The Topeka state journal., 1911-09-23

was limited to a very early stage "a
my career. Three or four years after
came to the bar was pretty active,
so that I knew something or Waro
politics. Since that time my tate mas
been such as to carry me out OF pom
! tics onto the bench or z 200 miles away
from any American politics. But as
my dear friend, Senator Cullom, says
my ambition lay in an entirely d1ner-
ent direction and was not gratif1ed.
Was Not in His Line.
Il am not giving you to understand
that ] ran away from the nomination
for the presidency. but the fact that II
was not in the line which had marked
out, but being nominated and getting
into the fight I did the best / could
and, being elected I took up the dis
charge of the presidency with certain
tendencies. perhaps 1 ought to eall
them that 7 had gathered from Judlclai
experience
FOf course, I made great many
mistakes. I shall continue during this
term to make them. That is hardly TO
be avoided But there are certain
things, certain rules that 1t IS rather
easy to follow. One is that when you
have made promise it is your ODl1-
gatiCn to keep it.
Now, something about the vetoes- 1
considered with reference to those bills
that l was as much under an obliga-
ton to veto every one of them as II l
had said when I was on the platform
running for the presidency, that would
veto Just those bills, for the reason
that the whole Republican party had
taken the position that it was necessary
to maintain the industries Of this coun-
try by protection sufficient to give them
living method of competing with Tor
eign manufacturers; and the whore
party had also said, if you could trust
the resolutions of the conventions, even
in Iowa and kansas and Wisconsin
that they approved finding out the ractS
by tariff board before we passed leg
islation that might strike down our
Industries I would have vetoed those
bills under any conditions even II 1t
would have cost me my life. I say
that with all the earnestness possible,
because what did was the result OF a
conviction as deep seated as any prin-
ciple I ever had
Veto of Arizona Bill.
so far as the veto of the Arizona
bill is concerned, I just vetoed that be-
cause I could not do anything else
I wrote my heart into that Veto
My friends, 1 have tried to follow
what I thought to be right in the ad-
ministration of my office. There mas
been a division in the party and l have
been charged with not being progress
sive and therefore to be condemned
What one man thinks is progressive
another man thinks is retrograde- There
are however, two great Schools-one
which believes that the present IS not
perfect. perhaps, but that changes from
it would be dangerous. They are the
strictly conservative and perhaps are
known as the reactionary. Then there
is another class at the other end, Whlch
is extreme in its view that the whole
present condition is wrong and there
must be radical changes if we can live
at all.
s.Now. I think-perhaps I am wrong
about it-but I think I am going along
in the middle of the road between those
Two: at least. that is what 1 am try
ing to do and I believe the legislation
of this administration has been along
that line.
der a condition of regulation that has
satisfied them that the country Is
bound to have their business dlscnarseo
according to 4aw and under such super
vision as to insure that it will be ac-
cording to law; and I have heard no
complaint that the present regulations
do not secure that result
with respect to the trusts, we are
in a transition period, in this sense
that the supreme court has declded
what the law is, and now business mas
cot to square itself with that law w e
might as we'll make up our minds TO
much AS we will as to what the law
ought to be, but the supreme court mas
said what the law is and have learn
ed that when they have to do SO, they
can adjust their affairs without en-
dangering the progress to which they
thought some other method absolutely
Indispensable
States Are Experimenting.
teVVith resDect to much of what has
been discussed as to being progressive
the federal government has nothing to
do That is a matter for state govern
ments to settle and state governments
are making different experiments ana
7 Dres11ue the conservative states will
1vait 10 see how these experiments
work out: but occasionally there crops
out something extreme in the form of
a judicial recall in a constitution ten
dered TO the federal government for
snnrovaI Under those conditions,
when a proposition is made that seems
to me to destroy all possibility or
good government in the maintenance
Of an untrummeled. judiciary, it is the
function of the executive when his
Judgment is invoked under the consti-
tuition to say that he disapproves that
feature, and that. so far as he Is con-
cerned, he will allow no state to come
into the Union with any such radical
heresy expressed in its constitution
and with the sanction of the federal
government upon it.
MY friends. I did not expect to
make a political speech this afternoon.
/ want to thank the gentlemen present
for their cordial expressions What
the future is 1 know not. only know
this, that I am going ahead to do the
best I can and / am going through
this country on this trip and try to
explain some of the issues which have
arisen and make them clear to those
people whom I can reach with my
voice or through the kindly press if
t--ey report what say-becauSe be-
Iieve that the time has come for sober
second thought. I have confidence
that the American people can always
be trusted. not only to exercise their
sober second thought but also a dis
sense as to what is fact
and what is fustian, after a time. It
won't happen at once and sometimes
<r -cTf f0r n
die. and that is not quite so satisfac-
tory; but you in the middle of the road
PEOPLE who are not extremists are, we
believe, the real progressives, because