Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-09-12
WHAT A VOTE FOR Mr.. TAFT MEANS.

MR.. TAFT MEANS.
questions connected with certain cab
met appointments, the sum of Mr..
Taft's offending was his action on
the Payne-Adlrich tariff bill. That
was the ground Of progressive insur-
gency. The sincerity Of Mr.. Roosevelt
In capitalizing insurgency based on
this issue may be- Judged by
considering his own attitude
toward the tariff. both when president
and now as q candidate. insurgency
on this issue was utilized by him as
borrowed capital. The primary cam
paign then inaugurated was run large
ly on borrowed capital. What origin.
al contribution to tho progressive
program has been made by him ex-
cept that Of the recall Of judicial de-
cisions! Each item Of the program
has been taken up tn turn, calculated,
and utilized according to It's exact
political value. Everywhere the poll
tician has been in evidence rather
than the reformer: nowhere more
conspicuously than In the adoption
and utilization of woman's suffrage.
, In like manner It ID very hard to
reckon the violent Inconsistencies of
Mr.. Roosevelt simply as inconsistr
encies; hard, for example. to recon-
Gle on this ground his TRADES against
bosses with his special instructions to
the boss of Pennsylvania to take an
active part in the preliminaries to the
republican convention; hard to recon
cile his denunciations of the political
use OF money by the trusts With his
silence when questioned repeatedly by
Mr.. LaFollette regarding the financial
support of his campaign. The whole
atmosphere of the primary campaign
was charged with e1aggeration and
Misrepresentation Misrepresentation
which could be met only BY the spect
ic corrections Of the president In per-
son. The constant appeals to- the
plain people" came perilously near
being political cant.
A. to the Chicago Republican Con
vention.
As the time for the convention ap-
preached numerous claims In respect
to delegates were made which we're
proved to be fraudulent in so great
proportion as to cast doubt upon every
claim presented. l believe that these
fraudulent charges, urged with such
vehemence by Mr.. Roosevelt, cost
him his nomination. Had the cam.
paign been marked by strict political
veracity the presumption would have
been In his favor. AS claim after
claim was admitted to be fraudulent
the presumption changed to his great
moral disadvantage. Certainly the
subsequent charges about stealing the
nomination made little public impress
sion, though there was manifest
sympathy with Mr.. Roosevelt's dis
appointment in view of his large prim-
airy vote in the great republican
states. AS the actual facts have come
out, think that the public Is more
and more prepared to acQuiesce In the
formal statement Of Mr.. Root to Mr..
Taft: "Your title to the nomination
is as clear and unimpeachable as the
title OF any candidate since political
conventions began" That ought to
be good authority to Mr. Roosevelt
himself. It was Mr.. Root who gave
him q clear title to the Panama canal.
1t is not pleasant to reopen this
chapter in our recent political history,
but 1t ought to be reopened, and 1t
ought to stand open throughout the
campaign which is pending. It is an
exhibit of methods which ought to be
rebuked in the interest OF political
veracity. The present is no time for
gross inconsistencies in the advocacy
Of political reforms, no time for ex-
aggerations and Misrepresentation,
no time for political cant Of any sort,
no time for mere politics. It is the
time to speak and act the truth, the
whole truth, and nothing but the 4
truth.
The People Versus paternalisn.
In the third place l regard q vote
for Mr.. Taft as vote to protect the
rights of the people as against the
surrender of these rights to paterna-
lism. The political record OF Mr..
Roosevelt, as told in the events Of the
past months, showing his steady as
sumption OF the ways and methods OF
the politician, would awaken grave
misgivings were this an ordinary poll
teal campaign. It is not an ordinary
political campaign. Tho recent con-
vention at Chicago did much more
than to make Mr.. Roosevelt candi-
date, even third-term candidate, for
the presidency. It virtually declared
him, after the Roman fashion, to be the
one man indispensable to the safety
Of the republic.
The keynote Of Mr.. Rooseve1t's con-
fession Of faith was the Capitalization
OF power; the formula for the applica-
ton Of the principle was equally
clear-entrust the power to me. And
the response Of the convention was
only too well expressed in the cam
paign song introduced by one Of the
delegations and caught up, with great
enthusiasm:
Follow, follow,
We will follow Roosevelt
Anywhere, everywhere
We win follow on"
do not make light of the movement
inaugurated at Chicago The danger
from It is in exact proportion to its
moral eArnestness.
There IL a faScination about the en-