Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-02-18
THE PRESIDENTS SPEECHES
Ry frederic J. Haskin

The forthcoming Chicago trip of Presi-
dent Taft will add to his fame as the
most extensive speechmaker who ever sat
| in the presidential chair Already three
volumes of principal speeches and ad-
dresses have been published, and fourth
will soon appear. But they form only
very small percentage Of the speeches he
has delivered since becoming the head OF
the Philippine government. When it is
stated that he delivered Alt speeches in
the last presidential campaign, and 275
on his trip last fall, it will be seen that
Mr.. Taft is really great speechmaker.
| With three years in the White House
before him, and a prospect of four years
more beyond that, ii is estimated that If
he continues to deliver speeches and ad-
dresses at the same rate 1t will eventu-
Ially require some thirty-odd volumes to
contain them.
Already there are 16 volumes of Taft
speeches preserved at the White House
office building. During all his speech
making Mr.. Taft has had with him one OF
his assistant secretaries, Mr.. Wendell w.
Mischler, who is 'pothook" artist of the
master class. He has caught every speech
( just as it came from the presidential
the pages of his notebook and pastes them
In a great scrapbook, in the order Of
their delivery. When Mr.. Taft wants to
know exactly what he said at any way
station on his trip. he simply calls Misch-
| ler and in a minute the secretary is
lreading to him what he wants to know.
Anyone who has practiced stenography
knows how hard 1t is to read notes after
they become cold" but Mischlers word
IofV
! to him as the printed words, even after
the passing of months.
! AS he gets time from the pressing duties
of an assistant secretary to the president,
Mischief has his notes transcribed and
| files the typewriter copies away. When
enough accumulates he sends them to the
printer and has them bound In this way
he has made up the 16 volumes which
constitute the record of six years of
speech-making These volumes contain
an average of 400 letter-size pages each,
and as perhaps half of the pages are
written single-space, there probably is an
leverage of 400 words per page This would
make some $500 pages of typewriter mat
ter in the set of books-nearly 100000
words. The first volume begins with
speeches delivered at Manila, and the sue
ceeding ones embrace all that have fol-
lowed.
All of these speeches will not be pub
| lished at an early date, but when the
works of William H. Taft are collected
and published in years to come they
probably will appear in full. The works
of six or eight other presidents have
been collected and published. In the case
of Washington they embraced more let
tiers than speeches, as speech-making was
fe ko1n TTV 70 "a
time of Theodore Roosevelt the record as
maker of presidential literature was
held by Thomas Jefferson, with 20 vol
Iumes. But even Jefferson's efforts have
been made to appear brief beside the
printed works of Mr.. Roosevelt-and he is
mot vet through. No other president has
talked or written about such wide va
riety of subjects as Mr.. Roosevelt. While
| Mr.. Taft may exceed the Roosevelt rec
ord so far as the volume of his speech
making is concerned, he can never hope
/ to rival his predecessor in the range Of
subjects or the picturesqueness of presen-
tation.
The speeches delivered by Mr.. Taft
have been delivered before all sorts Of
audiences and at all conceivable times.
! At high noon and at midnight, in the
| banquet hall and from the rear platform
| OF a train at u water sup pOAOlC
those who see and to those who are
| blind-even to the deaf On his last trip
he addressed a school for the deaf at
| Jackson, Miss. The pupils seemed to
comprehend every word the president
spoke, although they looked at him more
than at the signs of the interpreter.
In the case of many of the earlier pres
idents all of their letters which could be
found were embraced in their published
works. For instance, in the case of
! Washington, one finds in his published
works a letter to his stepson who was
attending school at Annapolis. The boy
had written him asking to whom he
| should look for pin money. The frugal
old patriot replied that he had been sup
piled with six pounds and that with such
liberal supply of spending money such
a question ought not agitate his mind.
1t manifestly would be impossible ever
to publish all the letters of modern
president, even the ones dictated by him.
self. The White House mail ranges any,
where from 500 to 1000 letters a day, and
everyone is answered directly or indirect
ly. The president may see as many as a
hundred of these. But copies of all cor