Frank Elbridge Webb
Frank Elbridge Webb was an American engineer who served as the Farmer–Labor Party's presidential candidate in 1928. In the 1932 presidential election, he was initially renominated by the Farmer–Labor Party before being removed and running as the nominee for a wing of the Liberty Party. He also led many unsuccessful efforts to build bridges that spanned the San Francisco Bay.
Life
Family and youth
Frank Elbridge Webb was born on September 1, 1869, in Angels Camp, part of the California Gold Country, to Annie Settle and Elbridge Webb. His father was a wealthy mining engineer from New England and owned the Utica mine in Angels Camp. His mother had been born in Oregon and was a singer. Webb had an older sister who was an elocutionist, Adelaide E. Webb. Webb's father died and his mother later remarried; Webb had six half-siblings as a result. Webb was descended from the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower and his great-grandfather Nathaniel Webb had served in the Revolutionary War. Later in life, Webb would join the Sons of the American Revolution, founded by a cousin, and The Kansas City Star would observe that it was hard to overlook Webb's Mayflower heritage because of how frequently he mentioned it.Webb's father died in his mine when Webb was very young. After his death, Webb began farming and through that and other work he was able to afford an education. He graduated from a San Francisco night school in 1886 and received a diploma as a graduate engineer. Webb also worked as an elevator boy and then second assistant salesman at a dry goods store in San Francisco.
Career and military service
In 1884, Webb joined the California National Guard, where he rose to the rank of captain serving as an aide-de-camp to General John H. Dickinson. He served with distinction on Dickinson's staff when the National Guard was called to put down ARU strikers at Sacramento during the Pullman Strike. He also studied law under Dickinson and worked as his law clerk, working on the defense of murderer Theodore Durrant and as a crucial witness in a case regarding James G. Fair's estate. As a graduate engineer, Webb created an irrigation system on a large California ranch, rescuing it from financial ruin. He also managed and sold many California estates. In 1901, Webb moved to New York, where worked with John A. Bensel on the New York State Canal System and the Catskill Aqueduct. As of 1906, Webb lived in Melrose, Massachusetts, and was vice-president of a large Boston supplies company. After Bensel's death in 1921, Webb became the head of his eponymous engineering firm.In 1898, Webb thought that Congress was being too slow in declaring war on Spain and declared that when it did declare war he would be honorably discharged from the National Guard, join the Army, and muster a company of cowboys. Webb served as a recruiting sergeant in the Spanish–American War. During World War I, Webb was an intelligence officer for Major General Leonard Wood and served in the army quartermaster, with him serving in the Philippines. After serving from 1914 to 1920, Webb retired with the rank of colonel.
Involvement in politics
Webb was a member of Republican Party and attended the Alameda County Republican convention in 1896. In 1897, Webb sought to become the Appraiser of Customs for the Port of San Francisco. The Alameda Times-Star thought that he was a viable candidate, noting that he had been active politically for multiple years and was both well-known and popular. They observed that he had ties with many influential East Coast men; his cousin William Seward Webb was a Vanderbilt-by-marriage and Webb was good friends with George Morse, nephew-in-law to President William McKinley. Webb had the support of Dickinson, a State Senator nicknamed "friend of the young Republicans", and Webb was also endorsed by the San Francisco County Republican Committee, the Alameda County Republican Committee, and many leading local politicians. The Daily Encinal newspaper attributed his viable candidacy and wide support to Dickinson's backing. John T. Dare was instead appointed appraiser, with Webb being considered for the assistant appraisership. In the 1899 U.S. Senate election, Republicans in the California legislature were unable to coalesce behind a single candidate. Webb urged the party to elect somebody, not expressing any preference and saying that he believed his opinion was widely popular among young Republicans and the party in general, with Webb expressing fear that they would fail to elect anyone and deprive both California and the Republican Party a Senator. This occurred, though Thomas R. Bard would be elected in a special session in 1900. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake killed thousands and leveled most of the city, Webb was in correspondence with California Governor George Pardee, with The Boston Globe publishing excerpts of a letter Pardee wrote to Webb refuting rumors that the national guard had killed survivors.Idle Hour syndicate
In December 1921, Webb arranged a deal and headed a syndicate that agreed to purchase the Idle Hour estate from Harold Vanderbilt and convert it into a country club. Webb was related to the Vanderbilt family and would later say that he had managed Harold Vanderbilt's property for a time. A person close to Harold Vanderbilt said that the syndicate was mostly made up of Western oilmen who were Vanderbilt University alumni and that they planned to make the country club exclusive to alumni. The New York Herald reported that the syndicate consisted of "men prominent in oil, railroad, financial, industrial, professional, artistic and social circles." Webb would not then say who the other members of the syndicate were, except that they were wealthy young men. Webb said the country club would be the "finest and most exclusive country club in existence." Webb said that Harold Vanderbilt would be a member of the country club and did not specify any other members, with the syndicate also arranging $5,000,000 for the club's development. Webb did not entertain speculation about the price of the deal, but he did say they paid fair market value, then estimated at around $4,000,000. In December 1923, Harold Vanderbilt would sue the syndicate, saying that they had agreed to purchase it for $440,000 but that they had only paid $50,000 and fallen behind on payments, requesting the deal be annulled. He would rebuy it in foreclosure proceedings for $556,000. Webb would summarize the situation: " handled the sale of Long Island estate, Idle Hour, to Isaac M. Putnam, a wealthy oil man. This deal fell through, however, and Vanderbilt took back the property."Mackay lawsuit
In 1926, Webb sued Colonel Robert Mackay, who had served in the British Army, for $8,000 which he had loaned him in 1922. Webb loaned the money to Mackay, a recent acquaintance, because he knew him to be "the wealthiest bachelor in Scotland". During the trial, it was revealed that Mackay had introduced Webb to Richard H. Cole, a friend of President Warren G. Harding's who had expected to be appointed to a diplomatic post in Mexico. Through that post, Cole believed he could control Mexican investments into the United States and receive valuable concessions, and Webb agreed to raise a $100,000 fund to lobby Mexican and American officials to secure this reality. On January 21, 1922, Webb and Cole hosted a 75-person dinner which cost $3,000 that was attended by many prominent figures, including former Speaker of the House Joe Cannon, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, another 35 members of the United States Senate, and some prominent Mexican officials. President Harding had been expected to attend, but Webb warned him against attending, saying he was "being used". The scheme's failure was variably attributed to Mexican political instability which damaged Cole's influence, Harding's absence from the dinner, and the fact that the dinner's extravagance attracted press coverage, leading to a government inquiry, scaring off Webb's investors. Webb was awarded $6,000 by the judge when the trial ended, with the judge finding that Mackay had previously returned $2,000 to Webb.San Francisco Bay bridge project
In 1922, Webb orchestrated an effort to develop Little Coyote Point, San Mateo, California. Later that year, he outlined a plan to build a toll bridge that spanned the San Francisco Bay, from Coyote Point to the coast of Alameda County. This plan received wide support from prominent bay residents, who had long supported a transbay bridge and saw Webb's plan as viable. In 1923, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors granted Webb a franchise to build the bridge and it received the approval of the War Department. In 1925, the board transferred the franchise to Frank C. Towns after Webb struggled to secure capital and was forced to delay the beginning of construction. After losing the franchise, Webb continued with other transbay bridge efforts, though they attracted little local support and were repeatedly rejected by the authorities. These efforts included seeking a franchise to build a transbay bridge at the nearby Candlestick Point.Presidential election of 1928
Nomination
In the 1928 presidential election, Webb bolted from the Republican Party and received the Farmer–Labor Party's nomination. The FLP had been founded in the aftermath of World War I. In the 1920 presidential election, it had nominated Parley P. Christensen, who received 1% of the popular vote and appeared on 19 state ballots, receiving a fifth of the vote in Washington and South Dakota. However, by the time Webb was nominated the party had been in a period of persistent decline, beginning soon after the 1920 election. This had been greatly accelerated when members of the Workers Party won control of the organization in 1923. The party was quickly condemned by many of its allies in the Conference for Progressive Political Action, and by the time its old non-communist leadership had reconstituted it without them, many of its strongest members had defected to the communist organization or abandoned partisan politics. The FLP joined with the CPPA, Socialist Party, American Federation of Labor, and other left-leaning groups in supporting Senator Robert M. La Follette in the 1924 presidential election. Appearing on the ballot in 47 states, sometimes on the FLP's ballot line, La Follette received 17% of the vote and won Wisconsin. After his defeat, many of the FLP's allies withdrew from politics, taxed or disenchanted by the campaign, and those who remained, such as the FLP itself, were left weakened. Meeting at its July 1928 national convention in Chicago, the FLP narrowly decided to nominate Senator George W. Norris over Socialist nominee Norman Thomas, by a vote of 16 to 14. Norris, while incredibly sympathetic to the FLP's cause, rejected due to the inevitable defeat he felt such an effort would end in. Chester Rowell, a prominent progressive Republican, described the party which nominated Webb as having effectively ceased to exist prior to his nomination, writing "There was a time when this Farmer–Labor party threatened to be a real movement to organize the Western form of social discontent. That time has passed."In the months prior to his nomination, Webb had been wary of bolting from the Republican Party and running for president, fearing it would make him a laughingstock among his business associates, but he eventually declared that "onditions compel me to change my usual political affiliations." According to Webb, he had been approached by an individual whose identity he would not disclose in early July about seeking the nomination. Webb made himself known to the FLP by attending a conference of their leaders in Denver, where he declared that he would accept their nomination if the platform was revised. The executive committee assembled in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 5, less than a week after the convention had been called. The seven-member executive committee only had five in attendance, joined by 12 advisory delegates, with the five executive committee members present deciding they constituted a quorum of the committee. Two members of the executive committee stormed out of the convention prior to Webb's nomination. The three remaining members of the executive committee met together, and shortly before midday on September 6 they nominated Webb, a nomination he accepted.