Topic 15
THAT GOLDEN SPECIAL

IN the year 1916 Colonel Roosevelt frequently crossed the trail of the famous "golden special" train carrying women from a non suffrage State to tell the women in suffrage States how to vote.  Weeks before the press told the real story of the special, of orders "furs on" or "furs off," "wear jewels" or "dress plainly," wired back from advance agents, he had it from twenty sources.

"That train cost $45,000," an indignant State Chairman told the Colonel.  "Why did the National Committee ever allow it to start out?"

"Well," said the Colonel dryly, " I do not pretend to speak for the National Committee, nor am I called upon to defend its idiosyncrasies, but if I were to guess I might say, somebody at headquarters thought it worth $45,000 to get some of those women as far away from headquarters as possible.  It is an example of the way things have been done in this campaign."