The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-27

sent this dispatch from the capital
The newspapers of March 5, 1903.
recorded an impressive scene that had
taken place in the senate chamber
lust after William II. Taft had been
sworn in as president of the United
States.
"Then the ex-president." the Suns
account of the inauguration says,
started to leave the chamber with
Senator Knox as an escort. AS he
passed around the rostrum Mr.. Taft
was coming down. Mr.. Roosevelt ran
up the steps and grasped President
Taft by the shoulders The presl-
dent grasped his predecessor in the
Sa me way. For a second they Rugged
each other and then shook hands Wig
orously."
That occurrence, testifying more
dramatically than any other TO the
warm friendship between William Fl.
Taft and Theodore Roosevelt three
brief years go, was recalled by hun
dreds in Washington when it became
known that Roosevelt had entered
the race for the 1912 nomination.
Republicans who know both Roose-
welt and Taft intimately will tell you
now that they realized from the time
Taft was elected that break was
bound to come between Taft and his
predecessor. They credit Roosevelt
with having been absolutely sincere in
his early manifestations of regard
and affection for Taft but they say
they were certain that events would
lead to an estrangemenr in the end.
The irritation on the coloneis part,
so his friends say, began even before
Mr.. Taft had been installed at the
White House. When Ar. Taft was
making up his cabinet, Roosevelt is
understood to have made only one
suggestion, and that was that William
Loeb, jr. who had served for years
as Roosevelt's secretary, should have
a place in the cabinet. At that time
the country was specializing on
whether Roosevelt was to dominate
the Taft administration. The asser-
ton was being made that Roosevelt,
having nominated Taft and having
contributed largely to his election,
would in a great measure, dictate ar
fairs of the administration. 1t was
chiefly to put an end to those Tumors
and establish the Taft administration
on it's own basis that the president
turned Loeb down as a cabinet pos
sibijty. He offered Mr.. ROoseVelt's
secretary any other office.
When the LimeIight Shifted.
Another occurrence before Mr. Taft
was installed in the Wife House irri-
tated President Roosevelt. Mr. Roose-
Welt resented the appearance of Mr.
Taft in Washington in the closing days
of his administration. Mr.. taft came
to the capital five or six days before
the date of the Inauguration as n guest
of W. J. Boardman. With the appear
ance of the incoming president the
linelight Immediately shifted from the
dence.
But Mr. Roosevelt, after his depart
ure from Washington, gave evidence Of
what some Republicans regarded as a
sincere desire to let President Taft es-
tablish his administration on his own
basis. Those Republicans add how
ever, that Colonel Roosevelt while
maintaining an attitude of isolation. al
ways hoped and expected to be con-
suited in regard to the policies that
President Taft should inaugurate and
carry out 1t was in that manner that
he expected to exercise his influence,
but Mr.. Taft. while endeavoring to adj
here to so-called Roosevelt policies as
he interpreted them, early gave evil
dence of an intention to think and act
for himself.
Roosevelt's friends acknowledge that
one of the offenses the colonel harbOrs
against Taft was the character of n
letter which President Taft wrote to
Colonel Roosevelt just befo' he sailed
for Africa
The president sent Maj. Archibald
w. Butt. his military aid, to New York
to deliver the letter to the colonel as ne
was embarking. In that letter Presi-
dent Taft wished the colonel a pleasant
journey and thanked him again for
what he had done for him. The Presi-
dents letter is said to have closed with
the expression: It owe more to Charles
p. Taft and you than to any other two
men on EARTH or substantially these
words.
Roosevelts friends have made no
secret of his anger over that letter.
They tell you he brandished it and
cried:
Good Lord, 50 he puts money above
brains does he?"
Whether that was a tactful letter for
the President to write Roosevelt is a
question for political philosophers to
solve. but the president has told his
friends that he intended to pay Roose-
welt the highest compliment at his COM
mand.
With the dismissal by President TAFT
of Clifford Pinchot. Roosevelt's friend,
came the final break.
GARDNER QUITS T. II.