Relationships between Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard taft and eugene debs. Welcome to viewers on cspans book tv. James chaces new book, 1912 wilson. Roosevelt, taft and debs the election that changed the country. It has just been published by simon and schuster. Woodrow Wilson Center is the memorial to our 28th president. Created in 1968 by an act of congress within the smithsonian institution. Because Woodrow Wilson headed Princeton University before becoming president the center memorializes his legacy as a bridge between the worlds of academia and public policy. It serves as a neutral forum for over 400 meetings a year where even the most contentious issues can be discussed. The center is nonadvocacy. It takes no position on policy issues. Rather the purpose of this Institutions Research and meetings is to contribute to the policy debate by providing Historical Context and an understanding of foreign cultures and perspectives. The results of these activities are widely disseminated through reports and books published by the centers own press, a website, wilsoncenter. Org a radio and tv program called the dialogue. As the nations official memorial to our 28th president it is particularly appropriate that we meet here today to discuss the momentous election of 1912 that took him to the white house. We are so to speak heavily invested in that election. Without that election there would be no Woodrow Wilson next. James chace has produced the definitive study of that election. Hes the former managing editor of Foreign Affairs magazine and editor of world policy journal. Hes the author of eight previous books including one about the secretary of state who created the American World which was named the best book of 1988. High praise for this book has been offered by former Wilson Center fellow and biographer ronald steel. 1912 relates with brio, hydra ma and authority. Its the struggle of four powerful men fighting not just for the presidency but for the soul of american politics. James chace brings vividly to life the election that shaped the nations future and in so doing illuminates the choices americans face then and face again today. James chace, thank you for being with us today. [ applause ] thank you, rob very much. Im really delighted to be back here. When i was in washington a number of years ago i spent a year here not at the Wilson Center but the carnegie, with friends who were there at the time. I suppose we could call this the accidental presidency but its about four men, obviously, not just Woodrow Wilson but certainly true that had the Republican Party not been split between taft, William Howard taft and Theodore Roosevelt its very unlikely that Woodrow Wilson would have been elected president. Had roosevelt gotten the nomination it would have been roosevelt who was president. However, had it been a taft wilson thing i think wilson would have won even though the United States was basically Majority Party was a Republican Party, but it was, as we all know a period of tremendous spirit of reform and for that and reform was embraced by wilson as well as by roosevelt and of course by debs. Therefore, taft was a moderate conservative, was not likely, i think, to have beaten wilson. Roosevelt i think almost surely would have. Before i talk, i want to say first of all, why i wrote the book. I say this because people often ask me why do you write a book where Foreign Policy plays no role when you spent your whole life writing about Foreign Policy. It was Foreign Policy that got me interested in the book. In these issues. Its counter factual history. Sort of what ifs if history. What would have happened had had Theodore Roosevelt rather than Woodrow Wilson been president in 1912 . Had that happened, the Republican Party would have been the party of reform. And secondly, i would suspect that after the sinking of the lose taken ya in 1916, that roosevelt would have brought the United States into the First World War at that time. He was sympathetic to the allies. And i think he would have taken advantage of that tragedy in effect to get the United States in world war i and perhaps the war might have ended more quickly had the United States done that. Theres a couple of other what ifs i would like to mention right at the beginning. Lets say roosevelt had not challenged taft for the nomination. The Republican Party in 1912. Taft, i say, i think would have been beaten by wilson but then roosevelt would have had the nomination almost surely in 1916. Indeed some of his closest colleagues told him that. If you can just wait youll have it in 1916. The likelihood is he would have been elected because the person who ran against wilson in 1916, which was i meant 1916, who was Charles Evans hughes, a moderate reformist governor from new york state and a Supreme Court justice, fact is that hughes almost won. When wilson went to sleep that night, he thought he had lost the election to hughes. And then the results from california came in the next morning, and that was what put wilson over in 1916 and largely because hughes had alienated members of the Progressive Party, the then governor of california, a man called hiram johnson. Had he been, had he paid more attention to johnson in the right way, he would have probably taken california, had he taken california wilson would not have been president in 1916 and would not have been the war president then. Finally, this is very interesting, i found out, which is that roosevelt repaired his relationships with the Republican Party which had split in 1912 by 1918. In 1916 he campaigned for hughes. Referred to as the iceberg. But he nevertheless made his piece with him and campaigned vigorously for him and if nothing else roosevelt was a vigorous campaigner. He became very critical of Woodrow Wilsons handling of the war. Almost all historians agree that by 1919 roosevelt would have been the nominee of the Republican Party in 1920. He died at the age, relatively young age of 60, in january of 1919. Largely because, i think, he lived a strenuous life but he died almost in 1915 on an expedition. Even in 1920, it is possible that roosevelt would have become president had he lived. In which case, again, the what ifs of history. In which case there would have been league of nation with a large reservation which was not very serious and also been, therefore, a versailles treaty and doubtless the military guarantee to france which wilson had given and that roosevelt was very eager to have an alliance with france and britain. So had that happened, had the United States been locked into the league and more important into an actual military guarantee one has to ask if the german general staff would have ever risked a war in the 1930s. These are big stretches, i agree. But as i look at that and i think what happened . Why did it happen . What went on. Thats what i want to talk about now, which is that election. But i want to keep in mind, as i said, these what ifs of history. First of all, as i said, there were four men and im going to talk about roosevelt last, actually, and talk about each of them in a certain way and then talk about them all together. Let me talk first of all about William Howard taft. First of all, William Howard taft came from a very distinguished family in ohio. And was a great friend, became a great friend of Theodore Roosevelt before roosevelt was president and then later on, of course, when roosevelt became president after the assassination of mckinley in 1901 he made taft secretary of war and governor general of philippines. Taft was an extremely decent man. His politics were conservative. He was not against reform. But he was not a person who wanted to rock the boat too much whereas Theodore Roosevelt was only too willing to rock the boat. Basically, taft was a perfect lieutenant. When roosevelt announced in 1904 that he would not run for a third term, which he didnt need to do and no sooner were the words out of his mouth, he tried to find someone who he believed would carry on the policies of reform in 1908 that he had started and taft seemed to be finally the logical man to do that because taft was a very able man. Taft himself never wanted to be president. Hed always hoped some day to be on the Supreme Court. But his wife was a very ambitious woman and she very much wanted her husband to become president of the United States. Twice taft turned down offers from Theodore Roosevelt when roosevelt was president to be on the Supreme Court. Mainly again because his wife didnt want him to do that but to wait. And so, finally, you know, he didnt get on to the Supreme Court til much later when Warren Harding appoints him the chief justice of the Supreme Court which is what taft always cared the most about. What happened when taft was president , over simplified slightly, he was not able to manage things that roast was that roosevelt was able to. Roosevelt was able to handle these arch conservatives which taft was unable to do so. It was said taft was surrounded by men who knew exactly what they wanted to do. And they were led by a particularly powerful figure, general Nelson Aldridge of rhode island who was called the manager of the United States, so powerful was he in the senate. Taft couldnt manage him at all. Roosevelt could to a degree. So roosevelt found that the policies he had urged were not being carried out in a way he had hoped to. Theres another point too, of course. Roosevelt missed power. He was only 50 when he left the presidency. Younger man bill clinton when he left. He missed that power. What was referred to as the habit forming drug of public life. The split, therefore, became very, very bitter. And ill get into this a little later. But a little more about him as a person, rather amusing stories, too. First of all as everybody must know, taft was enormous. He usually came to 300, 350 pounds. He once had to be pried out of a bathtub. So he had a special bathtub was put in the white house, another one on a naval ship. When he was counter general of the philippines, he rode his horse about 25 miles up in the hills and then cabled back to the secretary of state that he never felt better. Rupp responded with, hows the horse . [ laughter ] so, as i say, he was a very decent guy, and an able man but not someone who should ever have been president. Lets go on to Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow wilson, first of all, to understand wilson you have town have to understand he was a conservative southern democrat. Born in virginia, grew up in georgia and South Carolina. He was a man who began who was ill give the basic facts. He was president of Princeton University and picked by the political bosses of new jersey as the perfect person to run for the governor of new jersey. They thought he was reliable. He was reasonably conservative democrat but hes honest and moderately, very moderately reformist as they saw it. Wilson was, therefore, elected governor, but then he turned on the bosses and put through a highly reformist program in new jersey. They felt completely betrayed by him. And as a consequence, he became one of the most likely candidates for the nomination of the Republican Party in 1912 because he then had adopted reform as his platform during that period. But his reforms were not as radical as roosevelt, it was more so than wilson. And after an incredibly tense convention which went to 46 ballots in baltimore, where at one point he withdrew his name thinking he wouldnt get the nomination to chad clark who was the speaker of the house and was really the favorite to get the nomination. He finally secured it through the machinations of that old democratic war horse William Jennings bryan who was trying to get it for himself again and he played things for clark and then switched to woodrow. Betrayed wilson and then for various reasons he supported wilson. Ironically wilson got the nomination precisely because the party bosses wanted him at the last minute. So its an irony there. Again, let me talk about him as a person now. His father was a preacher. A presbyterian. And a man who wilson really adored and also felt deeply inferior too. His father often humiliated wilson. Wilson could never please him enough. Wilson suffered from dyslexia. He was insecure. Had terrible headaches. And felt he would never really measure up to what his father expected of him. He was he used to practice speaking, however, because he thought himself he might become a presbyterian minister himself. He finally decided after graduating from princeton, he became a professor at bryn mawr and wesley before returning to princeton but always wanted to go to politics. He was a very slow reader, probably from his dyslexia. Couldnt read very well. After he became president he said he hadnt read a serious book in ten years. He was slow in that way. Slow and deliberate. He was a very, very stubborn man and he did not like to be criticized. And he broke with his friends who did so. That was another part. His presidency at princeton began very, very well. He had various reforms. He put in the tutorial system. He had two very good ideas. One he wanted to break the club system of princeton which i thought was a good idea, but he didnt handle it well and the alumni stopped him cold there. He also wanted to keep erect a new graduate school near the college and, again, he didnt handle it well at all on the faculty. So by the time his 1910 came along, he was not a successful president at princeton. He had the opposite effect of what became well became worse for him. So he was only too eager to try to run for governor when he was approached by the new jersey bosses. He was also, by the way, probably by this time a southern white supremacist. He allowed the resegregation in washington of the federal bureaucracy. It wasnt the kind of polite, if you want to call it polite, most american blacks at that time, but in the case of wilson, it was much deeper. He admired enormously this movie by d. W. Griffith for, as he said, the birth of a nation a very racist film, calling history written with lightning. He was a man who could be among people he felt secure with, he was very funny, could be very, very charming. Liked women a great deal. Had his daughters, his two wives and actually an illicit affair, which did come to light later in the election of 1912 to roosevelts attention. Roosevelt refused to make that an issue in the campaign. He said no one could believe a man who looks like an apothecary could possibly be a romeo. Whatever the reason was, he didnt do that. It was not the sort of thing roosevelt would do. He was rather victorian. As we all know, it was wilsons stubbornness that made it difficult in negotiating with the british Prime Minister at versailles during 1919 and then trying to put together the versailles treaty. He often felt himself to be the personal instrument of god. In contrast to that, by the way, lloyd george remarked after the peace conference quote, i think i did pretty well, as might be expected, seeing as i was between jesus christ and napoleon bonaparte. That was georges view what it was like between them. He refused to compromise with some relatively small reservations, that with his closest friend, then Senate Majority leader Henry Cabot John insisted on. They were not serious. They were reiterating the fact that the senate has to declare war and no one else has a right to do so. Has to have the responsibility for treaties. It was something not very serious, but wilson refused to compromise whatsoever saying notably the senate must take its medicine. Well, that was not a wise thing to say, particularly when the senate and house were controlled by the Republican Party after 1918 elections. But to get the treaty passed, he went on a barn storming tour throughout the country and during that tour on september 28th, 1919 that he had a severe stroke in colorado, and on september 28th. He was not seen by anybody until the end of october. As many of you know, he was brought back here into the white house and there he laid he was really incapacitated for the first few weeks after the stroke. He finally did make more than a partial recovery but never more than a full recovery. During the first stage of that illness he saw nobody but his wife and his doctor,