The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-06-26
HITS THIRD Term
Judge Parker Bitterly Arraigns
Roosevelt.
Calls Attention to His Actions
as President.

Baltimore, June 25.-ln ms speech
following taking the chair Judge
Parker said:
we meet hill the hills yet echo tc
wild cries of liar. thief and traitor ant
furious walls of fraud, bribery, treach-
cry and corruption; and our ears are
weary with the din of he articuIate
shrieking and passionate vilificat1on oil
the most shameful brawl of our polu-
ac1 history.
Our candidates, however, are Tith-
out exception, men of such lofty mem
that We meet immune from the us
temper which seized the Chicago con-
vention and privileged to discharge a
solemn public duty calmly, deliberate
ly, seriously.
people the world over has been ma
teriaIly checked by the d~isgraceful
brawl which terminated IN the peuldlh
of Chicago. Every good cltlZeh nag S
been put to shame by the brutaIty ana
the abuse which characterized thls
wrangle between a president and an
ex-president. Gratitude. friendship,
party loyalty. patriotism ana eomnloh
THE assault upon the unWrltten
prohibition against a third term mage
in the wild scramble for the RepuoII
can nomination, warns Us OF lhe no
necessity of Incorporating IN our con,
stitIItion a safeguard against repeated
terms.
"In the very beginning of our con-
%stitution making it was urged py oele7
gates participating that safety req@lteu
a constitutional limitation of the PERIOD
of years one man might hold the once
of president. History warned them OF
the coming Of a man whose lnsatlaple
lust for power would be as consumlue
as Caesars. towering high above ms
love of country. The danger seemed,
even to the pessimiSts. to nave passeu
with the establishment OF a preceaenI
nv washington, Jefferson and their
successors. Indeed, where lives the
mar who has not either heard or sald
that an unwritten law boroios more
than two terms and if anyone could pc
SO foolhardy as to seek turtner, ne
would be crushed by the wrath Oh d
patriotic and intelligent people
The Man Who Split His Party
.sThe man who split his party at
Chicago. once recognized the third
term tradition and acknowledged its
application to his SITUATION. on the
eve of his triumph in 1904 he said;
THE wise custom which limits the
president to two terms regards the SUD-
stances and not the form and under no
circumstances will I be a candidate FOR
Of accept another nomination"
S~Wrorg in this year of grace, he was
right in that. P~eradventure, ne was
hcnest with his soul and he may have
confessed to it that even a president
may BE tempted to resort to sorid de-
vices and shameless opportunities 20
gain his ambition. If so, he was in
mental condition to realize to the full
the danger to the republic involved in
setting aside a custom constituting
the only bulwark against the assaults
of men whose ambition choke the pa
triotism and whose selfish desire for
personal victory and power throttles
those moral scruples with which they
may once nave been endowed.
"Would the man who threw his hat
in the ring and sought to slug his op-
ponent over the ropes in his fight for
q third term not satisfied with its
achievement? Clearly his lust of
power would have brooked no such
Elimination. A third term would but
have whetted his desire for more and
as the terms slipped away each re-
to our constitution, to the form of
government established under it and
t. every legal curb on his imperious
will. This is the man who menac us
with an increase of federal power by
usurpation of states rights and with
out authority of constitutional amend
nfents, the man who took the Isthmus
OF Panama and let congress debate
about it afterwards The man who.
having money enough to send the fleet
on its famous cruise to the Pacific,
sent it without sanction of congress-, !
leaving it to appropriate the money
for the return when congress deemed
that necessary. This is the man who
federal incorporation for
the increase Of power at Washington
and the Tightening of legal burdens on
the corporations; the man who au-
the absorption of the Tonnes
see Coal & Iron company by the steel
trust; the man who, by many such
acts, and by umb
words, has sought to batter down our
statutory n constitutional safe
guards.
H who runs may read the danger
mat threatens the country ruled by
a man. Do we envy Mexico her
thirty years of wedded life, or the war;
the divorce from Diaz precipitated, the
end OF which no man may p~rophesy?
The way to prevent a life series of
terms Is to preven the present attempt
capture the office for a third term.
of our opportunities in this cam
third term. That opportunity should
to every drop of patriotic blood
flowing in our veins.
Internationally We have been
wrong in assuming that a tradition
against a third term constitutes a suff1-
Client safeguard against
for unlimited power. We
And the constitutional provision
should go one step urthe than our
recently assailed tradition. The pro-
vision should limit to a single term"
Judge Parker then discussed the
and what he termed the failure
Of the Republicans to redeem party
pledges. He also charged the national
administration with favoring the
trusts. In closing he said:
For their crimes against American