" The Constitution was, for them, an instrument to be
used to block all change, whether good or bad.
Other men, near to President Taft, were neither patriotic nor
innocent. They were shrewd, powerful Bosses,--men of the type of
Platt. Only, Mr. Taft did not stand on the alert with them, as
Roosevelt had done as Governor, working with them when he could,
and fighting them when they went wrong. He allowed them to
influence his administration, and, at last, accepted a nomination
engineered by them for their own selfish purposes.
The Republicans who followed President Taft, the "stand-patters,"
believed in property rights first, and human rights second. If any
of them did not actually believe this, they joined people who did
thoroughly believe it, and so their action counted toward putting
that belief into practice. The others, the "Insurgents" or
Progressive Republicans, (later called the Bull Moose) believed in
human rights first. That is as near as the thing can be stated,
remembering that it was a disputed point, with good men on both
sides. The stand-patters said the Progressives were cranks,--
visionary and impractical; the Progressives replied that it was
better to be both of these things than to be quite so near to the
earth and selfish as Mr. Taft's followers or managers. The events
of later years have not borne out the contention that Roosevelt
was "rash" and "dangerous"; while the charge that Mr.
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