The Washington herald., 1913-03-05
President Taft's Administration Strong;
On the Defensive Nearly Entire Term
When Facona Differences Forgotten However He Will Hold High Place
in History as Patriotic Chief Execuive-Tarf Was
the First Rock by Ship and the Last-Pet Feature
the Commerce Court Unpopular from the Start
By JOSEPH p. AMIN.


William Howard Taft. twenty-seventf
President Of the United States, yesterda!
yielded the responsibilities of that office
TO Woodrow Wilson. OF New Jersey. Mr.
Taft retires to the elm-shaded walks ano
drives of his alma mater at New Haven
as a member Of the faculty.
Whatever contemporary comment upon
his administration may hold. regardless
of his overwhelming defeat at the hands
Of the electorate last November, Mr..
Taft's loyal friends-and they are legion
declare that when the present factional
fires and persona. feuds have been boiled
down by time to their true degree OF ma
teriality and significance, his four-year
tenure as Chief Executive will hold a
high place among constructive, patriotic
administrations.
Mr.. Tafts was a stormy administra-
ton. That his successor will have nc
less stormy a stay in the White House
few doubt Mr.. Taft's administration be-
gan at the crest of the Republican wave
His misfortune was that he refused to
leave that crest as the wave reached the
beach. His fate was that of any object
at the top of breaking comber.
Whether il was in his power to change
the onrushing wave to a gentle swell and
save the party from the crash is a ques-
tion which only history and the hind
sight of future generations fairly can de-
eide.
Leaves At Critical Stage.
Mr.. Taft left the White House at a
critical stage. Mr.. Wilson falls heir to
burdens from which any man well might
shrink. 1t is fortunate for the new Pres
ident that he will have nearly month
without interference from the other CO.
ordinate branches of the government to
set his face. Mexico looms up, grue-
some shade, involving at once the entire
international policy of this country. in
volving the Monroe doctrine and dollar
diplomacy" the latter distinctly Tart
policy.
The Taft bark has ridden upon a sea of
political unrest to such an extent that
Taft politics and Congress cannot easily
be disassociated the one from the other
in a review Of the last four years.
President Taft was on the defensive
before the public from February Il, 1910,
less than one year after his Inaugural
ton, until his last public utterance as a
President. His first speech in 1910 was
made at banquet in New York, when
he began to defend the already gener-
ally attacked Republican programme,
and since then. with or without reason.
back to the wall for every policy of the
White House and every blunder of the
Republican party He has defended the
Payne-Aldrich tariff bill. which lost him
his election one year after il was passed;
he defended his first Secretary of the In
terror, Richard Achilles Ballinger. and.
indirectly, Solicitor George p. McCabe.
of the Department of Agriculture. there
by alternating, respectively, the conser-
nI
soIjdly behind Clifford Pinchot against
BaIlinger, and the pure food enthusiasts.
also largely progressives. who were
equally solid in their support of Dr.
Harvey W Wiley. He defended the
trust policy pursued by his Attorney
General.
He defended the Commerce Court. his
own creation. which. having placed itself
in a hostile attitude toward the Inter
state Commerce Commission, could eN-
pect to find few friends or supporters
among the people. He was even placed.
by his enemies. in the unenviable posi-
ton of defending Lorimer. of which Of
fense or virtue, he certainly was not
guilty.
Aienated ProEressives.
But. worst of all, from the standpoint
Of a politician aspiring for further rec
ognition at the hands of the voters, he
defended rigid representative government
against popular representative govern
ment at a time when popular govern
ment. to the ultimate degree possible un-
der the Constitution, is the demand of an
overwhelming majority of the voters OF
this country. Thereby he finally alien
ated the Progressive support more ire
trisvably than any definite hostility to-
ward Roosevelt or any leading Progress
siye could have done. His sneering refer
ences to political nostrums, political neu-
rotics. and so on added fuel to the flames
Of resentment, but the damage was done
when il was definitely seen that Mr.
Taft was adverse to anything approach
ing an elastic construction OF the Con-
stitution and progressiveness which tend
ed toward popular rather than rigid rep
resentative government. This attitude OF
President Taft was typical of the con-
servative element-not the reactionary-
in his party. and was temperamental
with the President. Being man whose
sincerity Of purpose could never reason
ably be doubted. il should have caused
no surprise. because to him popular gov
crnment measures appeared 10 be political
nostrums. and therefore il was his duty
to tell the people what he thought OF
them Some people have called this lack
Of tact; others ascribe IT TO honesty OF
purpose and absence of hypocrisy. But
as the reactionarieS felt as the President
and the conservative progressives did. in
the public mind the President felt as
the reactionaries did. and was tarred by
the same stick. Ultimately he himself
threw to the winds any distinction as far
as the public could gauge. and tossed his
fortunes in with Barnes ct al, and in the
minds of the great mass of the people
the President ran as reactionary Re-
publican, while in reality he was and has
been a progressive-conservat para
doxical as that term may sound.
Friend Of Civil Service.
President Taft's administration con-
1ained much of appeal TO the business
world; that is, to the small or ordi-
nary business man. He constantly
urged more general participation in
politics on the business man. He out
lined the National Board of Trade and
the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States. He did more than any
of his predecessors. bar none, to install
business methods into the government
executive departments. 1t must be re-
membered that under his administra- =
ton the Post-office Department was
able to show for the first time in years
surplus rather than a deficit He
proved himself one of the best friends
the civil service has had. and was
called upon time after time. particu-
larly during the last two years of his
to defend that institu-
tion. And he defended II last summer,
even when 1t became necessary to veto
tho vitality important legislative, execu-
tive, and judicial appropriation bill be-
cause 1t contained a clause viciously
hostile to the civil service system. By
executive order he placed 5000 assist
ant postmasters under the protection