Republican Party Politics

President Harding and the Presidential party in Alaska on the Presidential Train.  Hubert Work can be seen on the far right next to Herbert Hoover, with Harding second from the left.

Colorado delegates to the RNC in 1908, including Hubert Work from Pueblo.

Hubert Work had always been a member of the Republican party, but he wasn’t involved in an official capacity until later in his life, when he was 48.  In 1908, Work “became chairman of the state Republican convention of Colorado…and in that same year was a delegate to the national Republican convention that nominated William Howard Taft for the presidency.”¹  He was known as a staunch party man, and “opposed the progressive split and continued with the regular Republicans”² after Theodore Roosevelt launched a third-party campaign in 1912 to oppose fellow Republican Taft.  

Work was a member of the Republican National Convention from 1913-1919, though he still practiced medicine during these years.³  By 1920, “Work’s organizational talents, as well as his Republican tendencies, were well known…and during the presidential campaign that year, National Chairman Will Hays named him to organize farmers in support of the Harding-Coolidge ticket.”⁴  Work was enthusiastic about this task, but he still planned to return to Colorado after the election.  However, his career in Washington, D.C. took off when he took on the post of First Assistant Postmaster General under Hays.  In March of 1922, President Warren G. Harding chose Work to replace Hays as Postmaster General because he had appreciated his efforts during the 1920 election.⁵  In this role, Work “was particularly concerned with business-like efficiency in government operations, and he stressed…(that) the government should own post-office buildings; and appointments of postmasters should be on the basis of ability, not politics.”⁶  Although “little in Work’s background seemed to prepare him for a career in politics,”⁷ he made a positive impression on many influential political figures.

Hubert Work's swearing in as Secretary of the Interior; his predecessor Albert Fall looks on.

Political cartoon of Albert B. Fall and the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Albert B. Fall was Harding’s controversial first Secretary of the Interior, who was disliked by many, including conservationists.  After he was already embroiled in the Teapot Dome scandal, Fall resigned in March of 1923 because he thought he would be much closer to Harding’s ear than it turned out.⁸  Fall was later found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for leasing two Navy oil reserves at Teapot Dome in Wyoming to private companies at low rates; the bribes amounted to about $400,000, and Fall roused suspicion when he suddenly paid off several debts and his standard of living increased exponentially.⁹  In 1929, he became the first U.S. cabinet member sentenced to prison.  

Harding chose Hubert Work to replace Fall and seemed to “have considered no one other than Postmaster-General Work” as a replacement, despite a plethora of other candidates with strong supporters.¹⁰  Because of the scandal created by Fall and the smudges on Harding’s reputation, Harding “wanted a man who was in touch and sympathy with the “great West”...he also wanted a man he trusted.  All these considerations pointed to Work.”¹¹  Work had quite a task ahead of him to overcome Fall’s wrongdoings, as well as the Department of the Interior’s tainted reputation.  He instituted an open door policy, saying that “anyone having business could see him;” he displayed attractive working habits like arriving early, staying late, and studying his department; and he “showed himself a man of judgment.  He was…quickly able to gain the confidence of his employees.”¹²  Although his habits were simple, they were strategic.  Employing no-nonsense methods and making his actions visible to both his department and the public created a sense of openness that was needed after the Teapot Dome scandal.

Coolidge's cabinet outside the White House in 1924; Hubert Work is the last standing on the right, next to Herbert Hoover.

Hubert Work, standing, as the Postmaster General, with his First Assistant John H. Bartlett.

Work immediately attacked problems facing his department, and didn’t make any secret of what he was about.  He thought the federal government was inefficient and that the Interior had to be reorganized, and he believed that business methods should be applied to the running of government.¹³  He made specific reforms in order to maximize the efficiency of his department, which included bringing “all Washington bureaus of the department together in a single location, what is now General Services Administration.”¹⁴  Since Albert Fall and his policies were disliked by conservationists, Work made conservation the law of the land in his policies.  He strongly believed in preservation and wise use of resources, saying “Nothing can justify reckless use of our people’s inheritance from Nature or other encroachments upon the capital of our future generations.”¹⁵

Calvin Coolidge became president after Harding’s death in 1923, and he and Work soon formed a rapport.  Coolidge encouraged Work to be very open with the public, because some of Work’s ideas were controversial and Coolidge wanted to avoid any further scandals.  Work was a big proponent of reclamation and “helped to establish the Federal Oil Conservation Board and served as its chairman…created no doubt as a result of the controversy following the Teapot Dome scandals, (it) encouraged cooperation between government and the oil industry, strove for improved practices, sought discoveries of resources, and solved the long-standing question of ownership of mineral deposits on school lands of the public domain.”¹⁶  Work had a great personal interest in the National Parks system, believing those areas had to be “conserved in their natural state, untouched by the inroads of modern civilization so that coming generations, as well as the people of our own time, may be assured their use for the purposes of recreation, education, and scientific research.”¹⁷  He was primarily interested in Alaska, which he believed needed to be colonized.  He wrote in a July 1923 New York Times article that “empire building has been the ambition of the nations of the world from time immemorial.  The United States has an opportunity in this northern domain of almost incomprehensible magnitude to transpose it from a tracless waste into a veritable hive of industry.  Wealth can be made to literally pour out of it.”¹⁸

Hubert Work at his desk in 1922.

A Navajo medicine man, c. 1915

Work became an important figure in the presidential election of 1924, going out stumping for Coolidge and helping reassure voters after several political scandals in recent years.  The Democrats’ main campaign tool was trying to “pin the blame for corruption on the Republican administration,” an effort which ultimately failed.¹⁹  It was difficult for the Democrats to make voters dislike Coolidge, because he hadn’t personally been connected to the scandals and was “shy, frugal, pinch-faced, (and) seemingly as clean as the winds of rural New England from whence he came.”²⁰  According to scholar J. Leonard Bates, the Democrats’ efforts actually rehabilitated the Republican party’s image, as “weaknesses in the Democratic party were accentuated by that issue which they believed would win the election…Certainly neither party was faultless, and the honesty of Calvin Coolidge might have been more significant than Democratic charges against his party.”²¹  Through all of this, “Work preserved his political position…he was fond of Harding, got on well with Harding’s successor, and became an important member of the Coolidge cabinet.”²²  In 1926, Work also went on the campaign trail for Republican candidates during the midterm elections, traveling primarily to West Virginia, according to a New York Times article.²³

Work also took on the task of reforming the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as he believed “that the department had to redress wrongs done to the Indians by the white men.”²⁴  He rebuilt it from top to bottom, dividing it into three branches: finance, health, and routine field services.²⁵  In regard to Alaska, Work wrote that the “27,000 Eskimos and Indians scattered all over Alaska in the most remote and distant places” needed the guidance “the Department of the Interior, through the Bureau of Education, (which was) charged with the responsibility of educating and protecting the health of these primitive people.  It is a big task beset with difficulties.”²⁶  Work’s background as a doctor frequently shone through in his various communications and his personality, as health among Native Americans was one of his primary concerns.  In November 1924, Work wrote an article for The American Review of Reviews that lambasted Indian medicine men.  Work wrote that “playing upon the superstitions of the red men, their ignorance of the laws of nature, and their dread of the supernatural, the Indian medicine man wields a powerful influence that depends more on fear than faith, or medicament.”²⁷  He wanted the government to regulate the power of medicine men “that would at least prevent their contributing to death.”²⁸  Although some of Work’s criticisms may have been accurate, it is worth considering whether these views were part of the general policies of cultural repression that characterized the government’s dealings with Native Americans.

Hubert Work and Herbert Hoover on the presidential campaign trail in 1928.

By 1928, Hubert Work was nearing 70 years old and was tiring of public life.  He “felt that he had done his share, and longed to return to medicine.”²⁹  He submitted his resignation to Calvin Coolidge in July of 1928, to which Coolidge responded with a letter acknowledging his “appreciation of (Work’s) constant and unfailing consideration toward me personally and (Work’s) loyal cooperation in carrying out the policies of the Administration. With kindest regards, I am very truly yours, Calvin Coolidge.”³⁰  

But before leaving political life entirely, Work decided to help run Herbert Hoover’s presidential campaign.  The two had served in the cabinet together for several years and had become good friends, and Work thought Hoover would continue what Harding and Coolidge had started.  Work’s selection as the chair of the Republican National Committee and Hoover’s campaign manager was a surprise to many Republicans, and created friction within the party.³¹  It was believed, and likely true, that friendship was a factor in Work’s appointment to “a political job of such far-reaching importance.”³²  In a July 1928 New York Times article, Work was described as a “high tariff man from A to Z and an organization Republican…If he were in the Senate he would probably be listed as one of the Old Guard.”³³  The Republicans anticipated a good fight from the Democrats–at that time, there were ten states, including Texas and Florida, that made up the Solid South that had never gone red–and for the most part it seemed Republicans had conceded that block of 114 electoral votes to Democrat Al Smith.³⁴  Speaking to reporters, Work said he and the party didn’t “underestimate the strength of the opposition, but (believe) Herbert Hoover will be the next President of the United States.”³⁵  Hoover ended up winning with 444 electoral votes to Smith’s 87, and flipped four of the Solid South states.

After the election, Work returned to Colorado to practice medicine, remaining interested in politics but never returning to political life.  He remained there in Pueblo until his death in 1942, and although his political career is not well-known today, he did have “quite a career, if one considers Work's beginnings as an obscure doctor practicing medicine from the late 1880's until the time of the First World War. His rise to national prominence was slow. But each step in politics ensured the next, until at last he was appointed to a leading cabinet post.”³⁶