The Sunday Oregonian., March 15, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 5, Image 51

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THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX, PORTLAND, MARCH 15, 1908.
5
TTAFTo Tim" IMi?
Picturesque Incidents in the Life of a Man who
Violated every Prophecy Made Concerning Him
HH5IU&
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BY ROBERT LEE DUNN.
THE world ha never relinquished
its vivid Interest in the man who
doe? unexpected things Ther'e is
a permanent fascination about the doer
of the impossible which appeals to
every people and every clime. And this
land, more than any other, is the spe
cial home of the daring: souls who have
accomplished what others called hope
lens tasks. Here, more than anywhere
else In the physical geography of the
globe, do men respect and applaud the
pioneer and the relentless conqueror of
seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
William Howard Taft came Into Yale
College a great strapping Ohio youth,
who seemed fitted for nothing so much
is b g meals and arm-chafrs. There
roul.l have ben no severity In -sizing
ip the big, -clear-eyd and ruddy-faced
Westerner as the finest sort of mate
rial for the beef-eating fraternity and
the thumb-bit coterie. But he would
have been indeed a daring soul who
would have nominated this monster for
any part In the active athletic life of
the institution, or even for leadership
In its intellectual affairs. Brawn, at
leat in thoee days, was not generally
associated with mentality. The pre
erred physique for the intellectual
l"der was of the spare, loan, even
g.flint type. That "Big Bill" Taft could
have any of the big honors of the ath
letic field or the class-room was by
the very fact of his physique more than
Improbable It was Impossible!
But was It? What 1 the history of
the case? .Well, as a matter of fact,
the history of the case is the beginning
of the greatest series of absolutely di
rect violations of .prophecy, concerning
an Individual, which recent history in
these United States offers the student.
I'or, no sooner did the big fellow get
familiar with the lay of the land than
lie began to tackle things which, ac
cording to prophecy, were directly out
of his sphere. Instead of sitting about
In armchairs and being elected leader
of the beef-eating fraternity, he started
in for the most strenuous sort of ath
letics, being promptly attracted to
boxing, ewimmlng, long-distance walk
ing. Soon the surprising ability of this
niHn to make his feet do his bidding
came to the attention of his fellows
and he was Informally voted the lightest-footed
man of the crowd. Even to
this day he carries 300 pounds of of
ficial dignity through the daintiest of
dances with a grace and ease that is
astonishing. And the folks who start
with him on his daily round of six or
seven miles on shipboard soon find the
pace rather too lively for them. The
Taft of today Is a trained athlete, with
superb muscles ready for the quickest
play.
And as to the Intellectual prophecies,
another disappointment. The clear-eyed,
ruddy-faced Ohio student soon taught his
ln.s.matcs that there was no necessary
antagonism between a big. healthy body
and the hardest kind of intellectual re
search Mnd study. lie managed to take
several of the most highly valued prizes
of his class, and bore them off in quiet
happiness in the face of the fellows who
had associated the midnight oil and the
gaunt visage with the prize-winners
record.
Both 'of these Incidents Indicated the
coming man. This easy, comfortable fol
low, who smiled his way into the best
things of life, did not lack for the plucky
spunk with which to demonstrate that ue
was not the mere lucky chip on the suc
cess wave. If it was horsemanship, he
showed that he could be as good a horse
man aa anybody, and despite his great
weight, he is regarded today as one of
the beet horsemen in the United States,
doing across the Pacific a jesting bet was
made that he could not get through one
of the big ventilators. He not only did
get through the ventilator, but he did it
in such quick time and with such ease
that the crowd cheered his performance
to the echo.
He is one of the quickest workers that
the public life of the country has e-er
seen. Yet with a trained mind accus
tomed to judicial attitude toward the
claims of each side of the question, he is
free from the snap judgments which have
been too often characteristic of our pub
lic men. They used to say that "large
bodies move slowly," but with this sunny
teinpercd cyclone in trousers doing great
tasks with such ease that men wonder
THE
it
w
HAT do you think about it.
I.arry?" asked the Hotel
Clerk of the St Keckless.
"Shall 1 succumb to the long green
frock, modeled on the chaste yet grace
ful lines of a string bean, with the
double row of white buttons scattered
long the short ribs like the stops on
an organ? Or shall I allow my errant
fancy to be wooed into a melodious
coma by the modish one-button cut
away as worn with the fashionable
wescut of the new squashed canta
loupe tint? Phall 1 have the scalloped
effect on the turn-hack cuffs? Or
shall 1 order some of those tasty side
pockets that are cut out in a curve
and put on the bias like a shark's
smile It's all still an open question to
me, and I will probably need the help
of a few discriminating friends In
making a selection.
"You see, there's such a confusion of
directions coming from thoso that are
best qualified to speak out and advise
a pslpitating and excited public. One
letwling authority, now, says that the
broad lines of wavy braid running
down the outer scams of the trousers,
or pants, if made west of Pittsburg,
will provide a truly winsome finish to
a business suit for forenoon wear. An
other who is of equal standing in the
profession especially recommends that
they shall be made loose and care-free
around the hips, but turned up at the
bottoms as far as the dictate of good
taste and the size of the knee Joint
will allow.
"Personally. I have a haunting dread
, that the long and clinging frock coat
may not become nio. It would be fine
for a slender, willowy form, say like
Vlco-President Fairbanks, who is
really the only Gibson Girl statesman
we've got left j but while I have a good
figure that Is only pleasantly plump,
still at that I'm willing to admit that
I may be getting what you'd call lumpy
In spots. That's what makes me hes
itate in my selection of the close-fitting
or princess effect with the soba
way lapels that open back like the
shutters on a henhouse. Ah me! no
wonder so many of our most promi
nent young men are breaking down un
der the nervous strain of trying to do
the right thing in the face of such con
flicting and contradictory advice."
"Wot talk have you. with your winsome
pants and your one-button nightmares?"
asked the House Detective. "Have you
been hlttin' the pipe In the back room of
a retail clothin' a-toro, or have you been
drlnkin absinthy frappys at a merchant
tailors' convention?"
"I've merely been reading up on the
modes, the Spring modes for me;" said the
Hotel CK-rk. "I've been trying to inform
myself how a man shall attire himself in
order to avoid niakii.g hiuLseif conspicu
ous iu Ci best LLp-li-a. U viouid appear
if the work could have been as hard as
they expected, we shall have to invent a
new phrase better suited to the large
bodies that move not only fast, but also
In the right direction and with little fuss.
This is the man who was impossible.
Speeches on Impossible Subjects.
Another extremely interesting phase
of Mr. Taft's career is associated with
his willingness to make speeches on.
the most astonishing subjects before
the particular audiences which those
speeches, aecording to . the skilled
prophets, could not fail to antagonize.
This Is further proof of his habf of
doing the impossible. And It may be
said that when history is written
thoughtfully, somewhere up in the dim
future, it will be recorded that this
very habit won him more friends than
almost all other causes combined ex
cepting always the wonderfully mag
netic charm of his own personality.
Take, for instance, the speech that is
at present uppermost In the public
mind, at least among the bulk of the
people of the Kastern States, the
speech that he delivered at Cooper
I nlon. New fork City, in January. The
title of that speech, announced long in.
advance, was "Capital and Labor." No
more striking theme could have been
selected for that great gathering In a
building sacred to the memory of Lin
coln, and in which, every Sunday
night, vast crowds of working men
gather for the purpose of discussing
the stirring phases of the labor prob
lem which, are uppermost. perhaps
there is no- gathering in the world
where men speak freer than they do
here; none where the audience is in
the habit of being more audacious in
its disregard of the conventional rela
tions between speaker and audience,
for they do not hesitate to hurl caustic
and searching questions at the head
of any speaker who faces them. One
of the shrewdest lawyers of the
metropolis, himself closely" in touch
with labor matters and with the trend
of political affairs, told me the day
before the speech, that "Taft was sim
ply sitting down on the edge of a
volcano when he dared to talk on such
a subject at Cooper Union." Another
critic said to me. In advance of the
meeting, "That meeting is going to be
Taft's political funeral.'1' They were all
with one accord agreed that the thing
was Impossible."
Now, was. It? If It was Impossible,
then agln this most remarkable man
accomplished the impossible, for you
have only to ask any of those who
were so sure that the occasion was to
prove his political downfall, what they
reully think of the impression created,
to learn that they were sorely wrong
in their prophecies.
The meeting was in many respects the
greatest night in Taft's career, for he
faced the largest company of thoughtful
working men in his history, men who
were ready and primed to fearlessly
flinar at him questions concerning the
motive of his past actions which they
thought would trip him up; there was
to be no quarter; the speaker was facing
the most merciless body of quest ion
askers probahly, on the American con
tinent, and unless he could win them to
his way of thinking he was liable to be
hooted "down. .
Accomplished the Impossible.
Tt did seem that the task was almost
too great to be worth attempt. With
many another man it would have been
cheerfully agreed that this was not quite
the right moment for the Introduction
of a discussion concerning capital and
labor.
But Taft made no such agreement with
his own conscience or his fearful friends.
On the contrary, he sailed into his sub
ject with all the abandon of a college
debater, he did not evade a single phase
of the difficult and complex theme; he
did not compromise; he did not extenuate;
he did not apologize. He struck right
straight out from the shoulder, like the
manly" man he is, told that magnificent
audience of the rights of labor as well as
the rights of capital, showed them how
great an apparent advantage capital
sometimes seems to have In legal matters,
helped them to a clearer understanding
of the judicial attitude toward some of
the hard problems of the day, -and un
equivocally ranged himself 'alongside of
the, labor union as Us staunch friend,
crediting It with many of the benefits
which 4 he worklngman of this day is
enjoying. If there has been a cleaner
sjsjjb ll iiiifyj ,
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THE CHASTE, 1Z?T OSACEFOZ.
from my readings that the man who
dresses up like a human being this sea
son is in great danger of being Jeered at.
as one lacking in the mere ruclments. One
article that I saw in the paper says that
not only the coatings, the vestings and
the pantings. but even the undershirtings
and the pajamarings and the porous plas
terings, if such be worn, must follow a
common color tone such as mauve or
shrimp pink or muskmelon tan In order
to stamp a fellow as a dresser of discrim
ination and individuality. And the atten
tion ttiat is being paid this year to the
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cut utterance on the subject of labor
and capital, by any leader of thought or
action during tha past decade it has not
come to the attention of thousands of
men who listened to every word, of that
speech with the profoundest care. Then
at the close came the perfect rain of
questions ranging from the intital trou
bles of history to the latest socialistic
programme, and not once did the speaker
fail to win his audience to his own carefully-stated
conclusions, or fail to arouse
from them that spontaneous enthusiasm
which can only be evoked from an
audience which is convinced of a
speaker's sincerity.
The next mornfcig, If he had been an
unknown man, he would have awakened
to find himself famous. The shrewd
lawyer who had been so fearful of the
'US,''.' . ?
if-
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-ERIC M me:
smaller details of dress you've no Idea,
Larry! A man of even the simplest taste
is going to need at least six walking canes
and as for scarfpins and "
"Come out of it," admonished the pus
sled House Detective. "You wouldn't
never fall for no such foolishness as all
that, and if you did, I'd quit speaking to
you. and so would all your other friends.
We'd talk about you, maybe, but not to
you."
"Well, I suppose you're right," said the
Hotel Clerk. "But it certainly makes me
wistful and envious to read about the
r
-A
result came into my office and said with
enthusiasm "It was masterly." The lead
ing workingmen's paper of New York City
said that the man mado just the sort of
impression that you would like to have
made upon you when you went into a
bank and the president met you to take
care of your deposit. It said "If the
boat wa sinking, and he could swim and
you couldn't you'd hand him your 550,000,
if you had It, saying "Give this to my
wife" and she'd get it, if Vie lived to get
ashore." Just that sort of plain, whole
some, manly and honorable impression is
exactly the impression that the immense
audience of working men got from his
speech on labor and capital. He was
mobbed on the platform and at the doors
on his way out, by thousands of work
garments that are going to be worn by
the pioneers of the world of fashion next
month. I lack the hardihood myself to do
it. I confess it with shame. Our stock
sprang from the primeval soil at too re
cent a period to qualify me to wear those
Pain's Fireworks clothes. If I should be
come the owner of a pair of the fashion
able eggplant purple half hose, formerly
socks, having a design of Southern Btntlax
twined around the ankles and hollyhocks
in the natural colors running up the legs.
I'd feel that I'd have to walk on my
hands in order to set my money's worth.
V4 .
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ing men who wanted to shake his hands
and toll him they were for him heart
and soul. He had literally accomplished
the impossible.
And that is the sort of speech that Taft
is making all over the world. It is not
limited to the big metropolis where the
newspapers will take it up in big space;
it is what he does in every little gather
ing of the far away Philippines, when
they call upon the Big Chief for a few
remarks. He is the. only man in the
world who has had the nerve to travel
10,000 miles for the purpose of telling
another people that they were incapable.
at prseent, of governing themselves, and
that perhaps it. would be two generations
before they would be sufficiently ad
vanced to warrant self government. And
that same nation today worships the man
But one who is to the manna born, as the
poet says, could go paddling .around in
society with his Southern terminals thus
enmeshed In beauty's weave and never let
on any more than if he was barefooted.
"I'll tell you, Larry, it takes about three
generations of persistent wealth and the
kind of culture you get at Lenox and
Palm Beach to reach the point where you
can put on those spectacular garments
and look as if you were wearing them.
With you or with me. 'twould look as if
the clothes was wearing us.
"After a family has enjoyed about 75
-4 Jt" ' "V
who told them these frank truths as few
rulers are worshiped on any continent.-'
The same thing happened In the matter
of Oklahoma. Big .delegations visited"
Washington to see the War Secretary
in the interest of their special and pet
schemes for the new commonwealth. :
They could not get him to commit him
self. He told them very frankly that
he was thinking the matter over care
fully and that when he cam ou. there
as he planned to do in a few months he
would .make an address which would
convey his thought with accuracy. And
he kept his word. He made a speech
which was so full of ginger that tire
whole state it talking about It yet. He
summed matters up in such a Judicial
way that his speech is now found pinned
up to the desks of thousands of the very
men who were at first opposed to his
utterance assuming that he was talking
not as a private citizen but as a Republican-
worker for the Administration. He
has tnore friends in Oklahoma than any
man not a resident of the state, and he
is the man who dared to stand up and
show them the truth.
These are some of the many impossible
speeches which Taft seems to have a won
derful knack of getting off on his travels
about the world. The more difficult and
hopeless the task seems to be, the better
he enjoys taking a shy at it. Nor Is this
characteristic ef any but strong, self-reliant
men: the weRkling would hardly se-.
lectvf jr his special subject any of . the
tberofs with which Taft has entertained
his fellow-men on his tour of the wotld.
He has specially reveled in the delightful
task of attempting the Impossible. Ask
those who went to scoff and remained to
cheer' how thoroughly he succeeded in
winning ..them from a narrow and anis
taken viewpoint to one where clarity of
vision and sunniness of temper prevailed.
. His Family lite.
Most public men of the day have no
family life. It Is impossible, we are led to
believe. The tremendous demands of the
governmental service render It absolutely
prohibitive for any man to expect to be
more than a mere boarder wjth his fam
ily after the Washington career starts.
So true is "this that some of the leading
men In public life do not even take their
families to Washington, - preferring to
squeeze a few days from their duties now
and then which they may spend "back at
the old home."
Now Secretary Taft is not one of this
class. He has been doing public work for
2S years, and he is one of the best illus
trations 'of the ideal American father to
be found anywhere. Here, as usual, he
has succeeded In getting the impossible to
kindly transform Itself into the inevitable.
After you come to know something of the
Taft standpoint toward life you could
hardly imagine the War Secretary as any
thing but a successful family man. He is
the sort of warm-hearted, kindly-voiced
man you expect to see taking a fine little
fellow around the shoulder and saying to
him, "Charlie, my boy, shake hands with
this old friend of your father's." You
picture him sitting about a family circle
around the lamp while the wife and
mother tells of the little household items
of the day, the daughter compares her
French pronunciation with her interested
parents, and the small boy struggles with
the names of stops which the party did
not make while they were touring round
the world.
It means a good deal for a man who
is the most-traveled public servant
that the United States has ever had,
to maintain a successful and happy
home.' It speaks well for his social
qualities and his regard for the splen
did old days when the home was really
the renter and the hub of the Nation.
Yet it is about as near impossible as
anything that one could suggest for a
man who is jumping about all over
the world on errands of the gravest
National importance to keep up a fam
ily life that shall be satisfactory. How
does he do this seemingly lmpossiole
thing?
Well, first of all, he takes his family-
with him. That's the simplest way
to get the result he seeks. For men
of large means this would be the sim
plest sort of solution of the problem
of having the family integrity pre
served. But the Secrerar-y of War is a
man of very limited means and it sug
gests . that sacrifices are made In the
family Income for the special purpose
of keeping the family together. This
is a. phase of the subject which has
&f3TJ&iZZ3 TO
years of uninterrupted mazuma in this
country, you might begin to get results.
The Joe Cannon knobs and declivities
that distinguished the countenance of the
founder of the hereditary, estate have
been obliterated from the faces of the
present crop of male offsprings, leaving
them with a smoothness and symmetry
unmarred by any expression whatsoever.
. The mind has become a mere damp trace
which still adheres stubbornly to the in-
ner. or unused side of the skull, but
' gives the owner no trouble. You'd see
such a person sitili. (u the back of his
never suggested itself to most of the
students of thfe doings of public men. ,
Little Charlie Taft 'Is probably the
most-traveled boy of his age In the
world. He has accompanied his father
on two journeys of tremendous dis
tance and made the recent trip with
the Secretary around the worlel. And
the boy is the special chum of his dis
tinguished father on the globe-trotting
Journeys. If the father Is too busy
with social or official business to at
tend to the demands of the small boy
for company In his play, then the
mother Is his partner. And she has
learned to catch a ball with unusual
skill after1 Charlie's repeated lessons
and sharp comments.
The Taft family Is a fine example of
the best In American life. Tnough they
traveled so far and so long, it was done
without personal servants or even a maid
for Mrs. Taft. Mr, Taft has always as
sisted in her domestic needs. And Mrs.
Taft Is a good deal of an expert as to
the correct clothing for her famous hus
band to wear from time to time. They
are all old chums; this interesting Taft
family, and the Interests of one are the
Interests of all. Yet what man of us.
taking a shy at the subject offhand,
would care to say that It was possible for
any public officer such as Mr. Taft has
been for a generation, to maintain such
a successful family life as he certamly
does. It's jist another of those times
when he seems to be able to do the Im
possible though, bere. again, it oug'.u
to be said .that tha tactful and charming
hand of the mother is plain In the shap
ing of the happy home life which the
Secretary so greatly enjoys.
, Taft's Appeal to Young Men.
One of the oddest developments of the
life of the Secretary of War during the
recent years has been his following of
young men. This may be due to the In
herent . spirit ' of youth with which the
man seems to be peculiarly endowed, it
may be due to his outdoor enthusiasm,
or the warmth of his temperament. But,
whatever it Is he lias It strong and clear.
Now the very last thing that any man
in the leadership 'of young men usually
dares to do Is to range them up and get
. off a "preachment" at them. You would
think that It was grossly Impolitic to say
the least. Impossible, says the practical
politician.
But Taft doea It. Not since the days of
George Washington Jiaa any man dared to
talk so plainly and with such fine enthu
siasm to the youth of the country con
corning their large responsibility for the
public life of the day and their right
and duty to share in It. as has Mr. Taft.
And strange to say, he is cheered to
the echo at every sentence. Whether It
is In .the chapel of the grand old in
stitution from which he graduated or
out on the wild plains" of the West, every
time that he jets to telling the young
fellows of the Nation what they ought
to do and why they ought to do It. he
gets the biggest applause of the day..
Stirring words he says too, such as
"Wealth can give no felicity like that
which comforts the man who has identi
fied himself with something higger than
himself." And again. "The b.est of all
Is the pure joy of service, to do things
that are worth doing, to be in the thick
of it! Ah, that is to live!"
Now the strength and glory of this ap
peal to the youth of the coantry comes
from the fact that it emanates from a,
living example of the very things that
are being preached. It Is not mere empty
platitude. . It is fiery word backed up
by living deed. He can well aff-ord to
talk about the real glory of doing things
worth while for he has been doing them
for 25 years. He knows nothing about
squeexlng a fortune out of an uncon
genial task, for he is the poorest man in
high oflice today. But he does know as
well as any man of this day and genera
tion the exquisite joy of duty done from
high and noble motives. He cannot afford
more than the most humble establish- .
ment In the great City of Washington but
no matter where he lives and calls hla
home he is making the pages of history
bright and warm with the radiance of
honorable service to ' his country, and
self sacrificing regard for the . rights of
the brown' brother among the far islands
of the Philippines.
After all. Is a good, clean, square, manly ,
man. who is using his high. talents for the '
benefit of the race among which he lives,
and is making a loved family the happier
for his sunny presence, ever '"impose
sible?"
Kf IRVING 5. COBB
neck in a club window yawning until he
looked like a doughnut In the face, and
yau'd probably say to yourself hat this
was a party lacking In nerve and daring.
Which only goes to show how mistaken
you'd be. That noble youth has a bunch
of sporting corpuscles in his blood like
a tall stack of red' chips. He proves it'
by the clothes he wears.
"When a New York family has got so
used to having money that its members
can call the servants by their last names
offhand and know how to shake hands
at the level of the Adam's apple without
apearlng self-conscious, it usually pro
duces a young Prince Charming with a
head shaped like a pineapple cheese who
is able to appear happy and comfortable
in garments that you or I couldn't wear
in a minstrel first part without attracting
comment."
"Well, praise me, men ain't as vain as
women about their duds," said the House
Detective.
"Quite right," said the Hotel Clerk.
"That's one of the grandest things about
our sex, ain't it? Still, I've noticed that
when s man joins the Knights Templar
or gets appointed in the Governor's staff,
about the first thing he does is lo go
down to the photographer's and have
a dozen full-lengths taken, in which he
is shown with a- pleased smile on his
face, standing up courageously under his
weight of epaulettes and gold-plated cur
tain cords. And I've often caught my
self wondering if so many would turn
out for a lodge funeral of a member of
the Amalgamated Order of Laryngitis if
they had to leave off the regalia?
"This clothes proposition Is a funny
game any way'you take it. Larry. When
our healthy ancestors were inhabitating
swamps of Britain, wearing their own
teeth, and hair, and carrying no excess
baggage to speak of, they were savages.
When they fell into the habit of wrap
ping up their legs the same as comic
opera banditti and wearing outer gar
ments which fitted them Just as bad
as if they had been made by a fashion
able London tailor of the present day,
they were semi-barbarians. But in this
century when a man puts on a pair of
suspenders that saw into his better na
ture and divide his disposition into two
jagged fragments, and when he Inserts
his feet into the pointed toed shoes that
have enabled so many of our leading
chiropodists to buy country places, and
encases his dome in an opera hat that
would be a concertina if it had works in
It, and backs into an overcoat that fits
him like a dog tent, and sometimes even
falls for one of those tweed suits with
such nice broad stripes in It that you
have to walk around behind him to see
the rest of the pattern why then he's a
crowning product of civilization."
"Still at that, I bet there ain't no
other town in the United States ex
cept New York that'll stand for them
(Concluded on Pace 11)