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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Theodore Roosevelt and His Times + A Chronicle of the Progressive Movement; Volume 47 in The + Chronicles Of America Series + +Author: Harold Howland + +Editor: Allen Johnson + +Release Date: January 8, 2009 [EBook #2724] +[Last updated: April 18, 2015] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES *** + + + + +Produced by The James J. Kelly Library of St. Gregory's +University, Alev Akman, Dianne Bean, and David Widger + + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES, + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + A CHRONICLE OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Harold Howland + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES</b> + </a> <br /><br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> THE + YOUNG FIGHTER <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> IN + THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. + </a> THE CHAMPION OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> HAROUN AL ROOSEVELT + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> FIGHTING + AND BREAKFASTING WITH PLATT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER + VI. </a> ROOSEVELT BECOMES PRESIDENT <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> THE SQUARE DEAL FOR + BUSINESS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> THE + SQUARE DEAL FOR LABOR <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. + </a> RECLAMATION AND CONSERVATION <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a> BEING WISE IN TIME + <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a> RIGHTS, + DUTIES, AND REVOLUTIONS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER + XIII. </a> THE TAFT ADMINISTRATION <br /><br /> <a + href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a> THE + PROGRESSIVE PARTY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a> THE + GLORIOUS FAILURE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a> THE + FIGHTING EDGE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a> THE + LAST FOUR YEARS <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. THE YOUNG FIGHTER + </h2> + <p> + There is a line of Browning's that should stand as epitaph for Theodore + Roosevelt: "I WAS EVER A FIGHTER." That was the essence of the man, that + the keynote of his career. He met everything in life with a challenge. If + it was righteous, he fought for it; if it was evil, he hurled the full + weight of his finality against it. He never capitulated, never + sidestepped, never fought foul. He carried the fight to the enemy. + </p> + <p> + His first fight was for health and bodily vigor. It began at the age of + nine. Physically he was a weakling, his thin and ill-developed body racked + with asthma. But it was only the physical power that was wanting, never + the intellectual or the spiritual. He owed to his father, the first + Theodore, the wise counsel that launched him on his determined contest + against ill health. On the third floor of the house on East Twentieth + Street in New York where he was born, October 27, 1858, his father had + constructed an outdoor gymnasium, fitted with all the usual paraphernalia. + It was an impressive moment, Roosevelt used to say in later years, when + his father first led him into that gymnasium and said to him, "Theodore, + you have the brains, but brains are of comparatively little use without + the body; you have got to make your body, and it lies with you to make it. + It's dull, hard work, but you can do it." The boy knew that his father was + right; and he set those white, powerful teeth of his and took up the + drudgery of daily, monotonous exercise with bars and rings and weights. "I + can see him now," says his sister, "faithfully going through various + exercises, at different times of the day, to broaden the chest narrowed by + this terrible shortness of breath, to make the limbs and back strong, and + able to bear the weight of what was coming to him later in life." + </p> + <p> + All through his boyhood the young Theodore Roosevelt kept up his fight for + strength. He was too delicate to attend school, and was taught by private + tutors. He spent many of his summers, and sometimes some of the winter + months, in the woods of Maine. These outings he thoroughly enjoyed, but it + is certain that the main motive which sent him into the rough life of the + woods to hunt and tramp, to paddle and row and swing an axe, was the + obstinate determination to make himself physically fit. + </p> + <p> + His fight for bodily power went on through his college course at Harvard + and during the years that he spent in ranch life in the West. He was + always intensely interested in boxing, although he was never of anything + like championship caliber in the ring. His first impulse to learn to + defend himself with his hands had a characteristic birth. + </p> + <p> + During one of his periodical attacks of asthma he was sent alone to + Moosehead Lake in Maine. On the stagecoach that took him the last stage of + the journey he met two boys of about his own age. They quickly found, he + says, in his "Autobiography", that he was "a foreordained and predestined + victim" for their rough teasing, and they "industriously proceeded to make + life miserable" for their fellow traveler. At last young Roosevelt could + endure their persecutions no loner, and tried to fight. Great was his + discomfiture when he discovered that either of them alone could handle him + "with easy contempt." They hurt him little, but, what was doubtless far + more humiliating, they prevented him from doing any damage whatever in + return. + </p> + <p> + The experience taught the boy, better than any good advice could have + done, that he must learn to defend himself. Since he had little natural + prowess, he realized that he must supply its place by training. He secured + his father's approval for a course of boxing lessons, upon which he + entered at once. He has described himself as a "painfully slow and awkward + pupil," who worked for two or three years before he made any perceptible + progress. + </p> + <p> + In college Roosevelt kept at boxing practice. Even in those days no + antagonist, no matter how much his superior, ever made him "quit." In his + ranching days, that training with his fists stood him in good stead. Those + were still primitive days out in the Dakotas, though now, as Roosevelt has + said, that land of the West has "'gone, gone with the lost Atlantis,' gone + to the isle of ghosts and of strange dead memories." A man needed to be + able to take care of himself in that Wild West then. Roosevelt had many + stirring experiences but only one that he called "serious trouble." + </p> + <p> + He was out after lost horses and came to a primitive little hotel, + consisting of a bar-room, a dining-room, a lean-to kitchen, and above a + loft with fifteen or twenty beds in it. When he entered the bar-room late + in the evening—it was a cold night and there was nowhere else to go—a + would-be "bad man," with a cocked revolver in each hand, was striding up + and down the floor, talking with crude profanity. There were several + bullet holes in the clock face, at which he had evidently been shooting. + This bully greeted the newcomer as "Four Eyes," in reference to his + spectacles, and announced, "Four Eyes is going to treat." Roosevelt joined + in the laugh that followed and sat down behind the stove, thinking to + escape notice. But the "bad man" followed him, and in spite of Roosevelt's + attempt to pass the matter over as a joke, stood over him, with a gun in + each hand and using the foulest language. "He was foolish," said + Roosevelt, in describing the incident, "to stand so near, and moreover, + his heels were closer together, so that his position was unstable." When + he repeated his demand that Four Eyes should treat, Roosevelt rose as if + to comply. As he rose he struck quick and hard with his right fist just to + the left side of the point of the jaw, and, as he straightened up hit with + his left, and again with his right. The bully's guns went off, whether + intentionally or involuntarily no one ever knew. His head struck the + corner of the bar as he fell, and he lay senseless. "When my assailant + came to," said Roosevelt, "he went down to the station and left on a + freight." It was eminently characteristic of Roosevelt that he tried his + best to avoid trouble, but that, when he could not avoid it honorably, he + took care to make it "serious trouble" for the other fellow. + </p> + <p> + Even after he became President, Roosevelt liked to box, until an accident, + of which for many years only his intimate friends were aware, convinced + him of the unwisdom of the game for a man of his age and optical + disabilities. A young artillery captain, with whom he was boxing in the + White House, cross-countered him on the left eye, and the blow broke the + little blood-vessels. Ever afterward, the sight of that eye was dim; and, + as he said, "if it had been the right eye I should have been entirely + unable to shoot." To "a mighty hunter before the Lord" like Theodore + Roosevelt, such a result would have been a cardinal calamity. + </p> + <p> + By the time his experiences in the West were over, Roosevelt's fight for + health had achieved its purpose. Bill Sewall, the woodsman who had + introduced the young Roosevelt to the life of the out-of-doors in Maine, + and who afterward went out West with him to take up the cattle business, + offers this testimony: "He went to Dakota a frail young man, suffering + from asthma and stomach trouble. When he got back into the world again, he + was as husky as almost any man I have ever seen who wasn't dependent on + his arms for his livelihood. He weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and + was clear bone, muscle, and grit." + </p> + <p> + This battle won by the force of sheer determination, the young Roosevelt + never ceased fighting. He knew that the man who neglects exercise and + training, no matter how perfect his physical trim, is certain to "go + back." One day many years afterward on Twenty-third Street, on the way + back from an Outlook editorial luncheon, I ran against his shoulder, as + one often will with a companion on crowded city streets, and felt as if it + were a massive oak tree into which I had bumped. Roosevelt the grown man + of hardened physique was certainly a transformation from that "reed shaken + with the wind" of his boyhood days. + </p> + <p> + When Theodore Roosevelt left Harvard in 1880, he plunged promptly into a + new fight—in the political arena. He had no need to earn his living; + his father had left him enough money to take care of that. But he had no + intention or desire to live a life of leisure. He always believed that the + first duty of a man was to "pull his own weight in the boat"; and his + irrepressible energy demanded an outlet in hard, constructive work. So he + took to politics, and as a good Republican ("at that day" he said, "a + young man of my bringing up and convictions, could only join the + Republican party") he knocked at the door of the Twenty-first District + Republican Association in the city of New York. His friends among the New + Yorkers of cultivated taste and comfortable life disapproved of his desire + to enter this new environment. They told him that politics were "low"; + that the political organizations were not run by "gentlemen," and that he + would find there saloonkeepers, horse-car conductors, and similar persons, + whose methods he would find rough and coarse and unpleasant. Roosevelt + merely replied that, if this were the case, it was those men and not his + "silk-stocking" friends who constituted the governing class—and that + he intended to be one of the governing class himself. If he could not hold + his own with those who were really in practical politics, he supposed he + would have to quit; but he did not intend to quit without making the + experiment. + </p> + <p> + At every step in his career Theodore Roosevelt made friends. He made them + not "unadvisedly or lightly" but with the directness, the warmth, and the + permanence that were inseparable from the Roosevelt character. One such + friend he acquired at this stage of his progress. In that District + Association, from which his friends had warned him away, he found a young + Irishman who had been a gang leader in the rough-and-tumble politics of + the East Side. Driven by the winter wind of man's ingratitude from Tammany + Hall into the ranks of the opposite party, Joe Murray was at this time one + of the lesser captains in "the Twenty-first." Roosevelt soon came to like + him. He was "by nature as straight a man, as fearless, and as staunchly + loyal," said Roosevelt, "as any one whom I have ever met, a man to be + trusted in any position demanding courage, integrity, and good faith." The + liking was returned by the eager and belligerent young Irishman, though he + has confessed that he was first led to consider Roosevelt as a political + ally from the point of view of his advantages as a vote-getter. + </p> + <p> + The year after Roosevelt joined "the governing class" in Morton Hall, "a + large barn-like room over a saloon," with furniture "of the canonical + kind; dingy benches, spittoons, a dais at one end with a table and chair, + and a stout pitcher for iced water, and on the walls pictures of General + Grant, and of Levi P. Morton," Joe Murray was engaged in a conflict with + "the boss" and wanted a candidate of his own for the Assembly. He picked + out Roosevelt, because he thought that with him he would be most likely to + win. Win they did; the nomination was snatched away from the boss's man, + and election followed. The defeated boss good-humoredly turned in to help + elect the young silk-stocking who had been the instrument of his + discomfiture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. IN THE NEW YORK ASSEMBLY + </h2> + <p> + Roosevelt was twice reelected to the Assembly, the second time in 1883, a + year when a Republican success was an outstanding exception to the general + course of events in the State. His career at Albany was marked by a series + of fights for decency and honesty. Each new contest showed him a fearless + antagonist, a hard hitter, and a man of practical common sense and growing + political wisdom. Those were the days of the famous "black horse cavalry" + in the New York Legislature—a group of men whose votes could always + be counted on by the special interests and those corporations whose + managers proceeded on the theory that the way to get the legislation they + wanted, or to block the legislation they did not want, was to buy the + necessary votes. Perhaps one-third of the members of the Legislature, + according to Roosevelt's estimate, were purchasable. Others were timid. + Others again were either stupid or honestly so convinced of the importance + of "business" to the general welfare that they were blind to corporate + faults. But Theodore Roosevelt was neither purchasable, nor timid, nor + unable to distinguish between the legitimate requirements of business and + its unjustifiable demands. He developed as a natural leader of the honest + opposition to the "black horse cavalry." + </p> + <p> + The situation was complicated by what were known as "strike bills." These + were bills which, if passed, might or might not have been in the public + interest, but would certainly have been highly embarrassing to the private + interests involved. The purpose of their introduction was, of course, to + compel the corporations to pay bribes to ensure their defeat. Roosevelt + had one interesting and illuminating experience with the "black horse + cavalry." He was Chairman of the Committee on Cities. The representatives + of one of the great railways brought to him a bill to permit the extension + of its terminal facilities in one of the big cities of the State, and + asked him to take charge of it. Roosevelt looked into the proposed bill + and found that it was a measure that ought to be passed quite as much in + the public interest as is the interest of the railroad. He agreed to stand + sponsor for the bill, provided he were assured that no money would be used + to push it. The assurance was given. When the bill came before his + committee for consideration, Roosevelt found that he could not get it + reported out either favorably or unfavorably. So he decided to force + matters. In accordance with his life-long practice, he went into the + decisive committee meeting perfectly sure what he was going to do, and + otherwise fully prepared. + </p> + <p> + There was a broken chair in the room, and when he took his seat a leg of + that chair was unobtrusively ready to his hand. He moved that the bill be + reported favorably. + </p> + <p> + The gang, without debate, voted "No." He moved that it be reported + unfavorably. Again the gang voted "No." Then he put the bill in his pocket + and announced that he proposed to report it anyhow. There was almost a + riot. He was warned that his conduct would be exposed on the floor of the + Assembly. He replied that in that case he would explain publicly in the + Assembly the reasons which made him believe that the rest of the committee + were trying, from motives of blackmail, to prevent any report of the bill. + The bill was reported without further protest, and the threatened riot did + not come off, partly, said Roosevelt, "because of the opportune production + of the chair-leg." But the young fighter found that he was no farther + along: the bill slumbered soundly on the calendar, and nothing that he + could do availed to secure consideration of it. At last the representative + of the railroad suggested that some older and more experienced leader + might be able to get the bill passed where he had failed. Roosevelt could + do nothing but assent. The bill was put in charge of an "old Parliamentary + hand," and after a decent lapse of time, went through without opposition. + The complete change of heart on the part of the black horsemen under the + new leadership was vastly significant. Nothing could be proved; but much + could be surmised. + </p> + <p> + Another incident of Roosevelt's legislative career reveals the bull-dog + tenacity of the man. Evidence had been procured that a State judge had + been guilty of improper, if not of corrupt, relations with certain + corporate interests. This judge had held court in a room of one of the + "big business" leaders of that time. He had written in a letter to this + financier, "I am willing to go to the very verge of judicial discretion to + serve your vast interests." There was strong evidence that he had not + stopped at the verge. The blood of the young Roosevelt boiled at the + thought of this stain on the judicial ermine. His party elders sought + patronizingly to reassure him; but he would have none of it. He rose in + the Assembly and demanded the impeachment of the unworthy judge. With + perfect candor and the naked vigor that in the years to come was to become + known the world around he said precisely what he meant. Under the genial + sardonic advice of the veteran Republican leader, who "wished to give + young Mr. Roosevelt time to think about the wisdom of his course," the + Assembly voted not to take up his "loose charges." It looked like + ignominious defeat. But the next day the young firebrand was back to the + attack again, and the next day, and the next. For eight days he kept up + the fight; each day the reputation of this contest for a forlorn hope grew + and spread throughout the State. On the eighth day he demanded that the + resolution be voted on again, and the opposition collapsed. Only six votes + were cast against his motion. It is true that the investigation ended in a + coat of whitewash. But the evidence was so strong that no one could be in + doubt that it WAS whitewash. The young legislator, whose party mentors had + seen before him nothing but a ruined career, had won a smashing moral + victory. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt was not only a fighter from his first day in public life to the + last, but he was a fighter always against the same evils. Two incidents + more than a quarter of a century apart illustrate this fact. A bill was + introduced in the Assembly in those earlier days to prohibit the + manufacture of cigars in tenement houses in New York City. It was proposed + by the Cigar-Makers' Union. Roosevelt was appointed one of a committee of + three to investigate the subject. Of the other two members, one did not + believe in the bill but confessed privately that he must support it + because the labor unions were strong in his district. The other, with + equal frankness, confessed that he had to oppose the bill because certain + interests who had a strong hold upon him disapproved it, but declared his + belief that if Roosevelt would look into the matter he would find that the + proposed legislation was good. Politics, and politicians, were like that + in those days—as perhaps they still are in these. The young + aristocrat, who was fast becoming a stalwart and aggressive democrat, + expected to find himself against the bill; for, as he has said, the + "respectable people" and the "business men" whom he knew did not believe + in such intrusions upon the right even of workingmen to do what they would + with their own. The laissez faire doctrine of economic life was good form + in those days. + </p> + <p> + But the only member of that committee that approached the question with an + open mind found that his first impressions were wrong. He went down into + the tenement houses to see for himself. He found cigars being made under + conditions that were appalling. For example, he discovered an apartment of + one room in which three men, two women, and several children—the + members of two families and a male boarder—ate, slept, lived, and + made cigars. "The tobacco was stowed about everywhere, alongside the foul + bedding, and in a corner where there were scraps of food." These + conditions were not exceptional; they were only a little worse than was + usual. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt did not oppose the bill; he fought for it and it passed. Then he + appeared before Governor Cleveland to argue for it on behalf of the + Cigar-Makers' Union. The Governor hesitated, but finally signed it. The + Court of Appeals declared it unconstitutional, in a smug and well-fed + decision, which spoke unctuously of the "hallowed" influences of the + "home." It was a wicked decision, because it was purely academic, and was + removed as far as the fixed stars from the actual facts of life. But it + had one good result. It began the making of Theodore Roosevelt into a + champion of social justice, for, as he himself said, it was this case + which first waked him "to a dim and partial understanding of the fact that + the courts were not necessarily the best judges of what should be done to + better social and industrial conditions." + </p> + <p> + When, a quarter of a century later, Roosevelt left the Presidency and + became Contributing Editor of The Outlook, almost his first contribution + to that journal was entitled "A Judicial Experience." It told the story of + this law and its annulment by the court. Mr. William Travers Jerome wrote + a letter to The Outlook, taking Roosevelt sharply to task for his + criticism of the court. It fell to the happy lot of the writer as a cub + editor to reply editorially to Mr. Jerome. I did so with gusto and with + particularity. As Mr. Roosevelt left the office on his way to the steamer + that was to take him to Africa to hunt non-political big game, he said to + me, who had seen him only once before: "That was bully. You have done just + what my Cabinet members used to do for me in Washington. When a question + rose that demanded action, I used to act. Then I would tell Root or Taft + to find out and tell me why what I had done was legal and justified. Well + done, coworker." Is it any wonder that Theodore Roosevelt had made in that + moment another ardent supporter? + </p> + <p> + Those first years in the political arena were not only a fighting time, + they were a formative time. The young Roosevelt had to discover a + philosophy of political action which would satisfy him. He speedily found + one that suited his temperament and his keen sense of reality. He found no + reason to depart from it to the day of his death. Long afterward he told + his good friend Jacob Riis how he arrived at it. This was the way of it: + </p> + <p> + "I suppose that my head was swelled. It would not be strange if it was. I + stood out for my own opinion, alone. I took the best mugwump stand: my own + conscience, my own judgment, were to decide in all things. I would listen + to no argument, no advice. I took the isolated peak on every issue, and my + people left me. When I looked around, before the session was well under + way, I found myself alone. I was absolutely deserted. The people didn't + understand. The men from Erie, from Suffolk, from anywhere, would not work + with me. 'He won't listen to anybody,' they said, and I would not. My + isolated peak had become a valley; every bit of influence I had was gone. + The things I wanted to do I was powerless to accomplish. What did I do? I + looked the ground over and made up my mind that there were several other + excellent people there, with honest opinions of the right, even though + they differed from me. I turned in to help them, and they turned to and + gave me a hand. And so we were able to get things done. We did not agree + in all things, but we did in some, and those we pulled at together. That + was my first lesson in real politics. It is just this: if you are cast on + a desert island with only a screw-driver, a hatchet, and a chisel to make + a boat with, why, go make the best one you can. It would be better if you + had a saw, but you haven't. So with men. Here is my friend in Congress who + is a good man, a strong man, but cannot be made to believe in some things + which I trust. It is too bad that he doesn't look at it as I do, but he + DOES NOT, and we have to work together as we can. There is a point, of + course, where a man must take the isolated peak and break with it all for + clear principle, but until it comes he must work, if he would be of use, + with men as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances the evil, + let him work with that for the best that can be got." + </p> + <p> + From the moment that he had learned this valuable lesson—and + Roosevelt never needed to learn a lesson twice—he had his course in + public life marked out before him. He believed ardently in getting things + done. He was no theoretical reformer. He would never take the wrong road; + but, if he could not go as far as he wanted to along the right road, he + would go as far as he could, and bide his time for the rest. He would not + compromise a hair's breadth on a principle; he would compromise cheerfully + on a method which did not mean surrender of the principle. He perceived + that there were in political life many bad men who were thoroughly + efficient and many good men who would have liked to accomplish high + results but who were thoroughly inefficient. He realized that if he wished + to accomplish anything for the country his business was to combine decency + and efficiency; to be a thoroughly practical man of high ideals who did + his best to reduce those ideals to actual practice. This was the choice + that he made in those first days, the companionable road of practical + idealism rather than the isolated peak of idealistic ineffectiveness. + </p> + <p> + A hard test of his political philosophy came in 1884 just after he had + left the Legislature. He was selected as one of the four delegates at + large from New York to the Republican National Convention. There he + advocated vigorously the nomination of Senator George F. Edmunds for the + Presidency. But the more popular candidate with the delegates was James G. + Blaine. Roosevelt did not believe in Blaine, who was a politician of the + professional type and who had a reputation that was not immaculate. The + better element among the delegates fought hard against Blaine's + nomination, with Roosevelt wherever the blows were shrewdest. But their + efforts were of no avail. Too many party hacks had come to the Convention, + determined to nominate Blaine, and they put the slate through with a + whoop. + </p> + <p> + Then, every Republican in active politics who was anything but a rubber + stamp politician had a difficult problem to face. Should he support + Blaine, in whom he could have no confidence and for whom he could have no + respect, or should he "bolt"? A large group decided to bolt. They + organized the Mugwump party—the epithet was flung at them with no + friendly intent by Charles A. Dana of the New York Sun, but they made of + it an honorable title—under the leadership of George William Curtis + and Carl Schurz. Their announced purpose was to defeat the Republicans, + from whose ranks they had seceded, and in this attempt they were + successful. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt, however, made the opposite decision. Indeed, he had made the + decision before he entered the Convention. It was characteristic of him + not to wait until the choice was upon him but to look ahead and make up + his mind just which course he would take if and when a certain contingency + arose. I remember that once in the later days at Oyster Bay he said to me, + "They say I am impulsive. It isn't true. The fact is that on all the + important things that may come up for decision in my life, I have thought + the thing out in advance and know what I will do. So when the moment + comes, I don't have to stop to work it out then. My decision is already + made. I have only to put it into action. It looks like impulsiveness. It + is nothing of the sort." + </p> + <p> + So, in 1884, when Roosevelt met his first problem in national politics, he + already knew what he would do. He would support Blaine, for he was a party + man. The decision wounded many of his friends. But it was the natural + result of his political philosophy. He believed in political parties as + instruments for securing the translation into action of the popular will. + He perceived that the party system, as distinguished from the group system + of the continental peoples, was the Anglo-Saxon, the American way of doing + things. He wanted to get things done. There was only one thing that he + valued more than achievement and that was the right. Therefore, until it + became a clean issue between right and wrong, he would stick to the + instrument which seemed to him the most efficient for getting things done. + So he stuck to his party, in spite of his distaste for its candidate, and + saw it go down in defeat. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt never changed his mind about this important matter. He was a + party man to the end. In 1912 he left his old party on what he believed to + be—and what was—a naked moral issue. But he did not become an + independent. He created a new party. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. THE CHAMPION OF CIVIL SERVICE REFORM + </h2> + <p> + The four years after the Cleveland-Blaine campaign were divided into two + parts for Roosevelt by another political experience, which also resulted + in defeat. He was nominated by the Republicans and a group of independents + for Mayor of New York. His two opponents were Abram S. Hewitt, a business + man of standing who had been inveigled, no one knows how, into lending + respectability to the Tammany ticket in a critical moment, and Henry + George, the father of the Single Tax doctrine, who had been nominated by a + conference of some one hundred and seventy-five labor organizations. + Roosevelt fought his best on a personal platform of "no class or caste" + but "honest and economical government on behalf of the general wellbeing." + But the inevitable happened. Tammany slipped in between its divided + enemies and made off with the victory. + </p> + <p> + The rest of the four years he spent partly in ranch life out in the + Dakotas, partly in writing history and biography at home and in travel. + The life on the ranch and in the hunting camps finished the business, so + resolutely begun in the outdoor gymnasium on Twentieth Street, of + developing a physical equipment adequate for any call he could make upon + it. This sojourn on the plains gave him, too, an intimate knowledge of the + frontier type of American. Theodore Roosevelt loved his fellow men. What + is more, he was always interested in them, not abstractly and in the mass, + but concretely and in the individual. He believed in them. He knew their + strength and their virtues, and he rejoiced in them. He realized their + weaknesses and their softnesses and fought them hard. It was all this that + made him the thoroughgoing democrat that he was. "The average American," I + have heard him say a hundred times to all kinds of audiences, "is a pretty + good fellow, and his wife is a still better fellow." He not only enjoyed + those years in the West to the full, but he profited by them as well. They + broadened and deepened his knowledge of what the American people were and + meant. They made vivid to him the value of the simple, robust virtues of + self-reliance, courage, self-denial, tolerance, and justice. The influence + of those hard-riding years was with him as a great asset to the end of his + life. + </p> + <p> + In the Presidential campaign of 1888, Roosevelt was on the firing line + again, fighting for the Republican candidate, Benjamin Harrison. When Mr. + Harrison was elected, he would have liked to put the young campaigner into + the State Department. But Mr. Blaine, who became Secretary of State, did + not care to have his plain-spoken opponent and critic under him. So the + President offered Roosevelt the post of Civil Service Commissioner. + </p> + <p> + The spoils system had become habitual and traditional in American public + life by sixty years of practice. It had received its first high sanction + in the cynical words of a New York politician, "To the victor belong the + spoils." Politicians looked upon it as a normal accompaniment of their + activities. The public looked upon it with indifference. But finally a + group of irrepressible reformers succeeded in getting the camel's nose + under the flap of the tent. A law was passed establishing a Commission + which was to introduce the merit system. But even then neither the + politicians nor the public, nor the Commission itself, took the matter + very seriously. The Commission was in the habit of carrying on its + functions perfunctorily and unobtrusively. But nothing could be + perfunctory where Roosevelt was. He would never permit things to be done—or + left undone unobtrusively, when what was needed was to obtrude the matter + forcibly on the public mind. He was a profound believer in the value of + publicity. + </p> + <p> + When Roosevelt became Commissioner things began swiftly to happen. He had + two firm convictions: that laws were made to be enforced, in the letter + and in the spirit; and that the only thing worth while in the world was to + get things done. He believed with a hot conviction in decency, honesty, + and efficiency in public as in private life. + </p> + <p> + For six years he fought and infused his fellow Commissioners with some of + his fighting spirit. They were good men but easy-going until the right + leadership came along. The first effort of the Commission under the new + leadership was to secure the genuine enforcement of the law. The backbone + of the merit system was the competitive examination. This was not because + such examinations are the infallible way to get good public servants, but + because they are the best way that has yet been devised to keep out bad + public servants, selected for private reasons having nothing to do with + the public welfare. The effort to make these examinations and the + subsequent appointments of real service to the nation rather than to the + politicians naturally brought the Commission into conflict with many men + of low ideals, both in Congress and without. Roosevelt found a number of + men in Congress—like Senator Lodge, Senator Davis of Minnesota, + Senator Platt of Connecticut, and Congressman (afterward President) + McKinley—who were sincerely and vigorously opposed to the spoils + system. But there were numbers of other Senators and Congressmen who hated + the whole reform—everything connected with it and everybody who + championed it. "Sometimes," Roosevelt said of these men, "to use a legal + phrase, their hatred was for cause, and sometimes it was peremptory—that + is, sometimes the Commission interfered with their most efficient, and + incidentally most corrupt and unscrupulous supporters, and at other times, + where there was no such interference, a man nevertheless had an innate + dislike of anything that tended to decency in government." + </p> + <p> + Conflict with these men was inevitable. Sometimes their opposition took + the form of trying to cut down the appropriation for the Commission. + </p> + <p> + Then the Commission, on Roosevelt's suggestion, would try the effect of + holding no examinations in the districts of the Senators or Congressmen + who had voted against the appropriation. The response from the districts + was instantaneous. Frantic appeals came to the Commission from aspirants + for office. The reply would be suave and courteous. One can imagine + Roosevelt dictating it with a glint in his eye and a snap of the jaw, and + when it was typed, inserting a sting in the tail in the form of an + interpolated sentence in his own vigorous and rugged script. Those added + sentences, without which any typewritten Roosevelt letter might almost be + declared to be a forgery, so uniformly did the impulse to add them seize + him, were always the most interesting feature of a communication from him. + The letter would inform the protesting one that unfortunately the + appropriation had been cut, so that examinations could not be held in + every district, and that obviously the Commission could not neglect the + districts of those Congressmen who believed in the reform and therefore in + the examinations. The logical next step for the hungry aspirant was to + transfer the attack to his Congressman or Senator. In the long run, by + this simple device of backfiring, which may well have been a reminiscence + of prairie fire days in the West, the Commission obtained enough money to + carry on. + </p> + <p> + There were other forms of attack tried by the spoils-loving legislators. + One was investigation by a congressional committee. But the appearance of + Roosevelt before such an investigating body invariably resulted in a + "bully time" for him and a peculiarly disconcerting time for his + opponents. + </p> + <p> + One of the Republican floor leaders in the House in those days was + Congressman Grosvenor from Ohio. In an unwary moment Mr. Grosvenor + attacked the Commission on the floor of the House in picturesque fashion. + Roosevelt promptly asked that Mr. Grosvenor be invited to meet him before + a congressional committee which was at that moment investigating the + activities of the Commission. The Congressman did not accept the + invitation until he heard that Roosevelt was leaving Washington for his + ranch in the West. Then he notified the committee that he would be glad to + meet Commissioner Roosevelt at one of its sessions. Roosevelt immediately + postponed his journey and met him. Mr. Grosvenor, says Roosevelt in his + Autobiography, "proved to be a person of happily treacherous memory, so + that the simple expedient of arranging his statements in pairs was + sufficient to reduce him to confusion." He declared to the committee, for + instance, that he did not want to repeal the Civil Service Law and had + never said so. Roosevelt produced one of Mr. Grosvenor's speeches in which + he had said, "I will not only vote to strike out this provision, but I + will vote to repeal the whole law." Grosvenor declared that there was no + inconsistency between these two statements. At another point in his + testimony, he asserted that a certain applicant for office, who had, as he + put it, been fraudulently credited to his congressional district, had + never lived in that district or in Ohio, so far as he knew. Roosevelt + brought forth a letter in which the Congressman himself had categorically + stated that the man in question was not only a legal resident of his + district but was actually living there then. He explained, says Roosevelt, + "first, that he had not written the letter; second, that he had forgotten + he had written the letter; and, third, that he was grossly deceived when + he wrote it." Grosvenor at length accused Roosevelt of a lack of humor in + not appreciating that his statements were made "in a jesting way," and + declared that "a Congressman making a speech on the floor of the House of + Representatives was perhaps in a little different position from a witness + on the witness stand." Finally he rose with dignity and, asserting his + constitutional right not to be questioned elsewhere as to what he said on + the floor of the House, withdrew, leaving Roosevelt and the Committee + equally delighted with the opera bouffe in which he had played the leading + part. + </p> + <p> + In the Roosevelt days the Commission carried on its work, as of course it + should, without thought of party. It can be imagined how it made the + "good" Republicans rage when one of the results of the impartial + application system was to put into office from the Southern States a + hundred or two Democrats. The critics of the Commission were equally + non-partisan; there was no politics in spoilsmanship. The case of Mr. + Grosvenor was matched by that of Senator Gorman of Maryland, the + Democratic leader in the Senate. Mr. Gorman told upon the floor of the + Senate the affecting story of "a bright young man from Baltimore," a + Sunday School scholar, well recommended by his pastor, who aspired to be a + letter carrier. He appeared before the Commission for examination, and, + according to Mr. Gorman, he was first asked to describe the shortest route + from Baltimore to China. The "bright young man" replied brightly, + according to Mr. Gorman, that he didn't want to go from Baltimore to + China, and therefore had never concerned himself about the choice of + routes. He was then asked, according to Mr. Gorman, all about the + steamship lines from America to Europe; then came questions in geology, + and finally in chemistry. The Commission thereupon turned the bright young + applicant down. The Senator's speech was masterly. It must have made the + spoilsmen chuckle and the friends of civil service reform squirm. It had + neither of these effects on Roosevelt. It merely exploded him into action + like a finger on a hair-trigger. First of all, he set about hunting down + the facts. Facts were his favorite ammunition in a fight. They have such a + powerful punch. A careful investigation of all the examination papers + which the Commission had set revealed not a single question like those + from which the "bright young man," according to Mr. Gorman, had suffered. + So Roosevelt wrote to the Senator asking for the name of the "bright young + man." There was no response. He also asked, in case Mr. Gorman did not + care to reveal his identity, the date of the examination. Still no reply. + Roosevelt offered to give to any representative whom Mr. Gorman would send + to the Commission's offices all the aid he could in discovering in the + files any such questions. The offer was ignored. But the Senator expressed + himself as so shocked at this doubting of the word of his brilliant + protege that he was unable to answer the letter at all. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt thereupon announced publicly that no such questions had ever + been asked. Mr. Gorman was gravely injured by the whole incident. Later he + declared in the Senate that he had received a "very impudent letter" from + the young Commissioner, and that he had been "cruelly" called to account + because he had tried to right a "great wrong" which the Commission had + committed. Roosevelt's retort was to tell the whole story publicly, + closing with this delightful passage: + </p> + <p> + "High-minded, sensitive Mr. Gorman. Clinging, trustful Mr. Gorman. Nothing + could shake his belief in the "bright young man." Apparently he did not + even try to find out his name—if he had a name; in fact, his name + like everything else about him, remains to this day wrapped in the Stygian + mantle of an abysmal mystery. Still less has Mr. Gorman tried to verify + the statements made to him. It is enough for him that they were made. No + harsh suspicion, no stern demand for evidence or proof, appeals to his + artless and unspoiled soul. He believes whatever he is told, even when he + has forgotten the name of the teller, or never knew it. It would indeed be + difficult to find an instance of a more abiding confidence in human nature—even + in anonymous human nature. And this is the end of the tale of the Arcadian + Mr. Gorman and his elusive friend, the bright young man without a name." + </p> + <p> + Even so near the beginning of his career, Roosevelt showed himself + perfectly fearless in attack. He would as soon enter the lists against a + Senator as a Congressman, as soon challenge a Cabinet member as either. He + did not even hesitate to make it uncomfortable for the President to whom + he owed his continuance in office. His only concern was for the honor of + the public service which he was in office to defend. + </p> + <p> + One day he appeared at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Civil + Service Reform Association. George William Curtis was presiding, and + Roosevelt's old friend, George Haven Putnam, who tells the story, was also + present. Roosevelt began by hurling a solemn but hearty imprecation at the + head of the Postmaster General. He went on to explain that his explosive + wrath was due to the fact that that particular gentleman was the most + pernicious of all the enemies of the merit system. It was one of the + functions of the Civil Service Commission, as Roosevelt saw it, to put a + stop to improper political activities by Federal employees. Such + activities were among the things that the Civil Service law was intended + to prevent. They strengthened the hands of the political machines and the + bosses, and at the same time weakened the efficiency of the service. + Roosevelt had from time to time reported to the Postmaster General what + some of the Post Office employees were doing in political ways to the + detriment of the service. His account of what happened was this: + </p> + <p> + "I placed before the Postmaster-General sworn statements in regard to + these political activities and the only reply I could secure was, 'This is + all second-hand evidence.' Then I went up to Baltimore at the invitation + of our good friend, a member of the National Committee, Charles J. + Bonaparte. Bonaparte said that he could bring me into direct touch with + some of the matters complained about. He took me to the primary meetings + with some associate who knew by name the carriers and the customs + officials. I was able to see going on the work of political assessments, + and I heard the instructions given to the carriers and others in regard to + the moneys that they were to collect. I got the names of some of these men + recorded in my memorandum book. I then went back to Washington, swore + myself in as a witness before myself as Commissioner, and sent the sworn + statement to the Postmaster-General with the word, 'This at least is + firsthand evidence.' I still got no reply, and after waiting a few days, I + put the whole material before the President with a report. This report has + been pigeonholed by the President, and I have now come to New York to see + what can be done to get the evidence before the public. You will + understand that the head of a department, having made a report to the + President, can do nothing further with the material until the President + permits." + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt went back to Washington with the sage advice to ask the Civil + Service Committee of the House to call upon him to give evidence in regard + to the working of the Civil Service Act. He could then get into the record + his first-hand evidence as well as a general statement of the bad + practices which were going on. This evidence, when printed as a report of + the congressional committee, could be circulated by the Association. + Roosevelt bettered the advice by asking to have the Postmaster General + called before the committee at the same time as himself. This was done, + but that timid politician replied to the Chairman of the committee that + "he would hold himself at the service of the Committee for any date on + which Mr. Roosevelt was not to be present." The politicians with uneasy + consciences were getting a little wary about face-to-face encounters with + the young fighter. Nevertheless Roosevelt's testimony was given and + circulated broadcast, as Major Putnam writes, "much to the dissatisfaction + of the Postmaster General and probably of the President." + </p> + <p> + The six years which Roosevelt spent on the Civil Service Commission were + for him years of splendid training in the methods and practices of + political life. What he learned then stood him in good stead when he came + to the Presidency. Those years of Roosevelt's gave an impetus to the cause + of civil reform which far surpassed anything it had received until his + time. Indeed, it is probably not unfair to say that it has received no + greater impulse since. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. HAROUN AL ROOSEVELT + </h2> + <p> + In 1895, at the age of thirty-six, Roosevelt was asked by Mayor Strong of + New York City, who had just been elected on an anti-Tammany ticket, to + become a member of his Administration. Mayor Strong wanted him for Street + Cleaning Commissioner. Roosevelt definitely refused that office, on the + ground that he had no special fitness for it, but accepted readily the + Mayor's subsequent proposal that he should become President of the Police + Commission, knowing that there was a job that he could do. + </p> + <p> + There was plenty of work to be done in the Police Department. The + conditions under which it must be done were dishearteningly unfavorable. + In the first place, the whole scheme of things was wrong. The Police + Department was governed by one of those bi-partisan commissions which + well-meaning theorists are wont sometimes to set up when they think that + the important thing in government is to have things arranged so that + nobody can do anything harmful. The result often is that nobody can do + anything at all. There were four Commissioners, two supposed to belong to + one party and two to the other. There was also a Chief of Police, + appointed by the Commission, who could not be removed without a trial + subject to review by the courts. The scheme put a premium on intriguing + and obstruction. It was far inferior to the present plan of a single + Commissioner with full power, subject only to the Mayor who appoints him. + </p> + <p> + But there is an interesting lesson to be learned from a comparison between + the New York Police Department as it is today and as it was twenty-five + years ago. Then the scheme of organization was thoroughly bad—and + the department was at its high-water mark of honest and effective + activity. Now the scheme of organization is excellent—but the less + said about the way it works the better. The answer to the riddle is this: + today the New York police force is headed by Tammany; the name of the + particular Tammany man who is Commissioner does not matter. In those days + the head was Roosevelt. + </p> + <p> + There were many good men on the force then as now. What Roosevelt said of + the men of his time is as true today: "There are no better men anywhere + than the men of the New York police force; and when they go bad it is + because the system is wrong, and because they are not given the chance to + do the good work they can do and would rather do." The first fight that + Roosevelt found on his hands was to keep politics and every kind of + favoritism absolutely out of the force. During his six years as Civil + Service Commissioner he had learned much about the way to get good men + into the public service. He was now able to put his own theories into + practice. His method was utterly simple and incontestably right. "As far + as was humanly possible, the appointments and promotions were made without + regard to any question except the fitness of the man and the needs of the + service." That was all. "We paid," he said, "not the slightest attention + to a man's politics or creed, or where he was born, so long as he was an + American citizen." But it was not easy to convince either the politicians + or the public that the Commission really meant what it said. In view of + the long record of unblushing corruption in connection with every activity + in the Police Department, and of the existence, which was a matter of + common knowledge, of a regular tariff for appointments and promotions, it + is little wonder that the news that every one on, or desiring to get on, + the force would have a square deal was received with scepticism. But such + was the fact. Roosevelt brought the whole situation out into the open, + gave the widest possible publicity to what the Commission was doing, and + went hotly after any intimation of corruption. + </p> + <p> + One secret of his success here as everywhere else was that he did things + himself. He knew things of his own knowledge. One evening he went down to + the Bowery to speak at a branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. + There he met a young Jew, named Raphael, who had recently displayed + unusual courage and physical prowess in rescuing women and children from a + burning building. Roosevelt suggested that he try the examination for + entrance to the force. Young Raphael did so, was successful, and became a + policeman of the best type. He and his family, said Roosevelt, "have been + close friends of mine ever since." Another comment which he added is + delicious and illuminating: "To show our community of feeling and our + grasp of the facts of life, I may mention that we were almost the only men + in the Police Department who picked Fitzsimmons as a winner against + Corbett." There is doubtless much in this little incident shocking to the + susceptibilities of many who would consider themselves among the "best" + people. But Roosevelt would care little for that. He was a real democrat; + and to his great soul there was nothing either incongruous or undesirable + in having—and in admitting that he had—close friends in an + East Side Jewish family just over from Russia. He believed, too, in "the + strenuous life," in boxing and in prize fighting when it was clean. He + could meet a subordinate as man to man on the basis of such a personal + matter as their respective judgment of two prize fighters, without + relaxing in the slightest degree their official relations. He was a man of + realities, who knew how to preserve the real distinctions of life without + insisting on the artificial ones. + </p> + <p> + One of the best allies that Roosevelt had was Jacob A. Riis, that + extraordinary man with the heart of a child, the courage of a lion, and + the spirit of a crusader, who came from Denmark as an immigrant, tramped + the streets of New York and the country roads without a place to lay his + head, became one of the best police reporters New York ever knew, and grew + to be a flaming force for righteousness in the city of his adoption. His + book, "How the Other Half Lives", did more to clean up the worst slums of + the city than any other single thing. When the book appeared, Roosevelt + went to Mr. Riis's office, found him out, and left a card which said + simply, "I have read your book. I have come down to help." When Roosevelt + became Police Commissioner, Riis was in the Tribune Police Bureau in + Mulberry Street, opposite Police Headquarters, already a well valued + friend. Roosevelt took him for guide, and together they tramped about the + dark spots of the city in the night hours when the underworld slips its + mask and bares its arm to strike. Roosevelt had to know for himself. He + considered that he had two duties as Police Commissioner: one to make the + police force an honest and effective public servant; the other to use his + position "to help in making the city a better place in which to live and + work for those to whom the conditions of life and labor were hardest." + These night wanderings of "Haroun al Roosevelt," as some one successfully + ticketed him in allusion to the great Caliph's similar expeditions, were + powerful aids to the tightening up of discipline and to the encouragement + of good work by patrolmen and roundsmen. The unfaithful or the easy-going + man on the beat, who allowed himself to be beguiled by the warmth and + cheer of a saloon back-room, or to wander away from his duty for his own + purposes, was likely to be confronted by the black slouch hat and the + gleaming spectacles of a tough-set figure that he knew as the embodiment + of relentless justice. But the faithful knew no less surely that he was + their best friend and champion. + </p> + <p> + In the old days of "the system," not only appointment to the force and + promotion, but recognition of exceptional achievement went by favor. The + policeman who risked his life in the pursuit of duty and accomplished some + big thing against great odds could not be sure of the reward to which he + was entitled unless he had political pull. It was even the rule in the + Department that the officer who spoiled his uniform in rescuing man, + woman, or child from the waters of the river must get a new one at his own + expense. "The system" knew neither justice nor fair play. It knew nothing + but the cynical phrase of Richard Croker, Tammany Hall's famous boss, "my + own pocket all the time." But Roosevelt changed all that. He had not been + in Mulberry Street a month before that despicable rule about the uniform + was blotted out. His whole term of office on the Police Board was marked + by acts of recognition of bravery and faithful service. Many times he had + to dig the facts out for himself or ran upon them by accident. There was + no practice in the Department of recording the good work done by the men + on the force so that whoever would might read. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt enjoyed this part of his task heartily. He believed vigorously + in courage, hardihood, and daring. What is more, he believed with his + whole soul in men. It filled him with pure joy when he discovered a man of + the true stalwart breed who held his own life as nothing when his duty was + at stake. + </p> + <p> + During his two years' service, he and his fellow Commissioners singled out + more than a hundred men for special mention because of some feat of + heroism. Two cases which he describes in his "Autobiography" are typical + of the rest. One was that of an old fellow, a veteran of the Civil War, + who was a roundsman. Roosevelt noticed one day that he had saved a woman + from drowning and called him before him to investigate the matter. The + veteran officer was not a little nervous and agitated as he produced his + record. He had grown gray in the service and had performed feat after feat + of heroism; but his complete lack of political backing had kept him from + further promotion. In twenty-two years on the force he had saved some + twenty-five persons from drowning, to say nothing of rescuing several from + burning buildings. Twice Congress had passed special acts to permit the + Secretary of the Treasury to give him a medal for distinguished gallantry + in saving life. He had received other medals from the Life Saving Society + and from the Police Department itself. The one thing that he could not + achieve was adequate promotion, although his record was spotless. When + Roosevelt's attention was attracted to him, he received his promotion then + and there. "It may be worth mentioning," says Roosevelt, "that he kept on + saving life after he was given his sergeantcy." + </p> + <p> + The other case was that of a patrolman who seemed to have fallen into the + habit of catching burglars. Roosevelt noticed that he caught two in + successive weeks, the second time under unusual conditions. The policeman + saw the burglar emerging from a house soon after midnight and gave chase. + The fugitive ran toward Park Avenue. The New York Central Railroad runs + under that avenue, and there is a succession of openings in the top of the + tunnel. The burglar took a desperate chance by dropping through one of the + openings, at the imminent risk of breaking his neck. "Now the burglar," + says Roosevelt, "was running for his liberty, and it was the part of + wisdom for him to imperil life and limb; but the policeman was merely + doing his duty, and nobody could have blamed him for not taking the jump. + However, he jumped; and in this particular case the hand of the Lord was + heavy upon the unrighteous. The burglar had the breath knocked out of him, + and the 'cop' didn't. When his victim could walk, the officer trotted him + around to the station house." When Roosevelt had discovered that the + patrolman's record showed him to be sober, trustworthy, and strictly + attentive to duty, he secured his promotion at once. + </p> + <p> + So the Police Commission, during those two years, under the driving force + of Roosevelt's example and spirit, went about the regeneration of the + force whose former proud title of "The Finest" had been besmirched by + those who should have been its champions and defenders. Politics, + favoritism, and corruption were knocked out of the department with all the + thoroughness that the absurd bipartisan scheme of administration would + permit. + </p> + <p> + The most spectacular fight of all was against the illegal operations of + the saloons. The excise law forbade the sale of liquor on Sunday. But the + police, under orders from "higher up," enforced the law with discretion. + The saloons which paid blackmail, or which enjoyed the protection of some + powerful Tammany chieftain, sold liquor on Sunday with impunity. Only + those whose owners were recalcitrant or without influence were compelled + to obey the law. + </p> + <p> + Now a goodly proportion of the population of New York, as of any great + city, objects strenuously to having its personal habits interfered with by + the community. This is just as true now in the days of prohibition as it + was then in the days of "Sunday closing." So when Roosevelt came into + office with the simple, straightforward conviction that laws on the + statute books were intended to be enforced and proceeded to close all the + saloons on Sunday, the result was inevitable. The professional politicians + foamed at the mouth. The yellow press shrieked and lied. The + saloon-keepers and the sharers of their illicit profits wriggled and + squirmed. But the saloons were closed. The law was enforced without fear + or favor. The Sunday sale of liquor disappeared from the city, until a + complaisant judge, ruling upon the provision of the law which permitted + drink to be sold with a meal, decreed that one pretzel, even when + accompanied by seventeen beers, made a "meal." No amount of honesty and + fearlessness in the enforcement of the law could prevail against such + judicial aid and comfort to the cause of nullification. The main purpose + of Roosevelt's fight for Sunday closing, the stopping of blackmail, was, + however, achieved. A standard of law enforcement was set which shows what + can be done even with an unpopular law, and in New York City itself, if + the will to deal honestly and without cowardice is there. + </p> + <p> + So the young man who was "ever a fighter" went on his way, fighting evil + to the death wherever he found it, achieving results, making friends + eagerly and enemies blithely, learning, broadening, growing. Already he + had made a distinct impression upon his times. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FIGHTING AND BREAKFASTING WITH PLATT + </h2> + <p> + From the New York Police Department Roosevelt was called by President + McKinley to Washington in 1897, to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy. + After a year there—the story of which belongs elsewhere in this + volume—he resigned to go to Cuba as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Rough + Riders. He was just as prominent in that war for liberty and justice as + the dimensions of the conflict permitted. He was accustomed in after years + to say with deprecating humor, when talking to veterans of the Civil War, + "It wasn't much of a war, but it was all the war we had." It made him + Governor of New York. + </p> + <p> + When he landed with his regiment at Montauk Point from Cuba, he was met by + two delegations. One consisted of friends from his own State who were + political independents; the other came from the head of the Republican + political machine. + </p> + <p> + Both wanted him as a candidate for Governor. The independents were anxious + to have him make a campaign against the Old Guard of both the standard + parties, fighting Richard Croker, the cynical Tammany boss, on the one + side, and Thomas C. Platt, the "easy boss" of the Republicans, on the + other. Tom Platt did not want him at all. But he did want to win the + election, and he knew that he must have something superlatively fine to + offer, if he was to have any hope of carrying the discredited Republican + party to victory. So he swallowed whatever antipathy he may have had and + offered the nomination to Roosevelt. This was before the days when the + direct primary gave the plain voters an opportunity to upset the + calculations of a political boss. + </p> + <p> + Senator Platt's emissary, Lemuel Ely Quigg, in a two hours' conversation + in the tent at Montauk, asked some straight-from-the-shoulder questions. + The answers he received were just as unequivocal. Mr. Quigg wanted a plain + statement as to whether or not Roosevelt wanted the nomination. He wanted + to know what Roosevelt's attitude would be toward the organization in the + event of his election, whether or not he would "make war" on Mr. Platt and + his friends, or whether he would confer with them and give fair + consideration to their point of view as to party policy and public + interest. In short, he wanted a frank definition of Roosevelt's attitude + towards existing party conditions. He got precisely that. Here it is, in + Roosevelt's own words: + </p> + <p> + "I replied that I should like to be nominated, and if nominated would + promise to throw myself into the campaign with all possible energy. I said + that I should not make war on Mr. Platt or anybody else if war could be + avoided; that what I wanted was to be Governor and not a faction leader; + that I certainly would confer with the organization men, as with everybody + else who seemed to me to have knowledge of and interest in public affairs, + and that as to Mr. Platt and the organization leaders, I would do so in + the sincere hope that there might always result harmony of opinion and + purpose; but that while I would try to get on well with the organization, + the organization must with equal sincerity strive to do what I regarded as + essential for the public good; and that in every case, after full + consideration of what everybody had to say who might possess real + knowledge of the matter, I should have to act finally as my own judgment + and conscience dictated and administer the State government as I thought + it ought to be administered.... I told him to tell the Senator that while + I would talk freely with him, and had no intention of becoming a factional + leader with a personal organization, yet I must have direct personal + relations with everybody, and get their views at first hand whenever I so + desired, because I could not have one man speaking for all." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 271-72. +</pre> + <p> + This was straight Roosevelt talk. It was probably the first time that the + "easy boss" had received such a response to his overtures. History does + not record how he liked it; but at least he accepted it. Subsequent events + suggest that he was either unwilling to believe or incapable of + understanding that the Colonel of the Rough Riders meant precisely what he + said. But Platt found out his mistake. He was not the first or the last + politician to have that experience. + </p> + <p> + So Roosevelt was nominated, made a gruelling campaign, was elected by a + small but sufficient majority, in a year when any other Republican + candidate would probably have been "snowed under," and became Governor + seventeen years after he entered public life. He was now forty years old. + </p> + <p> + The governorship of Theodore Roosevelt was marked by a deal of fine + constructive legislation and administration. But it was even more notable + for the new standard which it set for the relationship in which the + executive of a great State should stand to his office, to the public + welfare, to private interests, and to the leaders of his party. Before + Roosevelt's election there was need for a revision of the standard. In + those days it was accepted as a matter of course, at least in practice, + that the party boss was the overlord of the constitutional representatives + of the people. Appointments were made primarily for the good of the party + and only incidentally in the public interest. The welfare of the party was + closely bound up with the profit of special interests, such as public + service corporations and insurance companies. The prevalent condition of + affairs was shrewdly summed up in a satiric paraphrase of Lincoln's + conception of the American ideal: "Government of the people, by the + bosses, for the special interests." The interests naturally repaid this + zealous care for their well-being by contributions to the party funds. + </p> + <p> + Platt was one of the most nearly absolute party bosses that the American + system of machine politics has produced. In spite of the fair warning + which he had already received, both directly from Roosevelt's own words, + and indirectly from his whole previous career, he was apparently surprised + and unquestionably annoyed when he found that he was not to be the new + Governor's master. The trouble began before Roosevelt took office. At a + conference one day Platt asked Roosevelt if there were any members of the + Assembly whom he would like to have assigned to special committees. + Roosevelt was surprised at the question, as he had not known that the + Speaker of the Assembly, who appoints the committees, had yet been agreed + upon by the Assemblymen-elect. He expressed his surprise. But Mr. Platt + enlightened him, saying, "Of course, whoever we choose as Speaker will + agree beforehand to make the appointments we wish." Roosevelt has recorded + the mental note which he thereupon made, that if they tried the same + process with the Governor-elect they would find themselves mistaken. In a + few days they did try it—and discovered their mistake. + </p> + <p> + Platt asked Roosevelt to come to see him. The Senator being an old and + physically feeble man, Roosevelt went. Platt handed him a telegram from a + certain man, accepting with pleasure his appointment as Superintendent of + Public Works. This was one of the most important appointive offices in the + State Administration. It was especially so at this time in view of the + scandals which had arisen under the previous Administration over the Erie + Canal, the most important responsibility of this department. Now, the man + whom the boss had picked out was an excellent fellow, whom Roosevelt liked + and whom, incidentally, he later appointed to an office which he filled in + admirable fashion. But Roosevelt had no intention of having any one but + himself select the members of his Administration. He said so frankly and + simply. The Senator raged. He was unaccustomed to such independence of + spirit. Roosevelt was courteous but firm. The irresistible force had met + the immovable obstacle—and the force capitulated. The telegraphic + acceptance was not accepted. The appointment was not made. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Platt was a wise man, even if he was arrogant. He knew when he had met + one whom he could not drive. So he did not break with the new Governor. + Roosevelt was wise, too, although he was honest. So he did not break with + the "easy boss." His failure to do so was a disappointment to his + impractical friends and supporters, who were more concerned with + theoretical goodness than with achievement. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt worked with Platt and the party machine whenever he could. He + fought only when he must. When he fought, he won. In Senator Platt's + "Autobiography", the old boss paid this tribute to the young fighter whom + he had made Governor: "Roosevelt had from the first agreed that he would + consult me on all questions of appointments, Legislature or party policy. + He religiously fulfilled this pledge, although he frequently did just what + he pleased." + </p> + <p> + One of the things that particularly grieved the theoretical idealists and + the chronic objectors was the fact that Roosevelt used on occasion to take + breakfast with Senator Platt. They did not seem to think it possible that + a Governor could accept the hospitality of a boss without taking orders + from him. But Mr. Platt knew better, if they did not. He was never under + any illusions as to the extent of his influence with Roosevelt. It + vanished precisely at the point where the selfish interests of the party + and the wishes of the boss collided with the public welfare. The facts + about the famous breakfasts are plain enough. The Governor was in Albany, + the Senator in Washington. Both found it easy to get to New York on + Saturday. It was natural that they should from time to time have matters + to discuss for both were leaders in their party. Mr. Platt was a feeble + man, who found it difficult to get about. Roosevelt was a chivalrous man, + who believed that courtesy and consideration were due to age and weakness. + In addition, he liked to make every minute count. So he used to go, + frankly and openly, to the Senator's hotel for breakfast. He was not one + of that class which he has described as composed of "solemn reformers of + the tom-fool variety, who, according to their custom, paid attention to + the name and not the thing." He cared only for the reality; the appearance + mattered little to him. + </p> + <p> + The tom-fool reformers who criticized Roosevelt for meeting Platt at + breakfast were not even good observers. If they had been, they would have + realized that when Roosevelt breakfasted with Platt, it generally meant + that he was trying to reconcile the Senator to something he was going to + do which the worthy boss did not like. For instance, Roosevelt once wrote + to Platt, who was trying to get him to promote a certain judge over the + head of another judge: "There is a strong feeling among the judges and the + leading members of the bar that Judge Y ought not to have Judge X jumped + over his head, and I do not see my way clear to doing it. I am inclined to + think that the solution I mentioned to you is the solution I shall have to + adopt. Remember the breakfast at Douglas Robinson's at 8:30." It is + probable that the Governor enjoyed that breakfast more than did the + Senator. So it usually was with the famous breakfasts. "A series of + breakfasts was always the prelude to some active warfare." + </p> + <p> + For Roosevelt and Platt still had their pitched battles. The most epic of + them all was fought over the reappointment of the State Superintendent of + Insurance. The incumbent was Louis F. Payn, a veteran petty boss from a + country district and one of Platt's right-hand men. Roosevelt discovered + that Payn had been involved in compromising relations with certain + financiers in New York with whom he "did not deem it expedient that the + Superintendent of Insurance, while such, should have any intimate and + money-making relations." The Governor therefore decided not to reappoint + him. Platt issued an ultimatum that Payn must be reappointed or he would + fight. He pointed out that in case of a fight Payn would stay in anyway, + since the consent of the State Senate was necessary not only to appoint a + man to office but to remove him from office. The Governor replied + cheerfully that he had made up his mind and that Payn would not be + retained. If he could not get his successor confirmed, he would make the + appointment as soon as the Legislature adjourned, and the appointment + would stand at least until the Legislature met again. Platt declared in + turn that Payn would be reinstated as soon as the Legislature reconvened. + Roosevelt admitted the possibility, but assured his opponent that the + process would be repeated as soon as that session came to an end. He added + his conviction that, while he might have an uncomfortable time himself, he + would guarantee that his opponents would be made more uncomfortable still. + Thus the matter stood in the weeks before final action could be taken. + Platt was sure that Roosevelt must yield. But once more he did not know + his man. It is curious how long it takes feudal overlords to get the + measure of a fearless free man. + </p> + <p> + The political power which the boss wielded was reinforced by pressure from + big business interests in New York. Officials of the large insurance + companies adopted resolutions asking for Payn's reappointment. But some of + them privately and hastily assured the Governor that these resolutions + were for public consumption only, and that they would be delighted to have + Payn superseded. Roosevelt strove to make it clear again and again that he + was not fighting the organization as such, and announced his readiness to + appoint any one of several men who were good organization men—only + he would not retain Lou Payn nor appoint any man of his type. The matter + moved along to the final scene, which took place at the Union League Club + in New York. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Platt's chief lieutenant asked for a meeting with the Governor. The + request was granted. The emissary went over the ground thoroughly. He + declared that Platt would never yield. He explained that he was certain to + win the fight, and that he wished to save Roosevelt from such a lamentable + disaster as the end of his political career. Roosevelt again explained at + length his position. After half an hour he rose to go. The "subsequent + proceedings" he described as follows: + </p> + <p> + "My visitor repeated that I had this last chance, and that ruin was ahead + of me if I refused it; whereas, if I accepted, everything would be made + easy. I shook my head and answered, 'There is nothing to add to what I + have already said.' He responded, 'You have made up your mind?' and I + said, 'I have." He then said, 'You know it means your ruin?' and I + answered, 'Well, we will see about that,' and walked toward the door. He + said, 'You understand, the fight will begin tomorrow and will be carried + on to the bitter end.' I said, 'Yes,' and added, as I reached the door, + 'Good night.' Then, as the door opened my opponent, or visitor, whichever + one chooses to call him, whose face was as impassive and as inscrutable as + that of Mr. John Hamlin in a poker game, said: 'Hold on! We accept. Send + in so-and-so (the man I had named). The Senator is very sorry, but he will + make no further opposition!' I never saw a bluff carried more resolutely + through to the final limit." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 293-94. +</pre> + <p> + One other Homeric fight with the machine was Roosevelt's portion during + his Governorship. This time it was not directly with the boss himself but + with the boss's liegemen in the Legislature. But the kernel of the whole + matter was the same—the selfish interests of big corporations + against the public good. + </p> + <p> + In those days corporations were by common practice privileged creatures. + They were accustomed to special treatment from legislatures and + administrations. But when Roosevelt was elected Governor, he was + determined that no corporation should get a valuable privilege from the + State without paying for it. Before long he had become convinced that they + ought also to pay for those which they already had, free gifts of the + State in those purblind days when corporations were young and coddled. He + proposed that public service corporations doing business on franchises + granted by the State and by municipalities should be taxed upon the value + of the privileges they enjoyed. The corporations naturally enough did not + like the proposal. But it was made in no spirit or tone of antagonism to + business or of demagogic outcry against those who were prosperous. All + that the Governor demanded was a square deal. In his message to the + Legislature, he wrote as follows: + </p> + <p> + "There is evident injustice in the light taxation of corporations. I have + not the slightest sympathy with the outcry against corporations as such, + or against prosperous men of business. Most of the great material works by + which the entire country benefits have been due to the action of + individual men, or of aggregates of men, who made money for themselves by + doing that which was in the interest of the people as a whole. From an + armor plant to a street railway, no work which is really beneficial to the + public can be performed to the best advantage of the public save by men of + such business capacity that they will not do the work unless they + themselves receive ample reward for doing it. The effort to deprive them + of an ample reward merely means that they will turn their energies in some + other direction; and the public will be just so much the loser.... But + while I freely admit all this, it yet remains true that a corporation + which derives its powers from the State should pay to the State a just + percentage of its earnings as a return for the privileges it enjoys." + </p> + <p> + This was quietly reasonable and uninflammatory doctrine. But the + corporations would have none of it. The Republican machine, which had a + majority in the Legislature, promptly repudiated it as well. The campaign + contributions from the corporations were too precious to be jeopardized by + legislation which the corporations did not want. The Governor argued, + pleasantly and cheerfully. The organization balked sullenly. The + corporations grinned knowingly. They had plenty of money with which to + kill the bill, but they did not need to use it. The machine was working + smoothly in their behalf. The bill was introduced and referred to a + committee, and there it lay. No amount of argument and persuasion that the + Governor could bring to bear availed to bring the bill out of hiding. So + he sent in a special message, on almost the last day of the session. + According to the rules of the New York Assembly, when the Governor sends + in a special message on a given measure, the bill must be reported out and + given consideration. But the machine was dazzled with its own arrogance. + The Speaker would not have the message read. Some one actually tore it up. + </p> + <p> + This was more than a crime—it was a blunder. The wise ones in the + organization realized it. They had no desire to have the Governor appeal + to the people with his torn message in his hand. Roosevelt saw the error + too, and laughed happily. He wrote another message and sent it over with + the curt statement that, if it were not read forthwith, he would come over + and read it himself. They knew that he would! So the Speaker read the + message, and the bill was reported and hastily passed on the last day of + the session. + </p> + <p> + Then the complacent corporations woke up. They had trusted the machine too + far. What was more, they had underestimated the Governor's striking power. + Now they came to him, hat in hand, and suggested some fault in the bill. + He agreed with them. They asked if he would not call a special session to + amend the bill. Again he agreed. The session was called, and the + amendments were proposed. In addition, however, certain amendments that + would have frustrated the whole purpose of the bill were suggested. The + organization, still at its old tricks, tried to get back into its + possession the bill already passed. But the Governor was not easily caught + napping. He knew as well as they did that possession of the bill gave him + the whip hand. He served notice that the second bill would contain + precisely the amendments agreed upon and no others. Otherwise he would + sign the first bill and let it become law, with all its imperfections on + its head. Once more the organization and the corporations emulated Davy + Crockett's coon and begged him not to shoot, for they would come down. The + amended bill was passed and became law. But there was an epilogue to this + little drama. The corporations proceeded to attack the constitutionality + of the law on the ground of the very amendment for which they had so + clamorously pleaded. But they failed. The Supreme Court of the United + States, after Roosevelt had become President, affirmed the + constitutionality of the law. + </p> + <p> + The spectacular events of Roosevelt's governorship were incidents in this + conflict between two political philosophies, the one held by Platt and his + tribe, the other by Roosevelt. Extracts from two letters exchanged by the + Senator and the Governor bring the contrast between these philosophies + into clear relief. Platt wrote as follows: + </p> + <p> + "When the subject of your nomination was under consideration, there was + one matter that gave me real anxiety.... I had heard from a good many + sources that you were a little loose on the relations of capital and + labor, on trusts and combinations, and, indeed, on those numerous + questions which have recently arisen in politics affecting the security of + earnings and the right of a man to run his business in his own way, with + due respect, of course, to the Ten Commandments and the Penal Code. Or, to + get at it even more clearly, I understood from a number of business men, + and among them many of your own personal friends, that you entertained + various altruistic ideas, all very well in their way, but which before + they could safely be put into law needed very profound consideration." * + </p> + <p> + * Roosevelt, "Autobiography" (Scribner), p. 299. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt replied that he had known very well that the Senator had just + these feelings about him, and then proceeded to set forth his own view of + the matter. With his usual almost uncanny wisdom in human relations, he + based his argument on party expediency, which he knew Platt would + comprehend, rather than on abstract considerations of right and wrong, in + which realm the boss would be sure to feel rather at sea. He wrote thus: + </p> + <p> + "I know that when parties divide on such issues [as Bryanism] the tendency + is to force everybody into one of two camps, and to throw out entirely men + like myself, who are as strongly opposed to Populism in every stage as the + greatest representative of corporate wealth but who also feel strongly + that many of these representatives of enormous corporate wealth have + themselves been responsible for a portion of the conditions against which + Bryanism is in ignorant revolt. I do not believe that it is wise or safe + for us as a party to take refuge in mere negation and to say that there + are no evils to be corrected. It seems to me that our attitude should be + one of correcting the evils and thereby showing that whereas the + Populists, Socialists, and others do not correct the evils at all, or else + do so at the expense of producing others in aggravated form, on the + contrary we Republicans hold the just balance and set ourselves as + resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against + demagogy and mob rule on the other."* + </p> + <p> + *Roosevelt, Autobiography (Scribner), p. 300. + </p> + <p> + This was the fight that Roosevelt was waging in every hour of his + political career. It was a middle-of-the-road fight, not because of any + timidity or slack-fibered thinking which prevented a committal to one + extreme or the other, but because of a stern conviction that in the golden + middle course was to be found truth and the right. It was an inevitable + consequence that first one side and then the other—and sometimes + both at once—should attack him as a champion of the other. It became + a commonplace of his experience to be inveighed against by reformers as a + reactionary and to be assailed by conservatives as a radical. But this + paradoxical experience did not disturb him at all. He was concerned only + to have the testimony of his own mind and conscience that he was right. + </p> + <p> + The contests which he had as Governor were spectacular and exhilarating; + but they did not fill all the hours of his working days. A tremendous + amount of spade work was actually accomplished. For example, he brought + about the reenactment of the Civil Service Law, which under his + predecessor had been repealed, and put through a mass of labor legislation + for the betterment of conditions under which the workers carried on their + daily lives. This legislation included laws to increase the number of + factory inspectors, to create a tenement-house commission, to regulate + sweatshop labor, to make the eight-hour and prevailing rate of wages law + effective, to compel railways to equip freight trains with air brakes, to + regulate the working hours of women, to protect women and children from + dangerous machinery, to enforce good scaffolding provisions for workmen on + buildings, to provide seats for the use of waitresses in hotels and + restaurants, to reduce the hours of labor for drug-store clerks, to + provide for the registration of laborers for municipal employment. He + worked hard to secure an employers' liability law, but the time for this + was not yet come. + </p> + <p> + Many of these reforms are now matters of course that no employer would + think of attempting to eliminate. But they were new ideas then; and it + took vision and courage to fight for them. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt would have been glad to be elected Governor for a second term. + But destiny, working through curious instruments, would not have it so. He + left behind him in the Empire State, not only a splendid record of + concrete achievement but something more than that. Jacob Riis has told + how, some time after, an old State official at Albany, who had seen many + Governors come and go, revealed this intangible something. Mr. Riis had + said to him that he did not care much for Albany since Roosevelt had gone, + and his friend replied: "Yes, we think so, many of us. The place seemed + dreary when he was gone. But I know now that he left something behind that + was worth our losing him to get. This past winter, for the first time, I + heard the question spring up spontaneously, as it seemed, when a measure + was up in the Legislature 'Is it right?' Not 'Is it expedient?' not 'How + is it going to help me?' not 'What is it worth to the party?' Not any of + these, but 'Is it right?' That is Roosevelt's legacy to Albany. And it was + worth his coming and his going to have that." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. ROOSEVELT BECOMES PRESIDENT + </h2> + <p> + There was chance in Theodore Roosevelt's coming into the Presidency as he + did, but there was irony as well. An evil chance dropped William McKinley + before an assassin's bullet; but there was a fitting irony in the fact + that the man who must step into his place had been put where he was in + large measure by the very men who would least like to see him become + President. + </p> + <p> + The Republican convention of 1900 was a singularly unanimous body. + President McKinley was renominated without a murmur of dissent. But there + was no Vice-President to renominate, as Mr. Hobart had died in office. + There was no logical candidate for the second place on the ticket. Senator + Platt, however, had a man whom he wanted to get rid of, since Governor + Roosevelt had made himself persona non grata alike to the machine + politicians of his State and to the corporations allied with them. The + Governor, however, did not propose to be disposed of so easily. His + reasons were characteristic. He wrote thus to Senator Platt about the + matter: + </p> + <p> + "I can't help feeling more and more that the Vice-Presidency is not an + office in which I could do anything and not an office in which a man who + is still vigorous and not past middle life has much chance of doing + anything.... Now, I should like to be Governor for another term, + especially if we are able to take hold of the canals in serious shape. + But, as Vice-President, I don't see there is anything I can do. I would be + simply a presiding officer, and that I should find a bore." + </p> + <p> + Now Mr. Platt knew that nothing but "sidetracking" could stop another + nomination of Roosevelt for the Governorship, and this Rough Rider was a + thorn in his flesh. So he went on his subterranean way to have him + nominated for the most innocuous political berth in the gift of the + American people. He secured the cooperation of Senator Quay of + Pennsylvania and another boss or two of the same indelible stripe; but all + their political strength would not have accomplished the desired result + without assistance from quite a different source. Roosevelt had already + achieved great popularity in the Middle and the Far West for the very + reasons which made Mr. Platt want him out of the way. So, while the New + York boss and his acquiescent delegates were stopped from presenting his + name to the convention by Roosevelt's assurance that he would fight a + l'outrance any movement from his own State to nominate him, other + delegates took matters into their own hands and the nomination was finally + made unanimously. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt gave great strength to the Republican ticket in the campaign + which followed. William Jennings Bryan was again the Democratic candidate, + but the "paramount issue" of his campaign had changed since four years + before from free silver to anti-imperialism. President McKinley, according + to his custom, made no active campaign; but Bryan and Roosevelt competed + with each other in whirlwind speaking tours from one end of the country to + the other. The war-cry of the Republicans was the "full dinner pail"; the + keynote of Bryan's bid for popular support was opposition to the + Republican policy of expansion and criticism of Republican tendencies + toward plutocratic control. The success of the Republican ticket was + overwhelming; McKinley and Roosevelt received nearly twice as many + electoral votes as Bryan and Stevenson. + </p> + <p> + When President McKinley was shot at Buffalo six months after his second + term began, it looked for a time as though he would recover. So Roosevelt, + after an immediate visit to Buffalo, went to join his family in the + Adirondacks. The news of the President's impending death found him out in + the wilderness on the top of Mount Tahawus, not far from the tiny Lake + Tear-of-the-Clouds, the source of the Hudson River. A ten-mile dash down + the mountain trail, in the course of which he outstripped all his + companions but one; a wild forty-mile drive through the night to the + railroad, the new President and his single companion changing the horses + two or three times with their own hands; a fast journey by special train + across the State—and on the evening of September 14, 1901, Theodore + Roosevelt took the oath of office as the twenty-sixth President of the + United States. + </p> + <p> + Before taking the oath, Roosevelt announced that it would be his aim "to + continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the + peace, prosperity, and honor of our beloved country." He immediately asked + every member of the late President's Cabinet to continue in office. The + Cabinet was an excellent one, and Mr. Roosevelt found it necessary to make + no other changes than those that came in the ordinary course of events. + The policies were not altered in broad general outline, for Roosevelt was + as stalwart a Republican as McKinley himself, and was as firmly convinced + of the soundness of the fundamentals of the Republican doctrine. + </p> + <p> + But the fears of some of his friends that Roosevelt would seem, if he + carried out his purpose of continuity, "a pale copy of McKinley" were not + justified in the event. They should have known better. A copy of any one + Roosevelt could neither be nor seem, and "pale" was the last epithet to be + applied to him with justice. It could not be long before the difference in + the two Administrations would appear in unmistakable terms. The one which + had just passed was first of all a party Administration and secondly a + McKinley Administration. The one which followed was first, last, and all + the time a Roosevelt Administration. "Where Macgregor sits, there is the + head of the table." Not because Roosevelt consciously willed it so, but + because the force and power and magnetism of his vigorous mind and + personality inevitably made it so. McKinley had been a great harmonizer. + "He oiled the machinery of government with loving and imperturbable + patience," said an observer of his time, "and the wheels ran with an ease + unknown since Washington's first term of office." It had been a constant + reproach of the critics of the former President that "his ear was always + to the ground." But he kept it there because it was his sincere conviction + that it belonged there, ready to apprize him of the vibrations of the + popular will. Roosevelt was the born leader with an innate instinct of + command. He did not scorn or flout the popular will; he had too confirmed + a conviction of the sovereign right of the people to rule for that. But he + did not wait pusillanimously for the popular mind to make itself up; he + had too high a conception of the duty of leadership for that. He esteemed + it his peculiar function as the man entrusted by a great people with the + headship of their common affairs—to lead the popular mind, to + educate it, to inspire it, sometimes to run before it in action, serene in + the confidence that tardy popular judgment would confirm the rightness of + the deed. + </p> + <p> + By the end of Roosevelt's first Administration two of the three groups + that had taken a hand in choosing him for the Vice-Presidency were + thoroughly sick of their bargain. The machine politicians and the great + corporations found that their cunning plan to stifle with the wet blanket + of that depressing office the fires of his moral earnestness and + pugnacious honesty had overreached itself. Fate had freed him and, once + freed, he was neither to hold nor to bind. It was less than two years + before Wall Street was convinced that he was "unsafe," and sadly shook its + head over his "impetuosity." When Wall Street stamps a man "unsafe," the + last word in condemnation has been said. It was an even shorter time + before the politicians found him unsatisfactory. "The breach between Mr. + Roosevelt and the politicians was, however, inevitable. His rigid + insistence upon the maintenance and the extension of the merit system + alone assured the discontent which precedes dislike," wrote another + observer. "The era of patronage mongering in the petty offices ceased + suddenly, and the spoilsmen had the right to say that in this respect the + policy of McKinley had not been followed." It was true. When Roosevelt + became President the civil service was thoroughly demoralized. Senators + and Congressmen, by tacit agreement with the executive, used the + appointing power for the payment of political debts, the reward of party + services, the strengthening of their personal "fences." But within three + months it was possible to say with absolute truth that "a marvelous change + has already been wrought in the morale of the civil service." At the end + of Roosevelt's first term an unusually acute and informed foreign + journalist was moved to write, "No President has so persistently + eliminated politics from his nominations, none has been more unbending in + making efficiency his sole test." + </p> + <p> + There was the kernel of the whole matter: the President's insistence upon + efficiency. Roosevelt, however, did not snatch rudely away from the + Congressmen and Senators the appointing power which his predecessors had + allowed them gradually to usurp. He continued to consult each member of + the Congress upon appointments in that member's State or district and + merely demanded that the men recommended for office should be honest, + capable, and fitted for the places they were to fill. + </p> + <p> + President Roosevelt was not only ready and glad to consult with Senators + but he sought and often took the advice of party leaders outside of + Congress, and even took into consideration the opinions of bosses. In New + York, for instance, the two Republican leaders, Governor Odell and Senator + Platt, were sometimes in accord and sometimes in disagreement, but each + was always desirous of being consulted. A letter written by Roosevelt in + the middle of his first term to a friendly Congressman well illustrates + his theory and practice in such cases: + </p> + <p> + "I want to work with Platt. I want to work with Odell. I want to support + both and take the advice of both. But, of course, ultimately I must be the + judge as to acting on the advice given. When, as in the case of the + judgeship, I am convinced that the advice of both is wrong, I shall act as + I did when I appointed Holt. When I can find a friend of Odell's like + Cooley, who is thoroughly fit for the position I desire to fill, it gives + me the greatest pleasure to appoint him. When Platt proposes to me a man + like Hamilton Fish, it is equally a pleasure to appoint him." + </p> + <p> + This high-minded and common-sense course did not, however, seem to please + the politicians, for dyed-in-the-wool politicians are curious persons to + whom half a loaf is no consolation whatever, even when the other half of + the loaf is to go to the people—without whom there would be no + policies at all. Strangely enough, Roosevelt's policy was equally + displeasing to those of the doctrinaire reformer type, to whom there is no + word in the language more distasteful than "politician," unless it be the + word "practical." But there was one class to whom the results of this + common-sense brand of political action were eminently satisfactory, and + this class made up the third group that had a part in the selection of + Theodore Roosevelt for the Vice-Presidency. The plain people, especially + in the more westerly portions of the country, were increasingly delighted + with the honesty, the virility, and the effectiveness of the Roosevelt + Administration. Just before the convention which was to nominate Roosevelt + for the Presidency to succeed himself, an editorial writer expressed the + fact thus: "The people at large are not oblivious of the fact that, while + others are talking and carping, Mr. Roosevelt is carrying on in the White + House a persistent and never-ending moral struggle with every powerful + selfish and exploiting interest in the country." + </p> + <p> + Oblivious of it? They were acutely conscious of it. They approved of it + with heartiness. They liked it so well that, when the time came to + nominate and elect another President, they swept aside with a mighty rush + not only the scruples and antagonisms of the Republican politicians and + the "special interests" but party lines as well, and chose Roosevelt with + a unanimous voice in the convention and a majority of two and a half + million votes at the polls. + </p> + <p> + As President, Theodore Roosevelt achieved many concrete results. But his + greatest contribution to the forward movement of the times was in the + rousing of the public conscience, the strengthening of the nation's moral + purpose, and the erecting of a new standard of public service in the + management of the nation's affairs. It was no little thing that when + Roosevelt was ready to hand over to another the responsibilities of his + high office, James Bryce, America's best friend and keenest student from + across the seas, was able to say that in a long life, during which he had + studied intimately the government of many different countries, he had + never in any country seen a more eager, high-minded, and efficient set of + public servants, men more useful and more creditable to their country, + than the men then doing the work of the American Government in Washington + and in the field. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE SQUARE DEAL FOR BUSINESS + </h2> + <p> + During the times of Roosevelt, the American people were profoundly + concerned with the trust problem. So was Roosevelt himself. In this + important field of the relations between "big business" and the people he + had a perfectly definite point of view, though he did not have a cut and + dried programme. He was always more interested in a point of view than in + a programme, for he realized that the one is lasting, the other shifting. + He knew that if you stand on sound footing and look at a subject from the + true angle, you may safely modify your plan of action as often and as + rapidly as may be necessary to fit changing conditions. But if your + footing is insecure or your angle of vision distorted, the most attractive + programme in the world may come to ignominious disaster. + </p> + <p> + There were, broadly speaking, three attitudes toward the trust problem + which were strongly held by different groups in the United States. At one + extreme was the threatening growl of big business, "Let us alone!" At the + other pole was the shrill outcry of William Jennings Bryan and his fellow + exhorters, "Smash the trusts!" In the golden middle ground was the + vigorous demand of Roosevelt for a "square deal." + </p> + <p> + In his first message to Congress, the President set forth his point of + view with frankness and clarity. His comprehensive discussion of the + matter may be summarized thus: The tremendous and highly complex + industrial development which went on with great rapidity during the latter + half of the nineteenth century produced serious social problems. The old + laws and the old customs which had almost the binding force of law were + once quite sufficient to regulate the accumulation and distribution of + wealth. Since the industrial changes which have so enormously increased + the productive power of mankind, these regulations are no longer + sufficient. The process of the creation of great corporate fortunes has + aroused much antagonism; but much of this antagonism has been without + warrant. There have been, it is true, abuses connected with the + accumulation of wealth; yet no fortune can be accumulated in legitimate + business except by conferring immense incidental benefits upon others. The + men who have driven the great railways across the continent, who have + built up commerce and developed manufactures, have on the whole done great + good to the people at large. Without such men the material development of + which Americans are so justly proud never could have taken place. They + should therefore recognize the immense importance of this material + development by leaving as unhampered as is compatible with the public good + the strong men upon whom the success of business inevitably rests. It + cannot too often be pointed out that to strike with ignorant violence at + the interests of one set of men almost inevitably endangers the interests + of all. The fundamental rule in American national life is that, on the + whole and in the long run, we shall all go up or down together. Many of + those who have made it their vocation to denounce the great industrial + combinations appeal especially to the primitive instincts of hatred and + fear. These are precisely the two emotions which unfit men for cool and + steady judgment. The whole history of the world shows that legislation, in + facing new industrial conditions, will generally be both unwise and + ineffective unless it is undertaken only after calm inquiry and with sober + self-restraint. + </p> + <p> + This is one side of the picture as it was presented by the President in + his message to Congress. It was characteristic that this aspect should be + put first, for Roosevelt always insisted upon doing justice to the other + side before he demanded justice for his own. But he then proceeded to set + forth the other side with equal vigor: There is a widespread conviction in + the minds of the American people that the great corporations are in + certain of their features and tendencies hurtful to the general welfare. + It is true that real and grave evils have arisen, one of the chief of them + being overcapitalization, with its many baleful consequences. This state + of affairs demands that combination and concentration in business should + be, not prohibited, but supervised and controlled. Corporations engaged in + interstate commerce should be regulated if they are found to exercise a + license working to the public injury. The first essential in determining + how to deal with the great industrial combinations is knowledge of the + facts. This is to be obtained only through publicity, which is the one + sure remedy we can now invoke before it can be determined what further + remedies are needed. Corporations should be subject to proper governmental + supervision, and full and accurate information as to their operations + should be made public at regular intervals. The nation should assume + powers of supervision and regulation over all corporations doing an + interstate business. This is especially true where the corporation derives + a portion of its wealth from the existence of some monopolistic element or + tendency in its business. The Federal Government should regulate the + activities of corporations doing an interstate business, just as it + regulates the activities of national banks, and, through the Interstate + Commerce Commission, the operations of the railroads. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt was destined, however, not to achieve the full measure of + national control of corporations that he desired. The elements opposed to + his view were too powerful. There was a fortuitous involuntary partnership + though it was not admitted and was even violently denied between the + advocates of "Let us alone!" and of "Smash the trusts!" against the + champion of the middle way. In his "Autobiography" Roosevelt has described + this situation: + </p> + <p> + "One of the main troubles was the fact that the men who saw the evils and + who tried to remedy them attempted to work in two wholly different ways, + and the great majority of them in a way that offered little promise of + real betterment. They tried (by the Sherman law method) to bolster up an + individualism already proved to be both futile and mischievous; to remedy + by more individualism the concentration that was the inevitable result of + the already existing individualism. They saw the evil done by the big + combinations, and sought to remedy it by destroying them and restoring the + country to the economic conditions of the middle of the nineteenth + century. This was a hopeless effort, and those who went into it, although + they regarded themselves as radical progressives, really represented a + form of sincere rural toryism. They confounded monopolies with big + business combinations, and in the effort to prohibit both alike, instead + of where possible prohibiting one and drastically controlling the other, + they succeeded merely in preventing any effective control of either. + </p> + <p> + "On the other hand, a few men recognized that corporations and + combinations had become indispensable in the business world, that it was + folly to try to prohibit them, but that it was also folly to leave them + without thoroughgoing control. These men realized that the doctrine of the + old laissez faire economists, of the believers in unlimited competition, + unlimited individualism, were, in the actual state of affairs, false and + mischievous. They realized that the Government must now interfere to + protect labor, to subordinate the big corporation to the public welfare, + and to shackle cunning and fraud exactly as centuries before it had + interfered to shackle the physical force which does wrong by violence. The + big reactionaries of the business world and their allies and instruments + among politicians and newspaper editors took advantage of this division of + opinion, and especially of the fact that most of their opponents were on + the wrong path; and fought to keep matters absolutely unchanged. These men + demanded for themselves an immunity from government control which, if + granted, would have been as wicked and as foolish as immunity to the + barons of the twelfth century. Many of them were evil men. Many others + were just as good men as were some of these same barons; but they were as + utterly unable as any medieval castle-owner to understand what the public + interest really was. There have been aristocracies which have played a + great and beneficent part at stages in the growth of mankind; but we had + come to a stage where for our people what was needed was a real democracy; + and of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is + the tyranny of mere wealth, the tyranny of a plutocracy." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 424-25. +</pre> + <p> + When Roosevelt became President, there were three directions in which + energy needed to be applied to the solution of the trust problem: in the + more vigorous enforcement of the laws already on the statute books; in the + enactment of necessary new laws on various phases of the subject; and in + the arousing of an intelligent and militant public opinion in relation to + the whole question. To each of these purposes the new President applied + himself with characteristic vigor. + </p> + <p> + The Sherman Anti-Trust law, which had already been on the Federal statute + books for eleven years, forbade "combinations in restraint of trade" in + the field of interstate commerce. During three administrations, eighteen + actions had been brought by the Government for its enforcement. At the + opening of the twentieth century it was a grave question whether the + Sherman law was of any real efficacy in preventing the evils that arose + from unregulated combination in business. A decision of the United States + Supreme Court, rendered in 1895 in the so-called Knight case, against the + American Sugar Refining Company, had, in the general belief, taken the + teeth out of the Sherman law. In the words of Mr. Taft, "The effect of the + decision in the Knight case upon the popular mind, and indeed upon + Congress as well, was to discourage hope that the statute could be used to + accomplish its manifest purpose and curb the great industrial trusts + which, by the acquisition of all or a large percentage of the plants + engaged in the manufacture of a commodity, by the dismantling of some and + regulating the output of others, were making every effort to restrict + production, control prices, and monopolize the business." It was obviously + necessary that the Sherman act, unless it were to pass into innocuous + desuetude, should have the original vigor intended by Congress restored to + it by a new interpretation of the law on the part of the Supreme Court. + Fortunately an opportunity for such a change presented itself with + promptness. A small group of powerful financiers had arranged to take + control of practically the entire system of railways in the Northwest, + "possibly," Roosevelt has said, "as the first step toward controlling the + entire railway system of the country." They had brought this about by + organizing the Northern Securities Company to hold the majority of the + stock of two competing railways, the Great Northern and the Northern + Pacific. At the direction of President Roosevelt, suit was brought by the + Government to prevent the merger. The defendants relied for protection + upon the immunity afforded by the decision in the Knight case. But the + Supreme Court now took more advanced ground, decreed that the Northern + Securities Company was an illegal combination, and ordered its + dissolution. + </p> + <p> + By the successful prosecution of this case the Sherman act was made once + more a potentially valuable instrument for the prevention of the more + flagrant evils that flow from "combinations in restraint of trade." During + the remaining years of the Roosevelt Administrations, this legal + instrument was used with aggressive force for the purpose for which it was + intended. In seven years and a half, forty-four prosecutions were brought + under it by the Government, as compared with eighteen in the preceding + eleven years. The two most famous trust cases, next to the Northern + Securities case and even surpassing it in popular interest, because of the + stupendous size of the corporations involved, were those against the + Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company. These companion + cases were not finally decided in the Supreme Court until the + Administration of President Taft; but their prosecution was begun while + Roosevelt was in office and by his direction. They were therefore a + definite part of his campaign for the solution of the vexed trust problem. + Both cases were decided, by every court through which they passed, in + favor of the Government. The Supreme Court finally in 1911 decreed that + both the Standard Oil and the Tobacco trusts were in violation of the + Sherman act and ordered their dissolution. There could now no longer be + any question that the Government could in fact exercise its sovereign will + over even the greatest and the most powerful of modern business + organizations. + </p> + <p> + The two cases had one other deep significance which at first blush looked + like a weakening of the force of the anti-trust law but which was in + reality a strengthening of it. There had been long and ardent debate + whether the Sherman act should be held to apply to all restraints of trade + or only to such as were unreasonable. It was held by some that it applied + to ALL restraints and therefore should be amended to cover only + unreasonable restraints. It was held by others that it applied to all + restraints and properly so. It was held by still others that it applied + only to unreasonable restraints. But the matter had never been decided by + competent authority. The decision of the Supreme Court in these two + outstanding cases, however, put an end to the previous uncertainty. Chief + Justice White, in his two opinions, laid it down with definiteness that in + construing and applying the law recourse must be had to the "rule of + reason." He made clear the conviction of the court that it was "undue" + restraints of trade which the law forbade and not incidental or + inconsiderable ones. This definitive interpretation of the law, while it + caused considerable criticism at the moment, in ultimate effect so cleared + the air about the Sherman act as effectually to dispose of the demands for + its amendment in the direction of greater leniency or severity. + </p> + <p> + But the proving of the anti-trust law as an effective weapon against the + flagrantly offending trusts, according to Roosevelt's conviction, was only + a part of the battle. As he said, "monopolies can, although in rather + cumbrous fashion, be broken up by lawsuits. Great business combinations, + however, cannot possibly be made useful instead of noxious industrial + agencies merely by lawsuits, and especially by lawsuits supposed to be + carried on for their destruction and not for their control and + regulation." He took, as usual, the constructive point of view. He saw + both sides of the trust question—the inevitability and the + beneficence of combination in modern business, and the danger to the + public good that lay in the unregulated and uncontrolled wielding of great + power by private individuals. He believed that the thing to do with great + power was not to destroy it but to use it, not to forbid its acquisition + but to direct its application. So he set himself to the task of securing + fresh legislation regarding the regulation of corporate activities. + </p> + <p> + Such legislation was not easy to get; for the forces of reaction were + strong in Congress. But several significant steps in this direction were + taken before Roosevelt went out of office. The new Federal Department of + Commerce and Labor was created, and its head became a member of the + Cabinet. The Bureau of Corporations was established in the same + department. These new executive agencies were given no regulatory powers, + but they did perform excellent service in that field of publicity on the + value of which Roosevelt laid so much stress. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1906 the passing of the Hepburn railway rate bill for the + first time gave the Interstate Commerce Commission a measure of real + control over the railways, by granting to the Commission the power to fix + maximum rates for the transportation of freight in interstate commerce. + The Commission had in previous years, under the authority of the act which + created it and which permitted the Commission to decide in particular + cases whether rates were just and reasonable, attempted to exercise this + power to fix in these specific cases maximum rates. But the courts had + decided that the Commission did not possess this right. The Hepburn act + also extended the authority of the Commission over express companies, + sleeping-car companies, pipe lines, private car lines, and private + terminal and connecting lines. It prohibited railways from transporting in + interstate commerce any commodities produced or owned by themselves. It + abolished free passes and transportation except for railway employees and + certain other small classes of persons, including the poor and unfortunate + classes and those engaged in religious and charitable work. Under the old + law, the Commission was compelled to apply to a Federal court on its own + initiative for the enforcement of any order which it might issue. Under + the Hepburn act the order went into effect at once; the railroad must + begin to obey the order within thirty days; it must itself appeal to the + court for the suspension and revocation of the order, or it must suffer a + penalty of $5000 a day during the time that the order was disobeyed. The + act further gave the Commission the power to prescribe accounting methods + which must be followed by the railways, in order to make more difficult + the concealment of illegal rates and improper favors to individual + shippers. This extension and strengthening of the authority of the + Interstate Commerce Commission was an extremely valuable forward step, not + only as concerned the relations of the public and the railways, but in + connection with the development of predatory corporations of the Standard + Oil type. Miss Ida Tarbell, in her frankly revealing "History of the + Standard Oil Company", which had been published in 1904, had shown in + striking fashion how secret concessions from the railways had helped to + build up that great structure of business monopoly. In Miss Tarbell's + words, "Mr. Rockefeller's great purpose had been made possible by his + remarkable manipulation of the railroads. It was the rebate which had made + the Standard Oil trust, the rebate, amplified, systematized, glorified + into a power never equalled before or since by any business of the + country." The rebate was the device by which favored shippers—favored + by the railways either voluntarily or under the compulsion of the threats + of retaliation which the powerful shippers were able to make—paid + openly the established freight rates on their products and then received + back from the railways a substantial proportion of the charges. The + advantage to the favored shipper is obvious. There were other more adroit + ways in which the favoritism could be accomplished; but the general + principle was the same. It was one important purpose—and effect—of + the Hepburn act to close the door to this form of discrimination. + </p> + <p> + One more step was necessary in order to eradicate completely this + mischievous condition and to "keep the highway of commerce open to all on + equal terms." It was imperative that the law relative to these abuses + should be enforced. On this point Roosevelt's own words are significant: + "Although under the decision of the courts the National Government had + power over the railways, I found, when I became President, that this power + was either not exercised at all or exercised with utter inefficiency. The + law against rebates was a dead letter. All the unscrupulous railway men + had been allowed to violate it with impunity; and because of this, as was + inevitable, the scrupulous and decent railway men had been forced to + violate it themselves, under penalty of being beaten by their less + scrupulous rivals. It was not the fault of these decent railway men. It + was the fault of the Government." + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt did not propose that this condition should continue to be the + fault of the Government while he was at its head, and he inaugurated a + vigorous campaign against railways that had given rebates and against + corporations that had accepted—or extorted-them. The campaign + reached a spectacular peak in a prosecution of the Standard Oil Company, + in which fines aggregating over $29,000,000 were imposed by Judge Kenesaw + M. Landis of the United States District Court at Chicago for the offense + of accepting rebates. The Circuit Court of Appeals ultimately determined + that the fine was improperly large, since it had been based on the + untenable theory that each shipment on which a rebate was paid constituted + a separate offense. At the second trial the presiding judge ordered an + acquittal. In spite, however, of the failure of this particular case, with + its spectacular features, the net result of the rebate prosecutions was + that the rebate evil was eliminated for good and all from American railway + and commercial life. + </p> + <p> + When Roosevelt demanded the "square deal" between business and the people, + he meant precisely what he said. He had no intention of permitting justice + to be required from the great corporations without insisting that justice + be done to them in turn. The most interesting case in point was that of + the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. To this day the action which + Roosevelt took in the matter is looked upon, by many of those extremists + who can see nothing good in "big business," as a proof of his undue + sympathy with the capitalist. But thirteen years later the United States + Supreme Court in deciding the case against the United States Steel + Corporation in favor of the Corporation, added an obiter dictum which + completely justified Roosevelt's action. + </p> + <p> + In the fall of 1907 the United States was in the grip of a financial + panic. Much damage was done, and much more was threatened. One great New + York trust company was compelled to close its doors, and others were on + the verge of disaster. One evening in the midst of this most trying time, + the President was informed that two representatives of the United States + Steel Corporation wished to call upon him the next morning. As he was at + breakfast the next day word came to him that Judge Gary and Mr. Frick were + waiting in the Executive Office. The President went over at once, sending + word to Elihu Root, then Secretary of State, to join him. Judge Gary and + Mr. Frick informed the President that a certain great firm in the New York + financial district was upon the point of failure. This firm held a large + quantity of the stock of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. The Steel + Corporation had been urged to purchase this stock in order to avert the + failure. The heads of the Steel Corporation asserted that they did not + wish to purchase this stock from the point of view of a business + transaction, as the value which the property might be to the Corporation + would be more than offset by the criticism to which they would be + subjected. They said that they were sure to be charged with trying to + secure a monopoly and to stifle competition. They told the President that + it had been the consistent policy of the Steel Corporation to have in its + control no more than sixty per cent of the steel properties of the + country; that their proportion of those properties was in fact somewhat + less than sixty per cent; and that the acquisition of the holdings of the + Tennessee Company would raise it only a little above that point. They + felt, however, that it would be extremely desirable for them to make the + suggested purchase in order to prevent the damage which would result from + the failure of the firm in question. They were willing to buy the stocks + offered because in the best judgment of many of the strongest bankers in + New York the transaction would be an influential factor in preventing a + further extension of the panic. Judge Gary and Mr. Frick declared that + they were ready to make the purchase with this end in view but that they + would not act without the President's approval of their action. + </p> + <p> + Immediate action was imperative. It was important that the purchase, if it + were to be made, should be announced at the opening of the New York Stock + Exchange at ten o'clock that morning. Fortunately Roosevelt never + shilly-shallied when a crisis confronted him. His decision was + instantaneous. He assured his callers that while, of course, he could not + advise them to take the action, proposed, he felt that he had no public + duty to interpose any objection. + </p> + <p> + This assurance was quite sufficient. The pure chase was made and + announced, the firm in question did not fail, and the panic was arrested. + The immediate reaction of practically the whole country was one of relief. + It was only later, when the danger was past, that critics began to make + themselves heard. Any one who had taken the trouble to ascertain the facts + would have known beyond question that the acquisition of the Tennessee + properties was not sufficient to change the status of the Steel + Corporation under the anti-trust law. But the critics did not want to know + the facts. They wanted—most of them, at least—to have a stick + with which to beat Roosevelt. Besides, many of them did not hold + Roosevelt's views about the square deal. Their belief was that whatever + big business did was ipso facto evil and that it was the duty of public + officials to find out what big business wanted to do and then prevent its + accomplishment. + </p> + <p> + Under a later Administration, Roosevelt was invited to come before a + Congressional investigating committee to explain what he did in this + famous case. There he told the complete story of the occurrence simply, + frankly, and emphatically, and ended with this statement: "If I were on a + sailboat, I should not ordinarily meddle with any of the gear; but if a + sudden squall struck us, and the main sheet jammed, so that the boat + threatened to capsize, I would unhesitatingly cut the main sheet, even + though I were sure that the owner, no matter how grateful to me at the + moment for having saved his life, would a few weeks later, when he had + forgotten his danger and his fear, decide to sue me for the value of the + cut rope. But I would feel a hearty contempt for the owner who so acted." + </p> + <p> + Two laws passed during the second Roosevelt Administration had an + important bearing on the conduct of American business, though in a + different way from those which have already been considered. They were the + Pure Food law, and the Meat Inspection act. Both were measures for the + protection of the public health; but both were at the same time measures + for the control of private business. The Pure Food law did three things: + it prohibited the sale of foods or drugs which were not pure and + unadulterated; it prohibited the sale of drugs which contained opium, + cocaine, alcohol, and other narcotics unless the exact proportion of them + in the preparation were stated on the package; and it prohibited the sale + of foods and drugs as anything else than what they actually were. The Meat + Inspection law required rigid inspection by Government officials of all + slaughterhouses and packing concerns preparing meat food products for + distribution in interstate commerce. The imperative need for the passage + of this law was brought forcibly and vividly to the popular attention + through a novel, "The Jungle", written by Upton Sinclair, in which the + disgraceful conditions of uncleanliness and revolting carelessness in the + Chicago packing houses were described with vitriolic intensity. An + official investigation ordered by the President confirmed the truth of + these timely revelations. + </p> + <p> + These achievements on the part of the Roosevelt Administrations were of + high value. But, after all Roosevelt performed an even greater service in + arousing the public mind to a realization of facts of national + significance and stimulating the public conscience to a desire to deal + with them vigorously and justly. From the very beginning of his + Presidential career he realized the gravity of the problems created by the + rise of big business; and he began forthwith to impress upon the people + with hammer blows the conditions as he saw them, the need for definite + corrective action, and the absolute necessity for such treatment of the + case as would constitute the "square deal." An interesting example of his + method and of the response which it received is to be found in the report + of an address which he made in 1907. It runs thus: + </p> + <p> + "From the standpoint of our material prosperity there is only one other + thing as important as the discouragement of a spirit of envy and hostility + toward business men, toward honest men of means; this is the + discouragement of dishonest business men. [Great applause.] + </p> + <p> + "Wait a moment; I don't want you to applaud this part unless you are + willing to applaud also the part I read first, to which you listened in + silence. [Laughter and applause.] I want you to understand that I will + stand just as straight for the rights of the honest man who wins his + fortune by honest methods as I will stand against the dishonest man who + wins a fortune by dishonest methods. And I challenge the right to your + support in one attitude just as much as in the other. I am glad you + applauded when you did, but I want you to go back now and applaud the + other statement. I will read a little of it over again. 'Every + manifestation of ignorant envy and hostility toward honest men who acquire + wealth by honest means should be crushed at the outset by the weight of a + sensible public opinion.' [Tremendous applause.] Thank you. Now I'll go + on." + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt's incessant emphasis was placed upon conduct as the proper + standard by which to judge the actions of men. "We are," he once said, "no + respecters of persons. If a labor union does wrong, we oppose it as firmly + as we oppose a corporation which does wrong; and we stand equally stoutly + for the rights of the man of wealth and for the rights of the wage-worker. + We seek to protect the property of every man who acts honestly, of every + corporation that represents wealth honestly accumulated and honestly used. + We seek to stop wrongdoing, and we desire to punish the wrongdoer only so + far as is necessary to achieve this end." + </p> + <p> + At another time he sounded the same note—sounded it indeed with a + "damnable iteration" that only proved how deeply it was imbedded in his + conviction. + </p> + <p> + "Let us strive steadily to secure justice as between man and man without + regard to the man's position, social or otherwise. Let us remember that + justice can never be justice unless it is equal. Do justice to the rich + man and exact justice from him; do justice to the poor man and exact + justice from him—justice to the capitalist and justice to the + wage-worker.... I have an equally hearty aversion for the reactionary and + the demagogue; but I am not going to be driven out of fealty to my + principles because certain of them are championed by the reactionary and + certain others by the demagogue. The reactionary is always strongly for + the rights of property; so am I.... I will not be driven away from + championship of the rights of property upon which all our civilization + rests because they happen to be championed by people who champion + furthermore the abuses of wealth.... Most demagogues advocate some + excellent popular principles, and nothing could be more foolish than for + decent men to permit themselves to be put into an attitude of ignorant and + perverse opposition to all reforms demanded in the name of the people + because it happens that some of them are demanded by demagogues." + </p> + <p> + Such an attitude on the part of a man like Roosevelt could not fail to be + misunderstood, misinterpreted, and assailed. Toward the end of his + Presidential career, when he was attacking with peculiar vigor the + "malefactors of great wealth" whom the Government had found it necessary + to punish for their predatory acts in corporate guise, it was gently + intimated by certain defenders of privilege that he was insane. At other + times, when he was insisting upon justice even to men who had achieved + material success, he was placed by the more rabid of the radical opponents + of privilege in the hierarchy of the worshipers of the golden calf. His + course along the middle of the onward way exposed him peculiarly to the + missiles of invective and scorn from the partisans on either side. But + neither could drive him into the arms of the other. + </p> + <p> + The best evidence of the soundness of the strategy with which he assailed + the enemies of the common good, with whirling war-club but with scrupulous + observance of the demands of justice and fair play, is to be found in the + measure of what he actually achieved. He did arouse the popular mind and + sting the popular conscience broad awake. He did enforce the law without + fear or favor. He did leave upon the statute-book and in the machinery of + government new means and methods for the control of business and for the + protection of the general welfare against predatory wealth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. THE SQUARE DEAL FOR LABOR + </h2> + <p> + It should go without saying that Roosevelt was vigorously and deeply + concerned with the relations between capital and labor, for he was + interested in everything that concerned the men and women of America, + everything that had to do with human relations. From the very beginning of + his public life he had been a champion of the workingman when the + workingman needed defense against exploitation and injustice. But his + advocacy of the workers' rights was never demagogic nor partial. In + industrial relations, as in the relations between business and the + community, he believed in the square deal. The rights of labor and the + rights of capital must, he firmly held, be respected each by the other—and + the rights of the public by both. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt believed thoroughly in trade unions. He realized that one of the + striking accompaniments of the gigantic developments in business and + industry of the past few generations was a gross inequality in the + bargaining relation between the employer and the individual employee + standing alone. + </p> + <p> + Speaking of the great coal strike which occurred while he was President, + he developed the idea in this way: + </p> + <p> + "The great coal-mining and coal-carrying companies, which employed their + tens of thousands, could easily dispense with the services of any + particular miner. The miner, on the other hand, however expert, could not + dispense with the companies. He needed a job; his wife and children would + starve if he did not get one. What the miner had to sell—his labor—was + a perishable commodity; the labor of today—if not sold today was + lost forever. Moreover, his labor was not like most commodities—a + mere thing; it was a part of a living, human being. The workman saw, and + all citizens who gave earnest thought to the matter saw that the labor + problem was not only an economic, but also a moral, a human problem. + Individually the miners were impotent when they sought to enter a wage + contract with the great companies; they could make fair terms only by + uniting into trade unions to bargain collectively. The men were forced to + cooperate to secure not only their economic, but their simple human + rights. They, like other workmen, were compelled by the very conditions + under which they lived to unite in unions of their industry or trade, and + those unions were bound to grow in size, in strength, and in power for + good and evil as the industries in which the men were employed grew larger + and larger." * + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 471-78. +</pre> + <p> + He was fond of quoting three statements of Lincoln's as expressing + precisely what he himself believed about capital and labor. The first of + these sayings was this: "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. + Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor + had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much + the higher consideration." + </p> + <p> + This statement, Roosevelt used to say, would have made him, if it had been + original with him, even more strongly denounced as a communist agitator + than he already was! Then he would turn from this, which the capitalist + ought to hear, to another saying of Lincoln's which the workingman ought + to hear: "Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any + other rights.. .. Nor should this lead to a war upon the owners of + property. Property is the fruit of labor;... property is desirable; it is + a positive good in the world." + </p> + <p> + Then would come the final word from Lincoln, driven home by Roosevelt with + all his usual vigor and fire: "Let not him who is houseless pull down the + house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, + thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when + built." + </p> + <p> + In these three sayings, Roosevelt declared, Lincoln "showed the proper + sense of proportion in his relative estimates of capital and labor, of + human rights and property rights." Roosevelt's own most famous statement + of the matter was made in an address which he delivered before the + Sorbonne in Paris, on his way back from Africa: "In every civilized + society property rights must be carefully safeguarded. Ordinarily, and in + the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are + fundamentally and in the long run identical; but when it clearly appears + that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the + upper hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property." + </p> + <p> + Several times it happened to Roosevelt to be confronted with the necessity + of meeting with force the threat of violence on the part of striking + workers. He never refused the challenge, and his firmness never lost him + the respect of any but the worthless among the workingmen. When he was + Police Commissioner, strikers in New York were coming into continual + conflict with the police. Roosevelt asked the strike leaders to meet him + in order to talk things over. These leaders did not know the man with whom + they were dealing; they tried to bully him. They truculently announced the + things that they would do if the police were not compliant to their + wishes. But they did not get far in that direction. Roosevelt called a + halt with a snap of his jaws. "Gentlemen!" he said, "we want to understand + one another. That was my object in coming here. Remember, please, that he + who counsels violence does the cause of labor the poorest service. Also, + he loses his case. Understand distinctly that order will be kept. The + police will keep it. Now, gentlemen!" There was surprised silence for a + moment, and then smashing applause. They had learned suddenly what kind of + a man Roosevelt was. All their respect was his. + </p> + <p> + It was after he became President that his greatest opportunity occurred to + put into effect his convictions about the industrial problem. In 1909 + there was a strike which brought about a complete stoppage of work for + several months in the anthracite coal regions. Both operators and workers + were determined to make no concession. The coal famine became a national + menace as the winter approached. "The big coal operators had banded + together," so Roosevelt has described the situation, "and positively + refused to take any steps looking toward an accommodation. They knew that + the suffering among the miners was great; they were confident that if + order was kept, and nothing further done by the Government, they would + win; and they refused to consider that the public had any rights in the + matter." + </p> + <p> + As the situation grew more and more dangerous, the President directed the + head of the Federal Labor Bureau to make an investigation of the whole + matter. From this investigation it appeared that the most feasible + solution of the problem was to prevail upon both sides to agree to a + commission of arbitration and promise to accept its findings. To this + proposal the miners agreed; the mine owners insolently declined it. + Nevertheless, Roosevelt persisted, and ultimately the operators yielded on + condition that the commission, which was to be named by the President, + should contain no representative of labor. They insisted that it should be + composed of (1) an officer of the engineer corps of the army or navy, (2) + a man with experience in mining, (3) a "man of prominence, eminent as a + sociologist," (4) a Federal Judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, + and (5) a mining engineer. In the course of a long and grueling conference + it looked as though a deadlock could be the only outcome, since the mine + owners would have no representative of labor on any terms. But it suddenly + dawned on Roosevelt that the owners were objecting not to the thing but to + the name. He discovered that they would not object to the appointment of + any man, labor man or not, so long as he was not appointed as a labor man + or as a representative of labor. "I shall never forget," he says in his + "Autobiography", "the mixture of relief and amusement I felt when I + thoroughly grasped the fact that while they would heroically submit to + anarchy rather than have Tweedledum, yet if I would call it Tweedledee + they would accept with rapture." All that he needed to do was to "commit a + technical and nominal absurdity with a solemn face." When he realized that + this was the case, Roosevelt announced that he was glad to accept the + terms laid down, and proceeded to appoint to the third position on the + Commission the labor man whom he had wanted from the first to appoint, Mr. + E. E. Clark, the head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors. He called + him, however, an "eminent sociologist," adding in his announcement of the + appointment this explanation: "For the purposes of such a Commission, the + term sociologist means a man who has thought and studied deeply on social + questions and has practically applied his knowledge." + </p> + <p> + The Commission as finally constituted was an admirable one. Its report, + which removed every menace to peace in the coal industry, was an + outstanding event in the history of the relations of labor and capital in + the United States. + </p> + <p> + But the most interesting and significant part of Roosevelt's relation to + the great coal strike concerned something that did not happen. It + illustrates his habit of seeing clearly through a situation to the end and + knowing far in advance just what action he was prepared to take in any + contingency that might possibly arise. He was determined that work should + be resumed in the mines and that the country should have coal. He did not + propose to allow the operators to maintain the deadlock by sheer refusal + to make any compromise. In case he could not succeed in making them + reconsider their position, he had prepared a definite and drastic course + of action. The facts in regard to this plan did not become public until + many years after the strike was settled, and then only when Roosevelt + described it in his "Autobiography". + </p> + <p> + The method of action which Roosevelt had determined upon in the last + resort was to get the Governor of Pennsylvania to appeal to him as + President to restore order. He had then determined to put Federal troops + into the coal fields under the command of some first-rate general, with + instructions not only to preserve order but to dispossess the mine + operators and to run the mines as a receiver, until such time as the + Commission should make its report and the President should issue further + orders in view of that report. Roosevelt found an army officer with the + requisite good sense, judgment, and nerve to act in such a crisis in the + person of Major General Schofield. Roosevelt sent for the General and + explained the seriousness of the crisis. "He was a fine fellow," says + Roosevelt in his "Autobiography", "a most respectable-looking old boy, + with side whiskers and a black skull-cap, without any of the outward + aspect of the conventional military dictator; but in both nerve and + judgment he was all right." Schofield quietly assured the President that + if the order was given he would take possession of the mines, and would + guarantee to open them and run them without permitting any interference + either by the owners or by the strikers or by any one else, so long as the + President told him to stay. Fortunately Roosevelt's efforts to bring about + arbitration were ultimately successful and recourse to the novel expedient + of having the army operate the coal mines proved unnecessary. No one was + more pleased than Roosevelt himself at the harmonious adjustment of the + trouble, for, as he said, "It is never well to take drastic action if the + result can be achieved with equal efficiency in less drastic fashion." But + there can be no question that the drastic action would have followed if + the coal operators had not seen the light when they did. + </p> + <p> + In other phases of national life Roosevelt made his influence equally + felt. As President he found that there was little which the Federal + Government could do directly for the practical betterment of living and + working conditions among the mass of the people compared with what the + State Governments could do. He determined, however, to strive to make the + National Government an ideal employer. He hoped to make the Federal + employee feel, just as much as did the Cabinet officer, that he was one of + the partners engaged in the service of the public, proud of his work, + eager to do it efficiently, and confident of just treatment. The Federal + Government could act in relation to laboring conditions only in the + Territories, in the District of Columbia, and in connection with + interstate commerce. But in those fields it accomplished much. + </p> + <p> + The eight-hour law for workers in the executive departments had become a + mere farce and was continually violated by officials who made their + subordinates work longer hours than the law stipulated. This condition the + President remedied by executive action, at the same time seeing to it that + the shirk and the dawdler received no mercy. A good law protecting the + lives and health of miners in the Territories was passed; and laws were + enacted for the District of Columbia, providing for the supervision of + employment agencies, for safeguarding workers against accidents, and for + the restriction of child labor. A workmen's compensation law for + government employees, inadequate but at least a beginning, was put on the + statute books. A similar law for workers on interstate railways was + declared unconstitutional by the courts; but a second law was passed and + stood the test. + </p> + <p> + It was chiefly in the field of executive action, however, that Roosevelt + was able to put his theories into practice. There he did not have to deal + with recalcitrant, stupid, or medieval-minded politicians, as he so often + did in matters of legislation. One case which confronted him found him on + the side against the labor unions, but, being sure that he was right, he + did not let that fact disturb him. A printer in the Government Printing + Office, named Miller, had been discharged because he was a non-union man. + The President immediately ordered him reinstated. + </p> + <p> + Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, with + several members of its Executive Council, called upon him to protest. The + President was courteous but inflexible. He answered their protest by + declaring that, in the employment and dismissal of men in the Government + service, he could no more recognize the fact that a man did or did not + belong to a union as being for or against him, than he could recognize the + fact that he was a Protestant or a Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being + for or against him. He declared his belief in trade unions and said that + if he were a worker himself he would unquestionably join a union. He + always preferred to see a union shop. But he could not allow his personal + preferences to control his public actions. The Government was bound to + treat union and non-union men exactly alike. His action in causing Miller + to be reinstated was final. + </p> + <p> + Another instance which illustrated Roosevelt's skill in handling a + difficult situation occurred in 1908 when the Louisville and Nashville + Railroad and certain other lines announced a reduction in wages. The heads + of that particular road laid the necessity for the reduction at the door + of "the drastic laws inimical to the interests of the railroads that have + in the past year or two been enacted." A general strike, with all the + attendant discomfort and disorder, was threatened in retaliation. The + President wrote a letter to the Interstate Commerce Commission, in which + he said: + </p> + <p> + "These reductions in wages may be justified or they may not. As to this + the public, which is a vitally interested party, can form no judgment + without a more complete knowledge of the essential facts and real merits + of the case than it now has or than it can possibly obtain from the + special pleadings, certain to be put forth by each side in case their + dispute should bring about serious interruption to traffic. If the + reduction in wages is due to natural causes, the loss of business being + such that the burden should be, and is, equitably distributed, between + capitalist and wageworker, the public should know it. If it is caused by + legislation, the public and Congress should know it; and if it is caused + by misconduct in the past financial or other operations of any railroad, + then everybody should know it, especially if the excuse of unfriendly + legislation is advanced as a method of covering up past business + misconduct by the railroad managers, or as a justification for failure to + treat fairly the wage-earning employees of the company." + </p> + <p> + The letter closed with a request to the Commission to investigate the + whole matter with these points in view. But the investigation proved + unnecessary; the letter was enough. The proposed reduction of wages was + never heard of again. The strength of the President's position in a case + of this sort was that he was cheerfully prepared to accept whatever an + investigation should show to be right. If the reduction should prove to be + required by natural causes, very well—let the reduction be made. If + it was the result of unfair and unwise legislation, very well—repeal + the legislation. If it was caused by misconduct on the part of railroad + managers, very well—let them be punished. It was hard to get the + better of a man who wanted only the truth, and was ready to act upon it, + no matter which way it cut. + </p> + <p> + In 1910, after his return from Africa, a speaking trip happened to take + him to Columbus, Ohio, which had for months been in the grasp of a street + railway strike. There had been much violence, many policemen had refused + to do their duty, and many officials had failed in theirs. It was an + uncomfortable time for an outsider to come and make a speech. But + Roosevelt did not dodge. He spoke, and straight to the point. His speech + had been announced as on Law and Order. When he rose to speak, however, he + declared that he would speak on Law, Order, and Justice. Here are some of + the incisive things that he said: + </p> + <p> + "Now, the first requisite is to establish order; and the first duty of + every official, in State and city alike, high and low, is to see that + order obtains and that violence is definitely stopped .... I have the + greatest regard for the policeman who does his duty. I put him high among + the props of the State, but the policeman who mutinies, or refuses to + perform his duty, stands on a lower level than that of the professional + lawbreaker.... I ask, then, not only that civic officials perform their + duties, but that you, the people, insist upon their performing them... . I + ask this particularly of the wage-workers, and employees, and men on + strike.... I ask them, not merely passively, but actively, to aid in + restoring order. I ask them to clear their skirts of all suspicion of + sympathizing with disorder, and, above all, the suspicion of sympathizing + with those who commit brutal and cowardly assaults.... What I have said of + the laboring men applies just as much to the capitalists and the + capitalists' representatives.... The wage-workers and the representatives + of the companies should make it evident that they wish the law absolutely + obeyed; that there is no chance of saying that either the labor + organization or the corporation favors lawbreakers or lawbreaking. But let + your public servants trust, not in the good will of either side, but in + the might of the civil arm, and see that law rules, that order obtains, + and that every miscreant, every scoundrel who seeks brutally to assault + any other man—whatever that man's status—is punished with the + utmost severity.... When you have obtained law and order, remember that it + is useless to have obtained them unless upon them you build a + superstructure of justice. After finding out the facts, see that justice + is done; see that injustice that has been perpetrated in the past is + remedied, and see that the chance of doing injustice in the future is + minimized." + </p> + <p> + Now, any one might in his closet write an essay on Law, Order, and + Justice, which would contain every idea that is here expressed. The + essayist might even feel somewhat ashamed of his production on the ground + that all the ideas that it contained were platitudes. But it is one thing + to write an essay far from the madding crowd, and it was quite another to + face an audience every member of which was probably a partisan of either + the workers, the employers, or the officials, and give them straight from + the shoulder simple platitudinous truths of this sort applicable to the + situation in which they found themselves. Any one of them would have been + delighted to hear these things said about his opponents; it was when they + were addressed to himself and his associates that they stung. The best + part of it, however, was the fact that those things were precisely what + the situation needed. They were the truth; and Roosevelt knew it. His + sword had a double edge, and he habitually used it with a sweep that cut + both ways. As a result he was generally hated or feared by the extremists + on both sides. But the average citizen heartily approved the impartiality + of his strokes. + </p> + <p> + In the year 1905 the Governor of Idaho was killed by a bomb as he was + leaving his house. A former miner, who had been driven from the State six + years before by United States troops engaged in putting down industrial + disorder, was arrested and confessed the crime. In his confession he + implicated three officers of the Western Federation of Miners, Moyer, + Haywood, and Pettibone. These three men were brought from Colorado into + Idaho by a method that closely resembled kidnaping, though it subsequently + received the sanction of the United States Supreme Court. While these + prominent labor leaders were awaiting trial, Colorado, Idaho, and Nevada + seethed and burst into eruption. Parts of the mining districts were + transformed into two hostile armed camps. Violence was common. At this + time Roosevelt coupled the name of a giant among American railroad + financiers, with those of Moyer and Haywood, and described them all as + "undesirable citizens." The outbursts of resentment from both sides were + instantaneous and vicious. There was little to choose between them. + Finally the President took advantage of a letter of criticism from a + supporter of the accused labor leaders to reply to both groups of critics. + He referred to the fact that certain representatives of the great + capitalists had protested, because he had included a prominent financier + with Moyer and Haywood, while certain representatives of labor had + protested on precisely the opposite grounds. Then Roosevelt went on to + say: + </p> + <p> + "I am as profoundly indifferent to the condemnation in one case as in the + other. I challenge as a right the support of all good Americans, whether + wage-workers or capitalists, whatever their occupation or creed, or in + whatever portion of the country they live, when I condemn both the types + of bad citizenship which I have held up to reprobation.... You ask for a + 'square deal' for Messrs. Moyer and Haywood. So do I. When I say 'square + deal', I mean a square deal to every one; it is equally a violation of the + policy of the square deal for a capitalist to protest against denunciation + of a capitalist who is guilty of wrongdoing and for a labor leader to + protest against the denunciation of a labor leader who has been guilty of + wrongdoing. I stand for equal justice to both; and so far as in my power + lies I shall uphold justice, whether the man accused of guilt has behind + him the wealthiest corporation, the greatest aggregations of riches in the + country, or whether he has behind him the most influential labor + organizations in the country." + </p> + <p> + It should be recorded for the sake of avoiding misapprehension that + Roosevelt's denunciation of Moyer and Haywood was not based on the + assumption that they were guilty of the death of the murdered Governor, + but was predicated on their general attitude and conduct in the industrial + conflicts in the mining fields. + </p> + <p> + The criticisms of Roosevelt because of his actions in the complex + relations of capital and labor were often puerile. For instance, he was + sternly taken to task on one or two occasions because he had labor leaders + lunch with him at the White House. He replied to one of his critics with + this statement of his position: "While I am President I wish the labor man + to feel that he has the same right of access to me that the capitalist + has; that the doors swing open as easily to the wageworker as to the head + of a big corporation—AND NO EASIER." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. RECLAMATION AND CONSERVATION + </h2> + <p> + The first message of President Roosevelt to Congress contained these + words: "The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal + questions of the United States." At that moment, on December 3, 1901, the + impulse was given that was to add to the American vocabulary two new + words, "reclamation" and "conservation," that was to create two great + constructive movements for the preservation, the increase, and the + utilization of natural resources, and that was to establish a new + relationship on the part of the Federal Government to the nation's natural + wealth. + </p> + <p> + Reclamation and conservation had this in common: the purpose of both was + the intelligent and efficient utilization of the natural resources of the + country for the benefit of the people of the country. But they differed in + one respect, and with conspicuous practical effects. Reclamation, which + meant the spending of public moneys to render fertile and usable arid + lands hitherto deemed worthless, trod on no one's toes. It took from no + one anything that he had; it interfered with no one's enjoyment of + benefits which it was not in the public interest that he should continue + to enjoy unchecked. It was therefore popular from the first, and the new + policy went through Congress as though on well-oiled wheels. Only six + months passed between its first statement in the Presidential message and + its enactment into law. Conservation, on the other hand, had to begin by + withholding the natural resources from exploitation and extravagant use. + It had, first of all, to establish in the national mind the principle that + the forests and mines of the nation are not an inexhaustible grab-bag into + which whosoever will may thrust greedy and wasteful hands, and by this new + understanding to stop the squandering of vast national resources until + they could be economically developed and intelligently used. So it was + inevitable that conservation should prove unpopular, while reclamation + gained an easy popularity, and that those who had been feeding fat off the + country's stores of forest and mineral wealth should oppose, with tooth + and nail, the very suggestion of conservation. It was on the first Sunday + after he reached Washington as President, before he had moved into the + White House, that Roosevelt discussed with two men, Gifford Pinchot and F. + H. Newell, the twin policies that were to become two of the finest + contributions to American progress of the Roosevelt Administrations. Both + men were already in the Government service, both were men of broad vision + and high constructive ability; with both Roosevelt had already worked when + he was Governor of New York. The name of Newell, who became chief engineer + of the Reclamation Service, ought to be better known popularly than it is + in connection with the wonderful work that has been accomplished in making + the desert lands of western America blossom and produce abundantly. The + name of Pinchot, by a more fortunate combination of events, has become + synonymous in the popular mind with the conservation movement. + </p> + <p> + On the very day that the first Roosevelt message was read to the Congress, + a committee of Western Senators and Congressmen was organized, under the + leadership of Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada, to prepare a + Reclamation Bill. The only obstacle to the prompt enactment of the bill + was the undue insistence upon State Rights by certain Congressmen, "who + consistently fought for local and private interests as against the + interests of the people as a whole." In spite of this shortsighted + opposition, the bill became law on June 17, 1902, and the work of + reclamation began without an instant's delay. The Reclamation Act set + aside the proceeds of the sale of public lands for the purpose of + reclaiming the waste areas of the arid West. + </p> + <p> + Lands otherwise worthless were to be irrigated and in those new regions of + agricultural productivity homes were to be established. The money so + expended was to be repaid in due course by the settlers on the land and + the sums repaid were to be used as a revolving fund for the continuous + prosecution of the reclamation work. Nearly five million dollars was made + immediately available for the work. Within four years, twenty-six + "projects" had been approved by the Secretary of the Interior and work was + well under way on practically all of them. They were situated in fourteen + States—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, + Washington, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, California, + South Dakota. The individual projects were intended to irrigate areas of + from eight thousand to two hundred thousand acres each; and the grand + total of arid lands to which water was thus to be brought by canals, + tunnels, aqueducts, and ditches was more than a million and a half acres. + </p> + <p> + The work had to be carried out under the most difficult and adventurous + conditions. The men of the Reclamation Service were in the truest sense + pioneers, building great engineering works far from the railroads, where + the very problem of living for the great numbers of workers required was + no simple one. On the Shoshone in Wyoming these men built the highest dam + in the world, 310 feet from base to crest. They pierced a mountain range + in Colorado and carried the waters of the Gunnison River nearly six miles + to the Uncompahgre Valley through a tunnel in the solid rock. The great + Roosevelt dam on the Salt River in Arizona with its gigantic curved wall + of masonry 280 feet high, created a lake with a capacity of fifty-six + billion cubic feet, and watered in 1915 an area of 750,000 acres. + </p> + <p> + The work of these bold pioneers was made possible by the fearless backing + which they received from the Administration at Washington. The President + demanded of them certain definite results and gave them unquestioning + support. In Roosevelt's own words, "the men in charge were given to + understand that they must get into the water if they would learn to swim; + and, furthermore, they learned to know that if they acted honestly, and + boldly and fearlessly accepted responsibility, I would stand by them to + the limit. In this, as in every other case, in the end the boldness of the + action fully justified itself." + </p> + <p> + The work of reclamation was first prosecuted under the United States + Geological Survey; but in the spring of 1908 the United States Reclamation + Service was established to carry it on, under the direction of Mr. Newell, + to whom the inception of the plan was due. Roosevelt paid a fine and + well-deserved tribute to the man who originated and carried through this + great national achievement when he said that "Newell's single-minded + devotion to this great task, the constructive imagination which enabled + him to conceive it, and the executive power and high character through + which he and his assistant, Arthur P. Davis, built up a model service—all + these made him a model servant. The final proof of his merit is supplied + by the character and records of the men who later assailed him." + </p> + <p> + The assault to which Roosevelt thus refers was the inevitable aftermath of + great accomplishment. Reclamation was popular, when it was proposed, while + it was being carried out, and when the water began to flow in the ditches, + making new lands of fertile abundance for settlers and farmers. But the + reaction of unpopularity came the minute the beneficiaries had to begin to + pay for the benefits received. Then arose a concerted movement for the + repudiation of the obligation of the settlers to repay the Government for + what had been spent to reclaim the land. The baser part of human nature + always seeks a scapegoat; and it might naturally be expected that the + repudiators and their supporters should concentrate their attacks upon the + head of the Reclamation Service, to whose outstanding ability and + continuous labor they owed that for which they were now unwilling to pay. + But no attack, not even the adverse report of an ill-humored congressional + committee, can alter the fact of the tremendous service that Newell and + his loyal associates in the Reclamation Service did for the nation and the + people of the United States. By 1915 reclamation had added to the arable + land of the country a million and a quarter acres, of which nearly eight + hundred thousand acres were already "under water," and largely under + tillage, producing yearly more than eighteen million dollars' worth of + crops. + </p> + <p> + When Roosevelt became President there was a Bureau of Forestry in the + Department of Agriculture, but it was a body entrusted with merely the + study of forestry problems and principles. It contained all the trained + foresters in the employ of the Government; but it had no public forest + lands whatever to which the knowledge and skill of these men could be + applied. All the forest reserves of that day were in the charge of the + Public Land Office in the Department of the Interior. This was managed by + clerks who knew nothing of forestry, and most, if not all, of whom had + never seen a stick of the timber or an acre of the woodlands for which + they were responsible. The mapping and description of the timber lay with + the Geological Survey. So the national forests had no foresters and the + Government foresters no forests. + </p> + <p> + It was a characteristic arrangement of the old days. More than that, it + was a characteristic expression of the old attitude of thought and action + on the part of the American people toward their natural resources. Dazzled + and intoxicated by the inexhaustible riches of their bountiful land, they + had concerned themselves only with the agreeable task of utilizing and + consuming them. To their shortsighted vision there seemed always plenty + more beyond. With the beginning of the twentieth century a prophet arose + in the land to warn the people that the supply was not inexhaustible. He + declared not only that the "plenty more beyond" had an end, but that the + end was already in sight. This prophet was Gifford Pinchot. His warning + went forth reinforced by all the authority of the Presidential office and + all the conviction and driving power of the personality of Roosevelt + himself. Pinchot's warning cry was startling: + </p> + <p> + "The growth of our forests is but one-third of the annual cut; and we have + in store timber enough for only twenty or thirty years at our present rate + of use.... Our coal supplies are so far from being inexhaustible that if + the increasing rate of consumption shown by the figures of the last + seventy-five years continues to prevail, our supplies of anthracite coal + will last but fifty years and of bituminous coal less than two hundred + years.... Many oil and gas fields, as in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and + the Mississippi Valley, have already failed, yet vast quantities of gas + continue to be poured into the air and great quantities of oil into the + streams. Cases are known in which great volumes of oil were systematically + burned in order to get rid of it.... In 1896, Professor Shaler, than whom + no one has spoken with greater authority on this subject, estimated that + in the upland regions of the States South of Pennsylvania, three thousand + square miles of soil have been destroyed as the result of forest + denudation, and that destruction was then proceeding at the rate of one + hundred square miles of fertile soil per year.. .. The Mississippi River + alone is estimated to transport yearly four hundred million tons of + sediment, or about twice the amount of material to be excavated from the + Panama Canal. This material is the most fertile portion of the richest + fields, transformed from a blessing to a curse by unrestricted erosion.... + The destruction of forage plants by overgrazing has resulted, in the + opinion of men most capable of judging, in reducing the grazing value of + the public lands by one-half." + </p> + <p> + Here, then, was a problem of national significance, and it was one which + the President attacked with his usual promptness and vigor. His first + message to Congress called for the unification of the care of the forest + lands of the public domain in a single body under the Department of + Agriculture. He asked that legal authority be granted to the President to + transfer to the Department of Agriculture lands for use as forest + reserves. He declared that "the forest reserves should be set apart + forever for the use and benefit of our people as a whole and not + sacrificed to the shortsighted greed of a few." He supplemented this + declaration with an explanation of the meaning and purpose of the forest + policy which he urged should be adopted: "Wise forest protection does not + mean the withdrawal of forest resources, whether of wood, water, or grass, + from contributing their full share to the welfare of the people, but, on + the contrary, gives the assurance of larger and more certain supplies. The + fundamental idea of forestry is the perpetuation of forests by use. Forest + protection is not an end in itself; it is a means to increase and sustain + the resources of our country and the industries which depend upon them. + The preservation of our forests is an imperative business necessity. We + have come to see clearly that whatever destroys the forest, except to make + way for agriculture, threatens our wellbeing." + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless it was four years before Congress could be brought to the + common-sense policy of administering the forest lands still belonging to + the Government. Pinchot and his associates in the Bureau of Forestry spent + the interval profitably, however, in investigating and studying the whole + problem of national forest resources and in drawing up enlightened and + effective plans for their protection and development. Accordingly, when + the act transferring the National Forests to the charge of the newly + created United States Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture was + passed early in 1905, they were ready for the responsibility. + </p> + <p> + The principles which they had formulated and which they now began to apply + had been summed up by Roosevelt in the statement "that the rights of the + public to the natural resources outweigh private rights and must be given + the first consideration." Until the establishment of the Forest Service, + private rights had almost always been allowed to overbalance public rights + in matters that concerned not only the National Forests, but the public + lands generally. It was the necessity of having this new principle + recognized and adopted that made the way of the newly created Forest + Service and of the whole Conservation movement so thorny. Those who had + been used to making personal profit from free and unrestricted + exploitation of the nation's natural resources would look only with + antagonism on a movement which put a consideration of the general welfare + first. + </p> + <p> + The Forest Service nevertheless put these principles immediately into + practical application. The National Forests were opened to a regulated use + of all their resources. A law was passed throwing open to settlement all + land in the National Forests which was found to be chiefly valuable for + agriculture. Hitherto all such land had been closed to the settler. + Regulations were established and enforced which favored the settler rather + than the large stockowner. It was provided that, when conditions required + the reduction in the number of head of stock grazed in any National + Forest, the vast herds of the wealthy owner should be affected before the + few head of the small man, upon which the living of his family depended. + The principle which excited the bitterest antagonism of all was the rule + that any one, except a bona fide settler on the land, who took public + property for private profit should pay for what he got. This was a new and + most unpalatable idea to the big stock and sheep raisers, who had been + accustomed to graze their animals at will on the richest lands of the + public forests, with no one but themselves a penny the better off thereby. + But the Attorney-General of the United States declared it legal to make + the men who pastured their cattle and sheep in the National Forests pay + for this privilege; and in the summer of 1906 such charges were for the + first time made and collected. The trained foresters of the service were + put in charge of the National Forests. As a result, improvement began to + manifest itself in other ways. Within two years the fire prevention work + alone had completely justified the new policy of forest regulation. + Eighty-six per cent of the fires that did occur in the National Forests + were held down to an area of five acres or less. The new service not only + made rapid progress in saving the timber, but it began to make money for + the nation by selling the timber. In 1905 the sales of timber brought in + $60,000; three years later the return was $850,000. + </p> + <p> + The National Forests were trebled in size during the two Roosevelt + Administrations with the result that there were 194,000,000 acres of + publicly owned and administered forest lands when Roosevelt went out of + office. The inclusion of these lands in the National Forests, where they + were safe from the selfish exploitation of greedy private interests, was + not accomplished without the bitterest opposition. The wisdom of the + serpent sometimes had to be called into play to circumvent the adroit + maneuvering of these interests and their servants in Congress. In 1907, + for example, Senator Charles W. Fulton of Oregon obtained an amendment to + the Agricultural Appropriation Bill forbidding the President to set aside + any additional National Forests in six Northwestern States. But the + President and the Forest Service were ready for this bold attempt to + deprive the public of some 16,000,000 acres for the benefit of land + grabbers and special interests. They knew exactly what lands ought to be + set aside in those States. So the President first unostentatiously signed + the necessary proclamations to erect those lands into National Forests, + and then quietly approved the Agricultural Bill. "The opponents of the + Forest Service," said Roosevelt, "turned handsprings in their wrath; and + dire were their threats against the Executive; but the threats could not + be carried out, and were really only a tribute to the efficiency of our + action." + </p> + <p> + The development of a sound and enlightened forest policy naturally led to + the consideration of a similar policy for dealing with the water power of + the country which had hitherto gone to waste or was in the hands of + private interests. It had been the immemorial custom that the water powers + on the navigable streams, on the public domain, and in the National + Forests should be given away for nothing, and practically without + question, to the first comer. This ancient custom ran right athwart the + newly enunciated principle that public property should not pass into + private possession without being paid for, and that permanent grants, + except for home-making, should not be made. The Forest Service now began + to apply this principle to the water powers in the National Forests, + granting permission for the development and use of such power for limited + periods only and requiring payment for the privilege. This was the + beginning of a general water power policy which, in the course of time, + commended itself to public approval; but it was long before it ceased to + be opposed by the private interests that wanted these rich resources for + their own undisputed use. + </p> + <p> + Out of the forest movement grew the conservation movement in its broader + sense. In the fall of 1907 Roosevelt made a trip down the Mississippi + River with the definite purpose of drawing general attention to the + subject of the development of the national inland waterways. Seven months + before, he had established the Inland Waterways Commission and had + directed it to "consider the relations of the streams to the use of all + the great permanent natural resources and their conservation for the + making and maintenance of permanent homes." During the trip a letter was + prepared by a group of men interested in the conservation movement and was + presented to him, asking him to summon a conference on the conservation of + natural resources. At a great meeting held at Memphis, Tennessee, + Roosevelt publicly announced his intention of calling such a conference. + </p> + <p> + In May of the following year the conference was held in the East Room of + the White House. There were assembled there the President, the + Vice-President, seven Cabinet members, the Supreme Court Justices, the + Governors of thirty-four States and representatives of the other twelve, + the Governors of all the Territories, including Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto + Rico, the President of the Board of Commissioners of the District of + Columbia, representatives of sixty-eight national societies, four special + guests, William Jennings Bryan, James J. Hill, Andrew Carnegie, and John + Mitchell, forty-eight general guests, and the members of the Inland + Waterways Commission. The object of the conference was stated by the + President in these words: "It seems to me time for the country to take + account of its natural resources, and to inquire how long they are likely + to last. We are prosperous now; we should not forget that it will be just + as important to our descendants to be prosperous in their time." + </p> + <p> + At the conclusion of the conference a declaration prepared by the + Governors of Louisiana, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Utah, and South Carolina, + was unanimously adopted. This Magna Charta of the conservation movement + declared "that the great natural resources supply the material basis upon + which our civilization must continue to depend and upon which the + perpetuity of the nation itself rests," that "this material basis is + threatened with exhaustion," and that "this conservation of our natural + resources is a subject of transcendent importance, which should engage + unremittingly the attention of the Nation, the States, and the people in + earnest cooperation." It set forth the practical implications of + Conservation in these words: + </p> + <p> + "We agree that the land should be so used that erosion and soil wash shall + cease; and that there should be reclamation of arid and semi-arid regions + by means of irrigation, and of swamp and overflowed regions by means of + drainage; that the waters should be so conserved and used as to promote + navigation, to enable the arid regions to be reclaimed by irrigation, and + to develop power in the interests of the people; that the forests which + regulate our rivers, support our industries, and promote the fertility and + productiveness of the soil should be preserved and perpetuated; that the + minerals found so abundantly beneath the surface should be so used as to + prolong their utility; that the beauty, healthfulness, and habitability of + our country should be preserved and increased; that sources of national + wealth exist for the benefit of the people, and that monopoly thereof + should not be tolerated." + </p> + <p> + The conference urged the continuation and extension of the forest policies + already established; the immediate adoption of a wise, active, and + thorough waterway policy for the prompt improvement of the streams, and + the conservation of water resources for irrigation, water supply, power, + and navigation; and the enactment of laws for the prevention of waste in + the mining and extraction of coal, oil, gas, and other minerals with a + view to their wise conservation for the use of the people. The declaration + closed with the timely adjuration, "Let us conserve the foundations of our + prosperity." + </p> + <p> + As a result of the conference President Roosevelt created the National + Conservation Commission, consisting of forty-nine men of prominence, about + one-third of whom were engaged in politics, one-third in various + industries, and one-third in scientific work. Gifford Pinchot was + appointed chairman. The Commission proceeded to make an inventory of the + natural resources of the United States. This inventory contains the only + authentic statement as to the amounts of the national resources of the + country, the degree to which they have already been exhausted, and their + probable duration. But with this inventory there came to an end the + activity of the Conservation Commission, for Congress not only refused any + appropriation for its use but decreed by law that no bureau of the + Government should do any work for any commission or similar body appointed + by the President, without reference to the question whether such work was + appropriate or not for such a bureau to undertake. Inasmuch as the + invaluable inventory already made had been almost entirely the work of + scientific bureaus of the Government instructed by the President to + cooperate with the Commission, the purpose and animus of this legislation + were easily apparent. Congress had once more shown its friendship for the + special interests and its indifference to the general welfare. + </p> + <p> + In February, 1909, on the invitation of President Roosevelt, a North + American Conservation Conference, attended by representatives of the + United States, Canada, and Mexico, was held at the White House. A + declaration of principles was drawn up and the suggestion made that all + the nations of the world should be invited to meet in a World Conservation + Conference. The President forthwith addressed to forty-five nations a + letter inviting them to assemble at The Hague for such a conference; but, + as he has laconically expressed it, "When I left the White House the + project lapsed." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER X. BEING WISE IN TIME + </h2> + <p> + Perhaps the most famous of Roosevelt's epigrammatic sayings is, "Speak + softly and carry a big stick." The public, with its instinctive preference + for the dramatic over the significant, promptly seized upon the "big + stick" half of the aphorism and ignored the other half. But a study of the + various acts of Roosevelt when he was President readily shows that in his + mind the "big stick" was purely subordinate. It was merely the ultima + ratio, the possession of which would enable a nation to "speak softly" and + walk safely along the road of peace and justice and fair play. + </p> + <p> + The secret of Roosevelt's success in foreign affairs is to be found in + another of his favorite sayings: "Nine-tenths of wisdom is to be wise in + time." He has himself declared that his whole foreign policy "was based on + the exercise of intelligent foresight and of decisive action sufficiently + far in advance of any likely crisis to make it improbable that we would + run into serious trouble." + </p> + <p> + When Roosevelt became President, a perplexing controversy with Great + Britain over the boundary line between Alaska and Canada was in full + swing. The problem, which had become acute with the discovery of gold in + the Klondike in 1897, had already been considered, together with eleven + other subjects of dispute between Canada and the United States, by a Joint + Commission which had been able to reach no agreement. The essence of the + controversy was this: The treaty of 1825 between Great Britain and Russia + had declared that the boundary, dividing British and Russian America on + that five-hundred-mile strip of land which depends from the Alaskan + elephant's head like a dangling halter rope, should be drawn "parallel to + the windings of the coast" at a distance inland of thirty miles. The + United States took the plain and literal interpretation of these words in + the treaty. The Canadian contention was that within the meaning of the + treaty the fiords or inlets which here break into the land were not part + of the sea, and that the line, instead of following, at the correct + distance inland, the indentations made by these arms of the sea, should + leap boldly across them, at the agreed distance from the points of the + headlands. This would give Canada the heads of several great inlets and + direct access to the sea far north of the point where the Canadian coast + had always been assumed to end. Canada and the United States were equally + resolute in upholding their claims. It looked as if the matter would end + in a deadlock. + </p> + <p> + John Hay, who had been Secretary of State in McKinley's Cabinet, as he now + was in Roosevelt's, had done his best to bring the matter to a settlement, + but had been unwilling to have the dispute arbitrated, for the very good + reason that, as he said, "although our claim is as clear as the sun in + heaven, we know enough of arbitration to foresee the fatal tendency of all + arbitrators to compromise." Roosevelt believed that the "claim of the + Canadians for access to deep water along any part of the Alaskan coast is + just exactly as indefensible as if they should now claim the island of + Nantucket." He was willing, however, to refer the question unconfused by + other issues to a second Joint Commission of six. The commission was duly + constituted. There was no odd neutral member of this body, as in an + arbitration, but merely three representatives from each side. Of the + British representatives two were Canadians and the third was the Lord + Chief Justice of England, Lord Alverstone. + </p> + <p> + But before the Commission met, the President took pains to have conveyed + to the British Cabinet, in an informal but diplomatically correct way, his + views and his intentions in the event of a disagreement. "I wish to make + one last effort," he said, "to bring about an agreement through the + Commission which will enable the people of both countries to say that the + result represents the feeling of the representatives of both countries. + But if there is a disagreement, I wish it distinctly understood, not only + that there will be no arbitration of the matter, but that in my message to + Congress I shall take a position which will prevent any possibility of + arbitration hereafter." If this should seem to any one too vigorous + flourishing of the "big stick," let him remember that it was all done + through confidential diplomatic channels, and that the judgment of the + Lord Chief Justice of England, when the final decision was made, fully + upheld Roosevelt's position. + </p> + <p> + The decision of the Commission was, with slight immaterial modifications, + in favor of the United States. Lord Alverstone voted against his Canadian + colleagues. It was a just decision, as most well-informed Canadians + knew at the time. The troublesome question was settled; the time-honored + friendship of two great peoples had suffered no interruption; and + Roosevelt had secured for his country its just due, without public parade + or bluster, by merely being wise—and inflexible—in time. + </p> + <p> + During the same early period of his Presidency, Roosevelt found himself + confronted with a situation in South America, which threatened a serious + violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Venezuela was repudiating certain debts + which the Venezuelan Government had guaranteed to European capitalists. + German capital was chiefly involved, and Germany proposed to collect the + debts by force. Great Britain and Italy were also concerned in the matter, + but Germany was the ringleader and the active partner in the undertaking. + Throughout the year 1902 a pacific blockade of the Venezuelan coast was + maintained and in December of that year an ultimatum demanding the + immediate payment of the debts was presented. When its terms were not + complied with, diplomatic relations were broken off and the Venezuelan + fleet was seized. At this point the United States entered upon the scene, + but with no blare of trumpets. + </p> + <p> + In fact, what really happened was not generally known until several years + later. + </p> + <p> + In his message of December, 1901, President Roosevelt had made two + significant statements. Speaking of the Monroe Doctrine, he said, "We do + not guarantee any state against punishment, if it misconducts itself." + This was very satisfactory to Germany. But he added—"provided the + punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any + non-American power." This did not suit the German book so well. For a year + the matter was discussed. Germany disclaimed any intention to make + "permanent" acquisitions in Venezuela but contended for its right to make + "temporary" ones. Now the world had already seen "temporary" acquisitions + made in China, and it was a matter of common knowledge that this + convenient word was often to be interpreted in a Pickwickian sense. + </p> + <p> + When the "pacific blockade" passed into the stage of active hostilities, + the patience of Roosevelt snapped. The German Ambassador, von Holleben, + was summoned to the White House. The President proposed to him that + Germany should arbitrate its differences with Venezuela. Von Holleben + assured him that his "Imperial Master" would not hear of such a course. + The President persisted that there must be no taking possession, even + temporarily, of Venezuelan territory. He informed the Ambassador that + Admiral Dewey was at that moment maneuvering in Caribbean waters, and that + if satisfactory assurances did not come from Berlin in ten days, he would + be ordered to proceed to Venezuela to see that no territory was seized by + German forces. The Ambassador was firm in his conviction that no + assurances would be forthcoming. + </p> + <p> + A week later Von Holleben appeared at the White House to talk of another + matter and was about to leave without mentioning Venezuela. The President + stopped him with a question. No, said the Ambassador, no word had come + from Berlin. Then, Roosevelt explained, it would not be necessary for him + to wait the remaining three days. Dewey would be instructed to sail a day + earlier than originally planned. He added that not a word of all this had + been put upon paper, and that if the German Emperor would consent to + arbitrate, the President would praise him publicly for his + broadmindedness. The Ambassador was still convinced that no arbitration + was conceivable. + </p> + <p> + But just twelve hours later he appeared at the White House, his face + wreathed in smiles. On behalf of his Imperial Master he had the honor to + request the President of the United States to act as arbitrator between + Germany and Venezuela. The orders to Dewey were never sent, the President + publicly congratulated the Kaiser on his loyalty to the principle of + arbitration, and, at Roosevelt's suggestion, the case went to The Hague. + Not an intimation of the real occurrences came out till long after, not a + public word or act marred the perfect friendliness of the two nations. The + Monroe Doctrine was just as unequivocally invoked and just as inflexibly + upheld as it had been by Grover Cleveland eight years before in another + Venezuelan case. But the quiet private warning had been substituted for + the loud public threat. + </p> + <p> + The question of the admission of Japanese immigrants to the United States + and of their treatment had long disturbed American international + relations. It became acute in the latter part of 1906, when the city of + San Francisco determined to exclude all Japanese pupils from the public + schools and to segregate them in a school of their own. This action seemed + to the Japanese a manifest violation of the rights guaranteed by treaty. + Diplomatic protests were instantly forthcoming at Washington; and popular + demonstrations against the United States boiled up in Tokyo. For the third + time there appeared splendid material for a serious conflict with a great + power which might conceivably lead to active hostilities. From such + beginnings wars have come before now. + </p> + <p> + The President was convinced that the Californians were utterly wrong in + what they had done, but perfectly right in the underlying conviction from + which their action sprang. He saw that justice and good faith demanded + that the Japanese in California be protected in their treaty rights, and + that the Californians be protected from the immigration of Japanese + laborers in mass. With characteristic promptness and vigor he set forth + these two considerations and took action to make them effective. In his + message to Congress in December he declared: "In the matter now before me, + affecting the Japanese, everything that is in my power to do will be done + and all of the forces, military and civil, of the United States which I + may lawfully employ will be so employed ... to enforce the rights of + aliens under treaties." Here was reassurance for the Japanese. But he also + added: "The Japanese would themselves not tolerate the intrusion into + their country of a mass of Americans who would displace Japanese in the + business of the land. The people of California are right in insisting that + the Japanese shall not come thither in mass." Here was reassurance for the + Californians. + </p> + <p> + The words were promptly followed by acts. The garrison of Federal troops + at San Francisco was reinforced and public notice was given that violence + against Japanese would be put down. Suits were brought both in the + California State courts and in the Federal courts there to uphold the + treaty rights of Japan. Mr. Victor H. Metcalf, the Secretary of Commerce + and Labor, himself a Californian, was sent to San Francisco to make a + study of the whole situation. It was made abundantly clear to the people + of San Francisco and the Coast that the provision of the Federal + Constitution making treaties a part of the supreme law of the land, with + which the Constitution and laws of no State can interfere, would be + strictly enforced. The report of Secretary Metcalf showed that the school + authorities of San Francisco had done not only an illegal thing but an + unnecessary and a stupid thing. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Roosevelt had been working with equal vigor upon the other side + of the problem. He esteemed it precisely as important to protect the + Californians from the Japanese as to protect the Japanese from the + Californians. As in the Alaskan and Venezuelan cases, he proceeded without + beat of drum or clash of cymbal. The matter was worked out in unobtrusive + conferences between the President and the State Department and the + Japanese representatives in Washington. It was all friendly, informal, + conciliatory—but the Japanese did not fail to recognize the + inflexible determination behind this courteous friendliness. Out of these + conferences came an informal agreement on the part of the Japanese + Government that no passports would be issued to Japanese workingmen + permitting them to leave Japan for ports of the United States. It was + further only necessary to prevent Japanese coolies from coming into the + United States through Canada and Mexico. This was done by executive order + just two days after the school authorities of San Francisco had rescinded + their discriminatory school decree. + </p> + <p> + The incident is eminently typical of Roosevelt's principles and practice: + to accord full measure of justice while demanding full measure in return; + to be content with the fact without care for the formality; to see + quickly, to look far, and to act boldly. + </p> + <p> + It had a sequel which rounded out the story. The President's ready + willingness to compel California to do justice to the Japanese was + misinterpreted in Japan as timidity. Certain chauvinistic elements in + Japan began to have thoughts which were in danger of becoming inimical to + the best interests of the United States. It seemed to President Roosevelt + an opportune moment, for many reasons, to send the American battle fleet + on a voyage around the world. The project was frowned on in this country + and viewed with doubt in other parts of the world. Many said the thing + could not be done, for no navy in the world had yet done it; but Roosevelt + knew that it could. European observers believed that it would lead to war + with Japan; but Roosevelt's conviction was precisely the opposite. In his + own words, "I did not expect it;... I believed that Japan would feel as + friendly in the matter as we did; but... if my expectations had proved + mistaken, it would have been proof positive that we were going to be + attacked anyhow, and... in such event it would have been an enormous gain + to have had the three months' preliminary preparation which enabled the + fleet to start perfectly equipped. In a personal interview before they + left, I had explained to the officers in command that I believed the trip + would be one of absolute peace, but that they were to take exactly the + same precautions against sudden attack of any kind as if we were at war + with all the nations of the earth; and that no excuse of any kind would be + accepted if there were a sudden attack of any kind and we were taken + unawares." Prominent inhabitants and newspapers of the Atlantic coast were + deeply concerned over the taking away of the fleet from the Atlantic to + the Pacific. The head of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, who hailed + from the State of Maine, declared that the fleet should not and could not + go because Congress would refuse to appropriate the money; Roosevelt + announced in response that he had enough money to take the fleet around + into the Pacific anyhow, that it would certainly go, and that if Congress + did not choose to appropriate enough money to bring the fleet back, it + could stay there. There was no further difficulty about the money. + </p> + <p> + The voyage was at once a hard training trip and a triumphant progress. + Everywhere the ships, their officers, and their men were received with + hearty cordiality and deep admiration, and nowhere more so than in Japan. + The nations of the world were profoundly impressed by the achievement. The + people of the United States were thoroughly aroused to a new pride in + their navy and an interest in its adequacy and efficiency. It was + definitely established in the minds of Americans and foreigners that the + United States navy is rightfully as much at home in the Pacific as in the + Atlantic. Any cloud the size of a man's hand that may have been gathering + above the Japanese horizon was forthwith swept away. Roosevelt's plan was + a novel and bold use of the instruments of war on behalf of peace which + was positively justified in the event. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI. RIGHTS, DUTIES, AND REVOLUTIONS + </h2> + <p> + It was a favorite conviction of Theodore Roosevelt that neither an + individual nor a nation can possess rights which do not carry with them + duties. Not long after the Venezuelan incident—in which the right of + the United States, as set forth in the Monroe Doctrine, to prevent + European powers from occupying territory in the Western Hemisphere was + successfully upheld—an occasion arose nearer home not only to insist + upon rights but to assume the duties involved. In a message to the Senate + in February, 1905, Roosevelt thus outlined his conception of the dual + nature of the Monroe Doctrine: + </p> + <p> + "It has for some time been obvious that those who profit by the Monroe + Doctrine must accept certain responsibilities along with the rights which + it confers, and that the same statement applies to those who uphold the + doctrine.... An aggrieved nation can, without interfering with the Monroe + Doctrine, take what action it sees fit in the adjustment of its disputes + with American states, provided that action does not take the shape of + interference with their form of government or of the despoilment of their + territory under any disguise. But short of this, when the question is one + of a money claim, the only way which remains finally to collect it is a + blockade or bombardment or seizure of the custom houses, and this means... + what is in effect a possession, even though only a temporary possession, + of territory. The United States then becomes a party in interest, because + under the Monroe Doctrine it cannot see any European power seize and + permanently occupy the territory of one of these republics; and yet such + seizure of territory, disguised or undisguised, may eventually offer the + only way in which the power in question can collect its debts, unless + there is interference on the part of the United States." + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt had already found such interference necessary in the case of + Germany and Venezuela. But it had been interference in a purely negative + sense. He had merely insisted that the European power should not occupy + American territory even temporarily. In the later case of the Dominican + Republic he supplemented this negative interference with positive action + based upon his conviction of the inseparable nature of rights and + obligations. + </p> + <p> + Santo Domingo was in its usual state of chronic revolution. The stakes for + which the rival forces were continually fighting were the custom houses, + for they were the only certain sources of revenue and their receipts were + the only reliable security which could be offered to foreign capitalists + in support of loans. So thoroughgoing was the demoralization of the + Republic's affairs that at one time there were two rival "governments" in + the island and a revolution going on against each. One of these + governments was once to be found at sea in a small gunboat but still + insisting that, as the only legitimate government, it was entitled to + declare war or peace or, more particularly, to make loans. The national + debt of the Republic had mounted to $32,280,000 of which some $22,000,000 + was owed to European creditors. The interest due on it in the year 1905 + was two and a half million dollars. The whole situation was ripe for + intervention by one or more European governments. + </p> + <p> + Such action President Roosevelt could not permit. But he could not ignore + the validity of the debts which the Republic had contracted or the justice + of the demand for the payment of at least the interest. "It cannot in the + long run prove possible," he said, "for the United States to protect + delinquent American nations from punishment for the non-performance of + their duties unless she undertakes to make them perform their duties." So + he invented a plan, which, by reason of its success in the Dominican case + and its subsequent application and extension by later administrations, has + come to be a thoroughly accepted part of the foreign policy of the United + States. It ought to be known as the Roosevelt Plan, just as the + amplification of the Monroe Doctrine already outlined might well be known + as the Roosevelt Doctrine. + </p> + <p> + A naval commander in Dominican waters was instructed to see that no + revolutionary fighting was permitted to endanger the custom houses. These + instructions were carried out explicitly but without any actual use of + force or shedding of blood. On one occasion two rival forces had planned a + battle in a custom-house town. The American commander informed them + courteously but firmly that they would not be permitted to fight there, + for a battle might endanger the custom house. He had no objection, + however, to their fighting. In fact he had picked out a nice spot for them + outside the town where they might have their battle undisturbed. The + winner could have the town. Would they kindly step outside for their + fight. They would; they did. The American commander gravely welcomed the + victorious faction as the rightful rulers of the town. So much for keeping + the custom houses intact. But the Roosevelt Plan went much further. An + agreement was entered into with those governmental authorities "who for + the moment seemed best able to speak for the country" by means of which + the custom houses were placed under American control. United States forces + were to keep order and to protect the custom houses; United States + officials were to collect the customs dues; forty-five per cent of the + revenue was to be turned over to the Dominican Government, and fifty-five + per cent put into a sinking fund in New York for the benefit of the + creditors. The plan succeeded famously. The Dominicans got more out of + their forty-five per cent than they had been wont to get when presumably + the entire revenue was theirs. The creditors thoroughly approved, and + their Governments had no possible pretext left for interference. Although + the plan concerned itself not at all with the internal affairs of the + Republic, its indirect influence was strong for good and the island + enjoyed a degree of peace and prosperity such as it had not known before + for at least a century. There was, however, strong opposition in the + United States Senate to the ratification of the treaty with the Dominican + Republic. The Democrats, with one or two exceptions, voted against + ratification. A number of the more reactionary Republican Senators, also, + who were violently hostile to President Roosevelt because of his attitude + toward great corporations, lent their opposition. The Roosevelt Plan was + further attacked by certain sections of the press, already antagonistic on + other grounds, and by some of those whom Roosevelt called the + "professional interventional philanthropists." It was two years before the + Senate was ready to ratify the treaty, but meanwhile Roosevelt continued + to carry it out "as a simple agreement on the part of the Executive which + could be converted into a treaty whenever the Senate was ready to act." + </p> + <p> + The treaty as finally ratified differed in some particulars from the + protocol. In the protocol the United States agreed "to respect the + complete territorial integrity of the Dominican Republic." This covenant + was omitted in the final document in deference to Roosevelt's opponents + who could see no difference between "respecting" the integrity of + territory and "guaranteeing" it. Another clause pledging the assistance of + the United States in the internal affairs of the Republic, whenever the + judgment of the American Government deemed it to be wise, was also + omitted. The provision of the protocol making it the duty of the United + States to deal with the various creditors of the Dominican Republic in + order to determine the amount which each was to receive in settlement of + its claims was modified so that this responsibility remained with the + Government of the Republic. In Roosevelt's opinion, these modifications in + the protocol detracted nothing from the original plan. He ascribed the + delay in the ratification of the treaty to partisanship and bitterness + against himself; and it is certainly true that most of the treaty's + opponents were his consistent critics on other grounds. + </p> + <p> + A considerable portion of Roosevelt's success as a diplomat was the fruit + of personality, as must be the case with any diplomat who makes more than + a routine achievement. He disarmed suspicion by transparent honesty, and + he impelled respect for his words by always promising or giving warning of + not a hairsbreadth more than he was perfectly willing and thoroughly + prepared to perform. He was always cheerfully ready to let the other + fellow "save his face." He set no store by public triumphs. He was as + exigent that his country should do justly as he was insistent that it + should be done justly by. Phrases had no lure for him, appearances no + glamour. + </p> + <p> + It was inevitable that so commanding a personality should have an + influence beyond the normal sphere of his official activities. Only a man + who had earned the confidence and the respect of the statesmen of other + nations could have performed such a service as he did in 1905 in bringing + about peace between Russia and Japan in the conflict then raging in the + Far East. It was high time that the war should end, in the interest of + both contestants. The Russians had been consistently defeated on land and + had lost their entire fleet at the battle of Tsushima. The Japanese were + apparently on the highroad to victory. But in reality, Japan's success had + been bought at an exorbitant price. Intelligent observers in the + diplomatic world who were in a position to realize the truth knew that + neither nation could afford to go on. + </p> + <p> + On June 8, 1905, President Roosevelt sent to both Governments an identical + note in which he urged them, "not only for their own sakes, but in the + interest of the whole civilized world, to open direct negotiations for + peace with each other." This was the first that the world heard of the + proposal. But the President had already conducted, with the utmost + secrecy, confidential negotiations with Tokyo and with St. Petersburg to + induce both belligerents to consent to a face to face discussion of peace. + In Russia he had found it necessary to go directly to the Czar himself, + through the American Ambassador, George von Lengerke Meyer. Each + Government was assured that no breath of the matter would be made public + until both nations had signified their willingness to treat. Neither + nation was to know anything of the other's readiness until both had + committed themselves. These advances appear to have been made following a + suggestion from Japan that Roosevelt should attempt to secure peace. He + used to say, in discussing the matter, that, while it was not generally + known or even suspected, Japan was actually "bled white" by the herculean + efforts she had made. But Japan's position was the stronger, and peace was + more important for Russia than for her antagonist. The Japanese were more + clear-sighted than the selfish Russian bureaucracy; and they realized that + they had gained so much already that there was nothing to be won by + further fighting. + </p> + <p> + When the public invitation to peace negotiations was extended, the + conference had already been arranged and the confidential consent of both + Governments needed only to be made formal. Russia wished the meeting of + plenipotentiaries to take place at Paris, Japan preferred Chifu, in China. + Neither liked the other's suggestion, and Roosevelt's invitation to come + to Washington, with the privilege of adjourning to some place in New + England if the weather was too hot, was finally accepted. The formal + meeting between the plenipotentiaries took place at Oyster Bay on the 5th + of August on board the Presidential yacht, the Mayflower. Roosevelt + received his guests in the cabin and proposed a toast in these words: + "Gentlemen, I propose a toast to which there will be no answer and which I + ask you to drink in silence, standing. I drink to the welfare and + prosperity of the sovereigns and the peoples of the two great nations + whose representatives have met one another on this ship. It is my earnest + hope and prayer, in the interest not only of these two great powers, but + of all civilized mankind, that a just and lasting peace may speedily be + concluded between them." + </p> + <p> + The two groups of plenipotentiaries were carried, each on an American + naval vessel, to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and there at the Navy Yard + began their conference. Two-thirds of the terms proposed by Japan were + promptly accepted by the Russian envoys. But an irretrievable split on the + remainder seemed inevitable. Japan demanded a money indemnity and the + cession of the southern half of the island of Saghalien, which Japanese + forces had already occupied. These demands the Russians refused. + </p> + <p> + Then Roosevelt took a hand in the proceedings. He urged the Japanese + delegates, through the Japanese Ambassador, to give up their demand for an + indemnity. He pointed out that, when it came to "a question of rubles," + the Russian Government and the Russian people were firmly resolved not to + yield. To Baron Rosen, one of the Russian delegates, he recommended + yielding in the matter of Saghalien, since the Japanese were already in + possession and there were racial and historical grounds for considering + the southern half of the island logically Japanese territory. The envoys + met again, and the Japanese renewed their demands. The Russians refused. + Then the Japanese offered to waive the indemnity if the Russians would + yield on Saghalien. The offer was accepted, and the peace was made. + </p> + <p> + Immediately Roosevelt was acclaimed by the world, including the Russians + and the Japanese, as a great peacemaker. The Nobel Peace Prize of a medal + and $40,000 was awarded to him. But it was not long before both in Russia + and Japan public opinion veered to the point of asserting that he had + caused peace to be made too soon and to the detriment of the interests of + the nation in question. That was just what he expected. He knew human + nature thoroughly; and from long experience he had learned to be + humorously philosophical about such manifestations of man's ingratitude. + </p> + <p> + In the next year the influence of Roosevelt's personality was again felt + in affairs outside the traditional realm of American international + interests. Germany was attempting to intrude in Morocco, where France by + common consent had been the dominant foreign influence. The rattling of + the Potsdam saber was threatening the tranquillity of the status quo. A + conference of eleven European powers and the United States was held at + Algeciras to readjust the treaty provisions for the protection of + foreigners in the decadent Moroccan empire. In the words of a historian of + America's foreign relations, "Although the United States was of all + perhaps the least directly interested in the subject matter of dispute, + and might appropriately have held aloof from the meeting altogether, its + representatives were among the most influential of all, and it was largely + owing to their sane and irenic influence that in the end a treaty was + amicably made and signed." * But there was something behind all this. A + quiet conference had taken place one day in the remote city of Washington. + The President of the United States and the French Ambassador had discussed + the approaching meeting at Algeciras. There was a single danger-point in + the impending negotiations. The French must find a way around it. The + Ambassador had come to the right man. He went out with a few words + scratched on a card in the ragged Roosevelt handwriting containing a + proposal for a solution. ** The proposal went to Paris, then to Morocco. + The solution was adopted by the conference, and the Hohenzollern menace to + the peace of the world was averted for the moment. Once more Roosevelt had + shown how being wise in time was the sure way to peace. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * Willie Fletcher Johnson, "America's Foreign Relations", + vol. II, p. 376. + + ** The author had this story direct from Mr. Roosevelt + himself. +</pre> + <p> + Roosevelt's most important single achievement as President of the United + States was the building of the Panama Canal. The preliminary steps which + he took in order to make its building possible have been, of all his + executive acts, the most consistently and vigorously criticized. + </p> + <p> + It is not our purpose here to follow at length the history of American + diplomatic relations with Colombia and Panama. We are primarily concerned + with the part which Roosevelt played in certain international occurrences, + of which the Panama incident was not the least interesting and + significant. In after years Roosevelt said laconically, "I took Panama." + In fact he did nothing of the sort. But it was like him to brush aside all + technical defenses of any act of his and to meet his critics on their own + ground. It was as though he said to them, "You roundly denounce me for + what I did at the time of the revolution which established the Republic of + Panama. You declare that my acts were contrary to international law and + international morals. I have a splendid technical defense on the legal + side; but I care little about technicalities when compared with reality. + Let us admit that I did what you charge me with. I will prove to you that + I was justified in so doing. I took Panama; but the taking was a righteous + act." + </p> + <p> + Fourteen years after that event, in a speech which he made in Washington, + Roosevelt expressed his dissatisfaction with the way in which President + Wilson was conducting the Great War. He reverted to what he had done in + relation to Panama and contrasted his action with the failure of the + Wilson Administration to take prompt possession of two hundred locomotives + which had been built in this country for the late Russian Government. This + is what he said: + </p> + <p> + "What I think, of course, in my view of the proper governmental policy, + should have been done was to take the two hundred locomotives and then + discuss. That was the course that I followed, and to which I have ever + since looked back with impenitent satisfaction, in reference to the Panama + Canal. If you remember, Panama declared itself independent and wanted to + complete the Panama Canal and opened negotiations with us. I had two + courses open. I might have taken the matter under advisement and put it + before the Senate, in which case we should have had a number of most able + speeches on the subject. We would have had a number of very profound + arguments, and they would have been going on now, and the Panama Canal + would be in the dim future yet. We would have had half a century of + discussion, and perhaps the Panama Canal. I preferred that we should have + the Panama Canal first and the half century of discussion afterward. And + now instead of discussing the canal before it was built, which would have + been harmful, they merely discuss me—a discussion which I regard + with benign interest." + </p> + <p> + The facts of the case are simple and in the main undisputed. Shortly after + the inauguration of Roosevelt as President, a treaty was negotiated with + Colombia for the building of a canal at Panama. It provided for the lease + to the United States of a strip six miles wide across the Isthmus, and for + the payment to Colombia of $10,000,000 down and $250,000 a year, beginning + nine years later. The treaty was promptly ratified by the United States + Senate. A special session of the Colombian Senate spent the summer marking + time and adjourned after rejecting the treaty by a unanimous vote. The + dominant motive for the rejection was greed. An attempt was first made by + the dictatorial government that held the Colombian Congress in its mailed + hand to extort a large payment from the French Canal Company, whose rights + and property on the Isthmus were to be bought by the United States for + $40,000,000. Then $15,000,000 instead of $10,000,000 was demanded from the + United States. Finally an adroit and conscienceless scheme was invented by + which the entire rights of the French Canal Company were to be stolen by + the Colombian Government. This last plot, however, would involve a delay + of a year or so. The treaty was therefore rejected in order to provide the + necessary delay. + </p> + <p> + But the people of Panama wanted the Canal. They were tired of serving as + the milch cow for the fattening of the Government at Bogota. So they + quietly organized a revolution. It was a matter of common knowledge that + it was coming. Roosevelt, as well as the rest of the world, knew it and, + believing in the virtue of being wise in time, prepared for it. Several + warships were dispatched to the Isthmus. + </p> + <p> + The revolution came off promptly as expected. It was bloodless, for the + American naval forces, fulfilling the treaty obligations of the United + States, prevented the Colombian troops on one side of the Isthmus from + using the Panama Railroad to cross to the other side where the + revolutionists were. So the revolutionists were undisturbed. A republic + was immediately declared and immediately recognized by the United States. + A treaty with the new Republic, which guaranteed its independence and + secured the cession of a zone ten miles wide across the Isthmus, was drawn + up inside of two weeks and ratified by both Senates within three months. + Six weeks later an American commission was on the ground to plan the work + of construction. The Canal was built. The "half century of discussion" + which Roosevelt foresaw is now more than a third over, and the discussion + shows no sign of lagging. But the Panama Canal is in use. + </p> + <p> + Was the President of the United States justified in preventing the + Colombian Government from fighting on the Isthmus to put down the + unanimous revolution of the people of Panama? That is precisely all that + he did. He merely gave orders to the American admiral on the spot to + "prevent the disembarkation of Colombian troops with hostile intent within + the limits of the state of Panama." But that action was enough, for the + Isthmus is separated from Colombia on the one hand by three hundred miles + of sea, and on the other by leagues of pathless jungle. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt himself has summed up the action of the United States in this + way: + </p> + <p> + "From the beginning to the end our course was straightforward and in + absolute accord with the highest of standards of international + morality.... To have acted otherwise than I did would have been on my part + betrayal of the interests of the United States, indifference to the + interests of Panama, and recreancy to the interests of the world at large. + Colombia had forfeited every claim to consideration; indeed, this is not + stating the case strongly enough: she had so acted that yielding to her + would have meant on our part that culpable form of weakness which stands + on a level with wickedness.... We gave to the people of Panama, + self-government, and freed them from subjection to alien oppressors. We + did our best to get Colombia to let us treat her with more than generous + justice; we exercised patience to beyond the verge of proper + forbearance.... I deeply regretted, and now deeply regret, the fact that + the Colombian Government rendered it imperative for me to take the action + I took; but I had no alternative, consistent with the full performance of + my duty to my own people, and to the nations of mankind." + </p> + <p> + The final verdict will be given only in another generation by the + historian and by the world at large. But no portrait of Theodore + Roosevelt, and no picture of his times, can be complete without the bold, + firm outlines of his Panama policy set as near as may be in their proper + perspective. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII. THE TAFT ADMINISTRATION + </h2> + <p> + In the evening of that election day in 1904 which saw Roosevelt made + President in his own right, after three years of the Presidency given him + by fate, he issued a brief statement, in which he said: "The wise custom + which limits the President to two terms regards the substance and not the + form, and under no circumstances will I be a candidate for or accept + another nomination." From this determination, which in his mind related to + a third consecutive term, and to nothing else, he never wavered. Four + years later, in spite of a widespread demand that he should be a candidate + to succeed himself, he used the great influence and prestige of his + position as President and leader of his party to bring about the + nomination of his friend and close associate, William Howard Taft. The + choice received general approval from the Republican party and from the + country at large, although up to the very moment of the nomination in the + convention at Chicago there was no certainty that a successful effort to + stampede the convention for Roosevelt would not be made by his more + irreconcilable supporters. + </p> + <p> + Taft was elected by a huge popular plurality. His opponent was William + Jennings Bryan, who was then making his third unsuccessful campaign for + the Presidency. Taft's election, like his nomination, was assured by the + unreserved and dynamic support accorded him by President Roosevelt. Taft, + of course, was already an experienced statesman, high in the esteem of the + nation for his public record as Federal judge, as the first civil Governor + of the Philippines, and as Secretary of War in the Roosevelt Cabinet. + There was every reason to predict for him a successful and effective + Administration. His occupancy of the White House began under smiling + skies. He had behind him a united party and a satisfied public opinion. + Even his political opponents conceded that the country would be safe in + his hands. It was expected that he would be conservatively progressive and + progressively conservative. Everybody believed in him. Yet within a year + of the day of his inauguration the President's popularity was sharply on + the wane. Two years after his election the voters repudiated the party + which he led. By the end of his Presidential term the career which had + begun with such happy auguries had become a political tragedy. There were + then those who recalled the words of the Roman historian, "All would have + believed him capable of governing if only he had not come to govern." + </p> + <p> + It was not that the Taft Administration was barren of achievement. On the + contrary, its record of accomplishment was substantial. Of two amendments + to the Federal Constitution proposed by Congress, one was ratified by the + requisite number of States before Taft went out of office, and the other + was finally ratified less than a month after the close of his term. These + were the amendment authorizing the imposition of a Federal income tax and + that providing for the direct election of United States Senators. Two + States were admitted to the Union during Taft's term of office, New Mexico + and Arizona, the last Territories of the United States on the continent, + except Alaska. + </p> + <p> + Other achievements of importance during Taft's Administration were the + establishment of the parcels post and the postal savings banks; the + requirement of publicity, through sworn statements of the candidates, for + campaign contributions for the election of Senators and Representatives; + the extension of the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission over + telephone, telegraph, and cable lines; an act authorizing the President to + withdraw public lands from entry for the purpose of conserving the natural + resources which they may contain—something which Roosevelt had + already done without specific statutory authorization; the establishment + of a Commerce Court to hear appeals from decisions of the Interstate + Commerce Commission; the appointment of a commission, headed by President + Hadley of Yale, to investigate the subject of railway stock and bond + issues, and to propose a law for the Federal supervision of such railway + securities; the Mann "white slave" act, dealing with the transfer of women + from one State to another for immoral purposes; the establishment of the + Children's Bureau in the Department of Commerce and Labor; the empowering + of the Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate all railway + accidents; the creation of Forest Reserves in the White Mountains and in + the southern Appalachians. + </p> + <p> + Taft's Administration was further marked, by economy in expenditure, by a + considerable extension of the civil service law to cover positions in the + executive departments hitherto free plunder for the spoilsmen, and by + efforts on the part of the President to increase the efficiency and the + economical administration of the public service. + </p> + <p> + But this good record of things achieved was not enough to gain for Mr. + Taft popular approval. Items on the other side of the ledger were pointed + out. Of these the three most conspicuous were the Payne-Aldrich tariff, + the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy, and the insurgent movement in Congress. + </p> + <p> + The Republican party was returned to power in 1908, committed to a + revision of the tariff. Though the party platform did not so state, this + was generally interpreted as a pledge of revision downward. Taft made it + clear during his campaign that such was his own reading of the party + pledge. He said, for instance, "It is my judgment that there are many + schedules of the tariff in which the rates are excessive, and there are a + few in which the rates are not sufficient to fill the measure of + conservative protection. It is my judgment that a revision of the tariff + in accordance with the pledge of the platform, will be, on the whole, a + substantial revision downward, though there probably will be a few + exceptions in this regard." Five months after Taft's inauguration the + Payne-Aldrich bill became law with his signature. In signing it the + President said, "The bill is not a perfect bill or a complete compliance + with the promises made, strictly interpreted"; but he further declared + that he signed it because he believed it to be "the result of a sincere + effort on the part of the Republican party to make downward revision." + </p> + <p> + This view was not shared by even all Republicans. Twenty of them in the + House voted against the bill on its final passage, and seven of them in + the Senate. They represented the Middle West and the new element and + spirit in the Republican party. Their dissatisfaction with the performance + of their party associates in Congress and in the White House was shared by + their constituents and by many other Republicans throughout the country. A + month after the signing of the tariff law, Taft made a speech at Winona, + Minnesota, in support of Congressman James A. Tawney, the one Republican + representative from Minnesota who had not voted against the bill. In the + course of that speech he said; "This is the best tariff bill that the + Republican party has ever passed, and, therefore, the best tariff bill + that has been passed at all." + </p> + <p> + He justified Mr. Tawney's action in voting for the bill and his own in + signing it on the ground that "the interests of the country, the interests + of the party" required the sacrifice of the accomplishment of certain + things in the revision of the tariff which had been hoped for, "in order + to maintain party solidity," which he believed to be much more important + than the reduction of rates in one or two schedules of the tariff. + </p> + <p> + A second disaster to the Taft Administration came in the famous + Ballinger-Pinchot controversy. Louis R. Glavis, who had served as a + special agent of the General Land Office to investigate alleged frauds in + certain claims to coal lands in Alaska, accused Richard Ballinger, the + Secretary of the Interior, of favoritism toward those who were attempting + to get public lands fraudulently. The charges were vigorously supported by + Mr. Pinchot, who broadened the accusation to cover a general indifference + on the part of the Secretary of the Interior to the whole conservation + movement. President Taft, however, completely exonerated Secretary + Ballinger from blame and removed Glavis for "filing a disingenuous + statement unjustly impeaching the official integrity of his superior + officer." Later Pinchot was also dismissed from the service. The charges + against Secretary Ballinger were investigated by a joint committee of + Congress, a majority of which exonerated the accused Cabinet officer. + Nevertheless the whole controversy, which raged with virulence for many + months, convinced many ardent supporters of the conservation movement, and + especially many admirers of Mr. Pinchot and of Roosevelt, that the Taft + Administration at the best was possessed of little enthusiasm for + conservation. There was a widespread belief, as well, that the President + had handled the whole matter maladroitly and that in permitting himself to + be driven to a point where he had to deprive the country of the services + of Gifford Pinchot, the originator of the conservation movement, he had + displayed unsound judgment and deplorable lack of administrative ability. + </p> + <p> + The first half of Mr. Taft's term was further marked by acute dissensions + in the Republican ranks in Congress. Joseph G. Cannon was Speaker of the + House, as he had been in three preceding Congresses. He was a reactionary + Republican of the most pronounced type. Under his leadership the system of + autocratic party control of legislation in the House had been developed to + a high point of effectiveness. The Speaker's authority had become in + practice almost unrestricted. + </p> + <p> + In the congressional session of 1909-10 a strong movement of insurgency + arose within the Republican party in Congress against the control of the + little band of leaders dominated by the Speaker. In March, 1910, the + Republican Insurgents, forty in number, united with the Democratic + minority to overrule a formal decision of the Speaker. A four days' + parliamentary battle resulted, culminating in a reorganization of the + all-powerful Rules Committee, with the Speaker no longer a member of it. + The right of the Speaker to appoint this committee was also taken away. + When the Democrats came into control of the House in 1911, they completed + the dethronement of the Speaker by depriving him of the appointment of all + committees. + </p> + <p> + The old system had not been without its advantages, when the power of the + Speaker and his small group of associate party leaders was not abused. It + at least concentrated responsibility in a few prominent members of the + majority party. But it made it possible for these few men to perpetuate a + machine and to ignore the desires of the rest of the party representatives + and of the voters of the party throughout the country. The defeat of + Cannonism put an end to the autocratic power of the Speaker and relegated + him to the position of a mere presiding officer. It had also a wider + significance, for it portended the division in the old Republican party + out of which was to come the new Progressive party. + </p> + <p> + When the mid-point of the Taft Administration was reached, a practical + test was given of the measure of popular approval which the President and + his party associates had achieved. The congressional elections went + decidedly against the Republicans. The Republican majority of forty-seven + in the House was changed to a Democratic majority of fifty-four. The + Republican majority in the Senate was cut down from twenty-eight to ten. + Not only were the Democrats successful in this substantial degree, but + many of the Western States elected Progressive Republicans instead of + Republicans of the old type. During the last two years of his term, the + President was consequently obliged to work with a Democratic House and + with a Senate in which Democrats and Insurgent Republicans predominated + over the old-line Republicans. + </p> + <p> + The second half of Taft's Presidency was productive of little but discord + and dissatisfaction. The Democrats in power in the House were quite ready + to harass the Republican President, especially in view of the approaching + Presidential election. The Insurgents in House and Senate were not + entirely unwilling to take a hand in the same game. Besides, they found + themselves more and more in sincere disagreement with the President on + matters of fundamental policy, though not one of them could fairly + question his integrity of purpose, impugn his purity of character, or deny + his charm of personality. + </p> + <p> + Three weeks after Taft's inauguration, Roosevelt sailed for Africa, to be + gone for a year hunting big game. He went with a warm feeling of + friendship and admiration for the man whom he had done so much to make + President. He had high confidence that Taft would be successful in his + great office. He had no reason to believe that any change would come in + the friendship between them, which had been peculiarly intimate. From the + steamer on which he sailed for Africa, he sent a long telegram of cordial + and hearty good wishes to his successor in Washington. + </p> + <p> + The next year Roosevelt came back to the United States, after a triumphal + tour of the capitals of Europe, to find his party disrupted and the + progressive movement in danger of shipwreck. He had no intention of + entering politics again. But he had no intention, either, of ceasing to + champion the things in which he believed. This he made obvious, in his + first speech after his return, to the cheering thousands who welcomed him + at the Battery. He said: + </p> + <p> + "I have thoroughly enjoyed myself; and now I am more glad than I can say + to get home, to be back in my own country, back among people I love. And I + am ready and eager to do my part so far as I am able, in helping solve + problems which must be solved, if we of this, the greatest democratic + republic upon which the sun has ever shone, are to see its destinies rise + to the high level of our hopes and its opportunities. This is the duty of + every citizen, but is peculiarly my duty; for any man who has ever been + honored by being made President of the United States is thereby forever + rendered the debtor of the American people and is bound throughout his + life to remember this, his prime obligation." + </p> + <p> + The welcome over, Roosevelt tried to take up the life of a private + citizen. He had become Contributing Editor of The Outlook and had planned + to give his energies largely to writing. But he was not to be let alone. + The people who loved him demanded that they be permitted to see and to + hear him. Those who were in the thick of the political fight on behalf of + progress and righteousness called loudly to him for aid. Only a few days + after Roosevelt had landed from Europe, Governor Hughes of New York met + him at the Commencement exercises at Harvard and urged him to help in the + fight which the Governor was then making for a direct primary law. + Roosevelt did not wish to enter the lists again until he had had more time + for orientation; but he always found it difficult to refuse a plea for + help on behalf of a good cause. He therefore sent a vigorous telegram to + the Republican legislators at Albany urging them to support Governor + Hughes and to vote for the primary bill. But the appeal went in vain: the + Legislature was too thoroughly boss-ridden. This telegram, however, + sounded a warning to the usurpers in the house of the Republican Penelope + that the fingers of the returned Odysseus had not lost their prowess with + the heroic bow. + </p> + <p> + During the summer of 1910, Roosevelt made a trip to the West and in a + speech at Ossawattomie, Kansas, set forth what came to be described as the + New Nationalism. It was his draft of a platform, not for himself, but for + the nation. A few fragments from that speech will suggest what Roosevelt + was thinking about in those days when the Progressive party was stirring + in the womb. "At many stages in the advance of humanity, this conflict + between the men who possess more than they have earned and the men who + have earned more than they possess is the central condition of progress. + In our day it appears as the struggle of free men to gain and hold the + right of self-government as against the special interests, who twist the + methods of free government into machinery for defeating the popular will. + At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle + is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and + citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself + and to the commonwealth. + </p> + <p> + "Every special interest is entitled to justice, but not one is entitled to + a vote in Congress, to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any + public office. The Constitution guarantees protection to property, and we + must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to + any corporation. + </p> + <p> + "The absence of effective state and, especially, national restraint upon + unfair money getting has tended to create a small class of enormously + wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and + increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which + enable these men to accumulate power which it is not for the general + welfare that they should hold or exercise. + </p> + <p> + "We are face to face with new conceptions of the relations of property to + human welfare, chiefly because certain advocates of the rights of property + as against the rights of men have been pushing their claims too far. + </p> + <p> + "The State must be made efficient for the work which concerns only the + people of the State; and the nation for that which concerns all the + people. There must remain no neutral ground to serve as a refuge for + lawbreakers, and especially for lawbreakers of great wealth, who can hire + the vulpine legal cunning which will teach them how to avoid both + jurisdictions. + </p> + <p> + "I do not ask for overcentralization; but I do ask that we work in a + spirit of broad and far-reaching nationalism when we work for what + concerns our people as a whole. + </p> + <p> + "We must have the right kind of character—character that makes a + man, first of all, a good man in the home, a good father, a good husband—that + makes a man a good neighbor.... The prime problem of our nation is to get + the right kind of good citizenship, and to get it, we must have progress, + and our public men must be genuinely progressive. + </p> + <p> + "I stand for the Square Deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal + I mean not merely that I stand for fair play under the present rules of + the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work + for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally + good service." + </p> + <p> + These generalizations Roosevelt accompanied by specific recommendations. + They included proposals for publicity of corporate affairs; prohibition of + the use of corporate funds for political purposes; governmental + supervision of the capitalization of all corporations doing an interstate + business; control and supervision of corporations and combinations + controlling necessaries of life; holding the officers and directors of + corporations personally liable when any corporation breaks the law; an + expert tariff commission and revision of the tariff schedule by schedule; + a graduated income tax and a graduated inheritance tax, increasing rapidly + in amount with the size of the estate; conservation of natural resources + and their use for the benefit of all rather than their monopolization for + the benefit of the few; public accounting for all campaign funds before + election; comprehensive workmen's compensation acts, state and national + laws to regulate child labor and work for women, the enforcement of + sanitary conditions for workers and the compulsory use of safety + appliances in industry. + </p> + <p> + There was nothing in all these proposals that should have seemed + revolutionary or extreme. But there was much that disturbed the + reactionaries who were thinking primarily in terms of property and only + belatedly or not at all of human rights. The Bourbons in the Republican + party and their supporters among the special interests "viewed with + alarm" this frank attack upon their intrenched privileges. The + Progressives, however, welcomed with eagerness this robust leadership. The + breach in the Republican party was widening with steadily accelerating + speed. + </p> + <p> + In the fall of 1910 a new demand arose that Roosevelt should enter + actively into politics. Though it came from his own State, he resisted it + with energy and determination. Nevertheless the pressure from his close + political associates in New York finally became too much for him, and he + yielded. They wanted him to go as a delegate to the Republican State + Convention at Saratoga and to be a candidate for Temporary Chairman of the + Convention—the officer whose opening speech is traditionally + presumed to sound the keynote of the campaign. Roosevelt went and, after a + bitter fight with the reactionists in the party, led by William Barnes of + Albany, was elected Temporary Chairman over Vice-President James S. + Sherman. The keynote was sounded in no uncertain tones, while Mr. Barnes + and his associates fidgeted and suffered. + </p> + <p> + Then came a Homeric conflict, with a dramatic climax. The reactionary gang + did not know that it was beaten. Its members resisted stridently an + attempt to write a direct primary plank into the party platform. They + wished to rebuke Governor Hughes, who was as little to their liking as + Roosevelt himself, and they did not want the direct primary. After + speeches by young James Wadsworth, later United States Senator, Job + Hedges, and Barnes himself, in which they bewailed the impending demise of + representative government and the coming of mob rule, it was clear that + the primary plank was defeated. Then rose Roosevelt. In a speech that + lashed and flayed the forces of reaction and obscurantism, he demanded + that the party stand by the right of the people to rule. Single-handed he + drove a majority of the delegates into line. The plank was adopted. + Thenceforward the convention was his. It selected, as candidate for + Governor, Henry W. Stimson, who had been a Federal attorney in New York + under Roosevelt and Secretary of War in Taft's Cabinet. When this victory + had been won, Roosevelt threw himself into the campaign with his usual + abandon and toured the State, making fighting speeches in scores of cities + and towns. But in spite of Roosevelt's best efforts, Stimson was defeated. + </p> + <p> + All this active participation in local political conflicts seriously + distressed many of Roosevelt's friends and associates. They felt that he + was too big to fritter himself away on small matters from which he—and + the cause whose great champion he was—had so little to gain and so + much to lose. They wanted him to wait patiently for the moment of destiny + which they felt sure would come. But it was never easy for Roosevelt to + wait. It was the hardest thing in the world for him to decline an + invitation to enter a fight—when the cause was a righteous one. + </p> + <p> + So the year 1911 passed by, with the Taft Administration steadily losing + prestige, and the revolt of the Progressives within the Republican party + continually gathering momentum. Then came 1912, the year of the Glorious + Failure. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII. THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY + </h2> + <p> + The Progressive party and the Progressive movement were two things. The + one was born on a day, lived a stirring, strenuous span of life, suffered + its fatal wound, lingered on for a few more years, and received its coup + de grace. The other sprang like a great river system from a multitude of + sources, flowed onward by a hundred channels, always converging and + uniting, until a single mighty stream emerged to water and enrich and + serve a broad country and a great people. The one was ephemeral, abortive—a + failure. The other was permanent, creative—a triumph. The two were + inseparable, each indispensable to the other. Just as the party would + never have existed if there had been no movement, so the movement would + not have attained such a surpassing measure of achievement so swiftly + without the party. + </p> + <p> + The Progressive party came into full being at the convention held in + Chicago on August 5, 1912 under dramatic circumstances. Every drama must + have a beginning and this one had opened for the public when, on the 10th + of February in the same year, the Republican Governors of West Virginia, + Nebraska, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Michigan, Kansas, and Missouri addressed + a letter to Roosevelt, in which they declared that, in considering what + would best insure the continuation of the Republican party as a useful + agency of good government, they had reached the conclusion that a large + majority of the Republican voters of the country favored Roosevelt's + nomination, and a large majority of the people favored his election as the + next President. They asserted their belief that, in view of this public + demand, he should soon declare whether, if the nomination came to him + unsolicited and unsought, he would accept it. They concluded their request + with this paragraph: + </p> + <p> + "In submitting this request we are not considering your personal + interests. We do not regard it as proper to consider either the interest + or the preference of any man as regards the nomination for the Presidency. + We are expressing our sincere belief and best judgment as to what is + demanded of you in the interests of the people as a whole. And we feel + that you would be unresponsive to a plain public duty if you should + decline to accept the nomination, coming as the voluntary expression of + the wishes of a majority of the Republican voters of the United States, + through the action of their delegates in the next National Convention." + </p> + <p> + The sincerity and whole-heartedness of the convictions here expressed are + in no wise vitiated by the fact that the letter was not written until the + seven Governors were assured what the answer to it would be. For the very + beginning of our drama, then, we must go back a little farther to that day + in late January of 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt himself came face to face + with a momentous decision. On that day he definitely determined that his + duty to the things in which he profoundly believed—and no less to + the friends and associates who shared his beliefs—constrained him + once more to enter the arena of political conflict and lead the fight. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt had come to this conclusion with extreme reluctance. He had no + illusions as to the probable effect upon his personal fortunes. Twice he + had been President once by the hand of fate, once by a great popular vote. + To be President again could add nothing to his prestige or fame; it could + only subject him for four years to the dangerous vagaries of the unstable + popular mood. He had nothing to gain for himself by entering the ring of + political conflict again; the chances for personal loss were great. His + enemies, his critics, and his political adversaries would have it that he + was eaten up with ambition, that he came back from his African and + European trip eager to thrust himself again into the limelight of national + political life and to demand for himself again a great political prize. + But his friends, his associates, and those who, knowing him at close + range, understood him, realized that this was no picture of the truth. He + accepted what hundreds of Progressive leaders and followers throughout the + country—for the man in the ranks had as ready access to him as the + most prominent leader, and received as warm consideration—asserted + was his clear duty and obligation. + </p> + <p> + A letter which he had written two days before Christmas, 1911, shows + unmistakably how his mind was working in those days of prologue to the + great decision. The letter was entirely private, and was addressed to my + father who was a publisher and a friend and not a politician. There is, + therefore, no reason whatever why the letter should not be accepted as an + accurate picture of Mr. Roosevelt's mind at that time: "Now for the + message Harold gave me, that I should write you a little concerning + political conditions. They are very, very mixed. Curiously enough, my + article on the trusts was generally accepted as bringing me forward for + the Presidential nomination. Evidently what really happened was that there + had been a strong undercurrent of feeling about me, and that the talk + concerning the article enabled this feeling to come to the surface. I do + not think it amounts to anything. It merely means that a great many people + do not get the leadership they are looking for from any of the prominent + men in public life, and that under the circumstances they grasp at any + one; and as my article on the McNamaras possessed at least the merit of + being entirely clearcut and of showing that I knew my own mind and had + definite views, a good many plain people turned longingly to me as a + leader. Taft is very weak, but La Follette has not developed real strength + east of the Mississippi River, excepting of course in Wisconsin. West of + the River he has a large following, although there is a good deal of + opposition to him even in States like Kansas, Washington, and California. + East of the Mississippi, I believe he can only pick up a few delegates + here and there. Taft will have most of the Southern delegates, he will + have the officeholders, and also the tepid and acquiescent, rather than + active, support of the ordinary people who do not feel very strongly one + way or the other, and who think it is the usual thing to renominate a + President. If there were a strong candidate against him, he would I + believe be beaten, but there are plenty of men, many of the leaders not + only here but in Texas, for instance, in Ohio, in New Hampshire and + Illinois, who are against him, but who are even more against La Follette, + and who regard themselves as limited to the alternative between the two. + There is, of course, always the danger that there may be a movement for + me, the danger coming partly because the men who may be candidates are + very anxious that the ticket shall be strengthened and care nothing for + the fate of the man who strengthens it, and partly because there is a good + deal of honest feeling for me among plain simple people who wish + leadership, but who will not accept leadership unless they believe it to + be sincere, fearless, and intelligent. I most emphatically do not wish the + nomination. Personally I should regard it as a calamity to be nominated. + In the first place, I might very possibly be beaten, and in the next + place, even if elected I should be confronted with almost impossible + conditions out of which to make good results. In the tariff, for instance, + I would have to face the fact that men would keep comparing what I did, + not with what the Democrats would or could have done but with an ideal, or + rather with a multitude of entirely separate and really incompatible + ideals. I am not a candidate, I will never be a candidate; but I have to + tell the La Follette men and the Taft men that while I am absolutely + sincere in saying that I am not a candidate and do not wish the + nomination, yet that I do not feel it would be right or proper for me to + say that under no circumstances would I accept it if it came; because, + while wildly improbable, it is yet possible that there might be a public + demand which would present the matter to me in the light of a duty which I + could not shirk. In other words, while I emphatically do not want office, + and have not the slightest idea that any demand for me will come, yet if + there were a real public demand that in the public interest I should do a + given job, it MIGHT be that I would not feel like flinching from the task. + However, this is all in the air, and I do not for one moment believe that + it will be necessary for me even to consider the matter. As for the + Democrats, they have their troubles too. Wilson, although still the + strongest man the Democrats could nominate, is much weaker than he was. He + has given a good many people a feeling that he is very ambitious and not + entirely sincere, and his demand for the Carnegie pension created an + unpleasant impression. Harmon is a good old solid Democrat, with the + standards of political and commercial morality of twenty years ago, who + would be eagerly welcomed by all the conservative crowd. Champ Clark is a + good fellow, but impossible as President. + </p> + <p> + "I think a good deal will depend upon what this Congress does. Taft may + redeem himself. He was fairly strong at the end of the last session, but + went off lamentably on account of his wavering and shillyshallying on so + many matters during his speaking trip. His speeches generally hurt him, + and rarely benefit him. But it is possible that the Democrats in Congress + may play the fool, and give him the chance to appear as the strong leader, + the man who must be accepted to oppose them." + </p> + <p> + This was what Roosevelt at the end, of December sincerely believed would + be the situation as time went on. But he underestimated the strength and + the volume of the tide that was rising. + </p> + <p> + The crucial decision was made on the 18th of January. I was in the closest + possible touch with Roosevelt in those pregnant days, and I know, as well + as any but the man himself could know, how his mind was working. An entry + in my diary on that date shows the origin of the letter of the seven + governors: + </p> + <p> + "Senator Beveridge called on T. R. to urge him to make a public statement + soon. T. R. impressed by his arguments and by letters just received from + three Governors, Hadley, Glasscock, and Bass. Practically determined to + ask these Governors, and Stubbs and Osborne, to send him a joint letter + asking him to make a public statement to the effect that if there is a + genuine popular demand for his nomination he will not refuse-in other + words to say to him in a joint letter for publication just what they have + each said to him in private letters. Such joint action would give him a + proper reason—or occasion—for making a public declaration. T. + R. telegraphed Frank Knox, Republican State Chairman of Michigan and + former member of his regiment, to come down, with intention of asking him + to see the various governors. H. H., at Ernest Abbott's suggestion, asked + him not to make final decision till he has had conference—already + arranged—with editorial staff. T. R. agrees, but the inevitableness + of the matter is evident." + </p> + <p> + After that day, things moved rapidly. Two days later the diary contains + this record: "Everett Colby, William Fellowes Morgan, and Mark Sullivan + call on T. R. All inclined to agree that time for statement is practically + here. T. R.—The time to use a man is when the people want to use + him." M. S.—"The time to set a hen is when the hen wants to set." + Frank Knox comes in response to telegram. Nat Wright also present at + interview where Knox is informed of the job proposed for him. Gifford + Pinchot also present at beginning of interview while T. R. tells how he + views the situation, but leaves (at T. R.'s suggestion) before real + business of conference begins. Plan outlined to Knox, who likes it, and + subsequently, in H. H.'s office, draws up letter for Governors. Draft + shown to T. R., who suggests a couple of added sentences emphasizing that + the nomination must come as a real popular demand, and declaring that the + Governors are taking their action not for his sake, but for the sake of + the country. Knox takes copy of letter and starts for home, to go out to + see Governors as soon as possible. + </p> + <p> + On the 22d of January the Conference with The Outlook editorial staff took + place and is thus described in my diary: + </p> + <p> + "T. R. had long conference with entire staff. All except R. D. T. [Mr. + Townsend, Managing Editor of The Outlook] and H. H. inclined to deprecate + a public statement now. T. R.—'I have had all the honor the American + public can give me. If I should be elected I would go back not so young as + I once was, with all the first fine flavor gone, and take up the horrible + task of going in and out, in and out, of the same hole over and over + again. But I cannot decline the call. Too many of those who have fought + with me the good fight for the things we believe in together, declare that + at this critical moment I am the instrument that ought to be used to make + it possible for me to refuse. I BELIEVE I SHALL BE BROKEN IN THE USING. + But I cannot refuse to permit myself to be used. I am not going to get + those good fellows out on the end of a limb and then saw off the limb.' R. + D. T. suggested that it be said frankly that the Governors wrote the joint + letter at T. R.'s request. T. R. accepted like a shot. Went into H. H.'s + room, dictated two or three sentences to that effect, which H. H. later + incorporated in letter. [This plan was later given up, I believe on the + urging of some or all of the Governors involved.] T. R.—'I can't go + on telling my friends in private letters what my position is, but asking + them not to make it public, without seeming furtive.' In afternoon H. H. + suggests that T. R. write first draft of his letter of reply soon as + possible to give all possible time for consideration and revision. T. R. + has two inspirations—to propose presidential primaries in order to + be sure of popular demand, and to use statement made at Battery when he + returned home from Europe." + </p> + <p> + The next day's entry reads as follows: + </p> + <p> + "Sent revised letter to Knox. T. R. said, "Not to make a public statement + soon would be to violate my cardinal principle—never hit if you can + help it, but when you have to, hit hard. NEVER hit soft. You'll never get + any thanks for hitting soft." McHarg called with three men from St. Louis. + T. R. said exactly the same thing as usual—he would never accept the + nomination if it came as the result of an intrigue, only if it came as the + result of a genuine and widespread popular demand. The thing he wants to + be sure of is that there is this widespread popular demand that he "do a + job," and that the demand is genuine." + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile Frank Knox was consulting the seven Governors, each one of whom + was delighted to have an opportunity to say to Roosevelt in this formal, + public way just what they had each said to him privately and forcefully. + The letter was signed and delivered to T. R. On the 24th of February + Roosevelt replied to the letter of the seven Governors in unequivocal + terms, "I will accept the nomination for President if it is tendered to + me, and I will adhere to this decision until—the convention has + expressed its preference." He added the hope that so far as possible the + people might be given the chance, through direct primaries, to record + their wish as to who should be the nominee. A month later, in a great + address at Carnegie Hall in New York, he gave voice publicly to the same + thought that he had expressed to his friends in that editorial conference: + "The leader for the time being, whoever he may be, is but an instrument, + to be used until broken and then cast aside; and if he is worth his salt + he will care no more when he is broken than a soldier cares when he is + sent where his life is forfeit that the victory may be won. In the long + fight for righteousness the watchword for all is, 'Spend and be spent.' It + is of little matter whether any one man fails or succeeds; but the cause + shall not fail, for it is the cause of mankind." + </p> + <p> + The decision once made, Roosevelt threw himself into the contest for + delegates to the nominating convention with his unparalleled vigor and + forcefulness. His main opponent was, of course, the man who had been his + friend and associate and whom he had done more than any other single force + to make President as his successor. William Howard Taft had the undivided + support of the national party organization; but the Progressive + Republicans the country over thronged to Roosevelt's support with wild + enthusiasm. The campaign for the nomination quickly developed two aspects, + one of which delighted every Progressive in the Republican party, the + other of which grieved every one of Roosevelt's levelheaded friends. It + became a clean-cut conflict between progress and reaction, between the + interests of the people, both as rulers and as governed, and the special + interests, political and business. But it also became a bitter conflict of + personalities between the erstwhile friends. The breach between the two + men was afterwards healed, but it was several years after the reek of the + battle had drifted away before even formal relations were restored between + them. + </p> + <p> + A complicating factor in the campaign was the candidacy of Senator La + Follette of Wisconsin. In July, 1911, La Follette had begun, at the + earnest solicitation of many Progressive leaders in Congress and out, an + active campaign for the Republican nomination. Progressive organizations + were perfected in numerous States and "in less than three months," as La + Follette has written in his Autobiography, his candidacy "had taken on + proportions which compelled recognition." Four months later a conference + of some three hundred Progressives from thirty States, meeting in Chicago, + declared that La Follette was, because of his record, the logical + candidate for the Presidency. Following this conference he continued to + campaign with increasing vigor, but concurrently the enthusiasm of some of + his leading supporters began to cool and their support of his candidacy to + weaken. Senator La Follette ascribes this effect to the surreptitious + maneuvering of Roosevelt, whom he credits with an overwhelming appetite + for another Presidential term, kept in check only by his fear that he + could not be nominated or elected. But there is no evidence of any value + whatever that Roosevelt was conducting underground operations or that he + desired to be President again. The true explanation of the change in those + Progressives who had favored the candidacy of La Follette and yet had + gradually ceased to support him, is to be found in their growing + conviction that Taft and the reactionary forces in the Republican party + which he represented could be defeated only by one man—and that not + the Senator from Wisconsin. In any event the La Follette candidacy rapidly + declined until it ceased to be a serious element in the situation. + Although the Senator, with characteristic consistency and pertinacity, + stayed in the fight till the end, he entered the Convention with the + delegates of but two States, his own Wisconsin and North Dakota, pledged + to support him. + </p> + <p> + The pre-convention campaign was made unusually dramatic by the fact that, + for the first time in the history of Presidential elections, the voters of + thirteen States were privileged not only to select the delegates to the + Convention by direct primary vote but to instruct them in the same way as + to the candidate for whom they should cast their ballots. There were 388 + such popularly instructed delegates from California, Georgia, Illinois, + Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, + Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. It was naturally in these + States that the two candidates concentrated their campaigning efforts. The + result of the selection of delegates and of the preferential vote in these + States was the best possible evidence of the desire of the rank and file + of the party as to the Presidential candidate. Of these 388 delegates, + Senator La Follette secured 36; President Taft 71—28 in Georgia, 2 + in Illinois, 18 in Massachusetts, 14 in Ohio, and 9 in Pennsylvania; and + Roosevelt 281—26 in California, 56 in Illinois, 16 in Maryland, 18 + in Massachusetts, 16 in Nebraska, 28 in New Jersey, 34 in Ohio, 10 in + Oregon, 67 in Pennsylvania, and 10 in South Dakota. Roosevelt therefore, + in those States where the voters could actually declare at primary + elections which candidate they preferred, was the expressed choice of more + than five times as many voters as Taft. + </p> + <p> + When the Republican convention met in Chicago an interesting and peculiar + situation presented itself. There were 1078 seats in the Convention. Of + the delegates elected to those seats Taft had committed to him the vast + majority of the delegates from the States which have never cast an + electoral vote for a Republican candidate for President since there was a + Republican party. Roosevelt had in support of him the great majority of + the delegates from the States which are normally Republican and which must + be relied upon at election time if a Republican President is to be chosen. + Of the 1078 seats more than 200 were contested. Aside from these contested + seats, neither candidate had a majority of the delegates. The problem that + confronted each side was to secure the filling of a sufficient number of + the disputed seats with its retainers to insure a majority for its + candidate. In the solution of this problem the Taft forces had one + insuperable advantage. The temporary roll of a nominating convention is + made up by the National Committee of the party. The Republican National + Committee had been selected at the close of the last national convention + four years before. It accordingly represented the party as it had then + stood, regardless of the significant changes that three and a quarter + years of Taft's Presidency had wrought in party opinion. + </p> + <p> + In the National Committee the Taft forces had a strength of more than two + to one; and all but an insignificant number of the contests were decided + out of hand in favor of Mr. Taft. The temporary roll of the Convention + therefore showed a distinct majority against Roosevelt. From the fall of + the gavel, the Roosevelt forces fought with vigor and determination for + what they described as the "purging of the roll" of those Taft delegates + whose names they declared had been placed upon it by fraud. But at every + turn the force of numbers was against them; and the Taft majority which + the National Committee had constituted in the Convention remained intact, + an impregnable defense against the Progressive attack. + </p> + <p> + These preliminary engagements concerned with the determination of the + final membership of the Convention had occupied several days. Meanwhile + the temper of the Roosevelt delegates had burned hotter and hotter. + Roosevelt was present, leading the fight in person—not, of course, + on the floor of the Convention, to which he was not a delegate, but at + headquarters in the Congress Hotel. There were not wanting in the + Progressive forces counsels of moderation and compromise. It was suggested + by those of less fiery mettle that harmony might be arrived at on the + basis of the elimination of both Roosevelt and Taft and the selection of a + candidate not unsatisfactory to either side. But Roosevelt, backed by the + majority of the Progressive delegates, stood firm and immovable on the + ground that the "roll must be purged" and that he would consent to no + traffic with a Convention whose make-up contained delegates holding their + seats by virtue of fraud. "Let them purge the roll," he declared again and + again, "and I will accept any candidate the Convention may name." But the + organization leaders knew that a yielding to this demand for a + reconstitution of the personnel of the Convention would result in but one + thing—the nomination for Roosevelt—and this was the one thing + they were resolved not to permit. + </p> + <p> + As the hours of conflict and turmoil passed, there grew steadily and + surely in the Roosevelt ranks a demand for a severance of relations with + the fraudulent Convention and the formation of a new party devoted, + without equivocation or compromise, to Progressive principles. A typical + incident of these days of confusion and uncertainty was the drawing up of + a declaration of purpose by a Progressive alternate from New Jersey, + disgusted with the progress of the machine steam roller and disappointed + at the delayed appearance of a positive Progressive programme of action. + Circulated privately, with the knowledge and approval of Roosevelt, it was + promptly signed by dozens of Progressive delegates. It read as follows: + </p> + <p> + "We, the undersigned, in the event that the Republican National Convention + as at present constituted refuses to purge its roll of the delegates + fraudulently placed upon it by the action of the majority of the + Republican National Committee, pledge ourselves, as American citizens + devoted to the progressive principles of genuine popular rule and social + justice, to join in the organization of a new party founded upon those + principles, under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt." + </p> + <p> + The first signer of the declaration was Governor Hiram W. Johnson of + California, the second, Governor Robert S. Vessey of South Dakota, the + third, Governor Joseph M. Carey of Wyoming, and farther down the list were + the names of Gifford and Amos Pinchot, James R. Garfield, ex-Governor John + Franklin Fort of New Jersey, with Everett Colby and George L. Record of + the same State, Matthew Hale of Massachusetts, "Jack" Greenway of Arizona, + Judge Ben B. Lindsey of Colorado, Medill McCormick of Illinois, George + Rublee of New Hampshire, and Elon Huntington Hooker, of New York, who was + to become the National Treasurer of the new party. The document was, of + course, a purely informal assertion of purpose; but it was the first + substantial straw to predict the whirlwind which the masters of the + convention were to reap. + </p> + <p> + When at last it had become unmistakably clear that the Taft forces were + and would remain to the end in control of the Convention, the Progressive + delegates, with a few exceptions, united in dramatic action. Speaking for + them with passion and intensity Henry J. Allen of Kansas announced their + intention to participate no longer in the actions of a convention vitiated + by fraud. The Progressive delegates would, he declared, remain in their + places but they would neither vote nor take any part whatever in the + proceedings. He then read, by permission of the Convention, a statement + from Roosevelt, in which he pronounced the following indictment: + </p> + <p> + "The Convention has now declined to purge the roll of the fraudulent + delegates placed thereon by the defunct National Committee, and the + majority which has thus indorsed the fraud was made a majority only + because it included the fraudulent delegates themselves who all sat as + judges on one another's cases.... The Convention as now composed has no + claim to represent the voters of the Republican party.... Any man + nominated by the Convention as now constituted would merely be the + beneficiary of this successful fraud; it would be deeply discreditable for + any man to accept the Convention's nomination under these circumstances; + and any man thus accepting it would have no claim to the support of any + Republican on party grounds and would have forfeited the right to ask the + support of any honest man of any party on moral grounds." + </p> + <p> + So while most of the Roosevelt delegates sat in ominous quiet and refused + to vote, the Convention proceeded to nominate Taft for President by the + following vote: Taft 561—21 votes more than a majority; Roosevelt + 107; La Follette 41; Cummins 17; Hughes 2; absent 6; present and not + voting 344. + </p> + <p> + Then the Taft delegates went home to meditate on the fight which they had + won and the more portentous fight which they must wage in the coming + months on a broader field. The Roosevelt delegates, on the other hand, + went out to Orchestra Hall, and in an exalted mood of passionate devotion + to their cause and their beloved leader proceeded to nominate Theodore + Roosevelt for the Presidency and Hiram Johnson for the Vice-Presidency. A + committee was sent to notify Roosevelt of the nomination and when he + appeared in the hall all precedents of spontaneous enthusiasm were broken. + This was no conventional—if the double entendre may be permitted—demonstration. + It had rather the quality of religious exaltation. + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt made a short speech, in which he adjured his hearers to go to + their several homes "to find out the sentiment of the people at home and + then again come together, I suggest by mass convention, to nominate for + the Presidency a Progressive on a Progressive platform that will enable us + to appeal to Northerner and Southerner, Easterner and Westerner, + Republican and Democrat alike, in the name of our common American + citizenship. If you wish me to make the fight I will make it, even if only + one State should support me." + </p> + <p> + Thus ended the first act in the drama. The second opened with the + gathering of some two thousand men and women at Chicago on August 5, 1912. + It was a unique gathering. Many of the delegates were women; one of the + "keynote" speeches was delivered by Miss Jane Addams of Hull House. The + whole tone and atmosphere of the occasion seemed religious rather than + political. The old-timers among the delegates, who found themselves in the + new party for diverse reasons, selfish, sincere, or mixed, must have felt + astonishment at themselves as they stood and shouted out Onward Christian + Soldiers as the battle-hymn of their new allegiance. The long address + which Roosevelt made to the Convention he denominated his "Confession of + Faith." The platform which the gathering adopted was entitled "A Contract + with the People." The sessions of the Convention seethed with enthusiasm + and burned hot with earnest devotion to high purpose. There could be no + doubt in the mind of any but the most cynical of political reactionaries + that here was the manifestation of a new and revivifying force to be + reckoned with in the future development of American political life. + </p> + <p> + The platform adopted by the Progressive Convention was no less a novelty. + Its very title—even the fact that it had a title marked it off from + the pompous and shopworn documents emanating from the usual nominating + Convention—declared a reversal of the time-honored view of a + platform as, like that of a street-car, "something to get in on, not + something to stand on." The delegates to that Convention were perfectly + ready to have their party sued before the bar of public opinion for breach + of contract if their candidates when elected did not do everything in + their power to carry out the pledges of the platform. The planks of the + platform grouped themselves into three main sections: political reforms, + control of trusts and combinations, and measures of "social and industrial + justice." + </p> + <p> + In the first section were included direct primaries, nation-wide + preferential primaries for the selection of candidates for the Presidency, + direct popular election of United States Senators, the short ballot, the + initiative, referendum and recall, an easier method of amending the + Federal constitution, woman suffrage, and the recall of judicial decisions + in the form of a popular review of any decision annulling a law passed + under the police power of the State. + </p> + <p> + The platform in the second place opposed vigorously the indiscriminate + dissolution of trusts and combinations, on the ground that combination in + the business field was not only inevitable but necessary and desirable for + the promotion of national and international efficiency. It condemned the + evils of inflated capitalization and unfair competition; and it proposed, + in order to eliminate those evils while preserving the unquestioned + advantages that flow from combination, the establishment of a strong + Federal commission empowered and directed to maintain permanent active + supervision over industrial corporations engaged in interstate commerce, + doing for them what the Federal Government now does for the national banks + and, through the Interstate Commerce Commission, for the transportation + lines. + </p> + <p> + Finally in the field of social justice the platform pledged the party to + the abolition of child labor, to minimum wage laws, the eight-hour day, + publicity in regard to working conditions, compensation for industrial + accidents, continuation schools for industrial education, and to + legislation to prevent industrial accidents, occupational diseases, + overwork, involuntary unemployment, and other injurious effects incident + to modern industry. + </p> + <p> + To stand upon this platform and to carry out the terms of this "contract + with the people," the Convention nominated without debate or dissent + Theodore Roosevelt for President and Hiram W. Johnson of California for + Vice-President. Governor Johnson was an appropriate running mate for + Roosevelt. In his own State he had led one of the most virile and fast + moving of the local Progressive movements. He burned with a white-hot + enthusiasm for the democratic ideal and the rights of man as embodied in + equality of opportunity, freedom of individual development, and protection + from the "dark forces" of special privilege, political autocracy and + concentrated wealth. He was a brilliant and fiery campaigner where his + convictions were enlisted. + </p> + <p> + So passed the second act in the drama of the Progressive party. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV. THE GLORIOUS FAILURE + </h2> + <p> + The third act in the drama of the Progressive party was filled with the + campaign for the Presidency. It was a three-cornered fight. Taft stood for + Republican conservatism and clung to the old things. Roosevelt fought for + the progressive rewriting of Republican principles with added emphasis on + popular government and social justice as defined in the New Nationalism. + The Democratic party under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson espoused with + more or less enthusiasm the old Democratic principles freshly interpreted + and revivified in the declaration they called the New Freedom. The + campaign marked the definite entrance of the nation upon a new era. One + thing was clear from the beginning: the day of conservatism and reaction + was over; the people of the United States had definitely crossed their + Rubicon and had committed themselves to spiritual and moral progress. + </p> + <p> + The campaign had one dramatic incident. On the 14th of October, just + before entering the Auditorium at Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot by a + fanatic. His immediate action was above everything characteristic. Some + time later in reply to a remark that he had been foolhardy in going on + with his speech just after the attack, Roosevelt said, "Why, you know, I + didn't think I had been mortally wounded. If I had been mortally wounded, + I would have bled from the lungs. When I got into the motor I coughed hard + three times, and put my hand up to my mouth; as I did not find any blood, + I thought that I was not seriously hurt, and went on with my speech." + </p> + <p> + The opening words of the speech which followed were equally typical: + </p> + <p> + "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether + you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than + that to kill a Bull Moose.... The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot + make a very long speech, but I will try my best.... First of all, I want + to say this about myself; I have altogether too important things to think + of to feel any concern over my own death; and now I cannot speak + insincerely to you within five minutes of being shot. I am telling you the + literal truth when I say that my concern is for many other things. It is + not in the least for my own life. I want you to understand that I am ahead + of the game anyway. No man has had a happier life than I have led; a + happier life in every way. I have been able to do certain things that I + greatly wished to do, and I am interested in doing other things. I can + tell you with absolute truthfulness that I am very much uninterested in + whether I am shot or not. It was just as when I was colonel of my + regiment. I always felt that a private was to be excused for feeling at + times some pangs of anxiety about his personal safety, but I cannot + understand a man fit to be a colonel who can pay any heed to his personal + safety when he is occupied as he ought to be occupied with the absorbing + desire to do his duty." + </p> + <p> + There was a great deal of self-revelation in these words. Even the critic + accustomed to ascribe to Roosevelt egotism and love of gallery applause + must concede the courage, will-power, and self-forgetfulness disclosed by + the incident. + </p> + <p> + The election was a debacle for reaction, a victory for Democracy, a + triumph in defeat for the Progressive party. Taft carried two States, Utah + and Vermont, with eight electoral votes; Woodrow Wilson carried forty + States, with 435 electoral votes; and Roosevelt carried five States, + Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Washington, and + eleven out of the thirteen votes of California, giving him 88 electoral + votes. Taft's popular vote was 3,484,956; Wilson's was 6,293,019; while + Roosevelt's was 4,119,507. The fact that Wilson was elected by a minority + popular vote is not the significant thing, for it is far beyond the + capability of any political observer to declare what would have been the + result if there had been but two parties in the field. The triumph for the + Progressive party lay in the certainty that its emergence had compelled + the election of a President whose face was toward the future. If the + Roosevelt delegates at Chicago in June had acquiesced in the result of the + steam-roller Convention, it is highly probable that Woodrow Wilson would + not have been the choice of the Democratic Convention that met later at + Baltimore. + </p> + <p> + During the succeeding four years the Progressive party, as a national + organization, continued steadily to "dwindle, peak, and pine." More and + more of its members and supporters slipped or stepped boldly back to the + Republican party. Its quondam Democratic members had largely returned to + their former allegiance with Wilson, either at the election or after it. + Roosevelt once more withdrew from active participation in public life, + until the Great War, with its gradually increasing intrusions upon + American interests and American rights, aroused him to vigorous and + aggressive utterance on American responsibility and American duty. He + became a vigorous critic of the Administration. + </p> + <p> + Once more a demand began to spring up for his nomination for the + Presidency; the Progressive party began to show signs of reviving + consciousness. There had persisted through the years a little band of + irreconcilables who were Progressives or nothing. They wanted a new party + of radical ideas regardless of anything in the way of reformation and + progress that the old parties might achieve. There were others who + preferred to go back to the Republican party rather than to keep up the + Progressive party as a mere minority party of protest, but who hoped in + going back to be able to influence their old party along the lines of + progress. There were those who were Rooseveltians pure and simple and who + would follow him wherever he led. + </p> + <p> + All these groups wanted Roosevelt as President. They united to hold a + convention of the Progressive party at Chicago in 1916 on the same days on + which the Republican Convention met there. Each convention opened with a + calculating eye upon the activities of the other. But both watched with + even more anxious surmise for some sign of intention from the Progressive + leader back at Oyster Bay. He held in his single hand the power of life + and death for the Progressive party. His decision as to cooperative action + with the Republicans or individual action as a Progressive would be the + most important single factor in the campaign against Woodrow Wilson, who + was certain of renomination. Three questions confronted and puzzled the + two bodies of delegates: Would the Republicans nominate Roosevelt or + another? If another, what would Roosevelt do? If another, what would the + Progressives do? + </p> + <p> + For three days the Republican National Convention proceeded steadily and + stolidly upon its appointed course. Everything had been done in the + stereotyped way on the stereotyped time-table in the stereotyped language. + No impropriety or infelicity had been permitted to mar the smooth texture + of its surface. The temporary chairman in his keynote speech had been as + mildly oratorical, as diffusely patriotic, and as nobly sentimental as any + Fourth of July orator of a bygone day. The whole tone of the Convention + had been subdued and decorous with the decorum of incertitude and + timidity. That Convention did not know what it wanted. It only knew that + there was one thing that it did not want and that it was afraid of, and + another thing it would rather not have and was afraid it would have to + take. It wanted neither Theodore Roosevelt nor Charles E. Hughes, and its + members were distinctly uncomfortable at the thought that they might have + to take one or the other. It was an old-fashioned convention of the + hand-picked variety. It smacked of the former days when the direct primary + had not yet introduced the disturbing thought that the voters and not the + office-holders and party leaders ought to select their candidates. + </p> + <p> + It was a docile, submissive convention, not because it was ruled by a + strong group of men who knew what they wanted and proposed to compel their + followers to give it to them, but because it was composed of politicians + great and small to whom party regularity was the breath of their nostrils. + They were ready to do the regular thing; but the only two things in sight + were confoundedly irregular. + </p> + <p> + Two drafts were ready for their drinking and they dreaded both. They could + nominate one of two men, and to nominate either of them was to fling open + the gates of the citadel of party regularity and conformity and let the + enemy in. Was it to be Roosevelt or Hughes? Roosevelt they would not have. + Hughes they would give their eye teeth not to take. No wonder they were + subdued and inarticulate. No wonder they suffered and were unhappy. So + they droned along through their stereotyped routine, hoping dully against + fate. + </p> + <p> + The hot-heads in the Progressive Convention wanted no delay, no + compromise. They would have nominated Theodore Roosevelt out of hand with + a whoop, and let the Republican Convention take him or leave him. But the + cooler leaders realized the importance of union between the two parties + and knew, or accurately guessed, what the attitude of Roosevelt would be. + With firm hand they kept the Convention from hasty and irrevocable action. + They proposed that overtures be made to the Republican Convention with a + view to harmonious agreement. A conference was held between committees of + the two conventions to see if common ground could be discovered. At the + first session of the joint committee it appeared that there was sincere + desire on both sides to get together, but that the Progressives would have + no one but Roosevelt, while the Republicans would not have him but were + united on no one else. When the balloting began in the Republican + Convention, the only candidate who received even a respectable block of + votes was Hughes, but his total was hardly more than half of the necessary + majority. For several ballots there was no considerable gain for any of + the numerous candidates, and when the Convention adjourned late Friday + night the outcome was as uncertain as ever. But by Saturday morning the + Republican leaders and delegates had resigned themselves to the + inevitable, and the nomination of Hughes was assured. When the Progressive + Convention met that morning, the conference committee reported that the + Republican members of the committee had proposed unanimously the selection + of Hughes as the candidate of both parties. + </p> + <p> + Thus began the final scene in the Progressive drama, and a more thrilling + and intense occasion it would be difficult to imagine. It was apparent + that the Progressive delegates would have none of it. They were there to + nominate their own beloved leader and they intended to do it. A telegram + was received from Oyster Bay proposing Senator Lodge as the compromise + candidate, and the restive delegates in the Auditorium could with the + greatest difficulty be held back until the telegram could be received and + read at the Coliseum. A direct telephone wire from the Coliseum to a + receiver on the stage of the Auditorium kept the Progressive body in + instant touch with events in the other Convention. In the Auditorium the + atmosphere was electric. The delegates bubbled with excitement. They + wanted to nominate Roosevelt and be done with it. The fear that the other + Convention would steal a march on them and make its nomination first set + them crazy with impatience. The hall rumbled and sputtered and fizzed and + detonated. The floor looked like a giant corn popper with the kernels + jumping and exploding like mad. + </p> + <p> + The delegates wanted action; the leaders wanted to be sure that they had + kept faith with Roosevelt and with the general situation by giving the + Republican delegates a chance to hear his last proposal. Bainbridge Colby, + of New York, put Roosevelt in nomination with brevity and vigor; Hiram + Johnson seconded the nomination with his accustomed fire. Then, as the + word came over the wire that balloting had been resumed in the Coliseum, + the question was put at thirty-one minutes past twelve, and every delegate + and every alternate in the Convention leaped to his feet with upstretched + arm and shouted "Aye." + </p> + <p> + Doubtless more thrilling moments may come to some men at some time, + somewhere, but you will hardly find a delegate of that Progressive + Convention to believe it. Then the Convention adjourned, to meet again at + three to hear what the man they had nominated would say. + </p> + <p> + At five o'clock in the afternoon, after a couple of hours of impatient and + anxious marking time with routine matters, the Progressive delegates + received the reply from their leader. It read thus: + </p> + <p> + "I am very grateful for the honor you confer upon me by nominating me as + President. I cannot accept it at this time. I do not know the attitude of + the candidate of the Republican party toward the vital questions of the + day. Therefore, if you desire an immediate decision, I must decline the + nomination. + </p> + <p> + "But if you prefer to wait, I suggest that my conditional refusal to run + be placed in the hands of the Progressive National Committee. If Mr. + Hughes's statements, when he makes them, shall satisfy the committee that + it is for the interest of the country that he be elected, they can act + accordingly and treat my refusal as definitely accepted. + </p> + <p> + "If they are not satisfied, they can so notify the Progressive party, and + at the same time they can confer with me, and then determine on whatever + action we may severally deem appropriate to meet the needs of the country. + </p> + <p> + "THEODORE ROOSEVELT." + </p> + <p> + Puzzled, disheartened, overwhelmed, the Progressive delegates went away. + They could not then see how wise, how farsighted, how inevitable + Roosevelt's decision was. Some of them will never see it. Probably few of + them as they went out of those doors realized that they had taken part in + the last act of the romantic and tragic drama of the National Progressive + party. But such was the fact, for the march of events was too much for it. + Fate, not its enemies, brought it to an end. + </p> + <p> + So was born, lived a little space, and died the Progressive party. At its + birth it caused the nomination, by the Democrats, and the election, by the + people, of Woodrow Wilson. At its death it brought about the nomination of + Charles E. Hughes by the Republicans. It forced the writing into the + platforms of the more conservative parties of principles and programmes of + popular rights and social regeneration. The Progressive party never + attained to power, but it wielded a potent power. It was a glorious + failure. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV. THE FIGHTING EDGE + </h2> + <p> + Theodore Roosevelt was a prodigious coiner of phrases. He added scores of + them, full of virility, picturesqueness, and flavor to the every-day + speech of the American people. They stuck, because they expressed ideas + that needed expressing and because they expressed them so well that no + other combinations of words could quite equal them. One of the best, + though not the most popular, of his phrases is contained in the following + quotation: + </p> + <p> + "One of the prime dangers of civilization has always been its tendency to + cause the loss of virile fighting virtues, of the fighting edge. When men + get too comfortable and lead too luxurious lives, there is always danger + lest the softness eat like an acid into their manliness of fiber." + </p> + <p> + He used the same phrase many times. Here is another instance: + </p> + <p> + "Unjust war is to be abhorred; but woe to the nation that does not make + ready to hold its own in time of need against all who would harm it! And + woe, thrice over, to the nation in which the average man loses the + fighting edge, loses the power to serve as a soldier if the day of need + should arise!" + </p> + <p> + That was it—THE FIGHTING EDGE. Roosevelt had it, if ever man had. + The conviction of the need for that combination of physical and spiritual + qualities that this represented, if a man is to take his place and keep it + in the world, became an inseparable part of his consciousness early in + life. It grew in strength and depth with every year that he lived. He + learned the need of preparedness on that day in Maine when he found + himself helpless before the tormenting of his young fellow travelers. In + the gymnasium on Twentieth Street, within the boxing ring at Harvard, in + the New York Assembly, in the conflicts with the spoilsmen in Washington, + on the frontier in cowboy land, in Mulberry Street and on Capitol Hill, + and in the jungle before Santiago, the lesson was hammered into him by the + stern reality of events. The strokes fell on malleable metal. + </p> + <p> + In the spring of 1897, Roosevelt had been appointed Assistant Secretary of + the Navy, largely through the efforts of his friend, Senator Henry Cabot + Lodge of Massachusetts. The appointment was excellent from every point of + view. Though Roosevelt had received no training for the post so far as + technical education was concerned, he brought to his duties a profound + belief in the navy and a keen interest in its development. His first + published book had been "The Naval War of 1812"; and the lessons of that + war had not been lost upon him. It was indeed a fortuitous circumstance + that placed him in this branch of the national service just as relations + between Spain and the United States were reaching the breaking point. When + the battleship Maine was sunk in Havana Harbor, his reaction to that + startling event was instantaneous. He was convinced that the sinking of + the Maine made war inevitable, but he had long been certain that war ought + to come. He believed that the United States had a moral duty toward the + Cuban people, oppressed, abused, starved, and murdered at the hands of + Spain. + </p> + <p> + He was not the head of the Navy Department, but that made little + difference. The Secretary was a fine old gentleman, formerly president of + the Massachusetts Peace Society, and by temperament indisposed to any + rapid moves toward war. But he liked his Assistant Secretary and did not + put too stern a curb upon his impetuous activity and Roosevelt's activity + was vigorous and unceasing. Secretary Long has described it, rather with + justice than with enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + "His activity was characteristic. He was zealous in the work of putting + the navy in condition for the apprehended struggle. His ardor sometimes + went faster than the President or the Department approved.... He worked + indefatigably, frequently incorporating his views in memoranda which he + would place every morning on my desk. Most of his suggestions had, + however, so far as applicable, been already adopted by the various + bureaus, the chiefs of which were straining every nerve and leaving + nothing undone. When I suggested to him that some future historian reading + his memoranda, if they were put on record, would get the impression that + the bureaus were inefficient, he accepted the suggestion with the generous + good nature which is so marked in him. Indeed, nothing could be pleasanter + than our relations. He was heart and soul in his work. His typewriters had + no rest. He, like most of us, lacks the rare knack of brevity. He was + especially stimulating to the younger officers who gathered about him and + made his office as busy as a hive. He was especially helpful in the + purchasing of ships and in every line where he could push on the work of + preparation for war." + </p> + <p> + One suspects that the Secretary may have been more complacently convinced + of the forehandedness of the bureau chiefs than was his impatient + associate. For, while the navy was apparently in better shape than the + army in those days, there must have been, even in the Department where + Roosevelt's typewriters knew no rest, some of that class of desk-bound + officers whom he met later when he was organizing the Rough Riders. His + experience with one such officer in the War Department was humorous. This + bureaucrat was continually refusing Roosevelt's applications because they + were irregular. In each case Roosevelt would appeal to the Secretary of + War, with whom he was on the best of terms, and would get from him an + order countenancing the irregularity. After a number of experiences of + this kind, the harassed slave of red tape threw himself back in his chair + and exclaimed, "Oh, dear! I had this office running in such good shape—and + then along came the war and upset everything!" + </p> + <p> + But there were plenty of good men in the navy; and one of them was + Commodore George Dewey. Roosevelt had kept his eye on him for some time as + an officer who "could be relied upon to prepare in advance, and to act + promptly, fearlessly, and on his own responsibility when the emergency + arose." When he began to foresee the probability of war, Roosevelt + succeeded in having Dewey sent to command the Asiatic squadron; and just + ten days after the Maine was blown up this cablegram went from Washington + to Hong Kong: + </p> + <p> + "DEWEY, Hong Kong: + </p> + <p> + "Order the squadron, except the Monocacy, to Hong Kong. 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 Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia until further orders. + Roosevelt." + </p> + <p> + The declaration of war lagged on for nearly two months, but when it + finally came, just one week elapsed between the sending of an order to + Dewey to proceed at once to the Philippines and to "capture vessels or + destroy" and the elimination of the sea power of Spain in the Orient. The + battle of Manila Bay was a practical demonstration of the value of the + "fighting edge," as exemplified in an Assistant Secretary who fought + procrastination, timidity, and political expedience at home and in a naval + officer who fought the enemy's ships on the other side of the world. + </p> + <p> + When war actually came, Roosevelt could not stand inactivity in + Washington. He was a fighter and he must go where the real fighting was. + With Leonard Wood, then a surgeon in the army, he organized the First + United States Volunteer Cavalry. He could have been appointed Colonel, but + he knew that Wood knew more about the soldier's job than he, and he + insisted upon taking the second place. The Secretary of War thought him + foolish to step aside thus and suggested that Roosevelt become Colonel and + Wood Lieutenant-Colonel, adding that Wood would do the work anyway. But + that was not the Roosevelt way. He replied that he did not wish to rise on + any man's shoulders, that he hoped to be given every chance that his deeds + and his abilities warranted, that he did not wish what he did not earn, + and that, above all, he did not wish to hold any position where any one + else did the work. Lieutenant-Colonel he was made. + </p> + <p> + The regiment, which will always be affectionately known as the Rough + Riders, was "raised, armed, equipped, drilled, mounted, dismounted, kept + for two weeks on a transport, and then put through two victorious + aggressive fights, in which it lost a third of the officers, and a fifth + of the enlisted men, all within a little over fifty days." Roosevelt began + as second in command, went through the battle of San Juan Hill as Colonel, + and ended the war in command of a brigade, with the brevet of + Brigadier-General. The title of Colonel stuck to him all his life. + </p> + <p> + When he became President, his instinctive commitment to the necessity of + being prepared had been stoutly reinforced by his experience in what he + called "the war of America the Unready." His first message to Congress was + a long and exhaustive paper, dealing with many matters of importance. But + almost one-fifth of it was devoted to the army and the navy. "It is not + possible," he said, "to improvise a navy after war breaks out. The ships + must be built and the men trained long in advance." He urged that Congress + forthwith provide for several additional battleships and heavy armored + cruisers, together with the proportionate number of smaller craft, and he + pointed out the need for many more officers and men. He declared that + "even in time of peace a warship should be used until it wears out, for + only so can it be kept fit to respond to any emergency. The officers and + men alike should be kept as much as possible on blue water, for it is + there only they can learn their duties as they should be learned." But his + most vigorous insistence was upon gunnery. "In battle," he said once to + the graduates of the Naval Academy, "the only shots that count are those + that hit, and marksmanship is a matter of long practice and intelligent + reasoning." To this end he demanded "unceasing" gunnery practice. + </p> + <p> + In every succeeding message to Congress for seven years he returned to the + subject of the navy, demanding ships, officers, men, and, above all, + training. His insistence on these essentials brought results, and by the + time the cruise of the battle fleet around the world had been achieved, + the American navy, ship for ship, was not surpassed by any in the world. + Perhaps it would be more accurate to say, ship's crew for ship's crew; for + it was the officers and men of the American navy who made it possible for + the world cruise to be made without the smallest casualty. + </p> + <p> + The question of marksmanship had been burned into Roosevelt's mind in + those days when the Spanish War was brewing. He has related in his + "Autobiography" how it first came to his attention through a man whose + name has in more recent years become known the world over in connection + with the greatest task of the American navy. Roosevelt's account is as + follows: + </p> + <p> + "There was one deficiency... which there was no time to remedy, and of the + very existence of which, strange to say, most of our best men were + ignorant. Our navy had no idea how low our standard of marksmanship was. + We had not realized that the modern battleship had become such a + complicated piece of mechanism that the old methods of training in + marksmanship were as obsolete as the old muzzle-loading broadside guns + themselves. Almost the only man in the navy who fully realized this was + our naval attach at Paris, Lieutenant Sims. He wrote letter after letter + pointing out how frightfully backward we were in marksmanship. I was much + impressed by his letters.... As Sims proved to be mistaken in his belief + that the French had taught the Spaniards how to shoot, and as the + Spaniards proved to be much worse even than we were, in the service + generally Sims was treated as an alarmist. But although I at first partly + acquiesced in this view, I grew uneasy when I studied the small proportion + of hits to shots made by our vessels in battle. When I was President I + took up the matter, and speedily became convinced that we needed to + revolutionize our whole training in marksmanship. Sims was given the lead + in organizing and introducing the new system; and to him more than to any + other one man was due the astonishing progress made by our fleet in this + respect, a progress which made the fleet, gun for gun, at least three + times as effective, in point of fighting efficiency, in 1908, as it was in + 1902" *. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + *Autobiography (Scribner), pp. 212-13. +</pre> + <p> + Theodore Roosevelt was a thoroughgoing, bred-in-the-bone individualist, + but not as the term is ordinarily understood. He continually emphasized + not the rights of the individual, but his duties, obligations, and + opportunities. He knew that human character is the greatest thing in the + world and that men and women are the real forces that move and sway the + world's affairs. So in all his preaching and doing on behalf of a great + and efficient navy, the emphasis that he always laid was upon the men of + the navy, their efficiency and their spirit. He once remarked, "I believe + in the navy of the United States primarily because I believe in the + intelligence, the patriotism, and the fighting edge of the average man of + the navy." To the graduating class at Annapolis, he once said: + </p> + <p> + "There is not one of you who is not derelict in his duty to the whole + Nation if he fails to prepare himself with all the strength that in him + lies to do his duty should the occasion arise; and one of your great + duties is to see that shots hit. The result is going to depend largely + upon whether you or your adversary hits. I expect you to be brave. I + rather take that for granted.... But, in addition, you have got to prepare + yourselves in advance. Every naval action that has taken place in the last + twenty years ... has shown, as a rule, that the defeated party has + suffered not from lack of courage, but because it could not make the best + use of its weapons, or had not been given the right weapons... . I want + every one here to proceed upon the assumption that any foe he may meet + will have the courage. Of course, you have got to show the highest degree + of courage yourself or you will be beaten anyhow, and you will deserve to + be; but in addition to that you must prepare yourselves by careful + training so that you may make the best possible use of the delicate and + formidable mechanism of a modern warship." + </p> + <p> + Theodore Roosevelt was an apostle of preparedness from the hour that he + began to think at all about affairs of public moment—and that hour + came to him earlier in life than it does to most men. In the preface to + his history of the War of 1812, which he wrote at the age of twenty-four, + this sentence appears: "At present people are beginning to realize that it + is folly for the great English-speaking Republic to rely for defense upon + a navy composed partly of antiquated hulks, and partly of new vessels + rather more worthless than the old." His prime interest, from the point of + view of preparedness, lay in the navy. His sense of proportion told him + that the navy was the nation's first line of defense. He knew that without + an efficient navy a nation situated as the United States was would be + helpless before an aggressive enemy, and that, given a navy of sufficient + size and effectiveness, the nation could dispense with a great army. For + the army he demanded not size but merely efficiency. One of his principal + points of attack in his criticism of the army was the system of promotion + for officers. He assailed sharply the existing practice of "promotion by + mere seniority." In one of his messages to Congress he pointed out that a + system of promotion by merit existed in the Military Academy at West + Point. He then went on to say that from the time of the graduation of the + cadets into the army "all effort to find which man is best or worst and + reward or punish him accordingly, is abandoned: no brilliancy, no amount + of hard work, no eagerness in the performance of duty, can advance him, + and no slackness or indifference, that falls short of a court-martial + offense, can retard him. Until this system is changed we cannot hope that + our officers will be of as high grade as we have a right to expect, + considering the material from which we draw. Moreover, when a man renders + such service as Captain Pershing rendered last spring in the Moro + campaign, it ought to be possible to reward him without at once jumping + him to the grade of brigadier-general." + </p> + <p> + It is not surprising to find in this message also a name that was later to + become famous in the Great War. Roosevelt had an uncanny gift of prophecy. + </p> + <p> + More than once, as President, he picked out for appreciation and + commendation the very men who were to do the big things for America when + the critical hour came. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST FOUR YEARS + </h2> + <p> + When the Great War broke out in August, 1914, Roosevelt instantly + stiffened to attention. He immediately began to read the lessons that were + set for the world by the gigantic conflict across the sea and it was not + long before he was passing them on to the American people. Like every + other good citizen, he extended hearty support to the President in his + conduct of America's foreign relations in the crisis. At the same time, + however, he recognized the possibility that a time might come when it + would be a higher moral duty to criticize the Administration than to + continue unqualified support. Three weeks after war had begun, Roosevelt + wrote in "The Outlook": + </p> + <p> + "In common with the immense majority of our fellow countrymen, I shall + certainly stand by not only the public servants in control of the + Administration at Washington, but also all other public servants, no + matter of what party, during this crisis; asking only that they with + wisdom and good faith endeavor to take every step that can be taken to + safeguard the honor and interest of the United States, and, so far as the + opportunity offers, to promote the cause of peace and justice throughout + the world. My hope, of course, is that in their turn the public servants + of the people will take no action so fraught with possible harm to the + future of the people as to oblige farsighted and patriotic men to protest + against it." + </p> + <p> + One month later, in a long article in "The Outlook", Roosevelt reiterated + this view in these words: + </p> + <p> + ".... We, all of us, without regard to party differences, must stand ready + loyally to support the Administration, asking nothing except that the + policy be one that in truth and in fact tells for the honor and interest + of our Nation and in truth and in fact is helpful to the cause of a + permanent and righteous world peace." + </p> + <p> + In the early months of the war, Roosevelt thus scrupulously endeavored to + uphold the President's hands, to utter no criticism that might hamper him, + and to carry out faithfully the President's adjuration to neutrality. He + recognized clearly, however, the price that we must pay for neutrality, + and he set it forth in the following passage from the same article: "A + deputation of Belgians has arrived in this country to invoke our + assistance in the time of their dreadful need. What action our Government + can or will take I know not. It has been announced that no action can be + taken that will interfere with our entire neutrality. It is certainly + eminently desirable that we should remain entirely neutral, and nothing + but urgent need would warrant breaking our neutrality and taking sides one + way or the other. Our first duty is to hold ourselves ready to do whatever + the changing circumstances demand in order to protect our own interests in + the present and in the future; although, for my own part, I desire to add + to this statement the proviso that under no circumstances must we do + anything dishonorable, especially toward unoffending weaker nations. + Neutrality may be of prime necessity in order to preserve our own + interests, to maintain peace in so much of the world as is not affected by + the war, and to conserve our influence for helping toward the + reestablishment of general peace when the time comes; for if any outside + Power is able at such time to be the medium for bringing peace, it is more + likely to be the United States than any other. But we pay the penalty of + this action on behalf of peace for ourselves, and possibly for others in + the future, by forfeiting our right to do anything on behalf of peace for + the Belgians in the present. We can maintain our neutrality only by + refusal to do anything to aid unoffending weak powers which are dragged + into the gulf of bloodshed and misery through no fault of their own. Of + course it would be folly to jump into the gulf ourselves to no good + purpose; and very probably nothing that we could have done would have + helped Belgium. We have not the smallest responsibility for what has + befallen her, and I am sure that the sympathy of this country for the men, + women, and children of Belgium is very real. Nevertheless, this sympathy + is compatible with full acknowledgment of the unwisdom of our uttering a + single word of official protest unless we are prepared to make that + protest effective; and only the clearest and most urgent national duty + would ever justify us in deviating from our rule of neutrality and + noninterference. But it is a grim comment on the professional pacifist + theories as hitherto developed that our duty to preserve peace for + ourselves may necessarily mean the abandonment of all effective efforts to + secure peace for other unoffending nations which through no fault of their + own are dragged into the War." + </p> + <p> + The rest of the article concerned itself with the lessons taught by the + war, the folly of pacifism, the need for preparedness if righteousness is + not to be sacrificed for peace, the worthlessness of treaties unsanctioned + by force, and the desirability of an association of nations for the + prevention of war. On this last point Roosevelt wrote as follows: + </p> + <p> + "But in view of what has occurred in this war, surely the time ought to be + ripe for the nations to consider a great world agreement among all the + civilized military powers TO BACK RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FORCE. Such an + agreement would establish an efficient World League for the Peace of + Righteousness. Such an agreement could limit the amount to be spent on + armaments and, after defining carefully the inalienable rights of each + nation which were not to be transgressed by any other, could also provide + that any cause of difference among them, or between one of them and one of + a certain number of designated outside non-military nations, should be + submitted to an international court, including citizens of all these + nations, chosen not as representatives of the nations, BUT AS JUDGES and + perhaps in any given case the particular judges could be chosen by lot + from the total number. To supplement and make this effectual it should be + solemnly covenanted that if any nation refused to abide by the decision of + such a court the others would draw the sword on behalf of peace and + justice, and would unitedly coerce the recalcitrant nation. This plan + would not automatically bring peace, and it may be too soon to hope for + its adoption; but if some such scheme could be adopted, in good faith and + with a genuine purpose behind it to make it effective, then we would have + come nearer to the day of world peace. World peace will not come save in + some such manner as that whereby we obtain peace within the borders of + each nation; that is, by the creation of reasonably impartial judges and + by putting an efficient police power—that is, by putting force in + efficient fashion—behind the decrees of the judges. At present each + nation must in the last resort trust to its own strength if it is to + preserve all that makes life worth having. At present this is imperative. + This state of things can be abolished only when we put force, when we put + the collective armed power of civilization, behind some body which shall + with reasonable justice and equity represent the collective determination + of civilization to do what is right." + </p> + <p> + From this beginning Roosevelt went on vigorously preaching preparedness + against war; and the Great War had been raging for a scant seven months + when he was irresistibly impelled to utter open criticism of President + Wilson. In April, 1915, in The Metropolitan Magazine, to which he had + transferred his writings, he declared that "the United States, thanks to + Messrs. Wilson and Bryan, has signally failed in its duty toward Belgium." + He maintained that the United States, under the obligations assumed by the + signature of The Hague Conventions, should have protested to Germany + against the invasion of Belgium. + </p> + <p> + For two years thereafter, while Germany slapped America first on one cheek + and then on the other, and treacherously stabbed her with slinking spies + and dishonored diplomats, Roosevelt preached, with growing indignation and + vehemence, the cause of preparedness and national honor. He found it + impossible to support the President further. In February, 1916, he wrote: + </p> + <p> + "Eighteen months have gone by since the Great War broke out. It needed no + prescience, no remarkable statesmanship or gift of forecasting the future, + to see that, when such mighty forces were unloosed, and when it had been + shown that all treaties and other methods hitherto relied upon for + national protection and for mitigating the horror and circumscribing the + area of war were literally 'scraps of paper,' it had become a vital + necessity that we should instantly and on a great and adequate scale + prepare for our own defense. Our men, women, and children—not in + isolated cases, but in scores and hundreds of cases—have been + murdered by Germany and Mexico; and we have tamely submitted to wrongs + from Germany and Mexico of a kind to which no nation can submit without + impairing its own self-respect and incurring the contempt of the rest of + mankind. Yet, during these eighteen months not one thing has been done.... + Never in the country's history has there been a more stupendous instance + of folly than this crowning folly of waiting eighteen months after the + elemental crash of nations took place before even making a start in an + effort—and an utterly inefficient and insufficient effort-for some + kind of preparation to ward off disaster in the future. + </p> + <p> + "If President Wilson had shown the disinterested patriotism, courage, and + foresight demanded by this stupendous crisis, I would have supported him + with hearty enthusiasm. But his action, or rather inaction, has been such + that it has become a matter of high patriotic duty to oppose him.... No + man can support Mr. Wilson without at the same time supporting a policy of + criminal inefficiency as regards the United States Navy, of short-sighted + inadequacy as regards the army, of abandonment of the duty owed by the + United States to weak and well-behaved nations, and of failure to insist + on our just rights when we are ourselves maltreated by powerful and + unscrupulous nations." + </p> + <p> + Theodore Roosevelt could not, without violating the integrity of his own + soul, go on supporting either positively by word or negatively by silence + the man who had said, on the day after the Lusitania was sunk, "There is + such a thing as a nation being too proud to fight," and who later called + for a "peace without victory." He could have nothing but scorn for an + Administration whose Secretary of War could say, two months after the + United States had actually entered the war, that there was "difficulty. .. + disorder and confusion... in getting things started," and could then add, + "but it is a happy confusion. I delight in the fact that when we entered + this war we were not like our adversary, ready for it, anxious for it, + prepared for it, and inviting it." + </p> + <p> + Until America entered the war Roosevelt used his voice and his pen with + all his native energy and fire to convince the American people of three + things that righteousness demanded that the United States forsake its + supine neutrality and act; that the United States should prepare itself + thoroughly for any emergency that might arise; and that the hyphenated + Americanism of those who, while enjoying the benefits of American + citizenship, "intrigue and conspire against the United States, and do + their utmost to promote the success of Germany and to weaken the defense + of this nation" should be rigorously curbed. The sermons that he preached + on this triple theme were sorely needed. No leadership in this phase of + national life was forthcoming from the quarter where the American people + had every right to look for leadership. The White House had its face set + in the opposite direction. + </p> + <p> + In August, 1915, an incident occurred which set the contrast between the + Rooseveltian and Wilsonian lines of thought in bold relief. Largely + through the initiative of General Leonard Wood there had been organized at + Plattsburg, New York, an officers' training camp where American business + men were given an all too brief course of training in the art and duty of + leading soldiers in camp and in the field. General Wood was in command of + the Plattsburg camp. He invited Roosevelt to address the men in training. + Roosevelt accepted gladly, and in the course of his speech made these + significant statements: + </p> + <p> + "For thirteen months America has played an ignoble part among the nations. + We have tamely submitted to seeing the weak, whom we have covenanted to + protect, wronged. We have seen our men, women, and children murdered on + the high seas without protest. We have used elocution as a substitute for + action. + </p> + <p> + "During this time our government has not taken the smallest step in the + way of preparedness to defend our own rights. Yet these thirteen months + have made evident the lamentable fact that force is more dominant now in + the affairs of the world than ever before, that the most powerful of + modern military nations is utterly brutal and ruthless in its disregard of + international morality, and that righteousness divorced from force is + utterly futile. Reliance upon high sounding words, unbacked by deeds, is + proof of a mind that dwells only in the realm of shadow and of sham. + </p> + <p> + "It is not a lofty thing, on the contrary, it is an evil thing, to + practise a timid and selfish neutrality between right and wrong. It is + wrong for an individual. It is still more wrong for a nation. + </p> + <p> + "Therefore, friends, let us shape our conduct as a nation in accordance + with the highest rules of international morality. Let us treat others + justly and keep the engagements we have made, such as these in The Hague + conventions, to secure just treatment for others. But let us remember that + we shall be wholly unable to render service to others and wholly unable to + fulfill the prime law of national being, the law of self-preservation, + unless we are thoroughly prepared to hold our own. Let us show that a free + democracy can defend itself successfully against any organized and + aggressive military despotism." + </p> + <p> + The men in the camp heard him gladly and with enthusiasm. But the next day + the Secretary of War sent a telegram of censure to General Wood in which + he said: + </p> + <p> + "I have just seen the reports in the newspapers of the speech made by + ex-President Roosevelt at the Plattsburg camp. It is difficult to conceive + of anything which could have a more detrimental effect upon the real value + of this experiment than such an incident.... No opportunity should have + been furnished to any one to present to the men any matter excepting that + which was essential to the necessary training they were to receive. + Anything else could only have the effect of distracting attention from the + real nature of the experiment, diverting consideration to issues which + excite controversy, antagonism, and ill feeling and thereby impairing if + not destroying, what otherwise would have been so effective." + </p> + <p> + On this telegram Roosevelt's comment was pungent: "If the Administration + had displayed one-tenth the spirit and energy in holding Germany and + Mexico to account for the murder of men, women, and children that it is + now displaying in the endeavor to prevent our people from being taught the + need of preparation to prevent the repetition of such murders in the + future, it would be rendering a service to the people of the country." + </p> + <p> + Theodore Roosevelt could have little effect upon the material preparedness + of the United States for the struggle which it was ultimately to enter. + But he could and did have a powerful effect upon the spiritual + preparedness of the American people for the efforts, the trials, and the + sacrifices of that struggle. No voice was raised more persistently or more + consistently than his. No personality was thrown with more power and more + effect into the task of arousing the people of the United States to their + duty to take part in the struggle against Prussianism. No man, in public + or private life, urged so vigorously and effectively the call to arms + against evil and for the right. His was the "voice crying in the + wilderness," and to him the American spirit hearkened and awoke. + </p> + <p> + At last the moment came. Roosevelt had but one desire and one thought. He + wanted to get to the firing-line. This was no impulse, no newly formed + project. For two months he had been in correspondence with the Secretary + of War on the subject. A year or more before that he had offered, in case + America went into the war, to raise a volunteer force, train it, and take + it across to the front. The idea was not new to him, even then. As far + back as 1912 he had said on several different occasions, "If the United + States should get into another war, I should raise a brigade of cavalry + and lead it as I did my regiment in Cuba." It never occurred to him in + those days that a former Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, + with actual experience in the field, would be refused permission to + command troops in an American war. The idea would hardly have occurred to + any one else. But that is precisely what happened. + </p> + <p> + On February 2, 1917, Roosevelt wrote to the Secretary of War reminding him + that his application for permission to raise a division of infantry was + already on file in the Department, saying that he was about to sail for + Jamaica, and asking the Secretary to inform him if he believed there would + be war and a call for volunteers, for in that case he did not intend to + sail. Secretary Baker replied, "No situation has arisen which would + justify my suggesting a postponement of the trip you propose." Before this + reply was received Roosevelt had written a second letter saying that, as + the President had meanwhile broken off diplomatic relations with Germany, + he should of course not sail. He renewed his request for permission to + raise a division, and asked if a certain regular officer whom he would + like to have for his divisional Chief of Staff, if the division were + authorized, might be permitted to come to see him with a view to "making + all preparations that are possible in advance." To this the Secretary + replied, "No action in the direction suggested by you can be taken without + the express sanction of Congress. Should the contingency Occur which you + have in mind, it is to be expected that Congress will complete its + legislation relating to volunteer forces and provide, under its own + conditions, for the appointment of officers for the higher commands." + </p> + <p> + Roosevelt waited five weeks and then earnestly renewed his request. He + declared his purpose to take his division, after some six weeks of + preliminary training, direct to France for intensive training so that it + could be sent to the front in the shortest possible time. Secretary Baker + replied that no additional armies could be raised without the consent of + Congress, that a plan for a much larger army was ready for the action of + Congress when ever required, and that the general officers for all + volunteer forces were to be drawn from the regular army. To this Roosevelt + replied with the respectful suggestion that, as a retired + Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, he was eligible to any + position of command over American troops. He recounted also his record of + actual military experience and referred the Secretary to his immediate + superiors in the field in Cuba as to his fitness for command of troops. + </p> + <p> + When war had been finally declared, Secretary Baker and Roosevelt + conferred together at length about the matter. Thereafter Mr. Baker wrote + definitely, declaring that he would be obliged to withhold his approval + from an expedition of the sort proposed. The grounds which he gave for the + decision were that the soldiers sent across must not be "deprived... of + the most experienced leadership available, in deference to any mere + sentimental consideration," and that it should appear from every aspect of + the expeditionary force, if one should be sent over (a point not yet + determined upon) that "military considerations alone had determined its + composition." + </p> + <p> + To this definite refusal on the part of the Secretary of War Roosevelt + replied at length. In his letter was a characteristic passage commenting + upon Secretary Baker's reference to "sentimental considerations": + </p> + <p> + "I have not asked you to consider any "sentimental value" in this matter. + I am speaking of moral effect, not of sentimental value. Sentimentality is + as different from morality as Rousseau's life from Abraham Lincoln's. I + have just received a letter from James Bryce urging "the dispatch of an + American force to the theater of war," and saying, "The moral effect of + the appearance in the war line of an American force would be immense." + From representatives of the French and British Governments and of the + French, British, and Canadian military authorities, I have received + statements to the same effect, in even more emphatic form, and earnest + hopes that I myself should be in the force. Apparently your military + advisers in this matter seek to persuade you that a "military policy" has + nothing to do with "moral effect." If so, their militarism is like that of + the Aulic Council of Vienna in the Napoleonic Wars, and not like that of + Napoleon, who stated that in war the moral was to the material as two to + one. These advisers will do well to follow the teachings of Napoleon and + not those of the pedantic militarists of the Aulic Council, who were the + helpless victims of Napoleon." + </p> + <p> + Secretary Baker replied with a reiteration of his refusal. Roosevelt made + one further attempt. When the Draft Law passed Congress, carrying with it + the authorization to use volunteer forces, he telegraphed the President + asking permission to raise two divisions, and four if so directed. The + President replied with a definite negative, declaring that his conclusions + were "based entirely upon imperative considerations of public policy and + not upon personal or private choice." Meanwhile applications had been + received from over three hundred thousand men desirous of joining + Roosevelt's volunteer force, of whom it was estimated that at least two + hundred thousand were physically fit, double the number needed for four + divisions. That a single private citizen, by "one blast upon his bugle + horn" should have been able to call forth three hundred thousand + volunteers, all over draft age, was a tremendous testimony to his power. + If his offer had been accepted when it was first made, there would have + been an American force on the field in France long before one actually + arrived there. It was widely believed, among men of intelligence and + insight, not only in America but in Great Britain and France, that the + arrival of such a force, under the command of a man known, admired, and + loved the world over, would have been a splendid reinforcement to the + Allied morale and a sudden blow to the German confidence. But the + Administration would not have it so. + </p> + <p> + I shall never forget one evening with Theodore Roosevelt on a speaking + tour which he was making through the South in 1912. There came to our + private car for dinner Senator Clarke of Arkansas and Jack Greenway, young + giant of football fame and experience with the Rough Riders in Cuba. After + dinner, Jack, who like many giants, is one of the most diffident men + alive, said hesitatingly: + </p> + <p> + "Colonel, I've long wanted to ask you something." + </p> + <p> + "Go right ahead," said T. R., "what is it?" + </p> + <p> + "Well, Colonel," said Jack, "I've always believed that it was your + ambition to die on the field of battle." + </p> + <p> + T. R. brought his hand down on the table with a crash that must have hurt + the wood. + </p> + <p> + "By Jove," said he, "how did you know that?" + </p> + <p> + "Well, Colonel," said Jack, "do you remember that day in Cuba, when you + and I were going along a trail and came upon ____ [one of the regiment] + propped against a tree, shot through the abdomen? It was evident that he + was done for. But instead of commiserating him, you grabbed his hand and + said something like this, 'Well, old man, isn't this splendid!' Ever since + then I've been sure you would be glad to die in battle yourself." + </p> + <p> + T. R.'s face sobered a little. + </p> + <p> + "You're right, Jack," he said. "I would." + </p> + <p> + The end of Theodore Roosevelt's life seemed to come to him not in action + but in quietness. But the truth was other than that. For it, let us turn + again to Browning's lines: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I was ever a fighter, so—one fight more, + The best and the last! + I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, + And bade me creep past. +</pre> + <p> + On the fifth of January in 1919, after sixty years of life, full of + unwearied fighting against evil and injustice and falseness, he "fell on + sleep." The end came peacefully in the night hours at Sagamore Hill. But + until he laid him down that night, the fight he waged had known no + relaxation. Nine months before he had expected death, when a serious + mastoid operation had drained his vital forces. Then his one thought had + been, not for himself, but for his sons to whom had been given the + precious privilege, denied to him, of taking part in their country's and + the world's great fight for righteousness. His sister, Mrs. Corinne + Douglas Robinson, tells how in those shadowy hours he beckoned her to him + and in the frailest of whispers said, "I'm glad it's I that lie here and + that my boys are in the fight over there." + </p> + <p> + His last, best fight was worthy of all the rest. With voice and pen he + roused the minds and the hearts of his countrymen to their high mission in + defense of human rights. It was not given to him to fall on the field of + battle. But he went down with his face to the forces of evil with which he + had never sought a truce. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE + </h2> + <p> + The reader who is primarily interested in the career and personality of + Roosevelt would do well to begin with his own volume, "Theodore Roosevelt, + An Autobiography". But it was written in 1912, before the great campaign + which produced the Progressive party. + </p> + <p> + "Theodore Roosevelt the Citizen" (1904), by Jacob A. Riis, was published + just after Roosevelt became President. It is an intimate and naively + enthusiastic portrait by a man who was an intimate friend and an ardent + admirer. + </p> + <p> + There are two lives written since his death that are complete and + discriminating. They are "The Life of Theodore Roosevelt" (1919), by + William Draper Lewis, and "Theodore Roosevelt, an Intimate Biography" + (1919), by William Roscoe Thayer. + </p> + <p> + "Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt" (1919) is a volume of first-hand + experiences, written by Lawrence F. Abbott of "The Outlook". The author + was closely associated with Roosevelt on "The Outlook"; and after the + African hunting trip met him at Khartum and went with him on his tour of + the capitals of Europe. + </p> + <p> + A small volume by Charles G. Washburn, "Theodore Roosevelt, the Logic of + His Career" (1916), contains the interpretation of a long-time friend and + sincere admirer. + </p> + <p> + Collections of Roosevelt's writings and speeches covering the years from + his becoming Governor of New York to the end of his Presidential terms are + found in "The Roosevelt Policy", 2 vols. (1908) and "Presidential + Addresses and State Papers", 4 vols. (1904). "The New Nationalism" (1910) + is a collection of his speeches delivered between his return from Africa + and the beginning of the Progressive campaign. His writings and speeches + during the Great War are found in several volumes: "America and the World + War" (1915); "Fear God and Take Your Own Part" (1916); "The Foes of Our + Own Household" (1917); "The Great Adventure" (1919). + </p> + <p> + Material on the Progressive movement and the Progressive party are to be + found in "The Progressive Movement" (1915), by Benjamin Parke De Witt, + "The Progressive Movement, Its Principles and Its Programme" (1913), by S. + J. Duncan-Clark, "Presidential Nominations and Elections" (1916), by + Joseph Bucklin Bishop, and "Third Party Movements" (1916), by Fred E. + Haynes. The story of La Follette is set forth at greater length in his + "Autobiography; A Personal Narrative of Political Experiences" (1918). + Three other autobiographies contribute to an understanding of politics: + "The Autobiography of Thomas C. Platt" (1910); J. B. Foraker, "Notes of a + Busy Life", 2 vols. (1916). S. M. Cullom, "Fifty Years of Public Service" + (1911). + </p> + <p> + The history of the country during the years when Roosevelt became a + national figure is recounted by J. H. Latane in "America as a World Power" + and by F. A. Ogg in "National Progress", both volumes in the "American + Nation" Series. Briefer summaries of the general history of at least a + part of the period treated in the present volume are to be found in + Frederic L. Paxson's "The New Nation" (1915), and Charles A. Beard's + "Contemporary American History" (1914). + </p> + <p> + The prosecution of the trusts may be followed in "Trust Laws and Unfair + Competition" (Government Printing Office, 1916). Much useful material is + contained in "Trusts, Pools and Corporations", edited by W. Z. Ripley + (1916). W. H. Taft in "The Anti-Trust Law and the Supreme Court" (1914) + defends the Sherman Act as interpreted by the courts during his + administration. + </p> + <p> + The progress of social and industrial justice is outlined in "Principles + of Labor Legislation" (1916), by John R. Commons and John B. Andrews. The + problems of conservation and the history of governmental policy are set + forth by C. R. Van Hise in "The Conservation of Natural Resources in the + United States" (1910). + </p> + <p> + The "American Year Book" for the years 1910 to 1919 and the "New + International Year Book" for the years 1907 to 1919 are invaluable sources + of accurate and comprehensive information on the current history of the + United States for the period which they cover. + </p> + <p> + Willis Fletcher Johnson's "America's Foreign Relations", 2 vols. (1915) is + a history of the relations of the United States to the rest of the world. + A shorter account is given in C. R. Fish's "American Diplomacy" (1915). + </p> + <p> + But much of the best material for the historical study of the first decade + and a half of the twentieth century is to be found in the pages of the + magazines and periodicals published during those years. "The Outlook", + "The Independent", "The Literary Digest", "Collier's", "The Review of + Reviews", "The World's Work", "Current Opinion", "The Nation", "The + Commoner", La Follette's "Weekly"—all these are sources of great + value. The Outlook is of especial usefulness because of Mr. Roosevelt's + connection with it as Contributing Editor during the years between 1909 + and 1914. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Theodore Roosevelt and His Times, by Harold Howland + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEODORE ROOSEVELT AND HIS TIMES *** + +***** This file should be named 2724-h.htm or 2724-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/2/2724/ + +Produced by The James J. 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