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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 presi- dential 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 com- mittee 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, na- tional 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 deci- sion 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 cam- paign.’96 Encouraged by the success of these Ohio talks, Taft per- suaded Hitchcock at a conference at Middle Bass Island on September 5 to change the basic campaign strategy and to begin planning a cam- paign 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 im- mediately 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 gov- ernor. 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 presi- dential 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 for- warded 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 situ- ation. Claypool’s first letter of September 4 reported that “the po- litical 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 is- sue-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 re- former. 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.
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