Colonel Roosevelt
Page 102
38 “Old trumps” Stoddard, As I Knew Them, 319. TR had been speaking earlier this night at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn, not, as Stoddard remembers, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
Biographical Note: Around this time, TR was asked by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, to endorse Madison Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race (New York, 1916), a pro-Nordic racist diatribe with little foundation in science. “I hope … you may find an opportunity of saying something about it,” Osborn wrote on 16 Oct., “for at this time when the melting pot theory is so popular we cannot dwell too strongly on the value to this country of the finer elements.” TR received and read the book, with his usual speed, on the last day of the month, and responded to Osborn with some uncertainty. “It is suggestive and stimulating, as is true of Gobineau’s and Chamberlain’s books [see above, 647]; it shares their faults, and absolutely lacks the very qualities which Huxley and Darwin so eminently showed.” He said he needed to discuss the question of an endorsement over lunch. Osborn (to whom TR owed many Brazil-related favors) appears to have been a persuasive advocate. TR then allowed his name to be used in publicizing The Passing of the Great Race, doing lasting damage to his reputation.
He immediately regretted what he had done. On 15 Nov., Worral F. Mountain, the mayor of East Orange, N.J., visited TR and listened while “he tore paragraph after paragraph of Grant’s book to pieces of pure facts, and quoted not only American, but German and French historians as his authority.… He pathetically regretted that the book had been dedicated to him.” Osborn / TR correspondence (AMNH); Worrall Mountain diary, 15 Nov. 1916, photocopy provided to author by Thomas R. Mountain (AC). See also Dyer, TR and the Idea of Race, 17, and John P. Jackson, Jr., and Nadine M. Weidman, Race, Racism and Science (Santa Barbara, Calif., 2004), 110ff.
39 a pair of British steamers The New York Times, 31 Oct. 1916.
40 “Just what” Leary, notebook 3, 3 Nov. 1916 (JJL).
41 eleven of the nineteen The New York Times, 1, 2 Nov. 1916. Five more Progressives, including William Allen White, publicly approved the pro-Democrat statement, but declined to endorse WW.
42 “Sir, when I” TR, Letters, 8.1122.
43 During the last Speech transcript from The New York Times, 4 Nov. 1916.
44 Roosevelt threw Leary, Talks with T.R., 332–33.
45 Mr. Wilson now dwells The New York Times, 4 Nov. 1916. Leary makes clear that these last two paragraphs were delivered extempore. At TR’s final, disgusted gesture, “the house was on its feet … storming the platform.” Leary, notebook 3, 3 Nov. 1916 (JJL).
46 “The old man’s” Leary, notebook 5, 5 Nov. 1916 (JJL); see also Leary, Talks with T.R., 3.
47 Wilson took the news Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson, 218.
48 “I hope you are” Alice Hooper to Frederick Jackson Turner in Turner, Dear Lady, 221.
49 Roosevelt began to pack TR, Letters, 8.1133. By executive order in 1903, TR had transferred to the Library of Congress the papers of Presidents Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and Monroe as well as those of Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin. He now offered his own, asking only that they be held confidential until his death. The papers, forming the nucleus of TRP, arrived at the library in the new year of 1917 in six enormous locked trunks. “The Lord only knows where the key is,” TR advised. “Break the cases open, and start to work on them!” Today, TRP consists of approximately a quarter of a million items. For the full story of its acquisition, see the introduction by Paul T. Heffron to the TRP Index at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem.heffron.
50 “I am of no use” Garland, My Friendly Contemporaries, 128–29.
51 leadership changes Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, 423. Zimmermann was the political ally of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, who by late 1916 had replaced Falkenhayn as the virtual dictators of Reich war policy.
52 The German ambassador Fort Wayne News, 9 Oct. 1916; Grey to Balfour, pencil draft inscribed “about end of Nov / 16” (AJB).
53 The document Bernstorff Sullivan, Our Times, 5.245–46.
54 “The President’s” Spring Rice to Balfour, 15 Dec. 1916 (AJB).
55 Four days later The New York Times, 21 Dec. 1916.
56 “If the contest” Ibid., 21 Dec. 1916.
57 Secretary Lansing felt Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 422.
58 Roosevelt, massively attired Leary, notebook 5 (JJL).
59 a sample list The New York Times, 11 Jan. 1917.
60 certain phrases glinted Edgar E. Robinson and Victor J. West, The Foreign Policy of Woodrow Wilson, 1913–1917 (New York, 1918), 126–28.
61 On 22 January Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 424–25.
62 It was inconceivable Sullivan, Our Times, 5.250–52.
63 only moderate applause Florence Spring Rice (eyewitness) to unnamed aunt, 9 Feb. 1917 (CSR).
64 the German foreign minister was Sullivan, Our Times, 5.256–58.
65 “as if the world” House, Intimate Papers, 1.439.
66 House knew what Ibid., 2.84.
67 Captain Rose of the U-53 Trenton (N.J.) Evening Times, 3 Feb. 1917.
68 “If American ships” The Washington Post, 4 Feb. 1917 (italics added). The Housatonic, a freighter loaded with wheat, was sunk at noon GMT, i.e., 7 A.M. Washington time, so WW undoubtedly knew about the disaster when he went before Congress at 2 P.M. However, there was no confirmation that any of the 26 Americans aboard had been killed, and whether Rose had broken international law. In fact he had not.
69 The water cocks Trenton (N.J.) Evening Times, 3 Feb., The Washington Post, 4 Feb., Mansfield (Ohio) News, 17 Feb. 1917.
70 Sir: I have TR, Letters, 8.1149–50.
71 “No situation” Ibid.
72 “In view of” TR to Baker (facsimile), 3 Feb. 1917; Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.194.
73 Over the past Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.116–17. See Baker’s reminiscence of the transformative effect of World War I, quoted in ibid., for the lucidity of expression that used to be the norm among American public figures.
74 Among his urgent Ibid., 1.85–86.
75 Ironically, on The New York Times, 6 Feb. 1917.
76 “It is not” Spring Rice to Balfour, 9 Feb. 1917 (AJB).
77 He emphasized that Sullivan, Our Times, 5.264–65.
78 U BOOT KRIEG Thomas Boghardt, “The Zimmermann Telegram: Diplomacy, Intelligence and the American Entry into World War I” (Working Paper No. 6–04, BMW Center for German and European Studies, 2003), 35, http://cges.georgetown.edu/.
79 “that polite, silent” TR, Letters, 8.957–58.
80 “a war in which” See 479.
81 one he had sketched TR to E. A. Van Valkenburg and William Draper Lewis on 5 Sept. 1914. See Bishop, TR, 2.370–71.
82 A new degree of neurosis One theory that did not occur to newspaper readers unschooled in Realpolitik was that Zimmermann might have disbelieved his own telegram—seeking only to curry the favor of his superiors in the Prussian military. A more plausible speculation is British intelligence officials used their intercept to alarm Wilson, in order to goad him and Congress into a declaration of war on their side. At the time, Britain’s role in deciphering and handing over the telegram was kept secret. Boghardt, “The Zimmermann Telegram,” 10–14, 19.
83 “A little group” The New York Times, 5 Mar. 1917.
84 Republicans and Democrats alike Richard Lowitt, “The Armed-Ship Controversy: A Legislative View,” Mid-America, 46 (Jan. 1964).
85 On Monday, 5 March Newark (Ohio) Advocate, 5 Mar., The New York Times, The Washington Post, 6 Mar. 1917.
86 “I beg your tolerance” Syracuse Herald, 5 Mar., The New York Times, The Washington Post, Galveston (Tex.) Daily News, 6 Mar. 1917.
87 “the lily-livered skunk” Leary, Talks with T.R., 327–28; TR to KR, 1 Mar. 1917 (TRC). The newspaper-crumpling incident was one of the few occasions anyone ever heard TR swear. Leary chose not to record the epithet.
88 On
9 March Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 434–35. The USS Algonquin was sunk by a U-boat on 12 Mar. 1917.
89 The first news The New York Times, 12 Mar., Mansfield (Ohio) News, 12 Mar. 1917.
90 The Russian army Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, 439, 442; The Washington Post and The New York Times, 17 Mar. 1917.
91 On 20 March Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 437.
92 After the meeting Cooper, Woodrow Wilson, 383; TR, Letters, 8.1164.
93 Baker wrote back TR, Letters, 8.1164.
94 “and she has” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1917.
95 “We can perfectly” Ibid.
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, ABR (who had a tendency to follow in the footsteps of his eldest brother) had been working for a carpet company in Thompsonville, Conn. ABR, “Lest We Forget,” Everybody’s Magazine, May 1919.
28 the hasty departure On 27 Mar., Trotsky had sailed from New York to join his radical colleagues in Petrograd. He was secretly arrested in Halifax, Canada, by British military authorities fearful that he would work against the Allied cause in Russia. The New York Times, 11 Apr. 1917.
29 Count Ilya Tolstoy The New York Times, 21 Apr. 1917; TR, Letters, 8.1186. The commission was eventually headed by Elihu Root.
30 Describing himself TR, Letters, 8.1186.
31 Privately, he told Leary, Talks with T.R., 98.
32 “If we do not” Ibid., 99.
33 “This policy” TR, Letters, 8.1174–75.
34 “My dear sir” Ibid., 8.1176–84, 1177, 1178, 1180.
35 “a repetition of” Alvin Johnson, Pioneer’s Progress: An Autobiography (New York, 1952), 253.
36 “For obvious reasons” TR, Letters, 8.1183–84.
37 and looking ahead Harding was also uneasy about having a flagrantly pro-German mistress. See James D. Robenalt, The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War (New York, 2009). Nobody in 1917 was so cynical as to suggest that Harding might have an interest in making it possible for Roosevelt to die gloriously in battle, but nine decades later, the thought does arise.
38 assuming that Wilson While remaining cagey about TR’s chances of being accepted for a command, WW had personally encouraged him to push for the volunteer amendment. TR, Letters, 8.1170.
39 “He is known” The New York Times, 29 Apr. 1917.
40 While the debate Ibid.; Spring Rice to TR, 19 Apr. 1917 (CSR).
41 “It will give me” Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.206.
42 Quentin was summoned Longworth, Crowded Hours, 254–55; Kermit Roosevelt, Quentin Roosevelt, 32.
43 By the first week Bishop, TR, 2.424.
44 “All the lines of him” Slayden, Washington Wife, 308. Balfour’s depressed look can clearly be seen in a photograph opposite p. 148 of Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.
45 His government was Strachan, The First World War, 228.
46 They agreed, in other Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.202.
47 Marshal Joffre’s pleadings Strachan, The First World War, 248. Joffre’s current army rank was ambiguous, because he himself had been replaced by Nivelle. But as the hero of the Marne, and leader of a crucially important mission, he was still perceived in America as the embodiment of France’s war effort.
48 Roosevelt and Joffre Leary, Talks with T.R., 222; TR to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, 17 May 1917 (ARC); Leary, notebook 5 (JJL).
49 “He did not tell” Leary, Talks with T.R., 223.
50 There was another Charles Hanson Towne, The Balfour Visit (New York, 1917) 59ff.; Leary, Talks with T.R., 223–24; Leary, notebook 5 (JJL). To avoid upsetting the State Department, TR announced afterward that he and Balfour had been discussing the latter’s Gifford lectures on “Theism and Humanism.” See 673.
51 “Since the responsibility” Palmer, Newton D. Baker, 1.202.
52 Roosevelt believed Bishop, TR, 2.424.
53 “Tumulty tells me” O’Leary to TR, 17 May 1917, OL.
54 “It would be very agreeable” Ibid., 2.425.
55 an old military showman Claude Debussy, Préludes, bk. 2.6 (Paris, 1913).
56 James Amos Amos, TR: Hero to His Valet, 67; TR, Letters, 8.1195.
57 “I don’t care a continental” Leary, Talks with T.R., 239.