Meet our writers

Win $1,000







Nostalgia October 2016

Whistle-Stop Campaigns

By Bill Siuru

Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan traveled some 20,000 miles by train, making as many as 30 speeches a day in the 1896 election. Interestingly, his Republican opponent and winner, William McKinley, did most of his campaigning from his home in Canton, Ohio, in his "front porch" campaign.

Today, presidential candidates reach electors largely using television, the internet and social media. In the 19th and 20th centuries, candidates stomped the campaign trail via train. People, especially those living in small towns, went down to the railroad station to get a glimpse of a candidate as his train passed through town or even made a brief "whistle stop." Stopping for a few minutes, the candidate made a short speech from the observation car's rear platform, shake hands and kiss a few babies.

Called whistle stops because the engineer blew his whistle like when he announced the train's soon arrival at a station. This would allow time for the depot master to put up a signal if passengers, mail or freight had to be picked up and the train had to stop.

During these brief stops, members of the press corps traveling with the candidate would rush to the Western Union office to file their stories. Back then the telegraph was still about the only way to rapidly and reliably communicate with the outside world. In towns too small, the campaign train would not even stop. At most, it slowed down, blew its whistle and perhaps the candidate might come out on the rear platform to wave.

William Henry Harrison was the first candidate to campaign by rail, traveling from Wilmington, Delaware, to Trenton, New Jersey, during his first unsuccessful bid for office in 1836. Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan traveled some 20,000 miles by train, making as many as 30 speeches a day in the 1896 election. Interestingly, his Republican opponent and winner, William McKinley, did most of his campaigning from his home in Canton, Ohio, in his "front porch" campaign. McKinley did not want to leave his beloved wife, Ida, who was too frail to travel.

Franklin D. Roosevelt used trains extensively, both during campaigns and for travel while in office. You might remember seeing newspaper pictures of the always-smiling FDR waving on the platform at the rear of the train. Because FDR was paralyzed by polio, a special ramp was built to allow him to walk from the train with some assistance.

FDR was the first president to have a specially built railroad car. Before that, presidents and aspirants used borrowed railroad cars, often the rolling palaces belonging to railroad tycoons. FDR's railroad car was called the Ferdinand Magellan, officially the "U.S. No. 1 Presidential Railcar." It had many features to protect the president – heavy armor plating on the roof, side panels, rear end and underneath the car for protection from bullets, hand grenades and small bombs. Three-inch-thick, green-tinted, bullet-proof glass could stop a bullet fired at point-blank range.

After FDR's death, the Magellan was used extensively by his successor, Harry Truman, and by Dwight Eisenhower to a lesser extent. One of the most famous whistle-stop campaigns occurred during the extremely close 1948 race between President Truman and Thomas Dewey. Truman traveled more than 31,000 miles and delivered 356 speeches. He used a special I7-car "White House on Rails" that included diners, lounges and sleepers. The famous news photo of Truman holding up a copy of the Chicago Tribune with a headline stating "Dewey Defeats Truman" was taken on the train's platform. Ronald Reagan used the Magellan, by then retired to a museum, for one day in 1984, traveling 120 miles in Ohio giving five whistle stop speeches along the way.

By the 1960s, the airplane had replaced the train as the primary means of transportation during a campaign. Unfortunately, airplanes have nearly eliminated the chance for ordinary citizens to meet the candidates up close and personal. Therefore, several later candidates still used whistle stops, albeit on a more limited basis. President Ford and challenger Jimmy Carter campaigned aboard Amtrak trains. While running for reelection, President George H.W. Bush hit the rails for his Spirit of America tour. President Bill Clinton used an Amtrak train named the Spirit of the 21st Century for a campaign trip that made stops in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. George W. Bush took his campaign to California's Central Coast with a whistle stop tour along the routes of the Coast Starlight and the Pacific Surfliner trains.

 

Meet Bill