The motion was seconded.
Colonel Clark: "The gentleman from the District of Columbia has the floor. Others please be quiet."
Here I must inject my story into the minutes again. Colonel Roosevelt saw the convention was "getting away to a Roosevelt finish" again, to use a racing term, and he sent a hurry call to the Arizona delegation for Colonel Jack Greenway.
Jack Greenway followed the elder Roosevelt up San Juan hill. He wears underneath his civilian coat to-day, but right over his heart, a Distinguished Service Cross won at Cantigny.
"Jack, for Heaven's sake, tell them I won't take it," Colonel Roosevelt plead.
It was just at this moment that Colonel Clark, the acting chairman, was saying: "The gentleman from the District of Columbia has the floor. Others please be quiet...."
Colonel Jack waving one arm at the chairman and another at the audience strode to the center of the stage.
The minutes read:
Colonel Jack Greenway: "Will you give me the floor? I won't keep you five minutes.
"My name is Greenway but that doesn't mean anything to you. Gentlemen, Colonel Roosevelt has said that he is not going to take the nomination of the caucus and you can take it from me that he is not going to do it. Now wait a minute. Whoa! Quit yelling! I know this Roosevelt outfit and when they say something they mean it. I followed his daddy through Cuba and I know. I saw this boy in the first division at Cantigny and on the Toul Front and I know that he means he is not going to take the chairmanship of this temporary caucus. There is a big misunderstanding about what you are trying to do. I have just talked to Colonel Roosevelt and he says that he will not be a candidate for the temporary caucus, but if, after all the boys come home at the convention in November, it is still the desire of that body as a whole, he will give the matter reconsideration." (Applause.)