ADMINISTRATION OF WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
_March 4, 1909, to March 4, 1913_
Because of the blinding snowstorm, howling winds, and low temperature,
Mr. Taft departed from the usual custom of an outdoor ceremony and took
the oath of office in the Senate Chamber, with Chief Justice Fuller
officiating, after James Schoolcraft Sherman had been installed as Vice
President.
Only once before had the vow of allegiance been taken under such
conditions, and that was eighty years previously, when Andrew Jackson
was compelled to yield to the weather and prudence and stay indoors.
President Roosevelt and Mr. Taft, with Senators Philander Knox and
Henry Cabot Lodge, rode to the Capitol in a closed carriage escorted by
Troop A of Cleveland. Behind Mr. Taft’s carriage the Civil and Spanish
War veterans and other units of the escort fell into line.
Mrs. Taft and Mrs. Sherman established a precedent in riding with their
husbands at the head of the parade on the return trip to the White
House, receiving vociferous cheers from the crowds.
The Tafts had been the guests of the Roosevelts the night of March 3d.
At breakfast the next morning, it is said that Mr. Taft, after taking
a rueful survey of the snowbound city, remarked to the President,
facetiously, “I knew it would be a cold day when I became President,”
to which the President responded, in kind, “I knew there would be a
blizzard clear up to the minute I went out of office.”
After the luncheon for all of the twenty-seven members of the Taft clan
and their official guests, the President, bundled in a fur overcoat,
made his way, with the Vice President and their party, through the
snow to the reviewing stand, where he remained until dark, giving full
expression to his approval of the splendid parade in his honour.
Braving the bitter cold, thirty thousand soldiers, sailors, and
civilians swung along Pennsylvania Avenue to the music of a hundred
bands. Undaunted by the wintry blasts that numbed their hands and
stung their faces, they marched between the lines of snowdrifts amid a
constant roar of applause. Only three fifths of the original formation
had actually appeared. A large number never reached the city until
hours after all ceremonies were over, and some failed to come at all.
Though marching quickly and efficiently, the heavy service overcoats
detracted from the beauty of the procession, since they hid the colours
of the uniforms. Fully thirteen thousand of the marchers belonged to
famous Republican clubs and organizations. The band of sailors from
the fleet was loudly cheered. Sixteen battleships had just completed
a fifty-thousand-mile trip around the world, during which they had
visited every ocean in the journey of two years, two months, and
twenty-two days.
Some idea of the proportions of the blizzard may be gathered from
the fact that ten inches of snow fell from 8 P. M. Wednesday night
until noon Thursday (March 4th), and the labour of six thousand men
with shovels was required to clear the route of the procession from
the Capitol to the White House, removing what was estimated to be
fifty-eight thousand five hundred tons of snow. Eighteen thousand
pounds of sand was used to sprinkle the Avenue, and before the parade
was over, dust was flying from the middle of the street over the
spectators.
Among the celebrations on March 4th was the annual dinner of the Yale
class of 1878, given at the Metropolitan Club with President Taft as
the guest of honour. Here he enjoyed himself hugely for nearly two
hours before going to the ball. The sons of Old Eli gathered from
all parts of the land to do honour to “Big Bill Taft,” and songs,
toasts, and speeches made the banquet memorable. Seventy-five of the
President’s classmates composed the group that gathered to forget the
formalities of the day in song and spirit. No incident of the day
pleased Mr. Taft more, and in his address to them he declared that they
would always find the White House latchstring on the outside.
The ball at the Pension Office in the evening was once more a
picture of bewildering beauty. This happened, through the trend of
circumstances, to be the last of the old-time inaugural balls.
The President’s box, a flower-decked affair which extended beyond
the first balcony about fifteen feet, had been provided with a huge,
handsomely carved mahogany chair, lent for the occasion by a New York
admirer. Similar chairs on either side of the throne-like affair were
lent by Mrs. A. C. Barney from her famous collection of antiques. The
top of the box was crowned with a gold ball surmounted with a golden
eagle. Gold-banded fringed curtains of satin and gold columns flanked
its sides.
The arrival of the presidential party was the occasion for wild
applause, for not until the Grand March through the roped-off aisle
was completed by the man and the woman in whose honour it was given
could the multitude feel that the ball had actually opened. To the
music of “Hail to the Chief,” President and Mrs. Taft, followed by
Vice President and Mrs. Sherman, made the tour of the room, bowing
and smiling their pleasure at the uproar of welcome. They then seated
themselves in their box, the President taking the huge armchair which
had been provided for him and which, to his amazement, sank down and
down until he was almost lost to view in its cushioned depths. The
President laughed with the onlooking crowd, but was careful not again
to jeopardize his official dignity by floundering in a chair many times
too large even for his generous build.
Every sort of costume was worn at the ball. The most elegant and
costly hand-painted, jewelled robes, shirtwaists and skirts,
Sunday-go-to-meeting dresses, sport dresses, and business suits, all
were mixed in, as seems customary with the inimitable independence
of the American public. Here and there were quaint native dresses of
prosperous and curious foreigners, who evidently felt that they were
highly presentable at what to them was an American Court function.
Nothing pleased the assembled throng more than a little spontaneous
gesture by the President, who, when he was about to leave, stepped to
the rail, waved his hand to the dancers, and called out “Good-night.”
Mrs. Taft, like the famous Dolly Madison, the queen of the ball of a
century before her, was attired in a high-waisted empire gown. It was
extremely simple, depending for its effect upon the fabric and the
style of the cut. Made of white chiffon, it was embroidered in silver
lace and crystal beads in a goldenrod design that reached to the
waistband in front and extended thickly around the train. The waist was
also simply trimmed with the embroidery and rich lace, and the whole
mounted over a white satin slip. A pearl and diamond dog collar and
a spray in her hair completed her costume. Miss Taft was becomingly
attired in white silk muslin with touches of blue, while Mrs. Sherman
was radiant in white satin.
Though taxicabs and carriages were at a premium, and the keen March
wind penetrated the thickest furs, the ballroom was so packed that
dancing was possible only in spots until toward the last, when the
crowd had thinned out. It was estimated that ten thousand people
attended, and they brought their enthusiasm along, for they constantly
applauded the new President long after the Grand March was completed.
In Mrs. Taft, the White House had a mistress of marked individuality,
strong character, and independence of belief. From the time of her
marriage, she made her husband’s career and their home her chief
interests. She is a college woman and a great believer in higher
education for women, not to make them competitors with men, but to
round out their femininity. On this subject she allowed herself to be
interviewed:
“Higher education for women? My daughter has elected to take a full
college course and is now studying very diligently at Bryn Mawr to
equip herself for entrance into college, probably next autumn. I
believe in the best and most thorough education for everyone, men and
women, and it is my proudest boast that all my children are studious.
My idea about higher culture for women is that it makes them great in
intellect and soul, develops the lofty conception of womanhood; not
that it makes them a poor imitation of a man.
“I am old-fashioned enough to believe that woman is the complement of
man, and that what is most feminine about her is most attractive to
man and therefore of the greatest utility to the world. No fundamental
superiority or inferiority between the two appears plain to me. The
only superiority lies in the way in which the responsibilities of life
are discharged.
“Viewed in this light, some wives are superior to their husbands,
some husbands to their wives, some girls to their brothers, and women
to men in varying circumstances. Education for women, as much as is
obtainable, possesses, to my mind, far greater advantages than the
commercial one of providing means for making a livelihood. This is a
very great benefit, when necessary, but for the aggregate woman the
highest mission is the ability to preside over a home and to fulfil
the highest obligations of a home with grace, dignity, and an exalted
sense of duty.”
Few of the women called to preside as First Lady of the Land had the
liberal equipment through birth, education, travel, social and official
prestige which has been Mrs. Taft’s, and the reforms she established
were of a character to call forth high praise. As a part of her plan to
create a real home for her family while administering the social régime
of the Mansion, she introduced a Jersey cow to the establishment, to
the greatest interest and amusement of the tourists who stopped to
watch bossy peacefully grazing about the grounds, undisturbed by any
other animal or pet.
Every step in the career of the genial President, from his birth to his
service on the bench as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is well
known, but the career of his talented wife, to whom so much of his own
success is due, is familiar but to a limited circle, since her life has
been submerged in his, and her objective the promotion of his welfare.
Mrs. Taft, the daughter of John W. Herron of Cincinnati, one-time
law partner of Rutherford B. Hayes, had every social and educational
advantage from earliest childhood. As a girl visiting “Aunt Lucy
Hayes,” she is credited with having declared her intention of becoming
mistress of the White House some day. “I shall never forget the joy of
those visits,” Mrs. Taft has said. “There was a supper served at eleven
or twelve o’clock every evening in the main corridor and laughing
companies of young people used to gather ’round that table.”
Nellie Herron was still a schoolgirl at that time, but no one welcomed
her home from these delightful visits more heartily than the jolly
big boy she had known from babyhood, the son of her father’s lifetime
friend, Judge Alphonso Taft, and when he went away to Yale, his
brightest memory was woven around the frolics, dances, and good times
with this talented young girl.
By the time she had finished high school and completed the course at
the Cincinnati University, “Bub” Taft, as he was nicknamed by his
comrades, had graduated from Yale and was studying law and doing court
reporting at the same time, this last for Murat Halstead’s Cincinnati
paper, which paid him but six dollars a week when he started. Although
his time was so well filled, he still had ample to help “Nellie Herron”
organize a literary society, which they called the “Salon,” and which
met each Saturday evening at the Herron home on Pike Street. Made up of
a small group of young men and women, mostly just out of college, it
held together for several years, its members writing essays which they
read to each other, and discussing matters of current interest. At this
time, Miss Herron was teaching in a private school. This little club
had the encouragement of the parents of both of these young people,
who were members of the Cincinnati Literary Club, of which Judge Taft
became the president. Young William later attained membership in this
exclusive club of older folk, and the fact gave him added prestige with
the junior group. Miss Herron had in the meantime developed her music
and become one of the founders of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Young Taft soon made his intentions regarding Miss Nellie very plain
by outstaying all other members of the “Salon,” and it was not long
before their betrothal was announced. Their engagement was a long one,
as he had resolved first to build a home for his bride, an ambition
that he saw gratified in the spring of 1886 when “The Quarry,” on East
Walnut Hills, became a reality. A June wedding followed, when he was
twenty-eight and she just twenty-five.
This marriage service and all of the details were brought to public
attention in June of 1911, when the President and Mrs. Taft followed
the precedent set by their old friends, President and Mrs. Rutherford
B. Hayes, by also having a silver wedding anniversary celebration, in a
charming reception and dinner at the White House.
Following their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Taft went to Europe on their
honeymoon and started the travelling habit that kept them journeying
about the world until his election to the Presidency settled his
residence for four years.
The most eventful and important of Mr. Taft’s many missions was the
one that took him to the Philippines when President McKinley found
himself, through the fortunes of war, with eight million strange people
on his hands and called upon Mr. Taft to take charge and teach these
people the principles of home government and the ideals of American
citizenship.
He took his family with him, and while he devoted his attention to
organizing system out of the chaos that he found, Mrs. Taft’s sympathy
was aroused at the appalling infant mortality in the Islands and she
concluded to make that her own problem. She eventually persuaded
the native women to accept medical attention and proper food for
their babies. With Mr. Taft’s help, official organization of the work
followed and the charitable association called the “Drop of Milk” was
established, which distributed sterilized milk and thereby accomplished
great improvement in the condition of the Filipino children. Mrs. Taft
had her reward for this interest while on a visit to Manila some years
after the expiration of her husband’s governorship. While he stood in
the great hall greeting all of the governors of the provinces who had
come to meet “Santa Taft,” scores of the native women were clamouring
to see Mrs. Taft and to show her their children, whose lives her work
had saved.
Both Governor and Mrs. Taft spared no pains to win the confidence and
the devotion of their people, and she taxed her resources and ingenuity
to plan festivals and entertainments for the natives. The Venetian
Carnival given at the Governor’s Palace in Manila, and the Annual
Carnival of Flowers, so beautifully worked out, were the results of
their joint interest, and they added to the esteem in which they were
held when they both learned the famous Filipino dance, the rigadoon,
not unlike the minuet, and introduced it at their entertainments.
Some of the stories that found publication at election time and also
during the inaugural festivities are worthy of repetition because of
the qualities of the character of the new President that they reflect.
A local paper contained the following:
“In the peaceful and benevolent assimilation of the Philippines
nothing has ever been so potent as the personality of Mr. Taft, the
former Governor General. Taft was just the sort of man the Filipinos
needed to reconcile them to American rule. His big human qualities,
his strength, and even his corpulency, endeared him to the natives.
“The simple-hearted children of the Orient had been chilled by the
dignity of the Spanish officials. But Taft, with his loud hearty
laughter, his cordial handshake, his beaming face, travelled about the
islands creating good-will wherever he went.
“When Taft went into the Province of Bulacan to introduce civil
government, he naturally inquired for the most prominent citizen
of the place, who proved to be a former captain of volunteers and
a former presidente, Senator José Serapio. The Senator was oozing
dignity. He was uniformed like a bandmaster, and he had medals pinned
all over his chest. He expected to see the great American Governor
coming with resplendent ceremonies and in gorgeous array. But Taft
came along in a suit of light linen, and when he was introduced to
the grandee he grabbed him by the hand and said ‘Howdy,’ in the most
approved American manner.
“Taft appointed the Senator governor of that province, and when
the latter appeared to take charge of his office, the natives were
surprised to see him in plain white clothes. He had laid aside his
dignity with his uniform, and went around shaking hands and saying,
‘Howdy! Glad to see you.’
“Mr. Taft, in the Philippines, preferred to ride a mule, because, he
explained, a horse usually saw him first and mutinied, but the mule
would stand it a couple of days before showing he preferred not to be
ridden. He once kept a formal and gorgeous dinner waiting until he
made sure that his hard-worked mule had been fed.
[Illustration: WILLIAM H. TAFT AND HIS FAMILY]
“The story, much to the credit of his humaneness, was known to a
Minnesota mayor whose observation of mules had been limited to the
smaller breeds. He asked Mr. Taft how big his mule was.
“‘Oh’--indicating the lowest button on his vest--‘about so high.
Weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds, I should judge.’
“‘Mr. Taft,’ the mayor remarked solemnly, ‘I believe you’re a
nature-faker.’
“So he was, too, for the mules he rode in the Philippines were big and
mighty beasts.”
On account of his size, his friends always made commiserating jokes in
regard to the beasts which Taft rode. Another Philippine story refers
to a long and tedious journey he made to the mountains of Bengat.
The Department at Washington knew of the trip, and Mr. Taft reported by
cable direct to Secretary of State Root:
“Arrived safe and sound after riding one hundred miles muleback.”
Secretary Root replied like this:
“Congratulations on your health. How is the mule?”
The native Filipinos fairly worship Mr. Taft. They have a way of
calling him “Santa Taft,” and think, in order to be a great man in
America, one must have a gigantic stature.
When Mr. Taft was appointed Secretary of War, his wife at once
became a popular hostess whose drawing room was always filled with
interesting people. Her knack of remembering faces and names and her
evident interest in the people she met offset a certain austerity made
noticeable by contrast to the geniality of the head of the house,
but due, in her case, largely to a certain diffidence that was lost
entirely during her public life.
Mrs. Taft had been a suffragist all her life, though never of the
aggressive type. Regarding the ballot for woman she said:
“I favour bestowing upon women every civic right, but I should like
to put in a prohibitory clause debarring them from running for
office. If women should indulge in a scramble for office, I think
that the natural scheme would become disjointed and the aim of the
home destroyed. I can see nothing unfeminine in women casting the
ballot, but it seems to me for the present that it is impracticable to
dissociate the right to vote from the right to hold office.”
It was while her husband was Secretary of War that Mrs. Taft showed
her resourcefulness on that long journey which they took with their
ten-year-old son Charlie. The Philippines were opening their first
Assembly and had called “Santa Taft,” who had given them their
government, to come to see what they had done with it. Next, he was to
cross Siberia over the new railroad and return through Europe. Helen
Taft was at the Cathedral School outside Washington, and Robert, the
older son, was at his Uncle Horace Taft’s school at Watertown, Conn.
Few women would have cared to make that trip, crowded with important
entertainments, where one must always look well, through a climate
ranging from Siberian cold to Philippine heat, without a maid, and
with an irrepressible youngster who must always be kept in presentable
condition. But Mrs. Taft did not hesitate. Her place was with her
husband, and it was an opportunity for little Charlie to see the world.
As usual, she was the most charmingly gowned woman at every function
they attended. And best of all, they all had a good time.
It was during this eventful trip that Mr. Taft, in alighting from a
train, snagged an ugly hole in his only pair of dress trousers. This
was tragedy, as he had an appointment to be received by the Czar of
all the Russias. Mrs. Taft did her best, but although her husband
stepped carefully, the cloth gave way again, exposing the knee. Rumour
claims that the imperturbable gentleman merely donned a long coat and
entered the Czar’s presence with it on, and later told the Emperor
the whole story and produced the proof. At any rate, no international
complications ensued with Russia on the grounds of the implied
discourtesy of the American representative in being very late for his
appointment.
Among the many accomplishments Mrs. Taft brought to her régime at
the White House was her skill as a linguist. During her extensive
travels she had devoted time to the study of languages in the
countries she visited, and her ability to converse with some of the
diplomats in their own tongues was a source of great satisfaction and
pleasure. Mrs. Taft kept pace with her husband in public affairs and
during her occupancy of the White House was thoroughly conversant
with political questions that were paramount in interest. But she
limited her discussions and expressions of opinion to the privacy
of the family group. Instead of concerning herself with politics,
she devoted her energies to the changes she wished to bring about
in the management of the forty-room house which Uncle Sam had given
her for a temporary residence. Beginning with the front door, she
substituted coloured-liveried butlers for the blue-uniformed police
who formerly guarded this entrance, and then, at her request, the
position of steward was abolished and replaced by that of housekeeper,
paid by the government at the rate of $1,200 annually. Mrs. Jane
Jaffray, recommended by some of Mrs. Taft’s friends in New York, was
appointed to this position, which was one of great responsibility,
as the housekeeper supervised the servants, all being of equal rank
under her authority. She had charge of the linen and silver, for the
cleaning of which Mrs. Taft installed an electric silver-cleaning
machine, which lessened the labour and saved time. Mrs. Jaffray also
had charge of the china, the pantry, and the refrigerator. The morning
before inauguration, Mrs. Taft took Mrs. Jaffray to the big centre
market and made the rounds of the stalls with her, explaining her
methods and acquainting her with the food the family liked. All of the
marketing during the Taft régime was done by the housekeeper, not only
for the family and the servants, but for the formal entertaining. All
of the catering for the state functions was done in the White House
kitchens, even to the ices and confectionery. Mrs. Taft had always been
a practical, capable manager. Under her direction, the purchasing of
staples was done in wholesale quantities.
Mrs. Taft planned and carried out an elaborate social programme. She
was persuaded that Washington City should be the social centre of the
country and did her best to carry out her ideal, which she explained in
an interview for the New York _American_ as follows:
“It seems to me that, geographically and logically, Washington
should be the representative social city of the land. Here are the
headquarters of the country’s official and diplomatic life, and every
distinguished visitor to our shores comes to Washington for a time.
The home life is more representative, too, than it is in any other
city. No city in the entire country is more beautifully laid out or
has more natural charm during the months given over to official and
social life than Washington. I hope one day to see it the recognized
social centre of the United States.”
To assist her in her social duties, she followed Mrs. Roosevelt’s
example of engaging a social secretary, and Miss Alice Blech filled
this position during the first part of the administration.
President Taft was the first of the Executives to receive the increased
presidential salary. After much discussion, Congress had finally
raised the yearly stipend from $50,000 to $75,000, with an additional
$25,000 for travelling expenses.
Upon his induction into office, President Taft was asked his views upon
serving liquor at the White House functions. He referred his questioner
to a letter he had written to be read in the Sunday schools of the
country a few weeks before. It read in part:
MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS:
The excessive use of intoxicating liquors is the cause of a great
deal of the poverty, degradation, and crime of the world, and one who
abstains from the use of such liquor avoids a dangerous temptation.
Each person must determine for himself the course he will take in
reference to his tastes and appetites, but those who exercise the
self-restraint to avoid altogether the temptation of alcoholic liquor
are on the safe and wise side.
The state dinners of the Taft administration cost from eight to twelve
dollars per plate, according to their elaborateness and the number and
the personnel of the guests. The diplomatic dinner, being the most
sumptuous, cost around twelve hundred dollars. Mrs. Taft followed no
set rule with reference to the menus or the wine course, the number
of wines served being dependent upon the menu. Cocktails or white
wines with the oysters, claret or sherry with the soups, champagne
with the entrees, champagne, burgundy, or sauterne with the principal
course, port with the sweets, and brandy or cordial to finish with.
Good taste was always the dictator. Outside of the state dinners, no
wines were served at any of the functions save the champagne punch at
the formal receptions, at which a buffet supper was provided usually
of dainty sandwiches, salads, relishes, croquettes, little cakes,
ices, and champagne punch, and coffee. Mrs. Taft served delicious
punch and preferred to make it herself. There is a story to the effect
that, during one of her affairs, to her great distress the supply
became exhausted and she herself descended to the pantry to direct the
preparation of a fresh supply.
One of the charms of the Taft hospitality was the fact that the genial
President and his wife joined their guests in the dining room and
partook of the supper personally.
But the innovation for which Mrs. Taft has received the greatest amount
of praise was the transforming the state functions from the formal
crushes of the past to the smaller, more exclusive, but withal more
enjoyable gatherings where formality was dispensed with as much as
possible, and where the dainty buffet supper was served to hosts and
guests alike in the state dining room. This displaced the former custom
instituted by Mrs. McElroy, in President Arthur’s day, of serving
supper upstairs to the receiving party and the Blue Room guests alone.
By limiting each reception to the class of guests for which it was
intended, Mrs. Taft added greatly to the comfort and pleasure of all
concerned, as under this arrangement there was no necessity for the
long line which moved its tiresome way so slowly through the length of
the entire basement and main floors before reaching the President. The
guests assembled in the East Room until the receiving party had come
downstairs, and then proceeded immediately to shake hands with the
President and greet his wife.
Each reception wound up with an hour or so of dancing in the East
Room, much to the delight of the younger people, especially when the
President would join them, which he almost always did for a few minutes
at least.
Mrs. Taft also personally examined and approved all bills before they
were paid. All her life she had been a careful manager, a fact to
which her husband often referred with pride. Her own fortune, while not
of great proportions, augmented his earnings to such an extent that he
often said, “When Mrs. Taft stops footing the bills, I’ll have to hang
out my shingle.”
Mrs. Taft’s musical tastes led to a great number of delightful musical
entertainments in the White House, and many ambitious young artists had
a chance to be heard by real critics.
None of the protégés of either the President or Mrs. Taft exhibited
such a degree of pride as radiated from the President’s valet, who had
served him in the Philippines and accompanied him to this country. His
particular reason for the pride that brought forth the wrath of the
rest of the servants upon his head was the fact that he boasted of
being a personal servant, paid from the President’s own pocket, and
was unduly scornful of the others, whom he claimed belonged to the
government.
The Taft home life was informal and just like that of any other normal
American family of congenial tastes. They spent many evenings in the
privacy of their own family circle with Mrs. Taft at the piano, as had
been her lifelong practice. While the two older children were away
at school, the house was never dull, as both the Taft and the Herron
families were liberally supplied with young people constantly coming
or going. Mrs. Taft had five sisters and two brothers, all of whom
were married and had families, and the President had three brothers
and one sister likewise similarly blessed with children. So there were
always nephews and nieces to keep things lively. Miss Helen was not so
athletic in her tastes as the Roosevelt girls. She entered Bryn Mawr
at sixteen, and by close study won a scholarship for $300, which gave
her parents great pride. Her début was not made until her college work
was finished. By her own choice, she preferred the scholastic career to
that of a social belle. With Mrs. Taft’s many talents, a live college
girl in the house, the President a fun-maker and mimic, and young
Charlie to furnish boyish pranks and thrills, they never lacked for
amusement among themselves.
The family generally met at breakfast at eight-thirty, Mrs. Taft
following her habit of dressing for the day before this meal. Luncheon
was reduced to an apple for the head of the nation, but he usually
liked to slip in to visit with his family and guests at this hour.
Dinner was at seven-thirty, after which, when they were alone, there
would be music or whist. Whenever he went out, the President would tap
on Mrs. Taft’s door for her to inspect him, to be sure that his hat was
on straight or his bodice not wrinkled, as he facetiously put it.
Mrs. Taft made but few changes in the arrangement of furniture or
rooms. Miss Helen occupied the same suite used by former belles, and
while the members of the family brought but little outside their
trunks, the private apartments soon reflected their individual tastes.
The President hung his father’s portrait in his study, as he had placed
it over every desk he ever occupied.
When the time rolled around for him to relinquish his place to Woodrow
Wilson, he set his office in order, as his wife did the mansion under
her care, bade the congregation of All Souls Unitarian Church farewell
from the pulpit, and slipped out of power with the love and respect of
those associated with him.
Among his hobbies are golf and photograph collecting. After his
appointment to the Supreme Court, Washington welcomed him as her own.
Miss Helen Taft, who for four years occupied one of the most
conspicuous positions in the country, left Washington as unspoiled
as when she came, a little girl, from the Governor’s palace in the
Philippines. Though constantly fêted she found time for the more
serious duties of life and many quiet philanthropies of which the
public knew nothing.
When the Tafts departed for the South after rendering every possible
attention to their successors, a censorious critic of Washington’s
social life gave the following summary to their administration:
“Whatever brilliancy their successors may give to the White House,
to President and Mrs. Taft belongs the distinction of having solved
many problems as to precedent in the conduct of state functions,
etc., which had baffled their predecessors, and of putting soul
into the White House gatherings, a soul which made an invitation
there a pleasure instead of an obligation perfunctorily performed.
Their social record in the White House has been brilliant from
beginning to end. They have seen the duties of their position with a
broadmindedness resulting in a measure from the almost unprecedented
preparation they had for it in years of public life, and they have
lived up to them with a graciousness that has left nothing to
criticize.”
Mrs. Taft has always been a lover of nature, and in all of her travels
about the world has given great attention to the types of flowers and
trees common to each country or locality. Her own garden is always
a dream of beauty in the spring and summer. She gives it especial
attention, making personal visits to each tree, shrub, and clump of
flowers with her gardener.
It is to her artistic vision and understanding, coupled with her
capacity for quick action, that the nation owes the chief beauty of the
Potomac Park. When Mrs. Taft first saw the cherry trees of Japan in
full bloom, she thought them marvellously beautiful and resolved to
obtain some for planting in her own land.
Shortly after she became mistress of the White House, she secured and
had planted a hundred of these trees between the polo field and the
Tidal Basin. Many of them failed to live. Later, Dr. Jakichi Takamine,
noted chemist of Tokio and New York, the inventor of adrenalin and
other important chemicals, learning of her admiration of the lovely
little flowering trees of his native land, offered three thousand as a
gift from Japan in the name of the Mayor of Tokio. They arrived during
the latter part of 1911 and were promptly accepted by Mrs. Taft in the
name of the government. It is the common belief that the arrangement of
their planting in groups of odd and even numbers represents in Japanese
characters a message of welcome.
President and Mrs. Taft did much to popularize the now famous Potomac
Park, once a mosquito-infested swamp, rendezvouz of tramps, and hiding
place of criminals.
As the Taft régime drew to a close, the society women of the city
who were close to the official family--sixty of them--subscribed ten
thousand dollars for the purchase of a testimonial of appreciation of
Mrs. Taft’s ceaseless efforts to make Washington the social centre of
the nation. Miss Mabel Boardman was deputized to make the purchase in
New York. A necklace was decided upon. In order to avoid duplicating
the one Mrs. Taft had long worn, Miss Boardman took along a photograph
of it. On February 21, 1913, a few days before inauguration, Mrs. Taft
was presented with the gift, the beautiful, perfectly matched chain of
diamonds set in platinum with a pear-shaped stone as pendant. At the
same time, the genial President was the recipient of a lovely pearl
scarf pin from the same group.
In the quiet of retirement, Mrs. Taft has compiled an ambitious book--a
story of her own unparalleled experiences in public life.