The Smoke-filled Room: A Utahn's Role in the 1920 GOP Convention

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 45, 1977, No. 4

That Smoke-filled Room: A Utahn's Role in the 1920 GOP Convention

BY JEFFREY L. SWANSON

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY LOOKED forward to the 1920 presidential election with enthusiasm. The 1918 congressional elections had given the GOP a solid majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Although the Democrats under Woodrow Wilson had controlled the White House since 1913, the Republicans, with their senatorial power, had thwarted Wilson's dream of American participation in the League of Nations. Thus, Wilson and the Democrats were determined to make the League a major issue in the 1920 election. According to political pundits, a united Republican party could win the presidency. But could the Republicans stay united w r hen they were at odds among themselves over the League? The 1920 Republican National Convention provided the answer.

Wielding considerable influence in shaping the destiny of this convention and his party was the chairman of the Utah delegation and senior senator from Utah, Reed Smoot. A son of Mormon pioneer parents, Reed Smoot was born on January 19, 1862, in Salt Lake City. His father, Abraham O. Smoot, was mayor of that city. In his early youth, the family moved to Provo where he was raised. By his early twenties he was a disciple of Republicanism. Then, in 1900 the thirty-eight-year-old Smoot was ordained a member of the LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles by Lorenzo Snow. As an apostle, Reed Smoot served as a "special witness for Christ" until his death forty-one years later. A few years later, in January 1903, the Utah State Legislature elected Smoot to the United States Senate where he stood as a special witness for conservatism for the next thirty years. By 1920 Senator Smoot had acquired a national reputation as a Republican party leader. A personal advisor to Presidents Roosevelt and Taft, he became one of the patriarchs of the Senate. Nevertheless, historians have tended to overlook the role played by Reed Smoot in the 1920 Republican National Convention, an assembly called the "most managed political convention in history."

The political climate of the convention can be better understood by looking at events that preceded it. During the spring and summer months, before the Chicago convention, a large number of presidential candidates rounded up delegates in state primaries and conventions. So many candidates emerged with widespread delegate support that none entered the national convention within sight of a first ballot nomination. The candidates came from both ends of the political spectrum and from all parts of the nation. Among the front-runners for the nomination were Frank O. Lowden of Illinois, Hiram W. Johnson of California, Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts, Warren G. Harding of Ohio, Leonard Wood of New York, and Herbert Hoover of California.

Besides the fight of the various candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, a major rift developed over the Treaty of Versailles and the possible United States entry into the League of Nations. One wing of the party favored ratification of the treaty and entry into the League. The other wing absolutely opposed the treaty as it stood and American participation in the League in any form. The middle ground was held by those Republicans who favored ratifying the treaty and League with reservations. Republican leaders realized they would have to write a political platform plank dealing with this issue that would not split the party into two or possibly three factions. The Chicago papers gave as much news coverage to this aspect of the convention as they did to the presidential nomination.

Insight into the inner workings of the convention, and Senator Smoot's role in it, can be found in the senator's diary. From the Smoot diary, and the newspapers, it can be seen that the Utah senator played a pivotal role in forming the Republican platform and selecting the GOP presidential nominee.

On June 6, 1920, when Senator Smoot arrived in Chicago, he was concerned with a possible split in the Republican party over the League of Nations issue. Regarding the presidential race, Smoot believed Harding would be the nominee. Before the convention Smoot had written a letter to his close associate James Clove explaining his support for Harding.

I believe that the Utah delegation should go to the national convention uninstructed. Everything's to be gained by that course and nothing lost. The opinion among many of the politicians is that Senator Harding stands as good a chance to receive the nomination as any man in the race. He is not antagonizing any of the other candidates, and wherever he goes he has made a wonderful impression. Up to date no one can tell who the nominee will be. Senator Harding would make a wonderful president.

Utah went to the national convention with eight delegate votes— four at-large and two from each congressional district. The delegation included Mormons and non-Mormons and, for the first time, a woman. Those chosen were Reed Smoot, Jeanette Hyde, J. W. Eldredge, Jr., J. C. Lynch, C. P. Cardon, L. R. Anderson, Harold P. Fabian, and C. E. Loose. The Utah delegation garnered special attention from the candidates for two reasons. First, Utah was one of the last states to vote on a roll call, and on a close vote the eight Utah delegates could be crucial to victory. Second, the candidates and power factions recognized Senator Smoot's influence as a major convention force. One of the non-Mormon delegates from Utah remarked that "he had never seen such interest displayed in the Utah delegation in a national convention."

Senator Smoot also recognized his own importance, for after he visited various campaign headquarters, he wrote in his diary: "I was greeted by leading Republicans of the country and congratulated for my spendid work in the Senate." On June 7 the Utah delegation caucused and elected Reed Smoot chairman.

When committee assignments were made Smoot was appointed to serve on the convention's Committee on Resolutions (platform committee). At the same meeting, Senator Smoot decided to resign his position on the Republican National Committee. Part of the eastern press saw his replacement as a sign that he was losing his political power. Smoot foresaw the reaction and wrote in his diary that the eastern wing of the party would not understand his resignation and would "claim I was defeated."

One of the charges leveled at the 1920 Republican National Convention is that it was controlled by a small cabal of senators. The evidence to support this contention mounts as the Reed Smoot diary is examined in conjunction with the convention's proceedings. Senator Smoot made his first reference to this influential group in his diary when he and several other senators met in George Harvey's hotel room to discuss the staffing of convention posts and the League of Nations platform plank. Harvey, a Democrat-turned-Republican who considered himself to be a presidential kingmaker, was the editor and publisher of Harvey's Weekly, a news magazine, and later the editor of the North American Review. Of the meeting in Harvey's room Smoot wrote "that it was decided to make the temporary officers—permanent." This move gave Henry Cabot Lodge, senator from Massachusetts and a political ally of Smoot, the chairmanship, a position crucial in rulings on recesses and adjournments. This meeting was one of the first signs of Senator Smoot's role in the inner circle of politicians who guided the destiny of the 1920 Republican convention.

On June 8 the Committee on Resolutions met and appointed a subcommittee of thirteen, including Smoot, to write the Republican platform. 10 The greatest challenge facing the platform subcommittee was the writing of a League of Nations plank that would not split the party. Senators William E. Borah of Idaho and Hiram Johnson of California threatened to bolt the party if the platform supported United States entrance into the League. Faced with this pressure and with the need to report a platform to the convention, the subcommittee organized a small group, again including Smoot, to work solely on formulating a compromise League of Nations plank that most delegates could accept.

This was a sensitive job for Utah's apostle-senator who faced a personal dilemma over the League of Nations issue. The voters of Utah had supported President Woodrow Wilson for reelection in 1916 and had expressed overwhelming approval of the League of Nations. Many of the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during the October 1919 church conference, came out strongly in favor of American support of the League. LDS President Heber J. Grant saw the League of Nations as a great opportunity to bring peace to the world. Smoot's opposition to the League put him at variance with the majority of the church's apostles. During the Senate debate over the League, Smoot had softened his opposition and supported ratification of the Wilson peace treaty with reservations; however, he was noticeably quiet on the Senate floor when the League was debated. Because the senator was up for reelection in 1920, he could only be helped with a League of Nations plank that would not antagonize Utah voters.

In his June 9 diary entry Smoot recorded his fear that chances for a party bolt were increasing. Unless a compromise was reached over the League of Nations plank, he felt the party was faced with a certain split. Such a division, he believed, would result in the election of a Democrat as it had in 1912 when the Republicans had split between Taft and Roosevelt. The two factions of the Republican party together had outpolled the Democratic nominee, but, with the GOP divided, Wilson had been elected by a sizeable electoral plurality.

At 1:00 A.M. on the morning of June 10 Smoot met with Senators Borah, Frank B. Brandegee, and Joseph Medill McCormick in George Harvey's room to try to work out a compromise. Although Smoot tried to be a conciliator, his efforts were futile. He recorded that he had tried "to reach a compromise, at 3:00 A.M. [but] had made little headway." He went to bed very discouraged. The Committee on Resolutions was scheduled to meet at 9:00 A.M. As of 8:30 A.M. there was still not a compromise plank on the League of Nations to present to the subcommittee.

Previous accounts are unclear about what took place next, and none seems to give credit to Senator Smoot for his role in the compromise that saved the convention from a devastating schism. Books dealing with this subject mention Smoot's presence at the meeting that morning, but they do not credit him as the major force behind the resulting compromise. Once again Smoot's diary gives insight into what took place. The senator wrote:

I met Borah at 8:50 A.M. ready to enter the committee room. I called him aside and read him a proposed plank or substitute for the Crane or Mills plank and asked him if he would consider it. He called McCormick (and I got Ogden Mills) and we went into room 222 of the Auditorium Hotel and I closed the door and stated we would not leave the room until we had reached an agreement.

The authorship of the plank Smoot submitted is attributed to several men. One source states that George Harvey wrote the compromise plank. Another claims it was the work of several individuals. Smoot's diary appears to solve the controversy. He said the plank was written by Senator and former Secretary of State Elihu Root.

Part of the compromise plank stated that the Republicans would enter

. . . such agreements with other nations of the world as shall meet the full duty of America to civilization and humanity, in accordance with American ideals and without surrendering the right of the American people to exercise its judgment and its power in favor of justice and peace.

The plank avoided a direct stand on the issue. First, it did not pledge the Republican party to ratify the treaty and enter the League of Nations; on the other hand it did not say that: the Republicans would not do so. Second, the plank praised the Senate for not ratifying the treaty without the proper safeguards of American democracy. Third, it stated that any League of Nations commitment must be in full harmony with American ideals and the principles of George Washington (no entangling alliances).

Those who supported the League could accept the plank because it agreed to international association, at least in principle. Those opposing the League could live with the plank because it denounced the Wilson covenant signed in Paris and the president's refusal to allow the Senate to add any amendments. The Republicans formed a plank that meant all things to all people.

After Borah, McCormick, and Ogden L. Mills accepted Smoot's proposal of the Root compromise, the committee as a whole adopted the plank and forwarded it to the convention. Smoot and Sen. James Watson, committee chairman, rushed the completed platform to the floor of the convention where it was overwhelmingly approved.

Smoot enjoyed the praise of party leaders and the pro-Republican press for his role in the compromise. One New York paper wrote that "Senator Smoot was there as conciliator, adjustor, regarding the possibility of a fight on the floor as nothing short of a calamity." Senator Borah stated that ". . . the work done by Senator Smoot in initiating this compromise has saved the Republican party." The chairman of the Republican National Committee, William H. Hays, put his arm around Senator Smoot and said, "This is the greatest day's work you have done in your life, a crowning achievement." Smoot's hometown newspaper editorialized: "Today Senator Reed Smoot stands as the biggest man at the Chicago Convention with all factions of the party praising Utah's Senator for the splendid work he accomplished yesterday in the platform committee."

When the convention reconvened on Friday, June 11, it was to nominate the Republican candidate for president of the United States. As indicated before, the candidates were legion. Warren G. Harding's campaign manager, Harry M. Daugherty, predicted that Harding would be nominated in a smoke-filled room, at 2:00 A.M. in the morning, due to a convention deadlock. Four ballots were held on Friday and no candidate came close to receiving a majority of the delegates votes. Four hundred and ninety-three votes out of nine hundred and eighty-four cast were needed for the nomination. After the fourth ballot, Smoot requested Chairman Lodge to recess the convention. Despite the strong opposition of many of the delegates, Lodge ruled that Senator Smoot's motion to adjourn had carried. A reporter asked Smoot why he had moved for adjournment, and he replied, "Oh, there is going to be a deadlock, and we'll have to work out some solution; and we wanted the night to think it over."

The evening of June 11 would go down in political history as "the night of the smoke-filled room." George Harvey's room at the Blackstone Hotel again provided the meeting place of the Republican Senate chieftains. Seven senators met that night with Harvey: Smoot, Lodge of Massachusetts, McCormick of Illinois, William M. Calder of New York, Charles Curtis of Kansas, Brandegee of Connecticut, and Watson of Indiana. Other important Republicans were in and out of Harvey's room throughout the night. What happened in that room has never been fully documented. Different writers have arrived at decidedly different opinions about what took place. Smoot's role is obscured by the news blackout observed by those present. However, some stories that have emerged from the famous meeting merit investigation.

From the beginning, Smoot seems to have been the only one present to have had a decided opinion on who the nominee should be. He continually pushed the name of Harding to anyone that w r ould listen. As the night progressed, name after name was discussed and discarded. The only one that kept surfacing was Harding. As Smoot had said when he left for the convention, "Harding has not antagonized any of the other candidates."

Several accounts agree that the cabal of senators seriously considered the possibility of nominating the Mormon apostle for president. James A. Farley, Democrat and future postmaster general of the United States, told Creed Haymond:

I have been reliably informed that Reed Smoot was offered the nomination for the Presidency of the United States, on the Republican ticket, if he would deny his faith—his being a Mormon would make it impossible for him to receive any such nomination.

Several years later Haymond asked Smoot if what Farley had said was true. Smoot replied: "In two national conventions I was offered the nomination for President of the United States, if I could turn against my Church." Smoot's grandson, Samuel P. Smoot, wrote:

I don't believe that the Senator actually sought the nomination for his party. I remember my Dad [Harlow Smoot] saying that his father was asked to be a candidate by Republican leaders but declined on perhaps more than one occasion. My Dad did tell me in particular that when Harding was nominated and during the meetings at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago and during "the smoke filled room" incident, when approached to see if he would be willing to run for President, Senator Smoot made the statement that he would rather be a deacon in the Mormon Church with its possibilities than President of the United States, and that he would not want to run for the office because it would just stir up all the old animosities against the Mormon Church. My Dad was in the Blackstone Hotel with his father at the time but he was not in the smoke-filled room. ... As I understand it, on both occasions that the Senator more or less declined the nomination as a Presidential candidate the Republican nominee was elected.

Senator Smoot's diary is very sketchy as to what happened that night. He never mentions his own name, or anyone else's, being considered for the nomination. However, he did record his fight to nominate Harding and his personal ties to the Ohio senator:

McKirkwood of the Kansas City Star was opposed to Harding and I had George Harvey arrange a meeting which he did. I tryed [sic] to get him to withdraw his opposition. ... I saw Senator Harding and told him of the situation before going to bed.

After the meeting, as Smoot went to his hotel room, he met a reporter from the New York Telegram. Smoot leaked the news that a group of senators meeting in Harvey's room had decided upon Harding at about 2:00 in the morning.

On Saturday, June 12, Senator Smoot was at the convention early to carry out the strategy formulated the night before. He contacted many delegates, assuring them that Harding would be nominated without hurting the sensitivities of the other candidates. Smoot alluded to the strategy in his diary. He wrote that few men knew about the agreement and fewer thought it could be brought about. "I told the Utah delegation Harding would be nominated. ... It was decided it was best to recess the convention after the eighth ballot. The reason being to placate the two main candidates Lowden and Wood."

The senatorial cabal decided not to press Harding's candidacy on an early ballot. They waited until the major candidates had exhausted their delegate strength. After the seventh ballot, Smoot and Lodge were put in a position directly opposed to their actions of Friday. The major candidates wanted the convention to adjourn until Monday morning, giving them an extra day to increase their delegate strength. Smoot and Lodge waged a major battle to keep the convention from taking a weekend recess. The Chicago heat, the humidity, and hotel prices worked in favor of Smoot and Lodge. The delegates voted to continue the balloting.

The eighth ballot showed that none of the major candidates was getting any closer to the nomination, although Senator Harding was gaining in delegate strength. Smoot was the only Utah delegate to vote for Harding until the ninth ballot. After the eighth ballot the Ohio delegation sensed a bandwagon starting to roll in favor of their native son. They were astonished and angered when Smoot moved for a short recess. He left the platform and went to the Ohio delegation to explain his motion. He told them that there must be time spent to placate Lowden and Wood before Harding was nominated. Otherwise, they might not fully support Harding's candidacy. After the recess it was evident that the senators had done their work well. Delegation after delegation switched to Harding, including six of Smoot's colleagues in Utah. On the tenth ballot, Harding was nominated. Not only was Smoot a Mormon apostle, he was a political prophet.

Shortly after the voting, Smoot asked Harding "who he wanted for Vice-President and he thought it best not to suggest anyone." The convention nominated Gov. Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts for vice-president on the first ballot. Once the nominations had been completed, the Chicago Tribune interviewed Smoot for his reaction to the candidates. He replied "the ticket is entirely satisfactory to me. So is the platform. Senator Harding will make a wonderful President."

Smoot's enthusiasm for Harding was returned by the presidential candidate for the apostle. Harding invited Smoot to accompany him on the train from Chicago to Washington, D. C. While traveling, they had a conference about the upcoming presidential campaign. During one of those meetings, Harding made an impressive offer to Smoot:

Senator Harding told me yesterday that I was to be part of his administration and if I wanted to be Secretary of the Treasury I [had] but to ask for it. He told me he was not making promises for appointments but wanted me to know how he felt.

Smoot preferred Congress to the cabinet.

In review, it is clear that Senator Smoot played a major role in shaping the Chicago convention. His work on the platform committee helped save the Republicans from a disastrous split over the League of Nations. His work on behalf of Harding; was important in the Ohio senator's nomination. His skill in placating the other candidates, to keep the party united, helped dissolve some of the bitterness that naturally would follow a convention defeat. Finally, the question still hovers—in the smoke-filled room was Reed Smoot offered the presidential nomination and could he have won it? That question may never be answered, but the possibilities for speculation are fascinating.

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