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Show LACKS HUMAN LNSIGHT. That President Taft does not understand the plain people was made evident in his speech of acceptance in which he failed to recognize recog-nize the unrest of todaj', and the demand for better conditions for the average man, An eastern writer, touching on the lack of sympathy for the common people which Taft has displayed in his public utterances, says : "He lives a life wholly apart froifi the common people a life not incident to his occupancy of the White House, but to his previous prev-ious hahit aud upbringing. He has not in his life come in contact with the common man sufficiently to give him an insight into his needs and to create in his nind a sympathy for him, and he lacks the imagination to put himself into the place of such man. His theory is that the unrest which prevails is the result of sensational sen-sational journalism and demagogic appeals tending to inflame the popular mind, whereas, the fact is that the dissatisfaction with certain cer-tain existing conditions is strongest in those circles of society whose members think for themselves and are not concerned with their personal per-sonal fortunes, but with the common good the Pinchots, the Gar-fields, Gar-fields, the Johnsons, the Beveridges and a host of lesser folk who are interesting themselves in the Progressive movemnt. He thinks all the reforms which the new movement promises can lie achieved through the Republican party, and so these men thought four years I ago. Within that time, however, theyiave seen that party fall under un-der such corrupt and reactionary control that they have ceased to re- I gard it as a progressive agency and have chosen to follow a new path I toward their goal. I "Mr. Taft fears that the new party is promising an unattainable millennium and that "in its ultimate analysis the equal opprotunity which those seek who proclaim the coming of so-called social justice involves a' forced divison of property, and that means Socialism.' This solemn pronunciamento by the man in the White House is one Ihat would make the intelligent reader smile were he not also disposed dis-posed to weep over .the lack of discernment shown by the occupant of this high office. "For no millennium has been promised by the promoters of the new part' movement and no panacea for all social and political ills. They have only advocated an equal chanco, according to his capacity, for every man a chance promised by (he founders of our nation and that the growing power of special privilege and special interests has taken from him in these later days. And Mr. Taft, surrounded and influenced by the representatives of these interests, sees only in the right of the humblest citizen to make the best of himself and to do the best for himself by honest labor, an alarming intention to seize and divide accumulated property. Alas, poor soul, whom fortune has favored with so little understanding of his fellow men! He has been given high place and great honors by these men, but illiberal nature has sympathetic human insight that would have saved him from fatal blunders. It is a pity." |