My remarks were, as I
stated, for the purpose of saying Massachusetts would, if no other
State would, take such action to rebuke the city of Chicago; would say
to Chicago that if it would have the right to invite Americans to meet
in that city, first Americanize the City Hall. That was my chief
purpose of rising to my feet. If Chicago's soldiers, if Illinois'
soldiers still think that I have not made reparation for what they
believe was the intention of my remarks, then I say to them that no
higher respect, no deeper affection exists for them than in the hearts
of the men of Massachusetts."
Colonel Herbert's assault upon Chicago's mayor in itself is only half
significant. It is only wholly so when its reception is considered.
Colonel Herbert will have none of Chicago until it has purged itself
of its municipal leader. He remembered, perhaps, the assertion that it
is "the sixth largest German city in the world." He might have said as
much in a newspaper interview as he said on the floor of the caucus
had he been asked about the Illinois city as a meeting place for
soldiers, and, perhaps, the editor would have given to it a half
column of space; in the larger dailies, less. But when men of the
army, navy, and marine corps, from every battlefield in France, from
every State in the union, voice their approval so thunderously; when
they stand on their seats and cheer; when they so positively overrule
the recommendation of committeemen who have studiously considered the
matter, presumably from all angles, it means much.
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