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“Do It Now"

No caption.

By
training and experience, William Howard Taft was comfortable and
effective as a lawyer, judge, and administrator, and most coveted a seat
on the Supreme Court (for which he later served as chief justice,
1921-1930). In 1903, he
warned his eager political supporters, his wife, Helen (“Nellie”),
foremost among them: “Don’t
sit up nights thinking about making me president for that will never
come and I have no ambition in that direction.”
Taft finally gave in, though, and in 1908 accepted the Republican
nomination for president, defeating Democrat William
Jennings Bryan in the general election that November.
It was the first and only elective position he held.
Appearing less than a year into
Taft’s administration (1909-1913), this cartoon reflects criticisms
that the new president was too involved in his social life, particularly
sports and travel, and not attentive enough to his presidential duties.
Uncle Sam commands that Taft write his first annual message to
Congress, due in December, while the distracted president contemplates a
golf ball. Attired in golfing gear, Taft’s sport coat is stuffed with
menus, symbolizing the 300-pound president’s avid interest in food;
“notes,” “data,” and “evidence,” implying an overcautious
reliance on information-gathering at the expense of decision-making; and
references to his recent speaking tour through the West and South.
Taft made good use of the first
travel allowance that Congress had ever allocated to a president.
Like President Theodore Roosevelt’s use of the “bully
pulpit,” President Taft believed he could gain public support for his
policies by taking his case directly to the people.
When this cartoon was published, Taft had just returned from a
national speaking tour to rally the public behind the Payne-Aldrich
Tariff. Lacking
Roosevelt’s charisma, his stumping rarely resulted in widespread
approval. Yet, Taft
persisted, often traveling for months at a time, and logging over
150,000 miles during his single term, making him the most traveled
president to that date.
Instead of public support, what
President Taft did generate was press criticism that he was neglecting
his responsibilities as the nation’s chief executive.
The Outlook, an influential periodical during the
early-twentieth century, told Taft to stay in Washington to provide
leadership so that issues would not reach the crisis stage.
The annual Gridiron Club dinners of the Washington press corps
poked fun at his penchant for travel, banqueting, and leisure pursuits.
Editorials also harped on the backlog of executive appointments,
complaining that the president took far too much time reviewing the
records and recommendations of job applicants.
The Tafts were a very convivial
couple, hosting numerous dinner parties, frequently attending the
theater, and engaging in many other social activities while residing at
the White House. In
addition, they spent considerable time at a summer retreat in Beverly,
Massachusetts, where they rented an estate on Massachusetts Bay.
Usually every day while there, the president visited the nearby
Myopia Hunt Club, where he played the eighteen-hole golf course.
In fact, Taft was the first
president to play golf, and his participation was so enthusiastic and
well publicized that he helped make the sport
more popular
in the United States, with the number of players on public courses
doubling during his administration. When Harper’s Weekly speculated in May 1909 who the
new president’s closest unofficial advisors would be, the newspaper
referred to the as-yet-unknown group as the “golf cabinet” (similar
to President Andrew Jackson’s “kitchen cabinet” of advisors and
Theodore Roosevelt’s “tennis cabinet”).
Taft enjoyed other sports, too, particularly professional
baseball for which he started the tradition of the president throwing
out the first ball on the season’s opening day.
At the White House, President
Taft woke at 7 a.m. to perform a regimen of physical exercises,
breakfasted an hour later while reading the morning newspapers, and
arrived by 9 at his office, where he reviewed important correspondence
and his daily schedule with his private secretary.
After a 10-minute session with public visitors, during which he
shook hands with 150-200 people, the president kept his formal
appointments between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., at which time he ate an
apple. The rest of the
afternoon was allocated to executive business and, on Tuesdays and
Fridays, cabinet meetings. According
to Harper’s Weekly, the mornings were for those who wished to
see the president, while the afternoons were reserved for those whom the
president wished to see. At
5 p.m., he often enjoyed a walk or horseback ride, and sometimes worked
late after dinner.
President Taft’s typical day
was not only busier with the nation’s business than many in the press
allowed, but his administration achieved a number of accomplishments
despite his failure to win reelection in 1912.
Although many criticized the Payne-Aldrich Tariff of 1909, it was
the first attempt at tariff reform since 1897.
The Taft administration also put Roosevelt’s conservation
policies on firmer legal ground, advanced a series of antitrust lawsuits
far more numerous and effective than under Roosevelt the
“trust-buster,” passed stringent railroad legislation, neared
completion of construction of the Panama Canal, established a separate
Department of Labor (formerly merged with the Department of Commerce),
regulated political contributions from business corporations, imposed an
eight-hour day on federal public works projects, enhanced the Pure Food and Drug
Act, and suffered no major scandal.
Taft also appointed six Supreme Court justices and almost half of
the federal judges during his single presidential term.
Robert C. Kennedy
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