William Taft: Heavy

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are talking about William Howard Taft, who took office in 1909.

03In some ways, the story of Taft's presidency is also a story about Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.

04Roosevelt had been president for the eight years before Taft.

05The two men were friends.

06Roosevelt was even a mentor to Taft.

07But the two men were very different.

08Roosevelt was energetic, both in his physical abilities and in his use of executive power.

09His vision for the country was progressive.

10In contrast, Taft was a more conservative, heavy man who fell asleep in meetings and who did not make decisions quickly.

11In fact, Americans often remember Taft because of his size.

12His weight changed frequently.

13But as president, Taft usually weighed about 135 kilograms.

14One popular story claims that Taft got stuck in a White House bathtub.

15This story is not true.

16However, it is true that Taft had a special bathtub made for him.

17Several men could sit comfortably in it.

18As president, Taft did continue some of Roosevelt's reforms, but in a more orderly way.

19He also took some actions that contradicted Roosevelt's wishes.

20In four years, the two men had gone from political allies to competitors for the White House.

21Taft was another president who was born in the state of Ohio.

22He grew up in the city of Cincinnati, along with five siblings.

23Taft's father was a well-known lawyer, public official, and diplomat.

24He was an advisor to President Ulysses Grant.

25His mother was an intelligent, independent woman who also worked for the public good.

26The Tafts had high expectations for their son.

27He became an excellent student who went on to study at Yale and then the University of Cincinnati Law School.

28Taft sought a career path that he hoped would lead him one day to the U.S.

29Supreme Court.

30He worked as a lawyer and then as a judge in Ohio.

31Along the way, he met Theodore Roosevelt.

32Roosevelt helped Taft advance his career as a judge.

33But one person was not happy about the career move.

34Taft's wife.

35Taft had married an intelligent, independent woman named Helen Herron, known as Nellie.

36She had always wanted to be First Lady, and she urged her husband to follow a path toward the White House.

37In time, Nellie Taft had her wish.

38In 1900, President William McKinley offered Taft a position in the Philippines.

39The islands had come under the control of the United States after the Spanish-American War.

40McKinley wanted Taft to help prepare the Philippines to be ruled by civilians instead of by soldiers.

41Taft worried he would not like the job.

42However, he knew that it was a good chance to build a political career.

43Taft was right about that.

44But he was wrong about disliking the job.

45He enjoyed it so much that he turned down two offers to return to the U.S.

46and serve on the Supreme Court.

47In the Philippines, Taft successfully established courts, schools, a transportation network, and a health care system.

48Taft did have pejorative views about the people who lived there.

49He did not think they were yet capable of governing themselves.

50But he performed his job as governor general effectively.

51Taft might have even stayed in the Philippines if it were not for his friend.

52Theodore Roosevelt.

53In 1901, Roosevelt became president.

54He asked Taft to become his secretary of war.

55Taft agreed, partly so he could continue to supervise the Philippines.

56But the job also put him in a position to become president himself.

57William Taft did not really want to be president.

58But Theodore Roosevelt and Nellie Taft wanted him to be.

59During the election of 1908, Taft permitted Roosevelt to do most of the campaigning for him.

60He spent a lot of time golfing.

61Taft was the first president to be strongly linked, so to speak, to the sport of golfing.

62Another word for golf course is links.

63Yet voters approved of Taft.

64They likely hoped he would continue the reforms of Roosevelt.

65He won the election easily.

66Once in the White House, however, Taft did several things that reversed Roosevelt's positions.

67First, Taft signed a bill that did not reduce tariffs as much as many progressive activists wanted.

68Then, Taft removed one of Roosevelt's friends from a government position.

69Taft believed he was correct in making the move, but Roosevelt and many other Republicans were furious.

70Some historians say they did not give Taft enough credit for the many reforms he did make.

71His government pursued a large number of antitrust suits against big businesses.

72It also advanced two constitutional amendments, one to establish a federal income tax and another to permit voters to elect senators directly.

73As the end of Taft's term in the White House came near, the Republican Party was divided.

74At their 1912 convention, a majority of delegates nominated Taft for president again, but a number left the meeting in anger.

75They created a new group called the Progressive Party and nominated as their candidate, Theodore Roosevelt.

76Taft and Roosevelt, along with the Democratic Party candidate, fought a bitter campaign during 1912.

77Of the three, Taft came in last.

78Roosevelt came in second.

79The divided Republicans had given control of the White House to the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson.

80The divided Republicans had given control of the White House Happily for him, Taft's story does not end there.

81Taft taught at Yale University Law School for a while.

82Then, when a Republican took the White House again, President Warren Harding appointed Taft as chief justice of the Supreme Court.

83He is the only person to lead both the executive and judicial branches of the U.S.

84government.

85Taft was clear about which one he favored.

86He was much more comfortable as a justice than he was as president.

87One journalist at the time described Chief Justice Taft as a smiling Buddha, placid, wise, gentle, sweet.

88He even lost weight.

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