William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft (1857-1930) was a Democratic Congressman representing the state of Ohio in the United States House of Representatives. In the 1910s, he was Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, the first committee assignment of freshman Socialist Congresswoman Flora Hamburger. He found Hamburger exasperating, particularly for her opposition to the Great War, and the two quarrelled from time to time. Nonetheless, Hamburger would remember Taft with respect years later when she campaigned against his son, Robert Taft, when the younger Taft (who would eventually find in Hamburger an ally for his hard line foreign policy during the Second Great War) ran for President in 1940.