Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - September 27, 1917
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September 27, 1917. Bennett C. Clark, Lieutenant-Colonel, 6th Missouri Infantry, Missouri Brigade Headquarters, Camp Doniphan, Fort Sill, [Oklahoma] My dear Bennett: I received your letter this morning and was awfully glad to get it. I stated in my last letter, the one I sent you yesterday, that I did everything I knew how for Colonel Linxweiler. He was good to you and of course, that is enough for me. The same way about General Clark. I will see the Kansas fellows, especially Colonel Little as soon as the House meets this morning. Of course, I am awfully glad you didn’t get cut out in the transaction. It was a queer accident that saved you; but accidents are sometimes beneficial. The thing is bound to create a great deal of bad blood, bad feeling and demoralization. I had a telegram from Senator John F. Norton, dated Nevada, in which he said the men were very much cast down and felt humiliated. I told President Wilson exactly what you wrote
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No. 2. L-C. B. C. C. about mixing up the Kansans and Missourians. I also told Secretary Baker. I think you are dead right about sticking to the regiment so you can help your men. It seems to me that you have been exceedingly generous and loyal to your own command. You couldn’t do any good by being transferred to the Depot Brigade. You couldn’t help General Clark or yourself either. Phil Campbell told me General Martin had a good deal of military experience, that he has served in the Philippines. I hope you will get along all right with him. Your uncle, Joe Russell, is very much down in the mouth about it; so are the others. My judgment is that if the St. Louis and Kansas City papers had backed up the Missouri delegation, we could have changed the thing. One of them said editorially, I think it was the Republic, that the second by being cut up and dismembered, was really promoted. Of course, anything on the face of God’s earth goes with them. I am sending you some clippings and also a letter from Mr. Garver of Fulton. I don’t know
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No. 3. L-C. B. C. C. what papers you get to see, whether you see the St. Louis papers or not, so I send you clippings that you may have already seen. The reports about the performances down at Occoquan as to the treatment of suffragettes is beginning to arouse a good deal of criticism. Miss Bradshaw went down there the other day to deliver a letter to one of the women who is in close confinement, from her husband, and they wouldn’t let her do it. I called Brownlow the other night and told him I was against the picketing business but that I was a humanitarian and there wasn’t any sense in the way they were doing down there and if it wasn’t changed, there would be an explosion which would shake the foundation of things around here generally; so, yesterday I gave Genevieve and Miss Bradshaw a letter and they didn’t dare disregard that. They saw that woman of high degree who has been kept in confinement who has been fed on bread and water because she wouldn’t scrape and clean the toilets of colored women. Of course, anybody who does that runs a risk of catching the syphilis. So Genevieve gives a dreadful account
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No. 4. L-C. B. C. C. of the affairs down there. I have sent for Ben Johnson to come over and I will put a flea in his ear which I think he will be agreeable to. You will see from the clippings from the Kansas City Star that Ed Jamison has fixed the date of the telegram to him. Consequently, the article said he telegraphed to me about exemption. That is a lie. He telegraphed to me about the conscription act. the editor referred to is undoubtedly Ovid Bell or Bob White. Most likely the whole thing is a lie anyway. You will see from Garver’s letter that the Honorable David H. Harris has run against a snag in his congressional aspirations. We have been having a good deal of trouble hunting a place to stay this winter. The first thing we knew all the apartments in Washington were taken; that is, that anybody would live in. That is on account of the rush of employees in Government work and also of the fellows who want to escape paying taxes under this new revenue act; and for numbers these latter are as the “Sands of the Sea.” As Genevieve is still here, I rented the house we are in for the
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No. 5. L-C. B. C. C. month of October at the increased rental of $125.00. It’s $100.00 now Miss Pennington wanted $150.00. I absolutely refused to have anything to do with it at that rate. After October we will go back to the hotel. That is my judgment about it. I will take good care of your things. Colonel Thomson had another one of those spells growing out of some calcareous sediment in his kidneys or bladder, but Paul telegraphed that he was over it. The baby is growing fine and fat. Your father, Champ Clark Ebenezer Hill is dead. Adamson has been appointed Appraised Hustons in [New York] at $9,000.00 per annum for life. It sometimes pays to play [ms illegible: 1 wd] Others, after coming to their senses, will join in with Tom Bodiue. Lord Reading, Lord Chancellor of England - formerly Sir Rufus Isaacs - & Ambassador Spring - Rice called on me yesterday. Since detailing this letter talked with Col. Little. He doesn’t like the order but didn’t seem greatly concerned. He says Martin is all right. They served together in Philippines
Details
Title | Champ Clark letter to Bennett Champ Clark - September 27, 1917 |
Creator | Clark, Champ |
Source | Clark, Champ. Letter to Bennett Champ Clark. 27 September 1917. Clark, Champ (1850-1921) and Bennett Champ (1890-1954), Papers, 1853-1973. C0666. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
Description | In this September 27, 1917 letter to his son Bennett, Champ Clark discussed the reorganization of Missouri National Guard units into the Army and the treatment of suffragettes. 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; United States. Army. Camp Doniphan (Okla.); Clark, Bennett Champ, 1890-1954; Fort Sill (Okla.); World War, 1914-1918; Baker, Newton Diehl, 1871-1937; Missouri. National Guard; Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924; Suffragists |
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 | September 27, 1917 |
Language | English |