Leading Articles ix the Reviews. 

 IN THE TWO BIGGEST REPUBLICS. 



325 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. 



Electium ERiNC. in the United .States is hardly the 

 dull thing which we know in this country, for it must 

 be admitted that we take our political privileges as 

 sadly as our pleasures. This contrast is the subject 

 of an article in this month's Pall Mall Magazine bv 

 .Mr. William H. Rideinj. Under the impartial title of 

 ■■ A President, an Ex-President and a Candidate," 

 we read much of Roosevelt, something of Taft and 

 liryan, and are introduced to a new portrait of 

 Governor Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Rideing cheerfully 

 tells a story against himself : — 



When I was mnmgins; eflitor of the S'orth Aiiiei-uait 

 KiTuie-.o, Theodore Rooscvell called at our offices one day lo 



The Bull Moose. 

 The wild hunter on ihe elk. 



-ell n 

 wilh .1 



ni.inii.crl|ii. juil a? any other conlril moi mii.;iii 'v\ 

 ,■. «iiii 11 mo<l.--i d.fcrence to cililori.nl opinion and nil ihc 

 \ uriianity whirli -in'vi'hs him in soci.il intercourse. .\11 he 

 wanted wa* an iijimcdiale decision, and as we could not (jive 

 ej that he tofik llie ^n:iniiscri|it back without a nmrniur of protest 

 ■ •r a lou-h <if annoyance. He was at the time (lomuiis- 

 siiiner of llic Police of \cw York, and doing very goo I work 

 ■ that diflTi nil pnsiii >n. Of coiirv, w.' reco(;nised his inlrlli- 

 lice, lii^ n10r.1l fi»rce and his nndiiiion. hut «c did not foresee 

 liiin one who very soon .would lie I're.si lent. I will confess 

 i.il had our pr<«cicncc cone lh.it far we probalily wnuUI 

 ive taken Ihe proflered manuscript at o;icc and unrc.nl, and 



stocked our pigeon-holes on the best of terms with as many 

 more manuscripts as he chose to offer. 



We are reminded that it was Jlr. Roosevelt himself 

 who placed Mr. Taft in the presidential chair. The 

 following scant sketch does the President, bare 

 justice : — 



Meanwhile his favourite pupil, well-intentioned and diligent, 

 gave satisfaction in the job he had inherited. Djing his very 

 best, he failed. .Mr. Taft is one of the simplest and most 

 honourable of politicians ; hardly a politician at all, not brilliant 

 or epigrammatic or subtle, but judicial by training, and naturally 

 a peaceful gentleman. He is almost as ponderous as he looks. 

 I recall only one epigram of his. It agreeably surprised the 

 guests at a dinner given in .Vew York to Mr. \V. D. Honells 

 on the seventy-fifth birthday of that delightful author. Mr. Taft 

 said that when he was delivering an adtlress at Yale University 

 in his college days, he had become doubly conscious of his 

 inadequacy as soon as he discovered Mr. liowells in the 

 audience, and nevertheless Mr. Howells had praised him at the 

 close. "And compliments," he added, " are one of the few 

 things in the world which do not wear out." 



\o one extolled him as Mr. Roosevelt <lid in those happy 

 (lays when he was merely Secretary of State or Secretary for 

 War. No friends were closer than the quondam schoolmaster 

 and the quondam scholar, e.ach pinning his faith to the other 

 anil emblazoning it. Mutual admiration could not have gone 

 further, no bonds could have been stronger, no apotheosis more 

 edifying. .\nd now, O land of contrasts ! The former school- 

 master w.ints lo recover the school, and the scholar to keep it. 

 They revile each other in dead earnest, and throw mud, like 

 two hooligans. It is the saddest battle ever w.aged, a strife 

 which all the better elements of the country deplore and blush 

 at. No doubt Mr. Roosevelt enjoys it ; one feels that Mr. Taft 

 is ashamed of it. 



ROOSEVELT AS IDEALIST. 



Count Oku.m.^'s eulogy of Tlieodore Roosevelt 

 appears in tlie Oriental Rn'icw. and is interesting 

 as an outside and impartial estimate of the great 

 electoral protagonist. The Count admonishes those 

 thoughtless persons who fail to admire the im- 

 petuous ex-President : — 



My opinion of Mr. Roosevelt's attempt to win a third term 

 as President diflers from that of those .Americans who indulge in 

 adverse criticism of his action. It seems to me a pity that they 

 do not appreciate the value of this gre.tt man who lives among 

 them. Tnese critics who attribute Mr. Roosevelt's action to his 

 insatiable desire for fame show their in.tbilily lo grasp ihe 

 viewpoint of such a man. .So far as fame is concerned, it is 

 doubtful whether his present purpose will add to his fame or 

 not. His name ranks equally with those of Washington and 

 Lincoln, and Fame has little left to give to induce him to further 

 risks. Now he is venturing where even Washington himself 

 il.ired not to venture. He would not <lo this merely for the sake 

 of fame; it is a passionate ciTirt on his part to carry out his 

 political creeds, for the sake of whicli he is determined, as it 

 seems, to ignore the criticism of the worl.l. 



llis priuLiry purpose is to purify the political atmosphere of 

 America, pirticularly in reference lo the Republican natty. He 

 hn|>cs lo .ipply to the political worUI that standard of right .and 

 wrong which holds among individuals in everyday life. His 

 cfforls'asfiovernor of New Ymk and as Tresideiitof the United 

 .Stales were devoted lo tlie realisati.rn of this ideal. He has 

 Nione everything he cnuM lo wreck that system which is the 

 outgrowth of the abuse of weilth, of power, and of spcciat 

 privileges. He nude Ihe p.dllical and social tyrants Irembjc 



