Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-04-27
Taft Accuses Predecessor of
Carrying on Campaign of
Misrepresentation With
Garbling of Speeches.
SAYS COLONEL HAS
BROKEN PLEDGES
Double Dealing Charged to
Roosevelt and People are
Warned That Disaster
Will Follow His Success.

Boston, April 26.-President Taft
last night cast aside his policy OF
avoiding personalities in his campaign
for denomination and devoted his en-
tire speech to an attack upon Col.
Roosevelt and defense of himself and
his administration against charges Col.
Roosevelt recently has made on the
stump. E
Mr.. Taft's speech bristled with
count charges against his predeces-
sor in the white house. He declared
that Mr. Roosevelt had wilfully mis-
represented him, and falsely distorted
some of his public utterances, had
failed to live up to his policy of a
square deal and had violated a solemn
promise to the American people not
to be candidate for a third term.
'That promise and his treatment OF
it." said Mr. Taft, "only throws an in
forming light on the value that ought
now to be attached to any promise OF
this kind he may make for the future"
Declaring that Mr.. Roosevelt Ought
not to be selected as candidate OF
any party" Mr.. Taft said that the
former president might now be paving
the way, if successful in the present
campaign, to remain the chief execu-
/ tive OF the nation for as many terms
las his natural HE would permit.
III he is necessary now to the gov
ernment, why not later?" asked the
president, and continued:
Hold Roosevelt Unsafe Leader.
zone who so lightly regards consti-
tutional principles, and especially the
independence Of the Judiciary, one
who is so naturally impatient of legal
restraints and of due legal procedure,
and who has so misunderstood what
liberty regulated by law is, could not
safely be intrusted with successive
presidential terms. I say this sorrow
fully, but say it with the full convic-
/ ton Of its truth
Mr.. Taft referred to some of Mr..
Roosevelt's charges against him as the
''loose and vague indictment Of one
who does not know and who depends
only upon second hand information for
his statement"
The president said that his speech
last night was one of the most painful
duties of his life, that it was in re-
sponse to an obligation that he owed
the republican party which selected
him as it's candidate, and to the Am
erican people who elected him presi.
dent.
1t grows he said, "out of phase
of national politics and national life
that believe to be unprecedented in
our history. So unusual is the ex-
tgency that the ordinary rules OF
propriety that limit and restrict
be laid aside, and the cold, naked truth
81 in 70
shall serve as warning to the people
Of the United States"
Mr.. Taft said that Col. Roosevelt's
Columbus speech accepted as his plat
form, "sent thrill of alarm through
all the members Of the community"
Mr.. Roosevelt, he said, then found that
!, if the nomination were to come to him
he must minimize the Importance OF
this charter, Of democracy and must
find some other issue upon which to
succeed. Without giving up the prin-
ciples announced in his Columbus
address, the president said Mr.. Roose-
welt relegated them to an incidental
place and changed his campaign to
one of criticism of Taft and the Taft
administration.
Answers Eleven Charges.
One by one, the president took up
eleven charges made against him by
Col. Roosevelt and sought to refute
them In two instances be quoted
from correspondence between himself
and Col. Roosevelt and said he was
prepared to make other letters public
If Mr. Roosevelt should desire.
"By excerpts from my speeches Mr..
Roosevelt has sought to show and has
charged that am one who has pub
licly announced that am in favor OF
an aristocracy Of political bosses, and
that am linked with political bosses
in seeking my denomination. He
charges that the patronage Of the gov
ernment is being shamelessly used to
secure my denomination, and that in
the conventions and primaries which
have been held, fraud and violence
have been Systematically used to de-
feat the will Of the people and to
secure delegates for me. He says that
| am not progressive, but reac-
tionary; that was nominated by pro-
eressives, and after election Joined
the ranks of those who opposed me
for nomination; and he intimates that
fCor@31--l ~, Doua IN t54s /.