Nelson Johnson - Boardwalk Empire - The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City

There was a definite class distinction between the large hotel owners along the Boardwalk and the smaller hotels and boardinghouses throughout the town. The Boardwalk hotels featured themselves as hosts to the refined elements of society. “Booze, broads, and gambling” were offensive to them and their clientele. But the backbone of the resort were the blue-collar visitors who stayed in boarding-houses. They came to town to let loose and enjoy the pleasures they couldn’t find in Philadelphia. The boardinghouse owners were firmly in Kuehnle’s camp, while the Boardwalk hoteliers viewed him as a power hungry bully. Their chance to launch an attack on the Commodore came in the gubernatorial election of 1910.

The election of 1910 was a milestone for both Kuehnle and New Jersey. The Republican candidate for governor was Vivian Lewis, a favorite of the Commodore. The Atlantic County Republican Organization was the first to endorse Lewis’ bid for governor. Kuehnle was friendly with Lewis and knew his candidate could be counted on to overlook the way things were done in the resort. Lewis’ opponent was a scholarly reformer, Woodrow Wilson, who campaigned on a pledge to wipe out corruption at all levels of government.

Woodrow Wilson was the son, grandson, and nephew of Presbyterian ministers. While a religious background was common among politicians of his day, Wilson was a crusader who saw things in black and white. Impersonal in his relations, he attracted supporters in much the same way people latch on to an abstract principle. A visionary and idealist, he never permitted personal feelings to interfere with his policies and couldn’t forgive supporters who failed to measure up to his standards.

When Wilson entered New Jersey politics, the state was a prime example of what reformers throughout the country were battling. In New Jersey, according to one observer, “The domination of politics by corporation-machine alliances had reached its full flower.” The state was ruled by an oligarchy composed of the captains of industry, in particular, the railroad and utility interests. Republican and Democratic bosses working hand-in-glove had permitted these special interests to become entrenched in New Jersey’s political machinery. Throughout the state there was a deep-seated hostility to large corporations and the special privileges they received from state government. There were progressives in both parties who had managed to elect candidates to the legislature, but the governor’s office remained a captive of the special interests. By 1910, the party bosses knew the public was primed to elect a reform governor. The state Democrats were desperately seeking a new leader who could carry their party into power on the crest of the progressive wave that was rolling over the country.

Woodrow Wilson was there at the right time. A transplant from Virginia, Wilson had come to New Jersey to serve as president of Princeton University. His background as a Southerner and a minister’s son blended well with the contempt for machine politics that prevailed in educated Northern circles. Wilson was a political scientist and a noted author. His book Congressional Government , published in 1885, had attracted widespread interest and won lasting acclaim as a classic of American political analysis. From the mid-1880s to 1910, he was recognized as the country’s most authoritative writer on political science. Wilson was also the master of the spoken word and used his talents to generate support for the academic community in a way no university president before him had. While at Princeton, he attracted greater attention than any other college president in American history.

Wilson’s tenure as president of Princeton University gave him a pulpit from which to speak out on political issues of the day. Shortly after the 1904 election, Wilson emerged as a spokesman for conservative Democrats in opposition to William Jennings Bryan. In 1906 he received several votes in the New Jersey Legislature as a minority Democratic candidate for United States Senator. There was even talk of him as a dark horse candidate for President or Vice President in 1908. As spokesman for the anti-Bryan Democrats, Wilson won the attention of a number of Wall Street financiers and politicians who began boosting him as a presidential candidate. Several prominent editors, including George Harvey of Harper’s Weekly , Henry Watterson of the Louisville Courier Journal , and William Laffin of the New York Sun went out of their way to give Wilson positive exposure.

George Harvey became a loyal supporter of Wilson after hearing him make an address at Princeton. In 1906, Harvey began printing a headline across the cover of each issue of Harper’s Weekly; it read, “For President—Woodrow Wilson.” The publisher wanted to be a kingmaker and assigned a staff writer to begin “advertising” Wilson with a view to making him Governor of New Jersey in 1910 and a presidential candidate in 1912. Harvey took it upon himself to run interference for Wilson’s candidacy, making the initial contact with the state’s Democratic boss, former U.S. Senator James Smith.

Jim Smith was an old-time political boss, likeable and gentlemanly, who had held a prominent position in both the business and political life of New Jersey for more than a generation. From his headquarters in Newark, he dominated the powerful Essex County Democratic machine and was the state’s most powerful Democratic power broker. Smith didn’t need much convincing. New Jersey’s Democrats were a minority and if they were to have any hope of succeeding in the election of 1910, they had to run a reform candidate. The nomination for governor was offered to Wilson with no strings attached. If elected, he would have a free hand as governor.

Wilson was a dynamic campaigner. Sounding much like a fire-and-brimstone preacher, he pounded away at his opponent’s weaknesses. He reminded voters that his opponent had been handpicked by the Republican machine and would be no more than a caretaker for the special interests. Wilson campaigned against the boss system and asserted he could break it up through political reforms and by helping independent men gain election to the legislature. His candidacy held out the promise of not only the regeneration of the Democratic Party, but of all state government.

During his campaign, Woodrow Wilson appeared in Atlantic City before a group of prohibitionists and reformers. The rally had been organized by Kuehnle critic, newspaperman Harvey Thomas. Speaking before a crowd of 2,000—mostly out-of-towners—Wilson promised that one of the first places he would root out corruption and bossism was in Atlantic City.

The Commodore saw this preacher’s son for the very real threat he was. Kuehnle knew that a zealous moralist in the governor’s office would be trouble for Atlantic City. It’s likely there was more than one all-night strategy session at the Corner presided over by the Commodore. The Republican organization pulled out all the stops in an effort to elect Vivian Lewis. In less than six months time, there were 2,000 new voters registered in Atlantic City and the turnout on Election Day was a record one, with Lewis carrying the town handily. Much to the Commodore’s dismay, Wilson was elected together with Democratic majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Upon checking the election returns in Atlantic City, Woodrow Wilson noticed that his Republican opponent had received more votes than the city had registered voters.

Governor Wilson was determined to drive Kuehnle from power. Riding the crest of popularity created by his victory, Wilson had the legislature form a committee to investigate election fraud, focusing on Atlantic City. The “Macksey Committee,” named for its Chairman, Assemblyman William P. Macksey, found an abundance of evidence. The committee held 19 sessions at which it took testimony of more than 600 witnesses, producing more than 1,400 pages of sworn statements. The committee’s findings could have served as a basis for another political treatise by Wilson.