WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

With the death of William Howard Taft a long career of public service has been brought to a close. It is fitting that the American public that chose him for positions of high responsibility should unite in honoring the high capacity by which their choice was justified. A statesman of long apprentice-ship, he pursued a clear-headed and unswerving course in a decade when capitalistic evils and pre-war animosities were rife. Legislator and Chief Justice, through the World War and the period of recovery, he conducted his career with the same integrity of purpose.

Ever a staunch pillar of the Grand Old Party, Taft as President tempered with perhaps too much caution the flery reform policy of Roosevelt, his friend and predecessor. Nevertheless, the qualities that he lacked as a leader were more than amply balanced by his devotion to public welfare outside of personal reward and his firm interpretation of the National Constitution. Rhetoric beats a shallow drum before the figure of a man whose effort was not stinted with egoism, whose diseeraing eyes were not slow to kindle with humanity. As a man who played many integral parts against the shifting background of national affairs his death destroys a vital link between past and present.