Danskeren. [volume] (Neenah, Wis.) 1892-1920, 1912-05-10
ABOUT POLITICS AND THINGS.
by a %voter.l

Several gentlemen are accorded the
honor these days of being referred to
as Our next President. Since, how
ever, but one man at a time can hold
that office, the rest must be content
with said compliment.
I An actual question looms large On
the political horizon just now: Has
Taft made goodf Does he deserve a
re election There be those who think
so, the writer, however, not being OF
the number.
This present contribution is not
political dope" in the sense of being
inspired, and paid for, by any party
headquarters. 1t is the opinion mere
ly OF a citizen who has tried to keep
abreast with the times, noticing what's
t%ranspiring as the years pass by.
Thus, any reader is welcome to take
exceptions to what is here said.
No-Taft is not the man of the
hour, or of the future. | may be
wrong, but I should indeed prefer a
certain Lion Hunter, even as dictator
for life, as against another Taftian
term. For the Lion Hunter is the
friend of the common people, which
the Fat One most assuredly is not.
Indeed. even kind. genial, old Champ
] Clark would be preferable to Taft,
let him a hundred times be a Demo
erat. His caliber is of such dimensions
that the big office could not run
away with him, such as undoubtedly
it would do with men like LaFollette,
Wilson, Harmon, etc.
Taft has repeatedly shown his pre-
objection, and as a rule it g%rayitates
towards safe" men-safe. that Is, to
our moneyed aristoeracy, the interests.
just recall such names as Ballinger,
Lurton, Sherman Che Of cocktail pro-
clivities), Aldrich, Hook, and that
stiff-necked, hard-pated old fossil,
Uncle Joe, whose greatest accomplish
ment seems to be an Unborn inclination
for facing in the wrong direction.
All these are eminently safe" men.
Taft's position relative to the tar
if is wellknown. The voters will
determine whether, in their opinion.
his promises square with his perfor-
manees. or not. His chief trouble is
his unhappy perehant for standpatism.
Standing pat means standing still.
Reform denotes progress, a steady
change of existing bad conditions to-
wards real justice and political right
eousness. The standpatters, worse
luck, we have with US always. They
were in depressing evidence at the
time OF the revolt against King George.
Even a man like DIR. Franklin had TO
suffer the humiliation of having a
son prefer %standpatism by ~clinging
to the old order-nay, to make the
measure full, spurning this land Of
liberty, and migrating to England in
order to be near the very fountain
head of snobbery, and to enjoy the
undiluted flavor of royalism: the i'm
beetle Georgian one at that. The
st~andpatters were alive and busy, too,
at the great Reformation, when, with
incredible courage, DIR. Luther braved
pope and councils and all the harm and
terrible persecution which was theirs
to %inflict, breaking with the Romish
church, and, thereby, giving to the
: world religious liberty. Likewise, the
s~tandpatters were in evidence before,
during and after our terrific Civil war,
when one great, loving heart bore the
sorrows of a race stepped in misery,
The s~tandpatters, mind you. They
always wanted to "leave well enough
alone, that well enough which in fact
and in truth was bad enough.
When the Lion Hunter was in the
White House, big business slept On a
fevered pillow. The SNUG grafters
had no easy time of It. At that, they
didn't ask much: only peace, just
peace-to ply their lucrative trade,
to loot, Doodle, and corrupt; Just