AMERICAN POLITICS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 26

AMERICAN POLITICS.

PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. OPPOSITION TO MR TAFT. NEW YORK, January 2. A second effort by Columbus and Ohio to secure the endorsement of Senator Lafollette for the Presidency has failed. The Republican Convention, however, agreed to the endorsement in the form of a personal expression. January 3. At a meeting of the Progressive Republicans at Lansing (Michigan) Governor Osborne advocated that Senator Lafollette and President Taft should retire from the Presidential contest in favour of Mr Beveridge. Mr Taft declares that nothing but death will keep him out of the Presidential campaign. WASHINGTON, January 7. According to responsible newspapers the Republican leaders are supporting an underground movement to supplant Mr Taft’s candidature for a second term by Mr Roosevelt, because the latter is more likely to carry the country. The Sun alleges- that Mr Roosevelt is cognisant of this insurgent movement, and moreover that lie has shown but little repugnance to joining the campaign to discredit Mr Taft. The situation, says the paper, is almost unprecedentedly difficult and delicate, and only Mr Roosevelt’s categorical statement that he will not accept nomination will clear the air. Such a statement, however, is not expected. Meanwhile Mr Taft’s friends are not discouraged, believing that the dignity of the President’s attitude compared with the insurgents’ methods or Mr Roosevelt’s attacks on the Administration must tell in Mr Taft’s favour. The Democrats are threatened with a recrudescence of Bryaniern. Many Senators who were formerly opposed to the arbitration treaties in their present form are now inclined to accept them with Senator Root’s amendment, which excludes the Monroe Doctrine, the control of immigration, and the question of America’s public debt from the scope of arbitration.