Transcripts For CSPAN3 First Ladies Influence Image - Helen

Helen tapped was more ambitious about getting to the white house than her husband, William Howard taft, and was willing to get personally in bald in politics to get him elected. As first lady, she overcame a serious illness directly mounted the white house. Invited top Classical Musicians to perform their, and support it causes that matter to her. Helen tap also has one of the most physical legacies of our first ladies. Washington d. C. s famous japanese cherry trees, the ones that frame the tidal basin in the Nations Capital and brings tens of thousands of visitors to washington every year. Good evening, and welcome to first ladies. Influence and image. The life of hell and taft, her husband served in the white house from 1909 to 1913. Here to tell us about her life and her legacy is her biographer lewis gold. His biography of her is helen taft, our musical first lady. You open the book by making the case that of the 20th century first lady, shes the most obscure but you say she deserves better from history. Tell me quickly why she observes better she deserves better than being obscure . Well, because she did some things that were, as youve mentioned in your opening, about that were very constructive, i mean the cherry trees, bringing the Classical Music musicians to the house, and generally trying to make washington the cultural st. The Cultural Center of the nation. That was her ambition. Now, it didnt work out because a medical reasons. But she had an agenda that would have made her rank with Eleanor Roosevelt or ladybird johnson in terms of transforming washington had things gone the other way. She also seemed to have an agenda to get her has been to the white house. Yes, the stories that she decided when she visited the white house in the haze and instruction, hey i do not want that as well i want to do that as well, sorry. Its somewhat overdrawn. There are a lot of women who thought they liked to have their husbands become president s. And sometimes, she is portrayed as accra across between Mommy Dearest and leading mcbath, which isnt really the case. She was a much more constructive influence and a nicer lady that history has treated. Her helen taft was a very interesting story and we bet many of you in the audience will be hearing it for the first time. Tonight we very much like to involve you in our conversation and you can do that in a lot of ways. You can send us a comment on facebook. We already have a robust discussion starting their with questions coming in about nearly, helen taft. And you can also send us a tweet using the hashtag at first ladies. And we have phone lines, of course which you will put on the screen and will get to your calls in a few minutes as the program progresses. First, we need to tell you a little bit more about her early biography. I want to hear the story. How did you get to the white house at age 16 as a guest of this president . Well, her father and the parents in cincinnati were friends with president and lucy with the furred behave and lucy hayes and they went to the white house. She went only once, but she had not yet made her debut, so he couldnt participate in social activities. But there was there she was there. And the president hey said it was wonderful to have it the herons there. And in the taft family lore, she was supposed to have said, you know im going to come back. Its not clear that thats really what she said but shes like many people, she says i want to marry men who may become. President but she came for political from a political family. Yes. Her her father was a friend of Benjamin Harrison and had been involved in ohio politics on her mothers side. There had been a congressman in their background. And she was quite the intellectual. I mean, she was reading darwin and go with and other things in school, and she had the ability to play the piano. She studied quite seriously. I wish there were recordings, but there does not seem to. Be she had a salon and cincinnati, which was a very culturally rich city in those days. I mean im not planning to now, but it was sort of they had seven hills, so they thought themselves a sort of the roam of the midwest. Well, if she was from a political family and how this ambition, no matter how much a product of being just 16 and enthralled with it of getting to the white house, how did she choose will taft as her meet . Well, a new of each other. It was a small community. It was really after he had gone to yale and came back to be in the Cincinnati Law School that their lives began to intersect, and they began to court. She was in her mid twenties, which was late for marrying in those days, and he was almost 29 by the time he gets married. But they started going out to some of the beer halls and other things of cincinnati, and gradually fell in love. He was much more smitten with her originally than she was with him. But he proposed. She rejected him, which was the standard thing in those days. The woman never accepted the proposal right off. So they had a rather Lengthy Court ship by our standards, where sometimes it lasts all weekend. But in those days, she made him wait a while, but then they got married in june of 1886. You mentioned her education, and we should give a little to her alma mater. Where did she go to college . She studied a little bit at the university of cincinnati, but she really almost with self educated. She took some courses, but never did ever get a degree. She didnt have a degree like her husband it. How common was it for women to get to go to beer halls in those . Days it was not the done thing, though in cincinnati, with its German Community and tradition of the, you know turned baron and stuff like, that it was where young people went and young people in the eighties at the same 18 eighties at the same impulses they have today. So thats where people went. They did not they quite the way they would later in the 20th century. Now William Howard tapped was not intending a career in politics when he proposed to nearly taft, natalie heron. He wanted to be a lawyer and he wanted to get to the Supreme Court. So he would later say, like any good politician, he had his bull turned upward when offices were falling into his lap. But he definitely, i think, wanted to be chief justice of the United States almost from the time he learned about the law. For those of you dont know the history, William Howard tapped made good on his wish. Hes the only president who also served in the role of chief justice of the United States. And we will learn more about his later part of the career his career after the white house, as our program progresses. Well, if he didnt really pose as the soul of a politician, how instrumental was was helen moving him in that direction . Well, and the initial stages she had relatively little influence, but i think that because he becomes a state judge, then he becomes solicitor general of the United States and is appointed to the court of appeals in ohio, so she watched him do that. But i think the big turning point came in early 1900, when president mckinley called him and said, come to washington, and he offered him the chance to go to the philippines and establish a civilian government in the silhouette in the philippines. And she says, take it. He says, do you want to do this . And she says, by all means. She said this would give my husband this fear of power and influence that he wouldnt have had any other way. And i think that was the decisive moment in their lives when he is in his mid forties, moving toward being and politics in a new way. We have two quotes, one from each of the taps, but give me some sense of how interested the two of them when politics and you can say tell us how much this really reflects their overall attitudes. From hell attached, she writes of her husband, mr. Taft was all but impervious to any friendly advice, which being followed, we have tended to enhance his own political advantage. And we have a 1906 quote from William Howard taft, and he says, politics, when i am in it, makes me sick. Some of that was for public consumption. Yes, i think he pursued a political career with more zest than we sometimes realize. And what natalie, as everyone knew her, whats she was saying is that he had a way of getting people to push him in a direction that he wanted to go. And so i think she is acknowledging that he moved her as much as she moved him. Lou gold referenced his career and he mentioned the two that were in the law. In addition, lets take a look at the political positions that William Howard taft held over his lifetime. In 1892 in 1892, he served as solicitor general as mr. Gould told us. He was as we learn, governor general of the philippines and an important part in that countrys development and how relationship with it. And i 1901 to 1904. In 1904, was the secretary of war, they call the secretary of defense. Then his term as president , 1909 to 1913. And then later on in 1921 to 1930, his wife swish, becomes chief justice of the United States. One of those early positions, secretary of war, governor general of the philippines, which was most helpful in setting his cap toward his experience in the white house . I think the governor general of the philippines made him a national figure. And then, when he goes into Theodore Roosevelts cabinet, he presents himself to roosevelt as the logical choice in 1908. Once roosevelt had said, im not going to run a 1908, then as roosevelt looked over the cabinet to see who might be his successor, a lucky route was probably too old. So there was will taft from ohio, a state that really matter to republicans in those years, and he became sort of the logic of the situation. Very briefly, why did the United States have the ability to appoint a governor general of the philippines . As a result of the spanish american war and the treaty of paris in december of 1898, spain seated the philippines to the United States and they became a possession and would remain so until 1946. One of the hallmarks of this program, is weve been taking you to Historic Sites that are associated with the first ladies and their lives. Throughout this program, we will be taking you to the William Howard Taft National Historic Site and cincinnati. You see a picture of it there. It is available for you to visit as well. And we hope, those of you who are getting interested in the series, will visit some of these places we are showing you. Up next, you are going to meet the superintendent of the, site ray henderson. And hell tell us more about the time that the taft spent in the philippines. She loved to travel and William Howard have got a chance to be the chairman of the philippine commission. She jumped at the chance, encourage him to take the job. And they took the family and went to the philippines. Where William Howard tapped was later governor general of the philippines. So she had a chance to travel around the world, she also that the chance to introduce her children to this travel. She learned different languages. Banquets were a big thing. In fact, before she and the children got their William Howard taft cabled, about some of the banquets he was really invited to, and mrs. Tapped liked to have dinners and incorporate the military people, the philippine people, and these are some programs from different banquets that. Where the filipino loved William Howard tapped in his family. They treated them just like equals. Mrs. Taft invited them to dinners. They attended a lot of the celebrations there at the lunatic. Where she like to see the bands play. And see entertain entertainment was a big part of the things that she did over there while she was in the philippines. I was about to go into the collection storage area where we keep some of our more valuable artifacts, as well as things that arent on display. As we come in, we see a philippine chest. Mrs. Have collected a lot of philippine items. Furniture, chairs, beds, these types of things. And this is a storage chest that they bought while they were over there, and it was one of the meter items that they were able to pick up while they were there. What i have here some photographs from some leaders in the philippines. It took some formal photographs here and they wrote inscriptions and gave them to mrs. Taft. My dear mrs. Taft, best wishes from abdullah prepare no, december 22, 1903. Manila, philippines. And it just goes to illustrate the admiration that the philippine people had for the tufts family, especially mrs. Taft, as she worked to make them feel integrated in the greater society, made them feel equal to other people, invited them to the parties, put on musicals and those types of things. She helped with their education. And so, they really loved the tufts. And to this day, we still get people coming from the philippines that had that connection with the taft family and the things that they did while they were there. And joining us on the set is Jane Hampton Cook, a first lady scholar, whose book includes american phoenix and the fate of americas first ladies. Jane cook, how important was that in time in the philippines to the development of hell untapped in her role as first lady . Well, it was very important to her development. And when she returned to the United States, she met a military wife in the army who had known her in the philippines, and she said, you know in the philippines, you were a queen and here, you are a nobody. And i do not think helen ever thought of herself as a nobody. But when she was in the philippines she wasnt a queen in a royal sense but in an american sense that she invited people to her table. The philippine women, the american women and really brought this those two cultures together, and she served her husband very well by doing those things. There were still colonial powers around the world. How unusual was it for i mean, in the piece we heard she treated the philippines equally. We work in their country. So today we say why wouldnt she treat them as equal . So how unusual was this outreach . Well, the army in the philippines, what they called drew the color line, which meant that they did not socialize with the filipinos. So for taft two and nearly to shake hands with the filipinos, to dance with them, was seen as quite radical. And there were elements in the military that were not thrilled with what taft was doing. He wouldnt have been able to do this in the United States, ironically at the same time. But in the philippines, that accounts in part for his enduring popularity. Though the filipinos, i think, wanted us out as soon as possible in the way most colonial people did. On twitter, president ial ponderings wants to know how about would holland have thought about the philippine people and the culture where she lived there, and how did it shape her view about diverse populations as a whole . Well, it extended, i think the view that she had in her heart, and i think it was something that she, by reaching out to them, and you can see the benefit of bringing their cultures together. It was something that she was using her executive social skills, her executive management skills. But she would go out horseback riding. She would they taft ordered a ban for the filipino people, and they said they go to the lunar and then which is this big open space and have concerts. And so this was really something that meant a lot to her, and you can see when she wears the philippine filipino formal gowns, shes really embracing this culture. She wanted the lunatic to be an example for exam for washington and she started in the spring of 99 before the stroke. Im not familiar with the term what is a luneta . Its a it was a space in manila where on sundays, they are stalker c would gather with carriages in they would go around and have ban concerts. It was kind of the social setting for high society in the philippines. She wanted that. This place to be where washington would do that and the first couple of times he was very popular. After the, stroke when she couldnt personally manage it, it faded away. But it was one of those false starts that characterized her career. Those of you have been watching us along the way know that our goal this year is to teach you more, help you learn about each americas first ladies. Were going to the full time in the series throughout this year to the 20th century ladies. Earlier in the year, we did the first ladies beginning the martha washington, and our goal is to present the biography of them to help you understand more about the president S Administration and also that our country now a change in how the role of women changed. So theres lots to talk about and we will give you the telephone number so you can join in the conversation. If you live in eastern and central time zones its 2 02, five eight five, three eight eight zero. If you live in the mountain or pacific time zones, two oh, two five eight five, three eight eight one and we will love having your calls in your questions. They have been a real hallmark in this program as it proceeds. Also, weve developed a website for the series, first ladies at cspan dot or. And each week theres one special item attach of the firstly that we dont talk about during the program. Today, if you go to the site you learn more about a chair that she really cherish that she acquired while she was in the philippines. So we hope youll have time to check that out will be back from the philippines talk to me about a very import relationship maybe the most important other than William Howard taps with natalie, and that is the relationship with the aid or was. About how did that . Flourish taft and will taft and tara, to get to know each other in the early 1890s. What is significant, is almost from the beginning, there is not that same report between edith and mentally. In fact, no