The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1908-05-15
CAN CLEAN OFF THE DESK

Different Cpochs in the life of the
nation demand entirely different types
of men, if they are to be met success
fully and worthily. There is no ques-
ton in the mind Of any thoughtful citi
zen but what within the last ten years
man at the head of affairs as president
of this nation who possessed indomit-
able courage, intense earnestness, I'M
questioned honesty and an unflinching
determination to change the current of
national fse so that democracy might
mean more to the many and the oppor-
tunities in business, in social and poll.
teal life might be more evenly distri-
buted than they have been. When,
seven years ago, William Mckinley
was stricken down by the hand of the
assassin, he was succeeded by Theodore
Roosevelt. The history of Mr.. Roose-
velt's administration has been one con-
tinuous battling for the overthrow of
industrial inequalities and injustice
and has resulted in clarifying the vi.
sion of men so that the whole nation
is aroused as never before to the high
purpose of providing every man with
a square deal and fair fighting chance
as far as the laws of the country can
so do. 1t must be conceded by all
that President Roosevelt has been
wonderful factor in the moral uplift-
ing of the nation. His methods have
not always been the wisest, his temper
has not always been the most admir-
able and his lack of self poise is
matter of sincere regret even to the
thousands who uphold the spirit and
intent of his policies.
At the present time, the nation finds
itself confronted by large number of
new and important questions. They
are of tremendous importance; they
are freighted with the gravest concern,
and the manner in which they are to
be considered and dealt with involves
the question of their success.
We have been and are still going
through an epoch of great social and
political disturbance. Not only the
president, but the whole nation, has
been strenuous to such a degree that
1t has worn upon the nerves even of
the honest business forces of the
country. What is wanted now is not
any giving up of the Roosevelt ideas,
any surrender of really important re-
forms which he has stood for, but a
more kind and patient way of dealing
with them. We want. in a word, to
supplant and supercede a period of
suspicion and agitation by one Of OPP
| timism and development. The forces
of destruction must give way to those
of construction. The iconoclasts
should give way to the upbuilder.
1t is because the nation desires a
man of affairs, a man of large brain,
warm heart, great capacity for work
a self poise and judicial temperament
that more and more the people have
become agreed that William H. Taft is
best suited to be the successor of Theo-
dore Roosevelt. There can be no ques-
ton about his allegiance to all that is
valuable in the Roosevelt policies. He
is admittedly Roosevelt's superior as a
constructive statesman. And it is the
man who can do things that is now
emphatically needed.
William Allen White in the May
American closes a very brilliant article
about the great war secretary in these
words: The times demand, not a
man bearing promises of new things,
but a man who can finish the things
begun. Such man is Taft, a newer
of wood, who has no ambition to link
his name with new measures, but who,
with a steady hand, and a heart al
ways kind and mind always gener-
ously just can clean off the desk. He
knows the desk is cluttered up. He
knows that it may take six or eight
years to get down to the mahogany
under the things now pending. But
the American people know that some
way this must be done before this ma
ton can go further. And hence, in
the Mississippi valley at least, there
is belief that the man who can make
the Hepburn railroad law as much a
part of our common life as the postal
regulations, who can grind the rough
edges off the Sherman law through
the courts. who can finish the canal,
and deal with Cuba kindly, honestly,
and firmly, who can lead the brown
men of the islands further into the
light, is this big, hard working, soft
hearted, fair minded, unselfish man,
Taft. He can clean off the desk"
AROUND TOWN.