USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. IV 1896-1920 > Part 18
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The instrument was submitted in three parts: The article on taxation; the article on apportionment; and the rest of the revised Constitution. The vote against it was overwhelming. The Tax article was beaten by 924,571 to 346,922; the Apportionment article by 891,337 to 371,588. The Constitution in general was defeated by 910,462 to 400,423. Two other amendments proposed by the Legislature were defeated at the same time. The vote on the amendment to give the suffrage to women was: Negative, 748,332; affirmative, 553,348. The proposition to allow the Legislature to alter the interest on State bonds, in order to relieve the taxpayers of a burden due to miscalculation of sinking fund requirements, a proposition against which there was no reasoned objection, failed by a vote of 725,748 to 430,423. On the other hand, the electors did exercise enough discrimination to approve an issue of
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[1915-16
$27,000,000 of bonds to complete the barge canal, by a vote of 625,159 to 580,242.
For the first time since Governor Roosevelt removed Asa Bird Gardiner from office in 1900, Tammany recovered possession of the prosecuting machinery in New York county. It elected Edward Swann over Charles A. Perkins, whom Whitman had appointed to succeed himself when he became Governor. It also elected Alfred E. Smith Sheriff. On the other hand, the Democrats suffered a signal reverse in Brooklyn, where the Republican District Attorney, James C. Cropsey, was reëlected, largely owing to his aggres- siveness in cases growing out of a bank failure.
Despite the unexpected verdict against Republican policies, the party held control of the Legislature. In the session of 1916 the Senate consisted of 34 Repub- licans and 17 Democrats, and the Assembly of 96 Republicans, 52 Democrats, 1 Progressive, and 1 Socialist. Sweet was elected Speaker for the third time.
Whitman attempted to obtain in some measure the budget reforms proposed in the rejected Constitution by himself preparing classified estimates for appropria- tions, and by recommending that full control of all authorized expeditures be placed in the hands of the Comptroller, and that the right to reduce as well as veto individual items in Appropriation bills be given to the Governor. The Legislature failed to pass a constitu- tional amendment to modify the veto power, but it did adopt the scheme for classified appropriations. It supported the movement for national preparedness by
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passing the Slater act for the physical training of small children and the military training of older boys in the public schools, and the Stivers act to make practicable the recruiting of the militia by conscription.8 This was already provided for by law, but, as the enrollment for the purpose was statewide, filling up the quotas of different organizations locally was not feasible, and so the new law permitted the division of the lists by localities. The advocates of woman suffrage, unde- terred by the sweeping vote against them, called for a resubmission of the question, and the Legislature took the initial steps for a new Suffrage amendment by a vote of 109 to 30 in the Assembly and 30 to 10 in the Senate.
The Governor had much trouble with the adminis- tration of Sing Sing prison. In December, 1914, Thomas M. Osborne, after having had himself volun- tarily incarcerated in Auburn prison to study it from the inside, became warden of Sing Sing. He under- took to humanize its administration and established a system of self-government. He soon came into con- troversy with John B. Reilly, the Superintendent of Prisons, also a hold-over from the Glynn administra- tion. Indictments were found against him in November, 1915, for malfeasance in office and for personal offenses, but he was subsequently acquitted and after a period of suspension returned to his duties. Meanwhile, in January, 1916, the Governor removed Reilly for attempting to break up Osborne's Mutual Welfare
8Governor Whitman's Report to the Voters of the State of New York, 1915-1916.
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League for self-government by arbitrarily removing its leaders to Clinton prison. Osborne for a time carried on his work along with a propaganda for prison reform, but in October resigned, attacking Whitman and the new Superintendent of Prisons for blocking his work. Osborne's critics answered that he was tactless, credulous, and unfit for team work, and the Governor objected to the publicity that he gave to convicts and to indiscriminate prison advertising.
Whitman entered the Governorship with an evident eye on the Presidency. His victory in New York after four years of Democratic rule and in the face of Progressive opposition warranted consideration of him as a possibility. The Kings county Republican com- mittee on December 14, 1915, formally launched the movement, which had been quietly pushed for many months. But it failed to gain momentum or command support outside the State. The "Old Guard," which had made him Governor, early parted company with him, and while the progressive elements in the Repub- lican party gathered about him to control the State organization he could not win Roosevelt or the Pro- gressive party. Notwithstanding the many virtues of his administration and the high standard of his appoint- ments he failed to arouse any general moral enthusiasm such as had supported Hughes. His critics attributed his good work to opportunism and charged that his efforts were all directed toward the building up of a personal organization. He soon saw that without united support in his own State he would rank below "favorite sons" like Cummins, Fairbanks, Burton, and
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Weeks. Accordingly he abandoned his own candidacy and made himself the leader of a movement for the nomination of Justice Hughes. Hughes refused to be a candidate or to give any sign as to his views or even his acceptance of the nomination if made, but the Republican masses more and more came to feel that he was the one leader who combined the prestige and character fitting a candidate and a President with the freedom from factional strife that made possible a union of Progressives and Republicans likely to prove successful in the coming contest.
Meanwhile the conservatives were looking longingly for the leadership of Elihu Root, who had taken an active part in arousing sentiment for preparedness and in criticism of the foreign policy of President Wilson. He had been bitterly lampooned as a corporation lawyer who represented the "interests," notwith- standing the fact that when the public was his client no man had given it more able or disinterested service. His name was anathema to the Progressives as the champion of Taft. Nevertheless, the conservatives felt that it was time for the party to put aside questions of availability and stand for the most conspicuous and able exponent of Republican constitutional doctrines. Root himself did not take his candidacy with serious- ness, and on January 12 requested that his name be kept off the Minnesota primary ballot. But he presided over the unofficial Republican State convention in New York on February 15, and made a powerful speech summing up the Republican criticism of President Wilson.
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He blamed the President for interfering in Mexico without upholding American rights there; for "lack of foresight to make provision for backing up American diplomacy by actual or assured military or naval force"; for "the forfeiture of the world's respect for our assertion of rights by pursuing a policy of making threats and failing to make them good"; and for "the loss to the moral force of the civilized world through failure to truly interpret to the world the spirit of American democracy in its attitude toward the terrible events which accompanied the early stages of the war." He declared that the President's attitude toward Ger- many was "threatening in words, but irresolute in action"; that we had not been following the paths of peace, but blindly stumbling along the road that, con- tinued, would lead inevitably to war; that the invasion of Belgium should have met with strong protest. Instead, "the President admonished the people that they must be neutral in all respects, in act, word, thought, and sentiment. We were not to be neutral merely as to the quarrels of Europe, but neutral as to the treatment of Belgium, neutral toward right and wrong, neutral between humanity and cruelty, neutral between liberty and oppression." A single word of dissent to German action in Belgium, he declared, would have ranged behind American leadership the conscience and morality of the neutral world, while if the rule of action applied to Belgium was tolerated, America would "have to fight for its life."9 The plat-
9Bacon and Scott, Addresses of Elihu Root on International Subjects, pp. 427, 447.
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form followed his lead, insisted on the upholding of international law, commended the Governor, called for the restoration of the Tariff commission, and declared that government regulation of business must "not be interpreted to mean government management of business."10
The "Old Guard," which opposed Hughes only less than it did Roosevelt, controlled the convention. It grudgingly gave Whitman a place among the delegates- at-large to be suggested for the direct primary, and for the other members named Senator Wadsworth, Elon R. Brown, and Frederick C. Tanner. David Jayne Hill was considered for one of the four, but Barnes opposed him because he was thought too favorable to Roosevelt. A plan that these three in the absence of Whitman should declare for Root was blocked' by Tanner. In the primaries of April 4 the Barnes organ- ization failed to overthrow Greiner, Whitman's ally in Buffalo, and Whitman's friends won control of the State committee. On April 8 the State committee reelected Tanner State chairman by a vote of 82 to 63 for Senator Charles W. Wicks of Oneida, who was supported by Wadsworth, Brown, and the Barnes fol- lowing. Senator Ogden L. Mills, who presented Tanner's name for renomination, taunted the "Old Guard" with having put Tanner in office over himself and then failed to support their choice. At this meet- ing Mills also offered a resolution declaring for the nomination of "a tried Republican on whose record and character the nation can rely as a guarantee of wise
10New York Times, February 16, 17, 1916.
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statesmanship in the management of foreign and domestic affairs." It was carried unanimously. Mills said it was intended to apply to Hughes, but Wadsworth said he construed it as an indorsement of Root.11 The day before, seventy-five prominent Republicans, includ- ing Joseph H. Choate, Nicholas Murray Butler, Chauncey M. Depew, John G. Milburn, Otto Bannard, Job E. Hedges, William A. Prendergast, Henry L. Stimson, and Senator Wadsworth, issued an indorse- ment of Root as "the ablest living American."
Meanwhile the problem of Theodore Roosevelt con- fronted the Republicans. Even earlier than Root he had declared that the United States should have pro- tested against the invasion of Belgium, though at the beginning of the war this had not been his view, and he had gone to great lengths in criticism of the Presi- dent and in fighting for military preparation. A Progressive nomination was his for the taking, and many Republicans who sympathized with his attitude toward the war stood ready, as he was, to forget the past. On his departure for a trip to the West Indies on February 17, Roosevelt gave a statement to Henry L. Stoddard12 in which he said: "I will not enter any fight for the nomination and I will not permit any factional fight to be made in my behalf. Indeed, I will go further and say, it would be a mistake to nominate me unless the country has in its mood something of the heroic, unless it feels not only like devoting itself to ideals but to the purpose measurably to realize those
11New York Times, April 9, 1916.
12New International Year Book, 1916.
CHARLES SEYMOUR WHITMAN
Charles Seymour Whitman, 44th governor (1915-1918) ; born at Hanover, Conn., August 28, 1868; assistant corporation counsel New York City, 1901-1903; member of board of city magistrates, 1904-1907; judge of the court of general sessions, 1907; district attorney of New York county, 1910-1914; elected governor in 1914 defeating Martin H. Glynn; governor 1915- 1918; defeated for re-election by Alfred E. Smith, November 5, 1918.
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ideals in action." On his return in March he replied to a charge by Wilson that American business was try- ing to force intervention in Mexico, and declared that the trouble in Mexico was due to shipping arms to "first one set of bandits and then to another." On March 31, at the house of Robert Bacon, he met Root, Henry Cabot Lodge, and General Leonard Wood for luncheon. The meeting was announced to be for the discussion of preparedness, but this first friendly inter- course between Root and Roosevelt since 1912 excited the politicians and frightened the Barnes following with the spectacle of their own candidate ignoring their implacable feelings toward Roosevelt.
The Republican and Progressive national conven- tions both met in Chicago on June 7. Among the Progressives were two factions. The more radical, led by Victor Murdock and J. M. Parker, was for Roose- velt only ; while George W. Perkins, James R. Garfield, and Gifford Pinchot, though seeking union on Roose- velt stood ready to make concessions. Raymond Rob- ins, the chairman of the convention, was ranked as a radical, but with great skill he held the fire-eating ele- ment in check in order that some basis of union might be found. Perkins, Henry L. Stoddard, and Oscar S. Straus, who was one of the New York delegates-at-large, the other being Horace S. Wilkinson, found their party standing with the irreconcilables endangered by their efforts to prevent the folly of a third nomination.
In the Republican convention the New York delega- tion was almost evenly divided. Whitman was deter- mined to displace Barnes from the national committee,
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but on June 6 he was so uncertain of a majority that he agreed to a compromise by which his opponents withdrew Elon R. Brown, their candidate for the credentials committee, in favor of Charles M. Hamil- ton, a Hughes man, on condition that the national committee question be left until after the nomination. Whitman was made chairman of the delegation.
Warren G. Harding presided over the national convention, which on its second day adopted a platform the keynote of which was preparedness and defense of American rights. It blamed interference in behalf of of one faction in Mexico for outrages there on American life and property ; denounced the Underwood tariff and the proposal for a government-owned merchant marine, though it called for the encouragement of shipbuilding. It favored woman suffrage through the action of the States. The only division over the platform came from Wisconsin. Friends of LaFollette tried to inject a plank that pointed toward interference with the export of munitions to the Allies and called on the Executive "to preserve the perfect balance of our neutrality, even at the sacrifice of profits to the money powers and the manufacturers of arms and ammunition." This pro- German declaration was thrown out with little ceremony.
Both conventions appointed committees of confer- ence, which reported back agreeable exchanges of views, the Progressives urging Roosevelt while the Republicans named no candidate. In reply to appeals to come to Chicago, Roosevelt preached the paramount duty of getting together. The balloting in the Repub-
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lican convention began on June 9, while the Progres- sives marked time, though the radicals were straining at the reins held in Robins's hands. Governor Whit- man presented the name of Hughes, Nicholas Murray Butler that of Root, and Senator Fall of New Mexico that of Roosevelt. Ohio presented ex-Senator Burton; Massachussetts, Senator Weeks; Illinois, Senator Sher- man; Iowa, Senator Cummins; Wisconsin, Senator LaFollette; Pennsylvania, Senator Knox; Indiana, ex-Vice-President Fairbanks. The first ballot was: Hughes, 2531/2; Weeks, 105; Root, 103; Cummins, 85; Burton, 771/2 ; Fairbanks, 741/2 ; Sherman, 66; Roosevelt, 65; Knox, 36; Henry Ford, 32; Governor Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania, 29; LaFollette, 25; Taft, 14; T. Cole- man du Pont, 12; Governor Willis of Ohio, 4; Senator Borah, 2; Governor McCall of Massachussetts, 1. On the second ballot the Hughes vote rose to 3281/2 ; Root had 981/2, Roosevelt 81, Fairbanks 881/2, Weeks 79, Cummins 85. The vote of the New York delegation on the first ballot stood: Hughes, 42; Root, 43; Roosevelt, 2. Among the Hughes delegates were Whitman, State Chairman Tanner, Herbert Parsons, Ogden L. Mills, William L. Ward, George W. Aldridge, Harvey D. Hinman, W. M. Calder, F. J. H. Kracke, Samuel S. Koenig, Speaker Sweet, John A. Merritt, and John Lord O'Brian. In the Root camp were Senator Wadsworth, E. R. Brown, W. A. Pren- dergast, M. J. Dady, ex-Senator Depew, Otto Bannard, J. Sloat Fassett, and C. D. Hilles, the chairman of the national committee. The two Roosevelt votes were cast by Francis Hendricks and his fellow-delegate from
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the Onondaga district, W. A. Rill. The only change on the second ballot was that of Thomas R. Proctor, a delegate from Oneida county, Root's own country home, from Root to Hughes.
All indications pointed to the early nomination of Hughes when the convention adjourned overnight to allow further conference with the Progressives. The next morning a telegram was received from Roosevelt reiterating his desire for union and suggesting a com- bination on Henry Cabot Lodge. But this proposal met with scant favor in either convention. When the Republican convention reassembled Senator Smoot reported for the conference committee that it had urged upon the Progressives the strong sentiment for Hughes, and the Progressives had promised to submit his name to their convention. He also reported Roosevelt's telegram. The names of Weeks, Sherman, and Roose- velt were then withdrawn and on the third ballot Hughes was nominated, receiving 9491/2 votes, while 181/2 went to Roosevelt, 3 to Weeks, 7 to Lodge, 5 to du Pont, and 3 to LaFollette. On this ballot New York gave its solid vote to Hughes. The Vice-Presidential nomination went to Charles W. Fairbanks.
The irreconcilable Progressives had been anxious to forestall the nomination of Hughes, but it was not until after the Republicans had completed their work that Chairman Robins suddenly announced that the conven- tion might proceed to nominate. Then Bainbridge Colby presented Roosevelt's name and he was unanim- ously made the Progressive candidate, two hours after Hughes had been nominated. The convention picked
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John M. Parker of Louisiana for Vice-President. Roosevelt promptly informed the Progressives that he must hold their nomination in abeyance; if they desired an instant decision he must decline. While on the bench Hughes had absolutely refused to give any indi- cation of his views, but a statement was expected from him, and Roosevelt suggested that if it proved satis- factory to the Progressives they could consider his declination final. If it did not prove to be so he stood ready to confer with them as to the best course for the party.13
Hughes at once resigned from the Supreme Court and plunged into the campaign. His views proved satisfactory to Roosevelt, who with the majority of the Progressives joined the Republicans. A minority attempted to keep the party alive with Parker as a candidate for Vice-President, but without success.
13New York Times and Chicago Tribune, June 7-12, 1916, and personal observation of the writer at the conventions.
CHAPTER XVI
WILSON RE-ELECTED PRESIDENT WITHOUT THE EAST
1916-1917
P RESIDENT WILSON'S renomination by the Democrats was a foregone conclusion. His long patience in the face of submarine barbarities, his reply to the challenge of the "Lusitania" murders that a nation might be "too proud to fight," and his mixture of tolerance of outrages on Americans in Mexico with the seizing of Vera Cruz, nominally on a question of etiquette, really to force Huerta from power, had lost him favor, particularly in the east, where sympathy with the Allies and the demand for an aggressive American policy were strong. This feeling was intensi- fied by his disinclination to commit the country to a program of formal military preparation and his break with Secretary of War Garrison because, when he finally did undertake the organization of a reserve army, he yielded to the Congressional demand for the sacrifice of what Garrison had understood to have been agreed upon by the President as essential to adequate preparation. He had declared that America might have to fight to save lives, but never ought to fight "to avenge lives taken or simply to save property," and had
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told the Gridiron Club in February: "America ought to keep out of this war. She ought to keep out of this war at the sacrifice of everything except the single thing upon which her character and justice are founded -her sense of humanity and justice."1 On the other hand, his stand against pro-German demands for an embargo on shipping to the Allies, his prosecution of German agents working to cripple industries useful to the Allies, and his diplomatic protest against submarine activities had alienated the pro-Germans, who saw indi- cation of a spirit likely to prove resolute enough under the stress of increased emergencies. No Democrat was in position to challenge his leadership.
Tammany had not enjoyed Wilson's favor. Most of the prominent New York appointments had gone to Democrats outside the organization, and Senator O'Gorman had taken for his son-in-law, Dudley Field Malone, the Collectorship of the Port when Frank L. Polk resigned to become counsellor to the Department of State. But, as the election approached, Wilson's friends became more concilitory toward Tammany. The President offered the postmastership to Senator Wagner, who declined, and then bestowed it on another good organization man. Osborn retired from the chairmanship of the State committee, and Tammany was allowed to name E. S. Harris of Saratoga instead.2 An unofficial State convention was held in Syracuse on March 1, over which Martin H. Glynn presided, and William Church Osborn, Samuel Untermyer, James
1New International Year Book, 1916.
2New York Times, April 21, 1916.
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A. O'Gorman, and George J. Meyer of Buffalo were proposed for delegates-at-large to the St. Louis conven- tion of June 14.
By the President's wish Glynn was made temporary chairman of the national convention to state the party's case to the people. Champ Clark was picked for permanent chairman, but, still nursing his grudge against Wilson, he declined, and Ollie M. James accepted the post. In his speech Glynn took an advanced attitude of pacifism. His declaration that it was not the custom of the nation to go to war over provocations that admitted of honorable settlement aroused great enthusiasm, far more than his later argu- ments for preparedness, which were applauded but without fervor. The New York Times reported that he gave the delegates a reason for faith in pacifism and that the leaders were in dismay, for "those who had labored hardest to keynote Americanism and had suc- ceeded, found their work crumbling away and vanish- ing before the stampede of pacifism."3 The platform was likewise pacific in tone though it emphasized Americanism and denounced the hyphenated Ameri- cans who put loyalty to the country of their origin and sympathy with one of the parties in the European war before their devotion to their adopted country, and likewise declared for a policy of preparedness. It gave adhesion to the President's program of a future association of nations and his doctrine of self-deter- mination of peoples. It proposed woman suffrage by State action in a plank not essentially differing from
3New York Times, June 15, 1916.
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that of the Republicans, though regarded by the leaders of the suffrage movement as being less cordial to their demands. Wilson's was the only name pre- sented to the convention, and he was unanimously renominated. Murphy had partly committed the New York delegation to Roger C. Sullivan of Illinois for Vice-President, but when he found that a vote for Sulli- van would be impolitic and wanted the excuse of having a candidate from his own state to support, he brought forward Gerard, who was indorsed by the New York delegation. The leaders, however, were determined to renominate Vice-President Marshall, and Gerard's name did not go before the convention.4
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