sold William H. Taft Says His Experience As President Makes Him Used to Being Lied About in the Pres

The Great War in Europe had a significant impact in the United States. Feelings ran high, with some taking partisan sides, and others simply trying to find a way to stop the bloodshed. A group of senior American leaders, including Taft, thought the answer might be the League to Enforce Peace, which was formed on June 17, 1915, at a conference at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Its inspiration, and that of other, similar organizations around the world, was the League of Nations Society, which had been founded a month earlier in England (and was supported publicly by British Prime Minister H.H. Asquith).

Taft was its titulary president; other leaders included such respected notables as Theodore Marburg, former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium; journalist and later Rollins College president Hamilton Holt; and educator Fannie Andrews, who in 1919 represented the U.S. Bureau of Education at the Versailles Peace Conference. Although the League’s name, calling for enforcement of peace, seems draconian today, its concepts were idealistic; it worked for a league of nations, a world court, and mandatory international conciliation. German-born Richard Bartholdt had been Editor of the St. Louis Tribune, after which he served in Congress from 1893-1915.

Having just retired from Washington, he led a group called the American Independence Union. The organization likely favored the U.S. taking a posture independent of the Allies (and thus avoiding war with Germany). With the idea for the League to Enforce Peace being seen as having originated in England, it would not be surprising to find Bartholdt concerned about its intentions. He wrote to Taft, who after telling him to beware of false reports in the press, invited him to join the peace movement.

Typed Letter Signed on his personal letterhead, New Haven, June 11, 1915. “I have yours of June 6th, and have read what you say with interest. Somebody sent me an issue of the Chicago Tribune containing a reference to the dinner of which you speak. It is impossible to have issues arousing such feeling without a good deal of misrepresentation, and my experience in the Presidency was such as to make me entirely used to it. I would be glad to have you come to the Philadelphia Peace Meeting. I had nothing to do with the selection of the Committee. They used me as a figurehead, but I don’t mean to say by this that I am not greatly interested in the movement. I shall be glad to clasp your hand in Independence Hall.”

This was Taft’s way of showing that he was non-partisan and sought peace rather than advantage to either side. Once the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, despite its name, the League adopted a "win-the-war" program. However, it must be given some credit for influencing President Wilson and others to support the formation of the League of Nations at the war’s end.