The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-07

federal government from a revenue
standpoint.
Early Work of Reform.
1t was in 1885, when Mr.. Taft was
only 20 years old. that he became as
sistant county solicitor. and his sole
purpose in taking that Office was to as
sist in reform movement which, as
people in Cincinnati know, was entire
ly successful
Young Taft and the men associated
with him succeeded, after a long fight,
in breaking up the practice of corrupt
ing juries and in driving out of town the
principal offenders.
1t was battle fought outright for
the people and for the publication of
the courts. 1t was a practical initia-
ton behind the scenes of municipal
politics, and one can readily read from
the history of that time the high ideal
of political morality which has actu-
ated Secretary Taft during all his pub
lie life, and which but a few years
ago impelled him to decline a seat on
the supreme bench of the United
States. for which he had longed dur
ing all his professional career, merely
because he felt he had not finished
the work he undertook for few mil
lions of little brown men on the other
side of the globe.
Building Legal Reputation.
AS judge of the superior court of
Ohio and as solicitor general of the
United States Mr.. Taft for five years
or so was chiefly engaged in building
up a professional reputation which
would be an envia bic possession to any
man if there were nothing else to add
to it, These were the days when the
work of the lawyer was the main thing
in his career.
He was interested in national affairs
by inheritance and by early training,
and yet he neither sought nor cared
for an elective office, but had center
ed his ambition on the prizes of his
own profession, one of which came to
him when he was appointed United
States Judge for the circuit which en-
braced Ohio.
Much too often a judge on the
bench, like a professor in a college, is
forced to deal with theories and with
facts presented by evidence. so that
he lacks experience OF business affairs
in actual contact. This might have
been the case with Judge Taft at this
period of his career had 1t not been
for a peculiar combination of circum-
stances.
The first development of his extra
ordinary executive capacity came while
he was a Judge on the bench. and not
while he was governor of the Philip
pines, as many people suppose
Period of Financial Gloom.
From 1892 until almost the close Of
the century, there was a period of in
tense financial depression, followed
by a slow recovery. There had been
an overexpansion of northern capital
in the border and southern states. All
sorts of manufacturing, railroad, and
mining enterprises in the south had
been clamoring for development, and
the north was called upon to supply
the money. Some of these investments
were spread out too thin, and when the
financial crisis came one company
after another went to the wall
The Sixth judicial circuit. in which
Judge Taft was located, covered the
states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky
and Tennessee. His court was mum
dated with receivership cases and COM
pick litigation, involving all sorts of
Industrial enterprises.
Judge Taft soon found himself in
the position of a managing partner or
acting director for manufacturing
plants, iron mines. railroads, and a
dozen other growing concerns. To
knowledge of the law 1t was indis-
pensable that he should add business
capacity.
1t was in this way that he developed
executive ability, and he learned the
secret of large affairs while admins
tering the estates of great corporations
which had been forced to become
wards of the court as result Of finan-
cial difficulties
In Thorough Business School.
1t was a good school and the Judge
was an apt scholar at this, as at every
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