The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-03-02

enough to hold together some clever
politicians whom it may be wise for
Taft to placate. Besides, the colonel
may at any time whipsaw his support
ers as he seems to have whipsawed La
Toilette.
When Taft's friends get to work it
viii be found that there is much to be
said for Taft as a trust buster. There's
the prosecution of the Steel trust
There is the prosecution of the pack
ers- There is the vindication of the
corporation tax. There is the reor-
ganization of Steel and Tobacco and
the disbandment of half a dozen other
trusts. There is the law as to CORPORA
ton liability for injury to workmen.
There is the plea for reciprocity with
Canada. There is arbitration. There
can be made for d Taft a constructive
showing better than can be made for
Roosevelt. His plumbers as to Bal
Hnger, as 20 Crane, as to the debar-
ring of insurgent senators and con-
gress from spoils, as to tariff vetoes.
are bad, but they are not worse than
the blunders of the Hartman letters
or the permit to the Steel Trust to
monopolize the iron and steel indus
try. Moreover. the most of the muck
raking magazines have been to a GER
tain extent, soft-pedaled of late. The
withdrawal of special mail PRIVILEGES
silenced them somewhat. and then.
too, they have been crimped financial
ly into consultations dominated by
men opposed to agitation. There has
been a big falling off in the lambastinP
of Taft. And besides, the lack of re-
Spouse to LaFollette's campaign
which finally broke even his own
egomania, tends to prevent the focuss-
ing of dissatisfaction into effective
ant-Taft organization.
President Taft cannot now be beat
en- for denomination. There is no CO.
hesion in the opposition-except, pos
sibly. such as may send it all over to |
a
day. Only Democrat can beat Taft !
now.-Albany Times-Union.
The Man Above the principle"
Toilette by the ''progressives'' is a !
confession on their part that |
their principles" could not win be- |
fore the people. Garfield, Pinchot, |
Cummins, Johnson and RoWell have |
lore than tacitly acknowledged that |
with LaFollette as the leader of their |
movement absolute and utter defeat |
would have been the portion of 1.-The
great reform" They have accorded |
their erstWhile leader the hollow |
of their admiration and |
appreciation for his splendid abiI- |
ty, his earnest work on behalf of |
he great cause and his ''self sacri-
Ice" but in the same breath they
lave admitted that he was not strong
,nough to bear the burden of the kind
IF politics that had been thrust upon
lim and the kind that he had thrust
Upon himself
1t was William Jennings Bryan who
coined the phrase 1.-The dollar above
he man." 1t is now for Johnson,
howell, Cummins, Garfield and Pin
hot to paraphrase this epigram with
the man above the principle" Let
hem argue, as they will, that presi-
Ientia1 candidate must be bigger than
he principles he embodies, or at least
s big: for that is what is implied in
he abandonment of LaFollette and the
doption of Roosevelt as the pro
-ressive standard bearer" Yet Mr.
Roosevelt himself in one of his
peeches has declared that Wisconsin
vas the laboratory of progressive
where all this political ex-
fermentation was accomplished. and
e gives Senator LaFollette passing
redit for conducting the experiment
uccessfully.
If the man that invented the pro
ressive' movement and applied Its
rinciples successfully within the jul"
sdiction of his parish and province
unable to represent them in his own |
erson beyond the borders of the Tab
in which the experimental
must be the fault of the principles |
he inventor cannot be blamed.
In the last analysis of the decision
f the progressive" leaders to reject
.aFollette as their leader it is clear
nough that these politicians are not :
eeklng to 1ncuIcate their reforms | I
kept so far as they may be used !
s a means to an end-a selfish, sordid :
nd. The platform was not strong
nough to hold LaFollette, SO they have '
hosen Mr.. Roosevelt to bear up the $
latform. The worlo was not big c
nough for Atlas, so he took it upon t
is shoulders and carried it about with l
i'm as a porter in a wholesale conn '
lission house carries a sack of pUta- c
PES. Mr.. Roosevelt has accepted the e
candidacy for the nom
lation, and he will revise and modify
nose principles to suit the Roose- :
cit idea They will no longer be pro !
ressive'' principles; they viii be Roose :
cit principles: he will bestride the
faction as Cassius said
aesar oestrode the world; and the 6
0hnsons, ROWells, Garields. Pinchots +
nd Cumminses, small men, will peep I
bout" between the legs of the coloss-
Is. 1t is no longer a progressive
ovenaent; it is a Roosevelt movement.
he faction now has Il leader that Will
ad. not a support responding to the
hims and capFices of little men of the .
1hnson, Rowen. Garfield. Cummins :
I'D Pinchot caliber.-San Diego (CalO
Mon.