TAFT FOR PRESIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 12101, 6 November 1908, Page 1

TAFT FOR PRESIDENT.

Mb Tajt’s election as President of the United States will he received with general eatisfaction throughout the British Empire. And now that all is over but the shouting, the majority of American citizens will probably be repeating “ What did we tell you?” Well, they are entitled to claim that they gave to..the rest of the world a prediction that has been realised m a most remarkable manner. On the 14th of last month a message, emanating from the White House, was flashed across the. oceans predicting that Mr Taft would receive 306 votes out of the 483 that compose the Electoral College; Yesterday’s cable advices estimated that Mr Taft had' obtained 305 votes, while the probabilities are in favor of a mistake in the last numeral either in thh first or fiecond message. In that event both prediction and realisation would harmonise. This surmise is nob at all unlikely; as no single State casts less than three votes, though ■ there are two instances—one in 1896, the other in 1904—in which some States split their total electoral vote by giving one vote to each of the rival candidates. Mr Taft’s victory is not only a tribute to his own admirable qualifications for the high office to which lie has been called, but is a striking confirmation of the hold President Roosevelt has upon the minds and hearts of his fellow-country-men. Mr Roosevelt’s personality has almost overshadowed that of the Presidentelect. He took upon himself to act a part that is unique in tho history of American politics. Ho practically nominated tho man who was to be his successor; he dictated the party platform; and he defied “the machine”—national as well as local. His success in the choice of who shall follow him at the White House has not been greater in the national campaign than in New York itself. He insisted on the renomination of Governor Hughes for a further term as Governor of the pivotal .State, although that eminent man had embittered the “bosses” , and enraged the gambling elements in the community by his reform legislation. And New York has responded to the President’s appeal by again returning Mr Hughe© as Governor. Mr Roosevelt’s smashing of the machine and his reliance upon those whom Abraham Lincoln termed the “plain people” are not tho least of the many services that the 1 resident has rendered to his country. In Mr Taft the people of the United States have a tried and trusted (-errant, who has never failed them in the many arduous problems he has been called upon to solve. He has been their Ambassador-at-large. His loud, cheery laugh “ has been “ heard in Cuba, and at Panama, at Rome “ and St Petersburg, at Tokio and Pekin.” Ho is big, mentally, morally, and physically ; he is also immensely popular. Of his physique the cartoonists and rhymesters have had much to say,: He's six foot one way, two feet todder An’ he weighs tree hundred pound— His coat’s so big dat he couldn’t pay his tailor, ' - . ■ “* , Ah’ it won’t go halfway round. Ihe stories about his size aud his weight are innumerable; and no one eryoys them more than the President-elect. That he will maintain the high traditions associated with the Presidential chair no one can possibly doubt. His own conceptions of the great office to which he, has been elected are in harmony with the lofty ideals of tho greatest of his predecessors. He recently wrote ; In , , m , a l n . v senses, though the most sought-afrer, the President is the loneliest man in the United States Ho must prefer, for tho sak© of his own peace of mind, never to he President to being a poor President. From Washington ho may Iqarn nobility, ’fortitude, and forthrightness. Lincoln’s Life and speeches must be his source of inspiration when he ie misunderstood and he has to say to himself: “Patience and cheer. It is easier since we had Lincoln than rt was before to be a. good President. Ho set a standard. It remained for Roosevelt to prove how the people (Fill respond to a strong and true leadership when the hour has come for great reforms. Tho policies which he inaugurated must bo continued and developed. They are right and they are the policies of'the people. One otiier result of the overwhelming victory of Mr Taft will be the death of Bryanism. The silver-tongued orator of Nebraska lias tried throe times, but he lias never yet led his party to victory. The Americans are essentially practical and conservative on the whole; and always prefer the man of deeds to him of promise. Mr Taft himself attributes his own success to the vote of the business people, and, as we have more than once stated, it is this section of the country that Mr Bryan has failed to inspire with confidence. But though beaten, he is not disgraced. The shouts of opprobrium heaped upon him by a hostile Press are nothing new in his career, and it is safe to assert that no other man whom the Democrats could have chosen would have done one whit better than Mr Bryan. He has reduced Mr Roosevelt’s 1904 majority of two millions and a-lialf to little over a million, and wil! probably have p few more electoral votes than 'when hcfought M'Jvinley in 1896, It is not likely that he will again be chosen as tho Democratic leader ; hut he has many rears ahead of him, and there are many avenues open for the exercise of his" splendid talents on behalf of his country.