Part 8 (1/2)
CHAPTER XVI
THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION
At Sea Girt we kept in close touch with our friends at Baltimore, so that after each ballot the New Jersey candidate was apprised of the result
During the trying days and nights of the Convention the only eager and anxious ones in the fairls The candidate himself indeed see at Balties those ballots reflected to ruffle or disturb him
Never before was the equable disposition of thedays Only once did he show evidences of irritation
It was upon the receipt of word froer Mr McCoates Upon considering this news he i that no one was authorized to make any offer of a Cabinet post for hi without authority from him This caused a flurry in the ranks of our friends in Baltimore and the statement was the subject of heated discussion between the Governor and Mr McCombs over the telephone Of course, I did not hear as said at the other end of the wire, but I remember that the Governor said: ”I am sorry, McCombs, but my statement must stand as I have issued it There must be no conditions whatever attached to the nomination” And there the conversation ended While this colloquy took place I was seated just outside of the telephone booth When the Governor came out he told me of the talk he had had with McCombs, and that their principal discussion was the attempt by McCombs and his friends at Baltimore to exact fros Bryan should not be nareat deal in the way of delegates' votes fro this proain for this office It would be foolish for me at this tieous to eliminate anybody from consideration now, particularly Mr Bryan, who has rendered such fine service to the party in all seasons”
The candidacy of the New Jersey Governor gained with each ballot--only slightly, however--but he was the only candidate who showed an increased vote at each stage of the Convention proceedings The critical period was reached on Thursday night In the early afternoon we had received intiation would throw its support to Champ Clark, and our friends at Baltimore were afraid that if this purpose was carried out it would result in a stampede to Clark We discussed the possibilities of the situation that night after dinner, but up to ten o'clock, when the Governor retired for the night, New York was still voting for Hare and went out to the newspaper rapher in charge of the associated Press as a devoted friend and admirer of the New Jersey candidate There was no one in the tent but the telegrapher and raph instruister The operator looked up from the instru was coe In a tone of voice that indicated its seriousness, he read to e: ”New York casts its seventy-six votes for Champ Clark Great demonstration on”
And then the instru was up” Frankly, I alhts and had had only a few hours' sleep I left the tent, almost in despair, about eleven o'clock, and returned to the Sea Girt cottage, preparatory to going to e the Governor appeared at one of the upper s, clad in his paja at me in the most serious way, said: ”Tu new, Governor” When ere breakfasting together the next ht you could fool ht when I asked if there was any word from Baltimore; but I could tell froone wrong” This was about the first evidence of real interest he had shown in the Balti that prevented Cha the full benefit which would have co of the New York vote in his favour was a question by ”Alfalfa Bill” Murray, a delegate fro to surrender its leadershi+p to the Taer?” This steed the whole face of the Convention
It was evident that on Friday night the deadlock stage of the Convention had been finally reached The Wilson vote had risen to 354, and there rean to look as if the candidacy of the New Jersey Governor had reached its full strength The frantic efforts of the WilsonIndeed, Wilson's case appeared to be hopeless On Saturday , McCombs telephoned Sea Girt and asked for the Governor The Governor took up the 'phone and for a long ti said at the other end I afterward learned that McCombs had conveyed word to the Governor that his case was hopeless and that it was useless to continue the fight, and asked for instructions Whereupon, the following conversation took place in my presence: ”So, McCombs, you feel it is hopeless to make further endeavours?” When McCombs asked the Governor if he would instruct his friends to support Mr Underwood, Mr Wilson said: ”No, that would not be fair I ought not to try to influence hty loyal and kind to enerous support and that they are now free to support any candidate they choose”
In the room at the time of this conversation between McCombs and the New Jersey Governor sat Mrs Wilson and myself When the Governor said to McCoreat tears stood in the eyes of Mrs Wilson, and as the Governor put down the telephone, she walked over to him and in the :
”My dear Woodrow, I a at her, with a srin he felt at the news he had just received, he said: ”My dear, of course I am disappointed, but we must not complain We must be sportsreat load has been lifted from my shoulders” With a smile he remarked that this failure would make it possible for theo for a vacation to the English Lake country--a region loved by the to me, he asked for a pencil and pad and inforratulation to Cha as he left the rooive you the e in a few minutes”
I afterward learned that McCoer Sullivan, who had been infore to the New Jersey Governor, rushed over to McCombs and said to him, ”damn you, don't you do that Sit steady in the boat”
This is the true story of the occurrence so strangely distorted by Mr
McCombs in the book he left for publication after his death, wherein he would ot in a panic and tried to withdraw from the race; whereas the panic was all in the troubled breast of Mr McCombs, a physically frail, morally timid person, constitutionally unfit for the task of conducting such a fight as was being waged in Baltimore More sturdy friends of Governor Wilson at the Convention were busy trying to brace up the halting ainst the desperate odds that faced theer Sullivan of Illinois and W G
McAdoo, the battle would have been lost
The ratulation to Champ Clark was prepared and ready to be put on the wire for transain on Saturday, June 29, 1912 I had argued with the Governor that despite what McCombs had said to him over the 'phone on the previous day I felt that there was still a great deal of latent strength in the Wilson forces in the Convention which was ready to jump into action as soon as it appeared that Champ Clark's case was hopeless The first ballot on Saturday gave weight to ained fifteen or twenty votes, which injected new hope into our forces in the Convention From that time on Wilson steadilyany candidate who received the support of the ”privilege-hunting” class, and atteroup froned in the Convention Hall, but the vote upon the resolutions theates This made the Clark noed public opinion and as a reat conventions was superbly played When he finally threw his trele was over Indiana juht on Wilson received the necessary two-third vote and was proclairessive ele, stubborn fight by what at first was a ressivism, with Woodrow Wilson as the standard bearer To those like reat issue at stake at Baltientleman who visited Sea Girt after the Convention compared the stand of the Liberals in the Convention to the handful at Thermopylae; others cole of Garibaldi and his troops To the outside world it was plain that a great battle for the right was being waged at Baltimore, under the inspiration of a new leadershi+p At times it appeared that the raw Wilson recruits would have to surrender, that they could not withstand the s blows delivered by the trained army which the Conservatives had mobilized But they stood firroup in the Baltimore Convention an unconquerable spirit, akin to that of the Crusaders, and a leadershi+p of ardent , not merely for athese were men like W G McAdoo of New York, A Mitchell Palmer, Joseph Guffey, and Vance McCorhes of New Jersey, and Angus McLean of North Carolina
Although the Wilson forces were largely made up of ”new” men, some of whom had never before been actively interested in politics, co men like McAdoo, Pale Westcott of New Jersey, yet they were drawn to the light that had dawned in New Jersey and were eager and anxious to have that light of inspired leadershi+p given to the nation Judge Westcott fired the Convention with his eloquence and brought showers of applause when he quoted at length from a speech Mr Wilson had made when president of Princeton, and for which he had been hissed, lae Westcott said:
Men are known by what they say and do Men are known by those who hate thereat executive of New Jersey said: ”No ood who does not strive to secure the happiness and comfort of others” This is the secret of his life This is, in the last analysis, the explanation of his power Later, in his h scholarshi+p and sireat voice of A It comes in a murmur from the hills and woods, and the far volume until it comes to us from the homes of common men Do these murmurs echo in the corridors of our universities? I have not heard them” A clarion call to the spirit that now moves A as social injustice and political wrong exist in the state of New Jersey” Here is the very soul of the silent revolution now solidifying sentiment and purpose in our common country
Men in the Convention, overwhelreat hour and the vindication of the bold liberal, Woodrow Wilson, bowed their heads and sobbed aloud The ”ahts of the Old Guard and had won, and thus was brought about, through their efforts, their courage, and their devotion, the dawn of a new day in the politics of the nation
CHAPTER XVII
FACING A SOLEMN RESPONSIBILITY
Shortly after the Deave a dinner at the newspaper e at Sea Girt, to which I invited the Democratic candidate and the newspaper iven a chance to meet him in the most intimate way and obtain from him what he was pleased to call the ”inside” of his mind Upon the conclusion of the dinner, the Democratic candidate opened his heart in a little talk of thecharacter It contained not only his views of the Presidency, but also a frank discussion of the great proble to Mr Roosevelt, he said that he had done a great service in rousing the country froy, and in that work he had rendered ad service, but beyond that he had failed, for he had not, during his administrations, attacked two of the major problems: the tariff and the currency, which he, Wilson, considered to be the heart and centre of the wholeand per Mr Roosevelt, he said: