onal administration and laws, to meet the
needs of life and business that knew no state lines, had been begun
during the Roosevelt period. For its completion it was necessary that a
successor be found, convinced of the Roosevelt policies and able to
carry them out. Three Republicans of this type were often mentioned for
the Presidency in 1908. Elihu Root had been the legal mainstay of three
administrations, and had received the public commendation of Roosevelt
often and without restraint. His availability for the elective office
was, however, weakened by his prominence as a corporation lawyer, which
would be urged against him in a campaign. William H. Taft, Secretary of
War, had a wider popularity than Root; had, as federal judge, long been
identified with the enforcement of law, and had been used repeatedly as
the spokesman of the President. He knew the colonies as no other
American knew them, and was in touch with every detail of the Panama
Canal. Neither he nor Root had won a leadership in competitive politics
as had the third candidate, Charles E. Hughes, who, as Governor of New
York, had shown his capacity to fight professional politicians on their
own ground.

In 1907, President Roosevelt announced his preference for Judge Taft,
and fought off, as he had often done, suggestions that he accept
another term himself. He controlled the Republican convention at
Chicago, where his candidate was nominated on the first ballot. A
Republican Representative from New York, James S. Sherman, was nominated
for the Vice-Presidency, and the party leaders were driven to a platform
of enthusiastic indorsement of the Roosevelt policies.

The Democratic party, meeting at Denver in 1908, was again under the
control of the radical element, and nominated William J. Bryan for the
third time. The career of Roosevelt had modified the emphasis of the
Bryan reforms. "Any Republican who, after following Roosevelt, should
object to Bryan as a radical, would simply be laughed at consumedly,"
said one of the weeklies. In the ensuing campaign both candidates
professed ends that were nearly identical, and their advocates were
forced to explain whether the Roosevelt policies would have a better
chance under Bryan or Taft. There was no clear issue, and in each party
there was a powerful minority that wanted neither of the candidates. The
election of Taft had been discounted throughout the campaign, but it was
accompanied by a demonstration of indep