Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1909-09-30
OUR GREAT PRESIDENT

Many times during the extra session
of congress The Register and Leader said
that if the President would just have the
courage of his convictions and speak
right out for the policies he favored he
might be great power in framing pro-
gressive legislation. Well, the President
has spoken. He has spoken loud enough
to be heard by Brother Ingham and
every insurgent in the middle west. He
has spoken so clearly and definitely, too,
that even the insurgents seem TO under
stand what he thinks of them and their
conduct in fighting and voting against
the best republican tariff bill that could
be passed by the present congress-; and
one which fully redeems the pledges
made by himself and the republicanplat-
form in the last campaign. The regular
republicans made and passed the tariff
bill while the insurgents played to the
galleries and voted with the democrats.
In commenting upon President Taft's
speech in support of the Payne bill de-
livered at Winona, Minnesota, The
Minneapolis Journal, a leading independ.
ent republican paper published in the
greatest hotbed of insurgency there is in
the country takes true measurement
of our great president in the following
editorial:
President Taft is as morally courage
Gus as Grover Cleveland, and withal,
as tactful as William Mckinley.
His honesty, his regard for even the
letter of his pledges, is proven by his
federation in Chicago of introduction
promise to redeem the labor plank of the
republican platform. His courage is
shown by his exoneration of Secretary
Ballinger.
In the broad the policies he has picked
are great and right The scope of his de-
sign, as it isrevealed, is not merely com
prehensiye but concrete and fairly cor
related
The man, whose political heir and dis
ciple President Taft is, was better
phrasemaker, perhaps swifter to de-
nounce wrongs and defects and holder
in enunciating remedies; but the pro-
gram of Taft includes and surpasses the
program of Roosevelt. Taft proposes to
deal with the tariff, with finance, with
legal procedure, as well as to undertake
to formulate definitely the indefinite
suggestions of his predecessor.
A man may be candid and yet intact
full. Mr.. Taft not only perceives the
needs of the time, what reforms and new
constructions are imperative, which is u
I,,t no III ,e Anl
of attaining by tact his purpose. That
lisa faculty which differentiates him from
mere critics and reformers and makes
him a constructive statesman.
In order to get what he wants the
president proposes to line up the whole
party at his back if he can. He is helped
by his temperament for it is easy for him
to see what is good in others and to EN-
ploy that good. Senator Aldrich may
have his sinister side. He may be mis-
taken concerning tariff schedules; but
no intelligent man doubts the great abili-
ty of the Rhode Islander or his immense
power.
President Taft will not quarrel with
Aldrich. Where he differs from the lat
ter he will gain by coercion and persua-
sion as much as can be gained When
he knows Aldrich to be right he will en-
gage the latter's cooperation. That is
craftsmanship.
Truth is the country already has cause
to congratulate itself that it took Roose-
velt's advice to elect Taft. We have had
presidents of great moral energy and
small discretion. We have had them of
great intelligence and little moral cour-
age. This new man, trained for his
hour by experience as perhaps no pre-
decessor of his ever was trained, is round
ed and well poised