The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-06-25
PRECEDENT EAFT's QUALITIES.

! tart. which so emlncntly suit him for
| the Presidency, are generally recog
nized. He is an official who obeys
the law aud squares his action with
the law. He does not undertake TO set
himself up rs n ruler free to act
whether the law authorizes him TO act
or not He does not undertake TO say
that lie viii himself supply any dc
| fects that he may consider to exist in
the law, but insists that he must have
positive law for what he does. This is
the position which is enioined upon him
| By the constitution. and is the only
lawful and honest position that Pres
| Ideut can take.
An example of that position may be
cited where his predecessor. without
any authority of law, assumed the
power TO set aside large areas of the
public land on various preteXts or pre-.
lenses President Taft, on coming into
! office, insisted that If the President
were called upon to take any such ac
tion as this, the law should expressly
authorize him 10 do so, and IN accord
ance with his firm position on this,
which allows the President to with
draw tracts of land for specific pur
poses named in the act.
All through his administration the
President has followed that direct and
positive course. When he is asked TO
@,1- L. Z. L.
before he acts. in this affording an
exemplary contrast with his prcde-
cessot, who acted first and looked to
the law afterward; if the law sup
ported that predecessor. well and good;
if not, then so much the worse for the
law,
A reasonable estimate of President
Taft S qualities, in view of recent
events, is found IN the current number
Of the National Monthly as follows:
Whatever may have been Mr. Tafts
sins Of omission or commission during his
occupancy OF the White House--and in
both respects they have been many--he
has given TO the office of President dig
respectablity. in keeping with It's just
requirements. which did not characterize
tho Administration OF his immediate
predecessor. So long as Mr. Taft was
tanned a silcnce which was worthy OF
commended ton and he won IL even from
his opponents, IT was not until the in
tcsrlty OF his official capacity was at
tackled by Roosevelt seeking 10 elevate
himself 10 a pinnacle Of autocratic power
and dicta torship 10 which no other man
has ever had the temerity TO aspire, and
whom the ignorant and addle-pated rab-
BILE has hailed as demi- god that Presi-
dent Taft was forced to strike back,
In this connection we may quote an
opinion Of Mark Twain upon President
Taft, which is also Just, cordial, and
reasonable, Mark Twain was given
TO extravagant expressions and to hu-
mcrous qulps and quirks, but after all
ne was man of sound Judgment and
usually carried level head on his
shoulders. Here was his estimate Of
President Taft passed in March, 1909,
after a meeting with Mr.. Taft who had
been newly inaugurated as President;
You can't help but like Mr.. Taft The
country likes him and respects him: and
want him 10 make the best people in
the country continue 70 respect him and
every now and then dislike him-sure
proof. In a public servant. that he is
doing MS whole duty as he sees IL. re-
gardless of personal consequences. He
has the natural gifts, the culture the
experience the training. the sanity, the
right -mndedness, the honesty, the truth
fulness, the modcsty, and the dignity
properly requisite In President OF the
United States, the most responsible post
ON the planet In word. he possesses
every qualification the other one was
destitute of.
These estimates are fairly confirmed
by the common sense judgment of the
American people.