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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 1963)
Contemporaries Differ in Making Appraisal of Taft Conservatism By RAYMOND LAHR United Prm International Washington - (I'PB - He was known variously as Mr. Re publican, Mr. Congress, Mr. Integrity and the Conscience of the Conservative Move ment. Yet even his admirers still debate whether his con servative label was deserved. A long - time Senate col league eels he was left of center toward the end. A former President with whom he fought many bitter skirm ishes deemed him a dedicated conservative. His oldest son, now in Congress, says he was "difficult to categorize." The man was the late Sen. Robert A. Taft of Ohio whose death 10 years ago Wednes day cost the conservative movement in this country one of its greatest spokesmen and left a gaping void in the United States Senate. It also left unanswered the provocative question of where the conservative movement might stand today if Taft had lived and what effect this might have had on the cur rently booming political for tunes of Sen. Barry M. Gold water, (R-Ariz.) Death Intervenes Taft was majority leader of the Senate when he died of cancer in 1953 barely six months after Dwight D. Eisen hower moved into the White House, ending 20 years of Democratic national control. Eisenhower's convention victory the previous summer had smashed Taft's own Pres idential ambitions. But the GOP's White House and con gressional victories moved the Ohioan into a key leader ship spot where he could have pressed for his own legisla tive goals. Death intervened before any firm pattern could be es tablished, however, and per haps contributed to the cur rent disagreement over Taft's basic political philosophies. Sen. Everett M. Dirksen of Illinois, who put Taft's name before the 1952 convention and now occupies his old post of Senate Republican leader gives this appraisal: "In measuring the impact of Bob Taft on conservatism in this country, it should be noted that he came on the scene at a time conservative interest was weakening and needed bolstering. The vital ity he gave it has helped to carry it over and will have a definite influence on conserv atism in the future. Works Still Seen "What we see now as in terest in the Goldwater cause is a measure of the tremen dous amount of work Taft did in the country and in the Senate to advance that cause. He took some of the rough edges off the conservative movement. You had some people, for example, who would have no part of any thing that had even a touch of conservatism about it." On the other hand. Sen George D. Aiken, (R-Vt.) who usually votes with Republi can liberals and who was Taft's Senate seatmate for years, told UPI that "Taft was a progressive . . .He was left of center when he died." "He was difficult to cate gorize," says Rep. Robert Taft Jr., (R-Ohio) oldest son of the late senator. "He was conservative in some areas, such as economic policy, and not in others." ". . . He was a ve,ry able Senator and an honorable man," wrote former President Truman, in 1957. "He believ ed in and fought for the con servative approach to govern ment. His views on education were sound." Dedicated Man This appraisal of Taft was given to UPI by Vice Presi dent Lyndon B. Johnson, who was Senate Democratic lead er when Taft died: "He was certainly one of the most dedicated men that I ever knew. He was uncom promising in his loyalty to his party, and I belive he really deserved the title, 'Mr. Republican.' "But he also understood the fact that people from other parties could disagree with him. This quality made him an able legislator and brought him to a position of leadership that made him legendary even while he was still alive." But Taft never got the job he really wanted - in the White House, where his fath er, William Howard Taft, served from 1909 to 1913. The Ohioan was his state's favorite son candidate for the GOP nomination in 1936 and an active candidate in 1940, 1948 and 1952. He made his strongest bid in 1952 but lost again, to Eisenhower, the candidate of the eastern and more liberal wing of the GOP. Taft served in the Ohio leg islature from 1920 until 1932, when he was unseated in the national Republican debacle at the bottom of the great de pression. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1938, when the first ballot box re action set in against Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. Became Liberal Aiken agrees that Taft was a staunch conservative during his early years in the Senate but says he "became more lib eral very rapidly." Aiken once compared his record with Taft's on -44 key Senate votes during the last four years of Taft's life and found that they disagreed only sev en times. "Yet he was a conservative and I was supposed to be a radical," Aiken said. "He had the reputation of being an arch conservative, yet it wasn't borne out by his rec ord. He was a builder. He was always working for tnc good of the country." Goldwater's politacl base is roughly the same as that which once backed Taft for the Presidency. But there are as many differences as there are parallels between the two men. The Arizona Senator has the political sex appeal which Taft lacked, a handicap which may have cost Taft the Presi dency. But Goldwater cannot claim Taft's wide - ranging knowledge and grasp of gov ernment and legislation. Goldwater Compared And Goldwater would not have supported the Taft who was responsible for enact ment of the Public Housing bill and for Senate passage on two occasions of a Federal Aid for Education bill. Gold water's proposals, for laber legislation would be even less palatable to union leaders than Taft's. While union leaders level led a savage attack against Taft for the Taft - Hartley law.'they never showed much gratitude for his blockade of another bill in 1946. When the country was on the verge of a national railroad strike, President Truman asked for a law to permit the drafting of strikers into the armed forces to operate the trains. A stampede in the House brought immediate approval of the bill but Taft alone pre vented similar action in the Senate. The strike was called off and the bill was forgotten. Although Taft was deeply involved in almost every area of legislation, his chief leg islative monument is the Taft Hartley. This 1947 law, en acted over a Truman veto', was largely a product of Taft's conviction, shared then by most members of Congress, that organized labor had be come too powerful. Listen to Dirksen again: Role Predestined "His greatest influence was kind of predestined. You may recall that the great issue in 1896 and later was the crea tion of monopoly which ran pretty rough-shod over busi ness enterprise. Then Teddy Roosevelt came along and made his real domestic rep utation as a trust-buster. "In Taft's day, we had the development of big labor and somebody had to keep condi tions on an even keel. Taft had the courage and was will ing to sweat out the problem until we began to curb abu ses and formalize procedures. Bob Taft had a tremendous influence." To Dirksen, Taft was "the classical liberal." "He defined a liberal as one who stands by the cause of freedom," Dirksen said recently. "The so - called lib erals of today want to expand government, to place more restraints on business." A year after the Taft Hartley act, Taft was runninj for the Republican Presiden tial nomination for the sec ond time with Rep. Clarenci J. Brown as his campaigr manager. As a youthful lieu tenant Governor of Ohio ir 1920, Brown had persuadec' Taft to run for the legislature his first try for elective of fice. "He was a great man," Brown told UPI. "If he hac had the smile and outgoing personality of his father or his son, Bob, he would have been President of the United States. A Shy Man "But he was a shy. retic ent man. His shyness was sometimes interpreted as coldness but it wasn't." Taft lost the 1948 Presi dential nomination to Thom as E. Dewey, and Dewey lost the election to Truman. If Taft's integrity is ques tioned, the challenge is like ly to come froom critics who condemn his conduct during the second Truman adminis tration. It was then that he encouraged Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) who was carrying on his crusade against Communists in government. That crusade continued in o the Eisenhower administra lon until - more than a year ifter Taft's death-McCarthy's onduct was formally con temned by a vote of the Sen lte. Still, during the McCarthy jproar and other periods of Sepubliican distress in 1954, - he was closely identified with the so - called isolation sts. But even here his rec ord was mixed. He voted for Ihe Greek - Turkish aid pro gram and the Marshall Plan, but against the NATO treaty. Dewey and later Eisenhow er were the ccandidatcs of the Eastern "Inter - Nation alist" wing of the GOP. Takes Leader's Chair After Eisenhower's elec tion, Taft decided to become Republican loader of the Sen ate in name as well as fact and shifted from his Policy Committee chairmanship to the majority leader's chair. While still junior Senator from Massachusetts, Presi d e n t Kennedy published "Profiles in Courage," a book about political heroism by Senators. Taft was given a chapter, for a Kenyon col lege speach condemning the basis of the postwar war crimes trials. The speech came when anti - German feeling still ran high and only a month before the 1946 Con gressional elections. Of Taft, Kennedy wrote that "popularity was not his guide on most fundamental matters" and cited the Taft Hartley law as an example. Kennedy suggested that anti Taft feeling in unions hurt Taft's chances of winning the 1952 nomination. "Simultaneously, however, lie was antagonizing the friends of Taft - Hartley and endangering his own leader ship in the Republican party measures," Kennedy wrote. "Those who were shocked at these apparent departures from his traditional position did not comprehend that Taft's conservatism contained a strong strain of pragmatism, which caused him to support intensive federal activity in those areas that he believed not adequately served by the private enterprise system . . . Unusual Politician "He was an unusual leader, for he lacked the fine arts of oratory and phrasemaking, he lacked blind devotion to the party line, unless he dic tated it, and he lacked the politician's natural instinct to avoid some issues." In 1957, Kennedy headed a special Senate committee named to choose five out standing senators whose pic tures were to be painted on the wall of the Senate recep tion room. Sen. Richard B. Russell (D-Ga.), a committee member, nominated Taft, and the committee chose him along with Henry Clay, Dan iel Webster, John C. Cal houn and Robert M. LaFol lette Sr. Explaining his nomination six years later, Russell says he believes no one who ever served in the Senate "had more intellectual honesty and courage" than Taft. "He was the only man I've ever known in politics who never gave political consid erations a thought," says Russell. The report from the com mittee naming the five out standing senators carried this Senate epitaph for Taft: "The conscience of the Conservative movement, its ablest exponent and most constructive leader, his high integrity, high analytical mind and sheer industry quickly won him a select spot in the councils of his party and the hearts of all his colleagues. His Senate leadership transcended parti sanship; his political courage and candor put principles above ambition. Dedicated to the constitution and the American tradition of indi vidual rights as his keen'le gal mind interpreted them. ne aemonstrated the import ance of a balanced and reas onable opposition In an age ol powerful governments." SECTION E PAGES 1 to 8 MedfordJTribune MEDFORD, OREGON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1963 The Magic Year - Illusions & Elation? with MANDRAKE the magician Magic - Music - Suipcnie Free Grandstand Stag Show 8:30 p.m. - Wed. thru Sat. ARM. '. " Kid., 25c DOUGLAS AUGUST 14-18 ROSEBURG Two Workshops To Close SOC Session Ashland Southern Oreenn college summer session offer ings will end Aug. 12-23 with two workshops directed by noted authorities in their re spective fields. Studies in depth of the four plays currently showing at the Oregon Shakespearean Festi val Theater, Ashland, will be highlighted in the Shake-; spearcan workshop instructed 1 by Dr. H. E. Childs, Oregon . State university professor of English. Attendance at re-1 hcarsals and regular perform-! ances will be requirea. Conducting aworkshop, Science in the Elementary and Junior High School, will be Dr. Harold E. Tannenbaum, professor of education at Yeshiva university and Dr. Nathan Stillman, professor of education at the State Univer sity of New Paltz, N. Y. Offering three hours of col lege credit, this workshop has ben designed specifically for the inservice growth of teach ers and administrators in the field. Tuition for either of the workshops is S37.50 for three term hours of graduate or un dergraduate credit. AHrHiiinn.il information re garding these offerings may be obtained from Dr. Bill Sampson, director of summer sessions or from the office of the registrar. Hawaiian Poi Curbs Allergies in Babies Rochester, N. Y. - OTD -A little known product of the newest state may help solve dietary problems of al lergic infants, a recent Uni versity of Rochester study pointed out. Pediatrics experts at the university found that babies allergic to cereals and other foods thrive on poi, a pasty carbohydrate made from the root of the Hawaiian taro plant. SPECIAL SELLING! r 1 MANN'S HAS THE ' . l HAPPY FACULTY I ZSffl&s Hjwfe ' - OF KNOWING yOJTi' " f II T PA YJj vM: rA Aa in ill 'what's k.ii;ht i s j r i?ra r fj i n a 17 iwwm I n I FOR SCHOOL... 1 V IP WfeX. RTfJHT FROM THF. I I V 7 , IV V s a J r ! f ! 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