When Caesar Came

Most of the aspirants for the Democratic Presidential nomination traveled to Manhattan to see themselves nominated, with their souls full of hope--or perhaps vaguely uneasy that they might be chosen; came Newton Diehl Baker (onetime Secretary of War), Charles W. Bryan (Governor of Nebraska), William J. Bryan (his better-known brother), Royal S. Copeland (junior Senator from New York), Homer Stille Cummings (Democratic leader from Connecticut), Jonathan Davis (Governor of Kansas), Carter Glass (Senator from Virginia), Cordell Hull (Chairman of the Democratic National Committee), William G. McAdoo (ex-Secretary of the Treasury), Atlee Pomerene (onetime Senator from Ohio), Albert Cabell Ritchie (Governor of Maryland), Joseph Taylor Robinson (Senator from Arkansas), George S. Silzer (Governor of New Jersey), Alfred Emanuel Smith (Governor of New York), William E. Sweet (Governor of Colorado), Thomas James Walsh (Senator from Montana).

But none came so gloriously, so triumphantly, as William G. McAdoo. He staged a triumphal departure from California. He paused at Chicago to exclaim: "We'll lick them any way they fight."

A reporter referred to the mourning-band on his arm and asked whether it was for the Republican Party.

"No, that is for Mr. Wilson," and he added, smiling, "but I might be wearing it for that party soon."

As his train pulled out of Washington he shouted to the crowd: "Goodbye! I'll be back and stage a real reception for you myself on March 4, 1925."

At Baltimore he shouted to the crowd which came to shake his hand: "Let me shake hands with the girls. If I get the girls the boys will follow."

At Manhattan 2,500 people waited for him. Two bands escorted him to his hotel. Said the Daily News, Manhattan gumchewers' sheetlet: "He proceeded like a 20th Century Caesar to the Vanderbilt Hotel, where he took up his residence in the Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt suite. If he never gets any nearer the Presidency than he is right now, Mr. McAdoo will know what it feels like to be a conquering hero."

But how cool was Rome to Caesar! Wherever he went there was a cheering crowd. But what is a crowd of two or three thousand in a city of seven millions? The press was unanimously cool. The New York World, strongest Democratic paper in the city, was out and out against him.

Said the World:

On Jan. 24 Edward L. Doheny admitted before the Walsh committee that he had "loaned" $100,000 to Secretary Fall while fall was putting through an oil lease from which Mr. Doheny expected to clear $100,000,000.

On that same Jan. 24 William G. McAdoo was in the employ of Mr. Doheny as special counsel, drawing a salary of $25,000.

On Jan. 25 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 26 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 27 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 28 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 29 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 30 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Jan. 31 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Feb. 1 he was still Mr. Doheny's lawyer; on that day Mr. Doheny testified once more before the Walsh committee. He testified that Mr. McAdoo was his lawyer. That was the first time the public knew that Mr. McAdoo was Mr. Doheny's lawyer.

On Feb. 2 Mr. McAdoo severed his connections with Mr. Doheny.

The other papers were not much more enthusiastic. The Times, Democratic Independent, published editorials against him. The Bulletin (see Page 27), violently Democratic, joined the World in backing Governor Smith against McAdoo. The Republican papers evidently liked McAdoo least of all the possibilities. They hounded him on the Ku Klux Klan issue on which he would not commit himself.

The press impressions were not encouraging to the McAdoo delegates. He gathered them together and made a fiery speech. Said he: "I wish to say to you that I lived in New York for 30 years and that the hospitality of the newspapers does not represent the hospitality of the great and good citizenry of New York City.

"No matter what happens to me, the cause of progress, of democracy, is going to triumph. But nothing is going to happen to me. I am a tough citizen, as our Republican and Democratic opponents will find me. If you stand fast in this convention, my friends, they can't beat us from now to Doomsday."

So McAdoo went, not from battle to Rome, but to Rome and to battle. "Victory is in sight!" cried he.

How did he know it?