Theodore Rex (177 page)

28
Even as he spoke
Mowry,
Era of Theodore Roosevelt
, 203;
LaFollette’s Autobiography
, 174.

29
One of the Senator’s
Blum, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Hepburn Act,” 1560, 1564.

30
“The one thing”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 56.

31
THE COSMOPOLITAN’S SERIES
March issue, on sale 15 Feb. 1906; TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 45;
La Follette’s Autobiography
, 176. For a contemporary group portrait of the progressives of 1906, see Allen,
America’s Awakening
.

32
Perhaps the fiercest
The New York Times
, 22 Aug. 1988. The original, pre-Doubleday text has been reissued as
The Lost First Edition of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,”
ed., Gene DeGruson (Memphis, 1988).

33
Now, at last
The Jungle
sold more than one hundred thousand copies in 1906, and was read by an estimated one million Americans. Christine Scriabine, “Upton Sinclair and the Writing of
The Jungle,” Chicago History
10.1 (1981).

34
Senator Beveridge sent
John Braeman,
Albert J. Beveridge: American Nationalist
(Chicago, 1971), 101–10.

35
“I recommend”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 381.

36
In requesting
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 483ff. This chapter of Sullivan’s great saga is an exquisitely detailed piece of social history.

37
Sinclair was but
Ibid., 479; Upton Sinclair,
The Jungle
[1906 version], ed. James R. Barrett (Chicago, 1988), 2, 334.

38
ALICE ROOSEVELT HAD
Teague,
Mrs. L.
, 128; Carol Felsenthal,
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
(New York, 1988), 102–3.

39
frenzied press activity
There are 415 large scrap albums of wedding reportage in the archives of the Martin Luther King Library in Washington, D.C.

40
Roosevelt seemed
Felsenthal,
Alice Roosevelt Longworth
, 106; Rozek, “ ‘The First Daughter of the Land’ ”; Teague,
Mrs. L.
, 122–23. Alice’s train was arranged by her cousin Franklin, who was good at that sort of thing and consequently known, among the Oyster Bay Roosevelts, as “Featherduster,” and “Miss Nancy.” Alsop, “Autobiography,” 2; Rixey,
Bamie
, 92.

41
“I want you”
Teague,
Mrs. L.
, 128. Alice Roosevelt Longworth frequently repeated this remark to family members, always emphasizing that it was only half humorous.

42
“Alice—Alice”
Washington
Evening Star
, 23 Aug. 1908.

43
ROOSEVELT READ
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 156–57. John E. Semonche, “Roosevelt’s ‘Muck-Rake Speech’: A Reassessment,”
Mid-America
46.2 (1964), shows that TR’s reaction to muckraking in 1906 was consistent with his views as early as 1901.

44
“I need hardly”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 156; see also vol. 3, 142. In 1906, Hearst was not only contesting his recent defeat as a candidate for the mayoralty of New York, but preparing to run for Governor.

45
The pity was
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 531–34. Aldrich also yielded to pressure from TR and the American Medical Association.

46
“The tone”
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 12, 19.

47
If so, the
Lambert,
Stephen Benton Elkins
, 273–74; Blum, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Hepburn Act,” 1564;
The New York Times
, 24 Feb. 1906.

48
four other Republicans
Aldrich, Foraker, John Kean of New Jersey, and the former Governor of Massachusetts, Winthrop Murray Crane, appointed to the Senate in 1904 after the death of George Frisbie Hoar. Senator Tillman, who voted in favor, was the ranking Democrat on the committee.

49
Now began
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 244–45; Mowry,
Era of Theodore Roosevelt
, 204–5.

50
The issue of
Blum, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Hepburn Act,” 1565–66.

51
So, amid
For an alternative metaphor, see Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 2, 242: “So the battle raged until the wind-batteries had literally blown themselves out.”

52
WAS ONE TO
Sinclair,
Jungle
[1906], 36.

53
(“Eik! Eik!”)
“Eik! Eik!”
)
Ibid., 4. See TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 178–79, for his letter to Sinclair about
The Jungle
. He wrote that, in his opinion, the author’s brand of socialism would result in “the elimination by starvation” of the poor people it was supposed to save.

54
“I would like”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 176. TR’s desire for secrecy proved short-lived. See James Harvey Young, “The Pig That Fell into the Privy,”
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
59.4 (1985).

55
Roosevelt’s was a
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 176.

56
Sinclair’s description
Sinclair,
Jungle
[1906], 124.

57
squab stuffed
Washington
Evening Star
, 18 Mar. 1906. The menu featured no beef or pork items.

58
“… the Man with”
Qu. in Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 94. Many sources mistakenly state that TR’s first “muckrake” speech took place on 27 Jan. 1906. On that earlier date, he spoke about the beginning of the construction on the Panama
Canal. The dinner of 17 March was a special celebration hosted by Speaker Joseph Cannon.

59
Roosevelt’s subsequent
Ibid.; Semonche, “Roosevelt’s ‘Muck-Rake Speech’ ”; Victor Murdock interview, 31 Mar. 1940 (HKB); Thompson,
Party Leaders
, 160. Thompson, who was present at the dinner, records that guests were so impressed that they urged TR to print his speech “as a public duty.”

60
Nor was it
Semonche, “Roosevelt’s ‘Muck-Rake Speech’ ”; Baker,
American Chronicle
, 201–2; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 96.

61
THE LAST THING
The following account is condensed from those in Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 374–86, and Larsen, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Moroccan Crisis,” 167–210.

62
With some asperity
Interview qu. in Jusserand,
What Me Befell
, 323.

63
Roosevelt repeated
Ibid.; Jusserand to M. Bourgeois,
Documents diplomatiques
, series 2, vol. 9, 725.

64
Senator Knox had
A superscript on William Loeb to Philander Knox, 3 Mar. 1906 (PCK), indicates that Knox was summoned to the White House from the Belasco Theater, where he had been attending a matinee, and offered Justice Brown’s seat. TR made clear that the Senator was his first choice. Knox declined (no reason given). For subsequent events, see Paul T. Heffron, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Appointment of Mr. Justice Moody,”
Vanderbilt Law Review
18.2 (1965) (hereafter Heffron, “Mr. Justice Moody”).

65
Unwilling as
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 242.

66
“If the conference”
TR to Wilhelm II, 2 Mar. 1906 (TRP).

67
“paltry and unworthy”
Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 383. The Kaiser’s more thoughtful aides agreed with TR and Root. Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke later described the Algeciras Conference as an affair Germans had to “slink out of … with our tail between our legs.” Isolated at the end, Germany decided never again to trust its fortunes to international conferences. Fischer,
Germany’s Aims in the First World War
, 22.

68
“Communicate to”
Qu. in Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 384–85. TR was amused by the elaborate flatteries he and Wilhelm II exchanged during the conference. “How could anyone with even a glimmer of humor swallow such stuff?” he said to his English friend Arthur Lee. “We might as well have been addressing each other from behind ancient Greek masks. But Speck tells me the Kaiser was delighted with it all” (Lee,
Good Innings
, vol. 1, 335). For TR’s own account of the Moroccan affair, see TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 230–51.

69
THE ARTICLE IN
Phillips,
Treason
, chap. 2;
LaFollette’s Autobiography
, 179;
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 12, 20.

70
One of the weakest
The following account is taken from
LaFollette’s Autobiography
, 174–75.

71
A small group
Elihu Root interview, 30 Sept. 1930 (PCJ); Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 160–61; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 233–34.

72
The President was
Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 161; Simkins,
Pitchfork Ben Tillman
, 416–17; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 233–34; TR,
Works
(National Edition), vol. 13, 153.

73
Somebody suggested
It was Henry Beach Needham, one of TR’s tame reporters. Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 250–53. See also TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 273–75.

74
Tillman knew
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 254–55; William E. Chandler to William Loeb, 11 Apr. 1906 (TRP).

75
BUNYAN’S NOISOME
Baker,
American Chronicle
, 201; see 202–3 for Baker’s attempt to head off TR’s repetition of the speech.

76
He noted
TR,
Works
, vol. 18, 576–77.

77
“It is important”
Ibid., 578.

78
If conservatives
The Philadelphia
Press
termed TR’s inheritance-tax call “the most radical proposition ever made by a President.” Presidential scrapbook (TRP).

79
Those who had
Victor Murdock interview, 31 Mar. 1940 (HKB); Stephen E. Lucas, “Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘The Man with the Muckrake’: A Reinterpretation,”
Quarterly Journal of Speech
59.4 (1973); Sir Mortimer Durand in
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 12, 28. For TR’s own review of the speech, see TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 217–19.

80
Men with muckrakes
Mowry and Grenier in Phillips,
Treason
, 40; Semonche, “Roosevelt’s ‘Muck-Rake Speech’ ”; Baker,
American Chronicle
, 204. For an extensive study of TR’s relationship with Progressive journalists, see Thaddeus Seymour, Jr., “A Progressive Partnership: Theodore Roosevelt and the Reform Press—Riis, Steffens, Baker, and White” (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1985).

81
SENATORS TILLMAN AND
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 256–57.

82
A disillusioned
Nathaniel Stephenson,
Nelson Aldrich
, 314.

83
Even Senator Elkins
Lambert,
Stephen Benton Elkins
, 274.

84
“I love a”
The Washington Post
, 12 May 1906. But see Blum, “Theodore Roosevelt and the Hepburn Act,” 1570–71.

85
ROOSEVELT TRANQUILLY
H. G. Wells,
Experiment in Autobiography
(London, 1934), 648.

86
“He is the”
H. G. Wells,
The Future in America: A Search after Realities
(New York, 1906), 246–53. For more on this interview, see Wells,
Experiment in Autobiography
, 646–49.

87
Having read
Wells,
Future in America
, 246–47, 250.

88
the progressive impulse
TR had apparently expressed to Wells his concern about “the growth of monopolistic combinations” and the need for “very vigorous antitrust legislation” to combat it. Wells,
Experiment in Autobiography
, 647.

89
Tillman railed
See Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 264–71, for an account of the recriminations (vigorously joined in by TR) that followed news of the secret White House/Chandler/Tillman operation.

90
had started something
Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 164, points out that although the amended bill’s language on court review read vaguely enough to satisfy Senate conservatives, it enabled the Supreme Court to come down sharply, four years later, on the side of an empowered ICC.

91
Railroad rate regulation
Lambert,
Stephen Benton Elkins
, 275–79; Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 272–73.

92
supplied extra details
See Young, “Pig That Fell.” TR’s original “first-class man” investigating the meat industry had materialized in the form of two commissioners, Charles P. Neill and James B. Reynolds. See
Conditions in the Chicago Stockyards: Message of the President of the United States
, 59 Cong., sess. 1, 1906, H. doc. 873.

93
Apprehensive that
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 12, 43. See James Harvey Young,
Pure Food: Securing the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906
(Princeton, N.J., 1989).