When the Cheering Stopped (40 page)

The details of the landing at Brest and the doings in the European cities are largely taken from contemporary newspaper clippings found in the scrapbooks of the Woodrow Wilson Collection. Exceptions are:

36
–“Pour Mademoiselle Veelson”: Miss Benham wrote of the incident to her future husband. The letter is in her Papers. (Helm Papers.)

38
–“No one ever had such cheers”: Bolitho, p. 346.

40
–The First Lady was glad: Wilson, p. 206.

41
–The First Lady thought: Wilson, p. 220.

42
–“Greatest number of human minds …”: Ellis was a correspondent for the Washington
Post.

42
–“A tragedy of disappointment”: quoted by Creel, p. 206.

CHAPTER FOUR

43
–No corps of assistants: I. H. Hoover Papers. Hoover, the White House usher, brought to Paris to take charge of the Presidential living quarters, was an avid letter writer. Copies of his letters from Paris are preserved in his Papers.

43
–Parliament of Kouban, Archbishop of Trebizond: Hoover Papers.

44
–Nervous little chuckle: Walworth, Vol. II, p. 243.

44
–“Reduce the high cost of living”: quoted by Daniels,
The Wilson Era
, p. 364.

44
–Evening clothes for the meal: I. H. Hoover, p.181.

44
–In a spasmodic fashion: Marx, p. 315.

44
–Many people overate, overdrank, overplayed, overloafed—he really overworked: quoted by Baker,
American Chronicle
, p. 386.

44
–Year in Paris in one month: Daniels,
The Wilson Era
, p. 368.

45
–“Only He Himself could do that”: quoted by Mrs. Wilson, p. 245.

45
–“A selfish bunch”: I. H. Hoover Papers.

46
–“Get the willeys if this keeps up!” quoted by I. H. Hoover, Hoover Papers.

46
–Dealing the cards: Helm, p. 110.

46
–“Madmen”: quoted by Walworth, Vol. II, p. 323.

46
–“Miserable mischief-making”: quoted by Baker,
American Chronicle
, p. 435.

46
–“I don't give a damn for logic!” quoted by McKinley, p. 252.

46
–Vigorously pull him to and fro: Baker,
American Chronicle
, p. 405.

46
–Go to sleep standing up: Creel, p. 233. “Like Dickens' fat boy,” the President added.

46
–“If the Doctor notices it as I do”: Hoover Papers.

46
–“Take up our health routine again”: quoted by Grayson, p. 85.

46
–Headache attributed to Lloyd George: Marx, p. 315.

46
,
47
–Medical details of the illness are from Grayson, p. 85, and Wilson, pp. 248–49. Grayson's suspicion of poison is mentioned in a letter from the doctor to Tumulty: Tumulty, p. 350.

48
–“I will retire in good order”: quoted by Wilson, p. 249.

48
–A cook … a spoiled child: quoted by Walworth, Vol. II, p. 299.

48
,
49
–Changes in the President are noted by I. H. Hoover, pp. 98–99. Baker,
American Chronicle
, p. 430, and Herbert Hoover,
Memoirs
, Vol. I, p. 468.

49
,
50
–Baker's thoughts on the speech: Baker,
American Chronicle
, pp. 436–37.

51
–The driver cried: Helm, p. 111.

51
–“Two boys were killed in battle”: quoted by Grayson, p. 84.

52
–The two Senators who remained seated were Philander C. Knox (R-Pa.) and Medill McCormick (R-Ill.): Longworth, p. 286.

52
–A sureness about the speaker: Stoddard, p. 513. Stoddard's general thoughts about the President were that he regarded himself as “the Messiah of his day, guarding his distinction with the avarice of a miser counting and recounting his gold to make certain that no one had robbed him of any of it.” The journalist also held the President to be the “coldest man I ever looked upon”: p. 487.

53
–“Federation of the World”: Longworth, p. 279. Mrs. Longworth went to stand in the crowd before the White
House on the day the President returned there from Paris. She found the cheering for him to be of a “treble quality, as women predominated”: p. 285. She did not cheer, however, but raised her hand to make the sign of the Evil Eye while she repeated, “A murrain on him, a murrain on him, a murrain on him.” She was very much her father's daughter.

54
–President refused to sit on the same platform with the Senator: Daniels,
The Wilson Era
, p. 471. The President, in making the refusal, wrote the church officials that be found it “impossible with respect to join in any exercises in which he takes part or to associate myself with him in any way.” (December 19, 1916.)

54
,
55
–Details on Lodge's and Roosevelt's opinions on the President: Schriftgiesser, p. 293.

54n
.–“Not a scholar”: Lodge, p. 220.

55
–“Contemptible … Cannot express my contempt”: quoted by Tumulty, pp. 378–79. “Asbestos two inches thick to hold it”: quoted by Walworth, Vol. II, p. 348. The remark was made to Stockton Axson.

56
–“Pearls before swine”: McAdoo made his comment in a private letter to the President.

56
–Senators did not know the real thoughts of their constituents: “Senators do not know what the people are thinking. They are as far from the people, the great mass of the people, as I am from Mars”: quoted by Walworth, Vol. II, p. 338.

57
–“Appeal to Caesar”: quoted by Hatch, p. 199.

59
–The conversation with Senator Watson: Watson, p. 201.

59
–The conversation with Kohlsaat: Kohlsaat, pp. 218–19.

59
–“I must go”: quoted by Grayson, p. 95.

CHAPTER FIVE

The details of the Western tour are largely garnered from clippings taken from newspapers published in cities visited by the President. (The clippings are today in the scrapbooks kept by John Randolph Bolling.) Many of them, however, do not indicate what papers they are from. For this reason, and also because accounts from several New York and Washington papers are interwoven into the narrative, I have not cited the individual publications in the Notes. Uncited details, then, are in every case from newspapers published during the time of the trip in 1919.

59
–“Pure and simple”: quoted by Tumulty, p. 438.

60
–“Fit for the work of tomorrow”:
ibid.
, p. 439.

60
–Tumulty's joke with “Little” Jackson: Wilson, p. 275. One of the few complimentary references to Tumulty in Mrs. Wilson's book is based on the incident: “Mr. Tumulty was a lot of fun on a trip.”

60
–“Such foolish questions”: quoted by Hatch, p. 204.

62
–“Put up or shut up”: The phrase surprised many people. It was not in character for the President to use it.

63
–Headache was continuous for most of the day: Grayson, p. 97. That the President was suffering was not a fact known to the reporters on the trip, nor, of course, to the audiences to whom he spoke.

65
–Grayson felt the President would rest better: Grayson's desire that the president have a good night's rest did not at the time seem a matter of great importance to the reporters.

66
–The incident with the two hobos is described in Wilson, pp. 277–78, and Starling, pp. 148–49.

66f
.–Grayson wrote later, “the journey was a prolonged agony of physical pain”: Grayson, p. 96. Mrs. Wilson described it as “one long nightmare”: Tumulty, p. 435.

67
-
68
–The incident of the little boy with the dime is described in Wilson, p. 277, and Starling, p. 149.

68
–“Evil thing with the holy name”: quoted by Schriftgiesser, p. 311.

68
–Speeches of Senators Johnson, McCormick and Borah: McKenna, pp. 161–62. The three were leading members of what was called the “Battalion of Death.”

69
–Necessary for him to try to sleep sitting up: Grayson, p. 97.

69
–Forehead resting on the back of another chair: Wilson, p. 280.

69
–The telegrams are in the Wilson Papers.

72
,
73
,
74
–The IWW demonstration was not emphasized by the reporters in their stories but was described in a passing fashion. Details here are from “The Assassin of Wilson” by Louis Adamic in the
American Mercury
for October 1930.

72
–Last ounce of strength forward: Daniels,
The Wilson Era
, p. 479.

72
–“Lost his customary force and enthusiasm”: quoted by Jonathan Daniels, p. 292.

72
–In her eyes he looked good again: Hatch, p. 208.

73
–Meeting with IWW men: “The Assassin of Wilson.” The visit of the delegation was briefly reported in the newspapers.

74
–Breckinridge Long, Third Assistant Secretary of State, wrote in his diary that Bullitt “acted like the dishonorable, disreputable and detestable little rat he is.” Long added that Secretary Lansing “should have made
some
statement when confronted by Bullitt's testimony”: Long Papers.

74
–Secretary Lansing returned from a day of bass fishing: Lansing Papers. The Secretary was not successful that day, and the catch was very small. However, he did some quoit pitching, leading one faction of the Fortnightly Club, of which he was president, against another faction. His faction was termed the Dutch, and in his capacity of leader of it, he was addressed as the Prince of Orange. Both fishing and quoit pitching were done on Galloo Island in Lake Ontario, New York.

74
–“Read that … to act in this way!”: quoted by Tumulty, p. 442.

75
–“God help them, yes”: Elliott, p. 297.

75
–“I am the attorney for these children': quoted by Grayson, p. 97.

75
–“They are killing me”: quoted by Walworth, Vol. II, p. 367.

76
–The visit to Janie is described in Grayson, pp. 7–8, and Elliott, pp. 298–99. Mrs. Elliott, however, appears in error when in her book she indicates that the President made the visit accompanied by police, escorts, etc. Actually, as Grayson points out in his book, the trip was made with no fanfare at all: “This episode went practically unnoticed in the daily press. Almost any other public man in the circumstances would have seen to it that the newspapermen got the story.”

76
–“His heart is turning to his young Ellen”: Elliott, p. 299.

76
,
77
–Mrs. Peck's visit described in Wilson, p. 281, Hulbert, pp. 270–77, and Jonathan Daniels, pp. 292–93.

77
,
78
–Fires scorched the sides of the train cars: Grayson remembered for the rest of his life how hot the cars were during the entire trip; the forest fires added a new note of horror: Cary T. Grayson, Jr., to author.

78
–Women and liquor: Baille, pp. 54–55. Baille points out that there was no liquor in the
Mayflower;
there were no women save the First Lady and her maid.

78
,
79
–The events in Salt Lake City, Cheyenne and Denver: Wilson, pp. 281–83.

79
–“Let's go somewhere and rest”: quoted by Hatch, p. 211.

80
–“Idiotic idea”: quoted by Starling, p. 151.

80
–“No business in the White House”:
ibid.
, p. 151.

80
–“Aren't you fellows getting pretty sick of this?” quoted by Wilson, p. 283.

80
–Stumbled over a sentence: Reporter O'Neill, then with the Mount Clemens, Michigan, News Bureau and later with the New York
World
, wrote of his experiences on the trip years later, when the ex-President died. O'Neill remarked that at the time the loss of the thread of the speech surprised the reporters but did not alarm them unduly. It was only after the President collapsed that they realized the significance of the lapse in the President's speech.

The hesitation over the words, however, has become the source of a minor American legend which has it that President Wilson all but gibbered during his Pueblo speech. Lillian Rogers Parks has it in her book, p. 154, that he “mumbled and cried his way through his last incoherent speech.” Mrs. Parks, who was not in Pueblo, is somewhat backed up by Edmund Starling, who was, and who says in his book, p. 152, that the President “mouthed certain words as if he had never spoken them before … he had difficulty following the trend of his thought. It was a travesty of his usual brilliant delivery and fine logic.”

However, both David Lawrence, who was there, and Joseph P. Tumulty, Jr., whose father spoke often of the speech, assure the author that the lapse was as O'Neill described it, and actually quite undramatic.

81
,
82
–The walk in the prairie: Grayson, pp. 97–98, Starling, p. 152, Hatch, p. 213. The stroll was not given great prominence in the dispatches sent by the reporters to their papers. Understandably, a short walk in the air did not appear to merit much attention from the public.

82
–“Pretty good!”: Reporter O'Neill quotes his colleague in his newspaper recollections after the ex-President died.

83
-
85
–Details of the collapse are Grayson, pp. 99–100, Wilson, pp. 284–85, Tumulty, pp. 446–48, Hatch, pp. 214–15.

85
–And I must carry on: Wilson, p. 284.

CHAPTER SIX

87
–Tumulty said … Grayson said: O'Neill.

87
,
88
–Copies of the telegrams are in the Wilson Papers.