William Howard Taft

Served as president from 1909-1913
Era: Foreign Policy, Progressive Era and WWI
American Identity and Culture
On Washington Senator’s Opening Day of1910, President Taft threw the first opening ball pitch at the Griffith Stadium, also known as the National Park, located in the Washington D.C. By doing this, President Taftinitiated the American tradition of throwing the first ball pitch at a baseball game on the event of an Opening Day, World Series, or the All Star Game. Ever since 1910, every president elected into the White House has thrown at least one ceremonial ball pitch for a baseball game.Also in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America were established by William Boyce, Ernest Thompson, and Daniel Beardin hopes of training the youth to develop character, develop a sense of self-reliance, and to become a good citizen of America in the future.The Boy Scouts of America were mainly filled with children of wealthy families because they were the only one who could afford to send their children to the program.
Economic Transformations and Globalization
President Taft was known as a “trustbuster” because he ordered many prosecutions of antitrust cases.One of the cases was against the U.S Steel Company in which included a merger that was approved by President Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt viewed this action by President Taft as an attack to Roosevelt’s integrity. In 1913, the sixteenth amendment was ratified and it called for a graduated income tax. Progressives accepted this new tax because the tax initially only affected the very wealthy upper classes. The sixteenth amendment helped unite Southern and Western farmers together because they wished that the government would stop depending on them to pay the taxes.
In Taft’s 1908 campaign, Taft promised to decrease the tariff. Once elected, the conservative Republicans in Congress ratified the Payne-Aldrich Tariff in 1909 which increased the tariff on a majority of imported goods. Taft made the Progressives in his party furious by not signing the tariff and by making a bold public statement defending his actions.
Environment
During President Taft’s presidency, Taft worked hard to conserve the natural resources in the United States.In May 1910, President Taft established the Bureau of Mines which added huge tracts in the Appalachian Mountains to the national forest reserves. President Taft also set aside federal oil lands, making him the first president to ever do this. The Mann-Elkins Act of 1910 empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend new railroad rates and supervise telephone, cable, and telegraph companies. Also beginning in 1910, Chicago devotes over 300 million dollars to urban improvement and civic designs which was supportedby Daniel Burnham. In addition, in 1912 two more states joined the union. These states were Arizona and New Mexico.
Politics and Citizenship
During President Taft’s presidency, cabinet member and secretary of interior Richard Ballinger opened up the public domains in Alaska for private development. In 1910, Gifford Pinchot,chief of the Forest Service and conservationist, accused Ballinger for his wrong actions. Shocked by Pinchot’s accusation, President Taft fired Pinchot for his defiantness. Progressives were angered at President Taft’s decision to fire Pinchot, while Conservatives supportedTaft for his actions. This controversy became known as the Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy.
Due to President Taft’s actions, the Progressives in the Republican Party believed that Taft was beginning to lean more toward the conservative side of the party. With President Taft’s reaction toward the Payne-Aldrich tariff and the Pinchot-Ballinger controversy, the Progressives believed that President Taft went against their ideals.More factors that contributed to the Progressives mentality also included when President Taft did not support Progressive Republicans in reducing the tyrant-like powers of the Speaker of the House, Joseph Cannon. Another factor was that Taft publicly supported candidates who were conservatives.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
In 1909,WEB DuBois, Oswald Garrison Villard, and Mary White Ovington established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People organization (NAACP for short). The organization’s main purpose was to guarantee equal political, social, economic, and educational rights to all people of any race. A few months after the establishment of the NAACP, the Niagara Movement conference was held in New York in which members of the NAACP attended to elect a board for the organization. As a result the board was elected with only one African American which was WEB DuBois. WEB DuBois pressed for instant changes within the legislation for equal civil rights between whites and African Americans. DuBois argued that Whites are only successful because they had political and social rights, however if African Americans were given the same rights it would allow them to become successful too.
In 1911, Jamaican Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Their goal was to unite all blacks together, to protest for equal civil rights, and to create a sense of Black Nationalism. Similarly to the NAACP, the Universal Negro Improvement Association urged for a stop to lynching, anend to the Jim Crow laws, secure black voting rights, and no racial discrimination.
War and Diplomacy
President Taft embraced a foreign policy that was relatively expansionist, but was more dependent on money than battleships.President Taft’s policy of promoting U.S trade by supporting American companies overseas was called the “Dollar Diplomacy.”President Taft supported the private American financial investment in China and in nations of Central America would lead to stability in the foreign nations while simultaneously advocating business interests of the United States. However, one obstacle that President Taft faced with his policy of dollar diplomacy was that there was a growing anti-imperialism feeling in the United States and abroad.President Taft first experimented with his dollar diplomacy policy in Chinabecause he wanted U.S bankers to be involved in the plans of the French, British, and German to invest in railroads in China. President Taft was able to secure participations of Americans in the agreement of 1911. To protect investments in Nicaragua, the United States meddled with the financial problems of Nicaragua in 1911 and sent troops when a civil war occurred in 1912.