Copyright by- David Henry Jennings 1959 PRESIDENT WILSON'S TOUR IN SEPTEMBER, 1919: A STUDY OF FORCES OPERATING DURING THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS FIGHT DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University t By DAVID HENRY JENNINGS, B. A ., A. M. ****** The Ohio State University 1958 Approved by A dviser Department of History PREFACE In view of the many articles and books occasioned by the recent Wilson Centennial and the current in te re st in American foreign policy, it is, indeed, surprising to note that no full length study of Wilson's transcontinental tour of September, 1919 exists. Present publication on the western trip is confined to individual chapters of longer works and b rief general essays.^ A communication from Arthur S. Link indicates that this topic w ill not receive extended coverage in his future volumes on Woodrow Wilson. The status of research indicates the need for a more complete account of the "Swing Around the Circle" than has hitherto been presented. It is hoped that this dissertation meets this need. The other major contribution of this thesis lies in the field of evaluation. The analysis of Wilson's "New Order" attempts to make a significant clarifi­ cation and synthesis in a relatively neglected area. The study, also, endeavors to identify the forces at work and appraise their effect on the League of Nations debate in September, 1919. Because present day opinion inclines toward the view that the transcontinental tour was a mistake, extended examination is undertaken to see why Wilson should have gone on the trip and why the tour failed. For individual chapters in longer works cf. Thomas A. Bailey, Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (New York, 1945), 105-134 and Denna F . Fleming, The United States and the League of Nations, 1918-1920 (New York, 1952), 245-265 and Gregg Phifer, "Woodrow Wilson's Swing Around the Circle in Defense of His League," Florida State Studies, No. 23 (1956), 65-102. 2 Arthur S. Link to w rite r, February 25, 1955. 11 In turning to the sources on which this study rests it should be noted that there has been an extensive use of newspapers. While news­ papers have to be used with care, they furnish the most complete story available. They are, also, valuable in the field of attitudes and opin­ ions. Newspapers of national reputation such as the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and the Springfield Republican have been closely followed both for their coverage of the tour and their assessment of its day-to-day effects on national leadership and public opinion. The accounts and analyses of the thirty correspondents aboard the Presidential Special have revealed much information. In each city where Wilson spoke, local papers have been examined with these factors in mind; (1) the state of public opinion before the President came, (2) the build-up for the visits, (3) the attention given to the visit, and (4) the state of public opinion after Wilson left the community. Letters to the editor have proved to be significant not for their- accuracy or quality of their content but rather for what they indicated were the active concerns of people in a given locality. The letters-to-the-editor in Columbus, Ohio, for example, showed in number and emphasis a far greater interest in the high cost of living than in the League of Nations debate. In Des Moines, Iowa, the opposite appeared true. The study of local news­ papers, it should be added, was not confined to the cities in which Wilson spoke but extended to other urban as well as rural papers in the states and regions v isite d . Periodicals such as The American Friend, Harvey's Weekly, and The New Republic were important for their revelations with respect to conservative, liberal, and special interest attitudes on the tour's issues. The manuscripts of Woodrow Wilson, Gilbert M. Hitchcock, and i i i William E. Borah, in the order mentioned, have been the most useful in this study. The collections of Vice-President Thomas R. Marshall and Senator John Sharp Williams (Mississippi) proved to be less valuable than expected. In the field of memoirs, the autobiography of William B. Phillips was disappointing. As an assistant in the State Department, it was P hillips who sent out and received code messages from the touring President. In his memoirs, however, this career diplomat devoted only two paragraphs to the en tire story and gave no inside information what­ soever. Fortunately, memoirs such as those of Henry Cabot Lodge and James E. Watson proved more worthwhile. As much in research as in any other area of life "no man is an island unto himself." In many ways, this study had its origin in a sem­ inar given at The Ohio State University by Dr. Ruhl J. B a rtle tt of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy. Simply to sta te that the Wilson Papers at the Library of Congress can be used only with the special permission of Mrs. Edith Bolling Wilson is to indicate the writer's indebtedness to her. The expenses of three different research trips to Washington, D. C. were met, in part, through a grant secured by Dean Clarence E. Ficken of Ohio Wesleyan University. At the Library of Congress, Miss Katherine E. Brand was helpful not only for her knowledge of the manuscript division but also for the fact that she is a distinguished bibliographer in the Wilson field . The storehouse of knowledge which she and other people have helped to open up has resulted in a vast accumulation of data. Its sifting has been no easy matter. For his penetrating comments and sugges- tions in this area and especially for his helpful criticism during the actual process of writing the thesis, a special word of thanks should be given to Dr, Foster Rhea Dulles, IV CONTENTS Page Chapter I. PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE ........................................................................ 1 I I. THE START OF THE TOUR........................................................................ 27 I I I . WOODROW WILSON CONES TO O H IO .................................................... 49 IV. WILSON AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS IN INDIANA........................ 84 V. THE UP-SWING OF SENTIMENT IN THE MIDDLE WEST .... 103 VI. RADICALISM, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND WOODROW WILSON IN THE NORTHWEST......................................................................... 127 VII. A WEEK OF TRIUMPH ............................................................................ 157 VIII. THE END OF THE TOUR............................................................................ 178 IX. FAILURE OF A M ISSION....................................................................... 197 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................... 213 AUTOBIOGRAPHY................................................................................................ 226 V CHAPTER I PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE In September, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson undertook a transcon­ tinental speaking tour. His purpose was to arouse the people to exert pressure upon their Senators so that the Treaty of Versailles would be ratified as he had presented it to the Senate on July 10, 1919, Since what Wilson sought was a common conviction on foreign policy between him­ self and the American people, it is of importance to this study to note at the outset the mind of the President and the mind of America in Septem­ b er, 1919. Fundamental to his thinking in the field of foreign affairs was his conception of the meaning and purpose of America. In Wilson's view­ point a nation, even as an individual, possessed character. The Presi­ dent believed America's character was to be found in its long continued dedication to such worthy abstract qualities as liberty, justice, self- restraint, equality, and tranquility.^ Almost mystically, he proclaimed his faith that the United States had come into existence to raise aloft these ideals for all mankind. It was, indeed, a strong sense of mission which permeated Wilson's thinking. "The idea of America," he once said, 2 "is to serve humanity." The evolution of Wilson's thinking in the field of foreign policy may be followed in Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson (6 V ols,, New York, 1925-1927), IV, 1. 2 Ibid., III, 127-130; cf. also Wilson's speech, "The Ideals of the Navy" given at the Biltmore Hotel, New York City on June 17, 1915. 1 2 From the start of his first administration to about the end of 1915, Wilson believed that America could best serve humanity by acting 3 as an enlightened and uplifting example for the rest of mankind. To a considerable extent such motivation inspired his policies in the Panama Canal Toll Exemption B ill controversy, the Mobile Address, and the rela- 4 5 tions with Mexico. Nor did the example go unnoticed by other nations. In late 1915, a new emphasis in the Wilson outlook began to be evident. This stress was that America's participation in world affairs must eventually be on an active and permanent basis or else both her values and those of democratic mankind the part and the whole — would disappear. No longer, in the Presidential mind, was the pure example sufficient. The new emphasis, of course, was a yielding to realities. Interventions in Latin America beclouded the purity of America's purposes. The European situation with its Lusitania affair and the Arabic crisis in the year 1915 sobered Wilson into considering the adequacy of merely shining forth as an example in a naughty world. The new emphasis became not only participation but the partici­ pation of continuous commitment; for the year 1916 witnessed a series of 3 Ibid. , III, 330. Perhaps nowhere else did the President better express his understanding of the meaning of America as the example for mankind than he did at a mass naturalization ceremony held in Philadel­ phia on May 10, 1915.