Roosevelt Is for Mr. Taft
President Writes Letter Denying Bryan’s
Claim to Heirship
Oyster Bay-A lette'* written by
the president to Conrad Rohrs of
Helena, Mont., an old friend, was
made public recently. The com
munication, it was saitl, was called
forth by William J. Bryan's state
ment that he was the president's
heir and natural successor.
Conrad Rohrs of Helena, Mont.,
is an old time cattle man and one
of the most prominent citizens of
Montana. He and the president
came into close relationship more
than twenty years ago when they
were both members of the Mon
tana Stock Growers’ association,
the president being at that time
the representative of the Little
Missouri Stock Growers in the as
sociation. The intimacy has been
kept up ever since. Mr, Kohrs
is one of the pioneer citizens of
the northern Rocky Mountain
region and one of the men who
has taken a leading part in its
great development. The letter
follows:
Bagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, N,
Y. Sept. 15—My Dear Mr, Kohrs:
I have received your letter about
the candidacy of Mr. Taft, the
man who I feel is in an especial
sense the representative of alt
that in which I most believe in
political life.
Every good citizen should de
sire to see both prosperity and
justice, prosperity and fair and
religious dealings as between man
and man, obtain permanently in
this great republic. As a people
we are justly proud of our busi
ness industry, of our energy and
intelligence in our work; and it is
entirely right that we should ask
ourselves as to any given course of
conduct, “Will it be profitable?”
But it is also no less emphatically
true that the bulk of our people,
the plain people who found in
Abraham Lincoln their especial
champion and spokesman, regard
the question, “Is this morally
right?” as even more important
than the question. “Is this profit
able?” when applied to any
given course of conduct. Indeed,
in the long run our people are sure
to find that in all dealings, alike
in the business and political world
what is really profitable is that
which is morally right. The last
few years have seen a great awak
ening of the public conscience and
the growth of a stern determina
tion to do away with corruption
and unfair dealing, political, econ
omic, social- It is urgently nec
essary that the great reform move
ment should go on. But.no reform
movement is healthy if it goes on
by spasm; if it is marked by
periods of frenzied advance must
always be followed, by equally
violent periods of reaction.
The revolutionary and the re
actionary really play into one
anothere, to the extent that each
by his excesses necessarily tends
to arorse such disgust, such feel
ing of revoltin the minds of quiet
poople, as temporarily to restore
the other to power. To permit
the direction of our public affairs
to fall alternately into the hands
of revolutionaries and reaction
aries of the extreme radicals of
unrest and of the bigoted conser
vative who recognize no wrongs to
remedy, would merely mean that
the nation had embarked on a
feverish course of violent oscilla
tion which would be fraught with
great temporary trouble,and would
produce no adequate good in the
end. The true friend of reform,
the true foe of abuses, is the man
who steadily perseveres in right
ing wrongs, in warring against
abuses, but whose character and
training are such that he never
promises what he cannot perform,
but he always a little more than
niakeB good what he does promise
and that while steadily advancing
he never permits himself to be led
into foolish excesses which would
damage the very cause he cham
pions.
In Mr. Taft we have a man who
combines rII of these qualities to
a degree which no other man in
our public life siuce the civil war
has surpassed. To a Ha tiling
hatred of injustice, to a scorn of
all that is base and mean, to a
hearly sympathy with the oppress
ed, lie unites entire disinterested
ness, courage hoth moral and
physical of the very highest type,
and a kindly generosity of nature
which makes him feel that all of
his fellow-countrymen are in very
truth his friends and brothers,
that their interests are his, and
that all his great qualities are to
be spent with lavish freedom in
their service. The honest mm of
means, the honest and law-abiding
business man, can feel safe in his
hands because of the very fact
that the dishonest man of great
wealth, the man who swindles or
robs Ins fellows, would not so
much as dare to defend his evil
doing in Mr. Taft’s presence.
The honest wage-worker, the hon
est laboring man, the honest farm
er, mechanic or small trader,or man
of small means, can feel that in a
peculiar sense Mr. Taft will be his
representative because of the very
fact that he has the same scorn
for the demagogue that he has for
the corruptionist, and that he
would front threats of personal
violence from a mob with the un
quailing and lofty indifference
with which he would front the
bitter anger of the wealthiest and
most powerful corporations.
Broad though his sympathies are,
there is in him not the slightest
tinge of weakness. No consider
ation of personal interest, any
more than of fear for his personal
safety, could make him swerve a
hair’s breadth from the course
which he regards as right and in
the interest of the whole people.
I have naturally a peculiar in
terest in the success of Mr. Taft,
and in seeing him backed by a
majority in both houses of con
gress which will heartily support
his policies. For the last ten
years, while I have been governor
of New York and president I have
been thrown into the closest inti
macy with him, and he and I have
on every essential point stood in
heartiest agreement, shoulder to
shoulder. We have the same
views as to what is demanded by
the national interest and honor,
both within our own borders, and
as regards the relation of this
nation with other nations. There
is no fight for decency and fair
dealings which 1 have waged in
which I have not had his heartiest
and most effective sympathy and
support, and the policies for which
I stand are his policies as much
as mine.
It is not possible in the space
of this letter to discuss all the
many and infinitely varied ques
tions of moment of which Mr.
Taft as president would have to
deal; let him be judged by what
he has himself done, and by what
the administration, in which he
has played so conspicuous a part
has done. But to illustrate just
what his attitude is, let me touch
on two matters now prominent in
the public mind.
Mr. Taft can be trusted to ex
act justice from the railroads for
the very reason that he can be
trusted to do justice to the rail
roads. The railroads are the chief
interests of interstate commerce
in the country, and they can
neither be held to a proper ac
countability on the one hand nor
given proper protection on the
other, save by affirmative action
of the federal government. All
interstate business carried on by
the great corporation should be
affirmative and thoroughgoing.
Ail interstate business carried on
by the great corporation Rhould,
iu the interest of the whole people
be far more closely supervised
than at pr ient by the national
governmet I; but this is especially
true of tue railroads, which can
not exist at all save by the exer
cise of power granted them on
behalf of the people, and which,
therefore, should be held to a
peculiar accountability to the
people. It is in the interest of
the people that they should not
be permitted to do injustice; and
it is no less to the interest of the
people that they should not suffer
injustice. Their prime purpose
is to carry the commodities of the
fanners and the business men;
they could not tie built save for
the money contributed to them by
their shareholders; they could not
be run at all save for the money
paid out in wages to the railroad
employes, and finally they could
not be run judiciously, or profit
ably to any one, were it not for
the employment by them of some
masterful guiding intelligence,
whether of one man or of a group
of men.
Along certain lines all of these
groups have the same interests.
It is to the interest of shippers, I
farmer,wage-worker, business man
honest shareholder, and honest
manager alike that there should
be economy, honesty, intelligence,
und fair treatment to all. To put
an effective stop to stock watering
would be a benefit to everybody
except the swindlers who profit
by stock watering; it would benefit
the honest shareholder because
honest investments would not be
brought into competition with
mere paper, it would benefit the
wageworker because when the
money earned does not have to go
to paying interest on watered cap
ital, more of it is left out of which
to pay wages, it would benefit the
shipper because when only honest
stockholders have to be paid in
terest, rates need not be improp
erly raised; it would benefit the
public because there would be
ample money with which to gi"e
etficieut service. Similarly, the
prevention of favoritism as among
shippers does no damage to any
one who is honest, and confers
great good upon the smaller, busi
ness man and the farmer, whom it
relieves of oppression. Again,
such supervision of accounts aud
management as will prevent crook
edness and oppression works good
directly or indirectly, to all honest
people. Therefore everything
that can be done along all these
lines should bedouejand no man’s
legitimate interest would thereby
be hurt. But after this point has
been reached great care must be
exercised not to work injustice to
one class in the effort to show
favor to another class, and each
class naturally tends to remember
only its own needs. The railroads
cannot be built and successfully
maiutained and the rates to ship
pers and the wages to employes,
from the highest to the lowest,
must be all conditioned upon this
fact.
On the other hand, in a public
service corporation we haye no
right to allow such excessive pro
fits as will necessitate rates being
unduly high and wages unduly
low. Again, while in all proper
ways rates must be kept low, we
must remember that we have no
right and no justification to re
duce them when the result is the
reduction of the wages of the
great army of railroad men. A
fair working arrangement must
be devised according to the needs
of the several cases, so that pro
fits, wages and rates shall each
be reasonable with reference to
each other two—and in wages I
conclude the properly large
amounts which should always be
paid to those whose wohse mas
terful ability is required for the
successful direction of great en
terprises. Combinations which
favor such an equitable arrange
ment should themselves be favor
ed and not forbidden by law; al
though they should be strictly
superyised bv the goyernment
through the Interstate Commerce
commission, which should have
the power of passing summarily
upon not only the question of the
reduction but the raising of rates.
The railroad problem is itsell
one of the phases of one of the
greatest and most intricate prob
Concluded on Seventh pa ire
Who Offers
Better?
STANDING firmly on the policy established
by us when we came to Falls City, we
present the most complete stock of Dry
Goods, Carpets and Groceries ever offered in
Richardson county. We have absolutely stand
ard qualities at right prices — nothing but
straightforward business. We want your
patronage on this basis and none other.
Ladies’ Tailored
Suits
We are pleased to state that our Altering
Department has now a thoroughly competent
dressmaker, who will give her entire time to
alterations.
We Guarantee a Satis
factory Fit in Suits
and Skirts
There are 60 Suits on our racks, in Navy,
Brown, Black, Green, Smoke and Fancies.
These are all strictly up-to-date. We cannot
too strongly advocate early buying in this
department. Late buyers will find a smaller
and less satisfactory selection.
Outing Flannels
Kohtan and Teasledown Qutings, repre
senting the best in this sort of cloth, in
the choicest patterns, sold almost uni
versally at i2l/2C, are offered by 1
us at. * “C
i
Flannelettes
All our Flannelettes and Velours, of the
grades sold by us last year at I2^cand
15c, in an excellent variety of neat, staple
patterns, go this year at, per 10c
Black Voile Skirts
In spite of a certain prejudice against fabrics that are open
and net-like, Black Voiles have proven a most popular ma
terial for Skirts and are in the fore front this season.
We have been fortunate in finding a manufacturer who
has appreciated the possibilities of this cloth in a marked
degree and at popular cost produced styles of remarkable
taste and beauty.
We start these Skirts at $7.50, with others
on up to $17.
Also a large showing of Panamas, Serges, Etc., Misses’
and Ladies’, starting at $2.75.
Wool Fabrics in the Newest Weaves
Stripe effects are very strong in every showing for this season. We have a unique and
exclusive display of Self-Striped Panamas, Taffetas, Serges, Chevron and Diagonal
Serges, Satin Stripe effects in all the most sought shades. In suit lengths of strictly
exclusive design and coloring are choice Phantom Stripe and Satin Stripe Broadcloths
at $1.50 and $2. Chevron and Diagonal Serges and Serge Stripes at Si.50.
Sweaters—New Styles
The late styles of
Sweaters are not only
comfortable and sensi
ble, but are attractive
and take the place ot
cloth coats in a much
greater degree than
i heretofore. We are
r showing them in white
and grey at
$2.50, $3.00
and $4.50
Underwear
All sizes, substantial
fabrics, perfectly fitting l
and no fancy prices. \
Our assortment has
been rounded out until
it contains almost every
style of Women’s and
Children’s Underwear
that is in demand. Light,
medium and heavy weight
in cotton, mixed and all
wool. While our variety
of Men’s is not so com
plete our values in staple
lines are much above
usual.
RAAIT^-Qi7^ D| So universal has become the use of Rugs
■ I I vlAiV Ithat Carpet Stores have become but little
more than Rug Stores. We have no less than i io Room-Size Rugs in stock. Nearly
every staple size, from 6 x 9 to 12x15 feet, >s represented. In the sizes most used the
variety of kinds and grades includes a wide range, while the colorings and designs are
the choicest. There is a material saving in our prices, as compared with city stores’.
V. G. LYFORD
