^* X .0^ ..!^J-, .-'^.• ...= ^,. .^^"- %'"^r^*./ \-'^^s^ V^sf^*./ \;-^v^ ^ ^y- '-^-0^ i^-^x. I •*!/.«< '^m^^ -^'^- "^liK^ ^'"^ ^®^'' -^"" f^'. "^^ 0< ?•• ,/ '-'^-o ■^•v*''% ^>P?:-- / °'<'.--''m'y^\ ^:'Mk'S./ :. \\.^' W: J'^'-. .0. :^r:^.;^- kM^'j ,s'-^- *>^^v ^^. -T^-:^ ^krn^ .^^ ^^ ^^ .4->^ ti-- „.. /\. 63th Congress, 3d Session - . - - Senate Document No. 384 ADDRESS Senator Henry Cabot Lodge OF MASSACHUSETTS IN HONOR OF Theodore Roosevelt EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BEFORE THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES SUNDAY, FEBRUABY 9, 1919. WASHINGTON GOV^ERNAIENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919 E757 SENATE RESOLITION NO. U7. iBi-port>d l)V Mr. .'^mu*.'! ) In THi; Skn.\tk tn rni: rMri;i) States, I'rhnianj 10. Wt9. Resolved, That the nianuscript entitkcl "Address of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, in honor of TheocJorc Roosevelt, before the Congress of the United States, Sunday, February 9, 1919," be printed as a Senate Document, an«l tliat 10.000 additional copies be printed for tlu' use of llie Senate Docuintiil Room. Attest: J.^MES M. IUker. Serretanj. ft. Of d. MAft 28 1915 Theodore Roosevelt A tower is fallen, a star is set ! Alas ! Alas ! for Celin. nPHE words of lamentation from the old Moorish ballad, which in boyhood we used to recite, must, I think, have risen to many lips when the world was told that Theodore Roosevelt was dead. But whatever the phrase the thought was instant and everywhere. Variously expressed, you heard it in the crowds about the bulletin boards, from the man in the street and the man on the railroads, from the farmer in the fields, the women in the shops, in the factories, and in the homes. The pulpit found in his life a text for sermons. The judge on the bench, the child at school, alike paused for a moment, conscious of a loss. The cry of sorrow came from men and women of all conditions, high and low, rich and poor, from the learned and the ignorant, from the multitude who had loved and followed him, and from those who had opposed and resisted him. The newspapers pushed aside the absorbing reports of the events of these fateful days and gave pages to the 4 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. man who had died. Flasheci beneath the ocean and tlirouf^h the air went the announcement of his death, and back came a world-wide response from courts and cabinets, from press and people, in other and far- distant lands. Through it all ran a golden thread of personal feeling which gleams so rarely in the somber formalism of public grief. Everywhere the people felt in their hearts that: A power was passing from the Earth To breathless Nature's dark abyss. It would seem that here was a man, a private citizen, conspicuous i)y no oflice, with no glitter of power about him, no ability to reward or punish, gone from the earthly life, who must have been unusual even among the leaders of men, and who thus demands our serious consideration. This is a thought to be borne in mind to-day. We meet to render honor to the dead, to the great American whom we mourn. But there is something more to be done. We must remember that when History, with steady hand and calm eyes, free from the passions of the j)ast, comes to make up the final account, she will call as her principal witnesses the contemporaries of the man or Ihe event awaiting lier \ci-(lict. Here and eisewhere the men and women wlio knew Tiieodore THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 5 Roosevelt or who belong to his period will give pubhc utterance to their emotions and to their judgments in regard to him. This will be part of the record to which the historian will turn when our living present has become the past, of which it is his duty to write. Thus is there a responsibility placed upon each one of us who will clearly realize that here, too, is a duty to pos- terity, whom we would fain guide to the truth as we see it, and to w^hose hands we commit our share in the history of our beloved country — that history so much of which was made under his leadership. We can not approach Theodore Roosevelt along the beaten paths of eulogy or satisfy ourselves with the empty civilities of commonplace funereal tributes, for he did not make his life journey over main- traveled roads, nor was he ever commonplace. Cold and pompous formalities would be unsuited to him who was devoid of affectation, w^ho was never self- conscious, and to whom posturing to draw the public gaze seemed not only repellent but vulgar. He had that entire simplicity of manners and modes of life which is the crowning result of the highest culture and the fmest nature. Like Cromwell, he would ahvays have said : " Paint me as I am." In that spirit, in his spirit of devotion to truth's simplicity, I shall 6 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. try to speak of him to-day in the presence of the rep- resentatives of the great Government of which he was for seven years the head. The rise of any man from humble or still more from sordid beginnings to the heights of success always and naturally appeals strongly to the imagination. It fur- nishes a vivid contrast which is as much admired as it is leadily understood. It sliil retains the wonder which such success awakened in the days of hereditary lawgivers and high privileges of birth. Birth and for- tune, liowcNcr, mean much less now than two cen- turies ago. To climb from the place of a printer's boy to the highest rank in science, politics, and diplomacy would be far easier to-day than in the eighteenth cen- tury, given a genius like I^'ranklin to do it. Moreover the real marvel is in the soaring achievement itself, no matter what the origin of the man who comes by " the people's unbought giace to rule his native land " and who on descending from the odicial pinnacle still leads and inllncnccs thousands u|)()n thousands of his fellow men. Theodore Hooscm-U had liic good tOitunc to l)e horn of a well-known, long-established (aniily. with every facility for education and with an atmosphere of pa- triotism and disinterested service both to countrv and THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 7 humanity all about him. In his father he had before him an example of lofty public spirit, from which it would have been difficult to depart. But if the work of his ancestors relieved him from the hard struggle which meets an unaided man at the outset, he also lacked the spur of necessity to prick the sides of his intent, in itself no small loss. As a balance to the opportunity which was his without labor, he had not only the later difficulties which come to him to whom fate has been kind at the start; he had also spread before him the temptations inseparable from such inherited advantages as fell to his lot — temptations to a life of sports and pleasure, to lettered ease, to an amateur's career in one of the fine arts, perhaps to a money-making business, likewise an inheritance, none of them easily to be set aside in obedience to the stern rule that the larger and more facile the opportunity the greater and more insistent the respon- sibility. How he refused to tread the pleasant paths that opened to him on all sides and took the instant way which led over the rough road of toil and action his life discloses. At the beginning, moreover, he had physical diffi- culties not lightly to be overcome. He was a delicate child, suffering acutely from attacks of asthma. He 8 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. was not a strong boy, was retiring, fond of books, and with an intense but solitary devotion to natural his- tory. As his health gradually improved he became possessed by the belief, although he perhaps did not then formulate it, that in the lields of active life a man coukl do that wliitii he willed to do; and this faith was with him to the end. It became very evident when he went to Harvard." lie made himself an athlete by sheer jiard work. Hampered by extreme near-sigiitedness, he became none the less a formidable boxer and an excellent shot. He stood high in scholarship, but as he worked hard, so he played hartl, and was popular in the university and beloved by his friends. For a shy and delicate boy all this meant solid achievement, as well as unusual determination and force of will. .Apparently he look early [o heart and carrieil out to funillment llie noble lines of (Hough's Dipsychus: In light things Prove thou the arms tliou long'st to glorify. Nor fear to work up from the lowest ranks Whence come great Nature's Captains. .\n(l high deeds Haunt not the fring>- edges of the light. But the pell-null of men. When a youiii^ man lonus out of college he descends suddenly from (lie highest place in a little world to a very obscure corner in a great one. It is something of THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 9 a shock, and there is apt to be a chill in the air. Unless the young man's life has been planned beforehand and a place provided for him by others, which is excep- tional, or unless he is fortunate in a strong and domi- nating purpose or talent which drives him to science or art or some particular profession, he finds himself at this period pausing and wondering where he can get a grip upon the vast and confused world into which he has been plunged. It is a trying and only too frequently a disheartening experience, this looking for a career, this effort to find employment in a huge and hurrying crowd which appears to have no use for the newcomer, Roosevelt, thus cast forth on his own resources — his father, so beloved by him, having died two years before — fell to work at once, turning to the study of the law, which he did not like, and to the completion of a history of the War of 1812 which he had begun while still in college. With few exceptions, young beginners in the difficult art of writing are either too exuberant or too dry. Roosevelt said that his book was as dry as an encyclo- pedia, thus erring in precisely the direction one would not have expected. The book, be it said, was by no means so dry as he thought it, and it had some other admirable qualities. ^ It was clear and thorough, and 10 THKODOKE ROOSEVELT. the battles by sea and land, especially the former, which involved the armaments and crews, the size and speed of the ships eni^aged in the I'amcnis Iriyale and sloop actions, of which we won eleven out of thirteeen, were given with a minute accuracy never before allenij)te(i in the accounts of this war, and wiiich made the book an authority, a position it holds to this day. This was a good deal of sound work for a boy's fii-st year out of college. Hut il did not content Roosevelt. Inherited intluences and inborn desires made him earnest and eager to render some public service. In puisuil of this asi)iration lie joined the Twenty-first Assembly District Rejjublican .Association of the city of New York, for by such machinery all politics were car- ried on in tliose days. It was not an association com- l)osed of his normal friends: in fact, the members were not only eminently practical persons but they were iiu-jincd to be rough in ilieir methods. They were not dreamers, nor were they laboring under many illusions. Roosevelt went among them a complete stranger, lie dilVered from them with entire frank- ness, concealed nothing, and by his strong and simple democratic ways, his intense Americanism, and the magical personal attraciion whicli wi'iit willi him to the end. made some dcNoled friends. One of the vounger THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 11 leaders, " Joe " Murray, believed in him, became espe- cially attached to him, and so continued until death separated them. Through Murray's efforts he was elected to the New York Assembly in 1881, and thus only one year after leaving college his public career began. He was just twenty-three. Very few men make an effective State reputation in their first year in the lower branch of the State legislature. I never happened to hear of one who made a national reputation in such a body. Roosevelt did both. When he left the assembly after three years' service he was a national figure, well known, and of real importance, and also a delegate at large from the great State of New York to the Republican national convention of 1884, where he played a leading part. Energy, ability, and the most entire courage were the secret of his extraordinary success. It was a time of flagrant corporate influence in the New York Legis- lature, of the " Black Horse Cavalry," of a group of members who made money by sustaining corporation measures or by levying on corporations and capital through the familiar artifice of " strike bills." Roose- velt attacked them all openly and aggressively and never silently or quietly. He fought for the impeach- ment of a judge solely because he believed the judge IL' THROUOHI-: HOOSi:VELT. corrupt, which surprised some of his political asso- ciates of both parties, liiere beinj^, as one practical thinker observed. " no politics in politics." He failed to secure the impeachment, but the fij^ht did not fail, nor did the people forj^et it: and despite — perhaps because of — the enemies he maile, he was twice re- elected. He became at the same time a distinct, well- defined fii^ure to the American people. He had touclic'l the popular ima.^ination. In this way he per- formed the unexampled feat of Icavinf^ the New York .\ssembly, which he had entered three years before an unknown boy. with a national r(.'pulati()u and with his name at least known throuf^houl the I'nited States. He was twenty-six years old. When he left (Ihica.^o at the close of the national con- vention in .lune, 1884. he did not return to New York, but went ^Vest to the Bad Lands of the Little Missouri N'allcy, where he had purchased a ranch in the previous year. The early love of natural history which never abated had developed into a passion for huntini,' and foi- life in the open, lie had bci;un in the wilds of Maine and then turned to the West and to a cattle ranch to i,M-alify both tastes. The life appealed to liim and he came to lo\e it. lie herded and rounded uj) his lattle. he worked as a cow-puncher. onl\- rather hardei- than THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 13 any of them, and in the intervals he hnnted and shot big game. He also came in contact with men of a new type, rough, sometimes dangerous, but always vigorous and often picturesque. With them he had the same success as with the practical politicians of the Twenty- first Assembly District, although they were widely dif- ferent specimens of mankind. But all alike were hu- man at bottom and so was Roosevelt. He argued with them, rode with them, camped with them, played and joked with them, but was always master of his outfit. They respected him and also liked him, because he was at all times simple, straightforward, outspoken, and sincere. He became a popular and well-known figure in that western country and was regarded as a good fel- low, a " white man," entirely fearless, thoroughly good- natured and kind, never quarrelsome, and never safe to trifle with, bully, or threaten. The life and experi- ences of that time found their way into a book, " The Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," interesting in descrip- tion and adventure and also showing a marked literary quality. In 1886 he ran as Republican candidate for mayor of New York and might have been elected had his own party stood by him. But many excellent men of Re- publican faith — the " timid good," as he called them — 14 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. panic-stricken l)y the formidable candidacy of Henr>' George, flocked to the support of Mr. Abram Hewitt, the Democratic candidate, as tiic man most certain to defeat the menacing champion of single taxation. Roosevelt was beaten, but his campaign, which was entirely his own and the precursor of many others, his speeches with their striking quality then visible to the country for the first time, all combined to fix the atten- tion of the people upon the losing candidate. Roose- velt was the one of the candidates who was most inter- esting, and again he had touched the imagination of the people and cut a little deeper into the popular con- sciousness and memory. Two years more of private life, devoted to his home, where his greatest happiness was always found, to his ranch, to reading and writing books, and then came an active part in the campaign of 1S88. resulting in the election of President Harrison, who matlc him civil-service commissioner in the spring of 1889. He was in his thirty-first year. Civil-service reform as a practical question was then in its initial stages. The law establishing it. limited in extent and forced through by a few ieadei-s of both parties in tlie Senate, was only six years old. The pionioteis of the reforni, strong in (|nality. l)ut weak in nunil)ers, had conipelleil THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 15 a reluctant acceptance of the law by exercising a bal- ance-of -power vote in certain States and districts. It had few earnest supporters in Congress, some luke- warm friends, and many strong opponents. All the active politicians were practically against it. Mr. Conkling had said that when Dr. Johnson told Boswell " that patriotism was the last refuge of a scoundrel " he was ignorant of the possibilities of the word " re- form," and this witticism met with a large response. Civil-service reform, meaning the establishment of a classified service and the removal of routine administrative offices from politics, had not reached the masses of the people at all. The average voter knew and cared nothing about it. When six years later Roosevelt resigned from the commission the great body of the people knew well what civil-service reform meant, large bodies of voters cared a great deal about it, and it was established and spreading its control. We have had many excellent men who have done good work in the Civil Service Commission, although that work is neither adventurous nor excit- ing and rarely attracts public attention, but no one has ever forgotten that Theodore Roosevelt was once civil-service commissioner. 16 THEODORE ROOSEN-ELT. He found the law strusf^ling for existence, laughed at, sneered at, surrounded by enemies in Congress, and %vilii but lew ligiiting friends. He threw himself into the fray. Congress investigated the commission about once a year, which was exactly what Roosevelt desired. Annually, too, the opponents of the reform would try to defeat the appropriation for the commission, and this again was playing into Roosevelt's hands, for it led to debates, and the newsi)apers as a rule sustained the reform. Senator Gorman mourned in the Senate over the cruel fate of a " bright young man " who was iniable to tell on examination the distance of Raltimore from China, and thus was deprived of his inalienable right to serve his country in the post oflke. Roosevelt proved that no such (piestion had e\er been asked and requested the name of the " bright young man." The name was not forthcoming, and the victim of a (pies- lion never asked goes down nameless to posterity in the Congressional Record as merely a " bright young man." Then Ceneral drosvenor. a leading Republican of liu- House, (knouncid the commissioner for creilit- ing his district with an appointee named Rufus Putnam who was not a resident of the district, and Roosevelt j)ro(lncc(l a Icttci" from the general recommending Rufus Puliiani as a resident of his district and a con- THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 17 stitiient. All this was unusual. Hitherto it had been a safe amusement to ridicule and jeer at civil-service reform, and here was a commissioner who dared to reply vigorously to attacks, and even to prove Senators and Congressmen to be wrong in their facts. The amusement of baiting the Civil Service Commission seemed to be less inviting than before, and, worse still, the entertaining features seemed to have passed to the public, who enjoyed and approved the commissioner who disregarded etiquette and fought hard for the law he was appointed to enforce. The law suddenly took on new meaning and became clearly visible in the public mind, a great service to the cause of good government. After six years' service in the Civil Service Commis- sion Roosevelt left Washington to accept the position of president of the Board of Police Commissioners of the city of New York, which had been offered to him by Mayor Strong. It is speaking within bounds to say that the history of the police force of New York has been a checkered one in which the black squares have tended to predominate. The task which Roosevelt confronted was then, as always, difficult, and the machinery of four commissioners and a practically 104612°— 19 3 18 THEODORE ROOSEVEF.T. irremovable chief made action extremely slow and uncertain. Roosevelt set Iiimself to expel politics and favoritism in appoinlnicnls and promotions and to crush corruption everywhere. In some way he drove through llie obstacles and effected j^reat improvements, allhoui^li permanent betterment was perhaps impos- sible, (lood men were appointed and meritorious men |)romoted as never before, while the corrupt and dan- gerous olliccrs were punished in a numbci-of instances suOicicnt, at least, to check and discourage evildoers. Discijjline was improved, and the force became very loyal to the cliicf commissioner, because they learned to realize that he was lighting for right and justice with- out fear or favor. The results were also shown in the marked decrease of crimi-. wjiich judges jjoinled out from the bench. Then, too, it was to be observed that a New York police commissioner suddenly attracted tiie attention of the country. The work which was be- ing done by Roosevelt in New York, his midnight walks through the worst ([uarters of the great city, to see wlietlier the guardians of the peace did their duly, which made the newspapers comjiare him to Ilaroun Al Raschid, all appealed to the popular imagination. A purely local oiliit' became national in his hands, and his picluie ai)peart(l in the shojjs of I'.nropean cities. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 19 There was something more than vigor and picturesque- ness necessary to explain these phenomena. The truth is that Roosevelt was really laboring through a welter of details to carry out certain general principles which went to the very roots of society and government. He wished the municipal administration to be something far greater than a business man's administration, which was the demand that had triumphed at the polls. He wanted to make it an administration of the work- ingmen, of the dwellers in the tenements, of the pov- erty and suffering which haunted the back streets and hidden purlieus of the huge city. The people did not formulate these purposes as they watched what he was doing, but they felt them and understood them by that instinct which is often so keen in vast bodies of men. The man who was toiling in the seeming obscurity of the New York police commission again became very distinct to his fellow countrymen and deepened their consciousness of his existence and their comprehension of his purposes and aspirations. Striking as was the effect of this police work, it only lasted for two years. In 1897 he was offered by Presi- dent McKinley, whom he had energetically supported in the preceding campaign, the position of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He accepted at once, for the 20 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. place and the work both appealed to him most strongly. The opportunity did not come without resistance. The President, an old iriend. liketl him and believed in him, but the Secretary of the Navy had doubts, and also I'ears that Roosevelt might be a dis- turbing and restless assistant. There were many poli- ticians, too, especially in his own State, whom his activities as civil-service and police commissioner did not delight, and these men ojjjjosed him. Hut his friends were powerful and de\()ted, and tlie President apjjointed him. His new i)hu-e had lo him ;t jieculiar atlraiiion. lie loved the Navy. He had written its brilliant history in the War of 1812. He had done all in his power in stim- uhiling pul)lic ojiinioii to support tlie " new Na\y " we were just then beginning to build. That war was com- ing with Spain he had no doubt. We were unprei)ared, of course, even for such a war as this, but Hoosevelt set himself to do what could be done. The best and most farseeing ofiicers rallied round him, but the opportu- nities were limited. There was much in detail accom- plished which can not be described here, but two acts of his which had very distinct effect upon the fortunes of llie war must he noted. He saw very jjiainly — allhough most |)eoiile nexir |)erieivicl it al all — that THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 21 the Philippines would be a vital point in any war with Spain. For this reason it was highly important to have the right man in command of the Asiatic Squadron. Roosevelt was satisfied that Dewey was the right man, and that his rival was not. He set to work to secure the place for Dewey. Through the aid of the Senators from Dewey's native State and others, he succeeded. Dewey was ordered to the Asiatic Squadron. Our rela- tions with Spain grew worse and worse. On February 25, 1898, war was drawing very near, and that Saturday afternoon Roosevelt happened to be Acting Secretary, and sent out the following cablegram: Dewey — Hongkong. Order the squadron, except the Monocacy, to Hongkong. Keep full of coal. In the event of declaration of war, Spain, your duty will be to see that the Spanish Squadron does not leave the Asiatic coast, and then offensive operations in the Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia until further orders. Roosevelt. I believe he was never again permitted to be Acting Secretary. But the deed was done. The wise word of readiness had been spoken and was not recalled. War came, and as April closed, Dewey, all prepared, slipped out of Hongkong and on May 1st fought the battle of Manila Bay. 22 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Roosevelt, however, did not continue lonj^ in liie Navy Department. .Many of his friends felt that he was doing such admirable work there that he ought to remain, but as soon as war was declared he determined to go, and his resolution was not to be shaken. Noth- ing could prevent his fighting for his country when the country was at war. Congress had authorized three volunteer regiments of Cavalry, and the President and tlie Secrelary of War gave to Leonard Wood — then a surgeon in the Regular Army — as colonel, and to Theo- dore Roosevelt, as lieutenant colonel, authority to raise one of these regiments, known ofiicially as the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, and to all the country as the " Rough Riders." The regiment was raised chielly in the Southwest and West, where Roosevelt's popularity and reputation among the cowboys and the ranchmen brought many eager recruits to serve with him. .\flcr the regiment had been organized and C(iuii)pe(l they had sonic (iiHiculty in getting to Cuba, but Roo.sevelt as usual bioke through all obstacles, and finally succeeded, with Colonel Wood, in getting away with two battalions, leaving one batlalion and the horses behind. The regimeni got inio action inmu'diatily on landing and forced its way. alter sonic sli;u|t lighting in the THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 23 jungle, to the high ground on which were placed the fortifications which defended the approach to San- tiago. Colonel Wood was almost immediately given command of a brigade, and this left Roosevelt colonel of the regiment. In the battle which ensued and which resulted in the capture of the positions commanding Santiago and the bay, the Rough Riders took a leading part, storming one of the San Juan heights, which they christened Kettle Hill, with Roosevelt leading the men in person. It was a dashing, gallant assault, well led and thoroughly successful. Santiago fell after the defeat of the fleet, and then followed a period of sick- ness and suffering — the latter due to unreadiness — where Roosevelt did eveiything with his usual driving energy to save his men, whose loyalty to their colonel went with them through life. The war was soon over, but brief as it had been Roosevelt and his men had highly distinguished themselves, and he stood out in the popular imagination as one of the conspicuous figures of the conflict. He brought his regiment back to the United States, where they were mustered out, and almost immediately afterwards he was nominated by the Republicans as their candidate for governor of the State of New York. The situation in New York was unfavorable for the Republicans, and the younger men 24 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. told Senator Piatt, who dominateci the organization and who had no desire for Roosevelt, that unless he was nominated they could not win. Thus forced, the organization accepted him, and it was well for the party that they did so. The campaign was a sharp one and ver>' doubtful, but Roosevelt was elected by a narrow margin and assumed office at the beginning of the new year of 1899. He was then in his forty- first year. Many problems faced him and none were evaded. He was well aware that the " organization " under Sen- ator Piatt would not like many thing he was sure to do, but he determined that he would have neither pei-sonal quarrels nor faction fights. He knew, being blessed with strong common sense, that the Republican Party, his own parly, was the inslriinunl by which alone he could attain his ends, and he did not intend that it should be blunted and made useless by internal strife. And yet he meant to have his own way. It was a difli- cull role which he undertook to play, but he succeeded, lie iuul many dilTerences with the organization man- agers, but he declined to lose his tenii)er or to have a break, and he also refused to yield when he fell he was standini^ for the right and a principle was at stake. Thus he prevailed, lie won on the canal (pieslion. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 25 changed the insurance commissioner, and carried the insurance legislation he desired. As in these cases, so it was in lesser things. In the police commission he had been strongly impressed by the dangers as he saw them of the undue and often sinister influence of busi- ness, finance, and great money interests upon govern- ment and politics. These feelings were deepened and broadened by his experience and observation on the larger stage of State administration. The belief that political equality must be strengthened and sustained by industrial equality and a larger economic opportu- nity was constantly in his thoughts until it became a governing and guiding principle. Meantime he grew steadily- stronger among the people, not only of his own State but of the country, for he was well known throughout the West, and there they were watching eagerly to see how the ranchman and colonel of Rough Riders, who had touched both their hearts and their imagination, was faring as gov- ernor of New York. The office he held is always re- garded as related to the Presidency, and this, joined to his striking success as governor, brought him into the presidential field wherever men speculated about the political future. It was universally agreed that McKinley was to be renominated, and so the talk 104612°— 19 4 26 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. tuiiitil to niakiiij^ Roosevelt \"\cv President. A friend wrote to iiini in the summer of 189U as to this drift of opinion, then assuming serious proportions. " Do not attempt," he said, " to thwait the popular desire. You are not a man nor are your close friends men who can plan, arrange, and manage you into office. You must accept the popular wish, whatever it is, follow your star, and let the future care for itself. It is the tradi- tion of our politics, and a very poor tradition, that the Vice Presidency is a shelf. It ought to he, anil there is no reason why it should not be, a stepping-stone. Put there by the popular desire, it would be so to you." This view, quite naturally, did not commend itself to (io\ernor Roosevelt at the moment. He was doing valuai)le work in New York: ln' was deeply engaged in important ref\)rm.s which he iuul much at heart and which he wished to carry Ihrougli: and the \'ice Presi- dency did not attract him. .\ year later he was at Pliiladcliihia. a delegate at large from his State, with ills mind unchanged as to the \'ice Picsidency, while his New \'oik friends, anxious to liaxc him continue his work at .Mbany, were urging him to refuse. .Sen- ator IMatt, for ol)\ious reasons, wished to make him \iiv President, another obstaile to his taking it. RooscNcIt forced the New \'()rk delegation to agree on THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 27 some one else for Vice President, but he could not hold the convention, nor could Senator Hanna, who wiselj^ accepted the situation. Governor Roosevelt was nominated on the first ballot, all other candidates withdrawing. He accepted the nomination, little as he liked it. Thus when it came to the point he instinctively followed his star and grasped the unvacillating hand of destiny. Little did he think that destiny would lead him to the White House through a tragedy which cut him to the heart. He was on a mountain in the Adiron- dacks w^ien a guide made his way to him across the forest with a telegram telling him that McKinley, the wise, the kind, the gentle, with nothing in his heart but good will to all men, was dying from a wound inflicted by an anarchist murderer, and that the Vice President must come to Buffalo at once. A rapid night drive through the woods and a special train brought him to Buffalo. McKinley was dead before he arrived, and that evening Governor Roosevelt w^as sw^orn in as President of the United States. Within the narrow limits of an address it is impos- sible to give an account of an administration of seven years which will occupy hundreds of pages when the history of the United States during that period is writ- 28 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. ten. It was a memorable administration, memorable in itself and not by the accident of events, and large in its accomplishment. It began with a surprise. There were persons in the United States who had care- fully cultivated, and many people who had accepted without thought, the idea that Roosevelt was in some way a dangerous man. 'I'liey gloomily predicted that there would be a violent change in tiie policies and in the oflicers of the McKinley administration. But Roosevelt had not studied llie history of his country in vain. He knew that in three of the four cases where Vice Presidents had succeeded to the Presidency through the deatii of the elected President their coming had resulted in a violent shifting of policies and men, and, as a consequence, in most injurious dissensions, which in two ca.ses at least proved fatal to the parly in power. In all four instances the tinal obliteration of the Vice President who had come into power through the death of his chief was comi)lele. President Roose- velt did not intend to permit any of these results. As soon as he came into oHice he announced that he in- tended to retain Presideiil McKinley"s Cabinet and to carry out his policies, which had been sustained at the polls. To tho.se overzealous friends who suggested that he could not trust the appointees of President THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 29 McKinley and that he would be but a pallid imitation of his predecessor he replied that he thought, in any event, the administration would be his, and that if new occasions required new policies he felt that he could meet them, and that no one would suspect him of being a pallid imitation of anybody. His decision, however, gratified and satisfied the country, and it was not apparent that Roosevelt was hampered in any way in carrying out his own policies by this wise refusal to make sudden and violent changes. Those who were alarmed about what he might do had also suggested that with his combative propensities he was likely to involve the countiy in war. Yet there never has been an administration, as afterwards ap- peared, when we were more perfectly at peace with all the world, nor were our foreign relations ever in danger of producing hostilities. But this was not due in the least to the adoption of a timid or yielding foreign pol- icy; on the contrary, it was owing to the firmness of the President in all foreign questions and the knowledge which other nations soon acquired that President Roosevelt was a man who never threatened unless he meant to carry out his threat, the result being that he was not obliged to threaten at all. One of his earliest successes was forcing the settlement of the Alaskan 30 THEODORE ROOSEX-ELT. bounilan- queslion. which was the single open qucslion with (ireat Britain that was really dangerous and con- tained within itself possibilities of war. The accom- plishment of this settlement was followed later, while Mr. Hoot was Secretary of State, by the arrangement of all our outstanding difTerences willi Canada, and during .Mr. Hoot's tenure of onice over thirty treaties were made with dilTerent nations, including a num- bei- of practical and valuable treaties of arbitration. \\ licii (iermany started to lake advantage of the ilifli- culties in \enezuela the alTair culminated in the dis- |)atch of Dewey and the licet to the Caribbean, the witiidrawal of I^ngland at once, and the agreement of (iermany to the reference of all subjects of dif- ference to arbitration. It was I^rcsident Hooscvelt whose good ollices Itrougiil Russia and Japan together in a negotiation which ch)sed the war between those two powers. It was Hoosevelt's influence which con- tributed powerfully to settling the threatening con- trovei-sy between (iermany. France, and Knglanil in regard to .Morocco, by the .Mgeciras conference. It was Hooscvelt who sent the .Vnierican Heel of battle- ships round the world, one of the most convincing peace movements ever made on behalf of the liiitcd States. Thus it came about that this President, dreaded THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 31 at the beginning on account of his combative spirit, received the Nobel prize in 1906 as the person who had contributed most to the peace of the world in the pre- ceding years, and his contribution was the result of strength and knowledge and not of weakness. At home he recommended to Congress legislation which was directed toward a larger control of the rail- roads and to removing the privileges and curbing the power of great business combinations obtained through rebates and preferential freight rates. This legislation led to opposition in Congress and to much resistance by those affected. As we look back, this legislation, so much contested at the time, seems very moderate, but it was none the less momentous. Presi- dent Roosevelt never believed in Government owner- ship, but he was thoroughly in favor of strong and effective Government supervision and regulation of what are now known generally as public utilities. He had a deep conviction that the political influence of financial and business interests and of great combina- tions of capital had become so great that the American people were beginning to distrust their own Govern- ment, than which there could be no greater peril to the Republic, By his measures and by his general attitude toward capital and labor both he sought to 32 THKOUOHE ROOSEVELT. restore and maintain tiie confuifnct' of tlic people in the Government they had tliemselves created. In the Panama (lanal lie left the most endnring, as it was the most \ isible, monument of his administration. Much criticized at the moment for his action in rei^ard to it, which time since then has justified and which his- tory will praise, the great fad remains that the canal is tin re. lU' said himself that he made up his mind that it was his duly to establish the canal and have the debate about it afterwards, which seemed to him bet- ter than to begin with indelinite deljate and have no canal al all. This is a \ iew which ])osterily both at home and abroad will accept and approve. These, passing over as we must in silence many other beneficent acts, are only a few of the most salient features of his administration, stripi)ed of all detail and all enlargement. Despite the conilicts which sonu' of his domestic policies had produced not only with his i)olitical opponeiils Inil within the Republican ranks, he was overw lu'lmingly reelected in I'.IOl. and N\hen the seven years had closed the lountry gaNC a like majority to his chosen successor, taken fi'om his own Cabinet. On the 1th of March, lOO'J. he returned to private life at tlu' age of lifty. having been the young- est I'resich'ut know n lo our hislorv. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 33 During the brief vacations wliich he had been able to secure in the midst of the intense activities of his pub- lic life after the Spanish War he had turned for enjoy- ment to expeditions in pursuit of big game in the wild- est and most unsettled regions of the country. Open- air life and all its accompaniments of riding and hunt- ing were to him the one thing that brought him the most rest and relaxation. Now, having left the Presidency, he was able to give full scope to the love of adventure, which had been strong with him from boyhood. Soon after his retirement from office he went to Africa, ac- companied by a scientific expedition sent out by the Smithsonian Institution. He landed in East Africa, made his way into the interior, and thence to the sources of the Nile, after a trip in every way success- ful, both in exploration and in pursuit of big game. He then came down the Nile through Egypt and thence to Europe, and no private citizen of the United States^ probably no private man of any country — was ever received in a manner comparable to that which met Roosevelt in every country in Europe which he visited. Evei-y where it was the same — in Italy, in Germany, in France, in England. Every honor was paid to him that authority could devise, accompanied by every mark of 34 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. afTcction and adrairalion which the people of those countries were able to show. He made few speeches while in lanope, but in those lew he did not fail to give to the questions and thought of the time real and gen- uine contributions, set forth in plain language, always vigor(His and often eloquent, lie relurned in the sum- mer of 1910 to the United Slates and was greeted with a reception on his landing in New York quite equaling in interest and enlluisiasni that which had been given to him in Europe. l-'or two years ai'lcrwards he devoted himself to writing, not only articles as contributing etlilor of the Outlook, but books of his own and addresses and speeches which he was constantly called upon to make. No nuin ill pri\ale lil'e proi)ably ever had such an auili- ence as he addressed, whether with tongue or pen, upon the questions of the day, with a constant refrain as to the (lualilies necessary to make men both good citizens and good Americans. In the sjjring of 1912 he decided to become a candidate for the Republican nomination for the Presidency, and a very healed struggle followed between himself and Piesiilenl Tafl for delegations to the convention. The convention wlien it assembled in (Ihicago was the stormiest ever known in our hislorv. Prt'sidi-nl Tafl was renomi- THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 35 natetl, most of the Roosevelt delegates refusing to vole, and a Inrge body of Republicans thereupon formed a new party called the "Progressive" and nominated Mr. Roosevelt as their candidate. This division into two nearly equal parts of the Republican Party, which had elected Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Taft in succession by the largest majorities ever known, made the vic- tory of the Democratic candidate absolutely certain. Colonel Roosevelt, however, stood second in the poll, receiving 4,119,507 votes, carrying six States and win- ning eighty-eight electoral votes. There never has been in political history, when all conditions are con- sidered, such an exhibition of extraordinary personal strength. To have secured eighty-eight electoral votes when his own party was hopelessly divided, with no great historic party name and tradition behind him, with an organization which had to be hastily brought together in a few weeks, seems almost incredible, and in all his career there is no display of the strength of his hold upon the people equal to this. In the following year he yielded again to the longing for adventure and exploration. Going to South Amer- ica, he made his way up through Paraguay and western Rrazil, and then across a trackless wilderness of jungle and down an unknown river into the Valley of the 36 THKODORE HOOSEVELT. Amazon. It was a rcmarkal)k' expedition and carried him througil wliat is probably the most deadly climate in the world. He suffered severely from the fever, the poison of which ik-mt kft liini and which finally shortened his lil'e. In the next year the great war began, and Cohjnel Roosevelt threw himself into it with all the energy of his nature. With Major Gardner he led the great light for preparedness in a country utterly unpre- l)arcd. He saw very plainly that in all human prob- ability it would be impossible for us to keep out of the war. Therefore in season and out of season he demanded tiiat we should make ready. He and Major Gardner, with the others who joined them, roused a widespread and powerful sentiment in Ihe country. but thci'c was no practical effect on the .Vrniy. The Navy was the single place where anything was really done, and that only in the bill of 1916, so that war finally came upon us as unready as Roosevelt had feared we should be. Yet the campaign he made was not in vain, for in addition to tiie question of preparation he spoke earnestly of other things, other hiiiiiing questions, and lie always s])oke to an enor- mous body of listeners e\ery\\ liere. lie would have had us protest and lake action at the very beginning, in I'Jl 1. when Helgium was invaded. He would ha\e THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 37 had US go to war \Yhen the murders of the Liisitania were perpetrated. He tried to stir the soul and rouse the spirit of the American people, and despite every obstacle he did awaken them, so that when the hour came, in April, 1917, a large proportion of the Ameri- can people were even then ready in spirit and in hope. How telling his work had been was proved by the confession of his country's enemies, for when he died the only discordant note, the only harsh words, came from the German press. Germany knew whose voice it was that more powerfully than any other had called Americans to the battle in behalf of freedom and civilization, where the advent of the armies of the United States gave victory to the cause of justice and righteousness. ^Yhen the United States went to war Colonel Roose- velt's one desire was to be allowed to go to the fight- ing line. There if fate had laid its hand upon him it would have found him glad to fall in the trenches or in a charge at the head of his men, but it was not permitted to him to go, and thus he was denied the reward which he would have ranked above all others, " the great prize of death in battle." But he was a patriot in every fiber of his being, and personal dis- appointment in no manner slackened or cooled his zeal. Evervthing that he could do to forward the 38 THEODORF ROOSEVELT. war, to quicken preparation, to stimulate patriotism, to urge on eflkient action, was done. Day and nii^ht. in season and out of season, he never ceased his labors. Although prevented from going to France himself, he gave to the great conflict that which was far dealer to him than his own life. I can not say that he sent his four .sons, because they all went at once, as everyone knew that their father's sons would go. Two have been badly wounded; one was killed. He met the blow with the most splendid and unflinching courage, met it as .Siward. the Earl of Xorlhumberland, receives in tiic play the news of his son's death: Siw. Had ho his hurls bi.forc? Ross. .\y, on Ihc front. Siw. Why, then, God's soldier be he! Had I as many sons as I have liairs, I would not wish Ihcm to a fairer diath: .\nd .so his knoll is knoll'd. .\mong the great tragedies of .Shakespeare, and there are none greater in all the literature of man, Macbeth was Colonel Roosevelt's favorite, and the moving words which 1 Ikim- just (pioted I am sure were in his heart and on his lips when he faced with stern resolve and self-control the anguish brought to him by the (lealh of liis youn-est boy. killed in the glory of a braM' and brilliant xoutli. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 39 He lived to see the right prevail; he lived to see civ- ilization triumph over organized barbarism; and there was great joy in his heart. In all his last days the thoughts which filled his mind were to secure a peace which should render Germany forever harmless and advance the cause of ordered freedom in evei-y land and among every race. This occupied him to the exclusion of everything else, except w^hat he called and what we like to call Americanism. There was no hour down to the end wlien he would not turn aside from everything else to preach the doctrine of Americanism, of the principles and the faith upon which American government rested, and which all true Americans should wear in their heart of hearts. He was a great patriot, a great man; above all, a great American. His country was the ruling, mastering passion of his life from the beginning even unto the end. So closes the inadequate, most incomplete account of a life full of work done and crowded with achieve- ment, brief in years and prematurely ended. The recitation of the offices which he held and of some of the deeds that he did is but a bare, imperfect catalogue into which history when we are gone will breathe a lasting life. Here to-day it is only a background, and that w^hich most concerns us now is what the man was of whose deeds done it is possible to make such 40 THKODORE ROOSEVELT. a list. What a man was is ever more important than what lie did, hccaiise it is upon wiiat he was that all ids achievement depends and his value and meainng to his tVllow men must finally rest. Theodore Roosevelt always believed that character was of greater worth and moment than anything else. He possessed abilities of the lirst order, which he was disposed to underrate, because he set so much greater store upon the moral (lualilies which we bring together under the single word " character." Let me speak first of his abilities, lie had a power- ful, well-trained, ever-active mind. He thought clearly, indc{)endently, and with originality and imagination. These priceless gifts were sustained by an extraordi- nary power of acquisition, joined to a greater quick- ness of apprehension, a greater swiftness in seizing ui)on llie essence of a (piestion. than 1 have ever hap- I)ened to see in any other man. His reading began with natural history, then went to general histor>\ and thence to the whole field of literature, lie had a capacity for concentration which enabled him to read witii reinaikable rapidity anything,' which he took up. if only for a moment, and which separated him for the time being from everything going on about him. The sid)jiils upon wliic-h he was well and widely infoinied would, il' innintTali'd. till a lar.^e sjjace. and to this THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 41 power of acquisition was united not only a tenacious but an extraordinary accurate memory. It was never safe to contest with him on any question of fact or figures, whether they related to the ancient Assyrians or to the present-day conditions of the tribes of cen- tral Africa, to the Syracusan Expedition, as told by Thucydides, or to protective coloring in birds and ani- mals. He knew and held details always at command, but he was not mastered by them. He never failed to see the forest on account of the trees or the city on account of the houses. He made himself a writer, not only of occasional addresses and essays, but of books. He had the trained thoroughness of the historian, as he showed in his history of the War of 1812 and of the " Winning of the West," and nature had endowed him with that most enviable of gifts, the faculty of narrative and the art of the teller of tales. He knew how to weigh evi- dence in the historical scales and how- to depict charac- ter. He learned to write wdth great ease and fluency. He was always vigorous, always energetic, always clear and forcible in everything he wrote — nobody could ever misunderstand him — and when he allowed himself time and his feelings were deeply engaged he gave to the world many pages of beauty as well as power, not only in thought but in form and style. At 42 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. the same time he made himself a public speaker, and here again, through a practice probably unequaled in amount, lie became one of the most elTective in all our history. In speaking, as in writing, he was always full of force and energ>'; he drove home his argu- ments and never was misunderstood. In many of his more carefully prepared addresses are to be found passages of impressive eloquence, touched with imagi- nation and instinct with grace and feeling. He had a large capacity for administration, clear- ness of vision, promjjtness in decision, and a thor- ough apprehension of what constituted efficient or- ganization. All the vast and varied work which he accomplished could not have been done unless he had had most exceptional natural abilities, but behind them, most important of all, was the driving force of an intense energy and the ever-present belief that a man could do what he willed to do. As he made him- .self an athlete, a horseman, a good shot, a bold explorer, so he made himself an exceptionally suc- cessful writer and speaker. Only a most abnormal energ\' would luivc tnablcd him lo enter and concjuer in so many fields of intellectual achievement. Hut something more than energy and determination is needed tor the largest success, especially in the world's high places. The lirsl reiiuisile of leadership THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 43 is ability to lead, and that ability Theodore Roosevelt possessed in full measure. Whether in a game or in the hunting field, in a fight or in politics, he sought the front, where, as Webster once remarked, there is always plenty of room for those who can get there. His instinct was always to say " come " rather than " go," and he had the talent of command. His also was the rare gift of arresting attention sharply and suddenly, a vei-y precious attribute, and one easier to illustrate than to describe. This arrest- ing power is like a common experience, which we have all had on entering a picture gallery, of seeing at once and before all others a single picture among the many on the walls. For a moment you see nothing else, although you may be surrounded with master- pieces. In that particular picture lurks a strange, capturing, gripping fascination as impalpable as it is unmistakable. Roosevelt had this same arresting, fascinating quality. Whether in the legislature at Albany, the Civil Service Commission at Washington, or the police commission in New York, whether in the Spanish War or on the plains among the cowboys, he was always vivid, at times startling, never to be overlooked. Nor did this power stop here. He not only without effort or intention drew the eager atten- tion of the people to himself, he could also engage 44 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. and fix their thoughts upon anything which happened to interest liim. It might be a man or a book, re- lornied spelling or some large historical cjuestion, his traveling libraiy or the military preparation of the Iniled States, he had but to say, " See how interesting, how impoitant, is this man or this event," and thousands, even millions, of people would reply. " We never thought of this before, but it certainly is one of the most interesting, most absorbing things in the world." He touched a subject and it suddenly began to glow as when the high-power electric current touches the metal and the white light starts forth and dazzles the onlooking eyes. We know the air played by the Pied Piper of Ilanielin no belter than we know why Theodore Roosevelt thus drew the interest of men after him. We only know they followed wherever his insatiable activity of mind invited them. Men follow also most readily a leadei" who is always there before lliem. clearly xisible and just where lhe\- expect iiim. 'I'hey are esiucially eager to go forwanl with a man who never sounds a retreat. Roosevelt was always advancing, always struggling to make things better, to carry some much-needed reform, and help humanity to a largi'r chance, to a fairer condi- lion. to a ha])pier liti'. Moreoxcr. he looked always THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 45 for an ethical question. He was at his best when he was fighting the battle of right against wrong. He thought soundly and wisely upon questions of expe- diency or of political economy, but they did not rouse him or bring him the absorbed interest of the eternal conflict between good and evil. Yet he was never impractical, never blinded by counsels of perfection, never seeking to make the better the enemy of the good. He wished to get the best, but he would strive for all that was possible even if it fell short of the highest at which he aimed. He studied the lessons of history, and did not think the past bad simply because it was the past, or the new good solely because it was new. He sought to try all questions on their intrinsic merits, and that was why he succeeded in advancing, in making government and society better, where others, who would be content with nothing less than an abstract perfection, failed. He would never com- promise a principle, but he was eminently tolerant of honest differences of opinion. He never hesitated to give generous credit where credit seemed due, whether to friend or opponent, and in this way he gathered recruits and yet never lost adherents. The criticism most commonly made upon Theodore Roosevelt was that he was impulsive and impetuous; that he acted without thinking. He would have been 4G THEODORE ROOSEN-ELT. the last to claim infallibility. His head did not turn when fame came to him and choruses of admiration sounded in his ears, for he was neither vain nor credu- lous. He knew that he made mistakes, and never hesi- tated to admit them to be mistakes and to correct them or put them bchiiul him when satisfied that they were such. But he wasted no time in mourning, explain- ing, or vainly regretting them. It is also true that the middle way did not attract him. He was apt to go far, both in praise and censure, although nobody could analyze qualities and balance them justly in judging men better than he. He felt strongly, and as he had no concealments of any kind, he expressed himself in like manner. Hnl vehemence is not violence, nor is earnestness anger, which a very wise man delined as a brief madness. It was all according to his nature, just as his eager cordiality in nu-cting men and women, his keen interest in other people's care or joys, was not assumed, as some persons thought who did not know liini. 11 was all profoundly nalnral. it was all real, and in that A\ay and in no other was lie able to meet and giec'l his fellow nun. He spoke out with the most unrestrained frankness at all times and in all com- jjanies. Not a day passed in the Presidency when he was not guilty of what the trained (lij)lonialist would call indiscretions. Hut llie frankness had its own re- THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 47 ward. There never was a President whose confidence was so respected or with whom the barriers of honor which surround private conversation were more scru- pulously observed. At the same time, when the pub- lic interest required, no man could be more wisely reticent. He was apt, it is true, to act suddenly and decisively, but it was a complete mistake to suppose that he therefore acted without thought or merely on a momentary impulse. When he had made up his mind he was resolute and unchanging, but he made up his mind only after much reflection, and there never was a President in the White House who consulted not only friends but political opponents and men of all kinds and conditions more than Theodore Roosevelt. When he had reached his conclusion he acted quickly and drove hard at his object, and this it was, probably, which gave an impression that he acted sometimes hastily and thoughtlessly, which was a complete mis- apprehension of the man. His action was emphatic, but emphasis implies reflection not thoughtlessness. One can not even emphasize a word without a process, however slight, of mental differentiation. The feeling that he was impetuous and impulsive was also due to the fact that in a sudden, seemingly unexpected crisis he would act with great rapidity. This happened when he had been for weeks, per- 48 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. haps for months, considering what he should do if such a crisis arose. He always believed that one of the most important elements of success, whether in public or in private life, was to know what one meant to do under i,'iven circumstances. If he saw the pos- sibility of perilous (piestions arisinj^, it was iiis prac- tice to think over carefully just how he would act under certain contingencies. Many of the contingen- cies never arose. Now and then a contingency be- came an actuality, and then he was ready. Me knew what he meant to do, he acted at once, and some critics considered him impetuous, impulsiw. and, therefore, dangerous, because they did not know that lie had thought the cjuestion all out beforehand. \'ery many people, powerful elements in the com- munity, regarded him at one time as a dangerous radical, bent upon overthrowing all the safeguards of society and planning to tear out the foundations of an ordered liberty. As a matter of fact, what Theo- dore Roosexeil was trying to do was to strengthen American society and American Government by demonstrating to the American people that he was aiming at a larger economic (.'(|uality and a innie gen- ei'ons industrial op|)ortunity lor all men, and that any combination of capital or of business, which threatened the control of the (io\ernment bv the THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 49 people who made it, was to be curbed and resisted, just as he would have resisted an enemy who tried to take possession of the city of Washington. He had no hostility to a man because he had been successful in business or because he had accumulated a fortune. If the man had been honestly successful and used his fortune wisely and beneficenth^ he was regarded by Theodore Roosevelt as a good citizen. The vulgar hatred of wealth found no place in his heart. He had but one standard, one test, and that was whether a man, rich or poor, was an honest man, a good citizen, and a good American. He tried men, whether they were men of " big business " or members of a labor union, by their deeds, and in no other way. The tyranny of anarchy and disorder, such as is now deso- lating Russia, was as hateful to him as any other tyranny, whether it came from an autocratic system like that of Germany or from the misuse of organized capital. Personally he believed in every man earn- ing his own living, and he earned money and was glad to do so; but he had no desire or taste for making money, and he was entirely indifferent to it. The simplest of men in his own habits, the only thing he really would have "liked to have done with ample wealth would have been to give freely to the many good objects which continually interested him. 50 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Theodore Roosevelt's power, liowever. and the main source of all his achifvi-nieiil, \vas not in the ollitcs wiiich he iield. for liiose offices were- to him only opportunities, but in the extraordinary hold which he established and retained over great bodies of men. lie had the lari^est personal foUowinj^ ever attained by any man in our history. I do not mean by this the followinj^ which comes from f;reat political ollice or from parly candidacy. There have been many men who have held the highest otlices in our history by the votes of their fellow countrymen who have never had aii> thing more than a very small per- sonal following. By personal following is meant here that which supports and sustains and goes with a man simply because he is himself; a following which does not care whether their leader and chief is in oflice or out of oflice, wiiich is with him and behind him because they, one and all, believe in him and love him and are ready to stand by him for the sole and simple reason that I hey have |)erfect faith that he will lead them where they wish and where they ought to go. This following Theodore Roosevelt had, as I have said, in a larger degree tiian anyone in our history, and the fact that he had it and what he did with it for [he welfare of his fellow men iiave given him his great place and his hisling fame. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 51 This is not mere assertion; it was demonstrated, as I have already pointed out, by the vote of 1912, and at all times, from the day of his accession to the Presi- dency onward, there were millions of people in this country ready to follow Theodore Roosevelt and vote for him, or do anything else that he wanted, whenever he demanded their support or raised his standard. It was this great mass of support among the people, and which probably was never larger than in these last years, that gave him his immense influence upon pub- lic opinion, and public opinion was the weapon which he used to carry out all the policies which he wished to bring to fulfillment and to consolidate all the achieve- ments upon which he had set his heart. This extraor- dinary popular strength was not given to him solely because the people knew him to be honest and brave, because they were certain that physical fear was an emotion unknown to him, and that his moral courage equaled the physical. It was not merely because they thoroughly believed him to be sincere. All this knowl- edge and belief, of course, went to making his popular leadership secure; but there was much more in it than that, something that went deeper, basic elements which were not upon the surface which were due to quali- ties of temperament interwoven with his very being. 52 THEODORE F\OOSEVELT. inseparable from him niul yet sublk' ratiier than obvi- ous in their effects. All men admire couraj^c, and tlial he possessed in the highest degree. But he had also something larger and rarer than courage, in the ordinary acceptation of tiie word. When an assassin shot him at Mil- waukee he was severely wounded; how severely he could not tell, but it might well have been mortal. lie went on to the great meeting awaiting him and there, bleeding, sulfering, ignorant of his fate, but still unconquered, made his speech and went from the stage to the liospital. What bore him uj) was the dauntless spirit which could rise victorious over pain and darkness and the unknown and meet the duly of the hour as if all were well. .V spirit like this awakens in all men more than admiralion. it kindles affection and appeals to every generous impulse. Very dilTerent, but equally compelling, was another cpiality. There is nothing in human beings at once so sane and so sympathelic as a sense of humor. This great gift the good fairies conferred upon Theo- dore Roosevelt at his birth in unstinted measure. No man ever had a more abundant sense of humor — joyous. irrc|)ressil)le luunor — and it never deserted him. Even a! the most serious and even perilous niomc'iils if tlicre was a gleam of humor anywhere THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 53 he saw it and rejoiced and helped himself with it ovei' the rough places and in the dark hour. He loved fun, loved to joke and chaff, and, what is more uncommon, greatly enjoyed being chaffed himself. His ready smile and contagious laugh made countless friends and saved him from many an enmity. Even more generally effective than his humor, and yet allied to it, was the universal knowledge that Roose- velt had no secrets from the American people. Yet another quality — perhaps the most engaging of all — was his homely, generous humanity which en- abled him to speak directly to the primitive instincts of man. He dwelt with the tribes of the marsh and moor. He sate at the board of kings; He tasted the toil of the burdened slave And the joy that triumph brings. But whether to jungle or palace hall Or white-walled tent he came, He was brother to king and soldier and slave His welcome was the same. He was very human and intensely American, and this knit a bond between him and the American people which nothing could ever break. And then he had 5'et one more attraction, not so impressive, per- haps, as the others, but none the less very important and very captivating. He never by any chance bored the American people. They might laugh at him or 54 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. laii^li Nvilh hini. they niij^lit like- wlial lie said or dis- like it, they might agree with him or disagree with him, but they were never wearied of him, and he never failed to interest tluni. He was ne\er heavy, laborious, or dull. If he had made any elTort to be always interesting and entertaining he would have failed and been tiresome, lie was unfailingly attrac- tive, because he was always perfectly natural and his own unconscious self. And so all these things com- bined to gi\e him his hold upon the American people, not only upon their mind.s, but upon their hearts and their instincts, which nothing could ever weakeii, and which made him one of the most remarkable, as he was one of the strongest, characters that the history of popular government can show. He was also — and this is \ei-y revealing and explanatory, loo, of his vast popularity — a man of ideals. He did not expose them daily on the roadside with language lluttering about them like the Thibetan who lies his slip of j)aper to the prayer wheel whirling in the wind. He kept his ideals to himself until the hour of fulfillment arrived. Some of them were the dreams of boyhood, from which he never departed, and which 1 have seen him carry out shyly and yet thoroughly and with intense j)ers()iial satisfaciion. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 55 He had a touch of the knight errant in his daily life, although he would never have admitted it; but it was there. It was not visible in the medieval form of shin- ing armor and dazzling tournaments, but in the never- ceasing effort to help the poor and the oppressed, to defend and protect women and children, to right the wronged and succor the downtrodden. Passing by on the other side was not a mode of travel through life ever possible to him; and yet he was as far distant from the professional philanthropist as could well be imagined, for all he tried to do to help his fellow men he regarded as part of the day's work to be done and not talked about. No man ever prized sentiment or hated sentimentality more than he. He preached un- ceasingly the familiar morals which lie at the bottom of both famil}^ and public life. The blood of some ancestral Scotch covenanter or of some Dutch re- formed preacher facing the tyranny of Philip of Spain was in his veins, and with his large opportunities and his vast audiences he was alwaj^s readj^ to appeal for justice and righteousness. But his own personal ideals he never attempted to thrust upon the world until the day came when they were to be translated into realities of action. When the future historian traces Theodore Roose- velt's extraordinary career he will find these embodied 56 THEODOHE ROOSEVELT. ideals planted like milestones along the road over which he marched. They never left him. His ideal of public service was to be found in his life, and as his life drew to its close lie had to meet his ideal of sacrifice face to face. All his sons went from him to the war, and one was killed upon the field of honor. Of all the ideals that lift men up, the hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice. Theodore Roosevelt met it as he had all others and fulfilled it to the last jot of its terrible demands. His country asked the sacrifice and lie gave it with .solemn pride and uncomplaining lips. This is not the place to speak of his private life, but within that sacred circle no man was ever more l)lesse(l in llie utter devotion of a noble wife and the jjassionate love of his children. The absolute purity and beauty of his family life tell us why the \nidv and interest which his fellow countrymen felt in him were always touched wilii the warm light of love. In (lie home so dear to him, in his sleej). death came, and — So Valiant-for-Trutli passi-d over and all the trumpets souiukil lor liiiii on llu' other side. C 6 2 ^>^'>. .^^'>. •%o^ '^<./--^^'\.^" "o^'-'^-so^ V^^V^ X**^" % .0^^ V .^ .: ^^. cV '^-'. y ,0* •• .«••. •^'-^^ • ,^ V /•^x 'A. — HOs*-*' -V '^ -y^? :♦ -^^ :^#,/'^ •.^^^*^ S>.* a5 °^ I .::.'. *> ^^%, ^:s^ 0.^" ^^^ -.^ ,0' e. ^0" ';^^. ;^*=..^^- o « ^ "^^ ^; V' ^oV ^.^ ,. ?&\/^:^ . <^. V WERT BOOKBINDING JAN 198^^, Gfanlvillc.PA^X rr^ ..-.X'