013 982 427 1 E 762 .B82 Copy 1 RACT FROM AN ADDRESS BY Rev. Daniel Freeman Bradley PASTOR OF Pilgrim Congregational Church CLEVELAND, O. At New England Society Banquet Dec. 22ncl, 191(3 "WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT" COMPLIMENTS OF The New England Society CLEVELAND. O. Charles William Burrows, PRESIDENT ,73 ^^ In my judgment the man who best repre- sents the New England spirit of our time in his personality, in his temperament, in his ed- ucation, in his sane religious hope, and in his freedom from hysteria, in his belief in God and his confidence in men and his loyalty ti' the laws of his country, and his sympathy with men of all colors under the flag, is that New Englander, graduate of Yale and citizen of Ohio, who today occupies the place of greatest ruler among the nations of mankind I know that jackdaws are pecking at him — that the frogs in the ooze are croaking at him — that the buzzards in the trees are flap- ping their foul wings at him — that all the bats and all the owls and all the vampires are do- ing their best to discredit him. But there's no case against this man who inherits in his blood and in his training the finest of the New England qualities. I like his loyalty to his friend (Ballinger), whom he believes to be honest and competent, and that he has not listened to those who would indict and con- vict and punish a man in the newspapers and m'a'g,azines without a hearing. I like a man wu®,*iike Mayor Gaynor, is not afraid of that most irresponsible of tyrants that has arisen in public life — the unscrupulous newspaper — the unscrupulous magazine. I like him for his loyalty to the Constitution of the United States and his refusal to let himself slump into becoming the great Pooh Bah of Ameri can politics, the President, the Congress, and the Judiciary, all packed in one. I like him for his great patience and courtesy even to men who upon him have exhausted the vocab- ulary of vituperation. I have w^atched him with thrilling interest as he took up his her culean labors to secure for the American people, by due process of law and by delib erate decisions of the courts, what they have been clamoring for in vain — namely the curb- ing of the big corporations, the crushing of the dishonest and disreputable combines — and the punishing of the great rascals in high places. I have seen him bring about the es- tablishment of a juster law for the railroads — a Tariff Court and a Commerce Court for the trial of commerce causes — the establishment of postal savings for the protection of earn- ings — a taxation of all corporations doing in- terstate commerce business — and submission to the legislatures of the states of an amend ment, to make possible an income tax. What four Presidents in twenty-five years have sought, in vain, to do, he has brought to pass [ have seen him strive and finally secure. backed by our Puritan Senator, a Harbor bill that contained no pork barrel, an actwal re duction of expenses in the running of the gov- ernment, and a better business administration of the public service. I have seen his court- eous treatment of the little powers in Central America, and in spite of provocation that would have made us swiftly interfere under other administrations, keep our hands off the miserable little barbarians and respect their national life. I have seen him after ten years of constant effort and argument, at last per suade the American people to be just to the people of the Phillipine Islands and to Portci Rico, and to allow them to prosper by enter- ing more freely into the markets of the Re- public. I am proud that he — a son of New England, should forget all partizanship and all prejudice, and appoint to the highest position among the judges of the earth, a Confederate soldier and a Catholic Democrat from Louis- iana. His mistakes, if there have been any, are trivial — his achievements have been co- lossal. Some of us who follow the struggles on the gridiron, were thrilled last fall, when after a disastrous beginning, the boys from Yale went down into the arena to meet their old rivals from Princeton, and then again to con- tend with the most formidable foot-ball ag- gregation ever gotten together in an Ameri- can College, from Harvard. Everybody said Yale was doomed. The betting was against them — but there's a bull-dog fighting spirit about the old College at New Haven, of which dopesters failed to take account — and when the boys were through with Prince- ton, and the Harvard men went home again, to parody Tennyson. "Ever upon the topmost roof the blue ban ner of Eli flew." For Yale has a way of "coming back," and I present you as my final word — "The Pres- ident, William Howard Taft, the Modern Puritan." "He is from Yale, and he will come back." Bxcliani?6 West. Res. Hist. Soc. 1915 013 982 427