Life — January 18, 1912 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL, LIX. JANUARY 18, 1912. No. 1525 Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY TAL MITCHELL, Frere, A. MILLER, See'y and Treas, 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York HE stories the newspapers have been printing about a lapse of political fellowship between Colonel George Harvey of Harper's Weekly and Governor Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey have, of course, been pain- ful reading to the friends of these gentlemen, For five or six years now these two eminent Jerseyites have been closely associated in the public mind, and the notice which various pieces in various papers have given that from now on we must think of them sev- erally and no longer collectively, has come with an abruptness which is a considerable shock to public sensibili- ties. The fact alleged is that Harper's Weekly has detached itself from Gov- ernor Wilson’s political aspirations. The proof of that fact offered at this writing (January 6) is that Governor Wilson’s name has been removed from the candidate's place at the top of the editorial page of Harper's Weekly, and that the Weekly for two weeks has omitted to speak of him. To ac- count for this fact, the Charlotte () C.) Observer says there are two sto- ries: “One that the interests behind Colonel George Harvey ordered the Wilson propaganda stopped and the other that Wilson found Harvey’s sup- port a handicap with the Democratic radicals and rudely demanded of Har- vey that he stop it.” Now everybody that knows Colonel Harvey knows that he is a man of a proper desperation of spirit and must be convinced that if “the interests be- hind” had compelled him to take Dr. Wilson’s name off his paper he would have taken his own name off at the same time. Certainly he would not wish to pose as editor on the cover of oo Caled) ag a paper that “the interests” really edited. Nothing that is known about his circumstances or disposition sup- ports the theory that he would choose or be chosen to fill so humble an office as political mask, or monkey, for a lot of skulking “interests” that dare not show up. So, since Colonel Harvey's name still appears, undiminished, on the cover of Harper’s Weekly, we guess that first story isn’t so. The other story, painful to say, surprising, but not quite so incredible. It is true that the opinion has obtained among a good many of the projectors or supporters of Governor Wilson’s candidacy that the support of Harper's Weekly was harmful to Governor Wil- son in the West, where he is strongest, because it was possible to persuade so many voters in that credulous region that the proofs of Harper's Weekly are read and revised every Monday morning in the office of J. P. Morgan & Co, Wall Street, corner of Broad. This theory rests upon the well-known fact that ten or twelve years ago, when the old firm of Harper & Brothers sus- pended payment, Mr. Morgan, moved largely, it is supposed, by sentiment, and the desire that the familiar name of an old New York house of honor- able renown should not perish, fur- nished a considerable sum of money to facilitate the reorganization of the business, and took bonds of the new concern for his security. After a while, when some preliminary experi- ments of rehabilitation had fallen through, Colonel Harvey came into command and control of the Harper concern, including the Weekly, and as- sumed, no doubt, as head of the new concern, a limited liability for what- ever fiscal obligations were implied by the existence of the bonds. Presum- ably the bonds still exist. If they do, the immediate control of the concern under them lies not in them, but in the stock of that concern, controlled presumably by Colonel Harvey. But whether they exist or not they can easily be made a basis for deluding credulous persons into the belief that Harper’s Weekly is Mr. Morgan's per- sonal organ, and that he and Colonel Harvey have conspired together in the office at Broad and Wall to turn back the tide of radicalism and progressive- ness in this country by promoting the nomination by the Democrats of that tock-ribbed conservative, Woodrow Wilson, for President. To a reasonably informed and ra- tional person not unduly addicted to mare’s-nesting, this is one of the most amusing thoughts conceivable. No one is better qualified than Governor Wilson to be sure that it isn’t so. But west of the Mississippi, and even east of it, and south of the Alleghanies, it is just as good a tale as any other tale about facts and people that its hearers know nothing about, and it has been used where needed to damage Gover- nor Wilson’s candidacy. Other charges against Colonel Har- vey we see quoted in the World and Times as prevalent among Democratic Congressmen and others, as that he was a friend of H. H. Rogers, and has been seen in company with Thomas Ryan, and that as publisher of some of Dr. Wilson's books, he was finding a publisher’s profit in Dr. Wilson’s candidacy, and getting, possibly, a more profitable advertisement out of Dr. Wilson than Dr. Wilson was getting out of him. These insinuations and the suggestion that Wilson as the friend of Harvey must also be rated as the friend of Harvey’s friends, may have been so persistently conveyed to Governor Wilson as finally to influ- ence his judgment, and make him not only desirous to expurgate his boom by omitting Harvey, but drive him to some overt act with that intent. It is possible, as the papers at this writing incline to believe, that Dr. Wilson has teen dropped out of Harper’s Weekly at his own request. If so, Dr. Wilson will know it, and will in due time say so, if only to set at rest the other story that Harvey dropped him because of pressure from “the interests behind.” Very likely before these lines reach the reader the whole truth about the matter will have come out, with esti- mates of resulting profit and loss. This is a long story, and sad in some places. What a horrible occu- pation it must be to be an anxious candidate for President, and feel an obligation to please a majority of 94 million people, and to offend as few of them as possible!’ And what a gam- ble it is! Verily, said Solomon the Wise: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”