The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-06-18
SECRETARY TAFT
FOR THIRTY YEARS
A PUBLIC SERVANT
Began Life as Newspaper Re.
porter, Studying Law at
Same Time.
FIRST OFFICE, ASSISTANT
PROSECUTING ATTORNEY
Of English Stock and Family of
Jurists-Earliest American
Taft a Vermont Judge.

ana the public service. The
nrst American Tafts came of the
Shehsh yeomanry, -transplanted across
the Atlantic by the great up-
heaVal Tor c~onscience's sake which peo-
pea New England with its sturdy stock.
III this country they turned to the
study n practise of the law.
feter Taft was both a maker and an
interpreter of laws, having served as
a member of the Vermont Legislature.
ana afterwards as a judge. Alphonso
1att, son OF Peter, was graduated from
Yale College, and then went out to the
western Reserve to practise law. H
settled in Cincinnati and it was at MI.
Auburn, a suburb of that city. on
september Is, 1857, that his son, Will
lam Howard Taft, first became a presl-
dental possibility.
His father earned distinction in the
service of city and State and nation.
going from the Superior bench, to
which he had been elected unanimous
ly, to the place in Grants cabinet now
held by the son, then, as Attorney
General. to the Department of Justice,
and finally into the diplomatic service,
as minister first to Austria and then
to Russia. His mother. who was Miss
Louise NJ. Torrey, also came of that
Stanch New England stock with whom
conscience is the arbiter of action and
duty performed the goal of service.
1t was her express command that sent
him ava from her last fall when both
knew that she was entering upon the
last stage of her life.
He had promised the Filipinos that
he would go to Manila and in person
formally open their Assembly. 1t was
TO be their first concrete experience in
self-government, and he, more than
any other man, had made 1t possible.
If he should not keep his promise
there was danger that the suspicious
Filipinos would impute his failure to
sinister motives, to indifference OF to
altered purpose, with result vastly I'M
fortunate to them and to us.
Mr., Taft saw all that very clearly,
yet in view Of his mothers health he
would have remained at home. But
she forbade. She said his duty lay to
the people he had started on the path
to liberty, and although 1t involved
what zach thought to be the final part
ing, she commanded him to go. He
went, and before he could return his
mother had passed away
Life at College.
Of course he went to Yale. His r
father had been the first alumnus
elected to the corporation, and when
Young Taft had completed his prepara-
tory course at Andover he went to New
Haven for his college training. He was
a big. rollicking, good-natured boy, +,
liked play, but still got fun out
of work. +,
He did enough In athletics to keep
his 225 pounds Of muscle in good con-
dition, but gave most of his time to his
studies. When the class of '7S was
graduated Taft was it's salutatorian,
finished second among 100. He
was then not quite q. ,
He went back to Cincinnati and be-
the study of law in his fathers i,
office, at the same time doing court re-
porting for the newspaper owned by F,
half brother, Charles p. Taft. His ,
at first was Sc a week. ;
He did his work so well, however, +,
that Murat Halstead, editor of the Gin
Commercial Gazette, employed .
him to work for hat paper, at the in :
creased salary of $25 a week.
While he was doing this he was ,
keeping up his studies, taking the i,
course at the Cincinnati Law School, /;
from which he was graduated in 1880, ,
first honors with another :
student, and being admitted to the bar 6
soon afterWard.
Call to Public Office. I
He was hardly out of his boyhood {
when he was called to public office. and Y
in most of the years since then he has /
devoted himself to the public service. I
First he was assistant prosecuting at
torney of Hamilton County, and helped
to drive out the old Campbell ring.
whose influence long had dominated the
Cincinnati Court House.
In 1881 he became collector of internal
for the first Ohio district. and
demonstrated the same ability in bust
ness that he had shown in the law. A
wear later he resigned that Office and
went back to the practise of law, with
his fathers old partner, II. p. Floyd.
In 1883 he became assistant county So
licitor.
Two years later Governor Foraker
appointed him Judge of the Superior
to succeed Judson Harmon. who
had resigned to enter President Cleve-
lands cabinet,
In 1885 Judge Taft married Miss
Helen Heron. daughter of Hon. John
w. Heron, of Cincinnati. They have
three children, Robert Alphons0, a stu
dent at Yale: Helen, a student at Bryn
Mawr. and Charles Phelps. I'd, who at
tends the public schools in Washington.
Judicial Career Begun.
His appointment as judge of the Su-
nerior Court was the beginning of the
judicial career which was Tafts ambi-
fion. and for which he was so eminently
ftted. He made such a record as a
fudge that at the close of his appointed
torn, he was triumphantly elected for
another term.
But already he had attracted atten-
tion outside his State, and he hao
served but two years of the five years
for which he had been elected Wheh
president Harrison asked him to take
tho dificult post of Solicitor-General OF :.
tbe limited states. This was an office
- the utmost Importance, involving
not only wide learning and tremendous
o~nnlication, but the power of clear ana
farceful presentation of argument
Two of the cases which he conducted
=. solicitor-oenera involved questions
of vital Importance to the entlre eouh
nv The first grew out of the sea-
aeberies controversy with Great brlt
ain Mr.. Taft won against such emil
annt counsel as Joseph H. Choate' VINO
tSA ..soo,i,ed as a leader OF the