The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-02-13
TAFT EXTOLS
 MIR. LINCOLN Speaks at Grand Rapids
 Banquet. DRAWS POLITICAL LESSON War President Would Approve of
 Roosevelt. Anbsssador Ju.serana Among Guests of Club Is Especially Happy
 over Cordial Relation. r wifh America. 


 Lincoln Club banquet here tonight was a brilliant success with galaxy Of speakers, never equailed in Michigan political banquets.
 1t was held in the Klingman furnit- ure exposition building and more than two thousand persons occupied seats at the tables The hall was elaborate ly decorated and as compliment to Ambassador Jusserand of France French coIors were mingled with the American.
 President Roy H. Watkins of the Young Mems Republican Club and Pres- ident Charles Holden of the Lincoln Club, opened the banquet with greet ings. United States Senator William Alden Smith was toastmaster and in troduced the guests of the evening. The speakers were Ambassador Jusse- rand. Congressman George Edmund Foss. Secretary of War Taft, Governor Curtis Guild. Jr.. of Massachusetts and John Barrett, director of the Bureau of American Republics at Washington.
 Although all of the speakers were greeted with enthusiasm 1t was Sec- retary Taft who received the greatest outbursts of applause.
 Speech 0f Secretary Taft.
 Secretary Taft said: What would Lincoln do today2"
 T did not select this toast. and should not have chosen 1t of my own free will. It Is difficult to fit Into new niche of history a really great man whose greatness is indissolubiy associated with 8 particular crisis in which he lived. There are few lives which seem to have been shaped so providentially to meet a country's great need as that of Lincoln with reference to slavery and the civil war.
 Coming from a childhood of the greatest penury and discomfort and squaior. minglfng with the humblest and the poorest in a western settie- ment. Lincoln acquired a sense yok equality and democracy and a love ot equal rights that never left him ana gave deep color to his whole life. His soul revolted at human elaEexys tAa. had tenderness of heart and a eyms pathy with hts fellow men that lnAnt- Tested itself in the smallest detaiis or his life, and he had power of putting himself in anOthers place when gave. him 2 profund sense of justice. lie understood the play of human nature as few men have. He was the greatest politician of the age. and while he hau deeply imbedded in his moral nature. the principles in favor of, human liberty. he did not propose to sacrt- flee his influence to bring about the goal of his whole life's ambition by going so fast in extreme declarations sAPA of future usefulness.
 T have read and reread with pleas ure the story of Lincoln by his part ner, and noted with intense interest his unwillingness to attend a meeting of aboiitionists lest he might lose hIs influence with Whigs, who did not sympathize with the abolittonists. Nor. did he wish to offend the abolitionistss So he made a court engagement for himself some twenty miles away which made. 1t impossible for him to attend the meeting, Now. 1t would be easy to say that this was cowardly, that this was the trick of 6 mere politician, but think we may well ascribe the motive to desire not to lose his usefulness at time when the future seemed big with an opportunity for him.
 His whole life showed that while he had Ideals, he meyer allowed the longing for the impossible to inter fere with the securing of the possible. He was party man, as every man must be who wishes to leave his in- dividual impression upon the charac- ter of the nation.
 T do not mean for 8 moment to deprecate independence of party or mugwumpism, because believe that the independent vote on the whole ex- than the party vote. It must be so but while all independent voters, as mass, exercise more control over the decisions in an election as individuals they do not do so.
 The man who would retain his in- dividual influence and effect good meas ures in our country where parties are necessity in the carrying on of the Government. must be party man. Ana no one recognized this more fully than did Lincoln. For that reason we say in the first place that if Lincoln were living today he would be a Republic can.
 LincoIn's Economic Views.
 'Lincoln's economic views were not distinctly marked. Early in his career he favored improvements in Illinois as member of the Legislature to such a point as to involve the State in heavy indebtedness which inured largely to the beneft Of the people. His mind was not directed, even during the war, to economic sub Jects. He safely delegated the finances of the country to his Secretary of the Treasury, Mir. Chase.
 "As a follower of Mir Clay, he was in favor of the protective or American system. as st was called. During bis administration, the Morrill, tariff was passed; for the system of protection to American industries on the modern plan was then fully inaugurated We can, tn erefore. assign him to a place tn the present Qdy dtuOuB pTOIecIlOntetS.
 where would he stand in respect to our Philippine policy and expansion. Would he, as the anti-imperialists take the position. were he living today, that the Republican party, in its action In respect to Porto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines had departed from the prin- ciples that actuated him in becoming a Republican and in retaining that party in national control?
 MT. Lincoln relied greatly in his dis- cussions on the slavery question upon the terms of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. He dwelt upon the postulate in that instrument that all men are created free and equal and ho insisted that insofar as the constitution recog- nized slavery, and insofar as slavery was an institution of our Government, it was a departure from the Declaration of Independence. and it is possible to quote from his writings and speeches sentences which, taken from their texs