Summary

Lincoln Steffens compared Roosevelt to Hamlet because of his apparent inability to make up his mind about whether to run for president. Meanwhile, the writer claimed, Roosevelt was "mussing up" the progressive movement by his indecision. At a standing-room-only appearance at Carnegie Hall with other progressives and journalists, Senator La Follette expressed his anger that Roosevelt was using Taft as a stalking horse, or a test of his own potential strength if he should attempt a run for president. Others worried that, if both Roosevelt and La Follette were in the race it would only serve to split the progressive vote and help Democrats. Pinchot and others tried unsuccessfully to convince La Follette to withdraw his candidacy.

La Follette delivered a drunken soliloquy before the annual meeting of the Periodical Publishers' Association in Philadelphia on corporate power and...