Arizona republican., 1911-09-23
Taft Says His Conscience
Would Not Permit Him
to be a Party to Destruc-
tion of Independent Ju-
dietary.
MANLY ADDRESS
BRINGS SUPPORT
II Have Made Mistakes
and Shall Make More, 1"
Said Executive, But
Have Tried to D o
Right.

PEORIA. i'll, sept -Z--lreSlucnt
Taft had a heart to heart talk here
tonight with the leaders of the two
factions of the republican party in Il
Inois: he defined his status as to
pIogressiveness. pleaded guilty To be-
ing a very poor politician, aCknowl-
edged again his ambitions had lain i'm
the direction of the office of chief
justice of the supreme court. rather
than the presidency; admitted he had
made many mistakes. but asserted. as
president. he had tried TO do what he
thought was right.
What the future held for him he did
not know, but he will go ahead doing
the best he could. Taft declared he
is not allied to extremists of his par
~. either conservative or progressive.
but had tried To take the middle ground
between the two.
But we middle Of the road people
believe we are the real progressives."
he said. because You do not make
progress in great strides, YOU make it
step by step
The president was in a serious mood
Declared that while it might not be
So for time, the people i'm the end
would distinguish between fact and
fiction and recognize campaign pur-
poses only" The speech made by the
president is the most significant and
interesting OF the trip SO far. He is
still downcast by the defeat Of reci-
proCity by Canada. but his only ref
erence to that subject came earlier in
the day when he addressed the work
men Of a local manufacturing estab-
lishment where farming imprements
are made.
4 am sorry Canada does not care
to have closer commercial relations
with US he said IF reciprocity had
been adopted. we could have gotten
our agricultural implements into Ca
NADIA at a substantial decrease. But l
guess We can get along"
The presidents political speech fol-
lowed a luncheon given in his nonor by
the state republican central committee
and was attended by party leaders
from all over the state. Governor
Deneen was unable to be present be-
cause Of a broken leg. The Lorimer
faction was not represented. Leaders
We'd with one another in pledging their
support to Taft, and predicted he will
be renominated and re- elected. Sena-
tor CullOm gave an intimate talk on
his associations with Taft He said
with the Chicago convention not six
weeks off in 1908, Taft told him If
Chief Justice Fuller could be induced
10 resign. he would prefer that honor
to all others. IF I had not been ad-
Vised otherwise" said the president
with smile. Il should think this pO-
litical meeting" Taft then pleaded
guilty to the indictment often laid
against him, that he knew nothing Of
politics
But the truth is" he continued. my
politics is limited to a very early stage
in my career. am not giving YOU to un-
derstand that I ran away from the nom
inatiOn for presidency. but the fact is.
it vas not in the line which | had
marked out. but being nominated. and
getting into the fight. I did the best
I could. and being elected, took up the
discharge Of the presidency with Ger
tain tendencies. perhaps I ought to
call them. that l had gathered from ju-
dicial experience OF course I made
a great many mistakes. l shall cor
tinue during this term to make them
This is hardly to be avoided But
there are certain things. certain rules.
that ii is rather easy to follow One
of them is when you have made a
promise. il is your obligation to keep
it,
Now. something about vetoes r
considered with reference to those bills
] was as much under obligation to veto
every one Of them as if | had said
when on the platform running for the
presidency that I would veto them. for
the reason the party had taken a DO
.ition that it was necessary to main
tain the industries of the country by
protection sufficient to give them 4
living method of competing with for
eign manufacturers: and the who'e
party also said, il YOU could trust the
resolutions Of the convention, even in
Iowa, Kansas and Wisconsin. they ap-
proved finding out the facts by a tariff
board before we passed legislation that
might strike down industries I would
have vetoed those bills under any con-
ditiOns. even if il had cost me my
life. So far as the veto of the Ari-
zOna bill is concerned | Just vetoed
that because / could do nothing else.
! wrote M heart into that veto Nv
friends, / tried to follow what I
thought right in the administration of
my office. There has been division in
the party. and l have been charged
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