Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-06-22
THE PITIFUL PLIGHT OF TAFT.

One cannot but feel a passing pity
for Taft, for the unfortunate position
in which he finds himself at the eXpi-
ration of single term in the presi-
dency.
Repudiated by the masses of his
party the president assuredly is. The
Rooseveltian claim that the former
president would have carried other
strong Republican states if primaries
had been held cannot be contradictea.
Nowhere was there the slightest ev!-
dence that the rank and file of the
party felt sufficient interest in the
tate of Taft to turn out and vote for
! him. The enthusiasm everywhere was
fer Roosevelt True, fifty per cent of
the party scrength was not polled at
| the primaries that were held, but
that in itself was a sufficient condem-
nation of Taft a clean exposition of
his pitiful weakness with his party
In the convention at Chicago, Taft
| has held his own by means of negro
delegates from the South, controlled
by offices or money, and by the votes
! of a few Northern states where pop
ular expression was denied. The
bosses" and the officeholders deliver
ed to him enough votes to control,
but they delivered them at the fright
fully expensive price of the life OF
their party.
What qualification Taft can derive
from such a barren victory, except
the pleasure Of preventing Roosevelt's
domination, one cannot see. IN the
popular election in November TAFT
will probably run third. Roosevelt, If
he enters the field, will distance him
lin the popular vote and Taft will re-
tire from office with the humiliation of
{. complete reputation by the people
of the country. Far better, it would
seem, would it have been for him to
have dropped out and allowed Roose-
welt to face the issue.
Taft presents the picture of a well
Imeaning man without sufficient back
bone to stand up stiffy for the righE
He stood for tariff reform originally
undoubtedly meant what he said, and
then at the behests of the Eastern in
terests backed water and disgustet
the country by his veto of bills in
tended to give the people relief from
long continued eXtortion His admin.
istration has been marked by a com.
plete failure to appreciate public sen.
, tjment along various lines, by an utter
inability to grasp the new conditions
land meet them with resoluteness ant
astuteness. He might have made, IL
his friends claim he would have made
great Justice Of the Supreme Court
AS a president he will be dismisse'
! in history with few lines. The chic
parently be his is the fact that his
administration brought his party t;
its final dissolution.
The country is too big, its people tor
alert, too strenuous too insistent, K
stand for any more presidents of the
Taft stripe. The day has passed wher
a man can sit in the White House ant
play into the hands of the protectet
interests, or capitulate to corrupt pol
itical bosses. The spirit of independ
ence that is abroad is apt to grow il
strength rather than to lessen. Thu
determination of the ninety or NOR,
millions of the people that he gov
eminent shall be one for the people
and not for the few is not apt to lose
force What it will bring in .comina
years in the proper distribution O
burdens where they belong, in the re
lief from conditions that have become
: 'inbearable, in the restitution to thu
people of the enormous fortunes Sc
cured by graft, favoritismand corrup
ton, remains to be developed. Thar
the next decade o rtwo will see strfk.
ing changes along these lines one car
hardly doubt. Socialism will be
checked by the insuring of protection
for the people along different line;
from those the socialist leaders pro
ject. The new era that is dawnine
will be one in which the poor and
those of moderate means will feel that
justice is being done to them as it has
not been done in recent years.
; Roosevelt told the assembled hosts
at Chicago: IF had not made the
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