The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Goodwin Doris Kearns

Author:Goodwin, Doris Kearns [Goodwin, Doris Kearns]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“To Cut Mr. Taft in Two!”

This Mar. 18, 1906, cartoon, “Reinforcing the Bench,” shows Roosevelt using a “Big Stick” to persuade Taft to take a seat on the Supreme Court bench.

IN EARLY JANUARY 1906, WHILE attending a party in the New Jersey home of his Yale classmate John Hammond, William Howard Taft received a long-distance phone call from the president, informing him that Associate Justice Henry Billings Brown planned to announce his retirement when he turned seventy years old. Brown deemed his weakening eyesight “a gentle intimation” that the time had come “to give place to another.” Knowing that duty alone had led Taft to decline the appointment three years before, Roosevelt was delighted to present him with the open seat. Taft was disposed to claim the honor, though Nellie and other friends and advisers begged him to decline, insisting that he “would be shutting the door on any further political advancement” when he was considered “the logical candidate for president in 1908.” Since no commitment was required until March, the matter rested until Justice Brown formally announced his decision.

In the interim, Taft focused on pushing the Philippine tariff bill through Congress. The legislation was designed to substantially lower rates on products imported from the islands, an allowance that Taft believed was absolutely critical to the future of the Philippine economy. For two consecutive years, the bill had fallen victim to the powerful sugar and tobacco lobbies and their “standpatter” allies, as the protectionist bloc in Congress was known. But with the help of Democratic votes in late January 1906, it passed the House by an overwhelming vote of 257 to 71. Lauding the victory, Taft happily noted that several key members of the Ways and Means Committee had shifted their stance after touring the islands with his congressional delegation the previous summer.

When the bill proceeded to the Senate, Taft testified for two full days before the Senate Committee on the Philippines, hopeful that “the tremendous vote” in the House would sway the upper chamber. Connecticut senator Frank Brandegee led the opposition, arguing that Taft was “sacrificing” American economic interests for his “sentimental” desire to aid the Filipinos. “I do not believe,” the senator maintained, “that we are under any obligations whatever to the Filipino people to open our markets.” Taft was furious with Brandegee, privately labeling him “an infernal ass.” Despite Taft’s persistent efforts, the protectionist bloc managed to kill the bill in committee. “We suffered a very serious blow,” Taft related to his Filipino friends, “but I am not despairing.” Several publications had pledged to reveal those who had conspired in “smothering” the tariff legislation, so he remained hopeful the bill would eventually reach the Senate floor.

When Justice Brown officially announced his retirement on March 8, the press immediately began speculating that Taft would not only replace Brown but soon thereafter—if seventy-three-year-old Melvin Fuller retired during Roosevelt’s term—assume the position of chief justice. Had the tariff bill passed that spring, Taft later remarked, he would “undoubtedly have

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