April 1912 Didn't Just See the Sinking of the Titanic -- The Fortunes of the GOP Sank, Too

We stand a century on from April 1912, but the events of that fateful year are still all too familiar to us. Along with numerous books and TV shows, we have the re-release of James Cameron’s epic disaster movie Titanic (in 3D) -- set to coincide neatly, and quite predictably, with the centenary of the sinking of that great ship. However, the fact that most of the press focus in early 2012 has been on the fractious Republican Party presidential nomination battle, bears a more surprising correlation to the events of 1912, and one that the GOP might do well to remember.

In early 1912 the incumbent Republican president, William H. Taft, faced challenges from within his own party, most notably in the form of Robert La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt, both seeming to offer a more progressive brand of Republicanism. The battle between Taft -- who eventually won the Republican nomination -- and TR, who led rebels to form an independent progressive candidacy, is a well-trod subject indeed. Recent books by Lewis Gould and James Chace present the 1912 election as a turning point in U.S. history, and no doubt the election will form a substantial section of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s upcoming book on the relationship between TR and Taft.

The shocking Titanic disaster on April 15 brought about a brief pause in hostilities between the Republican combatants, though at this point Taft had not really begun to get involved in the sniping since he felt Roosevelt’s vituperative and personal attacks were fit only for the gutter. Not only was the sinking a period of national, and international, mourning but it was one of very personal grief for both Taft and Roosevelt. Onboard the purportedly unsinkable vessel was Major Archibald “Archie” Butt, Taft’s close confidante and military aide who had also served in the same role for TR when he was president only four years earlier.

(Left to right): Unknown, Archibald Butt, Robert Baden-Powell, Wiliam Howard Taft, James Bryce (Feb. 3, 1912)

At the time of the disaster Taft was seated comfortably at Poll’s Theatre watching the play, Nobody’s Widow, and at first believed -- from inaccurate accounts in the press -- that all aboard had survived. However, he was reportedly frantic when the real news reached him at around 11:00 pm, particularly over the fate of Major Butt. The New York Times noted: “When he knew all that the newspaper dispatches told he turned like a man that had been stunned with a heavy blow and went slowly back to the Executive mansion”.

In the days that followed, Taft remained determined to seek out definitive news of his friend’s fate, sending his brother Henry to the White Star offices to see what he could find. However, Taft suspected that as a soldier, Butt was among those most likely to have gone down with the ship, and the reports that gradually filtered back from survivors bore out this impression. The press published numerous accounts of heroism and Butt was singled out on several occasions as keeping discipline among the panicking passengers and assuring that women and children secured seats aboard lifeboats ahead of “weak-kneed” men. He was described in one account as being “as cool as the iceberg that had doomed the ship”. At Butt’s memorial service, Taft spoke tearfully of his departed friend and the close bond they had formed over the years.

Historian Carl S. Anthony remarks that -- to many -- Taft’s concern over Butt and his lauding of the major’s military values represented an elitism that was echoed by his wife’s support for a Titanic memorial that seemed focused on the white first-class male passengers aboard the ship. In this regard, Anthony suggests that Taft’s failure to launch an investigative commission, or lower flags in national mourning, were among a series of public relations failures that hurt Taft and his already floundering re-election campaign. TR’s reaction to Butt’s death is less-well recorded, though biographer Edmund Morris notes, with a hint of sarcasm, that Roosevelt was as grief-stricken as Taft -- once the survivor reports of his heroism started to come through. Thus, for a few short days the battle between TR and Taft came to a halt, allowing both to reflect on the tragic turn of events in the Atlantic. However, the underlying damage to the Republican Party, though not clearly visible at this point, had already been done.

Only days before, on April 9, Taft had been trounced by TR in the Illinois primary, where Roosevelt picked up 56 of the 58 available delegates -- continuing a trend that had begun to worry party conservatives. After the sinking of the Titanic, Taft decided to depart from his aloof position of not engaging in the dirty political battle -- he noted that when a man is cornered, sometimes he has to fight. On April 25, Taft recorded a solid victory in Massachusetts, reassuring some within the party that he had the stamina to last until the nominating convention. However, Taft’s ultimate victory at the Republican Convention that summer only served to rupture the party further, when TR stormed out and decided to run as an progressive third-party candidate.

Historian Henry Adams, a contemporary of Taft, remarked that the Titanic was wrecked and so was Taft, and when November’s election came around Adams’s words never rang truer. With both Taft and Roosevelt running, the previously strong Republican vote was divided, leaving Democrat Woodrow Wilson to stroll home taking a massive 40 of the then 48 states. Taft won only the electoral votes of Vermont and Utah (TR took the remaining 6 states on offer). The Republicans came in a shocking third place in the popular vote. TR had served as the iceberg to the unsinkable GOP, which had been in power for the previous sixteen years.

We now stand a century on and the Republican presidential hopefuls might do well to reflect on the lessons of a century ago when Republican divisions tore apart their party and gifted the White House to the Democrats. In addition, Americans of any political affiliation might wish that it did not take great tragedies – such as the sinking of the Titanic – to stop the presidential campaign season from turning into a prolonged and increasingly nasty exchange of personal attacks.