The 27th President of The United States, William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft: A distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft spent four uncomfortable years in the White House. Large, jovial, conscientious, he was caught up in the intense battles between liberals and conservatives, and got scant credit for the achievements of his administration. He was born in 1857, son of a distinguished judge, he graduated from Yale, and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. It began in politics through Republican secitasalamientos, meaning through their own capacity and availability, and because, as he once wrote, he always had his "plate with the right side up when offices were falling." But Taft much preferred law to politics. He was appointed federal circuit judge for 34 years. He aspired to be a member of the Supreme Court, but his wife, Helen Herron Taft, had other ambitions for him. His route to the White House was via administrative posts. President McKinley sent him to the Philippines in 1900 as principal

civil administrator. Sympathetic toward the Filipinos, improved its economy, build roads and schools, and gave the people at least some participation in government. President Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and by 1907 had decided that Taft should be his successor. The Republican Convention nominated him the next year.

Taft did not much like your campaña-- "one of the four most uncomfortable months of my life." But he promised loyalty to the Roosevelt program, popular in the West, while his brother Charles reassured eastern Republicans. William Jennings Bryan, ran on the Democratic ballot for the third time, he complained that he had two candidates who compete against a progressive Taft West and East Taft conservative. Progressives were pleased with Taft choice. "Roosevelt has cut enough hay," they said; "Taft is the man to put the hay in the barn." Conservatives were delighted to get rid of Roosevelt - the "Messiah Malo". Taft recognized that his techniques would differ from those of its predecessor. Unlike Roosevelt, Taft did not believe in stretching presidential powers. The Roosevelt once said "seemed mostly support the legal way to achieve the same ends."

Taft alienated many liberal Republicans who later formed the Progressive Party, defending the Payne-Aldrich Act which unexpectedly continued high tariff rates. A trade agreement with Canada, which Taft promoted through Congress, would have satisfied the lawyers on a low rate, but the Canadians rejected it. The later put against progressives keeping his Secretary of the Interior, accused of failing to maintain the conservative policies of Roosevelt. In the progressive impact angry against him, he was paid very little attention to the fact that his administration initiated 80 projects and anticonfianza Congress submitted amendments to Federal income tax and the direct election of senators. A postal savings system was established, and ordered the Interstate Commerce Commission set tariffs on the railroad. In 1912, when Republicans renominaron Taft, Roosevelt arranged the party to lead the Progressives, by guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson. Taft, free of the Presidency, sirvié as law professor at Yale until President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, appointments they were his greatest honor; he wrote: "I do not remember that I ever was President."