Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-02-16
MORE LOYALTY NEEDED.


abuse appeared only in the newspapers
of the opposite political faith from
that of the president, but times and
parties have changed, and ROW one
faction of the republican party Goa
siders it to be its policy to keep up
such practices. The purposes for
such a course are so apparent that
they need not be specified. The same
papers that had but few words of ap-
prevail for president Roosevelt while
he was the nations chief executive,
now villify President Taft. who was
Mr.. Roosevelt's personal choice and
strong personal friend, and draw com
parsons between the two men which
they seek to prove are to the discredit
of the present executive, and at the
same time they laud the ex-president
and predict that when he comes home
from Africa he will disapprove of
Taft's course and again become
candidate for president himself.
Such reasoning is very grotseque,
in view of the fact that Roosevelt and
Taft are such warm personal friends
and that each of them has always been
very loyal 20 the other. Taft gave
Roosevelt splendid support while
Roosevelt was president, and Roose-
velt had an out-spoken admiration for
Taft and believed that he was pre-
eminently the man to carry on his
policies. In fact so close we're the
two men In their friendship and their
beliefs that the most common charge
against Taft in the last presidential
campaign was that he would simply
be an echo of Roosevelt and do his
constant bidding. It is believed by
many of the presidents best friends
that it was to disprove any such
purpose on the part of the ex president
that ne decided to take himself out
of the country for year or more, as
he mas done on his African hunting
expedition.
The two presidents, while workiE
for the same ultimate end in the
policies, differ very radically il their
methods of accomplishing them.
Roosevelt was noisy, impulsive.
bombastic and at many times bullying
and abusive in his methods. and no
DOUBT there were instances in which
this course accomplished the desired
results better than a more pacific
course would have done. There are
some men who have to be brutality
forced to do what is right. and fear of
a strong power is often very effective
in bringing them to time. There are
many other occasions where such a
course defeats its own purposes.
Afr. Taft is OF an entirely different
cast. He goes about things more
quietly, methodically and carefully,
and perhaps more surely and effective
ly. He is only in the beginning of
his administration. The country has
scarcely had Tins to get accustomed
to the difference in methods of the
two men. He has had unfavorable
conditions TO contend with. among the
most trying of which. perhaps, is the
refusal of the representatives of
faction of his party to give him honest
and loyal support.
Mr.. Roosevelt was president for
seven years, and what he accomplish
ed was not brought about in year or
two, but by hard fighting year after
year.
President Taft has a hard task
ahead of him and should not be con-
demned if he fails to carry through
dozen great reforms in ten or eleven
months. He begins with the pledges
of his party's platform and is calling
upon the representatives of the party
in Congress, whether they are of the
so-called progressiyes or so-called
stand, patters, to prove their loyalty
to the platform. We have faith that
if given fair chance he will be able
to show, when the record is complete,
that he has justified the faith of his
loyal supporters that he has been con
stantly laboring for the good of the
country.
Other presidents have been equally
criticised and some of them abused
thousand times worse-particularly
President Grant Even the martyred
Lincoln was constantly and cruelty
vilIified. A case in point, concerning
the latter, was referred to by a speaker
at Lincoln Day observances in Mil
Waukee, a few evenings ago.
"My first impressions of Lincoln
were unfavorable, and the speaker.
s'Those impressions came to me
when a lad of s. during Lincoln's
second campaign for the presidency,
when my home was about two and