William Taft actually said...

"The improvement of the Ohio River is not alone to improve the Ohio River and help the States along its border."

"You have six locks now completed, and where those six locks operate, the success of the system of slack water has been demonstrated."

"I am only a coordinate branch of this Government and the least important of those branches."

"You may insist that a policy ought to be adopted, and you have insisted, and I do not doubt that you have—indeed I know you have—made that distinguished member of Congress, the head of the Rivers and ..."