The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-04-05
TAFT IS CERTAIN
OF NOMINATION
win Have Majority of Delegates
From All Sections.
MAY BREAK 1903 RECORD
Progressive Policies Accepted as
Surest Avenue Of Return of Busi-
ness Prosperity-Where His
Strength Lies in Campaign.

President William H. Taft is on a
fair road to denomination as the Re
publican standard-bearer in the cam
paign of 1912. With approximately
100 delegates to the Chicago conven-
tion already instructed for him the
president is more than likely to break
his record of 1908 when he was nomi-
mated with 702 votes on the first bal
lot in the Chicago convention of that
year. There is no longer any ques-
ton that he will be renominated and
the only question now puzzling the
managers of the Taft campaign Is the
completeness of his victory.
Coupled with the assurance of his
denomination is the growing senti-
ment in the big Republican states,
both east and west, that President
Taft is the only Republican candidate
who cen possibly be elected this fall.
1t will be recalled readily enough that
when Mr.. Taft took Office three years
ago March 4th last, the great issues
of tariff revision and reform on a pro-
tective basis, and of monetary reform
and the great legal problem involved
in the exact meaning of the Sherman
antitrust statute, were squarely before
the country. In the latter issue the
Supreme court had not made its fa-
nous ruling in the Standard Oil and
Tobacco cases which were to outline,
for the first time since the law was
passed by congress, its exact mean
In % t.
sues 1t has been necessary for Presi-
dent Taft to consider and frame a
definite policy, and 1t is his decision
as to these great questions that has
convinced the business men, the labor
ing men and the farmers of the coun-
try that another term in the White
House for William H. Taft is all that
is necessary to restore the country to
that basiss of unparalleled prosperity
which characterized the administra-
tion of William Mckinley. 1t is this
sentiment which not only assures the
denomination of Mr.. Taft at Chicago
but also his reelection in November.
So many bewildering side issues
have become involved in the present
campaign for delegates to the Chicago
convention that the facts above stated
have been overlooked in certain COM
munities. Even the progressive
achievements of the Taft administra-
tion have been forgotten in the eX-
citement occasioned by the introduc-
tion of new political doctrines, prac-
tically none of which, except the pro-
10
dealt with by the national government,
but must be decided by each state for
itself. The demand for a presidential
preference primary in each state
wholly state matter in which even
the president himself has no right to
interfere, has been magnitied into a
national issue, Notwithstanding the
fact that there is and can be no ma
tional law on the subject, and only
few states are prepared to throw the
protection of the law around any such
primary, and in face of the fact that
one-tenth of the delegates to the Chi
cago convention are already chosen
and hundreds of delegates elected to
state and district conventions. 1t has
bNNh N5NAAAoNtu AAhN " NAONAt ouNll q
primary with legal authority, as pro-
vided by the rules of the party. it
would cost the taxpayers of this coun-
try not less than $5,O00,O0O immedi-
ately.
The hysteria occasioned by these
conditions is now passing away and
the foremost fact staring the voters in
the face are the progressive and def
mite policies of President Taft and the
certainty of an immediate improve
ment in business conditions all over
the country following his denomination
and reelection. This fact is of vital
interest to all classes of citizens, espe-
cially when they are confronted with
the alternative of a change in admin