Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1908 — PLATFORM NUGGETS. [ARTICLE]

PLATFORM NUGGETS.

The ' presidential succession was suggested by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Jackson at the close of each eight years* tenure. Madison, Monroe, the two Adams and Vanßuren each was named and elected after his - predecessor had expressed a preference for him a& a member of his official family. In this year, 1908, the cry of dynasty Is first heard. The desire of the Bryan convention to foster every distress and discontent gave birth to the following platform cry: “We condemn as a violation of the spirit of our institutions * * * the nomination of one of his cabinet officers * * ♦; -No good intent on the part of the executive and no virtue in the one selected can justify the establishment of a dynasty.” Mr. Bryan, to give free play to this platform shibboleth, renounces In advance a second term for himself or any member of his cabinet. This promise is as unnecessary as it is unwise. The law of succession in case of the death or disability after the vice president follows the cabinet members in due order, the presumption being that these men have been selected to the portfolios because of special fitness that qualified them for the reigns of government, and there is no sane reason for promising that a cabinet officer should be barred from the presidency because he has accepted appointment at the head of a department. The object of the party and candidates are to catch the votes of republicans who preferred Knox, Cannon, Fairbanks or Lafollette in the republican convention. The principles of the party and the worth of the nominee are to be ignored because Roosevelt followed in tlie footsteps of Washington, Jefferson, Madison,'j Monroe and Jackson at the close of ( his eight years, to mention one of his official family as a proper can- i didate before the convention of his! party. The convention registered the will' of the party. You will decide with, a thorough investigation of the life! and activities of William Howard Taft that he is all right, and you j should think none the less of him because Mr. Roosevelt thinks the 1 same way that you do. Mr. Roosevelt, was pledged to pr>licies that he hoped to see carried out, and the people largely indorsed those policies. One of his advisors was his secretary of war. He recognized in him a man qualified for the task of their continuance. Would he have done right had he failed to point out the man? But the people had recoguized the man too, and from all over the country went up a cry for a inan who had .ilways made good. The cry was for Taft. The people control the national conventions. The people made the delegates to the conventions and they were largely instructed for Taft. Friends of the president had harkened to his recommendation, as, they would to the counsel of any man in whom they had confidence. The dynastic cry is purely hot air.