Foraker appointed him Judge of the Superior Court, to succeed Judson Harmon who had resigned to enter President Cleveland's cabinet.

In 1886 Judge Taft married Miss Helen Herron, daughter of Hon. John W. Herron, of Cincinnati. They have three children, Robert Alphonso, a student at Yale, Helen, a student at Bryn Mawr, and Charles Phelps, 2d, who attends the public schools in Washington.

His Judicial Career Bogun.

His appointment as Judge of the Superior Court was the beginning of the judicial career which was Taft's ambition, and for which he was so eminently fitted. He made such a record as a judge that at the close of his appointed term he was triumphantly elected for another term. But already he had attracted attention outside his state, and he had served but two years of the five years for which he had been elected when President Harrison asked him to take the difficult post of Solicitor General of the United States. This was an office of the utmost importance, involving not only wide learning and tremendous application, but the power of clear and forceful presentation of argument. Two of the cases which he conducted as solicitor general involved questions of vital importance to the entire country. The first grew out of the seal fisheries controversy with Great Britain. Mr. Taft won against such eminent counsel as Joseph H. Choate who is widely recognized as a leader of the American bar. The other was a tariff case in which the law was attacked on the ground that Speaker Reed had counted a quorum when the bill passed the House. That, too, he won. It was during his term as solicitor general that Mr. Taft met Theodore Roosevelt, then civil service commissioner, and began the friendship which has continued and grown ever since and which has had such far-reaching influence upon the lives of both men.

On the Federal Bench.

Mr. Taft's 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 recognized as a preliminary step to the Supreme Court, which was then the goal of his ambition.

It 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 to decide some of the most important cases that have ever been tried in the federal courts, in the conduct of which he established an enviable reputation for learning, courage and fairness-three essestial attributes of a great jurist. His power of application and his ability to turn off enormous masses of work received ample demonstration during this time. It 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 parties when they appeared as litigants before him. He voiced the law as he knew it and the right as he saw it, no matter where the blow fell or whom it struck. If sometimes the decisions went against what organized labor at that time believed to be its cause, it must not be forgotten that no clearer or broader statement of the true rights of labor has even been made than in some of his judicial utterances. Lawyers conducting litigation in other courts on behalf of labor unions have often cited these decisions of Judge Taft in support of their contentions. Neither should it be forgotten that one of the most important and far reaching of all his judgments was that against the Addystone Pipe Company, in which for the first time the Sherman anti-trust law was made a living, vital force for the curbing and punishment of monopoly. When this case reached the Supreme Court, Mr. Taft received the distinguished and unusual honor of having his decision quoted in full and handed down as part of the opinions of the high court which sustained him at every point.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT.

Pioneering the Roosevelt Policy.

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This Addystone Pipe decision marked the beginning of the struggle for federal control of interstate corporations which in the later years has come to be known as the "Roosevelt policy." Mr. Taft in an address to the American Bar Association at Detroit, in the summer of 1895, had enunciated the principle on which President Roosevelt has made his great fight for the suppression of monopoly and the abolition of special privilege. Thus Mr. Taft pioneered the way for the "Roosevelt policy."

Blazing the Philippine Trail.

Since the settlement of the reconstruction question no more delicate or fateful problem has confronted American statesmanship than that of the Philippines. The sudden pitching of oversea territory into our possession as a result of the war with Spain, created a situation not only unexpected but entirely without precedent. There was no guide for our statesmen. The path had to be hewed out new from the beginning. There was no crystallization of opinion among the American people as to what should be done with the Philippines. A considerable element was vigorously opposed to retaining them, but the vast majority demanded the maintenance of American sovereignty there. Among these, at first, the desire was undoubtedly due to the glamour of aggrandizement. The possibility of wealth somewhere beyond the skyline always catches the imagination, and there can be no question that the great mass of the people moved, without serious thought of the consequences, toward American exploitation of the islands.

But even at that early day there were a few-a very fewamong the leaders of American thought and action, who saw clearly the responsibility thrust upon the country by the adventitious possession of the Philippines, and determined to meet it fully, no matter what clamor of opposition might arise. Among these President McKinley was one. Mr. Taft was another. Mr. Taft had been opposed to taking the islands. He was opposed to retaining them. More than all he opposed their exploitation for American benefit. He believed that the Philippines belonged to the Filipinos, and should be developed in the interest of their own people.

Shouldering the "White Man's Burden."

He saw the possibility of lifting a feeble, ignorant people into the light of liberty and setting them upon the path to intelligent, efficient self-government. That possibility reconciled him to the continuance of American authority over the islands, for none saw more clearly than he the chaos certain to result from immediate independence for the Filipinos, with its inevitable and speedy end in complete and hopeless subjection to some other power. Therefore when President McKinley asked him to go to Manila and undertake the difficult and thankless task of starting the Filipinos upon their true course, he sacrificed the judicial career which was his life's ambition and shouldered the "White Man's Burden." It was in March, 1900, that he received his appointment as chairman of the Philippine Commission.

Not many Americans have ever comprehended thoroughly the size of Mr. Taft's undertaking, or the full meaning of his achievement. Through a bungle in our first dealings with Aguinaldo and the Filipinos the entire native population of the islands had come to believe, with some reason, that the Americans were their enemies and had betrayed them. Mr. Taft arrived in Manila to find a people subdued by force of arms, but unanimously hostile, sullen and suspicious. They were still struggling, with the bitterness of despair, against the power in which they all saw only the hand of the oppressor.

Overcoming the Barrier Between East and West. Moreover, their leaders had been inoculated with the belief that between west and east there is an impassible barrier which will always prevent the Occidental from understanding and sympathizing with the Oriental. The experience of generations had

confirmed them in that belief. The only government in their knowledge was tyranny. The only education in their history was deceit. The only tradition they possessed was hatred of oppression, made concrete for them by their experience with western domination.

That was what Mr. Taft had to face, and in three years he had overcome and changed it all. He did it by the persuasive power of the most winning personality the Filipinos had ever known. He met them on their own level. He lived with them, ate with them, drank with them, danced with them, and he showed them that here was an Occidental who could read and sympathize with the Oriental heart. He gave them a new conception of justice, and they saw with amazement that it was even-handed, respecting neither person nor condition, a great leveler, equalizing all before the law. They saw Mr. Taft understanding them better than they had understood themselves, comprehending their problems more wisely than their own leaders had done, and standing all the time like a rock solidly for their interests. They saw him opposed by almost all his countrymen in their islands, denounced and assailed with the utmost vehemence and venom by Americans simply because he steadfastly resisted American exploitation and persisted in his declaration that the Philippines should be for the Filipinos. They saw him laboring day and night in their behalf and facing death itself with cheerful resignation in order to carry on their cause. It was a revelation to them. It was something beyond their previous ken. `outside of all their experience, their education and their tradition. It convinced them.

A Revelation to the Filipinos.

Mr. Taft gave them concrete examples of disinterestedness and good faith, which they could not fail to comprehend. He gave them schools and the opportunity of education, one of the dearest wishes of the whole people. No man who was not in the Philippines in the early days of the American occupation will ever understand thoroughly with what pitiful eagerness the Filipino people desired to learn. Men, women and children, white haired grandfathers and grandmothers craved above everything the opportunity to go to school and receive instruction in the simplest rudiments. It is difficult to tell how deeply that eager desire touched Mr. Taft and how earnestly he responded to it.

But education was only a beginning. Mr. Taft gave the Filipinos the opportunity to own their own homes. It was another concrete example of simple justice. When they saw him negotiating for the friar lands, securing for the Filipinos the right to buy those lands on easy terms, it went home to the dullest among them that he was working unselfishly in their behalf.

And they saw his justice in their courts. For the first time in all their experience the poorest and humblest Filipino found himself able to secure an even-handed honest decision, without purchase and without influence.

Even that was not all. They saw Mr. Taft literally and faithfully keeping his promise and calling Filipinos to share in their own government, not merely in the subordinate and lowly places which they had been able to purchase from their old masters, but in the highest and most responsible posts. They saw men of their race called to membership in the commission, in the supreme court, and in all the other branches of their government. And they believed the promise of even wider experince of self-government to come.

An Unparalleled Achievement.

It was a practical demonstration of honesty and good faith such as the Philippines had never known. It was a showing of sympathy, justice and comprehension which could not be resisted. Conviction followed it inevitably. The whole people knew-because they saw-that the Philippines were to be maintained for the Filipinos. and they recognized their own unfitness for the full responsibilities of independent self-government, and cheerfully set themselves to the task of preparation.

That is the achievement of Mr. Taft in the Philippines. It

has scarcely a parallel in history. What it cost him he paid without question or complaint. He had given up his judicial career when he went to Manila. But three times in the course of his service for the Filipinos the opportunity to re-enter it came to him, each time with an offer of a place on the supreme court which had been his life-long goal. Each time he refused it. Not even President Roosevelt understood the call to Mr. Taft from the Filipinos, and when he offered a supreme court justiceship to Mr. Taft he accompanied it with almost a command. But Mr. Taft declined. He saw clearly his duty lay to the people whom he had led to believe in him as the personification of American justice and good faith, and he made the President see it too. How the Filipinos felt was shown when on hearing of the danger that Mr. Taft might be called away from Manila, they flocked in thousands about his residence and begged him not to go. When ultimately he did leave the islands it was only to come home as Secretary of War, in which office he could continue his direction of Philippine affairs and make sure that there should be no deviation from the successful line of policy he had marked out.

The Birth of a Nation.

What is the result? The birth of a nation. The great, powerful American people, through the compelling agency of Mr. Taft, has paused ever so slightly in its triumphant onward march, to stoop down and lift up a feeble, ignorant and helpless people and set it on the broad highway to liberty. Vaguely, uncertainly, not comprehending clearly just what it was doing, not understanding always fully either the object or the means of accomplishment, but its heart right, and submitting confidently to the leadership of a man in whom it trusted implicitly, this nation has assisted in a new birth of freedom for a lowly and oppressed people. To William Howard Taft belongs the lion's share of the credit. Not often is it given to one man to do such work for humanity. Seldom is such altruism as his displayed. Many other honors have come to him; many others will yet come. Among them all none will be of greater significance or of more lasting value than his work for the Filipinos.

Secretary of War.

It is not important here to discuss in detail Mr. Taft's administration of the War Department since he succeeded Elihu Root as Secretary of War on February 1, 1904. He has been at the head of it during the years of its greatest range of activity. He is not merely Secretary of the Army, as almost all his predecessors were. He is Secretary of the Colonies. Under his direction are matters of the utmost importance affecting every one of the over-sea possessions of the United States. The affairs of the army alone have often proved sufficient to occupy the whole attention of an able secretary. Mr. Taft has had to handle not only those and the Philippine and Cuban business, but to direct the construction of the Panama Canal as well. And at not infrequent intervals he has been called on to participate in the direction of other weighty affairs of government. He has been the general adviser of President Roosevelt and has been called into consultation on every important matter which has required governmental action.

The administration of canal affairs has required in a high degree that quality described as executive ability. The building of a canal is a tremendous enterprise, calling constantly for the exercise of sound business judgment. In it Mr. Taft has displayed in ripened proportions the abilities he foreshadowed when solicitor general and collector of internal revenue.

Building the Canal.

When Mr. Taft became Secretary of War this country had just taken possession of the canal zone, under treaty with the 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 of cartoons representing Uncle Sam in long boots with a spade on his shoulder, striding down to the isthmus to begin digging. But before there could

be any real excavation there was a tremendous task to meet. First of all the isthmus must be changed from a disease breeding pest-hole to a place where Americans could live and work in safety. The canal zone must be cleaned up, mosquitoes stamped out and the place made sweet and healthy. Habitations must be constructed for many thousands of workmen and their families. The cities of Panama and Colon, at the terminal of the canal, must be made thoroughly sanitary and supplied with water and sewers. An organization for the work of canal construction must be perfected and millions of dollars worth of machinery and supplies must be purchased and transported to the isthmus.

All these things, however, were of a purely business character. It required only time and ability to handle them properly. But there was another matter to be taken care of before these could be undertaken, and it was of a decidedly different nature. The Hay-Varilla treaty with Panama had secured to the United States all the rights necessary for complete control of the canal zone, and it became of the utmost importance to insure the maintenance of friendly relations with the people of the isthmus republic. It would certainly greatly increase the ordinary difficulties of building the canal if our people had to encounter the hostilities of the Panamanians.

Here was a problem largely similar to that met by Mr. Taft in the Philippines, and calling for the exercise of the same qualities of tact, sympathy, justice and patience which he had exhibited in the Far East.

It became his task to convince the Panamanian people and government that the United States had not gone to the isthmus to build a rival state instead of a canal. As head of the War Department, and the superior of the Canal Commission, he has conducted all the affairs of this Government with the Republic of Panama since the ratification of the original treaty, and has succeeded in keeping our relations with the isthmus uniformly pleasant. Always, at least once a year, he has made a trip to the canal zone and examined affairs there with his own eyes. He has just returned from the isthmus, the President having sent him there to settle a number of questions which required his personal consideration on the ground. Perhaps some conception of his responsibilities on the isthmus may be had from the fact that since the actual work of canal building began there has been spent on it upward of $80,000,000, and every dollar of that expenditure required and received his approval.

Real Self-Government for Cuba.

Aside from the Philippines and the Canal the greatest call that has been made upon Mr. Taft since he became Secretary of War came from Cuba. This was a case largely similar to the Philippine problem. The American people have so long imbibed the theory and practice of self-government with their mothers' milk that they have developed a tendency to believe any people fitted for it who desire it. To us liberty is selfgovernment, but to many a people with neither experience nor tradition of anything but practical autocracy self-government is only license. So it was with the Cubans. When our intervention had freed that island from the Spanish yoke we deemed it sufficient insurance of successful government for the Cubans to require them to adopt a constitution before we turned the island over to them. We ignored the fact that Cuba had no experience of constitutions or understanding of their functions. So when Cuba had conformed to our requirement we sailed away from Havana and left her to work out her own salvation unaided and untaught.

The result of that folly was inevitable and not long delayed. The Cubans having adopted a constitution they had not the slightest idea of what to do with it. They proceeded to govern under the only system of which they had any knowledge. The proclamation of the President took the place of the old royal decree. He created by his fiat the departments of government which should have been established by law of Congress under authority of the Constitution. Freedom in the American sense was unknown in Cuba.