The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1908-09-14

lowing letter written by President
Roosevelt to Conrad Kohrs of this
city, in reply to one from the old
ranchman. asking the president why
he preferred the election of Judge
Taft to that of Mr.. Bryan, has just
been made public.
Mr.. Kohrs is an old time Montana
cattle man and one of the most prom
inent citizens of Montana. He and
the president came into close rela-
tionship more than twenty years ago
when they were both members of the
Montana Stock Growers 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.
Mr.. Kohrs is one of the pioneer citi-
zens Of the northern Rocky mountain
region and one of the men who have
taken a leading part in its great de-
|velopInent.
The letter is a political masterpiece
and logical and clear cut answer
to some of the sophistries which Mr..
Bryan has been spreading over the
country as the basis for his appeal
for votes. The text Of the letter fol-
lows:
"Sagamore Hill,
"Oyster Bay, N. Y.
September 8, 1908.
"My Dear Mr.. Kohrs:
4 have received your letter about
the candidacy Of Mr.. Taft, the man
who l 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 deal
ing as between man and man. obtain
permanently in this great republic.
AS people we are justly proud of
our energy and intelligence in our
work; and it is entirely right that we
should ask ourselves as to any given
course of conduct, Will 1t berprofit-
able" But it is also no less en-
phatically true that the bulk Of our
people, the plain people who found in
Abraham Lincoln their especial cham
pion and spokesman, regard the
question, is this morally right?' as
even more important than the ques-
ton, rs this profitable? when applied
to any given course of conduct. In
deed, in the long run our people are
sure to find in all dealings, alike in
the business and the political world,
what is really profitable is that which
is morally right. The last few years
have seen great awakening to do
away with corruption and unfair deal
ing. political, economic, social. 1t is
urgently necessary that this great re-
form movement should go on. But
no reform movement is healthy II it
goes on by spasms; If It is marked by
periods of frenzied advance, followed
as such periods of frenzied advance
must always be followed, by equally
violent periods of reaction. The re-
volutionary and the reactionary really
play into one another's hands, to the
extent that each by his excesses nee
essarily tends to arouse such disgust,
such a feeling of revolt. in the minds
Of quiet people, as temporarily to re-
store the other to power. To permit
the direction of our public affairs to
fall alternately into the hands of rev.
olutionaries and reactionaries, of the
extreme radicals of unrest and of the
bigoted conservatives who recognize
no wrong to remedy, would merely
mean that the nation had embarked
on feverish course of violent os-.
cillation which would be fraught with
great temporary trouble, and would
produce no adequate good in the end.
The true friend of reform, the true
foe of abuses, is the man who stead
lily 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 little more
than makes good what he does prom
Use, and that, while steadily advanc-
ing, he never permits himself to be
led into foolish excesses which would
damage the very cause he champions.
In Mr.. TAFT we have man who COM
bines all Of these qualities to de-
gree which no other man in our. pub
lie life since the civil war has sur
passed To flaming hatred Of in
justice, to scorn of all that is base
and mean, to hearty sympathy with
the oppressed, he unites entire disin-
terestedness, courage both moral and
physical Of the very highest type. and
q kindly generosity Of nature which
makes him feel that all Of his fellow
countrymen are in very truth his
friends and brothers, that their inter-
ests are his, and that all his great
,alities 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 Of tho very fact
that the dishonest man Of. great