New book on ‘whistle-stop’ campaign trains describes politics and adventure throughout history
CRESTLINE, Ohio — From its earliest days as a village, Crestline was synonymous with trains. A train station inspired this northern Ohio city, railroad workers populated it and the passengers who flocked here helped it grow.
So it seems only fitting that a politician’s stop in Crestline would popularize the word “whistle-stop.”
The story of 1948 underdog presidential candidate Harry S. Truman’s decision to capitalize on an opponent’s comment—Ohio’s own “Mr. Republican, U.S. Senator Robert Taft – to own the term and win the election is just one of dozens of colorful anecdotes in Edward Segal’s new book, ‘Whistle-Stop Politics: Campaign Trains and the Reporters Who Covered Them. ‘
Segal, a former press secretary and aide to both the Democratic and Republican candidates, explains that at the time, whistle was a railroad term to describe small towns without regularly scheduled train service. The conductor signaled to the engineer for the passengers to disembark, and the engineer “responded with two whistles,” he wrote.
By 1948, however, the term had become shorthand for describing a community considered backward or undesirable. So when Taft accused Truman—not long after his “special” train stopped in Crestline—of going across the country on this campaign train trip “black-guarding (attacking) Congress at every whistle stop,” Truman seized the opportunity with both hands.
The Democratic National Committee asked voters, “Was it nice of the senator to call you a whistle?” Seventy-three percent of respondents said they disagreed. Truman himself began using the term, Segal writes, and it quickly lost its pejorative meaning.
In all, Segal has cataloged about 180 campaign train trips throughout American history — from William Henry Harrison to Joe Biden, with dozens of presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, representatives, senators and governors in between. He continues to update the details of this unique “American invention” on the book’s website: www.whistlestoppolitics.com.
The project was inspired by Segal’s personal experience organizing a whistle-stop campaign tour for Republican U.S. Representative Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, for whom he served as press secretary in 1984.
“He wanted press coverage, and I said, ‘Congressman, how are we going to generate press coverage for you?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. That’s your problem to figure out,” Segal said in an interview.
Segal, who described himself as a “recovering political science major,” immediately thought of Truman’s famous underdog campaign of 1948. “And it turns out there were some usable train tracks in the congressman’s district,” he said.
The letters and interviews used to inform the book date from that time. Among them are: George McGovern, Adlai Stevenson III, Jody Powell, other candidates and family members of the candidates and a host of journalists. Other details are taken from books, news reports and historical documents, photographs and political cartoons.
Segal describes in detail how campaigns organized these “traveling circuses.” Routes had to be determined, trains located and secured, and then equipped for the candidate – often a sitting president – VIPs, security and railway personnel, and the press. The technology was always state-of-the-art, from the early days of the telegraph to the telephone and beyond, he writes.
The book also goes back to whistle speeches and the crowds that gathered to hear people like Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon, George Bush or Barack Obama. It also tells stories of troublemakers, pranksters and demonstrators and describes the ordeal of the traveling press.
The stories are sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant — like when Associated Press reporter Jack Bell was nearly left behind by President Theodore Roosevelt’s campaign train in 1904 when he got off during a brief stop to buy stationery. As the train departed, the reporter ran “at top speed, huffing and puffing” to jump aboard. It was Roosevelt himself who pulled him up.
Sometimes campaign trains were also used in creative ways, such as when comedian Gracie Allen pretended to run for president in 1940 as the country recovered from the Great Depression.
“Gracie ran for the Surprise Party,” Segal wrote. “The origin of the party’s name was as much a joke as the rest of the campaign. She explained that her mother was a Democrat, her father a Republican, and that she was born as a surprise.”
Attracting commercial attention has also been a motivation for some whistle-stop parodies. In 1972, Winnie the Pooh launched a bid for the White House from Disneyland’s Main Street, USA, and then went on a two-week tour with his trusted advisors, Tigger and Eeyore.
Back in Crestline, Mayor Linda Horning Pitt is pleased with the new attention on her city. Crestline — once “all over the railroad,” she said — has suffered since Amtrak pulled out in the 1990s, but its new train-themed logo and renovated railroad-themed historical museum provide room for the future.
On Thursday, All Aboard Ohio comes to town to update residents on efforts to secure funding from the Federal Railroad Administration and the State of Ohio for new passenger rail service throughout the state. Pitt has urged people to show up and promote Crestline as one of the stops.
“I can see it helping everyone,” she said.
The name of the event? The Whistle Stop tour.