How to get a President

[River of Death]

Challenge: Change one of America's Presidents starting with a break point as little related as possible. Here's an example to start us off:


Monday, June 28th, 1869.

John and Washington Roebling are surveying, fixing the precise location of the Brooklyn tower for the soon-to-be-constructed New York and Brooklyn Bridge. John stood as far out on the ferry slip as he could to get a view. A ship comes in. John steps back onto a beam a clear distance from the docking boat. BP: Washington gets up onto a pile of boxes for similar reasons. However, as in Real TL, a knot sticking out from the beam caught John's foot. When the ship came in, it pulled the beam away, and crushed his foot. BP: however, even worse, the beam came out from the boxes, Washington lost his purchase and fell into the water just in front of the boat. He is crushed between the boat and ferry pier and dies instantly. John succumbs to lock-jaw and tetanus, as in real TL, a month later.

John had not wanted to stay in charge of the bridge for the length of the project - he had planned to turn it over to Washington anyway. In real TL, it was forced, but Washington knew everything. Now, there is no worthy successor. The Brooklyn Bridge will surely be built, but it will not be so radical for its time.

This means that there is no board of Trustees for the bridge until much later, so Murphy, Kingsley, and others cannot be implicated in anything. In fact, they work with the reform branch against Tweed et al. Most importantly, Major General Henry Slocum does not serve on the non-existant board. So, as in real TL, due to his (for the time) progressive views, he is one of two favorites for Democratic candidate for NY state governor in 1882 (the other is Flower). In real TL, on the first two ballots, they were deadlocked, all because the opposition published a hundred-page article called Bridge Frauds. Now they have no opportunity. So, instead of turning to compromise candidate Grover Cleveland, Slocum is nominated on the 3rd ballot. He and Cleveland share similar ideas, so he goes on to win the Governorship (as Cleveland did in real TL) by a wide margin.

In fact, being so successful there, he duplicates Clevelands triumph in real TL, and Henry Slocum is elected President in 1884 (it helps that the Republicans cannot chant 'ma, ma, where's my pa?' as for Cleveland, and it helps that Blair still does not adequately refute the Irish reference in the NY speech, and that Slocum coming from the city at the time is quicker to pounce on it than Cleveland did in real TL).


And that is how the non-building of the Brooklyn Bridge denied Grover Cleveland the Presidency. I am sure that you can come up with better...

 

[carlton_bach]

Can I take any President? Or must it be before 1900?

My idea is this:

In early 1920, the New York-based form of Levi & Mandelbaum, haberdasheries and fabrics, employed the young Tzvi Levinsohn, a WWI veteran and second-generatin immigrant from New York, as their new salesman for Kansas. Levinsohn's hiring was a kindness by the elder Mandelbaum to the young man's mother as he had no experience in the business and his tinkering habits and dreamy attitude were thought inappropriate in a fashion salesman.

Tzvi Levinsohn, arriving in Kansas City with a suitcase fiull of samples, catalogues, and no experience whatsoever, decided to activate family contacts and was referred to the son of a friend of his uncle's, Edward Jacobson, part-owner of a haberdashery store. Jacobson was kind enough to buy some articles off the young man and help him make contacts in the business.

Levinsohn emerged as s capable salesman and soon began looking to improve on his business.One particularly beloved item in his inventory were the products of the Hookless Fastener Company of Meadville, PA. An avid reader of science fiction, he saw all manner of fashionable applications in a futuristic functional attire. His enthusiasm did not go over too well with many of his business partners, but he was able to alert the hard-headed and practical Jacobson to the potential of this item. Jacobson began advertising for it and created a customer base among farmers and manual workers who valued it for its practicality and mothers who used it for their childrens' clothes. The introduction of the 'zipper' to the plains states was given a slight boost at best through this, but it aided the success of Jacobson & Truman, which had put by money for a move into new premises in early 1921 and thus was able to weather the crisis of that year.

Edward Jacobson, as the more business-minded partner, was the one to oversee the commercial development of the firm (a leading address for haberdashery and middlebrow fashion in 1920s Kansas City) through the lean days of the Depression and the rationing of wartime into the successful Ja-Tru chain of clothing stores that was eventually bought up by Sears. Harry Truman, the more politically savvy of the pair, would become the company's public front and represent it in its community relation, organising scrap and fabric drives during the war years, the charitable collection of cast-off clothes for local churches (one of the more successful ventures during the postwar years was to offer donors of used clothing to the Ja-Tru charity collection coupons that could be redeemed for discounts on new items) and the country club circuit. He retired from the company in 1958, shortly before its sale to Sears, and continued to be a much beloved public figure, patron of the middlebrow arts, and influential community leader in local politics until his death in 1974. Older inhabitants of Kansas City can to this day recall the avuncular good humour of 'Harry' in radio commercials and from the stores' annual 'Spring Fair' for children.

 

[Lord Grattan]

Senator Warren G. Harding was considered by the leaders of the Republican Party leaders as a candidate for the Presidency of the US during their deadlocked 1920 convention. Meeting in a smoke filled room with Harding, they asked him there were any embarrassing episodes in his past that might be used against him. (His OTL response was “No”.) With a smile on his face, intending it to be a light hearted response to lighten the atmosphere in the room, Harding answers, “nothing that’ll stick.” Disappointed by his answer, the party bosses turned to Governor Frank Lowden of Illinois, who won the nomination on the 10th ballot. The Lowden-Coolidge ticket defeated the Democratic Cox-Roosevelt ticket 404 electoral votes to 127. (I’ve knocked out 2 presidents here; that is if Lowden lives until 1943 as he did in OTL.)

 

[Lord Grattan]

> > > > > > > > Bump > > > > > > > >

Come on folks, let's have Leslie Lynch King Jr. grow up to be a professional football player or Herbert Hoover put some of his engineering talents to work in an alternate life.