The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-08-20
TAFT AND ROOSEVELT.

The dispatches yesterday morning indi
Gated very clearly what has been grad
ually becoming evident to the public
mind, that President Taft and ex-Pres-
ident Roosevelt cannot possibly work
together IN the present day politics
Of this country. Ex-President Roose"
velt has sort Of sentimental grip upon
what he calls his policies, meaning ap
parently lawlcss intrusion into the af-
fairs of this mountain and coast region
for the tying up of the natural re-
sources and the retardation OF develop
ment. President Taft, on the other
hand, man well versed in the law
and accustomed to framing his opinions
and his acts on the requirements of
the law, does not find himself able to
take the Roosevelt view. The Roose-
welt idea is to do things; if the law
permits. well and good; if the law does
not sanction, why so much the worse
for the law; the things must be done
anyway. President Taft, on the other
hand, looks to. the sanction and author
ity of the law for what he does, as
chief executive. and does not believe
that the executive department should
either break or make the laws.
Here is a case of opposites; an ir-
recoucilable conflict. The lines are
strictly and firmly drawn. Mr.. Roose-
velt is surrounded by clamorous
gang of friends who accept his ideas,
who carried out his policies while he
was in office, and who undertook to
carry them out when a different idea
of the authority of the law came in,
IN the person of President Taft. Then
these ''doers' came to grief, of course,
Now they naturally flock to Mr., Roose
welt to nurse their sores, He does IL
effectually. They surround him at all
times. They show him the difference
between what he did as President and
what he wanted them to continue to do,
and the comparatively tame, spiritless
policies of President Taft under the
law. This spectacular overriding of
the law to which they were accustomed
is forbidden now, and they have come
to grief. Mr.. Roosevelt sympathizes
with them, thinks them abused, and
would like to restore them to power so
that his policies could be carried out
irrespective of law This President
Taft will not and can not permit. The
clash is inevitable, but both are reluc
tant to como to an open breach. This
breach, however, appears to be immi'
nent. and is expected by everybody.
There is no doubt, however, but that
the Taft idea must prevail in this crisis
as between the two men, as it must
prevail in the practice of the republic
if we are to have republican state
and popular government, The Roose-
welt idea naturally leads to dictatorship
and the setting aside of the law in
favor of administrative process, free
and untrammeled by any statute or by
any court. That means a personal die,
tatorship, which, it must be confessed,
if exercised by ex-President Roosevelt,
would be as near as he could make it,
in the interest Of the people as he
counted those interests. The country,
however, is not convinced of the neces-
sity of dictatorship, much as it may
admire Mr.. Roosevelt; and his idea as
to the effectiveness of his governmental
policies, while undoubtedly keen and
forceful, is either in advance of the
times or far behind them. Dictatorship
has been left out of the American idea
heretofore. If the American ideas shall
have to square themselves on the dicta,
torship line, the people of this country
could probably get no one better for
their first dip into the sea of dictator
ship than by taking Mr., Roosevelt for
their first ruler and exemplar But the
longest life that any man can live will
not be long enough to see the day when
the American people will consent to
that change in our methods Of govern
ment.