St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-09-13
President Taft's Task.

The press has already announced
the details of the trip President
Taft is to begin on Friday of this
week, the longest trip ever made by
a president of the United States. He
is to visit twenty-four different
states. They are, Massachusetts,
New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Nilsson
ri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colo
RADIO, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Cali
fornia, Oregon, Washington, Idaho,
Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Maryland.
The first thing to impress read
er is the difficulty of such trip
from a physical standpoint. To
spend nearly seven weeks con-
stantly moving with stops of only
a few hours at the longest and few
minutes in most instances suggests
difficulty. To make hundreds of
speeches to perfectly friendly and
sympathetic audiences during such
a trip would be a monstrous task.
But the president is not planning
the trip to give few words of -taffy
to his friends, he is to- go right into
the enemy's country to defend him
self before those who would con-
found him. TO perform such a feat
will be a herculean physical &C
complishment. 1t may well be
questioned whether it is a wise
policy for the PRESIDENT of the
United States to assume such physi-
cal hazard while serving as the head
of our national government. 1t GER
tainly is not warranted except in
time of serious danger to the well
we doubt if the country is facing
such crisis.
1t is President Taft rather than
the country who is facing a crisis
and that is only a political crisis.
The trip will decide whether or not
he is to head the party ticket and
whether or not he can lead his
party to success in the campaign OF
1912. So it is a political undertake
ing of no small magnitude and pre-
sents difficulties little if any less
than the physical strain. The pres
ident is going into the strongholds
of the insurgent movement within
his own party. The insurgents
as progressive, or more correctly as
radical, as the best interests of the
country warrant. Both Cummings
and LaFollette charge that he is
not progressive, that he has failed
to accomplish many of the things
they are demanding. While thei1
claims seem quite ridiculous tt
thinking people each of these mer
have followers who believe thai
change is progress and they must be
shown their error if their support
is to be recovered.
The greatest political difficulty
facing the president is the conviction
of the radical eleemnts that hi!
tariff policy is right. There is still
dissatisfaction with the Payne tariff
bill. The people need to be show
that it was all that could be accom-
plished at that time and that i
really is a amteriaI reduction of tn
tariff. These things have alread.
been said but the radical people re
main far from convinced. Canadian
reciprocity is not a pleasing &C
complishment in the territory tn
president is to travel and the ap
prevail of the agricultural elemen
must be secured before it can b
considered as a political asset to tn
president. With the insurgents h
will have the advantage of the com
plete reversal Of their leaders OF
this issue but the mass of the farm
ing population are still chary abou
the practical effect of this lay
should it be accepted by Canada
The veto of the tariff bills passe
by the democrats at the special ses
sion of congress must also be e1
planned. The president must cor
vince people with democratic ten
denotes that the republican tart
policy is the best one. He must cor
vince a still larger class that tn
proposed changes by the democrat
would not benefit the various classe
of people as was claimed for then