Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-05-16
A PROGRAM FOR 1920
LAID DOWN BY MR.. TAFT
Its Broad. Minded Sanity Marks the Man
Who Conceived II as a Leader
of the First Rank

Mr.. TAFT never appears to better
AVA advantage than when he turns his
| calm, judicial mind to the analysis of a
| political situation.
His address before the Columbia Club,
| of indianapolis, is almost as detached
from all partisan temper as though it
had been prepared twenty years from
now by historian attempting to explain
to his contemporaries the state of popu-
lar sentiment in May, 1919, and what
seemed to be the issues likely to command
the attention of the voters in the prcs-
dental election of 1920.
There is not the slightest doubt, as he
says, that the prevalent impression
throughout the country is that the Repub-
licans will elect the next President. This
view is held by many Democrats as we'll
as by all Republicans. Every one who
can read the signs of the times is sensible
of the dissatisfaction with the Demo-
cratic administration. Partisanship has
been in allegiance for more than two
years. The exercise of autocratc power
by functionaries in Washington has been
tolerated because we were at war. So
long as the fighting continued we submit
ted without complaint. But it is six
months since the fighting ceased.
The nation is impatient to return to a
peace basis. 1t chafes under interference
with private business. The party in con-
troll of the executive departments of the
government will suffer the consequences
of the continuance of war powers by the
officials sponsored by it.
The experiment in government admin
istration of the railroads made by the
Democratic party, many of whose lead
ers believe in government ownership of
railroads, has failed so miserably that
the business men of the country are in
no mood to trust it with the solution of
| the railroad problems of the future.
All reports from the West indicate that
the sentiment against government own
ership there is strong and growing
stronger. 1t was the West which elected
Mr. Wilson in 1916 Without doubt the
| government ownership issue will be dis
cussed in the party platforms next year.
| The Republicans favor private ownership
| and government regulation.
Mr.. Taft, who has been travelling abbut
the country, has come in contact with the
| leaders of opinion. When he reports that
the men he has seen oppose the Demo-
| cratic plan he is merely verifying the
reports that have come from other
| sources.
Mr.. Taft might have elaborated his
discussion of the railroad problem by
carrying it into the realm of all kinds of
business. The managers of great enter
| prises have not been allowed to conduct
their own affairs and they are still inter-
fered with. He might have reminded his
hearers that in every presidential cam
paign when business and financial issues
were involved the candidates and the
platform supported by the large business
men of the country have been indorsed
by the voters, becausesthe reasons urged
by the business men commended them
selves to the common sense of the great
majority of the people.
| Cleveland was elected the second time
because he was sound on the great finan'
cial issues and the Republicans were toy.
ing with economic heresy. Mckinley
defeated Bryan in 1896, with the help OF
hundreds of thousands of Democratic
votes, because Mr.. Bryan urged finan
cial policy which meant national dishonol
and commercial ruin.
This nation is made up of honest men
who believe in meeting their obligations
and of commercial individualists whc
believe that the surest way to secure
4 national prosperity is to allow the frees
play of individual initiative, spurred OF
by the hope of reward for labor well done
The Democratic party is controlled a
the present time by men who are infected
with the virus of state socialism. Many
of Mr.. Wilson's unofficial advisers are il
hearty sympathy with the economic
theories of the Russian Bolshevists, anc
Mr.. Wilson himself has been charged
with planning to organize what is callet
the proletariat in support of his party.
The opportunity of the Republican,
lies in the organization of hard-headet
common business sense based on tn,
widest freedom for every man to worl
ont his own salvation with the help o
snch laws as will foster the development
of American business.
Mr.. Taft reminds us that the tarif
laws, which were bungled by the Demo
Gratis as soon as possible after they ge
control of Congress, must be revised t
meet the new conditions which confron
rs. Had it not been for the war, whicl
counteracted the evil effects of the Under
wood tariff, our industries would hav
been in bad shape long ago. But the wa
shut off foreign importations and create
! demand for American expectations.
The workingmen, who were idle in tn
winter of 1894, so idle in fact tina
SOUP kitchens were opened in this an
other large cities and the problem o
unemployment was the subject of man
Investigations these workingmen hav
not forgotten she conditions brouyh