Harvard Progressives in Philadelphia

Theodore Roosevelt

The Progressive movement of the early 20th century is most concisely viewed as a futile social reaction to the vast changes in America caused by urbanization and industrialization after the Civil War. The transcontinental railroad threatened to destroy the wild, wild West, but the enduring environmental movement had overtones of even greater hostility toward industrialization, the cause of it all. In this sense, it joined forces with socialist and labor reform movements, in hating the newly rich, the spoilers, the Robber Barons. It briefly shared sympathies with anti-immigrant groups, while simultaneously expressing great sympathy with the decisions of the people, as opposed to corrupt politicians. There was a strong Calvinist streak in Progressivism, linked back to New England and Harvard its intellectual center. Regardless of any other contradiction, it reflected the viewpoint of Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt, "that damned cowboy" in the view of conservatives, did not invent the ideas of Progressivism, but he surely personified them, illustrated them in action. This confused turmoil of resentments was knocked off the front pages by a real threat to European civilization, the First World War. A terrifyingly well organized German war machine took the place of Robber Barons as a symbol of what was wrong with the world. The crash of 1929 and its ensuing long depression finally put an end to older controversies; it pushed the "reset" button.

Henry Brooks Adams

To understand the position of Philadelphia's upper crust during the Progressive era, four or five names need to be fleshed out. Owen Wister and J. William White would be important Philadelphia links to the Bostonians Henry Adams and Henry James. All of them were leading literary figures, and all of them were close friends of Teddy Roosevelt. Roosevelt, it might be recalled, was the author of thirty-four books. This little group of literary giants were members of the leading families of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; what they said, mattered. Although today Owen Wister is mainly known as the author of The Virginian, the first of the cowboy stories of the wild West, he was in fact an observer of the social climates of not only the West, but the deep South (Lady Baltimore ), and the East Coast ( Romney). Some idea of his political leanings can be gleaned from his presidency of the Immigrant Restriction Society, and the authorship of an article called Shall We Let the Cuckoos Crowd Us From Our Nest . Wister has been called "the best born and bred of all modern writers", referring to his descent from ancestors who were in Philadelphia before William Penn, and his presidency of the Philadelphia Club. His wife, Mary Channing Wister, was the founder of the Civic Club, a reform society, and a descendant of James Logan, Penn's chief agent in the colonies. Wister's cousins were S. Weir Mitchell, the father of American neurology, and also Horace Howard Furness, the originator of the Variorum Shakespeare . He regarded Furness as his literary mentor, and wrote the cowboy novel after a rest cure in Wyoming for a nervous breakdown, at Mitchell's suggestion. To go on, his grandmother was Fanny Kemble, the noted Shakespearean actress and notable leader of the anti-slavery movement, who had divorced one of the richest men in America largely over his ownership of slave. While descendants of more recent immigrants might react with hostility to his views on restricting further immigration, his anti-slavery, pro-environment, anti-bossism, pro-reform positions would today make him quite comfortable with Progressives, otherwise. Similarly, Henry Adams had written a remorseful anti-industry denunciation in The Education of Henry Adams , but he had also published an anonymous anti-immigrant novel Democracy . Without identifying specific notions, the underlying theme of all of this literature was that our beloved country is going to pot, and unrestrained newly rich industrialists are the cause of it. Henry James, for his part, felt so strongly that America was deteriorating that he emigrated back to England. When Roosevelt, a politician after all, complained about some of the words coming out of a character in Romney called Augustus, Wister checked it out with The Master. As he later recorded, Henry James then replied, "Well, my dear Owen, may I in all audacity and sincerity ask, what could Augustus better sound like?" No one else could have said it just that way.

Henry James

Harvard must somehow be praised for knitting such disparate characters in lifetime friendship, since all of them in one way or another expressed contempt for that university's educational value. Bill White was as flamboyant as TR ever was, fighting duels, getting the Army-Navy game to come to Philadelphia, running the Fairmount Park Commission, and whatnot. But the two Henrys, James and Adams, would certainly have been out of place on San Juan Hill, and Owen Wister with his bouts of depression was another indoorsman. Roosevelt, who wrote thirty-four books before breakfast, was asked by Wister what he should write his next novel about. After he outlined the plot for three possible books, Roosevelt was ready with his answer, "Write all three!" As matters turned out, Wister only wrote two hundred pages of Romney and in that fragment, Romney had yet to be born. World War I came along, diverted his attention. He lived another 23 years but Wister never wrote another line.

Owen-Wister

Such indecisiveness and lack of drive helps us understand why this most famous author, social lion, and distinguished member of one of Philadelphia's first families performed so poorly as a politician. Roosevelt wrote him a terse note, expressing contempt for people constantly criticizing the country, but unwilling to get into the reform trenches and fight for it. Thus prodded, and probably additionally prodded by his reformist wife, Wister wrote some strong articles denouncing the graft and corruption in building the new capitol building in Harrisburg. On the strength of that, he ran for office in 1908, for the Philadelphia Select Council. He lost, 3,458 to 646. In the political world, it was a trivial thing. But as far as patrician leadership of Philadelphia was concerned, it was to be fifty years before anyone suggested politics again.

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