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
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