Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. IV.djvu/212

172 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS The decisive vote in the republican national con vention of 1908 was taken on June 18. It gave Mr. Taft 702 of the 980 delegates, against six competitors with votes ranging between 16 and 68. James S. Sherman, of New York, was named for vice-president. The platform, among other things, called for an immediate revision of the tariff so as to equalize the difference in cost of production at home and abroad, with a margin of profit to the domestic producer ; a more elastic currency ; a fear less enforcement of the law against trusts ; a postal savings system; additional legislation in the inter est of wage-workers ; the admission of New Mexico and Arizona as states of the union; the arbitration of international controversies, and the protection of all American citizens in their rights of travel and sojourn in friendly countries. The campaign was not exciting, though Mr. Roosevelt worked untiringly, planning the great strokes, vouching for the candidate in every exigency, and forcing the fighting wherever the enemy s line was weak. The democratic candidate was William J. Bryan, who had been twice defeated already, and who fell this time under an increased plurality. Mr. Taft did little speaking in his own behalf, his principal address being a dispassionate review of the cases in which he had rendered judicial decisions affecting the labor interests, to offset misrepresentations from hostile sources.