Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [383]
89 The rest of Toward the end of his career, the AFL leader Samuel Gompers described the anthracite strike of 1902 as “the most important single event in the labor movement of the United States.” Finley Peter Dunne, “Remembrances,” unfinished autobiographical manuscript in FPD, 26.
90 “In a most quiet” “Each one of the procedures [TR] used, and even those he planned to use … have been utilized by later Presidents confronted with similar situations,” William M. Goldsmith writes. “The country waited almost fifty years for the Supreme Court to consider the full implications of such a power, and to establish limits in its application.” The Growth of Presidential Power: A Documented History (New York, 1974), vol. 2, 1168.
91 At home, Roosevelt TR to Benjamin Odell, 22 Mar. 1903 (unsent) (ER).
CHAPTER 12: NOT A CLOUD ON THE HORIZON
1 In this palace “Mr. Dooley,” in Collier’s Weekly, ca. Nov. 1902 (HH).
2 “THE PRESIDENT” Memorandum to John Hay, 23 Oct. 1902, in TR, Letters, vol. 3, 367.
3 Harper’s Weekly Qu. in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred L. Israel, eds., History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–1968 (New York, 1971), vol. 3, 2009–10. See also “President Roosevelt’s Influence in the Election,” Literary Digest, 15 Nov. 1902. Significantly, no prominent Democrat campaigner in the current congressional elections challenged TR’s Philippines policy. Welch, Response to Imperialism, 72.
4 Tributes, in the James Wilson to TR, 21 July 1902 (TRP).
5 At latest count New York Commercial Advertiser, 4 Oct. 1902. Actually, TR now had sixteen states, Rhode Island having pledged to him on 9 Oct. See also Rixey, Bamie, chap. 23; Willis Van Devanter to F. E. Warren, 13 May 1903 (WVD).
6 “come to the front” Willis Van Devanter to F. E. Warren, 13 May 1903 (WVD).
7 Roosevelt’s long-term TR, Letters, vol. 3, 372; Kehl, Boss Rule, 240; Douglas, Many-Sided Roosevelt, 89.
8 A guest at Helen Nicolay qu. in Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt, 251.
9 Edith was busy Ibid., 245.
10 ON 4 NOVEMBER TR, Letters, vol. 3, 374. TR blamed the Philippines scandal for the erosion of his popular support. “The court-martial of General Smith cost me votes—votes!” he growled to Herbert Welsh. Welsh to Carl Schurz, 2 Nov. 1902 (CS).
11 Even so Gould, Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, 71–72; Literary Digest, 15 Nov. 1902; Kenneth J. Martis, ed., Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the U.S. Congress, 1789–1989 (New York, 1989), 157.
12 Roosevelt’s hopes TR, Letters, vol. 3, 373–74; Merrill, Republican Command, 126–33. LaFollette was re-elected Governor with a large majority. TR could not have welcomed this result, having earlier congratulated Congressman Joseph W. Babcock for fighting to prevent LaFollette’s nomination. LaFollette sourly quotes this letter in LaFollette’s Autobiography (Madison, 1913), 312. TR did, however, arrest the insurgency somewhat by persuading Governor Cummins of Iowa to abandon his “Iowa Idea” for a tax policy less hostile to big business. Gould, Reform and Regulation, 35–36.
13 A SIGNBOARD READING The date was 13 Nov. 1902. Except where otherwise indicated, the following two sections are based on eyewitness reporting by an unnamed correspondent of the Associated Press and Lindsay Denison of the New York Sun. TR granted both men exclusive permission to accompany him. The former’s coverage appeared in The Washington Post, 14–19 Nov. 1902, and Denison’s daily reports were subsequently republished (with photographs) as “President Roosevelt’s Mississippi Bear Hunt” in Outing, Feb. 1903. Supplementary details from Holt Collier interview, Saturday Evening Post, 10 Apr. 1909, and Presidential scrapbook (TRP).
14 On one side TR to John L. McIlhenny, 21 Oct. 1902 (TRP); Washington Evening Star, 15 and 12 Nov. 1902.
15 Among the bale-sitters Edgar S. Wilson in Booker T. Washington Papers, vol. 6, 375; Dewey W. Grantham, Jr., “Dinner at the White House: Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington and the South,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 18 (1958). The repercussions