The Mena weekly star., 1909-07-08
WARNING FROM TAFT
REPUBLICANS MUST KEEP THEiH PROMISES OR BECOME THE
 MINORITY PARTY.
WAS AN IMPRESSIVE UTTERANCE
The Sentiment Was Wildly Cheered by the 1900 Vale Graduates Attend ing the Annual Alumni Feast st New Haven, Conn.

New Haven, Conn, July 2.--Presi- dent Taft paused in the course of au after dinner speech to l,S00 graduates of Yale. gathered at the annual alumni feast. to issue serious note of warn ing to congress and to the leaders Of the Republican party The president declared that if the party which placed in him in power and so long had con- irolled the government failed to live up to it's promises and the expectations of the people. it would be relegated to the position of minority opposition
 Mir. Taft had been speaking humor- ously of recollections of his own col. lege days which made his sudden change to serious tone of the import ant utterance upon national affairs all the more impressive. The president spoke extemporaneously and his ut. terances as to the duty of the party of which he is nominally the head seemed the result of sudden impulse rather than of studied intent
 Mir. Taft made no effort to explain his warnings. The Yale men caught his meaning and the significance of the remarks coming at this time of the tariff debate however. and they stood and cheered for several minutes. He had been speaking of Secretary of War Dickinson, a Democrat upon whom Yale conferred an honorary degree. He taunted the democracy with the best of good humor as to its present day condition. and this led him into the declaration as to his own party.
 After paying tribute to others upon whom the University conferred hon. orary degrees. the president came down to Secretary Dickinson and sad
 You went south of the Mason and Dixons line to get secretary of war to give a degree to. It Is well that you did because he Is going to build the Panama canal and other universi ties will follow where you got in early. One of the difficulties that has con. fronted Brother Dickinson, out in Chi. sago. where he has q temporary resi-, dence. was discussion as to what con. stitutcd an orthodox Democrat and when he really ought to be counted as a Democrat, If he allowed himself to go into Republican cabinet Well when you come to discuss what Is a Democrat these days. you are present ed with very much the same difficulty that have before me now in giving certain rules for the construction of the pure food law as .e what whisky is They say there Is straight whisky, and then there is 'recitifled whisky and then there Is imitation whisky. Now. speak with good deal of hesi. tation in saying whether my friend Dickinson is straight Democrat, or 'rectiiied Democrat. would not dare to say in his presence that he was an imitation Democrat.
 NOW my dear friends in suggesting differences among Democrats I am far from ignoring some difficulties that there are on our side. remember in 1904 that MT Charles Francis Adams gave what 1 may call perfectly good Adams reason for the election of the Democratic candidate over the Re publican candidate. He said that one of the essentials of successful free government was in able. patriotic and efficient opposition and that as the Democratic party had utterly failed In reaching that ideal he was in favor of putting the Republican party in that place. Now l venture to say that while that may not be the reason which shall move the American people 1t is true that if the Republican party does not live up to its promises and what the people expect of it. it will be relegated to a position like that oi his maiestys opposition. And there fore I may say by way of caveat that we have troubles of our own.'