PRESIDENT WILLIAM H. TAFT - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/16/1918 - HFSID 48342

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
During World War I, he signs a typed letter thanking Charles Perry for joining the One Thousand Dollar War Savings Society.
Typed Letter signed: "Wm H Taft", 1 page, 8¼x10¾. New Haven, Connecticut, 1918 March 16. On personal letterhead to Charles Perry, Bridgeport, Connecticut. In full: "I regret that because of long absence from New Haven and many interruptions in my work, I have not had the opportunity of acknowledging the acceptance by you of membership in the One Thousand Dollar War Savings Society. Your cooperation is appreciated by me, as it will no doubt be by the State organization and the local committees. A supreme crisis faces us all which requires our putting at the disposal of the government every possible resource of labor and material that we can spare. I am sure that the action you have taken will not only be effective in your individual case, but in furthering this movement all over the land, upon which so much depends. Very truly yours". Between the dates of his failed campaign for re-election as US President (1913) and his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Taft taught law at Yale University in New Haven. When the US entered World War I, Taft delivered a major speech supporting the war, and warning Americans that victory would require great sacrifices. In 1917, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson appointed Republican Taft to chair the National War Labor Board, in which capacity he helped resolve many labor disputes and even induced the American Federation of Labor to make a "no strike" pledge. As the above letter demonstrates, Taft was also involved in soliciting loans for the war effort. Economist Hugh Rockoff has estimated that World War I cost the US $32 billion dollars, contrasted with 1913 federal expenditures of less than $1 billion and constituting 52% of America's GNP. He estimates that 58% of this money was raised by loans from private citizens. Lightly creased at edges. Otherwise, fine condition.