National Politics

HAMMERLING CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD other than as an agent of the Republican Party who connected his own financial interests with the electoral success of the GOP and the consequential cultivation of the politically powerful. In 1912 Hammerling was deeply involved with the reelection efforts of William Howard Taft.¹ This placed him in an awkward position as he had earlier worked for Roosevelt—though this was a dilemma shared by many Americans who were asked to choose between the romantic Rough Rider and the stolid behemoth. Hammerling told Congress in 1918 that Teddy “wanted us foreigners to get down on our