BOOKSHELF - Progressive Leaders Foreign Rivalry - NEIL LANCTOT APPROACHING-STORM-PART 1

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This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor.
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It is the summer of 1912 in a very hot
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convention in Chicago, Illinois. A woman known throughout the world
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as an active and generous person, Jane Addams, rises to
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nominate for president for the Progressive Party, a former president
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of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. This is a moment
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to begin to consider three great personalities of the early
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20th century. In a new book, The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams,
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and Their Clash Over America's Future. Neil Langtoe is the author.
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I welcome Neil. I congratulate him. And we need to
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define who these three people were in 1912 that associated
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all of them with progressivism, and they themselves were keen
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on that title, this new thinking in America. Neil, congratulations
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and good evening. Jane Addams at that moment, who was
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she and what did progressivism mean for her? Good evening.
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Good evening and thank you for having me on the show.
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It's funny that Jane Addams is so forgotten today when
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in 1912, when my book begins, she was probably one
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of the most well-known women in America, maybe number one
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or number two. I think Helen Keller might have her
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beaten out at the time. But she was this individual
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who had made her name by establishing Hull House in Chicago,
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which was a settlement house to sort of minister to
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the poor and the immigrant community in Chicago. And that
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put her on the map because that was something that
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really had not been done in the United States before.
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And from there, she became a very significant force for
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liberalism and for reform in the United States. Basically was
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involved in almost every reform movement. She was involved in
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the suffrage movement. She was involved in child labor, consumer issues.
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She was involved in the NAACP. So she was someone
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who had gotten her name out there. The American public
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seemed to accept her in that kind of role. In 1912,
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when the Progressive Party was established, by Theodore Roosevelt and
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his followers after Roosevelt was denied the nomination by the Republicans.
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This new party was set up and Jane Addams decided
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to throw her lot into politics, which some people felt
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was wrong, that she should be above politics. She's sort
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of this social work do-gooder, but should not get herself
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sullied by involvement in American politics. But she felt that
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the Progressive Party was pushing for all the things that
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she wanted and had been behind for years, like women's suffrage.
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like an end to child labor, like minimum wage. So
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she decides to cast her lot with the party, and
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she obviously attends the convention, and she's going to second
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the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt at that convention.
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Jane Addams comes from an intellectual background. She was denied
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her full rights because of the period, late 19th century,
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when women were isolated from normal college or university or
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medical studies. But She arrives at that moment, nominating a
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former President of the United States, who we will see
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in the course of our investigation of these critical four years,
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1914 to 1918, the war years, we will see that
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Theodore Roosevelt and Jane Addams, they share the idea of progressivism,
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but very little else. So, Theodore Roosevelt, in 1912, as
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he's nominated by the woman in white, Jane Addams, He
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is still a rough rider, and the portrait hangs in
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the White House. But he's gone through a transformation in
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these last years after handing off the White House to
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his chosen successor, William Howard Taft. He's been around the world.
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He's been to Africa. He's been to South America. And
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he claims that he's become a radical. What did progressivism
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mean to Theodore Roosevelt at 53, Neil?
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Well, Roosevelt had really moved to the left. I mean,
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he was a progressive while he was president. But I
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think he saw the way the country was turning in 1910, 1911, 1912.
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And he's basically pushing for things he had never pushed
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for before. He's getting much more aggressive as far as
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corporate reform. He comes out flatly for women's suffrage, which
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a lot of politicians are not willing to do. He's
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going to pretty much endorse much of what long-time progressives
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like Jane Addams had been advocating. So whether it's a
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political ploy for Roosevelt to move in that direction, or
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he sincerely believes it, he feels that this is the
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way the country's going, and he's willing to move in
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that direction. So when he takes the reins of this
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new party, the Progressive Party in 1912, it is something
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that's going to be quite different for American politics. And
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the progressives actually thought that there was a chance that
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their party could be like the Republican Party had been 50,
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60 years earlier, where suddenly this offshoot, this new third
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party becomes the second of the two-party system. So the
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Progressive Party, a lot of progressives thought, maybe we can
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become a Republican Party, maybe we can destroy the Republican Party,
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because a lot of the Progressive Party was made up
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of disenchanted progressives within the Republican Party who left to
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join this new entity. And- Roosevelt had a great deal
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of respect for Jane Addams, and he even said if
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he was elected president again, he would put her in
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the cabinet. And that would have made her the first
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woman in the cabinet before Frances Perkins in the 1930s.
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The third progressive at the moment is the governor of
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New Jersey, formerly the president of Princeton University, a today
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we would say rock star of a scholar, Woodrow Wilson.
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a man who was born before the Civil War. All
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three of these progressives were born before the Civil War.
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These are antebellum babies. Wilson is 55. He has come
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to the candidacy because William Jennings Bryan doesn't run again.
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He chooses Wilson. The party bosses choose Wilson in a
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very hot convention in St.
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Louis.
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What is Wilson's version of progressivism as he runs for
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election for the first time, Neil?
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Well, Wilson was someone who was more concerned with the
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economic side of progressivism. He was more interested in potentially
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breaking up many of the great trusts or monopolies in
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America and sort of bring us back to some sort
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of Jeffersonian way of life in the United States. Whereas
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Roosevelt felt that it's not the bigness of these corporations
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that makes them bad, it's their behavior. We should penalize
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their behavior, but not necessarily their size. Whereas Wilson believed
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the opposite. I think Wilson was less concerned with social
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reform issues at this time than Roosevelt was. And I
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think that's probably one of the reasons why Adams wasn't
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that excited by Wilson's candidacy in 1912. And Wilson had
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a fairly short political background at that point. You know,
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this is a man, as you said, had been a
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rock star of an academic, then goes and becomes president
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of Princeton. And from there, The Democratic bosses in New
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Jersey said, let's run him for governor of New Jersey.
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He gets himself elected, which I don't think anyone thought
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was even feasible. He goes from there to becoming nominated
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for president. So he's a very, very short political career.
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And he finds himself running against Roosevelt in 1912. And then,
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of course, William Howard Taft is the third candidate that year.
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They're intellects. They're important intellects because they're each of them
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big readers, but they have a different approach to the knowledge. TR,
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for example, the man had a memory. He could remember
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things forever and cite them and quote them. Jane Addams,
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what was she as an intellectual? What did she favor
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at the time? Did she talk about it? Did she
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read widely?
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She did read extensively. She was someone who read just
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about every kind of topic. And she was also a
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very prolific writer. She wrote on a number of subjects
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and she had written about pacifism, which we'll get to
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at some point. That was one of the issues she
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had written about, but she'd also written a lot about
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social service and social science issues. I think her intellect
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was certainly the equivalent or not superior to the other
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two gentlemen. Probably, as I mentioned in the book, the
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most impressive in person would be Roosevelt because he had
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this freakish memory. I mean, he talked about he actually
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could remember the pages of books and where he saw
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a particular fact and that he could retrieve it. I mean,
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he was a computer before a computer existed. Wilson was
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also obviously a very brilliant individual, but he would say
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he labored a bit more when he read books than
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he labored when he wrote. There were some people even
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say that there might've been a little bit of dyslexia
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in Woodrow Wilson, which is interesting for someone who accomplished
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so much in his career. But all three of them
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were extremely educated, extremely brilliant individuals who knew a lot
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about the world and were interested in the world. And
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I think in some ways that separates them from American
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politicians today who don't have that kind of background typically
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that we see in 1912.
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They also knew each other intimately. They'd cross paths often
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over the years. Wilson, with then President Roosevelt, they'd met.
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Neil's reporting in 1896 on speaking tours. Jane Addams knew
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TR very well and knew Wilson as well. So we're
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looking at three major celebrities, all of whom have embraced
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a new kind of politics, progressives. But the war, the
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Great War, is about to fall on them and all
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of America, and it changes this case. The book is
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The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams, and Their Clash Over
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America's Future. Neil Langtoe is the author. This is CBS
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Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor. This is CBS
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Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor with Neil Langtoe.
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His new book is The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams,
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and Their Clash Over America's Future. The Great War, then called,
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now we call it the First World War, the first
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of the tragedies to tear apart Europe, ongoing tearing apart
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sovereignty and boundaries. These are the empires who engaged in
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challenges to each other for the 19th century and and
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then with the new technology of mass murder, engaged in
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frontier fighting beginning in the summer and fall of 1914.
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The front lines have now stabilized. It's early 1915. America
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has stayed back from the war. Wilson has concerns of
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domestic politics and does not see any place in Europe
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for America. However, Jane Addams, we will speak of her first,
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sees the massacres going on in Europe and responds with
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peace conferences. There's very careful language here. Let's begin in
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January of 1915. Jane Addams calls the Women's Peace Party
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at the Willard Hotel. Is this popular with progressives, Neil?
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Well, it's an interesting thing, this establishment of what's called
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the Women's Peace Party and many American women seemed to
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be okay with it. And I think she tried to
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cast a fairly wide net because she invited conservative American
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women to attend this conference, like, for example, women in
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the Daughters of the American Revolution. Then she also invited
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women who would probably be seen on the fairly far left.
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So the Women's Peace Party was seen as almost a
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pressure group for peace in the United States. I think
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it was accepted by by most people as long as
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they weren't getting into fairly controversial issues or really questioning
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the direction of American foreign policy. But once Jane Addams
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and some of her followers start to do that, and
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eventually they're going to go to Europe to attend another conference,
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then you're going to start seeing a great deal of
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criticism of Addams. And really, her reputation is going to
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suffer in the United States a great deal because she
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is seen as moving beyond her place as sort of a,
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as I said, a social worker, someone who was concerned
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about how people are living their lives comfortably and healthfully
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and things like that. But she has no right, is
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the belief, to involve herself in what is usually a
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masculine preserve, international affairs and diplomacy. So how dare she
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do that? So that's going to be what happens to
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Jane Addams in 1915 when she's going to make this
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trip to Europe and she's going to, after this Women's
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Peace Conference, She's going to visit the heads of state
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of both sides, which is really citizen diplomacy before I
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think the term existed. And I think it's quite remarkable.
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All right.
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Let's go along with her, Neil. All right. She sails
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on the Holland American line in March of 1915. Forty
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women accompany her and they run the submarines. The submarines
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are out there to sink craft who are deemed by
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the German commanders to be carrying war munitions or war
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aid for the British.
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The U.S.
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Is participating in that it's a neutral, but it's selling
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to the British who have a blockade on Germany. So
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both sides, Germany practicing the submarines to blockade and cut
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off food and supplies to Britain, and Britain with its
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fleet cutting off supplies and food to Germany. It's a tangle,
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and Wilson will involve in it. But Jane Addams and
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her 40 traveled not only to Europe, but they're welcomed
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by all the leadership. I was struck by how Her
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reputation was global. What did she get from those conversations?
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What did the progressives get from those conversations? She was
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in Berlin. She was in Paris. She was in London.
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What was the result?
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I think what Adams was looking for was some indication
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that there was interest in peace being made. And if
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someone would help the two sides to get together and talk,
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there would be an opportunity. Unfortunately, a lot of her
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message got garbled back in the United States. It came
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back in the United States, often in some of the
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hostile newspapers of saying, well, Jane Addams is trying to
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stop the war. She's going to Germany and telling them
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to stop fighting, which is not at all what she
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was trying to do. She simply went to speak to
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them and tried to get, feel them out for any
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interest in peace. Now, the question becomes, how frank were
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they in their talks with them? You know, the Germans,
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of course, said, you know, we don't want as much
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as what the British are saying. We would have a,
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we're willing to accept a mild piece or, you know,
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both sides are going to say what they think the
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Americans want to hear because they know Jane Addams is
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going to come back and report it to Wilson. And
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I think Addams was a big name and that was
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one of the reasons they went and they all agreed
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to see her. But I think also once one country
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agreed to see her, I think they all felt We
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have to see her or it's not going to play
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well in the United States. Probably why the Germans did.
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The French were probably the most hostile. They really did
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not want to talk to her, didn't want to really
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talk peace at all. And pretty much, you know, kind
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of whatever, you know, we'll humor you and talk to
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you for a few minutes, but we're not really interested
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in having a fruitful conversation. She also saw the Pope,
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who wasn't that quite interested in hearing from her.
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TR is at odds with Jane Addams. And is this
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when he wrote that very hostile letter to her while
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she was in Europe or was that before?
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He wrote the letter in response to the formation of
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the Women's Peace Party, which was sort of the jumping
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off point to this trip to Europe. Someone in the
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Women's Peace Party wrote to Roosevelt asking whether he might
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want to be involved or endorse it or whatever. And
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he wrote this absolutely, you know, in typical TR fashion
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with the flowery language and goes on for two pages,
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basically ripping them in every direction possible. How foolish, foolish
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women doing this. This is, this is the worst thing
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you should be doing. If you want to do something,
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you should be doing something for Belgium, not go, not traipsing,
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you know, across the, across the world, doing, doing these
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kinds of things. Originally it was a private letter, but
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the letter in fact did get out. It was widely publicized.
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And of course the, press at the time jumped all
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over it saying, oh, it looks like the former compadres,
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Jane Addams and Theodore Roosevelt, who had been together in
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the Progressive Party are now fighting it out and things
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like that. Addams was pretty cool with it. She pretty
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much said, I don't always agree with Colonel Roosevelt and
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he's allowed to have free speech, but I don't agree
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with his particular perspective. But there's a lot of material
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in Roosevelt's letters where he's He says, my friend Jane
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Addams is so wrong. He considers her his friend still,
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but he feels that she and other pacifists are completely
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in the wrong and should be not trying to bring
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about any peace settlement right now.
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And at the same time, and we have about a
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minute here, Neil, Edith Bolling is introduced, a widow introduced
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to Woodrow Wilson. He's lost his first wife the year before,
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and he's considered lonely by those who know him in
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the White House. Edith Bolling is no intellectual, and she's
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about to transform Wilson's life. Was he distracted in 1915
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at this point?
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I think he could multitask, but certainly he exerted a
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considerable amount of effort and time on this woman. He became,
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I said it in the book, obsessed. He is obsessed
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with her. He writes letter after letter to her. He's
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head over heels in love. He asked her to marry
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her in a month. He's showing her very private state documents.
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So yes, he He just falls head over heels in love.
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And of course, they do marry in 1915. But I
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think the American public would have been shocked. And they
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were shocked when it came out that he was going
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to get married because the fact he was courting her
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was not known at the time. And she will still
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have a great influence on him.
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Yeah, great influence. The World War is about to crowd
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into progressivism in America with the crisis of the sinking
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of Lusitania. The book is The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams,
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and Their Clash, Neil Langtoe is the author. This is
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CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor. This is
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CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor. Neil Langtoe's
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new book is The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams, and
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Their Clash Over America's Future. This is progressivism, which is
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understood as a domestic reform movement in the United States,
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but it comes up against the world of crisis in Europe.
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The army's The Allies and the Axis, the Allies, the Germans,
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are driven by the Kaiser. The English and the French
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don't have one leadership, but they do have a concern
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to overwhelm the Germans and the Austrians. Russia is in
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the war at this point, and the massacres are momentous.
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They're transforming. Europe for the next 50, 80 years because
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a generation is being exhausted and massacred, the best of
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the generation, the volunteers, the young people from Paris, from London,
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from Berlin. And we come now to the U.S. staying
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back on it's May 7th, 1915. There has been an
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incident where a German submarine caused the death of an
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American traversing the Atlantic. But the Lusitania is notable in
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that the number of Americans who are killed, and it
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immediately introduces a crisis into the progressives. Let's start with Wilson, Neil.
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His first reaction for the dead American previously in the
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spring was to write a sharp note to Germany. What
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is his reaction to Lusitania? Does he understand right away
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it's a crisis? And who is Colonel House?
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He does understand that this is a very troubling situation.
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The previous death of an American citizen, Leon Thrasher, had
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really concerned people in the administration, especially his Secretary of State,
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William Jennings Bryan. And now with the Lusitania, when you
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have over 100 Americans being killed, it's multiplied considerably. There's
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going to be immense pressure on Wilson to do something.
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There's going to be pressure from Colonel House. We'll talk
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about Colonel House. Colonel House was his advisor and close
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friend who held this incredible influence in the Wilson administration,
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even though he didn't have a formal title. At that
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very moment, he was in Europe because Wilson had allowed
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him to go to Europe and sort of talk to
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the various heads of states, like Jane Addams had done,
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and see what was in the wind and see if
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there might be a role for America in this crisis
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as far as peacemaking is concerned. And House pretty much
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told him after Lusitania was sunk that, you know, we
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need to pretty much sever ties with Europe. with Germany.
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And of course, when you do that, that usually means war.
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And there were others in his administration who were just
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as warlike at that moment saying, we have to, you know,
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if we're going to have any respect around the globe,
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we have to go to war over this. But Wilson
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himself was not keen on doing this. He did not
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feel that the provocation was serious enough to go forward.
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On the other hand, he didn't want us to look
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like we were completely lying down for Germany. He wanted
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some sort of response, some sort of reply to Germany
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that would suggest that if this sort of thing happens again,
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it is going to lead to a split with Germany
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and potential war in the future. The country was not
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sure what Wilson was going to do. And then Wilson,
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a couple of days after the Lusitania came to Philadelphia
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to speak before a group of newly made American citizens,
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immigrants who had recently gotten their citizenship. And he made
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this very famous speech where he said, He made the
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point that there is such a thing as a man
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who is too proud to fight, a country that is
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too proud to fight. In other words, a country that
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knows it is right does not need to fight. And
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when he said that, most of the country understood that
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we're not going to go to war over this incident.
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Of course, Theodore Roosevelt was not very happy with that
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at the time.
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Roosevelt was tied down by the Republican Party. A man
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by the name of Barnes, who headed the Republican Party
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in New York, had tangled him up in a lawsuit
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that was costing TR a great deal of money, very
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good lawyers. And the idea was that TR was a
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threat to the party, had been a threat in 1912,
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and they were trying to wreck him. And the trial
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was ongoing while the Lusitania is ongoing. Now, TR has
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time to talk in several directions. However, my sense is
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that the Republican Party was bothered by him. It was
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a burden to the party. Why so Was the Republican
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Party understood as anti-progressive at this point?
401
00:23:31.230 --> 00:23:34.849
Well, Republicans, like the Democrats, had a progressive wing and
402
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a Democratic wing, although most of the progressives within the
403
00:23:37.990 --> 00:23:42.240
Republican Party had broken away to this new progressive party,
404
00:23:42.299 --> 00:23:47.640
Roosevelt's Progressive slash Bull Moose Party. So those who were left,
405
00:23:48.619 --> 00:23:50.819
the Republicans left in the party at this point, tended
406
00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:54.029
to lean more towards the conservative end. And they still
407
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saw Roosevelt as a thorn in their side. However, they
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00:23:56.529 --> 00:23:59.470
were aware that Roosevelt would have a lot to do
409
00:23:59.569 --> 00:24:02.809
with the 1916 election as far as who he decided
410
00:24:02.829 --> 00:24:05.529
to support, if he decided to run again. So they
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00:24:05.589 --> 00:24:08.890
did not want to completely cut him off. But the
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00:24:08.930 --> 00:24:13.170
Barnes trial, as you mentioned, is really interesting because Roosevelt's
413
00:24:13.210 --> 00:24:15.430
fighting for his political life. If he loses this case,
414
00:24:15.650 --> 00:24:17.450
it is going to cost an enormous amount of money
415
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and it'll be very damaging in the public eye. And
416
00:24:20.829 --> 00:24:24.690
he gives basically a virtuoso performance at the Barnes trial.
417
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He's on the stand for several days and he gets
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on the front page and he pretty much, he wins
419
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this trial in the public eye. And of course, he
420
00:24:33.950 --> 00:24:38.599
eventually will, he will be acquitted also in the libel
421
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charge as well. So it is a successful time for
422
00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:46.000
him in that regard, but he's very frustrated with how
423
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Wilson's handling this crisis. And he does believe that He
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00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:52.359
makes a statement at the time that there are things
425
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:57.119
worse than war. In other words, it's like losing ourself
426
00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.349
as a nation and losing our pride and our respect
427
00:25:00.410 --> 00:25:02.690
around the globe is worse than us going to war
428
00:25:02.730 --> 00:25:04.509
at this point. On the other hand, we were not
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00:25:04.589 --> 00:25:07.809
military prepared to go to war. So that's always another picture,
430
00:25:07.829 --> 00:25:09.730
another part of the picture that has to be considered.
431
00:25:09.990 --> 00:25:13.359
Jane Addams has an ally, William Jennings Bryan, then Secretary
432
00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:17.069
of State. a man who's run for president three times already,
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00:25:17.150 --> 00:25:20.809
representing the progressive movement, the populist progressive movement out of
434
00:25:20.849 --> 00:25:26.529
the Midwest. Brian and Wilson do not share anything, as
435
00:25:26.569 --> 00:25:30.329
far as I can tell. And Brian is a trouble
436
00:25:30.390 --> 00:25:35.400
to Wilson. Eventually he will leave. Does Brian have good
437
00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:38.299
correspondence with Adams at this point, or are they separate
438
00:25:38.339 --> 00:25:40.339
parts of the peace movement?
439
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There are some letters between the two of them at
440
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this time. Brian, I think, was someone who had such
441
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an enormous following around the country, especially in the rural
442
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parts of the country. People loved him, absolutely adored him.
443
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And he is someone who had, for a long time,
444
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had been a pacifist. So I think the pacifist movement
445
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as a whole embraced him. Adams herself will, of course,
446
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at times write to him and try to get him
447
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.339
to endorse or at least become part of some of
448
00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:12.089
their issues. And actually, when Jane Addams goes over to
449
00:26:12.220 --> 00:26:15.210
Europe and, well, Brian is still Secretary of State. She
450
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does get Brian to contact the European powers to let
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them know she's coming, and also even to let the
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Germans know, so to keep your submarines on guard so
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you don't end up sinking the ship that Jane Addams
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00:26:26.339 --> 00:26:29.579
and her group are on at this time. Brian is
455
00:26:29.619 --> 00:26:33.079
someone who, after the Lusitania crisis, believed that Wilson was
456
00:26:33.220 --> 00:26:35.740
acting too provocatively, that he was going to involve the
457
00:26:35.759 --> 00:26:38.859
United States in a war. He believed that all this
458
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should be set aside for after the war, that we
459
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should not involve ourselves in Europe whatsoever. So he pretty
460
00:26:46.660 --> 00:26:49.759
much stands by that. And eventually, he decides to resign
461
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:52.240
his position in the cabinet over this very issue.
462
00:26:52.619 --> 00:26:57.789
Wilson denounces Brian, calls him an awful creature, and he
463
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has moral repugnance for him. What was the dispute?
464
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I think one of the things that Wilson didn't like
465
00:27:02.950 --> 00:27:06.569
about Brian was the issue that he didn't stand by him.
466
00:27:07.410 --> 00:27:11.000
He felt in some way very disappointed that In the
467
00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:14.119
midst of this crisis that Brian decided I can only
468
00:27:14.180 --> 00:27:17.380
work with you. I'm going to leave the cabinet. So
469
00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:19.819
I think he was he was he was disappointed in
470
00:27:19.839 --> 00:27:22.500
that regard. On the other hand, he felt that Brian
471
00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:27.319
was ultimately unsuited to be secretary of state. In some ways,
472
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:28.849
he got the job because he had been a leader
473
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of the Democratic Party for years and they had to
474
00:27:30.809 --> 00:27:33.420
find him a position. They gave him secretary of state. Uh,
475
00:27:33.450 --> 00:27:35.069
but a lot of people did not feel that was
476
00:27:35.130 --> 00:27:37.759
really Brian's forte. He was not as bad as a
477
00:27:37.759 --> 00:27:39.720
lot of people, you know, really bashed him at the
478
00:27:39.759 --> 00:27:41.380
time and said he was an incompetent, but I don't
479
00:27:41.400 --> 00:27:42.920
think he was quite as bad as people made him
480
00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:43.960
out to be. And there was a little bit of,
481
00:27:43.960 --> 00:27:46.200
he was a bit naive. He had these idea of
482
00:27:46.220 --> 00:27:48.920
these cooling off treaties where countries would wait for a
483
00:27:48.940 --> 00:27:50.710
year before they went to war and things like that.
484
00:27:50.750 --> 00:27:54.150
Some of that was naive. I think he was well-intentioned, uh,
485
00:27:54.170 --> 00:27:56.549
but whether some of his ideas applied to the European
486
00:27:57.109 --> 00:28:00.380
massacre at this time was questionable. And I think on
487
00:28:00.539 --> 00:28:04.940
one level, uh, Wilson was sort of, OK, I'm glad
488
00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:06.700
Brian's out. We can get someone in who might be
489
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:09.079
a little bit more suitable. And Wilson ultimately wanted to
490
00:28:09.099 --> 00:28:10.299
be his own secretary of state.
491
00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:12.220
He was. He was.
492
00:28:12.740 --> 00:28:14.220
He was basically. That is true.
493
00:28:14.259 --> 00:28:16.619
Let us observe that, Neil, here. You make the very
494
00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:20.099
strong case that he offers the state. He offers state
495
00:28:20.140 --> 00:28:22.779
to House who declines. He wants to be an independent actor.
496
00:28:23.420 --> 00:28:25.660
He offers it and he then gives it to Lansing,
497
00:28:25.720 --> 00:28:29.869
who was the. the law clerk at the State Department,
498
00:28:29.950 --> 00:28:32.829
and Wilson didn't care for him even slightly over the
499
00:28:32.890 --> 00:28:36.490
next years. He doesn't listen to House unless he agrees
500
00:28:36.549 --> 00:28:40.460
with him. He doesn't consult with his cabinet in any fashion.
501
00:28:41.220 --> 00:28:44.420
He didn't consult with his first wife. Now, Edith Bolling
502
00:28:44.480 --> 00:28:48.299
is striking because she's not an educated woman, and she's
503
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:53.579
ferociously loyal to Wilson, so much so that she maneuvers,
504
00:28:54.259 --> 00:28:57.029
that would be the word, to make him understand that
505
00:28:57.089 --> 00:28:59.799
House is not trustworthy? Is that how she does it?
506
00:29:00.309 --> 00:29:04.960
Yeah, it's amazing. She'd known Wilson for maybe a few
507
00:29:05.019 --> 00:29:09.740
months because he's madly in love with her. And he's
508
00:29:09.819 --> 00:29:12.779
showing her all of his correspondence and she shows her
509
00:29:12.819 --> 00:29:15.250
some of the correspondence from House and she immediately gets
510
00:29:15.309 --> 00:29:18.309
in a dig and says, I don't think he's very strong.
511
00:29:18.329 --> 00:29:20.190
I don't think his writing is very strong. I mean,
512
00:29:20.250 --> 00:29:23.890
she pretty much is dissing him to use a modern term.
513
00:29:24.809 --> 00:29:26.559
And Wilson, I think, is a little taken aback. But
514
00:29:26.579 --> 00:29:30.880
I mean, she constantly gets her little digs in towards House.
515
00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:34.140
And I think it can't help but affect Wilson, who
516
00:29:34.180 --> 00:29:37.250
at that point was very loyal to House and thought
517
00:29:37.710 --> 00:29:40.140
House didn't want anything except to serve me and things
518
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:43.140
like that. I think Edith Wilson probably saw House as
519
00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.900
a potential threat to her own relationship, and therefore she
520
00:29:46.519 --> 00:29:51.529
tried to minimize House's role. And over time, she will
521
00:29:51.549 --> 00:29:54.869
succeed in eventually completely diminishing House's role, but that comes
522
00:29:54.930 --> 00:29:55.309
later on.
523
00:29:56.900 --> 00:30:00.700
The book is The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams, and
524
00:30:00.740 --> 00:30:04.049
Their Clash Over America's Future. Neil Langtoe is the author.
525
00:30:04.109 --> 00:30:08.789
When we come back, Teddy Roosevelt and 1916. This is
526
00:30:08.890 --> 00:30:13.130
CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor. This is
527
00:30:13.170 --> 00:30:15.690
CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor with Neil Langtoe.
528
00:30:15.730 --> 00:30:18.640
His new book is The Approaching Storm. Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams,
529
00:30:18.720 --> 00:30:21.579
the three progressives of the beginning of the 20th century,
530
00:30:22.059 --> 00:30:25.680
know each other very well and maneuver in public. Everything's
531
00:30:25.740 --> 00:30:29.180
in public. They write letters. They're published. The headlines are
532
00:30:29.400 --> 00:30:33.200
filled with what Wilson says, what TR says, what Jane
533
00:30:33.309 --> 00:30:36.750
Addams has done in Europe. When she visited Vienna and
534
00:30:36.829 --> 00:30:40.750
commented on the horse ribs sticking out because they were starving,
535
00:30:40.789 --> 00:30:44.049
that made it into the newspapers. When she sailed back
536
00:30:44.109 --> 00:30:47.049
to home, there was concern about her safety because of
537
00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:51.430
the German submarines. These were daily conversation pieces in the
538
00:30:51.470 --> 00:30:54.339
big city, especially in New York. which was 10% of
539
00:30:54.380 --> 00:30:59.180
the population. And America is now the richest country on
540
00:30:59.220 --> 00:31:02.900
the planet. So all of these are not backwaters. These
541
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:10.279
are major decisions. And we come to the winter of 1915, 1916.
542
00:31:10.279 --> 00:31:13.279
And we start with Teddy Roosevelt because he has been, well,
543
00:31:13.319 --> 00:31:15.099
you can fill in the blanks of what he thinks
544
00:31:15.160 --> 00:31:18.589
about Wilson, keep writing strong notes to Berlin. And he's
545
00:31:18.619 --> 00:31:24.849
already disdained Jane Addams as naive or worse. So in
546
00:31:24.950 --> 00:31:30.190
January and February of 1916, the wintertime, is he planning
547
00:31:30.470 --> 00:31:34.769
to run for the presidency? Does he open relations again
548
00:31:34.829 --> 00:31:37.839
with the party he rejected? Do they welcome him, Neil?
549
00:31:38.470 --> 00:31:40.960
There were signs that he was moving in that direction.
550
00:31:40.980 --> 00:31:43.859
I mean, He felt for a long time that no
551
00:31:43.900 --> 00:31:46.380
one was listening to him because the great cause he
552
00:31:46.400 --> 00:31:48.279
had been involved with since the war began was what
553
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:52.140
they called preparedness, meaning prepared militarily because our country was
554
00:31:52.180 --> 00:31:56.009
so limited in its military power. We had 100,000 men
555
00:31:56.049 --> 00:31:58.210
or something like that, although our Navy was decent sized.
556
00:31:58.710 --> 00:32:03.089
So he had been preaching that message. It was starting
557
00:32:03.109 --> 00:32:05.670
to catch on in late 1915, particularly after the Lusitanian
558
00:32:05.690 --> 00:32:08.069
people started to realize that there was some worth in
559
00:32:08.089 --> 00:32:11.349
what he was saying. And by the end of the year,
560
00:32:11.650 --> 00:32:15.089
you have papers like the New York Tribune endorsing him
561
00:32:15.130 --> 00:32:16.990
for president, which was a big shock because the New
562
00:32:17.019 --> 00:32:20.420
York Tribune was a fairly solid Republican paper. And they're
563
00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:23.680
already saying this man could be the standard bearer of
564
00:32:23.700 --> 00:32:26.940
the Republican Party. So there's a lot of things in
565
00:32:26.980 --> 00:32:28.960
the air in late 1915, early 1916. Roosevelt feels it himself.
566
00:32:34.200 --> 00:32:37.279
The thing that he has to somehow pull off is
567
00:32:37.480 --> 00:32:42.950
getting the Republican honchos to accept him again. And that's
568
00:32:42.970 --> 00:32:44.710
going to be a very difficult act to play. He
569
00:32:44.750 --> 00:32:47.569
knows he can get the progressive nomination again because the party,
570
00:32:47.609 --> 00:32:49.329
even though it's kind of not much of anything at
571
00:32:49.369 --> 00:32:51.309
this point, they'll nominate him again. So he's got that.
572
00:32:51.869 --> 00:32:54.019
But he has to get the Republicans to nominate him
573
00:32:54.099 --> 00:32:56.700
as well. And if he can pull that off somehow,
574
00:32:56.839 --> 00:33:00.599
unite these two parties, he can possibly win the election
575
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:03.440
in a fight against Wilson. But it's going to be
576
00:33:03.460 --> 00:33:06.359
a very, very tall order to pull off because there
577
00:33:06.420 --> 00:33:08.880
is a great deal of bitterness in the Republican Party
578
00:33:09.460 --> 00:33:12.180
that he had split the party in 1912 and he
579
00:33:12.230 --> 00:33:16.730
had allowed Wilson to be elected president. So if he's
580
00:33:16.829 --> 00:33:19.490
got to show the Republicans that he has the personal
581
00:33:19.549 --> 00:33:22.130
following and that he is the only man who can
582
00:33:22.190 --> 00:33:24.950
beat Woodrow Wilson in 1916, then that's not going to
583
00:33:24.970 --> 00:33:25.230
be easy.
584
00:33:25.509 --> 00:33:29.940
Woodrow Wilson. has sent notes to Berlin and has said
585
00:33:29.980 --> 00:33:32.869
he's too proud to fight, which confounds TR. He doesn't
586
00:33:32.890 --> 00:33:35.829
know what it means. No one's too proud to fight unless,
587
00:33:36.069 --> 00:33:39.950
and then TR makes it very clear, that he dismisses
588
00:33:40.210 --> 00:33:44.900
Wilson's masculinity. TR had a language that is lost to
589
00:33:44.980 --> 00:33:48.740
us here in the 21st century about masculinity, about being
590
00:33:48.779 --> 00:33:51.500
a man. It was very important to him. He'd had
591
00:33:51.559 --> 00:33:56.700
a troubled childhood. He was underweight and understrength. He had
592
00:33:56.920 --> 00:34:01.019
afflictions that he conquered with his willfulness, living up to
593
00:34:01.059 --> 00:34:05.900
his father, thee, living up to his idea of being heroic. Wilson,
594
00:34:05.940 --> 00:34:11.400
of course, comes from a completely different situation where the
595
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:15.699
life of the mind was everything to Wilson. Wilson understands, however,
596
00:34:15.780 --> 00:34:19.639
he's being challenged on his reluctance to get involved in Europe,
597
00:34:19.679 --> 00:34:22.840
and he goes on a speaking tour. It's foreshadowing of
598
00:34:22.889 --> 00:34:25.329
the speaking tour he will make in order to sell
599
00:34:25.349 --> 00:34:28.369
the Versailles Treaty to America that leads to a tragedy.
600
00:34:29.050 --> 00:34:32.849
So in this tour, my note says he starts January
601
00:34:33.070 --> 00:34:37.369
31st into February. 130,000 people see him. Many more people
602
00:34:37.429 --> 00:34:40.969
read the newspapers. He's talking about preparedness. Does America believe him?
603
00:34:41.690 --> 00:34:43.949
I think he convinced a few people here and there,
604
00:34:43.989 --> 00:34:48.070
but the problem for Wilson was the Midwest and the South.
605
00:34:48.170 --> 00:34:50.849
And that's where he went in the Midwest in this
606
00:34:50.869 --> 00:34:54.860
speaking tour. That part of the country was still fairly
607
00:34:54.940 --> 00:34:58.760
ambivalent about a military buildup. I think the East Coast
608
00:34:58.820 --> 00:35:02.190
was fairly strong in support of it. So he had
609
00:35:02.210 --> 00:35:04.710
to try to convince the sort of the plain people
610
00:35:04.789 --> 00:35:07.429
of the Midwest, you know, the farmers. And a lot
611
00:35:07.449 --> 00:35:09.409
of them just did not understand that, you know, we
612
00:35:09.449 --> 00:35:12.409
had never been a military power. There was still this
613
00:35:12.449 --> 00:35:13.829
sort of belief that, well, if we ever have to
614
00:35:13.869 --> 00:35:15.670
go to war, we'll just kind of rustle up an
615
00:35:15.730 --> 00:35:17.969
army within a month or so and we'll be ready
616
00:35:18.010 --> 00:35:22.260
to go. But Wilson tried during this speaking tour, he
617
00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:25.079
kept using the analogy that the world's on fire and
618
00:35:25.159 --> 00:35:28.739
I cannot keep the sparks from striking the roof of
619
00:35:28.820 --> 00:35:31.500
America and setting us on fire as well. You know,
620
00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:35.929
I'm not superhuman. And Wilson in some ways had been
621
00:35:36.030 --> 00:35:38.210
superhuman in keeping us out because there had been all
622
00:35:38.230 --> 00:35:43.110
these provocations with Germany. The diplomacy that was involved to
623
00:35:43.190 --> 00:35:46.150
somehow keep us from being involved in this war is
624
00:35:46.190 --> 00:35:49.010
fairly impressive. because certainly it would have been very easy
625
00:35:49.030 --> 00:35:50.949
for him to go to war, which he really did
626
00:35:50.989 --> 00:35:53.429
not want to do. So that's going to be the issue, though,
627
00:35:53.469 --> 00:35:57.389
is getting some sort of package through Congress for a
628
00:35:57.429 --> 00:35:59.829
defense buildup. And he will eventually get it through in
629
00:36:00.349 --> 00:36:04.269
the summer of 1916. But people like Roosevelt felt it
630
00:36:04.309 --> 00:36:07.050
was still insufficient. It was not nearly enough and we
631
00:36:07.070 --> 00:36:09.320
should have prepared sooner. In some ways, Roosevelt proved to
632
00:36:09.360 --> 00:36:12.199
be right, because when we do eventually get in the war,
633
00:36:12.619 --> 00:36:15.619
we're really not ready. It takes us a long time
634
00:36:15.659 --> 00:36:18.480
to be able to send a decent sized army to
635
00:36:18.639 --> 00:36:22.340
Europe in 1917, 1918. And if we had started preparing sooner,
636
00:36:22.360 --> 00:36:24.480
we probably would be able to do it sooner as well.
637
00:36:24.820 --> 00:36:27.989
We have a very large peace movement in the United
638
00:36:28.050 --> 00:36:31.670
States that doesn't voice it. But it's certainly in sympathy
639
00:36:31.909 --> 00:36:33.909
as this part, the middle part of the country away
640
00:36:33.929 --> 00:36:36.570
from the big cities. Remember, the country was 10 percent
641
00:36:36.630 --> 00:36:40.159
New York. So it was heavily East Coast here. And
642
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:43.219
we're looking at a case that Wilson is making at
643
00:36:43.260 --> 00:36:45.800
the same time Teddy Roosevelt is making the case. We've
644
00:36:45.820 --> 00:36:49.380
got to be prepared. Jane Addams, she falls ill. There's
645
00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:52.400
suggestion that the illness is convenient. How so, Neil?
646
00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:55.480
Well, at one point, she was going to be part
647
00:36:55.659 --> 00:36:58.260
of Henry Ford, who we haven't mentioned yet. Henry Ford,
648
00:36:58.679 --> 00:37:01.900
obviously a major figure in American life at the time
649
00:37:01.920 --> 00:37:04.449
because of the Model T and the Ford Motor Company.
650
00:37:05.159 --> 00:37:07.230
Ford had lots of money to play with and didn't
651
00:37:07.309 --> 00:37:08.510
quite know what to do with it all the time.
652
00:37:08.530 --> 00:37:10.309
He decided he was going to get involved in the
653
00:37:10.349 --> 00:37:13.289
peace movement. He believed in his own basic way that
654
00:37:13.329 --> 00:37:16.210
war was wasteful and an enemy to everything. And the
655
00:37:16.250 --> 00:37:19.260
pacifists managed to get to him, and he does agree
656
00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:22.940
to throw some of his fortune into the peace movement.
657
00:37:23.460 --> 00:37:25.239
And what Adams and a lot of her followers have
658
00:37:25.260 --> 00:37:27.820
been pushing for is some sort of conference of neutrals,
659
00:37:28.079 --> 00:37:30.280
which would be a stepping stone to an eventual peace
660
00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:32.090
conference that would kind of be a way to end
661
00:37:32.130 --> 00:37:36.239
the war. So Ford says, I'll get behind that. And
662
00:37:36.619 --> 00:37:38.159
what I'm going to do is I'm going to charter
663
00:37:38.179 --> 00:37:40.679
a boat. I'm going to take all these people across
664
00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.239
the Atlantic Ocean. And this is where the peace conference
665
00:37:43.260 --> 00:37:47.300
will be held or the conference of neutrals will be held. Unfortunately,
666
00:37:47.340 --> 00:37:50.179
it became sort of a PR disaster for pacifism because
667
00:37:50.219 --> 00:37:52.679
it was thrown together in a very haphazard manner. And
668
00:37:53.969 --> 00:37:58.550
it was done so quickly. And the message, again, became
669
00:37:58.630 --> 00:38:01.090
scrambled to the American public. People thought, oh, well, Henry
670
00:38:01.110 --> 00:38:03.920
Ford is going to take this peace ship, it's going
671
00:38:03.940 --> 00:38:06.019
to go across the ocean, it's going to somehow stop
672
00:38:06.039 --> 00:38:10.179
the war. All the part about the actual conference of neutrals,
673
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:13.199
which is what Jane Addams wanted to do, was being
674
00:38:13.260 --> 00:38:18.480
lost in the shuffle. Addams, however, was like, I'll go,
675
00:38:18.500 --> 00:38:20.800
even though I think the way Ford is going about
676
00:38:20.820 --> 00:38:22.380
this is wrong, but I'm going to go, I'm going
677
00:38:22.480 --> 00:38:25.550
to take the ship and go across and get involved
678
00:38:25.590 --> 00:38:27.690
in this thing that they're trying to set up. But
679
00:38:27.710 --> 00:38:31.190
she became ill right before they sailed But some people,
680
00:38:31.230 --> 00:38:35.150
including Henry Ford himself, believed she was faking, that she was,
681
00:38:35.250 --> 00:38:37.769
in fact, simply trying to avoid going. And I think
682
00:38:37.789 --> 00:38:42.329
he believed that for the rest of his life. Jane
683
00:38:42.369 --> 00:38:45.610
Addams' letters confirm that she was, in fact, ill. She
684
00:38:45.630 --> 00:38:47.820
had had tuberculosis as a young woman, and she would
685
00:38:47.860 --> 00:38:50.360
have constant flares of it at times, which would leave
686
00:38:50.400 --> 00:38:52.760
her bedridden. So that's why she didn't go on that.
687
00:38:53.199 --> 00:38:55.719
And she certainly was never someone who shied from controversy,
688
00:38:55.760 --> 00:38:58.690
but Ford believed it. It was probably a good thing
689
00:38:58.710 --> 00:39:01.050
she didn't go because the entire trip turned out to
690
00:39:01.090 --> 00:39:04.590
be somewhat of a disaster. And so the journalist who
691
00:39:04.630 --> 00:39:07.949
went along on the peace ship in late 1915 really
692
00:39:07.989 --> 00:39:11.190
derided it and made it seem very foolish and Ford
693
00:39:11.230 --> 00:39:13.690
seemed very foolish and pacifism seemed very foolish.
694
00:39:13.710 --> 00:39:18.150
In the meantime, there are submarines approaching more passenger ships.
695
00:39:18.309 --> 00:39:22.610
The book is The Approaching Storm, Roosevelt, Wilson, Adams. Neil
696
00:39:22.630 --> 00:39:25.510
Lanktoe is the author. When we come back, the Sussex.
697
00:39:25.710 --> 00:39:26.510
I'm John Batchelor.