The silver state news. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1907-1909, 1908-12-05
TAFT IN MUCH BETTER
POSITION THAN PREDECESSORS
No Pledges of Party Managers to lie
Fulfilled - Roosevelt's s Numerous
Cabinet Appointees-Defeate
Candidates Seeking Federal
Appointments

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2.-Politic.l
rciormers hnu much encouragement Ia
the assurances given President elect
TAFT by National Chairman HitchcocA
that the next president will 60 into
Office unencumDered by any pledges
made during the campaign other thaa
those outlined in the national platform
and enunclated by the candidate him
self in his public speeches. With the
possible exception of MIR. Roosevelt,
Mr.. Taft will 60 into office ireer than
any OF his predecessors.
There have been presidents SO heay-
lily mortgaged, both in the matter o.
appointments and as to policy, thai
they had left scarcely an opportunity
to exercise Judgment of their own. 1t
used to be the common thing in nation
al conventions to trade cabinet, diplo
matte and other important offices for
votes, and later on, when it came to
raising campaign funds, promises were
made that it would have been disas-
trous to have made public. Even
Abraham Lincoln found, after election,
that his friends had pledged him 70
things of which he did not approve,
but the ethics of politics at that time
Were such that Lincoln felt obligated
to redeem the pledges. When Nc
kinley became president in 1897 he
found that his campaign managers hal
committed him to the appointment OF
hundreds of men of whom he had
scarcely heard. Most OF these pledges
he redeemed, but in two or three cases
he refused to do so, and all the urging
OF Mark Hanna was in vain.
Mr.. Roosevelt, while serving as
assistant secretary of the navy, became
acquainted with some of the embarrass-
ments Mr.. Mckinley had experience
by reason of campaign pledges, AMI
when he himself became a candidate
for the presidency he instructed his
managers to make no promises in his
name. The result has shown in Mr..
Roosevelt s cabinet. More than ever
before it has been a board of personal
advisors to the president rather than
an advisory board of the party IN
power.
Mr.. Roosevelt Is administration has
been notable for the number of changes
in it. The list is somewhat of an
amazing one.
Secretaries of state-John Hay,
Elihu Root.
Secretaries of the treasury-Lyman
j. Gage, Leslie M. Shaw, George B.
Cortelyou.
Secretaries of war-Elihu Root, Viii
liam H. Taft, Luke Wright.
Secretaries of the Interior-Ethan A..
Hitchcock, James Il. Garfield.
Secretaries of the navy-John D
Long, William H. Moody, Paul Nor
ton, Charles J. Bonaparte, Victor Ii
Metcalf.
oCSAStaiy VI dSiicuituAC ooAASS
Wilson.
Postmasters general-Cnarles Emory
Smith, Harry G. Payne, Robert j..
Wynne, George B. ,ortelyou, George
Won L. Me,er.
Attorneys general - hnander e
Knox, William H. Moody, Charles j..
Bonaparte.
Soc eta,-es If commerce and labor
George B. CortelyoI, Victor II. Me-
calf, Oscar Snaus.
Should Mr.. Root be cleeiel senator
from New York, it is likely the pres,
dent would have opportun ty to ao
point another scceatarv Of state, IA.
though there Is no legal reason VII he
should not co1tia at the h,a ot the
cabinet until tine t,r llm +, take The
oath as senator.