McClure's Magazine Cover

This issue of McClure's Magazine (May 1912) features a political analysis article titled "The Forces Behind Taft" by George Kibbe Turner and Arthur Wallace Dunn. The article examines President William Howard Taft's administration and the political machinery supporting his anticipated renomination, despite lack of support from his own party's voting majority.

The authors trace how Taft was elected in 1908 as the presumed successor to Roosevelt, but reveal his actual political sympathies lie with corporate and conservative interests rather than the progressive causes Roosevelt represented. The article details how Senator Aldrich, Speaker Cannon, and other conservative Republican operatives orchestrated tariff revision and other policies favoring corporations. Following the 1912 election losses, the authors explain how Senator Crane of Massachusetts became instrumental in managing Taft's affairs through family connections with the Taft circle, establishing himself as the new "general manager" of Republican politics.