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Show H SIZING UP MR. TAFT'S RECORD BBS BBJ Tlio flno personal qualities of our latest ex- BJ President ara universally admitted; but wlicu' Jt BJ comes to Judging tils oflldlnl. career, 'tho various BBJ critics sco It ovory color, from white to blnck. An BBJ ox-President placidly wielding his putter on a Geor- BJ gin, green does not, of course, bccqmo tho object BBJ of such nbuso or laudation as 'docs a candidate light- BBJ lng from tho stump for his political existence Yet BJ It is nono tho less truo that public opinion now, as BJ reflected In tho dally press, docs show tho' three BBJ attitudes toward tho Taft Administration which be- BBJ enmo so familiar in tho 1912 campaign. To most BBJ . I)omocrats, William Howard Taft was "as good n BBJ ' President as a Republican could bo;" to Progress- BBJ Ives ho seems n pitiable failure, whtlo Republicans BBJ pralBo him because "ho was truo (o the real Inter- BBJ csU of tho whole people, to his conscience and to BBJ tho Constitution In a period when nearly all of tho Bj profits of politics were going to demagogs." We Bj find ono Democratic editor admitting that his term Bj "is a remarkablo record ot unselfish, conscientious, Bj laborious service, and of statesmanlike, construe- Bj the achievement." A non partisan estimate has It Bj thnt Mr. Taft's "placo In tho record of President BBB la far from the bottom, thought not near the top." BBB No ono denies that Mr. Taft's tcnuro of ofllco coin- BBJ cldeil with a period of political rovolu'lon. So, com- BBB ments ono of his critics, tho Newark Nows (Ind) BBB "Mr. Taft might havo stood out as an exceptional BBJ President" in tho closing years of tho nineteenth BBJ century, but "for tho period of 1909-1013 ho was BBJ out of touch with his tlmo." Ills administration Is Bj characterized by tho Chicago News as "a sort of BBB broad, monotonous plain, across which have freely BBJ marched and counter inarched tho forces of the rev- BBJ BBJ Yet passing over as a "trlto fact" Mr. Taft's BBJ Inability to master an extraordinary political situ- BBJ atlon. It seems to tho Springfield Republican (lnd.) BBJ "that, in spite of political turmoil, thero has gradu- BBJ ally wxl persistently been piled up under his ad- BBB ministration an astonishing record ot solid achieve- BBJ ment." This record, according to one of his strong- BBJ est. Eastern newspaper supporters, tho New York BBJ Tribune (Hop.,) has "never before been equalled BBJ by any President In a single term." And tho Trl- BBB buno goes on to specify: BBJ "Tho nchlovemcnts of tlio Taft administration BBJ which stand out as pre-eminent nro tho legislation BBJ accomplished, tho enforcement of tho Sherman An- BBJ tl-trust law, tho appointment of more Judges than BBJ nny previous President, and tho high character and BBJ iblllty ot tho men named; tlio conduct or tho na- BBJ tlon's foreign affairs in such manner as to preserve BBJ , and promote tho friendship and respect which this BBJ country commands from all tho world; the promo- BBJ tlon or tho causo of international arbitration and BBJ universal peaco; tho introduction Into tho conduct BBJ ot the Federal departments of thoso methods of BBJ economy nnd efficiency which had long been lgnor- H ed, and tho conversion of a deficit of $58,000,000 BBJ I Into an annual surplus of nearly $50,000,000 and B the consistent vetoing ot numerous measures which BBJ either violated the Constitution or struck at tho na- HB tlon's w el faro." BBJ Among tho toplcB which thjs writer dlscuBsee BJ at somo longth are Mr. Tatt'B Canadian reciprocity BBJ policy "which was carried to a successful Uauo In BBJ this country, but which met Its fate through tho BBJ unwarranted ream of tho Canadian torles." Espo- BJ clal mention la also mads of the Railway Rate Law, BBJ tho savcral measures enacted to strengthen tho ad- BBJ ministration's Federal conservation policy, nnd tho BBJ corporation tax feature of tho Payno Tariff Act, BBJ which in The Trlbuno's opinion gavo President Taft BBJ as good a right to tho n.imo "progressive" as hU BBJ prcdoccssor. Returning to th0 Sherman Antl-trust Law, we J ore reminded thnt "nearly seventy cases havo been J Instituted under this law, and while many aro still J pending, more than twenty-flvo havo been carried J to a successful Isbuo," These facts bring from tho J Indianapolis Nows (lnd.,) Uio romark that "the country has never seen such an enforcement of tho BBk. Antitrust Law as It has had from this supposedly BY ' reactionary President." And it is significant In this BBJ. connection that in Its editorial on tho Toft ndmln- Bj stratlon, tho only cabinet member signed out for BJ praise by the Springfield Republican Is Attorney- BJ General Wlckersham, whoso "successful trust pros- BJ ecutlons havo broken all records and havo given BJ now force and practical intent" to tho Sherman BBJ BJ The thing In which the ox-Prostdent himself BJ takes most prido Is, h says: BBJ "Tho constitution or tho personnel or tho Su- BJ premo Court under my administration. Six or tho BJ nine Judges today boar my commission. Forty-rive BBJ per cent of the Federal Judiciary havo been appolnt- BJ ed by mo. "That Is Uio reason why I could r.ot practise BJ law as an advocate." BBJ Yet with all thts thero are . hoot who contend BJ that the Taft administration ii a failure and the BJ cause ot this follu,, say several of them, was point- BJ t wt b Mr- T" Wmwlf 1'fcfo "coafesilon" be- HH . JtfBk '"""' ' " '" n,i ,., BBrJtHBBflHB tore tho National Press Cub In Washington: "Myosin Is an Indisposition to labor as hard as I might; a disposition to procrnstlnato and a disposition dispo-sition to enjoy the fellowship of others moro than 1 ought." ' No, replies tho New 'York Olobo (lnd): "Thoso faults, if they exist, aro not tho faults that havo wrecked tho administration . : . Ono must look further and doeix: for the cnuses of tho great defeat. ' "Tho fundamental cause was the falluro of tho President to satisfy the expectations of the wing of tho party responsible for his nomination and election. elec-tion. The rocord Is that ho quarrelled with tho--progresslvo Republicans, Within a few monthsm after hts election, members of his cabinet weroVead-'i lng them out of tho party. Tho President, believed' thnt ho was being truo to his pledges, and that--htfr was carrying on tho great work of his predecessor. Tho public did not, think ho was, when they saw him on terms or political intimacy with reactionary Republicans who had opposed his elevations and on terms or political hostility with the progressive Tie-publicans Tie-publicans who had favored his clevntlon. The signing sign-ing of tho Payne Aldrlch Hill, the retention of Dal-linger Dal-linger In his cabinet, and a hundred other circumstances circum-stances created In tho minds of progressive Rcpub llcans tho notion that they had made a mistake and that tho President had llttlo sympathy for trie causo with which ho was allied In tho cabinet of is predecessor. "Finally, Mr. Taft, through th0 use of patron-apo patron-apo nnd tho Jnfluenco of his Brent office, insisted on having' a renomlnatlon when It was plain thai he was n.ot tho cholco of a majority of tlio members of his party. State nftcr state, whero there "was' a rreo expression, declared against him. Yet he hung on, knowing that If a denomination came to him at all It must come from tho votes of ono hundred and-flfty-or moro non-representntlvo Southern delegates. dele-gates. Thero was no chanco.for him, after that,". Many friends of "our Junior ex-Presldcnt"r insist in-sist that ho has been a victim of circumstances add thnt history will set him right. True, says the New York Evening Post (lnd.,) as far as! many minor matters nre concerned. Dut it Is constrained" tto add that there was a really grave deficiency In Mr Tart's political equipment: r , y "Ho has shown himself devoid of the higher Imagination In public affairs, too llttlo prescient, without tho touch of quick sympathy and popular quality which would have enabled him to take arms against his sea of troubles. Tho great difficulty was that tho storm broke upon him when he had persuaded himself that tlio Bky was clear. A party rebolllon rumbled under his feet, but ho henrd no thing till tho earth nctually fissured. Congress, plnced In his hands an unsatisfactory tariff bill, which was almost visibly labelled 'dynamite,' ye't ho played with it unconscious of danger. Political disaster, after political disaster ho failed to recog-nlzo recog-nlzo In Its beginnings. Too late, he acted the man's part, but again and ngaln as In the Ralllngor Imbroglio, Im-broglio, as In tho cn.se of tho Panama tolls ho would bo got wrong nt tho beginning and then find It Impossible to recover himself even by herolcljer-torts. herolcljer-torts. ... O "ir tho break up ot tho Republican party must, bo dated from his administration, involving his own overwhelming defeat, this was because tho higher reaches of statesmanship and tho gltts or leadership leader-ship In a great crisis were beyond him. It was hts mlsfortuno to rail upon nn Iron Ago; and he Is riot a man of Iron." Literary Digest. |