Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [222]
The elections of 1904 woke Pulitzer from his political slumber. One of his three archenemies—Hearst, Bryan, and Roosevelt—could end up occupying the White House for the next four years unless he did something about it. The year was only a few hours old when Pulitzer, in bed with a cold in New York, began to resume political command of the World, dictating memos laying out the kind of coverage he wanted and even assigning specific stories. Merrill, Cobb, and others on the editorial page of the paper awaited their instructions from the reinvigorated Pulitzer.
President Roosevelt also wanted to know what was on Pulitzer’s mind. Nine years after Hearst’s assault on its dominance and six years after its disgrace in the Spanish-American War, the World still remained the most politically powerful newspaper. The president sent his inquiry by circuitous means. One night in January, Ralph Pulitzer, twenty-four years old and acting like an heir apparent, went out with George Harvey, Katherine Mackay (the subject of Zona Gale’s article that upset Pulitzer), and Grace Vanderbilt (wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt III). After seeing the two women to their carriages, Harvey asked Ralph to take a drink with him at the Waldorf Hotel.
Ralph dutifully reported to his father that Harvey drank “a monstrous Scotch and Soda” while he stuck to a “modest glass of sherry.” Harvey had come from seeing the president at the White House. “Roosevelt had said he was very anxious to meet you,” Ralph wrote to his father on Jekyll Island, “and had asked Harvey to ask you if you would not come and see him at anytime to suit your convenience, either lunch or dinner.” Peeved at Roosevelt’s indirect manner, Joseph wired back, “Tell Harvey impossible for me to answer Roosevelt’s invitation received in such a roundabout accidental way.” He then added disingenuously, “My health forbids Washington as you know.” In fact, the train that would carry him north in a few weeks ran through the nation’s capital.
Roosevelt extended his invitation to the White House because there had been a fragile cease-fire between the two men for several years. It began in 1899, when Roosevelt was sworn in as governor of New York. One day, early in his term, Roosevelt took aside one of the World’s reporters. “Say to Mr. Pulitzer for me,” he said, “that I appreciate very highly the fairness with which the World has treated me. When I was Police Commissioner I felt I was unjustly treated and resented it, but I have noticed lately a much more conservative policy, and personally, I am grateful for the attitude of the paper toward me.”
After Roosevelt assumed the presidency on the death of McKinley, the World had continued its self-restraint and at times had even complimented the president for his judicial appointments, his handling of a coal strike, and his enforcement of antimonopoly laws. The paper’s new attitude, however, was deceptive. It had more to do with its publisher’s diminished interest in politics, his work on his journalism school, and his obsessive preoccupation with building his new house in Manhattan than with any real change of heart, as Roosevelt soon learned.
Even if his paper remained quiet, Pulitzer had shed none of his misgivings about Roosevelt. But he saw no prospect of preventing Roosevelt from winning a term of office on his own. Although Bryan remained popular among Democrats, he couldn’t win. More frightening to Pulitzer was the prospect of Hearst’s candidacy. Hearst had been elected a U.S. representative and, unlike Pulitzer, had served out his term; he was also the owner of eight newspapers and was spending millions to win the nomination. To block these two men, Pulitzer put his hopes on Alton B. Parker, a New York judge who was a protégé of New York’s governor, David Hill.
Pulitzer sent Williams to Nebraska to determine Bryan’s intentions. If he had expected a cordial reception for his emissary, Pulitzer was in for a surprise. Bryan