Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-27
TAFT IS YIELDER.
SAYS ROOSEVELT
Colonel in Scathing Terms De-
MES Charges Uttered by
the President.
PLEDGES ARE BROKEN?
Taken Bitterly to Task for Employing
Personal Letters in Campaign
Arguments.

worcester, Mass, April Ii.-MeT-
ciless denunciation of President Taft
was Colonel Roosevelt's reply last
night to the presidents attack upon
him yesterday. Some of Colonel
Roosevelts assertions were:
That President Taft had not given
the people of the country a square
deal" but that owing to a quality
of feebleness" he had yielded to the
bosses and the great privileged inter-
ests."
That one part of the presidents at
tack upon him was the crookedest
kind of DEAL and deliberate mis-
representation"
That the president has not merely
in thought, word and deed been dis
loyal to our past friendship but has
been disloyal to every canon of ordi-
nary decency and fair dealing such
as should obtain even in dealing with
a mans bitterest opponents"
That the presidents statement re-
garding the influence of federal Of
ficeholders in the campaign was mot
only an untruth but it is an absurd
untruth."
That Mr.. Taft convicted himself
of insincerity when he signed the
Payne-Aldrich tariff bill.
That in speaking Colonel Roose-
velt's position in regard to the trust
problem, President Taft lis himself
guilty of a crooked deal"
REGRETS Personal ISSUE.
Mr.. Roosevelt, In beginning his
main address, said he regretted that
personalities had entered into the
presidential fight.
In this campaign. l regard the
issues at stake as altogether too I'M
portant to permit them to be twisted
into one of personalities between
President Taft and myself" he said
But Mr.. Taft's speeches yesterda!
contained statements that l mus
answer.
Most of what he said needs NJ
comment from me. When, for in
stance, he said have endeavored t.
minimize the importance of my Co
lumbus speech, he says what he mus
know TO be untrue; he cannot have
read my Carnegie hall speech, my
speech before the Massachusett!
lower house, my MONDAY speech a
st. Louis, my Philadelphia anC
Pittsburgh and Louisville speeches
without knowing that I have elab
nh ct xrrha
at Columbus.
TAFT LOSES SELF-REsPECT."
again, when Mr.. Taft, in an.
speech speaks of me directly ol
ohliquely as a neurotic, or a dema
gogue, or in similar terms, l shall
if he is obliged to use such languag,
he had better preserve his own self
respect by not protesting that it gives
him pain to do so.
mo man resorts to epithets like
these if it really gives him pain t.
use them. l have never alluded Il
him in terms ever remotely resem
bling these.
Il have never quoted his privat,
| letters or private communications.
have discussed exclusively his publi
actions. Even where ] was Obliged
to be severe, I was always parlia
mentary, and never hypocritical. No
do / intend today to deviate from
this standard, although the presi
dents speech makes it necessary 70
me to speak more plainly on certain
subjects than / have yet spoken"
"TRIFLING WITH INTELLIGENCE
Colonel Roosevelt referred to Pres
ident Taft's explanation of his state
ment that ours is a government o
all of the people by Representative
part of the people"
For him to try" said Colone
Roosevelt, ito escape the conse
Iquences of his statements by sayinj
that he alluded only to women an
children is trifiing with the intelli
gence of the people.
"To speak of such action on hi
part as a square deal is itself tn
crookedest kind of deal. He is try
ing to dodge the consequences of hi
statement by deliberate misrepresen
:ation of that statement"
. 1ccOmuapiad Major Rutt a abroad 1