Chapter 35

THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT TAFT

[1909]

On March 4, 1909, the date of the inaugural ceremonies, Washington was visited by a heavy snow-storm, and Mr. Taft, departing from the custom of delivering his inaugural address at the east end of the Capitol, spoke in the Senate chamber. Many trains bearing visitors to Washington, from various parts of' the country, were blockaded, This condition served to emphasize the call, many times made, for the transfer of the date of these services to April 30, the day on which President Washington took the oath of office.

President Taft's inaugural address was wise and temperate and satisfactory to the country at large. He asserted that the most important feature of his administration would be the maintenance and enforcement of the reforms inaugurated by President Roosevelt. He justified appropriations, as his predecessor had done, for maintaining a suitable army and navy; advocated the conservation of our natural resources, the establishment of postal savings banks, and direct lines of steamers between North and South America.

In the aviation meet at Los Angeles, January 10, 1910, Louis Paulhan, a Frenchman, established the record of 4,000 feet for height and Glenn H. Curtiss with a passenger set a new world's record of 55 miles.

Shortly afterward Curtiss demonstrated for the first time that it was possible for an aeroplane, especially constructed, to rise from the surface of water, make a flight in the air, return to the starting-point, and again alight on the water.

The great possibilities as well as the dangers connected with aviation were brought out in the meet at Chicago during August, 1911, where two aviators lost their lives. C. P. Rodgers, in a Wright machine, remained in the air twenty-six and one-half hours out of the possible thirty-one and one-half hours. Lincoln Beachey set a new world's record by ascending 11,642 feet. This record was again surpassed within a month by Ronald G. Garros, a French aviator, who ascended 13,943 feet.