The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-09-06
WHY He STANDS BY MR.. TAFT
Former President Of Dartmouth College Analyses Roose
veltism

tism.
to the plain peoples came periousl
near being political cant.
Fraudulent Claims.
i AS the time for the convention az
i preached numerous claims In respec
to delegates were made which wer
4 proved to be fraudulent In so grea
proportion as to cast doubt upol
I every claim presented believe tina
| these fraudulent charges, urged wit
such vehemence by Mr.. Roosevelt
cost him his nomination. Had tn
campaign been marked by strict DC
litical yeracity the presumption woul,
have been in his favor. As claim al
ter claim was admitted to be fraudu
lent the presumption changed to hi
( great moral disadvantage. Certainly
! the subsequent charges about stealth,
the nomination made little public i'm
/ preston, though there was a NANTES
sympathy with Mr.. Roosevelt's disap
pointment in view of his large pri
mary vote in the great republican
states. As the actual facts have
come out think that the public II
more and more prepared to acquiescs
in the formal statement of Mr.. Roo
to Mr.. Taft: Your title to the nomi
nation is as clear and unimpeachablt
as the title of any candidate since
political conventions began Tha
ought to be good authority to Mr.
Roosevelt himself. It was Mr.. Roo
who gave him a clear title to thu
Panama canal.
People Versus PaternaIlsm.
In the third place / regard a vote
for Mr.. Taft as vote to protect the
rights of the people as against the
surrender of these rights to paternal
ism. The political record of Mr.
Roosevelt, as told in the events of the
past months, showing his steady as
sumption of the ways and methods o,
the politician, would awaken grave
misgiFings were this an ordinary DO
htical campaign 1t is not an ordin
AIRY political campaign. The recent
convention at Chicago did much more
than to make Mr. Roosevelt candi
date, even a third-term candidate, TO,
the presidency. 1t virtually declared
him. after the Roman fashion, to be
the one man indispensable to the
safety OF the republic.
The keynote of Mr.. Roosevelt's con
fessfon of faith was the Capitalization
Of power; the formula for the appli.
cation of the principle was equally
clear-intrust the power to me =
There is fascination about the en-
trance of new party into the politi-
cal ffeld-everything new, no inherit
ed evils, no bosses, no corruption, no
feuds. no pledges except to the peo-
pie A program of promises is allur.
ing. am profoundly in sympathy
with the spirit of the program of so
cial justice outlined by the new party.
Social justice is the present gsal OF
all true progressivism. What guar
antee does the party offer that it can
maintain its prestine purity and full
fill its promises2 The answer is Mr..
Roosevelt. The answer is entirely
fair, for 1t is evident that without
Mr. Roosevelt the party has no exist
ence. 1t is therefore as fair as it is
necessary to analyze Mr.. Roosevelt's
recent political record, and If one
finds there the signs of political de-
terioration to determine his own DO
litical duty accordingly. | have indi-
Gated the result of my analysis.
A Progressive Platform.
The republican party has never put
forth so progressive a platform as
that on which Mr.. Taft stands for re-
election. In fact, the controlling
question in the coming campaign is
simply this: What kind Of progress do
the people want2 Coupled with the
hardly less serious question, in what
assurances of progress do the people
confide? My insistence in this article
has been that the broad lines OF
cleavage are between Mr.. Taft and
Mr.. Roosevelt, not between the repub-
lean and the democratic party. The
political purpose of Mr.. Roosevelt is
so clear that he who runs may read
to attempt to swamp Mr. Taft in the
popular vote of 1912, with the moral
certainty of thereby defeating Mr.. Will
son or the democratic nominee in
1916. A vote for Mr.. Taft virtually
covers two campaigns. hold no
brief for the republican party. Party
OBLIGATIONS in ordinary times sit
lightly upon me. AT the present time
] am more than ready to travel the
road of political progress, perhaps
farther and faster than the republi-
can party may be able in the future
to guarantee passage. am not ready
to be propelled or to be sidetracked
into Rooseyeltism.