William+Taft

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William Taft

=__Biographical Information:__=

__Biographical Sketch:__
William Taft was born september 15, 1857 in Ohio. He married Helen Herron, And had 3 kids, Robert, Helen, and Charles. He died in 1930 on March 8th. Taft went to Yale and then to Cincinnati Law school. His career was a lawyer and later a public official. He is a republican and was the 27th persident, He didnt do much as president but each president had different effects. He did make a few changes and bettered a few things.

=__Political Experience__=
 * He did not have any political experiance

=__Presidential Administration__=

Secretary of the Navy:George Von L. Meyer
=__Domestic Affairs__=

Some mistakes that occurred was a struggle over the tariff. In the struggle over the tariff, Senator Nelson Aldrich from Rhode Island and Representative Sereno E. Payne of New York, representing big business, succeeded in pushing through a tariff (wich was the Payne-Aldrich Tariff) that affected just modest reductions. Although during the course of congressional action Taft had threatened to veto a tariff bill with insufficient reductions, when the Payne-Aldrich bill came to his desk he signed it, later saying it was the best tariff bill ever passed by Congress. Taft's reversal on tariff reform immediately alienated progressives who saw high tariffs as the "mother of trusts." The second mistake was with his dismissal of Roosevelt's friend, the chief forester of the United States, Gifford Pinchot. Ballinger held that Roosevelt had improperly closed large sections of federal public-domain lands to economic development, re-opened some tracts, including rich coal lands in Alaska that Roosevelt had previously designated not for sale. And because of that Pinchot launched a public attack on Ballinger, and indirectly on Taft, leaving the President with no choice but to dismiss Pinchot. The resulting explosion tore the Republican Party apart and made it so Roosevelt and Taft were not friends anymore.

=__Foreign Affairs__= He made a program, called "dollar diplomacy," to encourage U.S. investments in South and Central American, the Caribbean, and the Far East. To follow this foreign policy plans, Taft used government officials to promote the sale of American products overseas, mainly heavy industrial goods and military hardware.Taft thought the U.S. military was a tool of economic diplomacy. He invited U.S. banks to save the people in debt with loans and grants, and he sent 2,700 U.S. marines to help Nicaragua's conservative, pro-U.S. He was unsuccessful then when Taft ordered two thousand troops to the Mexican border to stand ready to intervene in revolutionary-torn Mexico to protect U.S. investments. Taft then backed off and earned the nickname "Peaceful Bill", leaving the situation in Mexico for his successor to handle

=__Famous Quotes__=

"Don't sit up nights thinking about making me President for that will never come and I have no ambition in that direction. Any party which would nominate me would make me a great mistake."

=__Interesting Facts all things that happen during tafts presidency.__= SOME THINGS THAT HAPPENED:
 * Admiral Robert Peary reaches the North Pole (1909)
 * NAACPfounded (1909)
 * Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts introduced to United States (1910)
 * First transcontinental flight(1911)
 * Mexican Revolution begins (1910)
 * Revolution sweeps China (1911)

DID YOU KNOW HE:
 * He was the first president to go to the Supreme Court after his presidency.
 * He is one of two presidents buried in Arlington Cemetery (John F. Kennedy).
 * He was the first president to have a presidential car.
 * Although Taft was the most portly president, he was considered a good dancer, a good tennis player and an average golfer.
 * He was known for his affable, malleable nature.
 * His wife, Helen Herron, was the first First Lady to ride with her husband to his inauguration.
 * Mrs. Taft arranged for the planting of 3,000 Japanese cherry trees and personally planted the first two saplings with the wife of the Japanese ambassador.

=__Presidential Timeline__=


 * He was appointed a Federal circuit judge at 34.But his wife wanter him to do better
 * President Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and by 1907 had decided that Taft should be his successor. The Republican Convention nominated him the year after
 * In the angry Progressive fight against him, little attention was paid to the fact that his administration initiated 80 antitrust suits and that Congress submitted to the states amendments for a Federal income tax and the direct election of Senators. A postal savings system was established, and the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to set railroad rates.
 * In 1912, when the Republicans renominated Taft, Roosevelt bolted the party to lead the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson.
 * Taft, free of the Presidency, served as Professor of Law at Yale until President Harding made him Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held up until before his death in 1930.

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