Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-06-20

7 DO you want him You know he
thought he was your rival
He allowed this was so. and that
he would not want Curtplyou.
"'How about Bonapartc?' I asked
HE agreed that he would wish an,
other in the place, but ne insisted that
/ he wanted the Others TO stay. and on
his definite insistence | delivered the
message. More than that. those thus
| assured thanked Taft for the offer in
my presence.
Wright was among those so as
sured: in fact, the assurance that he
was the joint choice of myself and
Taft was, he said, the reason for his
| acceptance
by inauguration time, however
Mr.. Taft had changed his mind. lust
! as | feared he would, and it made a
great deal Of feeling Some had made
very definite plans on the strength OF
his offer. renewing leases of houses
| and that eort of thing, and it was bad
all around.
THAT was the first bit Of friction.
Tn office his militaucy evapporat-
ed and he at once set about undoing
all nv administration had done. Con-
versation went by the board. Newell
of the reclamation service had to quit
and things went from bad to worse
They had reached such . pass when !
got to Rome on my way home from
Africa. I found Clifford Pnchot await
ing me. He wanted me to attack Mr.
Taft then and there. Others were in
the same mood.
But I said No. 7 wanted to do
nothing to injure Mr.. Taft or his adj
ministration.
"Thus things went one thing after
another until finally the Rural Wei
fare commission. one Of the best
things we had, was abandoned. That
was the last straw. The break came
on that, but it was not because Of
that. IT was becau.e of the many
things of which that was the cap
stone, the climax. BY the way. the
government never even printed the
report of that commission. We fl
nally had it done at the expense OF
the Seattle chamber of commerce,
There you have the real story OF
our break.
"Of course there were other things,
We had a perfectly good treaty with
Japan, under which we had the right
to pass exclusion laws. Japan asked
that we not do so, offering to make
a gentlemens agreement to keep her
folks at home If we would not pass
such law. The agreement was made
and kept but we had the right to en-
force exclusion under the treaty if
Japan did not do what was right, Mr..
Taft, however, weT; TO work and
made a new treaty in which that right
to exclude was waived, we relying on
their gentemen's agreement, which
they may or may not live up to, as
may seem best to them.
THAT was a mistake, and how Cal
ifornia ever let that treaty go through
is beyond me. Now, as matters stand,
Japan can do as it pleases. The part
of wisdom was to have retained that
provision Of the old treaty as a club.
Then there was messing about with
treaties guaranteeing the peace of
Latin America by which we commit
ted ourselves to raise an army Of at
least 500, 600 men when just now we
are showing we cannot raise an army
large enough to take care of Mexico.
"All III ALL you can see there We're
many differences, none in itself Sc
rious enough to cause any break in
our cordial relations, but taken to-
gether, very serious.
"I never regretted anything moro IN
my life. | have never questioned
Taft's honesty in any or all of the
things I have mentioned. Some wern
mistakes, such as the cabinet mat
ters IN other things he was ','ry
nuch imposed upon. When Taft led
me TO believe he was going to come
out for the policies argued upOn. he
honestly intended to do so. His mill
fancy just evaporateG."