The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-06-19

Continued from Page One.)

| Continued from rage One-J
ton. Of course he did not himself
realize it, But he played his part from
| the beginning precisely as if he haC
realized it. As matter of fact, Mr.
Taft never till quite recently had al
ambition to be President. He was not
one of those ar-gazing youths who set
out for the White House. This aspira-
ton was not awakened in him till long
after it would have had its birth IN the
minds of ninety-nine men out of hun
dred nlaeed as he was. 1t IS well known
that his real ambition, even as late as a
wear or two ago, was for the Supreme
bench. But the beauty of it, the mag
nifcenee of it, from the character view
point. is that from first to last he IN
consciously acted precisely as if he
were conscious, as if he were ambitious
for the Presidency as if he realized
that he had signed articles with the
American people That is the way the
greatest achievements of the larger
scheme of things are almost always
worked out in this world.
THE ESSENCE OF THE BLOOD OF
THE PURITANS.-DEVO-
TION TO DUTY.
Mr.. Taft trained himself for the
Presidency, without knowing it, by al
ways following the law of gravity of
his nature. the 1orce which compels him
ever to do his best. His is not com
pick character 1t is not difficult to
analvze. 1t is large, massive, plain,
strong, simple. But the very heart, es-
sence, and vitality of it is this some
~ L. ~ L. h
every situation and task and relation,
every day, hour, and moment, to give
forth his best, to reserve nothing of
strength from his duty, to forget him
self, to throw himself into his work
with all his might for the very love of
doing that or through the sheer impossi-
bility of doing anything else. The blood
of the Puritans is in his veins, and
Duty is the god of the practical modern
Puritan.
We read this dominant note of his
seeking of excellence
throughout all we know of his half-cen-
fury of life. In boyhood he excelled
both in games and studies. At Yale he
was not only the most popular man of
his class as ''Big Bill Taft but the
leader of his class in every activity
the stroke of his class crew, the cham
pion wrestler of the university, and fin
ished second in scholarship in class of
more than 100. Leaving college, he took
up the first work that came to hand, as
and law reporter while
studying law. He was good reporter,
a good student. Though he had a fam
GUS and well-to-dO father, he made his
way on his own merits. He practiced
law with success, held one or two minor
offices in Cincinnati, became a Judge
of the Superior Court of that city, and
a little more than eighteen years ago
in Washington as Solicitor
General under the administration of
President Harrison. Here again his
habit of hard work stood him in good
stead. He won several important eases,
and attracted attention above the or
binary run of easy-going departmental
At this time, also, he met and
made friends of another young official,
then Civil Service Commissioner Roose-
welt. 1t was not strange that Roose-
welt, the energetic, the strenuous, and
Taft, "the big steam-engine working
day and night should find something
in common; nor is it necessary to say
that the friendship between them has
been of Importance to both, and is like
ly to continue of Importance for years
to come.
WHAT A MAN DOES IS THE MAN