Life — July 2, 1908 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“While there is Life there’s Hope.” VOL. Lil JULY 2, 1908 Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY JA. Miveurne, Pres't, A. Mitr See’y and Treas. 17 Wet 7 irty-first Street, New York. O THEY did nomi- nate Taft and not Roosevelt, and it was Mr. Roosevelt’s doing, and in some respects the great- est feat of his re- markable career. It saves his honor clean, adorns his fame, vindicates his’ sincerity, and gives him a title to the affection of ity that no future service in the White House that we can conceive of could have won for him. Nothing but his own will and his own declaration have stood between him and athird term. Lire has believed without deviation, and has asserted, that those ob- stacles were permanent, sufficient and not to be overcome. So it has turned out. Whether Mr. Roosevelt ever really said “Taft or me” we do not know. If he did, it may be wished that he hadn't said so, because of what it implied. He cer- tainly let the impression go forth and stay undenied that if the reactionaries beat Taft they would have to reckon with Roosevelt. But the belief seems justified that he took that course—a course on some accounts to be regretted—because it seemed the only sure means of achiev- ing his own retirement. The case was “Taft or me,” not because he made it so, but because circumstances made it so. If the nomination had been left for the con- vention to struggle over, as in ordinary circumstances it should be left, a stam- pede for Roosevelt was a moral certainty. Even if there had been a stampede and he had been renominated he could still have refused to run. But when it comes to putting one man’s will against the wishes of some millions of voters formally ex- pressed and recorded, the pressure on the ~ CERES one man is terrific. By far the surest and safest way is not to let such a crisis come to pass. That is what Mr. Roosevelt bent his back to accomplish. By putting all his strength into the movement for Taft, and making every possible provision beforehand for Taft’s success, he was able to eliminate himself from the contest. Judged by the result it was the height of wisdom and of patriotism, a great tri- umph of character over opportunism. Mr. Roosevelt has kept the faith. Lire has never doubted that he would, but there are satisfactions in the contempla- tion of an accomplished fact which exceed even the pleasures of anticipation. The President is of all men¢he most to be congratulated on the outcome at Chi- cago, and it is a great happiness to this paper to be able to add its joyful felicita- tions to the thousands that have reached him. D there is nohody in the Republi- can assemblage that is fitter to be the Republican candidate than Mr. Taft; nobody better equipped; nobody more suitable. He is the whole of a man, teres, totus et rotundus. If he has seemed at times to be no more than the shadow of a man, that has been the fault of circum- stances and not due to any lack of sound substance in William Taft. His points of resemblance to Roosevelt are in his favor, because they concern general pur- poses in which Roosevelt has been right. His points of difference from Roosevelt are in favor of the country, because they concern details of temperament, educ: tion and experience which seem particu- larly well adapted to the successful ad- ministration of our Government in the years immediately ahead. What Mr. Roosevelt’s qualities could accomplish has been done, but there are in store great and special labors of adjustment and re- vision to the accomplishment of which Mr. Taft’s qualities seem very much bet- ter adapted than Mr. Roosevelt's. Mr. Bryan seems to have the coming Denver convention hopelessly in hand, and it is all but certain that he will be the Democratic candidate. Bad times will be his strongest ally, because bad times and resulting short commons have very peculiar effects on the reasoning faculties of voters. But the times are already mending and are likely to mend consider- ably more between now and election and, anyhow, Taft ought to be able to beat Bryan and hard times together. ot S FOR the candidate for Vice-Presi- dent, it is a pleasure to notice that Mr. Sherman is a well-nourished man, who will not be in too violent contrast with Mr. Taft on the campaign banners. In that respect he is more becoming to the ticket than Mr. Fairbanks would have been. Moreover, he comes from Utica, which is an intelligent town, and which has supported hint in Congress for more than twenty years. Mr. Speaker Can- non, who has doubtless known him all that time, in seconding his nomination at Chicago, declared that he was the ablest parliamentarian in the country, an ad- mirable member of Congress and a man entirely fit to be trusted with the Presi- dential duties if they should devolve upon DREADFUL tragedy it was that two husky young gentlemen should have been dragged out of the Harvard shells at New London a week before the race, and all because they had been caught by a too observant officer surrepti- tiously borrowing a text-book for use in work out of a reference library, from which books might not lawfully be bor- rowed. It was foolish of them, wasn’t it? Oh, yes! They ought to have been spanked and sent supperféss to bed, shouldn’t they? They should. But oh, my! They were suspended, lost their jobs as oarsmen, and brought down grief on all Harvard, and all because they had to be punished, and spanking is out of date, and the Harvard faculty couldn’t think of any feasible punishment except suspension. Too bad! It recalls the time when folks were hanged for sheep-stealing, not because the punish- ment suited the offense, but because civi- lization had not yet had time to contrive one that fitted it better.