OCR Text |
Show FORGET OLD DAYS i Must Taft and Roosevelt if They Do Kind of Fighting That's in Them. LIKE DAMON AND PYTHIAS Ties of Affection Broken by Colonel's Candidacy Not Equalled by Any Who Have Served for Friendship's Friend-ship's Comparison. By GEORGE CLINTON. Washington. "If William H. Taft and Theodore Roosevelt are to do the kind of fighting for the next three months that it is in them to do they must keep their minds oft the old days." It was the politician-legislator who has known both men intimately from the day when they began their Washington life, who said this. President Taft did not believe until six o'clock Sunday, February 25, that Theodore Roosevelt was to declare himself, even in effect, an active candidate can-didate for the nomination. He hung on after other men had let go their hold to a faith that something in friendship would keep the colonel from saying the definite word which would put him into the field as a rival of jthe man who as secretary of war sustained him in executive endeavor. Mr. Roosevelt's friends say that Mr. Taft broke the bonds of friendship when he departed three years .ago from the promised path. The blame is thrown one way by some men and another an-other w-ay by others, but wherever it belongs the friendship seemingly has gone, though it may be, as Mr. Taft is reported to have said recently to one of his friends, that one day after ' the troubles time when retirement comes, it will return. Damon and Pythias, David and Jonathan, Jo-nathan, Aeneas and Fidus Achates and all the rest who have served so faithfully for friendship's comparisons compari-sons must pass when the once existing exist-ing affection of Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft for each other is considered. . The Ranking Officer. There is a Washington newspaper story to the effect that the society editor of a local journal went to the White House one morning when Mr. Roosevelt w-as president to get some information on precedence and while there he asked some one who the ranking officer of the cabinet was. The president overheard the question and turning said: "The secretary of war." So he was to Theodore Roosevelt. Roose-velt. 1 Many things showing the affection between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft are brought to mind today by the breach between two men who once came as near to being one as human circumstances would admit. One night in December, 1907, two or three months before Mr. Taft became an announced candidate for the nomination, nomina-tion, President Roosevelt, talking to some friends in the White House, said that the country was calling certain legislative "policies "the Roosevelt policies." Then he said that he did not know whether they were Roosevelt Roose-velt policies or Taft policies. His uncertainty un-certainty as to the proper name was due, he said, to the fact that long before be-fore he had any thought that one day he might be president of the United States he was thinking along lines of what he considered to he proper pub-i pub-i lie policies, and wondering if ever I they might be given legislative effect: j While wondering he found out that j another man was thinking along the j same lines and also wondering if his ; thoughts might one day take the form j of legislation. The other man, Mr. i Roosevelt said, was William H. Taft. As the story came from Mr. Roose-' Roose-' ve'.t, he entered into a correspondence ! with Mr. Taft', exchanged views and opinions and found that they were identical. Roosevelt said that from ' that date until the day he was speaking speak-ing the two had been close In counsel, in friendship and in endeavor. Story Pleased Taft. It was only a few weeks ago that President Taft was told this story of the words of the man whom even then it was expected might be his rival in the 1912 field. He liked the story and said it was good to hear it. Before the country knew generally that Mr. Roosevelt hoped that his secretary of war could be induced to become a candidate for the presidency a visitor at the White House asked him what progressive Republicans were to do on election day the fol-lowing fol-lowing November provided the party insisted on nominating a reactionary. The president said t-tjat he hoped it would not be necessary for anybody "to go fishing"; that if the party should nominate as he hoped it would, William H. Taft, it would have a progressive candidate and if he was elected the country would have a progressive pro-gressive president. Then he added that his associations with Mr. Taft and his close friendship with him made him know just how he felt about real progressive legislation and just what he would do to further its cause If ever he became president. There are a few Washington believers believ-ers of a story somewhat widely told that Mr. Roosevelt broke with Mr. Taft before inauguration day, 1909. It is pretty well known that the predecessor prede-cessor watched With some misgivings the successor's cabinet making endeavors, en-deavors, but it is to be doubted if Mr. Roosevelt said, as he is reported to have said, "A cabinet like mine does not seem to be good enough for him and it may be that in a few week policies like mine will not be good enough for him." Want a Third Fort. The refusal of the house of representatives repre-sentatives to incorporate in the . fortification bill the appropriation of $150,000 for a site for a coast defense on Cape Henry was a sharp disappointment to most of the good Virginians in the house, to a good many army officers and unquestionably unques-tionably to the entire population of the tide-water section of the Old Dominion. Do-minion. Fort Monroe today has the safety of several American cities in its keep- v ing. It is the outpost defense of Washington and Baltimore, and with Fort Wool it stands as a sentinel keeping watch over Norfolk and Richmond. Rich-mond. The army men and the Virginians Vir-ginians think that a third sentinel should be posted, but congressmen have taken issue with them. Across the mingling waters of Chesapeake bay and the ocean lies Cape Charles, whose rough coast is visible on clear days to the gunners on Monroe's parapets, par-apets, but if what has been said by supposed experts is true, no projectile which the big guns of the fort can hurl ever is likely to prove effective against battleships steaming into the channel close) under the Charles promontory pro-montory to make the run up the waters wa-ters leading to the capital. The forts at Cape Henry southward across the entrance to the inland waters, wa-ters, army men seem to think, would nearly perfect the system of defense, but the proposal for a Cape Henry fortification is only one of several plans which have been made from time to time to complete the defenses of the harbor, bay and river. Hints at Selfish Interest. There was a plan first to build a fort on Cape Charles itself, but later this was changed in favor of a plan to plant big guns on a half submerged island midway of the entrance to the Chesapeake. This plan was considered consid-ered by congress several years ago, and there were hints that some selfish interests were connected with it, but no one ever made a direct charge, and there never was any proof advanced of what were but whispered insinua-tions. insinua-tions. It seems to be the full belief of many army officers that one day an additional ad-ditional fortification in the vicinity of the Virginia capes will be authorized author-ized by congress. As things are now it is said that a foreign fleet with a pilot deserving the name on board the leading ship, could slip into the Chesapeake under cover of a haze while- the shore artillerymen, no matter mat-ter how watchful, would know nothing of the movement until there was no target to fire at, but the broad wakes of the invading vessels. Fort Monroe is Said to be a bulwark bul-wark of defense in itself, but it seems even to the layman that the picture drawn by some of the congressmen of a capital laid waste by the guns ol a foreign fleet, or by troops which had secured a landing back of the present fortifications, is drawn with a free hand guided by a freer imagination. If vessels should succeed in getting by Fort Monroe they would have a hard time getting up the Potomac Ikiver, fdr 'below Washington the Potomac's channel is safe-guarded. Make an Easy Target. Pictures also have been drawn of the demolition of Richmond and Nor- 1 folk by hostile guns. It would seem that the Virginia capital and its seaport sea-port might be able to rest in confidence confi-dence that no foe can come up the water wa-ter to their troubling. The main ship channel at the mouth of the James is within easy great gun range of the i parapets of Fort Monroe, and the gunner gun-ner who could not hit so fair and confronting con-fronting a mark as a battleship or a cruiser at double the distance would be discredited after one pushing of the electric button, and his place would be taken instantly by a man -. able to drive every projectile home for the army is not worthless; there are many such men in the artillery ranks. If the marksmen at Fort Monroe should happen to fall in their gunning there is perhaps little chance that their brother artillerymen at Fort Wood would fail in theirs, for the enemy en-emy that would attempt to force a passage of the James would almost brush the muzzles of the smaller fort's guns. Artillerymen have occasional chances to test their skill. "A government govern-ment tug tows red trisngular pyramids pyra-mids made of cloth stretched on a framework of wood across :he line of fire, while the men at the big rifles peg away at the targets drawn through the fire zone at a tan knot ' v gait. In order to make a hit It is not necessary "to hit," for if it is found that the shot has made itself "effective" in space fore and aft of the target, not greater :han that which would have been coveied by the battleship, a hit is credited. It seems to be a fair system of marking, and is the only one used by the land and sea artillerymen of the world when firing at moving marks. Hits nt Commerce Court. Representative Thetus Wilrette Siio.s of Tennessee is the representative repre-sentative in congress who int.ro- duced the bill to abolish the commerce com-merce court. It probably wl I he remembered re-membered by most rewsprper readers read-ers that the commerce court disagreed disa-greed with a good many of the findings find-ings of the interstate commerce commission, com-mission, and that, the Supreme court stood by the commission, in some instances in-stances at any rate, and as a result there has been a good deal of agitation agita-tion in favor of abolishing the so-called so-called railroad court. This tribunal was created in part by the direct recommendation of President Taft, and there seems to be little likelihood likeli-hood at this session at any rate that any strong attempt will be made to get a bill through congress which shall wipe the court out of existence, |