Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-17
Doom OF COP.
PROPHESIED BY
PARTYADHERENT
PREDICTS REPUBLICANS WILL
LOSE NEXT ELECTION
SAYS VOTERS DIseUsTED AT
TAFT's ATTITUDE
Claims Death of Dominant Political
Organization Is Certain Unless It
Is Purged of Aldrioh, Cannon,
5aIlinger and Their llk
Especial to The Herald. ]


SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15.-One of
the most influential business men of
San Francisco. man whose name is
i known in financial and commercial cir
cles throughout the entire state and
who always has supported the regu-
lar Republican organization, in nation
al, state and local affairs, and an origl-
nal Taft man, incidentally, predicts
the Republican party will be swept
completely out of power at the next
election. To The Herald he gave the
following interview this afternoon, un4
der pledge his name would not be di-
vulged for the present
He who runs may read. 1t is in
conceivable that any man possessed
of a modicum of intelligence, be he
Republican, Democrat or what-not,
should fail to comprehend the politi-
cal revolution that. in my judgment,
is inevitable, regardless of any course
the present national administration
may adopt from this time forth.
Il believe l was one of the first men
Taft. L had been led to believe, as
the whole country had, that Taft, a
graduate from the Roosevelt school of
politics, with that great reform presi-
dent standing sponsor for him, could
not fail to carry out the Roosevelt
policies, so-called, so far as it lay with
in his power to do so. But he has
not only failed to make a practical
move in the direction indicated by his
sagacious predecessor, but, if 1 can
read correctly, he has failed signally
to make an attempt to do so.
Thought Taft Would Keep Pledges
Il believe nine-tenths of the Repub-
liCan voters in this country expected
Taft had the strength and the courage
to keep his sacred pledges, expressed
and implied, in regard to tariff revis-
ion and other vital policies along the
lines which he knew Roosevelt favored
and by which the latter would have
fought, had he been renominated and
elected. And just as firmly do 1 be-
lieve that as great a proportion of the
voters are completely disgusted and
chagrined at the attitude of the coun-
try's chief magistrate.
Il speak for nobody but myself, but
l want to add large number of bust
ness and professional men in this city
who were among the most ardent sup
porters of Taft at the last general cleo
tion have said to me that not only
would they refuse to vote for him
again, should he be a candidate. but
they have begun to realize, as never
before, the utter incapacity of the
forces before which the president APP
pears to have bent the knee as a token
of respect-forces which patriotic citi-
zens, regardless of their political pref
erences, distrust and hate.
"As Aldrich, Cannon and their like
have for some time been unthinka BILE
as factors in our government, so Taft
himself is becoming.
President Received with Respect
"The Pacific coast states received
the president, on his recent tour of the
country. with that degree of respect
and enthusiasm to which the occupant
of the mightiest official post within
the gift of the people is entitled.
fear he mistook the hearty greeting
accorded him by the Republicans of
San Francisco as in the nature of an
Endorsement of his policies. If he did
he erred greatly. l personally know
many of the men who participated
prominently in his reception in this
city already, at that time, were be-
ginning to question his capacity to
handle the situation confronting him.
Some of these have since come to the
conclusion that their doubts and fears
were well founded.
Party's Death Will Be Suicide
'If the Republican party should die
it will be a case of suicide. And it
certainly will die, in my judgment,
unless it speedily purge itself of such
factors as Aldrich. Cannon, Balinger
and Knox, and indicate to Taft in
terms unmistakable. that it will hold
him responsible for the future good
behavior of the party.
Il dislike the term 'revolution'-it
smacks of blood. And a bloody revo-
luton : do not look for. But if the
country is not already in a state of
revolt there must be a big body of
mendacious reporters in the press gal
lery in the national capitol. But with
out their aid we all must know that
the nation is now facing a dire ex-
tremity, and that if the president does
not take the situation firmly in hand
and solve it, and that without delay
the system of government will be revo-
lutionized by an angry and long out
ragged people,"