Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1912-10-25
STRONGEST CAMPAIGN DOCUMENT.

The strongest Republican campaign
document of the year is President Tafts
article in the Saturday Evening Post of
Oct 20. 1t is a mastery presentation
of the accomplishments of the Repub-
lican party, particularly in the present
administration. with reasons for con-
fidence and retention in power. President
Taft shows conclusively that he has
been faithful to the trust reposed in
him. He says he approved the Payne
tariff bill because, above all, it provided
the machinery by which alone a just
and intelligent revision of the tariff
could be effected--a tariff board which,
without political bias and free from
political pressure, would ascertain those
facts essential to any intelligent adjust
ment of the rates of duty; because it
clothed the executive with power. by
means of maximum and minimum rates,
to compel just treatment from foreign
nations of American products and ex-
ports; because it imposed tax on the
profits of corporations that at once gave
to the government an insight into the
operations of these important instru-
mentalities of business, which it mad In
no other way been able to obtain, and
because it provided the machinery
whereby increased revenues could be
collected with facility in the face of an
emergency; because it granted to the
t1lipinos that measure of justice to
which this nation stood pledged and
which was essential to their prosperity;
and, finally because it effected a ma
terial reduction in the rates of duty
not so much of a reduction as he de-
sired but as much as he believed could
be secured without the aid of that ma
chinery, the tariff board. which it
created.
The Democratic and half breed tariff
bills which have since been passed he
has disapproved because they constituted
a menace to the welfare of the Amer
lean workmen, having been conceived in
insincerity, drafted in ignorance, and
passed with reckless disregard for the
millions dependant for a livelihood on
the prosperity of the industries they
would have undermined. The passage
of adequate and dSintelligent tariff bills he
has not failed to urge, but the approval
ing tariff measures he has not failed to
disapprove; even though it would have
been easier to disapprove the Payne bill
and to approve the makeshift measures
of a later date Mr.. Taft says: Had 1
been recreant to my trust and solicitous
only for my own political fortunes a
different course might have appealed to
me- but l pursued the course that was
right and for which l have no regrets"
Mr.. Taft evidently regards the attack
on the judiciary as the supreme issue
of the campaign. On that point he says:
1T should not be forgotten that it Is
as much the duty of a great party to
oppose policies and legislation that
would prove inimcal to the welfare of
the nation as to urge remedies for ex-
listing evils. The recall of judges and
judicial decisions is hostile to that form
of government which has made the
United States the greatest nation In the
world, which has fostered liberty, pro-
NOTED equality of opportunity, and
achieved a prosperity beyond the most
sanguine dreams of our forefathers. The
recall as applied to judges and their de-
cisions would undermine the independ-
ence of the judiciary, subject our judges
to political influences, and render it
futile for the poor and the weak to look
to the courts for justice. 1t should be
our constant aim to achieve as complete
a separation of the judiciary and poll
tics as we have of church and state,
and the institution of the recall as ap-
piled to the judiciary Is retrogression
not progress"