The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-10-11
TAFr's LUCKY NUMBER.
How the Figure Four Has Affected
tuA EafeAr IF the pre aid mt

/ Ftui 10 lCSluCnl ait
| Der. He has four letters in his name
and ne was born In OHIO. state OF
| four letters Ths President also is
one of four brothers. He was gradu.
IN Cincinnati in 1874. and went to
Yale, which bears four-lette.
name Mr. Taft then lived on Pike
street, Cincinnati The four letters in
the name Of that street bore luckily
upon the Presidents courtship. The
wedding ceremony was performed by
preacher whose four-letter name
was Hoge. Good luck of the number
extended from them to Helen Taft,
the daul hter. She won ole of four
scholarships from Bryn Mawr and en-
tered UPON -four year course.
In 1904 Taft was appointed Presi-
dent of the United States Philippine
Commission. On July 4, 1901, he be-
gan his career as the first Civil Coy
ernor of those islands. His work as
Governor ended Oh February /, 1904.
Secretary OF War Root had four let.
tiers in his last name. That augured
SeH for Taft He succeeded Root as
Secretary of War in 1904. Ten years
before that, in 1884, Taft had made
ais famous decision against PheiaD
in the labor strike case. Taft could
not help making q record 10 Secre-
tary OF War because he mad to deal
chiefly with the army, which IL an
other fourietter institution.
1t is recalled that ON October 4,
1907, Taft left Kobe, a four-letter city
in Japan, for Manila On October 3,
1907, the Chinese residents OF Shang-
hal gave an elaborate reception in his
honor at o'clock in the afternoon,
and the Chinese merchants present
represented "a guilds which had been
boycotIing American goods There
was double four in the reception
he received in Hong Kong 1t is also
asserted that Taft was naturally SUE
cessful in his mission to Rome to see
the Pope in relation TO the Friar lands
in the Philippines, because he was a
four1etter man In funrletter city,
dealing with a fouYIetter ecelesias-
teal potentaae The same success
aisp attended his diplomatic negotia-
tons - reconcile the differences be-
tween the eaS4 and the west and this
country and Cuba, in which the four
letter luck had triple shoY.
Coming down to his election as
PreEideEi for four years, with four
more yeGrs In prospect, II is interest
ing To note how largely the figure
four and fpurletter names entered
into the campaign On April ll,19oS,
il vas announced that 241 delegates
were pledged to Taft out of 4l6 &C.
lected in states entitled to 654 dele
gates. A meath before that his man
ager, FoIyE, Eaid he had 1914 of 264
delegates selected TO the Republican
National Convention, and AZ we're in
structed for other candidatas- In that
week Is delegates were selected and
AZ contests had been noted, OF which
the four Oklahoma contests involved
Taft men
On the Republican National Com
mittee which managed the Taft cam
paign were nine men with four-letter
names They were Blum, Hart, Hill,
Luna, Ward, Cade, Todd, Hale and
Lyon There were seven Republican
State Committee Chairmen who fig
ued the same way. They were
West, VIM. Boyd, Doty, Deas, Cook
and Lyon
Tafts plurality was 1,233.4s4. OF
the states which went for Taft, these
had electoral votes containing the fig
ure four: Pennsylvania, "a, Mich
igan, IA, and New Hampshire, North
Dakota and Vermont, four each The
total electoral vote was 4S3, and the
electoral votes necessary to choice,
242 President Taft was inaugurated
on March 4.
Major General J. Franklin Bell, the
Presidents friend, has four letters in
bis namc and the Presidents military
aid is Captain Archibald w. Butt, an
other fourletter man. The number
also carries into the Presidents
sports, as golf, his fayorite, indicates.
President Diaz, of Mexico, who is to
meet the President in FL Paso on DC. |
tober 16, also belongs to the four-let.
ter fraternity.
Root. as United States Senator,
suggests something. So does Loeb |
'or Collector of the Port of New
York. Parr, who has been appointed |
Deputy Surveyor here, and Wise, the |
United States Attorney, all have |
'allen beneath the four-letter luck of |
The Taft administration. 1t even ex
lends to the organization of the Gus.
torn House police force in this city. |
Luiz, a four-letter man, who formerly |
was chief Of police in Porto Rico, has
beaten all competitors for appoint.
ment by the four-letter Collector