In 1911 and 1912 Washington continued to travel, lecture, and write in America and abroad. In England and Europe he studied working-class conditions and included his observations in The Man Farthest Down (1912). During this same time period, however, he and his Tuskegee Machine suffered systematic shocks from which they only partially recovered. Washington's political role as presidential adviser declined steadily during Taft's administration. The decline itself was overshadowed, if not hastened, by Washington's involvement in a highly sensationalized incident - his brutal beating at the hands of Henry Albert Ulrich in early 1911. While this act stimulated a wave of sympathy from Washington's supporters, the circumstances surrounding the incident provided added fuel for his detractors.