The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1908-10-07
/. mr.. ROOSEVELT
LAUDS TAFT.
True Friend of Reform and
Foe of Abuses.
NAMES HIM POLITICAL HEIR

tration--can Be Trusted to Do Justice
to Both Capital and Labor-A Cham
pion Of the Right and True Repre-
sentative Of All the People.
In the following letter of President
Roosevelt to Mr.. Conrad Kohrs of
Montana he tells why voters should
support William III. Taft at the polls.
Mr.. Conrad Kohrs of Helena, Mont,
is an old time Montana cattleman and
one of the most prominent citizens of
Montana. He and the president came
into close relationship more than TWEEN
ty years ago, when they were both
members of the Montana Stock Grow
ers' association, the president being at
that time the representative of the
little Missouri stock growers in the
association. The intimacy has been kept
up ever since. MIR. Kohrs is one of
the pioneer citizens of the northern
Rocky mountain region and one Of the
men who has taken a leading part In
its great development.
Mr.. Kohrs letter was called forth by
Mr.. Bryan's statement that he (Mr.
Bryan was the presidents heir and
natural successor:
Sycamore Hill,
Oyster Bay, N. Y. Sept. 8. 1908.
My Dear Mr.. Kohrs-I have received
your letter about the candidacy of Mr..
Taft, the man who feel is in an especial
sense the representative of all that in
which I most believe in political life.
Every good citizen should desire to see
both prosperity and justice. prosperity
and fair and righteous dealing as between
man and man, obtain permanently in this
great republic. AS a people we are justly
proud of our business industry OF our en-
ergy and intelligence in our work, and IT
is entirely right that we should ask our
selves as to any given course OF conduct
''Will It be prohtable?" But 1t is also no
less emphatically true that the bulk Of
our people, the plain people who found in
Abraham Lincoln their especial champion
and spokesman. regard the question, rs
this morally right?' as even more impor.
tant than the question, rs this prohta
ble?' when applied to any given course or
conduct. Indeed in the long run our peo-
pie are sure to find that in all dealings
alike in the business and political world
what is really profitable is that which is
morally right. The last few years have
seen a great awakening Of the public con-
science and the growth Of stern deter
mination TO do away with corruption ana
unfair dealing, political. economic, social
1t is urgently necessary that this great
reform movement should go on. But no
reform movement is healthy If ii goes on
, by spasms. il It is marked by periods OF
frenzed advance. followed, as such peri
DDS of frenziad advance must always be
followed. by equally violent periods of re-
action. The revolutionary and the reac-
tionary really play into one another $
hands to the extent that each by his eX-
cesses necessarily tends to arouse such
disgust. such a feeling Of revolt. in the
minds of qLIet people as temporarily to
restore the other to power.
To permit the direction Of our public af'
fairs to fall alternately into the hands OF
revolutionaries and reactionaries, of the
extreme radicals OF unrest and of the big
oted conserN atives who recognize no
wrongs to remedy, would merely mean
that the nation had embarked on fever
ish course of violent oscillation which
would be frcught with great temporary
trouble and would produce no adequate
good in the end. The true friend of re
form, 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 a little more than
makes good what he does promise and
that while steadily advancing, he never
perunits himself to be led into foolish ex-
cesses which would damage the very cause
he champions In Mr.. Taft we have a
man who combines all OF these qualities
TO a degree which no other man In our
public life since the civil war has sur
passed To a flaming hatred of injustice
10 a scorn of all that is base and mean, to
q hearty sympathy with the oppressed
he unites entire disinterestedness, courage
both moral and physical of the very high
est type and a kindly generosity OF nature
which makes him feel that all of his fell
low countrymen are in very truth his
friends and brothers. that their interests
arc his and that all his great qualities are
to be spent with lavish freedom in their
service The honest man of means, the
honest and law abiding business man, can
feel safe In his hands because or the very
4 fact that the dishonest man or great
wealth, the man who swindles or robs his
fellows, would not so much as dare to de-
fand his evil doing in Mr. Tafts presence
The honest wageworker the honest Ia
boring man. the honest farmer the honest
mechanic or small trader or man or small
means can feel that in a peculiar sense
Mr. Taft WI be his representative be-
cause OF the very fact that he has the
same scorn for the dem1gogue that he has
for the corruptionist and that he would
front threats of personal violence from 4
MOI with the unquailing and lofty indlf-
ference with which he would 'front.' the
bitter anger Of the weaithiest and most
powerful corporations. Broad though his
sympathies are. there is in him not the
slightest tinbe of weakness. No consider
alton Of personal interest any more than
of fear for his personal safety. could male
him swerve a hairs breadth from the
course which he regards as right and IN
the interest Of the whole people
/ have naturally a peculiar interest In
the success OF Mr.. Taft and in seeing him
backed by a majority in both houses Of
congress which viii heartily support his
policies For the last ten years, while
have been governor of New York and
president have been thrown into the
closest intimacy with him, and he and
have on every essential point stood In
heartiest agreement, shoulder to shoulder
We have the same views as to what is de-
manded by the national interest and hon
or. both within our own borders and as
regards the relations OF this nation with
other nations. There is no fight for de-
cency and fair dealing which I have
wared In which have not had his heart
Iost and most effective sympathy and sup
port. and thu policies for which stand