Taft became President, that the measures
which they had approved were going to be advanced still further.
It soon appeared that they were in for a disappointment. Mr. Taft
proved friendly to the older politicians; the younger and
progressive men were not in favor. He made his associates, and
chose as his advisers, the men who called Mr. Roosevelt "rash," "a
socialist," "an anarchist." Many of the men who surrounded
President Taft were honest and patriotic. But there were also a
number of stick-in-the-mud statesmen,--old gentlemen who had been
saying the same thing, thinking the same things, doing the same
things, for forty years. To change, to be up with the times, to
progress, to alter methods to meet new conditions, struck them as
simply indecent. Their idea of a happy national life was great
"prosperity" for a fortunate few, a lesser degree of success for
some others who could cling to the chariot wheels of the rich,
and,--charity for the rest. That was always their answer to the
old, hard problem of wealth and poverty. Like quack doctors they
would try to cure the symptoms, rather than like wise physicians
seek to find the causes. They were like the Tories in our
Revolution who were for King George against George Washington,
because King George was the legal King of the American colonies,
or like the Northern pro-slavery men, who defended slavery because
it was permitted by the Constitution and the slaves were legal
"property.
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