AMERICA'S NEW PRESIDENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 9, 10 July 1909, Page 13

AMERICA'S NEW PRESIDENT.

UNSPECTACULAR ADMINISTRATION. Mr. Taff, as tho executive head of the American Government, develops slowly (writes tho San Francisco correspondent of the Melbourne Age) . Ho seems to bo ; one who thinks not once but many times before ho acts, and who is greatly averse to talk about what he intends doing. Following his versatile predecessor, . whose unfailing succession of speeches, letters, messages to Congress, and occasional articles in tho magazines kept tbe public constantly informed as to what he was doing and what lie was thinking about, President Taft's method of running the Government is drab and uneventful. Probably it is none the less efficient, however, though, as to that, little opportunity has presented itself of judging. No incident of more than routine import has occurred since the new President took office. The Governmental machine seems to be running with unusual smoothness. In one respect Mr. Tail has pursued a course diametrically opposite to that of Mr. Roosevelt.. In the last eight years Congress had got accustomed to being plainly told by the President what he and tho people expected it to do. Generally Congress did it. Mr. Roosevelt waa regarded as the embodiment of the public conscience. It was very unsale to disobey him. But President Taft resolutely refuses to instruct Congressmen, in their duty. It is not. part of the task assigned him under the constitution, he insists. Many representatives and senators, habituated to receiving their cue from White House, have consulted the new President about important matters of legislation. To their surprise, he has no orders to give. In this he is treading the same path as Charles E. Hughes, the brilliant Governor of New York State. Whether Hujrhes's other custom of stumping tho country in support of measures he deems salutary, but. which the Legislature has defeated, will also appeal to President Taft remains to bo seen. Although a great silence has descended upon While House, the President a week or two ago "let it bo known/ as the Washington correspondents say, that hereafter ho will retain in his own hands tho appointment of judges to the Federal bench. In the past these appointments l«we been part of the patronage of the senators from the States concerned. The two senators from, say, California would, in the event of a vacant Federal judgeship in that State, pick out some lawyer who had been of political uao to them and "recommend" him to the President I for appointment. In all cases, except when the recommendation has been flagrantly improper, tho appointment has been made as a matter of course. "President Taft is willing to receivo suggestions as to these appointments, but in all cases he insists that ho, and he alone, will name the judge. The constitution says the appointments must be confirmed by tho Senate, but in practice this has been stretched so that tho Senate really selects and the President confirms. The reform to be instituted by President Taft is a very wholesome one. If thoro is one thing American courts require raoro than another it is that judges should be lifted above ami beyond the influence of local politics. As tho Legislatures that appoint tho senators are very frequently under the influence of great railroad and other corporations, it follows that tho senators are themselves susceptible to the influence of these corpora^, tions. Thus it has not seldom happened that the Federal judges appointed are lawyers who are satisfactory to the corporations. These corporations aro always in tho courts. It pleases them very well, of course, to have men on the bench whoso judgments will lean to them. Tho vicious system w&e soeu in its flower recently in the publication -of tho Standard Oil letters stolen by Hearst. In thoso letters the Standard Oil Trust was seen writing to Senator Foraker and to the Governor of Pennsylvania, recommendingtho appointment of certain lawyers friendly to tho trust. President Taft's reform will b0 \i\ the dirG ction of eliminating ' the possibility of euch abuses. Notwithstanding that tho American Federation of Labour, headed by Samuel Gompnrs, vigorously opposed Mr. Taft. for election as President, hie actions co far seem to have met with the approval of tho trade unions. A cordial interview between tho President and the . officials of fodciation was held at White House tho other day, at which for more than two hours Buch subjects as the eight-hour law convict labour, injunctions in labour disputes, work on tho Panama Canal, and tha danger of tho dissolution of unions under a recent decision of the Supremo Court wero discussed. While the President promised no more than a careful investigation of tho matters presented, the Labour leaders wero pleased with the reception accorded them.