Topic 35
 NEW BLOOD IN THE G.  O.  P.

BY the way, do you know Beekman Winthrop, Governor of Rhode Island?" Colonel Roosevelt asked at Sagamore Hill one afternoon.

"Not very well," I said.  "I think I've met him but once.  He seemed a decent sort."

" I met him a few days ago," the Colonel went on, "and I was just a bit surprised to find him a pretty regular sort of a fellow.  I had thought he was more of a Newport society chap.

"I was pleased to find he is surrounding himself with men of all race stocks that show themselves to be really American.  Funny, too, bu.t Colt and Lippett (Senators from Rhode Island) rather oppose that sort of thing.  They have gotten where they are willing to admit a French Canadian to full fellowship, but they balk at the Irish.  He is gradually working these young men in so that eventually they will hold places of power and responsibility in the party.  They seem to feel that the party is a sort of club.

" It is so silly to oppose the entrance of new blood into the party.  To do so is to fail to recognize that there are new racial elements in the community that are coming to the point where they must be considered politically, for they are political factors.

"The wise thing to do is to welcome all that are good in these new elements into the party, make them feel at home, and give them a share of the work that is to be done, and let them, in time, work into the places that belong to them.  Otherwise your party is apt to become too exclusive to be of value when it comes to a real test.

"Beekman Winthrop has an adjutant on his staff who is a Jew.  He's a bright young fellow who's come along on his merit.  At dinner the other night two of the most prominent party men there hardly spoke to him.  I remarked to Winthrop that it was as caddish a thing as I had ever seen.  He said, ' You ought to be around and see how many petty things of that kind I have to put up with.'

"From now on, I am for Beekman Winthrop.  Any one who thinks he's little more than a Newport society chap is going to be disappointed.

" I am strong for the type of Irishman represented by Jimmy Gallivan (Representative James A.  Gallivan of Massachusetts) and Griffin of Rhode Island.  I can work with them, for they are Americans.  They belong."

"Jimmy Gallivan," said I, "is a Roosevelt Democrat.  He stands for everything you do."
" I know it.  Do you know he described the recent contest in his district as Roosevelt and Gallivan against Burleson and Curley? The day after the primary he wired me that the Roosevelt Gallivan ticket had won.

"I can work with men like him.  Gallivan is better than his party.  His natural inclinations, his training, and his experience make him better.  Had things been managed differently in Massachusetts I have no doubt Gallivan and many others like him would as young men have gone into the Republican Party.  As it was, they probably were not welcomed because of a short sighted policy of exclusiveness.  Now that is changing as it should change.  It should not be possible to tell a man's politics by his name."

Mr.  Gallivan, by the way, was the means unconsciously used on one occasion by Colonel Roosevelt to show of what little consequence he considered most members of Congress.  It was incidental to the fight in the House to put the Harding amendment to the Army Bill, under which the Colonel might have been given a commission.  In this fight the Associated Press quoted "Gallivan (Dem.  Mass.)" as making a strong plea for the amendment and an attack upon Secretary Baker.

"Who is Gallivan?" the Colonel asked.

"Gallivan, of Boston — the old Ninth, the South Boston Dorchester District," I answered.  "You know him."

"No, I'm sure I do not," said the Colonel.

"Of course you do," I ventured to contradict.  "You certainly know Gallivan, the old Harvard second baseman?"

"Know him?" asked the Colonel.  "Why, of course, I know him! But do you know I didn't realize that Jimmy Gallivan, the great second baseman, had become a mere Congressman!"