The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-10-16
4 ALTRUIsr.
Mr.. Taft Has Fought Hard Battles
and Won V;ctor3.. %or p..r.

Mr.. Taft Has Fought Hard Battles
and Won Victories for Peace.
The character Of Mr.. Taft is the
resultant Of strongly contrasting forces.
He Is a nan who laughs and fights.
From his boyhood. good nature and
good humOr have been traits which al
ways received notice first. But all the
time he has been capable Of a splendid
wrath, which now and then has blazed
out, under righteous provocation, to
the utter CONSERVATION and undoing Of
its object. Because he is always ready
to laugh, and has a great o a Of en-
joyment to signify his appreciation of
the humorous, men who have not OBJ
served him closely have often failed to
understand that he is just as ready to
fight, with energy and determination,
for any cause that has won his sup
port. But it is almost always some
other mans cause which enlists him.
His battles have been in other interests
than his own. First Of all he is an al
TRUST, and then a fighter.
Secretary Of Peace.
This combative altruism Is Mr.. Taft's
most distinguished characteristic. As
Secretary of War he has earned the
worldwide sobriquet of "Secretary Of
Peace" He has fought some hard bat
ties, but they were with %bloodless
weapons, and the results were victor
les for peace. The greater the degree
Of altruism the keener was his zeal,
the harder and more persistent his bat
tie. The greatest struggle of his career,
in which he d~isregarded utterly his set
tied ambition, and cheerfully faced a
continuing serious menace to life itself,
was on behalf Of the weakest and most
helpless object in whose cause he was
ever e~nlisted-the Filipino people. That
was the purest and Hottest altruism.
But although this is the dominant
trait Of Mr.. Taft, he 10 well known
for other qualities. His judicial tenn
permanent, founded upon a deep-seated,
comprehensive and ever alert sense cf
right and wrong; his courage, proved
by repeated and strenuous tests; his
calm, imperturbable judgment, and his
all embracing sympathy are cha racter-
istics that have been often and widely
noted. They are his by right of inhe:-
itance from generations of broad-mind-
ed, upright men and women. The de-
velopment Of his country has extend I'd
the range Of his opportunity and given
greater scope to his activities than was
enjoyed by Alphonso Taft, his father,
or Peter Rawson Taft, his grandfather,
but in character and intellect he is
their true descendant.
Fitness for Presidency.
The American people know Mr.. Taft
as a man Of %pervasive good humor, nj
ways ready with a hearty laugh, and
quick to see fun in any situation. His
other side has not often appeared, but
he Is capable Of tremendous wrath,
Nothing it more quickly than
unfaithfulness to a trust or an exhibit
ton Of deceit. Injustice in any form
stirs him to the bottom instantly. He
has a broad, keen, quick, all-embracing
sympathy always ready to respond to
any call. His sense of justice is won-
derfully quick-springing and alert. And
he has a genuine fondness for work,
which enables him to derive real pleas
ure from his task. These qualifica-
tons are the endowment of an unusual
ly gifted man. The people know, be-
cause they have seen, his ability to
TURF off an enormous amount Of work.
They have seen him prove an excep-
tional executive ability. They have
seer him manifest an equipment for the
Presidency such as no other man has
shown before his election to that office.
In experience, training and ability, Mr..
Taft has amply proved his fitness for
the chief magistracy of the nation.