weigh with him. Of course, feeling as he did about
Mr. Taft's
attitude, this position was logical. In the course of the even-
ing he dwelt on it with Mr.
White of Kansas, giving instances of
where the President had sided with the factions opposed to him.
"But will any of the party leaders support you"? I inquired.
"No" he said "None of them; not even Lodge, I think. I
don’t see how he can. My support will come from the
people offi-
cered by a few lieutenants – young men principally, like
Gov. Bass
of
New Hampshire." He said he realized that the probabilities
were all against his nomination; that a President in office has
all the machinery on his side; but that of course it wouldn't do
to admit outside that he expected to lose; that if he could reach
the popular vote through direct primaries, he could hope to win.
It was manifest that he believed that it was indispensable for
the future good of the Republican party that he should make the
breach. When he said as much I asked "But the situation is
complex, I suppose? You would like to be President." "You are
right", he replied "it is complex. I like power; but I care
nothing to be President as President. I am interested in these
ideas of mine and I want to carry them through, and feel that I am
the one to carry them through." He said that he believed the
most important questions today were the humanitarian and economic
problems, and intimated that the will of the people had been
thwarted in these ways, especially by the courts on constitutional
grounds, and that reforms were urgent.
As to the third term, which he did not discuss very much, as
he realized I was not much concerned on that score, he re-iterated