The Washington times., 1912-02-23
ROOSE WELT GAINING
STRENGTH IN NEW
ENGLAND STATES
Taft's Support Crumbles.
President Will Make Re-
ply to Colonel.
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heard from It in the last forty-eight
New England and the South have
mltted loss of Texas and Kentucky,
with big troubles on in Georgia, Ar
kansas, Tennessee, and other States;
and with almost every delegation thus
southern situation is giving worry to
the Taft forces. New England has
been accounted their Gibraltar; II 1t
falls ignominously before the Roosevelt
fianking movement, the fight will be
over before 1t is fairly begun. This is
tho way the faint-hearted supporters of
the President feel today.
Pennsylvania Poll
They expected some big doings as
soon as Mr. Roosevelt should unlimber.
They knew there would be some start
ling combinations effected, some strik-
ing combinations made, but that one
big play would suddenly put all New
England in the balance was more than
they counted upon.
Up in Pennsylvania is a situation that
worries the Taft people only less. The
chairman of the Keystone party Is
making postal card poll of $4,000 vot-
before the Columbus popular govern
ment speech was published Mr.. Roose-
welt was leading Mr.. Taft in the pro-
portion of eighteen votes for Roosevelt
to ten for Taft.
Then that Columbus speech came out
There was big increase in the votes
next day, and, to make it more strik-
ing, the. proportion in favor of Mr..
Roosevelt jumped to twenty-eight for
Mr.. Roosevelt to ten for Mr.. Taft
Out in Ohio Chairman Walter Brown
is having careful tests of actual senti-
ment made in all sections. He reports
aCf no nrif for ATr
Roosevelt over Mr.. Taft is three to
one, and the highest is ten to one.
Taft To Make Fight.
President Taft at last recognizes that
the Roosevelt movement is serious, and
will take steps to fight it. For weeks
past he has assumed confidence that
Mr.. Roosevelt would not be a candidate
and has slSillfully avoided any public
appearance of preparation for defense
against the Roosevelt onslaught. His
managers thought this was the safest
plan, because if they allowed ii to be
known that they believed Mr. Roose-
welt was a candidate the masses of
people who have been waiting for the
word from Mr.. Roosevelt would assume
that the President knew. So the Taft
program was to keep mum and pretend
that nothing was happening.
But 1t has happened. The Roosevelt
announcement will come on Monday,
and the President already has given out
that he will on March make reply,
in Toledo, to the Columbus speech. He
had intended to travel straight across
Ohio that day, without bothering to
stop among his own constituents; but
he has changed his plan, and will go
IL day earlier than had been arranged.
lie Will amplify mis- recent Lincoln Day
argument that the people are not fit for
self-government, and take up the issue
Roosevelt has offered. with his declara-
ton that he thinks the people can be
depended on to run their own govern
ment.
The Taft reioinder to Mr.. Roosevelt
will be sort of link-sausage affair; one
link will be let out at Todelo, and three
or four other speeches will be devoted
to replying to other features of the
popular government program of Mr..
Roosevelt.
Plans For Roosevelt.
Meanwhile, Mr. Roosevelt will have
handed out a row of speeches in the
Inauguration of his whirlwind campaign
to seize New England. and at the rate
Of five Taft speeches to reply to each
one by Mr.. Roosevelt, the Admins
tration's stock of oratorical ammunition
will be subjected to terrific drain.
The Roosevelt people calculate that
with New England tucked away at the
opening of the fight, and the trans
Mississippi West perfectly able ana even
anxious to take care of Itself, New
York, Pennsylvania, Ohio. and Illinois
are the places to be given the major
attention. In all these, it will be merely
a matter of deVisinE means and de-
veloping organization to give the big
majority of the people a chance to reg
ister their actual sentiments.