors, he has
shown himself an unfair director of
public influence.
His utterances in the capacity of
partisan have been so reckless and in
dicated so little thought and judg-
ment as to amply justify this charge,
By way OF illustrating this point we
quote a sentence from his recent letter
to Mr. Bryan, which says:
ar answer you that in my judg-
ment these measures you advocate
will be wholly ineffective in curing
q single evil, and, so far as they
have any effect at ALL would mere
ly throw the entire business OF the
country into hopeless and utter con-
fusion"
In writing his extremely partisan
letter, and especially in this reckless
declaration. Mr.. Roosevelt has evi-
IDENTIFY forgotten the fact that the
Democratic platform, which as we all
know was practically dictated by Mr.
Bryan, embodies a number of princi-
pies Of government which President
Roosevelt vainly urged that congress
controlled by his party should crys-
tallize into laws, and which were de-
liberately refused a place in the plat
form of his party at its national con-
vention.
Mr.. Roosevelt in one of his mes
sages to the Republican congress
earnestly urged the passage Of a law
providing for the publicity of campaign
contributions. Congress refused to en-
act such a law. A majority of the
platform committee of the Republican
national convention refused to incor-
porate in the platform of that party a
declaration in favor of such law. A
minority report in favor of such a
plank was submitted to the Repub-
lican national convention by Mr.
Cooper of Wisconsin and defeated by
a vote of something like 10 to 1.
In a message to a Republican con-
gress Mr.. Roosevelt recommended the
passage OF a law providing for an in
come tax. Congress refused to pass
such a law. The majority Of the COM
mittee on platform of the Republican
porate a declaration in favor of such
law in the Republican platform. A
plank declaring in favor of this law
which had been recommended by the
president was submitted by Mr.. Cooper
of Wisconsin in the form of a minority
report and was defeated by vote OF
nearly 10 to 1.
Mr.. Roosevelt in message to a Re-
publican congress advocated the adop-
tion of legislation largely. increasing
the power of the interstate commerce
commission and especially providing
for the physical valuation of railroad
properties. Congress refused to enact
such legislation. A majority of the
committee on platform of the Repub-
lican national convention refused to
incorporate a declaration in favor of
such legislation in their platform, and
the convention defeated by an over
whelming majority minority report
in favor of such legislation submitted
by Mr.. Cooper,
The president in a message to a Re-
publican congress earnestly advocated
the enactment of law changing the
present law regulating the granting Of
injunctions by federal courts in labor
disputes. A Republican congress re-
fused to carry out this recommends
tion and enact such a law. The ma
jority of the committee on platform
of the Republican national convention
refused to incorporate in the national
platform of that party plank de-
claring in favor of the law advocated
by Mr.. Roosevelt and the minority re-
port presented by Mr.. Cooper in favor
of such law was overwhelmingly de-
feated.
These are certainly four important
measures which may safely be de-
nominated Roosevelt policies be-
cause they have been taken up and
advocated by Mr.. Roosevelt during his
term as president, although they were
all advocated by Mr.. Bryan and his
party long before Mr.. Roosevelt was
ever thought of as president of the
United States.
These measures all appear in
the Democratic platform advocat-
ed by Mr.. Bryan, and the Demo
cratic party is pledged to their
adoption. Surely when the presi-
dent recommended that they be
put in the form of laws by the
congress controlled by his party,
he did it believing that they
would cure the evils now existing
in the country. Yet, in face of all
this, he does not hesitate, as
above quoted, to say that the
measures advocated by MIR.
Bryan would be wholly inef-
fective in curing a single evil"
Surely partisanship could go no
further than this, and Mr.. Roose-
welt has seriously impaired the respect
for his consistency which his fellow
citizens have heretofore cherished.