Show FIVE MINUTE CHATS ABOUT OUR presidents by JAMES MORGAN WILLIAM HO HOWARD TAFT C 1857 1957 sept 15 william howard taft born in cincinnati 1878 graduated at yale 1887 90 judge of the sup superior arlar court Soli solicitor eltor general of this the united states 1892 1900 united states state circuit judge I 1 1900 04 comm commissioner iasi one r in and governor of the philip pines 1904 6 8 secretary of war 1909 Inaugurated twenty sixth president aged fifty one HEN roosevelt and taft rode W up pennsylvania venue avenue on march larch 4 1809 1009 it was the first time since ince jackson and van huron buren had passed that way alde side by side more than 70 years before that a retiring president would not have preferred another seat mote mate and successor than the one whom the fortunes of politics hod hall thrust upon him roosevelt alone selected life hla successor naturally everyone assumed that we were vere to have bave a roosevelt administration by an another 0 ther name find and it was expected in the campaign that the ex president would not go farther awny away from the white house than oyster bay instead he plunged into the depths of africa the finite of william willia howard tatt raf t would be pathetic it if abe he himself had not inot met it and borne it with a smile ile he was nas abler more upright more independent than some far more successful presidents but by bent and training lie he vis a judge and the white house la Is no place for a judge As lawgiver and governor of mun manila lift tuft taft had won the confidence of his oriental subjects and rather than desert hla his post before his task was finished he sacrificed the dearest ambition of his life in a year and a half roosevelt had bad him in his cabinet as secretary of war and soon william howard taft had him in hla his eye for the presidency roosevelt had the weakness of his bis strength ile he thought he was strong enough to make a president but real presidents are born not made the moment roosevelt was gone the he stand patters the reactionary forces emerged from their seven and one half years in the cyclone cellar the moment the political broncho felt the tenderfoot on its back it bucked and threw taft from the seat of leadership the next thing the rank and file of republicans knew the party was slipping back into the old rut from which roosevelt had jerked it when first he be laid upon it his masterful hand band but the people refused to go back eight months after tafts inauguration the election of 1009 sounded a clear warning of the disaster dl the that overwhelmed the party in the congressional election of 1010 1910 and which all but destroyed it in the presidential election of 1912 according to a story that was told of taft a curious stranger asked a gatekeeper at the union station in washington where he would stand the best chance of seeing the president in the few spare hours that he had between trains right where you are arc was the reply hes always either taking a train or getting oft of one taft was the first president to draw the present salary of congress had also nd adopted opted two years year he be fore lie he came in tile the clist custom of ing yearly tor for tile the genres of the and lie it 11 iame une the great presidential traveler making a record of miles in four years as he went about the country appealing for or a t rever reversal sat of tile the verdict against hla his administration in n vain lie he strove to turn buck back the tide which only sported with him after having elected him by 1200 plurality the people parted with taft more in sorrow borrow than in anger they did not question that he was a good president but that Is a secondary consideration A president must be first of all a politician and a leader PROFESSOR IN POLITICS 1856 De december comber 28 woodrow woodpow wilson born at Staunton va 1879 graduated at princeton 1885 married ellen loule louise axsen of savannah ga 1885 8 associate Asio clate protestor professor at t bryn mawr IM 90 professor at wesleyan university in connecticut professor Prof eMor at prince ton 1902 10 president Preal dent of princeton 1911 13 governor of now new jer jec sey ey 1913 march 4 inaugurated twe twenty ty seventh president aged fifty six EITHER woodrow wilson not nor N NEITHER his administration has yet passed into history whose judgment on oil them it would ibe be tolly folly to try to fore ore tell nevertheless much of the record of the presidency Is made up and closed and may be summarized at least although it Is perhaps foolhardy to venture into the flames of passions that blind men alike to the merits and derne demerits rits of almost every president while he remains the central agurci of partisan strife A statesman Is a politician who la Is dead said bald thomas B reed in this age of ours when men are going to school to learn business and farming and all manner of vocations it was natural that there should appear in the white house a man like woodrow wilson who had learned politics in the classroom rather than in the wardroom the eighth of our virginia born presidents in reality he Is not a virginian but the son of an ehlo clergyman and of an english mother was a student or teacher of the act effee or rather the art of governing for 30 years before he held a political cal office that fact was left out of their reckoning by the democratic bosses of corrupt machine ruled new jersey when they summoned the president of princeton university from the golf links one afternoon in the fall of 1910 to receive the nomination for governor when this supposed novice in politics declared as he floundered through what as he had to own up was his first political speech that if elected governor govern he would govern the politicians nudged one another find and laughed in their sleeves at the idea of a professor trying to run their machine they laughed out loud when ft hen they saw him actually sit down in the governors goer nors chair and begin to play politics out of a book of all things it was a book which he himself had written in his youthful school days das merely as a thesis for or hla his phd at johns hopkins the young graduate student made the discovery that our constitution created a vacuum which the bosses had rushed in to fill alas popular leadership Is neither a science nor an art that can be taught out of a hook book where other leaders of our democracy have appealed to the emotions he Is one of the least electric least dramatic of our presidents with no abec dotes to popularize him with no legends of his youth or myths about his political career to vitalize him to the general imagination ho he owes his various successes at the polls to the cold logic of the political situation and little to his popularity his academic aloof new from politics at a time when politicians itic Iti ians had fallen into di disfavor made him the available man tar governor in 1910 As a candidate for president he ha ran a poor second to champ clark in the popular primaries of 1012 1912 he we a nominated nt at baltimore 0 only after 45 ballots and then only as a result of 0 bryans brians overthrow of the steam roller and lie wits was elected by the tha dirl division sion of the republicans between roosevelt and taft though he received a smaller eron ller vote than the democrats had polled in three post past elections it Is tile the tragedy of woodrow wll wit sons li alliVe that when the elements eie x I 1 in ili film magnetism was mas denied ve it li L le ailin i hint ill it lodestone lodos tonu liali draws the lienert of tie n e I 1 vil nil hns been tini poel of if ills kliffer lili 1111 ull 1920 U ll ly by |