Robert A. Taft

Robert A. Taft

Cincinnati lawyer and U.S. senator from Ohio (1939-1953), co-author of the Taft-Hartley Act and leader of the Republican Party's conservative wing, known as 'Mr. Republican'.

Born September 8, 1889, Cincinnati
Died July 31, 1953, New York Hospital, New York City

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: September 8, 1889, Cincinnati (Hamilton County) source
Died: July 31, 1953, New York Hospital, New York City source
Buried: Indian Hill Episcopal Church cemetery (Indian Hill Episcopal Presbyterian Churchyard), Indian Hill (Hamilton County) source
Also known as: Robert A. Taft, Bob Taft, Mr. Republican, Robert Taft Sr.
Education: Yale College, New Haven, CT, to 1910, B.A.
: Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, to 1913, LL.B.
Known as: Senator

Life story

Robert Alphonso Taft was born in Cincinnati in 1889, the son of future president and chief justice William Howard Taft and grandson of Alphonso Taft. He finished Yale in 1910 and Harvard Law in 1913 and posted the top score on the Ohio bar exam that year.

He married Martha Bowers in 1914 and practiced law in Cincinnati. He served in the Ohio House from 1921 to 1931, including a term as Speaker, then in the Ohio Senate.

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1938, he held the seat until 1953. As a conservative Republican leader he co-sponsored the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which limited union powers.

He sought the Republican presidential nomination several times and lost to Eisenhower in 1952. He became Senate majority leader in January 1953 and died that July in New York City. A Senate committee in 1957 named him one of the five greatest senators.

Ohio ties

Cincinnati (1889-1953)
born here; public schools; lawyer from 1913; co-founded Taft Stettinius & Hollister in 1924 Hamilton County · source
Sky Farm, Indian Hill (1917-1953)
46-acre farm bought in 1917 and enlarged into a 16-room house; his main residence for life Hamilton County · source
Ohio Statehouse, Columbus (1921-1926; 1931-1932)
Ohio House member, Republican floor leader and Speaker (1926); Ohio Senate finance committee chairman (1931-32) Franklin County · source
Indian Hill Episcopal Church cemetery, Indian Hill (1953)
grave Hamilton County · source

Timeline

1889 Born in Cincinnati on 8 September, elder son of William Howard Taft and Helen Herron Taft. source
1900 Spent four boyhood years in the Philippines, attending school in Manila, while his father was governor. source
1910 Graduated first in his class from Yale College. source
1913 Graduated first in his class from Harvard Law School, scored highest in Ohio on the bar exam, and began practice in Cincinnati with Maxwell and Ramsey. source
1914 Married Martha Wheaton Bowers on 17 October. source
1917 Rejected by the army for poor eyesight, joined Herbert Hoover's Food Administration legal staff; bought the 46-acre Sky Farm in Indian Hill. source
1919 Served in Paris as counsel to Hoover's American Relief Administration, then returned to Cincinnati late in the year. source
1920 Elected to the Ohio House of Representatives from Hamilton County, serving from 1921. source
1924 Formed the law partnership now known as Taft Stettinius & Hollister with his brother Charles. source
1925 Voted against a Klan-backed ban on Sunday dancing and led the fight against a Klan-backed bill requiring daily Bible reading in Ohio public schools; the bill passed but the governor vetoed it. source
1926 Served as Speaker of the Ohio House from January 1926 to January 1927. source
1931 As chairman of the Ohio Senate finance committee, worked with the House taxation committee to redraft every tax law on the Ohio statute books. source
1932 Defeated for re-election to the Ohio Senate, the only general-election loss of his career. source
1936 Named Ohio's favourite-son presidential candidate, then withdrew at the Republican convention in Cleveland for the sake of party harmony. source
1938 Beat Ohio Supreme Court justice Arthur H. Day in the primary and Senator Robert J. Bulkley in the general election by nearly 171,000 votes. source
1940 Made his first bid for the Republican presidential nomination. source
1947 Wrote the Taft-Hartley Act as chairman of the Senate Labor Committee and led both houses in overriding President Truman's veto. source
1950 Re-elected to a third term by 431,184 votes after visiting 334 Ohio factories and giving 873 speeches. source
1952 Lost the Republican nomination to Dwight Eisenhower in Chicago after the convention voted 658-548 for the 'Fair Play' rule on contested Southern delegates. source
1953 Became Senate majority leader; after tests at Holmes Hospital in Cincinnati in May, handed his duties to William Knowland on 10 June, and died of a brain haemorrhage in New York on 31 July. source
1953 Lay in state in the Capitol rotunda; after a memorial service on 3 August he was buried privately at Indian Hill. source
1954 The new U.S. Public Health Service environmental health laboratory in Cincinnati opened as the Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center. source
1955 Cincinnati Public Schools opened a high school named for him (now Taft Information Technology High School). source
1957 A Senate committee led by John F. Kennedy chose him as one of five great senators whose portraits would adorn the President's Room off the Senate floor. source
1959 The Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon, paid for by public subscription, was dedicated north of the Capitol on 14 April. source

What Robert is known for

Taft-Hartley Act 1947
Senate Majority Leader Jan-Jul 1953
Co-sponsor, Taft-Hartley Act (1947)

Stories

Against the Klan in Columbus

In the mid-1920s the Ku Klux Klan had members in the Ohio legislature, and Taft, a Hamilton County Republican, opposed its programme. In 1925 he voted against a Klan-sponsored bill to outlaw dancing on Sundays. He also led the fight against another that would have required every Ohio public school teacher to read at least ten verses of the Bible in class each day. Religion, he said, belonged in churches rather than public schools, and while the Bible was great literature, 'in it religion overshadows all else'. The bill passed over his opposition, and the governor vetoed it.

Source

Rewriting Ohio's tax laws

Speaking in the House after Taft's death in 1953, Ohio congressman Secrest recalled meeting him in January 1931, when Secrest sat on the Ohio House taxation committee and Taft chaired the state Senate's finance committee. 'In that year we redrafted every tax law upon the statute books of Ohio,' Secrest said. He said he had been in a hundred conference committees with Taft, some lasting hours, and that Taft would postpone a meeting rather than win a point while an opponent was absent, even when it cost him the vote. Another Ohio colleague credited that tax-reform fight with giving Taft statewide recognition and making him Ohio's favourite-son presidential candidate in 1936.

Source

Sky Farm

In 1917 Robert and Martha Taft bought a 46-acre farm in Indian Hill, outside Cincinnati, and over the years turned its small farmhouse into a 16-room house they called Sky Farm. Taft grew strawberries, asparagus and potatoes there for profit, and it remained his main home through 14 years in the Senate. In 1950 Martha had a severe stroke that left her unable to walk, and Taft pushed her wheelchair, lifted her in and out of cars and phoned her every night he was away. In May 1953, already ill, he came home to Cincinnati for tests at Holmes Hospital that found cancer. He died in New York that July and was buried in the churchyard at Indian Hill.

Source

Honors and things named for them

Named one of the five greatest U.S. senators by a 1957 Senate committee

Named for Robert A. Taft

Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School (Cincinnati, Hamilton County) source
Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center (U.S. Public Health Service) (Cincinnati, Hamilton County) source
Taft-Hartley Act (Labor Management Relations Act, 1947) source
Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon (Washington, D.C.) source
Taft Homes (Peoria, Illinois) and Taft Houses (New York City) public housing source

Family

father: William Howard Taft
mother: Helen Herron Taft
wife: Martha Wheaton Bowers
son: Robert Taft Jr.
son: William Howard Taft III

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

1 Ohio Historical Marker 43-31, William Howard Taft / Robert Alphonso Taft, at the William Howard Taft National Historic Site
Auburn Avenue, Mount Auburn, Cincinnati Hamilton County · source
2 Taft grave, Indian Hill Episcopal Presbyterian Churchyard
Indian Hill Hamilton County · source
Sky Farm, Taft's home from 1917 (unknown)
Indian Hill Hamilton County · source
3 Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School (named 1955)
West End, Cincinnati Hamilton County · source
Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center (1954), later used by NIOSH (unknown)
Cincinnati Hamilton County · source
Robert A. Taft Memorial and Carillon (1959)
Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. source

Places in Ohio to see

Indian Hill Episcopal Presbyterian Church cemetery (burial) (grave)
6000 Drake Rd, Cincinnati, Hamilton County ZIP 45243 · Cincinnati · Hamilton County

Ohio places

Where Robert A. Taft was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Cincinnati, Hamilton County ZIP 45202 · Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Buried: Cincinnati, Hamilton County (Indian Hill Episcopal Presbyterian Church cemetery, 6000 Drake Rd) ZIP 45243 · Cincinnati · Hamilton County

In their words

I don't know how to do any of the eloquence business which makes for enthusiasm or applause.
Quoted on Wikipedia (Robert A. Taft)

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Robert A. Taft, and what the record shows.

Often said Taft served in the Ohio legislature continuously from 1921 to 1932 (as the Ohio historical marker at his father's birthplace says).

The record He was in the Ohio House from 1921 to 1926 and the Ohio Senate only in 1931 and 1932, with a gap in between. His 1932 defeat for re-election was the only general-election loss of his career. source

Often said Taft left the Senate shortly before his death (as the marker puts it).

The record He never resigned. He handed his majority-leader duties to William Knowland on 10 June 1953 but kept his seat and served until his death on 31 July 1953. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Robert Alphonso Taft: Memorial services held in the rotunda of the Capitol, the Senate, and the House of Representatives (83rd Congress), with official biography 1954, University of Florida Smathers Libraries (Internet Archive)
National Labor Relations Board, '1947 Taft-Hartley Substantive Provisions' 1947, National Labor Relations Board

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

This is a photograph of a political cartoon by Jim Berryman for the Washington Evening Star. Robert Taft, Thom...
Public domain
Title: At Republican women's dinner. Washington, D.C., March 27. The League of Republican Women of the Distric...
Public domain
Title: Children of U.S. Presidents make good in GOP politics. Washington, D.C., Feb.. 16 Photographed together...
Public domain
Republicans gathered for a dinner in Washington, D.C., April 20, 1939. These men are giving a salute to 1940, ...
Public domain
Title: Home of Senator Robert A. Taft. Washington, D.C., Dec. 26. An exterior view of the Washington home of S...
Public domain
Title: Informal photo of Sen. Robert A. Taft, Republican of Ohio and a candidate for the Repub. Presidential n...
Public domain
New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924 June 28, 1908, Image 17 Notes: Cover, illustrated supplement. Fo...
No known restrictions
Title: Michigan senator congratulated on 55th birthday. Washington, D.C., March 22. Senator Arthur M. Vandenbe...
Public domain
Title: Mrs. Robert Taft Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Public domain
Title: Mrs. Robert Taft Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 4 x 5 in. or smaller
Public domain
Title: New Ohio Senator speaks to press club. Washington, D.C., Jan. 19. Senator Robert A. Taft, Republican Se...
Public domain
Title: New Republican Senator from Ohio. Washington, D.C., Jan. 6. A new informal photograph of Senator Robert...
Public domain