TAFT GETS COLD RECEPTION
IN KANSAS CITY, KAS.
Speech at Huron Park Said to be
More Help for Democrats.
It was a frost, a fizzle, a fiasco. There never was a political gathering in Kansas City, Kas., that showed less enthusiasm than the crowd of 3,000 people which turned out this morning to hear Taft. The Republican presidential candidate was escorted from the Baltimore hotel to Huron park in Kansas City, Kas., by a long train of automobiles amid great pomp and with marked precision and ceremony. He arrived on time -- 8:30 o'clock.
From the north steps of the Carnegie library, the big chief addressed the Wyandotte Indians. The audience was already there -- 3,000 strong. There was no demonstration until some one yelled: "Three cheers for Bill."
Then there was a feeble effort to applaud, but it lasted less than a minute. After a speech lasting about fifteen minutes Taft retired from the stone pedestal upon which he had been standing, and the "effort" was over.
In his speech the presidential nominee took to the defensive entirely. He undertook to defend his attitude in labor injunction decisions, which were rendered years ago; injunctions which union labor has never forgotten.
During the course of his speech, the presidential candidate was almost wholly denied applause or encouragement. His audience was composed of 1,500 school children, 300 students from the Kansas State Blind Institute, located in the west suburbs of Kansas City, Kas., and about 1,200 adults, mostly women.
And it was evident that Taft's pleasure over the occasion was not of the most exultant variety. No sooner had he stopped speaking than the crowd began to disperse. He was not fatigued by a siege of long and vigorous hand-shaking. Here is the way the followers of Democracy in Kansas City, Kas., speak of the meeting: "It was the best Democratic meeting we ever had!"
