Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1912-09-06
TAFT our OF RAGE.
EVEN THE EAST BEGINS TO SEE
PRESIDENT HAS NO CHANCE
TO WIN.
HIS SUPPORT BREAKING UP
stand-Pat Newspapers Arraien Him
for His Message on Panama Canal
Question and for Vetoes on Behalf
Of WooIen Interests.


Colonel George Harvey solemnly
warns" the Democrats that the man
they have to beat is not President
Taft. This delphic utterance Is symp-
tcmatic not only of the recognition
in the east of the strength of the Pro
gressive movement; it is equally IL
luminative of the current breakup in
the Taft support.
The veto of the wool revision bilL
bring TO the president the hearty sup
port of New England at least, has
elected more unkind than kind words
from the important pro-Taft journals
of that section. The Boston Tran
script congratulates Mr.. Taft upon his
vetoes in behalf of the wooden inter-
ests, but expresses the fear that 'the
country at large, seeing our satisfac-
ton, is likely to declare that the pres
ident is forgetting that the consumer
and not the producer is the first per-
son to be consulted" The Providence
journal, in the same strain, declares:
THE effect of his action will be to
convince the voters more and more
that there is no chance of tariff re-
orm from him or his party"
This is cold comfort. Both these
papers have been giving Mr.. Taft
their support, yet they cannot approve
the old-line stand-pat tariff policy
which he made his own in his speech
of acceptance.
The Detroit News, the leading Pro-
gressive newspaper in Michigan, has
been gathering a few other editorial
utterances from powerful Taft news
papers in the east. The most signifi-
cant 1t finds to be the New York
Times biting arraignment of the pres
ident for his "pitiful trafficking with
principle" in his message upon the
Panama Canal question. The Times
goes on to say:
President Taft is his own worst
enemy, 1t is a duty, and painful
one, to call that fact to his attention,
with all possible directness His un-
fortunate propensity for dealing with
great public questions in that spirit
of miserable compromise and avoid
ance that is exhibited in his message
to the senate and the house on the
Panama Canal bill has brought him in
to his present wretched plight with
in his party and before the country.
The New York Sun also regrets"
the stand of the chief executive upon
the Panama Canal bill. 1t adds: THE
Panama act either does or does not
violate the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. If
it does not, there is nothing to be said
on that score. If it does, it is unfit
to be a law If there is doubt, 1t is
unfit to be law
Even the indianapolis News, while
praising the president for his defiance
of public opinion in the commerce
court retention, regrets that some
such splendid stand was not made
over the Panama Canal bill" 1t says:
Had Mr.. Taft contended as strong
ly for equality at the canal as he has
for purity in the civil service and for
the commerce court, we believe he
could have strengthened himself with
the general public"
1t is evident that the president, re-
iected in the primaries by the great
Republican states and weighted down
at the convention by questionable
nomination, is not. in the campaign
giving to his supporters the kind OF
administrative record that they need
for the strengthening of his cause
They are becoming restive over the
difficulty of offering in his behalf an
adequate defense. Or, perhaps, they
are tired of defense itself as a cam
paign policy. At any rate the course
of events goes more and more to
show that even the east is coming
to understand the perfectly patent
fact that the race is between Colonel
Roosevelt and Mr.. Wilson; that poor
Mr.. Taft is definitely out of it.-Chi
cago Post.