William Howard Taft Conflicts During Presidency
William Howard Taft, the 27th president of the United States, was born on September 15, 1857. Besides being the president, he, later on, became the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. |
When Taft came into office, he was enthusiastic about pursuing the reforms started by Theodore Roosevelt. However, as the president, he made two major mistakes that led to conflicts.
His first mistake was to hold a special session of the Congress to reduce the tariff. This move was not welcomed by many in the Republican Party, and they wanted Taft to stop the tariff reform. However, two politicians who were representing the interests of big businesses, Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island and Representative Sereno E. Payne of New York, managed to push the tariff reform through. However, the tariff reduction was not very substantial. Although Taft had threatened to veto the bill if the tariff reduction was not sufficient, he still signed it into an act. The moment Taft signed the bill, he managed to alienate the progressive members of the Congress who felt that the tariffs were still too high even after the reduction.
Taft's next mistake was dismissing Chief Forester of the United States, Gifford Pinchot, who was also a friend of Theodore Roosevelt. This occurred because Taft appointed Richard Ballinger as to head the Department of Interior. Ballinger was of the opinion that Roosevelt had incorrectly closed large tracts of federal and public land for conservation when they could be used for development. This prompted Ballinger to open some tracts of land, including the land in Alaska that was rich in coal. This led to Pinchot launching a public attack on Ballinger, which was construed as an indirect attack on Taft. This left Taft with no alternative other than to fire Pinchot. As a result of this dismissal, the Republican Party was divided into those who opposed the dismissal and those who were in favor. This also led to a rift between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.
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