Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-06-12
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
Nv LANES MORGAN.
Manifestations Are Born Nc
Made.
BY JAMES MORGAN

EhTS Doi1 Wv
Made.
When Roosevelt and Taft rode up
PENNSYLVANIA Avenue or March 4,
1905, 1t was the first time since Jack
son and Van Buren, had passed that
way side by side, more than 10 years
before, that a retiring President would
not have preferred another seat mate
and successor than the one whom the
fortunes of politics had thrust upon
him. Perhaps already dear Theo-
dore" and dear VIII" were not wholly
pleased with each other.
The Presidency is too big a gift for
any man to make or for n man 10
accept. The giver humanity cannot
help expecting more gratitude than
the recipient humanity can
edge.
Roosevelt alone had selected his suc-
cessor. He forced his enemies to
accept him with the terrifying threat:
IF YOU don't take Taft. you'll have
to take me-" And he had to set a
watch on his own friends to keep
them from stampeding the convention
to him.
Naturally everyone assumed that
we were to have a Roosevelt admin
istration by another name, and 1t was
expected in the campaign that the ex-
President would not go farther away
HUH Wv IA
Bay. Instead, he plunged into the
depths of Africa. lie might as We'll,
then he was q ranchman, have hung
an Eastern guest on the back OF Il
bucking bronco and abandoned him to
his own resources. For Taft was an
utter tenderfoot in politics.
The fate of William Howard tart
would be pathetic If he himself had
not met II and borne 1t with q smile.
He did not invite it, having not taste
for political life and he was without
the least desire for the Presidency
when Roosevelt made him his heir.
He was ADLER, more upright, more
independent than some far more sue
cessful Presidents. But by bent ana
training he was q judge, and the White
House is no place for a judge. me
only other President who had sat on
a bench was-of all men Andrew
| Jackson, and "Old Hickory" seems not
10 have acquired overmuch of the
judicial temperament.
Executive force and the judicial
mind are the positive and negatiV
poles of the battery. If a president
stops to weigh the evidence, consult
presidents and prepare an OPINION,
enterprises of great pith n
are turned away au1 lose the name or
action. In the crises that make or
break his administration and his lead
ershtp he must decide on his Instincts.
his intuitions and find his reason al
terward.
Taft passed all out two of the first
20 years of his manhood in courts,
| either as a law officer or q judge AS
he took a train in Ohio on a certain
| day in the year 1899, he had no other
wish than to spend his life in the
same congenial atmosphere. But on
that fateful train he fell In with Gen.
| Corbin of the Army. until then q
| ang to him, and the General re-
turned to Washington with the enthus-
fastic conviction that he had discover
ed the right man to give a code Oh
laws to the Philippine Islands.
Taft earnestly protested, when Nc
Kinley sent for him, that he w1shec
to stay on the bench; but he was talk
ed into going. Four years afterwaro
Roosevelt offered him a justiceshlp II
the Supreme Court of the Unlte0
states. the highest honor to which hl'
heart ever had aspired. But he pu'
aside the temptation from a pure
sense of duty to his little brown
brother"
he had won the confidence OF his
lOriental subjects, and rather thar
desert his post, before his task wa;
finished he sacrificed the dearest am
bition of his life. In a year II a hal
Roosevelt a him in his Cabinet a.
Secretary of War-and soon had MN
in his eye for the Presidency.
Roosevelt had the OF nj
strength. He thought he was stroni
enough to make a President. Blu
! real Presidents are born. not made
The Roosevelt was gone
the standpatters, the reactlonar!
forces emerged from theiI liz year
In the cyclone cellar. The momen
the political broncho felt the tender
foot on its back. it bucked, ana threN
Taft from the seat of leadership. Ih'
next thing the rank n file OF Re'
publicans knew. the party was snip
ping back into the old rut from which
Roosevelt had jerked 1t when first he
laid upon it his masterTul hand.
But the people refused to SO back
Eight months after Taft's Inaugural
ton. the election of 1909 sounded &
clear warning of h disaster tha'
overwhelmed the party in the Con
gressional election of 1910 and which
all but destroyed it in the Presiden
tial election of 1912.
According to a story that vas told
Of Taft, a curious stranger asked {
~gatekeeper at. the Union Station IL
Washington where he wouid stanc
the best chance of seeing the Presi
dent in the few spare hours that M
had between trains. Right wher'
YOU are was the reply. He's al
ways either taking a train or gettin!
off of one"
Taft was the first President to draw
the present salary OF $4,000, a.
Grant had been the first to receiv'
$50, 900 after the increase from tn
original compensation of $4,000
congress had also adopted, two year
before he came In. the custom of al
lowing $4,000 yearly for the travel
ing expenses of the President. and h
became the great Presidential travele
making a record of 1900 0 miles Il
four years. as he went about the
country appealing for a reversal o
the verdict against his Administra
ton. In vain he stroye to turn bacl
the tide, which only sported with
him,
After having elected him by 1900,
900 plurality. the people parted wit
Taft more in sorrow than in ange
Il. and most 6 them still ar
sorry. They did not question ths
L.. GOD D~au{I anf hrf that