Woodrow Wilson As I Know Him | Page 7

attended and how I denounced him for his alleged
opposition to labour. In view of my subsequent intimacy with Mr.
Wilson and the knowledge gained of his great heart and his big vision
in all matters affecting labour, I cannot now point with pride to the
speech I then made attacking him. I am sure the dear doctor, away off
in Princeton, never even heard of my opposition to him, although in my
conceit I thought the state reverberated with the report of my
unqualified and bitter opposition to him. In my poor vanity I thought
that perhaps what I had said in my speech of opposition to him had
reached the cloisters of Princeton. As a matter of fact, he never heard
about me or my speech, and afterward in the years of our association he
"joshed" me about my opposition to him and would often make me
very uncomfortable by recounting to his friends at the White House
how even his own secretary had opposed him when his name was first
under consideration for the United States senatorship in New Jersey.
To me was given the honour of nominating at a joint session of the
Senate and House Assembly the candidate opposed to Woodrow
Wilson for the Senate, the Honourable Edwin E. Stevens. I recall the
comparison I made between the claims of Colonel Stevens, the strict
party man, and those of Woodrow Wilson, the Princeton professor. The
speech nominating Woodrow Wilson at the joint session of the
Legislature was the shortest on record. It was delivered by a big
generous fellow, John Baader, one of the Smith-Nugent men from
Essex County. When Essex County was called, he slowly rose to his
feet and almost shamefacedly addressing the Speaker of the House, said,
tremulously: "I nominate for the United States Senate Woodrow

Wilson, of Princeton," and then, amid silence, sat down. No applause
greeted the name of the man he nominated. It seemed as if the college
professor had no friends in the Legislature except the man who had put
his name forward for the nomination.
Colonel Stevens won the honorary nomination and Woodrow Wilson
was defeated. Colonel Harvey, disgruntled but not discouraged, packed
up his kit and left on the next train for New York.

CHAPTER IV
COLONEL HARVEY ON THE SCENE
Although the intrepid Colonel Harvey was defeated in the first skirmish
to advance the cause of Woodrow Wilson, he continued to pursue his
purpose to force his personal choice upon the New Jersey Democracy.
The approaching gubernatorial election in 1910 gave the Colonel his
opportunity and he took full advantage of it.
Rumours began to circulate that the machine run by Davis, Smith, and
Ross, the great Democratic triumvirate of the state, was determined to
nominate the Princeton president at any cost. Young men like Mark
Sullivan, John Treacy, and myself, all of Hudson County, representing
the liberal wing of our party, were bitterly opposed to this effort. We
suspected that the "Old Gang" was up to its old trick of foisting upon
the Democrats of the state a tool which they could use for their own
advantage, who, under the name of the Democratic party, would do the
bidding of the corporate interests which had, under both the "regular"
organizations, Democratic and Republican, found in New Jersey their
most nutritious pastures. At a meeting held at the Lawyers' Club in
New York, younger Democrats, like Judge Silzer of Middlesex and
myself, "plighted our political troth" and pledged our undying
opposition to the candidacy of the Princeton president. As a result of
our conferences we set in motion the progressive machinery of the state
in an intensive effort to force the nomination of Judge Silzer in
opposition to that of Woodrow Wilson.

As soon as the Democratic boss of Hudson County, Bob Davis, one of
the leaders in the Wilson movement in North Jersey, was apprized of
the proposed action on our part, he set about to head it off, and as part
of his plan of opposition he sent for me in an effort to wean me away
from the Silzer candidacy. I refused to yield. Upon being interrogated
by me as to his interest in Woodrow Wilson, Boss Davis stated that if
we nominated Woodrow Wilson there would be a big campaign fund
put up for him by Moses Taylor Pyne, a trustee of Princeton University.
Never before was the ignorance of a boss made more manifest. As a
matter of fact, at that very time there was no more implacable foe of
Woodrow Wilson in the state of New Jersey than Moses Taylor Pyne,
who headed the opposition to Mr. Wilson in the Princeton fight.
Years after this incident the President and I often laughed at what must
have been the surprise and