The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-03
WAR SECRETARY TAFT
 IS AN OPTIMIST The Progress Already Made Substantial and
 Real.
HIS OUTLOOK IN 1878
Recommends Journalism for Men of Discriminat-
 ing Intelligence.

Boston, July 1.-The Washington cor respondent of the Boston Transcript gives some interesting information of the earlier views of Secretary of War Taft. He says that when the class of which William Howard Taft was member graduated at Yale in 1878 there was a serious doubt in the minds of his classmates as to whether they had not come to manhood at time when their active lives would cover period much less interesting and offer ing much less oportunity for individ- ual distinction and success than the thirty years preceding. Doubtless there is such a doubt in the minds of many college graduates who, at this time of the year. are starting out from the sheltering arm of their Alma Mater to their field of work-the world. To these it will be encouraging to know that one member of the class of '7S at Yale has lived to see the error of his belief that with the passing of the Civ il war and fts resultant period of ac- tivity, everything would then come down to a dead level of life, and that a humdrum existence with small re- suits would be the fate of those who graduated generation ago.
 I In discussing this possible view the other day with some college graduates Secretary Taft pointed out how far wrong he and his classmates were in their sizing up of the period ahead of them. "As we look now he said, upon the generation which has pass ed, we see far greater progress than any that had taken place in the pre- vious generation. Indeed, the last de- cade has been one of such territorial and national expansion that no one in his widest imagination could have anticipated it when my classmates and I were looking out eagerly to know how the world would treat us, and whether we could justify by our works, the trouble that had been taken to give us a collegiate education.' It was because he remembered the un- necessary dicouragement at the seem ingly uninteresting period ahead of
 them that Secretary Taft took occa- sion not long ago to call the attention
 of group of college graduates to the generation which lies before, and to
 point out the professional and busi- ness opportunities that will be open
 to them as Individuals,
 Secretary Taft believes that 1t Is
 impossible to expect that the enorm- tous growth in trade will continue IT the proportion in which 1t has expand led during the last ten years; x he
 lieve" he said, 1t is reasonable tt
 suppose that within the next decade
 there will be some reaction, some fin.
 ancial stringency, perhaps fnancia
 panic, but believe the progress that
 has been made is real and substantial
 There may be halt; there may be z
 scaling of values, these we have haC
 from time to time, followed by re
 covery which indicated only a nom.
 entary lapse. It is true that the condl
 tions of business have changed yer,
 materially and that the combination O
 instrumentalities for the reduction il 1 the cost of producing and sellinl
 things has never been equalled in tn,
 history of the world, and the opportun ity for individual, Independent effort il business does not seem so great nov as 1t was formerly, still the statistic
 show a vast number of mercantile an manufacturing firms, Independent o combinations, indicating that we ar not all one trust and that there Is stll room for Individual effort The grea desideratum In all business in all en , terprises, large or small is the me , who carry them to success"
 It is the conviction of this man, wh ! has had much to do in handling mer ! that successful business, whethe governmental or private, whethe ! small or large depends chiefly on tn 1selection of the men by whom thl business Is to be done, and that tn promotion which men secure is no 5 that which comes by favor, but b 4 the logic of the circumstances and fo the benefit of the employers; tha
 there is to-day as much room for f men as there ever was and that tn
 kind of success that comes from inte ligent fidelity and industry in th \ cause to which man devotes himsel and the work which he does, sneak = far louder in the demand for his pro | motion than all the good will of hi lemployer or the influence that kin II friends may seek ito bring to bear y his behalf.