Evening Post. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912. A SAFE MAN AND SOUND POLICY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 112, 7 November 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1912. A SAFE MAN AND SOUND POLICY

The prophets have had their revenge on Mr. Roosevelt at la«t. He has up« eet their calculations co often since he firat threw i his hat into the ring as a candidate for the Presidency that it was natural to retain a lingering doubt whether he might not disappoint them again. But neither the personal magnetism, in which none, of the other candidates could approach him, nor the popular sympathy aroused by hie attempted assassination at Milwaukee, has availed to save the ex-President from a crushing defeat. The Wall-street betting of 5 to 1 on Woodrow Wilson has been fully justified by the result, and on the principle that he who laughs laet laughs beat the prophets are more than even with the man who has disappointed them so frequently. If Mr. Roosevelt has not smashed another record by securing the Presidency for a third' term, he has, at any rate, succeeded in smashing the Republican Party. A victory for, the party was highly improbable, even tinder the most favourable conditions, after the striking reaction in favour of the Democrats which was revealed at the Congressional elections two years ago. But there would have been no ground for expecting an utter collapse if Mr. Roosevelt had not declared war, fiist against his old friend mi .colleague, President Taitj and then

against his old party. The bitter feud which resulted from theee tactics has kept Republicans and ex-Republicane busier in fighting one another than in fighting the common enemy. The result is the r'out — almost the annihilation— of the Republican Party and a far from hopeful start for the new Progressive Party which Mr. Roosevelt has organised to support his own candidature. Much sympathy will bo felt for Mr. Taft, who, as lawyer, Judge, Minister, and President, has an excellent record, and finds his reward in eight votes in the electoral college out of the first 304. No party, jf we remember rightly, has ever refused to renominato for a second term the man it has put into the Presidency. Mr. Roosevelt made frantic efforts to inflict this humiliation upon Mr. Taft, and, though he failed, he was strong enough to organise a, secession from the party which rendered the President's chance of re-election hopeless. In preferring Dr. Woodrow Wilson to Mr. Roosevelt we feel satisfied that the American electors have chosen both the safer man and the sounder policy. Mr. Roosevelt has rendered brilliant service to his fellow-countrymen in many capacities, but we cannot believe that success in his new role would have been good either for him or for them. Personal ambition has surely had as much to do with his latest enterprise as public spirit or the enthusiasm of humanity, and a more dangerous combination for a democracy than that of personal ambition, restless energy', and unbridled power in a single man can hardly be imagined. The democratic instinct of the American people has sought to draw the line between a popular leader and a dictator by laying down the rule that no man should be elected to the Presidency for more than two terms. Mr. Roosevelt's candidature was a violation both of this wise unwritten law and of his own personal undertaking to observe it. To , secure the Presidency under these conditions and as the nominee of a party which he himself had improvised for the purpose would' have brought him perilously near to that pitch of power from which in ancient Rome and modern France popular leaders have, in the name of democracy, successfully attacked the liberties of the people. " The candidate of the Progressive Party," wrote Dr. Eliot, ex-President of Harvard, it) that judicial summing up of the issues of the campaign from which we quoted a few days ago, "has shown himself capable, while in power, of taking grave public action— which, of course, seemed to him wise and right— in disregard of constitutional and legal limitations, and, while out of power, of proposihg rash changes in the relations of the judiciary to the other departments of Government and to the voters." It is well that the calm feense of the American people has saved Mr. Roosevelt from the temptation to take further liberties with the Constitution under conditions far more favourable t,o excesses than any that he has hitherto. enjoyed. In their choice of Dr. Woodrow Wilson the people of the United States may be congratulated just as heartily as the Democratic Party. He is one of the rare examples of a man of culture and scholarship who has made himself a real force in recent American politics. In the politics of New Jersey he has, both as candidate and as Governor, opposed the bosses as boldly as Mr. Hughes or Mr. Roosevelt himself, though the latter during the late campaign has been pleased to bracket Wilson and Taft as nominees of the bosses. Dr. Wilson has not played false to his culture on the platform, where his controversial manners have presented an agreeable contrast to the frenzied vituperation in which Mr. Roosevelt has indulged. There has been a note of restraint in his speeches which has made his genuine Radicalism all the more impressive. Discussing Mr. Roosevelt's policy at Buffalo, Dr. Wilson said: "The programme that I propose does not look quite as much like acting as a Providence for you as the other programme looks. But I want frankly to say to you that I am not big enough to play Providence, and my objection to the other programme is that I do not believe there is any man that is big enough to play Providence." Dr. Wilson was the one candidate who attacked the tariff incubus in a clear and businesslike fashion, and with a majority in Congress of his own party he should be able to "make good." His exact majority is not known to us at the time of writing, but it is already, clear that he will have more than 300 votes in an ■electoral college of 531— a distinction at- ■ tamed by his two immediate predecessors in the Presidencyi but not others. After waiting for twenty years the Democrats have won the big political prize with a majority, and under conditions that hold out the hope of other victories if Dr. Wilson does not greatly disappoint expectations