A HURRIED TRIP AROUND THE WORLD
I have not the space to give a detailed account of this trip around the
world. After a pleasant voyage on the steamship _Minnesota_ we were
given in Japan the same warm welcome that we had always had there, and
Mr. Taft and I were entertained at the Shiba Detached Palace, one of the
Imperial residences. We lunched with the Emperor and also with Prince
Fushimi, and we met the admirals and the generals who had won such
distinction in the Russo-Japanese War. These included Admiral Togo and
Field Marshal Prince Oyama. It was explained to Mr. Taft by the Court
Chamberlain that we were regarded as personal guests of the Emperor.
Marquis Saionji was then Premier, but Prince Katsura, whom he had
succeeded and who was our old friend, was still powerful in the
councils. Mr. Taft held a number of interesting and useful interviews
with these statesmen of Japan, and also with the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Count Hayashi, and with Marquis Terauchi, the Minister of War,
who has now become Governor of Korea. He was able, from what they told
him, to understand the attitude of Japan toward the United States, and
to feel confident of her wish to remain in bonds of amity with us. At a
dinner in Tokyo, given by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Taft made
a speech in which he pointed out the absurdity of a war between Japan
and the United States, and showed how the true interests of both nations
required a strengthening of the bonds of friendship between them. This
speech attracted much attention throughout the Orient and was cabled
back to the United States as an expression of the Administration on the
subject. The Japanese residents of Yokohama presented to Mr. Taft and me
on this visit a very handsome silver tea set.
Our course took us by way of Shanghai and we stopped there for just one
busy day. In the morning Mr. Taft dedicated a Young Men’s Christian
Association building which had just been constructed and to the cost of
which a number of Chinese Mandarins, though not Christians, had made
substantial contribution. The afternoon was devoted to shopping and to a
most elaborate and picturesque reception and tea which was given for us
by the Chinese guilds of the city. At this tea I was presented with a
very curious and interesting bowl of Chinese silver which is among my
most valued possessions. In the evening a great banquet was given by the
leading citizens of Shanghai at the Astor Hotel, where provision was
made for the ladies to hear the speaking from a platform erected at one
end of the room. Mr. Taft made a speech on the subject of the relations
of the United States to the development of China, which was long
remembered as a succinct and forcible presentation of the policy of the
United States toward that country, then in an interesting stage of its
awakening from a long lethargy.
In Manila, at the formal opening of the first Assembly, Mr. Taft laid
down the purposes of the Administration in the passage of the Philippine
Act, plainly saying to the Philippine people that independence was not
near at hand, and that it could only come after a period of earnest
effort on their part to fit themselves for complete self-government. His
candour and frankness did not please many of the Assembly, but his view
has always been that the only way in which to deal with the Filipino
people is to tell them the exact truth, unpalatable though it may be,
and to fulfil promises with the greatest care. Filipinos may be very lax
in discharging the full measure of their own assurances, but the way to
maintain influence over them is to pursue a policy of clear and candid
statement, full performance and exact justice. They are prone to accept
every declaration in the same sense in which they would like to construe
it, and the utmost care must be taken to prevent their being misled.
Demagoguery with them is likely to be most pernicious in its ultimate
results.
During this visit we were the guests of Governor-General Smith at
Malacañan Palace and I experienced a pleasant renewal of old impressions
and sensations. Mr. W. Cameron Forbes, who succeeded Governor Smith, was
then Secretary of Commerce and Police and, in this capacity, was in
charge of Public Works. He had built for himself at Baguio a fine
country residence which he called “Topside,” a name which fits it
exactly, since it stands, literally, at the “topside” of the island of
Luzon, at an elevation of more than five thousand feet, and overlooks
the broadest and most colourful stretch of mountain scenery imaginable.
We visited Mr. Forbes at “Topside” and were able to see for the first
time the splendid achievements in the development of the summer capital
which I anticipated in Chapter IX. Mr. Taft assured an enthusiastic
enquirer that he was not surprised at the magnificence of the Benguet
Road because he had authorised the expenditure of a sufficient amount to
produce something unusual, and that he would, indeed, have been
surprised if it hadn’t been done. But he had to confess to a little
surprise at the improvement of the town of Baguio. The difference was so
great that it was almost impossible to recognise the place as the site
of the ragged little Igorrote village where I had spent such pleasant
and “uncivilised” days just before my husband’s inauguration as the
first governor of the Philippines.
It would be useless for me to attempt to detail the thousand and one
events of this visit to Manila. Upon our arrival we were handed a
printed schedule of dinners, luncheons, teas, receptions, balls,
meetings, celebrations, trips of inspection, and business conferences
which we had to do our best to carry out. Fortunately provision was made
for a few hours of rest which could be used for other things when we got
behind with the programme.
On a day in November, when blue Manila Bay lay sparkling in the sun, we
set sail for Vladivostok on the U. S. S. _Rainbow_, flying the flag of
Admiral Hemphill, and convoyed by two other naval vessels. The most
amusing incident of this trip, which was quite a tempestuous one, was
the gradual freezing up of our Filipino orchestra. They left Manila clad
in natty white uniforms, responding with enthusiasm to the strains of
the many bands on shore and on the fleet of harbor launches which
accompanied us down the bay. They played for us at dinner that night and
gave a concert on deck the next day, but then began the rapid descent of
the mercury in the thermometers and the consequent undoing of our
tropical musicians. They first changed into heavy blue uniforms and
tried their best to look comfortable. Then they put on their overcoats
and kept them on. Finally they deserted the deck altogether and their
rather disconnected strains came up to us through a partly open hatch
just over the engine room. When we reached the forbidding harbour of
Vladivostok, where the temperature stood below zero, the poor bugler was
so thoroughly cold that he couldn’t adjust his lips to his bugle to pipe
distinguished visitors aboard. Our party on this trip around the world
was small, including only my son Charlie, Mr. Taft’s secretary, Mr. Fred
C. Carpenter, General Clarence R. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Egan and
two other newspaper correspondents.
Shortly before we reached Vladivostok there had been a mutiny on one of
the torpedo boats in the harbour, and a woman anarchist had induced the
crew to take the boat out into the stream and raise the red flag. This
outbreak was suppressed with a heavy hand, and a number of those
suspected of complicity in the plot were arrested. As the Governor had
power of life and death over them it was assumed that the extreme
penalty was visited on some of them at least, but no publicity was given
to the proceedings. The effect of the tragedy upon our arrival, however,
was marked. The town was in a most unquiet state and there were vague
rumours of danger to be met on every hand. We were not permitted to go
ashore without a heavy guard of bristling Cossacks, and everywhere we
went we were under the closest and most careful protection. It was most
exciting, though in the midst of the cordial hospitality of our Russian
hosts we could not feel that there was the slightest cause for
apprehension. As soon as we dropped anchor in the harbour we were
welcomed to Vladivostok by the Governor and General Commanding. He
assigned Prince Bariatinski, Colonel of a regiment stationed at
Vladivostok, to act as Mr. Taft’s aide during our stay, and from
Saturday until Tuesday he and the Princess, both of whom spoke English,
were with us constantly, adding much to our enjoyment. Our visit
concluded with a dinner and ball given by the Governor, and the next
morning we bade good-bye to the _Rainbow_ and Admiral Hemphill and made
our way, surrounded by Cossack guards, to the railway station where the
train waited to start on its twelve days’ trip across Siberia. The
government provided us with a large private car of the armoured variety
which contained a number of compartments that were fully as spacious and
comfortable as an average steamship cabin and we settled ourselves in
them quite as we would have done on a trans-Pacific liner.
The trip across Siberia is exceedingly interesting. One anticipates
endless monotony, but only the landscape lacks variety. For days
together the train runs along through a country which looks exactly like
South Dakota or Nebraska and which is interesting only in its wonderful
possibilities. It is one of the world’s open spaces, undeveloped but
capable of producing anything. I had always imagined Siberia as a
country filled with sadness and I expected it to depress me, but it
arouses no such feeling. We met trainload after trainload of happy
Russian colonists on their way to the new settlements, and at all the
well built stations along the way we saw a great number of sturdy
peasant farmers and their families who looked thoroughly comfortable and
contented. We whiled away the hours with bridge and books, and, though
the train never made more than two or three stops a day, the time passed
quickly. Throughout the journey our car was guarded by stalwart Russian
soldiers in most picturesque uniforms, stationed on both platforms, and
each time the train stopped this guard was changed with considerable
ceremony. Also at every station near an army post Mr. Taft was greeted
by the Commander of the District with strict military form, all of which
added colour and interest to the journey.
Mr. Willard D. Straight, then United States Consul at Mukden, met us at
Vladivostok with plans for our reception at Mukden. When we arrived
there we were welcomed by a company of Chinese soldiers dressed in the
old Mongolian custom, and by a squadron of Cossacks. We were hurried in
a carriage behind two fast trotting Orloff horses to a hotel where all
the consuls assembled greeted us with cakes, champagne and very short
speeches. There was considerable excitement among the consuls with
regard to the toasts to be drunk and the order of precedence in which
the rulers of the different countries were to be named, but Mr. Straight
was diplomatic enough to mention every proper name in right order and
the result was a round of congratulation and merriment. In the meantime
the leisurely and accommodating train was waiting, so we hurried back to
the station at the terrific pace usual to the Russian with his beautiful
horses. No people not inherently fine could ever produce the kind of
horses one sees in Russia. And the Russians love them. I can think of
nothing more pleasing than the picture of a great, shaggy, gruff-voiced
Russian coachman on the box of his carriage or droshky, gently urging
his well-kept horse on to his best speed in terms of endearment. “On,
Little Brother!” says he.
At Moscow we were right royally entertained by the Governor-General of
the city who did everything possible to make our visit memorable. We
arrived late Saturday night and on Sunday the Kremlin was opened for our
especial benefit and we were given full opportunity to see every part of
that ancient and interesting home of Russian autocracy with all its
collections of priceless treasures. A hurried round of entertainments,
which included a special ballet performance at the Opera, ended with a
dinner given by the Governor-General, and we left on the midnight train
for St. Petersburg. We had not been there more than an hour or so the
next morning when we received a telegram announcing that a woman
Nihilist had thrown a bomb at the Governor’s sleigh which had exploded
under the horses, killing them and the coachman and throwing the
Governor and his aide backward into the snow unharmed. As these
gentlemen had both been very kind to us it brought home in a startling
way the danger that attends high position in Russia.
In St. Petersburg we dined with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, M.
Iswolski and Madame Iswolski, and with them received the Diplomatic
Corps. Mr. Taft and General Edwards had an audience with the Czar and
attended the annual Saint’s day celebration of a famous regiment
numbering about 3,200, no man of which measures less than six feet two.
They were also present at a luncheon which the Czar gave to the officers
of this regiment at the Czar-KoeSelo Palace. In the Czar’s suite there
were two or three gentlemen who remembered Mr. Taft’s father as Minister
to Russia, so he very greatly enjoyed the experience of meeting them.
Our visit was a hurried one, and after a stay of three days we left for
Berlin. Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Root were not disposed to have Mr. Taft
visit any of the courts of Europe except at St. Petersburg and that only
for the purpose of conveying his grateful acknowledgment of the
courtesies shown us in our long trip across Siberia. Nor in the state of
his mother’s health, which we knew to be precarious, was he disposed to
accept the invitations which he received from the German Emperor, the
King of Belgium, the President of France and others, to visit their
countries and become their guest. At Berlin we had just time to dine
with the American Ambassador and Mrs. Tower, and to meet a few American
friends whom they had invited in, then Mr. Taft and the other members of
the party went to Hamburg to take the Steamship _General Grant_ at that
port, while I, with Mrs. Post Wheeler, rushed down to Paris to do a few
hours’ shopping, planning to join the _Grant_ at Boulogne the next
evening. In the meantime a terrible storm began to rage along the coast,
and when we reached Boulogne there was some question about our being
able to get to the _Grant_ which lay at anchor just outside the
breakwater. However, we boarded the little tender and she started for
the very wild looking open channel. She had no sooner struck the heavy
seas before she had broken her rudder and was being buffeted about in a
really terrifying manner. We managed in some way to get back inside the
breakwater where some repairs were made, then we started out again. We
repeated this performance several times, listening meanwhile to
generally voiced predictions that nothing on earth could save us from
going to the bottom, and, although it was only nine o’clock in the
evening when we boarded the little vessel, it was four o’clock in the
morning before she came alongside the _Grant_ and discharged her
dilapidated and exhausted passengers.
Mr. Taft had waited up for us and had seen the tender come out of the
harbour and go back, and, assuming from what was told him that no
attempt would be made to transfer the passengers before morning, he went
to bed. When I got aboard the steamer, filled with excitement over the
dangers through which I had passed, and found him peacefully sleeping in
his cabin, I declined to accept any explanation. A French sub-prefect,
who had been sent out by the Minister of the Interior of France with
greetings and compliments, and who had come in his full regimentals with
a cocked hat, was waiting to see Mr. Taft and I was cruel enough to
insist that he should get up and receive him. Throwing a long fur coat
over his pajamas the Secretary of War of the United States walked out
into the salon to meet the polite representative of the politest of
peoples, but after a grave exchange of formal salutations the situation
proved too much for their gravity. They burst out laughing at each
other, to the immense enjoyment of the bystanders, and the gloom of the
wee sma’ hour was lifted.
When we touched at Plymouth that afternoon we received a despatch
announcing the death of Mr. Taft’s mother. The funeral took place in
Cincinnati, at the home of Mr. Charles Taft, several days before we
could reach New York.
On our return to the United States we found that my husband’s rivals for
the Republican nomination had been making great headway. Mr. Roosevelt
was quite impatient at the loss of ground that Mr. Taft’s candidacy had
suffered and he urged him to take a more active interest in the
situation. He insisted that Mr. Taft should change the subject of a
speech which he had agreed to deliver in Boston from the Philippine
problem to a discussion of the financial situation which was then acute
after the depression which had taken place during our absence. Mr.
Roosevelt’s forcible expression was that the business and political
public had no more interest in the Philippines than in the subject of
“nature faking.”
I cannot go into the details of the preliminary convention fight. My
husband’s brother Charles devoted a full year to it, established
headquarters in Ohio and Washington, and bore the brunt of the contest.
The afternoon of the convention when the voting came, we all assembled
at my husband’s office in the War Department and received the news over
the telephone as it came in. I have a series of photographs, taken by a
friend, of the expressions on my husband’s face as the results of the
voting were being announced. Soon after the nomination was made, on the
first of July Mr. Taft resigned from the Cabinet, and we established
ourselves at Hot Springs, Virginia, where he spent some weeks preparing
his address of acceptance. This he submitted to Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.
Root before he went to Cincinnati to deliver it. Mr. Charles Taft made
elaborate preparations to receive and entertain the Committee of
Announcement, and on a platform in front of his fine old house, in Pike
Street, on one of the hottest days of the summer, my husband delivered
his acceptance. We then returned to Hot Springs and spent another month
in preparation for the campaign. From Hot Springs we went to Middle Bass
Island on Lake Erie to spend a week or more there. We then went to
Cincinnati. Upon this latter trip Mr. Taft made a good many speeches
from the platform of our car. In September Mr. Bryan’s campaign looked
very hopeful. The opposition of Mr. Gompers and organised labour seemed
formidable. Mr. Taft determined to meet this issue fully and frankly. He
was attacked because he had delivered a number of labour decisions
supposed to be against the interest of labour. He had sent to jail, for
six months, the chief lieutenant of Debs in the Debs railway rebellion
of 1894, breaking it up in Cincinnati and the vicinity. He did not
apologise in any way for the action he had taken. A meeting of the
railway trade organisations was called in Chicago at Orchestra Hall, and
there he explained his action, defended it, and avowed that were the
same questions presented to him again, he would do the same thing he had
done, and that he had no excuses to offer. From that point he made a
long trip in the West, upon which I did not accompany him. I remained in
Cincinnati with Mrs. Charles Taft and my sister Mrs. Anderson. It was
the first political campaign in which Mr. Taft was a candidate before
the people. The reports that came indicated that he had lost his voice,
and I was greatly concerned lest he might break down in his strenuous
labours and new experience. The ups and downs of such a campaign, the
prophecies, the hopes, the fears aroused by favourable and opposing
newspapers were all new and trying to me, and in a way I think I was
under as great a nervous strain as my husband was, without the steadying
help of the hardest kind of work. However as the campaign drew near to a
close, the Republican confidence grew stronger and stronger, so when we
were assembled finally under the hospitable roof of Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Taft, with a company of friends to receive the dispatches on election
night, the news of the great success that came did not surprise us.