Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1912-11-17
CARRYING 1T A LITTLE TOO FAR.

IL WOuIQn l. De at ali surprising II
President elect Wilson should take
care of him if vacancy on the bench
of the Supreme Court should occur
during his administration. Mr.. Taft is
a comparatively young man yet and his
ambition has always been to be mem
Der Of that court. He has been liberal
in appointing Democrats to be Supreme
Court justices, Southern Democrats,
and President-elect Wilson might think
It advisable as well as good policy to
appoint a republican. Hence, just AT
present, there doesn't seem to be
pI ess.ng need for settling the question.
What shall we do with our ex-Presi-
dents Savannah Morning News.
No one begrudges President Taft the
kind words that the Democratic press,
particularly of the South, is showerins
upon him, belated though they are. A
kindly, genial gentleman, clean OF
heart and of purpose, but weak in SUBJ
servience to party leaders who were
false to the people, President Taft I'M
doubtedly has many points that tend to
create a feeling of regard for him. II
his administrator had come sooner he
would have occupied just as high a
place in the general esteem as Presi-
dent Mckinley does, or did. Probably
any man the Republicans could have
had in the presidents chair during the
past four years would have met with
the same troubles and the same ending
as President Taft has done. He was
not responsible for the conditions, he
did not create them, and he was not
strong enough to control them.
But while these verbal flowers are
perhaps sweet to the president, and
show that there is no personal animos-
ity in the South toward one who at all
times was appreciative of Southern
sensitiveness and who earnestly strovc
to please this section as far as what he
deemed his duty to his party could
permit him to do, it is going almost too
far to intimate that the incoming ad
ministration might place him upon the
Supreme Court bench. That would be
letting sentiment run away with pol
itical sagacity and sound common
sense.
A Democratic president, holding the
views that President Wilson does, and
elected on clear understanding of
these views, could not entertain the
idea of placing on the Supreme Court
man whose opinions on so many
great public issues are distinctly
opposite, whose theories of the consti-
tutional powers of the government un-
loubtedly vary largely from those held
by the advanced Democracy of the day,
and whose vote might be the means of
deciding momentous questions against
the position assumed by the party and
its official representatives.
Kind words for President Taft are
all right, but the suggestion that he be
given a Supreme Court judgeship is
pure fol-de-rol. There are too many
able Democrats who are thoroughly in
sympathy with the party views, and
who can be relied upon to decide con-
stitutional questions from the Demo-
cratic standpoint, to permit of such an
appointment as the Savannah News sug
gests. The next few years will be full
of progressive legislation, much of
which will probably eventually find its
way before the Supreme Court 1t
would certainly be political madness to
honor with justiceship a man, no
matter how lovable of character or
how able as a lawyer or judge, who
leans far away from the Democratic
viewpoint,