Colonel Roosevelt (151 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
39
Only California
When TR arrived in Los Angeles on the 16th, 200,000 people lined the streets and shouted his name. Mowry,
TR
, 276.
40
“a quiet, steady”
The New York Times
, 23 Sept. 1912.
41
“There was no applause”
David S. Hinshaw interviewed by J. F. French, 1922 (TRB). White wrote a charming account of TR’s visit to Emporia in his
Autobiography
, 493–96.
42
five 78 rpm shellac discs
Victor C-12406 through 12410, all recorded on 22 Sept. 1912. These recordings and four cylinders recorded the previous month for the Edison Company can be heard on numerous Internet sites. The most representative is “The Right of the People to Rule,” downloadable from the Library of Congress’s American Memory archive (
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem
). It contains TR’s famous exhortation to “Spend and be spent.” Another, “The Progressive Covenant with the People,” ends with him declaiming his Armageddon line with enormous relish. The pleasant voices of Wilson and Taft can be heard on the Vincent Voice Library website at
http://vvl.lib.msu.edu/
.
43
“I am hoarse”
TR to KR, 27 Sept. 1912 (TRC).
44
Arkansas. Tennessee
. At Memphis, on 26 Sept., TR gave a far-seeing, nonpartisan address to the Levee Convention. In language clearly written for the most part by Gifford Pinchot, he called for wholesale federal development and protection of the Mississippi drainage basin, using the plant and technology that would soon become available to the United States upon completion of the Panama Canal. See Gould,
Bull Moose
, 126–36.
45
“Theodore Roosevelt has”
African Methodist Episcopal Church Review
, 29.2 (Oct. 1912).
46
“It is impossible”
The New York Times
, 29 Sept. 1912. See Gould,
Bull Moose
, 136–42, for an account of TR’s successful appeal for support in New Orleans, and Arthur S. Link, “Theodore Roosevelt and the South in 1912,” in
North Carolina Historical Review
, 23 (July 1946) for TR’s popularity elsewhere in Dixie: “Roosevelt found … that it was his misfortune that people often shout one way and vote another.”
47
He practically called
The New York Times
, 29 Sept. 1912.
48
He blustered on
George Roosevelt trip journal, 29 Sept. 1912; Thompson,
Presidents I’ve Known
, 187;
The New York Times
, 30 Sept. 1912; Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 276. The
Atlanta Constitution
report quoted in Gould,
Bull Moose
, 143–48, downplays the hostility TR provoked.
49
He got the impression
Willard Straight to Henry P. Fletcher, 3 Oct. 1912 (STR).
Chronological Note:
The investigation had been triggered by an article in the August issue of
Hearst’s Magazine
, showing that the payment had originally been made by John D. Archbold of Standard Oil to Senator Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania. The latter, an archenemy of Progressivism, claimed in 1912 that he had accepted it in behalf of TR’s reelection campaign. The President, he said, not only knew about the $25,000, but had demanded a larger contribution if Standard Oil was not to be prosecuted under the Sherman Act. Although Penrose could not offer any proof of his allegation, he and the ever-vengeful Robert La Follette jointly called for a Senate examination of all contributions to the 1904, 1908, and 1912 campaigns. A subcommittee for the purpose, chaired by Moses E. Clapp of Minnesota, grilled TR on 4 Oct. 1912. He preempted his appearance by publishing a long letter to Clapp. In it, he denied Penrose’s allegation, and attached documents from his presidential papers to prove that in 1904 he had directed that no contributions from John D. Rockefeller’s highly unpopular trust should be accepted by the Republican National Committee. See TR,
Letters
, 7.602–5, and
Campaign Contributions: Testimony Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Privileges and Elections
, U.S. Senate, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1913).
50
a conference of
The New York Times
, 7 Oct. 1912.
51
Wilson had come up
Link,
Wilson: The Road to the White House
, 476–77; Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson
, 260–61; Gould,
Four Hats in the Ring
, 164–65. For
an analysis of the contrasting yet often complementary platforms of TR and WW in the campaign of 1912, see John Milton Cooper, Jr.,
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
(New York, 2009), 173–80.
52
Johnson had a twenty-two-state
Gable,
The Bull Moose Years
, 111.
53
In Indiana, Albert Beveridge
Gable, “The Bull Moose Years” (diss.), 273–84; TR,
Letters
, 7.595; TR to KR, 1 Nov. 1912, ts. (TRC). For a detailed account of the organization of the Progressive Party, see Gable,
The Bull Moose Years
, 22–57.
54
“Children, don’t crowd”
Thompson,
Presidents I’ve Known
, 144.
55
The Colonel was back
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 355–56.
56
Roosevelt seemed a new
The Outlook
, 12 Oct. 1912; Philip J. Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912: An Intimate Progressive View,” ts. (TRC), 28, 40; Gould,
Bull Moose
, 151–54.
57
“I’m fur Teddy”
Mrs. Rudolph Schori to TR, 21 Jan. 1913, pasted into the manuscript of TR’s autobiography (MLM). Later, in Duluth and Chicago, TR used his briefing book to further effect, quoting some highly xenophobic remarks made by WW about European immigrants “of the lowest classes” in a magazine article in 1899. Gould,
Bull Moose
, 158–59.
58
Munsey, a strict dieter
Munsey’s advice fell on deaf ears. Stoddard,
As I Knew Them
, 407–8.
59
Rumors persisted
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 362.
60
His speech
Gould,
Bull Moose
, 161–62.
61
After dinner
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 49. TR’s voice loss in the Coliseum was unfortunate, because his speech was an effective attack on WW as governor of the most corporate-friendly state in the Union. “He did precisely and exactly nothing [in New Jersey]. It is as simple to describe what [he] accomplished against the trusts as it is to write a volume on the natural history of the snakes in Ireland. There are no snakes in Ireland.” Gould,
Bull Moose
, 166.
62
He returned to Chicago
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 369.
63
Roosevelt lies and curses
Ishpeming (Mich.)
Iron Ore
, 12 Oct. 1912, copy in TRC.
64
“Let’s go at him.”
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 369.
65
Later that afternoon
The following account of the events of 14 Oct. 1912 is based on the eyewitness reportage of Philip Roosevelt in “Politics of the Year 1912”; O. K. Davis to George Perkins, 15 Oct. 1912, ts. copy (AC); Davis,
Released for Publication
, 370–90; Oliver Remey, Henry F. Cochems, and Joseph C. Bloodgood,
The Attempted Assassination of Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt
(Milwaukee, Wis., 1912); Thompson,
Presidents I’ve Known
, 147–50; and “Incidents in the Political Life of Theodore Roosevelt as Related by Owen Crozier,” ts. copy (TRB).
66
“I want to be”
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 372.
67
“He’ll never get up”
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 54.
68
Looking down, he
Ibid.
69
“Don’t hurt him”
TR,
Letters
, 7.705; Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 54.
70
What he saw
Full-length photograph of Schrank, 14 Oct. 1912, Library of Congress.
71
“What did you”
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 149.
72
“He pinked me”
Remey et al.,
The Attempted Assassination
, 16.
73
Terrell had heard
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 378; Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 55. TR later remembered saying, “I am ahead of the game and can afford to take the chances.” TR,
Works
, 6.xiii.
74
“No, Colonel”
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 378; Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 30; Emlen Roosevelt, ed.,
Roosevelt v. Newett: A Transcript of the Testimony Taken
and Depositions Read at Marquette, Michigan
(privately printed, 1913), 71, cited hereafter as
Roosevelt v. Newett
.
75
“It’s all right”
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 380. Afterward TR wrote KR, “As I did not cough blood, I was pretty sure that the wound was not a fatal one.” (19 Oct. 1912 [TRC].) The auditorium where TR spoke is now the Milwaukee Theater.
76
Cochems preceded him
New York Press
, 15 Oct. 1912; Stan Gores, “The Attempted Assassination of Teddy Roosevelt,”
Wisconsin Magazine of History
, 53 (Summer 1970).
77
Roosevelt stepped forward
O. K. Davis to George Perkins, 15 Oct. 1912 (AC); E. W. Leach (eyewitness) in
Racine Journal
, 13 Aug. 1921. A surviving photograph of the shirt still evokes an emotional reaction. See Lorant,
Life and Times of TR
, 573.
78
“I’m going to ask you”
Chicago Tribune
, 15 Oct. 1912.
79
Waiting for the noise
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 57; Davis,
Released for Publication
, 381.
80
His heart was racing
TR,
Letters
, 7.705. A stenographic text of TR’s speech, varying considerably from the original script, is reproduced in Gable,
The Man in the Arena
, 102ff. It appears to have been much abridged before its first publication in Elmer H. Youngman’s
Progressive Principles
(New York, 1913), 102–14.
81
Roosevelt swung his head
The image of the steel-gray stare is Philip Roosevelt’s. (“Politics of the Year 1912,” 58.) O. K. Davis was similarly rebuffed when he, too, tried to stop TR from going on. “He paused in his speech, and swung around on me with an expression on his face that can be described accurately only by the word ‘ferocity.’ ” Davis,
Released for Publication
, 383.
82
After about forty-five minutes
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 58; Leach in
Racine Journal
, 13 Aug. 1921; Crozier, “Incidents in the Political Life of Theodore Roosevelt”; Davis,
Released for Publication
, 385.
83
Incredibly, members
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 58;
New York Press
, 15 Oct. 1912; Thompson,
Presidents I’ve Known
, 149–50.
84
Before being stripped
TR,
Letters
, 8.1449; TR to KR, 19 Oct. 1912, ts. (TRC). This was an inside joke. Many years before, Bullock had been convulsed by one of TR’s favorite stories, about the Rough Rider who shot someone and who, in response to his question, “How did it happen?” answered, “With a .38 on a .45 frame, Colonel.” TR,
An Autobiography
, 380.
85
Meanwhile, at
New York Press
, 15 Oct. 1912.
86
Never let
Remey et al.,
The Attempted Assassination
, 60 (facsimile).
87
News of the drama
New York Press
and
The New York Times
, 15 Oct. 1912. See also Nicholas Roosevelt,
TR
, 67, and Sylvia Morris,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt
, 385–86. A medical soap opera commenced while TR was being examined in Milwaukee. The eminent surgeon Dr. Joseph C. Bloodgood of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore happened to be in the Auditorium to witness TR’s speech, and followed him to the Emergency Hospital to offer assistance if needed. He was unimpressed with the quality of the local care, and said urgently to O. K. Davis, “Get him out of here just as quickly as you can. This is no place for him.” Both Bloodgood and Terrell recommended Mercy Hospital’s John B. Murphy as the best specialist for his case. TR assented and was checked out of the Emergency Hospital at 11:25
P.M
. (Davis,
Released for Publication
, 389; TR to J. Keeley, 30 Dec. 1912 copy (AC); Loyal Davis,
J. B. Murphy: Stormy Petrel of Surgery
[New York, 1938], 262–63;
New York Press
, 15 Oct. 1912.) For subsequent episodes of the soap opera, involving the rivalry of four Chicago surgeons, see Davis,
Murphy
, 263–72.
88
It lay embedded
Davis,
Murphy
, 267; EKR to Emily Carow, 17 Oct. 1912 (TRC);
Philip Roosevelt, “Politics of the Year 1912,” 57. TR’s personal doctor, Alexander Lambert, pointed out that the spectacle case deflected the bullet upward. “[Had] the bullet gone through the arch of the aorta or auricles of the heart, Colonel Roosevelt would not have lived 60 seconds.” Bishop,
TR
, 2.339.
