The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1909-10-20

western trip he was given the bene-
1T of the doubt in accordance with
characteristic American broadmind-
edness and charity.
Hereafter the situation will be diff
ferent People have now either ac-
copied him as capable of filling the
high Office which he occupies or re-
| jected him as not measuring up to
the qualifications which the post re-
suires. President Taft has placed
himself on parade to let the people
see what sort of person he really is
and his public speeches and public
appearances have afforded them an
excellent basis of judgement. In
some cases the verdict is pronounced
and in some it is conservative but
there is little doubt that the people
west of the Mississippi river feel that
Taft is something of a disappoint-
ment.
In Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska
! President Taft talked politics but his
Iutterances were received with such
reserve that he abandoned that course
and has since been relying solely upon
| his personal magnetism and ability to
Jolly" the proletariat into thinking
! that he is "prince of good fellows"
and therefore fitted to fill the position
OF highest trust in the nation. That
he is prince" and good fellow
all will admit, but the conclusion does
not necessarily follow--westerners
are too deep for that.
In fact it may be said that the west
erner of today is the embodiment OF
This whole 'jollying" game. 1t is his
stock in trade and the fellow who can
drop in and beat him at it must de-
velop considerable speed. Western
ers are students of human nature,
they know the limitations of human
character, its weaknesses as well as
it's strength and it is only natural un-
der the circumstances that they should
detect the con before it is cold and
set it down for its face value. Accord
ing to western precepts therefore,
con" without the goods" does not
carry a fellow very far. That's as
far as Taft has gotten in the situa-
ton of the west.
That this estimate of the situation
is correct is borne out by the ovation
given William Jennings Bryan in Sc
attic Tuesday which eXcelled that ac-
corded to President Taft. Although
this state has never been strongly in
favor of Organism it admres intense
ly a man with progressive propen-
stiles and a progressive character.
That is Bryan and while not willing
to accept all that he stands for his
attitude of mind is typical of the
northwest and consequently popular.
They like Mr. Bryan because he
stands for something whether it is
right or wrong a characteristic which
| President Taft has yet failed to dis
play, at least in the degree that spells
popularity in the west. On the street
Taft is not infrequently referred to as
"a weak sister"
In the hotel Hobbies the presidents
lack of progressiveness is sometimes
explained by saying that he IS pro-
gressive but not in the marked degree
that his predecessor was and that he
is reactionary only by contrast. But
invariably the conversation drifts
back to the previous assertion that he
appears to lack a deep grasp of the
national situation. Again it is point
ed out that the presidents job is a
big one and hard to fill, but this is
always answered by the statement
vice so long that the tariff the for
eign policy, the trust question, con-
servation and internal development
ought, according to accepted princi-
pies of experience, to nave become
so much Il part of him that minor de-
cisions should be mere matter of in
tuition.
When Senators Jones and Piles re-
turned from Washington they sought
to make the people believe that the
new tariff bill was revision downward
by the use of "hot air" When the
senate irrigation committee arrived
on the scene a few weeks later, they
bore away the belt for peddling more
con in less time than anyone ever
succeeded in doing upon any previous
occasion in this community. When
President Taft arrived it was the
same program although, of course
the language was slightly varied All
of which would naturally lead one to
believe that the present administra-
ton is a huge joke whose sole duty it
is to amuse the public.
If President Taft really takes him
self and his administration seriously
, it ought not to be a difficult task for
him to talk about the questions of
moment to the people and to the
country. Any man who is interested
in his work. who understands what
he is doing and why he is doing it,
experiences little trouble in growing
eloquent over it. 1t just ooZes out of
him, it won't stay in. He just has to
talk about it when he meets those
who are interested, and surely Presi-
dent Taft will never meet people who
are more vitality interested in num-
Der of lines of development ana
growth than those whom he has be n
addressing for the last three "'ec,;S.
Yet out of all his utterances, out of
all of his public appeara" $, what
one position has he taken, what policy
has he outlined that would STAMP
him as an original thinker and pro-
gressive worker? Not one. With few
exceptions everything that he has said
regarding national policies might al
most as we'll have been said by James
G. Blaine twenty years ago. Yet
what Il different situation confronts
uS todaV than AT the time of blaine