New-York tribune., 1911-09-23
WORKS FOR GOOD Of ALL.
Continued from first page.

man with convictions Of his own and
with abundant courage to stand by them,
and that. while there were factions in
the party and it faced a crisis, the Re-
publican party never failed to win In
crisis, and 1t would again.
THE people glory in your spunk and
have come to know you as a safe and
conservative leader" said Mr. William
son. his statement eliciting the mo; en-
thusiastlc applause and he went on TO
Republicans. who had voted 5S for Taft,
3 for Roosevelt and for La Toilette
That, he declared. was representative Of
Republican sentiment in Illinois.
III had not been advised otherwise"
said the President, with a smile, in be-
ginning his speech, Il should think th1t
this was a political meeting"
His Political Experience.
He then pleaded guilty to the indict-
ment often laid against him that he
knew nothing of politics and was very
poor politician. Continuing. he said:
But the truth is that my politics were
limited 10 very early stage of my career.
Three or four years after | came TO the
bar ! was pretty active. so that | knew
something ~ ward politics. Since that
time my fate has been such as TO carry
me out OF politics. on to the bench, or
seven thousand miles away from any
American politics. But. as my dear friend
Senator Cullom says, my ambition lay in
an entirely different direction and was not
gratiied.
/ am not giving you to understand that
ran away from the nomination for the
Presidency, but the fact is that II was
not In the line which ] had marked out;
fight. l did the best | could, and, being
elected, | took up the discharge Of the
Presidency with certain tendencies, per-
haps ] ought TO call them, that l had
gathered from judicial experience.
OF course, | made a great many mis-
takes. shall continue during this term
to make them. That is hardly TO be
avoided, But there are certain things,
certain rules. that are rather easy TO
follow. One is that when YOU have made
a promise IL ia your obligation to keep IT.
Now. something about the vetoes. ! CON
sdered with reference to those. bills that
every one of them as II l had said, when
was on the platform running for the
Presidency, that | would veto just those
bills, for the reason that the whole Re-
II was necessary to maintain the industries
OF this country by protection sufficient 10
give them a living method Of competing
with foreign manufacturers, and the wh2ie
party had also said-if you could trust the
resolutions Of the conventions, even III
Iowa and Kansas and Wisconsin--that they
approved finding out the facts by Tarir
Board before we passed legislation that
might strike down our industries.
/ would have vetoed those bills under
any conditions, even If It would have cost
me my life. ! say that with all the earn
estness possible, because what ! did was
the result of a conviction as deep seated
any principle / ever had
Where He Draws the Line.
My friends. ] have tried 10 follow what
thought 10 be right I'm the administration
OF my office. There has been division
in the party, and | have been charged
with not being progressive, and therefore
TO he condemned What one does, this 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 az the reactlonary. Ihen there
is another class at the other end which is
extreme i'm it's view that the whole present
condition Is wrong and there must be rad
ical changes II we live at all.
Now, ] think-perhaps | am wrong ABOUT
it-but ! think ] am going along IN tne
middle OF the road between those two; at
least. that is what ! am trying 10 do. and
believe the legislation of this admins
tration has been along that line.
We have brought the railroads under a
condition of regulation that has satisfied
them that the country is bound to have
their business discharged according to law
and under such provision a 10 insure that
II will be according to law; and / have
heard no complaint that the present resu-