Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-06-27
TAFTs DENOMINATION.

since the party WAS OTShHlhcu hOiO
than half a century ago. Even II his
reelection was more than doubtful,
says the Kansas City Journal, 1t
would still be tremendous triumph
to have kept the covenant of the
fathers" and to have held aloft the
banner of Republicanism in the face
of internal menace and the tempta-
ton of expediency. But his re-elec-
ton, whiel it would be boastful to
say that 1t is a foregone conclusion,
is more than probable. The reve-
lation that Theodore Roosevelt
sought his own personal political ag-
grandizement more than the actual
welfare of the party, will go a long
way toward healing the unfortunate
breach between the two sections into
which he, and he alone, divided the
party. Many and grievous wounds
have been received on both sides, but
in the face of common enemy the
Republican rank and file will rally
to the support of the great principles
which are the bone and sinew of the
party. 1t is no week and specious
cry of party loyalty" to which they
will respond, but the call Of the ma
tion's profoundest well-being and the
peoples highest good.
1t may be predicted that as the
campaign progresses the Republicans
of the country as a whole will realize
more fully the imminence of the
peril that confronted them and from
which they have happily esdapedJ
This peril Is not the danger of losing
the election. An election Is of sec
ondary Importance compared with
the chaos of abandoning the imme-
mortal policies and principles with
which the peace and prosperity of
the nation are indissolubly inter-
woven. And 1t may be frankly adj
mitted that the imminence of this
peril will have the effect of teaching
some lessons that had to be learned,
but not at the cost of Republicanfsm.
The reelection of President Taft will
put a different party in power in
many important respects. That "the
old order" is changing must not be
denied, but the wisdom of those who
would have wrought humiliation in
the guise Of wholesome change must
be emphatically challenged.
When all is said and done, the I'M
alterable fact remains that the funda-
, mental principles and policies of
| Republicanism involve the very per-
petuation of national prosperity, If
not the perpetuity of American in
situations themselves. The evils that
may have crept in during so many
decades of almost uncontested SUI
premacy will be corrected, but they
will be corrected by Republicans and
not by Democrats. The remedy will
be applied by skillful healers, desir-
ing the perfect health of the party
and the country, not by murderous
quacks. The policies which have
dominated the party and which have
been ratified by the American people
quadrennially since the Civil war,
with two ill-advised exceptions, have
been splendidly and vigorously af-
| firmed by the platform upon which
President Taft goes before the peo-
pie. Those policies are not bound up
in quarrels OF. contrasting delegates.
They have nothing, to do-with alleged
tsteam rollers" even admitting there
wasiever any real merit In the fraud
uisnt contests that were brought BY
the Roosevelt partisans.
| The Republicans Of the country
will face their hereditary and their
acquired political adversaries with
their old-time fearlessness, keeping
step to the old music Of Republican
ism, with perhaps q new note OF
conservative progress. They will
cast out whatever jeopardizes the
wholesome growth Of the party and
injuries It in the opinion Of ali hon
est and intelligent people. They viii
30 again before the people pledged
to keep tho covenant Of the IA
ithers."