THE PASSING of Robert A. Taft is a tragic loss to America.
The brilliant son of our twenty-seventh President, Senator Taft served the people of Ohio and the nation with distinction and integrity. He will be greatly missed on Capitol Hill where his unimpeachable character and his vast knowledge of the business of good government played such an important part in Congressional decisions over many years.
The Senate has lost one of its leading members of all times, the American people have lost a truly great citizen and I have lost a wise counsellor and a valued friend. Mrs. Eisenhower and I extend to Mrs. Taft and the family our heartfelt sympathies in the personal loss that they have sustained.
Note: In addition to the foregoing statement, the President issued Executive Order 10474 (3 CFR, 1949-1953 Comp., p. 954) which provided that, as a mark of respect to the memory of Senator Taft, the flag of the United States should be flown at half-staff on the White House and Federal Government buildings in the District of Columbia and the State of Ohio until interment.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President on the Death of Senator Robert A. Taft. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/231857