The President Makers - The Culture of Politics and Leadership in an Age of Enlightenment 1896-1919

by Matthew Josephson

The President THE CULTURE OF POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP IN AN AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT BY MATTHEW JOSEPHSON M HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 1940, BY JOSEPBCSON All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form first edition. CONTENTS Foreword v BOOK ONE i. The Golden Years of McKinley and Hanna 3 n. The Scholars in Politics 29 in. A Splendid Little War j and the Making of a President 65 iv. Toward National Political Leadership 1 1 1 v. Toward Leadership Rooseveltiana 139 vi. ... Read More

The President THE CULTURE OF POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP IN AN AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT BY MATTHEW JOSEPHSON M HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, NEW YORK 1940, BY JOSEPBCSON All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form first edition. CONTENTS Foreword v BOOK ONE i. The Golden Years of McKinley and Hanna 3 n. The Scholars in Politics 29 in. A Splendid Little War j and the Making of a President 65 iv. Toward National Political Leadership 1 1 1 v. Toward Leadership Rooseveltiana 139 vi. Principally World-Wandering 175 vii. The Politics of Reform 210 viii. The Politics of Depression 246 BOOK TWO ix. An Attempted Restoration 285 x. The Ballinger Case An American Affaire Dreyfus 306 xi. Doctor Wilson 330 xn. Colonel Houses Vision 364 xin. The Menace of La Follette 397 xiv. Armageddon 422 iii iv CONTENTS xv. The New Freedom Climax of the Liberal Revolution 460 xvi. Leadership Through War 496 xvn. The Martyrdom of Dr. Wilson 533 Sources 567 Index 573 FOREWORD FOR A hundred years our country was so rich and lucky, it has been said, that political thought was largely unnecessary. However, there is no mistaking the fact that toward the beginning of this century Americans were doing a heap of think ing as they are also doing at the present time. For the generation of 1896 to 1919, the central events and issues assumed a political form. Man was more than ever the political animal, and the political leader was more the key figure than he had been since the i86os. The period itself appeals to us, in retro spect, as far more cultivated and social-minded than that of the preceding generation, of the robber barons and the spoilsmen. It produced a very noteworthypolitical culture. It produced a whole gallery of remarkable and diverse leading characters 5 and even boasted a technique for reproducing them President Making. In our present troubled days, we think almost with envy of the time of the earlier Rooseveltians and the Wilsoniansj of its hope and promise j we think of it as an Age of Enlightenment. Here was a generation that was certainly bent on discovering the promise of American life, to use the phrase of one of its ablest spokesmen, the late Herbert Croly. Intellectually it welcomed change j it set off vigorously in search of new methods, new ideas of leadership, a new equilibrium for political democracy. Casting off the prejudice against public life then entertained in educated circles, men of talent and wealth determinedly entered politics and prepared themselves carefully for their future parts. In their various ways the new type of political leaders set out to save the country from some dimly imagined, but to them, always imminent peril. They sang and they debated 5 they organized and fought 5 until public opinion was deeply aroused. One thing must be said for the characteristic leaders of the party vi FOREWORD of progress 5 they always asked a great deal of their followers. Both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, for example, de manded on the part of the rich capitalists who so often supported their campaigns both self-denial and self-control. Meanwhile the leaders who were closer, in line of real interest or sympathy, to the plain people, also showed at this time a characteristic tendency to ask a great deal of them. Men like the elder La Follette or Mr. Justice Brandeis held that democracy was essentially a process ofeducation. Their progressive programs favored neither an over ruling capitalism nor an all-embracing state socialism, but a purer, more extended form of political democracy. Therefore, they re quired of the citizens an alert public conscience, a growing knowl edge of public affairs, and readiness to intervene intelligently at almost every point of the governing process, local or national, parliamentary or administrative and technical. Thus political democracy, as shown by the raging discussions and controversies of the time, was carried to a highly advanced zone... Read Less