USA > Massachusetts > Commonwealth history of Massachusetts, colony, province and state, volume 5 > Part 17
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While the Democrats were rejoicing over their national success, Massachusetts Republicans turned to Henry Cabot Lodge, then a member of the national House of Representa- tives, as the successor of the venerable Senator Dawes, who retired after a long and honorable service. Lodge was admir- ably equipped for his new duties by education and training, and took his seat under a Democratic President, his certificate of election signed by a Democratic governor. The new Sen- ator from Massachusetts was assigned to the desk occupied for many years by Charles Sumner, one of his political idols.
FIRST FOREIGN-BORN STATE GOVERNOR (1893 -1894)
The governor announced towards the end of his third term his determination to retire; and the party turned hopefully to John E. Russell, a distinguished, scholarly Democrat, some years before elected to Congress from the Worcester district on a free-trade platform. But John E. was not as good a vote getter as William E .; and the Republican nominee, ex- Congressman Frederick T. Greenhalge, one of the congres- sional victims of the Democratic landslide in 1890, recovered the State for the Republicans. Born in England, Mr. Green- halge received his education in the public schools of Lowell and at Harvard College. He was one of the early advocates of equal suffrage, and while Governor recommended extend- ing municipal suffrage to women. The House passed such an act, but the senate, the legislative graveyard, buried it with scant consideration.
An event in the Greenhalge administration which was cele- brated with ringing of bells and booming of cannon was the abolishing of the old-time official Fast Day and the making of April 19, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, a legal
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FREE SILVER CONTROVERSY
holiday in its stead. The spirit of Fast Day had long dis- appeared. It was given over to sports and merrymaking. As a day of prayer and fasting it was a joke. Another patriotic feature of the same year was the turning over by the Federal Government of a number of battle flags of Massa- chusetts regiments in the Civil War. With appropriate cere- mony, they were placed with the other mementoes of that war in the Hall of Flags, at the State House. That same year Massachusetts paid in full the last of its Civil War loans, amounting to $2,279,000.
Within a few weeks of his third inauguration in 1895, the State was shocked to hear of the death of Governor Green- halge. ' Lieutenant-Governor Roger Wolcott became acting governor. Mr. Greenhalge was the only governor of foreign birth since General Thomas Gage, British governor of the rebellious Colony, who left town rather hurriedly in 1776.
EFFECT OF THE FREE-SILVER CONTROVERSY (1896)
The money question split the Bay-State Democracy wide apart in the presidential campaign of 1896; and the breach was not healed until almost a decade later, when a reunited Democratic party elected a fourth governor in the person of William L. Douglas. At the spring State convention for the choice of delegates to the national convention, George Fred Williams, a stout defender of the gold standard while a mem- ber of Congress, was chosen one of the delegates at large. He created a commotion in political circles soon afterwards by declaring for silver. The Gold Democrats prevailed upon former Governor Russell to go to Chicago and aid in the fight to prevent control of the party by the radicals and silver men; but the "gold bugs," as they were called, were badly defeated, and for president the convention nominated Wil- liam J. Bryan of Nebraska, apostle of the free-silver crusade. Arthur Sewall of Maine was named for Vice-President. The Gold Democrats bolted Bryan, and named Palmer and Buckner as their presidential ticket. Massachusetts Republicans were pledged to Thomas B. Reed for President; but the convention nominated William Mckinley of Ohio, on a gold platform, in the drafting of which Senator Lodge had a hand. Soon
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after his nomination, Mr. Bryan visited New England as the guest of Sewall, his running mate on the ticket. The night he spoke on Boston Common, it was packed as far as the eye could reach. The enthusiasm of the crowd knew no bounds ; but on election day Democratic Boston gave a Republican majority-proof that people do not always vote the way they cheer.
At the start of the State campaign, Williams and his fol- lowers shut out their opponents from the State convention, held at old Music Hall, in Boston. A body of deposed dele- gates forgathered at Faneuil Hall. Williams received nominations for governor from both conventions, but declined the Faneuil Hall designation, knowing that none of the parti- cipants in that convention intended to support him on election day. The Gold Democrats nominated Frederick O. Prince, former mayor of Boston, for governor. Governor Wolcott was the Republican nominee to succeed himself. His plurality in the State in 1896 was above 150,000. Winthrop Murray Crane, destined to become a leading political figure in State and national affairs, was at the same time elected lieutenant governor, defeating Colonel Samuel E. Winslow, of Wor- cester, for the nomination after a hard fight. It was his first political office and his introduction to Massachusetts politics.
THE WOLCOTT ADMINISTRATION (1896-1898)
Governor Wolcott came of fine old Puritan stock. He had served his party in the city government of Boston and in the legislature. He was a handsome man, of commanding pres- ence, good breeding, and liberal education. His administration was dignified; but few important laws found their way to the statute books during the three years of his governorship. Through the efforts of Senator Hoar, the manuscript of Gov- ernor William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation, found in London and supposed to have been taken by the British on their evacuation of Boston in the Revolutionary War, was returned to the State and is carefully preserved in the State Library.
War was declared against Spain in April, 1898, growing out of Cuban conditions and the blowing up of the United
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THE BATES ADMINISTRATION
States battleship Maine in Havana Harbor. In February, soon after the Maine was blown up, Governor Wolcott asked the legislature for $500,000 for military expenses. Within twenty-five minutes the resolve was passed and became a law. Massachusetts troops were first in the field, as they were in the Revolution, the Civil War, and the World War. The Yankee Division, a large part of which was made up of Bay State troops, was the first National Guard division to reach France in the last of these conflicts, in 1917.
GOVERNOR CRANE (1899-1902)
Lieutenant Governor Crane succeeded Roger Wolcott in the gubernatorial chair, and served what had become the customary three terms. His inaugural address was his first public speech. He never made a stump speech in his political career, and there is no record of a formal speech by him in the nine years he served in the Senate of the United States. He gave the State a good clean business administration, in- cluding little party politics on Beacon Hill. The most notable piece of legislation was the authorization of the lease of the Fitchburg Railroad to the Boston & Maine, and of the Bos- ton & Albany to the New York Central. In the latter road the Crane family were large stockholders.
Josiah Quincy, descendant of the famous politician and educator of the same name, led the Democratic forlorn hope in 1901. Another distinguished descendant of a famous line in Massachusetts was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, whom Presi- dent Roosevelt appointed Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. For more than thirty years he has maintained the high reputation of the Massachusetts judiciary, and in his ninetieth year is still one of the active young old men of the bench of the highest court in the land, beloved by his friends and admired by the public for his irreproachable character and independent thinking.
THE BATES ADMINISTRATION (1903-1904)
John L. Bates, who had served as Speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor, was destined from 1903 to 1904 to
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POLITICAL READJUSTMENTS
succeed Crane in the governorship. He fell out with some of the practical politicians who had helped him climb polit- ically, ignoring them in the distribution of patronage. His appointment of Judge Emmons as police commissioner of Boston proved unpopular. The commissioner was too much of a reformer, and was severely criticised for his attempt to run a cosmopolitan city like a country village. To add to Governor Bates's troubles, a lobbyist alleged that he had loaned him money. The cashed checks bearing the governor's en- dorsement were published. In the face of financial dealings with a lobbyist, his difference with his former supporters, and Judge Emmons's unpopularity, Governor Bates was reelected.
But it was evident that the tide had set against him; and in the presidential year 1904, while Roosevelt carried the State by 90,000, Bates lost it to the Democratic candidate, William L. Douglas, by more than 30,000. Organized labor took an active part in the canvass on behalf of the Democratic guber- natorial candidate, punishing Bates for his veto of labor measures. In the midst of the campaign the venerable Sen- ator Hoar died, and in his place Governor Bates appointed Ex-Governor Crane.
SENATOR HOAR
Senator Hoar died a poor man, but he left a rich legacy to his family-a good name, an unblemished public record, un- tainted by selfishness or sordid motives. In his long public career at the nation's capital, he saw men in the public serv- ice grow rich, some honorable and others not over scrupulous how they acquired wealth; but the breath of avarice never polluted his nature. He never hesitated to say that his party or his associates in public life were wrong, if that was his belief. This independence he inherited from his ancestors.
Puritan of Puritans, Senator Hoar was cosmopolitan and broadminded in most matters. A man of culture, he saw things from a broad viewpoint. To the immigrants of alien races he extended the hand of fellowship, and bade them partake of the bread of liberty. His great heart went out to the poor, the suffering struggling peoples of the world. His eloquent voice was ever raised for freedom, and he took his stand be-
HEARST IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS 177
side the patriot in every effort for equal rights wherever the contest was waged. When he died, his neighbors reared a noble bronze statue of him in Worcester, where he made his home after he reached manhood's estate.
BARTLETT-GUILD CONTEST (1905)
In this period the popularity of President Roosevelt affected State politics in all of the New England States; and a special local interest affected Massachusetts.
Governor Douglas was a self-made man, a practical man who had worked up to the headship of a great shoe-manufac- turing business at Brockton. He was well liked by the labor interests, but little acquainted with politics and legislation. He was satisfied with one term, and the Democrats nominated in his stead General Charles W. Bartlett of his military staff. Henry M. Whitney, a leading business man, foremost in the Canadian reciprocity movement, was named for second place on the ticket. Many Massachusetts business men at that time favored reciprocity, believing that it would be a benefit to New England.
The position of Curtis Guild, Jr., the Republican nominee for governor, was satisfactory to them ; but Draper, the candi- date for lieutenant governor, was opposed to the reciprocity scheme and roundly denounced it. The reciprocitarians, well organized and financed, backed Whitney against Draper; but the latter managed to squeeze through with a scant 2000 plurality. Even Guild's plurality was below the average, in- dicating that the Republicans were riding for another fall. Guild was popular. For years he had been one of his party's most effective campaigners. He was active in militia circles, and served on the staff of General Fitzhugh Lee in the Span- ish War with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
HEARST IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS (1906)
The radical Democrats pushed aside the conservative ele- ment in the party in 1906 and nominated District Attorney John B. Moran, of Suffolk County, for governor. He had stirred up things at the Court House. His opponents charged him with using his office to make political capital. Men of
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POLITICAL READJUSTMENTS
high standing were haled before him and questioned as an old-time police magistrate would examine a culprit. William R. Hearst, of New York, the owner of several metropolitan newspapers, was nursing the hope of being the Democratic candidate for President in 1908; and he organized a local branch of his "Independence League," manned by employees of his Boston newspaper. In addition to the Democratic nom- ination, Moran also had the endorsements of the Prohibition- ists and the Hearst organization. The Republicans renom- inated their gubernatorial ticket of the year, before, and the State witnessed one of the most exciting and sensational cam- paigns in years.
Moran was an attractive speaker and a great campaigner. Among other things he charged that Governor Guild had appointed Senator Dana to the bench because the latter, as president of the Senate, prevented the Overtime Bill from going to him-the same measure that helped defeat Governor Bates. Several times during his stumping tour Moran col- lapsed on the platform. It was charged by his opponents that this was done to gain sympathy, but intimate friends knew that he was suffering from the disease which ere long was to kill him. Guild was reelected by 30,000 plurality; Lieutenant Governor Draper had only 9,000 to spare.
WHITNEY-GUILD CAMPAIGN (1907)
Moran's big vote encouraged the Democrats to believe that they were again within hailing distance of the governorship; but early in the following year Moran announced that his health would not permit him to make another campaign. The "safe and sane" Democrats, taking courage, brought out Henry M. Whitney for governor. The question of a merger of the Boston & Maine and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroads was being agitated and discussed on the platform and in the press. Mr. Whitney was a Boston & Maine director, and many believed that his candidacy was in- volved in the proposed railroad merger.
Although but one Democratic convention was called, two rival conventions were held simultaneously in Springfield. The anti-Whitney men controlled the State committee and issued
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THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
pink admission tickets to their friends. When the Whitney supporters appeared, they found their opponents in complete control of the hall and a convention in full swing. General Charles W. Bartlett had already been nominated by the pink- ticketers. The handful of Whitney men who gained admis- sion organized another convention in the rear of the hall and nominated a State ticket, going through a sort of Punch and Judy show. The State Ballot Law Commission found that Whitney was the regular Democratic nominee. George Fred Williams declared the decision to be "the worst political scan- dal in the history of the State."
For the second time Governor Guild was saved by Demo- cratic votes. Time has justified the attitude the "pink ticket" leaders took toward Mr. Whitney. Subsequent events proved that Wall Street financiers had looted New England railroad treasuries ; and railroad securities, formerly gilt-edged, fell to a fraction of their original worth, and have never recovered their former value.
MASSACHUSETTS IN THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN (1908)
"You'll take me or Taft," was President Roosevelt's ulti- matum to the Republican leaders of the country in the 1908 presidential campaign. He selected William Howard Taft, Secretary of War in his Cabinet, as his successor in the White House. Many prominent leaders of the party disliked Roose- velt's attempt to dictate the presidential nomination, and rallied behind the candidacy of Vice President Fairbanks. Among them was Senator Crane of Massachusetts, who headed a movement in Massachusetts to send an uninstructed delegation to the convention. Defeated in a majority of the district con- vention, the anti-Taft men kept up the fight and carried it to the State convention, where a compromise was reached and an agreement made not to press a resolution pledging the State delegation.
Senator Lodge was the presiding officer of the National Convention, and the thirty-two votes from Massachusetts were cast for Taft, who was nominated-a big victory for Colonel Roosevelt. Governor Guild's name was placed before the convention for Vice President; but that honor went to James
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POLITICAL READJUSTMENTS
S. Sherman of New York, the leaders taking the ground that New York's big block of electoral votes was more important than Massachusetts's eighteen, which were sure to be cast for the Republican ticket regardless of who was the candidate.
In 1908 the Democratic pendulum had swung back to Bryan; and Massachusetts sent a delegation to Denver, the convention city, favorable to the nomination of the Nebras- kan, and for a third time he led the party to a crushing defeat. Taft's majority in the State rose above 100,000. Governor Guild stepped aside in the gubernatorial contest, and Lieu- tenant Governor Draper was nominated to succeed him. This plan of promoting the lieutenant governor became known as the "escalator process." Under it, if the governor's under- study behaves and the machine does not break down, he eventually reaches the gubernatorial landing.
James H. Vahey, the Democratic candidate, made a lively canvass, receiving 168,000 votes; but Draper won by a plural- ity of 6,000. Bryan, the Democratic presidential candidate, was begrudgingly given 200 plurality in Boston, the great Democratic stronghold. Three Democrats were elected to Congress, all in the Boston districts. In the case of Congress- man O'Connell, in the Tenth district, his Republican opponent, J. Mitchel Galvin, contested his election, but Congress per- mitted the contestee to retain his seat. Eben S. Draper, the newly elected governor, had the courage of his convictions. He had little use for frauds and shams in politics, and did not hesitate to denounce them. Organized labor had been his unrelenting opponent since his entrance into public life.
NEW FIGURES IN MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS (1909)
Vahey's candidacy of 1908 demonstrated that when a real Democrat ran he could get the party vote. His big vote, one year after the turbulent "pink ticket convention," caused thoughtful Republicans to regard him as more than a routine politician. He was renominated in 1909. A new figure on the Democratic political horizon loomed up quite unex- pectedly in the summer of 1909. Eugene N. Foss, a leader in the Canadian reciprocity movement and a lifelong Repub- lican, consented to accept the Democratic nomination for
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GOVERNOR FOSS
lieutenant governor. The campaign was waged with vigor on both sides. The Foss candidacy attracted more Republican attention than Vahey's. The Republican ticket was success- ful by a slim margin. It needed no prophet to see what was going on in the minds of the voters. In addition to their own burdens, the Republicans were carrying the load of Taft's administration at Washington, which was increasing in un- popularity.
GOVERNOR Foss (1910)
On the death of Congressman Lovering of the Cape dis- trict, the Democrats nominated Foss, who had only a short time before changed political coats as a candidate for the House of Representatives. He made his fight in this strong Republican district against "Cannonism" and "Aldrichism," terms used by those opposed to the arbitrary rule of Speaker Cannon in the National House and the newly enacted tariff bill, sponsored by Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island. Foss was chosen by a majority of more than 5000 votes.
Encouraged by the growing revolt against the Republican party, Charles S. Hamlin, a popular Democrat, threw his hat into the gubernatorial ring. Congressman Foss followed suit. For technical reasons the sense of the members of the conven- tion was taken by a mail vote of the delegation.
It was announced a few days later that Foss had received 495 votes, the exact number necessary for a choice, and Ham- lin had received 484. Notwithstanding grumbling by the Democrats over the way the nomination was handled, they united on the candidate and supported him at the polls. Foss was ridiculed by the Republicans as the "mail-order candi- date." Boston gave Foss a plurality of 27,000, and he was elected.
In 1910 there was another Democratic tidal-wave in na- tional politics. A Democratic Congress was elected: Con- necticut, Ohio, Nebraska, New York, and Wyoming all chose Democratic governors. Oyster Bay, the home of Roosevelt, Cincinnati, Taft's home city, and Nahant, Lodge's town, went Democratic.
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POLITICAL READJUSTMENTS
THE LODGE CONTROVERSY (1911)
For the next three years Eugene N. Foss played a conspicu- ous part in Massachusetts political affairs. He announced his determination to retire Senator Lodge from public life. Lodge was not without staunch friends, even among Demo- crats, and they rallied about him with a loyalty that touched him. Governor Foss proposed that the election of a Senator be deferred for one year, in order to permit the voters at the next election to indicate their senatorial preference ; but Lodge ignored the proposition, which had no legal basis. The Sen- ator's friends arranged for a demonstration in his behalf at Symphony Hall, Boston, where he rendered an account of his stewardship in a memorable speech which stirred his sym- pathetic audience. Even after the caucus of the Republican members of the legislature, the fight was not over; for some of his own party refused to the end to vote for him. Sher- man L. Whipple, a prominent Boston lawyer, received the Democratic nomination. At the joint convention of both houses of the legislature, Lodge was reelected by a narrow margin.
LOCAL CONTROVERSY (1911)
The Republicans seldom had to worry about the speaker- ship of the Massachusetts House, but the recent election gave them only a slim majority in the lower branch of the legis- lature. The Democrats needed but nine more votes to control the House. They put forth as their candidate for Speaker a veteran Boston politician, an intense Democrat, Martin M. Lomasney. He was unable to rally all the members of his own party to his support ; but there was reason to fear that enough Republicans would break away to make a majority for Lomas- ney, and the Republicans resorted to the new expedient of an open ballot and saved the day. Speaker Walker was reelected. The legislature was called upon during the session to fill two important State offices. The death of William M. Olin, sec- retary of state, and Henry E. Turner, State auditor, opened a bitter and partisan contest; eventually Albert P. Langtry was chosen secretary. John E. White was the successful competitor for the auditorship.
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MASSACHUSETTS DELEGATION
William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic national leader, visited Boston early in March, 1911, and was the guest of both branches of the legislature and entertained the members with one of his characteristic speeches. Mr. Bryan pronounced Governor Foss "the hottest thing in the Progressive line" he had run across in the East. The session of 1911 was the longest in the history of the State, occupying 206 calendar days, resulting in 719 acts and 153 resolves. Several times the legislators manifested a desire to be prorogued.
Republicans and a few Democrats treated with scorn many of the governor's suggestions for legislation. His official message writer kept the sergeant-at-arms busy, doing escort duty for veto messages. Democrats joined with Republicans in passing measures over his veto. In the middle of July, while the House was discussing his veto of the increase of their salaries from $750 a year to $1000, the seventy-eighth message from the governor arrived and was received with groans, cat calls, and hisses, and talked to death.
Apparently the more the legislators ridiculed the governor, the stronger he grew in the estimation of the public. For the first time in the history of the State, Democratic lawyers were given something near a fair representation on the bench. There is little doubt that Governor Foss's appointment of Democratic judges contributed more to his reelection than any one factor in the campaign. He defeated his opponent with comparative ease in the election of 1911.
BATTLE FOR MASSACHUSETTS DELEGATION (1912)
In the spring of 1912, Massachusetts became an important battle ground in the contest for delegates to the Republican convention for the nomination of President. While on a visit to Boston friends, Colonel Roosevelt issued his favorable and historic reply to seven Progressive governors asking him to be a candidate for President. He also addressed the Mas- sachusetts legislature. President Taft also came to Boston. He was the guest of the South Boston Citizens' Association and the Charitable Irish Society in the dual celebration of Evacuation Day and the anniversary of Ireland's patron saint. Taft, too, addressed the legislature, taking issue with Colonel
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