It was a compact that neither man forgot. Before many months were over rumour reported a conspiracy on Hanna’s part and Roosevelt unhesitatingly repeated this to him. “You are carrying out your part of the bargain,” said the Senator, “as long as you continue to do so, I’ll carry out mine.” When Hanna died, the machine that he had controlled fell for a time into disuse and Roosevelt, taking advantage of the temporary absence of a machine-bred leader, assumed leadership, not as the head of the old machine, but by virtue of his position as President. He did not recognize the machine leaders of the various states, nor did they stand behind him, but he used his power to name Taft as his successor. Chief Justice Taft has himself described to me how Roosevelt coached him for the fight. When he called at the White House, the President asked him: “Now, then, what are you doing about your campaign?” “I’ve prepared some speeches,” Taft answered. “What are they about?” “Well, I’m just back from the Philippines. I understand them, and thought I’d talk mostly about them.” Roosevelt threw up his hands. “What in the world are you thinking of? You cannot interest the American public at election-time in the Philippines.” “If you don’t think they’ll want to hear about the Philippines, what do you suggest they would like to hear about?” “My currency measures,” said the President. “Talk to them about my currency measures. That’s what they’re interested in.” So the candidate disregarded what he had written and composed a new set of speeches expounding Roosevelt’s ideas on the currency. Nevertheless, Taft, as history soon demonstrated, did not recognize the Colonel as his boss. He undoubtedly felt sincere friendship for Roosevelt and was grateful to him, but he had a still stronger appreciation of the responsibilities of his office. Consequently, there soon came about a conflict between Roosevelt’s adherents and Taft’s, in which the machine leaders, having got together the pieces of the broken Hanna oligarchy, aligned themselves with the new President.