The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-10-12
TAFT DOES THINGS.

I
tCor tinred from Page one:l
vital of all the great questions affect
| ing the prosperity of the nation.
! It was a crisis!
1t was no time for continuing a
policy of playing for popularity!
And Mr.. Taft was big enough, broad
| enough, wise enough to risk personal
| misunderstanding in ordec to bring
| relief from panic and depression.
With a courage far greater than
many have given him credit for he
| followed his sincere conviction of what
was right and best at that time and
! signed the bill.
| You know the storm of pitiless criti-
cisnl-even shameful personal abuse
| that was hurled at him. You know
| also how firmly, patiently, yet I'M
| finehingly, he met it,
And you know furth Grand in the
spirit of American fair play you are
forced to admjt-that Mr. Taft WAS
RIGHT, and his critics were WRONG!
For the tariff has indicated itself
unquestionably and triumphantly!
If there had been nothing in the
bill but Mr.. Taft's plan for the modern
and scientific tariff board, that alone
would stamp it as making an epoch
in the tariff history of the United
States.
The tariff board takes the tariff out
Of politics and makes lt-what it
should be-a strictly scientific, pros
perity developing measure. 1t is no
longer a mere plaything of politics.
Careful, exact investigation takes the
place of guess work and 'hit-or miss
experiment
The maximum and minimum clause
in the tariff-put there by Mr.. Taft
simply means that we will be able to
make favorable trade arrangem ents
with those foreign countries that will
give US special privileges on our man
fractures.
trade has reached-snce the tariff law
was passed-the highest point ever
known in the history of the country.
WI Ting Fang, that great Chinese
statesman. has publicly stated that
President Taft, more than any other
one man, is responsible for the new
republic of China. The nations of
Europe and Asia were just about to
divide China up among themselves
when Mr.. Taft called halt. The new.
republic-another world advance in
mocracy-resulted.
1t was President Taft who settled a
dangerous misunderstanding that had
been created between this country
and Japan. And he it was who Sc
cured the new Japanese treaty, insur-
ing peace on the Pacific, and friend
ship instead of possible bloodshed.
When Russia arrogantly assumed
a position that might have involved
her in war with any other nation but
the United States, Mr.. Taft solved the
problem in his quiet, effective way.
The postoffice department is now on
a self-sustaining basis-for the first
time in its history. Mr.. Taft did it!
The postal savings bank has already
deposits of several millions of dollars.
Very much of this money would have
left the country had it not been for
the great postal banks. Mr.. Taft Sc
cured the postal savings bank.
Mr.. Taft-in immense contrast to
the extravagan of the years imme-
diately preceding his administration
reduced the expenditures of the gov
eminent by THIRTY-FIVE million
dollars annually.
Although President Taft has held
office less than four years his record
of prosecutions of illegal trusts is
greater than that of any other pres1-
dent In a little over three years
there have been forty-f1ve prosecutions
as against twenty-five in the seven and
one-half years preceding Mr.. Tafts
administration. There is every reason
to expect that under Mr.. Taft the
trust problem can and will be solved
within the next four years.
Here are just few other prominent
measures for which Mr.. Taft is re-
sponsible:
Universal arbitration treaties-tc>
Danish war from the earth-were, I'M |
fortunately, not ratified owing to the |
hostility of a political minority. A
corporation tax, yielding an income of
thirty million dollars annually, and
government supervision of corporations ,
have been provided. The Panama |
Canal has been pushed toward early
completion with no hint of scandal /
Irrigation projects in the great west
have been aided and extended. I'm
authorized railroad rate increases have
been blocked. Thousands of bucket
shops and "get-rich-quick'' swindlss
have been destroyed. Arizona and New
Mexico have been admitted as sovereign
state. The white slave traffic has
been practically destroyed. A Bureau
of Mines, to avert accidents and safe
guard miners has been established.
President Taft is a real progressive.
He reverses the past, recognizes the
necessities of the present, and adapts
the experience of both to the needs of
the future.
He has a definite program. He knows
what he proposes to do, and how he
proposes to do it.
Some so-calIed. progressiyes are fill
OF sound and motion-but they fail to
arrive They are like the grinning boy
OF the hobby-horse, wild with entkus-
iasm and action. imagining himself