Woody vs, Teddy

Intrigue from July 1913

The Connersville Evening News was on top of this yarn, one that somehow inspired the women of Fairfield to stand their ground on national politics. The deal was, somebody wrote something in a newspaper that was carried in another newspaper and the Fairfield Ladies Aid Society wasn't happy about that.

“The best recollection of the writer is that it was from the Richmond Item and its position in the paper and style of setting indicated that the item had been copied from another paper (which was not identified).”

The gist of it was that the Aid Society had sent bits of fabric off to Presidential candidates Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, hoping to get them to sign the squares of cloth and send them back. Apparently, Wilson had done that; Roosevelt had not.

OK, good enough. 

Wilson was the Democrat. Roosevelt had run as a Republican before becoming the Bull Moose party. The news item said Teddy the Bear returned the square without comment or signature and “therefore, Mr. Wilson held a high place in their regard while Roosevelt, if a candidate, could not get a vote from the society.”

So the Aid Society found that a bit unfair – and said so. The Connersville paper explained:

“Mrs. Wilbur Logan writes the News to say that the item did the society serious harm. She wishes it clearly understood that the society is in no sense political. That Mr. Roosevelt would receive the same courteous treatment as would Mr. Wilson should he enter their room.”

Mrs. Logan said the squares came from her, not the society. “She regards it as noble on the part of the great men of the nation to respond as they did.”

Furthermore: “The ladies of the society can feel assured that the News had no other part in the matter than to pass along what evidently had been more than once before in print. On the other hand, the free advertising of their good and public spirited work ought to help rather than harm the society. Who knows but it may bring bids for the quilt when put up for sale from afar and from sources not dreamed of.”

No news on how all that turned out.

Wilson was re-elected in 1916 and doubtless thanked Fairfield for making it possible.

Roosevelt got his face on the side of a hill in South Dakota.