Volume 14 , Issue 20

May 14, 1912 - Roosevelt Scored By Pres. Taft In Ohio

Across the North American continent, on the West Coast, The Call, San Francisco, Tuesday, May 14, 1912, The Republican Primary campaign for President was experiencing the accusatory campaign rhetoric being thrown by President Taft at Colonel Theodore Roosevelt.

The headlines read, "T. R. Scored By Taft In Ohio -- President Taft's return to his home state was marked by a most pronounced attack. When Chief Executive compared Roosevelt to Abraham Lincoln he smiled. Taft said Roosevelt's, "Campaign Accusatory and Libelous." Steubenville, Ohio, May 13 (1912) -- President Raft's first day of his final campaign through Ohio came to an end with a speech, which was marked by the most pronounced verbal assaults upon Colonel Roosevelt to which Taft so far has given public utterance. In speeches that were filled with indignant attack, that bubbled over with uncomplimentary adjectives, Taft discharged his oratory at this predecessor.

It was cold and rainy at Marietta when Taft urged the people of Ohio to support him in the primaries of May 21, 1912.

One of the attacks on Teddy Roosevelt which raised a laugh ran like this: "I think it would be dangerous to put a man with Mr. Roosevelt's present constitutional views, and with the elation he would necessarily feel by reason of getting something that all the great presidents have never gotten, in the White House again."

Excerpt From President's Speech In Ohio:

"Suppose Roosevelt were waited to the skies in a chariot like the prophet of old and were to disappear from sight, how do you suppose this country would get along, anyhow?" "Give us more facts and less lurid headlines and lung power."

"Roosevelt likens himself to Abraham Lincoln more and resembles him less than any man in the history of the country."

"It's 'I,' 'I,' 'I,' and * * I say that if you feed that vanity and egotism by giving him something that Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and Grant did not get, you are going to put him in office with a sense of power and with a view of constitutional restriction that will be dangerous to this country."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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