USA > New York > History of the state of New York, political and governmental, Vol. IV 1896-1920 > Part 20
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19 New York Times, February 12, 18, 1917.
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The rank and file of Tammany wanted to run Alfred E. Smith for Mayor, but Murphy entered into an alliance with Hearst, who from ardently supporting had turned to lampooning Mitchel, and under his inspiration nominated John F. Hylan, a County Judge in Kings county, who had once been a railroad worker and proved himself attractive to the labor vote. The Socialist party nominated Morris Hillquit, around whom gathered most of the pacifists and anti-war elements.
Mitchel had aggressively used the city administra- tion to sustain the war. His managers tried to make the campaign a patriotic rally, urging that Hylan could be trusted little more than Hillquit to support the war heartily; but this method of campaigning rather over- shot the mark. Governor Whitman declared for Mitchel as against the regular nominee of the Republi- can primaries, but took pains to say that no issue of patriotism was involved. Hylan's professional and financial transactions were criticised by the New York World. Hylan brought suit for libel, but the next summer withdrew the action on the eve of trial. Hylan was elected, and the Democratic organization also gained complete control of the city government. The vote was: Hylan, 313,956; Mitchel, 155,490; Hillquit, 145,328; Bennett, 56,438. The Mitchel cam- paign cost considerably more than a million dollars. Subsequent revelations as to the contributions and expenditures led to the indictment of William Hamlin Childs, the campaign manager and one of the chief contributors, on charges of violating the statute, which
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indictment, however, was subsequently dismissed on motion of the district attorney. Indignant critics denounced what they called an attempt to purchase an election. On the other hand, the organization of an entirely new machine for an independent campaign was frightfully expensive. Experienced politicians were perhaps less shocked than they were amused at the wasteful spending by amateur organizers that failed to bring results. The vote for Bennett of scarcely more than one-quarter of the enrolled Republicans, after he had been nominated by them in a direct primary, showed clearly that this device to determine the party will, .when it came to dealing with the questions of non- partisan city administration, failed completely to reflect the true sentiment of the Republican voters. The large Hillquit vote carried with it the election of an unprece- dented number of Socialists to the Assembly, who in the next session were conspicuous for their lack of sym- pathy with the war policy of the national administra- tion. Still, the Republicans retained control of the Legislature. In the Assembly were 96 Republicans, a loss of three ; 43 Democrats, a loss of six; 10 Socialists, and 1 Independent. Sweet was elected Speaker for his fifth term. Attorney-General Woodbury had resigned on account of ill-health in April, and the Legislature had chosen Merton E. Lewis of Rochester to fill the vacancy. He was nominated by the Republicans in the fall and elected, receiving 696,969 votes against 541,335 for Deval P. Hodson, Democrat; 169,364 for S. John Block, Socialist; and 26,066 for William H. Burr, Prohibitionist. Benjamin N. Cardozo and Chester B.
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Mclaughlin, nominated by both the Democrats and Republicans for Judges of the Court of Appeals, were elected without significant opposition.
A constitutional amendment extending to all first- class cities the right possessed by New York to exclude water-supply bonds in reckoning their debt limits was adopted, 591,728 for and 420,303 against.
The vote on the Woman Suffrage amendment, which the Legislature passed on again to the people, showed one of the most remarkable reversals of popular senti- ment recorded in American politics. In 1915 it was defeated by almost 200,000 majority. Two years later the same constituency adopted it by 102,353 majority. The vote was: For, 703,129; against, 600,776. The declarations of both the major parties in their national platforms of 1916 and the favorable attitude of both Wilson and Hughes doubtless contributed to this over- turn. The political machines before had not worked for woman suffrage, even if their platforms commended it. But this year Whitman saw his opportunity to make friends with a new class of voters, and the influence exerted through Chairman Glynn and the State com- mittee was positive in turning the organization for the amendment in districts formerly hostile. Tammany was equally alive to the possibilities of women's friend- ship, and the Socialists and pacifists who gave Hillquit his great vote for Mayor were almost without exception woman suffragists. The activities of women in the war also awakened a feeling that they should have a more direct share in the government whose burdens they helped to bear. Few of the leaders in the movement
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had expected to succeed; through cities and country districts alike the uncalculated tide swept. New York City gave 103,863 for the amendment, after having given 82,755 against it two years before; while the rest of the State reduced its adverse majority from 112,229 to a negative vote of 1,510. Only five counties outside the metropolis were carried in 1915, while twenty-seven were carried in 1917. Only one county, Chemung, passed from the affirmative to the negative in the inter- val, and only two other counties, St. Lawrence and Schenectady-the latter of which was carried both times,-failed to show a gain in the suffrage as com- pared with the anti-suffrage vote. Of all the aspects of the result, however, by far the most noteworthy was the great majority for the amendment in New York City.
With the year 1918 the political parties of New York faced the task of adjusting their machinery and their psychological appeals to a new electorate as large as the old, still uncertain in their calculations whether they had merely doubled the number of ballots to be divided substantially along old lines, or had worked a change in the spirit of the State government more pro- found than that which marked the end of the land- holding aristocracy in the Constitution of 1821 and the abolition of all property qualification for white voters in the amendment of 1826.
CHAPTER XVII SMITH SUPPLANTS WHITMAN
1918-1920
U NDER the leadership of Governor Whitman war emergency and social legislation received liberal attention in the session of 1918. Sweet continued in the Speaker's chair, with Assemblyman Simon L. Adler of Monroe as Republican and C. D. Donohue of New York as Democratic leader. Senators Brown and Wagner continued to direct the majority and minority in the Senate. Any attempt to destroy military stores or raw materials was made a crime; a bill was passed to carry into effect the voting privilege for soldiers and sailors; a system of military training was ordered for pupils in public and private schools and colleges; corporations were authorized to contribute to war relief funds; highway work was suspended to release labor for war industry, and a Compulsory Work law was enacted, applying to men between eighteen and fifty. A threatened shortage of ice led to the passage of an act establishing State control, and ex-Governor Odell was appointed to administer it. The growing suspicion of foreign propaganda led to an act requiring all public school-teachers to be citizens. A central purchasing agency for State departments was estab-
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lished. The Workmen's Compensation law was extended to include all employments, except farm and domestic service, where five or more persons were employed. Further safeguards were also thrown about the employment of women and children.
An undercurrent of opinion in both parties favored some modification of the Primary law, especially to reestablish State and judiciary nominating conventions, but the Governor prevented the accomplishment of anything in that direction. He also prevented any vote of the people to express their views for or against the Federal Prohibition amendment, which was passed by Congress and submitted to the States in December, 1917. He made himself the uncompromis- ing champion of prompt ratification by the Legislature, though its members had not been elected with any regard to this issue; and in this stand he had the hearty support of Speaker Sweet. William H. Anderson, chairman of the New York Anti-Saloon League, con- ducted an able campaign to force ratification, but not- withstanding his effective organization to bring home pressure to bear on legislators, which made prohibi- tionists of many politicians never before known for their objections to alcohol, he was unable to carry through the amendment at this session. It remained a political utility for the Governor in the fall campaign. The first elections under the new Local Option law had resulted in much new dry territory and indicated the strength of the prohibition movement, which was greatly stimulated by the plea to save grain and con- serve man-power for the war.
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[1918
A special election in four Congress districts in Brook- lyn and Manhattan on March 5 to fill vacancies gave the first opportunity for the newly enfranchised women to vote in the State. A special act was passed to permit their registration. The Democrats, as usual, carried all the districts, the women apparently dividing their votes in about the same proportion as the men. About 10 per cent. of the Socialist vote went to the Democrats, suggesting that the Hillquit support had been in con- siderable measure a vote of protest rather than of Socialist principle.
Governor Whitman as a candidate for a third term had the active support of the State organization under Chairman Glynn and of Speaker Sweet and George W. Aldridge and Francis Hendricks among the old leaders. William Barnes, Senator Wadsworth, Henry W. Taft, a brother of the ex-President, and Elon R. Brown were conspicuous in the opposition. Comp- troller Travis had not been one of the Governor's friends, but they joined forces for renomination. The State committee planned not to hold any State conven- tion, a course obviously favorable to Whitman, since it forestalled any possible declaration by representa- tives of the party for some candidate to enter the primaries against him. Senators Wadsworth and Calder joined in a call for an unofficial Republican assemblage to meet at Saratoga on July 18 on the ground of Glynn's alleged refusal to call a convention. Glynn, denying that he had refused, yielded to the demand of the Senators, and the conference became a convention presided over by J. Sloat Fassett. Theodore Roosevelt
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had been invited to address the convention and bravely did so, notwithstanding the news of the death in France of his son Quentin, which came almost as he was start- ing for Saratoga. He made a characteristic plea for vigorous prosecution of the war, declaring that the minority had supported it more strongly than the party in power, and urged measures for the unification of the American people.
The platform favored universal military training, a literacy qualification for new voters, the submission of a Federal Woman Suffrage amendment, a new Federal Child Labor law avoiding the defects that had just been held to render the first one unconstitutional, and mili- tary and economic aid to Russia to save it from Ger- many and give it opportunity to organize its own repub- lican government. It declared against class legisla- tion, but favored laws to promote cooperation among workmen, small producers, and consumers. With respect to a future society of nations, it adopted views formulated by Nicholas Murray Butler in favor of "a league of nations to establish, from time to time to modify, and to enforce the rules of international law and conduct," thereby indicating a preference for a judicial rather than a political league or "super-state." Opponents of Whitman proposed a plank favoring a referendum on prohibition, but it was voted down.
In his campaign for a renomination Whitman had the prestige of office and the machinery of both the State government and the party in his favor. More important still was the inability of his enemies to bring forward a strong candidate against him. They con-
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[1918
sidered pushing Judge Cuthbert W. Pound, but, how- ever Judge Pound might have felt about accepting a nomination tendered him by a State convention, he had no disposition to descend from the bench to become a contestant for the nomination in a primary campaign throughout the State. William M. Bennett, fresh from abandonment by the majority of his party in the Mayor- alty election, put himself in the field, but retired before the primaries. Attorney-General Lewis undertook the real contest for the opposition. He had the support of Barnes and Wadsworth, but the appeal to local pride and the interests of a faithful follower failed to detach Aldridge from Whitman, much to the disappointment of Lewis's friends. He favored a referendum on pro- hibition and sought to gather together all the old-line conservative organization elements. He bitterly attacked both Whitman and Glynn, charging misuse of party machinery to force a candidate on the voters.
But before the Saratoga convention met it was clear that his candidacy failed to arouse any popular interest. The convention did not attempt to designate candidates, but a movement was started to bring Theo- dore Roosevelt into the field, and Francis Hendricks, abandoning Whitman, became its most conspicuous spokesman. Hendricks, however, could no longer control Onondaga county. After his action with respect to Whitman he opposed the return to Congress of Walter W. Magee as a "wet," a title that was repudi- ated by Magee, and supported Stilwell, a former Pro- gressive. His town and ward leaders refused to follow him and he gave up the leadership that he had so long
FRANK HARRIS HISCOCK
Frank Harris Hiscock, judge; born at Tully, N. Y., April 16, 1856; graduated from Cornell university, 1875; admitted to the bar in 1877 and engaged in practice at Syracuse, N. Y .; elected justice of the supreme court, 5th judicial district, 1896; associate justice of appellate division, 4th department, 1901- 1906; judge court of appeals since 1906 and chief judge since 1916; chairman of the board of trustees of Cornell university.
EDWARD SCHOENECK
Edward Schoeneck, lieutenant governor; born at Syracuse, N. Y., August 6, 1875; educated in public schools; compelled by family financial reverses to work in his father's blacksmith shop from the age of 14 to 24 years; studied stenography and worked in a law office to pay his tuition through Syracuse Uni- versity law school; graduated in 1903 and admitted to the bar the same year; supervisor, 1901; state assembly, 1904-1907; mayor of Syracuse, 1910-1913; candidate for lieutenant gover- nor, 1910; elected lieutenant governor 1914; reelected, 1916.
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1918]
skillfully and honorably held, saying he did not want to lead an organization swayed by liquor interests, and the management was taken over by F. W. Hammond, Clerk of the Assembly; Lieutenant-Governor Schoe- neck, and Alexander H. Cowie.1 They were not per- sonally hostile to Hendricks. At eighty-four he was no longer able to wield the scepter. For several years his health had been gradually failing, and he died in June, 1920. In astuteness, moderation, and frugality of speech he had few equals. He was nurtured in the old tradition of political organization, but his influence was on the side of honest administration and what he believed to be good public policies. Barnes also joined in the demand for the ex-President. Lewis at once wrote to Roosevelt urging him to become a candidate and offering to withdraw in his favor. Bennett also announced that he would make no contest against Roosevelt.
For the moment Whitman's adversaries were in high hopes. Enthusiasm for Roosevelt dominated Saratoga and promised to sweep the primaries if he would only permit it. More and more, conservatives and progres- sives, forgetting 1912 in admiration of his course in the war, were thinking of him as the Republican Presiden- tial candidate of 1920. His election to the Governor- ship in New York, where the anti-Roosevelt sentiment had been bitterest in the days of the Progressive seces- sion, would, it was argued, work the healing of the old wounds and make the Republican course in the Presi- dential campaign plain and easy. On the other hand,
1New York Times, September 1, 1918.
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[1918
his closest friends urged that he had nothing to gain by going to Albany, and feared to subject him to the strain of a campaign; for, despite his still abounding energy, keen observers saw that his strength was undermined, though even they did not apprehend that in less than six months the nation would be mourning one of the greatest dynamic personalities in its history. Probably neither physical weakness nor political calculation would have restrained Roosevelt if the call had been in line with the current of his thought, but he was absorbed in problems connected with the war, and a few days after the convention he wrote to Lewis declining to run on the ground that with the war issues continually in his mind he could not, as he had done twenty years before, give his heart to State politics, and saying that the State should have a Governor devoted singly to its affairs.
So the field was left to Whitman and Lewis, Roose- velt taking no part between them. He did not like Whitman, but Lewis was associated with the ultra con- servatives who had been the object of his most vehement attacks. His nephew, Theodore Douglas Robinson, became manager of the Lewis campaign, while his close friend and neighbor, William W. Cocks, directed Whitman's forces. Whitman carried the primary by 295,471 votes to 118,874 for Lewis. Lieutenant-Gov- ernor Schoeneck was renominated by 226,530 votes to 97,902 for William M. Bennett and 51,648 for Seth G. Heacock. Schoeneck's patriotism was subjected to attack because he had appeared in court in connection with charges of sedition made against a law clerk
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employed by his firm, but United States District Judge Ray declared that he himself had summoned Schoe- neck, and exonerated him from all blame. Whitman supported Schoeneck, though at one moment he seemed to desire another running-mate, and Heacock's friends charged that Whitman induced their candidate to enter the race and then deserted him. Travis was nominated for Comptroller over Samuel Fraser and John Kissel; Wells for Treasurer over Theodore T. Baylor; and Charles D. Newton for Attorney-General over Alfred L. Becker, who had been active under Lewis in sedition cases. The other nominations were uncontested.2 Whitman and Travis both entered the Prohibition pri- maries. William H. Anderson of the Anti-Saloon League supported the Governor, but was unable to obtain the withdrawal of Olin S. Bishop from the con- test.3 Whitman won by 5,855 votes to 5,621 for Bishop, and Travis had 8,266 votes to 2,878 for Claude V. Stowell.4
Early in the season conservative Democrats were confronted with the prospect of William R. Hearst as a candidate for Governor. A considerable element in Tammany favored him. He and Mayor Hylan were
2The Republican ticket was: Governor, Charles S. Whitman, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, Edward Schoeneck, Onondaga; Secretary of State, Francis M. Hugo, Jefferson; Comptroller, Eugene M. Travis, Kings; Treas- urer, James L. Wells, Bronx; Attorney-General, Charles D. Newton, Liv- ingston; State Engineer, Frank M. Williams, Orange.
3New York Times, September 1, 1918.
4The Prohibition ticket was: Governor, Charles S. Whitman, New York; Lieutenant-Governor, Mamie W. Colvin, New York; Secretary of State, Ella L. McCarty, Onondaga; Comptroller, Eugene M. Travis, Kings; Treas- urer, George B. Humphrey, St. Lawrence; Attorney-General, Clarence Z. Spriggs, Onondaga; State Engineer, David B. Passage, Schenectady.
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[1918
in close sympathy, and if Hearst really sought the nomination Charles F. Murphy would evidently have to accept him, or break with the Hylan administration and cut off his followers from the city patronage.
This situation led a group of up-State Democrats to meet at Troy on March 25, and a committee, consisting of William H. Kelly of Syracuse, William H. Manning of Saratoga, and David F. Lee of Norwich, issued a call for a conference to be held at Syracuse on April 24. There a committee of forty-two was chosen to consider candidates for the party nomination for Governor. This committee met at Saratoga on July 9 with representatives present from every part of the State except New York and Albany. Tammany took no part in the movement, and the Albany organization under McCabe was favorable to Hearst. One in- formal and five formal ballots were taken, and votes were cast for eleven candidates : William Church Osborn of Putnam, Mayor Harry C. Walker of Bing- hamton; James W. Gerard, William H. Edwards, and Alfred E. Smith of New York; Charles B. Alexander of Orange, Oscar Irwin of Ulster, Joseph A. Kellogg of Washington, Charles H. Hitchcock of Onondaga, Oliver A. Cabana, Jr., of Erie, and George R. Lunn of Schenectady, the former Socialist Mayor, who had broken with that party because it attempted to dictate his official action and had joined the Democrats. Hearst had no support. On the final ballot the vote was: Osborn, 9; Walker, 8; Gerard, 7; Smith, 6; Alexander, 3; Edwards, 3; Lunn, 1. On the strength of this designation Osborn announced himself a candi-
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date. In Tammany a strong movement had started in favor of Smith, but Murphy gave it no open encourage- ment, and all signs pointed to Hearst's determination to run. State Chairman Harris had announced his approval in April, at the same time speaking favorably of Smith except for the rural prejudice against a Tam- many man. Joseph J. Murphy of Troy and Mayor John Fitzgibbons of Oswego openly undertook to bring about the nomination of Smith, Murphy of Troy going so far as to challenge Murphy of New York to stop it. Arthur Brisbane, editor of Hearst's Evening Journal, in his Washington paper urged Hearst to run, and on the eve of the Democratic State convention nominating petitions for Hearst were in circulation in a way that suggested the familiar methods of the editor yielding to a call.5
No sooner had Judge Joseph A. Kellogg of Glens Falls finished his speech as temporary chairman of the State convention at Saratoga on July 23, than Samuel Seabury was on his feet. Seabury was now at odds with both Hearst and Tammany and sat in the convention with only a half-vote from a Long Island district. Attempts were made to prevent his recognition. When he finally obtained the floor he moved that the conven- tion "repudiate every truckler with our country's enemies who strives or has striven to extenuate or excuse such crimes against humanity as the rape of Belgium, the sinking of the 'Lusitania,' and the German policy of assassination by submarines, who seeks or has sought to sow dissension among our allies, or now seeks
5New York Times, April 8, July 2, July 21, 1918.
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[1918
to capitalize by election to public office the latent treason whose total annihilation is the most pressing need of the hour."6 This was plainly aimed at Hearst, who had opposed sending troops to Europe even after the United States was in the war, but it was a resolu- tion that no American could possibly vote against, and it was carried unanimously. After this a Hearst desig- nation was out of the question, even if Murphy still intended it, which is doubtful, for the up-State friend- ship manifested toward Smith gave Murphy a candi- date entirely welcome to him without the danger of seeming to force a Tammany nomination.
When nominations were in order William V. Cooke of Albany, who twelve years before had presented Hearst's name to a Democratic convention, named Smith. The only voice raised in opposition was that of Seabury, who declared: "Mr. Smith is the best representative of the worst element in the Democratic party in this State." His statement created an uproar, but it not unfairly presented the feeling toward Smith of many men, Democrats and Republicans, who by conviction or tradition regarded Tammany Hall as a symbol of political wickedness. They liked him and respected him, and praised him in the same breath with which they condemned the organization that he repre- sented. He was the city-bred counterpart of the plow- boy in politics, a product of the East Side of New York, who as Assemblyman and Speaker, and as Sheriff, had won friends by his straightforward simplicity of character as much as by the industry and ability with
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