Important TLS signed “Wm H. Taft,” two pages both sides, 8 x 10.5, personal letterhead, November 2, 1920. Taft writes to “My dear Kels” [Clarence H. Kelsey, President of the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, New York]. In part: “I don’t know whether you read my article in the Yale Review, but that states what I think. I consider Wilson the arch wrecker of his own League, and Cox could not have compromised on Article X, which was essential if there should be an agreement at all. There is no compromise at all on Article X—it is either its acceptance or its rejections. Wilson showed his utter selfishness and entire willingness to sacrifice the League and everything else by thrusting the issue into a campaign where there could not be a real fight over the League or no League. He merely wished to use the issue to camouflage the real underlying issue, which will defeat him and his party [handwritten: lie] the utter disgust with him and his Administration. Harding is the only hope for the League. I anticipate a real fight between him and Johnson, because it must come. However, let’s adjourn politics for a while. I had a telephone from Charley Clark about the Presidency [of Yale]…. I understand there is a strong movement for Horace among the alumni. I believe Horace would make a very admirable President…. I have such a deep admiration and love for him that I would rejoice to give him the opportunity for the exercise, in a wider field, of his wonderful ability to build up the character of young men…. Still I am sure he is not a candidate. Anson Stokes knows more about the college than anybody of course, and I infer … that a majority of the Deans have concluded that he is the one to take. What I fear about Stokes is that the whole family have a screw loose….” Taft then mentions a third man, Henry Sloane Coffit, as a possible candidate for the Yale presidency; the office ultimately went to James Rowland Angell, who served from 1921 to 1937. A few minor wrinkles and a very faint marginal stain to each page, otherwise fine condition. LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
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