The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-01-02
CHAPTER LxIm.

as an easy one who returns almost as
fresh as when he leaves on a journey
as President Taft.
Now it is read that Taft shook
hands Monday with s,O92 people
against a previous showing of between
5000 and 5000. The dispatches read:
The greatest throng that has passed
the portals of the White House at any
New Year reception in recent years
greeted the President and Mrs Taft
Monday" That Is certainly shaking
some hands. and if the president was
not weary and worn. as W. A. W. says
he is. he certainly had reason to be.
The insurgent papers are now print
ing an editorial from Henry ]. Allen
of the Wichita Beacon wherein Mr..
Allen demands that Theodore Roose-
welt come forward and save the coun-
try. Mr.. A. is for almost anybody who
can beat Taft. He is not for Our
President About two years ago he
came out in a statement in which he
said President Taft could not carry a
Kansas township. Well, since that time
the president has done many. many
fine, brave progressive things and con-
tributed effectively and practically to
many broad GAGGED and economic poll
cies. advocated by this same Henry
Allen, and yet Mr.. Allen has nothing
favorable to say of the president
Mr.. Allen in many respects resem-
bles the typical insurgent: that is this
sort of a politician is for "any one who
can beat Taft" Just why such are
opposed to Taft, who has made a sane.
sensible, progressive president, is hard
to find out The conduct and CONVEX
sation of these insurgents reminds one
of the fable of the wolf and the lamb:
A wolf. hungry for mutton. tender
or tough, and wanting some excuse TO
slaughter a friendly lamb which he
saw standing in the water in the shall
low ford below him, and desiring an
excuse for the slaughter of the inno-
cent one. said:
why do you muddy the water SO
that I can scarcely drink it?"
How can 1 muddy the water for
you to drink when I am down the
stream %
wen" replied the wolf your
mother, Mrs. Eve. made the water
muddy once when I was trying to set
drink"
So having no excuse handy, the wolf
determined to attack the lamb on gen
eraI principles and try to be consistent
with a wolfish instinct for gore and
blood.
Amid all the political disturbances
in the air. Colonel Roosevelt seems to
still pursue the sensible course he has
followed for many months. The Colonel
has certainly been piled with questions,
many of them impertinent ones. and
questions Which sensible people should
not ask him. The interview printed in
this paper today from New York is in
teresting and along the true Roose-
veltian lines.
The colonel is great man and a
popular idol There is no denying
that. He uses the English language
in an unmistakable manner. He has
a splendid reputation for truth and
veracity, and yet, some people who
pretend to be his friends will not APP
parently believe him when he says
that he is not a candidate and does
not wish his friends to complicate
matters by trying to get delegates for
him to the next Republican national
convention.
The great Ohio conference which was
supposed to bring Robert LaFoIlette
clearly out into the lime light and
arena as the man to beat Taft has
come and gone and what do YOU think :?
It did not even endorse LaFollette. IN
fact. the vote was overwhelmingly
against endorsing him. Here is La
Toilette. the back bone and sinew. and
the pride and hope of the whole in
surgent movement getting a black eye
at critical moment. The vote against
him was 81 to %.
And to think of it, There was ?. reso-
luton presented at that Ohio meetine-
yesterday reading as follows: Resolved
etc, that LaFollette, who is the living
embodiment of the principles of the
progressive movement and the logical
candidate to carry them to successful
fruition, etc.
Even this resolution was voted down
81 to Il.
Governor Osborne of Michigan
comes out today in favor of 'sRoose-
welt or Beveridge.'' 1t is related that
the governor had prepared a speech 10
introduce LaFollette, but he missed
his train and having missed it he now
says. upon more mature deliberation
and a sober second thought:
AS between Taft and LaFollette. I
am for Taft. The LaFonette style of
campaign tends to arouse the passions
of the people and make for a condition
Of public intolerance which is always
worse than personal or individual in
tolerance because it has so much more
might as \ force.
In Senator LaFollette speeches and
writing do not think he distinguishes
between honest men in big business and
dishonest men.
I'VE have got to have big business in
this country if we are TO compete in the
manufactures and and transactions. of the
I,..si..ass sl.o.,- =