William Howard Taft in the United States

William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27th President of the United States. Born in Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, 15 Sept. 1857, son of Judge Alphonso (q.v.) and Louisa M. (Torrey) Taft. After graduating with honors from Yale (1878) he studied law in Cincinnati being admitted to the bar in 1880. From 1881 to 1883 he was assistant prosecuting attorney in Hamilton County, Ohio, and for a time Collector of Federal Internal Revenue. From 1883 to 1887 he practised law in Cincinnati, after 1885 being assistant county solicitor. In 1886 he married Miss Helen Herron. In 1887 Governor Foraker appointed him to fill an unexpired term as judge of the Superior court. He was later elected for a full term; but in 1890 he was appointed solicitor-general of the United States by President Harrison. In 1892 he was made a Federal judge of the sixth circuit, a position for which by temperament and training he was admirably fitted, and the work of which he found most congenial.

On 12 March 1900 President McKinley chose him to head a commission to establish civil government in the Philippines, and on 4 July 1901 he became first civil governor. Taft accepted both appointments at the expense of his personal preference for a career on the bench, being influenced by a deep sense of responsibility toward and a genuine affection for the Filipinos. In 1902 Roosevelt twice offered him an appointment to the Supreme Bench of the United States, but he put aside what has been his chief personal ambition because he felt his immediate duty was to continue in the islands. As an executive his work was highly successful. In 1902 he conducted at Rome the important negotiations for the purchase of the Catholic Friars’ lands. To a remarkable degree he won the confidence and affection of the Filipinos, though he disappointed many by his frank statement that in his judgment it might be two generations before they would be ready for complete self-government. He believed in “The Philippines for the Filipinos,” and opposed exploitation primarily in the interest of American capital. He urged tariff concessions for Philippine products.
On 1 Feb. 1904 he became Roosevelt’s Secretary of War, and for over four years was engaged in such important enterprises as the building of the Panama Canal. In 1906, when disorders called for American intervention, he was sent to Cuba, and for a time acted as provisional governor. In 1907 he visited Cuba and Panama, and later Japan and China, going to the Philippines for the opening of the legislative assembly, and returning by way of Russia. In 1906-13 he acted as president of the reorganized American Red Cross.

By 1907 Roosevelt was exerting his influence to secure the Republican nomination for his Secretary of War, whom he described as possessing “a standard of absolutely unflinching rectitude on every point of public duty, and a literally dauntless courage and willingness to bear responsibility,” besides a knowledge of men, tact and kindliness. Nominated on the first ballot, June 1908, Taft resigned as Secretary. The campaign with Bryan was fought largely on the issue of continuing the “Roosevelt policies,” the President declaring that Taft was ”the man who I feel is in an especial sense the representative of all that in which I most believe in political life.” With this recommendation, and on the strength of his ideal training for the office, Taft was given 321 electoral votes to Bryan’s 162.

As President he lacked the magnetism and dramatic force of his predecessor. In general he took a moderate position on public questions. “We middle-of-the-road people,” he said (1911), “who are not extremists are, we believe, the real Progressives, because you do not make progress by great strides; you make progress step by step.” His position on important issues may be summarized as follows: (1) In connection with the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill he used his influence in favor of downward revision to a protective basis, just sufficient to cover the difference in cost of production between here and abroad. Though not satisfied with some provisions, he signed and defended the law as the best ever passed. He favored further revision on the basis of reports to be made by a tariff commission; and he vetoed later revisions of several schedules largely because they were not based on such reports. He worked for reciprocity with Canada. (2) On conservation his fundamental views were not so different from those of the Progressives as they seemed to believe. He hesitated, however, to stretch the executive power, and Congress was slow to give him the power he requested. Unfortunately his support of Secretary Ballinger against Roosevelt’s friend, Pinchot, appeared to place him in opposition to the policies of his predecessor. (3) In the matter of railroad and trust regulation he favored strict enforcement of existing law and his administration secured the dissolution of the Standard Oil and Tobacco trusts. He urged the clarification of the Sherman law and favored Federal charters for corporations doing interstate business. (4) He was opposed to the more radical schemes of direct popular government, in particular the “recall of judicial decisions.” (5) He favored and extended civil service reform, worked for efficiency and economy in government, especially urging a budget system and advocating pensions for Federal employees. (6) In foreign affairs he worked heartily for peace, negotiating treaties for arbitration and the judicial settlement of international difficulties, which were rejected by the Senate. By “dollar diplomacy” the administration sought to secure opportunities for trade and the investment of capital. This policy was denounced by some as leading to imperialistic interference in the affairs of weaker nations, and making government diplomacy a mere agent of big business.

Some of these views were too progressive to suit the old leaders, and yet it was not long before the insurgent Progressive-Republicans were denouncing the President as too friendly with reactionary party bosses and big business, and a deserter from progressive standards. Believing in the necessity of party government, the President did feel it necessary to work with and through the party majority in Congress. For a time he withheld patronage from insurgent senators and representatives, and when he changed his policy the damage had been done. The defense of the Tariff Bill, the dismissal of Pinchot, the repeated vetoes of later tariff reduction bills, the veto of the grant of statehood to New Mexico and Arizona because of radical provisions in their constitutions, all increased his unpopularity. The elections of 1910 gave the Democrats a majority in the House and showed a popular discontent with the old Republican rule and a drift toward Progressive Republicanism or toward the Democratic party. In Congress the insurgent Republicans often joined the Democrats to defeat the regular Republicans. In 1910 Roosevelt returned from Africa, and before long was openly taking issue with the policies of his successor. By 1911 the Progressive Republicans were planning to prevent the renomination of Taft. At first La Follette was to be their candidate, then they turned to Roosevelt. Early in 1912 he agreed to accept the nomination. In the States having direct primaries Roosevelt made a much better showing than Taft; but the control of the party machinery by the regulars brought about the President’s renomination. The Progressives started a new party, ensuring the overwhelming defeat of the President in November and the election of Wilson.

The outstanding feature of the administration was the conflict between conservative and progressive forces; but the confusion and recrimination should not obscure important developments during these four years. Among these were the reform of the rules of the House of Representatives (1910); the corporation tax (1909); increased powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission; Postal Savings Bank (1910) and Parcel Post (1912); Children’s Bureau (1912) and Department of Labor (1913); publicity for and limitation of campaign contributions (1910-11); submission of amendments on income tax and direct election of senators.

Since 1913 Mr. Taft has been Kent professor of law at Yale University, lecturing on constitutional law in the college and the law school. He has continued to take an active interest in promoting international peace and a League of Nations. During the World War he was joint chairman of the National War Labor Conference Board.
With the calming of factional bitterness, Mr. Taft has gained again in the public esteem and confidence, and the accomplishments as well as the mistakes and difficulties of his administration appear in a better perspective.

Main Source: The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)

Alternative Biography about William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27th President of the United States (see 26.354), antagonized a considerable branch of his own party in 1911 by his endeavour, which proved unsuccessful, to secure a reciprocity agreement with Canada. Meanwhile wide public interest had been awakened in the conservation of national resources and the President’s attitude was attacked by the conservationists. In 1909 Gifford Pinchot, chief forester, charged Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary of the Interior, with being opposed to conservation. A Congressional committee, after investigation, exonerated the Secretary, but he later resigned. The attack upon Ballinger was denounced by the President, who continued to be criticized in connexion with the sale of public lands, and who dismissed Pinchot from office. The President lost ground also as a result of a breach of friendship between himself and Theodore Roosevelt, who supported Pinchot. In 1912 the President signed the Panama Tolls bill, exempting American coastwise shipping from tolls; he affirmed that it did not violate the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, and believed also that the United States had the right to fortify the canal. At the same time he expressed a readiness to arbitrate the question with Great Britain, who had protested. Cleavage within his party was crystallized at the Republican National Convention in 1912. In the pre-convention campaign Roosevelt came forward as leader of the progressive wing against Taft as leader of the conservative or “stand-pat” wing, and the mutual recriminations were bitter. At the convention, however, the conservatives controlled the party machine, and the committee on credentials by arbitrary decisions excluded most of Roosevelt’s contesting delegates. Taft was renominated on the first ballot, receiving 561 votes, 21 more than the required majority. Roosevelt denounced the action of the convention and later was nominated by the newly formed National Progressive party. In the ensuing election Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic nominee, won an overwhelming victory, securing 435 electoral votes to 88 for Roosevelt and 8 for Taft. President Taft carried only two states, Utah and Vermont, and those only by small pluralities. The general feeling throughout the country was that President Taft had shown a deplorable lack of administrative firmness, his good nature having caused him to vacillate. On retiring from the presidency in 1913 he became Kent professor of law at Yale, but devoted much time to lecture engagements. In 1913 he was elected president of the American Bar Association, and in 1914 first president of the American Institute of Jurisprudence, organized to improve law and its administration. After the outbreak of the World War in 1914 he supported President Wilson’s strong stand for neutrality. In 1915 he approved the Army League’s campaign for preparedness. He was an active promoter of the League to Enforce Peace, but after America’s entrance into the war he argued that victory was necessary for attaining lasting peace. In 1918 he was appointed by the President a member of the National War Labor Board for arbitrating labour disputes during the war. In 1919 he endorscd the Peace Treaty of Versailles, regarding its most important part to be the Covenant of the League of Nations. He spoke throughout the country in behalf of the League. After the Senate’s rejection of the Peace Treaty he urged reservations if these would secure ratification. In July 1920 he was appointed to represent the Grand Trunk railway on the board of arbitration for determining the sum to be paid by the Dominion of Canada when the road was to be made a part of the national system. He supported Warren G. Harding, the Republican candidate for president in 1920. On June 30 1921 he was appointed by President Harding Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Edward Douglas White, deceased.

He was the author of Popular Government: its Essence, its Performance, and its Perils (1913); The Anti-Trust Act and the Supreme Court (1914); The United, States and Peace (1914); Ethics in Service (1915, Yale lectures); Our Chief Magistrate and his Powers (1916, Columbia lectures) and The Presidency: its Duties, its Powers, its Opportunities and its Limitations (1916, lectures at the university of Virginia).

Main Source: Encyclopedia Brittannica 1922

Other Alternative Biography about William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft (1857-1930), the twenty-seventh President of the United States, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 15th of September 1857. His father, Alphonso Taft (1810-1891), born in Townshend, Vermont, graduated at Yale College in 1833, became a tutor there, studied law at the Yale Law School, was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1838, removed to Cincinnati in 1839, and became one of the most influential citizens of Ohio. He served as judge of the Superior Court (1865-72), as secretary of war (1876) and as attorney-general of the United States (1876-77) in President Grant’s cabinet; and as minister to Austria-Hungary (1882-84) and to Russia (1884-85).

William Howard Taft attended the public schools of Cincinnati, graduated at the Woodward High School of that city in 1874, and in the autumn entered Yale College, where he took high rank as a student and was prominent in athletics and in the social life of the institution. He graduated second (salutatorian) in his class in 1878, and began to study law in Cincinnati College, where he graduated in 1880, dividing the first prize for scholarship. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1880. For a few months he worked as a legal reporter for the Cincinnati Times (owned by his brother C. P. Taft), and then for the Cincinnati Commercial. Early in 1881 he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county (in which Cincinnati is situated), but resigned in 1882 on being appointed collector of internal revenue of the United States for the first district of Ohio. The work was distasteful, however, and in 1883 he resigned to return to the law. From 1885 to 1887 he served as, assistant solicitor of Hamilton county, and in the latter year was appointed judge of the Superior Court of Ohio to fill a vacancy. He was elected by the people in the next year and served until 1890, when he was appointed solicitor-general of the United States by President Benjamin Harrison. His work in connexion with the drafting of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and with the Bering Sea controversy attracted attention. In 1892 he was appointed a judge of the Sixth Circuit, United States Court, and became known as a fearless administrator of the law. Several decisions were particularly objectionable to organized labour. The first of these, decided in 1890, upheld the verdict of a jury awarding damages to the Moores Lime Company, which had sustained a secondary boycott because it had sold material to a contractor who had been boycotted by Bricklayers’ Union No. 1. The second decision grew out of the attempt of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers to prevent other roads from accepting freight from the Toledo, Ann Arbor & North Michigan railroad, against which a “legal” strike had been declared. Judge Taft granted an injunction (7th March 1893) against the Pennsylvania railroad, making P. M. Arthur, chief of the Brotherhood, a party, and called Rule 12, forbidding engineers to haul the freight, criminal. During the great railway strikes of 1894 Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union, sent one Frank W. Phelan to tie up traffic in and around Cincinnati. The receiver of the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific railway applied for an injunction against Phelan and others, which was granted. Phelan disobeyed the injunction and on the 13th of July 1894 was sentenced to jail for six months for contempt. The doctrine that “the starvation of a nation cannot be the lawful purpose of a combination” was announced, and Judge Taft said further that “if there is any power in the army of the United States to run those trains, the trains will be run.” In 1896-1900 Judge Taft was professor and dean of the law department of the University of Cincinnati.

A movement to elect Mr Taft president of Yale University gained some strength in 1898-99, but was promptly checked by him, on the ground that the head of a great university should be primarily an educationalist. In 1900 he was asked by President McKinley to accept the presidency of the Philippine Commission charged with the administration of the islands. Though he had been opposed to the acquisition of the Philippines, he did not believe that the inhabitants were capable of self-government, and he foresaw some of the difficulties of the position. Yielding, however, to the urgent request of the president and his cabinet, he accepted and served from the 13th of March 1900 to the 1st of February 1904. On the establishment of civil government in the islands, on the 4th of July 1901, he became governor, ex officio. The task of constructing a system of government from the bottom, of reconciling the conflicting and often jealously sensitive elements, called for tact, firmness, industry and deep insight into human nature, all of which Governor Taft displayed in a marked degree. (See Philippine Islands.) The religious orders had been driven out during the insurrection, but held title to large tracts of land which many Filipinos and some Americans wished to confiscate. This delicate matter was arranged by Mr Taft in a personal interview with Pope Leo XIII. in the summer of 1902. The pope sent a special delegate to appraise the lands, and the sum of $7,239,000 was paid in December 1903. Mr Taft gained great influence among the more conservative Filipinos, and their entreaties to him to remain influenced him to decline the offer of a place upon the Supreme bench offered by President Roosevelt in 1902.

Finally, feeling that his work was accomplished, Mr. Taft returned to the United States to become secretary of war from the 1st of February 1904. With a party of congressmen he visited the Philippines on a tour of inspection July-September 1905, and in September 1906, on the downfall of the Cuban republic and the intervention of America, he took temporary charge of affairs in that island (September-October). In the next year (March-April) he inspected the Panama Canal and also visited Cuba and Porto Rico. He again visited the Philippines to open the first legislative assembly (16th October 1907), and returned by way of the Trans-Siberian railway. On this tour he visited Japan, and on the 2nd of October, at Tokyo, made a speech which had an important effect in quieting the apprehensions of the Japanese on the score of the treatment of their people on the Pacific coast.

With the approach of the presidential election of 1908, President Roosevelt reiterated his pledge not to accept another nomination, and threw his immense influence in favour of Mr Taft. At the Republican convention held in Chicago, in June, Mr Taft was nominated on the first ballot, receiving 702 out of 980 votes cast. James S. Sherman of New York was nominated for Vice-President. During the campaign many prominent labour leaders opposed the election of Mr Taft, on the ground that his decisions while on the bench had been unfriendly to organized labour. In the campaign Mr Taft boldly defended his course from the platform, and apparently lost few votes on account of this opposition. At the ensuing election in November, Taft and Sherman received 321 electoral votes against 162 cast for William Jennings Bryan and John W. Kern, the Democratic candidates.

In his inaugural address (4th March 1909) President Taft announced himself as favouring the maintenance and enforcement of the reforms initiated by President Roosevelt (including a strict enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, an effective measure for railway rate regulation, and the policy of conservation of natural resources); the revision of the tariff on the basis of affording protection to American manufactures equal to the difference between home and foreign cost of production; a graduated inheritance tax; a strong navy as the best guarantee of peace; postal savings banks; free trade with the Philippine Islands; and mail subsidies for American ships. He also announced his hope to bring about a better understanding between the North and the South, and to aid in the solution of the negro problem. In accordance with his pre-election pledge, Congress was called to meet in extra session on the 15th of March to revise the tariff. Hearings had been previously held by the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, and a measure was promptly reported. After passing the House it was sent to the Senate, where it was much changed. The final Payne-Aldrich Act was approved by the President on the 5th of August 1909, though in many respects it was not the measure he desired. The wish to meet people of the different sections of the country and to explain his position upon the questions of the day led the President to begin (14th September 1909), a tour which included the Pacific coast, the South-west, the Mississippi Valley and the South Atlantic states, and during which he travelled 13,000 miles and made 266 speeches.

Mr Taft delivered the Dodge lectures at Yale University in 1906 on the Responsibilities of Citizenship, published as Four Aspects of Civic Duty (1906). Some of his political speeches have been published under the titles Present Day Problems (1908), and Poltical Issues and Outlooks (1909).

Main Source: Encyclopedia Brittannica 1922

Chief Justice, 1921–1930

On June 30, 1921, following the death of Chief Justice Edward Douglass White, President Warren G. Harding nominated Taft to take his place. For a man who had once remarked, “there is nothing I would have loved more than being chief justice of the United States” the nomination to oversee the highest court in the land was like a dream come true. There was little opposition to the nomination, and the Senate approved him 60-4 in a secret session on the day of his nomination, but the roll call of the vote has never been made public. Taft received his commission immediately and readily took up the position, taking the oath of office on July 11, and serving until 1930. As such, he became the only President to serve as Chief Justice, and thus the only former President to swear in subsequent Presidents, giving the oath of office to both Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929).

Taft enjoyed his years on the court and was respected by his peers. Justice Felix Frankfurter once remarked to Justice Louis Brandeis that it was “difficult for me to understand why a man who is so good a Chief Justice…could have been so bad as President.” Taft remains the only person to have led both the Executive and Judicial branches of the United States government. He considered his time as Chief Justice to be the highest point of his career; allegedly, he once remarked “I do not remember that I was ever President”.

In 1922, Taft traveled to Great Britain to study the procedural structure of the English courts and to learn how they dropped such a large number of cases quickly. During the trip, King George V and Queen Mary received Taft and his wife as state visitors.

With what he had learned in England, Taft decided to advocate the introduction and passage of the Judiciary Act of 1925, which shifts the Supreme Court’s appellate jurisdiction to be largely discretionary upon review of litigants’ petitioning to be granted an appeal (see also writ of certiorari). This allowed the Supreme Court to give preference to what they believed to be cases of national importance and allowed the Court to work more efficiently.

Besides giving the Supreme Court more control over its docket, supporting new legislation, and organizing the Judicial Conference, Taft gave the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice general supervisory power over the scattered and disorganized federal courts.

The legislation also brought the courts of the District of Columbia and of the Territories (and soon, the Commonwealths of the Philippines and Puerto Rico) into the Federal Court system. This united the courts for the first time as an independent third branch of government under the administrative supervision of the Chief Justice. Taft was also the first Justice to employ two full-time law clerks to assist him.

In 1929, Taft successfully argued in favor of the construction of the first separate and spacious United States Supreme Court building (the one that is still in use now), reasoning that the Supreme Court needed to distance itself from the Congress as a separate branch of the Federal Government. Until then, the Court had heard cases in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol Building. The Justices had no private chambers there, and their conferences were held in a room in the Capitol’s basement. The building was completed in 1935, five years after Taft’s death.
Opinions

See also: List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Taft Court

While Chief Justice, Taft wrote the opinion for the Court in 256 cases out of the Court’s ever-growing caseload. His philosophy of constitutional interpretation was essentially historical contextualism. Some of his more notable opinions include:

Balzac v. Porto Rico, 258 U.S. 298 (1922) (opinion for the Court)
Ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not apply the criminal provisions of the Bill of Rights to overseas territories. This was one of the more famous of the Insular Cases.
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co., 259 U.S. 20 (1922) (opinion for the Court)
Holding the 1919 Child Labor Tax Law unconstitutional.
Hill v. Wallace, 259 U.S. 44 (1922) (opinion for the Court)
Holding the Future Trading Act an unconstitutional use of Congress’s taxing power
Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, 261 U.S. 525 (1923) (dissenting opinion)
Disapproving of the Court’s upholding of Lochner v. New York. In 1937, the Supreme Court agreed with Taft and overruled this decision permanently.
Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen, 262 U.S. 1 (1923) (opinion for the Court)
Upholding the constitutionality of the Grain Futures Act under the Commerce Clause
Ex Parte Grossman, 267 U.S. 87 (1925) (opinion for the Court)
Holding that the President’s pardon power extends to pardoning people held for criminal contempt. While the Supreme Court rules provide for issuing writs of habeas corpus within the Court’s original jurisdiction, Taft’s opinion in Grossman was the last time the Court did so.[97]
Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925) (opinion for the Court)
Holding that police searches of automobiles without a warrant do not violate the Fourth Amendment when the police have probable cause to believe that contraband would be found in the automobile
Myers v. United States, 272 U.S. 52 (1926) (opinion for the Court)
Ruling that the President of the United States had the power to unilaterally dismiss Executive Branch appointees who had been confirmed by the Senate.
United States v. General Electric Co., 272 U.S. 476 (1926) (opinion for the Court)
Ruling that a patentee who has granted a single license to a competitor to manufacture the patented product may lawfully fix the price at which the licensee may sell the product.
Lum v. Rice, 275 U.S. 78 (1927) (opinion for the Court)
Ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment did not prohibit Mississippi’s prevention of Asian children attending white schools during racial segregation. The Supreme Court overruled this opinion in 1954.
Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928) (opinion for the Court)
Ruling that the judicial practice of excluding evidence obtained without a warrant was based on the Fourth Amendment’s proscription on unreasonable search and seizure but did not apply to telephone wiretapping.
Wisconsin v. Illinois, 278 U.S. 367 (1929) (opinion for the Court)
Holding that the equitable power of the United States can be used to impose positive action on the states in a situation where non-action would result in damage to the interests of other states.
Old Colony Trust Co. v. Commissioner, 279 U.S. 716 (1929) (opinion for the Court)
Holding that where a third party pays the income tax owed by an individual, the amount of tax paid constitutes additional income to the taxpayer.

Main Source: Wikipedia

References and Further Reading

Anderson, Donald F. (1973). ‘William Howard Taft: A Conservative’s Conception of the Presidency.
Anderson, Judith Icke. William Howard Taft: An Intimate History (1981).
Bromley, Michael L. William Howard Taft and the First Motoring Presidency (2003)
Burton, David H. Taft, Holmes, and the 1920s Court: An Appraisal (1998)
Burton, David H., Taft, Roosevelt, and the Limits of Friendship (2005)
Burton, David H. William Howard Taft, Confident Peacemaker (2005)
Chace, James. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs – The Election that Changed the Country (2004)
Coletta, Paolo Enrico. The Presidency of William Howard Taft (1973), standard survey
Duffy, Herbert S. William Howard Taft (1930).
Gould, Lewis L. The William Howard Taft Presidency(2010)
Hechler, Kenneth S. Insurgency: Personalities and Politics of the Taft Era 1940.
Korzi, Michael J. Our chief magistrate and his powers: a reconsideration of William Howard Taft’s “Whig” theory of presidential leadership (2003)
Minger Ralph E. William Howard Taft and United States Diplomacy: The Apprenticeship Years. 1900–1908 (1975)
Pringle, Henry F. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft: A Biography 2 vol (1939); Pulitzer prize; the standard biography
Renstrom, Peter G. The Taft Court: Justices, Rulings and Legacy ABC-CLIO, 2003
Scholes, Walter V. and Marie V. Scholes. The Foreign Policies of the Taft Administration 1970.
Solvick, Stanley D. (December 1, 1963). “William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff”.

Taft, William Howard (1857_1930)

United States Constitution

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, about its article titled TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD (1857_1930) William Howard Taft’s life was amazing both for length of public service (1881_1930) and for the variety of his activities: prosecuting attorney in his native state of Ohio, superior court judge in Cincinnati, solicitor general of the United States, federal circuit
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Election of 1908: William Howard Taft