Thus he came to regard the telephone with a higher degree of appreciation than any of his predecessors had done, and eulogized it on many public occasions.

"It is bringing us all closer together," was his favorite phrase.
To Roosevelt the telephone was mainly for emergencies.

He used it to the full during the Chicago Convention of 1907 and the Peace Conference at Portsmouth.

But with Taft the telephone became again the common avenue of conversation.

He has introduced at least one new telephonic custom a long-distance talk with his family every evening, when he is away from home.