Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - December 11, 1918
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December 11, 1918. Lieut. Col. Bennett C. Clark, Assistant Chief of Staff, 88th Division, American Expeditionary Forces, France, Via New York. My dear Bennett: We received your cable a week ago tomorrow--Thursday. We received your letter of [November] 18 this morning and we were delighted to get it I assure you. It was your letter of the 18th which shows that it took 23 days to get here. Your mother was fretting a good deal about not hearing from you but I explained to her that you were busy. I enclose you an article that Colonel Roosevelt wrote, which may cheer you up somewhat. I also enclose you a speech I made opening the Southern Commercial Congress at Baltimore last Monday, and a very peculiar picture of me in one of the papers. Colonel Severe took dinner with us last night and stayed until about ten thirty. He inquired very affectionately about you and he thinks your appointment as Assistant Chief of Staff was a very great thing for you for experience; and it shows that the authorities over there have a high opinion of you. He conversed about his experience over there after the manner of Othello and it was very interesting indeed.
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No. 2. Lieut. Col. B. C. C. Now, about coming home. I wouldn’t be among the first to resign if I were you and if you resign, please do not be in a hurry about it; but when you do come, if it is before the fourth of March, I will reappoint you to your old place as Parliamentarian of the House. There is a great dissatisfaction about the talk of keeping troops over there. Of course people want their sons at home where they ought to be and if anything happens and I see the way clear for you to do what you want to do right away, I will cable you. Severe said they took his regiment away from him and did exactly as they pleased in the most high-handed way. They gave him some more troops but they were not his original troops. Of course there are all sorts of reraws, talk and criticisms and endorsements about President Wilson going to Europe. I haven’t participated in it publically. I think he had a perfect right to go if he wanted to. I don’t think Marshall became president either. The only thing about it was the expediency about it. It looks to me like the French and English have made a combination in London in advance of his arrival. I am teetotally opposed to Winston Churchill’s program about England appropriating
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No. 3.Lieut. Col. B. C. C. the high seas. Your mother and I are both well. Genevieve writes beautiful letters and gives an account of Champie’s capers; says he still remembers his pa and Little Hon and talks about you a good deal. He is as fine a little chap as ever trod shoe leather and he talked when he was here when he would see your picture about his Unk Ben. I think notwithstanding the kicking of Norris Poindexter and two or three more over in the Senate, that the Old Line Republicans are going to organize and make Penrose Chairman of the Finance Committee. Of course, Henry Cabot Lodge will be chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and they are a beautiful pair of Moss Backs to draw to. Mann has come back and is active as ever. Had a three days’ fillibuster the other day about establishing a [Tuberculosis] hospital at Dawson Springs, Kentucky. At the end of the three days he looks so feeble he can hardly walk. If he goes on the way he is now, he will be back in the hospital in less than ten days. The House passed a resolution to investigate that gang of buccaneers in New York called the National Security League and who spent a great deal of money in this election, branding everybody as traitors except 43 who didn’t vote for certain propositions. The truth is the whole crowd of them, including Elihu Root
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No. 4. Liet. Col. B. C. C. who is President of it and Alton B. Baker, Vice President, and Henry L. Wise who seems to be the real manager, ought to be in penitentiary. I wouldn’t trust Root as far as I could throw a bull by the tail—a shorthorn bull at that. He was of military age during the Civil war; that is, he was 16 years old when the war began and could have very easily served three years. He never put a uniform on. He is a lovely duck to talk about patriotism. The flu seems to be about over here, but it is raging out in Missouri with terrific force. Six people died at Wellsville in a week and there are only about eighteen hundred people there. It looks to me like we will have a very early extra session and of course you know that if an extra session starts there is no end to it. I wish to Heaven they wouldn’t have any, but I know it is bound to come. I could make fifteen thousand dollars during the vacation; maybe more, which would put me on easy street; not rich but safe outside the poor house. I read your letter with a great deal of interest and as far as the matter about taking it easy is concerned, I am going to do it. I don’t propose to fool away any time or energy on chicken feed business, I am going to turn that over to two of three others and concern myself as Minority
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No. 5. Lieut. Col. B. C. C. No. 5. Lieut. Col. B.C.C. Leader with larger matters. That is what I did before and If I do say it myself, I was the most successful Minority Leader there ever was in Washington. I elected the Democratic House, Senate and President. Once in a while I run across some soldier friend of yours. They always inquire about you with great affection. Sometime ago, before the armistice was signed, I sent you a letter to General Pershing. Of course, he never got it until after the armistice was entered into. I will deposit two hundred dollars to your credit for your birthday and Christmas gift. 12. Yesterday House passed Resolution to investigate American Security League (Root, Pres, A. B. Parllen, V.P., Henry L. West, Chief Mogul) which picked out 43 [ms illegible: 1 wd] Pure Americans only out of 435 Members and slandered all the rest in every way possible. I appointed Ben Johnson, Pat Harrison, Saunders of [Virgina], Caraway, Reavis, Walsh and Brown of [Wisconsin]. I enclose McAdoo’s latest pronouncements. Your Mother and I are both fine, Lovely weather. Your Loving Father, Champ Clark
Details
| Title | Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - December 11, 1918 |
| Creator | Clark, Champ |
| Source | Clark, Champ. Letter to Bennett Champ Clark. 11 December 1918. Clark, Champ (1850-1921) and Bennett Champ (1890-1954), Papers, 1853-1973. C0666. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
| Description | In this December 11, 1918 letter to his son Bennett, Champ Clark discussed the influenza epidemic, President Woodrow Wilson's visit to Europe, and the public dissatisfaction of keeping troops in Europe after the armistice. Champ Clark, a long-time resident of Bowling Green, Missouri, was a politician in the Democratic Party. He served as a representative of Missouri from 1893 to 1895 and from 1897 to 1921. From 1911 to 1919 he served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Bennett Clark served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the 140th Regiment, 35th Division and as Assistant Chief of Staff for the 88th Division during World War I, and was Missouri State Senator from 1933 to 1945. |
| Subject LCSH | Clark, Champ, 1850-1921; Clark, Bennett Champ, 1890-1954; Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924; World War, 1914-1918; Influenza; Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924 |
| Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
| Site Accession Number | C0666 |
| Contributing Institution | The State Historical Society of Missouri |
| Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the State Historical Society of Missouri: 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65201-7298. (573) 882-7083. |
| Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. |
| Date Original | December 11, 1918 |
| Language | English |