St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-10-23
PRESS COMMENT
dunsey,s Appeal CO.. VOC

The Boston Journal of Monday de-
votes its entire front page to an APP
peal by Frank A. Munsey, it's owner,
for the vote Of the business men for
Colonel Roosevelt. He calls upon the
business man to throw away person
al prejudices against Colonel Roose-
welt and against breaking away from
party under whose administration
the country has enjoyed prosperity
because he says:
cit is either Roosevelt with good
business and governmental progress,
or Wilson with bad business and
governmental shilly-shallying.
He admits that President Taft has
business and professional mems
following. The article itself is an
admission for it is an urgent appeal
for support that is lacking in the
Roosevelt ranks. He doubts evident
! ly himself whether Mr.. Roosevelt
could be elected without it for he
says, after calling attention to Colon
I ell Roosevelt's popular following:
whether his following this year,
Independent of you of the business
world, those of you who are oppos-
| ed to him, is sufficient to elect him,
is not yet certain. This vote (pop-
ular) cannot so easily be measured
as the vote of the business world.
But the popular sentiment for him,
and indeed the intense belief in him
and enthusiasm for him, are so
great that it may be in spite of all
opposition they will sweep him into
power. With your votes lined up for
him, his election would be certain
ty."
To secure the attention of the bus
mess men in an attempt to get their
votes he praises the republican par
ty, when he says:
"Mr. Roosevelt's election would
mean the continuance in force of
the best policies of the republican
party, would mean the establish
ment of a right tariff that will pro-
tect the American wage, and that
will protect the American markets
against invasion from abroad"
Realizing that the tariff is the i'm
portant question of the campaign to
the thinking men and the working
men of the country, be proceeds to
drop for the time being the initiative
and referendum, the recall of judges
and other innovations calculated to
entice votes from this popular"
following of his and he harks back to
the tariff, the tariff of the republic
can party he so recently bolted be-
cause it was not progressive enough.
Mr.. Munsey evidently realized that
when he got back to the tariff ques-
ton, Mr.. Roosevelt had nothing to
stand on as far as his past achieT e.
ments were concerned so he enumer-
ates a large number of the things
that the Roosevelt administration
did accomplish as an excuse to show
why Roosevelt hadn't the time for
reforming the tariff. He said he was
doing bigger things at that time.
Now President Taft did have time
to deal with the tariff question. He
considered the question of the pre-
servation of our manufactures by
sufficient protection to keep out for
eign competition and to allow a rea-
sonable profit for the manufacturer
important, and important enough for
his consideration. Why? So that
the American scale of wages to the
workingman could be maintained, so
that the working man could be sure
of work and money with which to
buy food and produce from our agri-
culturists. He considered the ques-
ton of securing revenue with which
to run the government profitably i'm
portant but not at the expense of
those least able to pay so he engin-
eered a tariff bill calculated to i'm
pose the highest rates on luxuries
so that the burden of the tariff
would rest upon the rich. Now of
course the adjustment of the tariff
rates on different articles is a diff
cult problem because it is hard to
determine what the difference in the
cost of producing an article in some
other country and in this country is.
1t is important to the consumer of
an article in this country whether he
is paying enough for it to keep out
foreign competition and to insure a
reasonable profit for the manufact-
urer of that article or more than
enough. President Taft, with the
experience of making a tariff bill,
realized where the system could be
improved so he created Tariff
Board of experts so that when flu
ture revision of rates on a particular
article was called for he could get
scientific opinion as to what it
cost to produce that article in other
countries and at home. In other
words, President Taft has tariff
record.
But to get back to this appeal for
the vote of the business man on the
strength Of the preservation of the
protective tariff policy, it has gener-
ally been believed from the first that
Mr. Roosevelt himself, when he
again came into the fight following
his defeat for the republican nomin-
alton. had no idea he could win the
election this year. OF course he
would have liked to win this year
but it has been the general belief
that he was looking to the future
and that the first move was to dis
rupt the republican party and pre-
pare the way for 1916. He has
put up vigorous campaign and has
made a strong bid for the popular
vote by the use Of policies like the
initiative and referendum, the recall
of judges and his denunciation of
many things He has not cut as large
a swath in the West as he expected
and his popular following is believed
IN Ia uoufnor. mTf1a Taft aford;uo