November 1912

It's November 1912, as Americans go to the polls for a presidential election.  Democrat Woodrow Wilson wins in a landslide, defeating both the incumbent president and his predecessor. Another in a wave of assassinations of world leaders takes place, this one in Spain. There is turmoil in the British House of Commons. The Ottoman Empire is under attack, and a wider war threatens. The Great War is a month closer, but nobody knows it.

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1912 Presidential Election Results

Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey has been elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States, defeating the incumbent President William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt by a decisive margin.  He received less than 42 percent of the popular vote, but because two strong candidates split the Republican vote he swept the Electoral College, 435 votes to 88 for Roosevelt and only eight (Vermont and Utah) for Taft.  Wilson is only the second Democrat to be elected to the presidency since the Civil War; the first, Grover Cleveland, was elected by much slimmer Electoral College margins in 1884 and 1892, and lost by an equally slim margin in 1888.  Despite the efforts of Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign to appeal to white southerners, the Democratic Party retained its grip on the "Solid South," aided in part by the candidacy of native southerner Woodrow Wilson and in part by the widespread disfranchisement of Negroes, most of whom would otherwise probably vote Republican.  Wilson rolled up commanding majorities in all the states of the old Confederacy (Mississippi gave him 89 percent of its vote).  Of the other states, not a single one gave Wilson a majority, but he won a plurality in most of them because of the split in the Republican vote.

Colonel House

Governor Wilson has almost four months before he assumes the presidency, and he has stated that he will remain in office as governor while the New Jersey legislature is in session.  The first item on his agenda, however, is an extended vacation in Bermuda.  He set sail with his wife and two of their daughters on November 16.  In his absence, the transition to the new administration is being managed by "Colonel" Edward Mandell House.  Colonel House is a wealthy Texan who was instrumental in organizing support for Wilson prior to the Baltimore convention and has emerged since the election as his most influential adviser.  Having turned down the offer of a cabinet post for himself, House is well positioned to become a power behind the throne in the new administration.

Eugene V. Debs Campaigning in 1912

The landslide Electoral College defeat of an incumbent president and his predecessor is not the only unique feature of the 1912 election.  Riding the nationwide progressive wave, Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist Party's candidate for president, received over 900,000 votes, by far the best showing in the party's history.  Debs was the leader of the American Railway Union at the time of the 1894 Pullman strike, when President Cleveland obtained an injunction against the strike and sent in federal troops to enforce it.  Debs and other officers of the union were jailed for disobeying the injunction.  They were represented by Clarence Darrow, who has since built a reputation as a vigorous spokesman for socialist and labor causes, including most famously his successful defense of "Big Bill" Haywood and others in their 1907 trial for the murder of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg.  Most recently, Darrow represented the McNamara brothers in their trial last year for dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building.  After the brothers pled guilty, Darrow was indicted on two counts of jury tampering.  He was tried and acquitted on the first count earlier this year but still faces trial on the second.

Speaker Champ Clark

This has been a good year for Democrats, who not only won the White House but also gained control of both houses of Congress.  They kept their two-year-old majority in the House of Representatives and gained a majority in the Senate for the first time in twenty years.  Representative Champ Clark of Missouri, who came within a whisker of winning the Democratic presidential nomination this year (and thus most likely the presidency), will continue as Speaker.  As required by Article I, Section 4 of the Constitution, the Sixty-second Congress will reconvene for its "lame duck" session on December 2, the first Monday in December.  Although the Sixty-third Congress will not convene in regular session until next December, most observers expect that Wilson will call a special session shortly after March 4, when he and the new Congress will take office.

1912 has been a good year for American popular music.  Two of the most popular songs of the year are "Moonlight Bay" and "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee," both recorded by popular recording star Billy Murray (click to play):

Moonlight Bay (sung by the American Quartet, featuring Billy Murray)

Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee (sung by Ada Jones and Billy Murray)

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Prime Minister Canalejas y Mendez

Prime Minister Jose Canalejas y Mendez of Spain was shot and killed on the streets of Madrid on November 12.  This is the latest in a wave of assassinations that over the last twenty years has also claimed the lives of an empress of Austria, a king of Italy, a king and a crown prince of Portugal, a king and queen of Serbia, a shah of Persia, an empress of Korea, prime ministers of Russia, Japan and Greece, two prime ministers of Bulgaria, another prime minister of Spain, and presidents of France and the United States.  Count Alvarado de Romanones has been appointed to succeed Canalejas y Mendez as Spanish premier.

Ambassador Bryce

James Bryce, the British ambassador to the United States, has announced his intention to resign his post and return to England.  The timing of his move may be seen as unfortunate.  Bryce is an outspoken liberal politician who is known and respected by President-elect Wilson, while his replacement, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, is a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, the new president's most outspoken political adversary.

Sir Rufus Isaacs

The British House of Commons was the scene of a rare, if not entirely unprecedented, outburst of pandemonium this month.  On November 11, the House surprised the government by defeating a routine amendment to the Irish Home Rule Bill.  Two days later the Government introduced a resolution to rescind the adverse vote.  Unionist members loudly objected, refusing to allow the Attorney General, Sir Rufus Isaacs, to speak in support of the resolution.  The House was adjourned for an hour, but when it reconvened the shouting from the Unionist side of the chamber resumed.  At the height of the tumult, a book hurled by a Unionist member struck First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill on the ear.  Order was restored only when a Labor Party member began singing "Auld Lang Syne" and others joined in.

 

The Greek Navy Preparing for War, October 1912

The war in the Balkans poses a serious threat to world peace.  It is being waged on three fronts.  Serbia and Montenegro have occupied the Sanjak of Novibazar, a Turkish area that separates Serbia and Montenegro and borders on Bosnia, now a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to the north.  To the south, Greece has occupied Macedonia, and Bulgaria has invaded Thrace, advancing toward Adrianople and Constantinople, where an epidemic of cholera has broken out.  The Balkan League's success against the Ottoman Empire thus far has been due in part to the Greek Navy's control of the Aegean Sea, which blocks reinforcements from Asian Turkey.  Turkey appealed to the major European powers to intervene, but they declined to do so, telling Turkey it must deal directly with the Balkan nations.  On November 8, in a move that underscores the religious tensions underlying the conflict between the Muslim Ottomans and the largely Christian Balkan League, the Sheik-ul-Islam, the highest ranking ecclesiastical official of the Ottoman Empire, declared a Jihad, or holy war, against unbelievers.

 

Count Leopold von Berchtold

Although they have declined to intervene, the major European powers are watching developments in the Balkans with grave concern.  The most directly concerned is Austria-Hungary, which borders Serbia, Montenegro and the Ottoman Empire itself, and whose annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 remains a source of friction with Serbia.  Alarmed by the victories of the Balkan League, Austria wants to deny Serbian ambitions to expand its borders to the south and west, in particular to gain a port on the Adriatic from which it could challenge Austrian naval power.  Count Leopold von Berchtold, Austria-Hungary's foreign minister, has persuaded Emperor Franz Joseph to mobilize Austrian forces along its borders with Serbia and Russia, Serbia's ally and protector.  Germany, Austria-Hungary's ally, appears ready to come to its aid in the event of conflict with Russia, and France appears ready to stand by its ally, Russia.  Prime Minister Asquith of Great Britain, speaking at the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guild Hall on November 10, urged the parties to pursue a general settlement rather than forcing a decision on "isolated questions" such as Adriatic ports.  The prime minister was preceded by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, who announced the presence of a strong British fleet of more than twenty battleships and cruisers in the eastern Mediterranean.  The United States has sent two warships to Turkey to protect American interests.

At month's end, there is reason to hope that the threatened general war may be averted.  Under the terms being discussed, the belligerent nations would agree to an armistice and Austria-Hungary would support the creation of a new state of Albania between Serbia and the Adriatic with guarantees of access to the Adriatic for Serbian trade.

November 1912 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Records and Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, December 1912 and January 1913

Literary Digest, November 1912

New York Times, November 1912

Books and Articles:
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- the Election That Changed the Country
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

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

John A. Farrell, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned
Andre Gerolymatos, The Balkan Wars

Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency
Richard C. Hall, Balkan Wars 1912-1913: Prelude to the First World War
August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft

October 1912

In October 1912, as the presidential campaign enters its final weeks, Theodore Roosevelt is shot on his way to a speech in Milwaukee.  The vice president, a candidate for reelection as President Taft's running mate, suddenly dies of kidney disease.  President Grover Cleveland's widow announces her engagement (it will be 56 years before another president's widow remarries) and the Red Sox win the World Series.  In world news, one war ends and another begins, both involving the Ottoman Empire.

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Roosevelt Campaigning in Milwaukee Before the Shooting

The 1912 presidential campaign took a dramatic turn as it entered its final weeks.  At about eight o'clock in the evening of October 14, in front of the Hotel Gilpatrick in Milwaukee, former President Roosevelt was shot as he was entering an automobile to go to the auditorium to deliver a campaign speech.  The would-be assassin approached Roosevelt and fired once at close range.  He was identified as John Schrank, a New York City saloon-keeper, who objected to Roosevelt's bid for a third term.  Schrank had been stalking Roosevelt for some time, following him from Charleston to Atlanta to Chicago and several cities in between before catching up with him in Milwaukee.  The bullet entered Roosevelt's right breast, its force diminished by striking Roosevelt's glasses case and the manuscript of the speech he was about to deliver.  Albert Martin, one of Roosevelt's secretaries who was accompanying Roosevelt, jumped on Schrank and knocked him to the ground, preventing a second shot.  As Schrank was pulled to his feet, the angry crowd pushed forward with cries of "Lynch him, kill him!"  Roosevelt raised his hand and called for the crowd to stand back, saying he was unhurt.  Only after Roosevelt was in in the automobile on his way to the auditorium was it noticed that there was a hole in his coat and blood on his shirt.  His doctor, who was in the automobile with him, wanted him to return to the hotel, but Roosevelt insisted on proceeding to the auditorium and delivering his speech, which began with the dramatic announcement that he had just been shot.  Opening his coat and showing the audience his blood-stained shirt, Roosevelt boasted that "it takes more than that to kill a bull moose!" and proceeded to speak for approximately an hour.  After speaking, he was taken to a hospital where it was determined that the bullet had lodged in the chest wall and had not entered the lung.  He was given medical clearance to travel to Chicago, his next destination.  After a few days in a Chicago hospital he returned to his home at Oyster Bay, New York.  He gave no more speeches until October 30 when he addressed a crowd of 16,000 at Madison Square Garden.  He was greeted affectionately by the partisan audience, but seemed subdued in his delivery, showing the strain of his recent injury.

Wilson at Madison Square Garden, October 31, 1912

Woodrow Wilson also resumed his campaign at the end of the month, having suspended it while Roosevelt was recovering from his wound.  The day after Roosevelt's appearance he also mounted the stage at Madison Square Garden, where he was given an enthusiastic welcome.  He was accompanied by William Sulzer and Martin Glynn, the Democratic candidates for New York governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

 "Parramatta," President Taft's Summer Home

President Taft spent most of the month at his summer home in Beverly, Massachusetts, where for the last two years he has rented "Parramatta" from Mrs. Henry Peabody.  He left Beverly to return to Washington on October 26.  He did not entirely neglect his campaign for reelection, making a brief visit to New York City  and several speeches in the New England area while staying in Beverly.  In a setback to Taft's campaign, the California Supreme Court ruled on October 3 that the names of his electors could not be on the ballot in that state as Republicans, since electors pledged to Roosevelt had won the Republican primary.

Vice President James S. Sherman

The month ended with the death of one of the major party nominees.  Vice President James S. Sherman, the Republican Party's nominee for reelection, died on October 30 of Bright's Disease.  "Sunny Jim" Sherman, a former member of the House of Representatives from Utica, New York, was elected to the vice presidency in 1908 as President Taft's running mate.  Because there is no constitutional provision for filling a vacancy in the office of vice president, it will remain open until the new term for the president and vice president begins on March 4.  It is expected that the Republican Party will designate another person as its nominee for vice president some time before the electoral college meets in January.

Launching Ceremony of the U.S.S. New York

On October 30, the battleship U.S.S. New York (BB-34) was launched at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.  She is the sister ship of U.S.S. Texas (BB-35), which was launched May 18, 1912 at Newport News, Virginia.

Becker (center, head down) on his way to Sing Sing's Death Row

Lieutenant Charles Becker of the New York City Police Department was tried and convicted this month of first degree murder in the death of the mobster Herbert Rosenthal.  On October 30, Justice John W. Goff sentenced him to die in the electric chair.  After his sentencing, he was taken back across the "Bridge of Sighs" to the Tombs, and from there transported to death row in the state penitentiary at Sing Sing.  His execution is scheduled to take place the week of December 9.  He continues to protest his innocence, and has appealed his conviction.

The 1912 Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox won the 1912 World Series, four games to three.  The series, pitting the Red Sox against the New York Giants, got under way at the Polo Grounds on October 8 and ended at Fenway Park on October 16.  It took eight games to decide the winner: the second game ended in a 6-6 tie when it was called after eleven innings on account of darkness.  The series pitted two of the greatest pitchers in the game against each other: the Giants' Christy Mathewson and the Red Sox's "Smoky Joe" Wood, who ended the regular season with a 34-5 record and an earned run average of 1.91.  In the final game, the Giants had a one run lead in the bottom of the tenth when Clyde Engel, pinch-hitting for Wood, hit an easy fly ball to center field.  Giants center fielder Fred Snodgrass dropped the ball and the Red Sox went on to score two runs to win the game.

Ziegfeld Follies of 1912

The Ziegfeld Follies of 1912 opened this month at the Moulin Rouge Theatre in New York.  One of the hit songs from the show is "Row, Row, Row" (click to play):

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Frances Folsom at the Time of Her Marriage to President Cleveland

Frances Folsom Cleveland, the widow of former President Grover Cleveland, has announced her engagement.  She will marry Thomas J. Preston, Jr., a professor of archaeology at Wells College.  Mrs. Cleveland was only 21 years old when she married the president in the White House in 1885.  They had five children, one of whom, "Baby" Ruth Cleveland, died in 1904.

Thomas Fortune Ryan Out for a Stroll

 On October 2, the Senate committee investigating political contributions received a complete list of contributions to the 1904 Republican campaign to reelect President Roosevelt, including $150,000 contributed by J.P. Morgan & Co.  Roosevelt has issued a statement in which he asserts that campaign contributions did not purchase any favors or special treatment.  On the other side of the political divide, Thomas Fortune Ryan, the transportation, tobacco and insurance magnate, testified on October 21 that he contributed $450,000 to Democratic candidates that year.  This year Ryan was a Virginia delegate to the Democratic national convention, where William Jennings Bryan denounced him by name, along with J. P. Morgan and August Belmont, as a member of "the privilege-hunting or favor-seeking class."

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 Turkish and Italian Delegations at the Signing of the Treaty of Lausanne

The Ottoman Empire and Italy have agreed to peace terms ending the Italo-Turkish War.  Under the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey will retain nominal sovereignty of Libya, but it will withdraw its troops and consult the Italian government concerning the appointment of administrative officials.  In return, Italy will withdraw its troops from Rhodes and the other Aegean islands it occupied during the war.

The New and Former Grand Vizier

The end of its war with Italy will not bring peace to the Ottoman Empire.  As the ink was still drying on the Treaty of Lausanne, another war involving the Empire broke out in the Balkans.  The weakness of the Empire having just been demonstrated in north Africa and the Mediterranean, the Balkan countries saw an opportunity to achieve their long-standing goal of evicting Turkey from Europe and decided to take action.  Montenegro declared war on October 8, followed on October 17 by the other members of the Balkan League: Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia.  At month's end, the Bulgarian army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turks near Adrianople.  Grand Vizier Muchtar Pasha resigned and was replaced by former Grand Vizier Kiamil Pasha.

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Felix Diaz

On October 16 Felix Diaz, a nephew of deposed Mexican president Porfirio Diaz, raised the standard of revolt in Veracruz against the government of Francisco Madero.  It was a short-lived rebellion: government forces captured the city and Diaz himself on October 23, and on October 27 he was sentenced to death.  This is far from the end of attempts to overthrow the Madero government, however, as rebellions led by Emiliano Zapata, Pascual  Orozco and others continue throughout Mexico.

October 1912 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Records and Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, November and December 1912

Literary Digest, November 2, 1912

New York Times, October 1912

Books and Articles:
Matthew Algeo, The President Is a Sick Man
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- the Election That Changed the Country

Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft

September 1912

It's September 1912, and the American presidential campaign is in full cry. Woman suffrage is defeated in Ohio. Opposition builds to Irish home rule. U.S. Marines are in Nicaragua. Elections are held for the Russian Duma. Anarchy reigns in Mexico, and there is racial controversy at the American Bar Association.

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Roosevelt Campaigning in Iowa, September 1912

One of Roosevelt’s most controversial positions in his campaign for the presidency this year has been his support of recall, not only of elected officials but also of judges and judicial decisions.  This month he took his position a step further.  In a speech at the Denver Auditorium on September 19, in the course of answering a question posed by William Jennings Bryan in Pueblo the night before, he stated that he favors subjecting even the president to the possibility of recall.  Bryan's question was "How many terms may a president serve?", a question designed to call attention to the fact that Roosevelt has already served almost two complete terms, and that his election this year would put him in office for a third term, giving him an unprecedented tenure of almost twelve years.  Roosevelt answered Bryan's question by arguing that the two-term tradition applies only to consecutive terms.  

Another challenge for Roosevelt this month has been responding to testimony by John D. Archbold, former vice-president of the Standard Oil Company, that during the 1904 presidential campaign Roosevelt solicited and received a campaign contribution of $125,000 from Standard Oil.  Roosevelt denies that any such contribution was asked for or made.  Congressional hearings on that subject are resuming at month's end.

Suffragists in Ohio

The voters of Ohio went to the polls on September 3 to vote on several proposed amendments to the state constitution, including initiative, referendum and woman suffrage.  All of the proposed amendments were adopted except woman suffrage, which went down to a decisive defeat, losing most surprisingly by a two to one margin in the city of Cleveland.  The women of Ohio, of course, did not vote.

General MacArthur

On September 5, Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr. died of a heart attack while giving a speech in Milwaukee.  A Civil War veteran and winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, he was one of the Army’s last remaining lieutenant generals, a rank that is no longer authorized by Congress.   He was military governor of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, and was replaced in 1901 by a civilian government headed by William Howard Taft, with whom he had a strained relationship.  He was the ranking general in the Army in 1906 when the post of Army Chief of Staff became vacant, but by then Taft was Secretary of War, and he passed over MacArthur in favor of Major General Franklin Bell.  MacArthur retired from the Army in 1909.  He is survived by his two sons, both of whom have followed their father into military careers.  Lieutenant Commander Arthur MacArthur III is an 1896 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, and his younger brother, Captain Douglas MacArthur, is a 1903 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

William H. Lewis

In a compromise decision this month, the American Bar Association readmitted three Negro attorneys to membership.  They were expelled earlier this year at the insistence of members who complained that they had been unaware of their race when their membership was proposed.  Under the terms of the compromise, the Negroes will be readmitted to the Association but all future applicants for membership will be required to disclose their race on their applications.  The most prominent of the new Negro members is Assistant Attorney General William H. Lewis, who was appointed to that post by President Taft in 1910.  Lewis is the first Negro ever to hold such a high office in the executive branch of the federal government.  A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, he played and coached football at Harvard, served as an assistant United States Attorney, and is a recognized authority and published author on the techniques and strategy of football.  Attorney General George W. Wickersham was Lewis's sponsor for membership in the ABA, and his interest in the case was undoubtedly instrumental in causing the ABA to reverse its prior decision.

Mack Sennett

Motion picture production is still centered mostly in New York, but increasingly in recent years it can be found in Southern California.  Part of the reason is climate and scenery, and part is the proximity of the Mexican border, which makes it easier for independent producers to escape the enforcement efforts of the Motion Picture Patents Company.  Most recently, Biograph producer Mack Sennett has moved west and started a new company, which he calls Keystone Productions.  Keystone is located in Edendale, a district northwest of downtown Los Angeles, which is fast becoming the center of west coast motion picture production (though some production has also begun to take place in the nearby village of Hollywood).  Keystone released its first "Keystone Comedy," called The Water Nymph, on September 23  (click to play):

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General Nogi (center left) and Russian General Anatoly Stoessel (center right)

 at the Surrender of Port Arthur, January 1905

In Japan, the funeral of the Meiji Emperor took place on September 13.  Secretary of State Philander Knox attended as the representative of the United States.  The funeral was also attended by Count Nogi Maresuke, the ranking general of the Japanese army, who led Japanese forces in the capture of Port Arthur in the Sino-Japanese War in 1895 and again in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.  As the funeral was in progress, General Nogi and his wife committed ritual suicide in accordance with an ancient Japanese custom.  Those who follow this custom believe that it is the general’s duty to accompany the emperor’s soul into the afterlife, and the wife’s duty to accompany her husband’s.  Ten days after the funeral, as if on cue, a typhoon struck Japan, causing widespread destruction.

Nicaragua President Adolfo Diaz

Disorder is the order of the day in Mexico.  The states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa are overrun by bands of rebels and outlaws.  This month President Francisco Madero offered amnesty to the rebel leader Pascual Orozco.  Elsewhere in Latin America, a revolution in Nicaragua has threatened American interests, causing the dispatch of American troops.  On September 25, General Luis Mena, the leader of rebels seeking the overthrow of President Adolfo Diaz, surrendered to American Navy and Marine Corps forces under the command of Rear Admiral William Henry Hudson Southerland and Marine Corps Colonel Joseph H. Pendleton.

Italian Warships in Action

In the bloodiest engagement to date in the Italo-Turkish War, Turkish and Arab forces attacked Italian troops near Derna in Tripoli on September 17 and were driven back with heavy losses.  This month marks the first anniversary of Italy's declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire, a war that has proved far more difficult and costly than Italy expected.  Because of its superior naval presence in the Mediterranean, Italy continues to control the Libyan coast, but it has been unable to move inland.  It has attempted with some success to apply additional pressure by attacking and occupying Turkish coastal cities and islands in the eastern Mediterranean.  Informal negotiations have begun in Switzerland, but so far appear to be deadlocked over Italy’s insistence on sovereignty in Tripoli.

The Italian war is not the only crisis facing the Ottoman Empire.  At month's end, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece began mobilization of their military reserves amid accusations of Turkish interference in Macedonian affairs.

Andres Bonar Law, Leader of the Unionist Party

In Great Britain, resistance to Irish home rule, encouraged by leaders of the Unionist Party, shows no sign of abating.  On September 25, the Ulster Unionist Council approved the text of a covenant pledging Ulsterites not to recognize the authority of an Irish parliament should one be created as proposed in the government's Home Rule Bill.  On September 27, a massive demonstration against home rule took place in Belfast, and the next day thousands of Ulsterites signed the covenant of resistance to home rule.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic crisis with the United States over Panama Canal tolls continues.  The British government has apparently decided not to retaliate by raising Suez Canal tolls on American ships, mainly because American use of that canal is relatively insignificant.  Instead, Britain has announced that it will seek international arbitration of the dispute.

Georges Legagneux

News continues to be made in the air.  On September 6, Roland Garros set an altitude record of 16,240 feet.  The record lasted eleven days.  On September 17 French aviator Georges Legagneux flew an aeroplane to an altitude of three and a half miles (18,480 feet).  The next day, a German airship paid a visit to Copenhagen.  Not all the aviation news was good.  In a single day (September 23), two German military aviators were killed in a crash near Freiburg and a crash in Belfast killed an English aviator, making thirteen deaths in aviation accidents in a three week period.

 Premier Vladimir Kokovtsov

In the wake of Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the ensuing 1905 revolution, Tsar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto establishing the Duma as Russia's legislative body.  The Third Duma was dissolved on September 12, and elections for a Fourth Duma are under way.  Vladimir Kokovtsov will continue as premier, a post that is filled by imperial appointment.

September 1912 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Records and Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, October and November1912

Literary Digest, September 7, 1912

New York Times, September 1912

Books and Articles:
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- the Election That Changed the Country

Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House

August 1912

In August 1912 the Republicans and Democrats send committees to their presidential nominees to notify them of their nominations and hear their acceptance speeches. The new Progressive Party nominates Theodore Roosevelt for president, ensuring the defeat of President Taft and the election of the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson. The Senate passes the Panama Canal Bill, guaranteeing a diplomatic confrontation with Great Britain, where opposition to Irish home rule is gaining momentum. A New York police lieutenant is arrested for murder, and Clarence Darrow is acquitted after a 3-month trial for jury tampering. The Woolworth Building is nearing completion.

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Republicans Notify President Taft of His Nomination

This month both major parties performed the traditional ritual of formally notifying their candidates of their nominations for the presidency.  On August 1, a delegation from the Republican nominating convention called on President Taft at the White House and notified him of his nomination for a second term. 

Democrats Notify Governor Wilson of His Nomination

The Democrats followed suit on August 7, when a delegation from the Baltimore convention traveled to the governor’s summer residence in Sea Girt, New Jersey, and gave Governor Wilson formal notification of his party’s nomination as the Democratic challenger.  In an innovation this year, Governor Wilson recorded his acceptance speech for distribution around the country during the campaign.  You can listen to part of it at http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/Media/Wilson1912Speech.mp3.

Jane Addams (right) Campaigning for Woman Suffrage

As Wilson was accepting the Democratic nomination, the Progressive Party, which has come into existence only in the few weeks since the Republican convention in June, was assembling in Chicago.  The call to the new party's banner was answered by reformers from all sections of the country.  For the first time at a major party convention, there were women delegates.  The best known was Jane Addams, the moving spirit behind Hull House, the settlement house she founded in Chicago in 1889.  A delegate from Illinois, she was also chosen to give a speech seconding the nomination of the party's standard-bearer, former President Theodore Roosevelt.  The groundbreaking entry of women onto the political stage occasioned little if any controversy, but the same cannot be said of the decision regarding the racial make-up of the delegations from the southern states.  Still smarting from the role of southern "black and tan" delegations in denying him the Republican nomination, and eager to gain support for his new party among white southern Democrats, Roosevelt insisted that Negroes be excluded from the southern states' delegations.  As a result, the southern delegations to the Progressive Party convention this year were "lily-white," unlike the Republican convention in June and unlike every other Republican convention since the Civil War.  (Democratic Party conventions, in contrast to the Republicans, have never had Negro delegates from any state, north or south.)

 Roosevelt Addressing the Progressive Party Convention

Roosevelt broke with the tradition that nominees do not address the convention but wait demurely at home for the official notification ceremony.  In June, still hoping to be the Republican nominee, he had traveled to Chicago to rally his supporters during the Republican convention.  This month he returned to Chicago to attend the new party’s convention, which was held in the same Chicago Coliseum that had housed the Republican convention seven weeks earlier.  On Monday, August 5, the first day of the convention, the Coliseum rang with the voices of delegates singing "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."  On the second day, Roosevelt appeared before the convention where he was greeted by an ovation lasting 57 minutes.  In his speech he repeated the call to arms he had first issued to the bolters from the Republican convention in June: “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!”  The next day, August 7, the delegates voted unanimously to give him the party's nomination for president.  Governor Hiram Johnson of California was nominated for vice-president.

A British View of the Panama Canal Tolls Dispute

Ignoring the British government’s objections, the Senate passed the Panama Canal Bill on August 9.  By providing for free passage through the canal for American ships sailing between American ports, it gives those vessels a competitive advantage over ships of other nations (most objectionably from the British point of view those of Canada).  Congress takes the view that the United States is entitled to that advantage because it built the canal.  Great Britain bases its case on the provisions of the 1901 Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, in which Britain agreed to exclusive American control of an isthmian canal (abrogating the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850) in exchange for an American promise to grant access to the canal to ships of all nations on equal terms.  President Taft, who has supported the bill from its inception, signed it into law on August 24.  The British government is not likely to view this as the end of the matter.

Darrow Addressing the Jury

Clarence Darrow, the famous criminal defense lawyer who represented the McNamara brothers last year in their trial for dynamiting the Los Angeles Times building, has been on trial since May 15 for attempted bribery of George Lockwood, a prospective juror in that case.  On August 17, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.  An indictment for attempting to bribe another juror is still pending, but may not go to trial.

Police Lieutenant Charles Becker

Captivating though the political developments have been this year, they have been overshadowed this month by the sensational arrest, on July 29, of New York City Police Lieutenant Charles Becker for the murder of Herbert Rosenthal, a small-time bookmaker who had been running illegal gambling halls in the Tenderloin District, apparently in partnership with Becker.  After a falling out, Rosenthal had gone to the New York World with the story of Becker's corruption, and shortly thereafter he was gunned down outside the Hotel Metropole by gangsters with connections to Becker.  Becker denies complicity in the murder, which appears to have been actually carried out by denizens of the underworld known as "Gyp the Blood", "Lefty Louie", "Whitey" Lewis, and "Dago Frank."  District Attorney Charles Whitman, who is known to have ambitions for higher office, had scheduled a meeting with Rosenthal after the World story appeared, a meeting that failed to take place because of the murder.  Whitman now appears determined to pursue Becker to the full extent of the law.

The Woolworth Building

When completed, the Woolworth Building will be the tallest office building in the world, exceeding the height of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower on Madison Square, which has been the tallest since its completion in 1909.  The Woolworth Building's steel skeleton now looks down on two of its other predecessors, the Singer Building a few blocks down Broadway, which held the title until 1909, and the Park Row Building across City Hall Park, which the Singer Building overtook in 1908.  "Skyscraper" buildings of such height have been made possible in recent years by the advent of steel frame construction.

Mr. Andrew Bonar Law (left) and Sir Edward Carson (center, preparing to speak) at Blenheim

Resistance to Irish home rule is growing.  Last month Prime Minister Asquith visited Dublin and made a well-received speech in support of home rule.  In response, Unionist politicians held a rally on July 27 at Blenheim Palace, ancestral home of the Duke of Marlborough, where they denounced the Home Rule Bill in the strongest terms.  The principal speakers were Sir Edward Carson and Mr. Andrew Bonar Law, who recently assumed the leadership of the Unionist Party.  Both speakers encouraged defiance of home rule by the Protestants of Ulster, and did not appear to draw the line at violence.  Mr. Bonar Law declared at the end of his address that "I can imagine no length of resistance to which Ulster can go in which I would not be prepared to support them, and in which, in my belief, they would not be supported by the overwhelming majority of the British people"; and Sir Edward in his speech stated that Unionists opposed to home rule will "shortly challenge the Government to interfere with us if they dare, and we will with equanimity await the result."  Liberal politicians and newspapers have charged that statements such as these border on sedition.

Major Darwin

The British Eugenics Society recently hosted the First International Eugenics Conference in London.  The President of the Society is Major Leonard Darwin, whose father Charles Darwin formulated the theory of natural selection.  Major Darwin and other Eugenicists believe that society should take steps to improve the genetic quality of the human race by cutting off inherited defects through compulsory sterilization laws and selective breeding measures.  The conference was attended by numerous dignitaries, including First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour.

General William Booth

In other news, on August 19 Swiss aviator Edwin Audemars flew his aeroplane from Paris to Berlin, a distance of 530 miles, making four landings en route. On August 20, General William Booth died.  The founder of the Salvation Army in 1878, he was its commander in chief until his death.  It has been announced that his son Bramwell Booth will succeed him.  General Booth's funeral, which took place in London on August 28, was attended by more than 30,000 mourners.

August 1912 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Records and Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, September and October 1912

Literary Digest, August 3, 17 and 24, 1912

New York Times, August 1912

Books and Articles:
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- the Election That Changed the Country
Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume II, Young Statesman 1901-1914

Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
Hanes Walton, Jr. and C. Vernon Gray, Black Politics at the National Republican and Democratic Conventions, 1868-1972, Phylon (1960-), Vol. 36, No. 3 (3d Qtr. 1975)

July 1912

In July 1912, the Democrats finally nominate a candidate for president, and the split in the Republican Party widens when progressives issue a call for a separate convention. Meanwhile, a diplomatic crisis is unfolding between the United States and Great Britain over the soon-to-be-completed Panama Canal, British Prime Minister Asquith is defending Irish Home Rule, and the naval race between Great Britain and Germany is gathering momentum. Halfway around the world, with the death of the Meiji Emperor, a long and eventful era in Japan's history comes to an end.

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The Democrats' Vice-Presidential Nominee

On Monday, July 1, the Democratic convention in Baltimore resumed its attempt to nominate a candidate for the presidency.  On Saturday, the twenty-sixth ballot had found Speaker Champ Clark clinging to a narrow but diminishing lead over New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson.  On Monday morning the twenty-seventh ballot was uneventful, but on the next ballot Indiana switched its vote from Governor Thomas Marshall, its favorite son candidate, to Wilson.  Two ballots later, Wilson’s vote total passed Clark’s for the first time.  With the forty-third ballot Tuesday morning Wilson had a majority, and at 3:30 that afternoon the forty-sixth ballot gave him the nomination.  Oscar W. Underwood, whose delegations from the Deep South had blocked Clark’s nomination after Tammany's switch to Clark on the tenth ballot, was offered the vice-presidential nomination, but he declined it.  The nomination then went to Governor Marshall, whose switch to Wilson Monday morning gave his candidacy a badly needed boost at a critical moment.

Governor Wilson, Speaker Clark and other Democrats at Sea Girt, July 20, 1912

Governor Wilson had followed the proceedings in Baltimore from the governor’s summer residence in Sea Girt, New Jersey.  On July 20, his defeated adversary Speaker Champ Clark led a delegation of Democratic congressmen to Sea Girt to assure Wilson of their support in the general election.

Senator Dixon

The losers on the Republican side are less accommodating.  Progressive supporters of former President Roosevelt are making clear their adamant refusal to accept their party’s nomination of President Taft for another term.  On July 7 in New York City, sixty-three Republican leaders from forty states, led by Senator Joseph M. Dixon of Montana, issued a call for delegates to meet at a national Progressive convention in Chicago on Monday, August 5, for the purpose of nominating candidates for president and vice-president of the United States.

Harriet Quimby Preparing to Take Off on Her Ill-fated Flight, July 1, 1912

The inherent dangers of aviation were on vivid display this month.  On July 1, the popular aviatrix Harriet Quimby and her passenger were killed near Boston when a gust of wind flipped their aircraft throwing them out of their seats a thousand feet in the air.  Miss Quimby was the first woman in the United States to receive an aviator’s license, and earlier this year became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.  In another aerial mishap the next day, a privately built dirigible balloon, the Akron, exploded and crashed off the beach near Atlantic City, New Jersey, killing its builder and four crew members.  The explosion took place when a hot sun came out on a previously cloudy day, causing the hydrogen gas in the balloon to expand rapidly.  The balloon suddenly gained altitude and a flame appeared at the top, followed by the explosion.

Jim Thorpe Competing at the Olympics

The 1912 Olympic Games, which ended this month in Stockholm, went off without a hitch.  This was a welcome development after the recent history of the games, which have been marred by discord, confusion and tragedy since the modern games began in Athens in 1896.  Eight years ago the games were forced to accept a subordinate role with the World's Fair in St. Louis.  Four years ago the games were moved to London at the last minute after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius caused the Italian government to cancel plans to hold them in Rome, and two years later the Olympic Committee canceled plans to hold interim games in Athens every four years, half-way between the regular quadrennial games. This year's games ended with American athletes winning most of the medals.  Jim Thorpe, an American Indian from the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, turned in the most impressive performance, including gold medals in both the Decathlon and the Classic Pentathlon.  It is reported that when King Gustav congratulated him on being the best athlete in the world, Thorpe replied "Thanks, King."

Sir Edward Grey

The Panama Canal Bill, now pending before the Senate, provides for free passage for American ships sailing between American ports.  On July 11, the Senate received Great Britain’s formal objection to the bill.  The British government argues that the free passage provision violates the terms of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which provides for nondiscriminatory access to the canal for ships of all nations.  Senators Elihu Root (Rep., N.Y.) and Theodore Burton (Rep., Ohio) urged amendment of the bill to comply with the terms of the treaty.  Sir Edward Grey, Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, outlined Britain’s position on the matter to the House of Commons on July 16. 

Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman, First Sea Lord

A Royal Navy fleet review was held at Spithead on July 9.  Forty-four battleships, five battle cruisers and twenty-five armored cruisers were on display in a demonstration of British maritime power in response to the challenge presented by the new German Naval Law.  On July 22, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill delivered a speech in the House of Commons in which he presented a substantial upward revision of the Naval Estimates.

Dublin's Theatre Royal

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, whose sponsorship of the Home Rule Bill has made him a popular man in the south of Ireland, received a warm welcome on a visit to Dublin July 18.  He told a capacity crowd at the Theatre Royal that the Home Rule Bill will pass the Commons and go to the Lords by Christmas of this year, and asserted that "[t]here is nothing incompatible between the vision of Ireland as a nation and loyalty to a United Kingdom in which Ireland is an integral and an enfranchised and self-governing part."  In other news from Great Britain, the results of the Board of Trade’s investigation into the Titanic disaster were made public in London on July 30.  The accident was said to be due to excessive speed, but no individuals were directly blamed.

Adolph Zukor

On July 12, the Famous Players Film Company, founded earlier this year in New York by Hungarian immigrant Adolph Zukor, released a 40-minute motion picture.  Called “Les Amours de la Reine Elisabeth” (“The Loves of Queen Elizabeth”) it was produced in France and stars the world-famous actress Sarah Bernhardt.  This is believed to be the first attempt to portray a full-length theatrical production through the medium of motion pictures (click to play a brief excerpt):

*****

Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha, the New Grand Vizier

On July 21, Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha succeeded Mehmed Said Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.  Tewfik Pasha, Turkish ambassador to Great Britain, was first offered the post, but declined.

Pascual Orozco With the Tools of His Trade

The Mexican revolution (or civil war if you prefer) continued this month.  On July 3, Mexican government troops under the command of General Victoriano Huerta decisively defeated rebel forces led by Pascual Orozco near Chihuahua, Mexico.  Few observers believe this is the end of armed resistance to the government of President Francisco Madero.

 

The Late Meiji Emperor

The Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) of Japan died July 30 after a reign of 45 years.  The Meiji Emperor (so named after the era of his reign) ruled over Japan during a significant period of Japanese history, having ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne only a few years after Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry’s 1853 expedition forced Japan to open its doors to world trade.  The period of his reign, referred to as the Meiji Restoration, saw an impressive surge in Japan’s international power and influence, punctuated in recent years by successful wars against China in 1894-95 and Russia in 1904-05.  The new emperor is the Meiji Emperor’s son, Crown Prince Yoshihito.  The new heir apparent is Yoshihito’s eleven year-old son Hirohito.

July 1912 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Records and Periodicals:
American Review of Reviews, August and September 1912
Democratic National Convention, 1912, Official Report of Proceedings

New York Times, July 1912

Books:
William J. Bryan, A Tale of Two Conventions
James Chace, 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs -- the Election That Changed the Country
Randolph S. Churchill, Winston S. Churchill, Volume II, Young Statesman 1901-1914
Champ Clark, My Quarter Century of American Politics
Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era

Lewis L. Gould, Four Hats in the Ring: The 1912 Election and the Birth of Modern American Politics
Lewis L. Gould, The William Howard Taft Presidency
Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt
William G. McAdoo, The Crowded Years
Patricia O'Toole, When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
Earl of Oxford and Asquith, Memories and Reflections, 1852-1927
Henry F. Pringle, The Life and Times of William Howard Taft
Joseph Tumulty, Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him