Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [130]
November 4, 1884, Election Day, brought a deluge of voters in New York City and rain upstate, cheering Democrats who believed the inclement weather would dampen Republican turnout in rural areas. The day, however, ended with no clear decision. The electoral votes were evenly divided between Blaine and Cleveland—except in New York, which held the balance. Whoever won the state would win the White House. Pulitzer ordered press runs of nearly 250,000 copies, 45,000 more than the Sun and 40,000 more than the Herald. No matter who won the battle for the White House, Pulitzer had won the newspaper war.
The World began reporting a Democratic triumph with its first edition at two o’clock in the morning, but the race was still too close to call. Nor could victory be firmly declared the following day as the voting tabulations continued. “Watch the count,” Pulitzer warned his readers. “Guard carefully against any frauds on the part of the Republican inspectors and supervisors.”
In the evening, tens of thousands of people crowded into Park Row. The newspapers affixed bulletin boards to the front of their buildings and displayed the latest election bulletins. Fights broke out between rival groups, but mostly the crowds sang songs and parodies and yelled insults. All sorts of rumors began circulating. On hearing one that Jay Gould was tampering with the votes, a crowd surged up Fifth Avenue chanting, “We’ll hang Jay Gould to a sour apple tree.” Fortunately for the financier, the police hid him in a hotel under guard.
Finally, at week’s end, the results became clear. By a margin of 1,149 votes, out of 1,167,169 votes cast, New York fell to the Democrats, and the White House was theirs. A mere 575 voters had thrown the Republicans out of power. By a far more comfortable two-to-one margin, Pulitzer had defeated his Republican congressional opponent without lifting a finger for himself.
Pulitzer basked in the glow of the election results. His chosen candidate was on the way to the White House. He himself had been redeemed from the ignominious election defeats he had suffered in St. Louis. But most important, Pulitzer’s gamble on the World had paid off. It was now the largest-circulating newspaper in the nation and widely credited with Cleveland’s election. “I should say, the election of Cleveland the first time was the most important achievement of the World,” Pulitzer wrote years later. “Blaine, Conkling and other politicians with whom I was personally acquainted all said the World elected Cleveland.”
Pulitzer capped off his success with one final act before the year ended. He sat down and made out a check for $252,039 to Jay Gould. The amount represented the balance and interest remaining on the loan to purchase the World. Pulitzer paid off the loan two years before it was due. The World now belonged entirely to him.
Chapter Eighteen
RAISING LIBERTY
Piled on Pulitzer’s desk each day was proof of his success beyond New York. Letters poured in from all parts of the country, filled with ideas on how to boost circulation in places such as Vermont and Nebraska and hopes that he would launch a newspaper in Washington or Chicago. Priests submitted sermons for republication, and ambitious writers begged Pulitzer to open the columns of his newspaper to articles on New Guinea, archaeology, and, in one case, a “light readable history of the Fenian movement [an Irish independence movement] for the last twenty years.” One pair of new parents told him they were christening their child “Joseph Pulitzer Conner,” and a steamboat builder asked permission to name his newest and fastest craft after Pulitzer.
It was all too much. Pulitzer could not keep up with the deluge of mail and run the World at the same time, not to mention overseeing the Post-Dispatch in St. Louis. He flirted briefly with the idea of selling the St. Louis paper