William Howard Taft Quotes
President Jimmy Carter had invoked the Taft-Hartley Labor Law, which forced the striking workers to go back to work for a 100 day “cooling off” period.
Note that the President left Taft, then the Secretary of War, as the acting President and NOT the Secretary of State who many people erroneously think is the senior member of the cabinet, nor the Vice President. Roosevelt just put in charge the man he was most comfortable with. Interestingly, neither the Vice President or the Secretary of State objected or were disappointed. It was generally acknowledged that Taft was the best and strongest leader in the cabinet and that he was as close to the president as possible. See {640479} for a cartoon quotation that was created about Taft’s assignment.
Ohio was then supporting Warren G. Harding.
The President’s (William Howard Taft’s) wife was a college graduate and an ardent feminist who had played an active part in her husband’s affairs both as an advisor, and reviewer of speeches and other drafts as well as a public role {638463} especially in the Philippines where she was loved and admired by the populace and the elites. Shortly after her husband assumed the presidency, she had a very serious and debilitating stroke and never again served as a political advisor and confidant. There are many who correlate this with Taft’s presidency which was not very successful compared to his brilliant success at every other public position. The Tafts—unusual for the time—had always worked closely as a team, and then that ended, Taft’s public performance suffered.
Johnson was then Minority Leader of the Senate. This was a brilliant statement describing the different factions of the Republican Party which at that time were rarely in agreement.
Theodore Roosevelt had pledged to serve only two terms and everyone was looking to see whom he supported to succeed him in 1908. He had absolutely decided it should be William Howard Taft, his Secretary of War, and old colleague. But he didn’t want to offend the party leaders by precluding their ability to appear to have a say in the choice of nominee. So he made no public statement. But most journalists in Washington realized what the reality was and the Kansas City Times simply published this little ditty.
Taft was not unintelligent. He was actually quite bright which is one of the reasons that TR selected him as VP and supported Taft for President in 1908. Taft did have an aversion to confrontation and political battle, and he was unable deal with the conservatives of his Party to maintain some independence and continue the TR progressive reforms. Roosevelt, who had been a very close friend of Taft, was disillusioned with the Taft Presidency and ran against him in the 1912 Republican Primary.
Taft was Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor, but Taft did not live up to Roosevelt’s expectiations.
