The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-25
ToPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC y. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, d. @.
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS.
The EoIIies of 1912

washington ID. C., Oct. R2.-Th0Se
who are discouraged by the relatively
unexciting character of national poll
tics this year, and who are inclined
to fear that we never will have another
good rousing presidential campaign,
should consider recent history.
The presidential show of 1908 was
just such a fizzle from the dramatic
| and spectacular standpoint as the
present one seems to bel but how
nobly did 1912 redeem the reputation
of the American politicians for stag
I ing a first-ciass show!
Several salient characteristics of our
national political game were illus
trated in the 1912 campaign. One of
them is that a hot campaign is not
made hot by burning issues, but rather
| by burning personal animosities
| Burning issues are no longer intro
| duced into presidential campaigns
a fact of which the present one should
afford all the proof that anyone re-
quires. The really calorific questions
are ducked by both parties by mutual
consent, and, If they are brought for
ward at all it is by some third party
which is in no danger of electing its
| ticket and having to meet them. The
| somewhat meretricious glow which is
| given by the politicians to the discus
sion of current problems might be
! compared to the fox-fire which you
| see in the woods on summer nights.
| That is it Is a faint illumination given
off by dead and rotten matter, and is
| capabale of deceiving none but the
| uninitiate.
Platforms Alike.
So it was in 1912 1t is true that
MIR. Roosevelt ran on a social tus-
| tice" platform which contained many
planks of radical sound, if somewhat
vague meaning. 1t is also true that
many of the men who voted for him
| were sincere liberals who believed in
that platform. But the thing which
made the campaign interesting, which
split the Republican party wide open.
elected Woodrow Wilson, and stirred
the country to ifs depths. was a tenn
peramental difference between Mr..
Taft and Mr.. Roosevelt.
From the viewpoint of political ex-
Epediency. Roosevelt was undoubtedly
right. The temper of the country was
! relatively radical in 1912. 1t had had
| four years of conservative government
and it wanted a change. The way to
| elect a president was to be at least
ostensibly radical. And Roosevelt was
as radical by temperament as Taft
was conservative. In the specific
measures which they were prepared
TO advocate they did not differ sub
toon shows them as a couple of street
brawlers hauled up before a justice
of the peace, who is trying in vain to
find out what they are fighting about.
Nobody could answer that question
with any clarity, but how they did
! scrap Mr.. Roosevelt leaped into the
ring with both fists going. His talent
for personal invective was never dis
played to better advantage. Mr.. Taft
distressed and outraged by such I'M
mannerly tactics, at first stuck in
dignified manner to his favorite sub
ject of the constitution of the United
State. But finally, realizing that one
cannot be a perfect gentleman and
competent politician at the same time,
he turned ponderously upon his oppo-
nent with the inspiring remark that
even a rat will fight when cornered.
He gave a good account of Mmself,
too, and the result would not have
been so certain had not an excited
mental defective pumped bullet thru
the colonePs shoulder at the crucial
point in the campaign, That, together
with Arnageddon and the singing OF
Onward Christian Soldiers" insured a
sufficient split in the Republican vote
to make Democratic victory dead
certainty.
Dramatic Conventions.
The dramatic quality of the 1912
events began with the conventions and
the final result The Republican con-
vention, with it's fight over contested
delegates was one of the bitterest IN
the history of the country. One ex-
cited leader declared that if a personal
collision should occur on the floor a
hundred men would be killed before
order could be restored. He was so
confident of this carnage that he re-
fused to allow his wife to attend the
convention the first day. The event
was much 1ess exciting than that. In
fact nobody so much as slapped any
body else's face; but the contests
were hotly contested and Taft won
over two hundred of them while
Roosevelt won about nineteen. Then
Mr.. Roosevelt boiled. with the an
nouncement that the fight was on be-
tween the "peepuI' and the corrupt
politicians. Came then the Bull Moose
meeting in Chicago with it's Marathon
cheers. it's complete harmony, and its
crusading spirit, marred only by the
question in some minds as to just how
and why Mr.. I4aFollette had been
ditched.
The Democratic convention in BaIti-
more was hardly less exciting, and
here agai the reason was that intAnse
and conflicting personal interests were
involved. Every one saw that
Democratic nomination was very
likely to amount to an election. Both
Mr.. Wilson and Mr.. Clark had sup
porters who were ready to yell and
vote to thesiast for their heroes. The
situation became truly dramatic as
Clark forced his way slowly to within a
few votes of the coveted goal and then
slowly fell away again until the charge
of the Illinois delegation, under Roger
Sullivan, settled the battle in favor of
the New Jersey professor.
West and East
The three4cornered vote of 1912
shed some interesting light on the DO
litical complexion of various sections
OF the country. 1t showed that the
widest cleavage in America is that be-
tween the west and the northeast 1t
was the west that voted for Roosevelt
that marched to Armageddon singing
hymns-thats in a word took seriously
to itself the Hope of a rejuvenation of
American politics and of an effecffve