WHO'S WHO IN THE GOP: TAFT

Before the Philadelphia convention next June, a major job of the nation's voters will be to absorb, weigh and compare the records in the Republican Who's Who of presidential candidates. Herewith, in the third-of a series, TIME publishes the condensed biography and political record of Ohio's Senator Robert Alphonso Taft.

Vital Statistics. Age: 58 (born Sept. 8, 1889, in Cincinnati, in a gingerbread Victorian house overlooking the Ohio River). Ancestry: eldest of the three children (two sons, one daughter) of William Howard Taft, 26th President of the U.S. and later Chief Justice; grandson of Alphonso Taft, Secretary of War and later Attorney General in the Cabinet of Ulysses S. Grant. Educated: at his Uncle Horace's Taft School in Watertown, Conn. (1906); Yale (1910); Harvard Law School (1913). Married: in 1914 to Martha Bowers, witty, vivacious daughter of President Taft's Solicitor General Lloyd Bowers. Children: William Howard, 32, who is researching Old Gaelic at Yale; Robert Jr., 30, Cincinnati lawyer; Lloyd Bowers, 25, a reporter on the Cincinnati Times-Star; Horace Dwight, 22, student at Yale. All four sons served in World War II. Church: Low-church Episcopalian.

Personal Traits. Bespectacled, with a toothy mouth and a boxlike jaw, he looks more like a college professor than a politician. Unlike his father, who was a hearty laugher, he has a quiet humor and a sudden wide grin. Careless of his dress, he likes what his family calls "all-purpose" pants--he sometimes wears the same pair to the Senate, to the golf links, and to dinner. In private, he is a genial and pleasant conversational ist; on the Senate floor he is all business--cold, aggressive, persistent.

Career. A lawyer (corporations, estates), he has been elected to three public offices (Ohio State Representative 1921-26; State Senator 1931-32; U.S. Senator, 1938, re-elected 1944). He was defeated for the Republican presidential nomination in 1940 by Wendell Willkie. He has been de facto leader of the Senate on domestic affairs since January 1947.

Private Life. He lives quietly in a 26-room house in Georgetown, usually spends his evenings studying legislation, infrequently relaxing with detective stories. Next to absorbing facts, he most enjoys a game of golf (he shoots in the low 80s). In Cincinnati he owns a comfortable, 26-room house on 60-acre "Sky Farm," a farm in name only, although some 150 chickens supply eggs and broilers for the Taft table.

Early Years. Shortly after "Bobbie" was born, his father was appointed Solicitor General by President Benjamin Harrison. In 1892, Father became a federal judge and moved back to Cincinnati. Young Bob grew up with a love for fire horses and alarm bells; Engine Company No. 10 was across the street. Bob's favorite game was chess. In 1900, Father was sent out to administer the Philippines; the family spent four years in Malacanan Palace in Manila, but after two years, Bob returned to the U.S. to go to Taft School. Serious, shy, he shrank from the limelight which bathed his father as President of the U.S. But he liked to play charades in the White House and dance the Boston with Martha Bowers, whom he subsequently followed to Europe to persuade her to marry him.

After Yale (where he always stood first in his class) and Harvard Law, he and younger brother Charles (now the layman president of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America) set up a one-room law office in Cincinnati. The two young Tafts got plenty of business. Uncle Charles owned the Times-Star, and when he died Bob inherited a minority interest in Times-Star stock. He still owns it. Bob declined to join Charles in a fight to reform the corrupt city government; he strung along with the late Boss Rudolph Hynicka, used the machine's help to get to the legislature.

Public Record. As a Senator since 1938--first as a vehement, minority critic of the New Deal and later as majority boss on domestic issues--he has probably declared himself on more issues than any man in Congress. His outstanding political characteristic is his insistence on strict legal procedure. He criticized the Nuernberg trials on the grounds that they were ex post facto judgments, and therefore violations of American law. He has seldom altered his course because of public opinion. He calls himself a conservative liberal; his political trademark is: "Go Slow." He is hostile to Big Government, solicitous of the rights of the individual.

On government financing he has clung to the theory that the people are more qualified than Washington bureaucrats to spend the nation's wealth. His formula: cut Government spending and reduce corporation taxes in order to encourage private initiative. He believes in using taxes for revenue only, not as a tool to control the economy.

On social legislation he first opposed far-reaching New Deal programs in three fields: housing, health, education. Having studied the problems and rewritten the bills, he now supports the programs. His main concern was to see that control, wherever possible, resided in the states, not the federal government.

On the national economy he has opposed Government planning and planners. He opposed AAA, the National Resources Planning Board, TVA. He opposed appointment of TVA's David Lilienthal as chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. He fought price control, believing that the market should reflect true costs and the real economic level.

On labor he first opposed the minimum wage and hour law because he thought it would hurt the little businessman, then supported it. He is against Big Labor and labor monopolies; against the secondary boycott, the closed shop, industry-wide bargaining. Nevertheless, it was he who first stood up and fought Harry Truman's proposal to draft striker's into the Army. His main objective in the Taft-Hartley Act was to restore the legal balance between labor and management.

On foreign relations he has moved from 100% isolationism to a cautious endorsement of U.S. participation in world affairs. Before World War II he opposed conscription, lend-lease, the destroyers-to-Britain deal, arming U.S. merchantmen. When Germany broke with Russia he declared: "The victory of Communism in the world would be far more dangerous to the U.S. than the victory of fascism." In February 1941, he said that the danger of attack by Japan was "simply fantastic." He opposed Bretton Woods, the reciprocal trade agreement, the "Voice of America," the loan to Britain. He supported the U.N. Charter but later voted against participation in U.N. "As long as vetoes are insisted upon," he said, "there is no real will to peace. . . ." He tried to limit ERP to $4 billion, but finally voted for the $5.3 billion foreign-aid bill. He is against U.M.T., for a bigger air force.

As a campaigner he is dry, uninspiring. He does not make speeches, he lectures. His voice is as flat as a Midwest prairie. But he always says what he thinks, and means what he says (example: his two-word admonition to the U.S. people in 1947 to "Eat less"). His wife, Martha, is an ingratiating and razor-sharp platform performer.

Pro & Con. His critics maintain that he belongs to the 19th Century; that he is shortsighted in world affairs; that he is stubborn, cold, impatient of opposition; that he is tactless ("It is dishonest to be tactful," he says); that he lacks the kind of wisdom which comes from human understanding; that basically he distrusts the judgment of the people.

His admirers say that he understands government better than any man in Washington; that he is not ashamed to admit mistakes; that he has the kind of filing-case mind and grasp of facts needed for the complex job of being President; that he is intellectually honest; that the people will always know exactly where he stands; that he would give the nation a businesslike, energetic and straightforward government.

* Previous "Who's Whos": Dewey (April 5), Warren (April 12).

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