Colonel Roosevelt (168 page)

74
Among his urgent
Ibid., 1.85–86.

75
Ironically, on
The New York Times
, 6 Feb. 1917.

76
“It is not”
Spring Rice to Balfour, 9 Feb. 1917 (AJB).

77
He emphasized that
Sullivan,
Our Times
, 5.264–65.

78
U BOOT KRIEG
Thomas Boghardt, “The Zimmermann Telegram: Diplomacy, Intelligence and the American Entry into World War I” (Working Paper No. 6–04, BMW Center for German and European Studies, 2003), 35,
http://cges.georgetown.edu/
.

79
“that polite, silent”
TR,
Letters
, 8.957–58.

80
“a war in which”
See 479.

81
one he had sketched
TR to E. A. Van Valkenburg and William Draper Lewis on 5 Sept. 1914. See Bishop,
TR
, 2.370–71.

82
A new degree of neurosis
One theory that did not occur to newspaper readers unschooled in
Realpolitik
was that Zimmermann might have disbelieved his own telegram—seeking only to curry the favor of his superiors in the Prussian military. A more plausible speculation is British intelligence officials used their intercept to alarm Wilson, in order to goad him and Congress into a declaration of war on their side. At the time, Britain’s role in deciphering and handing over the telegram was kept secret. Boghardt, “The Zimmermann Telegram,” 10–14, 19.

83
“A little group”
The New York Times
, 5 Mar. 1917.

84
Republicans and Democrats alike
Richard Lowitt, “The Armed-Ship Controversy: A Legislative View,”
Mid-America
, 46 (Jan. 1964).

85
On Monday, 5 March
Newark
(Ohio)
Advocate
, 5 Mar.,
The New York Times, The Washington Post
, 6 Mar. 1917.

86
“I beg your tolerance”
Syracuse Herald
, 5 Mar.,
The New York Times, The Washington Post, Galveston
(Tex.)
Daily News
, 6 Mar. 1917.

87
“the lily-livered skunk”
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 327–28; TR to KR, 1 Mar. 1917 (TRC). The newspaper-crumpling incident was one of the few occasions anyone ever heard TR swear. Leary chose not to record the epithet.

88
On 9 March
Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson
, 434–35. The USS
Algonquin
was sunk by a U-boat on 12 Mar. 1917.

89
The first news
The New York Times
, 12 Mar.,
Mansfield
(Ohio)
News
, 12 Mar. 1917.

90
The Russian army
Gilbert,
A History of the Twentieth Century
, 439, 442;
The Washington Post
and
The New York Times
, 17 Mar. 1917.

91
On 20 March
Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson
, 437.

92
After the meeting
Cooper,
Woodrow Wilson
, 383; TR,
Letters
, 8.1164.

93
Baker wrote back
TR,
Letters
, 8.1164.

94
“and she has”
The New York Times
, 21 Mar. 1917.

95
“We can perfectly”
Ibid.

96
“I shall not come”
Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 421.

97
“a communication”
Heckscher,
Woodrow Wilson
, 437.

98
“I shall be”
The New York Times
, 24 Mar. 1917. For an account of TR’s expedition—unusual for him, because he had no interest in fishing—see TR,
Works
, 4.314ff.

99
flaming with flags
This phrase, written on 25 Mar. 1917, is taken from
Washington Wife: Journal of Ellen Maury Slayden from 1897–1919
(New York, 1963), 296.

1
Epigraph
Robinson,
Collected Poems
, 63.

2
Henry Adams was just
Adams,
Letters
, 6.749.

3
Theodore Roosevelt’s slow train
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern
, 3 Apr. 1917. The following account of TR’s brief visit to Washington is taken from this source, plus the
Oakland Tribune
, same date,
The Washington Post, Trenton Evening Times
, and
The New York Times
, 4 Apr. 1917. See also Looker,
Colonel Roosevelt
, 179.

4
another U.S.-flagged steamer
The
Aztec
.

5
With a profound
The Washington Post
, 3 Apr. 1917. WW began his address with “Gentlemen of the Congress,” ignoring the presence before him of Jeannette Rankin (R, Mont.), the first woman ever to sit in the House of Representatives.

6
Williams had stood
The New York Times
, 4 Apr. 1917.

7
second largest devilfish
TR’s host in Florida, Russell J. Coles, announced that the wingspan of the Colonel’s specimen was 16 feet 8 inches. The only larger devilfish, or manta ray, then known was in the American Museum of Natural History, and spanned 18 feet 2 inches.
The New York Times
, 4 Apr. 1917.

8
Senator Lodge, of all people
San Antonio Light
, 2 Apr. 1917. The pacifist, a young man, had called Lodge a “coward” for announcing that he would vote for a war resolution. Accounts vary as to who threw the first punch.

9
The White House was
The New York Times
, 4 Apr. 1917.

10
Roosevelt asked
Oakland Tribune
, 3 Apr. 1917.

11
“I don’t know”
Lowell
(Mass.)
Sun
, 4. Apr. 1917.

12
Edith was brooding
EKR to Flora Whitney, 11 Mar. 1918 (FWM). QR came down from Harvard two days later. EKR diary, 5 Apr. 1917 (TRC).

13
Quentin might have
On 14 Apr., a Royal Flying Corps spokesman announced in Montreal that “if no American troops go to France, young Roosevelt will serve with the Canadian air forces.”
The New York Times
, 15 Apr. 1917.

14
“A state of war”
The New York Times
and
Decatur Daily Review
, 6 Apr. 1917.

15
“Of course, when”
Metropolitan
, Apr. 1917.

16
“I’ll take chances”
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 93.

17
When, at eleven
The New York Times
, 11 Apr. 1917. This visit has been frequently misdated by biographers, and as frequently misrepresented as the first encounter between TR and WW in the White House. See above, 348–52.

18
“The President received”
Ibid. There is a photograph of TR holding this impromptu press conference in Lorant,
Life and Times of TR
, 610.

19
“If I say”
Ibid.

20
Uninhibited, he
Titusville
(Pa.)
Herald
, 11 Apr. 1917; TR,
Letters
, 8.1173;
The New York Times
, 11 Apr. 1917.

21
“I have been”
The New York Times
, 11 Apr. 1917.

22
receiving visitors that evening
Pringle,
TR
, 594–95 (misdated).

23
“I am aware”
Newton D. Baker to Henry Pringle, 6 Nov. 1930, quoted in Pringle,
TR
, 595;
The New York Times
, 6, 11 Apr. 1917.

24
“I had a good”
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 96, 99. Remarks like these betrayed one of TR’s weaknesses—an inability to understand his opponents. WW had obviously not been briefed on his proposed division, and wanted to know where TR thought its equipment might come from. The regular army itself was woefully short of rifles and ammunition, and conscription would make it shorter still. TR replied that the French might help. “They have the equipment. They need men.” He added that he and his volunteers, many of them men of wealth, would initially fund the division themselves. The President seemed interested, but kept asking questions. Looker,
Colonel Roosevelt
, 181; Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 97–98.

25
Let us use
TR,
Letters
, 8.1171.

26
The Roosevelts knew
Longworth,
Crowded Hours
, 254;
The New York Times
, 15 Apr.,
La Crosse Tribune
, 22 Apr. 1917.

27
waited with Archie
Since graduating from Harvard, ABR (who had a tendency to follow in the footsteps of his eldest brother) had been working for a carpet company in Thompsonville, Conn. ABR, “Lest We Forget,”
Everybody’s Magazine
, May 1919.

28
the hasty departure
On 27 Mar., Trotsky had sailed from New York to join his radical colleagues in Petrograd. He was secretly arrested in Halifax, Canada, by British military authorities fearful that he would work against the Allied cause in Russia.
The New York Times
, 11 Apr. 1917.

29
Count Ilya Tolstoy
The New York Times
, 21 Apr. 1917; TR,
Letters
, 8.1186. The commission was eventually headed by Elihu Root.

30
Describing himself
TR,
Letters
, 8.1186.

31
Privately, he told
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 98.

32
“If we do not”
Ibid., 99.

33
“This policy”
TR,
Letters
, 8.1174–75.

34
“My dear sir”
Ibid., 8.1176–84, 1177, 1178, 1180.

35
“a repetition of”
Alvin Johnson,
Pioneer’s Progress: An Autobiography
(New York, 1952), 253.

36
“For obvious reasons”
TR,
Letters
, 8.1183–84.

37
and looking ahead
Harding was also uneasy about having a flagrantly pro-German mistress. See James D. Robenalt,
The Harding Affair: Love and Espionage During the Great War
(New York, 2009). Nobody in 1917 was so cynical as to suggest that Harding might have an interest in making it possible for Roosevelt to die gloriously in battle, but nine decades later, the thought does arise.

38
assuming that Wilson
While remaining cagey about TR’s chances of being accepted for a command, WW had personally encouraged him to push for the volunteer amendment. TR,
Letters
, 8.1170.

39
“He is known”
The New York Times
, 29 Apr. 1917.

40
While the debate
Ibid.; Spring Rice to TR, 19 Apr. 1917 (CSR).

41
“It will give me”
Palmer,
Newton D. Baker
, 1.206.

42
Quentin was summoned
Longworth,
Crowded Hours
, 254–55; Kermit Roosevelt,
Quentin Roosevelt
, 32.

43
By the first week
Bishop,
TR
, 2.424.

44
“All the lines of him”
Slayden,
Washington Wife
, 308. Balfour’s depressed look can clearly be seen in a photograph opposite p. 148 of Palmer,
Newton D. Baker
, 1.

45
His government was
Strachan,
The First World War
, 228.

46
They agreed, in other
Palmer,
Newton D. Baker
, 1.202.

47
Marshal Joffre’s pleadings
Strachan,
The First World War
, 248. Joffre’s current army rank was ambiguous, because he himself had been replaced by Nivelle. But as the hero of the Marne, and leader of a crucially important mission, he was still perceived in America as the embodiment of France’s war effort.

48
Roosevelt and Joffre
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 222; TR to Anna Roosevelt Cowles, 17 May 1917 (ARC); Leary, notebook 5 (JJL).

49
“He did not tell”
Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 223.

50
There was another
Charles Hanson Towne,
The Balfour Visit
(New York, 1917) 59ff.; Leary,
Talks with T.R.
, 223–24; Leary, notebook 5 (JJL). To avoid upsetting the State Department, TR announced afterward that he and Balfour had been discussing the latter’s Gifford lectures on “Theism and Humanism.” See 673.

51
“Since the responsibility”
Palmer,
Newton D. Baker
, 1.202.

52
Roosevelt believed
Bishop,
TR
, 2.424.

53
“Tumulty tells me”
O’Leary to TR, 17 May 1917, OL.

54
“It would be very agreeable”
Ibid., 2.425.

55
an old military showman
Claude Debussy,
Préludes
, bk. 2.6 (Paris, 1913).

56
James Amos
Amos,
TR: Hero to His Valet
, 67; TR,
Letters
, 8.1195.