The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1912-04-12


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4 ed.
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Why Has Not Roosevelt Attacked the
Tariff?
To the Editor of The Tribune-Sir:
If Mr.. Roosevelt really has the peo-
pies interest at heart, why has he not
attacked the tariff? With regard to
that, he has acted very much like the
Californians in the days gone by.
When anything went wrong they ex-
claimed, Justice must be done though
the Heavens fall" and would incon-
tinently proceed to go out and hang
some Chinaman. Now, Roosevelt, in
stead of hanging the tariff, strings up
all the officers that have anything to
do with law and order and says, ut
is for the peoples good" His idea
of the phrase by the people, of the
people and for the people" is very
different from mine, for do not think
that majority means democracy, and
am of the people myself and, there
fore, have their interests at heart. l
think government by the people means
that each unit of the body polite has
some part to play in its life; some
more important, some less important
| think "of the people" means, not by
royalties or by important people, but
the rank and file of the nation, and
finally, think "for the people" means
what is for their good.
To illustrate: There are 200 men in
locality who have the right to vote;
lOl of them have been more recently
naturalized; some with the intention
of staying forever, others until they
get tired and want to go home. The
majority of them make good citizens
and those among them who are indus
trious, having accumulated little, are
more conservative than those who
have nothing; but they are all more or
less ignorant of the science of gov
eminent, having come from the four
quarters of the globe and been accus-
toned to very different ideas from
those we hold, The other SO men are
native Americans. They have never
known any other form of government;
they are forced to wait for 81 years
before being allowed to vote. Very
often they are large property holders.
They are conservative and weigh their
actions.
Now, question affecting all these
200 men comes up and because the l0l
are the majority all the rights and
wishes of the SO are to be disregarded,
and it is precisely on majorities that.
cannot weigh results that Roosevelt
is counting on for his election. Now
in so doing, he is not only robbing
the minority but he is robbing the ma
jority of the best talent and the best
form of government; in other words,
he is producing chaos with the hope
that in the general debauch he may
ride into the White House and never
leave it. We should remember the
majority that shouted, away with
him. Cruelty him! Cruelty him"
l cannot understand why Taft's
managers do not call on Roosevelt
to come out squarely on the tariff
question. 1t will put him in a tight
place; for was there ever a Caesar
who did not have his tax gatherer?
My only hope is that the people will
awake in time to realize how, in many
respects, he is their worst enemy; and
any man that will stand up in the city
of New York, where every third man
is rather recent foreigner, and try
and rouse them up to frenzy against
law-abiding citizens is guilty of the
worst crime that can be known. Vic
tor Hugo has said: "The world lets
everything perish that is nothing but
misunderstanding that does not
represent an idea or a real benefit
for the human race" And this is my
hope in regard to Roosevelt That
all his designs may perish is the sim
cere prayer of one who sees the dan
gers ahead
A. SUBSCRIBER.