Washington’s compromise was attacked by his ex-supporter, the visionary polymath W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, who had then studied in Berlin. In his twenties Du Bois had investigated the high death rates from TB of poor African-Americans in Philadelphia, revealing that their mortality – people of colour were likely to die fifteen years earlier than white people – was thanks to the way they were directed to live in the least sanitary districts.
Publishing his
He was braver abroad. ‘I’ve always been fond of the West African proverb,’ he said. ‘“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”’ He took control of the building of the Panama Canal, and saw an opportunity in the crisis between Russia and Japan.
On 8 February 1904, the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo Heihachiro launched a surprise attack on the Russian naval base at Port Arthur, besieging the city, as other Japanese forces seized Korea and then attacked Russian troops in Manchuria. The Japanese had been facilitated by their ally Britain, so suspicious of Russian threats to India that British forces were mustering to invade Tibet.* Initially, Marquess Ito, who had been premier four times, had supported a compromise with Russia and travelled to Petersburg to negotiate, but the tsar’s feckless arrogance convinced the
‘There will be no war,’ repeated Nicholas. He was at the theatre when he learned he was wrong. He rushed troops along the Trans-Siberian, but they arrived far too slowly and their command was chaotic, while the Japanese were well organized. Port Arthur surrendered after a siege, Admiral Togo routed the Russian fleet in the Yellow Sea, and the Russians were defeated at Mukden. The quick war to avoid revolution caused one: by spring 1905, the tsar had lost control of Poland, the Caucasus and the Baltics. Soon after the exciting birth of an heir, Alexei, Nicholas desperately ordered his Baltic Fleet to embark on a global voyage through the English Channel, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean to defeat the Japanese. Instead in May at Tsushima the Japanese annihilated it, sinking eight Russian battleships, killing 5,000 sailors. Even though the Russian army was unbroken and only approaching full strength in Manchuria, Nicholas’s reputation and Romanov prestige sank with his ships.
Roosevelt offered to mediate. In August 1905, he welcomed Russian and Japanese delegates but found the negotiations tortuous. ‘The more I see of the tsar, the kaiser and the mikado,’ said Roosevelt, ‘the better I am content with democracy.’ He had initially leaned towards the underdog Japanese, but he gradually grasped that Japan was a coming threat. Nicholas was forced to give up Port Arthur, evacuate Manchuria and recognize Japanese control of Korea. The peace deal ‘is a mighty good thing for Russia and for Japan’, exulted Roosevelt, ‘and for me!’
On St Patrick’s Day 1905, he attended the wedding of his niece, Eleanor, to their ambitious cousin, Franklin Roosevelt. ‘Well, Franklin,’ said the president, ‘there’s nothing like keeping it in the family.’
FRANKLIN, ELEANOR AND HIROHITO
They were an unexpected couple. Eleanor had endured a miserable childhood, half abandoned in the madhouse of a drunk, demented uncle. Her father Elliott, the president’s brother, was a violent alcoholic who called her Little Nell; her mother, who had died young, called her Granny, while the president’s wife just said, ‘Poor little soul, she’s very plain.’
