The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1908-04-17

he found time to 50 thoroughly organ
lie his working machinery that he
graduated second in a class Of one
hundred and fifty two, and yet his ath-
letic record was splendid one AS
a lawyer in Cincinnati he rose steadily
without building up a court pull which
interfered with his going on the bench.
When he took his seat on the wool
sack he lost none of his friends among
the lawyers, and they found that the
best way to practice in his court was
to do exactly as he had done when he
fought them, viz: Put their cases In
side the common sense of the law and
hope to win only when they had
righteous cause. He knew the law and
they knew he knew it, and any attempt
to bulldoze or hoodWink him merely
made him smile When he went into
the cabinet the first thing he did was
to find out what he was doing and to
get information from anybody that had
it, and then use it, Very soon the men
around him found that while their new
fellow controller of the country's des-
tiny was not a genius, he was big,
powerful, clever; quick, keen sighted
workman, absolutely trustworthy and
thoroughly good-natured. He was
never too big to be wrong, never too
small to rise to the most gigantic task
and he played no favorite, though
everybody could have his friendship
and assistance that deserved it.
His Triumph in the 'Enemy's Camp.
A politician might have done what
he did at Cooper Union, in New York,
few weeks ago, by adroitness. What
man in the country could have done it
as Taft did it. The audience was the
Peoples institute, in which are to be
found the essences of the great East
side of New York. There were some
wonderfully brainy men and women
there, all too pleased to have an OPP
portunity to fire their intelligent ques-
tions on economic matters at lead
ing exponent of principles to which the
more radical socialists, single tax adj
vocates and antiimperialists are OPP
posed. Taft advisers and the New
York gentlemen who were anxious that
his appearance should go on record as
a success urged the speaker of the
evening to avoid any controversial top
les and pronounce his doctrines on the
tariff and kindred subjects, allowing
his own personal magnetism to win
over his audience, but without warning
Of what he was going to do, the big
man waded into the labor question, and
his fairness, his breadth Of view and
his sincerity were a revelation to his
hearers. He met every question with a
fair and informative answer, and ev-
cry shaft of sarcasm with a jolly shot
of repartee that turned the meeting
into an assemblage of intensely inter-
ested friends, and no one denied that
he had by fair means scored a tremen-
dous hit.
How He Gathers information.
Some men have the faculty of allow
ing assistants to gather information,
digest it and present it for use. Taft
pursues different course. He had a
discerning eye and the same judicial
ability which made him so great sue
cess on the bench. When one stops to
consider how much there is to know
about Panama, CuDa, Porto Rico, Ha-
wall and the Philippines, which no
statesman living in the United States
could possibly get from reports and
correspondents and which could only
be learned by the average man in long
residence in each region, one is as
founded that the big secretary in his
hurried trips should have been able to
form conclusions which in the end
have been proven so just an accurate
The American policy in each has been
successful because Taft framed it on
correct knowledge of conditions.
Quite in this way he knows the inside
workings of the various regions Of the
United States and of every country he
has traversed.
Always Asking Questions.
At every step in his long trip from
Vladivostock to St Petersburg he
would throw on his fur overcoat and
his fur cap and lose himself until just
before train time. Sometimes he would
have gone miles into the woods to
some hamlet, accompanied only by his
interpreter, and many a uniformed
delegation of noblemen and high off,
Gals waited for him for three minute
reception while he spent an hour
among the people in the side streets,
seeing, listening and thinking. The re-
suit is that he has justly earned the
reputation that when he talks he
knows what he is talking about.
The scope of this knowledge is tre-
mendous. Imagine one man going over
every part of the ground enqompassed
by the plans for the fortincations Of
Subig bay; studying the needs Of the
planter in Pima del Rio till he knows
what is fair to him as well as the
man in Santa Clara; delving into the
sanitation Of Colon and the transport
facilities Of the railroads to the Pa
cifc coast for troops, and meantime
keeping touch with the financial situa-
ton. the tariff and the temperance
movement in the South and west Re-
member this IS not other mems printed
knowledge he enjoys. but his own
knowledge drawn from ten thousand
sources and weighted ~ { master n
differentiation.