Judge — October 24, 1908 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Taft’s Training for the Presidency By RAYMOND PATTERSON PPLYING Bonaparte’s test question, “ What has he done?" for the pur- A pose of determining who would make the best successor to Theodore Roosevelt, one naturally thinks of William Howard Taft, if for no other reason, because his public career has been such as to give him, in all experience as to the different lines of presidential work than By this is meant merely probability, more any other American citizen of the present generation, that his public carcer has been such as to call for the exercise of personal super- vision in an executive capacity over a wider range of governmental respon bility than any of the other persons mentioned for the presidency in any of the parties has been called upon to assume. The test will be, therefore, not so much as to Mr. Taft's experience, but as to whether he has ** made good "’ at all times. That his public experience has been diversified to an extraordinary degree and the people have a right to is scarcely a matter of argument. It is fa’ insist, that each of his official acts, every public responsibility he has assumed, every policy he has stood for, and everything he has done from his boyhood to the present day in his professional and official life shall be subjected to the closest possible scrutiny, to determine whether he is fitted for the presidency or al life, so hib gover not. that, if he stands the test of what he has done in each ec: n different direction iod of years, and if he can demonstrate It happens that Secretary Taft has had a peculiar range of of if he can a Hi the adaptability required in record of executive capacity in half a do: te along sudden transitions from domestic to foreign affairs, from the military to civil life, and from economics to abstract government, the people are likely to assume that he is the person best fitted for the presidency, and, accordingly, to choose him for that high office. It would require a volume to tell in detail what has been done in the Philip- on of his fit- ‘stand pines, but as a measure of executive capacity and as a demonstra ness for the presidency, Secretary Taft needs only to have the people und in a general way just what he did and is still doing to regenerate and uplift an alien people, who in such a strange way have become the wards of this Yanke government of ours. In the first place, it is worth while noting that the islands are in a state of absolute tranquillity, That has been accomplished largely, if not entirely, by The Filipinos learned to know He He neither enjoled the personal influence of the Governor-General. that he was honest and that he was devoted to their interest. ise them independence to-day or to-morrow or the day after. idl not prom- nor bullied nor cringed. With infinite tact and with a positive genius for lead- ership, Governor Taft convinced these strange people, speaking another lan- guage, that he at least would do the best thing in his power for their material, and spiritual comfc A system of education has been built up and half a million children The founda and securely for a primary and industrial educational system, which is li being taught to read and write English. jon has been laid be the most lasting benefit conferred on the islands by the Ame ment. nment supervision to preserve health of their flocks and herds ha Sanitation for the people and gc both been successfully introduced, - constantly increas judicial system has been established which has been a revelation to the people there, who were accustomed only to the cumbrous and corrupt methods of the nts have been undertaken, roads built, docks panish courts. Public improve constructed, streets improved, a complete system of posts, telephones, and tel graphs established, and railroads built, which in five years will furnish a system of one thousand miles in extent. A civil system has been inaugurated which has divided the public work between the Americans and the Filipinos, with a d representation of the natives. Public lands have been opened for settlement, semi-official banks have been established, and the finan- cial status of the Philippine government to-day is practically beyond er to pay. Is its own tale as to m. These are accomplished facts, not theories or promis It isa | record of things done, a story of accomplishment which te | the masterful executive genius of the man who is chiefly responsible for these splendid results, Another and totally different phase of international poli | the case of Cuba, Here, too, Taft, the man of action, was called upon to repre- in unfamiliar conditions, and to create ics is presented in sent the government of the United Stat | for an alien pe | which they had themselves failed utterly to maintain. The island of Cuba was | 4s much under the personal control and direction of the former Secretary of War ple a temporary government to succced the unfortunate republic as is the Panama Canal or the Philippines. His was the guiding hand, his is the strong arm, and it was his visit to the island which brought peace out of chaos and which taught the Cuban people to look up to the integrity and to the genius of one great American citizen. It is extraordinary, of course, that this one man of all those who have con- tributed to make the administration of Theodore Roosevelt brilliant, should always have been in such a position as to be called upon for peculiar service in | emergence It may be fate or it may be accident, but it is certainly true that | almost every great and unusual governmental problem which has been presented to the country in the last five or six years has in some way invoked the executive assistance of Secretary Taft. | It would perhaps be unfair to both men to contrast a man of affairs like Taft with a doctrina like Bryan, and yet such comparisons are inevitable. One does not choose a preacher to run a locomotive, nor would one expect a rail- way fireman to preach a good sermon, We send our future lawyers and doctors to professional schools, the trades union prescribes the qualifications for an ap- prentice boy, and the whole tendency of our twentieth-century life is in the direction of special education for particular effort. ‘The American people have just as much right to demand that their Presi- dent shall have satisfactory previous experience as they have to insist that the humble clerk in the government department shall pass a successful service ex- ¥ amination, That Mr. Taft h which have b more than upon any other one man in this country, the people can more safely snot failed in any one of the manifold responsibilities n put upon him, all the world knows. It follows that upon him, » place the responsibility as well as the honor of the chief magistracy of the republic. comicbooks.com