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Show H BRIBERY IN THE CAMPAIGN H Wliat is the ultimate destiny of the American people in govern- H mental affairs if they indifferently view the present prostituting H of federal patronage by Taft in the President's efforts to obtain a H renomination?. Senator Dixon of Montana, who is leading the H Roosevelt forces, in a public statement has called attention to the H present attempts of the Taft people to bribe delegates to vote for H the Standpatter. He is quoted as saying: H "The Republican voters of the great virile Republican states of H the north and west do not propose that their candidate for presi- Hj dent shall be named by such methods. H "Never in the history of American politics has a more flagrant H prostitution of the power of federal patronage been witnessed than H when recently in a certain southern state a batch of 10 federal of- H fices was put up at auction for future delivery to the highest bid- H der in delegates to the national Republican convention. The open H acknowledgment that federal patronage had and is being withheld H from duly elected and accredited Republican senators and repre- H sentatives in congress, who would not pledge personal allegiance to Hj the re-nomination of a presidential candidate has caused thought- H ful men to inquire whether bribery by the direct use of money is H any less reprehensible than bribery by a promise of office." H This is not the first time President Taft has sanctioned the use ' of federal patronage for political gain, and this is not the first time he has held out as a bribe the distribution of federal offices. "When the Progressive movement started, Taft sought to check U.by making a bidfor the support of all those senators and rcprc-fse(itiitives rcprc-fse(itiitives who might break , away from the regular organization ' Ilei its.uqd abatement to the effect that the Progressives would not v begiven federal patronage. In other, words, he attempted to bribe the Progressives by an offer of office, which is not a whit less offensive than the offering of money to sway men from their principles. ' We have no government worth while, if bribery is to be the determining de-termining factor in our presidential c6n'tests.( ' $ |