The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1920-06-17

Juu6o' AS NC LUX Train n Ohio
on certain day in the year 1855
he had NO other wish than to spend
his life in the same congenial n.
mosphere. But on that fatal train
he fell in with General Corbin Of
the army. until then a STRANGER to
him, and the general returned to
Washington with the enthusiastic
conviction that he had discovered
the right man to give a code Of
laws to the Philippine islands.
Taft earnestly protected, when
Mckinley sent for him, that be
wished to stay on the bench; but
he was talked into going. -Four
years afterward Roosevelt offered
him justiceship in the supreme
court Of the United States, the
highest honor to which his heart
ever had aspired. But he put aside
the temptation from pure sense
of duty to his little brown broth
err"
AS lawgiver and governor Of
Manila, he had won the confidence
of his oriental subjects, and rather
than desert his post, before his
task was finished, he sacrificed the
dearest ambition of his life. In
year and a half Roosevelt had him
in his cabinet as secretary OF war
and soon had him in his eye for
the presidency.
Roosevelt had the weakness Of
his strength. He thought he was
strong enough to make a president
But real presidents are born, not
made.
The moment Roosevelt was gone.
the standpatters, the reactionary
forces, emerged from their seven
and half years in the cyclone cel-
lar. The moment the political
bronch felt the tenderfoot on It's
back, it bucked, and threw TAFT
from the seat of leadership. The
next thing the rank and file Of Re-
publicans knew, the party was slip
ping back into the old rut from
i which Roosevelt had jerked it when
first he laid upon it his masterful
hand.
But the people refused to 60
back. Eight months after Talts
Inauguration, the election OF lyVs
| sounded a clear warning of the dis
aster that overwhelmed the parry
in the congressional election OF
1910 and which all but destroyed II
| in the presidential election OF lsiz'
According to story that was
told of Taft. a curious stranger
| asked a gatekeeper at the union
station in Washington where no
would stand the best chance OF
seeing the president in the lew
spare hours that he had between
trains. Right where you are,
was the reply. Hes always ei.as,
| taking train or getting Oh Of
one"
Taft was the first president 70
draw the present salary OF $io'oVV'
as Grant had been the first 10 le.
ceive $4,000 after the increase
from the original compensation u
s25, 1000. Congress had also aaop'
| ted, two years before he came a ~,
the custom of allowing $zoVO
yearly for the travelling expenses
of the president, and he became ,ns
great presidential traveller, MAKING
a record of 10000 miles IN ioni
years. as he went about the couh.
try appealing for a reversal OF .n'
verdict against his administrator ~ l.
J In vain he strove to turn PACK .n'
tide. which only sported with MN,
After having elected him W
1.2oO, 900 plurality, the people par -,
ed with Taft more in sorrow tna ,
in anger ana most =. .nss-
still are sorry. They did not ques,
ton that he was a good president
but that is a secondary consloe'a =,
ton. A president must be nrS' V
all a politician and a leader.
published by special arrangement
'ewspaper Syndicate.