The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1912-05-16
IN HIS own STATE.
He SASSES BACK
President TAFT Shows Injustice
Of SIandGrOuS Attacks.
ROOSEVELT IS CONVICTED

He Would Destroy Guaranty Of
Freedom and Might Form the cof.
fee Habit.
President Taft in his address in
Memorial hall, Columbus, on Wednes.
day evening. said in part:
l come before this audience and be-
fore all the audiences that have had
occasion to meet during this issue,
with great reluctance. Four years
ago | was elected president, having
been recommended to the American
people by Theodore Roosevelt as fit
b ill the office 1t is his fault that
the president of the United States can
not support the dignity of his office
and remain silent in a political con-
troversy, but must and does find it
his duty to come into a political coll
troyersy because of the form that that
controversy has taken by the instru'
mentality of Mr.. Roosevelt.
Mir. Roosevelt said that he would
not be a candidate. He changed his
mind, and changing his mind he gave
forth at Columbus a charter of dem
ocracy, as he called it, upon which he
proposed to stand. as his platform.
An Ak at Liberty's Tree.
Now in that charter of democracy oc-
CURED the announcement of those
principles which, if carried out-and
in Pennsylvania they are already de-
claring that they must be carried out
as a party measure under his leader
ship-lays the ak at the foot of the
tree of liberty regulated by law. And
| ventured in public addresses, i'm
personal and studied, in order to
avoid a personal controversy, to say
that the principle of judicial recall of
decisions was a most pernicious one,
and if carried into effect would de.
strOy our constitutional government.
Now either because The platform was
not broad enough Or was not satisfac-
tory enough to bring about an active
campaign. Mr.. Roosevelt changed, and
while he did not abandon the charter
of democracy, and still insists upon
the correctness of that as a proper re-
form, he nevertheless changed his
mind Of what he had to say as a rea-
son why he should be selected, to an
assault upon my administration and
aspersion upon me as president.
Stood 1t a Month.
| could stand that, and | did stand it
for month. He ridiculed and as
saulted my motives and held me up
as an object of scorn. | have been
long enough in the White House and
long enough subject to attack possibly
to stand that sort Of thing with con-
siderable philosophy, and l could have
stood it and would have stood it if
my personal ambition and my per-
sonal reputation were the only things
at stake | could afford to wait for
the judgment of my fellow-country.
men and have the future work out
whether l was the man he described,
or whether was something better,
and whether there was sincerity or
insincerity in has charge and his at.
| lacks.
But my friends the crisis and the
issue were not limited to my personal
| reputation or that of my admtnistra-
| tiOn and the personal ambition that |
might have TO succeed myself | to.
| day represent a cause Of the Republi.
can party.
Represents the Party.
| represent the wise progress of
the people under constitutional gov
| ernment and constitutional restric.
tions as those have been handed
| instrument upon which we have main.
tanned government, and good govern
ment, for one hundred and twenty-five
years, and | could not afford as the
leader of that element of the Republi
can party, to have their cause sacri
| feed by these attacks on my admin
| istratiOn and me, because if | allowed
| them to go unIefuted, then the cause
| NOull bC SOiC, gnu ~ NOu1u w
thought that did not refute them be
cause | could not refute them, ant
| therefore those who supported me
those who followed me, would be de
feated, and the cause l represen
would have been injured irretrievably
| And, so, though | had made up m.
mind that he could not say anything
in view Of our previous relations, tina
would lead me out to answer Mr.
| Roosevelt | found myself in the stu
alton where my loyalty to those whom
A led, my fidelity to the principles o
government as | believe in them, re
quire me to speak and to show tha
Mr.. Roosevelt had treated me wit
great injustice.
Babes Don't Govern.
Now. in the first place, he charge
me with a distrust of popular GOV
ernment. distrust of the peonle, an
he proves it by taking one sentenc
from a speech made at Toledo, i
which I was pointing out the nece'
| bltN lOl ii COhoLllullOll anu NOlloblI0
tional restrictions under our govern
ment: and ! referred to the definitio
that Mr.. Lincoln gave, that this. wa
government of the people, for tn
people and by the people. 1t belong
to all of us, men, women and children
It is a government for all the people
because it is a government uDde
which the rights of all the people an
Of each one of the people are preser'
ed and protected, men, women AM
children, the babe at the breast, tn
woman tottering to the grave, tn
adult male, the youth--and every on
of the people. The babe can, througl
its guardian, go into court and defen
its right of property, or its right q
liberty, modified of course by the pal