engineer did have remarkable autonomy although he reported to the secretary of war who was william howard taft>> so george washington the essentially was the president of the canal zone in the sense? come he was a benevolent dictator. it was a very paternalistic system. he was admired by many in the zone because he did run things very efficiently. it was a very orderly's zone. he got it built minivan felt could be done. he prided himself on being a sort of fatherly figure to the workers, he would meet sunday morning with anyone who wished to meet with him from loneliest washerwoman to the elite supervisors, but his authority as fatherly as he might be was complete. one of server said we all like the chief engineer but we know not to disagree with him or criticize him if we do disagree with him we get deport a fast. >> what would you say is the labor unrest and thinking about the auto strikes in the 30's and the founding of the uaw was their anything of what level? >> no, not really. it was an orderly zone. he was very strategic and effective at using things like deportation and a rescue and im

you may never get a chance to buy a william howard taft coin. the white house is scrapping a program to commemorate every u.s. president on dollar coins. they weren't selling. abc news brought the problem to the government's attention. and the administration says the shutdown will save about 50 million a year. >> i really wanted that taft coin. i really wanted that. it was on my christmas list this year. >> $50 million in savings. >> i get it. all right. >>> next on this wednesday, a major mixup involving the marine corps sending christmas ornaments to fallen marines and sailors. >>> and a miami cop with some explaining to do. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chan

democrat sort of thing no it's not it's not if you're the day i was listening to the old tapes of william howard taft teddy roosevelt and woodrow wilson debating tariffs and it's just it's just amazing both parties have been a both sides of this issue over and over and over again for two hundred years and it looks like if you're in pennsylvania and you need help from the police are going to be in big trouble republican governor tom corbett who's already slashed nine hundred million bucks out of the state's education budget is now going after the police five percent cut the police department's going to be five hundred cops and they are now saying that you may have to wait up to a day for response to nine one one call back how it ranges yeah that's not even true because last year their budget was increased ten percent when a lot of the other state agencies in pennsylvania had cuts but the police got a ten percent increase so this year they're going to scale it back by five percent they're still ahead of a lot of the other agencies in pennsylvania and the police the state police are putting out the pres

and he handed the agenda of this conference over to his successor, william howard taft, who couldn't about the subject and allowed it to die, and that conference never happened however when we do look back on tr now, 100 years later, i think that is the one achievement of his presidency that we should revere your and remember. it's something of a homecoming to me to come to this particular stretch of turf, and to be in proximity of a particular castle, smithsonian castle, because i came in here 1983, long before any of you were born -- [laughter] why are you laughing? as a fellow of the wilson institute, the wilson center for scholars, which used to be headquartered here in the castle. i was a fellow for three months and that's where i began my second roosevelt biography, theodore rex. it's the first time that i had ever been in an academic environment amongst fellow scholars from all over the world, and i must confess i felt very strange in the company of these several guys with long strings of degrees after their names. i was given the study in the tallest of the towers you see out

instead of glory, it has brought humiliation. >> the words of william howard taft. did william jennings bryan change as a candidate from his first race in 1896 to his third in 1908? what issues dominated? >> the key issue in 1896 was the gold and silver issue and the issue of a class divisions, the regional decisions. in 1900, it was imperialism. the united states was trying to stop the philippines' independence movement from winning a war against the u.s. occupation of the islands. 1908, there were several issues. bryan tried to make powers of the trust and the corporations the issue. but taft was seen as progress at the time. he had been secretary of war under teddy roosevelt. in many ways, he was similar to george h.w. bush, running as the hand-picked successor to ronald reagan. similarly, people who liked roosevelt tended to think, we will be safe with taft. bryan tried to use a lot of the same techniques. he went out to talk to hundreds of thousands of people, but it was not very successful. the country was populous again. times were very good. taft was popular

and maybe not everyone knows that between the time william howard taft was president of the nested and later chief justice of the united states, he went back to yale law school and taught. and one of the things that president taft loved was a college football game. and mrs. taft did not share his interest in it, so he had to go alone. but by that time, and, in fact, he did. anytime yield was playing in new haven, william howard taft was at the game. and even though he went by himself, he was at that time weighing in i think around 330 or 340, and he couldn't fit in one seat. and because he was a gentleman of the old school, he thought it was only fair that he buy two tickets. and so he would arrive with his two tickets, and one day, according to paul, he arrived at the game and made his way up to the tier that the seats were on, and he presented the two tickets to the student usher who looked at him and looked around, and he was perplexed and he said, you have given me two tickets, serve. and taft said, he said yes, yes, i have. and he said, i really cannot sit, sit in one seat and i t

there was the great teddy roosevelt/william howard taft split. teddy ran as the bull moose party candidate. there is a real question. are they going to be able to put the republican party back together again? do you take roosevelt? roosevelt is still radioactive with the old guard. if you take someone too conservative, then the progressives will not come back. you have got to pick someone who is respected by both sides. someone who is not some wild man from the prairies or from the west like johnson, someone who was not a conservative like root, and the man to do it, also the man who has been out of politics since 1910, he was on the supreme court. he was not part of the 1912 battle. that is mr. hughes. and he is respected by just about everyone in the party. >> what were his politics at the time? >> his politics were mildly progressive. he is not a wild man from the west like norris. but what he is, he had moved from the practice of law. he was never interested really in being part of politics. when he first comes to new york and establishes his

party, he would form his own party the bull months party that would run against republican, william howard taft his successor and hand the election to progressive hero woodrow wilson. what teddy roosevelt was calling for as you a socialistic nationalism in which the government would take things away from people who got things, that he didn't think they should have, give it to the working man. they talked about the square deal, fairness, all of these new man dates for government, something the republican party has walked away from in very decided fashion certainly since the reagan era in terms of what the role and purpose of government is. this is obama embracing a republican icon of a by gone era. megyn: putting aside whether people understand the party affiliations, bull months, he was a republican, he wasn't, it was a progressive idea, i think what americans might understand is teddy roosevelt was calling for something akin to a socialist nationalism. why would president obama want to do anything to associate himself with that word socialist which has been used against him by so many of the c

that was william howard taft. william howard taft, a chief justice of the supreme court, said these words in 1908. he said no man can study the movement of modern civiliation from an imparblee standpoint and not real -- imparblee standpoint and not realize that the spread of christianity is the basis of hope of modern civiliation and the growth of popular self-government. our only member of congress who was also president who was also chief justice said this, the spirit of christianity is pure democracy. it is equality of man before god, the equality of man before the law which is, as i understand it, the most god-like manifestation that man has been able to make. william howard taft. franklin d. roosevelt said these words on december 24, 1933, because he believed the christian religion, not to be a hate religion, as so many are now saying, so many are trying to persecute. franklin d. roosevelt said this, this year -- and it is important to understand this is in a terrible time of depression. roosevelt said, this y

actually in the third year of a roosevelt administration because his hand-picked successor was william howard taftof the anomalies in all of this, megyn, this president, apparently and his scissors from the sunday talk show hosts who had -- >> megyn: the apartment -- professor goodwin who suggested he should emulate teddy roosevelt and now he's making an announcement he's doing just that. >> i think that's a bully idea, as teddy would have said. the problem is, he didn't start three years ago. that would have been helpful. megyn: here's my question to you. the president is going to say the new theme will be everyone engage necessary fair play, everyo does their fair share, everyone gets a fair shot. when teddy roosevelt was president at the time, there wasn't income federal tax, there wasn't much of a regulatory scheme, today, it's a very different story. i know the occupy folks think it's unfair and so on but can he really make the same art about the rich not paying their fair share and so on when you've got the stat itsics about what -- statistics about what the rich are paying in taxes? >> obvi

. >> william howard taft who had been president and became chief justice argued that the court needed its own building. he did not live to see it. charles evans hughes was the first chief justice to move in here. i read that this was very controversial at the time. >> i think that was partially because you're talking about justices who are traditionalists. >> and it was the depression. >> and the depression. it was expensive. the optics of moving into this beautiful temple. this political dimension. it was a break with tradition. from the modern perspective, it seems like a terrific break, one that was long overdue. >> this pediment has a depiction of charles evans hughes. we might be able to get a shot of that so you can see how the architects of this building depicted him. we'll listen to mount joy, pennsylvania. this is harry.>> i used to stude court. i think three major laws were struck down by unanimous supreme court decision. that included the liberals. from what i understood, when roosevelt made his court packing speech, he was one of the most elderly members of the court. he w