The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-08
Who Is Tom Taggart ?
Once a Poor Irish Boy, Now Mil
lionaire and Philosophic Leader
of Indiana Democrats.
(Raymond in chicago Tribune.l

l. indianapolis, Ind, Oct. 22.-'Life is
too short for quarrels."
This is the simple political creed
which has made Tom Taggart, former
mayor of IndianaL oils, the undisputed
political leader of the Indiana Democ-
racy and the possible head of the party
In the United States, so far as the next
national committee is concerned. When
l asked him to what he attributed his
political success he elaborated this
Ipithy platform by going into detail:
There's no sense in making enemies
in politics. 1t doesn't pay in the long
run, and we might just as well have a
good time here on earth and enjoy our
selves While we are doing it. / have
made it a rule in politics always to
bear in mind the fact that the other
| fellow has just as much right to his
opinion as 1 have to mine"
o
had chased Tom Taggart across the
state and back again, and at last
rounded him up in the reception room
of his own hotel here in Indianapolis,
and was given the opportunity to have
a heart=to-heart political talk, varied
with divers personal illusions, and in
terrupted constantly by persons who
came to see him on legitimate business,
on begging expeditions, and with a
thousand and one petitions for his at
tention
The political ringmasters of the Dem
ocratic circus in Indiana seems to have
made his way in politics absolutely by
the force of his unvarying good fellow
! ship. He is never harsh, never abuses
people, and apparently never makes
any strong enemies. His career is a
romance because it envelopes a life of
constant striving after something bet
ter, and because it takes one from the
peasant boy of County Monaghan, Ire
| land, to the chief executive of the me-
| tropolis of Indiana, and to man whose
| business success has been entirely in
| dependent of politics, but has landed
him easily into the millionaire class.
o.
When a man can make 500, 900 out of
single hotel in one year, as Tom Tag
CART did with his new enterprise at
French Lick Springs, he must neces-
Sar1ly possess an executive capacity in
business directions which of course
produces substantially the same results
in politics.
1 asked him why he succeeded, if he
could tell me, and his diagnosis of the
case was quite as simple as that which
he applied to his political career.
Il think / have got ahead simply be-
cause always attended to my business
from beginning to end. Up to this day
L am one of the earliest at work in the
morning, and in the hotel down at
French Lick 1 am frequently the first
one to put in an appearance in the
kitchen as well as in other departments
of the hotel. [ learned the business a
little at a time and by hard knocks,
but did learn it, and / made it a rule
TO attend personally to whatever bust
ness had in hand"
There must have hne0 nInOtv Of no ri
knocks in the career of this matter of
fact, unassuming, and yet completely
successful man, who at 4e finds him
self millionaire, with large business
interests and with a political strength
which is scarcely disputed in his own
state, and seems destined to ramify
through his own party in many other
states.
Tom Taggart was a poor Irish bow
when his parents brought him to this
country. He is, in himself, probably as
good specimen as one can find of the
extraordinary uplifting and rebuilding
process which American institutions
seem so weA-caleulated to foster in the
case of clever foreign-born citizens.
Only quarter of a century ago Tom
Taggart was still employed in an ex-
tremely subordinate position in a coun
L
man in the world to conceal the fact
that in 1876 he was cleaning out the
Kitchen in the depot restaurant at
Xenia, O.
Unlike some men who have become
locally prominent in politics, his DO
littcal success did not make him rich.
nor did it contribute to his CONNER
cial prosperity. Exactly the opposite
was the case for after beginning with
the pots and pans at Xenia, suffering
long and tortuous apprenticeship like
many another hard working man. he
secured his promotion by being put in
Charge of q somewhat similar depot
restaurant at Carrot Ind. From there
he was transferred by the same firm
to the restaurant they. controlled in
the union depot at Indianapolis, and
sixteen years ago he was still only
the manager of that concern.
%
In 1890, when the old firm failed to
secure a renewal of their contract.
they recommended. Taggart to the rail-
road authorities, and from that time
he became his, own. master, making
money honestly and rapidly in the
restaurant business, dipping into other
ventures here and there, buying the
Grand hotel here in Indianapolis and
only recently engaging in still larger
venture at the famous southern IN
diana springs.
From the time he was, Is years old
until the present day Tom Taggart
has never ceased to. work Faithfully
and well. He started out by helping
to support members of his own fam
lily, and today he has possibly as large
list of private charities as almost
any man in this city.
Devoid of all higher education, but
with the native adaptiveness of his
race he has learned the lesson of the
world so well as that no one, except
himself, possibly, ever realizes the de-
fciency on the educational side. A
thorough man of the world, without
any large vices and equally without
any obstreperous virtues, the Indiana
political leader never fails to cap
ture the affections of those he meets
Simply by. his infectious and never
varying good human. He is not
"jollier," but he never offends, and
in this, as he says himself, is the Sc
cret of his political success.
When driven into corner and. forced
to showdown no one is cleverer than
Tom Taggart in getting out of diff
fculty. and his native irish wit often
stands him in good stead, disarming
criticism and anticipating assault
Only year or two ago, when he
was still mayor a delegation of homeo-
pathic physicians called upon him one
day and insisted upon being repre-
sented upon the board of health. The
mayor, as the story goes, Immediately
promised that the little pills" should
have the same chance as the .'big !
pills" not only on the board of health,
but in the hospitals and other branches |
of the city medical service.
For some reason, however. the NAV |