April 1913

 Woodrow Wilson, Doing It Himself

This month, for the first time in over a hundred years, a president of the United States went to the floor of Congress to promote his legislative program.  The last president to do so was John Adams, who addressed Congress in person in 1801.  His successor Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice, and since then every president has fulfilled his constitutional duty to "give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient" by means of written messages sent to Congress and read to each house by the clerk.

 

Senator John Sharp Williams

The new president's journey to Congress on April 8 comports with the view he has expressed throughout his academic career that the United States government should follow more closely the example of the British system of parliamentary democracy, in which the chief executive leads his party in the legislature. Some, however, have criticized the practice as inconsistent with the constitutional separation of powers, comparing his innovation to the British monarch's speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament (this, in fact, was Jefferson's reason for discontinuing it).  Perhaps surprisingly, most of the criticism has come from the president's own party, led by Senator John Sharp Williams of Mississippi, one of President Wilson's strongest supporters in last year's presidential campaign.  When the president's wish to visit Congress was made known, the House adopted a resolution to convene a joint session.  When the resolution reached the Senate, rather than expose the question to potentially embarrassing objections from Williams and other Senate Democrats, Vice President Marshall declared the question to be one of high privilege on which unanimous consent was not required.  When no one moved to appeal his ruling to the whole Senate, the resolution was adopted.

Joseph P. Tumulty, the President's Secretary

President Wilson's journey did not perfectly replicate those of Presidents Washington and Adams.  Those presidents took their entire cabinets with them when they addressed Congress; President Wilson was accompanied only by his secretary and a single Secret Service agent.  Another difference is that each of the earlier presidential addresses was followed by a formal reply, which was neither expected nor given on this occasion.  Finally, the distances Washington and Adams traveled were much shorter.  When they were in office, the national capital was in New York and Philadelphia.  In each of those cities the president's office was in close proximity to the meeting place of the Congress.  When Jefferson discontinued the practice in 1801 he said it was because he wanted to avoid the trappings of royalty, but he might also have been influenced by the distance from the White House to the Capitol in the city of  Washington.  Thus it may not be entirely coincidental that the renewal of the president's personal message to Congress coincides with the advent of the automobile.

Senator Aldrich in 1909, Rescuing High Tariffs

The subject of the president's address was tariff reform, with the president urging an overall downward revision in rates and the inclusion of some imports on a "free list."   Tariffs have been a major issue since President Taft took office promising similar reforms and calling a special session of Congress for the purpose.  Most of the promised reductions were included in the House bill, but in the Senate changes were made that resulted in the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909, which eliminated or lessened many of the proposed reductions and even increased some tariffs.  Taft signed the legislation into law, making little if any effort to impose his own views.  The Payne-Aldrich Act was a bitter disappointment to progressives, foreshadowing the Republican Party split that doomed its electoral prospects in 1910 and 1912. 

The President Addressing Congress on April 8

In his nine-minute address the president avoided specifics, preferring to focus on broad principles. He said that tariffs no longer serve their original purpose of "protecting" the country's industries, which now seem to have the idea that they are "entitled to the direct patronage of the government."  He told Congress that high tariffs have "built up a series of privileges and exemptions behind which it was easy ... to organize monopoly" with the result that "nothing is obliged to stand the tests of efficiency and economy, in our world of big business, but everything thrives by concerted arrangement."

Representative Cordell Hull

The tariff bill includes a new feature: an income tax, made possible by the recently enacted Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution.  If the bill becomes law, it will impose a tax of one percent on all incomes between $4,000 and $20,000 a year.  A two percent tax will be levied on additional amounts between $20,000 and $50,000, three percent on amounts between $50,000 and $100,000, and four percent on all amounts in excess of $100,000. The bill was drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee, under the chairmanship of Representative Cordell Hull of Tennessee.

Governor Hiram Johnson

California has presented the new administration with a foreign policy headache in its opening weeks.  A bill before the California legislature will forbid ownership of California land by immigrants "ineligible to citizenship," a category mainly describing immigrants from Japan.  The Japanese foreign minister has made an informal objection to the State Department, and on April 24 President Wilson sent Secretary of State Bryan to Sacramento to confer with legislators and the governor to express the federal government's concerns.  The governor is Hiram Johnson, who was Theodore Roosevelt's running mate on the Progressive Party ticket last year.  While Bryan was en route, Governor Johnson issued a statement strongly defending California's right to legislate in this area.  After a late-night meeting between Bryan and California legislators on April 30, the Senate proceeded with the legislation, which with minor modifications appears to be on its way to becoming the law of California.

Ambassador Takahira Kogoro

The Alien Land Law is not the only issue that has caused relations between the United States and Japan to be plagued by suspicion in recent years.  The American victory in the Spanish-American War and Japanese victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars made the two countries major Pacific powers for the first time.  President Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his successful mediation of the Russo-Japanese War, but in the same year the San Francisco Board of Education mandated segregated schools for students of Japanese descent, leading to a Japanese protest and a series of diplomatic notes.  The notes eventually comprised an informal "Gentlemen's Agreement," under which the Japanese government agreed to restrict Japanese emigration to the United States and the United States agreed to persuade San Francisco to withdraw the school segregation measure.  In 1908, Secretary of State Root and Japanese Ambassador Takahira Kogoro signed an agreement that formalized the "Gentlemen's Agreement" and recognized each country's interests in the Pacific, including the United States' possessions in Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines, its "Open Door Policy" in China, and Japan's de facto control of Northeastern China, Korea and Formosa.  With California's Alien Land Law, another source of irritation between the countries has arisen, aggravated by Japan's difficulty in understanding the United States government's inability to dictate matters of California law to the governor and legislature of that state.

Ambassador and Mrs. Bryce

Secretary of State Bryan gave his first diplomatic dinner on April 21.  The guests of honor were departing British ambassador James Bryce and Mrs. Bryce.  The only beverages served were grape juice (unfermented) and mineral water.  Bryan explained to his guests that he had told President Wilson when he was offered the secretaryship that his temperance convictions would preclude his serving wine at diplomatic functions, and that the president had told him he could use his own judgment.  Accordingly, he said, there would be no wine.  By all accounts the guests took the news in good humor, and agreed with Bryan that the warmth of the words made up for the absence of wine.  In England, however, the Pall Mall Gazette professed alarm: "Official life in Washington under the Wilson-Bryan regime holds out little prospect of gaiety.  The long accumulated experience of man demands wine to make glad the heart on festive occasions.  We fear that the capital of the great Republic is destined to be known as "Wishywashington."  Not all Englishmen disapproved: George Bernard Shaw suggested Bryan go a step further and make his dinners vegetarian.

Before he left for California, Bryan presented to a meeting of foreign diplomats his plan for the maintenance of world peace.  He proposes a series of "cooling-off" treaties whereby the contracting parties agree that any dispute between them is to be submitted to an international board of inquiry, and that they will not declare war or make further preparation for hostilities until the board submits its report, at which time the nations involved may decide to accept or reject the board's findings.  The diplomats will relay Bryan's proposal to their governments, which may or may not find such an arrangement appealing.  One objection already raised is that it would appear to give the advantage to the nation that is more ready for war when the dispute arises.

Woman Suffrage Tent at Last Year's Michigan State Fair

On April 7, the voters of Michigan went to the polls to consider a number of measures supported by progressives.  They approved some and rejected others, adopting initiative, referendum and recall but voting down a woman suffrage amendment.  The suffrage amendment appeared on ballots along with county by county liquor prohibition proposals, which were vigorously supported by the Anti-Saloon League and just as vigorously opposed by brewery and liquor interests.  The liquor interests also opposed the woman suffrage proposal, probably in the belief that more women than men support prohibition.  Many observers believe the suffrage amendment would have been adopted if it had not been linked to the prohibition issue.

Senator Thomas P. Gore

With the Connecticut's legislature's ratification, the Seventeenth Amendment became part of the United States Constitution on April 8.  Next year one third of the members of the Senate will be elected or re-elected by the voters of their states and not by their state legislatures.  Among the prominent senators whose terms will expire with the end of the Sixty-third Congress are Republicans Elihu Root of New York and Boies Penrose of Pennsylvania, and Democrats William J. Stone of Missouri and Thomas P. Gore of Oklahoma.  Senator Root was Secretary of War and later Secretary of State under President Roosevelt, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912.  Senator Penrose is the powerful boss of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Senator Stone is the new Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Gore, chosen in 1907 as one of Oklahoma's first two senators, has achieved high political office despite being blind since childhood.

The President on Opening Day

President Wilson is as fond of baseball as his predecessor.  Following the practice initiated by President Taft in 1910, he went to National Park in Washington on April 10 to attend the opening day game, throwing out the first ball to start the season.  The game pitted the home town Washington Senators against the visiting New York Yankees (formerly the Highlanders, using their new name for the first time).  The Senators won by a score of 2-1.

*****

Montenegrin Troops at Scutari

On April 1, the Turkish government accepted the terms of peace proposed by the major European powers, which include the Ottoman Empire's withdrawal from practically all of its territory in Europe.  With the fall of Adrianople last month, it had little choice.  The war continued into April, however, with the siege of Scutari, a Turkish port on the Adriatic, by Montenegrin and Serbian troops.  Austria-Hungary is alarmed by the prospect, not so much of Turkish defeat as of Serbian victory, and is adamant that Serbia not be allowed to have a port on the Adriatic, where it could challenge Austrian sea power.  The European powers' solution, part of the terms now accepted by the Turks, is to include Scutari in the new independent nation of Albania.  On April 7 British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey told the House of Commons that if the European powers had not come to an agreement over the future of Scutari the entire continent would have gone to war.  On April 21 the Turks surrendered Scutari to the besieging Montenegrin and Serbian forces, which remain in possession of the city, defying the European powers' demand that they withdraw.  Austria-Hungary is threatening to evict them by force, and Russia, which supports its fellow Slavs in Serbia and Montenegro and has been forced to back down in previous Balkan crises, may feel compelled to come to their aid if that happens.  Meanwhile the powers have backed up their demand with a blockade of the Montenegrin coast, and are seeking a compromise solution, possibly involving alternative territorial compensation.

 

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg

German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg formally submitted his proposals for military expenditures this month.  In his speech, delivered to the Reichstag on April 7, he asserted that the strength of the German army had not kept pace with the growth of the German nation.  He is concerned that the success of the Slavic nations in their war against Turkey has given rise to a surge of pan-Slavic sentiment in Eastern Europe, "substitut[ing] for passive European Turkey other states of feverish political activity."  He warns that, "should the great European conflagration between Germanism and pan-Slavism come, this change would alter the balance in Germany's disfavor."  The chancellor expressed skepticism about Winston Churchill's proposed "naval holiday," but said he would be willing to consider concrete proposals from the British government.  The main threat in his view comes from Russia, the largest of the Slavic nations, on Germany's eastern border, and Russia's ally France to the west.  He said that while he does not doubt the good intentions of those governments, Germany "must reckon with the great force of modern public opinion, which in the form of French warlike patriotism and Russian pan-Slavism threatens the peace of the world against the wishes of the great mass of both peoples."  He did not explain how the peaceful "wishes of  the great mass" of people in those countries can coexist with warlike "public opinion."

The 1906 Assassination Attempt

On April 13, an anarchist attempted to assassinate Spanish King Alfonso XIII.  This was the second attempt on the king's life, the first being in 1906 when a bomb was thrown at the carriage carrying the king and his new bride on their wedding day.

Pope Pius X

Pope Pius X, who had been recovering from an attack of influenza, suffered a relapse on April 8.  His.weakened condition is aggravated by shortness of breath, coughing fits, heart palpitations and kidney disease.  The pope, born Giuseppe Sarto in 1835, has occupied the chair of St. Peter since 1903, when he succeeded Pope Leo XIII.  The College of Cardinals elected him to the Papacy after Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary exercised a rarely used privilege traditionally accorded monarchs of Catholic European countries by vetoing the leading candidate, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla, after the balloting had started.  Franz Joseph's veto struck many as an anachronism unsuited to the modern world and unlikely to be seen again.

Mrs. Pankhurst in Prison

While the woman suffrage movement in the United States is gaining strength, it does not compare in intensity to that in Great Britain.  Since an amendment to the Franchise Reform Bill granting the vote to women was ruled out of order in Parliament in January, suffragists have engaged in a widespread campaign of property destruction, including burning railway stations, invading art galleries and destroying their contents, blowing up passenger trains and smashing windows.  On April 3, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, who has acknowledged her role in destroying Chancellor of the Exchequer Lloyd George's country house in February, was sentenced to three years at hard labor.  This has further enraged the suffragists, who have said they will no longer respect human life in their campaign of violence.  In jail, as she had promised, Mrs. Pankhurst went on a "hunger strike," refusing all nourishment.  After a few days her health had suffered to the extent that the government authorized her release on parole on April 12.  A bill before Parliament would provide for the release of "hunger strikers" when they are in danger of total collapse and their rearrest following recovery, the process to be repeated as often as necessary until their sentences are completed.

Queen Mary

The vigor of the woman suffrage campaign in Great Britain does not appear to be matched by its public support.  Government officials have called the campaign a "reign of terror," and the press is largely hostile.  On April 6, two women were booed and pelted with oranges, bananas and clods of dirt by an angry crowd of 12,000 in Hyde Park when they tried to speak in support of suffrage.  Queen Mary does not comment on this or other political issues, but is believed to be opposed, if not to woman suffrage itself, at least to the tactics employed by the suffrage movement.  Her view is not shared by all the female members of the royal household, leading to the recent resignations of at least two of her maids of honor, both peeresses of the realm, who have expressed their support of the suffragists.

Song Jiaoren

In China, the first parliament of the Chinese Republic convened on April 8 in Peking, but it did so without the leader of its majority party.  Parliamentary elections held in December gave the victory to the Kuomintang, led by Sun Yat-Sen and his deputy Song Jiaoren.  Song, who had led the party in the campaign, was an outspoken advocate of limiting the power of the president, Yuan Shih-Kai.  On March 22, Song was assassinated.  Suspicion has focused on the president and his allies, but other than their obvious motive no one has come forward with evidence of their involvement.  China's first parliament thus opens with its influence weakened and Yuan Shih-Kai's grip on power strengthened.

Lord Northcliffe

The German airship Z4 was forced down in Luneville, France on April 3.  Twenty-four hours later, after paying a customs duty, it was released by the French and allowed to return to Metz.  The ranking German officer gave his word of honor that no observations of military value had been made, and the French stated that they did not take advantage of the airship's plight to examine it for German secrets.  Nevertheless, some in Germany are claiming that it was the crew's duty to destroy it in the air and sacrifice their lives rather than allow the airship with its sensitive equipment and information to fall into the hands of the French.  In other aviation news, the London Daily Mail, published by Alfred Harmsworth, Baron Northcliffe, has announced a $50,000 prize to be awarded to the first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in a hydro-aeroplane, completing the flight within a seventy-two hour period.  The flight may be in either direction between any point in the United States, Canada or Newfoundland and any point in Great Britain or Ireland.

April 1913 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, May and June 1913

New York Times, April 1913

Books and Articles:
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars
Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933

Richard C. Hall, Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War
August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914
Louis W. Koenig, Bryan: A Political Biography of William Jennings Bryan

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917
Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Joseph Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him 

Bernard A. Weisberger, Our Sporting Presidents, American Heritage Magazine, September 1992

March 1913

The Presidential Inauguration; Future Admirals and Generals on Parade

 

The United States has a new president.  On March 4, Woodrow Wilson became the nation's twenty-eighth chief executive (counting Grover Cleveland twice).  He arrived in Washington on March 3 and stayed overnight at the Shoreham Hotel.  The next day, as he traveled from the Shoreham to the White House under a cloudy sky, his route was lined by college men from the universities most closely associated with him, Princeton and the University of Virginia.  While he was in the White House with President Taft, a thousand Princeton men gathered on the west drive and serenaded him with "Old Nassau", Princeton's Alma Mater.  As they sang, Wilson emerged from the front door, bared his head, and joined in.  He and the president then journeyed to the Capitol, where Chief Justice Edward White, a former Confederate soldier, administered the oath of office as the sun broke through the clouds.  In his inaugural address, Wilson said "This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication," and summoned "all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side."  In an unprecedented move, he invited William Jennings Bryan, the defeated candidate for president in the last election, to sit next to President Taft on the speakers' stand.  After the ceremony, as Taft was driven to Union Station to board a train for his winter home in Augusta, Georgia, President Wilson and the new vice president, Thomas Marshall, led the way down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House where they reviewed the inaugural parade.  Some 40,000 strong, it was the longest parade in the history of presidential inaugurations, continuing until well after dark.

The Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory, Lexington Avenue and 25th Street

While Woodrow Wilson and his immediate predecessor were attending the inaugural ceremony, the other living ex-president was in New York visiting a collection of paintings by "futurists" at the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory.  Roosevelt studied the paintings closely, seeming to take delight in discerning the hidden meanings in the cubic images on the walls.  While pondering one painting, he was asked if he had ever seen anything like it.  He replied "the only things I have seen that resembled some of these pictures were certain animals in Africa."  One of the paintings on display, Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase,":has attracted much comment.

"Nude Descending a Staircase"

Returning home, Roosevelt wrote a review of the Armory Show which was published later this month in the Outlook.  In the review he translated the title of Duchamp's picture ("Nu Descendant un Escalier") as "A Naked Man Going Downstairs."  He compared it to "a really good Navajo rug" in his bathroom, which he says might as well be called "A Well-Dressed Man Going Up a Ladder" and which he claims is "infinitely ahead of the picture" in terms of artistic merit.

*****

The Eltinge 42nd Street Theater

Before traveling to Washington for his inauguration, Wilson met with two of his most trusted advisers, Mr. William F. McCombs and Colonel Edward M. House, to make the final decisions regarding his cabinet selections.  They met in Colonel House's apartment in New York City, taking a break for dinner and a play.  The play was "Within the Law," one of the most popular productions on Broadway this year.  It is the first play to be produced at the new Eltinge 42nd Street Theater.

 A Scene From "Within the Law"

 

 *****

President Wilson and His Cabinet.  Clockwise from left: President Wilson, William G. McAdoo (Treasury), James C. McReynolds (Attorney General),  Josephus Daniels (Navy), David F. Houston (Agriculture), William B. Wilson (Labor), William C. Redfield (Commerce), Franklin K. Lane (Interior), Albert S. Burleson (Postmaster General), Lindley M. Garrison (War), William J. Bryan (State).

On the morning of March 4, his last day in office, President Taft signed a bill dividing the Department of Commerce and Labor into separate cabinet departments.  The next day President Wilson submitted the names of ten cabinet nominees, including one for the new position of Secretary of Labor, to the Senate for confirmation.  Meeting in special session for the purpose, the Senate confirmed all of them the same day.  As expected, William Jennings Bryan is the new secretary of state.  William Gibbs McAdoo is Secretary of the Treasury, and the War and Navy offices went to New Jersey Vice-chancellor Lindley M. Garrison and North Carolina newspaper editor Josephus Daniels, respectively.

 Franklin D. Roosevelt

A few days later, a second level of appointees was confirmed, including Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt.  A New York state senator prior to his appointment, he is a distant cousin of the former president.  Unlike his famous relative, he is a Democrat.  His first duty in his new office was to submit to a smallpox vaccination, which Secretary Daniels has required of everyone connected to the Navy.

 Doctor Simon Flexner

Doctor Simon Flexner of the Rockefeller Institute, addressing an audience at Johns Hopkins Hospital on March 14, announced that he has succeeded in identifying and cultivating the germ that causes infantile paralysis, one of the smallest organisms ever identified.  It is hoped that this discovery will aid in the treatment of the disease and perhaps lead to the discovery of a serum for its cure.

Jessie Woodrow Wilson

Last month Miss Jessie Woodrow Wilson, the president's daughter, addressed the Consumers' League in Wilmington, Delaware, urging passage of a bill before the Delaware legislature limiting the number of hours women may work to ten hours a day and fifty-five hours a week.  Her advocacy is credited with the bill's passage on March 22.

Louis D. Brandeis

A 1908 Supreme Court case has made possible the success of Miss Wilson, the Consumers' League, and others in promoting legislation limiting the hours women are allowed to work.  An earlier case, Lochner v. New York, had cast serious doubt on the constitutionality of such laws, striking down by a 5-4 vote a similar limit, which applied to all bakery employees, as violating "freedom of contract."  Only three years later, however, in Muller v. Oregon, the Supreme Court ruled the other way in a case involving women.  With the permission of the Oregon Attorney General, the Consumers' League secured the services of Louis D. Brandeis, known as the "people's attorney," to defend the statute.  Brandeis pioneered the use of a different kind of brief in Muller.  Now widely known as the "Brandeis brief," it relies less on legal arguments than on social and economic studies.  Brandeis argued that the studies cited in his brief demonstrated that physical differences between men and women justified the Oregon legislature in treating women differently.  The Supreme Court agreed, holding unanimously that "woman's physical structure and the performance of maternal functions place her at a disadvantage in the struggle for subsistence."  Since the Muller case, states like Delaware are free to enact legislation designed to protect women in the workplace, thus enabling an important part of the progressive program.

As different treatment of women in the workplace gains traction, the state-by-state campaign for equal access to the ballot continues, with mixed results.  Nine thousand women marched for suffrage in the District of Columbia on March 3.  On March 5 the Michigan Senate adopted a House resolution submitting the issue to a vote next month (only men, of course, will vote).  On the same day, the Maine legislature voted down a woman suffrage bill.  Massachusetts followed suit on March 25. 

Walter Hines Page

Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels is not the only former North Carolina editor to be appointed to an important administration post.  On March 30 it was announced that Walter Hines Page, the former editor of the State Chronicle in Greensboro and now a partner in the publishing firm of Doubleday, Page & Co., will become United States ambassador to Great Britain.  The job was previously offered to Doctor Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University, and to former Secretary of State Richard Olney, both of whom turned it down.  President Wilson has said he wants no rich men as ambassadors, but the financial requirements of the position make it unlikely that any other than rich men will be able to accept.  For example, William McCombs, one of Wilson's closest advisers throughout the campaign, has cited financial considerations in declining the President's offer to become ambassador to France.

 Downtown Dayton, Ohio

March was a month of violent weather in the United States.  Tornadoes swept across Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana on March 24, causing some 260 fatalities, most of them in Omaha.  Torrential rains followed, causing flooding that inundated farmland and cities in Indiana and Ohio.  Hardest hit was Dayton, Ohio, where thousands may have lost their lives.  (NYT 3/25-26).

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman died on March 10.  She was born a slave, escaped from her owner in 1849, and became active in the pre-Civil War Underground Railroad.  Senator William H. Seward, later President Lincoln's secretary of state, sold her a house on generous terms near his own home in Auburn, New York, which she called home for the rest of her life.  With Frederick Douglass, she was an outspoken abolitionist, and in 1859 she provided assistance to John Brown as he was preparing for his raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.  During the war, she worked for the Union Army and continued her efforts to transport slaves to freedom.  After the war, she was an advocate for woman suffrage.

J. Pierpont Morgan

World-renowned banker J. Pierpont Morgan died in Rome on March 31.  Among his impressive achievements in the world of finance were the formation of the General Electric Company and United States Steel.  His last major success came during the Panic of 1907 when he organized a group of solvent banks that employed emergency funds deposited by the United States Treasury to buy securities and extend loans and lines of credit to trust companies and brokerage houses, rescuing the nation's financial system from collapse.  One of the brokerage houses saved was Moore & Schley, which had a large stake in the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company.  As part of the resolution, U.S. Steel purchased the stake at what turned out to be a bargain price.  The threat that the Department of Justice would challenge the transaction under the antitrust laws was removed when then-President Roosevelt gave it his personal approval.  Four years later, President Taft's Justice Department filed suit against U.S. Steel alleging that the transaction did indeed violate the antitrust laws, and in its complaint alleged that Roosevelt had been misled in 1907 (see the November 1911 installment of this blog).  Roosevelt reacted angrily, deepening the split that led eventually to his campaign against Taft for the Republican Party nomination and his "Bull Moose" campaign for the presidency.

 Carter Glass

Although the Panic of 1907 was resolved without long-term damage to the economy, it gave impetus to the movement for banking and currency reform.  Recently the National Monetary Commission established in the wake of the Panic and chaired by former Senator Nelson Aldrich submitted a report recommending the creation of a central bank with capital of at least $100 million and with the exclusive power to issue currency, hold the deposits of the federal government and control the nation's money supply by determining discount reserves and engaging in open market transactions.  Thus it would be able to perform as a matter of course many of the functions Mr. Morgan performed under the pressure of unfolding events in 1907.  Many progressives, remembering President Andrew Jackson's war with the second Bank of the United States, oppose the creation of any central bank controlled by private interests, and insist that any such bank be an adjunct of, or under the control of, the federal government.  Competing proposals have been made to implement the Monetary Commission's recommendations, including one put forward by Representative Carter Glass, chairman of the House Banking Committee.

King George of the Hellenes

King George I of Greece was assassinated on March 18 in Salonika, a city recently captured from the Turks.  The killing adds to the sad total of assassinations of royalty and other political leaders in recent years (see the November 1912 installment of this blog).  He was a native of Denmark and brother of Queen Alexandra, the mother of King George V of Great Britain.  He was very popular in his adopted country, which he ruled for almost fifty years.  He always refused bodyguards or protection of any kind, saying he trusted the people.  He was shot in the back by an anarchist while walking down the principal street of the city, accompanied only by his aide.  The new king is George's son Constantine.

On March 22 the major powers of Europe, meeting in London, presented their plan to end the war in the Balkans, under which the Ottomans would surrender most of European Turkey to the Balkan allies.  A few days later, Turkish forces surrendered Adrianople to the besieging Hungarian army.  In another part of the Balkans, Austria-Hungary, backed by the European powers, has demanded that Serbia and Montenegro withdraw from Scutari and other areas along the Adriatic coast designated to become part of the new nation of Albania.

President Taft with Colonel Goethals in Panama Last Year

On March 1, the British government replied to former Secretary of State Knox's note rejecting Great Britain's move to submit the Panama Canal dispute to arbitration.  Responding to Knox's argument that the matter is not ripe for arbitration until actual injury has been sustained, the British take the position that the enactment of a statute in contravention of a treaty raises an arbitrable issue without the necessity of waiting for injury to occur.  They point out that the arbitration treaty between the United States and Great Britain expressly includes disputes regarding the interpretation of treaties, and argue that enactment of the Panama Canal Act creates such a dispute with regard to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.

Turning to matters closer to home, Prime Minister Asquith's government on March 12 announced a plan to complete the work begun by the 1911 Parliament Act by abolishing the heredity principle in the House of Lords and eliminating the Lords' veto power in its entirety.

"The New Cocktail "

A British view of the new American government was captured in a cartoon published this month in the humor magazine Punch.  Entitled "The New Cocktail," it portrays the new president examining a bedraggled American Eagle.  Alarmed at the bird's condition, he prescribes "a good stiff leave-it-to-Woodrow."
 

Anatole France

In another development reflecting heightening tensions in Europe, the French cabinet on March 5 approved a bill extending compulsory military service from two to three years.  Socialists and radicals are vehemently opposed to this measure.  Anatole France has denounced it as "an end to French culture," saying that "the demand for another barrack year from all young Frenchmen" will interfere with France's industrial development and will be a  "heavy blow" to the expansion of the arts, especially sculpture.  "Sculpture," he writes, "is not practiced on the battlefield."

 

 Aristide Briand

In the Chamber of Deputies, opposition led by former Premier Georges Clemenceau led on March 18 to the defeat and resignation of the recently installed premier, Aristide Briand, and his government.  The new premier is Jean Barthou, who is on record supporting a larger army and increased military appropriations.  Meanwhile, continued improvements in aircraft capabilities suggest that their military potential is only beginning to be realized.  On March 11 near Paris, a French aviator flew his machine to a record altitude of 19,650 feet.

Anthony Fokker

On March 28, Germany made public its plans for increased military preparedness, calling for military expenditures of $321,000,000.  Reflecting the increasing potential of aircraft, and perhaps inspired by their use in the recent wars in North Africa and the Balkans, the government has designated $37,000,000 for an air force.  Last year a young Dutchman named Anthony Fokker formed a company near Berlin to manufacture aircraft for the German military.

George Bernard Shaw

British leaders too are appealing for a larger army.  Great Britain does not have compulsory military service, but some influential writers, such as H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw, are calling for conscription.  On March 19 the Secretary of State for War, Colonel J.E.B. Seely, told the House of Commons that the British army's air service is the best in the world, adding that "the mechanical problem of repelling attacks on aircraft ... has been solved by experiments carried out by the royal army service."

 First Lord Winston Churchill

Great Britain's naval race with Germany continues unabated.  Early this month, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill presented the government's naval estimates to the House of Commons.  Projecting the next six years of capital ship construction, he adhered to the policy of building sixteen capital ships for every ten built by Germany.  Later in the month, in another speech in the Commons, he proposed a naval "holiday" in which Britain and Germany would agree not to build any capital ships in 1913.  He argues that his proposal would be to Germany's advantage because, by simply agreeing not to build three super-dreadnoughts, Germany could subtract five such ships from the British fleet.  "This is more than I expect they could hope to do in a brilliant naval action."

Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley

Great Britain lost one of its military heroes this month.  Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, First Viscount Wolseley, died March 25 at the age of eighty.  He fought in the Burmese War, the Crimean War, the 1857 Indian Mutiny, and numerous other operations in China and Africa.  He led the unsuccessful expedition to rescue General Charles "Chinese" Gordon in Khartoum in 1884.

Venustiano Carranza

The grip of the Huerta regime on the Mexican government is anything but secure.  Self-styled "constitutionalists" led by Venustiano Carranza have seized Durango, Agua Prieta, and Nogales, near the Arizona border.  In another development involving Latin America, President Wilson issued a statement on March 11, apparently in response to reports of incipient revolutionary movements in Central and South America.  Issued after a cabinet meeting devoted to the subject, the statement expressed the United States' support for "just government, based upon law and not upon arbitrary or irregular force."  The statement was drafted by the president himself and was seen by Secretary of State Bryan for the first time when newspapermen showed it to him after its release.  Its meaning is the subject of considerable speculation, particular among Central American diplomats.

Tsar Michael Romanov

On March 6, Russia celebrated the three hundredth anniversary of the Romanov dynasty.  The Romanov family has ruled Russia since Michael Romanov was proclaimed tsar in 1613, ending a period of civil unrest and famine known as the "Time of Troubles."  The current tsar, Nicholas II, is not only a descendant of Tsar Michael, but is also part of the extended family relationships among European royalty.  As a grandson of King Christian IX of Denmark, the tsar is a first cousin of King George V of Great Britain, King Christian X of Denmark and the new King Constantine I of Greece.  The tsarina, Empress Alexandra, is a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and thus a first cousin of both King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany.

March 1913 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, April and May 1913

New York Times, March 1913
The Outlook, March 29, 1913

Books and Articles:
Miranda Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I
Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality
John A. Garraty, A Lion in the Street, American Heritage, June 1957

Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars
Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933

Kermit L. Hall, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States

Richard C. Hall, Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War
August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917
Robert K Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
H. Erle Richards, The Panama Canal Controversy (1913 lecture available on Wikisource.org)
Walter Stahr, Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man
Joseph Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him

February 1913

Robert Falcon Scott

On February 10, the Terra Nova reached New Zealand with news that the bodies of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his companions were found in the Antarctic in November.  According to the diaries found with the bodies, the five men who had made the final push for the South Pole reached it on January 18, 1912, only to discover that the Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen had gotten there a month earlier.  On their return journey one of them, Petty Officer Evans, died from a fall.  The remaining four were trapped in a blizzard as their provisions ran out.  The frozen bodies of three of them, Captain Scott, Dr. Wilson and Lieutenant Bowers, were found in their tent.  The other member of the group, Captain Oates, had left the tent and died of exposure. They were 155 miles from Cape Evans, where they were to rendezvous with the Terra Nova, and only about eleven miles from One Ton Depot, where shelter and supplies were waiting.

Victoriano Huerta

On February 9, revolutionaries led by Felix Diaz, the nephew of deposed President Porfirio Diaz who had recently escaped from prison, entered Mexico City and besieged the National Palace.  Nine days later, the troops defending President Francisco Madero forced him to resign and proclaimed Victoriano Huerta president.  The next day Huerta was elected president by a vote of the Mexican Congress, and Gustavo Madero, the president's brother and close adviser, was seized on the street and killed.  On February 22 President Madero and his vice president, Pino Suarez, were shot to death on their way to prison.  According to the Huerta government, they died while "attempting to escape."  President Taft has stated that he has no intention of intervening in the Mexican turmoil, but he has sent four American warships to Mexican waters and 10,000 troops to the border to be prepared to safeguard American lives and property.

William G. McAdoo

A joint session of the United States Congress met on February 12 and tabulated the electoral votes cast last month by the presidential electors.  Woodrow Wilson was officially declared the winner of the election.  He will be inaugurated on March 4, the same day the 62nd Congress will expire and the new Congress will take office.  The president-elect is taking a relaxed approach to selecting his cabinet.  It has previously been reported that William Jennings Bryan will have the job of secretary of state if he wants it, and that Josephus Daniels is likely to have one of the other cabinet positions.  Other probable appointees are William G. McAdoo, president of the Hudson & Manhattan Railway Co., Representative Albert S. Burleson of Texas, and Boston attorney Louis D. Brandeis, but no definite announcements have been made.  Governor Wilson has also refrained from taking a public position on the rapidly changing situation in Mexico.
 

Lawyers Celebrating the Income Tax

The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted over a hundred years ago.  Three more were adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, abolishing slavery and guaranteeing (in theory if not in practice) equal rights to the freed slaves.  Now there is a new wave of amendments, inspired by the progressive spirit of the times.  The Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing Congress to impose a tax on incomes, became part of the Constitution on February 3 when Delaware became the thirty-sixth state to ratify it, followed closely by Wyoming and New Mexico.  Legislation exercising the new taxing power is expected shortly, motivated in part by the desire to replace revenue lost due to tariff reductions and in part by the desire to make the government less dependent on the federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages.  As with all revenue measures, the House of Representatives will go first, and most observers expect it to adopt a levy in the neighborhood of one percent.  Meanwhile, a possible seventeenth amendment, providing for direct election of United States senators, was proposed last year and seems on its way to speedy ratification.  Another proposed amendment, limiting the president to a single term of six years, passed the Senate and moved to the House of Representatives on February 1.  The vote was 47-23, barely meeting the two-thirds requirement.

The New Terminal Nearing Completion

The new Grand Central Terminal opened at the location of the old Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in New York City on February 2.  It is the end of the line (hence "terminal") for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad.  With the recent conversion of all trains entering and leaving the city from steam to electric power, the tracks will now be covered all the way from the terminal to 96th Street, creating a strip of potentially valuable real estate along Park Avenue.  A roadway is being constructed around the terminal to accommodate Park Avenue traffic.

William Randolph Hearst

Construction of subways in New York City is mired in controversy.  Two private companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, have promoted competing plans to build an expanded subway system   The City of New York has proposed dual contracts, under which both companies are to begin construction.  William Randolph Hearst, the publisher of the New York Journal, is leading the opposition.  He believes that subway construction and operation should be a municipal function.  Advocates and opponents of the City's plan journeyed to Albany early this month to argue their case before Governor Sulzer.  The controversy has now moved to the courts, where a motion to vacate a temporary injunction against the contracts was recently argued in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.

Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz

With the expiration of the armistice on February 3, the Balkan allies have renewed their war with the Ottoman Empire, launching an attack on the Turkish stronghold of Adrianople.  Responding to a report that the former Grand Vizier Kiamil Pasha had offered to neutralize the city as part of a peace agreement, the Turkish commander there, Thukri Pasha, delivered a message of defiance, denouncing such "cowardice" and threatening not only to fight to the last man but also, if he "see[s] that further resistance is useless," to turn his guns on the 40,000 Bulgarians living in the city.  In an attempt to relieve the pressure on Adrianople, Ottoman forces attacked Bulgarian troops in the Gallipoli peninsula.  After several hours of fierce fighting, the Turkish troops withdrew.  The Turkish ambassador to Great Britain has asked the British foreign minister to persuade the European powers convening in London to intervene to stop the fighting, and another former grand vizier, Ibrahim Hakki Pasha, is reported to be leading a peace delegation to London.  With the winds of war swirling in the Balkans, the major European powers are reacting at home as well as in London.  The French government has proposed a supplemental military appropriation of $100,000,000, and Germany is apparently moderating its naval competition with Great Britain so that it can devote its resources to building its army.  On February 7 Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, Germany's Naval Secretary, told the Budget Committee of the Reichstag that he would welcome an agreement with Great Britain regarding fleet ratios, adding that the current ratio of 10 to 16 might be sufficient to satisfy Germany's defense requirements.  On the same day the new foreign minister, Gottlieb von Jagow, addressed the Committee regarding the international situation, and Germany's relations with Great Britain in particular. 

 Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel

The campaign for woman suffrage in Great Britain has continued unabated.  The month began with the arrest of Mrs. Leonora Cohen for smashing glass cases in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.  Another woman was arrested the same day for breaking store windows in Pall Mall.  The following week, greenhouses in Kew Gardens were smashed in the middle of the night, resulting in the destruction of a number of valuable plants.  Cards reading "Votes for Women" were found at the scene, but no one has been apprehended.  On February 19, a bomb partially destroyed a country house at Walton Heath where Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd-George was to stay on his next golf outing.  Later that day Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst told an audience at Cardiff that she took full responsibility for the act.  Comparing the British suffragists with Mexican revolutionaries who had imprisoned members of the Madero government, she said "We have not got any ministers in prison yet, but we have blown up the Chancellor of the Exchequer's house."  She said she would go on a hunger strike if sent to prison.  Ironically, Mr. Lloyd-George is a supporter of woman suffrage.

Employing a somewhat less destructive tactic, some suffragists have sent envelopes to cabinet ministers containing red pepper or snuff designed to blow into the eyes when opened.  At least one parliamentary secretary has been temporarily blinded after being "peppered by post."

The Mauretania in New York Last Year

Both of the principal luxury liners of the Cunard Steamship Line, the Mauretania and the Lusitania, were in the news this month.  The Mauretania arrived in New York on February 8 a day behind schedule after encountering ferocious storms in the North Atlantic on its voyage from Liverpool.  Engineers had been concerned about how a vessel of its size would withstand the battering it would receive in extremely rough seas, especially under the stress the hull would experience as it was lifted and suspended between giant waves fore and aft.  The Mauretania experienced just such a storm on its latest voyage.  As it arrived in New York, however, although its superstructure was severely damaged, the integrity of its hull proved upon inspection to be unimpaired.  The Mauretania's sister ship, the Lusitania, did not fare so well, though from a less dramatic injury.  In December, as it was entering Fishguard Harbour on the north coast of Wales, the steering mechanism failed due to a small piece of marline that had dropped into the telemotor, the hydraulic system by which the steering gear is operated from the bridge.  To avoid a collision with a ship leaving port, the engines were thrown into emergency reverse.  Subsequent inspection has revealed that the maneuver overstressed and damaged the blades on the ship's newly installed turbines, requiring a major overhaul.  The Lusitania is expected to be out of service for six to eight months.

 Admiral Count Yamamoto Gonbei

Katsura Taro's tenure as prime minister of Japan has been short-lived.  Demonstrations against his return to power and a loss of support in the Diet caused him to resign this month.  He has been replaced by Admiral Count Yamamoto Gonbei.

Thomas Edison examining motion picture film in his studio last year

The famous inventor Thomas A. Edison turned 66 on February 11.  Among his inventions have been the phonograph, the modern electric light bulb, and the motion picture camera, as well as a system for the generation and distribution of municipal electric power.  In 1906 he organized the Motion Picture Patents Company, a patent pool that seeks, by combining and enforcing the members' patents, to exclude potential competitors from all aspects of the production, distribution and exhibition of motion pictures.

Guglielmo Marconi

An inventor of the younger generation, the 38 year old Italian Guglielmo Marconi, was also in the news this month.  Marconi is credited with inventions in the field of radio that make possible long-distance wireless communication.  In 1901 he received the first transatlantic wireless transmission, sent from a high-powered transmitter in Cornwall, England, to a receiver on Signal Hill at the entrance to the harbor at St. John's, Newfoundland.  Last year his wireless apparatus was used by the Titanic to transmit distress calls after it struck an iceberg off the Newfoundland coast.  Last month, a Marconi device was used to send a wireless message from Sayville, New York to Nauen, Germany, and this month it was announced that Marconi's company has awarded contracts to a construction firm to build a series of transmitting and receiving stations designed to enable the first wireless communication across the Pacific, from San Francisco to the island of Oahu in the Sandwich Islands, and ultimately to Japan and India.

John McGraw (left) and Boston Manager Jake Stahl at Last Year's World Series 

It was announced this month that Jim Thorpe, whose Olympic medals were stripped from him when it was learned that he had been paid for playing baseball, will now play baseball again, this time in the major leagues.  New York Giants Manager John McGraw has signed Thorpe to play outfield for the Giants in the 1913 season. The Giants won the National League pennant last year, but lost to the Red Sox in the World Series, four games to three, with one tie (the second game was called after eleven innings on account of darkness).

February 1913 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, March and April 1913

New York Times, February 1913

Books and Articles:

John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest

Patrick Devlin, Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars
Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933

Richard C. Hall, Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War
August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
Paul M. Kennedy, The Rise of Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860-1914
Robert K Massie, Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War
Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
Joseph Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him