OUTLINE AND QUESTIONS ON WILLIAM 

 HOWARD TAFT 



Outline 



(1) 



I. Preparatory Years 



Birth and family 



(a) Father a distinguished jurist 

 ( 2 ) Education 



(a) College aims 



(b) Law study 



(3) Early legal practice 



II. Public Life 



(1) State judiciary offices 



(2) As United States solicitor-general 

 (a) Important cases 



(3) On Federal bench 



(a) Important cases involving capital 

 and labor 



(4) As governor of Philippines 



(a) Excellence as administrator 



(b) Introduction of reforms 



(5) As Secretary of War 



(a) Spokesman of the administration 



(6) Election to Presidency 



(a) Roosevelt's suppbrt 



(b) Quiet campaign 



III. Administration 



(1) Domestic affairs 



(a) Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law 



1. Dissatisfaction 



2. Political results 



(b) Establishment of postal savings 



bank 



(c) Parcel post established 



(d) Organization of Commerce Court 



(e) Prosecution under Anti-Trust Law 

 1. Dissolution of Standard Oil 



Company 



(2) Foreign relations 



(a) Occupation of Cuba ended 



(b) Venezuela dispute submitted to 



Hague tribunal 



(c) Fisheries dispute with Great Brit- 



ain 



(d) Commercial treaty with Russia 



abrogated 



(e) Canadian reciprocity question 



(f) "Dollar diplomacy" 



(g) Mexican trouble 



(3) Internal and local affairs 



(a) Spread of prohibition and woman' 



suffrage 



(b) Ballinger-Pinchot controversy 



(c) Admission of two states 



(d) Hudson-Fulton celebration 



(e) Dedication of Roosevelt Dam 



(f) Glacier National Park opened 



(g) Breach in Republican Party 

 (h) Election of 1912 



IV. Later Years 



(1) Professorship at Yale University 



(2) Chairman of Red Cross committee 



(3) The League to Enforce Peace 



(4) Writings 



Questions 



What was meant by "dollar diplomacy," and in what way was it in effect a 

 reversal of the previous practice? 



Explain Taft's clever use of a clause from the Constitution to establish the con- 

 stitutionality of a Federal act. 



To what, primarily, was Taft's election to the Presidency due? 



What "playground" did the nation have at the close of this administration which 

 it did not have at the beginning? 



What political party was founded during this administration? Give the circum- 

 stances of its birth. 



Who was Gifford Pinchot and what part did he play in the history of this admin- 

 istration? 



What other President was very popular at the beginning of his term and ex- 

 tremely unpopular at the end? What similarity is there in the later life of the two? 



How did Taft's avowed purpose on entering college differ from that of his prede- 

 cessor? 



