INAUGURAL- SOUVENIR 
 1909- 
 
£7< 
 
 .X/3 
 
 MAY 12 1326 
 


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WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 
 
 rrxjllLLIAM HOWARD TAFT was born on 
 \^m September is, 1857, the son of one of 
 
 the leading public men of Ohio, Alphonso 
 
 Taft, who had served in the Cabinet of Grant 
 as Secretary of War, and afterwards as Min- 
 ister to Vienna. The son graduated from Yale 
 in 1878, studied for and was admitted to the bar, 
 and began the practice of law in Cincinnati. 
 He married Miss Helen Herron, and has three 
 children. 
 
 As was natural from his ancestry and sur- 
 roundings Mr. Taft became actively interested 
 in political affairs as soon as he was admitted 
 to the bar; but his leaning toward, and taste 
 for, the law were very strong, and he had no 
 idea of following any other than a legal and 
 judicial career. He served on the State bench 
 of Ohio, and was appointed Solicitor General of 
 the United States by President Harrison. In 
 both positions he attracted the attention of all 
 who were brought in contact with him, by his 
 power of thought and of statement. As Solicitor 
 
view he established permits the prevention of 
 that cruel practice which puts upon the most 
 helpless the whole burden of injury received 
 because of the risks inevitable in certain employ- 
 ments. These two decisions meant much from 
 the standpoint of the wise use of the National 
 power, for they meant that the National power 
 could be used on the one hand to secure just 
 treatment for labor, and on the other hand to 
 secure adequate control over the vast aggregates 
 of corporate capital through which modern 
 business is done. But Judge Taft was exactly 
 as fearless in dealing with labor when it went 
 wrong as in controlling capital when it needed 
 control. When the country was convulsed from 
 one end to the other with riot and violence, 
 when every time-serving politician was bending 
 like a reed before the blast of agitation, Judge 
 Taft, as fearless physically as morally, upheld 
 order and repressed the violence of mobs, by 
 the wise and proper use he made of the great 
 power of injunction. 
 
 After the Spanish War President McKinley 
 appointed Mr. Taft Governor of the Philippines. 
 The annals of colonial administration of all 
 nations can be searched in vain to find any man 
 who did better a more difficult and important 
 work than that which it became Mr. Taft's duty 
 to do during the next four years. His inde- 
 
fatigable industry, his broad sympathy, his 
 energy, his fearlessness, his generosity, and his 
 ability to see and do justice, combined to render 
 him able to perform a service such as no other 
 man could have performed. He showed not one 
 particle of sentimental sympathy with wrong- 
 doers ; he did not hesitate to sanction the use 
 of force whenever it was needed ; and yet he 
 made it evident that his purpose was to do 
 credit to the United States by administering the 
 Philippine Islands in the interest of the Filipinos 
 themselves. They have since repeatedly shown 
 their intense devotion to him ; and it has been 
 well warranted, for no people in their condition 
 have ever had a stauncher, wiser or more effi- 
 cient friend. He looked out for the material 
 well-being of the Islanders, and he also started 
 them on the difficult path of self-government, 
 arranging the conditions so that the young 
 generation had the chance to go to school, and 
 the older men the chance actually to try to 
 govern themselves, first in their local bodies and 
 finally in a legislative assembly. 
 
 Then Mr. Taft was made Secretary of War. 
 From the beginning he showed himself not 
 merely the efficient head of his Department, 
 not merely a Cabinet Minister of the first class, 
 but a statesman of far-reaching initiative and 
 foresight. In addition to the regular work 
 
connected with the army he kept oversight 
 
 of the entire Philippine situation, and super- . 
 
 intended in person all that was done in 
 
 connection with the giant task of building the 
 
 Panama canal. When the revolution occurred 
 
 in Cuba he at once went to the Island, 
 
 and by the measures he took secured the 
 
 tranquil and peaceful development of Cuba 
 
 during the intervening years ; and by the peace 
 
 which he thus secured he made certain the 
 
 withdrawal of the American troops, and thereby 
 
 gave Cuba the chance once more to start upon 
 
 a career of independence. Meanwhile, there 
 
 was no great policy in which the American 
 
 people were concerned, at home or abroad, 
 
 which he did not study and with which he has 
 
 not since identified himself. No man of better 
 
 training, no man of more dauntless courage, of 
 
 sounder common sense, and of higher and finer 
 
 character, has ever come to the Presidency than 
 
 William Howard Taft. 
 
 ^J^JZ^er-t^°~UZ /A<r-tr^-t£<_^Y' 
 

■) 
 
 5 
 
JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN 
 
 m 
 
 ON. JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN, 
 of Utica, New York, was born in Utica, 
 October 24, 1855, receiving the usual 
 American schooling, and graduating from Hamil- 
 ton College in 1878; he was admitted to the 
 practice of the law in 1880, and in 1884 elected 
 mayor of the city of Utica. He was a member 
 of the Fiftieth Congress, and from that time, with 
 the exception of two years, has been in contin- 
 uous service of his home district in congress. 
 In addition, he has found the time to engage 
 successfully in several business enterprises, and 
 to carry on an important law practice. This 
 has not prevented tireless industry in his con- 
 gressional work. He has not only served his 
 immediate constituency with fidelity and success, 
 but has with rare ability, contributed to the 
 formation and enactment of the great general 
 measures which have absorbed the public atten- 
 tion for the last twenty years. 
 
 He is an interesting and attractive man; a 
 born friend-maker. Dignified without austerity; 
 
amiable without effusiveness; modest without 
 diffidence; aggressive without pugnacity; effect- 
 ive without display; he moves forward in his 
 work industriously, without fuss or friction, 
 with a thoroughness and rapidity which have 
 made him for many years one of the most use- 
 ful and influential members of the house of 
 representatives. He is a ready and forceful 
 debater, a clear and convincing speaker. He is 
 far and away the best parliamentarian in 
 congress, and a presiding officer of the very 
 first rank. 
 
 All of his associates on both sides of the 
 House are his friends. After twenty years of 
 almost continuous service in congress, it is a 
 very significant tribute to a man to be able 
 truthfully to say that he has no enemies on 
 either side of the House. 
 
 Mr. Sherman would rather do a favor than 
 ask one, yet no man is more appreciative of a 
 kindness, nor slower to forget one. His even 
 temper, his genuine unselfishness, his aggressive 
 desire to assist others who may need assistance, 
 his human sympathy which manifests itself in 
 his every expression and attitude, his radiant 
 and ready smile, his unfailing courtesy and 
 complete self-mastery, give him a most winning 
 personality. He says "yes" with finality, and 
 "no" with reluctance. Even while refusing a 
 
request he conciliates, and in conferring a favor 
 succeeds in conveying the impression that he has 
 actually received one. 
 
 He is as brave as he is genuine, and as firm 
 as he is kind. He is an earnest and clever 
 student of men and an excellent judge of char- 
 acter. He is ready with a jest, a pleasant word, 
 a cordial handshake, or a friendly inquiry, but 
 is slow to wrath, slow to criticism, slow to 
 rebuke; but with it all, on all matters of prin- 
 ciple, he is as firm as a rock and absolutely 
 J uncompromising. His convictions are clear-cut 
 
 and staunch, and while he is not given to 
 obtruding them offensively, he is always ready 
 to defend. For twenty years he has been almost 
 continuously in the searchlight and under the 
 microscope of public inspection. His life and 
 his character constitute an open book, every 
 page of which is clean, wholesome, inviting and 
 inspiring. He has a straightforward, steady gaze, 
 quite in harmony with his straightforward 
 methods. 
 
 He believes in party, and particularly in his 
 own party. He believes in party government 
 and the desirability of party responsibility, as 
 over against individual responsibility. 
 
 He has faith, firm as the hills, in the superi- 
 ority of the representative form of government. 
 This ever has been and ever must be founded 
 
because it is established and tried. He is 
 always ready to put to the trial of the test-tube 
 and the hammer, any accepted, as well as 
 any proposed, condition. 
 
 Perhaps the whole character of the Vice- 
 President may be summed up in the sentence : 
 "He is one of the best types of high-minded, 
 representative Christian American gentlemen, 
 who has made good underworking conditions." 
 He has been tried and found not wanting. 
 He is not a dreamer, nor a poser, nor a 
 noisy advocate of impossible and undesirable 
 extremes, but one of our best American 
 citizens, one of that class who have been 
 busy doing things for the improvement of 
 existing conditions, who have been devoting 
 their lives and abilities to converting the ideals 
 of yesterday into the realities of to-day, and 
 who have been moving forward and onward 
 and upward in a safe and sane way and 
 making the United States a great and growing 
 nation, where opportunities for each are 
 more and better than anywhere else in the 
 world. In temperament and training, in ability 
 and in experience, he is fully equipped and 
 qualified to fulfil the duties of his position. 
 
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