因威廉.霍华德.塔夫脱而导致共和党分裂
1910年6月18日，对于西奥多.罗斯福来说是一个激动人心的日子，今天是这位前总统结束其在非洲和欧洲的长途旅行返回祖国的日子。数以千计的人聚集在纽约市迎候他的归来，在欢迎队伍中有人发表演说，还有乐队和游行。本周，我们就向你讲述特迪.罗斯福的这次旅行，同时我们也向你讲述一些政治问题是如何伤害他的好朋友威廉. 霍华德.塔夫脱的。
西奥多.罗斯福在结束其总统任期三周后就动身开始他的长途旅行，最终圆满完成他的旅行，他的旅行总的来说取得了很大的成功，收获颇丰。在非洲，他主要是打猎，他猎杀了许多狮子、大象和其他野生动物，他把他的猎物都带回国内，并交给了史密森博物馆，在非洲打完猎后，他带着他的妻子伊迪丝前往欧洲。
罗斯福夫妇访问意大利，拜会了意大利的国王和王后。他们又访问了维也纳，他们会见了奥地利和匈牙利的领导人。在德国，他们会见了威廉二世，威廉二世还邀请这位美国的前总统观看德国的盛大阅兵。威廉二世对罗斯福说：“你是第一位作为一个平民与德国皇帝一起检阅德国军队的人。”这两人照了一张握手的照片，在这张照片的背后，威廉二世这样写道：“当我们双手握在一起时，也就握住了世界。”罗斯福夫妇会见了挪威、比利时和荷兰的国王和王后，他们还会见了了瑞典和丹麦的皇储。在英国，罗斯福作为美国的正式代表，出席了英国爱德华七世的葬礼。
西奥多.罗斯福还在牛津大学、巴黎大学等许多大学发表了很多演讲。然而，所有他的活动，都没有影响他阅读来自国内报纸和信件。这些来自国内报纸和信件所带来的消息困扰着他。罗斯福曾经带领共和党取得了巨大的成功，然而，现在，共和党似乎就要完蛋了，它已经被分裂了两大派：一派以保守人士为主，他们支持威廉.霍华德.塔夫脱总统，另一派以激进人士为主，他们反对塔夫脱。西奥多.罗斯福千方百计帮助塔夫脱赢得了总统大选，塔夫脱上任也就一年多一点时间，然而，就在这短短的时间里，他几乎已经完全与支持罗斯福的激进派破裂了。
共和党的分裂源于共和党内的激进派期望塔夫脱能够像罗斯福那样充满激情和精力去工作，他们需要一个能够推动社会进步来鼓舞人们的人，西奥多.罗斯福就是这样一个人，但塔夫脱却不是。塔夫脱身型庞大、行动缓慢，他拒绝迅速地作出决定。作为一名前法官，他作决定靠的是事实而不是激情。塔夫脱推进了许多项罗斯福开启的改革，但他的工作方法却给人一种似乎要扼杀这些改革的感觉。
就在这位前总统返回国内前，塔夫脱给罗斯福写了一封短信，他说到：“我不知道我是否比别的总统更加不幸，但我知道我所取得的成功要比其他总统少得多。我一直努力实行您的政策，但我的方法却使得这些工作开展得并不顺利。”
几个星期后，西奥多.罗斯福返回国内。在纽约，面对欢迎他的人群，他发表演讲，他说：“我已经做好准备，愿意尽我自己的职责，帮助处理好美国所面临的问题。如果美国希望实现自己所希望达到的目标，那么这些问题就必须得到解决。”在写给塔夫脱总统的信中，罗斯福写到：“在两个月内，我将不发表任何演讲，不对任何事情发表意见。但当我闭上嘴吧时，我要开动我的脑筋。”
塔夫脱总统邀请西奥多.罗斯福到白宫会面，但罗斯福说不，他却与一些反对总统的激进派人士会面。后来，他与塔夫脱总统在总统夏季度假的马萨诸塞州会面。这是一次不愉快的会面。这两位曾经的好朋友，关系有些紧张。这次会面后，罗斯福决定与共和党内的激进派合作，因为他认为，塔夫脱总统已经阻挡了罗斯福政策的推行。
罗斯福认为现在是他走进美国人民之中的时候了。他接受邀请参加在怀俄明州举行的一个庆典。他乘火车旅行，他在许多城镇停靠，并发表演讲。他呼吁党内团结，他要医治削弱共和党力量的内部分裂。但他提出的政策却是激进的。保守派拒绝支持罗斯福。塔夫脱总统不明白罗斯福的目的是什么。“如果我知道他想要什么，”塔夫脱说，“我愿意按他所说的做，但他对我什么也没有说。我深感受到了伤害，他没有给我解释我的立场和教我如何去做的机会。”
西奥多.罗斯福的演讲之旅是想帮助共和党赢得1910年的国会选举，他的努力差不多失败了，共和党在许多州被击败。在共和党国会选举失败后的一年时间里，西奥多.罗斯福一直保持沉默。然而临近1911年底时，美国各党派开始准备明年的总统大选。罗斯福确信塔夫脱不可能连任，塔夫脱已经完全成为一名保守者了。他关闭了与商业方面的联系。美国人民需要一个什么样的人，罗斯福认为，美国人需要一个激进的总统，美国人所需要的就是一个像他这样的人。所以，西奥多.罗斯福开始发表演讲，就塔夫脱总统的许多所作所为进行批评。例如，塔夫脱总统已经建议与加拿大、英国和法国进行谈判，罗斯福对此提出批评。
塔夫脱非常困惑，他对一位朋友说：“要承受来自罗斯福的这些打击是非常困难的，除了想给我制造困难外，我真不知道他到底想做什么。看到一份亲密的友谊像沙绳那样碎裂，我的心很难受。”但现在，对于塔夫脱总统而言，有一点是清楚不过了，那就是罗斯福想成为1912年总统大选的共和党总统候选人。
此前，罗斯福想成为总统候选人会让塔夫脱感到很高兴，他很愿意离开白宫。但现在形势变了，因为罗斯福变了。塔夫脱觉得罗斯福所倡导的政策太过激进了。塔夫脱认为他有责任反对罗斯福和激进的政策，他将要寻求连任。塔夫脱认为他将会赢得共和党的总统候选人提名，因为他仍然得到许多党内领导人的支持。
在共和党召开提名大会前四个月，一些共和党激进的州长呼吁罗斯福出山，他们敦促他宣称他自己就是共和党的总统候选人。他们说，罗斯福就是那个能够将美国带入社会进步新纪元的人。然而，塔夫脱发表了一份反对激进政策的强硬声明，他说：“他们所寻求的是要推翻自由神像和代议制政府。”有一位记者请罗斯福就塔夫脱总统的声明予以回应，罗斯福说：“我的帽子已经有指环了。”其意是说他已经是共和党的总统候选人。现在，塔夫脱和罗斯福的冲突已经公开化了，而罗斯福已经做好了战斗的准备。
在罗斯福的一系列演讲中，他猛烈批评塔夫脱，他的声音中甚至带着仇恨，他说：塔夫脱完全被保守派的政客们所控制，塔夫脱已经成为社会进步的绊脚石，塔夫脱是一个叛徒。塔夫脱不得不回应罗斯福的这些指责。在一次演讲中，他说到：“罗斯福的这些指责都要扯碎我的心，我站在这回答一位老朋友对我的指责，我完全否认所有这些指责。我不想和罗斯福斗，但我不得不和他斗争。”这次演讲后，有一位记者要找这位总统，他发现总统单独一个人坐着，双手抱着头，他的眼里充满泪水。“罗斯福是我的亲密朋友呀，”塔夫脱说到。
简评：
罗斯福简直就像是幕后总统。他要的是现任总统完全按照他曾经所制定的政策行事，否则就不行。这也太霸道了。
然而，现实社会中，像罗斯福这样曾经的领导人，还真是大有人在。有的人，虽然从领导岗位上退下来了，但他总以为他曾经所做的一切都是正确的，后继之人无疑必须按照他的政策行事，否则就是背叛，否则就会阻碍事业的发展。于是他们千方百计地施加各种影响，以确保他们未曾完成的事业能够取得成功。
然而，什么是对，什么是错，并不是一个人或两个人，或几个人说了算的，也不是一个党或两个党，或几个党说了算的，最终还是应该由人民说了算。人民如何说了算，那就是通过选举，人民选谁，那就代表人民认定谁是对的。
不过，这里应该清楚地知道这一点，那就是，在任何社会，为了能够在选举中获胜，谁都会千方百计地想尽一切办法采取非正常手段，如贿选、控制选举、买选等，特别是在小范围的选举中，这些办法很容易成功。相比之下，在更大的范围选举，要想做到这一点，就很难了。因此，除了严格监督选举外，还要在最大的范围内进行选举，切不可在小范围内选举，那种只在小范围内的选举，只能造成失败，让人们对选举失去信心。
The Republican Party Is Split Over William Howard Taft
Former president Theodore Roosevelt, on a hunting trip to Africa, stands beside the body of an elephant 美国前总统西奥多.罗斯福进行他的非洲打猎之旅，他站在一头被他猎杀的大象旁边June eighteenth, nineteen ten, was an exciting day for Theodore Roosevelt. It was the day that the former American president returned from a long trip to Africa and Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in New York City to welcome him home. There were speeches and bands and a parade. This week in our series, we tell us about Teddy Roosevelt's trip. We also tell you how political problems hurt his friendship with President William Howard Taft.
It was the perfect end to a trip that began three weeks after Theodore Roosevelt completed his presidency. Most of the trip was a huge success. In Africa, Theodore Roosevelt spent months hunting wild animals. He shot many lions, elephants, and other animals. He brought all of them back and gave them to the Smithsonian Institution. After hunting in Africa, he and his wife, Edith, went to Europe.
The Roosevelts visited Italy and met the king and queen. They visited Vienna and met the ruler of Austria and Hungary. In Germany, they met Kaiser Wilhelm the second. Kaiser Wilhelm invited the former American president to watch a big parade of German troops. He told him: "You are the first civilian who has ever joined the Kaiser in reviewing the troops of Germany." The two men were photographed shaking hands. On the back of the photograph, the Kaiser wrote: "When we shake hands, we shake the world." The Roosevelts met the kings and queens of Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They met the crown princes of Sweden and Denmark. And, while in England, Mr. Roosevelt served as America's official representative at the funeral of King Edward the Seventh.
Theodore Roosevelt made a number of speeches at several universities, including Oxford and the Sorbonne. Yet all these activities did not keep him from reading newspapers and letters from home. The news troubled him. He had led the Republican Party with great success. Now, the party seemed to be falling apart. It had split into two groups. One group included conservatives who supported President William Howard Taft. The other group included progressives who opposed Taft. Theodore Roosevelt had worked hard to get William Howard Taft elected. President Taft had been in office a little more than a year. Yet in that short time, he had broken almost completely with the progressives who had supported Roosevelt.
The split developed because progressives expected Taft to rule as Roosevelt had done -- with energy and emotion. They wanted a man who could excite people with dreams of social progress. Theodore Roosevelt was such a man. William Howard Taft was not. He was a big, slow-moving man. He refused to make quick decisions. As a former judge, he depended on facts, not emotion, to make decisions. President Taft did much to carry out the reform programs Theodore Roosevelt had begun. But his methods led people to believe that he was really trying to kill the programs.
Taft wrote to Roosevelt shortly before the former president sailed for home. "I do not know if I have had harder luck than other presidents," he said. "But I do know I have succeeded far less than others. I have been trying to carry out your policies. But my method of doing so has not worked smoothly."
Theodore Roosevelt is welcomed in New York after his trip 旅行结束返回国内的西奥多.罗斯福在纽约市受到热烈的欢迎
A few weeks later, Theodore Roosevelt returned home. In a speech to those who welcomed him in New York, he said: "I am ready and willing to do my part to help solve America's problems. And these problems must be solved if this country is to reach the high level of its hopes." To President Taft, Roosevelt wrote: "I will make no speeches or say anything for two months. But I will keep my mind open, as I keep my mouth shut."
President Taft invited Theodore Roosevelt to visit him at the White House. Roosevelt said he could not. However, he did meet with many of the progressive opponents of the president. Later, he met with Taft at the president's summer home in Massachusetts. It was not a happy meeting. The two friends were tense. By this time, Roosevelt had decided that he agreed with the progressives. He believed President Taft had turned back many of Roosevelt's policies.
Roosevelt decided it was time for him to go to the American people. He accepted an invitation to a celebration in Wyoming. He traveled west by train. He stopped in many towns and cities to make speeches. He spoke of party unity. He tried to heal the split that had weakened the Republican Party. But the policies he proposed were progressive. Conservatives refused to support them. President Taft could not understand Roosevelt's purposes. "If only I knew what he wanted," Taft said, "I would do it. But he has told me nothing. I am deeply wounded. He gives me no chance to explain my position or to learn his."
Theodore Roosevelt hoped his speaking trip would help Republican Party candidates win in the nineteen ten congressional elections. His efforts seemed to fail. Republicans were defeated in many states. For a year after the party's defeat in the congressional elections, Theodore Roosevelt remained silent. Then, near the end of nineteen eleven, America's political parties began to prepare for the presidential election that would be held the following year. Roosevelt was sure Taft could not be re-elected. Taft had become very conservative. He had close ties to business interests. What the people wanted, thought Roosevelt, was a progressive president. What they wanted was a man like himself. So, Theodore Roosevelt began to speak out again in opposition to many of the things President Taft was doing. For example, President Taft had proposed treaties with Canada, Britain, and France. Roosevelt criticized them.
Taft was troubled. He told a friend: "It is very hard to take all these blows from Roosevelt. I do not know what he is trying to do, except to make my way more difficult. It is very hard to see a close friendship going to pieces like a rope of sand." By now it was clear to Taft that Roosevelt wanted to be the presidential candidate of the Republican Party in the election of nineteen twelve.
William Howard Taft at his desk
Earlier, this would have pleased Taft. He would have been happy to leave the White House. But the situation was different now. Roosevelt had changed. Taft felt that the policies he proposed seemed too extreme. Taft decided it was his duty to oppose Roosevelt and the progressives. He would seek re-election. Taft believed he could win the Republican nomination for president. He still had the support of many party leaders.
Four months before the Republican nominating convention opened, several progressive Republican governors appealed to Roosevelt. They urged him to declare himself a candidate for president. Roosevelt, they said, was the man to lead the nation into a new era of social progress. Then Taft made a strong statement against the progressives. "They are seeking," he said, "to pull down the temple of freedom and representative government." A reporter asked Roosevelt to answer Taft's statement. Roosevelt said: "My hat is in the ring." That meant he was a candidate. Now, the conflict was in the open. And Roosevelt was ready to fight.
In his speeches, Roosevelt criticized Taft bitterly. In a voice shaking with hatred, he said Taft was controlled by conservative politicians. He said Taft stood in the way of progress. He said Taft was disloyal. Taft had to answer. In one speech, he said: "This tears my soul. I am here to answer an old and true friend who has made many charges. I deny all those charges. I do not want to fight Theodore Roosevelt. But I am going to fight him." After the speech, a reporter looked for the president. He found him sitting alone, his head in his hands. His eyes were filled with tears. "Roosevelt was my closest friend," Taft said.
