Taft, Robert A.

Biographical Sketch

Robert Alphonso Taft (September 8, 1889 - July 31, 1953), of the Taft political family of Ohio, was a Republican United States Senator and emerged as a prominent conservative spokesman in the second quarter of the twentieth century. In 1938, Taft ascended to the halls of power in the U.S. Senate to become the perennial anti-New Deal spokesmen in United States. He was the son of President William Howard Taft. Robert was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1938, earning the appellation "Mr. Republican." As historian Thomas Woods, Jr. notes, "Taft represented a non-interventionist and domestically combative wing of the Republican Party that would suffer an eclipse in the years following his death:" ¹

Taft was an outspoken opponent of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, and an opponent of the expansion of federal power. However, he was by no means uncompromising, favoring, for example, federal housing subsidies. Among his best-known legislative achievements was the so called Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, an antiunion measure that enjoyed popular support at a time when public had begun to swing away from the labor unions. ²

While Old Right conservatives found some of Taft's domestic compromises disdainful, Taft's legacy was redeemed in their eyes by his more principled foreign policy. In 1946, Taft certainly was not looking for popularity when he condemned the irregularities of the Nuremberg trials of German war criminals as a farcial mockery of the rule of law that dispensed with core legal principles. That the accused Germans were despicable and immoral, Taft did not contest, but he viewed the kangaroo court proceedings and showmanship of the prosecutors as a bad omen for American constitutionalism at home. Taft reluctantly supported Marshall Plan Aid, but he summarily condemned U.S.-led efforts to charter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). While not an out-and-out isolationist, Taft nonetheless affirmed that Europeans had the strongest measure of responsibility in making their own defense provisions to deter communist aggression rather than depend upon the United States. In 1950, Taft rightly condemned Harry Truman's decision not to seek a congressional declaration of war against North Korea as an blatantly unconstitutional act. Truman instead relied on the authority of a resolution passed by the newly chartered United Nation's Security Council to legitimize the war as a "police action."

Taft lost the 1952 Republican nomination for the Presidency to Ike Eisenhower, the renowned military general who trod the path to victory in World War II. Eisenhower's posture in foreign affairs was more internationalist, and on the home front less apt to challenge the New Deal and Fair Deal legacy of FDR and Truman respectively. Taft nonetheless backed the Eisenhower campaign, but the Eisenhower-Taft partnership was short lived. In the few first few months of the Eisenhower administration, their friendship was tested, and Taft challenged Ike at every turn. At a cabinet meeting on April 30, 1953, Ike told the congressional leadership that he did not expect to balance the budget, and submitted that he could cut the deficit from $9.9 billion to $5.5 billion but no more. An angry but principled Robert Taft pounded the table, and exclaimed, "The one primary thing we promised the American people was reduction of expenditures. With a program like this, we'll never elect a Republican in Congress in 1954! You're taking us down the same road Truman traveled! It's a repudiation of everything we promised in the campaign." Taft's commitment to fiscal conservatism trumped any loyalties to the GOP and any Republican administration, which earned him the respect of a great many conservatives. ³

Taft's innumerable accomplishments were succinctly summarized by Russell Kirk and James McClellan, who wrote:

• He revived the GOP during the postwar period and restored "a conscientious opposition" when parliamentary government had "fallen into decay" throughout most of the world.

• He stood for liberty under the law—"the liberties of all classes and citizens, in all circumstances.

• He spoke with effect against "arbitrary power," as when President Truman tried to crush the right of railroad workers to strike.

• He contended for "a humane economy" in which the benefits of American industry might be extended to every citizen.

• He helped restore "the balance between management and [organized] labor" with Taft-Hartley.

• He vigorously and fairly criticized the conduct of American foreign policy, supporting, for example, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan but opposing NATO. ⁴

Bibliography

Kirk, Russell, and James McClellan. The Political Principles of Robert A. Taft, (New York, NY: Fleet Press, 1967).

Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1972).