The morning journal-courier., 1908-07-16
A VIEW OF TAFT
A Novel Estimation of the Re- publican National Nom-
 inee.
HIS CAREER REMARKABLE
His Clever Handling of Serious Re- liglous Problem in, the Phil
 ippincs.

Says M. A. P.,' in the Boston Her ald
 l have not seen Mir Taft in the flesh, but l know so many of his friends, and have read and heard so much about him, that 1 almost feel as If he were personal acquaintance. There Is always q certain tendency to exaggeration In the language of Americans. But, mak- ing all deductions, 1 have no doubt that Mir. Taft Is one Of the very best types of Americans He Is physically a giant: sober Falstaff. with all the great originals good hunor, ready wit, human fellowship, but without his lewdness, his love of sack, and, above all, without his cowardice. Falstan in the flesh, but brave . sober dom esticated Falstaff; and engaged In study and management of all the scrl- ous things of life, instead of in royster- ings In taproom or in flirtations in the parlors; with the most hard working and grimly serious of companions un- derneath all the gayety: intense will under geniality; sowness, sobriety, and infinite tact of Judgment under good fellowship.
 His career is a remarkable manl- festation of American political life. Taft belongs by heredity 10 enc of the political families of his country But he was lifted mp in a curious way from one position and indeed almost from one grade to another. A hard university student, a laborious lawyer, q provincial by birth and by resi- dcnce--he was born and lived In Cin- cnnat in the state of Ohio-the young Taft seemed to be a man who wanted professional eminence, and that alone, and who, in time, would probably by sheer force of learning and integrity reach the banch of the supreme court at Washington--th blue riband of the legal profession. He had got near enough to that posi- ton to be legal judge; that Is to say, a judge appointed by the national gov ernment at Washington, and not merely by his own state. So far his career followed tho traditional anl
 
 countries. But one fine day there came one of those rapid and extraor- dinary transformations of position and of career which are possible in America only Taft received a tele- gram from President Mckinley, sum- noning him to Washington Prob ably what Taft expected was that the president was going to offer him that seat on the supreme court bench which had been the object of his am bitions from youth upward.
 Instead of which the president cam- ly asked him to give up the seat on the bench of Ohio--to change tho whole current of his career and take up a new profession and face a new future, in short, what Mckinley wanted Taft to do was to become q diplomat-a gov ernor and a ruler of q great depend- ency; he wanted him to take the Phil
 ppnes in hand Do my readers real ize what that job was which this man, accustomed to the case of a provincial court, and all his life busted with briefs, judgments, and law books, was asked to take up? These islands have a population of 1t,000,000 of people; and l1,000000 of Orientals, untutored, l'ght- hearted, light t-headed oppressed for centuries, unaccustomed to the discl- pllne of self government and wild with new enthusiasm, new dreams--in short, ready to create anarchy rather than to submit to government There was open rebellion in some islands there was surly and sulky disaffection in others; these recently emancipated slaves were in the very heyday of newly won lib- erty which, as everybody who has studied revolutions knows Is the most pcrilous of all hours,
 Upon this seething scene of disorder and wild aspirations and anarchic possibilities appeared this great moun- tain of man With his heavy jaws, his ponderous person. his genial smile; how could he hope to succeed again st these Fahians of the west? Severe and courageous. he soon convinced every 1 body who meant to make trouble that trouble would bring punishment, and this tranquillized and terrified the