William Taft: Catherine Coffrini Period 1

• William Taft
  
  
  William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at Yale University and then went back to Cincinnati to become a lawyer. He did many jobs in the law field, including becoming a teacher, a judge, and assistant prosecutor. In 1904, he became Secretary of War under Roosevelt.
  
  
  In 1908, he ran for President under the support of Roosevelt. He won the Republican ticket and beat William Jennings Bryan with 52% of the vote. Taft hated campaigning and claimed his loyalty to the Roosevelt policies, which were very popular in the West, and had his brother reassuring people in the Eastern Republicans that his campaign would befit them too.
  
  
  While he first had the support of the Progressive Party, he lost it quickly with his support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff in 1909, which raised tariff rates to 46%. What angered Progressives even more was when Taft claimed that the bill was the “best bill that the party had ever past”.
  
  
  While Roosevelt and Taft were close friends, their political stances got in the way of their friendship. Taft favored a more conservative Republican side then Roosevelt did, which lost him many supports. Especially when he broke up such trusts as the American Sugar Refining Company and finishing out the break up of the Standard Oil and American Tobacco Trusts, which began during Roosevelt’s Presidency. What ruined any support from the Republican Party was when he fired Gifford Pinchot, the head of the Bearu of Forestry and a close friend of Roosevelt’s (he and Roosevelt made many national parks during his presidency.) Taft fired Pinchot for launching a public attack on someone Taft appointed, Richard Ballinger, who was head of the department of Interior. Ballenger spoke against Roosevelt, saying that due to economic development, Roosevelt closed some public domain lands and then opened other lands, such as the coal rich areas in Alaska, which were previously not for sale.
  
  
  A key policy of Taft’s was Dollar Diplomacy. Dollar Diplomacy was the idea that the United States would use the military and diplomacy to help their foreign affairs. It was mainly used in East Asia and in the Latin America area, though it was outlawed in Nicaragua for quite some time, until a revolt broke out in 1912. These were all supposed to be peaceful movements, however there were many cases of violence, especially in the Revolution ridden Caribbean areas, which were all under the control of the United States.
  
  
  While Taft had already lost most of the Republican support, he still got nominated on the Republican ticket. Running against him was his former President and former friend Teddy Roosevelt, who returned from an African safari in 1910, only to seek reelection. However, because Taft was already in office, the party voted him onto the ticket over Roosevelt. Now Taft might have had a chance at winning if Roosevelt hadn’t created his own part, the Bull Moose Party, which not only sabotaged Taft’s chances of winning but his own at well, because the Republican party split their vote, while majority of the Democrats voted for the Democratic nominee, Warren Harding. However, this was not a great loss for Taft, as he became a professor of law at Yale until 1921, when he received his lifetime goal of becoming a Chief Justice.
  
  
  
  
  Work’s Cited
  Beschloss, Michael, and Hugh Sidey. "William Howard Taft." The White House. Web.

  25 Jan. 2012. <http://m.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/williamhowardtaft

  
  
  
  
  "William Howard Taft Biography - Twenty-Seventh President of the United States."

  American History From About. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://americanhistory.about.com/od/williamhowardtaft/p/ptaft.htm>.

  
  
  
  
  "William Howard Taft Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com."

  Biography.com. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/william-howard-taft-9501184?page=1>.