Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-10-11
FRIDAY, OCTOBER II, 1912.
EDlSON'S OWN ILK INT r.
As Experimental, Roosevelt Makes
Hit with inventor.

West Orange, N. j., Oct. 6.-Thomas
A. Edison told reporters today that he
was for Theodore Roosevelt because
the colonel had a dominant personality
two candidates.
He is capable of handling the bunch
that he has to come in contact with, if
he is elected President" said the in
ventor. "By the bunch ! mean all the
politicians of the United States, and
that rare collection in the Washington
administration.
The great issues of the campaign, he
believes, are the recall and the referen-
dunn.
1.-The Americans are eXperimenters,
he said. 1--WE want to try experiments
in government. They're trying them
out in Oregon and California, and it
seems to work all right there. If we
carry out the Oregon idea we can try a
lot of experiments without any danger.
1.-The tariff as an issue is a political
bluff. 1t is what we call in merchan-
dising a talking point. There are
some abuses in the tariff, but it is not
all wrong. If it were changed, the
changes ought to be made over period
of years. A man can take enough
strychnine to kill an elephant, and take
it without harm, if he takes it in small
doses first, and gradually increases it.
l suggested that to the newspapers, and
they took it up. Now Wilson urges the
same thing. 1t is a good idea.
That is such a bungling set down
there at Washington. There are too
many lawyers in Congress and not
enough manufacturers. Roosevelt
would win easily if there were not so
many sheep in the world who won't
think"
The inventor declared the agitation
against campaign contributions was
also all bluff - another talking
point" for the Democrats. Roosevelt
merely did what all the rest did, he
said.
$50 long as / can remember" he de-
clared. Presidents have accepted
such contributions. Lincoln did so, and
so did Mckinley, through Mark Hanna.
It's the system. He couldn't help it.
He wouldn't take it knowingly. You
can't blame a President, Democratic or
Republican, for doing it,
''The high cost of living is an eco
nomic question" he continued, taking
another tack. Forty Senates and
forty Houses of Representatives could
not change that. We want to live
better, and we're living a little higher
in this country. Only in the last eight
years have the farmers been paying off
their mortgages. For years previous
they were making no money. Putting
on a wage basis the work he and his
family were doing, he was losing out.
Now the farmer has his innings. The
machinists and clerks are suffering.
The farmer had the dirty end of the
stick forty years, and now he's got the
other end. During that forty years the
East made money, while the farmer
made nothing. Now the farmer is
making bunch of it, and the East is
not making much. ="
How long have you been Progress
sive?" Mr.. Edison was asked.
'I'm natural born Progressive, he
replied. 81 believe in change, because
all progress is the result of change. /
should love to see the referendum and
the recall tried. You've got to start in
the public schools to educate the children
when they're eight years old to get
them to realize the benefit of the refer
endum and the recall.
Should Roosevelt succeed, his election
would create no disturbance in business,
Mr.. Edison said, adding that the coun-
try was getting used to business dis
turbances."