The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1912-02-16
Roosevelt and Taft.

AS removing any doubt the public
may feel that Colonel Roosevelt will
not oppose President Taft for re-nom-
nation, the many laudatory remarks
concerning his close friend made by
the former president would seem to
be conclusive, comments the Salt Lake
Herald Republican. 1t is difficult for
those who admire Mr.. Roosevelt, who
have the highest opinion of his energy,
his capability and his honesty, to un-
derstand how any of his friends can
suspect him of the commission of acts
of secret treachery towards the man
whom he actively and consistently
recommended for president, and to
whose support he swung the powerful
strength of the entire national admin
istration.
Colonel Roosevelt, himself, has
never intimated that he is candidate
for denomination, nor has he pub
licly said that he would accept it if it
were rendered him. Some of his close
friends, however, after interviews with
him, have announced their belief that
the former president would accept the
honor if it came to him as the unani-
nous expression of the party desire.
AS none of these have been elected to
membership in the Ananias club in
the regular and approved way, it is
assumed that this statement of his
position is correct. Where, do those
who declare Mr.. Roosevelt is actively
opposing his old friend and that the
movement in his behalf has his active
support and encouragement, find war
rant for their aspersions for the great
ex-president whom the whole nation
loves and honors?
On March IS, 1906, while president,
Colonel Roosevelt wrote as follows,
to Mr.. Taft:
"My belief is, that of all the men
who have appeared so far, you are
the one man who is most likely to re-
ceive the Republican nomination, and
who is, l think, the best man to re-
ceive it."
In an interview on June 18, 1908,
after Mr.. Taft had been nominated
Mr.. Roosevelt said in an interview
widely published and never contra
dicted:
| 10 he found
in the whole country man so well
fitted to be president He is not only
absolutely fearless. absolutely disin'
terested and upright, but he has the
widest acquaintance with the nations
needs, without and within, and the
broadest sympathies with all our citi'
zens. He would be as emphatically
a president of the plain people as Lin
coin, yet not Lincoln himself would be
freer from the least faint of demagogy
the least tendency to arouse, to ap'
peal to class hatred" 4,
In q. letter to Konrad Hohrs Of
Helena on September 9, 1908, Presi
dent Roosevelt said:
an Mr.. Taft we have clean mar
who combines all these qualities to
degree which no other man in oul
public life since the civil war has sur
passed"
In an interview with the Success:
Magazine on September IL, 1908, Mr.
Roosevelt said of his friend, William
Howard Taft:
| "Taft invariably does the ordinar.
things and he does them EXCEPTIONAL!
well. That is why say he will maxi
one of the greatest presidents"
| With reference to Mr.. Taft's atti
tude in the controversy between Sen
ator Foraker and President Roosevelt,
the latter said in a formal statement
issued September 81. 1908:
"His attitude on this question a
we'll. as on all other questions con
WINGED me that of all the men in thi
Union he was the man pre-eminentl
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