Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-23
TAFT-ROOSEVELT QUARREL
MADE AMERICAN HISTORY
Feud Brought Wilson's Election and
Determined Participation of
u. S. in World War.

passed the lie and you passed 1t back;
You said it was all untruth.
I said that honesty was your lack;
You said I'd nor reck nor ruth;
You called me megalomaniac--
1 called you a Serpent's Tooth.
Began Friendship Early.
William H. Taft and Theodore Roose-
welt began their friendship very early,
when both occupied subordinate Gov
eminent posts in Washington, from
1890 to 1892, sharing a zest for public
service which Roosevelt expressed as
civil service commissioner, Taft as solicit
tor general. They lived near each other,
met frequently at the homes of each
other and of mutual friends, walked to
their Offices together occasionally
passing the White House, then occupied
by Benjamin Harrison, and turning I'M
consciously to glimpse its unfailing
glamour Though it was Roosevelt alone
of the two whose thrill was associated
with personal dream). After advance
ment in their careers separated them
from Washington and from each other
they kept alive their friendship through
correspondence and occasional meet
ings. When Roosevelt succeeded to the
presidency through the death of Nc
Kinley in 1901 among the subordinates
he inherited was Taft, usefully radiating
good will in the important task of gov
erning our Far Eastern possession, the
Philippines.
Inside of a year Roosevelt made the
first of three urgent efforts to bring
Taft back to Washington and near to
himself. Two of Roosevelt's efforts took
the form of offers to Taft to make him
justice of the Supreme Court. The
unusual phrasing Of letter in which
Roosevelt urged Taft to 60 on the
bench Is intimate evidence of the strong
friendship between the two men at that
time.
Dear WILL" Roosevelt wrote in Be
cember, 1902, to Taft, in Manila, II am
awfully sorry, old man, but after faith
full effort to try to arrange matters on
the basis you wanted find that shall
have to bring you home and put you
on the Supreme Court. I am very sorry.
l have the greatest confidence In your
Judgment. but after all old fellow, If
you will permit me to say so, am Presi-
dent and see the whole field :.
After the most careful thought. after
the most earnest effort as to what you
desired and thought best, I have come.
irrevocably, to the decision that I shall
appoint you to the Supreme Court in
the vacancy caused by Judge Shiras'
resignation. I am very sorry II
what I am doing displeases you, but as
said, old man, this is one Of the cases
where the President, If he is fit for his
position, must take the responsibility"
Reasons Are Too Complex.
The reasons That did not take the
place that Roosevelt offered him on the
Supreme Court are too complex to state
in so brief a space as this article. One
should say, however, that Taft wanted
to be on the Supreme bench more than
he ever wanted anything else-wanted
1t to greater degree and over q longer
and more continuous period of time
But at this time, for reasons not to be
stated here, he decided to remain in
the Philippines.
After Taft declined to come back to
Washington as justice of the Supreme
Court, Roosevelt, in 1908, finally sue
ceeded In bringing his friend to his
side and into his official family by MAX
ing him Secretary of War. Still later,
in 1908 and 1909, Roosevelt made Taft
President
In those four words Roosevelt made
Taft President" obviously q good deal
OF history is condensed. It is only de-
sirable to say here that the word
made" Is used deliberately Taft him
self would assent to the word. Taft
had not only an honest soul, but a
generous one; so long as the friendship
lasted Taft lived loyalty up to every
obligation of it.
AS to the causes of the temporary
break between the two, partisans diff
fer, naturally. in their ALLEGATION of re-
sponsibility. 1t is not the purpose here
to Sift the evidence or analy1e the
causes. All that is attempted in this
article are two brief contrasting pic
lures. The first. the period of intimacy
between Taft and Roosevelt, is pictured
in the passages above.
Break Not Merely Personal.
We leap now. as the old-fashioned
melodramas used to say, four years, to
1912. In skipping from 1908 to 1912 we
omit the real substance of the drama,
the causes of the break between the
two men. 1t ought to be said clearly,
however, that the break was not merely
q personal one. The two men came
to represent and be the spokesman of
two contrasting PHILOSOPHERS of politics
and government. Between the two
schools there was, between 1908 and
1912, head-on collision. Since one Of
the schools was headed by the man that
Theodore Roosevelt was, 1t followed that
the collision was no mere academic
debate. Very far from that.
The details, the fighting, are too much
present article will attempt in the re-
naming space Is to give the other one
OF the two contrasting pictures-the
picture of the relation between Taft
and Roosevelt as it had become in 1912.
Delivered Extraordinary Speech.
On the night of April rs, 1912, Will
liam Howard Taft stood on a platform
In public hall in Boston. He was now
President of the United States-and he
was delivering the most extraordinary
speech ever made by q President about
an ex-President.
For two hours Taft stood before his
audience, denouncing with all the viRor
OF language he possessed lone whom In
the past have greatly admired and
loved" Following an unusually vehe-
ment outburst he paused a moment
his great kindly face Quivering with
obviously sincere emotion, and then ex.
claimed: This wrenches my soul!" He
had been driven to his present course,
he explained, by the unjust. unfounded
charges against me =. that Mr.. Roose-
welt Is now making to the. public"
Roosevelt had, he declared, attempted
to discredit him by "adroit appeals ia
discomfort and class hatred; had gar
bled" his language, "misrepresented" his
actions.
All this and more to the extent of
10 newspaper columns. Taft charged.
with perspiration streaming down his
face. in the presence of 10000 persons,
who sang. Wen Hang Teddy's Hat 70
q Sour Apple Tree" and under the
sponsorship of a presiding of1cer who
declared that Theodore Roosevelt Is
following the footsteps of Julius Caesar
and Napoleon Bonaparte, and unless
we stop him it will be but q question
of time when he uSilruS n dfcfa knrxI1iI1
Of the American people"
Roosevelt Struck Back.
Twenty-four hours later, and only