As the construction of the Panama canal approached comple tion, a bill was introduced in Congress to provide for its opera tion and for the government of the Canal Zone. Taft was of the I opinion that as the United States had built the canal at its own expense, it was entitled to permit the use of the canal by Ameri can merchant ships without payment of tolls. Great Britain claimed that this would be a violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. While not admitting the contention, the president ex pressed his willingness to arbitrate the question. The bill, as passed, embodied the president's views, but the next Congress modified the act by removing the discrimination.
During Taft's administration, many vacancies occurred in the Federal judiciary. He was called upon to appoint six justices of the Supreme Court, including a chief justice. On the death of Chief Justice Fuller, in 191o, President Taft nominated as his successor, Associate Justice Edward D. White, a Democrat, a former Confederate soldier, and a Roman Catholic—a nomina tion which was confirmed by the Senate at once.
Conservation of the natural resources of the nation was one of the subjects which had greatly occupied the attention of the president and his administration. While Taft was in full sym pathy with the objects of this policy, he did not approve of some of the means adopted by that administration. In making up his cabinet, he did not include James R. Garfield, secretary of the interior under President Roosevelt, and on Jan. 7, 191o, he dis pensed with the services of Gifford Pinchot, the forester. These men, with a number of other adherents of Roosevelt, initiated a campaign against President Taft, based upon the representation that he was opposed to the conservation policy of Roosevelt. Their first attack upon his Administration was directed against Secretary Ballinger, who had succeeded Garfield. A complaint by L. R. Glavis, an agent in the land office in the Department of the Interior, of Ballinger's action with regard to certain coal land entries in Alaska known as the Cunningham claims, which President Taft on investigation held to be unfounded, and which led to the dismissal of Glavis from the service, gave rise to a Congressional investigation into the conduct of the Interior department by Ballinger. After prolonged hearings a report was
made by the committee exonerating secretary Ballinger, but failing to win the confidence of the public, he resigned in the spring of 1911.
In the regular Republican convention at Chicago, the total number of delegates summoned was 1,078, with 540 necessary to a choice. Taft had 561 votes on the first and only ballot and was declared the nominee. Roosevelt and his progressive sup porters, claiming that part of his delegates had been stolen through the action of a hostile committee, refused to accept the results of the convention, organized one of their own, known as the "Bull Moose" convention, nominated Roosevelt for the presidency, and carried on an aggressive campaign against Taft, which resulted in splitting the Republican vote in almost every State, and thus electing Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic nomi nee, as president. The electoral vote was: for Wilson, 435, Roose velt, 88 and Taft, 8. The popular vote, however (Wilson, 6,285, 214 ; Roosevelt, 4,126,020; Taft, 3,483,922), showed a much closer contest. This Party schism served in large measure to obscure the merits of President Taft's administration.