The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-13
Declares They Have Lost the
Sense of Proportion.
DEFENDS WORK OF HIS PARTY
And Expresses Confidence in
Its Continuance in Power.
Delivers Lincoln Day Address
in New York City.

New York. Feb. 13.-In his address
before the Republican club here, Pres
ident Taft said:
Men praise Lincoln today and at
tack the Republican party, altogether
forgetful Of the fact that in Lincoln's
life the man and the party were so
closely united in al mand accomplish
ment, that the history of the one is
the history of the other. The truth Is
that the history of the last fifty years.
with one or two exceptions, has been
the history Of the Republican party.
The progress that has been made, has
been made by the Republican party in
the legislative and executive power
entrusted to 1t by the people at large.
There are those who look upon the
present situation as one full of evil
and corruption and as a tyranny Of
concentrated wealth and who, in ap-
parent despair at any ordinary rem
edy, are seeking to pull down these
things which have been regarded as
the pillars of the temple OF freedom
and representative government and to
reconstruct our whole society on some
new principle, not definitely formulat-
ed, and with no intelligent or intelltS-
ible forecast Of the exact constitution
al and statutory results TO be attained
With the effort to make the selec-
ton of candidates. the enactment of
legislation and the decision Of courts
depend on the passions of people
necessarily indifferently informed as
to the issues presented, and without
the opportunity for time and study
and that deliberation that gives Sc
curity and common sense TO the gov
ernment of the people, such extremists
would hurry US into a condition which
could find no parallel except In the
French revolution, or in the bubbling
anarchy that once characterized the
South American republics.
Such extremists are not progress
sives-they are political emotionalists
or neurotics who have lost the sense
of proportion, that clear and candid
consideration of their own weakness
as a whole, and that clear perception
necessity for checks upon hasty pop
ular action which made our people
who fought the revolution and who
drafted the federal constitution. the
greatest self governing people that the
world ever knew.
The Man and the Dollar.
1T has been said, and It is a com
mon platform expression, that II Is
well to prefer the man above the dol
lar as if the preservation of property
rights had some other purpose than
the assistance to and the uplifting OF
human rights. Private property was
not established in order to crafty love
of some material wealth or capital. lt
was esta blished as an instrumentality
in the progress of civilization and the
uplifting of man, and it is equality of
opportunity that private property pro-
notes by assuring the man the results
of his own labor. thrift and self re-
straint.
I'VE have permitted the establish
ment Of corporations and the acquisi-
ton OF power through the corrupting
use of money in politics, so as at times
to give to a few dangerous control, I'm
LEGISLATION and government. but dur
ing the last ten years much progress
against such abuses has been made in
this regard.
The Republican party has come to
recognize that high tariff duties en-
courage combinations of capital by
suppressing competition to take ad-
vantage in the domestic prices
charged of the excessive rates OF
duty, and that that is a much safer
system which limits the duties to the
measure Of the difference between the
cost of production here and the cost
OF protection abroad than to the
wholesale system of imposing high
rates in order to secure protection at
the expense Of everything else.
As to Tariff Changes.
''The Republican party has taken its
position in favor of as little disturb
ance of the business Of the country as
possible in respect to tariff changes by
requiring that these changes shall
only take place schedule by schedule.
(Continued from Page One.)