A Former President Travels

William Howard Taft was a former United States President, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, first Governor General of the Philippine Islands, and member of the Board of Trustees of the National Geographic Society for many years.  The following article, revised by Mr. Taft for publication, is a summary of two addresses to the National Geographic Society.  Presenting: "Some Impressions of 150,000 miles of Travel," National Geographic Magazine, May, 1930.

Mr. Taft recalls, "I have traveled a good deal. . .I have been twice to the Philippines and back; I have also been twice around the world, in going to and from the Philippines, and in those four trips I visited Japan five times, Siberia and Russia once, China three times, and Rome once; and then in other trips I visited the Isthmus of Panama seven times, Cuba twice, and Porto Rico once. . .Such an experience has enabled me to breathe in the atmosphere and environment of many countries and many nationalities and has, I hope, given me a less provincial view of many international questions than if I had stayed at home and persisted in an Americanism so narrow and intense as to be indisposed to learn anything, either of government or society, from the experiences of other people" (p. 526).

Bravo!  He is my hero, a true Citizen of the World!

We are treated to an account of the difficulties Mr. Taft encountered as the first Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands in 1901.  The American Army had to turn over its power to Mr. Taft and the commanding general thought it was punishment for a bad job.  This controversy did, however, work in Mr. Taft's favor as it helped endear him to the Philippine native peoples.  "The largest of the Philippine Islands has an area about equal to that of Denmark, Holland, and Belgium combined.  In its mountain section, are waterfalls, gorges, lakes, and forests of great beauty" (photo caption, p. 539).

There were serious health threats in the Philippines at that time: epidemics of cholera, plague, and smallpox. "It is wonderful how used one gets to the proximity of such danger and thinks nothing of it" (p. 547).  He gives the Philippine government the right to take credit for improving the health conditions.

The next country Mr. Taft describes is Japan.  "Japan appears to visitors like a great garden  Parks are everywhere and attractive arrangements of trees, shrubs, ponds, lagoons, and bowlders combine to create delightful effects.  The Shiba Temple and park, in the capital are particularly beautiful at cherry-blossom time" (photo caption, p. 546).

My dear dad, Reuben, was stationed in Yokohama 1955-57.  Then he retired from the Army as a Lieutenant Colonel.  The rest of the family, mom, my brothers and I, stayed in Louisville, Kentucky.  When he returned, he brought us presents and told us, "I've been talking to a priest.  I'm a Catholic now!"  I still have the beautiful jewelry he brought.  But he never told us much about Japan.

Mr. Taft, as Secretary of War, met with the Emperor of Japan several times and was impressed with the fine welcome he and Mrs. Taft were given.  "I made a speech (in 1907) which was well received in Japan and this country, pointing out not only the impossibility but the absurdity, of a war between Japan and the United States" (p. 569).  How tragic this sentiment was not held by the Japanese in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In Russia, "Vladivostok is the Soviet Union's chief port on the Pacific" (photo caption, p. 570).  The Kremlin in Moscow: "here is set in motion the machinery which has made Russia a testing ground for what has hitherto been only a theory of economy, society, and politics" (photo caption, p. 574).

Mr. Taft's addresses were very interesting and read like a novel.  I repeat: Bravo!  He is my hero!