El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-02-15


president Taft will add to his
fame as the most extensive speech
maker who ever sat in the presidential
chair. Already three volumes of prin-
cipal speeches and addresses have been
published, and fourth VIII soon appear.
But they form only a very small per-
centage OF the speeches he has deliver
ed since becoming the head of the Philip
pine government.
When it is stated that he delivered All
speeches in the last presidential cam
paign, and 275 on his trip last fall, it
will be seen that Mr.. Taft is really a
great speech maker. With three years
in the white house before him, and
prospect of four years more beyond
that, it is estimated that If he continues
to deliver speeches and addresses at the
same rate it will eventually require
some 30 odd volumes to contain them.
Mischler, the StenOgrapher
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, Wendell w.
Mischler. who is a ''pOthook" artist of
the master class. He has caught every
speech just it came from the presi-
Dental lips.
At the end of a trip ne takes out the
pages Of his notebook and paStes them
in a great scrap book. in the order OF
their delivery. When Mr.. Taft wants TO
know exactly what he said at any way
station on MS trip, he simply calls
Mischief. and in a minute the secretary
is reading to him what he wants to
know Anyone who has practiced
stenography knows how hard it is TO
read notes after they become cold" but
Mischler's word signs and phrasings
seem TO be as plain to him as the print
ed words, even after the passing of
months.
As he gets time from the pressing du-
ties of an assistant secretary to the
president, Mischief has his notes tran
scrfbed 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 Is volumes which constitute the rec
ord of six years Of speech making
These volumes contain an average of
400 letter-size pages each, and as per-
haps half of the pages are written sim
gle space. there probably is an average
of 400 words per page This would make
some $500 pages of typewriter matter
in the set of boOks-nearly 100000
words The first volume begins with
speeches delivered at Manila, and the
succeeding ones embrace all that have
followed
Roosevelt's Record.
All Of thes speeches will not be pub
lished at an early date. but when the
works of William H Taft are collected
and published in years 10 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
letters than speeches. as speech making
was not so popular as ii is today.
In TO the time Of Theodore R0OSovalf
the record a maker of presidential
literature was held by Thomas Jeffer-
son, with 90 volumes. But even Jeffer-
sons efforts have been made to appear
brief beside the printed works of Mr..
RooSevelt-and he is not yet through.
No other president has talked upon or
written about such a wide variety OF
subjects as Mr.. Roosevelt. While Mr..
Taft may exceed the Roosevelt record,
far as the volume of his speech max
ing is concerned. he can never hope TO
rival his predecessor in the range OF
subjects or the 'picturesquenesS of pre-
sentation.
Taft Speaks to Deaf.
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 train at a water tank stop, before
those who see and TO those who are blind
even TO the deaf. On his last trip he
addressed q school for the deaf at Jack
son. Miss. The public seemed to compre-
bend every word the president spoke, al
though they looked at him more than
at the signs of the interpreter.
In the case of many of the earlier
presidents 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 10
whom he should look for pin money.
The frugal old patriot replied that he
had been supplied with six pounds, and
that with such liberal supply of spend
ing money such a question ought not
agitate his mind. IL manifestly would
be impossible ever TO publish all the
letters of a modern president. even the
ones dictated by himself. The white
house mail ranges anywhere from 500
TO 1000 letters a day, and everyone is
answered directly or indirectly. The