I apologize in advance for the rather scuffed Wikibox that accompanies this post. I tried my best, I really did…
“Voices of History” on the American Broadcasting Company - “The Election of Williams Jennings Bryan ” from November 5th, 1962
Portions of an interview with Francis Olson
Courtesy of ABC
We are in the living room of a small but comfortable middle-class home in the suburbs of Milwaukee. A man in his early forties sits in a high-back wooden chair, wearing a slick but not overly ostentatious suit. Opposite him is an older man, somewhere in his seventies, with plaid workman’s clothes and a kindly expression. He reclines in a worn, dark-green loveseat with rough fabric.
John Heilbruck (JA hereafter): Thank you for having us here, Francis. We’re now nearing the fiftieth anniversary of the 1912 presidential election. Can you tell the audience a bit about what you were doing at the time?
Francis Olson (FO hereafter): Frank is fine, really…well, I was…let’s see, around twenty-two at the time. I was in Milwaukee, there was a bit of trouble at the farm, and I’d come there to try to send some money back. I was lucky, really, I found a job at Leinenkugel’s-
JH: Leinenkugel’s?
FO: It was a brewery…I don’t know if they’re still around. I worked there for a few years, it was much easier work than what my friends had to do in the flour mills and brickyard…I was able to send some back to my family, but I decided to stay in Milwaukee for a good while longer after I found a job in a munitions plant.
JH: Were your family involved in politics?
FO: Well, they weren’t political types, if that’s what you mean…but they voted, and I know in that in ‘04 and ‘12, they voted for Roosevelt.
JH: But not you?
FO: No. 1912 was the first election I voted. It was unusual, I think, at the time. Most people, especially my age, we had some sense of allegiance to the party of our parents. But I think 12’ was different.
JH: Why was that? What drew you to Bryan?
FO: I can’t really point to it. You know, Bryan, Roosevelt, they were saying the same things. But Roosevelt was already President once before, and though I can’t say he did a poor job, it seemed someone else, someone from outside it all, deserved a shot. and Roosevelt, Bryan, well, I actually saw them both.
JH: What did you think of them?
FO: Well, Roosevelt had this confidence, this sense of determination, and it was really something. But next to Bryan, it all seemed like a bit too much bluster? Bryan seemed like an honest man. And I think the following years showed that.
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JH: You don’t regret voting for him?
FO (looking somewhat irritated): The amount of times I’ve been asked that…
JH: I’m sorry. You were of course free to vote for the candidate of your choice.
FO: I just can’t believe what they did to him - all of them, those in his party, those who said they shared his ideals. (Pausing). They killed him.
JH: Mr. Olson, we can’t get into such allegations here, I’m afraid. Can you tell me why you stuck behind him - you didn’t think we should get involved in Europe?
FO (Speaking more slowly now, with some residual anger still in his voice): That was the least of it, but god no…I still can’t fathom it, myself. We’re Americans, if in Europe they decide they want to do things a bit differently, what’s the matter with it? I don’t want them here, but why’s it that my hard-earned dollar…why’s it that my dollar was to go to killing Europeans, telling them how to live? How I saw it, how I still see it, is that if they want to be Reds, there’s little reason for us to get involved. There’s enough space for us to go our separate ways.
JH: Have you voted in any elections since then?
FO: No, god no…what’s the point in it, really? Bryan was an honest man, a godly man, and look at what they did to him. The man had principles, too many for politics. An honest, Christian man…they don’t have those in Congress anymore.
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1912 Presidential Election: The Campaign
Shortly before Bryan was nominated, Theodore Roosevelt announced the formation of the progressive “Bull-Moose” party and his candidacy for President, creating the first three way presidential race since 1860. The campaign would be dominated by the two figures of Bryan and Roosevelt, with the incumbent president Taft often seeming to fade into the background. To a less educated observor, the two leading men seemed to have little daylight on domestic policy. Each hailed from the progressive wings of their parties, and each believed that the government had to play a more active role in guiding the economy. But they had very different visions for how to achieve this, which were in turn wedded to different conceptions of the role of the economy in national life.
Bryan spoke the old language of republican virtue and self-sufficiency. He railed against the dangers that wage slavery and corporate concentration posed to democratic citizenship. His ideal of the national economy was basically Jeffersonian. And Jeffersonianism was fatally imperiled by modern conglomerate capitalism. However, Bryan was equally skeptical of an overweening government bureaucracy. The role of the state was to create simple, robust institutions that could break the power of the largest corporations, allow laborers to freely organize and autonomously press for their rights, and secure a lasting future for the small farmers who represented the democratic backbone of America.
Roosevelt spoke a newer language of civic nationalism and American strength. Less enamored with anti-trust enforcement despite his record of employing it as President, he instead favored the creation of a powerful regulatory state with empowered executive agencies capable of constraining businesses. Perhaps the state could not completely prevent corporate concentration, but it could expand its own capacity and ensure that the empires of Carnegie and Morgan served the average American. More welfarist in its orientation, Roosevelt’s program also called for national social insurance and health service. In the end, Roosevelt’s vision was of a vast technocratic-bureacratic state with power concentrated in the hands of the Presidency and a few executive committees that would impartially adjudicate conflicts between capital and labor and secure the well-being of the American worker.
That being said, they did share some substantive common ground, much of which was anathema to those in the business wings of both parties. Both supported a progressive federal income tax, farm relief, minimum wage laws, women’s suffrage, the direction election of senators, and limits on corporate interference in the political process. Both spoke in favor of labor unions, even if Bryan tended to do so at greater length and with greater intensity.
The average American likely did not have knowledge of their more minute domestic policy differences. But the differences in their vision for the country were reflected in the two men’s personalities and their foreign policy. Bryan was described by his supporters as a “principled” and “godly” man, a simple-hearted and ardent champion of the common American. Roosevelt was a “larger-than-life” figure, a “force” capable of reshaping American life for the better. Bryan saw America as a peaceful, industrious nation, and believed its god-given duty was to serve as a tranquil exemplar for the old and decadent countries of the Old World. If America was to take a larger role in the world, it would be as a neutral party, a great mediator. Roosevelt, something of a social Darwinist at heart, believed that the nation needed to assert itself aggressively on the national stage to avoid being eclipsed by the imperialistic European powers.
Taft realized at the start of the race that he was unlikely to win. Roosevelt had more of a popular following, and given the split in the Republican vote that was likely to occur, it seemed likely Bryan would win the presidency. Nonetheless, he felt that as the Republican nominee and incumbent President, he had a duty to campaign and do his best to ensure that the Republican Party did well in down-ballot races.
Taft’s long-shot campaign was harmed by several developments in the race. A number of major donors, fearful of a Bryan presidency, deserted to Roosevelt’s camp. While some of the business magnates believed Taft to be much closer to their own views, they felt that he had little chance of being re-elected. An assassination attempt on Roosevelt’s life and his week-long recovery in the hospital also provided a major boost of support for his campaign. After Roosevelt was shot in the lung, a number of major newspapers switched their endorsements from Taft to Roosevelt. Finally, there was the crucial endorsement that Bryan received from the anti-imperialist league, providing him with some vital elite support.
Above all, it was Taft’s absence from the campaign that hurt him the most. He was simply eclipsed by the two men he was running against. A series of debates between Bryan and Roosevelt on foreign policy (the subject that most clearly separated them), had the effect of polarizing the electorate between them, but Taft, trying to stake out a middle position, ended up pleasing nobody. By the time the actual election rolled around, it was a foregone conclusion that he would not be the winner - though few anticipated quite how poorly he would do.
1912 Election: The Results
Few expected Taft to do well. None expected him not to win a single state. Roosevelt, for his part, performed admirably for a third party candidate, winning 174 electoral votes and only narrowly losing several key states to Bryan. If Taft hadn’t hold onto around a third of the Republican vote, he would have handily won the election.
It was Bryan that ended up the victor, though, a long-coming and improbable vindication after three crushing defeats. Although it was the party split that allowed him to win, there were other encouraging signs for him in the results. He very nearly won the three West Coast states and Illinois due to a markedly better performance among industrial laborers. Despite depressed turn-out amongst catholics in the Northeast (likely due to his previous support of prohibition), he still managed to win the key states of New York and New Jersey by racking up big margins in the urban areas. Lastly, Democrats finally re-took the Senate, which would enable Bryan to push through an ambitious tariff reduction in addition to the broader populist agenda that would find supporters in both parties.
The Republicans, having suffered something close to a national humiliation, crawled back to Roosevelt, pleading with him to make amends and ensure a future for the party. Following his performance and his continuing national popularity, he would certainly have the upper-hand in any future negotiations.
The Business Community was also not happy with the results, particularly financial and heavy-industrial interests. Over the next year, a number of new trade associations and lobbying groups rapidly formed. Knowing that the Republican Party would likely swing back to Roosevelt’s New Nationalism after Taft’s loss, they sought to reach some kind of modus vivendi with the progressive Republicans. Of course, Roosevelt still held most of the cards: he had engaged in something close to electoral blackmail, and it had succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. If the Republicans wanted to win a national election in the foreseeable future, they had best not incur his ire again.
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