Arizona republican., 1912-08-02
The Ceremony of the Ac- ceptance of the Repub- lican Nomination Was Witnessed by a Distin- guished Gathering
MIR. TAFT'S SPEECH
 BEST HE HAS MADE
Speaking of the Preserva- tion of the Constitution He Slightly Rapped His Former Friend Theodore and His Following
ASSOCIATED PRESS p1spArcu1

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-The re- publican leaders who crowded the East room of the White House today to hear the presidents speech of acceptance of the renominatiOn for the presidency were confident tonight that his ad- dress would be the real keynote" for the campaign and they expressed tho belief that it is one of the best speech es the president has delivered since he entered the White House Members of the ca0inet and the republican lead CTS, Senators Root, Lodge and Crane and Representatives Mann, Payne, anif others are confident that the presi- dents address will be used as a cam- paign document and sent broadcast.
 The ceremony itself was short and simple MT. Taft and Senator Root spoke from a platform raised a few feet above the floor. Mrs. Taft, Mrs. Leonard Wood, Mrs. Beekman Win throp, wife of the assistant secretary of the navy and Mrs. G. A McClintock the only women present, sat just be- low the platform while around the half circle Were grouped members of the committee, senators, congressman and other invited guests. The affair was informal. Most of the committee and congressman appeared in conventional dress. After the speech the president disappeared into his private apart ments for a few minutes and returning wearing 2 silk housecoat instead of his formal Iress. He acted as a waiter for Mrs. Taft and other women at luncheon in the state dining room. Senator Newell Saunders of Tennessee announced that he had contributed 5000 to the Taft camaign.
 In his speech MT. Taft defined in detail the issues of the campaign as he saw them, but he reserved the right to amplfy his statement in letter as the campaign developed. The supreme issue that confronts the voters, he de- clared. was that of the maintenance of the nations institutions and the preservation of the constitution, are threatened he said, on one hand by the democratic party and on the other by those republicans who had left the party to try their fortunes with a new one.
 Next in importance he placed the tariff In the proposals of the demo- crats for reductions of the present schedules. he said, lay danger of busi- ness depression and hard times. The republican principle of revision. only where scientific investigation shows it necessary, marks the straight road of peace. In discussing the tariff he said it was untrue that at it's door could be placed the high cost of living, and he pointed out that the conditions of living were alike all over the world.
 As an issue only less important than the tariff he placed the regulation of the trusts He said the Sherman law had been enforced with success. He pointed to the record of the republi- can party. particularly during his own administration as an earnest of what might be expected and was due in the future if the people would return 1t to power.
 The president attacked the demo- crats on other points than the tariff, making special reference to the re- fusal of that party in the house or representatives to continue the naval policy of two battleships a year. He did not mention Roosevelt or Wilson by name but referred to each. While he did not accuse either of embracing the doctrines of socialism, in many of the proposals they had made, the president said, they savored strongly of it.
 "I know that in this country there are many who call themselves demo- crats. who view with the same aver sion that we republicans do, radical propositions to change our form of government, that are recklessly ad- vanced to satisfy what is supposed to be popular clamor," said MT. Taft. 'sThey are men who revere the con- stitution and institutions of their gov ernment with all the respect we could 1 possibly have, and who deprecate dis 1 turbances in business and are yearn- | ing for a cessation of that quite dog- matic agitation which is essential to the enjoyment by the whole people of the great prosperity which good l crops and present conditions ought to bring us