AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13780, 19 June 1908, Page 5

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

KJBPUBIiICAN CONVENTION. ROOSEVELT'S POPULARITY. CHEAT ENTHUSIASM. By Telegraph.—Press Associatlon.-Copyrigiit. ("Received June 18. 11.55 p.m.) New York, June IS. The convention of 700 Republican j delegates, supporting Mr. Taft's j election, elected Senator Lodge as j permanent chairman. i Senator Lodge's speech, eulogis- j ing President , Roosevelt's policy, ! and describing him as the best- i abused and most popular man in the j United States to-day, evoked a tre--j mendous outburst of enthusiasm, lasting for forty minutes, and a demonstration was made in favour of renewing Mr. Roosevelt's term, with insistent shouts of "four years more." Senator Lodge, resuming, declared that President Roosevelt, in refusing to submit to renomination, was actuated by the loftiest motives and notable loyalty to American tradition. The refusal was final and irrevocable. The cheering was renewed after the formal business had been adjourned. ; - William Howard Taft will be the next President of the United Slates, it may #be predicted without running much risk of being proven a fake prophet. Both for pergonal reasons and for reasons connected with the party of which each in representative, Taft, stands in the unquestionably more favourable- position. On personal grounds his strength as against that of Bryan is overwhelming. He has the population of being a safe and able administrator. Whenever President Roosevelt's administration has had a ticklish piece of work to be done, Taft, has always been the man chosen to do it. Ho set the colonial administration of the Philippines going. He went to Cuba, and put the Government on its logs again when revolution had knocked it down. He took hold of the Panama Canal problem, and straightened out the kinks. Thus Taft is known to the people of America as a man who has been tested in big and trying tasks, and who .'has uniformly achieved success. William Jennings Bryan, on the other hand, has failed in most things he has attempted. Carrying on his back the handicap of two unsuccessful candidacies for the Presidency, he is weighted down with obstacles that would not obstruct a new and untried man. With the exception of one term in the Federal House of Representatives, Bryan has never held any kind of public position. His career has been a career of . talk. Measured by performance, ho is the greatest failure in the ranks of prominent politicians in the last 50 years. The leading papers of his own party jibe at him as the perpetual candidate." Bryan has grown rich through the advertisement Ids perennial' candidacy for Presidency has afforded him. As a lecturer and as a writer of commonplace books he has amassed a tidy fortune. His political and ■.-personal integrity has never been questioned. Nevertheless, he is not trusted. A politician of poor judgment, a doctrinaire, a theoretical statesman, a man with no aptitude for practical administrative workthus he is regarded by the people at. large. The Republican party was never stronger than it is to-day. The unprocedentodly successful administration of Roosevelt has given the Republicans a prestige and » hold on the masses of the people that can be impaired only by grave missteps by the parly itself. Its policies are preferred to those of the Democrats'. The widening of Federal power as against "State rights" is accepted by the people as something desirable. The Federal, Government is trusted; State Governments are. both distrusted and feared. Another immense advantage possessed by the Republican party is that it was the framer and enforcer of the Diligley tariff the most successful tariff the United States ever had., The Democrats are protectionists to-day, but the fact that, at one time the party held to the doctrine of free-trade makes it feared. The one eventuality which would mean possible success for the Democratic party and its leader .(Bryan) would be the intervention of a period of severe commercial depression before the dote of the poll. There has been- a decrease of prosperity in the last six months, but not sufficiently marked to have any material bearing on the result of the election. Keen distress would, however, reflect 'on the parly, in power, and provide, dangerous election ammunition for the Democrats. "Bad times" is about the only factor that the Democratic party could hope to coin into victory.