Gifford Pinchot's 1914 Campaign IFFORD PINCHOT three times sought the office of governor of - Pennsylvania. Following spectacular campaigns throughout G the state he was twice successful, in 1922 and 1930. On the third occasion, in 1938, he was defeated in the primary. Another major ambition of Pinchot's, however, never was fulfilled. In a choice between the positions of governor and United States Senator, he probably would have preferred the latter. The Washing- ton atmosphere was more alluring to him than the small state capital of Harrisburg. After all, he had enjoyed national prominence at the feet of Theodore Roosevelt in the Federal government, and at the turn of the century had built in the center of Washington a luxurious home which he continued to occupy intermittently for the rest of his life. He was fond of his inherited home in Milford, Pennsylvania, but he also loved to be in his Washington mansion and to participate in the, to him, more exciting politics of the nation's capital. On three occasions, in 1914, 1926, and 1934, Pinchot attempted to gain a posi- tion of political prominence in Washington by appealing, unsuccess- fully, to the voters of Pennsylvania for support as Senator. To many American citizens in 1914 Gifford Pinchot was a white knight; to others he was a misguided zealot. Certainly his ca- reer had been controversial. As head of the United States Forest Service he had forged a governmental bureau of almost unparalleled efficiency and esprit de corps, and to Theodore Roosevelt was far more than an ordinary bureau chief. As a close and admired friend and companion of the President, Pinchot had been kept busy, in ad- dition to his Forest Service work, supplying material for presidential speeches, serving on a myriad of commissions to study national and governmental problems, acting as emissary for Roosevelt, and per- forming a host of other chores for the restless President. Pinchot was proud of Roosevelt's acknowledgment that "among the many, many public officials who under my administration rendered literally in- 303 304 M. NELSON MCGEARY July valuable service to the people of the United States, he tfPinchot], on the whole, stood first."1 Although Pinchot had risen to national prominence under Roose- velt, his greatest publicity came as a result of the famed Ballinger- Pinchot feud under President Taft. After Taft assumed the Presi- dency in 1909, Pinchot was painfully aware of a change in the Washington climate. Conservation of national resources no longer seemed to be one of the primary aims of the man at the helm; the zeal for the preservation of natural resources for the use of the many appeared to have subsided. Pinchot directed his chief criticism at Richard A. Ballinger, who, as soon as he succeeded Pinchot's close friend James R. Garfield as Secretary of the Interior, began to re- tract some of the steps that Garfield had taken toward the promotion of conservation. Alarmed at the turn that conservation matters had taken, Pinchot raised such a fuss that President Taft finally felt obliged to order his dismissal for insubordination. The majority of the members of an ensuing Congressional investi- gating committee found against Pinchot, but the minority vigorously defended his actions. Most observers agreed that although Pinchot lost before the committee, he won before the bar of public opinion. Although, as in much of his later life, he gained by his actions both stanch friends and bitter enemies, he probably came out of the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy more a martyred hero than anything else. Some of the "fan" letters that he received suggested his name as President of the United States. It was perhaps natural that at this time of national prominence he should have given serious consideration to entering politics. He had never before sought office, but he had shown some susceptibility to the political virus. Back in 1897 he had written his mother from South Dakota that he hated being away from home and missing the election campaign.2 After a long talk with Roosevelt in 1904 he had noted in his diary that he was "greatly pleased when he said I didn't show at all a lack of political training in dealing with men."3 And a year later he threw light on his feelings about politics by expressing 1 Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography (New York, 1946), 394. 2 Pinchot to Mary E. Pinchot, Oct. 31, 1897. All manuscripts cited are in the Pinchot Papers in the Library of Congress. 3 Pinchot diary, Feb. 12, 1904. I957 GIFFORD PINCHOT S I9I4 CAMPAIGN 305 a hope: "The time is not long past when it was not considered re- spectable to go into politics. I hope the time is not far distant when it will not be respectable not to go into politics/'4 Although Pinchot was brought up in a dominantly Republican atmosphere, by 1910 it was clear that his sympathies were not with the old-guard Republicans. In the course of his wide travels of that year he made ringing speeches in their home states for three candi- dates, all of whom became major leaders of the Progressive Party— Robert LaFollette in Wisconsin, Frank Kent in California, and Albert Beveridge in Indiana. Pinchot's name was mentioned in some quarters as a candidate for governor of Pennsylvania in the 1910 election, but any steps in this direction were quickly halted when it became generally known that he could not meet the constitutional requirement of seven years' residence in the state. At the time he maintained homes in New York City, in Washington, D. C, and in Milford, Pennsylvania, though his voting residence had always been New York. But the "half-baked boom"5 for governor was enticing enough to induce Pinchot to pre- pare for the future by wiring a Milford lawyer at the end of the year: "Please have my name entered on tax list as resident. Immediate action desirable if practicable."6 By 1911 Pinchot had become absorbed in the Progressive move- ment. His growing liberalism was such that as late as October of that year his mother, who was very close to him, was not certain whether he would assist on the "Progressive side or the Democratic" in the 1912 campaign.7 After Theodore Roosevelt decided to be a candidate, however, there was no question where Pinchot's loyalty lay, and he conducted a vigorous campaign for the Bull Moose Party and his old- time friend. "The mooses," he wrote, "are mooing in plenty these days with loud and attractive sounds."8 Pinchot campaigned for the Progressives in 1912 in many parts of the nation, but he was especially eager to become better acquainted with his newly adopted state. Offering himself as a stump speaker in Pennsylvania, he was afforded an excellent opportunity to become 4 Washington Life, Sept. 30, 1905. 5 Pinchot to James R. Garfield, June 30, 1910. 6 Pinchot to George Bull, Dec. 30, 1910. 7 Mary E. Pinchot to Julio M. Foster, Oct. 11, 1911. 8 Pinchot to G. D. Seymour, Aug. 6, 1912. 306 M. NELSON MCGEARY July known by the voters. Nor did this phase of his speaking cease with the close of the campaign. At the end of the year he was writing to a Progressive leader explaining that he had refused an invitation to speak elsewhere on Washington's Birthday on the grounds that he was going to speak that day in Pennsylvania. "Will you/' he pleaded, "make my word good by giving me the chance?"9 The Progressives, or Washington Party as they were listed in Pennsylvania, were spectacularly successful in the state in 1912. Roosevelt polled 445,000 votes to Wilson's 396,000, leaving Taft a poor third with 273,000. Small wonder, then, that some Pennsylvania Progressives were looking ahead to the 1914 elections for governor and United States Senator with anticipation and optimism. But the greatest obstacle in the path of any group which hoped to win Pennsylvania was Boies Penrose, that physical and political Goliath. Penrose was just completing his third term as United States Senator and his thirtieth year as a state or national legislator. As acknowledged boss of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, he was certain to run for a fourth term in 1914. Nineteen-thirteen was a year of decision for Gifford Pinchot. He was obviously interested in running for office, but he sensed the deleterious effect it might have on his professional forestry career, and was hesitant to take the plunge. He clearly did not wish to enter the contest if he had important opposition in the primary. Popular among many of the Progressives of Pennsylvania, and likely to be designated by the Washington Party as a candidate for some office was William Draper Lewis, dean of the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. In the middle of 1913 there was talk of running Lewis for Senator and Pinchot for governor. Pinchot, who had come to admire Lewis, "agreed heartily" concerning the senator- ship, but had to remind some of the leaders of his own ineligibility for the governorship because of his brief residence in Pennsylvania. At this point the influence of William Flinn, Washington Party boss from Pittsburgh, became increasingly evident. Flinn, a former partner in the old Matthew Quay Republican machine, had done much toward putting Pennsylvania in the Roosevelt column in 1912. Flinn's interest in progressivism was limited, but he was a bitter opponent of Penrose. It was Flinn's conclusion that Lewis and 9 Pinchot to E. A. Van Valkenberg, Dec. 30, 1912.