The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-11-04

QlaLely IOiIOWlUS HIS auIllSSlOu W tuc
bar Then he was made assistant
prosecuting attorney in January, 1881,
because that was at the time when
the people of Cincinnati were engaged
in a sDasmodic effort to reform the
judiciary and clean up the court ma
chinery generally.
II had to learn law" the secretary
said, because l had to prepare every
case for myself. 1 learned then the
foundation of trial jury, and through
out all my work on the bench | found
that the two things which seemed to
help me most were first of all my ex-
perience in digesting law cases for the
newspapers and secondly my hard
work as an assistant prosecuting at
torney. where I had to depend upon
myself and no one else to win a case
and had to be thoroughly acquainted
with the facts and with the best means
Of getting them before the jury"
People in Cincinnati never are tired
of telling the story of how not long aft
err he came back from college a mem
Der of the family was libeled in a
daily newspaper and how the young
student, without saying much at home
read the offending article, dropped
down town, hunted up the editor. and
promptly pounded him to a jelly.
Many people might get the idea
from this that the young lawyer who
has now become the republican can
didate for the president was or is of &
quarrelsome disposition. Nothing
could be farther from the truth. He
was powerfully built, strong as an OK,
but l never knew of his allowing him
self to be forced into quarrel of any
kind unless there was ample justifica-
ton for it. He was the peacemaker,
believe the man lives who can say
! that Taft used his great strength at
any time in an unfair way.
Fairness a Dominant Characteristic.
This characteristic has followed him
throughout his whole life. Fairness
| in his treatment of other men is the
constant characteristic Of William
Howard Taft. 1t is hard to swerve
him to the right or left if he thinks
there is duty ahead. 1t is practically
useless to appeal to him to do a wrong
thing because of choice of friendship
or of political policy. He is not al
all stern, sees what is best to do In q
political way with extraordinary viv
idness, but never can be persuaded &c
compromise what he considers an es
sential principle of life. He would be
a daring man who would go to Sec
rotary Taft today and proposes to him
to do thing he knew to be radically
wrong, merely because it would hel,
his election.
Most people do not expect a mar
who has been successful as a Judge
TO be equally so as an administrative
I officer. The general idea is that the
man on the bench deals with abstrac
tons, with theories of law, with ele
mental principles, and that he is or
that account absolutely untitled for ad
ministering ordinary business affairs
/ In the case of Taft exactly the con
trary has proved true. That he wa:
successful as judge no one will thini
of denying. That he has been a mar
velous administrator has more recent
ly developed to the surprise even O
his own friends.
The secretary once told me how 1
was that this executive capacity wa:
developed while he was still on tn,
bench, so that when he came to under
/ take the work in the Philippines b,