William Howard Taft

Born in the family of a prominent Republican, Alphonso Taft, who briefly served as Secretary of War (8 Mar 1876 - 22 May 1876) under President Ulysses S. Grant and later as American minister Austria-Hungary (1882-1884) and to Russia (1884-1885); educated in the Woodward High School, Cincinnati; received a baccalaureate degree from Yale University (1878) and earned a law degree from the Cincinnati College Law School (1880); admitted to the bar in Ohio (1880); assistant prosecutor, Hamilton County, Ohio (1881); Collector Internal Revenue for 1st District of Ohio (1882-1883); assistant county solicitor, Hamilton County (1885); judge, Ohio Superior Court (1887-1890); US Solicitor General in the Benjamin Harrison administration (1890); US Federal Circuit Court Judge (1892-1900); dean, Cincinnati Law School and professor of law and real property (1896-1900); chairman, then president, Philippines Commission (1900-1901); Governor of the Philippines (4 Jul 1901 - 1 Feb 1904); appointed Secretary of War (1 Feb 1904 - 30 Jun 1908) in the Cabinet of Theodore Roosevelt, who engineered his nomination for president in 1908; served as Provisional Governor of Cuba (29 Sep 1906 - 13 Oct 1906); elected President of the United States on the Republican ticket in 1908; backed highly protectionist Payne-Aldrich Tariff, 1909; prosecuted trusts under the Sherman Antitrust Act; strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission by the Mann-Elkins Act (1910); exercised "dollar diplomacy" with Latin American countries; inaugurated postal savings bank (1910) and the parcel-post system (1912); created Department of Labor (1911); unsuccessful candidate for election in 1912; professor of law, Yale (1913-1921); Chief Justice, US Supreme Court (11 Jul 1921 - 3 Feb 1930). Biography source: [1]