Chapter Two: Storm Clouds

​





A Garner for President parade in the heart of American Syndicalism - Chicago. "Cactus Jack" was received with not a small amount of hostility

​





A poster from a Curtis Campaign regional office​







A Map of the 1936 Election

​





President and President-Elect on Election Night, 1936​





Long condemns the election results

​





MacArthur speaks to a Philadelphia crowd about the "Fundamental Threats to our Government to-day" - Curtis is alleged to have remarked "Will no-one rid me of this turbulent Militarist?"​

With MacArthur's suggestion of suspending elections rejected, September went on. Though the editorialized behind closed doors to newspapermen about the "growing threat to American Democracy" by and large Americans were relieved that the Democratic process was moving ahead.Curtis and his primary opponent, Democrat John Nance Garner, conducted fairly clean campaigns. Their respective Chiefs of Staff had come to an agreement that a mud-slinging, dirty campaign would only serve to boost the chance of a radical entering the White House. As a result, both men ran primarily on issues.Garner was the more hard-line of the two men. Vowing to defend the Republic from enemies without and within, he swore to eliminate the growing unrest and do something about the fighting between America First, the Syndicalists, and those caught in the middle. He had little patience for radicals and even less for those willing to compromise with them.Curtis, meanwhile, preached conciliation. There was no room in the United States for those who would seek to usurp Democracy, he declared, but there was no reason that the voices of the various groups could not be heard, so long as the process was obeyed. This scored him massive points with many Syndicalists - Jack Reed is quoted to have said "For a Capitalist Scoundrel, and a Republican no less, this Curtis fellow doesn't seem so bad." Long, on the other hand, despised Curtis. "He'll give the country away to the bastards," raved the Kingfish. The feeling was mutual.Reed and Long continued their agitation and the street fighting did not let up in the major population centers. Each man had his primary base of support. For Reed, the industrial Midwest - the only place he was on the ballot. Long's story was similar in the Deep South. As October ended the race appeared too close to call.The Country held its breath as November 3rd dawned. In the event, the race proved not nearly as close as many had thought it would be. Garner scored well in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest along with some Southwestern states, but came up short with only 175 electoral votes. To the surprise of many, Reed carried Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan, with a total of 46 votes. Huey Long and America First were declared the winner in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with strong showings in the Carolinas and Florida - it is suspected that he only lost these states due to a lack of Minuteman presence in those areas for polling-place intimidation.Thus the winner was Charles Curtis, but by a fairly slim margin - he carried but 271 electoral votes, narrowly avoiding another decision on the part of the House.Garner conceded immediately, recognizing that he'd been beaten. Though he had doubts about Curtis' ability to maintain Democracy through conciliation, he wished his successor the best of luck.Hoover was relieved and immediately pledged his support for the President-Elect. In an unprecedented move, he planned to vacate the White House on New Year's Eve, with the feeling being that Curtis would be more effective if his governance could begin sooner.Long was furious. He claimed that "The bastards in the banks have shown just how little they care for free and fair elections." The irony of his own armed militia having seriously influenced Southern voting results (including many cases of turning away Black voters) was apparently lost on him. "I'm here to tell you that Charles Curtis isthe man this country needs, and he's not the man who's going to lead it the next four years."Reed, too, decided that the best course of action was to contest the election results. Curtis had won by a fairly narrow margin in many of the Midwestern states, and he felt (wrongly, as it turned out) that there was enough Syndicalist sympathy in the government that he stood a chance of being elected if Curtis' vote count fell below 270 and it fell to the House.MacArthur, meanwhile, saw all of this as evidence that he had been correct all along. He began to say so publicly. By any standard this was grounds for a Court-Martial and dismissal - however so great was the popularity of MacArthur among many Americans that Curtis felt this would only serve to inflame tensions. Besides which, there was the underlying fear of MacArthur joining forces with America First if he saw Syndicalism growing too strong.On Inauguration Day, December the 31st 1936, it seemed like the storm clouds might still pass. Of course the radicals still contested the election results, but this carried little weight. The majority of Americans still supported their government and its elected officials. Perhaps the nation could avoid the specter of civil war that had hung menacingly over its head for the past several months. As the clock struck midnight, the excited crowd in the White House and the new President celebrated. Deep down suspected that the happiness of that hour was misplaced.It was to be a long year.