This is a press photo taken in the Fall of 1916. Charles D. Mahaffie, Sr. is in downtown Washington, D.C. It appeared in newspapers around the country, and Charlie kept a copy in his files. He was 31 years old. He had just moved to Washington, rather suddenly, to take a job in the Federal government.
Earlier in 1916 Charlie had visited Washington to argue a case before the Interstate Commerce Commission. He stopped in to see the Secretary of the Interior, Franklin Lane, who was “his good friend” according to a later profile.
Lane mentioned he was going to see President Wilson, that afternoon. He said, “why not come along?”
They went to see Woodrow Wilson at the White House. Charlie knew the President from his time as an instructor in jurisprudence at Princeton (1908 and 1909). Wilson had been president of the college then.
Charlie had favored Wilson for reelection to the presidency in 1912 with an editorial in the Oregon Daily Journal. He wrote of how Wilson at Princeton worked against considerable opposition to instill more social equality among the students. Wilson eliminated fraternities and raised academic standards, in the face of strong pressures against such reforms.
He agreed with Wilson that social advancement had replaced academic achievement, to the detriment of those unable by lack of privilege to climb the social status ladder. As he put it in his editorial, “So all-pervading has the craze for social honors become that the public itself wants to know of the recent graduate, not if he led his class or was a high honor man, but what fraternity or club he ‘made’.”
Now at the White House, Wilson and Charlie renewed their acquaintance. And shortly thereafter, Interior Secretary Franklin Lane got the notion to have the President appoint Charlie as Solicitor of the Department of the Interior. The President agreed to do so.
When Charlie got back home to Portland, there was a telegram waiting for him. Franklin Lane was asking if he would accept the job if the President offered it to him. “He would and President Wilson did.” 1)February 16, 1936 profile in the Daily Oklahoman.
And so in September 1916, Charlie boarded a train for Washington, DC. He figured he’d be in the job until the end of Wilson’s second term, and then would return to his law practice and life in Portland.
That notion stuck with him for years in Washington. He kept his membership in the University Club of Portland, and referred to himself as an Oregonian until the decades of work in DC unfolded and the pattern became clear. Then as now, more come to Washington than leave.
But Oregon didn’t let go easily. He retained a fondness for Portland and Oregon. And though he had worked and lived in Washington since the Fall of 1916, when he visited Portland, Oregon in the Spring of 1919, the newspaper reported on him as “Portland Attorney.”
On that Spring visit Portland suffering a bad head cold, and had been a notable enough citizen of Portland that his head cold made the papers. The Oregon Sunday Journal of April 20, 1919 noted that he had lots of people to see, but his visit was hampered by the severe cold.2)Oregon Sunday Journal, April 20, 1919.
The piece also noted that Mahaffie had said that he planned to remain in Washington only for another year or so. “He will return here and resume his practice of law after quitting his present position.”
Had he not dropped in on Interior Secretary Lane that day in 1916, he might have stayed in Portland and made his life there. And with his city connections and active life in the city’s affairs, he might well have entered politics or taken other directions in his life.
This is one of a series of posts that explore the life of Charles D. Mahaffie, Sr. through family memories and items from a family archive. Charles was the author’s grandfather. He left a remarkable collection of papers, photos, and mementos which offer a lens through which to explore his life and legacies. For the full collection, click here.</em
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