Louis Mc Henry Howe - Journalism and Early Political Career

Journalism and Early Political Career

Howe hoped to travel to Cuba to cover the 1898 Spanish–American War, but the war ended before he could secure a position with another paper. Not long after, the Howes' marriage ran into trouble as the financial difficulties of Howe's father again threatened the family's position. Grace's mother had given the couple a large house for a wedding present, which Louis mortgaged in an attempt to save his father's newspaper from bankruptcy. The Sun was nonetheless sold, and Louis fired in 1901, though he soon after successfully begged to return to his job. During this time, Grace went to live with her mother, where she gave birth to the couple's first child, Mary.

In 1903, after a failed attempt to make a living writing fiction, Howe submitted articles as a freelancer to the New York Herald and was a manager for a Saratoga club. In January 1906, Howe began covering the New York State Legislature in Albany for the Herald. Later that year, Howe was hired by Thomas Mott Osborne, a rich Democrat, as a political operative. Osborne was a member of the "Upstarters", a group opposed to the influence of the Tammany Hall political machine in New York politics. He employed Howe to oppose the gubernatorial candidacy of William Randolph Hearst, the Democratic nominee, newspaper magnate, and ally of Tammany. Howe and Osborne's other operatives successfully spread dissent and chaos among the Democratic campaign, and Hearst lost the election to Charles Evans Hughes.

Howe biographer Julie M. Fenster describes the anti-Hearst campaign as a "personal turning point" for Howe, in which he got his first taste of politics, learned the practical mechanics of party organization, and had an opportunity to make news rather than simply reporting it. He pursued a permanent position with Osborne, declining an opportunity to go to Jamaica as a correspondent for the Herald, and was hired in November 1906. For the next three years, Howe blended his two jobs—reporter and political operative—using information from each, at times, in service of the other. However, though Osborne intended to run for governor himself, his unusual propensity to travel in a variety of disguises and his close friendship with a young handyman, with whom Osborne was rumored to have a homosexual relationship, made him an nonviable candidate. Howe lost interest in Osborne as a patron and began searching for another upcoming name with whom to associate; Osborne fired him in 1909.