TAFT, WILLIAM HOWARD
the 27th president and tenth chief justice of the United States, was born in Cincinnati, 0., on Sept. 15, 1857. His father, Alphonse Taft, was attorney general in President Grant's cabinet (1876-1877) and minister to Austria (1882-4) and to Russia (1884-5). Wil liam Howard Taft graduated second (salutatorian) in his class at Yale college in 1878, and at the Law school of Cincinnati college, in 188o, dividing the first prize for scholarship. In the same year he was admitted to the Ohio bar. In 1881 he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton county (in which Cincinnati is situated), but resigned in 1882 on being appointed U.S. collector of internal revenue for the first district of Ohio. In 1883 he returned to the law. From 1885 to 1887 he served as assistant solicitor of Hamilton county, and in the latter year was appointed judge of the superior court of Ohio, to fill a vacancy, being elected in the next year. In 189o, he was appointed solicitor-general of the United States by President Harrison. In 1892 he was appointed U.S. circuit judge for the sixth circuit. From 1896-190o he also served as professor and dean of the law department of the University of Cincinnati.
In 19oo he was appointed by President McKinley to the presidency of the Philippine com mission. He served as such from March 13, 190o to Feb. r, 1904, becoming governor ex officio on the establishment of civil gov ernment, on July 4, 1901 (see PHILIPPINE ISLANDS) . The delicate matter of confiscated church lands was arranged by Taft in a personal interview with Pope Leo XIII., in the sum mer of 1902. The pope sent a special delegate to appraise the lands, and the sum of $7,239,000 was paid for them in Dec. 1903.
In Feb. 1904, Taft returned to the United States to become secretary of war. In Sept. 1906, on the down fall of the Cuban Government and the intervention of the United States he took temporary charge of affairs in that island (Sept.–Oct.). In the next year (March–April) he inspected the Panama canal and also visited Cuba and Porto Rico. He again visited the Philippines to open the first legislative assembly (Oct. 16, 1907). On this tour he visited Japan, and on Oct. 2,
at Tokyo, made a speech which had an important effect in quiet ing the apprehensions of the Japanese on the score of the treat ment of their people on the Pacific coast. While secretary of war, Taft entirely reorganized the work of carrying on the con struction of the Panama canal, and selected Col. George W. Goethals, whom President Roosevelt put in entire charge of the work. From that moment the enterprise assumed a new vigour, the work was completed and was opened to traffic in 1913.
In 1908 Taft was favoured by President Roose velt as his successor, and in the November election, was vic torious over William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic nominee, by a popular majority of 1,269,900 votes (Taft, 7,679,006; Bryan, 6,409,106) and by a majority of 159 votes in the electoral college. In accordance with his pre-election pledge, he called the Congress to meet in extra session on March 15, 1909, to revise the tariff. The final bill known as the Payne-Aldrich Act was approved by the president on Aug. 5, 1909, although in many respects it was not the measure he desired. The income of the Government under the Dingley tariff had proved inade quate to meet its current expenses, the estimated deficit for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1909, being $100,000,000. He there fore recommended to the Congress the adoption of resolutions to amend the Constitution by expressly granting Congress power to levy an income tax without apportionment among the several States. For the purpose of meeting the immediately anticipated deficiency in the revenues, he recommended the adoption of a provision in the Tariff Bill imposing an annual special excise tax upon corporations organized for profit, measured by a per centage on their net incomes. Pursuant to these recommendations a proposed amendment to the Constitution was passed by both Houses of Congress, afterwards ratified by the requisite number of the States, and became the 16th amendment, and there was included in the Payne-Aldrich Act a provision imposing the pro posed annual special excise tax upon corporations, measured by % of their net incomes.