The morning journal-courier., 1908-06-02
Tuesdny, June 2, 1908.
SECRETARY TAFT ON GRANT.

SECRETARY TAFT ON GRANT.
 The difficulties which best the path of candidate for presidential nomination at the hands of either one of the older political parties are crowding in upon Secretary Taft in manner likely to impress him. Until now the criticism has been that he has willingly placed himself in the po- sition of heir apparent to the political goods and chattels of President Roosevelt to the detriment of his cam plgn. Time and time again he has been warned to retire from the cahi- net if he would secure the republican nomination, but without effect. Un- successful in that method of moving MT. Taft from a settled policy, new set of difficulties has been discovered for him in the address he made last Saturday at the tomb of General U. s. Grant in tender memory of the im- mense services he rendered his coun- try during the civil war.
 The address was a singularly clear and frank study of the great soldiers virtues and vices, undertaken. mani- festly for the purpose of bringing into bold relief the gratifying preponder- ance of the former qualities over the latter. It Is probably true that but few men would have approached the subject of the historical address In that mood It was impossible for MT. Taft to approa 1t in any other mood for the reason that he values truth and tho lessons of truth as greater than the feeting weight of compli- ment or fattery. That part of the address which has provoked comment of a critical nature is this: Tt is true that Grant received an education at West Point, but certainly nothing was developed there in him to indicate his fitness or ability to meet great respon- abilities. He did well in the Mexican war, as did other lieutenants He manifested as regimental quartermast- CT energy and familiarity with his du- ties. But in 1854 he resigned from the army because he had to. He had yielded to O weakness of q taste for strong drink, and rather than be court martialed he left the army, He re- turned from Vancouver, on the Pacific coast, to his family in St. Louis with out money, without property--a dis heartened man" It is true that is no other history of the life of General Grant, including his own autobi- ography, does any such specific req son appear as explaining how 1t hap pened that he resigned from the army in that year, but that Is scarcely a reason for charging Secretary Taft now with a desire to take from that great soldier of the civil war a drop of the full measure of praise which Is due him.
 Every intelligent reader of history, or of what too frequently passes for history, has from time to time been impressed by the suspicion that the historian has used his own judgment in determining what should be omitted and what included without reflective regard for a possible better under standing of the subject treated which would be sure to flow from a frank statement of the truth Too many historians have suppressed facts for the purpose of enriching their heroes when those facts were essential to consideration. They have failed to realize that fallible man to be under stood must be painted in the colors of truth for the student to analyze and not in the colors of fancy in order to add to the capacity for hero wor- ship To anyone who knows Secre- tary Taft his particular treatment of General Grant is not only clear in its purpose but noble in it's aim As his mind runs, and as his estimate of human virtue has been formed the Grant, who at one time in his military career became victim of habits which united him for command only later to overcome them and become the one capable leader of the Unior forces, defeating great generals who were never called upon to recover control of their human appetlteS is { greater and nobler Grant that tho historian has thus far pictured. Tc his clear and judicial mind this new Grant for the first time has had { weakness discussed in order that hi virtues might the better be under