Robert A. Taft memorial: Remembering "The Republican"
Standing tall on the north side of the Capitol is a 10-foot bronze statue of Robert A. Taft, a three-term senator from Ohio in the early to mid 20th century. Affectionately called "The Republican" by his colleagues, he is remembered for his “honesty, indomitable courage, and high principles of free government symbolized by his life” as inscripted above the statue.
Behind him stands a tall tower constructed with Tennessee marble. Twenty-seven bells hang at the top, produced at the Paccard Bell Foundry in Annecy, France, the heaviest weighing seven tons. The bells have a rich, resonating sound and ring on an hourly basis as a “summons to integrity and courage,” as stated by President Herbert Hoover at the memorial's dedication ceremony in 1959.
The memorial was designed by architect Douglas W. Orr. It consists of the statue and 100-foot tower with bells, and surrounding the statue is a water basin with water jets streaming water. The statue was commissioned by the 84th Congress, first session, in 1955, shortly after Taft's death, indicating how much his colleagues respected and missed him. The memorial's proximity to Capitol Hill serves as a reminder to current congressional staff and officials of Taft's dedication and work to serve his government.
Robert A. Taft is considered one of the five greatest senators in American History, though his name and claim to fame may be overshadowed by his presidential father, William Howard Taft, and grandfather, Attorney General and Secretary of War Alphonso Taft. His career as a senator began in 1938 until his death in 1953 from cancer.
He was a Republican senator famous for opposing Prohibition, World War II, the Nuremburg trials, and was very outspoken against the Ku Klux Klan. He created the Taft-Hartley Labor Act which is today's basic labor law. He ran for president several times but did not succeed. Towards the last few years of his life he befriended Dwight D. Eisenhower, with whom he played golf often and on the day he checked into the hospital and discovered his body was full of cancer.
Posted by Rin-rin Yu
