The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1920-10-16
Presidential Campaigns
BY y. HAsKIN

DA hHDnhhO - hHonA
Washington, D. c., Oct. 10-Those who are discouraged
by the relatively unexciting character of National politics this
year, and who are inclined to fear that we never will have an
other good rousing Presidential campaign, should consider re-
cent history.
The Presidential show of 1908 was just such a fzze from
the dramatic and spectacular standpoint as the present one
seems to be; but how nobly did 1912 redeem the reputation of
the American politicians for staging a frst-class show
Several salient characteristics of our National political
game were illustrated in the 1912 campaign. One of them is
that a hot campaign, is not made hot by burning issues, but
rather by burning personal animosties. Burning issues are no
longer introduced into PRESIDENTIAL campaigns fact OF which
the present one should afford all the proof that anyone requires.
The really calorifc questions are ducked by both parties by mu-
tual consent, and, if they are brought forward at all, it is by
some third party which is in no danger of eecting its ticket and
having to meet them. The somewhat meretricious glow which
is given by the politicians to the discussion Of current problems
might be compared to the fox-fre 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 capable of deceiving none but
the initiated.
PLATFORMS ALIKE
So it was in 1912. It is true that MI. Roosevelt ran on a
social justice" platform which contained many planks of rad
ical 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 cam
paign interesting, which split the Republican party wide open,
elected Woodrow Wilson, and stirred the country to its depths,
was a temperamental difference between Mr.. Taft and Mr..
Roosevelt.
From the viewpoint of political expediency, Roosevelt was
undoubtedly right. The temper of the country was relatively
radical in 1912. 1t had had four years of conservative govern
ment 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 spe-
cifc measures which they were prepared to advocate they did
not differ substantially. A current Democratic cartoon 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
displayed to better advantage. Mr.. Taft, distressed and out
ragged by such unmannerly tactics, at first stuck in a ~dignifed
manner to his favorite subject of the constitution of the United
States. But finally, realizing that one cannot be a perfect gen.
tleman and a competent politician at the same time, he turned
ponderously upon his opponent with the inspiring remark that
even a rat will fight when cornered. He gave a good account
of himself, too, and the result would not have been so certain
had not an excited mental defective pumped a bullet through
the Colonels shoulder at the crucial point in the campaign. That
together with Armageddon and the singing of Coward, Chris
tan Soldiers" insured a sufficient split in the Republican vote to
make Democratic victory a dead certainty.
M A N Tic CONxxrArIoNc n.