Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1908-06-25
'Taft's Successor is a South
ern Confederate and Gold
Democrat.
CHANCE ON 1st OF JULY.
Tribute To the Worth Of the
Tennesseean Who Gets
Cabinet Portfolio.

The statement given out at tn
White House concerning Luke E
Wright'S appointment as Secretary
of War says:
'..As Philippine Commissioner anC
later as Vice Governor and Govern
or he won the affection and regard
of the army to high degree anc
many of the most distinguished Of
the men who served in the army al
the time he was in the Philippine!
have urged his appointment because
they felt in peculiar way that he
was their champion and in a peculiar
way understood them and their
needs. This is especially true as re-
CARDS the men who were Union vet
Grams of the Civil War, for these
grew to feel that he was always
specially interested in their welfare.
Moreover, his great administra-
tive and legal ability both peculiarly
fit him to deal with the problems in
the Philippines. Panama and Cuba;
for the work of the War Department
is now such that only man with
special fitness and unusual training
is able to do justice to it. Of all the
men in the country, the President
feels that Luke Wright is the man
best equipped to take up the work
of the department which for the last
seven years has been under the con-
trOl, first of Root and then of Taft.
AS young man he was a captain
in the Confederate army. He is one
of the leading lawyers. not only OF
his State, but of the entire South
He has also been foremost in advo
eating and insisting upon fair treat
ment for the colored people. He frs
definitely established his reputation
in the terrible days of the yellow fe.
yer epidemic at Memphis, when he
practically made himself Mayor OF
the town and took charge Of all the
relief measures, showing what may
justly be called heroic devotion to
duty and indifference to his own life
together with the masterful quail
ties Of a successful administrator in
a great crisis. Hewas himself struck
down by the plague he was fighting
but lived to see it stamped out and
himself take part in introducing in
to Memphis the hygienic measures
which have since made it one of the
model health cities Of the world.
He was appointed by President
Mckinley as one of the Philippine
Commissioners and enjoyed Presi-
dent McKinley's heartiest conf.
dence, being associated with Secre-
tary Taft, who was made Governor
of the archipelago. Their relations
were not only entirely agreeable but
mutually sustaining. An attach
ment was formed between the two
which no difference of politics and
divergence of race views has ever
marred. The Secretary has main
tanned the highest insistence upon
the capacity of Luke Wright, and he
has had an enthusiastic ally in his
estimate in President Roosevelt.
The calm rejecting judgment
about the appointment this after.
noon is that President Roosevelt
takes real delight in naming the
distinguished Southt rner to the high
est available position within his gift,
and in doing so he has the cordial
approval of Secretary Taft.
Luke Wright" friend of the
President said to-day, has made
good as a capable American patriot
of the highest order in every posi-
ton in which he has been tried. He
is in the prime of his superiority and
it is regarded as quite the right and
wise thing to do to put him where he
is to be"
There is some guessing as to
whether Gen. Wright is Democrat
or Republican. The common re-
port is that he was last known in pol
itics as a gold Democrat, Cleveland
Democrat, but his appointment is
looked upon as an extraordinary
thing. in any event, and as especially
significant in that he is to succeed
Secretary Taft, with assurance of
continuance in office.