Fergus County argus., 1902-07-16

position you would like to have,
think | ought to tell you that II such
vacancy should occur | do not see
how | could possibly give it to you
for | need you where you are"
He said to me: "Mr. President. Il
has always been my dream to be in
the supreme court, but il you should
offer me justiceship now and at the
same time congress should take on
entirely my salary as governor,
should go straight back to the Phil
ippines nevertheless. for those people
need me and expect me back and
believe won't desert them"
He has gone back. gone as a strong
friend among weaker friends to heir
them upwards along the stony and
difficult path of self.goyernment: "a
do his part and a great part in max
ing the American name a symbol oi
honor and good faith in the Philip
pine islands: to govern with justice
and with that firmness, that absence
OF weakness. which is only another
side OF justice. He has gone back to
do all that because II is his duty as he
sees IL. We are to be congratulated
we Americans, that we have a fel
low American like Taft.
And now Elihu Root, who. unlike
myself, Mr.. President Eliot. but like
most OF you present. comes of the old
New England stock, whose great
grandfather stood beside Leonard
Woods great grandfather at Concord
bridge; Elihu Root. who had worked
his way from being a poor and un-
known country boy in New iork to
position where in year or two he
had the leadership OF the bar of the
great city within his grasp. gave II
up, made the great pecuinary sac
rifice implied in giving 1t up, and ac,
cepted the position under President
Mckinley of secretary of war, DO.
sition, which for the last three years
and at present, amounts to not only
being the secretary of war, but the
secretary for the islands, the secre.
tary for the colonies at the same time;
who has done the most exhausting and
responsible work of any man in the
administration, more so than the work
OF the president, because circumstan.
ces have been such that with a man
of Roots wonderful ability, industry
and conscientiousness the president
could not help but devolve upon him
work that made his task one under
which almost any other man | know
would have staggered. He has done
that and done 1t absolutely disinter
estedly.
Nothing can come to Root in the
way of reward save that which is i'm
piled in the knowledge that he has
done something which hardly any 9th
er man In the union could have done
as well as he has done II.
Having brought before him contin
uously questions of the utmost intri
cacy to decide, questions upon which
life and death hang. questions the
decision of which will affect our whole
future policy, questions that affect the
welfare OF the millions of people with
whom we have been brought into such
intimate contact by the events of tne
Spanish war and whose welfare mus,
be a prime consideration from now
on.
He las done all that with the Ger
tainty of attack, with the certainty
of misunderstanding, with the Ger
tainty of being hampered by igno
rance and worse than ignorance; that
he could not do the best that was In
him. only the best that condition.
would allow of. It was all Abraham
Lincoln incidentally could do. He ha,
done all. Taft has done il. Woot
has done il. These three men hav,
rendered that service. can do moth
ing for them. | can show my appre
citation Of them in no way save tn,
wholly insufficient one of standing VI
for them and their works, and tnat
will do.
At the commencement exercises
preceding the alumni banquet at which
President Roosevelt spoke, the hon
orary degree Of doctor of laws was
conferred upon Thomas Jefferson Cool
idge. lately minister to the French re
public; Addison Brown, United States
Judge, New York; John Hay. by force
of just and liberal thinking the mos
successful diplomatist now living.
and Theodore Roosevelt, president
of the United States, from his you'll
member of this society oil scholars
now in his prime, a true type of the
sturdy gentleman and the high-mind
ed public servant in a democracy"
/