The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-01-30
Defends Himself.

Cleveland. Ohio. Jan. 30.-The big
event OF the presidents first day in his
own state came in the evening at the
Mckinley day banquet given by the
Tippecanoc club at the chamber of
commerce last night. Addressing $50
northern Ohio Republicans grouped
about the hanque, table, the president
made stirring appeal to the Rnpub-
lican party to stand by its guns and
rest confident that it has carried out
the pledges it made to the people of
the United States. He declared that
he faced the future With cq,lanim:y
and in the balief that the Judgment
of the country would prove him right
in his opinion.
To his hearers it appeared that ii
keynote speech" on which the COM
ing campaign might be fought to a
finish was being delivered
Looking over the record of what
has been done" said the president, lit
seems to me mat we are armed with
the facts ana with things accnlnplish-
ed sutflcient 10 meet our enemy in the
open field and overcome him in the
judgr ont Of an impartial umpire
1T seems to me that there is; no oc-
casion for the Republicans of this
country to fear the issue with their
knowledge of the progress that has
been made in the last four Years with
their adoption of progressive prin-
ciples indicated in their platform Of
1908 and in the proposals OF the admin
istration since that time. They must,
II they would serve the country Well
discriminate between what is really
progressive and useful and what is ut
terly at variance With sound, constitu-
tional governmental and economic
policy.
'on this, the natal day of William
Mckinley let us take new vows in be
half of the grand old party. standing
by the constitution. standing by the
rights of liberty and properly of the
Individual. and willing to face defeat
many times in behalf of the cause of
sound constitutional government"
President Taft was handicapped by
cold that made his voice husky but
he gave comprehensive review of the
achievements of his administration
BY the attention he devoted to the
1905 to revise it. he Indicated his will
lingness to go into the cam paign on
this issue alone. The Democratic par
ty. he said. had mistaken the results of
the 1910 election and had inferred
from its victory that the United States
must abandon the principle of protec-
ton and set up that of tariff for rev.
enue only.
Our Democratic friends are mis-
taken" said the president. The cleo
ton of 1910 was not declaration in
favor of tariff for revenue or free
trade. This is shown hy the fact that
the Democratic vote was less rather
than greater than it had been in the
presidential election. The defeat of
the Republican party came not from
an increase In Democratic votes but
from a detection of Republican votes,
ie. Of its own members who stayed at
home and refused TO stand by the par
ty in what they regarded as a failure
to redeem its pledges"
Discussing his vetoes of the wool
and cotton revision bills passed by
congress at the special session last
summer the president admitted that
the wool schedule. the cotton schedule
and possibly others of the Payne
Aldrich law were too high. but said
that unscientific revision was a much
greater evil than delay in securing
real revision.
I'VE should be entirely willing"
said Mr.. Taft. upon the issue of
whether these bills ought to have
passed in the form in which they were
drawn. with the little information as
to their effect which congress had or
was able to furnish to submit our case
to the country"