TERRE HAUTE —
Three presidents and a rebel.
As Americans live through the 2012 presidential campaign, historians are looking back a century at “the election that changed the country.”
Indeed, the words “reform,” “progressive” and “change” resonated deeply in 1912. The personalities of the four iconic candidates influenced voters as greatly as their messages. The field included three men who, at one time or another, occupied the Oval Office — the incumbent William Howard Taft, former president Theodore Roosevelt, and future commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson — along with the nation’s most celebrated radical, Terre Haute’s Eugene Debs.
“Four extraordinary men,” wrote the late James Chace, author of “1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs — The Election That Changed the Country,” which was published in 2004.
Each advocated significant social and economic measures, in varying degrees. They responded to America’s mood for change, with Roosevelt and Debs pushing the broadest reforms, nudging Wilson and, to a lesser extent, Taft toward progressivism. Four years after his presidency ended, Roosevelt returned with plans more dramatic than those he’d executed as president. Debs, running atop the Socialist Party ticket for the fourth time, drew tens of thousands of listeners as he railed against social injustice and the plight of the common man.
The issues included the role of organized labor, protection of the needy, governmental regulations, and the power of Wall Street.
“In some ways, we’re still arguing over some of the same issues,” Michael Kazin, author and Georgetown University history professor, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Though Debs had long worn the “radical” label, Roosevelt had grown to embody that description, too.
Still popular, “Teddy” was calling for broad health care for Americans, women’s voting rights, improved conditions for workers and sound child-labor laws — all causes dear to Debs’ heart. Roosevelt sought the Republican Party nomination against Taft, because Taft hadn’t continued the reforms of Roosevelt, his predecessor. When the GOP conservative wing prevailed at the convention, Roosevelt launched a third-party campaign, leading the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party.
Roosevelt split the Republicans and altered history. Republicans, Chace wrote in 2004, remain divided between conservatives and progressives.
Wilson, the Democrat, benefited from the GOP division, winning the presidency with 42 percent of the vote. With 4.1 million votes, Roosevelt actually outpolled Taft’s 3.4 million, won six states and 88 votes in the Electoral College. Debs attracted 901,873 popular votes, more than doubling his total in the 1908 election. Facing opposition from a trio of presidents, Debs still accounted for 6 percent of the 1912 votes — the largest slice of the presidential balloting ever by the Socialist Party.
“Wilson won almost by default because he was the most moderate of the progressives,” said Charles King, secretary of the Debs Foundation and a retired Indiana State University professor.
Still, the country’s reformist atmosphere drove Wilson to adopt many of those “radical” ideas in his first term, such as the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, the federal income tax, and improved hours for workers, Chace explained.
Dynamic speakers
The national mood also provided the perfect fuel for a dynamic cluster of candidates.
“All three — Roosevelt, Debs and Wilson — were wonderful speakers,” Kazin said. “Taft, not so much.”
In a pre-television era, the speeches from balconies above streets, or from a train caboose, often lasted one or two hours. If fact, loquacity saved Roosevelt’s life in a definitive moment in the 1912 campaign. A 50-page speech in Roosevelt’s breast pocket slowed an assassin’s bullet enough that the projectile lodged in his rib cage, missing his heart. Wounded, with blood on his shirt, Roosevelt went ahead with a planned speech, lecturing for 45 minutes.
“It takes more than one bullet to kill a bull moose,” Roosevelt said. Then he went to the hospital.
It was vintage Roosevelt.
“Teddy Roosevelt could really show excitement, and hop up and down, and use all those theatrics,” King said.
Debs captivated crowds differently. “Debs, the man, came through as he spoke,” King said. Chace called Debs’ campaign style “electrifying.”
As Kazin put it, “[Debs] used to bend over the crowds, as if he were pulling the people to his breast.”
A fellow famed Terre Hautean, the late poet Max Ehrmann, once described witnessing an appearance by Debs during Ehrmann’s days as a Harvard University student. Debs, billed in advance by Harvard critics as “a monster,” entered the room to silence, no applause. As usual, Debs spoke for two hours, and afterward the students and faculty crowded around to greet him. “They who had come to scorn hovered around him for more than an hour, and went away his friends,” Ehrmann wrote.
That reaction was common in the 1912 campaign, too.
Debs surprised many
Speaking to a crowd of 15,000 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Debs jabbed all three of his presidential rivals. In his comments about Roosevelt, Debs acknowledged the progressive transformation in the man whose face would later occupy Mount Rushmore. “He is today the champion of the oppressed and the downtrodden of the nation,” Debs said of Roosevelt, as quoted in Chace’s book. “Just think of it. Theodore Roosevelt, who stands on a platform that four years ago he denounced as anarchist.”
Debs had predicted his 1912 candidacy would be “a surprise to the country.” He won his largest percentages of the vote in rural states such as Oklahoma, Nebraska and Nevada, where 16 percent of the residents backed him — places “we don’t normally think of today as hotbeds of radicalism,” Kazin said.
Debs suspected Roosevelt would draw votes from him, as well as from Taft. Likewise, Roosevelt (along with Wilson) would not participate in a debate with Debs, Chace’s book states, because TR “did not want to draw voters’ attention to the fact that many of Debs’ proposals resembled his own.”
It was, though, Debs’ personality that heightened his likeability among Americans a century ago, rather than his Socialist Party’s platform. “A lot of people heard him and cheered him who did not vote for him,” Kazin said.
Debs did not run for president in 1916, and the Socialists’ vote total dipped by 300,000 that year. In 1920, Debs ran his fifth and final campaign from an Georgia prison cell, jailed by the Wilson administration for criticizing the U.S. involvement in World War I. Debs received more than 1 million votes, but the electorate had grown significantly from 1912. He was released by President Harding in 1921, and died in Terre Haute five years later.
Also in 1921, Harding appointed Taft chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the former president served until 1930, when he died.
Ever adventurous, Roosevelt stayed active after 1912, and died in 1919. Wilson served two terms, but ended his presidency in ill health, and died in 1921.
In 1912, though, Roosevelt, Wilson, Taft and Debs were at a peak. “The 1912 presidential election was the first since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton in which the great question of America’s exceptional destiny was debated,” Chace wrote. “1912 changed America.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@
tribstar.com.
Top Story
Related Photos
-
“Four extraordinary men”: Shown in 1912 photographs (clockwise from top left) are Woodrow Wilson, Eugene Debs, Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. (Photos from The Library of Congress, printed in “1912: The Election That Changed the Country”)
-
An editorial cartoon from 1912 depicts Debs as rising above the political fray between Taft and Roosevelt, while Wilson looks on. (Photo from The Library of Congress, printed in “1912: The Election That Changed the Country”)
Discussion
A century later, historians see 1912 campaign as turning point in America
- Top Story
-
-
We want to know ...
Why are you proud to be an American?
Leave us an email at features@tribstar.com. Photos - a picture of yourself
or others - can also be sent in jpeg format to this email address. Comments
and stories will be shared during the first week of July in the Tribune-Star
and at online in celebration of Independence Day. -
10 things to know for Wednesday
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about across the nation today:
-
Reputed Mafioso tip triggers new Hoffa body search
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The FBI saw enough merit in a reputed Mafia captain’s tip to once again break out the digging equipment to search for the remains of former Teamsters union leader Jimmy Hoffa, last seen alive before a lunch meeting with two mobsters nearly 40 years ago.
-
Court lets walk-out fines against House Democrats stand
INDIANAPOLIS — House Democrats who had to pay more than $100,000 in fines after they walked out of the Indiana Statehouse won’t get the help they sought from the Indiana Supreme Court.
-
Husband charged in Archer homicide
Terre Haute Police have found local reports of domestic violence between a Terre Haute man and his wife, whose body was discovered wrapped in a tarp and dumped in an Ohio ditch.
-
BREAKING: Arrest made in Archer homicide
A Terre Haute man has been arrested and charged with felony murder and altering the scene of a death in the homicide of his wife, Kayla Herchelroath Archer.
-
No ID yet on body found in Rosedale home
Sheriff Mike Eslinger said his department is waiting to obtain an immediate family’s confirmation of a woman found dead in a home in the 2900 block of West Rosehill Lane.
-
Police investigating Rosedale homicide
Parke County authorities are investigating a homicide at Rosedale.
Sheriff Mike Eslinger confirmed Friday afternoon that police had been called to a home in the 2900 block of West Rosehill Lane on a report of a dead person. -
Homicide suspect’s father: ‘I am so sorry’
The father of a Jasonville man charged with murder broke down in tears following his son’s appearance in Greene Superior Court on Friday morning.
-
BREAKING: Suspects in death of Linton teen arraigned in court
A week after Katelyn Wolfe went missing in Linton, the men accused of killing her appeared in court.
-
Katelyn Wolfe homicide: Affidavit alleges men’s scheme
Two friends from childhood allegedly had devised a plan over the course of about a week to rape and kill someone — without having a particular target — before causing Linton teenager Katelyn Wolfe’s death last week, according to court documents released Thursday.
-
End of an era: WTHI-TV anchor Allen has come long way since debut in 1967
Reflecting on his career at WTHI-TV, Jim Swander pokes fun at retiring news anchor Mark Allen saying, “He has made millions by reading a teleprompter at a sixth-grade level.”
-
Police: Suspects posted on Linton teen's Facebook page 'to cover their tracks'
Two childhood friends, over the course of about a week, allegedly devised a plan to rape and kill someone prior to the killing of Linton teenager Katelyn Wolfe, according to court documents released today.
-
UPDATE: 1 dead, 73 hurt in La. plant explosion
GEISMAR, La. — An ground-rattling explosion at a chemical plant in Louisiana ignited a blaze Thursday that killed at least one person and left dozens more hurt, officials said.
-
UPDATE: Suspect in late-night standoff arrested, to appear in court
A Terre Haute man wanted for a late Wednesday standoff with police has been arrested and is due to appear in court this morning.
-
No suspect found after Maple Avenue standoff
A man police identified as Jeremy Ross of Terre Haute remained at large late Wednesday night after reports of gunfire brought dozens of police to a Maple Avenue home for a multi-hour siege of an apartment house.
-
UPDATE: Semi overturns at Lyford; Mecca man airlifted to Indy hospital
A Parke County man was airlifted to Methodist Hospital this afternoon after he crashed his semitrailer on U.S. 41 just north of Lyford.
-
UPDATE: Missing Terre Haute woman found
A Terre Haute woman who was reported missing earlier today by the Greene County Sheriff’s Department has been found.
-
Analysts: Midwest drivers to see lower gas prices
LANSING, Mich. — The worst may be over for drivers in the upper Midwest who have been grappling with the highest gasoline prices in the continental U.S.
-
Unusually massive line of storms aim at Midwest
WASHINGTON — A gigantic line of powerful thunderstorms could affect one in five Americans on Wednesday as it rumbles from Iowa to Maryland packing hail, lightning and tree-toppling winds.
-
Coroner: Linton teen victim of homicide
Linton teenager Katelyn Wolfe died of asphyxiation in a “manner that is ruled a homicide” Linton Police Chief Troy Jerrell said Tuesday night after an autopsy was performed earlier in the day at Terre Haute Regional Hospital by forensic pathologist Dr. Roland Kohr.
-
Apple revamps look of iPhone, iPad software
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is throwing out most of the real-world graphical cues from its iPhone and iPad software, like the casino-green "felt" of its Game Center app, in what it calls the biggest update since the iPhone's launch in 2007.
-
Feds back morning-after pill for all girls
NEW YORK — After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge's order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.
-
VIDEO: Apple unveils new MacBook Air with improved battery life
At Apple's WWDC, the company shows off its new line of MacBook Air laptops with faster processors and improved battery life. The new models are available in 11-inch and 13-inch dimensions, ranging in price from $999 to $1,299.
-
Fair Association highlights attractions
In less than a month, the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds will be awash in 4-H projects, carnival rides, cotton candy and entertainment as the 2013 Vigo County Fair runs July 7 to 13.
-
Ohio man faces 329 charges in missing women case
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A man accused of holding three women captive in his run-down home in Cleveland for a decade and fathering a child with one of them has been indicted on 329 charges including murder, kidnapping and rape, prosecutors said.
-
How will you spend your time this summer? Check out 'BASH for ideas
Art, music, reading -- What's your summer escape?
-
I-70 accident snarls traffic for hours
An accident involving a semi-trailer containing hazardous materials shut down eastbound Interstate 70 in Vigo County from near the Illinois state line to Indiana 46 for about six hours Thursday.
-
MARK BENNETT: Time for surf, sand and a good book
I can read a book on the beach. Until I start sweating. Then it feels like exercise, minus the fitness perks. My brain shifts into neutral as the waves roll in, blissfully washing away footprints in the sand and my inclination to think. Better put, I enjoy starting a book on the beach, and finishing it later, elsewhere.
-
Deacon Jones of famed Fearsome Foursome dead at 74
David “Deacon” Jones, the original sackmaster, has died.
The Hall of Fame defensive end, credited with coining the word “sack” for how he knocked down quarterbacks, was 74. - More Top Story Headlines
-
Hoffa Mystery Still Fascinates After 4 Decades
Raw: NASCAR Driver Jason Leffler Dies in Wreck
Ex-NFL Star Chad Johnson Out of Jail
3 Charged in Ohio With Enslaving Mom, Daughter
Raw: Huge Fire Near Yosemite National Park
Tiger on Sergio: 'It's Time to Move On'
Raw: 1 Dead in Shooting at Mo. Apartment Complex
Raw: Marines Land Osprey on Japanese Ship
Failed Cuba-to-Florida Swimmer Won't Try Again
Raw: Obama Arrives in Berlin
Pa. Girl Who Took on Donor Rules Gets Lungs
Raw: Volcano Erupts Near Mexico City
Prosecutors Push for Smartphone "Kill Switch"
Raw: Australian Begins Cuba to Florida Swim
Unusual Heat Wave Bakes Alaska
Google Launches Internet-beaming Balloons
Obama Welcomes WNBA Champions to White House
Obama Seeks G-8 Support on Syria
RAW: NSA Director Says 50 Plots Foiled
Civil Rights Groups Sue NYPD Over Muslim Spying
Inside Kim Kardashian's Premature Labor
Miami Heat Wins in Overtime
Three Charged for Enslaving Mother and Daughter
Spurs' Popovich has no problem with Spurs' intensity
Paige Butcher Scorches on Hawaii Beach
Video: worst way to load cargo onto a plane
Never-before-seen footage of '08 Times Square bomber
Obama: NSA Secret Data Gathering 'Transparent'
WATCH IT: Lil Wayne tramples American flag
Mariah Carey Looks Beautiful in a Tiny Cut-Out Swimsuit
Out of Control Boat Throws Passengers Overboard
See Lindsay Lohan in Rehab
Sofia Vergara Posts Perky Backside Pic in Thong
Gaga Ditches Her Crazy Couture
Caught on Tape: Teacher Accused of Beating Autistic Child
"Stay Classy" Campaign Aims to Curb Binge Drinking
Sesame Street Tackling Tough Topic Parents in Jail
Miss Utah Fumbles Interview Question
