THE UNDERMINING OF MY CANDIDACY
Follette, Robert M. La
The Undermining of My Candidacy THIRD ARTICLE: Evidences of Betrayal.---The Scheme to make La Follette a "Temporary Candidate."---Thinly Disguised Deals With the Steel Trust Proposed.---"Anything...
...Cultured and able men are still to be found upon the editorial staffs of all great dailies, but the public understands them to be hired men who no longer express honest judgments and sincere conviction, who write what they are told to write, and whose judgments are salaried...
...So Roosevelt had specific information that all these agricultural products were to be admitted from Canada free of duty, and declared it to be "admirable from every standpoint...
...I print here exactly what I said upon this subject: "I have sketched the growth and power of the great interests that to-day control our property and our governments...
...After that, with a short rest, I was able to go on with my work as usual, and into the campaign in North Dakota, disproving the stories circulated, not only at that time but since, as to my having broken down...
...Possessing this information, he approved it in the strongest terms in his letter to Taft, January 12th...
...Hence, "Roosevelt faced the other way and repudiated his former endorsement...
...My answer was that my candidacy should not be made a shield and cover for Roosevelt...
...Roosevelt's Shiftiness on Reciprocity AN INTERESTING FEATURE of Roosevelt's campaign in North Dakota, and one illustrating his peculiar political methods, was his change of front on the reciprocity issue...
...Roosevelt, and the financial backing which he furnished to promote Roosevelt's campaign, it will hardly be questioned that the publication of this editorial was inspired...
...As you say, labor cost is substantially the same in the two countries, so that you are amply justified by the platform...
...The Recall, as applied to judges, he declared to be a question of "expediency merely" which each community has a right to try for itself in "whatever shape it pleases...
...After this identical agreement had been entered into, and after the President had transmitted it to Congress, and after the bill based on the agreement had been introduced in Congress, he wrote editorials and made speeches for it...
...Nothing could more clearly expose Roosevelt's shiftiness in politics than his course on Canadian reciprocity...
...We were surprised to learn that this typewritten statement had been clandestinely sent from our headquarters to the office of Gilson Gardner, who had more than a month before severed all relations with my campaign, and become an open supporter of Roosevelt...
...It controls the newspaper press...
...Their heart is true but their eyes do not yet see all the intricate sources of power...
...It dealt in his characteristic way with many issues which had been raised by Progressives...
...Signed) Walter L. Houser...
...I was not at my best and did not at once get hold of my audience...
...Passive Receptivity" Meets a Frost FINALLY, upon the twenty-sixth of February, Roosevelt made a formal statement in which he said he would accept the nomination for President if tendered him by the Republican presidential convention...
...If the Republican voters of the country could make their wishes effective at this time, we believe that your record as citizen, governor, representative and senator, your unswerving fidelity to principle and your long, fearless, and successful leadership would cause them to choose you as their next presidential nominee...
...Pinchot found himself at once confronted with a demand for an explanation of his shift to Roosevelt...
...No longer are the editorial columns of newspapers a potent force in educating public opinion...
...F. M. Kirby is the same Kirby who was private stenographer to Secretary of the Interior Ballinger, and who created a great sensation in the Ballinger-Pinchot investigation, by appearing before the committee and giving testimony against Ballinger and in the interest of Pinchot, concerning matters of which he claimed personal knowledge on account of his confidential relations with Secretary Ballinger...
...Munsey's relations with Mr...
...that Heney had replied to Roosevelt that it was not enough for him to say that he was not a candidate...
...Coming Into the Open BUT PROGRESSIVE SENTIMENT was crystallizing about my candidacy so rapidly that the near friends of Roosevelt who had been professing loyalty to me, while at heart for him, were being forced by developments more and more to disclose their real design...
...La Fol-lette's Ultimatum Forces the Roosevelt Men in His Camp to Uncover.---No More Jack-in-the-box Tactics Tolerated.---Roosevelt's Candidacy is Announced...
...Pinchot's Significant Interview JANUARY 5th, Garfield had made a hurried trip to New York, and had an interview with Roosevelt at a private club...
...McCormick came on from Chicago, I presume, on Gifford Pinchot's invitation...
...I was a candidate and the interests did not overlook their opportunity...
...Several members of this club called on me later to express regret that this dinner could not have been given at some other time, and to say that it would have been so arranged but that no other date was acceptable to Roosevelt...
...Lenroot expressed the opinion that as a matter of political expediency such a course would be advantageous...
...Then came the speech by Roosevelt before the Constitutional Convention at Columbus, Ohio...
...I quote from this statement the following: "Senator La Follette's candidacy was undertaken for two clear and specific purposes...
...In order to bring the discussion directly to the point, I called up the alternative statement which Houser informed me had been under discussion, regarding my withdrawal in favor of Roosevelt...
...I was amazed to see it followed on the 10th of January by an editorial in White's paper, the Emporia Gazette, concluding an appeal to Progressives to organize for Roosevelt, with the words, "Roosevelt or Bust...
...The men who had already abandoned my candidacy, because I could not stand as a shield for another, or agree to any deals or combinations that would confuse the issue or mislead the people, seized upon what they were pleased to call my "shattered health" as an excuse for their action...
...I hail the reciprocity agreement, because it represents an effort to bring about a closer, a more intimate and friendly relationship of mutual advantage on equal terms between Canada and the United States...
...I had not gone into it for the purpose of beating Taft as an individual...
...Pinchot immediately after the Ohio conference, went to Battle Creek, Michigan, for a brief rest, and on January 3rd the newspapers generally published the following: "Gifford Pinchot, in an interview given out here to-day, denied that he had made any statements in speeches or in interviews that Theodore Roosevelt had told him that he would not accept the presidential nomination if it were tendered...
...hostile to Canadian reciprocity...
...The Brown-Hanna Deal FINALLY, on the fourteenth of January, we were surprised at our headquarters to receive a visit from John D. Fackler, our campaign manager for Ohio, who said he came with a proposition from Walter Brown and Dan Hanna for a working combination of La Follette and Roosevelt forces...
...police in partnership with thieves and crooks and prostitutes...
...Much significance is attached to this prediction on account of Mr...
...To guide the Progressive movement, a chief executive is required whose life has been devoted to the task of freeing our political institutions from the control of organized wealth, who understands the problem which is before the country, who has proved by what he has done that he is able to deal with it, and who will use the power of his great office in the interests of the people...
...Filled with this spirit, quickened with human interest, it assailed social and political evils in high places and low...
...For some days New York dispatches had appeared in Roosevelt's interest, reiterating the statement that (to quote from one of them) "there will be absolutely no rivalry between Senator La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt in case the latter should become a candidate...
...But events were driving ahead rapidly...
...that I could not prevent his withdrawal of that support, but that I would say nothing which he could construe to be a consent or release from his obligation to continue his support...
...He was then one of my warmest supporters and strongly opposed to Roosevelt's becoming a candidate...
...Sensational accounts of this speech and its reception were published throughout the country, and at the same time equally sensational and false reports were spread concerning my physical condition...
...Their discussion consumed the afternoon, and was marked by plainness of speech all around...
...But the papers of this class are few...
...It had been accepted that a formal endorsement of my candidacy would be adopted in this meeting...
...He returned it to Houser, saying very quietly: "I think that statement is all right...
...One day it would seem certain that my candidacy had already been betrayed by the friends of Roosevelt, who were in my own organization...
...The hollowness of this pretext was promptly exposed when I appeared in the campaign in North Dakota in such excellent trim as to be able to make from ten to fifteen speeches a day...
...The time had not quite arrived openly to desert me...
...There are only two agencies that in any way can reach the whole people...
...I had spoken many times in Kansas...
...The speculative element which prompts men to stake fortunes on the turn of the market was eliminated, and the public settled down to a serious consideration of the real meaning and significance of Roosevelt's candidacy...
...I did not accept his tender of the services of Kirby and it is needless to say that the employee in our headquarters appointed upon Kirby's recommendation was dismissed as soon as it became known that he had sent the Roosevelt reciprocity document to Gardner's office...
...Houser protested and urged him to keep his promise...
...It produced a great sensation...
...This was equivalent to saying what Taft said at Winona and shows Roosevelt, on the tariff, to be just the same sort of a Progressive—and just the same sort of a Standpatter—as Taft, as indeed does President Roosevelt's entire record of seven years...
...A few days before this meeting Pinchot proposed that on the occasion of my visit to New York, a luncheon should be arranged at Amos Pinchot's house, where Roosevelt and I Should meet...
...The people are progressive and it is necessary, just and right that their chief magistrate should be progressive also...
...There is here and there a 'kept sheet' owned by a man of great wealth to further his own interests...
...It was very late when I began to speak...
...No men have ever been called to a more unselfish, patriotic service...
...North Dakota, as a grain-growing state, was strongly opposed to Taft's Canadian agreement, and the feeling of resentment against him was so intense that he scarcely figured in the campaign at all...
...In my speech I dealt with the centralized control over the nation's affairs, and concluded with the statement that this control by great special interests extended even to the newspapers and was rapidly reaching out for the magazines...
...Taft's small vote in North Dakota due, in part at least, to the resentment felt by the farmers on account of his stand upon the Canadian pact, nevertheless disclosed his great personal weakness as a vote getter...
...That Wall Street interests generally were in accord was soon well understood among those who noted the kindly references to Roosevelt and the difference in expression whenever his name was mentioned around the stock exchange...
...But yielding to Pinchot and the appeal for harmony, the following resolution was finally agreed to...
...The Pinchots hesitated to make any statement respecting the course which they proposed to take...
...Men no longer guessed or made wagers that he would or would not...
...I would not object to this as a legitimate argument in a political controversy against me and in his favor, if the fact were not that I consulted him ten days before I made the agreement, and explained to him, in full, its probable terms, stated the arguments pro and con, especially the effect of it on agricultural products, and asked him to confer with his colleagues of the Outlook as to its wisdom and public benefit, and let me know his and their judgment...
...you will not desert and leave the people to depend upon the public platform alone, but you will hold aloft the lamp of Truth, lighting the way for the preservation of representative government and the liberty of the American people...
...He was in a position to report on the great stirring that Ohio had just been given, and the clever work done by himself, Pinchot, Wanamaker, and Walter Brown, the machine boss, in averting an affirmative endorsement of my candidacy by the Ohio conference at Columbus, three days before...
...I had just been called to the telephone by a representative of the Associated Press, who informed me that a Chicago paper was running a story that afternoon stating in effect that Medill McCormick, Crane, Pinchot, and others were holding a conference that day at the Washington headquarters, and that a statement would be issued as a result of the conference announcing my withdrawal...
...President : " 'I at once took your letter and went over it with the Outlook editors.....It seems to me that what you propose to do with Canada is admirable from every standpoint...
...Of this fact I had not known personally...
...He argued that it was altogether too late for Roosevelt to come into the campaign...
...Thinly Disguised Deals With the Steel Trust Proposed.---"Anything to Win...
...A decade ago young men trained in journalism came to see this control of the newspapers of the country...
...The letter concludes as follows: " 'I shall be glad to hear from you as soon as you conveniently can write on this subject, because the matter is just at hand and it is quite likely that within ten days we shall reach an agreement...
...Houser said that while he had been favorably inclined toward the plan as a matter of political tactics, still he did not think we could stand for any combination with the representatives of the Steel Trust who were evidently behind Roosevelt...
...In view of Mr...
...Fackler professed to agree with the position which I took, but he said in the course of the conversation that it had been very strongly intimated to him if the Brown-Hanna-Roosevelt scheme could be carried out he (Fackler) could have the nomination to Congress from that District...
...Pinchot Openly Withdraws ON THE eighteenth of February, Pinchot published a formal statement announcing that he had withdrawn his support from me and would thereafter advocate Roosevelt's nomination, this time setting up the claim that my candidacy had only been a sort of temporary convenience...
...Roosevelt now seeks to take advantage of the supposed feeling among the farmers of the country against the reciprocity agreement with Canada, which I made and induced Congress to adopt, but which Canada finally rejected...
...that they had joined in urging me to stand...
...But a small minority, led by Pinchot, Garfield, Wanamaker, and Brown, appealed to those in attendance not to adopt a resolution making formal declaration for any candidate for President, urging that the friends of Roosevelt should not be antagonized, Pinchot especially giving assurance that they would later all be found supporting my candidacy...
...Paving the Way I HAD BEEN announced to speak in Carnegie Hall on the twenty-second of January...
...This letter of White's must have been written a day or two before and about the time I had concluded my tour of Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois...
...Next week's article tells how the special interests backing Roosevelt's candidacy, thoroughly alarmed at the result in North Dakota, got together big financial backing and speeded up their organization...
...But the reports which he was receiving from North Dakota were not encouraging...
...that if he was to be a candidate, he should come out in the open...
...But we took it for granted that the bill would be drawn right...
...Kirby was thereafter employed by Gardner, who offered me his services from time to time as a stenographer while Gardner was, as I believed, supporting my candidacy...
...Roosevelt...
...When proposed by Taft and exploited by the newspapers, who were the special beneficiaries under the plan, it appeared to be a very popular issue...
...Pinchot Forces The Issue UPON MY RETURN to Washington I was surprised to find that Gifford Pinchot had called another conference of the same men to meet at our headquarters...
...Besides, I was seriously troubled at the evidences I had discovered at headquarters of the studied undermining of my candidacy by some of my supporters...
...But it proved disappointing...
...It was the first presidential preference test...
...I was speaking to men who knew, many of them from bitter experience, the powerful influence which the modern business system exerts directly and indirectly over the publisher through the centralized control of great national advertising agencies...
...That is to say, Roosevelt had advocated Canadian reciprocity at the outset because he took it for granted the bill would be drawn right, from which he would have it inferred that he advocated Canadian reciprocity before he understood the nature of the Canadian agreement, and the bill drawn in compliance with the agreement...
...that we should continue to make a straight-out fight for progressive principles and for my candidacy, and that we would enter into no combination of any character whatsoever...
...In my effort to do so I talked too long without realizing it...
...grimly fighting in the face of desertion and defeat to lay a solid Progressive foundation...
...This answer, it was given out, he would make later...
...If no call comes to him to lead the fight, he will keep right on having a good time with his work as he is now doing...
...It Receives a Body Blow...
...Pinchot wrote in part, and approved in its entirety, that document, from which, passing over a review of my public services, I quote the following: "This seems to us a very splendid record, a record of patient, fearless and effective public service, achieved in the face of almost insurmountable difficulty and opposition...
...In 1901, however, as a result of the strain, my health was actually impaired...
...Now, we know that Roosevelt was fully advised, before the agreement was made, of every thing to which the farmer objects in the agreement as made, and the bill drawn in conformity with it...
...Two days later, in a speech before the Republican Club at the hotel Waldorf, New York City, Roosevelt declared: "I want to say how glad I am to hear of the way in which the club, the members of the club here to-night, responded to the two appeals made to them to uphold the hands of President Taft (terrific applause) both in his effort to secure reciprocity with Canada, and in his effort to secure the fortification of the Panama Canal (applause...
...Francis J. Heney happened to be in Washington at this time...
...He came back very much discouraged...
...In a speech delivered at Boston, April 25th, 1912, President Taft said: "Mr...
...Fackler returned to Ohio with directions to say to Brown and Hanna that their offer was rejected...
...I went, arriving after the dinner...
...Of this meeting the New York Times said: "It was the Wisconsin candidate's first appearance in New York and the reception accorded him he himself said was as great as any he, ever received in his home state...
...His letter informed Roosevelt that cereals, lumber, dairy products, fruits, meats, and cattle were to be made free, and in exchange for that, Canada reduced the duties on manufactured products...
...The above is the wording of a telegram read last night at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Republican League called to consider the probable withdrawal of Senator La Follette as a candidate for the Republican nomination for President...
...Ninety-two of the leading Progressives of the state were present...
...Roosevelt's jaws snapped shut as he listened, and when they opened it was to say, 'I will not discuss pipe dreams from Indianapolis or anywhere else...
...The primary election in North Dakota was near at hand...
...the real meaning of the vote in Pennsylvania and Illinois...
...I declined to participate in the conference so long as McCormick was present and he later withdrew...
...In this letter, Elward said: "I received a letter from William Allen White this morning saying he is for La Follette...
...Pipe Dream" Snaps Roosevelt TWO DAYS LATER the story that a campaign for Roosevelt was being quietly financed by George W. Perkins of the Steel Trust, and that Ormsby McHarg had been sent into the southern states to "see" the right parties, was printed as coming from Indianapolis, and widely copied in New York, Washington, and other papers...
...In this conference Heney vigorously opposed Gifford Pinchot's plan...
...Medill Mc-Cormick was again brought into this conference from Chicago, uninvited, unless by Pinchot...
...Crane, Professor Merriam, and Mr...
...Homer Mann, chairman of the Fifth District Congressional Committee, called a meeting of party workers together in Kansas City, to whom he said: "Some time ago I wrote to Mr...
...It is out of the question...
...principles would be compromised or wholly ignored, and the Progressive movement suffer untold injury...
...Rogers out of the conference, and informed them of the Chicago story which I believed had been given out by McCormick before leaving Chicago...
...I had carried the state by more than ten thousand, while Taft's total vote was but little more than eighteen hundred...
...By Robert M. La Follette (Copyrighted 1912, The Robert M. La Follette Co...
...He replied approving the agreement in the most enthusiastic terms and complimenting me for having brought it forward...
...We favor the election of delegates who will favor the nomination of a candidate who will fully represent the progressive principles...
...I spoke as the publisher of a magazine to publishers...
...La Follette's personal experiences with Roosevelt as President...
...In a signed editorial on January 28th, in which he commended reciprocity with Canada, Roosevelt said: "Our tariff policy with Canada can well afford to stand by itself, not only because of our close relationship to the great Dominion to the north of us, but because of the substantial identity of conditions on each side of the line dividing us, so that as regards Canada I should be glad to see the most complete measure of reciprocity to which Canada will consent...
...There was still no open declaration from him, but it was understood ading Progressives were being summoned to confer with him and give out newspaper interviews of the "pressing demands" in their respective states that he should become a candidate...
...that "it would only be necessary for him to consent to be a candidate...
...Roosevelt himself soon realized that he had misjudged the situation...
...The vote on the nineteenth of March in the North Dakota presidential primary election—the first presidential preference election ever held—astounded the country...
...Gifford Pinchot...
...In a speech made at Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 11th, Roosevelt said: "I welcome the proposed reciprocity treaty (with Canada) as making a signal advance in bringing about the closest and most friendly relations between the two countries...
...I knew from what Houser had reported as to the proceedings in the conference that the Pinchots, Gardner, and possibly some others, had already decided to desert, and I submitted this statement to Mr...
...I am not at liberty to give the answer now, but it suffices to say that this meeting was called...
...Although the Columbus speech could not, of course, carry any statement as to his candidacy, Roosevelt gave to the occasion just the right turn by tossing off to the newspaper reporters afterward the observation, "My hat is in the ring...
...As to where he stood in 1910, it will be remembered, that in a signed editorial in the Outlook under date of September 17th, of that year, speaking of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Law, Roosevelt said: "I believe that the present tariff is better than the last, and considerably better than the one before the last...
...On the other hand, it is becoming apparent that should Roosevelt decide that he will not accept the nomination under any circumstances, then the real Roosevelt strength will undoubtedly go to Senator La Follette...
...Houser, Congressman Lenroot, Hannan, and as I now remember it, Gilson Gardner...
...But what do we find has occurred in the past few years since the money power has gained control of our industry and government...
...He is a man of few words, but with great constancy of purpose...
...Whether Canada will accept such reciprocity I do not know, but it is greatly to your credit to make the effort...
...It would appear that information must have been furnished to the Chicago paper regarding the conference before McCormick left Chicago...
...My campaign work and that of our headquarters was effective in arousing and organizing Progressive sentiment, and it was still a part of the Roosevelt plan to wear down my strength and entice away my active supporters, one after another, so that when the right time came for a final stroke my situation would be such that I would either go in and help promote the Roosevelt campaign or strike my colors and retire from the field...
...The control comes through that community of interests, that interdependence of investments and credits which ties the publisher up to the banks, the advertisers and the special interests...
...La Follette's campaign in the presidential preference primary states...
...He said several times that when he reached his office on Monday morning he would find these men there with their check or the money ready...
...I was resolved to seek no quarrel, but I would have no more double work going on in my headquarters...
...Carnegie Hall never held a bigger nor a more enthusiastic audience...
...Taft Proves Roosevelt Knew IN THE RECENT CONTEST between Taft and Roosevelt for the Republican nomination, the fact that Roosevelt changed his position on Canadian reciprocity, when he found it unpopular, led Taft to make a very remarkable disclosure...
...His friends in Washington became very anxious about it...
...Roosevelt was overwhelmingly beaten...
...The support of Morgan's man, Perkins, recalled to the public mind Roosevelt's service to the Steel Trust in permitting it to swallow up its principal rival, the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, and the demand for something definite as to Perkins' financial backing of Roosevelt's candidacy became so insistent that it could not be silenced by brushing it aside as a "pipe dream...
...Roosevelt has always been able to pull the wool over his eyes...
...Dispatches began to appear in the papers here and there quite systematically, and from significant sources, asserting that Roosevelt would be a candidate...
...Roosevelt telling him that it was impossible to carry the state unless he again assumed the leadership of the party...
...They were free...
...and they appreciated the spirit in which I had consented to make it...
...It furnished a pretext for the desertion which it was now plain to be seen had been under consideration for a long time...
...Gifford Pinchot presided at the meeting, which was an exceptional success...
...This affair would be scarcely worth mentioning excepting as it tends to show that certain of my former supporters, who had months before withdrawn their support, planted this employee in our headquarters in order that those who were then planning to make my campaign miscarry would be able to know exactly what was going on there...
...and liberty, and justice and equal rights found a free press beyond the reach of the corrupt influence of consolidated business and machine politics...
...that Roosevelt had said that he was not a candidate...
...After I learned that Pinchot had called the conference I requested Heney to attend and he did so...
...Anticipating that he might try to warn his confederate in Gardner's office, a watch was set over the telephone connections...
...Pinchot, Garfield, and others appeared upon the platform in North Dakota in the interest of his candidacy...
...But each time a very brief rest sufficed to restore me to full vigor...
...She turned her camera on to the mills and shops where little children are robbed of every chance of life that nourishes vigorous bodies and sound minds, and the pinched faces and dwarfed figures told their pathetic story on her clean white pages...
...I had not gone into it as a political game to be played according to the rule of expediency...
...He favored the Initiative and Referendum with "proper restrictions...
...as it did in this instance...
...I went home, really ill from exhaustion, but was at the hospital early next morning when my daughter went under the surgeon's knife...
...that I did not recognize Roosevelt as standing for Progressive principles...
...White's "Roosevelt or Bust" editorial, Frank A. Munsey, owner of several newspapers and periodicals, very much interested in the United States Steel Corporation, and one of Roosevelt's financial backers and intimates, published in large type a double column signed editorial on the front page of his papers, of which the following is the concluding paragraph: "Situated as he is, my guess is that Mr...
...It was the state in which he had spent his cowboy days, and the whole section west of the Missouri River was still called the cow country...
...Pinchot's announcement of his support of Roosevelt, in view of their intimate relations, was everywhere accepted as the immediate forerunner of a declaration of candidacy by Roosevelt himself...
...After Roosevelt became an announced candidate our headquarters at Washington made an investigation of his record upon this subject...
...And the public heard their cry of despair...
...Senator La Follette is making this campaign to promote the principles in a national way for which he has stood and fought in his own state and in the United States Senate...
...The critical attitude of the press following the Publishers' banquet of February 2nd opened the way...
...that the call for him again to serve the public was not so urgent as he had supposed...
...that I had never played that kind of politics and never would...
...Later we found it was a jug-handle proposition, with the farmers paying the freight...
...This had the effect of forcing the Roosevelt men in our organization to make their stand, and about January 18th Pinchot, acting upon his own motion, called a conference of those who had contributed to support my campaign, and such others as he saw fit to invite to meet at the Washington headquarters...
...He stated further that he knew from his repeated conferences with Roosevelt that he was not a candidate and expressed the strongest belief that Roosevelt himself would be found before long openly supporting me...
...While this speech was undergoing preparation, some of my former supporters who were now openly for Roosevelt evidenced anxiety lest the address would not be definitely Progressive, and informed friends in Washington that they were keeping in close touch with the Colonel for the purpose of stiffening him up on his progressive declarations...
...The vice-presidential bait was dangled before the eyes of the Governor on a separate and detached sheet of paper in the form of an unsigned postscript...
...The convention then voted 81 to 11 in favor of a resolution as a "personal expression" of the delegates, naming me as "the living embodiment of the principles of the Progressive Movement and the logical candidate to carry them to successful fruition...
...I have shown how subtle and elusive, yet relentless, they are...
...North Dakota, by the rules that govern in all contests, should be his...
...Fackler was told that I would enter into no deal or combination with the men who stood for the very things in politics to which I was opposed, and that I would consent to no arrangement which involved either coupling Roosevelt's candidacy with mine, or conducting a campaign in which Roosevelt delegates should be put on a ticket under cover of my candidacy...
...I mention this incident, not because it is important of itself, but for the reason that it was given a bearing upon the campaign by those who were quick to use it as a cover under which they felt they could plausibly make their switch to Roosevelt...
...Amos Pinchot strongly supported my position throughout the conference, and at its conclusion pointedly remarked to his brother: "Gifford, I think you will sleep better to-night now that it is settled that we are not to be tied up with representatives of machine politics, and the Steel Trust...
...And again, on February 25th, 1911, the Outlook said, editorially: "Canadian reciprocity was commended last week in notable speeches both from President Taft and ex-President Roosevelt...
...We are opposed to the renomination of President Taft...
...So Roosevelt, never missing the popular side, had this to say of Canadian reciprocity to the Minnesota farmers: "At first many of us, myself among the number, thought reciprocity might be a good thing...
...I had never for one moment believed that he would abandon me...
...It was manifest to them that my candidacy could no longer serve the Roosevelt interest, and they submitted an alternative in writing which I quote: (1) That La Follette shall withdraw in favor of Roosevelt, with reservations as to differences of opinion, and continue to stump...
...Roosevelt organizations made their appearance here and there with all of the evidences of pre-arrangement...
...When he entered the contest for the nomination he assured those who induced him to become a candidate that he would go through to the end, and that is his determination...
...He understood then quite as well as he does now, that it was a "jug-handle proposition with the farmer paying the freight...
...Halbert, a member of the Board, made a speech insisting that La Follette was out of the running, and that the league should turn its support to Roosevelt...
...My whole public life had been given to a struggle in which countless battles were necessarily lost in the course of the warfare, so a temporary defeat meant less to me, perhaps, than to men unseasoned in strife...
...They spared no efforts to win the state for Roosevelt...
...Halbert then resigned from the Board...
...On the same day the much-talked-of Ohio state conference was held at Columbus...
...But if the call does come, he will buckle on his armor and 'go to it' with all his old-time impetuosity and energy...
...Added to this, the doctors had decided that our little daughter must undergo an operation, the seriousness of which could not be foretold, on the morning following the Publishers' Banquet...
...I warn you of a subtle new peril, the centralization of advertising that will in time seek to gag you...
...And they went out and built up great periodicals and magazines...
...There were present at that meeting Gifford and Amos Pihchot, Congressman Kent, Walter S. Rogers (secretary to Charles R. Crane), who were the principal contributors...
...But it was followed at once with the serious statement that he was still considering what answer he should make to the half dozen governors whom he had informally invited to formally invite him to become a candidate for the Republican nomination for the presidency...
...When taken red handed the very boldness of an open admission is the best and only recourse...
...I felt that this conference would be the last which Pinchot would attend if he failed in his plan, and I understood why he was so determined that Crane should be present...
...insincerity of Roosevelt's cry of "Stop thief...
...that the Associated Press had called for confirmation or denial, and that I had prepared the only statement which I could consent to have issued on the subject...
...It was reported that when the completed address was read to one of them and he was asked for his opinion, he answered with the single word "punk...
...It would seem that at this time, when I was being urged to become a candidate, and by none more strongly than Pinchot, it was with a view of nominating and electing me President, rather than drafting me into a temporary service as a sort of political "minute man" to hold the field until a favorable opportunity should present itself for bringing out the real candidate...
...This speech was accepted as a statement of his "principles...
...He insisted that the Brown-Hanna combination should be made, and that the La Follette organization in Ohio should put a Roosevelt delegate on the ticket in each congressional district...
...No men ever faced graver responsibilities...
...These are the press and the platform...
...The representatives of the largest publishing companies present understood the subtle working out of plans by which these immense advertising agencies have become the publicity agents of great business interests, the placing of whose national advertising they control...
...The session was very brief, and, as reported by one of them, was as follows: "Mr...
...What has occurred on a small scale in almost every city in the country will extend to the national scale, and will ere long close in on the magazines...
...Some years before Bristow became a candidate for the United States Senate I had urged my audiences to elect him to succeed Senator Long, and throughout the state in my meetings had reviewed Long's senatorial record...
...On the nineteenth of January, Mr...
...The people know this...
...I was obliged to address a large overflow meeting before entering the hall...
...But the platform in no way compares with the press in its power of continuous repeated instruction...
...I Decide to Force a "Show Down" I HAD ALREADY SEEN enough to make me wholly dis- trustful of McCormick's loyalty, and was apprehensive that he was doing everything in his power to undermine and weaken my organization...
...Roosevelt's "Hat in the Ring" THE TIME had come for them to act openly...
...The free and independent periodical turned her searchlight on state legislature's, and made plain as the sun at noonday the absolute control of the corrupt lobby...
...that there would be no division in the Progressive ranks and that his supporters would be my supporters...
...There were present Gifford and Amos Pinchot, Charles R. Crane and his secretary, Walter S. Rogers, the manager of our Chicago headquarters...
...His friends had predicted that his statement "would fire the country...
...Taft had transmitted the Canadian agreement to Congress by special message January 26th, 1911...
...Medill McCormick was there...
...In this connection it is interesting to refer to the Call for me to become a candidate, which was signed by a number of Progressive Republican Senators and Congressmen, but which was not published because, as before stated, Cummins did not sign it, giving as his reason for withholding his signature that he did not think it the best way to inaugurate my candidacy...
...I have no doubt whatever about his having been an active candidate all along, but I am sure Gifford is honest in the position he is taking...
...He was, as I was Informed, at a dinner given in his honor on that evening by one of the progressive clubs of the city...
...Cummins Comes Out I WAS NOW to be reminded that "nothing weighs lighter than a promise...
...Roosevelt's support not Progressive...
...What Amos Pinchot Said AS I WAS firmly against this course Pinchot was voted down...
...It found the power of the public service corporation and the evil influences of money in the municipal government of every large city...
...that if this were done the campaign would be converted into a contest to nominate Roosevelt rather than advance a cause...
...It may damage the Republican party for a while, but it will surely benefit the party in the end, especially if you tackle wool, cotton, etc., as you propose...
...Roosevelt's Friends Busy in Ohio ON JANUARY 1, 1912, I opened my campaign in Michigan...
...False Reports Circulated BUT I ENTIRELY underestimated the character and extent of the criticism which I called down upon myself...
...A "Leak" in Our Headquarters THE ABOVE QUOTATIONS from the Outlook and from Roosevelt's speeches were incorporated in a typewritten statement prepared at our headquarters for publication in the North Dakota papers...
...The two Pinchots and Kent had each furnished a contribution of $10,000, all of which had been contributed months before, and which had been substantially expended by this time...
...At last the public had definite word...
...In short, his Boston speech and reception were admitted by his friends to be a frost...
...Finally, when Bristow did become a candidate, I had gone to Kansas on the urgent call of William Allen White to speak for Bristow...
...It was at once suspected that an employee in our headquarters, who had access to the material that we were sending out, had transmitted this statement of Roosevelt's position on the Canadian pact to Gardner's office...
...that I had resisted from the time of its proposal every effort on the part of Pinchot and others to make me serve as a stalking horse for Roosevelt's candidacy...
...the next day I would be assured that he would announce his refusal to be a candidate...
...And now, to the surprise and disappointment of Roosevelt enthusiasts, the interest of the general public began to abate...
...I went through a campaign carrying me from coast to coast, making nearly two hundred speeches, and have not lost a moment's time since...
...Roosevelt did not attend my meeting...
...It found Philadelphia giving away franchises, franchises not supposedly or estimated to be worth $2,500,000, but for which she had been openly offered and had refused $2,500,000...
...We assert the essential unity of the Progressive Movement throughout the entire state and nation...
...Milwaukee they found giving away street car franchises worth $8,000,000 against the protests of her indignant citizens...
...I told them that I had but one answer to make...
...There are depths of tomfoolery that I can't notice.'" Perkins Makes "Frank Statement" "BUT THE financing of Roosevelt's campaign by Morgan's friend Perkins was a subject of too great public interest to be disposed of as "tomfoolery...
...It found juries 'fixed' and an established business plying its trade between litigants and the back door of blinking justice...
...Though my New York friends were jubilant over my campaign opening there and the progress made in other states, I found them very fearful that Roosevelt was determined to "break in" as they expressed it...
...Roosevelt was as strongly in favor of the Canadian Pact as Taft, and through editorials in the Outlook and public addresses he had given vigorous support to Taft's Canadian policy and specifically endorsed the agreement...
...An Exceptional Meeting in New York A FEW DAYS LATER, on the twenty-second of January, I went to New York to fill an engagement at Carnegie Hall...
...Roosevelt's affairs, either as to whether he would accept the nomination, or whether he believes he could be elected.'" Just one month before, he had said in his speech to the Chicago Press Club: "If Colonel Roosevelt had not made his recent statement, and I am in a position to know that he means what he says, he might have been the candidate...
...I understood perfectly that it must subject me to criticism but felt that that ought not to deter me...
...What I Said at Philadelphia A FEW DAYS LATER (February 2nd) I attended the annual banquet of the Periodical Publishers' Association at Philadelphia, an engagement which had been made some weeks before...
...One would think that in a democracy like ours, seeking for instruction, able to read and understand, the press would be their eager and willing instructors—such was the press of Horace Greeley, Henry Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Joseph Medill and Horace Rublee...
...that the Progressives of California and other states had a right to know whether he would under any circumstances become a candidate, and that thereupon Roosevelt had said most emphatically and positively that he would not, under any circumstances, become a candidate...
...He favored the Recall "with such restrictions as will make it available only when there is a wide-spread and genuine public feeling among a majority of the voters...
...Medill McCormick was now spending most of his time in and about the Chicago headquarters...
...As I had now become convinced that Roosevelt was an active, though not an open, candidate, and was only waiting to create a situation which would seem to compel his candidacy, I would not consent to be drawn into any situation which would lead the public to believe that there was a combination between us, or which could thereafter be interpreted to mean that I accepted Roosevelt as representing real Progressive principles...
...I learned that he had seen Roosevelt just before my New York meeting...
...I believe that when the final test conies you will not be found wanting...
...Combined with the incessant work accompanying the legislative session came the abandonment of the fight by men in whose zeal and devotion I had found courage and inspiration, and finally the defeat of the legislation I had hoped to see enacted...
...The employee, whose name I withhold, because it would appear that he was simply the tool of others, was appointed to a position of some responsibility, months before, upon the endorsement of Kirby, who stood in such relation to Gardner that his endorsement was accepted by the headquarters...
...It was settled...
...I had campaigned only for supporters willing to make the fight for principle, ready to win, or to lose, if need be, in the interest of a cause...
...Before giving out this statement, I called Mr...
...She opened the closed doors of the secret caucus, the secret committee, the secret conference, behind which United States Senators and Members of Congress betrayed the public interest into the hands of the railroads, the trusts, the tariff mongers, and the centralized banking power of the country...
...I know nothing of Mr...
...In his campaign, as the candidate of the Roosevelt party, he spoke on the fifth of September, 1912, to the farmers of Minnesota, on the state fair grounds at Saint Paul...
...the true story of the Republican convention of 1912...
...The committee, however, refused to take this course, and adopted resolutions pledging unanimous support to La Follette...
...She took the public through the great steel plants and into the homes of the men who toil twelve hours a day and seven days in the week...
...but the nature of my illness was at that time likewise maliciously misrepresented, because my unfitness was the thing most desired by those who were opposed to the Progressive movement, and particularly to my part in it...
...If Crane could be drawn to the support of Pinchot's position, it was Pinchot's reasoning, as I believe, that I would be compelled to masquerade as the candidate behind whom Roosevelt's campaign could be prosecuted, without his being forced to announce his candidacy until the convention should meet, when it would be sprung, the convention stampeded, and the nomination "forced" upon him...
...When questioned he vigorously denied having done so...
...I will accept the nomination for President if it is tendered to me," he wrote to the governors...
...And the watchful newspaper correspondents were soon able to report that private meetings and conferences were being held between Perkins and Roosevelt...
...A day or two before the election Roosevelt sent a long telegram into North Dakota pleading with the voters for their support...
...The date which he fixed for this conference was January 29th, and he had been urgent that Mr...
...heroic efforts necessary to divide or capture the Progressive movement...
...Pinchot Insists Upon Hanna Scheme GIFFORD PINCHOT was insistent that the campaign should be conducted according to the scheme suggested by Walter Brown and Dan Hanna, continuing the campaign for me as the Progressive candidate, but putting Roosevelt delegates on the ticket with the La Follette delegates in Ohio and elsewhere...
...He returned to Ohio by way of Washington, calling upon Houser at the headquarters, where he gave positive assurance of his continued loyalty, explaining his visit by saying that he had gone to see Roosevelt at the suggestion of Brown, but that the conference was confidential, and he was not at liberty to state what Roosevelt had said to him...
...AT THE VERY TIME when my meetings were overtaxing the largest auditoriums that could be secured, Roosevelt wrote a letter to Governor Hiram Johnson of California, who had been strongly committed to my candidacy, in which he stated in substance that it was necessary I should be set aside and suggested that he (Johnson) would make an admirable candidate for Vice-President...
...The control of the newspaper press is not the simple and expensive one of ownership and investment...
...I got a reply...
...Who shall show them...
...She revealed the same influences back of judicial and other appointments...
...Forcing Out the Roosevelt Men SO I KNEW that I would have at least one strong supporter to the end...
...It had been announced several weeks before...
...To the subserviency of the press to special interests in no small degree is due the power and influence and prosperity of the weekly and monthly magazines...
...Amos Pinchot said to me just before going into the conference in excusing his brother's insistence that I should consent to the combination: "I agree with you perfectly that there must be no combination with Roosevelt...
...It is true that I was not feeling as fit as usual...
...I immediately called Houser out of the conference, and caused to be issued by him the following statement: "Washington, D. C, January 29, 1912.—Once for all I want to settle the rumors in circulation that Senator La Follette contemplates withdrawing as a presidential candidate...
...Following the session of the Wisconsin legislature of 1901, I was made the object of a somewhat similar attack for the purpose of demoralizing my support...
...A representative audience filled the great hall, and when I arrived I found the streets were packed for blocks by people unable to gain admission...
...His next public appearance must be an unqualified success, or it might set the tide running the wrong way...
...It was evident from the beginning that the Roosevelt element represented in the group had come prepared to force the issue...
...He has for seven years been President of the Saint Paul Roosevelt Club...
...Crane...
...With Crane, Merriam, and Rogers I then joined the conference...
...Few men of our time have Roosevelt's appreciation of the importance of keeping the public guessing in order to stimulate political interest...
...As on one or two previous occasions I had overtaxed my strength...
...I firmly believe in free trade with Canada for both economic and political reasons...
...Roosevelt is quite content to let political matters shape themselves up as they will...
...When Fackler was given his specific instructions, directing that the Ohio campaign must have no connection whatever with those who were supporting any other candidate, the same instructions in effect were sent to my headquarters in Chicago...
...As soon as Roosevelt's endorsement of reciprocity, as shown by his speeches and editorials, was printed in the North Dakota papers, he reversed his position through a letter furnished to the publisher of a Minneapolis agricultural journal having a North Dakota circulation, and came out flatly against the Canadian agreement...
...In the end he was only able to get ten of the twenty-six delegates from the state of Iowa to the national convention...
...first, to hold the Progressives together as an effective fighting force, and second, to prevent the renomination of a reactionary Republican for the presidency...
...Double Playing Grows Difficult WHILE the whole plan in the light of subsequent events became perfectly plain, so cleverly was it all managed, so rapidly were the scenes shifted, so swiftly did the unauthorized announcements and the qualified denials follow one upon the other, that doubt and confusion prevailed everywhere outside of the little circle of which Roosevelt was the center...
...They waited for two weeks after the final conference in which they definitely withdrew their support, before making any public announcement...
...If this statement were true, then the campaign which we had been making for months to induce support of my candidacy, was plainly a fraud upon those who were led to believe that I was a candidate in good faith...
...A large force of clerks and stenographers was employed at their headquarters, and a campaign attended with a very lavish expenditure of money was prosecuted for weeks...
...They proposed that the campaign be carried on in Ohio with La Follette as the candidate but that in each congressional district one Roosevelt delegate should be placed upon the ballot with one La Follette delegate...
...2) That La Follette shall withdraw, but not in favor of anybody, and continue to stump, leaving the individuals of the group to take what course they choose...
...Gifford Pinchot apparently acquiesced in the decision of the conference, and I was gratified to believe that the whole matter was definitely and finally settled...
...so confidence in the newspaper as a newspaper is being undermined...
...Speaking for these resolutions, Pinchot said:-"I believe most intensely that it would be foolish not to crystallize the Roosevelt sentiment and the Progressive sentiment of all other men, whatever candidates they may prefer, so that we can elect delegates to the Chicago convention...
...I had just returned from a speaking trip, part of which was made under most trying circumstances, and all of which taxed my reserve...
...As this envelope had printed upon the outside the usual return direction to our headquarters, it was desirable to get rid of it as a piece of convincing evidence...
...Now, he says, he thought reciprocity might be a good thing but "took it for granted the bill would be drawn right...
...I quote from one dated at Poughkeepsie, New York, published in the Philadelphia North American, January 1, 1912: "That Theodore Roosevelt will be a candidate for President again if the call comes strong enough for him to respond is the statement made to-day by John Burroughs, the author-naturalist, in an interview published in the Poughkeepsie Courier...
...Their pages were open to publicists and scholars...
...The periodical, reduced in price, attractive and artistic in dress, strode like a young giant into the arena of public service...
...We therefore earnestly urge you to permit your name to be presented as a candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States...
...But more than this...
...Professor Charles E. Merriam, Louis D. Brandeis, William Kent, Congressman Lenroot, Gilson Gardner, Angus McSween, the Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia North American, Houser and Hannan...
...Roosevelt drops "receptive" role completely and frantically pursues the Republican nomination to the very doors of the Convention Hall...
...Now, what are the facts...
...that I had made a dean fight for principle which had tremendously strengthened the Progressive movement all over the country, but now, when there seemed to be some prospect of success, it was proposed to turn everything over to Roosevelt...
...Johnson afterward visited Roosevelt in New York, and became one of the group who finally succeeded in cornering the coy and diffident candidate and wringing from him a "reluctant consent...
...When they had threshed the whole matter out among themselves I was invited to come in...
...It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that through their headquarters they spent more money in one day than the entire campaign in North Dakota cost my supporters...
...that Pinchot had pledged his support to me as long as I continued a candidate...
...It was then about five o'clock...
...it found the aldermen of St...
...In his speeches he assigned as the sole reason for his action that I had become disabled, and that in consequence it became necessary for the Progressive Republicans to have a candidate who could carry on the campaign actively and personally...
...My Ultimatum IN ORDER to insure the fullest and freest discussion, I did not myself enter the room where the conference was being held until they had about exhausted the subject under consideration...
...As to other national issues, including the tariff, he said, "I stand to-day exactly where I stood in 1910...
...Then there was published in the Philadelphia North American the following, giving the condition of my health as the reason for the action taken: La Follette Dropped by Pinchot for Presidency Senator's Condition Makes his Candidacy Impossible Declares Pinchot—Roosevelt Boom in Minnesota Jersey City, New Jersey, February 10, 1912...
...A few minutes later, indeed as soon as he could reach a telephone in the office, where he supposed he could talk without being overheard, he called up Kirby, Gardner's confidential stenographer, and directed Kirby to destroy the envelope in which the typewritten record had been enclosed...
...Ever yours, "'Theodore Roosevelt.'" Taft's letter to Roosevelt explicitly stated the essentials of the agreement as made, and incorporated in the bill which became a law...
...It lies in the power of these agencies to serve their clients by giving their advertisements to publications which are well behaved toward the great interests and to starve out those publications which freely criticize privileged business...
...that months before he had personally interviewed Roosevelt on the subject of his candidacy...
...When the newspaper reporters saw Roosevelt at the Outlook office to interrogate him on the subject, they experienced considerable difficulty...
...They saw also an unoccupied field...
...It was little more than eight months since the conference of Progressives in Senator Bourne's committee room, on the thirtieth of April, when Cummins had said, "I shall not be a candidate...
...He therefore took the more prudent course of sending some of his closest adherents and most effective campaigners instead...
...and that the placing or withholding of advertising by these agencies with a given publication, determines whether that publication shall fail or succeed...
...Burroughs' intimacy with Mr...
...Judged by his estimates of what I would be able to do in that state and from the correspondence at our headquarters, I could scarcely have done worse...
...who will vote for the Progressive candidate which we know will be Mr...
...The following morning an incident occurred which furnishes a side light on the difficulties under which my campaign was conducted...
...that for many years I had fought a clean straight fight for definite Progressive principles...
...Pinchot at once entered upon a review of what he had said to the conference regarding my candidacy and that of Roosevelt...
...Their confidence is weakened and destroyed...
...Hugh T. Halbert, St...
...He decided to try a trip to Boston and did so...
...The newspapers, of course, are still patronized for news...
...The extended debate upon it exposed it as a sham, and by the time the North Dakota primary was at hand, it was no longer a popular issue...
...Every effort was put forth by the brother of Governor Bass of New Hampshire, who was in charge of Roosevelt's campaign, to stir the state pride for the Colonel as a North Dakota pioneer...
...The day after the publication of Mr...
...After this failure he understood that when he went out again he must "make a killing...
...With each day the double play became more difficult...
...that he must drop the receptive role which he had assumed and go out and create a demand for his candidacy...
...But even as to news, the public is fast coming to understand that wherever news items bear in any way upon the control of government by business, the news is colored...
...Brown is to Ohio politics exactly what Piatt, Quay, Henry C. Payne, and men of that type were to the political affairs of their time...
...He was given the support of the Roosevelt organization as a candidate for the congressional nomination in the Cleveland district, but was defeated in the primary...
...What came to White in that brief interval to change his attitude, I do not know...
...His discussion of trust regulation was equally indefinite, declaring that the mere size of business is no offence, and that any corporation, big or little, which has gained its position by unfair methods, and by interference with the rights of others which has "raised prices or limited output in improper fashion" should be broken up...
...It found franchises worth millions of dollars secured by bribery...
...Sincerely yours, "'William H. Taft.'" "To this letter Roosevelt replied as follows: " 'New York, January 12, 1911...
...Crane was contributing $5,000 a month, and had agreed to continue his payments monthly until the time of the meeting of the National Convention in Chicago...
...that I would never consent to be a stalking horse for Roosevelt or any other man...
...My dear Theodore: * * * * * * * " 'The probability is that we shall reach an agreement with our Canadian friends by which all natural products—cereals, lumber, dairy products, fruits, meats, and cattle—shall enter both countries free, and that we shall get a revision—not as heavy a one as I would like, but a substantial one, and equivalent certainly to the French reciprocity treaty and probably more—on manufactures.' " Here follows about half a column of further quotation from Taft's letter, giving the arguments pro and con on the subject...
...He appeared to vacillate between the desire to take a hand and the fear that if he did so and lost the state the hurtful effect upon his campaign would be very much accentuated...
...I had every reason to believe that White, who is very strong in Kansas, was supporting my candidacy...
...Thou shalt not steal,"— from ME...
...We may expect this same control, sooner or later, to reach out for the magazines...
...He will be there until the gavel falls in the convention announcing the nominee...
...Walter F. Brown, reactionary boss and chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, was present, working actively in support of Roosevelt, and to prevent any endorsement of my candidacy by the Ohio conference...
...Rising up against them is the confused voice of the people...
...that I had been urged by Progressives to stand as the presidential candidate for that reason...
...On the ninth of January a letter was received at our headquarters in Washington from Rodney A. Elward of Castleton, Kansas, an old Wisconsin University friend and supporter of mine, and at present one of the regents of the Kansas State University...
...Dear Mr...
...His audience was ninety per cent...
...It sounded progressive enough to satisfy men of that belief, who did not weigh carefully qualifying phraseology, and at the same time was not definitely progressive enough to alarm big business...
...I submit below our correspondence on the subject of reciprocity: "(Confidential) " 'The White House, Washington, D. C. " 'January 10, 1911...
...A few days later Fackler, accompanied by Walter Brown, visited Roosevelt at the Outlook office in New York...
...Crane should be present...
...But after the press had made its formal comment on his announcement, interest began to drag perceptibly...
...Roosevelt was not to be known as an open and avowed candidate...
...From Senator La Follette's Autobiography to be published soon in book form, by Doubleday, Page & Co...
...The Pinchots, Gardner, and McCormick then withdrew, but Crane, Merriam, Rogers, Kent, Lenroot, and all of the others assured me that they would go through with me to the end...
...And only two days before he had said in his speech before the Ohio conference that he was advocating the plan which he contended would secure the election of "delegates to the Chicago convention who will vote for the Progressive candidate which we know will be Mr...
...Again and again the friends who were supporting my candidacy had heard my interpretation of the fight...
...It found Chicago robbed in tax-payments of immense value by corporate owners of property through fraud and forgery on a gigantic scale...
...Senator La Follette never has been and is not now a quitter...
...that I would not compromise these principles or permit my name to be used in any way to secure delegates for any other candidate...
...On the twentieth of January, Cummins announced his candidacy for the presidential nomination...
...I Refuse to Be a "Stalking Horse" WE NOW began to have serious differences with Gifford Pin-chot...
...that I had not sought the support of Pinchot or any one else, and had not made myself the Progressive candidate...
...My friends attending upon that conference who were eager to endorse me, outnumbered the friends of Roosevelt eight to one...
...This occasion offered the opportunity to say things which seemed to me supremely important...
...For every reason I felt that I ought not to go, but was reluctant to break my engagement...
...Louis organized to boodle the city with a criminal compact, on file in the dark corner of a safety deposit vault...
...To Houser, in explaining his action in coming out as a candidate, Cummins stated that it was his purpose to hold Iowa from going to Taft...
...This final conference met pursuant to Pinchot's call at my Washington headquarters on Monday afternoon, January 29th...
...And Roosevelt, as the above quotations show, originally advocated it...
...But all things must have an end...
...Paul, Minnesota: In my judgment La Follette's condition makes further serious candidacy impossible...
...Gifford Pinchot reiterated his oft-repeated statement that Roosevelt was not and would not be a candidate, but contended that we could elect some delegates by putting Roosevelt men on the tickets, and thus get some votes which otherwise might not be cast for us...
...Before many weeks all reserve as to Perkins, Munsey, and the Steel Trust was thrown aside, and later men most prominently connected with the Harvester Trust were likewise openly supporting the Roosevelt candidacy...
...that he (Pinchot) understood all this before he contributed in support of my campaign, and that as I had repeatedly asserted, this would be my position through to the end...
...He must carry that state by a good majority for its effect upon the country...
...He had thought so too...
...In this meeting, for the first time, and in an open and formal way, the friends of Roosevelt disclosed their real purpose...
...He had been in the conference with the Pinchots for hours, and subject to as strong an appeal as it was possible for them to make, and I watched his face with keen interest as he read the statement...
...It was, I do not doubt, entirely my own fault—but I determined to make them hear me to the end...
...I was therefore determined to take such steps as would force the Roosevelt men in my camp to show their hands...
...The Sun said: "Carnegie Hall was packed at eight o'clock, and the reserves of two police stations were called out to take care of the crowds that were jammed into Seventh Avenue north and south of the hall...
...Fackler subsequently went over to the support of Roosevelt, taking with him as much of my organization as he could influence...
...As to labor legislation he suggested that "no restrictions be placed on legislative powers that will prevent the enactment of laws under which your people can promote the general welfare, the common good...
...He will make a campaign in every state to elect delegates pledged to those principles, and to his candidacy as the Republican nominee for President, first, last, and all the time...
...And we were fast approaching a time when Roosevelt himself would have to show his hand...
...The inducement was held out that they would furnish all the money for the campaign in Ohio, but they stipulated that the La Follette Progressive literature which had been supplied from Washington, and was then on hand at our Ohio headquarters in considerable quantities, should be destroyed, and no more sent out into the state...
...There was no change of expression...
...Roosevelt's Candidacy Gets Body Blow ROOSEVELT was urged by his supporters to take the stump in North Dakota, and it was given out to the press in New York that he might do so...
...We entered upon a new era...
...I attended this gathering with some reluctance, knowing that to speak there would make demands upon me which, at that time, I could ill afford...
...We hereby declare it to be the determined purpose of the Ohio Progressive Republican League to work in harmony and unison to nominate a Progressive Republican for President, recognizing as fellow Progressives all who hold the principles for which toe stand, whether they be for the presidential nomination of Robert M. La Follette or Theodore Roosevelt, or any other Progressive Republican...
...The Deserters Find a Pretext AS BEFORE STATED, the Pinchots and Gilson Gardner definitely withdrew from my support at the conference held at my headquarters in Washington January 29th, but apparently found some embarrassment in announcing the fact...
...Roosevelt ought to have told the Minnesota farmers how he would draw a bill which would be "right," as to their interests so long as it admitted free of duty agricultural products, as he knew from Taft's letter this agreement proposed to do...
...It was a great relief to have it settled and over with...
...Some one had to speak, and the speaking part was assigned to Perkins, who issued a "frank statement" announcing that he was supporting Roosevelt because "they looked at public questions in the same way...
...The morning of the conference he spent much time with Pinchot and Fackler...
...He pointed out the rank injustice of the course Roosevelt was pursuing, and emphasized, as did others, the uncertainty of Roosevelt's position on Progressive principles...
...It was defeated at the close of the 61st Congress, and again in the extra session called by Taft at the beginning of the 62nd Congress...
...For weeks the strain had been severe...
...This meant that he was a candidate...
...He protested that he had no desire to go to Congress and that such an offer, if squarely made, would have no influence with him...
...Moreover, I had been resolved upon my course from the beginning, and even if I stood alone I knew I must go straight ahead...
...or, in other words, to make the stand-pat publication prosper and the Progressive publication fail...
...At the end of four days of this sort of campaigning, I left North Dakota the night before the election confident of the result...
Vol. 4 • October 1912 • No. 42
