Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [453]
96 “I shall not come” Wood, Roosevelt As We Knew Him, 421.
97 “a communication” Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 437.
98 “I shall be” The New York Times, 24 Mar. 1917. For an account of TR’s expedition—unusual for him, because he had no interest in fishing—see TR, Works, 4.314ff.
99 flaming with flags This phrase, written on 25 Mar. 1917, is taken from Washington Wife: Journal of Ellen Maury Slayden from 1897–1919 (New York, 1963), 296.
CHAPTER 25: DUST IN A WINDY STREET
1 Epigraph Robinson, Collected Poems, 63.
2 Henry Adams was just Adams, Letters, 6.749.
3 Theodore Roosevelt’s slow train Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, 3 Apr. 1917. The following account of TR’s brief visit to Washington is taken from this source, plus the Oakland Tribune, same date, The Washington Post, Trenton Evening Times, and The New York Times, 4 Apr. 1917. See also Looker, Colonel Roosevelt, 179.
4 another U.S.-flagged steamer The Aztec.
5 With a profound The Washington Post, 3 Apr. 1917. WW began his address with “Gentlemen of the Congress,” ignoring the presence before him of Jeannette Rankin (R, Mont.), the first woman ever to sit in the House of Representatives.
6 Williams had stood The New York Times, 4 Apr. 1917.
7 second largest devilfish TR’s host in Florida, Russell J. Coles, announced that the wingspan of the Colonel’s specimen was 16 feet 8 inches. The only larger devilfish, or manta ray, then known was in the American Museum of Natural History, and spanned 18 feet 2 inches. The New York Times, 4 Apr. 1917.
8 Senator Lodge, of all people San Antonio Light, 2 Apr. 1917. The pacifist, a young man, had called Lodge a “coward” for announcing that he would vote for a war resolution. Accounts vary as to who threw the first punch.
9 The White House was The New York Times, 4 Apr. 1917.
10 Roosevelt asked Oakland Tribune, 3 Apr. 1917.
11 “I don’t know” Lowell (Mass.) Sun, 4. Apr. 1917.
12 Edith was brooding EKR to Flora Whitney, 11 Mar. 1918 (FWM). QR came down from Harvard two days later. EKR diary, 5 Apr. 1917 (TRC).
13 Quentin might have On 14 Apr., a Royal Flying Corps spokesman announced in Montreal that “if no American troops go to France, young Roosevelt will serve with the Canadian air forces.” The New York Times, 15 Apr. 1917.
14 “A state of war” The New York Times and Decatur Daily Review, 6 Apr. 1917.
15 “Of course, when” Metropolitan, Apr. 1917.
16 “I’ll take chances” Leary, Talks with T.R., 93.
17 When, at eleven The New York Times, 11 Apr. 1917. This visit has been frequently misdated by biographers, and as frequently misrepresented as the first encounter between TR and WW in the White House. See above, 348–52.
18 “The President received” Ibid. There is a photograph of TR holding this impromptu press conference in Lorant, Life and Times of TR, 610.
19 “If I say” Ibid.
20 Uninhibited, he Titusville (Pa.) Herald, 11 Apr. 1917; TR, Letters, 8.1173; The New York Times, 11 Apr. 1917.
21 “I have been” The New York Times, 11 Apr. 1917.
22 receiving visitors that evening Pringle, TR, 594–95 (misdated).
23 “I am aware” Newton D. Baker to Henry Pringle, 6 Nov. 1930, quoted in Pringle, TR, 595; The New York Times, 6, 11 Apr. 1917.
24 “I had a good” Leary, Talks with T.R., 96, 99. Remarks like these betrayed one of TR’s weaknesses—an inability to understand his opponents. WW had obviously not been briefed on his proposed division, and wanted to know where TR thought its equipment might come from. The regular army itself was woefully short of rifles and ammunition, and conscription would make it shorter still. TR replied that the French might help. “They have the equipment. They need men.” He added that he and his volunteers, many of them men of wealth, would initially fund the division themselves. The President seemed interested, but kept asking questions. Looker, Colonel Roosevelt, 181; Leary, Talks with T.R., 97–98.
25 Let us use TR, Letters, 8.1171.
26 The Roosevelts knew Longworth, Crowded Hours, 254; The New York Times, 15 Apr., La Crosse Tribune, 22 Apr. 1917.
27 waited with Archie Since graduating from Harvard,