USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. IV 1896-1920 > Part 11
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The Democrats held their convention to nominate a State ticket at Rochester on September 15. Morgan J. O'Brien was temporary and Alton B. Parker permanent chairman. Until the last minute the leaders were undetermined as to their candidate for Governor. Lieutenant-Governor Chanler had made a campaign through the country districts and had a considerable body of delegates, but Murphy was reluctant to take him. He was the most conspicuous Democratic State official, had been elected when the head of his ticket went down to defeat, and had a considerable popularity with the farmers and labor unionists, but he had worked in harmony with Hughes and had frequently expressed admiration for the Governor. He was thus not well qualified for a campaign that depended entirely on capitalizing the grievances of the various interests hurt by the Governor's reforms. Neither in
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ability nor prestige did he compare favorably with Hughes. Chanler's friends sought to induce Conners to join with them in seizing control of the convention, but he refused. Norman E. Mack, on behalf of the national committee, urged the necessity of harmony to such effect that Murphy consented to the admission of the McCarren faction. On the day before the nomina- tion the Tammany leaders started a movement for Herrick, but he declined to run. Being unable to find any stronger man, Murphy then consented to Chanler's nomination. 36 The only contest on the floor of the convention was over the State Engineer. The name of William R. Hill of Onondaga was placed on the harmony slate, but at the last minute Murphy again showed his hostility to McCarren by naming Philip P. Farley of Kings, an enemy of the Brooklyn Senator, who unavailingly protested, and sought to nominate L. C. L. Smith of Queens. The Democrats joined the Republicans in renominating Judge Haight.37
The platform indorsed Bryan, arraigned the Repub- lican party in the State for gross waste and for the creation of new commissions, sought to make an issue of "Executive usurpation" and personal government, and made a veiled appeal to the racetrack interests by a declaration against sumptuary laws. The Democratic New York World condemned the platform for its
36New York Times and World, September 15, 16, 17, 1908.
37The ticket was: Governor, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler, Dutchess; Lieu- tenant-Governor, John A. Dix, Washington; Secretary of State, John S. Whalen, Monroe; Comptroller, Martin H. Glynn, Albany; Treasurer, Julius Hauser, Suffolk; Attorney-General, George M. Palmer, Schoharie; State Engineer, Philip P. Farley, Kings; Judge of the Court of Appeals, Albert Haight, Erie.
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evasion of the questions with which Hughes had sought to deal, such as stock exchange abuses, traction mismanagement, insurance evils, and lax administra- tion of the laws. It said : "Not only is the Democratic State platform silent on every one of these vital issues, but with incredible folly it attacks the life of the Public Service commission, which alone stands between the people of this city and another looting of its traction system."38
Hearst's Independence League, transformed in this campaign into the Independence party, nominated for Governor Clarence J. Shearn, who had been prominent as Hearst's counsel and personal representative. It also organized as a national party and at Chicago on July 28 nominated Thomas L. Hisgen of Massachusetts for President and John Temple Graves of Georgia for Vice-President. The Prohibitionists at Columbus, Ohio, on July 16, nominated Eugene W. Chafin of Illinois, and Aaron S. Watkins of Ohio, for President and Vice-President. Their candidate for Governor was G. E. Stockwell. The Socialists met in Chicago on May 13 and nominated Eugene V. Debs of Indiana for President and Benjamin Hanford of New York for Vice-President. For Governor they named Joshua Wanhope. A faction of the Socialists, called the Socialist Labor party, put up for President and Vice- President Martin R. Preston of Nevada and Donald Munro of Virginia, their convention being held in New York on July 6. Preston, who was serving a twenty- five year sentence in prison for killing a man, declined
38New York World, September 17, 1908.
STEWART LYNDON WOODFORD
Stewart Lyndon Woodford, diplomat; born in New York City September 3, 1835; graduated from Columbia, 1854; admitted to the bar, 1857; messenger to the presidential electoral college, 1860; assistant U. S. attorney, southern district, 1861- 1862; served in the civil war, 1862-1865; lieutenant governor New York state, 1867-1868; nominated for governor, 1870; president of the electoral college, 1872; elected to the 43d con- gress but resigned July 7, 1874; U. S. attorney, 1877-1883 ; member of the commission to frame the charter for Greater New York, 1896; envoy extraordinary and minister plenipo- tentiary to Spain, 1897 until the war; placed Charles E. Hughes in nomination for the presidency at the Chicago national repub- lican convention in 1908; died at New York City February 14, 1913.
GEORGE BRINTOM MCCLELLAN HARVEY
George Brintom McClellan Harvey, editor; born, Peacham, Vt., February 16, 1864; graduated Peacham academy; was con- secutively reporter for the Springfield Republican, Chicago News and New York World, 1882-1886; insurance commissioner of New Jersey, 1890-1891; managing editor, New York World, 1891-1893; constructor and president of various electric rail- roads, 1894-1898; purchased North American Review and be- came its editor in 1899; purchased Metropolitan Magazine, 1903; editor, Harvey's Weekly since 1903; through his publi- cations was instrumental in procuring the nomination of Wood- row Wilson for president of the United States, but later had difficulties with Mr. Wilson and supported Harding for presi- dent; appointed by President Harding as ambassador to the Court of St. James.
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the nomination, and August Gillhaus of New York was substituted.39 This party put up Leander A. Arm- strong for Governor.
Bryan directed his fire chiefly upon the Roosevelt administration and upon Taft as the heir of the Roosevelt policies. He was early brought into personal controversy with the President, who attacked Charles M. Haskell, treasurer of the Democratic national com- mittee, charging that as Governor of Oklahoma he had hampered government procedure against Standard Oil interests. Bryan defended his treasurer, but the latter soon found it expedient to retire, and Herman Ridder of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung took his place. Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor, attempted to turn the organized labor vote against the Republicans, but without much success ; for while Roosevelt had opposed some of the demands of labor unions for special legal immunities, both he and Taft were generally regarded as unusually open- minded in their attitude toward social questions.
Bryan himself in his campaign laid much stress on his proposal for the guarantee of bank deposits, but aroused no general response. Neither did his scheme for a quantitative appraisement of corporations to determine the difference between an oppressive trust and an honest enterprise stir up any enthusiasm. Bryan had no chance of carrying New York, and interest in the campaign centered on the contest between Hughes and Chanler, both of whom made extended speaking tours. Hughes pursued his opponent with pointed
39 New International Year Book, 1908.
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questions, asking him to be specific in his opposition to commissions and say what powers he would take away from the bodies that Hughes had created. He met the "personal liberty" issue by saying that he was not attacking anybody's personal liberty, but that he had no apologies to make for enforcing the Constitution.40 He made effective use of the activities of the Personal Liberty League, an organization that announced that it was fighting for the life of racing and urged support of Chanler. 41 Chanler was finally forced to say that he did not favor the repeal of the Agnew-Hart law. He favored the regulation of public utilities, but wanted the Public Service Commissioners elected.42 He sought to embarrass Hughes by a series of pitfall ques- tions, but the Governor outmatched him in dialectics and skillfully drove him from point to point. Never- theless, Hughes found himself fighting against great odds; yet he turned his attention from his own battle long enough to go into the middle west and do for the national ticket what was generally regarded as the most effective campaigning done by any public speaker, especially in his analysis of Bryan's trust programme. Taft was overwhelmingly elected, having a popular plurality of over 1,200,000 votes and carrying twenty-nine States. Besides the southern States, Bryan carried only Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada, and Okla- homa. Taft had 321 Electoral votes and Bryan 162. Taft won New York by the phenomenal plurality of
40New York Times, October 22, 1908.
41New York Times, October 24, 1908.
42New York Times, October 22, 1908.
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202,602. The vote was : Taft, 870,070; Bryan, 667,468 ; Hisgen (Independence party), 35,817; Debs (Social- ist), 38,451; Chafin (Prohibition), 22,667; Gillhaus (Socialist Labor), 3,877.
Hughes was cut heavily in New York and Buffalo and other cities where the sporting element was strong, but in general the party organization supported him loyally. He received 69,462 plurality, 11,565 more than in 1906. The vote was: Hughes, 804,651; Chanler, 735,189; Clarence J. Shearn (Independence), 43,212; Joshua Wanhope (Socialist), 33,994; G. E. Stockwell (Prohibition), 18,802; L. A. Armstrong (Socialist Labor), 3,655. The rest of the Republican State ticket was elected by pluralities ranging from 144,068 for O'Malley down to 96,849 for Gaus, who appeared at once as the representative of Barnes and as an opponent of Martin H. Glynn, who was person- ally popular and as State Comptroller had worked harmoniously with Hughes. The Republicans elected 26 of the 47 Congressmen, and carried both houses of the Legislature. Thirty-five Republican and 16 Demo- cratic Senators, and 98 Republican and 51 Democratic Assemblymen, were elected, with one vacancy. Wads- worth was elected Speaker for his fourth term.
CHAPTER XI THE TIDE TURNS AGAINST ROOSEVELT 1909-1910
T HOMAS C. PLATT'S term in the Senate expired on March 3, 1909. His broken health precluded his continuance in office even if the loyalty of his old-time followers had been sufficient to force his reelection. Woodruff wanted to succeed him and went about lining up organization leaders with whom, as State chairman, his influence was potent. But a still stronger influence came from Washington, and it was backed by the force of the same public opinion that had compelled the organization to accept Hughes. Taft wished Elihu Root to remain at the head of the State department. When Root declined to do this, both Taft and Roosevelt planned to place him in the Senate, where the new administration could still have the benefit of his experience and ability. At first Wood- ruff showed no disposition to retire. He was weary of having great offices snatched from him just as he seemed about to attain them. He had taken his disappoint- ment over the Vice-Presidency and the Governorship in good temper. He knew that Root would not enter any scramble for office and believed that, if by making a contest he could keep Root out of the field, he would
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have a good chance against such lesser possible rivals as Black, ex-Congressman Wadsworth, and Congress- men Bennet and Parsons.1
The Brooklyn Senators and Assemblymen indorsed his candidacy on November 13.2 Three days later Root announced that while he was not seeking the office he would accept it, and on November 19 the New York county committee, under the inspiration of Parsons, passed resolutions favoring Root.3 Woodruff still
persisted in his determination to run. Most of the organization leaders were sympathetic with him, but were disinclined to back him in a fight against the administration. Barnes, on whom he urged his claims, refused to give aid, on the ground that there was no logic in his candidacy. If he had stood with Barnes in the last ditch against Hughes the "Old Guard" might have been in position to fight for him, but when he surrendered to Roosevelt on the Governorship he sur- rendered, in the opinion of Barnes, the organization case against the new politics. Finally, at the end of November, after a visit to the President-elect at Hot Springs, Virginia, Woodruff announced his withdrawal in deference to. Taft's desire for Root's cooperation in Washington. With Woodruff out of the way, no other candidate cared to enter the lists against Root, who received a unanimous nomination in the Republican caucus of January 18. In presenting his name Raines paid a feeling tribute to Platt, and took occasion to show
1New York Times and World, November 12, 1908.
2New York Times, November 14, 1908.
3New York Times, November 17, 20, 1908.
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[909
his bitterness toward Hughes by saying that Root was one who "did not see in party activity any disqualifica- tion for political preferment."4 The next day Root received a majority vote of both houses. The Demo- crats gave their complimentary support to Chanler.
Governor Hughes in his second inaugural address, evidently speaking from the experience that he had had in the Kelsey case, dwelt on the inconvenience due to the lack of centralized Executive authority, and urged that the Governor should have direct control of the heads of all administrative departments, making the State system analogous to that of the Federal govern- ment. A few days later, in his message, he recom- mended mandatory direct nominations for all elective officers except Presidential Electors. He also called for a simplified party ballot without party columns. The Republican Legislature, however, was in no mood to cooperate with him. The rural county leaders had just been deprived of local patronage incident to the new Highway law passed at the previous session. The law created fifty-two county Superintendents of High- ways to be elected by the Boards of Supervisors. Most of the county services were unclassified under the Civil Service law, and the leaders looked eagerly to the filling of the places. They were disappointed, there- fore, when the Civil Service commission passed an unprecedented resolution extending the civil service rules to this office in all counties, and the Governor approved it. Some were inclined to consider it a political attack by the Governor, though in reality it
4New York Times, January 19, 1909.
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had no such purpose and the action did not proceed from the Governor but was initiated by the Civil Service commission, whose president, Charles F. Milliken, an organization Republican, brought to the attention of his associates the need of safeguarding the highway improvement from inefficient local manage- ment. The Governor finally secured his long desired reorganization of the Insurance department by placing William H. Hotchkiss at its head, when Otto Kelsey resigned on January 13 to become deputy to Comp- troller Gaus. But his other measures were blocked by the Legislature.
The movement in the Republican party for direct nominations first showed considerable strength in Kings county, where the Republican organization committed itself to the principle. When, however, Hughes proposed a permissive trial of the system, Woodruff and the Brooklyn Republicans opposed him on the ground that it must be made mandatory; other- wise their opponents, if they did not adopt it, would have an unfair advantage in campaigning. When the Governor accepted their view and came out for a mandatory law, they nevertheless joined with Barnes and Wadsworth and the ruling powers of the Legisla- ture to defeat him. As soon as Hughes came to putting his plan into concrete form, he saw the dangers of a method of nomination that made success dependent chiefly on skillful publicity work and excluded thoughtful consideration of party policies and of the political and geographical elements of a balanced ticket. He therefore sought to democratize parties by
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destroying the self-perpetuating machines and electing the party committees annually in each district by popular vote and leaving the party committees to pro- pose nominations to be submitted to the people along with other nominations that party members might make by petition. All nominations for party committees must be made by petition so that the incumbents, the so-called "organization," could not retain power unless they really represented the majority of the party in their districts. This plan was embodied in the Hinman-Green bill. It did not please the radical advocates of the western type of direct government, who were inspired by the same desire to abolish the historic American representative system that manifested itself in the movement for the referendum and recall. Nor did it harmonize with the southern method, which was the product of the peculiar condition in that section where elections were a mere formality and the Democratic party primary the real election, and therefore the natural forum for the direct popular vote. It was, however, a carefully thought out plan, aimed to preserve to the political parties the advantages of responsible leadership while preventing the parties from being made the private properties of the leaders.
The Assembly, on April 8, killed the measure by a vote of 112 to 28, and at the same time defeated the Governor's bill to regulate telephones and telegraphs by a vote of 98 to 37. On the same day Hughes, com- menting on the attitude of the party organization toward his reforms and the complaints that he did not
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stand by his party, said in a speech at Rochester: "It is not loyalty to party spirit which occasions the trouble, but loyalty to special interests, which seek to control the party and utilize the party machinery. When last year it was sought to make the law of the State corre- spond with the mandate of the Constitution and to abolish a pernicious discrimination in aid of public gambling, was it party spirit that filled the lobbies of the Capitol and animated the opponents of the meas- ure?"5
The legislative machine was too well entrenched for the Governor to hope to repeat his success of the year before in a special session. He was, in fact, ahead of public sentiment. The desire for more progressive party government was strong and growing, but feeling so far was largely directed against individual leaders who had made themselves affirmatively offensive or had merely stayed too long before the public and acquired the name of boss. On the other hand, many thoughtful men anxious for reform, among them Seth Low, did not accept the principles involved in the Governor's measure and were doubtful of its practical results. The New York World, which believed in the theory of direct nominations and thought such a law as the Governor proposed inevitable, thus explained the situation : "Without waiting to educate the voters, Governor Hughes tossed his political idealism into the scales against the organizations of both parties and was overbalanced."6 The Legislature appointed a joint
5New York Times, April 9, 1909.
€New York World, April 9, 1909.
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committee to examine into primary systems of other States, for the purpose of preparing a measure that would meet the demand for primary reforms but would still be free from the provisions of the Hinman-Green bill that were objectionable to the leaders of both parties. It also appointed a joint committee to investi- gate the subject of regulation of telephone and tele- graph companies for the purpose of submitting to the Legislature a maturely considered measure free from the objections to the Governor's bill, especially to its application to independent country lines, which were not intended to be affected but which under its terms would have been so burdened with expense as to have rendered their continued existence impossible. The Legislature also passed an act to establish a State reser- vation at Saratoga Springs. Agitation in the news- papers, especially the New York World, over Stock Exchange abuses led the Governor in December, 1908, to appoint a commission to investigate speculation in securities and commodities, of which Horace White, editor of the New York Evening Post and an eminent financial authority, was chairman. The report of this commission, made on June 7, 1909, was useful in clear- ing away many misconceptions regarding speculation and showing the necessary part that exchanges play in the operation of business.
Interest in the fall campaign centered chiefly in New York City, where the opposition elements again attempted to wrest control from Tammany. Mayor McClellan through most of his second term was at odds with Murphy and prevented him from having
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full sway, but abuses were rife in the offices of the Tammany Borough Presidents, two of whom were removed on charges by the Governor. John F. Ahearn of Manhattan was displaced in December, 1907, and reelected by the Tammany Board of Aldermen, and Louis F. Haffen of the Bronx in August, 1909. A third, Joseph Bermel of Queens, resigned under charges in April, 1908. Murphy adopted his characteristic tactics of going outside the Tammany ranks for a candidate, and nominated William J. Gaynor, who had oppor- tunely allowed himself to be brought before the public by an independent petition. The Republicans sought to combine with Hearst against Tammany, and did so in giving support to William A. Prendergast for Comp- troller, John Purroy Mitchel for President of the Board of Aldermen, George McAneny for President of the Borough of Manhattan, and candidates for the other Borough Presidencies ; but Hearst would not join them on the Mayoralty. He ran himself, while the Repub- licans nominated Otto Bannard. Gaynor was elected, receiving 250,378 votes to 177,304 for Bannard and 154,187 for Hearst. The Hearst-Republican fusion elected Prendergast, Mitchel, and McAneny, and secured control of the Board of Estimate, so that Tam- many was practically out of power for the next four years despite its nominal victory in electing the inde- pendent Gaynor. Herbert P. Coats of Saranac Lake was elected to fill the vacancy in the Thirty-fourth Senatorial district caused by the death of William T. O'Neil. The vote for Assembly showed signs of a reaction against the Republicans in the loss of five
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seats. The Assembly stood : Republicans, 94; Demo- crats, 54; Union Citizens' League, 1; Independence League, 1. Four constitutional amendments were submitted to the people and approved by majorities ranging from 30,000 to 83,000. One fixed the salaries of Supreme Court Justices and abolished extra allow- ances; the second gave the Legislature power to alter the rate of interest on State debts; the third authorized the Legislature to add to the powers of County Auditors; and the fourth excepted from consideration in computing the debt limit of New York City debt incurred for self-sustaining improvements, such as sub- ways. The people also voted by a plurality of 69,000 for the improvement of the Cayuga and Seneca canals. Wadsworth was elected Speaker for his fifth term.
The death of John Raines on December 16, 1909, forced the Republicans of the Senate to choose a new leader, and, in doing so, more sharply than ever to de- fine the differences between the Governor and his op- ponents. The reform element in the Senate revolted against the selection for President pro tem. of Jotham P. Allds and refused to enter the caucus. Allds had been chairman of the committee on ways and means and majority leader in the Assembly when controlled by Platt and Odell, and in the Senate a conspicuous member of the organization forces. His election was generally considered a notice to the Governor that the machine would stand its ground against many of his proposed reforms, in which policy the Governor's opponents had the support of most of the Democratic minority under Grady, who after the death of Patrick H. McCarren on
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October 23, 1909, had no rival in experience or resourcefulness on that side of the house. Like Allds, Grady was denounced in the newspapers as a member of the "Black Horse Cavalry," a name given by some of the legislative correspondents to what they charged was a bipartisan group of politicians working together for their own selfish purposes.
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