Taft, WILLIAM HOWARD (1857- ), American jurist and statesman, the twenty-seventh president of the United States, was born in Cincinnati, O., and educated at Yale University and at Cincinnati College, from whose Law School he graduated when twenty-three years of age. For the seven years following his graduation, Mr. Taft practiced law, and during this time was appointed to a number of minor offices. In 1887 he was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Cincinnati. Three years later he resigned to become solicitor-general of the United States, and in 1892 he was appointed United States circuit judge for the sixth circuit. Two years later he was urged by President McKinley to become president of the Philippine Commission, and resigned his position in the circuit court to accept the appointment. In July, 1901, Mr. Taft became first civil governor of the Philippines, and under his administration the plans for the government of the Islands, including the Philippine Congress and the appointment or election of many local officers, were projected and put into force. Mr. Taft's work in the Philippines is conceded by all to be the greatest piece of constructive statesmanship of modern times. During this time he also visited Pope Leo XIII in Rome and made satisfactory arrangements with him about the purchase of extensive tracts of land held in the Philippines by various Roman Catholic religious orders. In 1904 he was appointed secretary of war. In 1906 he was the agent of the United States for reintroducing American government into Cuba. He has also had much to do with establishing and carrying forward the work of the Panama Canal. In 1907 he again visited the Philippines to be present at the opening of the first Philippine Congress. On his return trip he visited the emperor of Japan and the czar of Russia. In the summer of 1908 he visited Panama and averted an insurrection, if not a war, between that country and Colombia and Venezuela. In June, 1908, Mr. Taft received the nomination of the Republican party for the presidency of the United States, and at the November election was chosen by a large majority, receiving 321 electoral votes to 162 for William J. Bryan.