The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-17
ADMIRATION FOR TAFT. BIG IN MANY WAYS Washington Man Enthusi- astic0ver War Secretary's
 Attributes.

No one in Washington who has had a close-range view of MT. Taft at work and under trying circumstances doubts that he would make one of the ablest of our presidents. He is big man in every sense. His body is big, and his brain, and his heart and his sympathies are proportioned to match his physical bulk. He summed up his conscientiousness and his spirit toward work in a phrase in letter to John K. Wallace: Tn my view, duty is an entirety, and is not fulfilled until it is entirely fulfilled"
 It has been said that Taft's person. ality has taken the place of a policy in our dealings with our colonial de- pendencies, or, as they are officially termed, the noncontiguous territory of the United States" Mr. Taft has become our great go-between. To the people of the Philippines, Panama, and Cuba the might. majesty, power, and dominion of these United States are personified in large man in q duck suit, of a round and shining counte- nance, and possessed of q great, joy ous laugh It is the common testi- mony that the administration of the Philippine Islands has progressed on q sliding scale downward since MT. Taft came home to be secretary of war.
 Without previous experience, and without precedents in our history to guide him, he attacked complicated and immensely difficult problem in the 1 archipelago and did great service. When the trouble arose over the friars' lands in the Philippines. he went to Rome talked with the pope, and that l question ceased from Vexing. The proposal he made was one of simple business. The lands were bought. So he has gone to Panama and to Cuba, and to Porto Rico, and so he has re- turned to the Philippines when trouble | threatened.
 When the order comes to start a-travelings overseas, MT. Taft signs | heavily thinking of the inadequacy of the sleeping hunks in Pullman cars and steamship, packs his bag, and leaves the war department at the last possible minute to catch his train. Sometimes he makes the train wait un- 1 til he has cleared his desk. Once un- der way, the secretary organizes a whist table and plays and plays with infinite enjoyment of the game until his destination is reached: then the people come to him and talk, telling their troubles. MT Taft listens. When ev- cry one has had his say, and told his story to the weary end, comes the de- cision Both sides usually feel that they have been victorious, and that MT. Taft is their particular friend.
 Down in Cuba last autumn the rebel politicians matched a great scheme, We will talk and talk" they said, until Taft gets tired and breaks up the. conferences. Then we will say that when things were just on the eve of an amicable settlement, the Yankee medi- ators lost their patience and brusquely and arrogantly imposed their strength upon us, This delectable tale was brought to MT Taft. He smiled at it's childish folly. Why" he said, they can talk right straight along until Christmas. I won't stop them. As long as they choose to come here and tell me things I will sit and hear them. The more they talk the more clearly see the truth that 1t is intended I shall not | sec"
 Even his political opponents have nothing harsh to say about this man He is the sort that the severes1 critics of American public men have desired tc see in office. He is competent; he loves clean things; he does not lack courage; he is thoroughly democratic.-Wash- ington Letter to New York Evening | Post,