William Howard Taft 1909-1913

This is an entry in my Presidential Rankings series. To see the most up to date full rankings, and where each president ranks follow the link here: Presidential Rankings

William Howard Taft’s biggest failing as president was his complete lack of political skill. He wasn’t a self-promoter like his mentor, Teddy Roosevelt, instead he preferred to quietly do the job given him, hoping someone higher up would notice, and promote him into the next position. This worked well for Taft, as he went from one position to another in government until Roosevelt got him nominated as his successor. Taft easily defeated William Jennings Bryan, in Bryan’s third loss in a Presidential election, to become our 28th president.

Taft was elected largely to carry out Roosevelt’s programs, and contrary to popular belief, this he did. In four years, Taft withdrew nearly as many acres of land for conservation as Roosevelt did in his nearly eight years, but Taft always did so in a constitutional manner with the approval of Congress. Taft also prosecuted twice as many anti-trust lawsuits as Roosevelt. Unlike Roosevelt, however, Taft’s prosecutions were based on the law, whereas Roosevelt cherry picked his suits, prosecuting cases for what he saw as “the greater good”. In one instance Taft prosecuted the U.S. Steel Corp over its purchase of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Corporation, which made Roosevelt spitting mad. Roosevelt had assented to the merger as he saw U.S. Steel Corp as a “good” company. Roosevelt accused Taft of “playing small, mean and foolish politics”, when all Taft was really doing was applying the law as it was written. Roosevelt was upset that it was revealed that he was duped by industrialists into fostering the creation of a monopoly.

In fact, the two biggest differences between Taft and Roosevelt were style and constitutionality. Taft was far more softly spoken and subdued, whereas Teddy was more confrontational and flamboyant. Roosevelt’s outspoken style contributed to the Panics of 1903 and 1907, Taft’s more even-tempered tone didn’t frighten business, which led to a far better economy under Taft. The other difference is that Taft was a constitutional President, that was careful not to overstep his bounds. Roosevelt felt justified in doing anything that was for “the greater good” regardless of how unconstitutional the action was.

Taft got passage of the Mann-Elkins Act, a dubious law that empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates. The act also expanded the ICC’s jurisdiction to cover telephones, telegraphs, and radio. Government price fixing, no matter how noble the cause, is never justified, and only compounds problems down the road. The act also banned railroads from giving discounted rates to employees and their family members. The Mann-Elkins Act was set up to ensure that rates, in regard to interstate commerce, were “just and reasonable”, but who is to decide what is “just and reasonable”? Are government bureaucrats and elected officials better equipped than actual railroad executives to decide what railroad rates should be? This law, however, is the type of act that Teddy Roosevelt would have gladly signed and touted as a major accomplishment. Taft would have done far better to let market forces set railroad rates rather than expanding the power of the ICC, which is a huge bureaucracy that acts as all three branches of government with no oversight from the voters. Taft should have recognized that the ICC was constitutionally dubious and worked towards dismantling it rather than empowering it.

Taft passed the United States Postal Savings System, which was a government entity that competed directly with private banks. It was operated by the United States Postal Service, and it didn’t offer all of the banking services. What the system did was accept deposits from individuals, which it in turn deposited into banks that paid interest on the accounts. The postal service took one half of a percent of the interest and passed the rest onto the account holders. The system was discontinued in 1971 and any deposits not claimed by 1985 were voided out.

Taft proposed the 16th Amendment, which legalized the federal income tax. Income taxes have several negative drawbacks over the tariffs that they replaced as the country’s main source of income. An income tax not only punishes success, but it also requires citizens to allow the federal government to investigate their entire financial history. One could argue that such a law goes against the ideals of the 4th Amendments restrictions against unreasonable searches and seizures without just cause. The IRS can audit any citizen at any time on its own authority. Income taxes can also be assessed in an inequitable manner, as some payers will be able to take advantage of special loopholes and tax breaks that aren’t available to everyone. People can avoid payment by working “under the table”, hiding assets and offshoring income. Income tax laws are commonly written in such a complicated manner that many people are forced to hire specialist in order to be in compliance with the tax laws.

Taft also supported the 17th Amendment, which basically turned the Senate into a second House of Representatives. The idea when the Constitution was written was that the House of Representatives would represent the people and the Senate would represent the states. This is why senators were selected by the state houses rather than popular election. The issue here is that once a Senators are entrenched into office, they are very hard to oust because they only run every six years and the public will sometimes forget bad policies early in their term. The Amendment also leads to old Senators serving well past when they should. It is doubtful that Strom Thurmond would have served past his 100th birthday had Senators been chosen by the state legislatures rather than a popular vote. Robert Byrd, a former leader in the KKK, served until he died at the age of 93.

One area where Taft was willing to take action, where Roosevelt dared not go, was tariff reform. Nearly every president before Roosevelt passed new tariff laws, but the “bull-moose” definitely lacked the courage to touch such a hot button issue. Taft asked for reduced tariffs, and congress sent him a law that reduced them modestly in the Payne-Aldrich Tariff. This law was reviled by both high-tariff and low-tariff supporters, striking a balance in the middle. Considering that the special interest groups on both sides hated it, it was probably a pretty good law. Historians, who tend to take a low tariff bias, hate the law as well, and deride Taft for the law’s passage. The law also added in the first corporate income tax in American history, levying an income tax on all corporations that made over $5000 in a year ($156,000 in 2021 dollars).

Dollar Diplomacy was Taft’s foreign policy. Rather than sending American troops into other countries, especially in Latin America, to keep other countries from being invaded by a third-party country, as was the policy of Roosevelt, Taft decided to use American dollars as a way of promoting U.S. interests abroad. The idea was that American investments would stabilize those countries and create allies out of the recipients. The failing of such a policy is that it entangles the United States into the affairs of countries all over the world. It was a much better idea than taking over nations “for their own good” as Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson did, but it still left an obligation for the US to protect its investments. One such entanglement from Dollar Diplomacy happened in Nicaragua. After Juan Jose Estrada took power in Nicaragua in August of 1910, “dollar diplomacy” investments poured into the country. Estrada’s hold on power was fragile and in 1912 he was forced to resign, and he was replaced by his vice-president Adolfo Diaz. Diaz’s strong connection to U.S. investors led to a nationalistic revolution. Nicaraguan secretary of war Luis Mena led the revolution against Diaz. Taft ordered the Navy and Marines to Nicaragua in August of 1912 and Mena surrendered in September. The remaining rebel forces surrendered by the end of October and Diaz continued his hold on the Presidency until 1916.

Taft did avoid getting the United States involved in several international events that were not only precursors to World War I, but each event led to the next one.

The Agadir Crisis – Also known as the Second Moroccan Crisis was sparked when France deployed a large force of troops inside of Morocco in April of 1911. Germany sent a gunboat to Morocco and threatened war, but France was able to negotiate to take Morocco over as a protectorate in exchange for conceded territory to German Cameroon from the French Congo. During the Crisis Britain took France’s side, which worsened relations between London and Berlin while the British moved closer to the French. Germany was left with the realization that it didn’t have any allies while it was operating against several adversaries. French hegemony in Morocco was a major catalyst for Italian aspirations in Tripoli.

The Italo-Turkish War – Also known as the Tripolitanian War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and Italy over Tripoli, which is in modern day Libya. Italy was encouraged by the Triple Entente Powers, specifically Britain, into attacking Tripoli (modern day Libya). The Triple Entente Powers wanted to drive a wedge between Italy and its ally Germany, who was also allied with the Ottoman Empire. On July 28th of 1911, British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey stated to the Italian ambassador that he would support Italy over the Ottomans. Russia encouraged Italy to attack, as it wanted to take the Turkish Straits. The other members of the Triple Alliance, Germany and Austria-Hungary, warned Italy against attacking the Ottoman Empire, as it could lead to a Balkan revolt and destabilize the Ottoman Empire and the balance of power in Europe. The Triple Alliance was correct, as war broke out in the Balkans soon after Italy invaded. Italy was able to wrest control of Tripoli, but at a far greater cost than estimated.

The First Balkan War – Was fought between the Balkan League (Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro) against the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the war the Ottoman Empire lost over eighty percent of its territory in Europe, most of which was divided amongst the Balkan League, with the exception of Albania, which was a new state that was formed after the war. Bulgaria attacked its former allies, Greece and Serbia, due to its dissatisfaction over the division of Macedonia, in the Second Balkan War in 1913.

Taft was wise to stay out of these European conflicts, in which the United States held little to no vital interest. Unfortunately, Taft’s successor wasn’t wise enough to avoid getting entangled in a European war.

In his inaugural address Taft announced his “Southern Strategy” also known as the “Lily White Policy”, which stated that he wouldn’t appoint blacks to federal jobs where it would cause “friction”. Such a policy invited protests from white southerners against black officeholders. Taft followed through on his policy by removing black officeholders in the south and made few appointments of blacks in the north. Taft should have recognized the plight of African Americans in the South and that white Southerners would squeeze them out where possible. There were few good jobs in the south for African Americans, and by denying them federal jobs, Taft was making a bad situation even worse.

Taft’s downfall in the presidency was also the very thing that gave it to him in the first place: Teddy Roosevelt. After coming home from touring Africa and Europe, Roosevelt obviously became bored of retirement and got the itch to become president again. Had he quietly supported Taft, and simply asked to take over again in 1912, Taft would have most likely obliged, as Taft disliked the presidency. The problem with such a scenario is that Roosevelt loved the lime-light and prestige of the Presidency, and probably wouldn’t understand how anyone else couldn’t love it as well. Wanting to regain power again, Roosevelt decided to seize upon an incident where Taft had acted in the only proper way he could, when he fired Gifford Pinchot for insubordination in 1910. After being fired Pinchot went to Europe where he made his case to Roosevelt. Both Pinchot and Roosevelt were upset that Taft didn’t retain Roosevelt’s Secretary of Interior, James R Garfield, but Taft had the prerogative to create his own cabinet regardless of Garfield’s qualifications or past service. Certainly, Roosevelt himself would have never stood for insubordination from his underlings, nor would he allow others to dictate his cabinet, but he used these incidents as an excuse to start attacking Taft, and to run against him for the Republican nomination in 1912. When Roosevelt lost the nomination, he stormed out of the convention and created a third party, ensuring the election of Woodrow Wilson.

All in all, Taft wasn’t a bad president, he just wasn’t cut out for the office. He completely lacked the political skill one needs to be president and had a mentality that was far better suited to being a Judge rather than a Chief Executive. Taft got to attain his lifelong dream of being Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when he was appointed to that position by Warren Harding. Taft ranks as a mediocre president here. He had a mostly solid administration, but he made some missteps in going along with the progressives, especially in supporting the income tax.