President Taft Postcard

Hi all! I was going through and sorting some postcards and I found this one of President Taft. As you can see, he is holding a rally. This rally was held at the Monroe County Fairgrounds in Albia, Iowa on September 29, 1911 (my hometown). I have an actual photo taken from that event, that is how I know the date.

Way cool!!
At first I thought maybe not, then blew it up it's Taft. Had to order a large bathtub for him when he went to the Whitehouse. Eventually he ends up on the Supreme Court." He could say yes and make an enemy, Teddy Roosevelt could say no and make a friend"
Thank you so much for sharing

Really appreciate early candid photos like this which are much less commonly seen than portrait photos, even 70 years after the introduction of the camera in America. It is noteworthy for the number of people whose faces you can discern l, the fact that virtually everyone is wearing a hat, and Taft's girth. As I recall Taft may have actually gotten stuck in that tub.

As a former history teacher, I can say it's funny that the bathtub story is (mainly?) what we remember about Taft. Unfortunately, it's apocryphal. It never happened, or if it did there is no evidence of it. In fact, the stuck in the bathtub story only appeared maybe 20 years after Taft had left the White House and seems to have been patched together from various other stories along with some faulty memories about Taft having trouble dealing with bathtubs of an ordinary size. He did famously overflow a bathtub in a hotel once.

What he did do (sorry for swinging right into history teacher mode) was to fight the trusts but not as colorfully as his predecessor Theodore Roosevelt had done, conserve vast areas of beautiful natural landscape (but not as memorably as TR had done), and so on. He was inevitably always compared to Roosevelt who was just too much to compare anyone to. And he was a bit inept, trying to please both pro-business conservatives and liberal reformers and satisfying none of them.

When he ran for re-election in 1912, it turned into an amazing four-way race. Taft the incumbent got the Republican nomination. Woodrow Wilson, the reform governor of New Jersey, was the Democratic nominee. And there was a candidate for the Socialist Party (unusually popular at the time for proposing a long list of reforms, most of which were fairly middle-of-the-road and later adopted, so not very radical at all). He was Eugene Debs, and he won nearly a million votes, 6% of the total, which may seem amazing today.

And there was a fourth candidate, former president Theodore Roosevelt, who had sought but failed to get the nomination of the Republican Party (he was unhappy with Taft). So he walked out of the party and created his own third party, the Progressive Party, aka the "Bull Moose Party". He won more votes than Taft! But Woodrow Wilson won more votes than him and became the next president. If Taft was the conservative, he was still fairly reform-minded. The other three candidates, Wilson, TR, and Debs, were all various degrees of liberal and reform-minded. So that made it a very interesting election, unusual in our history.

It's also worth noting, before we look at this photo and get too dewy-eyed about the "good old days" (which this was in many ways), you may not notice a single black person in such old photos. This was the era of Jim Crow segregation which was often viciously enforced to preserve white supremacy. In many parts of the country, Blacks were kept from voting despite the 15th Amendment guaranteeing that right. And women were still not voting, either.

Not to mention the growing controversy over the enormous waves of immigrants who had been entering the country for nearly 20 years. As well as political arguments over slums, poverty, alcohol, labor unions, poor working conditions, child labor, and a dozen other issues. "Good Old Days"? Maybe, but also difficult days.

Taft was a likable man, but not quite up to the task of dealing with most ot this. He did later became a justice on the Supreme Court, appointed by Wilson's successor, the Republican Warren G. Harding. In fact, he became Chief Justice.

In the estimation of historians, he's generally considered about in the middle of presidential rankings, not bad but not particularly great, either.

Nice piece Drew. I was going from memory. You made me look up my source. Paul F Boller chair American history till his parting in 2014 at TCU. He relayed that"he weighed between 300 and 350 pounds and had to have a special bathtub constructed for him when he took up residence in the whitehouse" . Presidential Anecdotes, page 215. It's been 20 years since I have read about Taft, currently I am reading Hamilton. Still a stunning postcard, thanks for sharing.

Interesting history lesson, DrewM, thanks for the info.

BakerJ -

Excellent postcard, thanks for sharing it today. The town of Albia has some nice old buildings on the courthouse square. I used to service the check processing machines at Peoples State Bank on South Main Street there many years ago. I noticed your postcard looks like it was cancelled in the town of Geneva, Iowa in Franklin County, and sent to Chelsea, Iowa. My mother-in-law was born and raised on a farm in the Geneva area. Nice piece of postal history. I especially like the women and children in the lower right corner with the fancy hats. They are more interested in the camera man, than watching Taft.

Linus

It was really thoughtful to add your personal picture. It really makes history come alive. Linus that was a nice personal addition.
What a great forum. Stamps et al. Thanks for sharing
Cheers

Drew, that was awesome! Thank you for a little extra history. I appreciate it.
To everyone, thanks for the input! I enjoyed it.
Linus, here is a postcard from the late 60's/early 70's of the main building on the town's square. Monroe County Courthouse.

Yes, yes...I remember it just like that. Nice card.

Iowa has 99 counties and they all have a courthouse. Some are plain, and some are quite beautiful buildings, usually the center of town. A friend of mine belonged to a motorcycle club, and the group would ride to take pictures of Iowa courthouses. He showed me a three-inch binder full of 8x10 photos he took of every courthouse in Iowa.

Linus

That sounds like a lot of time on the road, but worth the trips. I like to go visit the places that are considered Ghost Towns. Some of the land owners, if you know them or if they know of you, will allow you to go looking around the ruins.