American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1908-10-17

the friars from the Philippines and the
repossession of their lands for the ma
tives, arose, it was Taft to whom was
confided the adjustment of the matter
with the papal government. The question
was settled to the satisfaction of all.
When the government intervened to
restore order in Cuba, the infexible
purposed and perfectly balanced Taft
was assigned the task. Not even his
most ardent political enemy has ever
criticized single act of his in the per-
formance of that duty. When the
United States government, after end
less trouble with the management of
the Panama canal, and as a solution of
its problems transferred the enormous
duties to the war department, it was
the broad shoulders of Taft that as
sumed the burden without hesitancy,
and he has surprised the engineers of
the world by his grasp of affairs, and by
the progress that has since been made.
When the relations of this government
with Japan became strained, and war
was threatened, occasioned by race ri
OTIS and demand for exclusion of Japa-
nese laborers, it was the tactful Taft
who was sent on mission to restore
harmony, and the difficulty passed
without a jar. He graduated second in
a class of $50 at Yale, and was consid-
cred the best all-round athlete and
scholar who had been turned out from
that famous institution in a generation.
As assistant prosecuting attorney of
Cincinnati Immediately after leaving
college, he attracted local attention.
AS solicitor general, and judge of the
circuit court of the United States, en-
bracing the states of Ohio, Kentucky
and Tennessee, he achieved distinction,
and by his decisions established, or
rather enunciated new ideals that have
become fixed principles of law, and LED
to his call to greater responsibilities
/
tai and labor more clearly than they
had ever before been defined, and at the
age of 35 had the satisfaction oi
seeing his decisions written in the rec
ords of the Supreme Court of the
United States as law. He has beer
tried in every field of governmental al
prosecutor, as jurist, as formulator anC
administrator of government, as peace
maker, as diplomat, and in every in
stance has discharged his duties so wei
as to end in his call to positions o
\ greater honor and responsibility.
, What Bryan would have accomplished
, under like conditions is a matter q
, conjecture. What Taft has accom-
a plished is matter of record, and of
a kind that stamps him as one of th
a worlds greatest administrators. 1t i
not to the records of the men alone
however, that we must turn to aid de
cision. The principles they represent
+ and their unvarying adherence to them
q is better guide. In 1895, when Roose
= welt was civil service commissions
+ and practically unknown, and Bryan
q promising young man with two term
in congress to his credit and with onl
a local reputation, Taft read a pape
before the American Bar association
: dealing with the regulation and contrc
: of corporations, advocating the identi
cal policies which Roosevelt has carrie
o into effect, and to which Bryan claim
: to be the rightful heir. So far a
v the records show Taft was five years il
advance of either Roosevelt or Bryan
+ or of any other man prominent in pub
r lie life, in the advocacy of those poll
+ cies. Likewise he was first to condem
+ the illegal acts of aggregated capit'