NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13480, 3 July 1907, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A. PROBABLE U.S. PRESIDENT.

One of the most discussed matters in the , United .States to-day is, Who will be Presi- '■ dent- in succession to Roosevelt'; Mr. A. ! Maurice Low, tho Washington correspon- ( dent of the Morning Post, says:—''Next ; to President- Roosevelt the two men now ( bulking largest before the public ate Sena- , tor Foraker, of Ohio, and Mr. Taft, Secre- ' tary of War, also from the State of Ohio. J Both are candidates for the Presidency I , when Mr. Roosevelt's term npires on! ( March 4, 1909. Mr. Taft. is the President's! ( choice for the Republican nomination, and is regarded by him as the man best qualified j to perpetuate his policies; Mr. Roosevelt opposes tho nomination of Mr. Foraker. because he considers him a ' reactionary,' which, in the American political termi- • nology of the day. means a man who is opposed to Radical legislation, and especially, one who discourages violent attacks on corporations. Mr. Taft is generous of girth, j and. like nearly all big men, radiating good humour and an even temper. . It is one of the little ironies of life that it was Foraker who first thrust Taft into public prominence. Taft, after graduating from Yale, went back to Cincinnati to practise law, and at 29, as an assistant prosecuting attorney, moved the disbarment of a Cincinnati! lawyer who was defended by Mr. Foraker. Not long after that Foraker was elected Governor, and so great an impression had Taft made upon him when they were opposing counsel that he appointed him judge of the Superior Court of Cincinnati, where many years- before his father had sat on the same Bench. He remained there until 1890, when President Harrison appointed him Solicitor-General of the United States, which office he resigned two years later to become a United States- circuit judge, and he relinquished his place on the Bench when President McKinley* appointed him President of the Philippines Commission. From the Philippines he was transferred to the War Department, and as he had succeeded his father on the Bench, so he succeeded his father in the War Department, who 30 years before had been Grant's Secretary of : War. -Mr. Taft has been called the bandy man of the Administration, because he has (done so many things, and, it may be added, j whatever he has done lie has done well, j Two years ago, when things were looking a I bit squally in the Philippines, he was sent ijoiit there to pacify the natives; last year, ■ 'when there was revolution in Cuba, the delicate mission of restoring order without • bloodshed was entrusted to him: he went] . to Rome to arrange the transfer and purchase of the property of the Roman Catho- '_ lie Church in the Philippines; he has gone to Panama and Porto Rico to smooth out ', difficulties. For him the country has enormous respect for his great legal and administrative abilities, as well as profound ' admiration for his character. That he ' would make a, great President everyone con* *■' cedes, that he deserves well of his country L * is equally admitted."