The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-03-06

WEAKENs CANDIDACY.
1.-THE introduction of such a contest
at this time, dragging in, as it neces-
sarily will, new and personal issues
which are quite foreign to the great
progressive policies for which the Re-
publican party stands, cannot fall to
weaken whichever candidate is event
ually nominated in June. If. as re-
suit, that candidate is defeated in No
vember, the government may be
thrown into the hands of a truly reac-
tionary party for years to come.
Mr.. Stimson said that President Taft
had devoted himself increasingly to the
carrying out of constructive work
along progressive lines. The admins
tration was begun, he said. upon
plan that had 1.-The thorough approval
and deliberate endorsement of Mr..
Roosevelt" and to that plan President
Taft had adhered rigidly.
''Is 1t fair now to criticize him. ask
ed Mr. Stimson, because, in faithful
ly carrying out this pledge of four
years ego, in performing this vitality
useful though inconspicuous work, he
has not dominated the public attention
with dramatic display"
President Taft pledged himself. said
Mr.. Stimson, to a progressive de-
velopment" OF the work that President
Roosevelt had inaugurated, and the
completion and perfection of the ma
chinery by which the moral standards
set by President Roosevelt may be
maintained"
ITO this work Mr.. Taft has devoted
himself" said Mr.. Stimson. He thus
deliberately renowned more striking
methods Of reform, and set himself to
the undramatic and inconspicuous
public service which leaves out all
thought Of a mans own aggrandiZe-
ment.
HE has repeatedly, for example,
urged upon congress to place upon the
classified civil service virtually all of
the presidential offices; a measure
which would at one blow strike out
most of the enormous political power
of the president.
ALWAYS TOWARD PURITY.
THE results of this deliberate self
abnegation are shown in the great
legislative and constructive accomp-
lishments of his term. Mr.. Taft's
standard of administration, like those
of Mr.. Roosevelt, have been con-
stantly toward purity and elevation in
our public service and our public life.
with great patience. with unswerv-
ing courage, with absolute disinterest-
edness, in these excitable times when
mems minds are full of a readiness for
criticism and a desire for experiment,
he has carried on the burden of adj
ministration and has carried it for
ward. 1t Will be a reflection upon our
own power of fair minded and candid
judgment if we do not recognize the
merit as we'll as the difficulty of that
achievement now
Reform methods of government adj
vocated by many of the progressives,
and in part by Mr.. Roosevelt, were
severely criticized by Mr.. Stimson. He
denounced the recall of judges as des-
tined to bring the courts down into
the welter of politics. and said that
1T was no test of Republicans pro-
gressiveness to require his support to
systems that had been successful in
certain states.
AS TO REFERENDUM.
ut is mere narrowness and intol-
erance to insist upon a remedy which
has proved effective in one place, as
the necessary test of sincere and in
telligent reform in another" he said.
1T is even more erroneous to make
fidelity to one of these schemes of To-
cal government in one of the COM
monwealths a test for what is proper
and appropriate in the government of
the nation at large"
Mr.. Stimson said that the referendum
! had apparently worked well in Ore
gon, but that in a fffty-year's trial in
New York, as applied to constitutional
| questions. it had been failure
Should the national Republican
who lives in New York be read out of
this party he asked. because he de-
| eiines to accept the referendum as the
best remedy to cure the abuses of
popular government in his own state
drag into national camapign the
y