William Howard Taft Reads Ethics in Service — In His Own Restored Voice
“We must remember that no profession, no calling, is worth following unless its members feel that they owe a duty to the public.”
About this work
Ethics in Service (1915) collects the Page Lectures Taft delivered in 1914 to the senior class of Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. Across addresses on the history of the legal profession, legal ethics, the executive power, and the 'signs of the times,' Taft argues that every calling — law, business, public office — carries a duty to the public that no amount of success can excuse a man from honoring.
Heard in Taft's own restored voice, these lectures regain their original setting: a former President and future Chief Justice speaking directly to young men about honor, duty, and the temptations of power. The measured, judicial gravity of that voice is exactly what the material asks for — and it makes a century-old lecture feel like counsel meant for the listener.
Who was William Howard Taft?
William Howard Taft (1857–1930) holds a distinction no other American shares: he served both as President of the United States (1909–1913) and, later, as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1921–1930) — and it was the second role he truly wanted. A judge by temperament long before he was a politician, Taft was uneasy in the White House and at home on the bench, where he reshaped the federal judiciary's administration.
Genial, enormous, and deeply principled, Taft was a man who believed government and the professions were forms of moral trust. Between his two great offices he taught law at Yale, lecturing a new generation on the ethics of public and professional life — the subject closest to his judicial heart.
About the voice
This narration is reconstructed from William Howard Taft's real archival recordings — including the campaign sound recordings he made in 1908 and 1912, held by the Library of Congress and the University of California, which preserve his actual voice. From these genuine recordings his voice is faithfully restored to read this public-domain text. It is an honest re-creation of how Taft sounded, not a claim that he is speaking today.
Provenance: Restored from real recordings. We label every voice honestly — restored, narrated, or disputed.
Questions
What did William Howard Taft sound like?
Taft's surviving 1908 and 1912 recordings reveal a steady, deliberate, lawyerly delivery — unhurried and resonant, the voice of a man accustomed to addressing courts and juries. There is a judicial calm to it that suits a lecture on ethics and duty.
Is this really Taft's voice?
It is a faithful restoration drawn from his genuine archival campaign recordings, used to narrate this book. We do not claim Taft is alive and speaking today — what you hear is an honest reconstruction of his documented voice reading his own lectures.
Is Ethics in Service in the public domain?
Yes. Ethics in Service was published in 1915 and is in the public domain in the United States, freely available through Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive.
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