The Washington herald., 1912-07-21
THE POLITICAL SITUATION.


There have been no Developments OF
prime importance during the week just
ended. Both parties are perfecting their
organization and apparently waiting to
see the result of the Roosevelt mass
meeting in Chicago on August S. Mr..
Roosevelt, having abandoned his pro-
posed Western trip, is to illuminate in
editorial articles, letters, and speeches.
He is a prolific writer and has fertile
brain; and he counts that day lost upon
which he does not appear on the front
page of every paper in the land.
No one knows the value of publicity
better than Theodore Roosevelt Just
now he occupies, through his connec~
ton with a weekly publication, po-
sition of advantage. He loses no op-
portunity to attack the President, and
week after week is engaged, through
reckless and inaccurate statements, in
poisoning the public mind. 1t is a
method of assault with which the Presi-
dent cannot compete. Mr.. Taft, un-
fortunately, has no such medium Of
reaching the public, and is compelled to
remain silent while untruths travel over
the land in seven-league boots There
has been prepared for him complete
statement demonstrating that the charge
of stolen delegates has no foundation in
fact, but, in the very nature of things,
tbs denial will perIneate but slowly
through the country. 1t will, IN time,
receive some attention from the news
papers, but to secure widespread circu-
lation of the facts in detail will re-
quire time and money In the mean-
time, Mr. Roosevelt will persist in max
ing assertions without proof, and the
tendency in the human mind to believe
that which is evil will help his cause.
Roosevelt's adroit plan is to divert at
tention from himself by putting his op-
ponents on the defensive. 1t is a
lHcluOQ WHICH ID iiOt oltoSSlASa IA hni
rnony with the principle of square
deal, and there is a natural hope that
before election day the sober, thinking
people of the United States will ap-
praise it at its true worth. One cannot
forget that Mr. Roosevelt, who is now
inveighing against the high cost of liv-
ing as the result of tariff conditions,
never took one step toward the reduc-
ton of the tariff during his seven years
occupancy of the White House; that
while he condemns bosses, he accepts
the services of all the bosses, including
Bill Finn, who will associate them
selves with him; and that while he
loudly espouses the cause of the plain
people, his whole campaign is financed
by men who have only selfish interests
at heart. 1t would seem as if the Amer
ican people, unless they have drifted far
away from the safe harbor of reason
and common sense, would weigh these
facts one against the other and render
verdict accordingly.
Herein lies the hope of the friends
of the President that before next No.
vember the tide will turn in his di.
rection When the insincerity of Roose-
welt has been shown; when his rule-or.
ruin policy has been fully demonstrat.
ed; when it has been made plair
that he is willing to wreck the Re.
publican party in order to serve hi!
own ambition, and when against al
these things is placed in contrast tn.
dignihed, safe, and patriotic position O.
the President, the latter ought certainl,
to be the gamer thereby.
1t will not be difficult matter fol
the Republican campaign managers tt
prove that, after all, President Taft i
really the only candidate free from
the entangling alliances which the peo
pie so properly resent.
Mr.. Roosevelt's intimate relations
with the Steel Trust and the Harveste
Trust are too patent to require furthe
demonstration. These relations still con
tinue, his Eastern headquarters being il
practical charge of George w. Per
kins, the financial "angel" of the com
bination. Gov. Wilson viii also hay
some difficulty in explaining. if calle'
upon to do so, how his candidacy cam
to be started by the interests with whicl
Mr. Perkins has in the past been identi
fed. His campaign for the nomina
ton was conducted with much energ
and upon an expensive plan 1t woul
be interesting to know who provided tn
necessary funds. Champ Clark, wit
practically no money at his disposal
was really the candidate of the people
but the same power which placed Judg
Parker in the temporary chairmanshj