Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-02-17
MAKES APPOINTMENTS
BY THE TRAINLOAD
President Taft Filling All Vacant
Places Just to Save His Successor
Lot of Hard Work.
(Written for The JournalN

/ tiOh' IHOuSl lpJJ dJ all SURPRISING,
that President Taft has broken the
record Of the nation for making ap-
pointments. President Taft is closing
up his books on the affairs of gov
eminent and doubtless will see to it
that everybody gets whats coming"
from him, even if Wilson chops off
their head the next minute. This Taft
program has been deep, mysterious
and weighty SO far as the rank and
file can perceive.
1t is claimed that Tafts ear was
open to all, even the lowly, but his
words were: The government should
be run by skilled politicians and ad-
ministered by learned jurtsts, etc"
Forgetting his ear and remembering
his words, we find him making ap-
pointments here and there in the very
face Of public protest, /. e., late ju-
dicial appointment in the state of
Washington. He has also freely ex-
ercised his pardoning power Hill
man goes free upon petition of GER
tain bankers, giving pertinency to the
inquiry as to who will not handle the
Hillman millions? Now that the
eleventh hour is at hand and the last
banquet has been given, Mr.. Taft will
leave with no unfinished business
upon the table. While his appoint.
ments have been numerically enor-
NOUS we hope he has we'll considered
quality and efficiency along with his
unparalleled quantity.
There is another unfortunate aspect
in this matter of making appoint
ments in carload lots by the president
and that is the liability of placing
the applicant between the Wilson
milestone and the Taft milestone and
grinding him into political extinction.
While discharging his own duty with
royal sweep Of his benign hand,
President Taft Immediately exposed
the appointee to the descending mill
stone of incoming President-elect
Wilson, The position of many Of the
aspirants is not enviable to the OBJ
server Of political possibilities of the
near future. Paying your debt by
pushing the applicant into this vor-
tex is too much like handing a man
a bag of gold in a robbers den.
This may account for some Of the
strange appointments made by Presi-
dent Taft, appointments so wholly un-
expected by his supporters that in
seeking enlightenment by inquiry
brought forth only a negative shake
Of the head. Taft may thus be saw
ing his real friends from the possible
between the grindstones,
well knowing Wilson's expected in
reference with his appointments. In
his friends he is permitting
the oncoming powers to decimate
the straw men scattered over the
stone. There may be some legitimate
objection TO this view of Mr. Taft's
purposes and intentions. That there
turks a probability may be charged
to the fact that there exists the pos
5ibility.
Regardless of all this be it with
)r without foundation in fact, the
wholesale rush of the administration
o get all it can before 1t lets go, is
/ weak exposure in the face OF the
overwhelming vote cast for Mr.. Will
ION. This national expression of con-
idence In Mr.. Wilson, sufficient to
'lect him president, certainly must
laye carried with 1t enough conf
Ience to believe also in the wisdom Of
Ms appointments. What the Taft ad-
should have done was to
AVE left the boards clear for Mr..
wilson and not left vestige of the
Id administration to hamper his free
Xerclse OF privilege. But no. the ad-
must grab the spoils and +.
mt Mr. Wilson up against It so far
& 1t Is possible to do so. And, again.
his Is right in line with the Taft adj
Illustration. The government has
lways been run for the express bene-
t OF the machinery"
One can hardly blame Mr.. Wilson
)r sweeping clean the whole house"
lie Will certainly give the Supreme
curt his attention, II his statements
,ean anything. That he understands
ne true spirit of conservation can
OF be gainsaid, And yet we now
ear that President Taft had the same
lea exactly the difference being that
AFT was ready to trust his policy to
.organ and Guggenheim, while Mr.. u
'ilson prefers to put II into the hands
other persons who are not quite y
notorlously busy about things in u
lis country. "
However President Taft may sit up u
tie at night taking the tacRs out of u
lie carpet for Mr., Wilson and find to
Ia dismay and to the disappoint- o
ent of his many newly-pald obllgees, II
lat Mr.. Wilson has been accustomed II
living IN n house with horo fioors m