S U MMER / FA L L 2 0 1 6
COPYRIGHT © 2016,
ALDON COMPANY, INC.
RAIL SAFETY AND TRACK REPAIR PRODUCTS SINCE 1904
PRESIDENTIAL SPECIAL
Bringing the President
to the People
1833-1952
How the Railroads Transformed
the American Presidency
1
2
President Theodore Roosevelt greets the crowd during a stop on his 1903 cross-country tour.
G
E O R G E WA S H I N G T O N
established the tradition of
presidential tours in 1789,
soon after his inauguration as our
first president. He travelled for several
months through the New England states,
seeking to persuade his countrymen to
accept the Constitution and the new
Federal Government. He believed it
was vital for him, as the first president, to
personally champion national unity. Washington
travelled by horse-drawn coach, averaging
no more than 5 mph, often over rutted roads.
Everywhere he stopped he was received
with great enthusiasm. He later made
several tours of the southern states,
each taking months to accomplish
and each a testament to Washington’s
endurance. (1) But with such limited
transportation available, only a small
number of people could ever actually see
and hear the president. What Americans
learned about him came from printed speeches
which appeared in newspapers and handbills. For
the most part, the presidency was remote from
everyday life.
All this changed in the early 1830s, when railroads made their appearance in the United
States. Almost overnight, dozens of small railroad lines were organized in different states. Among
the earliest of these were the Baltimore and Ohio in Maryland (opened in 1830), the Mohawk &
Hudson in New York State (1831), the Camden & Amboy Railroad in New Jersey (1832), and the
Ponchartrain Railroad (1832) linking Lake Ponchartrain and New Orleans.
3
4
The John Bull. One of many British-built locomotives imported in the early
days of American railroading. Painting by Grif Teller.
John Tyler
Steam power and the railroad proved essential to
government continuity in April 1841, when Vice
President John Tyler received word that the president, William Henry Harrison, had suddenly died
of pneumonia, after only one month in office. Tyler
was in Williamsburg, Virginia, and it was imperative
that he reach Washington as quickly as possible, to be
sworn in as the new president. Using steamboats and
trains, Tyler was able to make the 230 mile journey in a record 21 hours. (4)
James K. Polk
1831: One of the first passenger trains in the U.S. — the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad —
which operated in upstate New York between Albany and Schenectady.
In the rush to get started, the early U.S. railroads imported steam locomotives from Britain
where railroading began, but it was not long before American-manufactured engines were operating. The locomotive engineer stood in the open, behind the boiler, occasionally feeding a log to the
furnace. The first railroad passenger cars were stagecoach bodies fitted with flanged iron wheels. As
ungainly and primitive as these first trains appear to modern eyes, they were soon reaching a speed
of 25 mph. (2)
T
the railroad revolutionized presidential politics. As railroad technology improved and
the rail network expanded, the president was able to take his message to an ever-greater
audience, to explain his legislative agenda and ask for support. Long before radio and
television, this personal contact strengthened the image of the presidency and made it a
more powerful institution.
Andrew Jackson
1829-1837
Andrew Jackson was the first sitting president to ride in a railroad
passenger train. In June 1833, he took the B&O Railroad train for a
13-mile journey from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore. For company, “Old
Hickory” invited some local politicians to join him. The chance to be
seen with the president and gain his ear was worth the cost of a return
ticket. Politics and the railroad were wed that day. (3)
1841-1845
1845-1849
John Tyler’s successor, James K. Polk, is credited with
making the first presidential campaign by rail. In
doing so he went against the prevailing view in
the 19th Century that it was undignified for a
presidential candidate to openly solicit votes. That
job was usually left to the running mate and other
subordinates. But Polk’s example was not lost on
politicians in general, and railroad travel quickly came
to be essential to election campaigns. (5)
By the 1850s, hundreds of small railroads were operating east of the
Mississippi, with track gauges varying from the 4 ft 8½ in standard gauge
adopted from Britain to as wide as six feet. The lack of a uniform national
track gauge in this period made it necessary for passengers and freight to
be reloaded onto the next railroad’s cars in order to continue the journey.
Despite such inefficiency, and the frequency of accidents, railroads were
rapidly opening the vast American continent to settlement. In 1856, the first
railroad bridge was built across the Mississippi River.
Railroad technology also made great strides. By the 1850s,
locomotives were bigger and burned hard anthracite coal for more intense
fires and greater speeds. Engines were equipped with swiveling front pilot
wheels, to better negotiate curves. Passenger cars were now enclosed wooden
coaches, with a small pot belly stove and oil lamps for passengers’ comfort. (6)
The invention of the electric telegraph (1844) by the
American artist and inventor Samuel F. B. Morse caused a revolution
in communications. It has been described
5
as the nineteenth century version of
the Internet. The railroads could now
communicate orders and schedules at
lightning speed to every station on the
line. A travelling president could keep in
touch with the government at Washington
Brass Telegraph Key
whenever the train made a stop.
circa 1860s
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Abraham Lincoln
7
1861-1865
Railroads played an important role in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. In February 1861, Lincoln made a well-publicized journey by rail from Springfield,
Illinois to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration as our sixteenth president. It
was a time of great national tension, as southern states were seceding from the
Union and civil war seemed imminent. “I shudder when I think of the tasks that
are still ahead,” Lincoln confided to a friend before leaving. (7) The rail journey
took 12 days, over a number of railroad lines. Accompanying Lincoln were his
eldest son, Robert; a doctor; two private secretaries; and four soldiers. Lincoln wanted to make as many stops as possible, to speak to citizens and reassure them that he would
do his best to preserve the Union. But the crowds were so eager to see him, and the stops
6
“... I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me
greater than that which rested upon Washington... I bid you an affectionate farewell.”
Lincoln’s good-bye speech to friends, Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861.
so frequent, that Lincoln joked “it will be Resurrection Day before I reach the capital.” At
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, rumors of assassination plots by southern sympathizers seemed
so credible that Lincoln was persuaded to don a disguise and change trains at night, before
proceeding to Washington. “What would the nation think of its president stealing into the
capital like a thief in the night?” he wanted to know. But he put on a heavy overcoat, a green
plaid shawl and soft hat, and walked bent over as if aged and ill to another waiting train. (8)
As a wartime president, Lincoln limited his rail journeys to visits to military camps,
army hospitals, and tours of battlefields. The Civil War was the first “railway war,” in which
railroads were used as strategic
weapons more potent than cannons. The North’s rail network
enabled Union forces to move
quickly from one battlefront to
another.
In 1862 Lincoln signed
the Pacific Railway Act, which authorized the building of the first transconU.S. Military Railroad train on a wooden trestle,
tinental Railroad, some 1907 miles from
Orange & Alexandria Railroad.
Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Francisco.
At this time, only half the nation’s railroads were built to 4 ft 8½ in standard gauge. It was
8
Lincoln who decided that the new railroad must be
built to standard gauge since railroads in California were using that track gauge. (9)
Presidents before Lincoln had leased
a coach in a regular passenger train when they
needed to travel. In February 1865, the U.S.
Military Railroad Division presented Lincoln
with the first purpose-built private car for
the president, U.S. Car No. 1. Painted a deep
maroon-brown, with gilt trimmings, etched glass
windows and plush upholstery, it was designed
to be Lincoln’s rolling office, with a couch long
enough for him to stretch out his 6 ft 4 in frame.
(10) Lincoln objected to such ostentation in
wartime and refused to travel in the car. Sadly, two
Building the Transcontinental
months later, it became his funeral car after he was
Railroad. Telegraph Corps at work,
assassinated on April 14, 1865, while attending
Weber Canyon, 1868.
the theatre in Washington. (11)
The Pacific Railway was
completed in May 1869, just two
months after Lincoln would have
left office had he not been assassinated. If Lincoln had lived, he
would have undoubtedly made a
triumphal tour to California by 9
rail, to be hailed as the savior of
Soldiers guard Lincoln’s funeral car. April 1865.
the Union.
By 1900, the U.S. railroad network was nearing 200,000 miles of track, with four great transcontinental lines. Standard gauge track had been adopted
by virtually every railroad, so that even the smallest “whistle stop” community had a chance to see the president stop at their station, however briefly.
Theodore Roosevelt
1901-1909
Theodore Roosevelt took full advantage of the railroads to carry his
“bully pulpit” method of governing to every corner of the country.
Roosevelt was a fighter by instinct, who preached the doctrine
of the “Strenuous Life”. When Congress refused his legislative
reforms, TR, as he was universally known, took his case to the
people. During his 7½ years in office, he made seven long-distance
tours by rail and gave over 500 speeches to win support for his
causes. (12) Roosevelt used the railroads so frequently that there was
talk of building a spur line into the White House basement. Instead, a
Presidential Annex was added to Washington’s Union Station, where he could come and
go with greater privacy. (13)
Earlier presidents had been content with one or two coach cars for a tour. Roosevelt
needed a whole train, leased from a railroad. It had to be big enough to carry his personal
staff, Secret Service agents, military aides, a doctor, political friends, and scores of newspaper reporters. Roosevelt’s railroad tours had become big news events.
Railroad officials had their hands full protecting Roosevelt on his marathon rail
tours. Detailed instructions and schedules were wired to station masters and superintendents
up and down the line. All other rail traffic was held up or diverted. Flagmen stood at every
rail crossing on the route. A pilot train ran ahead for security, and an emergency locomotive
and coach followed behind. (14)
Roosevelt had great respect for railwaymen. They had dangerous jobs, and they
did them well. At the end of each trip, he
made it a point to walk down to the locomotive to shake hands and chat with the
engineer, fireman, brakeman, and conductor. “He talked with us…as men who
were all, in his opinion, equal,” recalled
one railroad special agent. “It was only
as president of the United States that he
differed.” (15)
The newspaper reporters saw
Roosevelt as their friend as well. He would
walk up and down the aisle of their coach,
cracking jokes and holding impromptu
press conferences. TR had an opinion
worth quoting on everything. He was
a writer and journalist himself, and he
looked after the newspapermen. When
10
one reporter found the train leaving
TR talking to engineers of Colorado & Southern
without him, he started running to catch
locomotive #110, which had stopped alongside
it. Roosevelt happened to be standing
his private car at Emery Gap, New Mexico,
on the rear platform, saw the man, and
April 14, 1905.
11
shouted “Come on! You can make it!
Come on! You can make it!” Then he
stepped down on the step and reached out
his hand. The reporter, gasping for breath,
found himself being pulled up the steps by
a mighty grip. (16)
Roosevelt’s longest tour took
place in the spring of 1903, when he travelled through 25 states and territories in
the Midwest and West, with 150 stops for
speeches. (17) His energy was phenomenal, and his buoyant good spirits cheered
everyone. He had the people in the palm
of his hand. A politician friend remarked
that Roosevelt’s charm was so great that
you had to get away from him in order to
dislike him. (18)
This young man is determined to say hello
In spite of the heat, the crowds, to the President, during a stop on TR’s great
and the punishing schedule, Roosevelt 1903 railroad tour.
never forgot the personal touch. When
his train stopped at Ellis, Kansas, to take on ice and change engines, Roosevelt invited the
townspeople to come on board and inspect
his train. At another town, he greeted the
12
hundred or so people waiting there and
shook hands with everyone, “both large and
small.” In one 12 hour period, he spoke at
20 stops on the line before his voice finally
gave out. (19)
For people living in such isolated
communities, the chance to see the president
was a bright spot in their lives. But it was far
more than just curiosity as Roosevelt saw it.
These farmers, ranchers, and townfolk were
there because “the President was their man
and symbolized their government and that
they had a proprietary interest in him, and
wished to see him, and that they hoped he
embodied their aspirations and their best
thought.” (20)
TR preaching the Square Deal from his
private railroad car, 1907.
William Howard Taft
1909-1913
TR’s successor, William Howard Taft, actually put on more presidential railroad
miles than the energetic Roosevelt, but for a different reason. (21) Whereas
Roosevelt used presidential tours to fight for public support of his political goals,
Taft often travelled to escape the pressures and conflicts of the White House.
A gentle, good-natured man with a judicial temperament, Taft was not
made for the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of politics. He served with distinction
in TR’s Cabinet as Secretary of War, but what he really wanted was to be named to
the Supreme Court. Instead, he let his ambitious wife Nellie—and Roosevelt—talk him
into accepting the Republican nomination in 1908, to succeed TR. In office, Taft proved
to be an indecisive leader. As criticism mounted around him, he sought escape through
overeating and frequent train trips. Always a heavy man, Taft’s weight increased to 355 lbs.
by his mid-term. (22) He grew lethargic and sometimes nodded off during conferences.
Travel refreshed him. He eagerly seized any opportunity to get away on the presidential
train—to college commencements, state fairs, ribbon-cutting ceremonies—anywhere he
would feel welcomed. In his first year as president, Taft made a 13,000 mile goodwill tour of
the country. The crowds were friendly and curious to see the new president, and Taft could
Woodrow Wilson
13
eat to his heart’s content at the innumerable
banquets in his honor. He considered travelling
to be part of a president’s job, and that made
him feel less guilty about being absent so often
from Washington. Two years later, in 1911, he
made another long cross-country tour. When he
returned, he stepped down from his train and joked
“I travel so much that I feel like a railroader.” (23)
Taft’s congressional critics took aim at his
absences. One congressman complained that “the
country does not approve of this wanderlust which has
filled its chief executive.” After his second long tour, a
newspaper cartoon appeared which showed Taft back in
a White House designed to look like a locomotive, with
bell and smoke stack. The caption read: “The President
comes home: One way to keep him there.” (24)
Taft in Campaign Mode. He won
election in 1908 but came in a
poor third in the tumultous 1912
campaign when he and TR lost to
Woodrow Wilson.
1913-1921
He was sustained on this quixotic journey by the growing public approval of the
On November 11, 1918, the guns all along the Western Front fell
League of Nations. At a stop in Ohio, an old man said to Wilson: “I wish you success in
silent. The Great War had ended after four years of bloodshed and
your journey, Mr. Wilson. I lost two sons in the war; only got one left and I want things
destruction. In December, President Woodrow Wilson travelled
fixed up so I won’t have to lose him.” (27)
to Paris to join the leaders of the other victorious Allied nations—
In Billings, Montana, as the president’s train pulled away from the station, sevBritain, France and Italy—to negotiate a peace treaty with defeateral small boys ran after it, one of them carrying a small American flag. He handed it up
ed Germany. The heart of the Treaty of Versailles was the League of
to Edith Wilson and asked her to give it to the president. Another boy, running as fast as
Nations, a world peacekeeping force which Wilson believed would
he could, reached into his pocket and stretched out a closed fist to a Secret Service agent
prevent such terrible wars in the future. The Republican-controlled U.S.
on the platform. “Give him this,” the boy said, out of breath. The agent opened his hand
Senate, fearing loss of American sovereignty, refused to ratify the treaty unless U.S. particand found a dime. (28)
ipation in the League was removed. Wilson, a stubborn and high-principled man, could
On September 25th, at Pueblo, Colorado, twenty-two days after leaving
not accept this and decided to take the issue to the American people. He hoped he could
Washington, Wilson’s strength finally gave out. He broke down
arouse enough public support to force the Republicans to approve the
in the middle of a speech, tears rolling down his cheeks, as he
treaty with the League intact.
spoke of the American soldiers who had given their lives in the
On September 3, 1919, Wilson departed from Washington in
war. The next morning, the left side of his face was paralyzed,
his special train for what was planned as a 29-city tour. He was accomhis words garbled. His doctor and Mrs. Wilson convinced
panied by his wife, Edith, a valet, and a maid; Secret Service agents,
him that he must return at once to Washington. “This is the
the White House physician, and coach full of newspaper reporters
greatest disappointment in my life,” he told them. The return
and newsreel photographers. (25) Wilson was in high spirits. At each
trip was a 1,700 mile nightmare, with the blinds drawn and no
stop, he found huge crowds of enthusiastic supporters. Each night
stops, even as crowds waited along the tracks and at stations.
he spoke to packed auditoriums on the need to preserve the League
On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a massive stroke that
in the treaty. During the day, there were stops at small towns where
paralyzed his left side. He remained a semi-invalid for the rest
Wilson spoke from the rear platform of his coach, his voice strained
of his life. He died on February 24, 1924, convinced to the end
from the effort to be heard. Beyond Kansas the weather turned mug- 14
that had his health not broken down on the tour, the public
gy; the interior of the cars grew uncomfortably hot and dusty. Wilson’s
At a stop at Columbus, Ohio
support he aroused for the League would have turned the tide.
strength began to ebb under the punishing strain. But there was no
Sept. 4, 1919, Woodrow Wilson receives
In 1921, the Senate finally ratified the peace treaty, but without
relief from the endless reception committees, the blaring bands, the
encouragement from a citizen.
U.S. membership in the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson’s
eager crowds. “They mean so well,” Wilson said to an assistant, “but
dream of a world free of war would be renewed in 1945, after another world war, when
they are killing me.” He suffered from constant headaches, but he would force a smile and
the United Nations came into being. (29)
tell the crowd, “I’ve had a great time here.” (26)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The railroads proved to be vital during Franklin Roosevelt’s four
terms in the White House. The 1930s and 1940s seemed to one
contemporary to be nothing but “one damn crisis after another.”
Not since the Civil War had the need for presidential leadership
been as great. The stock market crash in October 1929 triggered
the worst financial crisis in the nation’s history. On March 4, 1933,
when FDR was sworn in as the 32nd president, the Great Depression had
settled in. Fifteen million Americans — a fourth of the workforce — were unemployed;
credit was frozen and hope was in short supply. (30) To restore public confidence, Roosevelt used the radio to deliver a series of nationally broadcast “fireside chats,” in which
he talked about what the government was doing to bring relief. He used the railroads to
project his leadership in person. During his 13 years in office, throughout the Depression,
World War II, and four election campaigns, FDR racked up 243,000 miles of rail travel —
surpassing any previous presidential record. (31)
By FDR’s time, the presidential train had grown to impressive size. A powerful
steam locomotive pulled 14 cars, including baggage and communications cars, two dining
cars, a coach for the reporters and photographers, half a dozen sleeper cars, and a lounge
car for the press and presidential aides. Roosevelt, a gregarious and hospitable host, al-
15
On board the rebuilt “Ferdinand Magellan.” The wood-panelled
conference room doubled as a dining room.
1933-1945
ways had several family members, politicians, and VIPs along for the ride. Bringing up
the rear was the president’s car, now equipped with microphones on the rear platform and
loudspeakers mounted on the roof. (32)
Enroute, Roosevelt held meetings and conducted rolling press conferences. Like
his cousin Theodore, Franklin Roosevelt had an easy relationship with the press. Cigar and
cigarette smoke filled the press coach. Reporters sat around the president or on the floor,
scribbling down the presidential pronouncements and bantering with him. These long train
trips were hard on the newspapermen. Between stops at big cities, there was no laundry or
showers on the train; only the president’s car had bathing facilities. On one occasion, riding through hot and dusty Texas, the sweatstained reporters in desperation got off the
train during a watering stop and stood under
the water tank spout, fully clothed, to get some
blessed relief. (33)
Roosevelt’s train never travelled
more than 35 mph, by his doctor’s order. The
leg muscles in FDR’s paralyzed legs, the result
of polio, were so withered that he could not
stand the vibration of any higher speed. (34)
T h e re w a s a l o n g - s t a n d i n g
gentleman’s agreement between Roosevelt
and the press corps that no photograph was
ever taken showing the president in a wheel
chair. That agreement was never broken.
Whenever the train made a scheduled stop,
FDR would struggle into iron leg and hip
braces, concealed under his trousers. With
the aid of a cane he could slowly make his 16
way to the rear platform. Standing there, one “Happy Days Are Here Again.” FDR’s confident
manner cheered a worried nation.
hand firmly gripping the railing, and an arm
supported by one of his sons or an aide, he
would flash his famous grin and address the crowd: “My friends…” Everyone knew that
the president had been struck down by polio years earlier, but he hid his infirmity so
well that people didn’t think of him as a cripple, confined to a wheel chair. (35)
(continued on back page)
RAIL SAFETY AND TRACK REPAIR PRODUCTS SINCE 1904
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
17
D u r i n g Wo r l d
War II, Roosevelt’s train
trips were a closely-guarded
secret and were restricted
to visits to military bases,
defense plants, and his
vacation retreat in Warm
Springs, Georgia. In 1942,
at the request of the Secret
Service, the Association
of American Railroads
presented Roosevelt with a
The “Ferdinand Magellan” on display at the Gold Coast
refurbished and speciallyRailroad Museum in Miami, Florida.
fortified Pullman car, the
“Ferdinand Magellan,” which had been originally built in 1929. Named for the famous
Portuguese explorer, the 84-foot-long car was roomy enough to provide an office, a
conference/dining room, a kitchen, and private quarters for the president and family, a
maid, and a valet. (36) The gold-lettered name on the sides of the car was painted out to
give the appearance of an ordinary coach .
Built like a rolling safe, the “Magellan” was bomb-proof. The floor was reinforced
with 12 inches of concrete, embedded with sections of railroad rail. The outside walls were
armor-plated, the windows bullet-proof glass. There were two escape hatches in the roof
and a wheel chair lift. The “Magellan” possessed an early form of air-conditioning: a circulating pump forced water in copper tubes over 6,000 lbs of ice in bunkers under the car and
up into a ceiling evaporator, where blowers forced the chilled air down through ventilators.
A regular Pullman coach weighed 80 tons, while the “Magellan” topped 143 tons, making it
the heaviest passenger car ever built. When Vice President Harry Truman saw the vault-like
rear door, he hoped the Secret Service would never forget the combination! (37)
Harry Truman
FDR’s wartime arrivals and departures by train were as carefully hidden from
public view as his physical handicap. Whenever he travelled to New York City, his
unmarked train could enter Grand Central Station via an underground track (Track 61)
which led to a private railroad station in the basement of the nearby Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
The station had been built for VIP guests when the hotel opened in 1929. Roosevelt’s
armored automobile would be driven off the train and lifted up to street level in a freight
elevator. Track 61 is no longer in use; since 1945 a baggage car from FDR’s train has
remained on the siding, slowly rusting away. (38)
On April 13th, 1945, a day after FDR suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage at
his Warm Springs, Georgia
retreat, the presidential train 18
carried the president’s body
back to Hyde Park, New
York, for burial. Roosevelt
family members occupied
the “Magellan,” but because
the thick glass windows
could not be opened, FDR’s
coffin had to be placed
in the next car. In scenes
reminiscent of Lincoln’s
funeral train 80 years
earlier, thousands of people
stood alongside the track
and on station platforms,
weeping and praying as the Cadets and townspeople salute FDR’s funeral train as it passes
Presidential Special slowly through Clemson, South Carolina. April 1945.
rolled past.
1945-1953
Harry S. Truman was the only U.S. president who had actually
worked on the railroad. His first job after graduating from high
school in Independence, Missouri, was as a timekeeper for the Santa Fe Railway. He had come a long way from there when he took
over the presidency following FDR’s death. He had his own train now.
In March 1945, Truman escorted Winston Churchill, the British
wartime leader, from Washington to a college in Fulton, Missouri, where Churchill was
to give his famous “Iron Curtain” speech on the dangers of Soviet Russian expansion in
Europe. As they sat over drinks in the lounge of the “Ferdinand Magellan,” Truman turned
to his guest and said, “Mr. Churchill, we are going to be together on this train for some time.
I don’t want to rest on formality,
so I would ask you to call me
19
‘Harry.’” Churchill responded by
saying he would do so but only if
Truman called him “Winston.”
When Churchill revealed that
he had learned to play poker 50
years earlier, Truman organized a
poker party. Churchill proved not
to be a very good poker player.
When he left to go to the mens’
room, Truman leaned over to
Churchill’s place at the table and
counted his chips. “Men,” he said
to his aides, “you’re not being
very kind to our guest. He’s lost
$350.” (39)
Truman and Churchill about to depart for Fulton,
In h i s ow n pl ai n Missouri. March 3, 1946.
spoken Midwestern way, Harry
Truman was a master of the rear platform train speech. He frequently departed from
his prepared text and spoke as neighbor to neighbor, winning the crowd over. He
would introduce his wife, Bess, as “the Boss,” and then his daughter Margaret. There
Dwight D. Eisenhower
(continued from previous page)
1953-1961
The last true whistle-stop campaign took place in 1952,
when General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the hero of
D-Day, ran for the presidency on the Republican ticket.
The Eisenhower Special (18 cars in all) travelled for
two months through 45 states — practically the whole
country — with well over 200 stops for speeches. (44)
All the old-time hoopla and frenzied schedule of a
presidential rail trip were there: the numbingly frequent
stops to make the same short speech the candidate had made at the previous
stop, while holding a card to remind him what town this was and the names
of local politicians. Eisenhower’s wife, Mamie, with her trademark bangs,
would be introduced as “Mrs. Ike.” The candidate would apologize for staying
so short a time as the train pulled out. (45)
Eisenhower won by a landslide, but this last campaign by rail was
more sentimental than practical. The world had changed. By 1952, a president
could fly to several big cities and address large audiences all in one day. Radio
and television now brought the president into the nation’s living rooms.
was no formality when the Trumans travelled by train. At night, Truman washed his
own underwear and socks and hung them to dry in his presidential bedroom, as his
wife and daughter did in their compartment. (40)
Truman believed rail trips by a president were good for democracy. “You get a
real feeling of this country and the people in it when you’re on a train, speaking from
the back of a train,” he said. “And the further you get away from that, the worse off you
are, the worse off the country is…” (41)
Meeting citizens like this, the president could teach by example. At a stop in
Texas, where racial segregation was firmly in place, Truman leaned over the railing to
shake hands with a black woman. The whites in the crowd booed. But Truman didn’t
back down and told the crowd that black people had the same rights as white people. (42)
“Give ’em hell, Harry” was at his fighting best during the 1948 presidential
whistle-stop campaign. He was running for a second term against Thomas E. Dewey, the
governor of New York. The contrast between them could not have been greater: the folksy,
sometimes corny Truman and the sleekly-tailored Dewey with his pencil-thin mustache.
All the opinion polls showed Truman as the underdog, unpopular with many voters who
blamed him for the rash of postwar industrial strikes, inflation, and meat shortages. To
counter this, Truman embarked
on a whirlwind campaign 20
swing through 35 states and
covering 35,000 miles. By his
energy and perseverance he won
the biggest upset in American
political history. The morning
after winning, Truman had the
satisfaction of holding up a copy
of an early edition of the Chicago
Daily Tribune, which had been
rashly headlined “Dewey Defeats
Truman.” As the photographers
clicked away, Truman remarked, A happy Harry Truman rubs it in to the Chicago Daily
“That’s one for the books.” (43) Tribune. November 3, 1948.
21
The last hurrah for presidential
whistle-stop campaigns. Ike and
Mamie Eisenhower depart from
New York. September 14, 1952.
After 120 years of dominance,
railroads were no longer essential
to politics. Passenger rail service, once the near-
universal connection for small towns to the wider
world, declined and then disappeared. The personal
contact between the president and the people, which
the railroads had made possible, had gone, and with it
American democracy lost something of its vitality. As
the presidency has grown in power and importance,
it has become increasingly isolated. Security concerns
have forced the president to retreat behind television
screens or appear only in carefully-scripted public
events. Few citizens today can walk up to the president
to shake his hand and give him some advice. No longer
can a mother or father hold a child up high as the
presidential train passes by and say, “Now you’ve seen
the president of the United States. (46)
ALDON Company, Inc. | 3410 Sunset Avenue, Waukegan, Illinois 60087 | 847.623.8800 | aldonco.com | [email protected]
13
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35)
ack page)
The Town That Commanded The
President To Stop At
Their Railroad Station
E
arly in April, 1905, a few months after winning a landslide victory for a second term, President Theodore
Roosevelt was travelling by train through central
Texas, enroute to San Antonio for a reunion with his Spanish-American War comrades, the Rough Riders. His journey was well-publicized, and whenever a stop was made,
TR was greeted by cheering, enthusiastic crowds. Because
of time constraints, his train was not scheduled to stop at
Temple, Texas, population 7,000. At best, the train would
slow down as it passed through, and the president would
stand on the rear platorm of his private rail car, waving to
those who had assembled at the station.
This wasn’t good enough for Temple’s mayor, Fred
Hamill. The citizens of Temple had never seen a president
before. The city had jurisdiction over the
tracks within the city limits, so Mayor Hamill hastily convened a special session
of the City Council, to find a way to
make the president stop at Temple.
A telegram was dispatched
to TR’s train, via a station up the line,
addressed to the State Republican
22
Committee chairman who was travelling with Roosevelt. The telegram was
signed by Mayor Hamill, by the head of the
Chamber of Commerce, and by the elderly commander of
the local Cofederate Veterans Association:
“City Council has passed special emergency ordinance requiring all Presidential trains passing
through the city to stop at least ten minutes, but
in this case will compromise on five. Two thousand
school children dismisssed for day to honor Nation’s chief want better than a birdseye view. Entire citizenship, including veterans of late war, request application of a square deal for Temple, so
they can show regard for President Roosevelt. Five
minutes not enough, but will do if nothing better ...
In any event order stop at Temple. Please answer.”
When TR was shown the telegram, he had a good
laugh at this novel way of getting his attention. He wired
back that his train would stop at Temple, but he could only
spare three minutes.
With barely half an hour’s advance notice, the citizens of Temple closed up their stores, the bank, and the
post office, and gathered up the children. Everyone rushed
down to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad depot so
they would not miss the arrival of the president’s train. There
was not even time to dress the station in patriotic bunting.
When the train pulled into the station, he found the whole
town was there to give him a rousing Texas welcome.
23
REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
“Presidential Politics on
Tour: George Washington to
Woodrow Wilson” Anne C. Pluta,
Congress and the Presidency, 41,
(“Presidential Politics,” Pluta,
hereafter).
“The President Travels by Train
– Politics and Pullmans,” Bob
Withers, TLC PUBLISHING, 1996
(hereafter “The President Travels”,
Withers).
Ibid.
Ibid.
“Presidential Politics,” Pluta.
“A New Industry Takes Flight—
Railroads In The 1840s” ( www.
american-rails.com).
“Good Bye to Springfield: Lincoln’s
Farewell Address,” A Teacher’s
Resource Guide, Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum –
(presidentlincoln.org).
“The President Travels by Train”,
Withers.
“The Globalization of American
Infrastructure: The Shipping
Container and Freight
Transportation”, Matthew Heins,
Routledge, 2016.
“The President Travels by Train”,
Withers.
“The ‘Flying White House’,” The
Contemporary Presidency, Michael
John Burton, Wiley Online Library.
“Presidential Politics”, Pluta.
“The President’s Railway Station”
René Bache, Harper’s Weekly Vol. 51
No. 2641, Oct. 1907.
“The President Travels”, Withers.
Ibid.
Ibid.
“Presidential Travel – The Journey
from George Washington to
George W. Bush”, Richard J. Ellis,
University Press of Kansas, 2008.
“Roosevelt as We Knew Him – The
Personal Recollections of 150 of His
Friends and Associates,” Frederick
S. Wood, John C. Winston Co.,
Philadelphia, 1927, 300.
“Presidential Travels,” Ellis.
Theodore Roosevelt to John Hay,
8/9/1903 Letter# 2757. Pp 547548, The Letters of Theodore
Roosevelt Vol.III, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA,
1951.
“Campaigning on the B & O”, Bob
Withers, TRAINS Magazine, Feb.
1990.
22. “William Howard Taft, An Intimate
History” Judith Icke Anderson
W.W. Norton NY, 1981, 28.
23. Ibid., 34.
24. Ibid., 35, 36.
25. “Woodrow Wilson and the
Congressional Battle That Nearly
Killed Him” A. Scott Berg, ( www.
vanityfair.com/news/2013/08 )
August, 2013.
26. “The President Travels”, Withers.
Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. “Americans in Depression and
War”, Irving Bernstein, U.S.
Department of Labor, (www.dol.
gov/general/aboutdol/history/
chapter 5 ) (8-31/2016).
30. “The President Travels”, Withers.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. “Presidential Passage”, Steven
M.L. Aronson, Architectural
Digest, Vol. 65, No. 10.
October 2008.
34. “The President Travels”, Withers.
35. “Presidential Passage”, Aronson.
36. a)“The President Travels”, Withers
b) “All About Trains Run For The
President of The United States.”
New York State Railroads, (www.
kinglyheirs.com).
37. a) www.untappedcities.com The
Secrets of Grand Central Part 3
b) www.columbia.edu, Joseph
Brennan, Abandoned Stations,
Grand Central Terminal, Waldorf
Astoria Platform.
38. “The President Travels”, Withers.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. “Campaigning On The B & O”, Bob
Withers, Trains magazine, Feb. 1990.
44. “The President Travels”, Withers.
45. Ibid.
46. a) DALLAS (Texas) MORNING
NEWS, April 7, 1905.
b) BERKELEY DAILY GAZETTE,
6/5/1936.
c) The Democrat (McKinney,
Tex.), April 13, 1905, University of
North Texas Libraries, The Portal
to Texas History, texashistory.
unt.edu; crediting Collin County
Genealogical Society.
For the full story of the
railroads and the American
presidency, see Bob Wither’s
classic book, The President
Travels by Train—Politics
and Pullmans, published
1996 by TLC Publishing
Co. It is well worth seeking
out at your library or on
the internet. Bob Withers
24
has also written articles on
railroad history for Trains
magazine and other publications. We want to thank him
for his help in preparing our own article on this fascinating
subject of the railroads and the presidents.
PHOTO CREDITS:
The presidential cameos are all in the public domain and were
acquired through Wikipedia: presidential portraits.
This unusual municipal ordinance was on the
Temple city books as late as 1948 when Harry Truman
made his famous campaign swing through Texas,
stopping in Temple. (47)
We would like to extend special thanks to the
extremely friendly and helpful folks at the Temple
Railroad & Heritage Museum (Craig Ordner), The
Temple Public Library (Liz Graves, Lynn McIver),
and The Temple Visitors Center (Sennett Farias) who
helped us research this story.
1. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons
(Seal of the President of the United
States) .
2. G e t t y I m a g e : A r c h i v e P h o t o
#96810369 .
3. Courtesy, American-Rails.com.
4. Courtesy, Pennsylvania Historical &
Railroad Museum. Painting by Grif
Teller.
5. Courtesy, Division of Work & Industry,
American National History Museum,
Smithsonian Institution.
6. C o u r t e s y, A b r a h a m L i n c o l n
Presidential Library & Museum, Image
LR-464: “Farewell to Springfield.” artist,
Reynold Jones.
7. Courtesy, National Archives & Records
Administration: Image #524604.
8. Cour tesy, Oakland Museum of
California. Photographer, Andrew
J. Russell.
9. Courtesy, Library of Congress. Image
# 91732552, photo by S. M. Fassett,
1865.
10. Courtesy, Houghton Library, Harvard
University. Image: Roosevelt 560.52
1905-082.
11. Courtesy, Bob Withers, from “The
President Travels by Train: Politics &
Pullmans.” Original image: National
Archives.
12. G e t t y I m a g e : A rc h i ve P h o t o :
#96809989.
13. Getty Image: Bettman: #515453922.
14. Courtesy, Bob Withers, original image:
Woodrow Wilson House.
15. Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Photographer: alexf.
16. Courtesy, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library & Museum, image
73-238.
17. Gold Coast R ailroad Museum.
Photographer: Ebyabe. Used by
permission.
18. Courtesy Pickens County (South
Carolina) Public Library Flickr Feed:
image C454.
19. Courtesy, National Park Service. Harry
S. Truman Library and Museum. Photo
73-2195. Photographer: Abbie Rowe.
20. G e t t y I m a g e : A rc h i ve P h o t o :
143128720.
21. Or iginal photo by Associated
Press. Permission granted to use.
Image scan courtesy of Dwight D.
Eisenhower Presidential Library &
Museum. Image 82-I IV-686.
22. Detail of image #10.
23. Library of Congress. Underwood &
Underwood. 4-14-1905. #2010649463.
24. Courtesy, Bob Withers.
17
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