The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-26


| him by i'll advised friends and straw"
votes, and has taken these to reflect
real presidential feeling and the real
| attitude of the public on the presi-
dental situation, when they do moth
| ing of the kind.
Colonel Roosevelt did not want to De-
come candidate and vas not can
didate- He stated this over and over
again, but he is a man who will not
shirk a duty and has apparently been
persuaded to believe. what this writer
/ thinks does not exist. that there is a
| crisis and is a demand that he run for
| the presidency; and in violation of the
anti-third term precedent; 4 the break
ing of faith with his friend in an office
which has been SO conducted as to m
title him to a second term, and of
whom President Roosevelt after years
of acquaintance and experience, sug-
gested as the man best fitted for the
office, saying of William Howard Taft:
:! do not believe there can be found
/ IN the whole country a man so well fit
TED 10 be president. He is not only
| absolutely fearless, absolutely disinter-
esled and upright but he has the
widest acquaintance with the nations
needs without and within, and the
proadest sympathies with all our citi-
| Z6nS.
He would be as emphaticaIly a
president of the plain people as Lin
| coin, yet not Lincoln himself would
| be freer from the least faint of dema-
gogy, me least tendency to arouse, to
| appeal to class hatred of any kind.
! In Mr.. Taft we have a clean man
who comolnes all these qualities to a
degree which no other man IN our pub
| lie LIE since the civil war has sur
passed
Roosevelt's position has been unique.
No man in the world was in more
enviable position by reason of his
achievements and the trust imposed i'll
him to accomplish results of moment
to the nation and the world. So great
~ do we admire Roosevelt, his virility,
ability, and courage, the more deeply
do we regret his action today, which
seems to hazard a big part of his future
national power and world wide infiu-
ence.
1t is altogether likely that Colonel
Roosevelt's announcement today in
view of all the conditions and sur
rounding circumstances will fall
rather flat and not set the prairies, or
the valleys, or the mountains afire-
for Taft is rapidly coming into his
own.
1t seems to this paper that he has
invited the defeat, and that Taft will
surely be nominated. If we are mis-
taken. we will make the best of it.
This daily is not any ones organ but
a newspaper and it will continue to
give the public the best it can in it's
field. Its future is not to be measured
by the fortunes of any candidate for
the presidency.
This paper believes in progress. 1t
is quite as progressive as the average |
politician who protests that he is one. !
It also believes that Taft is a true
progressive, and as representative |
of citizenship, it is proud of the prac-
teal progressive of the president |
But it thinks that upon one thing it |
will stand pat" and that is to con |
tinue to advocate in its Independent |
way the nomination and election of w. |
H. T.. whom it is confident that T. r. |
will endose. not SO soon. to be sure as
this paper has endorsed him, but after |
the June convention, which will nom |
mate the man concerning whom no |
kinder things. or finer things have |
been said than were worthily and |
justly and truly said by the colonel |
himself.
In a daily reading of the present the !
readers of this paper by their letters
and other expressions seem to desire a |
little of the past. Hence, this resump- |
ton of the "Reminiscences of a News |
paper Man in Topeka" with the effort |
to give such kindly, yet insistent, read
ers more for their money.
The writing of the chapters has been
interrupted by business demands away |
from the office and the calls of archi- |
tects and builders
Tt may seem strange that a writer |
living in the middle Of the country and |
engaged upon a daily newspaper should |
go twice to the Atlantic seaboard in
this short month of February, but such |
is the fact. 1t should be remembered,
however. that he did not go of his own
volition, but was called: First, on ac-
count of his present undertaking to
construct new newspaper building for
his paper, and second, in connection
with official duties for the Associated
Press.
New York has no attractions that do
not make the Kansas visitor glad to re-
turn to the prairies and the prefer
ments, and even the politics of the
Sunfiower State. The first are bright
and breezy, the second are chosen from
choice and the third is strenuous and
strengthening: All delightful, but re-
quiring diligence and duty down here
on the ground itself and at the grass
roots of the situations.
There is this satisfaction about the
long journey to and from New York
it has it's pleasurabIe and instructive
phases, as well as its business sides.
New York is truly center Into that
vortex seems to go the great things CT
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