The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-09-06
WILSoN-THAT'S ALL

w
is certain as that Christmas is COM
ing.
Two years ago the democracy car
ried every doubtful state in the I'm
ion against united republican party
led by the redoubtable Theodore
Roosevelt in person. And he was a
much greater popular hero than he is
today when he is leading only a bolt
ing faction of the republican party.
The split in the republican party
comes so near to halying it that it's Il
close guess whether Taft or Roosevelt
will get the majority of republican
votes
The democratic party, on the other
hand-as the colonel or a mute would
say-presents an absolutely unbroken
front. There is no serious discord in
its ranks-no organized detection
from its standard There may be a
few individual desertions here and
there, but taken all together they
form a negligible number compared
to the disguised republicans who Will
vote for Wilson.
The Taft republican or the Roose-
welt republican who thinks that his
candidate has a chance OF winning
next November ought TO have his
head opened and its works examined.
Something will snap soon if he is al.
lowed TO keep on winding himself up
and then letting himself 90 in that
sort of batty way And certainly the
Rooseyeltian. near Dowieite who i'm
AGNES himself standing with his big
chief at Armageddon. should give
heed TO that truest and most impress
i've of all scriptural declarations: "A
house divided against itself shall not
stand"
Roosevelt may be something OF a
wizard when it comes to swallowing
his own words and doing his fayorite
protean stunts, but for the life of him
ne can't make a half equal more than
the whole That is to say, he can't
take a part of the republican party
and make it a more potential factor
in the elections than the whole repub-
lican party And assuredly, if he
couldn't win two years ago with the
whole republican party behind him,
how can he expect to win this year
with only a bunch of hero-worship-
ping republican "progressives" sup
porting his candidacy?
The fact is, he probably didn't
start out in this campaign with any
expectation of winning. He was
merely bent on beating Taft, but he
is finding that task so easy that he
has just naturally become swelled up
with the idea that he represents
about all there is of the republican
party. But he doesn't and he will
realize after the votes are counted in
November that there is a vast differ
ence between running as the unani-
mously named candidate of a great
political party flushed with long-con-
tinued success, and making the race
as the self-imposed candidate of only
recalcitrant element of that party.
For the Roosevelt following is made
up almost entirely of eX-republicans,
and while the third term party may
make a pretty creditable showing in
some of the big pivotal states, it
won't come anywhere near carrying
any of them. The preponderance OF
the republican party has never been
so great at any time that it could lose
a third of half of its voting strength
and still come anywhere near prevail
ing N the elections 1t will thus be
seen that as rival contestants for re-
publican support, Taft and Roosevelt
are both under a fatal handicap.
Neither of them is attracting very
much outside support, for neither OF
them is in sympathy with the wide
spread popular demand for an imme-
date revision downward" of the ul-
ra-protective Payne-Aldrich tariff,
against which nearly the whole Amer
lean consuming public rose in pro
test at the time of its passage. They
have both declared their unalteraOle
fealty to the principle of protection,
which is the very principle invoked
by all the tariff benefciaries TO justi-
fly the most intolerable monopoly ex-
tortions; and they both employ the
sophistical arguments Of the accred
tied defenders of special privilege to
prove that they are good stand-pat'
tiers and the protection issue. There
is only this difference between them;
Mr.. Taft is unQuestionably a sincere
believer in high protection, while
Roosevelt merely advocates 1t &c