The Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Published by
THE
OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
BOARD OF EDITORS
WILLIAM CHARVAT, Ohio State
University
HENRY C. SHETRONE, Ohio State Museum
WILLIAM E. SMITH, Miami University
ALBERT T. VOLWILER, Ohio University
FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER, Ohio State
University
CARL WITTKE, Western Reserve University
Editor
........................................
JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Associate Editor ..............................HENRY J. CAREN
Assistant Editor
.......................................... S. WINIFRED SMITH
Communications and contributions, books
for review, and all other matters
pertaining to the editing of the Quarterly
should be forwarded to the Editor,
Ohio State Museum, High Street at
Fifteenth Avenue, Columbus 10. The
Quarterly is distributed free to Society members. Annual
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$2.50; individual copies, $0.75.
The Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society disclaims responsi-
bility for the statements and opinions
of the contributors.
Entered as second-class matter November
14, 1935, at the post office at
Columbus, Ohio, under the Act of August
24, 1912.
PETER WITT, TRIBUNE OF THE PEOPLE 1
by CARL WITTKE
Professor of History and Dean of the
Graduate School,
Western Reserve University
Peter Witt's exciting and colorful
career, which closed October
20, 1948, covered a span of nearly
eighty years. He was born
when the country was in the turmoil of
reconstruction after the
Civil War; he died amidst the perplexing
problems precipitated
by two world wars which rocked the very
foundations of civili-
zation. His career was in many ways
unique; in other respects it
paralleled those of Clarence Darrow,
Eugene V. Debs, John P.
Altgeld, "Golden Rule" Jones,
and many others who were the
products of a time when honest and
generous souls embarked on a
new quest for social justice.
These decades were marked by corrupt
alliances between politi-
cal bosses and the corporate interests,
the mounting struggle between
the "haves" and the "have
nots," and the attempt to restore a proper
balance between political and economic
forces for the benefit of
the people as a whole. Monopoly power
was growing; controls in
the public interest seemed ineffective;
the same forces were breeding
millionaires and tramps; the Gospel of
Wealth was more powerful
than the Social Gospel, and great and
swollen fortunes were accu-
mulated and administered with striking
disregard for the social
conscience. The income tax was
considered socialistic and com-
munistic; the farmers who joined the
Populist party to "raise less
corn and more hell," were regarded
as anarchists; and Bryan was
looked upon in 1896 by conservatives as
a positive menace to the
Republic of the Fathers. John Hay called
him "a blatant ass of
the prairies," and a leading New
York paper likened him to
"Altgeld, the anarchist,"
"Debs the revolutionist," and "other des-
peradoes of that stripe."
1 This account is based primarily on two
boxes of letters and notes of interviews
with Witt by Louis Post made available to me by the
Witt family. Mr. Post at one
time contemplated writing a biography of Peter Witt.
361
362
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Laissez faire had been twisted into a
philosophy to foster not
competition but monopoly power to
control both production and
prices. Many rich men had not yet
learned their social respon-
sibility as "trustees for the
poor," who made money "according to
the laws of business and spent it
according to the laws of God."
William Dean Howells remarked that
"the dollar [was] the measure
of every value, and the stamp of every
success," and William
Howard Taft in 1915 warned of the
dangers of a growing plutoc-
racy. In this Gilded Age of
"conspicuous consumption" by the
specially privileged, labor struggled
desperately for recognition
and for a larger share in the wealth it
helped to create. Govern-
ment attempted to control business in
the public interest, and the
voters had to decide to what extent
"free enterprise" must yield to
a "welfare state." The
Progressive movement, which originated at
the turn of the century, cut across
party lines, but it was smothered
in World War I and its aftermath and had
to be revived in the
early 1930's. Radical reformers like Henry George, Edward
Bellamy, and Henry Demarest Lloyd
offered specific panaceas, but
their audiences remained relatively
small. On the national scene,
Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and
Robert M. LaFollette
carried the banners of the reform
movement, and many cities and
states had notable reform mayors and
governors.
The main factors in the making of a man
are the genes which
he inherits from his ancestors and the
forces of environment that
shape his earlier years. Witt's father
was born in Germany in
1822. Apprenticed to a blacksmith, he
became a skilled old world
craftsman. Born a Catholic, he broke
with all organized religion
and proclaimed himself not only a
freethinker but an atheist.
Whether he actually participated in the
German Revolution of
1848 has not been established, but
certainly he was of the spirit of
that notable group of German
"Forty-eighters" and radicals who
came to the United States after the
failure of liberalism in their
fatherland.2
Christopher Witt arrived in America in
1849 and found em-
ployment in the Baldwin Locomotive Works
of Philadelphia. In
1853 he married Anna Probeck, a German
girl who had come to
2 See
Carl Wittke, "The German Forty-Eighters in America: A Centennial Ap-
praisal," American Historical
Review, LIII (July 1949), 711-725.
PETER WITT 363
the United States three years earlier.
She bore him many children,
of whom six died in infancy. Like many
other German immigrants
of the period, Christopher Witt became
an antislavery Republican,
and when Lincoln called for volunteers
in 1861, he enlisted for
ninety days and took part in the
inglorious Battle of Bull Run.
In 1865 he moved his family to
Cleveland. He found employment
in a foundry and bought a house, with a
substantial mortgage
which in spite of thrift and hard work
remained unpaid at the
time of his death.
The son Peter, born July 24, 1869, was
the tenth of eleven
children. He was not raised in the lap
of luxury and he attended
school only through the fifth grade. The
amazing amount of infor-
mation which he acquired in his later
years came from his passion
for reading, but in it there were large
gaps, and he probably would
have been the first to admit that he was
not a "cultured man" in
the accepted definition of the term. At
thirteen Witt went to work
in a basket factory. Then he became a
printer's devil, and in 1886,
a molder and foundryman. He became a
member of the molder's
union and the Knights of Labor. He hated
an industrial system
and a "ruling class" which
forced him to suffer the results of long
periods of unemployment. He took part in
several strikes and
promptly got his name on the employers'
black lists.3 When he
married early in the 1890's, he was in
debt. Significantly, he spent
his last dollars for tickets for himself
and his young wife to hear
a lecture by Robert G. Ingersoll.
Witt experienced the pangs of hunger and
the insecurity and
hopelessness of the shop-worker. It made
him angry and bitter
and sour, and he frequently expressed
his feelings in such uncon-
trolled language and in such
unreasonable assaults on "special
privilege" that his enemies called
him "foul-mouthed Pete." All
his life he was a sarcastic speaker, and
sometimes uncouth. He
hated hypocrisy. He would have no traffic with churches or
preachers. He contended that "the
workingmen have not left the
church, but rather the church has left
them."4 His special friends
were the sinners, the downtrodden, and
the "have nots," and he
3 W. B. Colver to Witt, December 8,
1914. "I remember when you were a
blacklisted union molder."
4 Witt to Ignatius F. Horstmann, bishop of Cleveland, May
10, 1907. This
letter was written to commend the bishop
for an address favorable to labor.
364
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
never forgot them in his later, more
prosperous years. His heart
was big and he was full of
sentimentality. He was generous with
his time and money and gave gladly to
the burns and dead-beats
who accosted him in the streets, but not
a dime to the Community
Fund.
Throughout his life Witt remained loyal
to the cause of organ-
ized labor. He knew some of its faults,
but he was eager to recount
its many achievements. In addition to
obvious economic gains, he
credited the unions with helping to
destroy racial and religious
prejudice and with teaching men in rags
"to learn how to suffer
defeat" without turning to
violence. He maintained that the labor
movement built character among the
workers, directed their de-
mands and activities into orderly
channels, reduced the number and
the severity of strikes, and produced
untold social benefits for the
working masses.5
For a man of such a temperament and
background, the road
into the Populist party was easy. Witt
went as a delegate to the
state Populist convention in
Springfield, Ohio, and in 1894 he
fought with the Populists against the
Democrats, even though this
meant opposing Tom L. Johnson, his hero
of later years, who at
the time was running for congress on the
Democratic ticket.
Through the influence of Dr. Louis B.
Tuckerman of Ashtabula, a
kindly, socially-minded physician, Witt
was introduced to the
single-tax philosophy of Henry George.
As late as 1944, Witt still
was denouncing the "infamy" of
the state of Ohio in raising money
from horse-racing, gambling, a sales
tax, and the whiskey business,
and advocating the single tax instead.6
Since 1886, Witt worked
for the initiative and referendum.7
In 1896, Witt, a single-taxer and
"street corner agitator," took
to the road to campaign for Bryan and
free silver. This was his
first real journey outside Ohio. When he
met Bryan on the stump
in the Northwest, he was impressed
because the Peerless Leader
seemed to be dressed worse than he was.
Like Debs, Witt believed
that more was at stake than free silver
at a ratio of 16 to 1. Free
men, not free silver, was the real
issue. By 1908, however, when
5 Witt to Harry N. Rickey, editor of the
Cleveland Press, April 16, 1904.
6 Leaflet by Peter Witt, Think It
Over, Cleveland, October 5, 1934, reprinted
with additions, December 21, 1944.
7 Witt to Cleveland Leader, October
4, 1906.
PETER WITT 365
Bryan ran a third time for president,
his erstwhile admirer de-
scribed him as but another "trimmer
whose hunger for the great
office exposed his real character."8
Witt was often labeled a socialist. That
he had great sym-
pathy for the movement and deep love for
some of its leaders
cannot be questioned. He helped conduct
memorial services for
Max Hayes in Cleveland and he had an
affection for Debs which
deepened with the years. The
correspondence between these
champions of the "have nots"
dates at least as far back as 1895
when Debs led the American Railway Union
in the famous Pullman
Strike. Witt occasionally criticised his
friend for the violence of
his attack on the capitalist system, but
their friendship was welded
into an unbreakable bond when Debs went
to prison during World
War I because he could not support the
war and he would not
betray his socialist and humanitarian
principles. Witt wrote to
Debs while he was in the federal prison
in Atlanta; he sent him
flowers for the holidays when he had
returned to his home in Terre
Haute; and he worked hard to get him to
accept an invitation to
address the Cleveland City Club in 1923.9
Nevertheless, Witt in-
sisted that he was not a socialist. In
1905 he wrote to a friend, "I
am farther away from that theory than
ever before because I am
convinced that the dream of Socialism
can be realized with less,
instead of more, government." There
is no evidence that he changed
his mind in later years.10
In men like Peter Witt strong hatreds
and sentimental hero
worship are frequently combined. Witt
hated many of the success-
ful, old line leaders, including
Theodore Roosevelt. He had nothing
but contempt for Joseph B. Foraker and
James R. Garfield, whom
he regarded as the representatives of
special privilege, and he did
not hesitate to tell them so.11 When
Myron T. Herrick was gover-
nor, he wrote him that "the meanest
thing that can be said of the
late Senator Hanna is that after he
secured your nomination and
election, he went away and died."12
In 1921, when Herrick was
American ambassador in Paris, Witt
referred to him as "the inter-
8 Witt to Louis F. Post, July 10, 1908.
9 See Debs to Witt, November 4, 1895,
February 1, 1922, January 13, 1923.
10 Witt to "G. H. G.,"
December 21, 1905.
11 Witt to Foraker, December 31, 1906.
12 Witt to Herrick, April 27, 1904.
366 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
national ass . . . whose batting average
is 1000, in that he has
never said a sensible thing or done a
decent thing."l3
Quite impartial in his condemnation of
Ohio governors, Witt
also refused to support Judson Harmon
whom he branded as a
pioneer of "government by
injunction," the candidate of "boodle
and booze," and the enemy of
popular referendums. Above all,
he could not forgive him for leading the
cheers over Bryan's defeat
in 1896 at an election night party in
the office of Charles P. Taft's
Times-Star in Cincinnati.14 When Harmon was defeated in
the
Democratic convention of 1912 for the
nomination for the presi-
dency, Witt suggested that he form a law
partnership with Taft
and "employ as a filing clerk our
senatorial one-termer, Theodore
Elijah Burton."15 Witt
had written to Brand Whitlock, mayor of
Toledo, on May 7, 1908, to persuade him
to run against Harmon
and his Republican rival as an
independent. In that letter he wrote,
"With the stamp of Clevelandism on
his back, sitting astride a
barrel of whiskey Judson Harmon is the
candidate of the system
for Governor of Ohio Yelling like a
Comanshe indian [sic] for
'personal liberty.'" He described
him as "an agent of booze, the
product of bosses, the representative of
predatory wealth."16
Among Witt's heroes were Tom Paine,
Abraham Lincoln, John
Peter Altgeld, the courageous governor
who pardoned the Hay-
market anarchists when he was convinced
of a gross miscarriage of
justice, Robert Burns, the foe of
hypocrisy and the bard of the
common people, and in later years
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
But the man who had the greatest
influence on his career in
Cleveland, and for whom he reserved a
special place in his
pantheon of heroes, was Tom L. Johnson,
the monopolist and man
of fortune who was converted by a book,
Henry George's Progress
and Poverty, to become one of America's greatest reform mayors.
Witt loved him so deeply that he was
ready to break with any of
his old associates, including Newton D.
Baker, when he thought
they were no longer true to his ideals.
Johnson met Witt in 1894 when he was
conducting a tent meet-
13 Speech at Church Forum, 1921, on "The Union Depot on the Public
Square
and Other Grafts."
14 Witt to Harmon, June 8, 1908, January 11, 1913.
15 Witt to Harmon, January
11, 1913.
16 See also Witt to Simon Hickler,
editor of the Cleveland Wachter und Anzeiger,
May 12, 14, 1908.
PETER WITT 367
ing campaign for congress and Witt was
called up by the crowd to
speak. According to Johnson's account,
this "angry, earnest man,
with flashing eyes and black locks
hanging down on one side of
his forehead," arose to ask the
candidate a question, and in a char-
acteristically belligerent manner.
Johnson invited the heckler to
the platform. In due time Witt became
one of that remarkable
coterie of "Johnson men" who
left such an indelible imprint upon
the city of Cleveland. The group
included, among others, Morris
Black, E. W. Bemis, Frederic C. Howe,
the Rev. Harris R. Cooley,
Thomas B. Sidlo, Dr. Martin Friedrich,
Fred Kohler, and Newton
D. Baker, who had come to Cleveland from
West Virginia in 1899
and had become city solicitor.l7
After serving several terms in congress
Johnson became mayor
of Cleveland in 1901. His desire was to
make the world "a happier
place to live in and a better place to
die in"--a philosophy with
which Witt wholeheartedly agreed. It may
be said that Witt fought
with and for his chief both during
Johnson's lifetime and long
after the latter's death in 1911. He
hoped some day to write a
biography of the fallen leader. In 1934
he broadcast a eulogy of
his former chief from the City Club so
full of sentiment that it
brought tears to the eyes of many of his
hearers.
One of Johnson's first activities as
mayor of Cleveland was to
open a tax school to expose the unequal
distribution of the tax
burden among small taxpayers and certain
corporations and men
of large wealth. Witt was put in charge,
with Baker as his legal
advisor. Though he accepted the
assignment reluctantly, Witt soon
plunged eagerly into his new job and had
a field day preparing
large maps of Cleveland properties,
which showed the specific tax
assessment against each parcel.
Thereupon he sent letters to indi-
vidual citizens to inform them that
their taxes were either too high
or too low and urged them to seek
adjustments from the county
board of review. Needless to say, the
activities of the new tax
school were little short of sensational.
It could be demonstrated
easily that over half the personal
property in the city escaped tax-
ation and that gross inequalities
existed in the tax appraisals and
assessments. After twenty months the
school was forced to sus-
17 See
My Story: By Tom L. Johnson, edited by Elizabeth J. Hauser (New York,
1911) 84; and Carl Lorenz, Tom L.
Johnson, Mayor of Cleveland (New York, 1911).
368
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
pend operations because of the large
number of lawsuits filed
against it.18
From 1903 to 1909 Witt was Cleveland's
city clerk. As such
he took a lively interest in practically
every municipal activity. He
was especially eager to bring about
better treatment for juvenile
offenders.19 He refused to
use the free passes that were given him
and returned a season pass to a United
Labor Carnival with the
comment that he was opposed to the
"system of deadheading all
public officials to places of
amusement."20 He accompanied Johnson
on his tours as a candidate for
reelection and spoke frequently at
his tent meetings. In 1907 Theodore
Burton was virtually drafted
by national leaders of the Republican
party to oppose Johnson. He
complied reluctantly, for he disliked
his party's affiliations with
the "traction ring." When he
was defeated, Witt wired President
Theodore Roosevelt, "Cleveland as
usual went moral again. The
next time you tell Theodore to run tell
him which way."21 Johnson
himself finally went down to defeat in
1909.
Witt was such an enthusiastic
Clevelander that he urged the
city to set aside a "Cleveland
Day" each year to celebrate its
superiority to all other American
cities. He boasted of a city
without graft in which municipal
ownership was making steady
progress and where the citizens owned
their electric light plant,
garbage plant, and street cleaning
services. He took special pride
in the department of charities and
correction under "Johnson's
preacher," the Rev. Mr. Cooley, who
sponsored a better parole
system and a farm colony in place of a
poorhouse and a work-
house, so that men might work on the
soil, without guards, and
"kind acts [might] take the place
of the club at the Work House."22
He called attention to the city's
tuberculosis hospital, its play-
grounds and parks and kindergarten, its
juvenile court and boys'
farm, its free band concerts, the first
municipal bath house, the
new library, and the plans for
developing a beautiful mall.23
During Johnson's incumbency Witt seems
to have been com-
18 My Story: Johnson, 125-126.
19 Witt to William A. Greenlund, chief probation officer of the Cleveland
Juve-
nile Court, September 1, 1903.
20 Witt to S. S. Stillwell, June 23, 1903.
21 My Story: Johnson, 267, 275.
22 Witt to William Allen White,
August 24, 1908.
23 Witt to G. H. G., December 21, 1905.
PETER WITT 369
pletely happy as he "pounded
away" on his ideals for a clean and
beautiful city. He corresponded widely
with men of similar objec-
tives in other cities, and he judged
people by the extent to which
they accepted Johnson's ideals and
principles. The great reform
mayor's defeat in the election of 1909
brought tender and affection-
ate letters full of praise for his
achievements and disappointment
over his defeat from all over the
country. Men like Samuel M.
Jones, Brand Whitlock, and Lincoln
Steffens joined with men and
women known only to their local friends
in deploring Johnson's
loss to Cleveland.24
The battle between the reform mayor and
the traction com-
panies over franchises and a three-cent
fare attracted nation-wide
attention. It cannot be retold here, but
Witt was in the midst of it.
He fought alongside his chief to prevent
renewals of the old
franchises, and in open council meeting,
in the presence of the
highest officials of the street railway
company, he accused them of
bribing councilmen, corrupting
legislatures, seeking favors from
dishonest judges, and maintaining
private detectives at the city
hall. And he called each man by name as
he accused them of
specific misdeeds.25
Witt became one of the country's experts
on traction problems.
He vigorously defended municipal
operation and control of pri-
vately owned streets railways,26 and
he worked indefatigably to
improve the streetcar service. Newton
Baker, elected mayor of
Cleveland in 1912, appointed Witt as
traction commissioner at a
salary of $7,500 a year, and the latter
filled the post with distinc-
tion for three years. He championed the
demands of the car
riders, extended the streetcar lines,
rerouted the cars, and improved
schedules. When he ordered "Sunday
Stops" at all churches, he
was accused of angling for the church
vote. He opened aristocratic
Euclid Avenue to streetcar traffic,
planned for the day of motor-
buses, and introduced "Donation
Day," when riders could put con-
tributions into the fare boxes, with the
understanding that the
amount in excess of the average daily
receipts would be given to
the Associated Charities. He sponsored a
car rider's club, and
24 See also earlier tributes to Johnson
in Whitlock to Johnson, October 25, 1908;
Steffens to Johnson, October 23, 1908.
25 My Story: Johnson, 258-259.
26 Witt to Judson Grenell, December 24,
1908, May 6, 1909.
370
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
prominent citizens were glad to wear its
badge--"M. U. F." (Move
Up Forward.) He introduced safety
education for school children,
developed new cross-town lines, and
added trailers to the regular
cars. He derived substantial royalties
from a center-exit streetcar
which he designed and which was widely
adopted, but he refused
all royalties for the use of his
invention on the streets of Cleveland.
When Witt introduced what was called his
"Rag Time Schedule"
of skip-stops to provide speedier
transportation, and put "spotters"
on the cars to stop dishonesty, he
encountered strong opposition,
especially from employees who protested
that the schedules could
not be maintained. The issue was finally
submitted to arbitration.
Witt lost and the union won, but the
traction commissioner kept
to his improved schedule and simply put
more cars on the lines.
Witt's policies and procedures were
studied by many cities, in-
cluding Detroit and Kansas City. After
his term of office expired,
he became a consultant for other cities,
like Philadelphia and
Boston. Seattle paid him $7,000 for a
report. In 1930, Witt
signed a five-year contract as
consultant for Metropolitan Utilities,
Incorporated, a Van Sweringen company
which controlled the stock
of the Cleveland Railway. There were
some ugly charges that the
tribune of the people had "sold
out" to the "interests" whose plans
to build a union depot in the Public
Square he had fought before
the interstate commerce commission, but
it is a significant tribute
to Witt's reputation for honesty and
public service that his career
could survive even this strange
relationship with the men of fren-
zied finance, and that the great
majority of his followers and friends
found it possible to reconcile his new
duties with his earlier career.
In 1915, Witt decided to run for mayor
of Cleveland. He had
campaigned for Newton Baker as long as
the latter wanted to be
mayor; now it was his turn. His campaign
was strenuous and
unique. He delivered "tent
talks" all over the city. He refused
to buy political advertising because he
had made it a rule never to
advertise in anything,27 and
he would not indulge in flattering
appeals for votes to the many
nationality groups in Cleveland. He
stood on his record, especially as
traction commissioner, and he
made the single tax a feature of his
campaign though he knew
27 Witt to Charles Burger,
January 21, 1915.
PETER WITT 371
perfectly well that the city could do
little about the matter.28 He
ran as a Democrat though a large section
of organized labor and
of the Democratic organization refused
their support. Six candi-
dates were in the field against him.
They included Harry L. Davis,
the Republican who turned out to be the
winner, and the Socialist,
C. E. Ruthenberg, who advocated
municipal ownership of the
street railways. Witt charged him with
insincerity, refused to
debate with him, reaffirmed that he was
not a socialist, and denied
that municipal ownership was an issue in
the campaign.
The campaign was a furious one. Witt
accused Davis of in-
triguing with a section of organized
labor against him and charged
the opposition with making cheap and
unfair appeals to racial and
religious prejudices. Witt fought for an
extension to the municipal
light plant through a bond issue, for
lower rates, for the consoli-
dation of Cleveland's two telephone
companies, and for a larger
share of the taxes collected by the
state. He campaigned as a
"wet" although he voted three
times during his lifetime for state
prohibition, not because he wanted to
make people "good by law,"
but in order to get the liquor question
out of politics. He always
defended the saloon as "the poor
man's club," but when nation-
wide prohibition finally came, he fought
the "noble experiment" as
a piece of hypocritical and
unenforceable legislation. He also
dragged the preparedness campaign of
President Wilson into the
mayoralty contest of 1915 because he was
convinced that it would
not "keep us out of war." He
eulogized Tom Johnson and called
his leading Republican opponent a
"boob."
The opposition reciprocated by calling
Witt a demagog, a
scandalmonger, a mud-slinger, and a
dangerous anarchist, and by
charging that a real estate company with
which he was connected
collected rents from a notorious house
of prostitution. In an un-
fortunate address to the Germans of the
West Side, Witt reiterated
his hatred of all war and expressed the
hope that the United States
might escape involvement and that the
war might end in a draw.
In an unguarded moment, and probably
moved by sympathy for
his audience, he added that if any side had
to win, he hoped it
might be the Germans. The opposition
promptly branded Witt as
a pro-German and virtually a traitor to
his country. Harry L.
28 Witt to William A. Spill, May 12,
1915.
372 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
Davis called him a "minion of the
Kaiser" and several ministers
attacked him in their pulpits. The
Republicans immediately cir-
culated a pamphlet written by a Bohemian
challenging Witt's
patriotism, and Davis exploited his
opponent's alleged pro-German-
ism to draw votes from other nationality
groups. Though the inci-
dent undoubtedly lost him votes, Witt
continued to draw large
crowds. Congressman Bulkley managed his
campaign and Baker
made speeches endorsing his friend as
"big enough" to be mayor of
Cleveland.
Obviously the race was a contest of Witt
against the field. His
supporters included men from all walks
of life, businessmen, jour-
nalists, and bankers, including the
president of the Cleveland Trust
Company.29 C. W. Burrows promised to vote for
Witt although
the latter had once referred to him in
public as the "Pink-Whis-
kered bookseller on Euclid
Avenue."30 A. V. Cannon, a prominent
attorney, supported Witt, and Walter L.
Flory, of the law firm of
Thompson, Hine, and Flory, wrote in
December 1914, "You are
the only man in Cleveland who deserves
the place, can get the
place and can fill the place."31
Letters poured in from single
taxers, social service organizations,
and labor leaders from all over
the nation describing Witt as a worthy
successor of Johnson and
Baker. An East Cleveland attorney
announced that he would give
him his support because he had
"never crooked the knee to power
nor ... flown a doubtful flag."32
Such letters must have pleased the
candidate, but probably not
as much as those that came from the
humbler folk who wrote to
cheer him on and to enclose their modest
contribution toward his
campaign expenses. Letters of this kind
came from workingmen
everywhere, and some were from men to
whom Peter Witt had made
small loans in their time of need.33
"Dear Sir and Fellow Molder,"
wrote one correspondent, "this is
from a Molder who is working his
head off in your Behalf."34 Another
supported him because he
was not "with the Kidd Glove and
Silk Stocking Crowd," but a
"Man with Vim and Vigor," who
would "stand By the Working
29 See F. H. Goff to Witt, November 2, 3, 1915.
30 Burrows to Witt, October 30, 1915.
31 Flory to Witt, December 7, 1914.
32 Sylvester V. McMahon to Witt, October
26, 1915.
33 See, e.g., Denny O'Neill to Witt,
Quebec, September 30, 1915.
34 John W. Smith to Witt, October 26,
1915.
PETER WITT 373
Class of People give them Work in the
Winter and not Lay the
Poor Fellows off."35 Still
another wrote in an untutored scrawl,
"ill com Down & Shak Hands Win
or Loos now Petter Pich in
And give them h--l and they will think
Better off you i Wish i
Was a good Writer i Could give you Lots
off Pointers i Dont even
know you i saw you a Few times talking
taxes and that is what
makes me think you are all right."36
Tom Johnson's former Negro
butler offered to come from Buffalo,
where he was the secretary
of "the finest Club House of color
in America," to help Witt in the
campaign,37 and a streetcar
conductor took a poll of his riders
and reported that they "said you
was O.K."38
Several friends from higher social
strata wrote "Friend Pete"
to urge him to tone down his violent
speeches. "Beget yourself a
calmness," wrote one, "speak
the words trippingly on the tongue,
do not mouth them or saw the air as some
actors do,"39 and shortly
after the election, another advised the
defeated candidate that
"dignity and refinement are
pleasing alike to both the cultured and
uncultured, and will always win favor
wherever exercised." The
writer hoped that in the future, Witt
would avoid the "application
of uncomplimentary and undignified
names" to those with whom he
engaged in intellectual combat.40
Witt was extremely optimistic and
confident of the outcome
of his mayoralty campaign. As a
progressive he had favored the
adoption of a new type of ballot which
permitted the voter to
register first, second, and third
choices. Harry L. Davis did not
hesitate to ask those who could not give
him their first choice to
give him their second. Witt on the other
hand told the voters he
wanted the support of no one who did not
favor him above all
other candidates. When the votes were
counted, Witt had received
44,940 votes in all three choices, and
Davis 47,471, though Witt led
Davis in first choices 39,869 to 36,841.
The defeated candidate accepted the
outcome philosophically,
although he must have been deeply
disappointed. Many of his
supporters in all walks of life wrote in
to say "you aren't licked,"
35 Julius Bergholz to Witt, December 10,
1914.
36 F. B. Beemer to Witt, February 4, 1915.
37 Daniel Young to Witt, October 24,
1915.
38 H. C. Miller to Witt, October 18,
1915.
39 Z. J. Foyer to Witt, October 12, 1915.
40 Lucien Seymour to Witt, November 3,
1915.
374
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
"they done the same thing to Tom L.
Johnson."41 An
insurance
agent wrote from Minneapolis,
"Cleveland can be depended upon
to make a monkey of itself every so
often."42
Witt was sure he had fought a good fight
and advanced the
cause. He believed he was "the
victim of a new fangled idea of
voting," the preferential ballot
which he himself had advocated.
"I was beaten by a progressive
idea, the preferential ballot law,"
he wrote to H. C. DeRan. "Being of
our own creation, I must not
criticise very much."43 To
a single-taxer in Buffalo he confided his
intention to settle down to making a
"wad," and added, "Then will
be the time to dabble in politics, not
the office-holding end of it,
but the agitating part of it." He
hoped to live to see the day when
the philosophy of Henry George would be
enacted into law.44
The campaign for mayor of Cleveland in
1915 proved to be
Witt's major political venture. In 1923
he was elected to the city
council, but he resigned in 1927 because
it was too full of "yes
men." In 1928 he offered himself to
the Democrats of Ohio as a
candidate for governor but lost the
nomination to Martin L. Davey.
In the course of his campaign he
supported Al Smith for president
and lauded his courage in denouncing the
hypocrisy of prohibition
although he himself believed "this
country would be better off
without the use of alcohol . . . and
some day it will be." He dis-
posed of the Republican party as a
"high-toned Ku Klux Klan"
and represented his campaign as a new
phase of the old struggle
of the weak against the strong, the
Jeffersonians against the Ham-
iltonians. He made short shrift in his
speeches of the "oratorical
twaddle" and "political
bunk" of the opposition. Among his
specific demands were an automobile
license tax of one dollar, a
limit on the gasoline tax, and the
exemption of private automobiles
from the personal property tax. Though
he lost in the state, he
carried Cuyahoga County by an amazing
majority. In 1931 he ran
once more for mayor of Cleveland and
lost to Ray T. Miller.
Though out of public office Witt
continued at the "agitating
part" of politics for which he had
special talents. He worked for the
city manager plan and then fought W. R.
Hopkins, the first man-
41 Denny O'Neill to Witt, November 6,
1915.
42 S. A. Stockwell to Witt, November 12, 1915.
43 Witt to DeRan, November 9, 1915.
44 Witt to John McF. Howie,
November 9, 1915; also Patrick C. Lavey to Witt,
November 5, 1915.
PETER WITT 375
ager, and the majority of the council
because he thought they took
the wrong attitude toward the railroads
and the proposed terminal
on the Public Square. He advocated equal
rights for women45 and
he attacked the Ku Klux Klan and a Bible
reading bill introduced
in the Ohio legislature. In 1924 he was
chairman of the LaFollette
campaign for Ohio, and the
LaFollette-Wheeler ticket carried
Cleveland.
In 1925 Witt initiated his famous
"town meetings" and charged
admission for the privilege of hearing
him "skin the skunks" in
public. Thousands reveled in his
bitterly personal attacks on the
Van Sweringens, the New York Central,
the Union Trust, political
bosses of both parties like Maurice
Maschke and W. B. Gongwer,
and others whom he regarded as
malefactors and conspirators
against the welfare of the common people
and the city he loved.
He was no respecter of persons. The town
meeting which he held
in the Public Auditorium in 1935
attracted an audience of 5,000,
and Witt spoke on John 8:32, "And
ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free";
Proverbs 28:1, "The wicked flee
when no man pursueth; but the righteous
are bold as a lion"; and
Luke 12:2, "For there is nothing
covered, that shall not be revealed;
neither hid, that shall not be
known."
Witt's address on "Abraham Lincoln,
the Man of Sorrow," was
first delivered at the City Club and
over station WHK on February
12, 1932. Thereafter it was repeated
annually, and in 1938 it was
published as a pamphlet by the Standard
Oil Company of Ohio.
In short sentences choked with
sentiment, Witt retold the main
facts in Lincoln's life. It was a piece
of hero worship, not critical
scholarship, but its simplicity made it
an appealing human docu-
ment. The author sent copies all over
the land and received scores
of commendatory letters--from the
Roosevelt family, Josephus
Daniels, Sidney Hillman, Wendell
Willkie, Norman Thomas, James
M. Cox, Marshall Field, Governor Earl
Warren of California, Helen
Gahagan, and many others--and he kept
them all in his letter files.
Needless to add, Franklin D. Roosevelt
and the New Deal also
elicited his wholehearted support. On
September 13, 1945, in a
radio speech, Witt reviewed the history
of the four major panics
which had occurred during his lifetime.
As far as the depression
45 See Baker to Witt, January 30,
1917.
376
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
of 1893 was concerned, he insisted that
the "saloon keepers fed more
hungry men than all the other agencies
combined," with free
lunches and five-cent beers. Not until
Roosevelt's time, he believed,
had any national leader really grasped
the necessity for guarantee-
ing all men a living annual wage and a
steady job. Witt was not
disturbed by the New Deal or legislation
for a "welfare state," and
he made a special plea for white-collar
workers, the forgotten men
of the New Deal, and urged them to
organize for collective bar-
gaining.
Witt's last great battle was his
unsuccessful effort to prevent
the Van Sweringens from building their
railroad terminal on the
Public Square. Witt clung tenaciously to
Johnson's plan to have a
union depot on the lake front. The
controversy is too long and
involved to detail here. Witt fought the
issue single-handed before
the interstate commerce commission,
appearing with a "fat brief
case" stuffed with old newspapers,
because he noticed that all the
lawyers carried them. When he
encountered Newton Baker in
Washington as a witness for the Van
Sweringens and later as
counsel for the New York Central, he was
through with the "colonel"
forever. Witt was convinced that he lost
the battle because he was
unfairly deprived of an opportunity to
argue the case a second
time before the commission. He remained
opposed to the Terminal
project and lived long enough to see the
Van Sweringen empire,
built largely with other people's money,
crash in ruins. He also
opposed building the lake front stadium
and was sure it would turn
out to be a white elephant and a burden
on the taxpayer.
These are some of the highlights in the
career of a tempestuous
Clevelander whose reputation as a
crusader spread far beyond the
borders of his native city, and whose
activities are part of the great
reform era of recent times.
According to his own testimony, he
attributed much of what-
ever success he had to the influence of
his parents; to Dr. Tucker-
man, the Ashtabula physician who became
"his preceptor in poli-
tics" when Witt was but eighteen
years old; to Debs, "the man who
refused to go crazy when the nation went
mad"; to Tom L. Johnson;
and to his wife, Sarah James, whom he
married in 1892 and to
whom he was deeply devoted.
Witt's most severe critics recognized
that under his sour and
The Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Published by
THE
OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
BOARD OF EDITORS
WILLIAM CHARVAT, Ohio State
University
HENRY C. SHETRONE, Ohio State Museum
WILLIAM E. SMITH, Miami University
ALBERT T. VOLWILER, Ohio University
FRANCIS P. WEISENBURGER, Ohio State
University
CARL WITTKE, Western Reserve University
Editor
........................................
JAMES H. RODABAUGH
Associate Editor ..............................HENRY J. CAREN
Assistant Editor
.......................................... S. WINIFRED SMITH
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for review, and all other matters
pertaining to the editing of the Quarterly
should be forwarded to the Editor,
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The Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society disclaims responsi-
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Entered as second-class matter November
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Columbus, Ohio, under the Act of August
24, 1912.