The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1930-03-10
Taft and a North Dakotan

CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
Taft and a North Dakotan
On the night of January 6, 1919, Theodore Roosevelt
ssed out of life as he slept. He had told his personal
want to Turn off the light as he prepared to enter
e slumber from which he never awoke.
Much as the man with whom his life and career were SO
.imately associated, william Howard Taft, who had
en- made and unmade president by Roosevelt, also
ID, Saturday afternoon, when he passed out III a
matose state in which he had fingered several days.
Whether in life or death Taft always suggested
oughts of Roosevelt. The adventurous days OF the
wgh Rider president from the Dakota Bad Lands were
divided with dramatic events. but the chief drama III
e life of William Howard Taft was that which COM
1ed the friendship and feud of himself and Colonel
,osevelt and conferred in the one term In the chief
agistry which the Ohioan served.
It is true that no American except Taft ever at
ined the two highest honors in the government, the
esidency and the chief justiceship, but 1t also is to be
ted that he obtained his preferences for all but two Or
:es, one the presidency. by appointment. His political
reer, therefore, was not at all a ssE-aous, stormy one
e that of his sponsor for the chief post he held by ap-
al to the people. And the second time he appealed
r the ~suffrages of the electorate. 1t rejected him almost
mpletely-but for a paltry eight electoral votes, those
Vermont and Utah.
The inference is obvious to a generation which knew
M VAAy 10 SAS SN
enc court. keeping in the background as etiquette
ctated, while an older generation which had had per-
nal touch with the politics of the nation in 1912 knew
ON experience, that Taft was not gifted for leadership.
. was a jurist and originally had ambition only for the
nch. Instructed to discharge some of the most i'm
rtant missions growing out of the Spanish-Anerlcan
n, as the governor generalship of the Philippines and
trip to the Vatican to arrange the delicate adjust,
ent Of the Philippine friar lands question, he was a
iliant success.
But in the presidency he floundered He was misled
friends and politicians to whom he gave his trust
i'd confidence only to be betrayed in advice and acts,
en- so early that Roosevelt had misgivings that he had
ckcd the wrong man as successor before he himself
I'd completed his days in the presidential chair. 1t Will
remembered that Roosevelt fairly rushed away from
ashington in that bitter blizzard which marked the
Aft Inauguration, and March %, 1903, left on his voyage
r African exploration. He even dropped hints that
S old friend had given him a cold turn down on the
lie appointment he had desired Taft to make in naming
S cabinet. Instead of retaining James r. Garfield in
e portfolio of secretary of the interior to carry on the
oosevelt conservation policies, Taft appointed Richard
Balinger, of Seattle.
Some persons have a hazy impression that William H.
ats debacle in the 1912 campaign was due to the tariff
II passed during his administration. They do not know
,er history we'll. Taft's political fortunes went to pot
a result of this appointment OF Balinger. Had he
AmeQ GaTllclQ, Lle FOOScVell COuScIVdVAOu pouCNo
ould have been executed by a secretary of the interior
sympathetic attitude and the old friendship and presi-
initial sponsorship would have stood intact.
BY the time Roosevelt came back from Africa. in 1910,
ter consorting with King Edward. Kaiser William, King
ictor Emmanuel and other European sovereigns, receiv
g honorary degrees from the great universities of Africa
I'd western Europe, preaching in one of the historical
lurches of Holland and quarreling with the Vatican over
visit to the pope which, in consequence, had to be
.nceled, the Taft administration was involved in under
ound commissions over Alaska and conservation which
,on blew into open explosion. Ballinger was accused
intriguing to make over to the Guggenheins the
lstly valuable coal deposits and forests of Alaska.
A forester named Glaves and Clifford Pinchot, U. S.
,rcstry bureau chief, were leaders Of the fight against
ne policies of Ballinger. Taft wabbled between his Sec
.tary and Pinchot and finally threw out the latter and
.ade Ballinger's policy his own. Then came the definite
-eak between him and Roosevelt. Soon the two old
lends were as far apart as the poles and Roosevelt
ecided to become 4 candidate for the Republican presi-
entail nomination of 1912 in opposition to Taft.
Wherever there were popular vote primaries, Roosevelt
serwhelmed Taft, but in states which did not have such
rimaries and where delegates to the national conven-
on were the choice of precinct. ward and county eau
Uses, the situation became one of contesting delegations.
o keep Roosevelt from getting the nomination. the con-
,sts at the Chicago convention were ruthlessly decided
! favor of Taft under the leadership of such Republican
1iefS and lntimateS as Emu ROOT ana Henry CABOT
edge. Taft was damned through. Roosevelt founded
ne Bull Moose party. Taft was beaten in the November
lection. but Roosevelt failed also, with SO electoral
oreS.
The Republican split put Woodrow Wilson in the
American history was thus very much
tered from what it would have been had not Taft
nd Roosevelt ouarreled over the official acts Of an
though he was q cabinet official, for Bal
niger never took high rank in his public career and
back into obscurity as soon as he passed out
{ the cabinet.
Who viii say destiny was not at work. It required a
force to clear the way for Woodrow Wilson. and
Il terrific political explosion between Taft and Roosevelt
- such . conclusion. It rent the overwhelmingly
ominant Republican party and Woodrow Wilson walked
nrun,gh the breach as the I~sraelites through the Red
- - N ancient day when destiny also was making
III history for all the ages.
~ asany people think room for argument" means
~ swing . hrickbat.