Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1912-11-21
TAT 7 ON DEFEAT
AND THE OUTLOOK
Calls on Republicans to Protect
Constitution from Bull Moose.
Socialist Attack.

politics, policies and parties from the
viewpoint of man who has been de-
feated, but has not quit 1t was his first
statement for publication since the cleo
ton.
The President said nothing to indicate
that he expects not to be a candidate.
or that he expects to be a candidate in
1916. That part OF the situation was put to
one side as unimportant. or at least as
not imminent.
The future of party that will guard
the constitution was uppermost in the
Presidents mind. He referred to the Bull
Moose party without bitterness, but with
an apparently full and sincere apprecia-
ton of the futility of its promises and
with regret that there were those who
would take promises as performances The
President said:
II was very hopeful, as my position as
leader required me to be, that there would
he different result was surprised at
Mr.. Roosevelts strength, compared
with that of the regular republican ticket.
I had hoped on n basis of percentage,
that We might pull through OF course
could not be blind to the fact that struck
everyone. that If you take majority
party and divide it in two, unless the
was not. the solid minority party is apt
to prevail over either Of the parts of the
ajority, and so It was.
NOT GREATLY DISAPPOINTED.
while | was hopeful | was not in
condition of mind where the defeat
greatly disappointed me, and now it
would seem to me as If had never anti
cpated any different situation. The
criticisms and attacks upon my admin
istrHtion, of which | seem to have had
more than has fallen to the lot of most.
covering two or three years. had not
prepared me for a triumphant reelection
and had not greatly misled me as TO
my popularity among the American
people.
Il am very glad to have had the OPP
portunity to be president. My tastes had
been and still are judicial, but there is
very wide field of usefulness for a
president, and if he can improve 1t In
any degree he must enjoy the only real
satisfaction there is in filling public
office, and that is in having helped his
country or his fellowmen by steps of
real improvement that will really add to
the progress of the government and the
country
MY own theory is that real progress
does not take place in a very radical
way. l think progress is accomplished
step by step. l am an optimist. | be-
lieve that we are getting better all tho
time l am sure the tone of politics to-
day is better than it was years ago.
! Certainly, that is true in national poll
! tics and l think it is true in State poll
tics.
GRADUAL ADVANCE IN POLITICS.
But the progress that we have made
is not through specific measures that can
be pointed out with marked and wide diff
erence between what was and what
is; il is in the apparently less important
and obvious statutes and changes that
comport with the changes in public opin-
ION and the change in the individual view
of what is right and what is not, of what
ought to be and of what ought not to be-
Thus, take the civil service. The civil
service was used, you may call it pros
tituted, for partisan purposes until long
after the war and no one complained par
tlcularly. II was assumed as a necessary
part of politics, But gradually a civil
service statute was put upon the statute
book. 1t was ignored at first, but grad
Tally by one step and another, through
executive orders and additional statutes,
il has finally come now to a point where
comparatively few of the positions in the
civil service are used for partisan pur-
poses; and don't despair that in the next
Two decades We shall see all but the i'm
portant political offices. that ought to be
changed with politics and ought to be the
reward of political action, given n per-
manent tenure without respect to the
political opinions of the persons holding
them and not as a condition of political
activity, but rather held by persons
whose political activity is necessarily lin
tied because they do hold the office
mot BY RADICAL. ACTION"
II only instance this to show that
mot by radical action overnight, but
lGuietly, in the course of years, the
opinion of the Individual the public
opinion and the statute, operating to-
lGether, have made for righteousness
"This is one step of progress. There
are steps that have had their inception
IN my administration. I had my part
An it. | cannot stop to enumcrate what
they were, but they are on the statute
hook, ana persons wno are Interested
win recollect them. They are all the
beginnings or the continuings of prog
ross TO better things, and they are in
stances of what think ! have the
right to quote as showing some useful
}matters that 7 have accomplished.
That is the satisfaction In holding
yDfice. If ! had been reelected, could
nave carried out my plans in other
Hlrections, and that, in addition to the
pleasure of having the approval of my
lcountrymen as to second term, would
have been the real pleasure of holding
,done some more for the betterment of
governmental methods. ami thus aid
popular comfort and happiness.
The difficulty find with the presen,
progressive program is that it con,
templates the impossible 1t assumes
that legislation can do everything with
1.-THE individual and with the govern.
ment and in that way make over the
world without making over. or making
allowance for, the individual by indivtd-
ual influence and individual changes
1t is holding up prize to the followers
of the cause that is quite beyond any
possible realization
'lf the country could stand the bur.
nen and the injury that would fol
low the fundamental constitutional
changes that are insisted upon, in order
that these reforms may be effected.
would like to see the attempt made, In
order that the people might learn the
hollownoss and the impracticability and
Inc sham character of many of the