Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; Morgenthau, Henry, 1856-1946; United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century
So the circle completed itself. We now come back to September, 1917.
Here again was this young Robert Emmett at my house and the first thing
he said was a sort of echo of what he had said five years before:
“Morgenthau, do you think I ought to run again for Mayor?”
Memory paints him to-day as he stood there then, a hero to a vast number
of New Yorkers, often erratic, frequently ill-advised, but still a
justified hero. His dark brown hair was disordered, his Irish grey-blue
eyes were bright, but he looked more matured and considerably more
care-worn from his many fights and the scars they had left, than the man
who had sought my advice in 1912.
It was an affecting situation. During four years he had done his best
for the City, and that best had disappointed the professional office
holders through his fixed determination to protect the tax-payers he had
alienated the vast army of municipal employees; finally some of his
investigations had antagonized the adherents of certain of the Catholic
charities; and he undoubtedly felt that the chances for his reëlection
had been considerably diminished. Ought he to endeavour to complete the
task that he had set himself or was it useless to make further efforts?
My advice was the reverse of what it had been the last time:
“You have given the public the impression that you would run again. You
must not drop out at the last moment; you must not retreat under fire;
you will have to be the standard-bearer of good government in this
election even if you are conscious of an impending defeat.”
For any writer of fiction, this episode would complete the chain of
coincidences, yet truth forged another link. There was formed a
citizens’ committee to conduct a mass meeting in City Hall Park at which
speakers representing the un-bossed element of all parties should urge
Mitchel to run again for Mayor. Charles Evans Hughes was one of these
speakers; so was Theodore Roosevelt. The others were my old friend
Outerbridge and myself. Thus it befell that here was Mitchel in office
and urged to remain by the men who had previously played at such cross
purposes in connection with his career.
That was an almost unique political event. The young Democratic Mayor,
still flushed from his fight for Preparedness, was flanked by two
outstanding Republicans, a recent Presidential candidate, and a popular
ex-President; shoulder to shoulder with these stood the head of the New
York State Chamber of Commerce, and myself as a representative of the
Wilson Democrats. One and all, we called upon him to stand again for
Mayor.
The lighter touch was not lacking. As, following Mr. Outerbridge and Mr.
Hughes, my turn to speak arrived, I turned toward Colonel Roosevelt and,
recalling his famous exclamation about throwing his hat into the ring,
said:
“I’ll now throw my hat upon the steps.”
“No, no,” said the Colonel: “let me hold it!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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