Show SECRETARY TAFT no personality connected with tho government it we except that of the president excites greater popular interest than that of secretary taft there is a certain robust americanism a certain bigness about bill tatt which appeals to the universal imagination there is something about him which marks him as a man of wholesome character a man of large and wide views a man without timidity and a man above trivialities and fu tili ties not even his warmest admirer will say that judgments are always well considered or his conduct always regulated by moderation but it may toe said that his defects are not those ot littleness or vanity or he gives himself whole minded and wholehearted whole hearted to the thing he Is doing with small consideration or none at all for the effects of his course apon his future place in politics he Is essentially too large a man for the petty poses and diplomacies diplo macies by which smaller men work their way in bollt ical life the people feel this and it is because they feel it that mr taft is almost universally in mind as a probable future president of the united stales somehow he has gained this high place in the public regard and public expectation without making the least effort without working any of the tricks common to ambitious statesmen without once trimming ship with respect to the of public opinion on the strictly personal side mr taft is a man oc extraordinary quality he is so much of a lawyer that he was a united states judge before ho was forty and s by the legal profession esteemed highly qualified for the chaet of tho supreme court he is so much of a scholar as to have been tendered the presidency of yale college while the frankest and most open of men in all his ways and dealings he is so much of a diplomat as to have adjusted in a few interviews at rome the vast and question oc the relationship of the popo to the philippine government he is so much of an administrator as to have carried forward tho work of the war department enlarged in its responsibilities respecting our spanish islands in full with the high traditions of that office he is so much of a man that distinctions dignities and the universal approval of his fellow citizens have not inflated his spirit nor turned his head it has been said by friends of secretary taft that he would rather be chief justice of the united states supreme court than president it was at the time he resigned the circuit judg ship to take the of the philippine islands that ills retirement from the bench was only temporary that it was the intention ot tho president to appoint him TO an associate judgeship ot tho supreme court be this as it may when taft got honna from manila there were other things tor him to do and he has been steadily doing them ever since first he went on a special mission to tho pope at rome to adjust tho important questions growing out of church ownership apt philippine lands next ho went on a special mission to cubia to study and report upon tho relationship ot the united states to that island next he succeeded to the ot war upon tho retirement of mr root and he continues in that place undoubtedly the president would like to appoint mr taft to the chief and it is expected that he will do it if that great post shall tall vacant within the period of his administration chief justice fuller is now 72 years of age and under the law Is eligible for retire ment under full pay upon his own initiative it ho were a republican ho would probably give way and allow roosevelt fo appoint his successor but being a democrat ao will no doubt prefer to hold oa in tho chopo that the chances of politics may land a representative of his own party in the white house thereby assuring tho appointment of a democrat aa his owai successor this belne afao situation i the chance of mr tafts succeeding to the chief Roosevel ts at rests upon the lito of justice fuller who has not only a reasonable but probable lease of wo tar beyond the date of Roosevel ts retirement |