[Illustration: FIG. 67. High, square head, indicating conscientiousness, prudence, carefulness, dependability, and constancy.] [Illustration: FIG. 68. High, round head, indicating ambition, love of adventure, and a certain degree of recklessness, carelessness, and irresponsibility.] ROOSEVELT AND TAFT CONTRASTED When Mr. Roosevelt was about to end his term as President of the United States in 1907, he and his more prudent advisors did not consider it good political judgment for him to seek at that time nomination for what would have been, in effect, a third term. He therefore began to cast about to find a successor who would carry out his policies. As President, he had inaugurated certain policies of administration which he regarded as being of the highest possible importance to the country, and to the world at large. We are not here discussing the common sense, wisdom, and statesmanship of those policies. The fact to which we are calling attention is that Mr. Roosevelt wished to use his influence as President and as the leader of his party to have placed in nomination, as his successor, a man upon whom he could rely to continue to administer the office of President according to the policies he himself had inaugurated. Mr. Taft had long been a member of Mr. Roosevelt's cabinet and had also been a very close personal friend. As Governor of the Philippines, and as Secretary of War, he had made a splendid record and was considered to be one of the most loyal and able of the President's official family. Accordingly, he was selected by Mr. Roosevelt as his successor. In his campaign for election, and in his inaugural address, Mr. Taft repeatedly gave assurance to the voters that it was his intention to carry out the Roosevelt policies. There is practically no one, even those who disapprove most heartily of Mr. Taft's record in the Presidency, who thinks that he was anything but sincere and honest in making these promises to the voters. HOW IT WORKED OUT Now, without discussing for a moment Mr. Taft's administration as President from the standpoint of its true value to the country, or the actual quality of his statesmanship, there is no question in the mind of anyone that he signally failed to carry out the Roosevelt policies. In fact, he became the titular leader of that faction of the Republican party, before the end of his administration, most violently opposed to the Roosevelt policies. He has subscribed to and preached a totally different political doctrine from that of his former friend and chief ever since. This course of action may have been right; it may have been wrong; it may have been wise, or it may have been unwise. It may have been fully justified, or it may not have been justified. These are not questions which interest us here.