MR. W. H. TAFT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2631, 5 August 1908, Page 8

MR. W. H. TAFT.

HIS PRESIDENTAL CANDIDATURE. Mr. Sydney Brooks writes in tho "Daily Mail":— Tho expected has happened, and Mr. Taft is now formally adopted as the Republican candidate for tho Presidency. Mr. Roosevelt's nomination four years ago was practically equivalent to his election. It is not so to-day with slr. Taft. He has a hard light ahead of him, a harder one, in my judgment, than most Americans seem to realise.

110 may win; probably he will win; certainly 110 ought to win. But Mr. Bryan, wno, I assume, will bo his Democratic opponent,'is still far from being a spent force, and tlioso who minimiso or deride his candidature will find reason boforo long to reviso their estimate of his chances. There is not going to bo any walk-over this year, but a close and sustained contest, tho issue of which, I imagino, will remain uncertain till tho last voto is counted. In For "The Hardest Job On Earth." When I say that Mr. Taft ought to win I mean that 110 is far better equipped than his rival in the qualities of judgment and in tho administrative experience and capacity that fit a man for what Mr. Roosevelt has called "tile hardest job on earth." Mr. Bryan lias talked much and done little; ho has never held office; his'cxccutivo gifts, if ho has any, have to bo taken on trust; of tho actual business of government ho has had no experience whatever. Mr. Taft, on the other hand,. on tho Bench, as Solicitor-General, in the Philippines, at the AVar Office, and in his capacity of general utility man to the Roosevelt Administration, has been engaged all his life in the intimate direction of affairs. In tho expressivo slang of his country, he has "made good." It will bo a contest, then, between a man of action and a man of words; between one whoso practical efficiency has been proved a hundred times over and one whoso administrative faculty is a matter of guesswork; between a, candidato ,whose conduct and methods in the AYhito Houso can bo inferred in advance ajid a candidate whose accession < to tho Presidency would bo that of an unknown and an unpredictable quantity. Assuming, as I think one fairly may,'that tho policies of tho two men, while verbally different, would bo practically the same, and that both move on tho same high plane of personal character, the balanco of advantages from the standpoint of competency inclines rather decidedly in Mr. Taft's favour.

Columbia's Choice. Mr. Taft, in fact, would make an admirable President. His lifo has been a broad-gauged, thorough, and unconscious training for the post. With tho standing exception of Mr. Roosevelt, thero ia ■ perhaps no man in America who rises so obviously and easily to the level of _ its responsibilities. By tho side of his solid achievements and tested aptitudes, Mr. Bryan's rhetoric seems a thin and flashy claim to public conficlonce. But tho better President does not alwaj's make tho better candidate. Innumerable factors that liavo nothing to do with efficiency in ofiico play their part in an election. Miss Columbia, indeed, seems likely to be confronted with a choice that is-riot unknown in other relations of life. On tho one hand, an ardent and captivating lover; on tho other, tho assurance of a dependable husband.

Not that Mr. Taft lacks the "personal magnet jsm" which Americans so dearly prize in their leaders. No "one can 'Come across him without feeling drawn towards this -goodhumoured, unconventional, rollicking giant, with his frank, free bearing, his massive look of power and adequacy, his radiating air of jollity and zest. I recall that at the first moment of our meeting—and this, I think; must be pretty nearly everyono's experience —he made on my mind and senses four distinct impressions. ' ■

One was that he was immensely likeable. His heartiness, his geniality, you felt at once rang truo. Thero followed instantly tho conviction that here was a man jrou could trust to the last. Ho has tho unmistakablo stamp of an engaging and unswerving • integrity. ■One's third impression, as ho sat down, munched a sandwich, hoisted a huge leg over tho, arm of his chair and relieved his waistcoat buttons of their normal functions—it was in his official room in the War Department, and tho newly, appointed American Ambassador t-o Tokio was present—was that, whatever might bo Mr. Taft's shortcomings, affectation, "side," pretentiousness of any kind, wero not among them.

A Cuaranteo of Efficiency. Tho fourth impression—l call it the fourth, though it camo simultaneously with tho others—was of nn unhurried, ever-ready instinct and capacity for dealing with men and things. His overwhelming physiquo aloneMr. Taft weighs-more than twenty stoneseemed somehow to guarantee his efficiency. One could not imagine the problem that would not give way beneath such an impact.. But Mr. Taft'e bigness is not of body only. Eight years on the Bench, four m the Philippines, and four as Secretary of War havo united in him characteristics not often found together—a judicial, impersonal, disentangling mind with a strong and constant bias for practical business. Fie thinks liko the lato Duko of Devonshire and acts like a mountainous edition of Mr. Lloyd-George. Mr. Taft resembles the lato duko again, in his transparent honesty. Ho is honest with himself' and with his a.udiences, not only morally honest but intellectually honest. No one in America has a greater reputation for saying what ho thinks, and for thinking boforo ho says it. His mind is a vigorous, rather than a pliable instrument •He does not, liko Mr. Roosevelt, flash to conclusions, but works round to them step by step with a careful, ponderous, mihaSting thoroughness. There is a wholesome lack of originality about him, which makes people trust him the more; they can watch and calculate his mental processes ; his common sense is often courageous and always unimpeachable; and he could not, overt if he . would, appear clever or epigrammatic.

No Half-Truths or Tricks. It was typical of Mr. Taft that in Manila, and in spito of his twenty stone, he set himself to master tho Spanish quadrille. It was not less typical of him that in a recont address on General Grant he made 110 attempt to gloss over tho fact that as a young man Grant drank moro than ho should havo done. Demagogies, half-truths, tho arts of trimming, tho distortions of ■ partisanship aro wholly alien to his character. Ho is 110 " politician," as tho word is understood in America. Ho has won tho nomination, just as 110 wins popularity, by not angling for it. Tho tricks and bargains of the' committeeroom find no countonanco from him. Mr. Taft is ono of those men who must bo taken just as he is and on his own terms or not at all. Fow Americans havo sacrificed more for their country than Mr. Taft. He relinquished his doarest ambition—a, seat in tho Supremo Court —to go to tho Philippines. It was twico offored him when 110 was at Manila, and twico refused. Ho is not a .rich man, and there is not a legal firm in tho country that would not gladly guarantee him as a partner ten or twonty times tho salary on which lie economises as a Cabinet Minister. But Mr. Taft is monoy-proof. His serenity—the serenity of a comfortable, unworrying man, who is master of himself and has learned tho virtuo of a cai-eful patience—is littlo less than marvellous. Nothing seoms to rufflo him; ho never explodes. It is this quality of self-restraint that has enabled him to solvo so many and such varied problems in tho Philippines, in Cuba, and nfc Panama. Whenever a peculiarly anxious and difficult crisis arises, whether it concerns

his own Department or not, Mr. Taft is at onco deputed to deal with it. Still only in his fiftieth year, ho has amassed a store of all-round experience such, perhaps, as 110 precious candidato for tho Presidoney has cqualled. Ho will need it all if the American people now set him to work on tho supremely arduous task of succecding President Roosevelt. To-night, and to-morrow night, at the Oddfellows' Hall, Pctone, tho Wellington Dramatic Club will produco that well-known comedy, "The Guv'nor," in aid of tho widow and children, of tho late Mr. Webster, who was run over and killed by a train at the back of tho railway offices last week. When produced in tho Opera House by tho Wellington Dramatic Club, "The Guv'nor" was a distinct succoss, and Pctone residents should not fail to witness the performance. Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P.i and tho Mayor and Mayoress of Pctone .will attend to-nigut.