The Washington herald., 1912-10-20

only thirty-four contests in the con-
vention which had anything like the
shadow of a claim. Gov. Deneen, hav-
| ing disposed of the stolen delegates
issue, has, in turn, been called a falsi-
fer and = crook by Col. Roosevelt, but
none the less his statement is believed
| by the Illinois people. Inasmuch as all
the factions in the Republican party in
Illinois have come together with the
exception of the Progressives, whose
number is decreasing, the Republican
managers count confidently upon the
State.
If Col. Roosevelt had been shot three
or four> days before election, there Is
no doubt that a wave of sympathy
would have brought him many votes.
Even a. it is, no one can tell what ef-
feet the assault upon him viii have
upon the political situation. The
American people are emotional to the
extreme, and the dramatic character
of the event appeals to the average
mind.
No one can equal Col. Roosevelt in
securing political advantage out of any
situation. While he was speaking to the
Milwaukee audience after he had been
shot, he posed as martyr who was
the victim of violent and internperate
attacks. He even took occasion to as
sert that he would "disown and re-
pudiate any man Of my party who at
tacks with such vile, foul slander and
abuse any opponents of any other
party
No one who heard him knew. of
course, that he had just prepared for
publication an attack on Chairman
Hilles, in which he said that Mr..
Hilles was dishonorable in private life
and not fit to move in decent society.
These were only a few of the choice
epithets which he had hurled at Mr..
Hilles. Immediately after the shoot
ing, Col. Roosevelt changed his tactics.
The denunciation of Mr.. Hilles was
suppressed and instead of being an as
sailant Col. Roosevelt posed as the one
who had been attacked. This is the po-
sition he assumes to-day, notwithstand-
ing the fact that the man who shot
him stated that he had been contemplat-
ing the act for many months, and that
the inspiration of the deed was solely
Col Roosevelt's desire to be President
of the United States for a third term.
He had paid no attention to anything
that had been said or done during the
campaign. There is no ground, there
fore, for Roosevelt's statement that the
assault was due to political speeches
or to newspaper expressions.
1t is pleasant to know that PERSONAL
titles had nothing to do with the deplor-
able incident. 1t seems strange, however,
to hear Col. Roosevelt regretting the
use of violent language, when he has
strewn the pathway of his travels across
the country with all manner of extreme
utterances. 1t would have been better
if President Taft had never been called
a receiver of stolen goods, with the
statement that the receiver is as bad
as the thief; that Congressman Barth-
oldt had never been likened to a pick
pocket; that the members of the Re-
publican National Committee had not
been denounced as thieves and robbers;
that Gov. Deneen had not been char
acterized as a falsiier and crook, and
that other equally extravagant. untrue,
and incorporate statements had not
been made. Perhaps in the future we
are to have decent and digni6ed cam
paign, wherein the issues, which alone
are important enough to warrant full
consideration, will be discussed with
out the use of epithets and personal
illusions.
The Democrats have been aided in
the campaign by many factors. In the
first place, they had a chance to win
from the very beginning, and this gave
them a prestige which made the raising
of campaign funds a matter of little
difficulty. Then, too, they had an or
ganization which was available for
work as soon as the campaign opened.
The Republican organization, on the
other hand, was shot to pieces. There
had to be a personal investigation of
the attitude of almost every national
committeeman and State and county
chairman before it was known they
were for Taft or Roosevelt. The fact
that a newspaper was labeled %Repub-
lican" in a newspaper directory did not
necessarily mean that it was support
ing President Taft. In the end nearly
all of them were loyal, but the process
of separating the sheep from the goats
was a slow and tedious task. But,
most of all, the Democrats have profit
ed because it has been difficult for the
Republicans to impress upon the pres
ent generation the fact that the Dem
ocratic tariff-for-revenue-only legisla-
-