The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-08-01
The President Accepts RenOmi-
nation Offered to Him.
In a Speech Delivered Before
the Committee
'HE DEFINES THE ISSUES
Which He Believes Are Pre-
sented by the Campaign.
Reviews the Accomplishments
of His Administration.

washington, Aug. President
Taft's formal speech of acceptance OF
the nomination of the Chicago con-
vention was delivered here today to
the official committee OF notification
headed by Senator Root and few in
vited guests.
Although Mr.. Taft defined in detail
the issues of the campaign as he saw
them. he reserved the right to amplify
his statement in a letter as the cam
paign develops.
The supreme issue that confronts
the voters, the president declared. was
that of the maintenance of the nations
institutions and the preservation OF
the constitution, threatened, he said,
on the one hand by the Democratic
party and on the other by those Re-
publicans who had left the party to
try their fortunes in a new one.
Next in Importance Mr.. Taft placed
the tariff. In the proposals of the
Democrats for reductions in the pres
ent schedules, he said, lay danger OF
business depression and hard times.
The Republican principle of revision
only where scientific investigation
shows it necessary, marked the
straight road to continued prosperity
and commercial peace.
Promise No Remedy.
In discussing the tarinf, the president
said that it was untrue that to its door
could be traced the high cost of living
and pointed out that conditions of liv-
ing were alike over the world. A po-
litical promise could not remedy such
a condition, he said.
AS an issue only less important than
the tariff the president placed the
regulation of trusts. He said the
Sherman law had been, enforced with
success but added that specific acts OF
unfair trade should be denounced as
misdemeanors that such acts might be
avoided or when committed punished
n
business enterprises, he said, should
be offered a federal Incorporation law
Aside from those issues the presi-
dent pointed to the record OF the Re
publican party and particularly during
his own administration as an earnest
of what it might be expected to do IN
the future II the people returned ~ &c
power in November. He attacked the
Democrats at other points than the
tariff, making special reference TO the
refusal of that party in the house OF
representatives to continue the naval
policy of two battleships year.
Taft did not mention either Colonel
Roosevelt or Governor woodrow VIII
son by name. but referred TO each-
While he did not accuse either of en-
bracing the doctrines of Socialism,
many of the proposals they had made,
the president said, savored OF IL
strongly He closed with a review of
his administrative achievements and
appealed directly to the conservative
voters of the Democratic party TO JOIN
with the Republicans at the polls.
His speech follows:
Speech of Acceptance.
Mr.. Root and Gentlemen of the Noti-
fication Committee:
I accept the nomination which you
tender. 1 do so with profound grati-
tude to the Republican party, which has
thus honored me twice. 1 accept IL as
an approval of what have done under
it,, mandate, and as an expression of
confidence that in a second administra-
ton 1 will serve the public we'll The
issue presented to the convention. over
which your chairman presided with
such a Just and even hand, made a
crisis in the party's life. A faction
sought to force the party to violate a
valuable and time-honored national
tradition by entrusting the power Or
the presidency for more than two terms
to one man, and that man, one whose
recently avowed political views would
have committed the party to radical
p1 1oposals involving dangerous changes
in our present constitutional form 9r
representative government and our in
dependent judiciary.
This occasion is appropriate for the
expression of profound gratitude at the
victory for the right which was Won
at Chicago. BY that victory, the Re-
publican party was saved for future
usefulness. 1t has been the party
through which substantially all the pro-
gress and development in our country's
history in the last fifty years has been
finally effected. It carried the country
through the war which saved the union,
and through the greenback and silver
crazes to a sound gold basis. which
saved the country's honor and credit.
II fought the Spanish war and success
fully solved the problems of our island
possessions 1t met the incidental evils
of the enormous trade expansion and
extended combinations of capital from
1897 until now by a successful crusade
against the attempt Of concentrated
wealth to control the country's politics
and its trade 1t enacted regulatory
legislation. 1t has enforced the anti
trust laws until those who were not
content with anything but monopolis-
tic control of various branches of in
dustry are now acquiescent in any plan
which shall give them scope for legiti-
mate expansion and assure them inn
munity from reckless prosecution.
The Republican party has been alive
to the modern change in the view of the
duty of government toward the people.
Time was when the least government
was thought the best. and the policy
which left all to the individual, un-
mclested and unaided by government.
was deemed the wisest Now the duty
OF government by positive law to
further equality of opportunity in e
spect of the weaker classes in their
dealings with the stronger and more
powerful is clearly recognized. It is N
this direction that real progress toward
the. greater human happiness is being
made 1t has been suggested that un-
der our constitution, such tendency 70
so-ealIed paternalism was impossible.
Nothing is further from the fact. The