William Howard Taft Replaces Teddy Roosevelt as President

VOICE TWO:

VOICE ONE:

VOICE TWO:

The conference agreed to an open door trade policy in Morocco. It organized an international bank to control Morocco's finances. And it gave France and Spain almost complete control over police forces in Morocco's port cities.

Theodore Roosevelt had become a powerful world leader. At home, however, he was losing power.

At that time, there was no law limiting a president's term in office. But America's first president, George Washington, had established a tradition of only two terms. When Theodore Roosevelt won the election of nineteen-oh-four, he announced he would not be a candidate in nineteen-oh-eight. He had completed the term of President McKinley. He would serve a full term of his own. That was enough.

VOICE TWO:

He faced increased opposition from Congress and from his own Republican Party. His final message to Congress was extremely bitter.

VOICE ONE:

Taft had spent most of his life in government service. He had been a judge in both a state court and a federal court. He had been a lawyer in the justice department. And he had been governor of the Philippines.

There was one problem, however. Taft did not want to be president. He really wanted to be Chief Justice of the United States.  But there were no immediate openings on the Supreme Court. Also, his wife, his brothers, and his good friend -- Theodore Roosevelt -- urged him to run. So, Taft agreed to be a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in nineteen-oh-eight.

The Democratic Party nominated William Jennings Bryan. Bryan had been a candidate two times before, without success.

The presidential campaign was not especially exciting. William Howard Taft did not like being on the campaign trail. He was a big, heavy man. He did not like to travel. Roosevelt urged him to campaign with more energy.

Roosevelt's advice and strong support helped Taft win a big victory on election day.

A few weeks after Taft was sworn-in as president, Roosevelt left on a year-long trip overseas. He spent most of the time hunting wild animals in Africa.

VOICE ONE:

The progressives who had supported Roosevelt did not support Taft. They said he was too friendly with conservatives. They said he had surrendered to special interest groups. Taft, for his part, did not like progressives. He thought they were too emotional and extreme.

Yet Taft worked hard to put into law many parts of Roosevelt's progressive programs. He was successful in several areas.

One amendment provided for a federal tax on earnings. The other provided for direct, popular election of senators. Taft also worked even harder than Roosevelt to break up companies, or trusts, that blocked economic competition.

At the same time, Taft failed in several areas.

These struggles and failures made Taft's four years as president the unhappiest of his life.

The final blow came in an effort to reduce the powers of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The speaker was a conservative Republican. Progressive Republicans opposed him. The issue split the party.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Frank Oliver and Shirley Griffith. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.