The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1908-09-16
TAFT ANSWERS BRYAN.
Bitter Attack OH Ncbraskan for Crit.
icising ROOsevelt's Letter.

i"i' oeVoted himself today principal
~ to political compositions. He wrote
an answer to Mr.. Bryan's comment on
president Roosevelt's Taft letter, after
which he spent the latter part of the
Day IN the preparation Of the two
speeches he is to make tomorrow
the first to a delegation from Green
neld, Ind; the other to the Methodist
negro preachers Of Ohio. Indiana,
Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
When Mr.. Taft was first shown
what Mr.. Bryan had said. the spon-
taneous answer was short and terse:
then Mr.. Taft dictated formal reply.
as follows:
| In my notification speech and in
other speeches made since, I ATTEMPT
ed to make clear my position on all
the issues Of the campaign. II Mr..
Bryan has been unable to understand
them 1 cannot make them clear.
stand on my record in Office and what
have said. Mr.. Bryan should devote
little time to his own record. from
which he seems to be strug-
Cling to separate himself, with
all the adroitness acquired in
IL years hunt for an issue on which
he can be elected president. The read
mess with which Mr.. Bryan in sue
cessive presidential campaigns passes
from one paramount issue to another
shows that the chief consideration
which has affected his selection of an
issue has been its possibility in at
tracting votes. He presents the re-
markable spectacle Of one who has
oeen seeking the presidency for IL
years without success and without Of
hcial responsibility, and without the
opportunity to test the various propo-
sitions which he has advocated for re-
forms, and yet of having the events
| demonstrate what a colossal failure
ne would have made in each instance
had he been permitted to carry out
MS proposals in the policies Of the
country. He does not now say wheth-
er ne is,stiil in favor of free coinage
OF silver. He does not now answer
the question whether, IL he were
president. and an exigency should
arise in which he would be called
| upon to exercise his discretion affirm
atively to maintaining the parity be-
tween gold and silver, he would ex-
ercise that discretion. He has not
permitted hismself to discuss in this
campaign the issue Of anti-imperial-
ism, which was the paramount issue
In 1900, as he declared, and in regard
to the policy Of the Republican party
mas been vindicated by the event, so
that tranquility and a good govern
ment exist in the Philippines and
even the Independents prefer Repub-
hcan victory to Mr.. Bryan's promises.
He now says that he favors the
rigid regulation of the railroads. In
1896 he expressed the view that the
railroads could not be regulated be-
cause the railroads would own the
regulators appointed by law and
therefore he was in favor of govern
ment ownership. Instead, by de-
scribing his platform not only as an
indication Of principle, but as a pro.
lection against uncomfortable issues.
ne has attempted to give bond to keep
the peace with respect to government
ownership. which by its mere an
nouncement shows 1t lack Of the vote
catching quality. He processes to
have been the father, and now n he
the heir, Of the Roosevelt policies, and
|yet IN no campaign Of three in which
ne has taken part, two of which he
ied' did he make them the paramount
issues. Indeed, in the Parker cam
paign he took occasion to charge Mr..
Roosevelt with militaryism and being
completely subject to the influence
OF corporations, only to see him
win the greatest peace triumph of the
world, and secure such an effective
stamping out Of corporate abuses as
10 elicit the admiration of the entire
country.
Mr. Bryaa processes to be the
great friend Of labor, and yet he was
one OF the chief supporters in the
passage Of the Gorman-Wilson bill
that made labor helpless for four
years. He then proposed as remedy
FOR the disasters to which labor was
thus exposed the issuing of a 5O-cent
dollar, which would have cut i'm half
such wages as there were and would
have led to the hardest kind of strug-
gle on labor's part TO restore ito wages