The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-07
TAFT, A NEWER OF WOOD. .

TAFT, A NEWER OF WOOD
As has been remarked before con-
| sistency is not one of the Jewels in the
collection of gems of which the Repub-
| lican insurgents" Of the country are
possessed, and especially that portion
of them who have their habitat in
Kansas. This insurgency in this
| state has developed to the point where
it is decidedly anti-Taft on every pro-
position. Its leading disciples are VIII
liam Allen White, Governor Stubs and
Henry Allen, and their many and
varied organs including the Topeka
Daily Capital. They have made up
| their minds that Mr.. Taft has failed
miserably in the discharge of the duties
of his high office They like to believe
that when Mr. Roosevelt gets back
home he will take the lead in the
movement against the president. On
this particular point they are likely to
get grievously fooled.
But they did not always hold to these
ideas. No. indeed. At one time it was
their opinion that Mr.. Taft was the
only man who could bring order out of
chaos in the administration of the af-
fairs Of the nation. And they did not
expect him to do it in one or two years.
They thought it would take six or eight
years. They thought he would be do
ing mighty we'll if he did it in that
length of time. But now they call him
a failure because he has not done IN
fifteen months what they were willing
to give him two presidential terms to
do. That these things are so was
called to the mind the other day by
perusal Of the files of American maya
ri ~ -
couple of years ago was found an
article by the archdeacon of the Kan
sas insurgency, Brother White. 1t was
entitled Taft. A Hewer of Wood" A
couple of brief excerpts from it follow:
Times demand not a man bearing
promises Of new things, but a. man who
can finish the things begun. Such
man is Taft, newer of wood, who has
no ambition to link his name with new
measures, but who, with a steady hand,
and heart always kind and a mind
always generously just, can clean off
the desk. He knows the desk
is cluttered up. He knows that it
may take six or eight years merely to
get down to the mahogany under
things now pending. But the American
people know that some way this must
be done before this nation can go fur
Their. And hence, in the Mississippi
valley at least, there is a belief that
the man who can make the Hepburn
railroad law as much part of our
common life as the. postal regulations.
who can grind the rough edges off the
Sherman law through the courts, who
can finish the canal, and deal with
Cuba kindly, honestly and firmly, who
can lead the brown men of the islands
further into the light, is the big, hard
working, soft-hearted, fair-minded; I'M
selfish man, Taft. He can clean Off the
DESK
Now would it not be showing an in
clination to be generously just" If Mr..
William Allen White and his brethren
in the Kansas anti-Taft movement to-
day gave Mr.. Taft a reasonable length
Of time, six or eight years. for in
stance, to accomplish the matters he has
in hand? Is it generously JUST for
the Kansas insurgents" to charge him
with being a failure because he has
not done in fifteen months what they
were willing at one time to give him
several years to accomplish? It would
seem so. And it would not take Presi-
dent Taft anything like six or eight
years to do these things if he had the
undivided support OF the Republicans
elected to congress. But he hasn't. The
Insurgents in congress are being
patted on the back as being the Solo
mons of their generation by the Gin
surgents" at home in Kansas and other
states because they have used such
wisdom as they have in voting with the
representatives of the Democratic
party to put the Taft administration in
he hnI