Professor Dave again, let’s talk about William Taft.
William Howard Taft was Theodore Roosevelt’s handpicked successor, the only person ever
to be both President and Supreme Court Justice.
He is famously known for being the most overweight president in American History, coming in at
over 350 pounds.
His girth was so gargantuan, it was alleged that he once got stuck in a White House bathtub
and had to have his body lubricated until he could be slid out of the tub.
This may or may not be a true story, but shortly after entering the White House he did request
a newer, larger bathtub that could more easily accommodate his body.
Two years after leaving the White House, while bathing at the Hotel Cape May in New Jersey,
he displaced so much water, the overflow began flooding the bathroom floor and trickling
onto the heads of guests in the dining room below.
The next morning, a wistful Taft gazed out at the Atlantic Ocean and said, “I’ll
get a piece of that fenced in some day and then when I venture in, there won’t be any
overflow.”
Taft started as a lawyer, and was appointed a judge while still in his twenties, rising
quickly to a judgeship on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 1901, President William McKinley made Taft the civilian governor of the Philippines.
In 1904, President Roosevelt, impressed with Taft’s handling of the Philippines situation,
made him Secretary of War, and he became Roosevelt’s confidante and close friend.
He actually yearned to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but Teddy chose
him to be his successor instead.
With Roosevelt’s help, Taft had little opposition for the Republican nomination for president
in 1908, and easily defeated William Jennings Bryan for the presidency that November.
As President, Taft focused on East Asia more than European affairs, and also repeatedly
intervened in the affairs of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
His administration was filled with conflict between the conservative wing of the Republican
Party, with which Taft often sympathized, and the progressive wing, toward which Roosevelt
leaned.
Controversies over conservation and antitrust cases filed by the Taft administration drove
Taft and Roosevelt further apart.
The Ballinger-Pinchot affair exposed these differences between Taft and his predecessor.
Roosevelt had been an ardent conservationist, and appointed like-minded people, including
Interior Secretary James Garfield and Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot.
Although Taft agreed with the need for conservation, he felt it should be accomplished by legislation
rather than executive order.
He did not retain Garfield as secretary, choosing instead former Seattle mayor Richard A. Ballinger.
Roosevelt was surprised at the replacement, believing that Taft had promised to keep Garfield,
and this change was one of the events that caused Roosevelt to realize that Taft would
choose different policies.
Taft did surpass Roosevelt in one area: busting up monopolies.
Under the Sherman Antitrust Act, he continued Roosevelt’s efforts to break up business
combinations.
His administration brought 99 cases in four years, 70 of which successfully dissolved trusts.
Suits brought against the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company, initiated
under Roosevelt, were decided in favor of the government by the Supreme Court in 1911.
In June of that year, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives began hearings into
U.S. Steel.
This company had expanded under Roosevelt, who supported its acquisition of the Tennessee
Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company as a means of preventing the deepening Panic of 1907,
a decision the former president defended when testifying at the hearings.
Taft, as Secretary of War, had praised these acquisitions.
Historian Lewis L. Gould suggested that Roosevelt was likely deceived into believing that U.S.
Steel did not want to purchase the Tennessee Company, but that it was a bargain.
For Roosevelt, questioning the matter went to his personal honesty.
In October 1911, Taft’s Justice Department brought suit against U.S. Steel, demanding
that over a hundred of its subsidiaries be granted corporate independence, and naming
as defendants many prominent business executives and financiers.
The pleadings in the case alleged that Roosevelt “had fostered a monopoly, and had been duped
by clever industrialists.”
Roosevelt was offended by these references to him and his administration, and felt that
Taft could not evade responsibility by saying he did not know of them.
Roosevelt decided to challenge his one-time friend for the Republican nomination in 1912
but Taft used his control of the party machinery to gain a slim majority of delegates, and
Roosevelt bolted the GOP to begin his own “Bull Moose” party, which reflected Roosevelt’s
progressive views.
The split left Taft with little chance of re-election, and he was only able to win two
states, Utah and Vermont, in the election.
After leaving office, Taft returned to Yale as a professor.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed Taft as chief justice, an office he had wanted
for a long time.
Chief Justice Taft was a conservative on business issues, but under him, there were advances
in individual rights.
Taft resigned in February 1930 and died the following month.
He was the first president buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Taft is generally listed near the middle in historians’ rankings of U.S. presidents,
but as a Chief Justice, the job he always wanted, he is considered outstanding.