The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-04-26

support. He did not tender it to me.
Any influence he may have given in
my favor was not because ne liked
me, but because he felt more bitter
toward Mr.. Roosevelt.
with characteristic boldness and
lack of facts or evidence, and resting
on his false and distorted construction
of my language as to government Dy a
Representative part of the people, MI
Roosevelt charges that I stand for the
socalled interests and special privilege:
If nothing else would serve, the record
of my administration as to suits
against railways to stop increase OF
rates, and suits against trusts or all
kinds to dissolve them and to punish
their directors must show a fair mlnd-
ed public that this administration has
no favorites among lawbreakers, or
those seeking special privileges
zone of the real reasons why Mr..
Roosevelt ought not to be selected as
81 candidate of any party is the nat
uraI distrust that the whole bust
ness community will have in respect
to the measures which Mr.. Roosevelt
will propose in order to effect
revolution in the interest of social
justice which he advocates so strong
" and defines so vaguely.
Would Hamper Prosperity.
II affirm that the nomination of
Mr. Roosevelt would extend through
the business community a feeling of
such distrust as to the future as to
interfere with the good times which,
if business IS let alone and present
conditions continue, will expand into
the most encourag ing prosperity; and
this will bring happiness to wage
earners, who are more injuriously af-
fected by disturbance of business
than any other members of the COM
munity.
Mr.. Roosevelt ought not to be
nominated at Chicago. because in such
nomination the Republican party will
violate our most useful and necessary
governmental tradition-that no one
shall be permitted to hold Il third
residential term
Mr.. Taft quoted from Mr.. Roose-
relt's statement in November, 1904,
the following;
The wise custom which limits the
president to two terms regards the
substance and not the form; and I'M
der no circumstances will 1 be a can
didate for or accept another ncmi-
nation"
He now says. although his Ian
guage does not bear such a construc-
ton, that he meant he would not ac-
cept a nomination for consecutive
third term" said the president. He
says so in face of the fact that the
most noteworthy precedent in which
the tradition was asserted ana main
tanned was that of 1880, when General
Grant was denied a third term four
years after he had left the presiden-
tial office. 1t is not for me to enter
into a discussion of the plain mean
ing of the language he used. If he
had frankly announced that he had
his mind no one would be
to hold him to a promise of
that sort merely because he had made
it. The promise and his treatment
of it only throw an informing light
on the value that ought now to be at
tached to any promise of this kind
he may make for the future. The i'm
portant fact is that his declaration
was the statement of a principal es
sentiaI to the welfare of the re-
public"
Taft Makes Denial.
New York. April 26.-Before leaving
the home of his brother, Henry w. |
Taft. to attend the memorial exercises
for the late Major General Frederick
D. Grant, at Governors Island, Presi- |
dent Taft issued a formal denial that
he had said in his speech at Springfield, |
Mass, yesterday that Theodore Roose- |
Welt would be a dictator and stick to |
the White House like a leech if he |
were elected for a third term. The |
president said:
81 did not use the language attributed |
to me in some of the dispatches in !
which I am made to say that Mr.. |
Roosevelt would be a dictator and stick |
like a Ieech to the White House."