Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1911 — PRESIDENT TAFT LEAVES ON TRIP [ARTICLE]

PRESIDENT TAFT LEAVES ON TRIP

Starts from Bcston This Afternoon on 13.000- MHe Trip. I TODAY HIS 54TH BIRTHDAY I —~' Executive Will Visit Much Same Territory He Did Two Years Ago, and Will Talk Tariff, as Then. Beverly, Mass., Sept 15. —President Taft started this afternoon on his 13,-000-mile swing around the circle. Today is Mr. Taft's fifty-fourth birthday. It is also the second anniversary of the start of the first 13,000-mile trip which Mr. Taft made around the big circle. The territory to be covered is generally the same, though in this trip the south has been eliminated. Then, as now, the tariff was the all important issue before the country. Then the Payne-Aldrich law had just been placed upon the statute books. Insurgency ip the middle west was rampant. Mr. Taft defended the Payne law on his last trip as the best tariff law which had ever been enacted. His Winona speech, in which tl.e endorsement of the Payne law was given, was, from a political standpoint, the climax of the first trip. Mr. Taft lost favor in the west because of ft.* Now Mr. Taft is going before the same sections of the country on the same issue. He said that he intends to make this trip non-political as far as possible. He has arranged his schedule of speeches with this idea in mind. But he will discuss the tariff ip two of his set speeches and in many of the other less Important ones, and <he importance of those issues will thrust it to the fore as the pivotal issue of this trip, as it was of the last one. On this trip his tariff talks will be offensive rather than defensive, as on the last trip. He will explain his vetoes of the tariff bills of the last session in one speech, but his defense will not go beyond that On the other hand he has a hard program of aggrescjve tariff discussion before him to gain support for his tariff board plan for a scientific revision of the tariff. It will mean six weeks of tiptoe apprehension for the politicians ot the country as they follow each stage of Mr. Taft’s trip and sum up tne warmth of his reception across the continent Mr. Taft leaves Beverly in tiptop physical condition. The Taft special is to be a little more sumptuous this trip than last. There will be five cars in all, the presidential car, two compartment cars for members of the party, a dining car and a baggage car. Mr. Taft motored into Boston to take the train there. Mrs. Taft, Miss Helen Taft and Charlie went with him to Boston.