The Republican journal., 1912-11-07
THE EXPECTED HAPPENS.
1.-THE Boston Herald Nov. 61

ne boSton f1eralQ NOV. b.
When the Republican national convention
m ade a nomination for the presidency at the
behest of the southern States, which have no
Republicanism, of the pocket boroughs East
and West, of the outlying possessions, and
of not more than one-third of the Republican
voters who participated in the primaries in
the States to which the party must look for
its support, it amply provided for what hap
! pened yesterday.
The Herald, not agreeing with those who
thought Mr. Roosevelt should be nominated
made every effort to hold the Republicans of
New England in line for Taft. But waen it
became evident that the Republican voters of
the country did not want him renominated,
the Herald urged compromise candidate
fort in that direction failing, the Herald
never has given its readers the slightest
reason for thinking the outcome would be
other than what it is.
The Republicans of the country want to
nominate the Republican candidate for the
presidency. The only instances where they
have not done so-Harrison in 1892 and Taft in
1912-have resulted dsastrously. Some revs-
ion of the nominating system so that those
who carry the party burden shall be secure in
responsibility for party management is the
first and obvious moral of the present disaster
Into the question of whether the conserva-
tive leadership at Chicago did right in pre-
venting the nomination of Roosevelt at the
expense of party disruption, it is not now
pertinent to go. The colonel himself was
sponsible for the failure of all compromise
plans. His dictum that he would be the COM
promise candidate, if there were one, settled
the question. His opponents, in possession of
the machinery, then proceeded to apply the
steam roller-nominating not only Mr.. Taft,
but Mr.. Sherman, in significant assertion of
their mastery of the situation. They defeated
Roosevelt, but they did nothing for the Re-
publican party. Their strategy was thus only
half effective.
Before the election of 1912 goes into his
tory some definite conclusions should be set
down. One is that Roosevelt with the Re-
publican nomination would have swept the
country. man who without party, with
out an organization, without the label which
governs most voters, can make the showing
recorded this morning, would have been in
vincible at the head of his old column. 1t did
n OF need this election to show that. The fig
ures of the ballot of 1904 remain highly i'm
pressive for those who will read them.
Whether as dangerous menace to the secur-
ity of our institutions great tribune of
the people-whichever way he may be regard
ed-Roosevelt must be set down as possessed
of an almost magical hold on the electorate.
It should besides be set down as made clear
by the developments of the year that Mr.. Taft
could not have been reelected no matter how
harm onious had been the convention behind
him. This was Democratic year. All the
signs pointed in that direction. The off-year
elections of 1910 had disclosed the presence of
a tide which nothing had since intervened to
arrest. Mr.. Taft would have been in a re-
spectacle minority had his nomination come to
him without contest, but he could not have
been elected.