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LIFE AND WORK OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL

 CHAPTER FOURTEEN

 THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY

Roosevelt Chosen at the Primaries for President, but Denied a Nomination by the Bosses—Birth of the "Bull Moose" Party—He Is Nominated as Its Standard Bearer—Shot by a Crank in Milwaukee—His Courage and Endurance—Results of the Campaign— Taft Defeated and Wilson Elected.
As the time approached for the Presidential nominations in 1912, President Taft, relying on precedent, was an avowed candidate to succeed himself. But the people at large were more concerned with the attitude of Theodore Roosevelt. His friends, through the press and on the public platform, had been for some time attacking President Taft's policies, and the result was a factional fight within the Republican party all over the land.

The insurgent or progressive element in the Republican party planned early in 1911 to defeat the renomination of President Taft, and after several conferences among leading progressive Senators it was decided to put forward Robert M. La Follette as the candidate. A La Follette boom was started and carried on all through that year. But a large element among the Progressives was dissatisfied and wanted the nomination of Roosevelt.

The Roosevelt talk would not down. The Colonel himself was noncommittal, but it was evident that he was not displeased with the situation. The Roosevelt talk steadily waxed and the La Follette boom as steadily waned.
Popular opinion in favor of another nomination for the Colonel finally crystallized into a formal request by the Governors of seven states that he give a definite answer to the question, "Will you run for the Presidency in this campaign ?''

In an open letter to the Governors, Colonel Roosevelt then announced his candidacy and began a characteristic campaign -of speeches to win the Republican nomination at Chicago by the votes of the people in the Presidential primaries which were to be held for the first time, under a new law. He was criticized for his candidacy in view of what was regarded as his pledge when he said just after his election in 1904 that he would not again seek the Presidency, out of respect for the two-term tradition. But he believed his candidacy to be justified by the popular demand and the fact that he had had only one elected term in the White House. In characteristic terms he said: "My hat is in the ring," and his friends rallied to that slogan.

The Progressive Party Born
The stirring events of the Presidential primary, the conventions, and the campaign of 1912 will be long remembered. Out of the conflict of clashing claims within the Republican party, Colonel Roosevelt emerged with a very large majority over Mr. Taft of the votes cast in the primary election. Then, chosen by the people to be their standard bearer, he was denied the regular nomination of the Republican party when the National Convention met in June at Chicago, because of the action of the Republican National Committee in unseating Roosevelt delegates and qualifying Taft delegates in their stead.

Pennsylvania Republicans had given Roosevelt 130,000 majority over Taft in the preferential primary; Illinois had given him 150,000 majority; Ohio, 47,000; California, 77,000. Wisconsin, Maine, Maryland, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, West Virginia, North Carolina, and other states, had also elected Roosevelt delegates by large majorities—but these delegates were refused seats in the National Convention by autocratic, steam-roller action of the party bosses that was as intolerable as it was unprecedented. The convention as finally organized stood 564 for Taft and 510 for Roosevelt.

Colonel Roosevelt publicly declared that he was being robbed of the nomination, and before the Republican convention had completed its cut-and-dried work of re-nominating Mr. Taft, the Roosevelt partisans, already called Progressives, left the convention in a body and reassembled in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, where the Progressive party was officially formed as a protest against the action of the Republican National Committee.

Then followed feverish days with plans being hurriedly made for the calling of a convention of all Progressives. It was finally determined to hold a convention at Chicago on August 5, and there and at that time Theodore Roosevelt was nominated by a gathering which seemed actuated by a deeply religious inspiration. Against Taft and Roosevelt, the Democratic party nominated Woodrow Wilson, then Governor of the State of New Jersey and before that president of Princeton University.

Mr. Roosevelt's running mate on the ticket was Hiram A. Johnson of California, while Mr. Taft's was James S. Sherman of New York.

The national platform of the new Progressive party was a remarkable declaration of its objects and aims. It declared for social and industrial justice in ringing terms, and for many political reforms that appealed strongly to the popular mind.

The Colonel plunged into the ensuing campaign with all his wonted energy, and soon uttered a phrase that nicknamed the new party. "I feel like a bull moose," he said, and "Bull Moose" the Progressive party was called thereafter.
Shot by a Maniac
On October 14, 1912, when the Presidential campaign was at its height, Colonel Roosevelt had arrived in Milwaukee when he was shot by John Schrank, a New Yorker who was found to be a maniac. The Colonel was just seating himself in an automobile for the drive to the hall where he was to deliver an important address, when Schrank sent the bullet into his chest at short range.

On the instant there was a movement to deal summarily with Schrank, but Colonel Roosevelt was cool, and himself restrained the crowd until Schrank was taken properly into custody.

The bullet, having passed through the candidate's heavy overcoat and his other clothing, pages of manuscript and his spectacle case, had penetrated only two inches into the right breast. He was able to proceed to the Auditorium, and against the advice of friends and physicians made a speech lasting fifty-three minutes.

This feat, which drew the applause of the world and caused all Americans, irrespective of their political beliefs, to glory in such an indomitable will and such fortitude, seemed to produce no ill effects. The candidate went to his home in Oyster Bay within a fortnight after being taken to a hospital in Chicago, and there continued his campaign by statements and messages to his followers through prominent Progressive political leaders.
At the time of the shooting one of Colonel Roosevelt's companions was Charles E. Merriam of Chicago, afterward Captain Merriam. At a memorial meeting in January, 1919, after the Colonel's death, Captain Merriam told the story of the assassin's attempt and  Roosevelt's fortitude, as follows:

    I had the honor to be with him on the fateful day when his life was attempted in Milwaukee. I had gone with him on a special train to Milwaukee that day and was to help in the speaking in Milwaukee. I went down in the automobile ahead of Colonel Roosevelt and did not hear the shot. I was to address an overflow meeting in an adjoining building, but having some trouble in finding my way I walked back again toward the stage. There came rushing down the aisle the chairman of the meeting, wringing his hands and saying, "My God, they have shot him; he is killed.'' I said, '' Whom do you mean ?"  " Why,'' he said, "the Colonel, they've killed him."

I rushed back to the stage, back of the wings and there was Colonel Roosevelt standing with a group of men around him, only he was trying to throw them off and they apparently were endeavoring to hold him and he was throwing their hands aside; they were struggling to stop him from speaking and he was fighting to go on the stage and make what he thought his last public address. He would not permit anyone to examine his wounds; he insisted on going before the people and making his speech.

It occurred to me that the wise thing to do would be to adjourn the meeting by telling the people that the speaker had been shot and suggesting that they go home. I am sure I would have incurred his everlasting enmity if I had done so, and it was decided the best policy to pursue was to allow him to appear before the people and say probably a few words, hoping that would satisfy him. We agreed upon this course and he advanced to make his speech. But I will never forget, as I stood back in the hall thinking he would speak a few words and then I would go on. I can hear him again in his high-keyed voice say, "Ladies and gentlemen, you will pardon me if I cut my remarks somewhat short; but the fact is I have just been shot.''

LIFE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Well, some people laughed and some jeered and most of them were startled beyond measure.

It was probably the most dramatic speech, certainly the most dramatic opening ever made by a great public leader in America. I stood there for a few minutes until I saw he was going to make his whole talk. I went out and addressed my overflow meeting of perhaps a thousand people in the neighboring hall. I spoke hurriedly, perhaps twenty or twenty-five minutes, and then came dashing back.

When I returned the Colonel was still standing, still speaking. His voice, however, was much feebler than normal. He was swaying from side to side as if he might at any moment collapse or fall. They had stationed a man in front of him, one in back of him and one on each side to catch him in case he would fall, but he went on and concluded the address that he had marked out for himself to make, and at the end of the speech which he successfully completed he was taken to the hospital.

I went with some of the other parties to the police station, where we examined or helped to examine the unfortunate creature who had fired the bullet, Schrank was his name. This individual told the reasons why he had fired the shot, that you will remember. He had been influenced by the heated campaign to believe that Colonel Roosevelt was a menace to the American Republic. He said he had two visions in which McKinley had appeared to him, and McKinley had told him to go and avenge his death by assassinating Roosevelt, and on the strength of these two visions (evidence of a crazy man) he had followed Roosevelt from one end of the country to the other. He had followed him to Atlanta, Ga., where he almost fired the shot; he followed him to Chicago, where a reception was given to him at the Hotel LaSalle in 1912, and there he stated he stood outside the door of the Hotel LaSalle when Colonel Roosevelt was as near to him as that chair is to me (pointing), and he could have killed him. We asked him why he did not shoot, and he said that they were giving a reception to him and it would not have been polite to kill a man at a reception.

He then waited until that night when he was lying in ambush at the Coliseum, but as some of you recall, the crowd assembled at the Coliseum was so large that they filled the streets for blocks and blocks; ten thousand people stood there unable to gain admission. So we brought the Colonel around the back alley, in through the rear entrance and the intention of the assassin was foiled.

Then he learned that Colonel Roosevelt was to speak in Milwaukee. He took the regular train and got there earlier, while we went up by special train. He waited outside the train until Colonel Roosevelt finished his dinner, and there only by the slightest chance did he accomplish the fulfillment of his purpose. He stood on the curb, close to the automobile in which Colonel Roosevelt was, standing with his revolver pointed at Colonel Roosevelt's heart. As he was about to fire, it happened that someone in the crowd raised that familiar shout, "Hello, Teddy!" and Teddy had turned with his familiar gesture like that (indicating) and threw up his hand, and as he put up his hand Schrank fired, and instead of striking the heart it struck him in the right hand and thereby by a combination of circumstances the bullet hit Roosevelt's spectacle case, and some two or three speeches that he had in his pocket folded up and the web of his suspenders had glanced it off to one side; otherwise the bullet, penetrating the heart, probably would have succeeded in destroying his victim.

We came down with Colonel Roosevelt in his car to Chicago, and of all the men upon the train Colonel Roosevelt was by all odds the calmest and the coolest. About 11 o 'clock at night he asked for his shaving apparatus and for a glass of milk, and after drinking the milk he slept calmly during the night. He was the only man that did sleep. That shows the iron courage and his tremendous physical vitality and tenacity upon life.

How He Felt After Being Shot
Here ?.s a part of the speech Colonel Roosevelt made in Milwaukee on October 14,1912, just after the bullet of erratic John Schrank had lodged in his chest. It was declaratory in that dramatic moment of his joy in life and leadership:

"I do not care a rap about being shot, not a rap. The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech. But I will try my best. First of all I want to say this about myself. I have altogether too many important things to think of to pay any heed or feel any concern over my own death. Now I would not speak to you insincerely within five minutes of being shot. I am telling you the literal truth when I say that my concern is for many other things.

"I want you to understand that I am ahead of the game anyway. No man has had a happier life than I have had, a happy life in every way. I have been able to do certain things that I greatly wished to do, and I am interested in doing other things.''

Wilson Is Elected
As had been quite generally foreseen, the campaign of 1912 resulted in the defeat of both Taft and Roosevelt, and the election, without a popular majority, of Woodrow Wilson. But Colonel Roosevelt made a wonderful race against the Democratic candidate and received more votes than the nominee of the Republican machine. The popular vote stood: Wilson, 6,286,214; Roosevelt, 4,126,020; Taft, 3,483,922. Of the votes in the Electoral College, Colonel Roosevelt obtained 88 and Mr. Taft 8. Thus ended the famous fight of 1912, with the Republican party apparently hopelessly divided. The election proved absolutely that the Colonel had a hold upon a vast section of the American people that nothing whatsoever could break. Against his personal popularity the political bosses and all other antagonists exerted themselves in vain.

Proved Cleanness of Life
While the campaign was in progress stories were spread widely by word of mouth that Colonel Roosevelt was a drunkard. He determined that as soon as this slander appeared in any responsible newspaper, he would settle it for all time by a libel suit. Similar stories, he said, were circulated to this day about other public men equally guiltless and now dead, because they never deemed them worthy of contradiction in their lifetime.
Presently the charge appeared in a newspaper called Iron Ore, published in Ishpeming, Mich., and Colonel Roosevelt promptly sued for libel. The suit was tried in May, 1913, and the array of witnesses that the plaintiff produced never was equaled in any suit in recent times. Admirals, generals, Cabinet officers, Senators, Governors, authors, newspaper men, and, in fact, all the men who had been intimately associated with the Colonel, appeared to give their testimony, and they testified not only to his temperance in drinking, but to his cleanness of life and speech. It was a tribute to be proud of, and the testimony completely exonerated him from the loose and unfounded charge.