Extracts from Kohlsaat

Hanna Curses Lodge and Roosevelt; Beveridge Curses the Preacher

Mr. H. H. Kohlsaat has been for thirty years a journalist, publisher, politician-behind-scenes. He has been one of the more engaging if less dynamic personalities in Chicago's rush toward eminence. Now he has written a book.* Charles Scribner, patrician publisher, is selling it by the thousands, although George Horace Lorimer had already printed most of it in the Saturday Evening Post.

Critics say it contains no political wisdom, but they have found a good story on every page.

Extracts:

Anent President McKinley: "I visited the President a few days after the victory. McKinley said: 'When we received the cable from Admiral Dewey telling of the taking of the Philippines I looked up their location on the globe. I could not have told where those darned islands were within 2,000 miles.'"

Anent Senator Platt: "Finally, facing Hanna, Herrick, and me, he (McKinley) said: 'There are some things in this world that come too high. If I cannot be President without promising to make Tom Platt Secretary of the Treasury, I will never be President.'"

Anent Mark Hanna: "He damned Roosevelt and said: 'I told William McKinley it was a mistake to nominate that wild man at Philadelphia. I asked him if he realized what would happen if he should die. Now, look, that damned cowboy is President of the United States.' . . . He came to my seat at the other end of the car and said: 'That damned cowboy wants me to take supper with him, alone. Damn him!' I said: 'Mark, you are acting like a child. Go and meet him half way.'"

Anent Senator Henry Cabot Lodge: "Without any preliminary greeting Mr. Lodge said: 'Mr. Hanna, I insist on a positive declaration for a gold-standard plank in the platform.'Hanna looked up and said: ' Who in hell are you ?' Lodge answered: 'Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts.' ' Well, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, you can go plumb to hell. You have nothing to say about it,' replied Mr. Hanna. Lodge said: 'All right, sir, I will make my fight on the floor of the convention.' 'I don't care a damn where you make your fight,' replied Hanna."The chapter goes on to imply that the Massachusetts Senator double-crossed Mark Hanna in giving the gold plank to the press prematurely, and that he later took credit for having written the plank.

Anent Frank A. Vanderlip: "Vanderlip finally went to the National City Bank, and Mr. Stillman told me afterward he showed him his desk, gave him the key to it and said: 'Now find something to do. Your salary will be $15,000 a year.' I have watched many notable careers in my time, but I think Frank Vanderlip's rise from a forty-dollar-a-week reporter in 1897 to the presidency of the greatest bank in the country in 1909 is the most remarkable of forty years' experience."

Anent Theodore Roosevelt: "Roosevelt sang louder than anyone in the congregation and made the responses in a vigorous voice. Doctor Moerdyke's text was: Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only."

Anent Woodrow Wilson (on the day after Roosevelt became President) : "At 3 o'clock I gave my card to the colored man at the Wilcox home. The house was old-fashioned. A hall with rooms on both sides. My card was carried into the room on the right. Across the hall were the members of the cabinet. I was soon shown in; after I had shaken hands with Roosevent, he turned to a gentleman by his side and said: 'Woodrow, you know Kohlsaat, don't you? Mr. Kohlsaat, let me introduce you to Woodrow Wilson.' After a moment or two Roosevelt said: 'Woodrow, would you mind stepping into the library for a few minutes? I want to talk to Kohlsaat on an important matter.'"

Anent Senator Beveridge at the 1912 Progressive Convention in Chicago : "The bass drummer seemed to have caught some of Colonel Roosevelt's 'Big Stick' movements. In the midst of the hubbub Senator Beveridge appeared on the floor with his hair very much dishevelled as he cried out, 'Where is that blankety-blank preacher, we want him to start his prayer.' And my friend said: 'To see good old Oscar Straus singing Onward, Christian Soldiers, with all his might was worth coming in from Lake Forest to see.'"

Mr. Kohlsaat describes himself as the "brutal friend" of McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Harding. He liked McKinley best.

* From McKinley to Harding-H. H. Kohlsaat (Scribners).