Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-02-09
TAFT STANDS ON POLICIES.
He Follows Fully Platform OF Republicans |
rejection Of Him Means Rejection OF
Party Principles.

rejection Of Him Means Rejection Of
Party Principles.
How the Republican party can repu-
date itself and then go out and win an
election even with Theodore Roosevelt
leading. is a question which is bothering
some of the wise men of the @. o. =.
The rejection of President Taft means
the rejection of his policies. Those poll
cies are the policies of the Republican
party and In the last analysis, the diff
ferences over them are of detail rather
than of principle. President Taft took
his stand on the Republican platform in
the campaign of 1908, and he has refused
to bulge from IL. Days of hot politics
are to be followed by some months of
| cool thinking. In the bitter attacks
made upon the President by his enemies
the country appears to have lost sight
| of what the Republican party, repre-
| scented by the President, Is supposed to
stand for
These thoughts lie heavy in the minds
of some of the statesmen whose names
| get in the papers very little but whose
| views upon legislation are in strong de-
mand when something really important
| is being put through. These men are
| beginning to suggest that IL President
| Taft cannot lead the Republican party to
victory in 1912 no one else can. They
are pointing out that the nomination of
| Theodore Roosevelt, Senator Robert M.
| La Toilette or Senator Albert b. Cum
Minis would necessarily mean a presiden-
| tial campaign in which the Republican
| party had refused to stand upon its own
| record.
Republicans Defeating Themselves.
These three gentlemen are seeking the
| presidency not primarily to beat a DEM
| ocrat, but to defeat a Republican ad-
| OF rat mt
was started by men with a grievance
against the President because he has
| made an honest effort to enforce the
Antitrust and Interstate Commerce act
La Toilette has conducted his campaign
as If he were running against a Demo-
| crat. The Cummins candidacy was an
| nounced not on the ground of superior
Republicanism, but for the express pur-
pose of taking Iowa away from Taft.
| None of the three opponents of Presi-
dent Taft has announced a set of poll
cies over which Republicans could differ
much except as to details. On the other
hand, the So called Progressive platform
Is one to which President Taft himself
could subscribe with no severe strain of
his political morals The issues upon
which it Is sought to defeat the Presi-
dent are in large measure manufac-
tured. The Taft administration not only
has had policy, bat it has been a con-
crete policy, with something definite Of
fered upon every issue which Congress
could use as a basis for legislation.
Taft's Chief Policies.
Following are some of the more i'm
portant items in the policy of the Taft
administration:
1-Reciprocity beween the United
States and Canada. This was an econ
omic rather than party question and
so put forward by the President, but it
offered fine opportunities for political
jugglery and the Insurgents made the
most Of them. AS viewed by economists
generally, the Presidents Canadian pol
icy represented a grade of craftsmanship
too broad and high to be appreciated
much less understood, by. men whose
only conception of the tariff is political
2General arbitration with the great
Powers of the earth, that war might be
done away with. The President has re-
ceived universal praise for his efforts in
this direction even though the plan he
presented may have been imperfect. II
is certain that his critics have suggested
none that marks any advance over the
present status of arbitration.
S-Downward revision of the tariff
based upon expert knowledge. The Pres
dents Republican opponents have in
sisted upon revision without expert
) knowledge.
, reinforcement of the antitrust act
and supplementary legislation providing
for Federal Incorporation. Mr.. Taft has
insisted upon Furnishing corporations
which disobeyed the law and upon pro-
, tecting corporations that conducted their
, | business properly-a program which
! sounds very much like an echo of one OF
his predecessors. Whether federal IL
cense is preferable to federal charters is
. a question of detail not of principle
President Taft has stood throughout fol
, the principle that the federal government
should so regulate corporations that the
, interests of the public would be pro-
. tected The people never will do him
justice with respect to his trust policy
> until they realize that corporations are
4 a necessity of modern business, and tina
! 1t is not a moral and should not be
: political crime to give a square deal t
a corporation as much as to a man
! which, by the way, sounds like anothe
, | echo.
, 5Banking and currency legislation
Men who are interested more in stabilit,
and prosperity that in politics believe tn
, bill of the national monetary commits
i sion is one of the most important piece
, | of constructive legislation of moder
times. Mr.. Roosevelt apparently neve
has heard of it and Senator La Follett
, understands enough of it to enable hr
to cry out that Nelson w. Aldrich is
bad man.
6-Economy and efficiency in the bust
ness administration of the government
Mr.. Taft's immediate predecessor wit
all due respect, never calculated the ex
pense of anything. His would-be success
sors from Wisconsin and Iowa so ia
have shown no interest in governments
economies, possibly because their mind
do not run in such practical direction,
7-Enactment of laws for developin
the public domain and the establishmer
of a just leasing system in the Unite
States and Alaska. Conservation hs
been leading subject of conversation
Washington for a good many years, b,
the real obstacle to legislation has bee
Congress, not the White House. NJ
Taft is not an extremist upon this sui
ject, but stands for actual developmei
under suitable government regulation
Where else do the people want him I
stand?
S@A high grade judiciary. Presidei
Taft has made the judiciary his especi
study and has refused to play polti,
with the bench If all his predecesso
had been as careful, the cry for the r.
call OF judges would not be so comma
in the land,
@Extension of the civil service la
to take the post office department out
politics This policy is unusual to So
the least, in a President who is charge