The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-09-01
TAFT,s MANLY COURSE.

| President Taft has been surrounded
over since the opening of the present
Congress by combination of circum-
stances and of political cnmitles that
might we'll have overwhelmed less
resolute and substantial man. The
| fact that he has been able TO triumph
over this opposition and over these ad"
verse circumstances is the best possible
| tribute to the staunchness OF his char
acter and the resources Of his we'll
balanced mind. AS the st. Louis Times
fairly says;
President Taft has been confronted by
conditions wholly unusual Hc went into
office sponsored by hia predecessor, whose
close adviser he was throughout most OF OF
his tenure OF office. He was proclaimed
as one who would carry out my poIi,
cies," and the favored candidate ano
the public accepted that as adcquatei put
| on the basis OF publicly ayowed policies.
Neither knew that the then President Was
openly hurlinS anathemss at the male
factors Of great wealth and secretly
conniying with them TO confer h an,nc,aI a ,nJsg
and Industrial necks OF the Nation ana
secure them immunity from interruption
and penalty for their evil doing The
| revelation Of this double-dealing came
after his retirement from office.
Because President Taft did not couu"
tenance that double dealing and be-
cause he refused to set himself up as
despot, determined to do and cause
to be done things outside Of the law,
and which had no authorization by
statute, be was at once sssailed by
the conservation faddists, and those
howlcrs appealed to former President
Roosevelt to vindicate their cause. 1t
was hopeless for them to expect that
President Taft would act outside of
the law Therefore they turned to
Roosevelt as a man who would do what
he wanted to do and what his friends
demanded of him, whether the law au-
thorized it or not President Taft
determination to give the country an
administration of law rather than An
administration Of usurpation and er-
ratio whims was his weakness In the
minds of the faddists, who were deter
mined to have their views prevail
whether there was any law, justice, or
precedent for it or not.
With regard to the prosecution of
trusts and combines, President Taft
found large number of suits instr
tuted, and he brought more, as the law
required him to do. The former admin,
istration had been feeble ana ineffect.
i've with regard 10 these suits, but
one had been pushed to completion. the
Northern Securities merger. That
merger was dissolved upon the general
principles enacted in the antitrust law,
and President Taft prosecuted other
suits, as the Standard Oil and the To.
bacco trusts on the same lines, with
precisely the same court judgment He
is now prosecuting the Harvester trust,
much to the disgust of Mr., Perkins and
the trust-owned newspapers. Other anti
trust suits are in process of adjudica.
tion. and it can fairly be said that the
President has meted out even handed
justice to all
Undoubtedly it was because the
President was determined TO treat all
alike and to enforce the law squarely
against all law-breakers that tho fierce
hatred Of him was famed and the
determined opposition to his renomina-
tion was fomented.
But 1T is unquestlonably true that
President Taft is stronger with the
people now than ever before. The vot,
ers are Just beginning to appreciate
the difference between lawful admin
istratiou of the country and an admin
istratiou by whimsics regardless of law
and acting without law or in defiance
of Law. The contrast between the Taft
administration and the Roosevelt ad.
ministration is the contrast between
sanity and right administration, and
erratic and reckless procedure based
on nothing higher than the mere dicta.
ton Of the executive, The sound. con.
servative sense of the country appre.
ciates the difference. which is so vast
" in favor of President Taft aud his
administration as opposed. TO thc uu-
certain and personal dictation of =
President who cared little or nothing
for law, who acted without lawful au.
thority, and who tiercely raycd and
denounced the courts when these courts
applied the constitutional corrective to
his infractIous Of the fundamental Law.
WHICH IS THE MORE IJpPoIc,o