Evening star., 1952-02-11
How Teddy Had the Rug Pulled on Him
By cIoude Wosts


IL Roosevelt had an excellent chance
to become the first President to serve
more than two terms in the White
House. Today Harry S. Truman has at
least fair chance to be the last Presi-
dent to serve more than two terms.
Teddy Roosevelt renounced his OPP
portunity-did that twice to make 1t
binding upon himSelf-and chose to
name his own successor through the
nomination Of William Howard Taft as
the Republican presidential candidate.
In 1912 Roosevelt did seek another term
of the presidency, and failed.
Harry Truman as yet has done no re-
nouncing or made open moves to name
his own successor. However, the recent
Midwest conferences of Democratic
leaders adopted resolutions calling upon
him to be the party standard bearer in
1852, and urging him to accept renomi-
nation He remains potential threat to
Kefauver, Stevenson, and all other
aspirants to the succession.
Definitely, as things stand President
Truman is and will be the last man to
have chance to serve more than two
terms in the White House, unless and
until something is done about that 22d
amendment to the Constitution. Initi-
ated by Congress on March 26, 1947, 1t
limits to two the number OF terms any
person may serve as President. Should
Mr.. Truman be reelected he will deprive
Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the dis
tinction Of being the one and only Presl-
dent to serve more than two terms.
Here is the hitherto upwritten story
I'm iSSI1A
his second remuneration OF his great
chance to be the first President to serve
more than two terms. To state 1t sue
cinctly in the graphic slang OF today,
he had the rug pulled from under him.
The man who performed that feat was
Col. William r. Nelson, then owner. pub
Usher and editor Of the Kansas City
Star
A few days before January !, 1907.
the Cleveland Leader, in story from its
Washington correspondent, announced
that William Howard Taft, then Secre-
tary of War In the Roosevelt cabinet.
would be a candidate for the g. o. P.
presidential nomination in 1908; that he
would have the Presidents backing to-
gether with the support Of staunch
Roosevelt supporters in all parts OF the
country, and that a Taft organization
shortly would be set up. 1t was an
authorized story. but it quoted no
authority.
Carried out Of Cleveland by press
services, that story created something
of a sensation as the first open move
in the 1908 preliminaries. It was re-
ceived with doubt in many quarters.
But it was not repudiated at the White
House, and Taft's reaction was one OF
his characteristic chuckles and the COM
ment that some Of his 's'fool friends"
seemed to be trying to start something.
Many Roosevelt followers out in the
States were among the doubters and
insisted that Teddy must have another
term" But the Taft campaign was under
way.
One Of the early moves was for that
same Cleveland Leader correspondent to
make q trip out to the Pacific Coast and
back to ''carry the word" to party leaders
In every State visited. Before he left
Washington on April 4. 1907. the Leader
: man saw President Roosevelt at the
White House, told him what he was
about TO do, and said he feared most
Of the men he was to see would not
give him much Of hearing unless he
was able to convince them that the
President was not candidate. but was
supporting Taft.
The President thought moment, then
replied: eff could name my successor.
Will Taft's commission would be made
out before we close the ONCE this after
noon. How's that?"
Roosevelt accompanied this amazing
statement with no tnjunctions as to
when. where. or how 1t might be re-
peated or used. But the correspondent
was careful to use 1t only when neces-
sary. Invariably it had the desired re-
suits. Men who scarcely knew OF Taft
at that time accepted 1t as authentic.
eff Teddy says that, and 1t sounds just
like him, it's good enough for me-" was
their reaction.
midsummer the Taft movement
was making rapid progress. with ma
tional headquarters in Columbus. Ohio.
under the direction Of the late Arthur
/. Vorys. In New York. the late Dewey
Hills was in charge for the Eastern
area, and in Washington. the late Frank
H. Hitchcock was lining up prospective
delegates from the South.
There was no organized drive for any
other candidate and for weeks, running
into months, it looked like Taft walk
over. Then trouble developed in an
unexpected way. Columbus headquarters
learned that prospective delegates from
the South were being pledged to Roose-
yelt. Chairman Vorys was sinformed
that Hitchcock believed the best way
to operate in the South was to get
delegates pledged to Roosevelt and then
deliver them to Taft in the convention.
To Vorys there was something fshy
about that explanation. for he remem-
bered that Hitchcock was primarily a
Roosevelt lieutenant. Extremely reluc-
tant to believe double cross was in the
making, Vorys decided to do little
more checking.
Then Col. Nelson Of Kansas City
stormed in on the Taft scene, fighting
mad. He had heard rumors Of what was
going on in the South, had Investigated.