The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-11-08

He was q big. rollicking, good -natured
boy who liked play, but still got fun out
of work. He did enough in athletics to
keep his 225 pounds of muscles in good
condition, but gave most of his time to
his studies. When the class of '7s was
graduated Taft was salu .atorIan, having
finished second among 100 He was also
selected class orator by the class. He
was then not quite q.
He went back to Cincinnati and began
the study of law in his fathers office,
at the same time doing court reporting for
the newspaper owned by his half brother,
Charles P. Taft. The salary at first was
Sc week. He did his work SO well,
however, that Murat Halstead. editor of
the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, em-
ployed him to work for that paper at the
increased salary of s25 a week.
While he was doing this he was keeping
up his studies, taking course at the
Cincinnati Law school, from which he
was graduated in 1880. dividing first hon
ors with another student and being ad-
mitted to the bar soon afterward.
That fall there occurred one of the
most celebrated and characteristic events
of his life. A man named Rose was rum
ming a Matchmaking paper in Cincinnati.
He had the reputation of being dan
gerous man. He had been prize fighter
and was usually accompanied by a gang
wanted punished
Alfonzo Taft h ID been the unsuccessful
candidate for governor at that election,
and Roses paper slanderously assailed
him. For once young Taft forgot his ju-
dicial temperament and legal training,
and instead of setting the law on the
blackmailer, he marched down to his Of
flee and gave Rose a tremendous thrash
ing.
Enemy Quits Cincinnati.
Rose quit Cincinnati that night and his
paper never appeared again. Young
Taft had had his first spectacular fight
and it was in behalf 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 de-
voted himself to public service. First he
was assistant prosecuting attorney of
Hamilton county, under Miller Outcalt,
now one of thu leading lawyers in Ohio.
In 1881 he became collector of internal
revenue for the first Ohio district, and
demonstrated the same ability in business
that he had shown in the law. year
later he resigned that office. He went
back to the practice of law with his IA
Tiers old partner. Fl. P. Lloyd.
In 1884 he became the Junior counsel of
a bar committee to constitute testament
proceedings against Campbell, whose
methods of practising had brought on the
hearing of the Hamilton county court
house in Cincinnati. Though technically
unsuccessful Mr.. Taft made good rep
. utation from his conduct OF this matter
and Campbell was drawn from -cinaio-
natl.
+ In 1885 he became county solicitor Two
years later Governor Foraker appointed
him judge of the superior court to sue
coed Judson Harmon, who had resigned
IN al
In 1886 Judge Taft married Miss Helen
Heron, daughter of Hon. John w. Her.
ron of Cincinnati. They have three chill
dren, Robert Alfonzo, student at Yale;
Helen, student. at Bryn Mawr and
Charles Phelps, I'd, who attends the pub
| lie schools in Washington.
| His appointment as Judge of the SUI
| perior court was the beginning of the jul
dicial career which was Tafts ambition
and for which he was SO eminently fitted.
He made such a record as judge that
at the close of his appointed term he was
triumphantly elected for another term.
But already he had attracted attention
outside of the state, and he had served
but two years of the five for which he
had been elected when President Harrison
asked him to take the difficult post of
solicitor general of the United States.
! Proves Fitness for the Bench.
| Mr.. Tafts record as solicitor general
so clearly proved his fitness for the bench
that after three years in Washington he
was sent back to Ohio as Judge of the
Sixth federal circuit, a post generally rec
ognized as the preliminary step to the
supreme court, which was then the goal
of his ambition
Since the settlement of the recopstruc-
ton problem, no more delicate or fateful
question has confronted American states
manship than that of the Philippines.
There was no guide for American states
men. There was no capitalization of
opinion among the American people as
to what should be done with the Phil
ippines.
But even at that early day there were
few-a very few-among the leaders of
American thought and action who saw
clearly the responsibility thrust upon the
country by the advantitious possession of
the Philippines and determined to meet it
| fully no matter what clamor of opposi-
Mckinley was one. Mr.. Taft was an
other. Mr.. Taft had been opposed to
taking the islands. He was opposed to re-
tanning them. More than all he opposed
their exploitation for American benefit.
He believed the Philippines belonged to
the Filipinos, and should be developed in
the interest of their own people.
/ He saw the possibility of lifting a
feeble, ignorant people into the light of
| liberty and setting them upon the path
of intelligent, efficient self-government.
That possibility reconciled him to the
continuance of American authority over
the islands. Therefore, when President
Mckinley asked him to go to Manila and
undertake the difficult and thanlxless task
of starting the Fflpinos upon their true
! course, he sacrificed a judicial career,
which was his lifes ambition, and should
March. 1900, that he received his appoint
mission.
Finds FiIipinos Suspicious.
Mr. Taft arrived In Manila to find the
people subdued by force OF arms unani-
They were struggling with the bitterness
they all saw only the hand of the OPP
pressor-
The only government in their knowl-
edge was tyranny. The only education
In their history was deceit The only ira
dition they possessed was hatred of OPP
preston, made concrete for them by their
experiences with western domination.
When Mr.. Taft became secretary of
war this country had just taken possess
sion of the canal zone, under treaty with
the old republic of Panama, and of the
old canal property. including the Panama
railroad. by purchase from the French
company. The work was all to do. The
country expected the dirt to fly at once.
The newspapers and periodicals were full
-