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the supreme bench. He in every way made a satisfactory 
record as chief justice. 
Taft (1857- ). 71 The tenth and present chief justice is 
William Howard Taft. He was appointed by Harding in 
1921. Perhaps no one who has ever presided over the 
Supreme Court has ever had a more versatile career and a 
wider preparation for his work. He was born in Cincinnati, 
Ohio. He is a son of Alphonso Taft, who was at different 
times secretary of war, United States attorney-general, and 
minister to Austria and to Russia. William H. Taft graduated 
from Yale in 1878, second in his class, and from the Cin- 
cinnati College of Law in 1880. Soon thereafter he began to 
hold office, and before his appointment to the Supreme Court 
he had held the following offices, one after another : assistant 
prosecuting attorney, collector of internal revenue, judge of 
Superior Court of Ohio, solicitor-general of the United States, 
United States circuit judge, president of the United States 
Philippine Commission, secretary of war, president of the 
United States, and professor of law at Yale University. Chief 
Justice Taft is interested in the reform of federal legal pro- 
cedure so as to make it conform so far as possible with the 
modern English legal procedure, and if the Supreme Court 
is clothed by Congress with the requisite power it is to be 
hoped that any reactionary influences in the Supreme Court 
will not be strong enough to defeat the carrying out in de- 
tail of Chief Justice Taft’s purpose. 
Associate Justices. Among the associate justices who have 
sat upon the supreme bench there have been at least three of 
such commanding ability and inffuence that some special 
reference to them should be made. They are justices Story, 
Miller, and Holmes. 
Story (1779-1845). 72 Joseph Story was an associate justice 
of the United States Supreme Court from 1811 to 1845. The 
larger part of this time Marshall was chief justice, and Story 
fell under the sway of Marshall’s genius, but this in no way 
detracts from Story’s reputation. He was a great judge and 
fitted to be associated with the great Marshall. He was born 
at Marblehead, Mass.; graduated from Harvard in 1798; be- 
gan the practice of law at Salem in 1801 ; was sent to the 
71 20 Green Bag 337 ; 93 Central L. Jour . 93. 
72 1 Green Bag 12 ; 9 Green Bag 49 ; 16 Case and Cow i, 213. 
