1. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
27th PRESIDENT

2. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
Known as the “Reluctant President” - “I don’t remember that I ever was President.”
Teddy Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor
Jovial, genial, conscientious, desire to avoid conflict
Always wanted to be a judge
Only Pres. to ever also serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

3. QUALIFICATIONS: Graduate of Yale (2nd in class!) Ohio Judge
Federal Circuit Court Judge
Governor of the Philippines
Secretary of War under TR
Supporter of the Square Deal
Liked by the Old Guard a/w/a/ progressives of the Republican Party

5. TAFT TRIVIA Largest President, over 300 lbs.
Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912, during his presidency.
Started a new tradition when he threw the 1st ball on opening day of the baseball season
Kept cows on the White House lawn; milked Pauline every morning
Bought the White House its first car, a Ford Model-T, and turned the stable into a 4 car garage
Had to order a special bathtub for the White House, because he got stuck in the old one

6. TAFT’S
TUB

7. Public had a low opinion of Taft
Much more conservative than Roosevelt
Felt he was destroying Roosevelt’s “Square Deal”

8. DOLLAR DIPLOMACY
Use foreign policy to protect American investments abroad
Use American money to uphold foreign policy (investment in areas of concern to U.S. – Caribbean & China)
Revolutions in Caribbean
U.S. intervention
Nicaragua, Marines 1911
Cuba, Honduras, Haiti

9. GREATEST FAILURES: #1- PAYNE-ALDRICH TARIFF
Believed high tariffs encouraged monopo-lies so attempts to lower tariff rates
BUT 800 amendments added to this tariff bill in Congress
SO the tariff actually turns out to be higher than what Congress started with
Taft signs anyway - allowed a corporation tax; Tariff Commission
Public opinion is very low

10. #2-BALLINGER-PINCHOT CONTROVERSY
Over Conservation
Pinchot - Chief Forester - accuses Ballinger – Taft’s Sec. Of Interior - of opening public western lands to private developers
Taft sides with Ballinger & fires Pinchot
Ballinger’s reputation ruined; forced to resign due to the public outcry
Taft seen as “selling the Square Deal down the river!’

11. #3 - SUPPORT OF SPEAKER CANNON
Speaker of the House, Joe Cannon, was dictatorial & opposed to most progressive legislation (particularly conservation)
Taft refused to side openly with the Progressives who opposed the Speaker; supported the Old Guard conservatives
Public opinion falls again
Republicans do poorly in 1910 congressional elections

12. ACHIEVEMENTS during Taft’s Administration:
BETTER TRUSTBUSTER THAN ROOSEVELT
Busts up Standard Oil, American Tobacco, American Sugar Refining

13. ACHIEVEMENTS during Taft’s Administration:
ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO ADMITTED AS 47th &48th STATES
Empowered ICC even further - Mann-Elkins Act, 1910
Established 8 hour day for gov’t contract workers & mine safety legislation
16TH AMENDMENT, gives Congress authority to collect an income tax
17TH AMENDMENT, provides for the direct election of U.S. Senators

14. Roosevelt’s view on Taft’s performance as President

16. THE CANDIDATES PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICAN Theodore Roosevelt
William H. Taft
DEMOCRAT
Woodrow Wilson

19. TAFT PLATFORMS: Did no real campaigning:
He believed Wilson would win & therefore did nothing.
The real battle was between Roosevelt & Wilson who both supported progressivism, but under different labels.
Won Republican
nomination over
Roosevelt

21. Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party
NEW NATIONALISM
Emphasizes a federal gov’t strong enough to impose nationwide solutions on big business.
Supports Progressive reforms in child labor, minimum wage, workers’ comp., etc.
Major difference with Wilson is with trusts/business: seeks strong gov’t control of big business, not destruction
Magnetic Personality
Dynamic speaker who appealed to emotions
Assassination attempt on Roosevelt
During a stop in Milwaukee on his 1912 "Bull Moose" campaign for the presidency, Roosevelt was shot at close range by John Schrank, a psychotic New York saloonkeeper. Schrank had his .38 caliber pistol aimed at Roosevelt's head, but a bystander saw the gun and deflected Schrank's arm just as the trigger was pulled. Roosevelt did not realize he was hit until someone noticed a hole in his overcoat. When Roosevelt reached inside his coat, he found blood on his fingers.
Roosevelt was extremely lucky. He had the manuscript of a long, 50-page speech in his coat pocket, folded in two, and the bullet was no doubt slowed as it passed through it. He also had a steel spectacle case in his pocket, and the bullet traversed this, too, before entering Roosevelt's chest near the right nipple. Thus, one could say that Roosevelt's long-windedness and myopia saved his life!
Although the bullet traveled superiorly and medially for about 3 inches after breaking the skin, it lodged in the chest wall, without entering the pleural space. Roosevelt was examined in a Milwaukee hospital, (where he reluctantly allowed the surgeons to administer an injection of tetanus anti-toxin [8c]), and then was observed for 8 days in a Chicago hospital. He was discharged on October 23, only a few days before the election. The bullet had effectively stopped Roosevelt's campaign. He finished second to Woodrow Wilson, but ahead of the incumbent President, William Howard Taft. The bullet was never removed, and caused no difficulty after the wound healed.
Assassination
attempt in WI

23. THE “BULL MOOSE” PARTY
Video: The Bull Moose

24. NEW FREEDOM WILSON Aloof; idealistic
Appealed to reason and conscience; persuasive
A convert to progressivism
No real political experience; took 46 ballots for nomination
Platform seeks banking reform & tariff reductions; opposes gov’t-sponsored social welfare
WILSON
Aloof; idealistic
Major difference with TR - viewed monopolies as evils to be destroyed, not regulated; they are the antithesis of free competition; favors small entrepreneurship; sees TR’s plan as giving federal gov’t too much power in economy

25. “The Professor “ Wins by partisan politics
Split in Republican Party & his support by both conservative & liberal Democrats gives him the election

26. RESULTS:

28. WILSON & TAFT, INAUGURATION DAY 1913