The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1912. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 72, 12 August 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 1912. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

The wave of political reform which- appears to be sweeping over the whole world is finding particular expression in America, ajid the nomination of /Mr. Roosevelt by the Chicago Convention to represent the Progressive movement will give additional interest to the election, which will be finally decided in January j next year. The issue has now' narrowed itself down by the elimination of Mr. W. J. Bryan and Mr. Champ Clark, to a fight between President Taft, Dr. Woodrow Wilson and ex-President Roosevelt. But politics change in America with such kaleidoscopic rapidity that anything may happen before November, when each State appoints its (juota of electors to cast their votes by ballot for the Presidency. The unrest in the United States makes it difficult for even the professional political-mongers to accurately make a forecast. "America," recently wrote the Chicago Intcr-Ocean, "is now passing through a mental and moral crisis somewhat similar to that o.' Germany from 1880 to 1890. Wc have swallowed overdoses of German socialism without knowing what it really is. Our pulpits have declaimed Socialism without understanding that it means a denial of a hereafter and the elimination of God from the human soul." This is but a type of many similar signicant utterances, and there are indications that the middle-class man in the United States lias to a large extent come to believe that he is a miserable victim of the Trusts, while at the same time Labor is more dissatisfied than it has been, at any rate during the past thirty years. Notwithstanding the war on the great companies and railways inaugurated in recent years, business in the United States has failed to improve, and the cost of living remains high, though the advance has not been greater than in other countries, notably in Britain and Germany. This high cost of living has been one of the causes of discontent, and has led to a demand for a reduction of the tariff, a demand which President Taft has repeatedly opposed, even to the extent of vetoing three successive tariff Bills, which the House of Representatives, which possesses a majority of Democrats, passed reducing the duties. It was this that was mainly responsible for his defeat at the recent primaries and the selection of Dr. Woodrow Wilson as the Democratic candidate. The exposure of the notorious police graft in New York has also stirred the public conscience, and out of the general and social chaos has arisen the new party which Mr. Roosevelt is anxious to lead. Its programme is a comprehensive and progressive one. covering an attack upon all forms of corruption, the sweeping away of existing abuses, and the building of a nobler and newer commonwealth. The pledges of the party are to secure equal suffrage and to provide an easier

and wore expeditious method of amending the Constitution. According to newspaper opinion there are no professional politicians in the ranks of the new party, which is composed of members of the respectable middle class. This is regarded as an indication of an awakening of popular enthusiasm in American politics, a stimulated desire to purge what is regarded all over the world as the Augean stable in national politics. Should the Progressive party be successful there will be work and to spare for it for many months to come, but with a strong arid fearless leader of the type of Mr. Roosevelt, its task should be by no means hopeless. In tlie meantime, the latest development has invested American politics with a very vivid interest, and the progress of the campaign will be eagerly watched throughout the civilised world.