The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1912-11-21
SAYS BULL
MOOSE LEADERS ARE
POLITICAL QUACKS
President In Interview
Declares Fight Must
Go On.
SEES BIG DANGER
BIG DANGER
Declares Progressives Would
Tear Down Established
Institutions.

ard Taft, defeated eight days ago,
but still president Tor four months,
gave his views of politics, policies and
parties from ,le viewpoint of a mar
who has been defeated, but has not
quit. 1t was his first statement for
publication since the election.
The president said nothing to in
dictate that he expects not to be a.
candidate, or that he expects to be a
candidate in 1916. That part of the
situation was put to one side as I'M
important, or at least as not immi-
nent.
The president said:
81 was very hopeful, as my position
as leader required ME to be, that
there would be a different result. /
was surprised at Mr.. Roosevelt's
strength, as compared with that of
the regular republican ticket, | had
hoped, on a basis of percentages. that
We might pull through. OF course, |
could not be blind to the fact that
struck everyone that if you take a
majority party and divide it in two.
unless the majority is very large in
deed, as ours was not, the solid min
GRITTY party is apt to prevail over
either of the parts of the majority,
and so it was.
While / was hopeful / was not in
IA condition of mind where the defeat
greatly disappointed me, and now it
would seem to me as if ! had never
anticipated any different situation.
The criticisms and attacks upon my
administration, of which / seem to
have had more than has fallen to the
lot of most, covering two or three
years, had not prepared me for a tri-
umphant reelection and had mott
greatly misled me as to my popular
ity among the American people.
Like Medical Quack.
THE difficulty find with the pre-
sent progressive programme is that
it contemplates the impossible. 1t as
sumes that legislation can do every
thing with the individual n with
the government and in that way
make owe the world, without making
over, or making allowance for the in
dividual by individual influence and
individual changes. 1t is holding up
a prize to the followers of the cause
that is quite beyond any possible rea-
lization.
IF the country could stand the
burden and the injury that would
follow the fundamental constitutions
al changes thai are insisted upon, in
order that these reforms may be eff
fected | would like to see the at
tempt made, i'll order that the people
might learn the hollowness and the
impracticability and the sham char
acter of MAN, of the promises upon
which such progress is promised.
But the country cannot afford to
turn itself over to a class of men
who do not deserve to figure in any
more honorable light than quacks do
in the practice of medicine. 1t would
be too great danger to the body poll
tic. We must rely not on dangerous
experiment but on argument and on
Il reasonable demonstration to the
people by common sense talk, to end
the enthusiasm of hysteria and false
hopes.
Says Government is Attacked
"When a party like the Bull Moose
party, comes forward and proposes
to utterly tear down all the checks
and balances of a well-adjusted, dem
ocratic, constitutional republican
government, to destroy the limita-
tons of executive and legislative pow
er as between the majority and the
minority, as between the majority
and tho individual, then the issue be-
comes a capital one, and it effects
the permanence and continuance OF
our government.
The danger is from a party whose
tendency is thus necessarily destru-
ctive of what has been laboriously e.
tablishod for the good and happiness
of mankind by the struggles of cen
turtles and which is headed as clearly
for socialism as the socialist party
itself.
lit it's purpose to stay
in and retain half the votes of the
old republican party and absorb the
rest. Those of us who are looking for
ward to the politics of the country be-
yond a mere term or two, ought to be
on our guard to organize an opposi-
j, ton TO the possible success of such a
menace to the institutions that we
revere, thai have been handed down
to us after a test of more than 120
years, and that are the conditions as
| regard them-the absolute condi-
tions-upon which it is possible for
a popular government to endure, to
maintain law and order and to secure
to the minority and the individual the
right and liberty of property and all
those other rights that are guaran-
teed by the constitution. like relig-
ious tolerance and the pursuit of
happiness.
Duty of Republicans.
1T behooves us, therefore, as re-
publicans, to look forward to the
time when, in the natural course of
5 events the democrats shall have dis
appointed the public, to be ready to
prevent that disappointment from be-
ing used by the Bull Moose n So
cialist combinations 20 get into pow
err
= will lie shown. as the ShnM Ii nun III