Stranahan, who had returned to Brooklyn from Saratoga, where he customarily spent part of the summer, was, in his usual fashion, stalling for time, banking on a “maturing of judgment” among those trustees who had not as yet made up their minds about what to do.
It was then moved that the subject be “laid over” until September 11 and the motion carried.
All Brooklyn was talking about it by the time the sun went down and in the next several days virtually every newspaper on both sides of the river began taking sides. The New York Tribune said the bridge had been “tainted at the start” and linked Roebling with Murphy, Kingsley, and Stranahan as the proper parties to blame. Things would have been far better, the paper said, had they all been pensioned off years before. “This is the day for sharp decision and vigorous action.”
The Star said it was obviously time to get a new Chief Engineer. “Had Mr. Roebling done his duty instead of becoming the cat’s-paw of the Bridge Ring, he might have saved millions of dollars to the two cities, and his zeal would not have gone unrewarded.”
The New York Evening Post said Mayor Low’s resolutions had been made not a moment too soon. The Daily Graphic reasoned that since Roebling’s special knowledge of suspension bridge construction was no longer essential to the work, and the bridge was too far along for anyone to mistakenly alter the plan, there was no real reason to keep him on. “That a man has been supervising a structure like this from its beginning gives him no right to delay the completion, as Mr. Roebling is now delaying this bridge,” concluded the editorial writer of the Daily Graphic.
The Iron Age said the only thing wrong with Low’s action was the idea of replacing Roebling with C. C. Martin. “If new life is to be infused in that comatose engineers corps, it must come from the outside—for inside it there is no leaven of redemption left. No wonderful or even exceptional engineering talent is required to bring the work to completion; but what is required is some man with good executive ability, of great force of character, and complete independence of all possible future political preferment.”
Even the Newport Daily News felt obliged to report on the situation. “Mayors Grace, of New York, and Low, of Brooklyn, are getting tired of waiting for the completion of the celebrated East River Bridge,” the little paper announced the morning of August 24. “The monster connecting link between the two cities has already cost them too much and it is about time that something was done to prevent anymore such delays as have hindered its completion.”
Only the Trenton Daily State Gazette and the Brooklyn Eagle rose immediately and angrily to Roebling’s defense. “His spotless integrity and high sense of honor are unquestionable,” wrote the Daily State Gazette, “his great skill as an engineer is established, and his devotion to this work has been attended by the sacrifice of his health.”
The Eagle, not surprisingly, had more to say. How, asked Thomas Kinsella in a two-column editorial, could Low present a proposal to appoint Roebling the consulting engineer, when Roebling, as Low himself reported to the trustees, had said explicitly he would not accept the job? And what earthly good would such a change accomplish? “Is it possible that the existence of Mr. Martin himself is now in the nature of a discovery, while the fact is that he has had practical executive control of the work for many years past? If he is not a ‘natural channel’ of information, who is?”
As for Roebling’s competence, that was not even an issue, Kinsella asserted. His past contributions to the work were enormous. There had not been a single failure on any part of the work that could be chargeable to the engineers. Furthermore it would be a rotten thing to degrade the man and deny him his rightful honors on the very eve of his triumph.
And that pretty much summed up the case for Roebling as it was being presented in Brooklyn—except for the strongly and privately expressed opinion of several on the board who claimed to know Roebling personally that he had been kept alive all these years only by his intense interest in the work and the desire to see it finished properly. The implication was that a vote to discharge him would be as good as a death sentence.
A very important question, of course, was whether the voice of Kinsella was the voice of William Kingsley. A few years before, the immediate assumption would have been that it was, but not so now, for the influential editor had grown increasingly independent. Not long before, when he felt there was too much interference in editorial matters on the part of the owners, Kinsella had threatened to resign and start a rival paper and ever since he had been left to decide things pretty much on his own.
The one other argument in Roebling’s behalf was, of course, the actual progress still being made on the bridge itself, progress that Henry Murphy kept presenting in formal reports to the two mayors. A hundred and fourteen intermediate chords had been put up in a week, 72 diagonal stays, 60 posts, 21 intermediate floor beams, 21 bridging trusses, 16 intermediate promenade floor beams, 12 lower chord sections, 2 upper floor stay bars. At the end of the Brooklyn approach, work had begun on the foundations for the iron viaduct and terminal station building.
But the question of Roebling’s mental and physical health had not been put to rest. If anything, rumors and innuendo on the subject were more plentiful than ever before. The three most prominent trustees of long standing—Murphy, Stranahan, and Kingsley—said they could vouch for Roebling’s state of mind, but their word was not only not enough any longer, it was outright suspect among the younger trustees. The only one of the younger men who had seen Roebling and talked to him in person was Seth Low and he would make no comment on Roebling’s condition one way or the other.
Toward the end of the month of August Comptroller Ludwig Semler received the following letter from Newport, from Mrs. Washington Roebling:
I take the liberty of writing to express to you my heartfelt gratitude for your generous defense of Mr. Roebling at the last meeting of the Board of Trustees. Your words were a most agreeable surprise to us as we had understood you were working in full sympathy with the Mayors of the two cities and the Comptroller of New York. Mr. Roebling is very anxious for me to go to Brooklyn to convey to you…a few messages from him. Can you see me at your office some morning…? I will go to Brooklyn any day you can give me a little of your time and see you at your own house or your office just as you may prefer….
As you are a stranger to Mr. Roebling all that you said was doubly appreciated. There are some few old friends in the Board of Trustees who know him well and who have always stood by him in the many attacks that have been made on him in the past ten years, but we never expect such consideration and kindness from those who have never seen him.
On Tuesday, September 5, a week before the trustees were to meet to vote, Comptroller Semler suddenly announced he was leaving for Newport that evening to see Roebling and judge for himself.
“Nobody should be convicted before he is tried,” Semler said. “As I have undertaken to defend Mr. Roebling to a certain extent against the attempt to remove him, I want to make his personal acquaintance and see what impression he makes on me. It seems from certain statements made in connection with this matter that an impression has gone abroad that he was not only suffering physically but that his mental faculties were also impaired. Of course, if this were so, his plans should not be relied upon, and the work should be suspended until an investigation could be had; but physicians tell me his intellect is all right. I am today more convinced than ever of the great injustice of displacing a man of his merit and standing without giving him an opportunity to defend himself. The idea that he could not do his duty without being at the bridge office is preposterous.”
De Lesseps had been in Paris while the Suez Canal was being built, Semler said, and so why was it so unreasonable for Roebling to remain in a house a few blocks from the bridge. “There is nothing sentimental in my feelings in this matter. The question is simply one of justice.” Semler told reporters he would be back in his office Thursday morning.
All at once Semler had become a m
ost important figure. And a great deal seemed to hang on what kind of report he would come home with. As things looked now, Roebling had at least four sure votes against him and four for him. Low, Grace, Campbell (the New York Comptroller), and A. C. Barnes were clearly committed to ousting him, while Murphy, Stranahan, Marshall, and John T. Agnew could be counted on to vote the other way. But the rest were undecided, or appeared to be, and Semler’s evaluation might therefore be the deciding factor, at least among the younger men.
But there was also by now very particular interest in which way William Kingsley and General Slocum might go, for there was no longer any doubt that Slocum was the front-running contender for the Democratic nomination for governor and the convention was only two weeks off. On the surface it would appear both men would naturally go along with Murphy—to stand solidly behind the Chief Engineer. But Slocum had attacked Roebling on too many occasions and with no little public fanfare about it and to side with the old regime and vote against such known champions of reform as Low and Grace, to vote for what might appear to be further delays on the bridge and greater expense (greater graft and corruption was the implied idea), could be extremely foolish politics for a serious candidate at this particular moment and very hard to explain to the electorate later on. Still Slocum was Kingsley’s man, it was pretty generally believed. Kingsley had the power, Kingsley would be the one to decide. Kingsley was the man to watch.
In a note to Paine written about this time, Roebling remarked that if his position as Chief Engineer depended on Kingsley’s vote, then he would just as soon “be out of the bridge.”
On Thursday morning, as good as his word, Ludwig Semler was back at his desk in City Hall, just a few doors down from Mayor Low. The reporters were called in and the interview commenced.
Semler said he had been very kindly received by Roebling, whose acquaintance he had not made previously, and that a full, frank talk had ensued between them. He said he found the engineer suffering from a severe nervous affection, but his intellect was perfectly clear and strong. “If his intellect has been impaired,” he said, “I should consider myself a happy man if I had what he lost. He spoke to me with clearness, and exhibited a memory which was something astonishing.”
Semler was asked what Roebling had said about the proposition to supersede him.
“He said that under no circumstances should he take any other position than Chief Engineer,” Semler replied, and quoted Roebling as saying, “‘If they want to remove me, let them do it absolutely. They know I will not take any other position. Why don’t they say they do not want me anymore. That would be the straightforward way to do.’”
“Did you ask him his opinion as to the motives which prompted the opposition?”
“I asked him if he had any cause to believe that there was unfriendly feeling toward him. He said he did not like to say anything upon that point.”
“Now, to do away with the driver who has brought us very nearly to shore, I think would be shameful,” Semler continued. “Suppose that the resolution offered by Mayor Low should be adopted and Mr. Martin should not accept the position of Chief Engineer?” (It was commonly being said by this time that none of Roebling’s staff would assume his title, if offered, but this was the first time anybody in a position of authority had said so publicly.) “Suppose it should be offered to Mr. Paine? He will not take it. We should then have to have another man. That will cause further delays in the work…. He might commence to meddle with the work and defer the completion of the bridge ten years.”
A reporter for the Eagle then asked whether Mr. Roebling had said anything about what passed between him and Mayor Low during Low’s flying visit to Newport? Semler answered that Roebling had indeed quoted from his conversation with Low, but Semler said he did not think he ought to repeat Roebling’s remarks for publication.
As it was, very little more would be said for publication by anyone until the trustees gathered to cast their votes the following Monday, September 11.
But between Semler’s return and the crucial meeting of the board, Roebling had still one more visitor at Newport—a reporter for the New York World who somehow talked his way into the house and managed to get an interview with Roebling, something no other newspaperman had been able to do in ten years. The agreement was that no direct quotes would be used. Roebling apparently trusted the man and in the course of the conversation made some bitter remarks about the Board of Trustees being full of candidates for governor. On his way out the front door the reporter had again promised Emily Roebling that he would not print a line of what had been said. But the man had not kept his word and when the article appeared it did little to further Roebling’s cause in Brooklyn. His loyal backers on the board felt he had dealt himself the worst blow possible.
Emily was shattered by what had happened, felt she was to blame, and wrote a long letter of apology to William Marshall, the one man who had voted against the J. Lloyd Haigh contract and one of those few long-time trustees who was not a politician. Now she too was full of despair. There was no doubt, she said, of her husband’s “perfect sanity and ability as an engineer, but he certainly is unfit to be on the work where so many political interests are involved.” He had, she said, no capacity for doing anything for the sake of politics. “I thank you very much for all your efforts and do not think I shall be greatly disappointed when the bridge controversies are ended, even against us. It has been a long hard fight since Mr. Roebling first took sick and if this chance reporter’s visit changes everything I shall see in it the hand of God, that all my care could not direct or change.”
Seventeen were present, the entire board but three—John G. Davis, Henry Clausen, and H. K. Thurber—all of whom were in Europe. Henry Murphy sat in the president’s chair, as usual, and ranged in a semicircle before him were Mayors Grace and Low, Comptrollers Campbell and Semler, General Slocum, A. C. Barnes, Kingsley, Stranahan, Agnew, J. Adriance Bush, Thomas C. Clarke, Jr., William Marshall, Charles McDonald, Jenkins Van Schaick, Alden S. Swan, and Otto Witte, the secretary. A half-dozen representatives of the press had also been admitted.
The first ten minutes were spent on routine matters. Minutes from the preceding meeting were read, C. C. Martin made some comments on the delays on the two terminal stations being built at either end of the bridge, and it was announced that several hundred tons of steel still remained to be delivered by the Edge Moor Iron Company. Mayor Low requested that the president inform the company that the trustees were “in a hurry,” to which there was great laughter.
Then C. C. Martin left the room, the doors were closed, and Seth Low, having risen from his chair, began speaking in a very deliberate manner.
“If there is no other business before the meeting I will call up the resolution which I presented last month, and in doing so there is very little which I wish to add to what I said then. As I said at that time the resolutions bring the Board of Trustees face to face with the question as to whether the existing engineering arrangements of the bridge are the best that are within reach for the work that lies before us. If the majority of the board will take the responsibility of saying they are I shall feel that I have done my duty in bringing the matter to this issue, and no one will be more glad than myself—if the majority does decide that way—to find the facts justifying the judgment.
“On the other hand I have presented the resolutions which suggest making Colonel Roebling consulting engineer because I believe sincerely that that would be the best pledge we can give the public that nothing whatever shall be allowed to interfere with the speedy completion of this work. I think the effect would be instantaneous not only upon the employees of the trustees, but upon all the people with whom they are dealing. It would convince them that from this time, whatever may have been the case in the past, these trustees must be dealt with upon the theory that they mean business. I do not mean by my wording to reflect upon the trustees in their intentions in the past…. For myself, I repudiate entirely the idea that there is an
ything in this proposition that reflects upon Mr. Roebling either directly or indirectly. I—”
Henry Murphy interrupted. “Will you allow me to say that I have here a communication from Colonel Roebling, which perhaps ought to be read before you proceed with your remarks. In all events, it is on this question and—”
“I think it would be better if I finished now,” Low snapped back, “if you will allow me.
“I wish to say,” he went on, “that I repudiate the idea that there is anything in the proposition that reflects on the engineer, either directly or indirectly. I offered it believing that it was a proposition which he could honorably accept. I think it is one which he ought to accept. More than that I think it is one which, in its essence, is kind, because in my judgment it would take him out of a false position and place him in a true one with reference to this work, and by so doing we will relieve him of the criticism to which he has been subject.
“One other thing I will say is that I offered the resolutions which I presented last week without consulting Mr. Martin. I felt that if that question could not be settled by me without consulting a subordinate I had better not offer the resolutions. He was entirely unaware, so far as I know, of any such resolution being thought of, and in all of his utterances he has acted the part of the loyal friend of the Chief Engineer.
The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge Page 55