The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-15
THE PRESIDENT WARMING UP.

THE PRESIDENT WARMING UP.
President Taft is warming up 10 his
work in his Ohio campaign. He is get
ting more unreservcd all the time in his
replies 10 Col. Roosevelt S attacks and
in his own couuter-attacks. He justly
states that the Roosevelt campaign is
principally composed Of Roosevelt ego
tism; ''it is |, ], | all the time This
is so evident from tho Roosevelt utter
anccs. that President Taft makes
square hit when he places the position
thus fairly and squarcly before the pub
lie. President Taft ridjculcs the claims
and prctcnsions of Col. Roosevelt, and
is evidently making popular hits with
his audiences.
The more that the Roosevelt cam
paien talk is examined, the more mushy
and unsubstautia 1t is found TO be.
The Colonel is making a great ado
about the iucfrectiveness of the prosecu-
tions of the Standard Oil and the To
bacco Trust eases. He does not say
anything about the fact. however, that
these cases, which he calls ''fake pros
ecutions, were begun under his own
administration. and were held by him
in allegiance. The Standard Oil case
was instituted November 10, 1906, and
the Tobacco Trust case July 10, 1907,
The first case. therefore, had been pend
ing more than two years, and the other
more than wear and 4 half. before
President Taft S term began, They
were. of course, prosecuted upon the
lines on which they were fled. If
they were fake prosecutions, they were
so because they were so brought. If
thew are Ineffective, it Is because the
complaints as drawn led to that inef-
fectivcncss. and it was under the
Roosevelt administration that these
suits took shape. The cases might
have been brought under the misdc-
meanor provisions of the law, in which
personal penalties might have been
inflicted. But they were brought un
der the second division of complaints
provided for, in petitions or bills of
equity. Under this latter head, two
results may be sought, viz, a disso
luton of the trust, or a restraining or
der preventing acts by the trust which
run counter to the provisions of the
statute, but not interfering with the
corporate existence of the trust. 1u.
asmuch as Col. Roosevelt s Depart
ment of Justice brought these suits
under the first subdivision of the sec
oud provision Of the law, it is evident
that whatever fakerv there is about
those suits, that fakery belongs to
Roosevelt and not TO Taft,
President Taft, in his speech at
Steubenville, Ohio, dwelt upon the dan
ger of violating what Roosevelt him
self called "the wise custom" which
limits a President to two terms. ''lt
is a dangerous thing to put in the
White House a man for the third term
with his views of the constitution and
with his views of himself - The
force and strength of this proposition
is in itself, evident from Roosevelt s
course Mr.. Roosevelt, as President,
paid no attention TO the law whore
it interfered with his plans projects,
or ideas The law is always with him
a negligible quantity, unless it hap
pens to meet his approval and coin
eide with his designs. SO that, in ad.
dltiou to the danger of breaking the
anti-third term precedent, there is the
further and imminent danger in Roose-
velt's case of putting In the White
House a man who would practically
and effectively. if not nominalIy, as.
sumo the role Of dictator, superior TO
the laws, and unbound by either stat
ute, precedent, tradition, or conscience.