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THE GREEN BAG
Institute, January 10, 1908, and the answers to the questions put to Judge Taft on that occasion, will come away from their perusal with a profound respect and admiration for this fair-minded man. Want of space forbids the review of any considerable number of Judge Taft's deci sions as Circuit Judge. Before him came the question of the constitutionality of the Nichols law, through which the Legislature of Ohio sought successfully to tax as prop erty of express companies that proportion of the value of their whole business as a unit which was transacted in the state, and the many cases growing out of the failure of the Fidelity National Bank, and many other important cases. Patent lawyers were glad to- bring their cases in his jurisdiction. His training in mathematics probably contributed to an easy comprehension of questions involving mechanics and physics, and he has been heard to say that no more intricate or dif ficult questions were presented in patent cases than in many cases arising in the general practice of the law. In the midst of his judicial labors he at all times had in mind the improvement of the facilities for the administration of justice and the maintenance of high stan dards at the Bar, and he made opportunities for carrying his . purposes into effect. It was through his efforts that the valuable Law Library of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals was established in Cincin nati, and in 1896 he was largely instrumental in bringing about theinergerof the Cincinnati Law School into the University of Cincin nati as its Department of Law. He was the professor of the law of real property in that institution and Dean of the Law School until he left Cincinnati to go to the Philip pines. His judicial service was brought to an end in March, 1900, when he was called by President McKinley to the Presidency of the Philippine Commission, and in January, 1901, he was made the first Civil Governor
of the Philippines. His knowledge of our Constitution and institutions, our system of government, national and state, and the detailed workings of the system, even in the smallest governmental subdivisions, and his familiarity with the courts and their impor tant decisions, and our methods of admin istering justice, civil and criminal, qualified him to an exceptional degree for this extra ordinary service. Well might a modest man hesitate, as he did, before accepting this great respon sibility, but President McKinley knew the kind of man he was sending to work out problems of government theretofore un known in the history of our country. And in this work he gave evidence of a marked administrative capacity for the exhibition of which no previous public service had given him adequate oppor tunity. Judge Taft's ambition to become a mem ber of the Supreme Court of the United States was well known and he was twice offered by President Roosevelt a seat on that Bench, but he declined on the sole ground that he did not think his work in the Philippines was finished. In January, 1904, he was given by Presi dent Roosevelt the portfolio of Secretary of War, and his executive and administra tive qualities have been frequently called into activity, more especially through the intimate relation of that office to the admin istration of the Philippines, of Porto Rico, and to the construction of the Panama Canal. Judge Taft's style in his written opinions is forceful and to the point. There is little obiter dictum. It was his practice to consult first the English cases bearing on the ques tion under consideration, and on this founda tion to build his conclusions fortified by the decisions of our own greatest courts. When, therefore, he was through with a subject, it was pretty well exhausted. His decisions carry the convincing quality, and his sincerity of purpose was so evident
