The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-10-15
WILSON A DICTATOR
SAYS EX-PRESIDENT
Jealousy OF Power Narrow
Partisanship Cause Of
Failure

Washington, October 11-Execu-
tive usurpation under President Will
son is portrayed by former President
William H. Taft in statement in
which he declares that the war with
Germany was won in spite of the pres
ent Chief Executive. He says:
Presidential elections usually pre-
sent as the chief issue vote of con-
fidence or want of it in the ad-
ADMINISTRATION just retiring. This year
the main issue is and must be the ap-
proval or the disapproval of Mr.. Will
sons policies. In such an issue the
personal equation of Mr.. Wilson is
the chief factor. Only by under
standing that can one understand
what his administration did and did
not do.
mo man since the time of jack
son has made himself so completely
the sole representative of his party
as Mr.. Wilson. He came into power
in 1913, largely because the oppos-
ing party was split He was a mi
nority President. The Republicans
had been in office for sixteen years.
The number of appointments to be
made by him was greater than at any
time in the country's history. He was
Jnchsonian in distribution of his pa
tronage. Twenty-Five hundred nomi-
nations of his predecessor had been
suspended by a Democratic majority
in the Senate for the purpose of start
ing his administration we'll. All these
circumstances created great cohesion
in the party and vested the head of
the administration with unusual pow
or and prestige.
''Mr. Wilson is a man who thinks
much of his power and is jealous of
an attempt to weaken it, His admin
istration is full of instances in which
he has sought to end the official lives
of Congressman and Senators who
would not conform to his ideas Of
icy His lack of hesitation in such
cases created a party discipline which
added much to his complete COM
mand. Although the platform upon
which he was first elected declared
for a single term. it did not embar-
rass him with his party in the slight
1,n i'm or Cd 60 4. u
ono term without question.
Had the European war not broken
out in 1914 it is very probable that
the tariff bill for which he was re-
sponsible would have so injured the
business of the country that he would
hive been defeated in 1916. The cam
paign of 1914 because of the effect
of the tariff resulted in Republican
victories in many States, indicating
the Strengthening of the Regugar
Republican organization and the
weakening of the Progressive defec-
tion. But the enormous demand,
caused by the war, for everything
produced on the farm, in the mines,
and in the factory, aud the complete
disappearance Of competition by Eu-
ropean countries created prosperity
which made the threatening hard
dimes of 1914 nothing but a memory,
and put the Democratic party on its
feet again to fight the battle of 1916.
That contest was close one, but
Mr.. Wilson won it on the slogan.
most effective in the Middle and the
Far West, and among the women vo-
ters-"He Kept Us Out OF War"
Yet within little more than month
after he took office under his second
mandate, we had declared war.
But for our entering the war Mr..
Wilson's control over his party as
his second administration wore on
would have grown weaker. This is
the usual result. But the war re-
quired both Democrats and Republi-
cans TO give him an arbitrary dis
erection in the carrying on of colossal
transactions, and an amount of pa