The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1909-09-23
CHICAGO HOST TO TAFT.
Greets President with Review, Re
ceptions, Mass Meeting and Ball.

Greets President with Review, Re
ceptions, Mass-Meeting and Ball.
President William Howard Taft
spent Thursday as the guest of the
people of Chicago, and was vastly
pleased at his reception. The popular
tone of it was what appealed to him
first, and most Aside from that was
its infinite variety. Every class and
condition of people had share in it.
And the President hadn't dull min
ute. Consider how the pendulum
swung back and forth:
Welcomed formally by Chicago's
leading citizens; welcomed informally,
enthusiastically and whole-heartedly
by two hundred thousand school chill
dren who formed solid wall of wav-
ing color along twenty miles of
streets. and gave voice to one long
joyous shout of greeting; received
next in the splendid Gold Room of the
Congress Hotel, and dined by the
wealth, brains and industry of the
Empire City of the West at the Com
mercial Club luncheon; another swing
Of the pendulum and he was delving
into art and interesting himself in the
problems of the Chicago Beautiful;
still another swing and, with silk hat
dotted for the more comfortable derby,
he is seated in the midst of thirty
thousand baseball devotees-the great
est fan" of them all-munching pea
nuts. clasping the hand of the mighty
Chance and not even neglecting the
humble umpire; stretching" with the
crowd at the opening of the lucky
seventh sitting through the game till
the last man was retired; and then
yet another swing, and he is back
among the elect again at the Hamil-
ton Club dinner; then labor's turn,
and he has striking words of approval
and hope for organized labor. Finally
he is received in society's waiting
arms for few minutes at the bank
er's ball, and then the farewell and
Gcdspeed. Chicago set a pace which
it will be difficult for the forty other
cities that the President is to visit to
keep up with.
President Taft swung the red signal
of danger in the evening and warned
the nation that to head off revival
of old abuses it must stick to the
Roosevelt policies. Then he pledged
messages to Congress calling for ac-
~
out promises of the needed reforms
Before an enthusiastic audience that
filled Orchestra Hall he dwelt on the
danger of being blinded by prosperity
and of falling back into the old ruts
and returning to old evils and abuses
in the management of corporations
and in business methods in general.
The warning followed a prophecy
note of joyous optimism-in which the
President declared that, with the tar
if bill out of the way, confidence had
returned to business and commerce
and that a period of expansion, of de-
velopment, of tremendous growth was
ahead of the country.
The utterance was followed by an
enthusiastic demonstration, men and
women on the main floor and in the
galleries getting to their feet and wav-
ing their handkerchiefs while they
shouted and cried their approval
After the ovation had died down the
distinguished speaker stated that later
in his 13,OOo-mile tour he would dis
cuss at much greater length the ques-
tions on which he had touched and
that at some stage in his journey he
also intended to give full considera-
tion to the character of the tariff bill,
which has been adopted and which
has been subjected to criticism"
The reference to the Roosevelt poll
cies was almost the closing sentence
in the Presidents address, coming as
a climax to a singing criticism of the
courts. in which Mr.. Taft brought his
hearers to their feet in another tu-
multi of reclamation by declaring:
1.-The administration of criminal law
in this country is a disgrace to our
civilization" He, suggested remedies,
chief of which was the idea Of COM
mission to be provided for by Con-
gress to look into the cause of the de
lays in the federal courts and to de-
wise system that would secure rapid
and inexpensive justice to litigants in
the federal courts and that would
serve as a model to the States in re-
forming their judiciary systems. 1t
was a short speech. but filled with
pith In point of duration it was only
thirty-one minutes long. but every SEN
tence contained an idea.