National Affairs: Taylor Incident

Of pique in politics the historic example is Senator Hiram Johnson’s rage at Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 for not handshaking him in San Francisco. The 1916 election was so close that Mr. Hughes has always been said to have lost it by that one handshake. Last week, Democrats were hoping that another mountain of pique would be built up from a molehill incident of Nominee Hoover’s visit three weeks ago in Tennessee.

The Nominee went to Elizabethton largely under the auspices of onetime (1921-23) Assistant Secretary of Commerce Claudius Hart Huston and U. S. Representative Brazilla Carroll Reece. The leader of a neighboring and equally Republican district in Tennessee is Representative J. Will Taylor. The Messrs. Huston and Reece have sharp intraparty differences with Mr. Taylor. But it was planned, for harmony’s sake, to let Mr. Taylor be as big a lion as anyone in receiving Nominee Hoover. It was planned that, at the luncheon of the day, Mr. Reece should rise to welcome the Nominee, and that Mr. Taylor should then rise to praise him. Both wrote out fine speeches. The hour and the Nominee arrived.

During the Reece speech, however, the Nominee grew restive and eyed the hour. So effusively had he been greeted that it was growing late. A crowd was collecting at the outdoor speakers’ stand. Radio time would soon be flying. As soon as Mr. Reece finished and before Mr. Taylor could begin, the Nominee stood up, thanked everyone and left the dining room. Almost everyone else left, too. Mr. Taylor remained in glowering loneliness with his fine speech undelivered in his hand.

Mr. Taylor went to the big outdoor meeting. But there was no chance for him to make his fine speech there. Glowering more and more darkly, Mr. Taylor did not go to that evening’s banquet for the Nominee in Johnson City. Instead, he went to Washington. He was mad. They would see. That Carroll Reece! That Claudius Huston! That *** never mind! Just wait. J. Will Taylor controls more Republican votes than practically any man in Tennessee. Hmph!

The mollification or non-mollification of J. Will Taylor thus became an important matter. The national Republican committee was reported to be “working on him,” the hope being to keep him quiet.