THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1908

In spite of the oft-repeated statement made by President Roosevelt that he would not be a candidate for nomination on the Republican national ticket in 1908, the party leaders seemed to fear a stampede in the Chicago convention.  Plans had been laid carefully by the party leaders to prevent this possibility, and when William H. Taft, of Ohio, received the nomination on the first ballot, delegates and spectators gave vent to their feelings by prolonged applause.  Out of a total of 980 ballots cast Mr. Taft received 702.  As Secretary of War in President Roosevelt’s cabinet he had been chosen by the President to succeed him, for it was believed that through training and sympathy he was best fitted to carry out the policies of the administration.

Other candidates for nomination had appeared during the summer and each had a following of more or less strength.  Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin; Governor Hughes, of New York, and Speaker Cannon, of Illinois, each received some support in the convention.  Throughout the land no surprise was occasioned, however, by the nomination of Mr. Taft.  Apparently the nomination of James S. Sherman, of New York, for the office of Vice-President was the result of political expediency; he was a good organization man; he had enjoyed considerable experience in public affairs and had been a member of Congress for twenty years.  Moreover, the fact that he came from New York made it a wise move, politically, to give him a place on the ticket.

To outside observers the convention was a harmonious one, ready and anxious to adopt and indorse the Roosevelt policies and to accord a most hearty support to the candidate who best represented these policies.  The platform which was drawn up was a strong political document which not only stated the Republican policies clearly but was also a piece of campaign literature of some note from the stand-point of literary worth.

Throughout the months preceding the assembling of the Democratic convention, in Denver, there was some uncertainty as to who would control it.  Governor Folk, of Missouri, had been much in the public eye through his war on graft and on account of his successful administration of the gubernatorial office.  Judge Gray, of Delaware, who had served his State in the United States Senate and had acquired an enviable reputation as a justice of the United States Circuit Court, was also a strong candidate.  Judson Harmon, of Ohio, Attorney-General under President Cleveland, and Governor Johnson, of Minnesota, had numerous supporters.

When the voting began in the convention the result was not long in doubt.  William Jennings Bryan was for the third time accorded the honor of leading the Democratic party.  On the first ballot Mr. Bryan received 892-1/2 votes; Judge Gray, his chief opponent, received 59-1/2.  The cheers which followed the announcement of the vote showed that two defeats had not dampened the loyalty of the Western Democrats.  Mr. Kern, of Indiana, was nominated by acclamation for the Vice-Presidency.  The committee on the formation of the platform seemed to have some difficulty in determining the final form of some of the planks.

Both parties in their platforms favored tariff revision.  The Republican party declared for the protective system and reciprocity and promised a special session of Congress to treat the whole tariff question.  The Democratic party adhered to the old principle of “tariff for revenue” and pledged itself to return to that basis as soon as practicable.  Furthermore, it pledged itself to bring about immediately such reductions as would put trust-controlled products upon the free list and to lower the duties on the necessaries of life, particularly upon those which were sold more cheaply abroad than at home.  Lumber was to go on the free list.  Any deficiency in the revenues which might arise from this policy was to be made up through the medium of an income tax.

Both platforms declared for reform in the currency laws, but neither one advanced any plan for revision.  The Democratic platform condemned as criminal the large expenditures of the recent administration, but showed some inconsistency by favoring such policies as a large navy, generous pensions, large expenditures for the improvement of rivers and harbors which would necessitate the expenditure of great sums.

The regulation of railways and corporations was demanded by both parties.  The difference between the demands lay in the means to be employed.  The Democratic platform declared for State control of this question as well as that relating to the conservation of our natural resources.  The Republicans took the stand that both questions should be solved by the Federal Government.

In treating the problem of the alien races the Republican document referred to the negro race by name, demanded equal justice for all men, and condemned the devices used by some States for disfranchising the negro.  Nothing was said concerning Chinese and Japanese immigration.  The Democratic platform was silent on the negro question and declared against the admission of Orientals into our country.

Arbitration was favored by the Republicans, but was not mentioned in the opposition platform.  On the Philippine question there was a division.  The Republicans favored a gradual development of home-rule; the Democrats for early independence under an American protectorate.

Three things in the Democratic platform are worthy of note:  (I) The demand for a federal law compelling publicity of campaign contributions; (2) the election of senators by direct vote, and (3) the adoption of such parliamentary rules as would make the House of Representatives a deliberative body.

The Socialist convention, which assembled in Chicago, nominated Eugene V. Debs for President and Ben Hanford for Vice-President.

Two tendencies of political thought were displayed in the Socialist platform as framed by the committee.  First, a tendency away from individual ownership of productive property and the individual administration of industry, and toward the collective ownership of productive property and the collective administration of industry.  This was illustrated by the demands made for the collective ownership of all railways, steamship lines, and other means of transportation, as well as telephones, telegraphs, etc.  It was further evidenced by the demand that the public domain be made to include mines, quarries, oil wells, water-power, reclaimed and reforested lands.  The second tendency was away from a form of government of checks and balances toward one by the unrestrained majority.  This was shown by the demands for the abolition of (I) the Senate, (2) the veto power of the President, (3) the power of the Supreme Court to pass on the constitutionality of legislation.

Industrial demands were made.  There should be a more effective inspection of workshops and factories; there should be no employment of children under sixteen years of age; interstate transportation of the products of child labor or convict labor should be forbidden; compulsory insurance against unemployment, illness, accidents, old age, and death should be adopted.

Among the political reforms demanded were inheritance and income taxes, equal suffrage for men and women, the initiative and referendum, proportional representation, and the right of recall.  The Federal Constitution was to be amended by majority vote.  Judges were to be elected for short terms.

The nominees of the Prohibition party were Eugene W. Chapin, of Illinois, for President, and Aaron S. Watkins, of Ohio, for Vice-President.  In the platform framed there were the usual declarations against the liquor traffic, but there were also planks demanding reforms.  The election of senators by direct vote; the passage of inheritance and income taxes; the establishment of postal savings banks; the guaranty of bank deposits; the creation of a permanent tariff commission; the conservation of natural resources; an equitable and constitutional employers’ liability act, and legislation basing suffrage only upon intelligence and ability to read and write the English language, were the chief planks.  Beyond any doubt this platform-the shortest of all-shows that the men who constructed it were not dreamers.  It is possible that the delegates may have been looked upon as visionaries, for there were few among them who could be called “practical politicians,” but, as one writer of note has said, the delegates were “typical of that class of society on which the nation ever depends in a great crisis, the sort from which all moral movements spring. . . .”

It has often been said that the excitement of presidential campaigns is detrimental to the nation.  This could hardly be said of the campaign of 1908.  To produce political excitement there must be debatable questions termed, by the politicians as “issues.”  Just what the issues were in the campaign few people could determine.  There were no issues which involved foreign affairs.  The Democratic party did not criticise the sending of the fleet around the world, the administration’s policy in Cuba, the policy concerning the Panama Canal, nor even the policy pursued in the Philippines.  As regards military and naval matters, pensions to veterans, the development of internal waterways, the conservation of resources, etc., there were no issues simply because the people had practically the same views about them.  Consequently issues had to be made, and, generally speaking, the Republican leaders appealed to the people along the lines of the personal fitness of the candidates.

It was pointed out that President Roosevelt had indicated his Secretary of War as the best man to carry out the policy inaugurated by the administration of subduing and controlling influential law-breakers.  The chief officer of the government has vested in himself powers of wide range-the appointment of the judiciary, the superintendence of the administration of the business affairs of the nation, the guidance of our international affairs.  Therefore the President must be a keen judge of men capable of distinguishing the honest, efficient servant of the nation from the self-seeking politician; he must resist political pressure; he must be national in his patriotism and breadth of vision; he must know our foreign relations intimately, that the continuity of policies may not be broken and the efficiency of our foreign service weakened thereby.  He must have the capacity to work long hours, with skill, care, and rapidity.  In short, the chief executive must be a man who is fit mentally and physically.

Some of these essential qualities the candidates of the two great parties possessed in a high degree.  They were honest and sincere; they were familiar with the desires and needs of the various sections of the nation; they were national in the breadth of their policies.  But they were different in temperament, equipment, and experience, and upon this difference the Republican leaders made their appeal to the voters.

The Democratic nominee was essentially an orator-he swayed the masses by his denunciation of the perils which threatened the nation through the concentration of wealth which had gone on under the Republican rule.  His opponents admitted that a man of his stamp was invaluable to the American people, but they contended that his place was in the editor’s chair, in the pulpit, or upon the lecture platform, not as the chief executive of the nation.  Furthermore, it was said that this great orator had views on political, social, and economic questions which bordered on the visionary, and that any man who had openly supported free silver, anti-imperialism, or even the guaranty of bank deposits, could not be safely trusted with the guidance of the nation’s destinies.

The Republican candidate had none of the qualifications of an orator; he was rather a teacher.  He did not cater to the desires of his audience; he struck at the abuses most prevalent in the section where he spoke.  It was his business to point out weaknesses; to find remedies for them; to educate, not sway, his audiences.  His mind was constructive; his training had been along the lines of constructive political thought; he had proven his ability by his organization of a civil government for the Philippines and by his solution of the vexed question of Cuba.  So it was argued that the best test of his ability and guaranty of efficiency was the work he had already done.

The campaign was lacking in life and enthusiasm simply because there were no clearly defined issues.  The candidates went through the usual performances of “swinging around the political circuit.”  Mr. Taft was accorded a warm welcome on his trip, for the people wished to get acquainted with President Roosevelt’s choice as much as to hear him discuss the Republican policies.  Mr. Bryan, who conducted a great speaking campaign, confined his attention to advocating the bank guaranty plan and to attacking the evils of private monopoly.  Political enthusiasm was at a low ebb.  Few people took matters seriously and the campaign was aptly characterized as the “Era of No Feeling.”

The vote cast for presidential electors was primarily an expression of popular confidence in the Roosevelt administration.  For nearly half a century the situation in the nation had been becoming more and more a source of anxiety to the thinking men of the land.  Our economic development had taken place so rapidly that the great aggregations of capital and the great corporations had gotten beyond control and had shown dangerous tendencies toward lawlessness and political corruption.  The feeling that the great corporations were not only beyond the control of law but even controlled the government in the interests of a few, led to a belief that the government was passing out of the hands of the people, and that the function of our republican government was being arrested.  The radical and the agitator were getting the ear of the nation, for the faith of the nation was shaken.  Then came President Roosevelt to take up a task of greatest difficulty, and for nearly eight years, amidst the applause of the plain people, he administered the affairs of the nation firmly, honestly, and with efficiency.  The Republican convention in Chicago by its nomination of Mr. Taft had put the stamp of its approval upon the Roosevelt administration, and turned to appeal to the voters.

In round numbers Taft received 7,680,000 votes and Bryan 6,410,000.  The electoral vote stood 321 for the Republican candidate and 162 for the Democratic candidate.  Thirty States elected Republican presidential electors; eighteen elected Democratic electors.  With the exception of Nebraska, Nevada, and Colorado, which together contributed sixteen electoral votes, all the States carried by the Democratic nominee were Southern States.  The nation had approved the Roosevelt policy, but the great popular vote for Mr. Bryan showed clearly the loyalty of millions of voters.  These men believed that their leader stood for the plain people-for the unprivileged.  There were many who had feared Mr. Bryan’s policies in 1896, who voted for him in 1908 because they believed that twelve years of public life and the study of national problems had changed and bettered his ideals.

Some Republican writers professed to believe that the popular vote indicated that a majority of people adhered to the policy of protection.  To others it appeared that the voters were willing to accept the protective policy with a promise for honest tariff revision in order to obtain a continuation of the Roosevelt policies.

The popular vote is interesting mainly for what it showed concerning the changed strength of the small parties, During the period 1904 to 1908 the drift had evidently been away from them.  The Socialist vote was nearly as large in 1908 as in 1904, which was a consolation to Socialists, for they had held the ground gained by the heavy vote in 1904.  The Prohibition vote fell off about ten per cent from that polled in 1904 and the Independence party polled only 82,000 votes.

In the House of Representatives the Sixty-first Congress had 219 Republicans and 172 Democrats; the Senate 60 Republicans and 32 Democrats.