The Washington times., 1920-05-24
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Against all this turbulence was
set the candidacy OF President Taft
with his quiet patience. his hard
work, his able and conscientious
record, his deliberate speech, and
thoughtful argument. IL was logic
versus noise. but the brains were
on the TAFT side and Roosevelt was
outgeneraled. In spite Of the popu-
lar clamor for II. r.. the last re-
ports we heard that night were
that Taft would be nominated with
out "A doubt. and that. as a forlorn
hope, Roosevelt would start a new
party. People felt. with the split
ting of the Republican party. the
chances were that the Democrats
would win in November. Bryan
and Underwood were talked OF for
President. and Clark and Wilson;
but who could tell from day TO day
what might supervene?
The atmosphere Of lawlesness in
the convention was quite beyond
ones comprehension unless one hap
pened to be there. The steam roller.
ss they called IL. did grab two dele
gates from California who by right
there seemed To be a question over
the state OF Washington, but the
others. as far as I could make out.
those that T. X. dubbed liar and
thief - Pennsylvania, Michigan,
and Tcxas-were fairly entitled TO
their seats. Beveridge maintained,
however, that Indiana was not very
fair. Some friends from Michigan
said that their state was absolute
ly solid for Taft, and they could
not see how Roosevelt had the face
to bring II into the contest. The
contest certainly was close and ex-
citing-and how the T. r.. followers
did yell! At the same time groans
and toots in the audience made 1t
amusing. 1 shall always be glad
l was there.
Friday night great confusion
reigned in the Roosevelt camp and
so many rumors flew about that
one didn't know what to think or
say or do. His followers would not
bolt with Roosevelt, and SO they
stayed in and were beaten. BY this
time 1t was a sure thing for TAFT.
and Saturday morning the decisive
word came that he had been re-
nominated for the Presidency.
After Chicago ! went to Wash
ington. Our house was closed, but
the caretaker opened the den. with
it's little balcony bedroom, so j
stayed there for several days. The
first thing ] did was to go to the
War Department to find General
Edwards. who had just returned
from Belgium. After giving me all
the news from Brussels, he took me
to the Presidents office in the
White House wing. We were
ushered almost Immediately through
the corridors filled with people
waiting their turn, into the room
where the President sat talking to
some one. As soon as the man had
left / delivered a letter from l.. and
we talked few minutes, after
which Mr.. Taft invited me to lunch
con.
While in Washington became for
the first time actively interested in
politics. Miss Mabel Boardman
asked me to send out circulars,
hoping to get contributions from
women for the Republican cam
paign fund; I sent out thousands
before / got through, and dis
tributed 1 don't know how many
other campaign leaflets besides.
Next I was put upon the Advisory
Board of the Women's Republican
Committee and asked to organize
rallies and speak in Massachusetts,,
which i did.
During the campaign which fol-
lowed his nomination, Mr.. Taft
himself seemed Indifferent to the