The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-21
TAFT IN AUGUSTA.
PROCLAIMED As A CITIZEN or
 GEORGIA.
President-eIect at Banquet of Chamber of Commerce With John ID. T
 Rockefeller as . Fellow
 ~ s Guest

Augusta, Ga, Jan. 20.--Richmond County, Georgia, modestly stepped un- der the spotlight today and proclaim- ed William H. Taft as her very own that he was resident of Augusta when the Presidential electors declar- ed him to be the President elect; that as such he was Georgian by birth. and had lived where he was born all of his Presidential life.
 Then a thousand Augustans clinche ed this claim with . mighty shout of ap- proval, which was echoed again and again as Major J. C.. c. Black said many other complimentary things about Mir. Taft, in presenting him to the mighty mass meeting, which had assembled around the same stand from which President Mckinley spoke, more than ten years ago.
 The streets, the windows and the ad- jacent roofs were full of people, and when the distinguished visitor told how he liked Augusta. and pledged himself to come again, all hearts were as cheery and faces as radiant as the warm afteraoon sun, and mellow Southern air.
 But the big street meeting, preced- ed as 1t was by a concert by the 14th Artillery band from Fort Scriven, was by no means the extent of Taft Augusta festivities. There was a ban quet tonight at Terrace" the big te- tel across the Savannah River, where were brought together the distin- guished men of Georgia and South Carolina, and again was the solidity of the south's hospitality demonstrat- ed beyond question.
 After midnight. when it was all over. An .l, r., Np.N appreciation of his presence an un- derstanding of his position, and ad- miration for his personality; and to the South, and to the country, the little city had modestly made her bow as a graceful entertainer of the great.
 What the President-efect thought of 1t all Is best told in his words to the people, whom he addressed as My fellow citizens of Augusta. It was his delight that the combination of fate, good sense and judgment had brought him to live for six weeks in Augusta. He had come in search of health and happiness; lie had found both; he should take both away with him. and leave Augusta no poorer thereby. It was here, for the first ure of a complete family gathering The weather had been such that he had not, he said, missed a single sec- ular day from the golf links; but he had come here also to make his Cab met the difficulties of which only those hearers know who had ever had Cabinets to make.
 But" he added, as the sum total of information in this directions we will get along someway with reference to that cabinet"
 There were other things he had in- tended to do in preparation for the Presidency which he had not done. But, 1t is the first time that that kind of duty has been thrust upon me, and 1 have been just waiting in this healthy atmosphere to get good and ready"
 The speeches were directed by the President of the Chamber of Com merce, L. C. Hayne. Georgia was toasted by Judge Henry C. Hammond; South Carolina by Governor Ansel; the Southern press by T. W. Loyless, and. Augusta by Judge Joseph R. Lamar.
 Although William F. Taft and John D. Rockefeller have been guests Of the