Contributions Made By William Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States. Later, he became the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. When Taft became the president, he was adamant on continuing the program started by Roosevelt. His main aim was to create a framework that would allow the reforms to take place without any problems. |
During his presidency, Taft focused more on administration rather than legislation. He had no problems signing laws, irrespective of what his personal feeling were towards the legislation. However, even after all this, the Taft administration was instrumental in getting number of reform legislations approved by the Congress.
The first thing that he did on becoming the president was to call a special session of the Congress to change the tariff law. He wanted to reduce the tariff rates, and he succeeded in this.
Another legislation that was passed by the Congress was the Mann Elkins Act of 1910. This legislation gave power to the Interstate Commerce Commission to stop the increase in railroad rate, and to set a fixed rate. The legislation also enhanced the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission to include telephones, telegraphs and radio.
Taft was also responsible for placing 35,000 postmasters and 20,000 skilled workers in the US Navy under civil service protection. He was also responsible for dividing the Department of Commerce and Labor into two cabinet departments. In addition, Taft vetoed the proposal to allow Arizona and New Mexico into the Union. This was because both the states had a judge recall clause in their Constitution. Once the states removed the clause, Taft supported statehood for both Arizona and New Mexico.
Taft pushed vigorously to get the Congress to approve the Sixteenth Amendment that dealt with income tax. However, he did not show the same enthusiasm when it came to the Seventeenth Amendment, the direct election of Senators.
Another one of William Taft's contributions was ensuring that those guilty of antitrust violations were prosecuted. In fact, during Taft's tenure around 99 trust prosecution occurred and this was more than what occurred during Roosevelt's presidency.
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