The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-06-18


the unsuccessful candidate for COVER
nor at that election, and Roses paper
slanderously assailed him. For once
young Taft forgot his judicial temper
ament and legal training, and instead
of setting the law on the blackmailer
he marched down to his office and
gave Rose a terrific thrashing. When
Rose begged for mercy Taft said:
IF you'll agree to leave town III let
| you up. I'll come down here again
tonight. and if you are still here then
this thing is only a start"
Rose was glad to get off on such
terms. He quit Cincinnati that night
and his paper never appeared again.
Young Taft had had his first spectac-
ular fight, and it was in behalf of
somebody else.
1t is not the purpose of this little
sketch to attempt a detailed biography
of Mr.. Taft. 1t merely seeks, by
| discussion of few of the more i'm
portant events of his life to show what
manner of man he is. They reveal
| him as a student of application and
ability man with an abiding sense Of
| justice, slow to wrath. but terrible in
anger; courageous, aggressively hon
est and straightforward; reader to
take up another's cause than his own.
! This is foundation on which eXper
ence may build very largely, and that
is what it has done for Taft. -
The Call to Public Office.
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 public SER
vice. First he was assistant prose
cutting attorney of Hamilton county,
and helped to drive out the old Camp
bell ring, whose influence long had
dominated the Cincinnati court house.
In 1881 he became collector of inter
nal revenue for the first Ohio district
and 4monstrated the same ability in
| busi less that he had shown in the law.
A year later he resigned that office
and went back to the practice of law,
with his fathers old partner, H. P.
Floyd. In 1888 he became assistant
| county solicitor. Two years later
Governor Foraker appointed him
| judge of the superior court, to succeed
Judson Harmon who had resigned to
enter President Cleveland's cabinet.
In 1856 Judge Taft married Miss
Helen Heron, daughter of Hon. John
w. Heron, of Cincinnati. They have
three children, Robert Alphonso, a stu
dent at Yale, Helen, student at Bryn
Mawr, and Charles Phelps, I'd, who at
tends the public schools in Washing
| ton.
! His judicial Career Begun.
His appointment as judge of the SUI
perior court was the beginning of the
| judicial career which was Taft's ambi-
ton. and for which he was so eminent
ly fitted. He made such a record as
a judge that at the close of his appoint
ed term he was triumphantly elected
for another term. But already he had
attracted attention outside his state,
and he had served by two years of the
five years for which he had been elect
ed when President Harrison asked him
to take the difficult post of Solicitor
General of the United States. This
was an office of the utmost import
ance, involving not only wide learning
and tremendous application, but the
power of clear and forceful presenta-
ton of argument. Two of the cases
which he conducted as solicitor gener-
al involved questions of vital import
ance to the entire country. The first
grew out of the seal fisheries contro-
versy with Great Britain. Mr.. Taft
won against such eminent counsel as
Joseph H. Choate who is widely rec
ognized as leader of the American
bar. The other was a tariff case in
which the law was a tackled on the
ground that Speaker Reed had counted
a quorum when the bill passed the
house. That. too, he won. 1t was
during his term as solicitor general
that Mr.. Taft met Theodore Roosevelt,
then civil service commissioner. and
began the friendship which has contin-
ued and grown ever since and which
has had such far-reaching influence up
on the lives of both men.
On the Federal Bench.
NJ. Tafts record as solicitor general
so clearly proved his fitness for the
bench that after three years in Wash
ington he was sent back to Ohio as
judge of the Sixth Federal circuit, a
post generally recognized as a pre-
liminary step to the supreme court
which was then the goal of his ambi-
ton.
1t was during his seven years on the
federal bench that Mr.. Taft's qualities
as a judge became known throughout
the country. He was called upon then
10 decide some of the most important
cases that have ever been tried in the
federal courts. in the conduct of which
he established an enviahle reputation
for learning. courage and fairness
three essential attributes of a great
jurist. His power of application and
his ability 10 turn off enormous mass
es of work received ample demonstra-
ton during this time. II was in this
period of his service that he rendered
the labor decisions which have made
him famous as an upright and fearless
judge. In his treatment of both labor
and capital he showed that here was a
judge who knew no distinction of par
ties when they appeared as htigants
before him. He voiced the law as he