The Road to George Ade's Farm: Origins Of

The Road to George Ade’s Farm: Origins of Taft’s First Campaign Rally, September, 1908

Howard F. McMains*

A dozen aerial bombs shattered the calm around the usually peace- ful prairie countryside of Brook, Indiana. The noise that Wednes- day, September 23, 1908, announced the arrival at writer George Ade’s Hazelden Farm of William Howard Taft, the Republican presidential candidate, to make the first speech in his campaign tour against Democrat William Jennings Bryan. A caravan of cars brought Taft to Ade’s farm from the railroad, eight miles distant, along with Indiana gubernatorial candidate James E. Watson and other dignitaries for perhaps the biggest campaign rally northwestern Indiana had ever seen.l Taft spoke there because he thought that a rally already planned for Ade’s farm by the Indiana Republican committee offered a convenient opportunity to publicize the national ticket in a state beset by factional difficulties. In addition, the Ade rally marked a significant reversal in the campaign strategy of the 1908 national Republican ticket. When the campaign opened, national party chairman Frank H. Hitchcock had planned that Taft would conduct a front porch style campaign from Hot Springs, Vir- ginia, and, after the beginning of September, Cincinnati. Hitchcock had urged the candidate to decline requests from around the country for personal appearances, including one to speak at the unveiling of the Benjamin Harrison memorial in Indianapok2 Taft, however, was not pleased with Hitchcock’s strategy and had so informed the chairman during a conference at Hot Springs in mid-A~gust.~Also, Taft was receiving advice that he should ignore the announced decision of limiting the campaign “to porch speeches in Cincinnati.”’ The influential Republican George B. Cortelyou, for example, urged Taft to make personal appearances if necessary because “There are too many State fights . . . . We are not at the moment the militant organi- zation we ought to be.”5

* Howard F. McMains is assistant professor of history, University College, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati. 1 Indianapolis News, September 23, 1908, p. 1. 2 “Matters for conference with Mr. Hitchcock,” Taft Papers (Manuscript Divi- sion, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.), Series 111, Box 188; Lafayette (Indiana) Morning Journal, August 1, 1908, p. 1. 3 New York Times, September 6, 1908, p. 2. 4Charles Nagel to William Howard Taft, August 28, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 188. Nagel, a Taft enthusiast from Missouri, was appointed secretary Of commerce and labor in Taft’s Cabinet. 5George B. Cortelyou to Taft, September 2, 1908, ibid., Box 189. Cortelyou Of New York was secretary of the treasury in President Theodore Roosevelt’s Cabinet. 318 Indiana Magazine of History

At the beginning of September Taft left Hot Springs, traveling to Cincinnati by way of Middle Bass Island, Ohio, for a few days’ rest on Lake Erie. During the journey he made several impromptu speeches in Ohio which were enthusiastically received. One listener in Columbus wrote him immediately “to continue that kind of a campaign.’96 Encouraged by the success of these Ohio talks, Taft persuaded Hitchcock at a conference at Middle Bass Island on September 5 to change the basic campaign strategy and to begin planning a campaign tour of the West.7 Taft was quite eager to begin such a tour. He explained some days later to President Theodore Roosevelt that he feared party factionalism was weakening the general campaign effort, but that “the persona1 presence of the man at the head [of the ticket] will have an encouraging and stimulating effect . . . Taft established the broad outline of a western tour, but left Hitchcock to return to New York and fill in the details. The press began immediately to speculate on which states Taft would visit. On Sep- tember 8 Taft arrived in Cincinnati, where he stayed at the home of his half brother Charles. His headquarters at the Hotel Sinton had already received numerous requests for his appearance, and these he forwarded to Hitchcock.” In addition Taft was informed that the political situation in Indiana had just taken a turn which threatened his ability to carry the state in the election.1o Earlier in the summer Taft had been made aware of a rift in Indiana between Republican conservatives and pro- gressives after the nomination of the conservative Watson for governor. Senator Albert J. Beveridge, a leading progressive, wrote to Lucius B. Swift-who at this time was one of Taft’s Indiana en- thusiasts-that while Taft’s nomination was satisfying, vice presidential candidate James S. Sherman was too conservative and Watson “represents all the worst phases of our political life.”ll Swift sent a description of state politics to President Roosevelt, who in turn forwarded the information to Taft. The candidate subsequently wrote to Swift that he had talked with several Indiana Republicans and had

6 James A. Allen to Taft, September 2, 1908, ibid. 7 New York Times, September 6, 1908, p. 2; Cincinnati Enquirer, September 6, 1908, p. 3. 8 Taft to President Theodore Roosevelt. September 11, 1908, Taft Papers, Series VIII, Letterbook 25. 9 Taft to John Hays Hammond, September 9, 1908, ibid.; Lafayette Morning Journal, September 10, 1908, p. 1; New York Times, September 10, 1908, p. 4. Ham- mond was a long time friend of Taft. 10 Jefferson H. CIaypool to Taft, September 4, 5, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 189. 11 Albert J. Beveridge to Lucius B. Swift, June 29, 1908, Swift Papers (Indiana Division, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis). Swift was a civil service reformer, a friend of President Roosevelt, and a leading Indiana progressive. Taft at Ade’s Farm 319 received “a variety of counsel and rather conflicting views.” Watson allegedly had even suggested audaciously to Taft that the national ticket would act as a drag to his election as governor.’* Watson was supremely confident of his ability to win.13 Another of President Roosevelt’s Indiana correspondents, William Dudley Foulke of Rich- mond, also sounded a dissident note during the summer of 1908. Watson, Foulke warned, “represents the reactionary element of the party,” and he encouraged Taft to line up with the conservative fac- tion no more than necessary. Too many members of “the Indiana ‘gang”’ were “discredited” to be of much help to Taft, Foulke claimed.’” When Taft reached Cincinnati on September 8, among the first letters which he read at the Hotel Sinton headquarters were two which had arrived before TafP from Jefferson H. Claypool of the Indiana Republican committee updating alarmingly the Indiana situation. Claypool’s first letter of September 4 reported that “the political situation in Indiana today took a sudden turn for the worse” when Republican Governor J. Frank Hanly, “against the advice of all the Republican leaders in the state,” called a special session of the legislature for September 18 to consider a county local option bill. Claypool warned that the resulting bitter struggle ‘‘will lose Indiana to the national ticket. It is the most outrageous proceeding that has happened in Indiana Politics in thirty years.”16 The temperance issue-particularly the question of county option-had been an issue in state politics at least since the legislature passed a mild county option bill in 1895. Governor Hanly had tried unsuccessfully to get the 1907 legislature to broaden the local option law, but in 1908 he did persuade the state Republican convention to adopt a county option plank in its p1atform.l‘ Candidate Watson embraced the temperance crusade as part of his own campaign : “I am making the fight straight from the shoulder on that proposition,” he wrote.18 A member of the

12 Taft to Lucius B. Swift, July 19, 1908, Swift Papers. 18 James E. Watson to George Ade, August 12, 1908, George Ade Papers (Pur- due University Library, West Lafayette, Indiana). 14 William Dudley Foulke to President Theodore Roosevelt, July 29, 1908. Foulke Papers (Indiana Division, Indiana State Library). Foulke, a resident of Richmond, Indiana, was a friend of President Roosevelt and a civil service reformer. 16 Fred W. Carpenter to Jefferson H. Claypool, September 5, 1908, Tart Papers, Series VIII, Letterbook 25. 16 Jefferson H. Claypool to Taft, September 4, 1908, ibid., Series 111, Box 189. County option would have permitted individual counties to limit or ban the sale of alcoholic beverages. 17 Clifton J. Phillips, Indiana in Transition: The Emergence of an Industrial Commonwealth, 1880-1910 (Indianapolis, 1968), 100-101, 495. 18 James E. Watson to George Ade, August 17, 1908, Ade Papers; Lafayette Morning Journal, August 5, 1908, p. 1, contains an example of Watson’s speaking tactics in favor of temperance and local option. 320 Indiana Magazine of Htktory

TAFTWITH GEORGEADE (ON RIGHT) AT HAZELDENFARM, SEPTEMBER 23,1908.

Courtesy George Ade Memorial Association, Ine., Kentland. Ind. Taft at Ade’s Farm 32 1 Republican press bureau echoed Claypool’s fears, saying that “The temperance issue is the paramount issue in Indiana.”1a flhe day after sending his first appraisal of Governor Hanly’s actions Claypool sent a second letter to Taft in which he expanded upon the situation. He reiterated his report of the disruption he thought the governor was causing in the state Republican party, and he stated that many suspected that Hanly, “who is a religious bigot,” was secretly trying to aid the Democratic candidate, Bryan. Claypool thought the only man in Indiana who might have persuaded Hanly to drop the whole affair was conservative Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks, then at his home in Indianapolis, but that his help was unlikely.z0 Indeed that was a fair judgment. Several days earlier Taft had sent Hitchcock to Indianapolis to see Fairbanks,21 who was miffed because of his own failure to get the presidential nomination at the national convention. Hitchcock saw Fairbanks briefly on the evening of September 4 but had no success in persuad- ing the vice president to speak for the national ticket.” Taft re- sponded to Claypool’s letters on September 9, the day after his arrival in Cincinnati, but, because his own plans were still unsettled, he could only express gratitude for the information and hope that “there may be some way out of the difficulty in which the Governor’s action seems to have put While the plans for Taft’s western tour were taking shape, the candidate received further information indicating a situation in In- diana increasingly unfavorable to the national ticket. Foulke wrote to Taft and accused the Republican state committee of bungling the campaign and of sending out speakers who were “reactionaries and out-worn party hacks to give us the old rub-a-dub-dub about the ‘party’ that suppressed the rebellion and provided a protective tariff.”’“ And V. H. Lockwood of’ lndianapolis also wrote ‘GO a;~‘e~t

19 Will H. Craig to Robert S. Taylor, August, 1908, Taylor Papers (Indiana Division, Indiana State Library). Judge Taylor of Fort Wayne had been the Re- publican senatorial candidate in 1898. ZoJefferson H. Claypool to Taft, September 5, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 189. 21 Taft to John Hays Hammond, September 2, 1908, ibid., Series VIII, Letter- book 25. 22 Frank H. Hitchcock to George B. Lockwood, September 3, 1908, and Charles W. Fairbanks to the Reverend J. E. Gilbert, September 7, 1908, Fairbanks Papers (Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington) ; during the campaign Fairbanks and his newspaper, the conservative Indianapolis News, were not enthusiastic in supporting Taft and at times were hostile to Taft and the Roosevelt administration. Phillips, Indiana in Transition, 105. 23 Taft to Jefferson H. Claypool, September 9, 1908, Taft Papers, Series VIII, Letterbook 25. 24 William D. Foulke to Taft, September, 1908, Foulke Papers. 322 Indiana Magazine of History

that “those in the active charge of the campaign [are] more indif- ferent than usual to the awakening of the people in behalf of the National Lockwood’s letter arrived on September 11, and on the same day Taft conferred with Hitchcock in New York by long distance telephone about his tour’s itinerary.Z6 Taft suggested making the first speech of the tour in Indiana because, as he wrote the next day, “Kansas and Indiana need work in them . . . [and] we are going to give them Taft even suggested to Hitchcock where in Indiana he could give his first speech-at a Republican rally already scheduled near the end of September at the farm of humorist and playwrite George Ade and to which Taft had received an invitation. Plans for a Republican farm rally in Indiana had been announced several weeks earlier. On the morning of August 20, 1908, Ade was reading the daily papers which came to Hazelden, his comfortable Tudor style farm home near Brook. He was somewhat surprised, he later wrote,28by a page one story in the Indianapolis Star under the headline “Ade’s Farm Rally Will Be Big Event.” The article, based on information from Charles S. Hernly of the state committee, said that the rally “would be the biggest Republican event” of the Indiana campaign, that the only thing worrying Ade was having to barbecue forty of his cattle to feed the crowd, and that Hernly had invited a variety of big names to participate. The article claimed that “This rally was planned by Mr. Ade and Mr. Hernly . . . last spring. Ade is enthusiastic . . . and proposes to help his guests arouse Republican enth~siasm.”~~ That, however, was not quite the way Ade recalled a conversation with Hernly during a visit to Hazelden the previous spring. Hernly, though “meaning well, has put me into an embarassing posi- tion,” Ade lamented several days after the article had appeared in the Indianapolis paper.30 Ade was fairly active in local Republican politics, and had even been a delegate to the convention which had nomi- nated Taft and a member of the notification committee.31 When Hernly visited the farm, he and Ade had discussed politics and the

25 V. H. Lockwood to Taft, September 10, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 190. 26 Chicago Record-Herald, September 12, 1908, p. 5. 27Taft to John Barrett, September 12, 1908, Taft Papers, Series VIII, Letter- book 26. 28George Ade to Fred Sims, August 26, 1908, Ade Papers. Sims was a conservative member of the Republican state committee. 29 Indianapolis Star, August 20, 1908, p. 1. 30 George Ade to Fred Sims, August 26, 1908, Ade Papers. 31 John N. Clouse, “George Ade Has Always Been a Busy Man,” Indianapolis Btar, June 25, 1939, section 6, p. 5. This article reports a 1939 interview with Ade. According to his biographer Fred C. Kelly, Ade also traveled on a speaking tour with Senator Beveridge during this campaign. Kelly, George Ade: Warmhearted Batirist (Indianapolis, 1947), 220-21. Taft at Ade’s Farm 323

vague possibility of a Republican rally at Hazelden. Back in Indian- apolis Hernly had mentioned the idea to reporters. But Ade insisted that he had regarded the whole affair “as one of Charley’s jokes until the other day I found a big first-page article in the Star.” Otherwise, Ade privately explained, “I would have headed off the barbecue idea long ago if I had thought that people were going to take it seriously.” Ade could offer a variety of arguments why the rally would not be a good idea-distance of the farm from the railroad, the difficulty of feeding such a large crowd (he estimated the cost of forty cattle at $4,000), and the better use of the time and money elsewhere. Al- though he was willing to assist in the campaign, Ade did not want a Hazelden rally. Unfortunately, Ade lamented, “Hernly . . . has talked so much about it that possibly we will be compelled to go ahead and make In fact, Hernly’s announcement had excited many Newton County Republicans who took the plans to be accomplished fact. Although Ade delicately tried to back out of the situation which Hernly had thrust upon him, he found he could not. He soon received a letter from gubernatorial candidate Watson bubbling with enthu- ~iasm.~~Hernly meanwhile sent an invitation to Taft in Virginia for a September 30 rally, saying that “Mr. Ade is making a special effort . . . and we . . . invite you to be present and spend the day at Mr. Ade’s home . . . .”34 The weekly Brook Reporter could barely con- tain itself at the thought of a major political event occurring in Brook. The paper reprinted the August 20 article from the Indianapolis Star, adding that Ade’s farm would be an ideal location and that any prob- lems in holding a large rally there could be overcome. The enterprise was bound to be a “Success” and “the greatest rally in the history of Indiana Rep~blicanism.”~~ Taft did not reply immediately to Hernly’s invitation perhaps because he wits traveling from Hot Springs to Middle Bass Island around this time. In a second letter several days later Hernly argued that farmers from Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana were expected, making the rally an important event: “We must have the farmers’ vote in this state and other states in order to carry this election . . . .”36 Even though Taft replied to Hernly’s letters just after receiving Clay- pool’s pessimistic assessment of the Indiana situation, the western

32 George Ade to Fred Sims, August 26, 1908, Ade Papers. In part, Ade seems also to have been trapped by his initial positive reaction to the idea, however reluctant that agreement might have been. 33 James E. Watson to George Ade, August 25, 1908, Ade Papers. 34 Charles S. Hernly to Taft, August 28, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 188. 35 Brook Reporter, August 28, 1908, p. 1. 36 Charles S. Hernly to Taft, September 2,1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 188. 324 Indiana Magazine of History

I Scenes at George AdeS Rally in Tufts Honor

CR L%yp AT GEONWGA=& I-X.€!H

Reproduced from the Indianapolis Star, September 25. 1908. Taft at Adds Farm 325

tour itinerary was yet unformed; and Taft had had insufficient time to evaluate the Indiana situation for him “to accept the kind invita- ti~n.”~~Within a few days, however, the situation had changed. Pos- sibly Taft had some rapid second thoughts about Indiana and the need to rally support for the national ticket in a state which seemed from information he had received to be dividing over the temperance issue. Since a speaking tour from Cincinnati westward was being planned anyway, a visit-even a short one-in Indiana apparently must have seemed increasingly a good idea. A crucial development in getting Taft to come to Ade’s farm presumably was the timely intervention of Will H. Hays, the young chairman of the party’s skate speakers bureau. Ade presented Hays with plans for the rally and, probably at Hernly’s urging, noted how valuable Taft’s appearance would be. Hays realized that Taft would probably wish to make his first speech in a major city-and indeed Hitchcock was planning on Chicago-but at the same time Hays thought the whole idea just audacious enough to be worth pursuing. So around September 10 Hays telephoned Taft at Cincinnati3” and, noting that Brook was on the way from Cincinnati to Chicago, again asked Taft to attend the rally. Hays’ telephone call elicited a response which Hernly’s letters had not. To Hays’ surprise, Taft said he re- membered Ade as a member of the notification and that he had always enjoyed Ade’s writing, especially the musical The Sul- tan of Sulu. Hays outlined the rally plans, and Taft reportedly said, “ ‘I will go to the farm at Brook and see the Sultan of Sulu.’ ”40 In his telephone conversation with Hitchcock on September 11, Taft asked the chairman to make the necessary arrangements for a stop at Brook.41 By September 14 Taft’s appearance at Ade’s farm was accepted as the first speech on the itinerary. The exact date of the rally, however, had not been Hays conferred by telephone with Hitchcock on the fourteenth, but they did not settle on a final date.

37 Taft to Charles S. Hernly, September 8, 1908, ibid., Series VIII, Letterbook 26. 88 Lafayette Morning Jozkrnal, September 16, 1908, p. 2. 39Taft to George Ade, June 24, 1908, Ade Papers; George Ade, “The Auto- biography of George Ade,” Kentland-Newton County Centennial (n. p., 1960), 37. 4oKelly, George Ade, 220. Kelly asserts, ibid., 219, that Ade “conceived the idea that Taft should open his campaign at Hazelden.” Ade wrote “The Sultan Of Sulu,” which has a Philippine motif, after a visit to the Philippines with John T. McCutcheon in 1900. George Ade, “Checking up at the Age of Seventy,” Indian- apolis Btar, February 9, 1936, part 5, p. 4. Taft was governor of the Philippines from July, 1901, until early 1904. 41 Chicago Record-Herald, September 12, 1908, p. 5. 42Indianapolis News, September 15, 1908, p. 1. One determining factor wits Taft’s obligation to address a meeting of Republican clubs in Cincinnati on SeP- tember 22. Taft to Charles Brooker, September 15, 1908, Taft Papers, Series VIII, Letterbook 25. Brooker was a prominent Connecticut Republican. 326 Indiana Magazine of History

The complete itinerary was ready on September 15 : from Ade’s farm, Taft would go to Chicago and towns in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri.e Members of the national committee conferred at the Hotel Sinton on the sixteenth to settle on the exact dates of speeches, and it became official: “Taft’s Itinerary For Western Trip. Will Speak at George Ade’s Farm at Brook, Ind., on Sept. 23.”44 Despite the announced plans, Hernly remained somewhat anxious, perhaps unable to believe that Taft would actually attend the rally. He wrote to Taft again reminding the candidate of the rally’s importance: “We are having a great struggle in Indiana on account of the temperance question . . . and we are depending on the farmer votes carrying Indiana.”46 The announcement of Taft’s appearance at Ade’s farm caused many Indiana towns to hope that Taft would stop along the way for a short address. The Cass County Republican chairman, for example, tried to persuade the state committee to have Taft stop in Logansport though this decision was beyond its power. Not until the very eve of the tour, however, did the local paper say that a report that Taft would visit Logansport and give a fifteen minute speech was “entirely without fo~ndation.”~~ Not everyone considered the rally a good idea. Herbert E. Hess of Plymouth, Indiana, wrote indignantly to Taft about having the only Indiana speech at “the ostentatious and luxurious country home of Indiana’s most ambitious comedy opera writer, Mr. George Ade.” That would not be the location from which to appeal to labor, Negro, and business voters; indead, he urged Taft to speak at Indianap~lis.’~ The most restrained reaction came from the Kentland Democrat. Un- der the headline “Big Horse Show Here Next Week” the paper told how the days of the local horse show had been twice altered to avoid conflicting with the appearance of Taft at Ade’s farm, some dozen miles north of Kentland. The horse show would be September 24 to 26, beginning a day after the rally, an unnecessary accommodation the paper thought. “Therefore let nobody become ‘mixed’ as to the time, but prepare to join the crowd and enjoy the entertainment provided for all who will attend.” The paper clearly preferred horse shows to Taft rallies.48

43“Itinerary of Mr. Taft‘s Western Trip,’’ September 15, 1908, Taft Papers, Series VIII, Letterbook 25; Indianapolis News, September 16, 1908, p. 1. 44New York Times, September 17, 1908, p. 3. 45Charles S. Hernly to Taft, September 18, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, Box 193. 48 Logansport (Indiana) Daily Tribune, September 18, 1908, p. 5; September 22, 1908, p. 5. 4THerbert E. Hess to Taft, September 17, 1908, Taft Papers, Series 111, BOX 192. Hess was a Plymouth attorney. 48 Kentland (Indiana) Democrat, September 18, 1908, p. 1. AT GEORGE ADE'S HAZELDEN FARM RALLY

Reproduced from the Indianapolia News, September 24. 1908.

GEORGEADE'S HAZELDENFARM

Reproduced from Fred C. Kelly, George Ade: Wormheorled Satirist (Indianapolis: The Bobbs.Merril1 Co., 1947), facing 129. 328 Indiana Magazine of History

Once Taft’s decision to appear at Ade’s farm had been confirmed, there were necessary arrangements to be made with the railroads. A special train was arranged for Taft and placed under the direction of United States Senate sergeant at arms Colonel Daniel Ransdell, an Indianapolis native. The train, comprised of the platform-observation car “Constitution” for Taft and the immediate party, two other cars, and a baggage car, was scheduled to leave Cincinnati at 8:OO A.M., September 23, and to travel to Brook “without political interrupti~n.”~~ In addition, various railroads arranged day excursion trains to bring spectators to Brook. The Big Four scheduled a special to leave Lafayette at 8:OO A.M. and to have a return fare of 95 The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad arranged a train from Brazil, near Terre Haute, leaving at 6:45 A.M. and returning that evening for a fare of $2.10.51 And the Pennsylvania Railroad announced an excursion train from Logansport at 10 :15 for a return fare of $1.04.6a Other trains were to cume to Brook from Chicago and Dandle, Illinois.53 Taft spent much time just prior to departure at his brother’s Cincinnati home preparing speeches for the Brook meanwhile eagerly awaited its big day, “the day the whole countryside here- abouts has been looking forward At precisely 8:OO A.M., Sep- tember 23, Taft’s train left Cincinnati over the Big Four Railroad.Ke Two hours later the special steamed under the vast, low shed at In- dianapolis’ Union Station and stopped for six minutes. About 200 people were there to cheer when Taft stepped onto the platform of the “Constitution” and waved. Someone yelled, “ ‘Three cheers for the next President,’” and the crowd cheered again. Taft passed a few words with Indiana Senator James A. Hemenway, who climbed up on the railing around the platform, and with Indiana Congressman James Overstreet. Though Taft did not make a speech, he did quip to the crowd. ‘“We have been traveling sixty miles an hour, and could not see anything for the dust , . . . But I hope the voters Will not get any dust in their eyes before election day,”’ he chortled.6T Several people, including Hernly, boarded the special before it steamed out of the station and on to Lafayette, covering the sixty-five miles in sixty-five minutes. At Lafayette the train again stopped briefly,

49Indianapolis News, September 19, 1908, p. 24; September 22, 1908, p. 3. 60 Lafayette Morning Journal, September 22, 1908, p. 4. 51 Brazil (Indiana) Da.iZy Times, September 19, 1908, p. 3. 62Logansport Daily Tribune, September 22, 1908, p. 5. 53 Chicago Record-Herald, September 14, 1908, p. 2. 54 Indianapolis News, September 19, 1908, p. 24. 55 Indianapolis Star, September 21, 1908, p. 1. 66 New York Times, September 24, 1908, p. 3. 6‘ Indianapolis News, September 23, 1908, p. 4. Taft at Ade’s Farm 329

~~ - I ACTIVITY AT GEORGE ADE’S FARM

OBTFMQ RE*DT TOR TWT VI#l’IOU

Reproduced from the Indianapolis News, September 15. 1908. 330 Indiana Magazine of History giving Taft just enough time to shake a few hands. As he leaned to grasp one man’s hand, someone in the crowd yelled, “ ‘That’s the worst

Democrat in town.’ ” Taft smiled and replied, “ ‘Well, shake again. You are an American citizen just the same.”’ The crowd cheered.58 From Lafayette the train raced northwestward slowing only at Sheff, where it left the Big Four and headed due north on the tracks of the Chicago, Indiana, and Southern Railway. A few minutes later, at noon, the train stopped at Ade, a small station about six miles west of Brook and eight miles from the farm. The special was an hour early, and, as no one met it, only the hissing and clanking of the standing steam locomotive broke the prairie silence.59 While waiting, Taft went up front to the engine and congratulated the conductor and engineer on the speed of the morning’s run. “Then, in a halo of dust,” states one report, “a Newton County ‘Barney Oldfield’ appeared, smashing the gravel road motor car record.” The local committee had been informed of the train’s early arrival only at the last minute and so the first automobile to the station arrived after the train.“O At Ade’s farm the program had been underway since 9 :30. Some guests had come by automobile, perhaps 200 of the vehicles in all arriving at the farm. Many more visitors came in the excursion trains which arrived all during the morning at Brook and which were shunted onto the limited sidings. Hundreds of passengers were hauled the two miles to Hazelden Farm by a variety of conveyances which Ade had hired and which paraded back and forth along the road all morning. A decision to bring Taft‘s train to Brook station was not made in time to make the necessary arrangements. The Brook Band, the Purdue Military Band, and the Juvenile Band of Monticello per- formed before noon. A variety of local politicians addressed the crowd, much of which sat on two long sections of circus bleachers arranged facing the house and underneath the large shade trees. Tents had been set up where refreshments were sold and where campaign literature, badges, and souvenir post cards were given away. At noon the Second Regiment Band from Chicago played. When word arrived that the train was at Ade station, Ade, his father John Ade, and Watson hurried off in a caravan of six automobiles to greet the candidate.”’

66 Chicago Record-Herald, September 24, 1908, p. 2. 59 Ibid. The Indianapolis News, September 23, 1908, p. 4, gives some details of route, time, and speeds for the trip. 6oIndianapolis Star, September 24, 1908, p. 5. “1 The fullest account of the rally appears in the Indianapolis News, Septem- ber 23, 1908, pp. 1, 4. Other accounts appear in various newspapers; see for example, New York Times, September 24, 1908, p. 3; Chicago Record-Herald, Septem- Taft at Ade’s Farm 331

From where Taft’s train had stopped, it was six miles due east to Brook along a straight road parched by a month’s dry weather. Small posters with pictures of Taft and Watson and flags had been tacked to poles along the way. The main street of Brook was decorated with arches, each with pictures of the candidates framed in evergreen hanging from it. Signs saying “Welcome,” done in evergreen and framed in marigolds, were everywhere. And any remaining space in Brook was covered with red, white, and blue bunting. Two miles farther on east was Hazelden Farm. When the automobile caravan approached the farm at 12 :45, the aerial bombs were set off to salute Taft’s arrival, the white smoke clearing from the grounds only slowly in the still noon air. As the car carrying Taft pulled onto the grounds, it was surrounded by the “throng of agriculturists,”62 and several bands started to pIay. Somehow the candidate managed to get into the house, where a light luncheon was served. The crowd meanwhile dined on either picnic lunches or 2,000 “full dinner pails” available for a quarter each and containing .sandwiches and pickles. While everyone was eating, the Harlequin Glee Club from Purdue entertained. After a brief luncheon, Taft, Ade, Watson, and others in the official party stepped from the house at 1:15 P.M. to the decorated speakers’ platform. Having been briefly introduced by Ade, Taft began his speech by referring to the day’s host as the “Indiana Sultan of Sulu” and asserting that the Philippine original had no advantage over Ade as an entertainer. He also punned, perhaps reflecting some

of the luncheon banter, how the rally had “ ‘aided his campaign.’ ”63 Explaining why he was at Ade’s farm, Taft said that he had been told that if he came to the rally he would be able to address 10,000 farmers. And so he asserted, “I seized the opportunity . . . to ask you . . . whether your experience as farmers with Mr. Bryam . . . is such as to commend him to you as the person into whose hands you wish to put the executive power over the destinies of this Nation for four years.” He turned to Bryan’s career and argued that it had been detrimental to the American farmer. Only after the establishment -~ ber 24, 1908, p. 2; Indianapolis Star, September 24, 1908, pp. 1, 5; Cincinnati Enquirer, September 24, 1908, p. 1. The Brook Reporter for September, 1908, is missing from the publisher’s file, the only extant collection of the paper. The account in the Indianapolis News is lengthy but condescending; it was written by W. H. Blodgett, a political conservative who supported local option and Watson. It is indicative of Blodgett’s unobjective reporting in 1908 that he caustically re- ferred to Brook (“You start day before yesterday and arrive day after tomorrow.”) even though several days earlier he had described a merry motor journey to remote Flora, Indiana (“a little town fully as pretty as its name”), for a well received Watson speech advocating county option. That the News did not give good press to the Taft rally is in keeping with its antiprogressive stance in 1908. 62 Chicago Record-Herald, September 23, 1908, p. 3. 6s Indianapolis star, September 24, 1908, p. 1. 332 Indiana Magazine of History of the gold standard and the passage of the Dingley Tariff in 1897, replacing the Democratic Wilson-Gorman bill, had farm prices im- proved. As to the protective tariffs passed by the Republicans, which the Democrats argued worked hardship upon the farmer, Taft asked his audience to refer to their own experience and draw their own con- clusions. In conclusion, Taft said :

“I submit to you gentlemen that till the soil; I submit to you who through the rural delivery receive the newspapers and magazines with which to follow current events and take the measures of public men, whether the experience of the country in the economic theories of Mr. Bryan is such as to warrant the belief that if he is elected in November he will restore th, necessary confidence and bring out the capital, the delay in the coming of which makes our business future hang in the balance.”64

There was enthusiastic cheering. Following Taft’s speech there was a short talk by the Reverend John Wesley Hill of New York, a member of Taft’s party. After- wards, “300 pounds of Taft was again wedged through apparently impregnable ranks of people to the automobiles.” Then Taft “and his comet-like tail of newspaper correspondents vanished in a cloud of returning to the train and speeding on to Chicago for the second speech of his tour that evening at Orchestra Hall. Taft had not waited through the speech by Watson, who emphasized state issues, especially local option. There were more speeches, more bands, and more fireworks through the afternoon and into the night, but the significant event-the speech of William Howard Tafthad passed. While the general reaction of those reporting the rally was fa- vorable, there was criticism of the day at Ade’s farm. The weekly Kentland Democrat reported in prime space that the horse show was a success; only elsewhere did the paper report on the affair up at Ade’s farm. The rally was a “success,” the paper yawned, in that a lot of people and two well known men, Taft and Watson, were there. But, “the people met with disappointment and inconvenience.” The disappointment stemmed from the shortness of Taft’s speech and the inconvenience from the discovery by many local farmers hired by Ade to provide free transportation between Brook and the farm that they could get away with charging for the return trip to the trains. One local farmer, the Democrat alleged, picked up $62.50 that way.e8

64 Ibid., p. 5. 65 Ibid. 66Kentland Democrat, September 25, 1908, p. 1; see also Indianapolis News, September 24, 1908, p. 4, which states that these charges were made without Ade’s knowledge. Taft at Ade’s Farm 333 The Democratic paper at Rensselaer limited its reporting to a short article under the headline “And There Were Pickpockets There.” Operating like the Republican tariff, the paper said, the thieves en- tered the victims’ pockets and removed the contents without the victims’ knowledge.6‘ Other observers were more favorably impressed. A Lafayetta paper said that Ade’s rally was the most magnificent affair “since the days when Sir Walter Scott indulged his taste for ‘baronial ha+ pitality.’ ”68 The Rennselaer Republican called it “the greatest event of the kind.”69 And, if the reaction of one observer was reasonably typical, then the rally was indeed a great success: “Taft was here and such a crowd of people 25,000 George Ade has done a great thing well,” reads the message on one of the souvenir post cards.70 That this observer thought the crowd to be so large indicates the tre- mendous impression which the vast numbers probably made on those attending, but a more accurate estimate of the number of people at Ade’s farm is probably about 10,000.71 Regardless of the exact size of the crowd, as Ade’s father later wrote, “Everybody went home impressed with the fact that they had attended the greatest and most interesting political gathering ever held in this section of Indiana.”7a Taft opened his campaign tour at Ade’s farm because Hernly’s rally offered a convenient occasion in Indiana to draw attention to the national campaign. Taft came to Brook to talk about the presidential campaign: he did not refer to the divisive state issues nor recommend state candidates ; he simply told farmers how dangerous it would be for them to vote for Bryan. In the ensuing election, Taft carried Indiana by 10,000 votes while Democratic gubernatorial candidate Thomas R. Marshall defeated Watson by 15,000 votes.73 There is no conclusive evidence, but Taft’s personal appearance in the state was probably not in vain. In his speech at Hazelden Farm Taft established issues about which he would speak for the rest of the cam-

67 Jasper County (Rensselaer, Indiana) Democrat, September 26, 1908, p. 1; also reprinted in Kentland Democrat, October 2, 1908, p. 1. 68 Lafayette Horning Journal, September 24, 1908, p. 1. 69 Rensselaer (Indiana) Republican, September 25, 1908, p. 1. 70 Dora (unknown) to Mrs. Eugene Smith, n.d., post card in possession of author. 71 Indianapolis Naws, September 24, 1908, p. 4, indicates that “A safe, conservative estimate is . . . between 8,000 and 9,000 people . . . .” 72John Ade, Newton County: A Collection of Historical Facts and Personal Recollections Concerning Newton County, Indiana, From 1853 to 1911 (Indianan- olis, 1911), 285. Ade, George Ade’s father, indicates that there were 25,000 People at the rally, that “aft spoke for one hour, and that Taft received enthusiastic applause and a final big ovation. Ibid., 282-85. 73 Phillips, Indiana in Transition, 105-106. Senator Beveridge had predicted in July that Taft would carry Indiana by 20,000 votes over the state ticket. Taft to Lucius B. Swift, July 19, 1908, Swift Papers. 334 Indiana Magazine of History paign-the utility of the tariff and the danger of free trade, the soundness of Republican administration, and the ruin which would follow Bryan’s election.’” After an initially sedentary campaign Taft began his western speaking tour with energy and enthusiasm. While Henry F. Pringle, Taft’s biographer, has written that Taft made no memorable campaign speeches, his audiences liked him because he was honest and ong genial,^^ qualities he evidenced from the tour’s beginning in his “dignified, forceful and effective” speech at Ade’s farm.76 As Taft was leaving the rally, someone in the crowd yelled to him, “ ‘Good boy, Bill; give Bryan hell.’ ”77 If the comment did not accurately reflect Taft’s campaign style, it did indicate the enthusiasm of many who saw and heard him at this first campaign rally. Such enthusiasm justified his reversing Hitchcock’s “front porch” strategy and beginning an active campaign tour. It was to bring his campaign against Bryan directly to the electorate that Taft had come to Ade’s farm, and it was the strategy he would follow until the election.

74Edgar A. Hornig, “Campaign Issues in the Presidential Election of 1908,” Zndiana Magazine of History, LIV (September, 1958), 240, 241, 260. 75 Henry F. Pringle. The Life and Times of William Howard Taft:A Biography (Z vols., New yorx, 1939), I, 366-67. 75 John Ade, Newton County, 284. 77Indianapolis Star, September 24, 1908, p. 5.