TAFT, Robert Alphonso, (son of
President William Howard Taft, nephew of Charles Phelps Taft,and father of
Robert Taft, Jr.), a Senator from Ohio; born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 8,
1889; attended the public schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, and of Manila, Philippine
Islands, and Taft School, Watertown, Conn.; graduated from Yale University in
1910 and from Harvard University Law School in 1913; was admitted to the Ohio
bar in 1913 and commenced practice in Cincinnati, Ohio; director in a number of
business enterprises in Cincinnati; assistant counsel, United States Food
Administration 1917-1918; counsel, American Relief Administration 1919; member,
Ohio house of representatives 1921-1926, serving as speaker and majority leader
1926; member, Ohio Senate 1931-1932; elected as a Republican to the United
States Senate in 1938; reelected in 1944 and again in 1950 and served from
January 3, 1939, until his death; majority leader 1953; co-chairman, Joint
Committee on the Economic Report (Eightieth Congress), chairman, Committee on
Labor and Public Welfare (Eightieth Congress), Republican Policy Committee
(Eightieth through Eighty-second Congresses); sponsored the Taft-Hartley Act,
designed to create equity in collective bargaining between labor and management;
unsuccessful candidate in 1944, 1948, and 1952 for the Republican presidential
nomination; died in New York City, July 31, 1953; memorial services were held in
the rotunda of the Capitol; interment in Indian Hill Episcopal Church Cemetery,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography;
Berger, Henry. “Bipartisanship, Senator Taft, and the Truman
Administration.” Political Science Quarterly 90 (Summer 1975): 221-37;
Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
-- Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress