Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1908 — IMAGINARY SPEECHES [ARTICLE]

IMAGINARY SPEECHES

By R. S. Taylor.

THE FIRST ONE.—TAFT. Siiaviter in rnodo; fortiter in re. I foreswore the vice of political speechmaking at the end of the last campaign. But I am not ajs good at keeping resolutions as Theodore Roosevelt; and since Taft’s nomination I have been so Impatient to get to work that I could hardly wait for the campaign to open I made this remark to a Republican editor of the state the other -day, when he said: “You needn’t wait; write out your thoughts and give them to us.” “Only,” he added, “make ’em short." The condition was a cruel one, but I accepted the offer, and this is the beginning. I might put what I want to say in the forn. of letters or essays, but not so well. The natural vehicle of political \discussion is the stump speech. is a ’reedom of utterance in the spoken address not enjoyed in written composition. A stump speaker can say “I” as often as he pleases, as I am doing now. This freedom of speech is not altogether the incident of extemp raneous address. A man feels it when he is writing something which he intends to speak. He sees his audience with his mind’s eye and unconsciously adapts his expressions to that situation. And so, as nobody wants to hear stump speeches yet the fancy struck me to make some little talks to imaginary audiences; and here is the first one. What shall follow depends. I will be’in it with a reminiscence. The first time I ever saw Mr. Taft on the bench was in the United States Circuit Court at Cincinnati some time in the middle nineties. I had seen him before at Washington when he was solicitor general under President Harrison, but this was my first observation of l.im as a judge. He came into the courtroom a short time before the hour for opening and sat down with the lawyers like an Indiana coun ty court judge. I cannot tell you how agreeable he was. He was as jovial as a schoolboy—not funny, but so open, frank and companionable. I remember wondering whether he could have Jn him the stern stuff of an able, forcible j”dge—a judge fit for the United States Circuit Court Presently he took his place on the bench. He was another man in an instant; still considerate and kind, but with the judicial mien all over. After a bit a case came up in which a receiver had been guilty of some misconduct. The reprimand which he and his lawyer got was a thing to remember —for them to remember, at least. The lawyer begged like a dog when Judge Taft told him that such conduct was not to be tolerated in that court, and that if he was’ guilty of it again he would practice there no more. That fine combination of qualities fa characteristic of the man in higher degree than in any other man I have •ver known. The old Latin epigram fits him perfectly: Suaviter in modo —pleasant In manner; fortiter in re—flrm in action; a velvet glove on a band of steel.

Of course, the man is less important tn such a case as this than the principles which he represents;, but it is a glorious thing to have a splendid leader. And what an one we have in our candidate! There is not a thing in him, or his life, that we need to deny or explain or apologise for. No other man was ever proposed for the presidency who had been so well trained in advance for Its duties. As a member of President Harrison’s administration in the office of solicitor general; as a judge of the United States Circuit Court and Court of Appeals; as Governor of the Philippine Islands; as envoy to Rome successfully negotiating for the church lands in those islands; as secretary of war; as pacificator'of Cuba; and as director of work on the Panama canal he has in evsry situation demonstrated his possession of that rarest of all high qualities among men, and most important of all high qualities in a president—executive ability in great affairs. Do you wonder that I can hardly wait for the campaign to open? Mr. Taft needs no endorsement from anyone for me. But ft did please me to read what President Roosevelt said when the news of Taft's nomination reached Washington. It was this: "I fool that the country is indeed to be congratulated upon the nomination of Mr. Taft. I have known him intimately for many years, and I have a peculiar footing for him, because throughout that time we worked for tbo same object with the same purposes and ideals. I <to not believe

could be found in all th. country a man ao well fitted to be president. He Is not only absolutely fearless, absolutely disinterested and upright but he has the widest acquaintance with the nation’s needs, without and within, and the broadest sympathies with all our citizens. He would be as emphatically a president of the plain people as Lincoln, yet not Lincoln himself would be freer from the least taint of. demagogy, the least tendency to arouse or appeal to class hatred of any kind. He has a peculiar and intimate knowledge of and sympathy with the needs of all our people—of the farmer, of the wage-worker, of the business, man, of the property owner. “No matter what a man’s occupation pr social position, no matter what his creed, his color, or the section of the country from which he comes, if he is an honest, hard-working man who tries to do his duty toward his neighbor and toward the country, he can rest assured that he will have In Mr. Taft the most upright of repre- j sentatlves and the most fearless of champions. Mr. Taft stands against privilege and he stands pre-eminently for the broad principles of American citizenship which He at the foundation of our national well being.” „ That means a great deal more than anything I can say. There are millions of people In this country who believe in Roosevelt. He Certainly knows Taft through and through. They have been close friends since they were brought together In Washington eighteen years ago—he as solicitor general and Roosevelt as president of the Civil Service Commission. And he knows a little better than anyone else in the world what manner of man is needed to take up and carry on the great work of reform begun under his administration. It seems to me that every man who voted for Roosevelt in 1904 and is glad of It, and who would vote for him this year If he were the candidate, owes it to him now to vote for Taft.