The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1912. AMERICAN POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1563, 5 October 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1912. AMERICAN POLITICS.

■ For the. past few weeks the cable j messages from America have brought ' us very little in the way of helpful information concerning the course of the Presidential campaign. This is due no doubt, to the extreme difficulty which everybody feels in ganging the unusual situation. It would not have been easy to predict the result had Mr. Roosevelt left the ring clear to Mr. Taft and Governor Wilson. Mr. Roosevelt's violation of his pledge never to seek a third term has complicated the position in an astonishing degree. He hopes and expects to secure, not only the Rooseveltian Eepublican support, but the support also of those Democrats who may fear that if they vote for Wilson, Taft will be elected, and who may accordingly vote for Roosevelt as looking more like a Democrat than most Republicans. The friends of Governor . AVilson, on the other hand, are confident that the Democratic party will stand solid—in which case an easy win for their candidate is assured, since a considerable section of the Republican party will not vote for Mr. Taft at all. Exactly what Mr. Taft is.relying upon for his expectation of success is not clear, unless he believes that the Roosevelt voters will receive no representation in the electoral college owing to the solidity of the "regular" Republicans and Democrats. It must not be supposed that much effect will be produced by the recent startling revelations concerning Mr. Roosevelt's backstairs connections with the big corporations which he led a section of the American public to think were the special objects of his extreme hatred and horror. Just as in this country there are people who, in the face of notorious and abundantly proved facts, persist in saying a certain political party is. without a spot'upon its escutcheon, so in America there arc people who would still believe in Mr. Roosevelt even if he were convicted of serious crime. When Senator Penrose first made his charge tliat the Republican party during the Roosevelt Presir dency had received huge sums from the Standard Oil Company, Mr. Roosevelt -retorted with a burst of abuse such as some of our local Spoils politicians could be proud of. Everybody to him was "a crooked politician" or "a crooked financier." Some of the newspapers pointed out, when the Colonel continued day by day, in reply to the evidence before Senator Claw's Investigation Committee, to deliver violent speeches or communicate violent statements to the' Press, that % he would be more effective if he attended before the Committee and did the thing there. He has carefully abstained, however, from submitting himself to such a test! He enjoys under the American law a privilege that is peculiar to America—the privilege of attacking, outside a Court, the veracity of sworn evidence in a current case; and like so many_ Radical politicians, he uses his privilege to the utmost. Qno can in some of the better American newspapers a note of despair : they deplore, but cannot feel themselves able to remedy, the readiness of a large section of the"' public to shut its eyes and ears to the discreditable tactics of Mr. Roosevelt. Thus tho New York Post said, at the opening of the present inquiry: "The testimony to be taken by Senator Clapp's Committee is certain to be read by the public with great eagerness, in advance, however, it should'be kept in mind that nothing but the most overwhelming proof will be_ able to shake' the faith of the thick-and-thin believers in_ Roosevelt. He will go on denying and they will continue confiding. Indeed, even if it db demonstrated, despite his assertions to the contrary, that he took large sums of money from Harriraan and the Standard Oil Company and the Goulds, it will have no effect upon a certain order of his blind followers. They would ■simply say: 'Good enough for those rogues to pay and then be sold out! Their money was tainted and Roosevelt took it and put it to a good use. We only wish he had taken more!' " In the meantime it is less the policies than the organisation tactics of the three candidates for the Presidential office, that are of importance. Governor Wilson is a Conservative Radical, Mr. Taft is a Conservative, and Mr. Roosevelt is, for the time being, a Radical demagogue. Most people outside America should rejoice if Mr. Roosevelt fails next month: we can then have some hope of America's national morality. But the American mob is a bad mob, or Mr. Taft would not have hesitated to veto the Canal Bill, which the host newspapers in America have condemned with a fiery vigour which nobody in English journalism, excepting Mr. Maxse, of the National Review, or Mr. Garvin, of the Observer, is- capable of. All three candidates profess to be, and doubtless feel, confident of success, but there is positively no evidence of a positive character at present upon which to base any confident prediction. Behind the intense public campaigning arc the big party machines, and the strongest and ablest machine will furnish the President. Mr. Roosevelt has, in its way, as good, a machine as either of his opponents ; how lavishly money is Deing spent for him may be imagined when it is stated that Mr. Munsey has actually, as a small item in the campaign, bought out a big New York daily, the Press, for the sole purpose of helping the Colonel's campaign. One can feel glad not to live in America these days, for there is nothing to show that the American people are going to use their heads and hearts in choosing their next President.