Theodore Rex (139 page)

16
ROOSEVELT DINES A
Richmond
Dispatch
, 18 Oct. 1901; Willard B. Gatewood, Jr.,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Art of Controversy: Episodes of the White House Years
(Baton Rouge, 1970), 36;
The Atlanta Constitution
, 18 Oct. 1901, Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

17
Some of the more
Undated news clips and Presidential scrapbook (TRP). See also Theo Miller, “Booker T. Washington and Some American Writers,”
Research Studies
39.4 (1970), and Takahiro Sasaki’s detailed study “Race or Individual Freedom: Public Reactions to the Roosevelt-Washington Dinner at the White House in October, 1901” (M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina, 1984).

18
The storm squalled
William H. Lewis, TR’s black classmate from Harvard, spent a night in the gubernatorial mansion, as did a stranded black baritone denied admission to local hotels. TR also entertained Booker T. Washington at Oyster Bay. Presidential scrapbook, Oct. 1901 (TRP); Pringle,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 230.

19
Hate mail
The Washington Post
, 19 Oct. 1901; Presidential scrapbook (TRP); Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 136; St. Louis
Mirror
, 31 Oct. 1901. The most recent Tillman biography is Stephen Kantrowitz,
Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White Supremacy
(Chapel Hill, 2000). But see also Francis B. Simkins,
Pitchfork Ben Tillman
(Baton Rouge, 1944), 1–32.

20
“At one stroke”
Richmond News
, 18 Oct. 1901. See also Edgar G. Murphy to Booker T. Washington, 19 Oct. 1901 (BTW).

21
BY TACIT AGREEMENT
New York Tribune
, 25 Oct. 1901;
Springfield Republican
, n.d., Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

22
ON 21 OCTOBER
New Orleans
Times-Democrat
and St. Louis
Republic
, 22 Oct. 1901; Harlan,
Booker T. Washington
, 317;
Booker T. Washington Papers
, vol. 6, 262; Charles P. Taft to William H. Taft, 24 Oct. 1901 (WHT).

23
Roosevelt looked calm
New York
Herald
, 22 Oct. 1901; Platt qu. in Louis Coolidge,
An Old-Fashioned Senator: Orville H. Platt
(New York, 1910), 512; “Precautionary” [security] file, Oct. 1901 (TRP). Leon Czolgosz approached McKinley with what looked like a bandaged right hand. McKinley reached to shake his left, whereupon the “bandage” spit bullets.

24
Shocked by this
New Hampshire Evening Register
, 23 Oct. 1901, Presidential scrapbook (TRP); Rhodes,
McKinley and Roosevelt
, 228.

25
Degrees were awarded
Longworth,
Crowded Hours
, 43;
The New York Times
and New York
Journal
, 24 Oct. 1901. TR was awarded an LL.D.

26
Notwithstanding this
Frederick S. Wood,
Roosevelt as We Knew Him
(Philadelphia, 1927), 98.

27
Twain’s private
Bernard De Voto, ed.,
Mark Twain in Eruption
(New York, 1940), 30–31.

28
A LARGE CROWD
New Orleans
Times-Democrat
, 21 Oct. 1901; New York
Herald
and Washington
Evening Star
, 25 Oct. 1901.

29
ROOSEVELT’S QUERULOUSNESS
Booker T. Washington Papers
, vol. 6, 274–75; TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 181, 184. In late October, Senator John L. McLaurin of South Carolina wrote a sympathetic statement explaining TR’s action in terms calculated to reassure the South. But TR refused to approve it. “The President said he did not want anyone to make any explanation for him” (George Cortelyou superscript on original draft [TRP]).

30
“My dear Mr. President”
Booker T. Washington Papers
, vol. 6, 274.

31
Sensing Roosevelt’s need
Ibid., 263, 283.

32
Some good, certainly
John M. Blum,
The Republican Roosevelt
(Cambridge, Mass., 1954), 44; Harlan,
Booker T. Washington
, 305, 324.

33
“the infinite capacity”
“TR and the Press,” unpublished ms. (HH).

34
He dutifully announced
New York
Journal
, 30 Oct. 1901.

35
“I have not been”
TR to Albion W. Tourgée, 8 Nov. 1901,
Letters
, vol. 3, 190–91.

36
As the famous
See, e.g., TR to Carl Schurz, qu. in Harlan,
Booker T. Washington
, 321; Wister,
Roosevelt
, 254; M. A. De Wolfe Howe,
George von Lengerke Meyer: His Life and Public Services
(New York, 1919), 416, 420; TR,
Letters
, vol. 8, 981–82.

37
And when Washington
Booker T. Washington to George Cortelyou, 20 Dec. 1901 (TRP).

  
1
A hard time
Finley Peter Dunne,
Observations by Mr. Dooley
(New York, 1902), 175.

  
2
THE NIGHT OF MONDAY
Except where otherwise indicated, the following account is based on Ray Stannard Baker, “The Great Northern Pacific Deal,”
Collier’s Weekly
, 30 Nov. 1901;
Commercial & Financial Chronicle
, 1902, 843, 1011, 1062; and Martin,
James J. Hill
, 495ff. Additional atmospheric details from New York
Sun
, 12 and 13 Nov. 1901.

  
3
three financiers conferred
The standard biographies are Martin,
James J. Hill;
Maury Klein,
The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman
(Chapel Hill, 2000); Strouse,
Morgan;
and John A. Garraty,
Right-Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins
(New York, 1960).

  
4
This common need
Isaac F. Marcosson,
Before I Forget
(New York, 1959), 221–24.

  
5
huge damp mustache
“I never could figure out how he drank his coffee” Averell Harriman interview, 14 Feb. 1981.

  
6
Decent, driven men
TR, First Annual Message to Congress,
Works
, vol. 17, 101; Faulkner,
Decline of Laissez-Faire
, 24–25, 92–93.

  
7
Yet they had
Martin,
James J. Hill
, 505; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 347.

  
8
Their meeting tonight
Balthazar H. Meyer, “A History of the Northern Securities Case,”
Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin Economics and Political Science Series
1.3 (1904–1906): 229–36;
Martin,
James J. Hill
, 394–504. The panic occurred on 9 May 1901.

  
9
Right now, Hill
Martin,
James J. Hill
, 504–8. Harriman had acquired the Southern Pacific earlier in the year. He also had interests in the Santa Fe.

10
What lay before
Meyer, “Northern Securities Case,” 236; Martin,
James J. Hill
, 509.

11
Anybody could see
Meyer, “Northern Securities Case,” 240; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 370.

12
The flaw in
New York
World
, 15 Nov. 1901, quotes an unnamed trust expert as saying that Hill’s charter was “unquestionably … a violation of the
spirit
of the law against combinations.”

13
But Hill was
New York
World
, 15 Nov. 1901; Thorelli,
Federal Antitrust Policy
, 445; Martin,
James J. Hill
, 511.

14
THE NEXT DAY
,
Tuesday
TR to Albert Shaw, 12 Nov. 1901; TR, First Annual Message draft (TRP). See Waldon Fawcett, “How President Roosevelt Wrote His First Message,”
Success
, Jan. 1902.

15
Roosevelt worked
Washington
Evening Star
, 12 Nov. 1901.

16
ROOSEVELT HAD TAKEN
The following profile of Philander Chase Knox is based on descriptions and photographs in Edward G. Lowry,
Washington Close-Ups: Intimate Views of Some Public Figures
(Boston,
1921), 194–96;
New York
Herald
, 7 Apr. 1901;
The Historical Register
(New York,
1921), 54;
Philadelphia
Press
, 10 June 1904; Thompson,
Party Leaders
, 310ff.; and Samuel Flagg Bemis,
The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy
(New York, 1927–1929, vol. 9, 302–10.

17
In the words of
Lowry,
Washington Close-Ups
, 194. Kate Carew in New York
World
, 10 Mar. 1904, satirizes Knox’s impenetrability.

18
Knox was the
By the late 1890s, Knox was said to be charging $250,000 for a case. A. T. Eitler, “Philander Chase Knox” (Ph.D. diss., Catholic University,
1959), 10.
See also Minneapolis
Times
, 17 Jan. 1903, in Knox Scrapbook (PCK).

19
The Attorney General
New York
Herald
, 7 Apr. 1901; Kate Carew in New York
World
, 10 Mar. 1904; Knox to Delmonico’s, 13 Jan. 1902 (PCK); photographs of 1527 K Street NW (FBJ); Knox qu. in New York
Herald
, 20 June 1901.

20
His languid
,
laissez-faire
Peck,
Twenty Years of the Republic
, 686; Adams,
Letters
, vol. 5, 232. Thorelli,
Federal Antitrust Policy
, 404–5, notes that Knox showed little spontaneous inclination to activate antitrust enforcement until galvanized by TR.

21
A friend remarked
Thompson,
Party Leaders
, 318.

22
Roosevelt was quick
TR qu. in Samuel Leland Powers,
Portraits of Half a Century
(Boston,
1925), 218;
Washington
Evening Star
, 18 Oct. 1901; Henry Loomis Nelson, “Three Months of President Roosevelt,”
Atlantic Monthly
, Feb. 1902.

23
Knox, Roosevelt discovered
Philadelphia
Press
, 10 June 1904; Knox scrapbook (PCK); Bemis,
American Secretaries of State
, vol. 9, 309–10; Eitler, “Philander Chase Knox,” 25–26, 32; Lowry,
Washington Close-Ups
, 201; White,
Autobiography
, 342.

24
Such a truce
Hill had visited Washington at the beginning of November, and asked himself to dinner at the White House (Washington
Evening Star
, 2 Nov. 1901). Martin,
James J. Hill
, speculates: “It was time, Hill felt, to explain what the new railroad arrangements meant for the West they loved so much.” For Harriman’s
and Morgan’s early relationship with TR and Hill, see Klein,
Life and Legend
, 361–63.

25
Perkins was the
TR,
Letters
, vol. 3, 159–60.

26
“Perkins may just”
Ibid., 159–60, 177.

27
MORGAN, HILL, AND
Washington
Evening Star
, 13 Nov. 1901; New York
Sun
, 14 Nov. 1901.

28
The New York
Journal
14 Nov. 1901.

29
“They are smoothing”
Ibid.

30
“To me there is”
George Perkins to TR, 15 Nov. 1901 (GWP).

31
In due course
New York
Sun
, 15 Nov. 1902.

32
“Can I get some”
Mark Hanna to George Perkins, 27 Nov. 1901 (GWP).

33
Lesser citizens
Statistician and Economist
(New York, 1901–1902); Baker, “Great Northern Pacific Deal.”

34
“Is it possible,”
Baker, “Great Northern Pacific Deal.”

35
As if in answer
New York
Sun
, 12 Nov. 1901.

36
“I see dynamite”
Mark Hanna to TR, 10 Nov. 1901 (TRP).

37
He objected in
TR, First Annual Message draft (TRP); Mark Hanna to TR, 10 Nov. 1901 (TRP). Elihu Root also took “serious exception” to this part of the Message. TR to St. Clair McKelway, 21 Nov. 1901 (TRP).

38
Other senators
Message drafts in TRP; Orville H. Platt to TR, 13 Nov. 1901 (TRP); TR to Mark Hanna, 21 Nov. 1901 (TRP). Sample language deleted: “I am firmly of the belief that a law can be framed that will enable the National Government to exercise control over the trusts.… It should be treated … as an effort, not to destroy or disarrange business, but to continue the upbuilding of our interest on foundations of justice to all.…
This Government must recognize the need of change.”

39
RESTRAINED AS HE
Washington
Evening Star
, 15 Oct. 1901;
World’s Work
, Dec. 1901. See Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 473–74, on how the speed of TR’s reactions exasperated Philander Knox.

40
“Mr. President”
Boston
Transcript
, 18 Nov. 1901. The Senator was William J. Deboe of Kentucky.

41
He would whirl
George William Douglas,
The Many-Sided Roosevelt: An Anecdotal Biography
(New York, 1907), 249–56; Walter Hines Page in
World’s Work
, Dec. 1901. Both these accounts describe Roosevelt’s receptions in Nov. 1901. TR was then making an average of thirty appointments a day. One alone—for Collector of Customs in Fort Worth—generated twenty-eight pounds of documents. Washington
Evening Star
, 11 Nov. 1901.