Lou’s View – May 15, 2014
A Visit From Taft
by Lou Bernard
William Howard Taft was born September 15, 1857. He was the twenty-seventh president of the United States, serving from 1909 to 1913. He admitted New Mexico and Arizona to the Union, and served two years with no Vice-President, or so Wikipedia tells me. (Wikipedia: Motto,”The general public can edit it, so you know it’s accurate.”)
Right now, you’re yawning, and I don’t blame you. You’re wondering why I’m giving you all this eighth-grade history stuff. Well, actually I was just trying to fill space while I lead up to the point.
Taft visited Renovo.
Essentially, that sums it up, but I wouldn’t be doing my job if I couldn’t stretch this column out for about another six hundred words. Taft was one of several presidents to come to Clinton County—Ulysses S. Grant and Jimmy Carter both fished here. McKinley’s funeral train came through, and Roosevelt was on it. And you may even remember Bill Clinton dropping by a few years back.
But, yes, Taft came for a short visit. He may have set the record for the shortest presidential visit in the county—His whole time here lasted maybe five minutes. I’m not exaggerating there—I’m not above that, but no, it was literally five minutes.
It was a Sunday, June 5, 1910. A rainy afternoon, but that didn’t keep people inside. The Renovo Record reported on it at the time. The headline was,”Nearly 2000 Renovo People Greeted President Taft.”
Taft was, that day, on a train going from Jackson, Michigan, back to Washington DC. The train came through Renovo at about 1:30 in the afternoon, and Taft made a brief stop here.
These days, you’d figure people would be posing for selfies and demanding to see his birth certificate. But there was none of that in the old days, possible because the average selfie took half an hour to take back then. People gathered to see the president, who was in such a hurry that he didn’t even set foot off the train—He just stood on the rear platform and waved.
The Record said,”Nearly 2000 Renovo people greeted President Taft at the railroad station Sunday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock. A stop of five minutes was made and he came out on the rear platform of the special car Colonial and made a brief address.”
How brief was this speech? Well, certainly brief enough to take place during a five-minute train stop. You have to respect Taft for that; these days, if the president opens his mouth you’re in for at least forty-five minutes of speech time. When I was a kid, if the president came on TV, your whole night was over.
His speech was brief enough that I can reproduce it right here, in this column, in its entirety.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Taft,”I appreciate the Renovo spirit in coming out on such a rainy day to see me. My journey has been very tiresome. I am on my way to Washington to meet with Congress tomorrow. Of course you don’t expect me to make a speech on Sunday. Goodbye and thank you all very much.”
And off he went. The train pulled away from the station and Taft, who had never even disembarked, went with it. Though he did remain standing on the platform and waving at the crowds until the train was out of sight.
He didn’t even pause to add,”I’m William Howard Taft, and I approved this message.”
The Record ran the article that week, and it may have been the shortest article about a presidential visit that’s ever been run. There just wasn’t that much to work with. At least Taft did better than Truman, who announced he was coming to Lock Haven in 1952, but then slept through the visit. At least Taft stayed awake; Truman didn’t even get out of bed.
Taft died on March 8, 1930. I sincerely hope his eulogy went on longer than five minutes. But you never know.
