The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-05-07
II. r. AND FEDERAL PATRONAGE.

As a matter of fact there is some
thing of big boomerang in the re-
peated charges that Colonel Roosevelt
has made to the effect that most Of
President Taft's strength in his right
full quest for a denomination comes
from his control and use of federal
patronage. Colonel Roosevelt, as us
ual, ignores the important fact that
seventy per cent of the holders of led
eral offices. the country over. were
appointed to their positions during his
regime in the presidency. And al
though these Roosevelt appointces
have been retained in office by the
Taft administration, it is a matter of
common knowledge that a large num-
Der of them have been and are most
active in the furtherance of the
Roosevelt candidacy.
This is natural. In the first place,
it is only an exhibition of loyalty
that might be expected to the man
who was responsible for their eleva-
ton to office. They would be more
apt to be concerned in furthering the
political interests of their patron than
they would of the man who merely
continued them in their places where
the work is easy and the pay is good
and President Taft they would be
more likely, under present unusual
conditions, to give their support to the
former. His political success again
in the presidential arena opens up 10
them a vista of their continuance in
office
Under the precedents that have pre-
vailed in the matter of federal pat
fn
to a federal office has been secure
in his position for two terms of four
years each, provided of course the
party to which he belongs has been
continued in charge of, the national
administration. But even with his
party remaining in power for longer
than eight years, it has been the Gus
tom to deny such an employee a SER
vice for a longer period. His job las
then been passed on to another. This
is the practice that has prevailed dur |
ing the two extended periods bat the |
Republican party has been in the con-
troll of the federal government since |
the Civil War.
If Colonel Roosevelt is successful,
though, in his campaign for a third
term, the national two-term office
holding precedent will be smashed at
it's very fountain-head. If a Repub
lican can be president for three terms,
surely no argument can be presented
why Republicans holding the inferior
federal offices should not enjoy the
same privilege. Hence there is every
reason in the world why the bulk of
the 70 per cent of the federal office
holders who were appointed by Col
oneI Roosevelt, should be more con-
,erned in the success of his present
political endeavors than in President
Taft's.
1t is also noteworthy that not a
one of the federal office holders who
ire openly or covertly working for
he nomination of Colonel Roosevelt,
1as been removed from office by
PRESIDENT Taft or even threatened with
dismissal because of such activity
And this also is another indication of
he large caliber of Mr.. Taft. If he
we're of a mind to play the game of
politics as strenuously and as ruth !
essly as Colonel Roosevelt has played ]
t in the past, the federal office {
holders who are active in the inter-
.sts of the colonel would have been
hunting for other means of making a
livelihood long ago.