The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-04-01
RAYMOND TELLS
OF WILLIAM TAFT

Washington, March S0.-Raymond
ia the Chicago Tribune says in
all the biographies written about Sec
t. the policy he would pursue If elect
I'd president there has been. 1t seems
90 me, a general failure TO reach a
true estimate of the mans character.
The Taft smile" is known around
The world, and yet a pres dent of the
United states who has no better equip
ment for his job than a hearty laugh
would be a sorry head of the Ameri-
can nation. A country editor reply
ins. to one of the Tribune's test votes.
referred to the secretary of war as, a
carbon copy"rof President Roosevelt.
Current carlatures Invariably repre-
sent the secretary of war as an enor-
mously fat man, short and rotund, of
ar apoplectic type, and with a mus
tache which has been twisted and turn
"a and tortured until il looks like the
advertisement of a country barber
The smile is there, and is constantly
manifest, the loyalty TO Roosevelt Is
patent, the excess of avoirdupois per-
sists in spite of diet and exercise, the
niustache has an individual curl of its
own, and yet no one nor all of these
things Is at all individual.
He Has Serious side.
There is a serious side of William
Howard Taft which the people ought
10 know and understand lie can be
more or less terrible in his anger when
occasion offers, and there are not
many men who would care 10 propose
to him any participation in a dishon-
est transactionA If there is one thing
more than another which is particular
to the man 1t is the extraordinary
combination of judicial temperament
with executive capacity.
There have been plenty of great
judges in this country, from John
Marshall down. The supreme benches
OF the states and of the nation have
frequently been directed toward the
American lie can offer. 1t has seldom
happened that man with judicial
temperament and training has also de-
veloped an extraordinary executive
capacity. This, to me-. is the most
surprising thing in Secretary Taft. He
thinks deeply, approaches every prob
lem from the standpoint of a judge.
and then he acts like lightning. He
does nothing, apparently, from i'm
pulse. lie may smile and smile, but
back of the hearty laugh which infects
roomful is a thinking machine which
never stops.
As Judge and Executive.
Approach this man ON the most Sc
rious subject and he Will smile In
genial fashion. He listens with his
head cooked to one side and ne takes
in one point after another in method
ical fashion. lie is not swift in his
thinking apparatus, but he is painful
~ certain. lie will listen to an argu-
ment with a succession OF laughs
which win make an orator think he Is
sure TO win the day. All of a sudden
the smile disappears in the blue eyes.
he big body leans forward with di-
rect intenscucss. and by a species OF
judicial intuition flaw IS picked 10
Cne's argument with unerring accu-
racy. tbs Is the Judge.
Then there IS the executive. Most
judges like most college professors,
a3e necessarily theorists. They train
their logical faculties to an extraord.-
nary degree, and frequently fail NJ
terly to look at the practical side Of
Hfe. THAT is what one had a right
to expect Of Judge Taft. From the
time he left Yale until he went to the
Philippines he was concerned almost
solely with the law. He had a little
revenue Office. but it was only to keep
things going while he was preparing
for active practice.
Foraker Made Him Judge.
He became solicitor general, was
appointed on the state bench by Gov.
Foraker, succeeded to a place in the
United States circuit court, was
raised to the court of appeals, and had
b, gun to look toward the United
states supreme bench as the natural
summit of his professional ambition.
Judge Taft eXcelled in patent cases
and his decisions in this branch of law
are today standards the world over.
Ills interference with labor matters
was incidental. All his training was
legal and theoretical, and up to the
day he was chosen for the supreme
position in the Philippines his capacity
as an organizer and executive must
have been absolutely dormant.
1t is upon his extraordinary success
a. an executive officer of the United
States that the secretary of war must
necessarily base his appeal to the pep
pie to promote him to the presidency.
In this respect HIS experience has been
particular.
Few men who have been sent 40 the