The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-31
ADMINISTRATION UPHELD
 AND P0LICIES tXTOLLED
Boston Merchants Listen To War Sec retary On Money Matters While Jewish Citizens Hear Him
 On Panama Canal.

cheers as "the next President of the
 United States" topic which he care-
 fully avoided in his own remarks how
 ever, Secretary of War William H. Taft
 delivered tonight his first public speech
 since his world-circllng tour at the an-
 nual banquet of the Boston Merchants
 association at the Hotel Somerset. The
 banquet closed a long and strenuous day
 for the Secretary of War, during which
 he delivered d brief address before 400
 manufacturers and spoke before 8 large
 gathering of the Jews of the city at the
 Eysnm club in the afternoon. During
 his visit to Boston, which ends tomor-
 row morning, Secretary Taft Is the guest
 of Samuel Carr, Boston banker and
 relative of Mrs. Taft.
 A more notable gathering of prominent
 and representative business men has sel-
 dom been seen in Boston than that which
 greeted the secretary tonight
 In the banquet hall beautiful decora-
 tions adorned the tables. which provld-
 ed for the seating of over five hundred
 guests, while behind the speakers table
 were a great many flags President Je-
 rome Jones of the Boston Merchants as-
 sociation presided
 Seated on either side of him were the
 speakers and guests of honor. who in-
 cuded Secretary of War Taft, Congress-
 man Sherley of Kentucky. Lieutenant Governor E. S. Draper of Massachusetts,
 Mayor John r. Fitzgerald and the Right
 Rev William Lawrence, bishop of Mas | sachusctts.
 1soff dent Jones said:
 "we are favored this evening by the | presence of a man from the middle west, 1 who has impressed us all with his fit- I ness for the most important position that this great and powerful nation can be- i, stow, and in brief an official of grea' strength and wisdom He has. recently | put a girdle around the earth as an am bassador of peace and good will, visiting | the great rulers of mighty nations, and
 we want to hear him talk to us.'' "The Next President" | As the Secretary fo War arose to reply, all the guests stood up with him filled the air with long continued che Calls for Three
 | Taft the next Pr,
 States, were heart
 | tary Taft then d
 which he read iron
 | out. making no add
 | ative to his own ca
 | idency or other top
 Congressman Sher
 | the next speaker. II L. | ing tendency towar, what he termed ove | he was not q pessi 1 tendencies In Amei | good, If not checked tdbsuty l had been establiSht .srBing It's l powers until we Il gserntnent not l so much by legisla n as by depart l ments government which is not the ex- l precision of the will of the people, l of the men in departments. He question l if 1t was wise to centralize power in | executive instead of the executive | partments, from which, he declared. ha | come txtravagance, great losses and los, | of self reliance.
 l sendtor Joseph r. Johnston of Alabama ! spoke briefly.
 | The only reference made to the ures- | ldency, direct or indirect, by Sec
 retart Taft during the day was at tho l Elysidm club. where, after the guests had been invited to shake hands with | "the next President of the United States 1 Secretary Taft responded: 1 Tt if real delight for me to shake
 
 1 you to understand that there Is no guar | antee ih this contract" Mr. Taft's Address. "Gentldnen of the Merchants and Man. l ufact,kers' Association of Boston: l q aml glad to be here. For more than | two yeais I have been trying to accept 1 your kih6 invitation. do not feel strange kl this New England company.
 My fathet was born in Vermont, my ! Aatn un 1 Rrandfathers were born in Mendon, Wor- cester countS much of my boyhood was
 spent In Millbury. and I was educated at | Yale While I cannot claim to be one 1 of you. I like to boast that I have en- 1 joyed the good influence of the same tra- l ditions. | q had expected to talk to you about
 the Philippines tonight. That was one 1 of the reasons why accepted the invita- l ton so lightly. It Is a subject easy for
 me to talk about. It may be 1t Is get | ting little stale. For instance, I have | found that one of the best ways of dis l couraging my friends, the correspond | ents of the press in Washington. from
 pursuing embarrassing inquiry into other 1 matters, is to insist on discussing with
 them for publication interesting phases of
 the Philippine situation. They leave , forthwith. But had supposed that how i ever dead the islands may be as topic inviting discussion and attracting atten- l tion elsewhere, one could rouse some ex- l citement over 1t still in Boston. l q have been warned, however, that | here. too there were subjects more ab- 1 sorbing. at least for business men. So when I was honored by an invitation for l this morning to address the ministers Of l Boston whose profession carries them | naturally in a consideration of other
 words. I said my say in respect to the | philippines. and the-to me--very absorb 1 ing national problem. which I hope and 1 believe we are working out successfully. 1 It follows that for this company I must | find another subject.
 | Monetary Panic.
 s.During the past three months the