Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1908-07-02

} at the increased salary of $25 ;
week.
While he was doing this he wa:
keeping up his saudies, taking the
course at the Cincinnati Law
school from which he was gradu
ated in 1880. dividing first honors
with another student, and being ad
mited 10 the bar soon afterward.
That fall there occurred on of the
most celebrated and characteristic
incidents in his life A man named
Rose was then running a blackmail-
ing paper In Cincinnati. He had the
reputation of being dangerous
man. He had been prize fight
Taft forgot his judicial tempera-
ment and legal training, and instead
of setting the law on the blackmail-
err he marched down to his office
and gave him a terrific thrashing.
When Rose begged for mercy Taft
said:
II you'll agree to leave town I'll
let up. I'LL come down here again
tonight, and IL you are still here
then this thing ia only start"
Rose was glad to get off on such
er. and was usually accompanied by
gang Of roughs ready to assault
any whom he wanted punished. AL
phonsO Taft had been the unsuccess-
full candidate for governor at that
election, and Roses paper SANDER
n &C. nd hi v,,
terms He quit Cincinnati that
night and his paper never appeared
again. Young Tai, had had his first
spectacular fight, and 1t was in be-
half of somebody else
He was hardly out Of his boyhood
when he was called to public office,
and in most of the years since then
he has devoted himself to the pub
lie service First he was assistant
prosecuting attorney of Hamilton
county. and helped to drive out the
old Campbell ring, whose influence
long had dominated the Cincinnati |.
In 1881 he became COL |
lectOr of internal revenue from the
First Ohio district and demonstrated
the same ability in business that he
had shown in the law. A year later
he resigned that office and went
hack to the practice of law, with his
old partner, H. p Floyd In
1883 he became assistant county So
licitor. Two years later Governor
Foraker appointed him judge Of the
court. to succeed Judson
Harmon, who had resigned to enter
President Cleveland's cabinet. II
In 1886 Judge Taft married Miss
Helen Heron. daughter Of Hon.
John w. Heron of Cincinnati. They
have three children, Robert Alphon-
70. a student at Yale, Helen, q stu
lent at Bryn Mawr. and Charles
Phelps, I'd, who attends the public
schools in Washington.
. He had served but two years of
he five years Of his term as Judge
II the superior court, when Presi-
lent Harrison asked him to take
he post Of soAcitor-general of the
United States. Two Of the cases
which he conducted as solicitor-gen-
.ral involved questions of vital Inn
oortance to the entire country. The1
irst grew out Of the seal fisheries
with Great Britain. Mr..
Taft won against Joseph H. Choate.
The other was tariff case in which
he law was attacked on the ground
hat Speaker Reed had counted al
luorum when the bill passed thu
house. That. too. he won. It was
Turing his term as solicitor-generall
hat Mr.. Taft met Theodore Roose-
'elt, then civil service commission
II. and began the friendship which {
las continued and grown ever
ince. II
After three years in washington
dr. Taft was sent back to Ohio as
judge of the sixth federal circuit, a
ost generally recognized as a pre-
lminary step to the supreme
curt. which was then the goal Of
is ambition. He served seven {
ears on the federal bench. =
When President Mckinley asked
ir. Taft to go to Manila and under
AXE the difficult and thankless task
starting the Filipinos upon their
rue course, he sacrificed the Judi
lal career which was his life's am
ition and shouldered the "W0ite r
lan's Burden" It was in March,
800. that he received his appoint '
lent as chairman of the Philippine e
'
Mr.. Taft succeeded Elihu Root as h
'cretary Of war on February IL Q
904. a