Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - January 21, 1919
Transcript
January 21, 1919. Lieutenant Colonel Bennett C. Clark, Asst. Chief of Staff 88th Division American Expeditionary Forces in France via New York: My Dear Bennett: I read your letter of December 20, with some amusement and some aggravation. It is surely superfluous performance to be putting the poor boys through such intensive training. I made a speech the other night down at the Garfield Memorial Campbellite Church on the birthday of Lee and Stonewall Jackson and in the speech I declared unequivocally for bringing our soldiers back. I did that over at Baltimore on the 9th of December. Both times my remarks were received with a good deal of applause. Judging the newspaper dispatched from Paris, nobody seems to know anything. Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas, who was in the Red Cross service when he was elected, made a speech the other day in which he declared the slaughter of our soldiers at Chateau Thiery grew very largely out of the fact they didn’t have the necessary equipment. He did it in a very elaborate way and it has aroused a good deal of attention. Senator Curtis has taken the matter up in Senate; but in today’s paper ,one of the soldiers who was there, said [written in left margin] The other day Beof Kennedy came up to the Speaker’s desk and asked me when you were coming home. I told him I did not know and asked him why the query. He said it might be that the Repub. Speaker whoever he may be might want you for Parlimentarian as they had no one competent. I don’t believe there is anything in it but there possibly may be so let me know what you think.
Transcript
No. 2. Lt. Col. B. C. C. Allen’s statements were not true. Doctor Groves, Jim Thomson’s brother-in-law, who was a surgeon in the army and had just located in Washington in a twelve-room house with a high position as surgeon, fell dead last night. I am awfully sorry about it. Although I didn’t know him very well. It has been raining here again for three or four days. It rains two days and then clears up for about two, but it is warm and people are not suffering. The flu is still raging in the country. Some places it has got worse. The second wave of it here seems to have been lighter than the first. The Republicans are having a Devil of a time about the Speakership. I enclose you some clippings which show that Heney is after Mann, indoubtedly instigated by Will Hays, Chairman of the National Committee. The New York and Indianapolis [Indiana] papers are abusing Mann like a horse thief and I regret to say it looks to me that they have got him down. I didn’t think Gillett can be elected, and of course, the election of Old Fess is preposterous. I think if they get into a tie-up, Nick Longworth will walk away; and I heard yesterday Nick not only wanted to be Speaker, but wanted to be President. Martin Dies is going to retire from Congress, March
Transcript
No. 3. Lt. Col. B. C. C. fourth, and live on his Sabian farm, as he calls it. He gave us some fresh sausage, fresh from home. I am working on my book day and night. I took a notion the other day to write an account of the feud between Mark Hanna, Sherman and Foraker and the thing stretched out until I must have written four or five thousand words, which I am having typewritten. The chapter includes the fight at the St. Louis [Missouri] Convention [1896] on the Gold Standard and how they compelled McKinley to accept when he wanted the Silver Straddle adopted. He voted for Platt’s Silver Bill and voted to pass that Silver Bill over Hays’ veto and he sent his Silver Straddle and then wouldn’t accept it. Henry Cabot Lodge, Foraker, Old Tom Platt among them, bored it into Mark Hanna’s head if they didn’t put an out and out declaration for a Gold standard in the platform they would beat McKinley for the nomination and of course, rather than lose the nomination McKinley would have accepted any platform. Of course, you know by this time that the Prohibition amendment has been ratified with several votes to spare. It seems to me that an extra session is inevitable. I tried my best to spur them up and get them to work but they pulled back one way and another saying the Departments hadn’t furnished them the data on which to get up appropriation bills.
Transcript
No. 4. Lt. Col. B. C. C. Your mother and I are both well. I have Bruce rub me three times a week and I take as much exercise as I can. I keep pegging away with my book as I want to get through with it and get it off my hands. Of course, you know Jeff Hostetter is Minority Leader. The Drys beat Frank Farris with Jeff. There is a pretty good delegation from my district in the legislature. Nick Cave seems to be cutting a splurge and Killam of Lincoln County is very active. He claims credit for nomination Jeff. Judge Botts doesn’t seem to have made any splurge yet. The man Ralls is a very nice gentleman--a farmer. Hon. W. A. Dudly one of the best lawyers in Troy, fell dead the other day, instantly. As Norton is dead, Dudley dead, Avery in very bad health, the situation at Troy for a young lawyer is pretty good. I think Clarence is thinking about going in with Avery or Killam. Anyhow, he was asking my advice, showing me a letter from Avery offering to take him in. Judge Bassford is better and Wally is going to return to his labors. 23. I enclose you some clips. Also some remarks I made in the House yesterday. I made my defense of Francis an excuse to declare emphatically for bringing our soldiers home not from Russia only but from all of Europe. That part is headlined in all the papers to-day. Letter and telegrams from so far away as California are pouring in. I enclosed [written in right margin] few of them about article which I wrote for “Everybody’s” [written in left margin] Champie has had a bad case of the Grippe or flu but thank God the dear little chap is better. Your Loving Father, Champ Clark
Details
Title | Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - January 21, 1919 |
Creator | Clark, Champ |
Source | Clark, Champ. Letter to Bennett Champ Clark. 21 January 1919. Clark, Champ (1850-1921) and Bennett Champ (1890-1954), Papers, 1853-1973. C0666. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
Description | In this January 21, 1919 letter to his son Bennett, Champ Clark discussed American troops that were retained in Europe, national politics, and the influenza epidemic. 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; Influenza |
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 | January 21, 1919 |
Language | English |