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diff --git a/3335.txt b/3335.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a43d708 --- /dev/null +++ b/3335.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20156 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Theodore Roosevelt, by Theodore Roosevelt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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 + An Autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt + +Author: Theodore Roosevelt + +Release Date: April 5, 2006 [EBook #3335] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEODORE ROOSEVELT *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; John Bickers + + + + + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + +By Theodore Roosevelt + + PREPARER'S NOTE + + This Etext was prepared from a 1920 edition, + published by Charles Scribner's Sons. + The book was first published in 1913. + + + CONTENTS + + Forward + Boyhood and Youth + The Vigor of Life + Practical Politics + In Cowboy Land + Applied Idealism + The New York Police + The War of America the Unready + The New York Governorship + Outdoors and Indoors + The Presidency; Making an Old Party Progressive + The Natural Resources of the Nation + The Big Stick and the Square Deal + Social and Industrial Justice + The Monroe Doctrine and the Panama Canal + The Peace of Righteousness + + + + + +FOREWORD + +Naturally, there are chapters of my autobiography which cannot now be +written. + +It seems to me that, for the nation as for the individual, what is most +important is to insist on the vital need of combining certain sets +of qualities, which separately are common enough, and, alas, useless +enough. Practical efficiency is common, and lofty idealism not uncommon; +it is the combination which is necessary, and the combination is rare. +Love of peace is common among weak, short-sighted, timid, and lazy +persons; and on the other hand courage is found among many men of evil +temper and bad character. Neither quality shall by itself avail. Justice +among the nations of mankind, and the uplifting of humanity, can be +brought about only by those strong and daring men who with wisdom love +peace, but who love righteousness more than peace. Facing the immense +complexity of modern social and industrial conditions, there is need to +use freely and unhesitatingly the collective power of all of us; and +yet no exercise of collective power will ever avail if the average +individual does not keep his or her sense of personal duty, initiative, +and responsibility. There is need to develop all the virtues that have +the state for their sphere of action; but these virtues are as dust in a +windy street unless back of them lie the strong and tender virtues of +a family life based on the love of the one man for the one woman and on +their joyous and fearless acceptance of their common obligation to the +children that are theirs. There must be the keenest sense of duty, and +with it must go the joy of living; there must be shame at the thought of +shirking the hard work of the world, and at the same time delight in +the many-sided beauty of life. With soul of flame and temper of steel we +must act as our coolest judgment bids us. We must exercise the largest +charity towards the wrong-doer that is compatible with relentless war +against the wrong-doing. We must be just to others, generous to others, +and yet we must realize that it is a shameful and a wicked thing not to +withstand oppression with high heart and ready hand. With gentleness and +tenderness there must go dauntless bravery and grim acceptance of labor +and hardship and peril. All for each, and each for all, is a good motto; +but only on condition that each works with might and main to so maintain +himself as not to be a burden to others. + +We of the great modern democracies must strive unceasingly to make our +several countries lands in which a poor man who works hard can +live comfortably and honestly, and in which a rich man cannot live +dishonestly nor in slothful avoidance of duty; and yet we must judge +rich man and poor man alike by a standard which rests on conduct and not +on caste, and we must frown with the same stern severity on the mean and +vicious envy which hates and would plunder a man because he is well off +and on the brutal and selfish arrogance which looks down on and exploits +the man with whom life has gone hard. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +SAGAMORE HILL, October 1, 1913. + + + + + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT + + + +CHAPTER I + +BOYHOOD AND YOUTH + +My grandfather on my father's side was of almost purely Dutch blood. +When he was young he still spoke some Dutch, and Dutch was last used +in the services of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York while he was a +small boy. + +About 1644 his ancestor Klaes Martensen van Roosevelt came to New +Amsterdam as a "settler"--the euphemistic name for an immigrant who +came over in the steerage of a sailing ship in the seventeenth century +instead of the steerage of a steamer in the nineteenth century. From +that time for the next seven generations from father to son every one of +us was born on Manhattan Island. + +My father's paternal ancestors were of Holland stock; except that there +was one named Waldron, a wheelwright, who was one of the Pilgrims who +remained in Holland when the others came over to found Massachusetts, +and who then accompanied the Dutch adventurers to New Amsterdam. +My father's mother was a Pennsylvanian. Her forebears had come to +Pennsylvania with William Penn, some in the same ship with him; they +were of the usual type of the immigration of that particular place and +time. They included Welsh and English Quakers, an Irishman,--with a +Celtic name, and apparently not a Quaker,--and peace-loving Germans, +who were among the founders of Germantown, having been driven from their +Rhineland homes when the armies of Louis the Fourteenth ravaged +the Palatinate; and, in addition, representatives of a by-no-means +altogether peaceful people, the Scotch Irish, who came to Pennsylvania +a little later, early in the eighteenth century. My grandmother was a +woman of singular sweetness and strength, the keystone of the arch in +her relations with her husband and sons. Although she was not herself +Dutch, it was she who taught me the only Dutch I ever knew, a baby +song of which the first line ran, "Trippe troppa tronjes." I always +remembered this, and when I was in East Africa it proved a bond of union +between me and the Boer settlers, not a few of whom knew it, although at +first they always had difficulty in understanding my pronunciation--at +which I do not wonder. It was interesting to meet these men whose +ancestors had gone to the Cape about the time that mine went to America +two centuries and a half previously, and to find that the descendants +of the two streams of emigrants still crooned to their children some at +least of the same nursery songs. + +Of my great-grandfather Roosevelt and his family life a century and over +ago I know little beyond what is implied in some of his books that have +come down to me--the Letters of Junius, a biography of John Paul Jones, +Chief Justice Marshall's "Life of Washington." They seem to indicate +that his library was less interesting than that of my wife's +great-grandfather at the same time, which certainly included such +volumes as the original _Edinburgh Review_, for we have them now on our +own book-shelves. Of my grandfather Roosevelt my most vivid childish +reminiscence is not something I saw, but a tale that was told me +concerning him. In _his_ boyhood Sunday was as dismal a day for small +Calvinistic children of Dutch descent as if they had been of Puritan or +Scotch Covenanting or French Huguenot descent--and I speak as one proud +of his Holland, Huguenot, and Covenanting ancestors, and proud that the +blood of that stark Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards flows in the veins +of his children. One summer afternoon, after listening to an unusually +long Dutch Reformed sermon for the second time that day, my grandfather, +a small boy, running home before the congregation had dispersed, ran +into a party of pigs, which then wandered free in New York's streets. He +promptly mounted a big boar, which no less promptly bolted and carried +him at full speed through the midst of the outraged congregation. + +By the way, one of the Roosevelt documents which came down to me +illustrates the change that has come over certain aspects of public life +since the time which pessimists term "the earlier and better days of +the Republic." Old Isaac Roosevelt was a member of an Auditing Committee +which shortly after the close of the Revolution approved the following +bill: + + The State of New York, to John Cape Dr. + + To a Dinner Given by His Excellency the Governor + and Council to their Excellencies the Minnister of + France and General Washington & Co. + + 1783 + December + To 120 dinners at 48: 0:0 + To 135 Bottles Madira 54: 0:0 + " 36 ditto Port 10:16:0 + " 60 ditto English Beer 9: 0:0 + " 30 Bouls Punch 9: 0:0 + " 8 dinners for Musick 1:12:0 + " 10 ditto for Sarvts 2: 0:0 + " 60 Wine Glasses Broken 4:10:0 + " 8 Cutt decanters Broken 3: 0:0 + " Coffee for 8 Gentlemen 1:12:0 + " Music fees &ca 8: 0:0 + " Fruit & Nuts 5: 0:0 + 156:10:0 + By Cash . . . 100:16:0 + 55:14:0 + WE a Committee of Council having examined + the above account do certify it (amounting to + one hundred and fifty-six Pounds ten Shillings) + to be just. + December 17th 1783. + ISAAC ROOSEVELT + JAS. DUANE + EGBT. BENSON + FRED. JAY + Received the above Contents in full + New York 17th December 1783 + JOHN CAPE + +Think of the Governor of New York now submitting such a bill for such an +entertainment of the French Ambassador and the President of the United +States! Falstaff's views of the proper proportion between sack and bread +are borne out by the proportion between the number of bowls of punch and +bottles of port, Madeira, and beer consumed, and the "coffee for eight +gentlemen"--apparently the only ones who lasted through to that stage +of the dinner. Especially admirable is the nonchalant manner in which, +obviously as a result of the drinking of said bottles of wine and +bowls of punch, it is recorded that eight cut-glass decanters and sixty +wine-glasses were broken. + +During the Revolution some of my forefathers, North and South, served +respectably, but without distinction, in the army, and others rendered +similar service in the Continental Congress or in various local +legislatures. By that time those who dwelt in the North were for the +most part merchants, and those who dwelt in the South, planters. + +My mother's people were predominantly of Scotch, but also of Huguenot +and English, descent. She was a Georgian, her people having come to +Georgia from South Carolina before the Revolution. The original Bulloch +was a lad from near Glasgow, who came hither a couple of centuries ago, +just as hundreds of thousands of needy, enterprising Scotchmen have gone +to the four quarters of the globe in the intervening two hundred +years. My mother's great-grandfather, Archibald Bulloch, was the first +Revolutionary "President" of Georgia. My grandfather, her father, spent +the winters in Savannah and the summers at Roswell, in the Georgia +uplands near Atlanta, finally making Roswell his permanent home. He +used to travel thither with his family and their belongings in his own +carriage, followed by a baggage wagon. I never saw Roswell until I was +President, but my mother told me so much about the place that when I did +see it I felt as if I already knew every nook and corner of it, and as +if it were haunted by the ghosts of all the men and women who had lived +there. I do not mean merely my own family, I mean the slaves. My mother +and her sister, my aunt, used to tell us children all kinds of stories +about the slaves. One of the most fascinating referred to a very old +darky called Bear Bob, because in the early days of settlement he had +been partially scalped by a black bear. Then there was Mom' Grace, who +was for a time my mother's nurse, and whom I had supposed to be dead, +but who greeted me when I did come to Roswell, very respectable, and +apparently with years of life before her. The two chief personages of +the drama that used to be repeated to us were Daddy Luke, the Negro +overseer, and his wife, Mom' Charlotte. I never saw either Daddy Luke +or Mom' Charlotte, but I inherited the care of them when my mother died. +After the close of the war they resolutely refused to be emancipated +or leave the place. The only demand they made upon us was enough money +annually to get a new "critter," that is, a mule. With a certain lack of +ingenuity the mule was reported each Christmas as having passed away, +or at least as having become so infirm as to necessitate a successor--a +solemn fiction which neither deceived nor was intended to deceive, but +which furnished a gauge for the size of the Christmas gift. + +My maternal grandfather's house was on the line of Sherman's march to +the sea, and pretty much everything in it that was portable was taken by +the boys in blue, including most of the books in the library. When I +was President the facts about my ancestry were published, and a +former soldier in Sherman's army sent me back one of the books with +my grandfather's name in it. It was a little copy of the poems of "Mr. +Gray"--an eighteenth-century edition printed in Glasgow. + +On October 27, 1858, I was born at No. 28 East Twentieth Street, New +York City, in the house in which we lived during the time that my two +sisters and my brother and I were small children. It was furnished +in the canonical taste of the New York which George William Curtis +described in the _Potiphar Papers_. The black haircloth furniture in the +dining-room scratched the bare legs of the children when they sat on +it. The middle room was a library, with tables, chairs, and bookcases of +gloomy respectability. It was without windows, and so was available only +at night. The front room, the parlor, seemed to us children to be a room +of much splendor, but was open for general use only on Sunday evening +or on rare occasions when there were parties. The Sunday evening family +gathering was the redeeming feature in a day which otherwise we children +did not enjoy--chiefly because we were all of us made to wear clean +clothes and keep neat. The ornaments of that parlor I remember now, +including the gas chandelier decorated with a great quantity of +cut-glass prisms. These prisms struck me as possessing peculiar +magnificence. One of them fell off one day, and I hastily grabbed it and +stowed it away, passing several days of furtive delight in the treasure, +a delight always alloyed with fear that I would be found out and +convicted of larceny. There was a Swiss wood-carving representing a very +big hunter on one side of an exceedingly small mountain, and a herd +of chamois, disproportionately small for the hunter and large for the +mountain, just across the ridge. This always fascinated us; but there +was a small chamois kid for which we felt agonies lest the hunter might +come on it and kill it. There was also a Russian moujik drawing a gilt +sledge on a piece of malachite. Some one mentioned in my hearing that +malachite was a valuable marble. This fixed in my mind that it was +valuable exactly as diamonds are valuable. I accepted that moujik as +a priceless work of art, and it was not until I was well in middle age +that it occurred to me that I was mistaken. + +Now and then we children were taken round to our grandfather's house; +a big house for the New York of those days, on the corner of Fourteenth +Street and Broadway, fronting Union Square. Inside there was a large +hall running up to the roof; there was a tessellated black-and-white +marble floor, and a circular staircase round the sides of the hall, from +the top floor down. We children much admired both the tessellated floor +and the circular staircase. I think we were right about the latter, but +I am not so sure as to the tessellated floor. + +The summers we spent in the country, now at one place, now at another. +We children, of course, loved the country beyond anything. We disliked +the city. We were always wildly eager to get to the country when spring +came, and very sad when in the late fall the family moved back to town. +In the country we of course had all kinds of pets--cats, dogs, rabbits, +a coon, and a sorrel Shetland pony named General Grant. When my younger +sister first heard of the real General Grant, by the way, she was much +struck by the coincidence that some one should have given him the same +name as the pony. (Thirty years later my own children had _their_ pony +Grant.) In the country we children ran barefoot much of the time, +and the seasons went by in a round of uninterrupted and enthralling +pleasures--supervising the haying and harvesting, picking apples, +hunting frogs successfully and woodchucks unsuccessfully, gathering +hickory-nuts and chestnuts for sale to patient parents, building wigwams +in the woods, and sometimes playing Indians in too realistic manner by +staining ourselves (and incidentally our clothes) in liberal fashion +with poke-cherry juice. Thanksgiving was an appreciated festival, but it +in no way came up to Christmas. Christmas was an occasion of literally +delirious joy. In the evening we hung up our stockings--or rather the +biggest stockings we could borrow from the grown-ups--and before dawn we +trooped in to open them while sitting on father's and mother's bed; +and the bigger presents were arranged, those for each child on its own +table, in the drawing-room, the doors to which were thrown open after +breakfast. I never knew any one else have what seemed to me such +attractive Christmases, and in the next generation I tried to reproduce +them exactly for my own children. + +My father, Theodore Roosevelt, was the best man I ever knew. He +combined strength and courage with gentleness, tenderness, and great +unselfishness. He would not tolerate in us children selfishness or +cruelty, idleness, cowardice, or untruthfulness. As we grew older he +made us understand that the same standard of clean living was demanded +for the boys as for the girls; that what was wrong in a woman could +not be right in a man. With great love and patience, and the most +understanding sympathy and consideration, he combined insistence on +discipline. He never physically punished me but once, but he was the +only man of whom I was ever really afraid. I do not mean that it was +a wrong fear, for he was entirely just, and we children adored him. We +used to wait in the library in the evening until we could hear his key +rattling in the latch of the front hall, and then rush out to greet him; +and we would troop into his room while he was dressing, to stay there as +long as we were permitted, eagerly examining anything which came out +of his pockets which could be regarded as an attractive novelty. Every +child has fixed in his memory various details which strike it as of +grave importance. The trinkets he used to keep in a little box on his +dressing-table we children always used to speak of as "treasures." +The word, and some of the trinkets themselves, passed on to the next +generation. My own children, when small, used to troop into my room +while I was dressing, and the gradually accumulating trinkets in the +"ditty-box"--the gift of an enlisted man in the navy--always excited +rapturous joy. On occasions of solemn festivity each child would receive +a trinket for his or her "very own." My children, by the way, enjoyed +one pleasure I do not remember enjoying myself. When I came back from +riding, the child who brought the bootjack would itself promptly get +into the boots, and clump up and down the room with a delightful feeling +of kinship with Jack of the seven-league strides. + +The punishing incident I have referred to happened when I was four years +old. I bit my elder sister's arm. I do not remember biting her arm, but +I do remember running down to the yard, perfectly conscious that I had +committed a crime. From the yard I went into the kitchen, got some dough +from the cook, and crawled under the kitchen table. In a minute or two +my father entered from the yard and asked where I was. The warm-hearted +Irish cook had a characteristic contempt for "informers," but although +she said nothing she compromised between informing and her conscience +by casting a look under the table. My father immediately dropped on all +fours and darted for me. I feebly heaved the dough at him, and, having +the advantage of him because I could stand up under the table, got +a fair start for the stairs, but was caught halfway up them. The +punishment that ensued fitted the crime, and I hope--and believe--that +it did me good. + +I never knew any one who got greater joy out of living than did my +father, or any one who more whole-heartedly performed every duty; and no +one whom I have ever met approached his combination of enjoyment of life +and performance of duty. He and my mother were given to a hospitality +that at that time was associated more commonly with southern than +northern households; and, especially in their later years when they +had moved up town, in the neighborhood of Central Park, they kept a +charming, open house. + +My father worked hard at his business, for he died when he was +forty-six, too early to have retired. He was interested in every social +reform movement, and he did an immense amount of practical charitable +work himself. He was a big, powerful man, with a leonine face, and his +heart filled with gentleness for those who needed help or protection, +and with the possibility of much wrath against a bully or an oppressor. +He was very fond of riding both on the road and across the country, and +was also a great whip. He usually drove four-in-hand, or else a spike +team, that is, a pair with a third horse in the lead. I do not suppose +that such a team exists now. The trap that he drove we always called the +high phaeton. The wheels turned under in front. I have it yet. He drove +long-tailed horses, harnessed loose in light American harness, so that +the whole rig had no possible resemblance to anything that would be seen +now. My father always excelled in improving every spare half-hour or +three-quarters of an hour, whether for work or enjoyment. Much of his +four-in-hand driving was done in the summer afternoons when he would +come out on the train from his business in New York. My mother and one +or perhaps two of us children might meet him at the station. I can see +him now getting out of the car in his linen duster, jumping into +the wagon, and instantly driving off at a rattling pace, the duster +sometimes bagging like a balloon. The four-in-hand, as can be gathered +from the above description, did not in any way in his eyes represent +possible pageantry. He drove it because he liked it. He was always +preaching caution to his boys, but in this respect he did not practice +his preaching overmuch himself; and, being an excellent whip, he liked +to take chances. Generally they came out all right. Occasionally they +did not; but he was even better at getting out of a scrape than into +it. Once when we were driving into New York late at night the leaders +stopped. He flicked them, and the next moment we could dimly make out +that they had jumped. It then appeared that the street was closed and +that a board had been placed across it, resting on two barrels, but +without a lantern. Over this board the leaders had jumped, and there was +considerable excitement before we got the board taken off the barrels +and resumed our way. When in the city on Thanksgiving or Christmas, my +father was very apt to drive my mother and a couple of friends up to the +racing park to take lunch. But he was always back in time to go to the +dinner at the Newsboys' Lodging-House, and not infrequently also to +Miss Sattery's Night School for little Italians. At a very early age we +children were taken with him and were required to help. He was a staunch +friend of Charles Loring Brace, and was particularly interested in the +Newsboys' Lodging-House and in the night schools and in getting the +children off the streets and out on farms in the West. When I was +President, the Governor of Alaska under me, Governor Brady, was one of +these ex-newsboys who had been sent from New York out West by Mr. Brace +and my father. My father was greatly interested in the societies to +prevent cruelty to children and cruelty to animals. On Sundays he had +a mission class. On his way to it he used to drop us children at our +Sunday-school in Dr. Adams's Presbyterian Church on Madison Square; I +remember hearing my aunt, my mother's sister, saying that when he walked +along with us children he always reminded her of Greatheart in Bunyan. +Under the spur of his example I taught a mission class myself for three +years before going to college and for all four years that I was in +college. I do not think I made much of a success of it. But the other +day on getting out of a taxi in New York the chauffeur spoke to me and +told me that he was one of my old Sunday-school pupils. I remembered him +well, and was much pleased to find that he was an ardent Bull Mooser! + +My mother, Martha Bulloch, was a sweet, gracious, beautiful Southern +woman, a delightful companion and beloved by everybody. She was entirely +"unreconstructed" to the day of her death. Her mother, my grandmother, +one of the dearest of old ladies, lived with us, and was distinctly +overindulgent to us children, being quite unable to harden her heart +towards us even when the occasion demanded it. Towards the close of the +Civil War, although a very small boy, I grew to have a partial but alert +understanding of the fact that the family were not one in their views +about that conflict, my father being a strong Lincoln Republican; and +once, when I felt that I had been wronged by maternal discipline during +the day, I attempted a partial vengeance by praying with loud fervor +for the success of the Union arms, when we all came to say our prayers +before my mother in the evening. She was not only a most devoted mother, +but was also blessed with a strong sense of humor, and she was too much +amused to punish me; but I was warned not to repeat the offense, under +penalty of my father's being informed--he being the dispenser of serious +punishment. Morning prayers were with my father. We used to stand at the +foot of the stairs, and when father came down we called out, "I speak +for you and the cubby-hole too!" There were three of us young children, +and we used to sit with father on the sofa while he conducted morning +prayers. The place between father and the arm of the sofa we called the +"cubby-hole." The child who got that place we regarded as especially +favored both in comfort and somehow or other in rank and title. The two +who were left to sit on the much wider expanse of sofa on the other side +of father were outsiders for the time being. + +My aunt Anna, my mother's sister, lived with us. She was as devoted to +us children as was my mother herself, and we were equally devoted to her +in return. She taught us our lessons while we were little. She and +my mother used to entertain us by the hour with tales of life on +the Georgia plantations; of hunting fox, deer, and wildcat; of the +long-tailed driving horses, Boone and Crockett, and of the riding +horses, one of which was named Buena Vista in a fit of patriotic +exaltation during the Mexican War; and of the queer goings-on in the +Negro quarters. She knew all the "Br'er Rabbit" stories, and I was +brought up on them. One of my uncles, Robert Roosevelt, was much struck +with them, and took them down from her dictation, publishing them in +_Harper's_, where they fell flat. This was a good many years before a +genius arose who in "Uncle Remus" made the stories immortal. + +My mother's two brothers, James Dunwoodie Bulloch and Irvine Bulloch, +came to visit us shortly after the close of the war. Both came under +assumed names, as they were among the Confederates who were at that time +exempted from the amnesty. "Uncle Jimmy" Bulloch was a dear old retired +sea-captain, utterly unable to "get on" in the worldly sense of that +phrase, as valiant and simple and upright a soul as ever lived, a +veritable Colonel Newcome. He was an Admiral in the Confederate navy, +and was the builder of the famous Confederate war vessel Alabama. My +uncle Irvine Bulloch was a midshipman on the _Alabama_, and fired +the last gun discharged from her batteries in the fight with the +_Kearsarge_. Both of these uncles lived in Liverpool after the war. + +My uncle Jimmy Bulloch was forgiving and just in reference to the +Union forces, and could discuss all phases of the Civil War with entire +fairness and generosity. But in English politics he promptly became a +Tory of the most ultra-conservative school. Lincoln and Grant he could +admire, but he would not listen to anything in favor of Mr. Gladstone. +The only occasions on which I ever shook his faith in me were when I +would venture meekly to suggest that some of the manifestly preposterous +falsehoods about Mr. Gladstone could not be true. My uncle was one of +the best men I have ever known, and when I have sometimes been tempted +to wonder how good people can believe of me the unjust and impossible +things they do believe, I have consoled myself by thinking of Uncle +Jimmy Bulloch's perfectly sincere conviction that Gladstone was a man of +quite exceptional and nameless infamy in both public and private life. + +I was a sickly, delicate boy, suffered much from asthma, and frequently +had to be taken away on trips to find a place where I could breathe. One +of my memories is of my father walking up and down the room with me in +his arms at night when I was a very small person, and of sitting up in +bed gasping, with my father and mother trying to help me. I went very +little to school. I never went to the public schools, as my own children +later did, both at the "Cove School" at Oyster Bay and at the "Ford +School" in Washington. For a few months I attended Professor McMullen's +school in Twentieth Street near the house where I was born, but most of +the time I had tutors. As I have already said, my aunt taught me when +I was small. At one time we had a French governess, a loved and valued +"mam'selle," in the household. + +When I was ten years old I made my first journey to Europe. My birthday +was spent in Cologne, and in order to give me a thoroughly "party" +feeling I remember that my mother put on full dress for my birthday +dinner. I do not think I gained anything from this particular trip +abroad. I cordially hated it, as did my younger brother and sister. +Practically all the enjoyment we had was in exploring any ruins or +mountains when we could get away from our elders, and in playing in +the different hotels. Our one desire was to get back to America, and +we regarded Europe with the most ignorant chauvinism and contempt. Four +years later, however, I made another journey to Europe, and was old +enough to enjoy it thoroughly and profit by it. + +While still a small boy I began to take an interest in natural history. +I remember distinctly the first day that I started on my career as +zoologist. I was walking up Broadway, and as I passed the market to +which I used sometimes to be sent before breakfast to get strawberries I +suddenly saw a dead seal laid out on a slab of wood. That seal filled me +with every possible feeling of romance and adventure. I asked where it +was killed, and was informed in the harbor. I had already begun to read +some of Mayne Reid's books and other boys' books of adventure, and I +felt that this seal brought all these adventures in realistic +fashion before me. As long as that seal remained there I haunted the +neighborhood of the market day after day. I measured it, and I recall +that, not having a tape measure, I had to do my best to get its girth +with a folding pocket foot-rule, a difficult undertaking. I carefully +made a record of the utterly useless measurements, and at once began to +write a natural history of my own, on the strength of that seal. This, +and subsequent natural histories, were written down in blank books in +simplified spelling, wholly unpremeditated and unscientific. I had vague +aspirations of in some way or another owning and preserving that seal, +but they never got beyond the purely formless stage. I think, however, +I did get the seal's skull, and with two of my cousins promptly started +what we ambitiously called the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History." +The collections were at first kept in my room, until a rebellion on the +part of the chambermaid received the approval of the higher authorities +of the household and the collection was moved up to a kind of bookcase +in the back hall upstairs. It was the ordinary small boy's collection +of curios, quite incongruous and entirely valueless except from the +standpoint of the boy himself. My father and mother encouraged me warmly +in this, as they always did in anything that could give me wholesome +pleasure or help to develop me. + +The adventure of the seal and the novels of Mayne Reid together +strengthened my instinctive interest in natural history. I was too young +to understand much of Mayne Reid, excepting the adventure part and the +natural history part--these enthralled me. But of course my reading was +not wholly confined to natural history. There was very little effort +made to compel me to read books, my father and mother having the good +sense not to try to get me to read anything I did not like, unless it +was in the way of study. I was given the chance to read books that they +thought I ought to read, but if I did not like them I was then given +some other good book that I did like. There were certain books that were +taboo. For instance, I was not allowed to read dime novels. I obtained +some surreptitiously and did read them, but I do not think that the +enjoyment compensated for the feeling of guilt. I was also forbidden to +read the only one of Ouida's books which I wished to read--"Under Two +Flags." I did read it, nevertheless, with greedy and fierce hope of +coming on something unhealthy; but as a matter of fact all the parts +that might have seemed unhealthy to an older person made no impression +on me whatever. I simply enjoyed in a rather confused way the general +adventures. + +I think there ought to be children's books. I think that the child will +like grown-up books also, and I do not believe a child's book is really +good unless grown-ups get something out of it. For instance, there is a +book I did not have when I was a child because it was not written. It is +Laura E. Richard's "Nursery Rhymes." My own children loved them dearly, +and their mother and I loved them almost equally; the delightfully +light-hearted "Man from New Mexico who Lost his Grandmother out in the +Snow," the adventures of "The Owl, the Eel, and the Warming-Pan," and +the extraordinary genealogy of the kangaroo whose "father was a whale +with a feather in his tail who lived in the Greenland sea," while "his +mother was a shark who kept very dark in the Gulf of Caribee." + +As a small boy I had _Our Young Folks_, which I then firmly believed +to be the very best magazine in the world--a belief, I may add, which I +have kept to this day unchanged, for I seriously doubt if any magazine +for old or young has ever surpassed it. Both my wife and I have the +bound volumes of _Our Young Folks_ which we preserved from our youth. I +have tried to read again the Mayne Reid books which I so dearly loved as +a boy, only to find, alas! that it is impossible. But I really believe +that I enjoy going over _Our Young Folks_ now nearly as much as ever. +"Cast Away in the Cold," "Grandfather's Struggle for a Homestead," "The +William Henry Letters," and a dozen others like them were first-class, +good healthy stories, interesting in the first place, and in the next +place teaching manliness, decency, and good conduct. At the cost of +being deemed effeminate, I will add that I greatly liked the girls' +stories--"Pussy Willow" and "A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's +Life," just as I worshiped "Little Men" and "Little Women" and "An +Old-Fashioned Girl." + +This enjoyment of the gentler side of life did not prevent my reveling +in such tales of adventure as Ballantyne's stories, or Marryat's +"Midshipman Easy." I suppose everybody has kinks in him, and even as +a child there were books which I ought to have liked and did not. For +instance, I never cared at all for the first part of "Robinson Crusoe" +(and although it is unquestionably the best part, I do not care for it +now); whereas the second part, containing the adventures of Robinson +Crusoe, with the wolves in the Pyrenees, and out in the Far East, simply +fascinated me. What I did like in the first part were the adventures +before Crusoe finally reached his island, the fight with the Sallee +Rover, and the allusion to the strange beasts at night taking their +improbable bath in the ocean. Thanks to being already an embryo +zoologist, I disliked the "Swiss Family Robinson" because of the wholly +impossible collection of animals met by that worthy family as they +ambled inland from the wreck. Even in poetry it was the relation of +adventures that most appealed to me as a boy. At a pretty early age I +began to read certain books of poetry, notably Longfellow's poem, +"The Saga of King Olaf," which absorbed me. This introduced me to +Scandinavian literature; and I have never lost my interest in and +affection for it. + +Among my first books was a volume of a hopelessly unscientific kind by +Mayne Reid, about mammals, illustrated with pictures no more artistic +than but quite as thrilling as those in the typical school geography. +When my father found how deeply interested I was in this not very +accurate volume, he gave me a little book by J. G. Wood, the English +writer of popular books on natural history, and then a larger one of his +called "Homes Without Hands." Both of these were cherished possessions. +They were studied eagerly; and they finally descended to my children. +The "Homes Without Hands," by the way, grew to have an added association +in connection with a pedagogical failure on my part. In accordance +with what I believed was some kind of modern theory of making education +interesting and not letting it become a task, I endeavored to teach my +eldest small boy one or two of his letters from the title-page. As the +letter "H" appeared in the title an unusual number of times, I selected +that to begin on, my effort being to keep the small boy interested, not +to let him realize that he was learning a lesson, and to convince him +that he was merely having a good time. Whether it was the theory or my +method of applying it that was defective I do not know, but I certainly +absolutely eradicated from his brain any ability to learn what "H" was; +and long after he had learned all the other letters of the alphabet in +the old-fashioned way, he proved wholly unable to remember "H" under any +circumstances. + +Quite unknown to myself, I was, while a boy, under a hopeless +disadvantage in studying nature. I was very near-sighted, so that the +only things I could study were those I ran against or stumbled over. +When I was about thirteen I was allowed to take lessons in taxidermy +from a Mr. Bell, a tall, clean-shaven, white-haired old gentleman, as +straight as an Indian, who had been a companion of Audubon's. He had +a musty little shop, somewhat on the order of Mr. Venus's shop in "Our +Mutual Friend," a little shop in which he had done very valuable work +for science. This "vocational study," as I suppose it would be called +by modern educators, spurred and directed my interest in collecting +specimens for mounting and preservation. It was this summer that I got +my first gun, and it puzzled me to find that my companions seemed to see +things to shoot at which I could not see at all. One day they read aloud +an advertisement in huge letters on a distant billboard, and I then +realized that something was the matter, for not only was I unable to +read the sign but I could not even see the letters. I spoke of this to +my father, and soon afterwards got my first pair of spectacles, +which literally opened an entirely new world to me. I had no idea how +beautiful the world was until I got those spectacles. I had been a +clumsy and awkward little boy, and while much of my clumsiness and +awkwardness was doubtless due to general characteristics, a good deal of +it was due to the fact that I could not see and yet was wholly ignorant +that I was not seeing. The recollection of this experience gives me +a keen sympathy with those who are trying in our public schools and +elsewhere to remove the physical causes of deficiency in children, +who are often unjustly blamed for being obstinate or unambitious, or +mentally stupid. + +This same summer, too, I obtained various new books on mammals and +birds, including the publications of Spencer Baird, for instance, and +made an industrious book-study of the subject. I did not accomplish +much in outdoor study because I did not get spectacles until late in the +fall, a short time before I started with the rest of the family for a +second trip to Europe. We were living at Dobbs Ferry, on the Hudson. My +gun was a breech-loading, pin-fire double-barrel, of French manufacture. +It was an excellent gun for a clumsy and often absent-minded boy. There +was no spring to open it, and if the mechanism became rusty it could be +opened with a brick without serious damage. When the cartridges stuck +they could be removed in the same fashion. If they were loaded, however, +the result was not always happy, and I tattooed myself with partially +unburned grains of powder more than once. + +When I was fourteen years old, in the winter of '72 and '73, I visited +Europe for the second time, and this trip formed a really useful part of +my education. We went to Egypt, journeyed up the Nile, traveled through +the Holy Land and part of Syria, visited Greece and Constantinople; +and then we children spent the summer in a German family in Dresden. My +first real collecting as a student of natural history was done in Egypt +during this journey. By this time I had a good working knowledge of +American bird life from the superficially scientific standpoint. I had +no knowledge of the ornithology of Egypt, but I picked up in Cairo +a book by an English clergyman, whose name I have now forgotten, who +described a trip up the Nile, and in an appendix to his volume gave an +account of his bird collection. I wish I could remember the name of the +author now, for I owe that book very much. Without it I should have been +collecting entirely in the dark, whereas with its aid I could generally +find out what the birds were. My first knowledge of Latin was obtained +by learning the scientific names of the birds and mammals which I +collected and classified by the aid of such books as this one. + +The birds I obtained up the Nile and in Palestine represented merely the +usual boy's collection. Some years afterward I gave them, together with +the other ornithological specimens I had gathered, to the Smithsonian +Institution in Washington, and I think some of them also to the American +Museum of Natural History in New York. I am told that the skins are to +be found yet in both places and in other public collections. I doubt +whether they have my original labels on them. With great pride the +directors of the "Roosevelt Museum," consisting of myself and the two +cousins aforesaid, had printed a set of Roosevelt Museum labels in pink +ink preliminary to what was regarded as my adventurous trip to Egypt. +This bird-collecting gave what was really the chief zest to my Nile +journey. I was old enough and had read enough to enjoy the temples and +the desert scenery and the general feeling of romance; but this in time +would have palled if I had not also had the serious work of collecting +and preparing my specimens. Doubtless the family had their moments of +suffering--especially on one occasion when a well-meaning maid extracted +from my taxidermist's outfit the old tooth-brush with which I put on +the skins the arsenical soap necessary for their preservation, partially +washed it, and left it with the rest of my wash kit for my own personal +use. I suppose that all growing boys tend to be grubby; but the +ornithological small boy, or indeed the boy with the taste for natural +history of any kind, is generally the very grubbiest of all. An added +element in my case was the fact that while in Egypt I suddenly started +to grow. As there were no tailors up the Nile, when I got back to Cairo +I needed a new outfit. But there was one suit of clothes too good to +throw away, which we kept for a "change," and which was known as my +"Smike suit," because it left my wrists and ankles as bare as those of +poor Smike himself. + +When we reached Dresden we younger children were left to spend the +summer in the house of Herr Minckwitz, a member of either the Municipal +or the Saxon Government--I have forgotten which. It was hoped that in +this way we would acquire some knowledge of the German language and +literature. They were the very kindest family imaginable. I shall never +forget the unwearied patience of the two daughters. The father and +mother, and a shy, thin, student cousin who was living in the flat, +were no less kind. Whenever I could get out into the country I collected +specimens industriously and enlivened the household with hedge-hogs +and other small beasts and reptiles which persisted in escaping from +partially closed bureau drawers. The two sons were fascinating students +from the University of Leipsic, both of them belonging to dueling corps, +and much scarred in consequence. One, a famous swordsman, was called +_Der Rothe Herzog_ (the Red Duke), and the other was nicknamed _Herr +Nasehorn_ (Sir Rhinoceros) because the tip of his nose had been cut off +in a duel and sewn on again. I learned a good deal of German here, +in spite of myself, and above all I became fascinated with the +Nibelungenlied. German prose never became really easy to me in the sense +that French prose did, but for German poetry I cared as much as for +English poetry. Above all, I gained an impression of the German people +which I never got over. From that time to this it would have been quite +impossible to make me feel that the Germans were really foreigners. +The affection, the _Gemuthlichkeit_ (a quality which cannot be exactly +expressed by any single English word), the capacity for hard work, the +sense of duty, the delight in studying literature and science, the pride +in the new Germany, the more than kind and friendly interest in three +strange children--all these manifestations of the German character and +of German family life made a subconscious impression upon me which I did +not in the least define at the time, but which is very vivid still forty +years later. + +When I got back to America, at the age of fifteen, I began serious study +to enter Harvard under Mr. Arthur Cutler, who later founded the Cutler +School in New York. I could not go to school because I knew so much less +than most boys of my age in some subjects and so much more in others. In +science and history and geography and in unexpected parts of German +and French I was strong, but lamentably weak in Latin and Greek and +mathematics. My grandfather had made his summer home in Oyster Bay a +number of years before, and my father now made Oyster Bay the summer +home of his family also. Along with my college preparatory studies I +carried on the work of a practical student of natural history. I worked +with greater industry than either intelligence or success, and made very +few additions to the sum of human knowledge; but to this day certain +obscure ornithological publications may be found in which are recorded +such items as, for instance, that on one occasion a fish-crow, and on +another an Ipswich sparrow, were obtained by one Theodore Roosevelt, +Jr., at Oyster Bay, on the shore of Long Island Sound. + +In the fall of 1876 I entered Harvard, graduating in 1880. I thoroughly +enjoyed Harvard, and I am sure it did me good, but only in the general +effect, for there was very little in my actual studies which helped me +in after life. More than one of my own sons have already profited by +their friendship with certain of their masters in school or college. I +certainly profited by my friendship with one of my tutors, Mr. Cutler; +and in Harvard I owed much to the professor of English, Mr. A. S. Hill. +Doubtless through my own fault, I saw almost nothing of President Eliot +and very little of the professors. I ought to have gained much more than +I did gain from writing the themes and forensics. My failure to do +so may have been partly due to my taking no interest in the subjects. +Before I left Harvard I was already writing one or two chapters of a +book I afterwards published on the Naval War of 1812. Those chapters +were so dry that they would have made a dictionary seem light reading by +comparison. Still, they represented purpose and serious interest on +my part, not the perfunctory effort to do well enough to get a certain +mark; and corrections of them by a skilled older man would have +impressed me and have commanded my respectful attention. But I was not +sufficiently developed to make myself take an intelligent interest in +some of the subjects assigned me--the character of the Gracchi, for +instance. A very clever and studious lad would no doubt have done so, +but I personally did not grow up to this particular subject until a good +many years later. The frigate and sloop actions between the American +and British sea-tigers of 1812 were much more within my grasp. I +worked drearily at the Gracchi because I had to; my conscientious +and much-to-be-pitied professor dragging me through the theme by main +strength, with my feet firmly planted in dull and totally idea-proof +resistance. + +I had at the time no idea of going into public life, and I never studied +elocution or practiced debating. This was a loss to me in one way. In +another way it was not. Personally I have not the slightest sympathy +with debating contests in which each side is arbitrarily assigned a +given proposition and told to maintain it without the least reference to +whether those maintaining it believe in it or not. I know that under our +system this is necessary for lawyers, but I emphatically disbelieve in +it as regards general discussion of political, social, and industrial +matters. What we need is to turn out of our colleges young men with +ardent convictions on the side of the right; not young men who can make +a good argument for either right or wrong as their interest bids them. +The present method of carrying on debates on such subjects as "Our +Colonial Policy," or "The Need of a Navy," or "The Proper Position of +the Courts in Constitutional Questions," encourages precisely the +wrong attitude among those who take part in them. There is no effort to +instill sincerity and intensity of conviction. On the contrary, the +net result is to make the contestants feel that their convictions have +nothing to do with their arguments. I am sorry I did not study elocution +in college; but I am exceedingly glad that I did not take part in the +type of debate in which stress is laid, not upon getting a speaker to +think rightly, but on getting him to talk glibly on the side to which +he is assigned, without regard either to what his convictions are or to +what they ought to be. + +I was a reasonably good student in college, standing just within the +first tenth of my class, if I remember rightly; although I am not sure +whether this means the tenth of the whole number that entered or of +those that graduated. I was given a Phi Beta Kappa "key." My chief +interests were scientific. When I entered college, I was devoted to +out-of-doors natural history, and my ambition was to be a scientific +man of the Audubon, or Wilson, or Baird, or Coues type--a man like Hart +Merriam, or Frank Chapman, or Hornaday, to-day. My father had from the +earliest days instilled into me the knowledge that I was to work and to +make my own way in the world, and I had always supposed that this meant +that I must enter business. But in my freshman year (he died when I was +a sophomore) he told me that if I wished to become a scientific man I +could do so. He explained that I must be sure that I really intensely +desired to do scientific work, because if I went into it I must make it +a serious career; that he had made enough money to enable me to take up +such a career and do non-remunerative work of value _if I intended to do +the very best work there was in me_; but that I must not dream of taking +it up as a dilettante. He also gave me a piece of advice that I have +always remembered, namely, that, if I was not going to earn money, I +must even things up by not spending it. As he expressed it, I had +to keep the fraction constant, and if I was not able to increase the +numerator, then I must reduce the denominator. In other words, if I went +into a scientific career, I must definitely abandon all thought of the +enjoyment that could accompany a money-making career, and must find my +pleasures elsewhere. + +After this conversation I fully intended to make science my life-work. I +did not, for the simple reason that at that time Harvard, and I suppose +our other colleges, utterly ignored the possibilities of the faunal +naturalist, the outdoor naturalist and observer of nature. They treated +biology as purely a science of the laboratory and the microscope, a +science whose adherents were to spend their time in the study of minute +forms of marine life, or else in section-cutting and the study of the +tissues of the higher organisms under the microscope. This attitude was, +no doubt, in part due to the fact that in most colleges then there was +a not always intelligent copying of what was done in the great German +universities. The sound revolt against superficiality of study had been +carried to an extreme; thoroughness in minutiae as the only end of study +had been erected into a fetish. There was a total failure to understand +the great variety of kinds of work that could be done by naturalists, +including what could be done by outdoor naturalists--the kind of work +which Hart Merriam and his assistants in the Biological Survey have +carried to such a high degree of perfection as regards North American +mammals. In the entirely proper desire to be thorough and to avoid +slipshod methods, the tendency was to treat as not serious, as +unscientific, any kind of work that was not carried on with laborious +minuteness in the laboratory. My taste was specialized in a totally +different direction, and I had no more desire or ability to be a +microscopist and section-cutter than to be a mathematician. Accordingly +I abandoned all thought of becoming a scientist. Doubtless this meant +that I really did not have the intense devotion to science which I +thought I had; for, if I had possessed such devotion, I would +have carved out a career for myself somehow without regard to +discouragements. + +As regards political economy, I was of course while in college taught +the _laissez-faire_ doctrines--one of them being free trade--then +accepted as canonical. Most American boys of my age were taught both by +their surroundings and by their studies certain principles which were +very valuable from the standpoint of National interest, and certain +others which were very much the reverse. The political economists were +not especially to blame for this; it was the general attitude of the +writers who wrote for us of that generation. Take my beloved _Our Young +Folks_, the magazine of which I have already spoken, and which taught +me much more than any of my text-books. Everything in this magazine +instilled the individual virtues, and the necessity of character as the +chief factor in any man's success--a teaching in which I now believe as +sincerely as ever, for all the laws that the wit of man can devise will +never make a man a worthy citizen unless he has within himself the +right stuff, unless he has self-reliance, energy, courage, the power of +insisting on his own rights and the sympathy that makes him regardful of +the rights of others. All this individual morality I was taught by the +books I read at home and the books I studied at Harvard. But there was +almost no teaching of the need for collective action, and of the fact +that in addition to, not as a substitute for, individual responsibility, +there is a collective responsibility. Books such as Herbert Croly's +"Promise of American Life" and Walter E. Weyl's "New Democracy" would +generally at that time have been treated either as unintelligible or +else as pure heresy. + +The teaching which I received was genuinely democratic in one way. It +was not so democratic in another. I grew into manhood thoroughly imbued +with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of +himself. But I had also, consciously or unconsciously, been taught that +socially and industrially pretty much the whole duty of the man lay +in thus making the best of himself; that he should be honest in his +dealings with others and charitable in the old-fashioned way to the +unfortunate; but that it was no part of his business to join with others +in trying to make things better for the many by curbing the abnormal and +excessive development of individualism in a few. Now I do not mean that +this training was by any means all bad. On the contrary, the insistence +upon individual responsibility was, and is, and always will be, a prime +necessity. Teaching of the kind I absorbed from both my text-books and +my surroundings is a healthy anti-scorbutic to the sentimentality which +by complacently excusing the individual for all his shortcomings would +finally hopelessly weaken the spring of moral purpose. It also keeps +alive that virile vigor for the lack of which in the average individual +no possible perfection of law or of community action can ever atone. But +such teaching, if not corrected by other teaching, means acquiescence +in a riot of lawless business individualism which would be quite as +destructive to real civilization as the lawless military individualism +of the Dark Ages. I left college and entered the big world owing more +than I can express to the training I had received, especially in my own +home; but with much else also to learn if I were to become really fitted +to do my part in the work that lay ahead for the generation of Americans +to which I belonged. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VIGOR OF LIFE + +Looking back, a man really has a more objective feeling about himself +as a child than he has about his father or mother. He feels as if that +child were not the present he, individually, but an ancestor; just as +much an ancestor as either of his parents. The saying that the child is +the father to the man may be taken in a sense almost the reverse of that +usually given to it. The child is father to the man in the sense that +his individuality is separate from the individuality of the grown-up +into which he turns. This is perhaps one reason why a man can speak of +his childhood and early youth with a sense of detachment. + +Having been a sickly boy, with no natural bodily prowess, and having +lived much at home, I was at first quite unable to hold my own when +thrown into contact with other boys of rougher antecedents. I was +nervous and timid. Yet from reading of the people I admired--ranging +from the soldiers of Valley Forge, and Morgan's riflemen, to the heroes +of my favorite stories--and from hearing of the feats performed by my +Southern forefathers and kinsfolk, and from knowing my father, I felt a +great admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their +own in the world, and I had a great desire to be like them. Until I +was nearly fourteen I let this desire take no more definite shape than +day-dreams. Then an incident happened that did me real good. Having an +attack of asthma, I was sent off by myself to Moosehead Lake. On the +stage-coach ride thither I encountered a couple of other boys who +were about my own age, but very much more competent and also much more +mischievous. I have no doubt they were good-hearted boys, but they were +boys! They found that I was a foreordained and predestined victim, and +industriously proceeded to make life miserable for me. The worst feature +was that when I finally tried to fight them I discovered that either one +singly could not only handle me with easy contempt, but handle me so as +not to hurt me much and yet to prevent my doing any damage whatever in +return. + +The experience taught me what probably no amount of good advice could +have taught me. I made up my mind that I must try to learn so that I +would not again be put in such a helpless position; and having become +quickly and bitterly conscious that I did not have the natural prowess +to hold my own, I decided that I would try to supply its place by +training. Accordingly, with my father's hearty approval, I started to +learn to box. I was a painfully slow and awkward pupil, and certainly +worked two or three years before I made any perceptible improvement +whatever. My first boxing-master was John Long, an ex-prize-fighter. I +can see his rooms now, with colored pictures of the fights between Tom +Hyer and Yankee Sullivan, and Heenan and Sayers, and other great events +in the annals of the squared circle. On one occasion, to excite interest +among his patrons, he held a series of "championship" matches for the +different weights, the prizes being, at least in my own class, pewter +mugs of a value, I should suppose, approximating fifty cents. Neither +he nor I had any idea that I could do anything, but I was entered in +the lightweight contest, in which it happened that I was pitted in +succession against a couple of reedy striplings who were even worse than +I was. Equally to their surprise and to my own, and to John Long's, I +won, and the pewter mug became one of my most prized possessions. I +kept it, and alluded to it, and I fear bragged about it, for a number +of years, and I only wish I knew where it was now. Years later I read +an account of a little man who once in a fifth-rate handicap race won +a worthless pewter medal and joyed in it ever after. Well, as soon as I +read that story I felt that that little man and I were brothers. + +This was, as far as I remember, the only one of my exceedingly rare +athletic triumphs which would be worth relating. I did a good deal of +boxing and wrestling in Harvard, but never attained to the first rank in +either, even at my own weight. Once, in the big contests in the Gym, +I got either into the finals or semi-finals, I forget which; but aside +from this the chief part I played was to act as trial horse for some +friend or classmate who did have a chance of distinguishing himself in +the championship contests. + +I was fond of horseback-riding, but I took to it slowly and with +difficulty, exactly as with boxing. It was a long time before I became +even a respectable rider, and I never got much higher. I mean by this +that I never became a first-flight man in the hunting field, and never +even approached the bronco-busting class in the West. Any man, if +he chooses, can gradually school himself to the requisite nerve, and +gradually learn the requisite seat and hands, that will enable him to do +respectably across country, or to perform the average work on a ranch. +Of my ranch experiences I shall speak later. At intervals after leaving +college I hunted on Long Island with the Meadowbrook hounds. Almost the +only experience I ever had in this connection that was of any interest +was on one occasion when I broke my arm. My purse did not permit me to +own expensive horses. On this occasion I was riding an animal, a buggy +horse originally, which its owner sold because now and then it insisted +on thoughtfully lying down when in harness. It never did this under the +saddle; and when he turned it out to grass it would solemnly hop over +the fence and get somewhere where it did not belong. The last trait +was what converted it into a hunter. It was a natural jumper, although +without any speed. On the hunt in question I got along very well until +the pace winded my ex-buggy horse, and it turned a somersault over a +fence. When I got on it after the fall I found I could not use my left +arm. I supposed it was merely a strain. The buggy horse was a sedate +animal which I rode with a snaffle. So we pounded along at the tail of +the hunt, and I did not appreciate that my arm was broken for three or +four fences. Then we came to a big drop, and the jar made the bones slip +past one another so as to throw the hand out of position. It did not +hurt me at all, and as the horse was as easy to sit as a rocking-chair, +I got in at the death. + +I think August Belmont was master of the hunt when the above incident +occurred. I know he was master on another occasion on which I met with +a mild adventure. On one of the hunts when I was out a man was thrown, +dragged by one stirrup, and killed. In consequence I bought a pair of +safety stirrups, which I used the next time I went out. Within five +minutes after the run began I found that the stirrups were so very +"safe" that they would not stay in at all. First one went off at one +jump, and then the other at another jump--with a fall for me on each +occasion. I hated to give up the fun so early, and accordingly finished +the run without any stirrups. My horse never went as fast as on that +run. Doubtless a first-class horseman can ride as well without stirrups +as with them. But I was not a first-class horseman. When anything +unexpected happened, I was apt to clasp the solemn buggy horse firmly +with my spurred heels, and the result was that he laid himself out to do +his best in the way of galloping. He speedily found that, thanks to the +snaffle bit, I could not pull him in, so when we came to a down grade he +would usually put on steam. Then if there was a fence at the bottom and +he checked at all, I was apt to shoot forward, and in such event we went +over the fence in a way that reminded me of Leech's picture, in _Punch_, +of Mr. Tom Noddy and his mare jumping a fence in the following order: +Mr. Tom Noddy, I; his mare, II. However, I got in at the death this time +also. + +I was fond of walking and climbing. As a lad I used to go to the north +woods, in Maine, both in fall and winter. There I made life friends +of two men, Will Dow and Bill Sewall: I canoed with them, and tramped +through the woods with them, visiting the winter logging camps on +snow-shoes. Afterward they were with me in the West. Will Dow is dead. +Bill Sewall was collector of customs under me, on the Aroostook border. +Except when hunting I never did any mountaineering save for a couple of +conventional trips up the Matterhorn and the Jungfrau on one occasion +when I was in Switzerland. + +I never did much with the shotgun, but I practiced a good deal with the +rifle. I had a rifle-range at Sagamore Hill, where I often took friends +to shoot. Once or twice when I was visited by parties of released Boer +prisoners, after the close of the South African War, they and I held +shooting matches together. The best man with both pistol and rifle who +ever shot there was Stewart Edward White. Among the many other good +men was a stanch friend, Baron Speck von Sternberg, afterwards German +Ambassador at Washington during my Presidency. He was a capital shot, +rider, and walker, a devoted and most efficient servant of Germany, who +had fought with distinction in the Franco-German War when barely more +than a boy; he was the hero of the story of "the pig dog" in Archibald +Forbes's volume of reminiscences. It was he who first talked over with +me the raising of a regiment of horse riflemen from among the ranchmen +and cowboys of the plains. When Ambassador, the poor, gallant, +tender-hearted fellow was dying of a slow and painful disease, so that +he could not play with the rest of us, but the agony of his mortal +illness never in the slightest degree interfered with his work. +Among the other men who shot and rode and walked with me was Cecil +Spring-Rice, who has just been appointed British Ambassador to the +United States. He was my groomsman, my best man, when I was married--at +St. George's, Hanover Square, which made me feel as if I were living in +one of Thackeray's novels. + +My own experience as regards marksmanship was much the same as my +experience as regards horsemanship. There are men whose eye and hand are +so quick and so sure that they achieve a perfection of marksmanship to +which no practice will enable ordinary men to attain. There are other +men who cannot learn to shoot with any accuracy at all. In between come +the mass of men of ordinary abilities who, if they choose resolutely to +practice, can by sheer industry and judgment make themselves fair rifle +shots. The men who show this requisite industry and judgment can without +special difficulty raise themselves to the second class of respectable +rifle shots; and it is to this class that I belong. But to have reached +this point of marksmanship with the rifle at a target by no means +implies ability to hit game in the field, especially dangerous game. All +kinds of other qualities, moral and physical, enter into being a good +hunter, and especially a good hunter after dangerous game, just as all +kinds of other qualities in addition to skill with the rifle enter +into being a good soldier. With dangerous game, after a fair degree of +efficiency with the rifle has been attained, the prime requisites are +cool judgment and that kind of nerve which consists in avoiding being +rattled. Any beginner is apt to have "buck fever," and therefore no +beginner should go at dangerous game. + +Buck fever means a state of intense nervous excitement which may be +entirely divorced from timidity. It may affect a man the first time he +has to speak to a large audience just as it affects him the first time +he sees a buck or goes into battle. What such a man needs is not courage +but nerve control, cool-headedness. This he can get only by actual +practice. He must, by custom and repeated exercise of self-mastery, get +his nerves thoroughly under control. This is largely a matter of habit, +in the sense of repeated effort and repeated exercise of will power. If +the man has the right stuff in him, his will grows stronger and stronger +with each exercise of it--and if he has not the right stuff in him he +had better keep clear of dangerous game hunting, or indeed of any other +form of sport or work in which there is bodily peril. + +After he has achieved the ability to exercise wariness and judgment and +the control over his nerves _which will make him shoot as well at the +game as at a target_, he can begin his essays at dangerous game hunting, +and he will then find that it does not demand such abnormal prowess as +the outsider is apt to imagine. A man who can hit a soda-water bottle at +the distance of a few yards can brain a lion or a bear or an elephant at +that distance, and if he cannot brain it when it charges he can at least +bring it to a standstill. All he has to do is to shoot as accurately as +he would at a soda-water bottle; and to do this requires nerve, at least +as much as it does physical address. Having reached this point, the +hunter must not imagine that he is warranted in taking desperate +chances. There are degrees in proficiency; and what is a warrantable and +legitimate risk for a man to take when he has reached a certain grade of +efficiency may be a foolish risk for him to take before he has reached +that grade. A man who has reached the degree of proficiency indicated +above is quite warranted in walking in at a lion at bay, in an open +plain, to, say, within a hundred yards. If the lion has not charged, the +man ought at that distance to knock him over and prevent his charging; +and if the lion is already charging, the man ought at that distance to +be able to stop him. But the amount of prowess which warrants a man +in relying on his ability to perform this feat does not by any means +justify him in thinking that, for instance, he can crawl after a wounded +lion into thick cover. I have known men of indifferent prowess to +perform this latter feat successfully, but at least as often they have +been unsuccessful, and in these cases the result has been unpleasant. +The man who habitually follows wounded lions into thick cover must be +a hunter of the highest skill, or he can count with certainty on an +ultimate mauling. + +The first two or three bucks I ever saw gave me buck fever badly, but +after I had gained experience with ordinary game I never had buck fever +at all with dangerous game. In my case the overcoming of buck fever +was the result of conscious effort and a deliberate determination +to overcome it. More happily constituted men never have to make this +determined effort at all--which may perhaps show that the average +man can profit more from my experiences than he can from those of the +exceptional man. + +I have shot only five kinds of animals which can fairly be called +dangerous game--that is, the lion, elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo +in Africa, and the big grizzly bear a quarter of a century ago in the +Rockies. Taking into account not only my own personal experience, but +the experiences of many veteran hunters, I regard all the four African +animals, but especially the lion, elephant, and buffalo, as much more +dangerous than the grizzly. As it happened, however, the only narrow +escape I personally ever had was from a grizzly, and in Africa the +animal killed closest to me as it was charging was a rhinoceros--all of +which goes to show that a man must not generalize too broadly from +his own personal experiences. On the whole, I think the lion the most +dangerous of all these five animals; that is, I think that, if fairly +hunted, there is a larger percentage of hunters killed or mauled for a +given number of lions killed than for a given number of any one of the +other animals. Yet I personally had no difficulties with lions. I twice +killed lions which were at bay and just starting to charge, and I killed +a heavy-maned male while it was in full charge. But in each instance I +had plenty of leeway, the animal being so far off that even if my bullet +had not been fatal I should have had time for a couple more shots. The +African buffalo is undoubtedly a dangerous beast, but it happened that +the few that I shot did not charge. A bull elephant, a vicious "rogue," +which had been killing people in the native villages, did charge before +being shot at. My son Kermit and I stopped it at forty yards. Another +bull elephant, also unwounded, which charged, nearly got me, as I +had just fired both cartridges from my heavy double-barreled rifle in +killing the bull I was after--the first wild elephant I had ever seen. +The second bull came through the thick brush to my left like a steam +plow through a light snowdrift, everything snapping before his rush, and +was so near that he could have hit me with his trunk. I slipped past +him behind a tree. People have asked me how I felt on this occasion. +My answer has always been that I suppose I felt as most men of like +experience feel on such occasions. At such a moment a hunter is so +very busy that he has no time to get frightened. He wants to get in his +cartridges and try another shot. + +Rhinoceros are truculent, blustering beasts, much the most stupid of +all the dangerous game I know. Generally their attitude is one of mere +stupidity and bluff. But on occasions they do charge wickedly, both when +wounded and when entirely unprovoked. The first I ever shot I mortally +wounded at a few rods' distance, and it charged with the utmost +determination, whereat I and my companion both fired, and more by good +luck than anything else brought it to the ground just thirteen paces +from where we stood. Another rhinoceros may or may not have been meaning +to charge me; I have never been certain which. It heard us and came at +us through rather thick brush, snorting and tossing its head. I am by +no means sure that it had fixedly hostile intentions, and indeed with +my present experience I think it likely that if I had not fired it would +have flinched at the last moment and either retreated or gone by me. +But I am not a rhinoceros mind reader, and its actions were such as to +warrant my regarding it as a suspicious character. I stopped it with a +couple of bullets, and then followed it up and killed it. The skins +of all these animals which I thus killed are in the National Museum at +Washington. + +But, as I said above, the only narrow escape I met with was not from +one of these dangerous African animals, but from a grizzly bear. It was +about twenty-four years ago. I had wounded the bear just at sunset, in a +wood of lodge-pole pines, and, following him, I wounded him again, as he +stood on the other side of a thicket. He then charged through the brush, +coming with such speed and with such an irregular gait that, try as I +would, I was not able to get the sight of my rifle on the brain-pan, +though I hit him very hard with both the remaining barrels of my +magazine Winchester. It was in the days of black powder, and the smoke +hung. After my last shot, the first thing I saw was the bear's left paw +as he struck at me, so close that I made a quick movement to one side. +He was, however, practically already dead, and after another jump, and +while in the very act of trying to turn to come at me, he collapsed like +a shot rabbit. + +By the way, I had a most exasperating time trying to bring in his skin. +I was alone, traveling on foot with one very docile little mountain mare +for a pack pony. The little mare cared nothing for bears or anything +else, so there was no difficulty in packing her. But the man without +experience can hardly realize the work it was to get that bearskin off +the carcass and then to pack it, wet, slippery, and heavy, so that it +would ride evenly on the pony. I was at the time fairly well versed in +packing with a "diamond hitch," the standby of Rocky Mountain packers in +my day; but the diamond hitch is a two-man job; and even working with +a "squaw hitch," I got into endless trouble with that wet and slippery +bearskin. With infinite labor I would get the skin on the pony and run +the ropes over it until to all seeming it was fastened properly. Then +off we would start, and after going about a hundred yards I would notice +the hide beginning to bulge through between two ropes. I would shift one +of them, and then the hide would bulge somewhere else. I would shift the +rope again; and still the hide would flow slowly out as if it was lava. +The first thing I knew it would come down on one side, and the little +mare, with her feet planted resolutely, would wait for me to perform my +part by getting that bearskin back in its proper place on the McClellan +saddle which I was using as a makeshift pack saddle. The feat of killing +the bear the previous day sank into nothing compared with the feat of +making the bearskin ride properly as a pack on the following three days. + +The reason why I was alone in the mountains on this occasion was +because, for the only time in all my experience, I had a difficulty with +my guide. He was a crippled old mountain man, with a profound contempt +for "tenderfeet," a contempt that in my case was accentuated by the +fact that I wore spectacles--which at that day and in that region were +usually held to indicate a defective moral character in the wearer. He +had never previously acted as guide, or, as he expressed it, "trundled +a tenderfoot," and though a good hunter, who showed me much game, our +experience together was not happy. He was very rheumatic and liked to +lie abed late, so that I usually had to get breakfast, and, in fact, do +most of the work around camp. Finally one day he declined to go out with +me, saying that he had a pain. When, that afternoon, I got back to +camp, I speedily found what the "pain" was. We were traveling very light +indeed, I having practically nothing but my buffalo sleeping-bag, my +wash kit, and a pair of socks. I had also taken a flask of whisky for +emergencies--although, as I found that the emergencies never arose +and that tea was better than whisky when a man was cold or done out, I +abandoned the practice of taking whisky on hunting trips twenty years +ago. When I got back to camp the old fellow was sitting on a tree-trunk, +very erect, with his rifle across his knees, and in response to my nod +of greeting he merely leered at me. I leaned my rifle against a tree, +walked over to where my bed was lying, and, happening to rummage in it +for something, I found the whisky flask was empty. I turned on him at +once and accused him of having drunk it, to which he merely responded by +asking what I was going to do about it. There did not seem much to do, +so I said that we would part company--we were only four or five days +from a settlement--and I would go in alone, taking one of the horses. He +responded by cocking his rifle and saying that I could go alone and be +damned to me, but I could not take any horse. I answered "all right," +that if I could not I could not, and began to move around to get some +flour and salt pork. He was misled by my quietness and by the fact that +I had not in any way resented either his actions or his language during +the days we had been together, and did not watch me as closely as he +ought to have done. He was sitting with the cocked rifle across his +knees, the muzzle to the left. My rifle was leaning against a tree near +the cooking things to his right. Managing to get near it, I whipped it +up and threw the bead on him, calling, "Hands up!" He of course put +up his hands, and then said, "Oh, come, I was only joking"; to which I +answered, "Well, I am not. Now straighten your legs and let your rifle +go to the ground." He remonstrated, saying the rifle would go off, and +I told him to let it go off. However, he straightened his legs in such +fashion that it came to the ground without a jar. I then made him move +back, and picked up the rifle. By this time he was quite sober, and +really did not seem angry, looking at me quizzically. He told me that if +I would give him back his rifle, he would call it quits and we could go +on together. I did not think it best to trust him, so I told him that +our hunt was pretty well through, anyway, and that I would go home. +There was a blasted pine on the trail, in plain view of the camp, about +a mile off, and I told him that I would leave his rifle at that blasted +pine if I could see him in camp, but that he must not come after me, +for if he did I should assume that it was with hostile intent and would +shoot. He said he had no intention of coming after me; and as he was +very much crippled with rheumatism, I did not believe he would do so. + +Accordingly I took the little mare, with nothing but some flour, bacon, +and tea, and my bed-roll, and started off. At the blasted pine I looked +round, and as I could see him in camp, I left his rifle there. I then +traveled till dark, and that night, for the only time in my experience, +I used in camping a trick of the old-time trappers in the Indian days. I +did not believe I would be followed, but still it was not possible to be +sure, so, after getting supper, while my pony fed round, I left the fire +burning, repacked the mare and pushed ahead until it literally became so +dark that I could not see. Then I picketed the mare, slept where I was +without a fire until the first streak of dawn, and then pushed on for a +couple of hours before halting to take breakfast and to let the little +mare have a good feed. No plainsman needs to be told that a man should +not lie near a fire if there is danger of an enemy creeping up on him, +and that above all a man should not put himself in a position where he +can be ambushed at dawn. On this second day I lost the trail, and toward +nightfall gave up the effort to find it, camped where I was, and went +out to shoot a grouse for supper. It was while hunting in vain for a +grouse that I came on the bear and killed it as above described. + +When I reached the settlement and went into the store, the storekeeper +identified me by remarking: "You're the tenderfoot that old Hank was +trundling, ain't you?" I admitted that I was. A good many years later, +after I had been elected Vice-President, I went on a cougar hunt in +northwestern Colorado with Johnny Goff, a famous hunter and mountain +man. It was midwinter. I was rather proud of my achievements, and +pictured myself as being known to the few settlers in the neighborhood +as a successful mountain-lion hunter. I could not help grinning +when I found out that they did not even allude to me as the +Vice-President-elect, let alone as a hunter, but merely as "Johnny +Goff's tourist." + +Of course during the years when I was most busy at serious work I could +do no hunting, and even my riding was of a decorous kind. But a man +whose business is sedentary should get some kind of exercise if he +wishes to keep himself in as good physical trim as his brethren who do +manual labor. When I worked on a ranch, I needed no form of exercise +except my work, but when I worked in an office the case was different. +A couple of summers I played polo with some of my neighbors. I shall +always believe we played polo in just the right way for middle-aged men +with stables of the general utility order. Of course it was polo which +was chiefly of interest to ourselves, the only onlookers being the +members of our faithful families. My two ponies were the only occupants +of my stable except a cart-horse. My wife and I rode and drove them, and +they were used for household errands and for the children, and for two +afternoons a week they served me as polo ponies. Polo is a good game, +infinitely better for vigorous men than tennis or golf or anything of +that kind. There is all the fun of football, with the horse thrown in; +and if only people would be willing to play it in simple fashion it +would be almost as much within their reach as golf. But at Oyster Bay +our great and permanent amusements were rowing and sailing; I do not +care for the latter, and am fond of the former. I suppose it sounds +archaic, but I cannot help thinking that the people with motor boats +miss a great deal. If they would only keep to rowboats or canoes, and +use oar or paddle themselves, they would get infinitely more benefit +than by having their work done for them by gasoline. But I rarely took +exercise merely as exercise. Primarily I took it because I liked it. +Play should never be allowed to interfere with work; and a life devoted +merely to play is, of all forms of existence, the most dismal. But the +joy of life is a very good thing, and while work is the essential in it, +play also has its place. + +When obliged to live in cities, I for a long time found that boxing and +wrestling enabled me to get a good deal of exercise in condensed and +attractive form. I was reluctantly obliged to abandon both as I grew +older. I dropped the wrestling earliest. When I became Governor, the +champion middleweight wrestler of America happened to be in Albany, and +I got him to come round three or four afternoons a week. Incidentally +I may mention that his presence caused me a difficulty with the +Comptroller, who refused to audit a bill I put in for a wrestling-mat, +explaining that I could have a billiard-table, billiards being +recognized as a proper Gubernatorial amusement, but that a wrestling-mat +symbolized something unusual and unheard of and could not be permitted. +The middleweight champion was of course so much better than I was that +he could not only take care of himself but of me too and see that I was +not hurt--for wrestling is a much more violent amusement than boxing. +But after a couple of months he had to go away, and he left as a +substitute a good-humored, stalwart professional oarsman. The oarsman +turned out to know very little about wrestling. He could not even take +care of himself, not to speak of me. By the end of our second afternoon +one of his long ribs had been caved in and two of my short ribs badly +damaged, and my left shoulder-blade so nearly shoved out of place that +it creaked. He was nearly as pleased as I was when I told him I thought +we would "vote the war a failure" and abandon wrestling. After that I +took up boxing again. While President I used to box with some of the +aides, as well as play single-stick with General Wood. After a few years +I had to abandon boxing as well as wrestling, for in one bout a young +captain of artillery cross-countered me on the eye, and the blow smashed +the little blood-vessels. Fortunately it was my left eye, but the sight +has been dim ever since, and if it had been the right eye I should +have been entirely unable to shoot. Accordingly I thought it better +to acknowledge that I had become an elderly man and would have to stop +boxing. I then took up jiu-jitsu for a year or two. + +When I was in the Legislature and was working very hard, with little +chance of getting out of doors, all the exercise I got was boxing and +wrestling. A young fellow turned up who was a second-rate prize-fighter, +the son of one of my old boxing teachers. For several weeks I had him +come round to my rooms in the morning to put on the gloves with me for +half an hour. Then he suddenly stopped, and some days later I received a +letter of woe from him from the jail. I found that he was by profession +a burglar, and merely followed boxing as the amusement of his lighter +moments, or when business was slack. + +Naturally, being fond of boxing, I grew to know a good many +prize-fighters, and to most of those I knew I grew genuinely attached. +I have never been able to sympathize with the outcry against +prize-fighters. The only objection I have to the prize ring is the +crookedness that has attended its commercial development. Outside of +this I regard boxing, whether professional or amateur, as a first-class +sport, and I do not regard it as brutalizing. Of course matches can be +conducted under conditions that make them brutalizing. But this is true +of football games and of most other rough and vigorous sports. Most +certainly prize-fighting is not half as brutalizing or demoralizing +as many forms of big business and of the legal work carried on in +connection with big business. Powerful, vigorous men of strong animal +development must have some way in which their animal spirits can find +vent. When I was Police Commissioner I found (and Jacob Riis will +back me up in this) that the establishment of a boxing club in a tough +neighborhood always tended to do away with knifing and gun-fighting +among the young fellows who would otherwise have been in murderous +gangs. Many of these young fellows were not naturally criminals at all, +but they had to have some outlet for their activities. In the same way +I have always regarded boxing as a first-class sport to encourage in the +Young Men's Christian Association. I do not like to see young Christians +with shoulders that slope like a champagne bottle. Of course boxing +should be encouraged in the army and navy. I was first drawn to two +naval chaplains, Fathers Chidwick and Rainey, by finding that each of +them had bought half a dozen sets of boxing-gloves and encouraged their +crews in boxing. + +When I was Police Commissioner, I heartily approved the effort to +get boxing clubs started in New York on a clean basis. Later I was +reluctantly obliged to come to the conclusion that the prize ring had +become hopelessly debased and demoralized, and as Governor I aided in +the passage of and signed the bill putting a stop to professional boxing +for money. This was because some of the prize-fighters themselves were +crooked, while the crowd of hangers-on who attended and made up and +profited by the matches had placed the whole business on a basis +of commercialism and brutality that was intolerable. I shall always +maintain that boxing contests themselves make good, healthy sport. It +is idle to compare them with bull-fighting; the torture and death of the +wretched horses in bull-fighting is enough of itself to blast the sport, +no matter how great the skill and prowess shown by the bull-fighters. +Any sport in which the death and torture of animals is made to furnish +pleasure to the spectators is debasing. There should always be the +opportunity provided in a glove fight or bare-fist fight to stop it when +one competitor is hopelessly outclassed or too badly hammered. But the +men who take part in these fights are hard as nails, and it is not worth +while to feel sentimental about their receiving punishment which as a +matter of fact they do not mind. Of course the men who look on ought to +be able to stand up with the gloves, or without them, themselves; I have +scant use for the type of sportsmanship which consists merely in looking +on at the feats of some one else. + +Some as good citizens as I know are or were prize-fighters. Take Mike +Donovan, of New York. He and his family represent a type of American +citizenship of which we have a right to be proud. Mike is a devoted +temperance man, and can be relied upon for every movement in the +interest of good citizenship. I was first intimately thrown with him +when I was Police Commissioner. One evening he and I--both in dress +suits--attended a temperance meeting of Catholic societies. It +culminated in a lively set-to between myself and a Tammany Senator who +was a very good fellow, but whose ideas of temperance differed radically +from mine, and, as the event proved, from those of the majority of the +meeting. Mike evidently regarded himself as my backer--he was sitting on +the platform beside me--and I think felt as pleased and interested as if +the set-to had been physical instead of merely verbal. Afterward I grew +to know him well both while I was Governor and while I was President, +and many a time he came on and boxed with me. + +Battling Nelson was another stanch friend, and he and I think alike +on most questions of political and industrial life; although he once +expressed to me some commiseration because, as President, I did not get +anything like the money return for my services that he aggregated during +the same term of years in the ring. Bob Fitzsimmons was another good +friend of mine. He has never forgotten his early skill as a blacksmith, +and among the things that I value and always keep in use is a penholder +made by Bob out of a horseshoe, with an inscription saying that it is +"Made for and presented to President Theodore Roosevelt by his friend +and admirer, Robert Fitzsimmons." I have for a long time had the +friendship of John L. Sullivan, than whom in his prime no better man +ever stepped into the ring. He is now a Massachusetts farmer. John used +occasionally to visit me at the White House, his advent always causing a +distinct flutter among the waiting Senators and Congressmen. When I went +to Africa he presented me with a gold-mounted rabbit's foot for luck. I +carried it through my African trip; and I certainly had good luck. + +On one occasion one of my prize-fighting friends called on me at the +White House on business. He explained that he wished to see me alone, +sat down opposite me, and put a very expensive cigar on the desk, +saying, "Have a cigar." I thanked him and said I did not smoke, to which +he responded, "Put it in your pocket." He then added, "Take another; put +both in your pocket." This I accordingly did. Having thus shown at the +outset the necessary formal courtesy, my visitor, an old and valued +friend, proceeded to explain that a nephew of his had enlisted in the +Marine Corps, but had been absent without leave, and was threatened with +dishonorable discharge on the ground of desertion. My visitor, a good +citizen and a patriotic American, was stung to the quick at the thought +of such an incident occurring in his family, and he explained to me that +it must not occur, that there must not be the disgrace to the family, +although he would be delighted to have the offender "handled rough" to +teach him a needed lesson; he added that he wished I would take him and +handle him myself, for he knew that I would see that he "got all that +was coming to him." Then a look of pathos came into his eyes, and +he explained: "That boy I just cannot understand. He was my sister's +favorite son, and I always took a special interest in him myself. I +did my best to bring him up the way he ought to go. But there was just +nothing to be done with him. His tastes were naturally low. He took +to music!" What form this debasing taste for music assumed I did not +inquire; and I was able to grant my friend's wish. + +While in the White House I always tried to get a couple of hours' +exercise in the afternoons--sometimes tennis, more often riding, or else +a rough cross-country walk, perhaps down Rock Creek, which was then as +wild as a stream in the White Mountains, or on the Virginia side along +the Potomac. My companions at tennis or on these rides and walks we +gradually grew to style the Tennis Cabinet; and then we extended the +term to take in many of my old-time Western friends such as Ben Daniels, +Seth Bullock, Luther Kelly, and others who had taken part with me in +more serious outdoor adventures than walking and riding for pleasure. +Most of the men who were oftenest with me on these trips--men like +Major-General Leonard Wood; or Major-General Thomas Henry Barry; or +Presley Marion Rixey, Surgeon-General of the Navy; or Robert Bacon, who +was afterwards Secretary of State; or James Garfield, who was Secretary +of the Interior; or Gifford Pinchot, who was chief of the Forest +Service--were better men physically than I was; but I could ride and +walk well enough for us all thoroughly to enjoy it. Often, especially +in the winters and early springs, we would arrange for a point to point +walk, not turning aside for anything--for instance, swimming Rock +Creek or even the Potomac if it came in our way. Of course under such +circumstances we had to arrange that our return to Washington should +be when it was dark, so that our appearance might scandalize no one. On +several occasions we thus swam Rock Creek in the early spring when the +ice was floating thick upon it. If we swam the Potomac, we usually +took off our clothes. I remember one such occasion when the French +Ambassador, Jusserand, who was a member of the Tennis Cabinet, was +along, and, just as we were about to get in to swim, somebody said, "Mr. +Ambassador, Mr. Ambassador, you haven't taken off your gloves," to which +he promptly responded, "I think I will leave them on; we might meet +ladies!" + +We liked Rock Creek for these walks because we could do so much +scrambling and climbing along the cliffs; there was almost as much +climbing when we walked down the Potomac to Washington from the Virginia +end of the Chain Bridge. I would occasionally take some big-game friend +from abroad, Selous or St. George Littledale or Captain Radclyffe +or Paul Niedicke, on these walks. Once I invited an entire class of +officers who were attending lectures at the War College to come on one +of these walks; I chose a route which gave us the hardest climbing along +the rocks and the deepest crossings of the creek; and my army friends +enjoyed it hugely--being the right sort, to a man. + +On March 1, 1909, three days before leaving the Presidency, various +members of the Tennis Cabinet lunched with me at the White House. +"Tennis Cabinet" was an elastic term, and of course many who ought +to have been at the lunch were, for one reason or another, away from +Washington; but, to make up for this, a goodly number of out-of-town +honorary members, so to speak, were present--for instance, Seth Bullock; +Luther Kelly, better known as Yellowstone Kelly in the days when he was +an army scout against the Sioux; and Abernathy, the wolf-hunter. At the +end of the lunch Seth Bullock suddenly reached forward, swept aside a +mass of flowers which made a centerpiece on the table, and revealed +a bronze cougar by Proctor, which was a parting gift to me. The lunch +party and the cougar were then photographed on the lawn. + +Some of the younger officers who were my constant companions on these +walks and rides pointed out to me the condition of utter physical +worthlessness into which certain of the elder ones had permitted +themselves to lapse, and the very bad effect this would certainly have +if ever the army were called into service. I then looked into the matter +for myself, and was really shocked at what I found. Many of the older +officers were so unfit physically that their condition would have +excited laughter, had it not been so serious, to think that they +belonged to the military arm of the Government. A cavalry colonel proved +unable to keep his horse at a smart trot for even half a mile, when I +visited his post; a Major-General proved afraid even to let his horse +canter, when he went on a ride with us; and certain otherwise good +men proved as unable to walk as if they had been sedentary brokers. +I consulted with men like Major-Generals Wood and Bell, who were +themselves of fine physique, with bodies fit to meet any demand. It +was late in my administration; and we deemed it best only to make a +beginning--experience teaches the most inveterate reformer how hard it +is to get a totally non-military nation to accept seriously any military +improvement. Accordingly, I merely issued directions that each officer +should prove his ability to walk fifty miles, or ride one hundred, in +three days. + +This is, of course, a test which many a healthy middle-aged woman would +be able to meet. But a large portion of the press adopted the view that +it was a bit of capricious tyranny on my part; and a considerable number +of elderly officers, with desk rather than field experience, intrigued +with their friends in Congress to have the order annulled. So one day I +took a ride of a little over one hundred miles myself, in company with +Surgeon-General Rixey and two other officers. The Virginia roads were +frozen and in ruts, and in the afternoon and evening there was a storm +of snow and sleet; and when it had been thus experimentally shown, under +unfavorable conditions, how easy it was to do in one day the task for +which the army officers were allowed three days, all open objection +ceased. But some bureau chiefs still did as much underhanded work +against the order as they dared, and it was often difficult to reach +them. In the Marine Corps Captain Leonard, who had lost an arm at +Tientsin, with two of his lieutenants did the fifty miles in one day; +for they were vigorous young men, who laughed at the idea of treating a +fifty-mile walk as over-fatiguing. Well, the Navy Department officials +rebuked them, and made them take the walk over again in three days, +on the ground that taking it in one day did not comply with the +regulations! This seems unbelievable; but Leonard assures me it is true. +He did not inform me at the time, being afraid to "get in wrong" with +his permanent superiors. If I had known of the order, short work would +have been made of the bureaucrat who issued it.[*] + + [*] One of our best naval officers sent me the following + letter, after the above had appeared:-- + + "I note in your Autobiography now being published in the + Outlook that you refer to the reasons which led you to + establish a physical test for the Army, and to the action + you took (your 100-mile ride) to prevent the test being + abolished. Doubtless you did not know the following facts: + + "1. The first annual navy test of 50 miles in three days was + subsequently reduced to 25 miles in two days in each + quarter. + + "2. This was further reduced to 10 miles each month, which + is the present 'test,' and there is danger lest even this + utterly insufficient test be abolished. + + "I enclose a copy of a recent letter to the Surgeon General + which will show our present deplorable condition and the + worse condition into which we are slipping back. + + "The original test of 50 miles in three days did a very + great deal of good. It decreased by thousands of dollars the + money expended on street car fare, and by a much greater sum + the amount expended over the bar. It eliminated a number of + the wholly unfit; it taught officers to walk; it forced them + to learn the care of their feet and that of their men; and + it improved their general health and was rapidly forming a + taste for physical exercise." + + The enclosed letter ran in part as follows:-- + + "I am returning under separate cover 'The Soldiers' Foot and + the Military Shoe.' + + "The book contains knowledge of a practical character that + is valuable for the men who HAVE TO MARCH, WHO HAVE SUFFERED + FROM FOOT TROUBLES, AND WHO MUST AVOID THEM IN ORDER TO + ATTAIN EFFICIENCY. + + "The words in capitals express, according to my idea, the + gist of the whole matter as regards military men. + + "The army officer whose men break down on test gets a black + eye. The one whose men show efficiency in this respect gets + a bouquet. + + "To such men the book is invaluable. There is no danger that + they will neglect it. They will actually learn it, for + exactly the same reasons that our fellows learn the gunnery + instructions--or did learn them before they were withdrawn + and burned. + + "B U T, I have not been able to interest a single naval + officer in this fine book. They will look at the pictures + and say it is a good book, but they won't read it. The + marine officers, on the contrary, are very much interested, + because they have to teach their men to care for their feet + and they must know how to care for their own. But the naval + officers feel no such necessity, simply because their men do + not have to demonstrate their efficiency by practice + marches, and they themselves do not have to do a stunt that + will show up their own ignorance and inefficiency in the + matter. + + "For example, some time ago I was talking with some chaps + about shoes--the necessity of having them long enough and + wide enough, etc., and one of them said: 'I have no use for + such shoes, as I never walk except when I have to, and any + old shoes do for the 10-mile-a-month stunt,' so there you + are! + + "When the first test was ordered, Edmonston (Washington shoe + man) told me that he sold more real walking shoes to naval + officers in three months than he had in the three preceding + years. I know three officers who lost both big-toe nails + after the first test, and another who walked nine miles in + practice with a pair of heavy walking shoes that were too + small and was laid up for three days--could not come to the + office. I know plenty of men who after the first test had to + borrow shoes from larger men until their feet 'went down' to + their normal size. + + "This test may have been a bit too strenuous for old hearts + (of men who had never taken any exercise), but it was + excellent as a matter of instruction and training of + handling feet--and in an emergency (such as we soon may have + in Mexico) sound hearts are not much good if the feet won't + stand. + + "However, the 25-mile test in two days each quarter answered + the same purpose, for the reason that 12.5 miles will + produce sore feet with bad shoes, and sore feet and lame + muscles even with good shoes, if there has been no practice + marching. + + "It was the necessity of doing 12.5 MORE MILES ON THE SECOND + DAY WITH SORE FEET AND LAME MUSCLES that made 'em sit up and + take notice--made 'em practice walking, made 'em avoid + street cars, buy proper shoes, show some curiosity about sox + and the care of the feet in general. + + "All this passed out with the introduction of the last test + of 10 miles a month. As one fellow said: 'I can do that in + sneakers'--but he couldn't if the second day involved a + tramp on the sore feet. + + "The point is that whereas formerly officers had to practice + walking a bit and give some attention to proper footgear, + now they don't have to, and the natural consequence is that + they don't do it. + + "There are plenty of officers who do not walk any more than + is necessary to reach a street car that will carry them from + their residences to their offices. Some who have motors do + not do so much. They take no exercise. They take cocktails + instead and are getting beefy and 'ponchy,' and something + should be done to remedy this state of affairs. + + "It would not be necessary if service opinion required + officers so to order their lives that it would be common + knowledge that they were 'hard,' in order to avoid the + danger of being selected out. + + "We have no such service opinion, and it is not in process + of formation. On the contrary, it is known that the + 'Principal Dignitaries' unanimously advised the Secretary to + abandon all physical tests. He, a civilian, was wise enough + not to take the advice. + + "I would like to see a test established that would oblige + officers to take sufficient exercise to pass it without + inconvenience. For the reasons given above, 20 miles in two + days every other month would do the business, while 10 miles + each month does not touch it, simply because nobody has to + walk on 'next day' feet. As for the proposed test of so many + hours 'exercise' a week, the flat foots of the pendulous + belly muscles are delighted. They are looking into the + question of pedometers, and will hang one of these on their + wheezy chests and let it count every shuffling step they + take out of doors. + + "If we had an adequate test throughout 20 years, there would + at the end of that time be few if any sacks of blubber at + the upper end of the list; and service opinion against that + sort of thing would be established." + +These tests were kept during my administration. They were afterwards +abandoned; not through perversity or viciousness; but through weakness, +and inability to understand the need of preparedness in advance, if the +emergencies of war are to be properly met, when, or if, they arrive. + + +In no country with an army worth calling such is there a chance for +a man physically unfit to stay in the service. Our countrymen should +understand that every army officer--and every marine officer--ought to +be summarily removed from the service unless he is able to undergo far +severer tests than those which, as a beginning, I imposed. To follow any +other course is to put a premium on slothful incapacity, and to do the +gravest wrong to the Nation. + +I have mentioned all these experiences, and I could mention scores of +others, because out of them grew my philosophy--perhaps they were in +part caused by my philosophy--of bodily vigor as a method of getting +that vigor of soul without which vigor of the body counts for nothing. +The dweller in cities has less chance than the dweller in the country to +keep his body sound and vigorous. But he can do so, if only he will take +the trouble. Any young lawyer, shopkeeper, or clerk, or shop-assistant +can keep himself in good condition if he tries. Some of the best men who +have ever served under me in the National Guard and in my regiment were +former clerks or floor-walkers. Why, Johnny Hayes, the Marathon victor, +and at one time world champion, one of my valued friends and supporters, +was a floor-walker in Bloomingdale's big department store. Surely with +Johnny Hayes as an example, any young man in a city can hope to make his +body all that a vigorous man's body should be. + +I once made a speech to which I gave the title "The Strenuous Life." +Afterwards I published a volume of essays with this for a title. There +were two translations of it which always especially pleased me. One was +by a Japanese officer who knew English well, and who had carried the +essay all through the Manchurian campaign, and later translated it for +the benefit of his countrymen. The other was by an Italian lady, whose +brother, an officer in the Italian army who had died on duty in a +foreign land, had also greatly liked the article and carried it round +with him. In translating the title the lady rendered it in Italian as +_Vigor di Vita_. I thought this translation a great improvement on the +original, and have always wished that I had myself used "The Vigor of +Life" as a heading to indicate what I was trying to preach, instead of +the heading I actually did use. + +There are two kinds of success, or rather two kinds of ability displayed +in the achievement of success. There is, first, the success either in +big things or small things which comes to the man who has in him the +natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no amount of +training, no perseverance or will power, will enable any ordinary man to +do. This success, of course, like every other kind of success, may be +on a very big scale or on a small scale. The quality which the man +possesses may be that which enables him to run a hundred yards in nine +and three-fifths seconds, or to play ten separate games of chess at the +same time blindfolded, or to add five columns of figures at once without +effort, or to write the "Ode to a Grecian Urn," or to deliver the +Gettysburg speech, or to show the ability of Frederick at Leuthen or +Nelson at Trafalgar. No amount of training of body or mind would enable +any good ordinary man to perform any one of these feats. Of course the +proper performance of each implies much previous study or training, +but in no one of them is success to be attained save by the altogether +exceptional man who has in him the something additional which the +ordinary man does not have. + +This is the most striking kind of success, and it can be attained only +by the man who has in him the quality which separates him in kind no +less than in degree from his fellows. But much the commoner type of +success in every walk of life and in every species of effort is that +which comes to the man who differs from his fellows not by the kind of +quality which he possesses but by the degree of development which he has +given that quality. This kind of success is open to a large number of +persons, if only they seriously determine to achieve it. It is the kind +of success which is open to the average man of sound body and fair mind, +who has no remarkable mental or physical attributes, but who gets just +as much as possible in the way of work out of the aptitudes that he does +possess. It is the only kind of success that is open to most of us. Yet +some of the greatest successes in history have been those of this second +class--when I call it second class I am not running it down in the +least, I am merely pointing out that it differs in kind from the first +class. To the average man it is probably more useful to study this +second type of success than to study the first. From the study of the +first he can learn inspiration, he can get uplift and lofty enthusiasm. +From the study of the second he can, if he chooses, find out how to win +a similar success himself. + +I need hardly say that all the successes I have ever won have been +of the second type. I never won anything without hard labor and the +exercise of my best judgment and careful planning and working long in +advance. Having been a rather sickly and awkward boy, I was as a young +man at first both nervous and distrustful of my own prowess. I had to +train myself painfully and laboriously not merely as regards my body but +as regards my soul and spirit. + +When a boy I read a passage in one of Marryat's books which always +impressed me. In this passage the captain of some small British +man-of-war is explaining to the hero how to acquire the quality of +fearlessness. He says that at the outset almost every man is frightened +when he goes into action, but that the course to follow is for the man +to keep such a grip on himself that he can act just as if he was not +frightened. After this is kept up long enough it changes from pretense +to reality, and the man does in very fact become fearless by sheer dint +of practicing fearlessness when he does not feel it. (I am using my own +language, not Marryat's.) This was the theory upon which I went. There +were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from +grizzly bears to "mean" horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I +was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the +same experience if they choose. They will first learn to bear themselves +well in trials which they anticipate and which they school themselves +in advance to meet. After a while the habit will grow on them, and they +will behave well in sudden and unexpected emergencies which come upon +them unawares. + +It is of course much pleasanter if one is naturally fearless, and I envy +and respect the men who are naturally fearless. But it is a good +thing to remember that the man who does not enjoy this advantage can +nevertheless stand beside the man who does, and can do his duty with the +like efficiency, if he chooses to. Of course he must not let his +desire take the form merely of a day-dream. Let him dream about being +a fearless man, and the more he dreams the better he will be, always +provided he does his best to realize the dream in practice. He can do +his part honorably and well provided only he sets fearlessness before +himself as an ideal, schools himself to think of danger merely as +something to be faced and overcome, and regards life itself as he should +regard it, not as something to be thrown away, but as a pawn to be +promptly hazarded whenever the hazard is warranted by the larger +interests of the great game in which we are all engaged. + + + +CHAPTER III + +PRACTICAL POLITICS + +When I left Harvard, I took up the study of law. If I had been +sufficiently fortunate to come under Professor Thayer, of the Harvard +Law School, it may well be that I would have realized that the lawyer +can do a great work for justice and against legalism. + +But, doubtless chiefly through my own fault, some of the teaching of the +law books and of the classroom seemed to me to be against justice. +The _caveat emptor_ side of the law, like the _caveat emptor_ side +of business, seemed to me repellent; it did not make for social fair +dealing. The "let the buyer beware" maxim, when translated into actual +practice, whether in law or business, tends to translate itself further +into the seller making his profit at the expense of the buyer, instead +of by a bargain which shall be to the profit of both. It did not seem +to me that the law was framed to discourage as it should sharp practice, +and all other kinds of bargains except those which are fair and of +benefit to both sides. I was young; there was much in the judgment which +I then formed on this matter which I should now revise; but, then as +now, many of the big corporation lawyers, to whom the ordinary members +of the bar then as now looked up, held certain standards which were +difficult to recognize as compatible with the idealism I suppose every +high-minded young man is apt to feel. If I had been obliged to earn +every cent I spent, I should have gone whole-heartedly into the business +of making both ends meet, and should have taken up the law or any other +respectable occupation--for I then held, and now hold, the belief that +a man's first duty is to pull his own weight and to take care of those +dependent upon him; and I then believed, and now believe, that the +greatest privilege and greatest duty for any man is to be happily +married, and that no other form of success or service, for either man +or woman, can be wisely accepted as a substitute or alternative. But it +happened that I had been left enough money by my father not to make +it necessary for me to think solely of earning bread for myself and my +family. I had enough to get bread. What I had to do, if I wanted butter +and jam, was to provide the butter and jam, but to count their cost +as compared with other things. In other words, I made up my mind that, +while I must earn money, I could afford to make earning money the +secondary instead of the primary object of my career. If I had had +no money at all, then my first duty would have been to earn it in any +honest fashion. As I had some money I felt that my need for more money +was to be treated as a secondary need, and that while it was my business +to make more money where I legitimately and properly could, yet that it +was also my business to treat other kinds of work as more important than +money-making. + +Almost immediately after leaving Harvard in 1880 I began to take an +interest in politics. I did not then believe, and I do not now believe, +that any man should ever attempt to make politics his only career. It +is a dreadful misfortune for a man to grow to feel that his whole +livelihood and whole happiness depend upon his staying in office. Such +a feeling prevents him from being of real service to the people while +in office, and always puts him under the heaviest strain of pressure to +barter his convictions for the sake of holding office. A man should have +some other occupation--I had several other occupations--to which he can +resort if at any time he is thrown out of office, or if at any time he +finds it necessary to choose a course which will probably result in +his being thrown out, unless he is willing to stay in at cost to his +conscience. + +At that day, in 1880, a young man of my bringing up and convictions +could join only the Republican party, and join it I accordingly did. +It was no simple thing to join it then. That was long before the era of +ballot reform and the control of primaries; long before the era when we +realized that the Government must take official notice of the deeds and +acts of party organizations. The party was still treated as a private +corporation, and in each district the organization formed a kind of +social and political club. A man had to be regularly proposed for and +elected into this club, just as into any other club. As a friend of mine +picturesquely phrased it, I "had to break into the organization with a +jimmy." + +Under these circumstances there was some difficulty in joining the local +organization, and considerable amusement and excitement to be obtained +out of it after I had joined. + +It was over thirty-three years ago that I thus became a member of the +Twenty-first District Republican Association in the city of New York. +The men I knew best were the men in the clubs of social pretension +and the men of cultivated taste and easy life. When I began to make +inquiries as to the whereabouts of the local Republican Association and +the means of joining it, these men--and the big business men and lawyers +also--laughed at me, and told me that politics were "low"; that the +organizations were not controlled by "gentlemen"; that I would find them +run by saloon-keepers, horse-car conductors, and the like, and not by +men with any of whom I would come in contact outside; and, moreover, +they assured me that the men I met would be rough and brutal and +unpleasant to deal with. I answered that if this were so it merely meant +that the people I knew did not belong to the governing class, and that +the other people did--and that I intended to be one of the governing +class; that if they proved too hard-bit for me I supposed I would have +to quit, but that I certainly would not quit until I had made the effort +and found out whether I really was too weak to hold my own in the rough +and tumble. + +The Republican Association of which I became a member held its meetings +in Morton Hall, a large, barn-like room over a saloon. Its furniture was +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, to whose generosity +we owed the room. We had regular meetings once or twice a month, and +between times the place was treated, at least on certain nights, as a +kind of club-room. I went around there often enough to have the men get +accustomed to me and to have me get accustomed to them, so that we began +to speak the same language, and so that each could begin to live down in +the other's mind what Bret Harte has called "the defective moral quality +of being a stranger." It is not often that a man can make opportunities +for himself. But he can put himself in such shape that when or if the +opportunities come he is ready to take advantage of them. This was what +happened to me in connection with my experiences in Morton Hall. I soon +became on good terms with a number of the ordinary "heelers" and even +some of the minor leaders. The big leader was Jake Hess, who treated +me with rather distant affability. There were prominent lawyers and +business men who belonged, but they took little part in the actual +meetings. What they did was done elsewhere. The running of the machine +was left to Jake Hess and his captains of tens and of hundreds. + +Among these lesser captains I soon struck up a friendship with Joe +Murray, a friendship which is as strong now as it was thirty-three years +ago. He had been born in Ireland, but brought to New York by his parents +when he was three or four years old, and, as he expressed it, "raised as +a barefooted boy on First Avenue." When not eighteen he had enlisted in +the Army of the Potomac and taken part in the campaign that closed the +Civil War. Then he came back to First Avenue, and, being a fearless, +powerful, energetic young fellow, careless and reckless, speedily grew +to some prominence as leader of a gang. In that district, and at that +time, politics was a rough business, and Tammany Hall held unquestioned +sway. The district was overwhelmingly Democratic, and Joe and his +friends were Democrats who on election day performed the usual gang +work for the local Democratic leader, whose business it was to favor and +reward them in return. This same local leader, like many other greater +leaders, became puffed up by prosperity, and forgot the instruments +through which he had achieved prosperity. After one election he showed a +callous indifference to the hard work of the gang and complete disregard +of his before-election promises. He counted upon the resentment wearing +itself out, as usual, in threats and bluster. + +But Joe Murray was not a man who forgot. He explained to his gang his +purposes and the necessity of being quiet. Accordingly they waited for +their revenge until the next election day. They then, as Joe expressed +it, decided "to vote furdest away from the leader"--I am using the +language of Joe's youth--and the best way to do this was to vote +the Republican ticket. In those days each party had a booth near the +polling-place in each election district, where the party representative +dispensed the party ballots. This had been a district in which, as a +rule, very early in the day the Republican election leader had his +hat knocked over his eyes and his booth kicked over and his ballots +scattered; and then the size of the Democratic majority depended on an +elastic appreciation of exactly how much was demanded from headquarters. +But on this day things went differently. The gang, with a Roman sense +of duty, took an active interest in seeing that the Republican was given +his full rights. Moreover, they made the most energetic reprisals on +their opponents, and as they were distinctly the tough and fighting +element, justice came to her own with a whoop. Would-be repeaters were +thrown out on their heads. Every person who could be cajoled or, I fear, +intimidated, was given the Republican ticket, and the upshot was that at +the end of the day a district which had never hitherto polled more than +two or three per cent of its vote Republican broke about even between +the two parties. + +To Joe it had been merely an act of retribution in so far as it was not +simply a spree. But the leaders at the Republican headquarters did not +know this, and when they got over their paralyzed astonishment at the +returns, they investigated to find out what it meant. Somebody told +them that it represented the work of a young man named Joseph Murray. +Accordingly they sent for him. The room in which they received him was +doubtless some place like Morton Hall, and the men who received him were +akin to those who had leadership in Morton Hall; but in Joe's eyes +they stood for a higher civilization, for opportunity, for generous +recognition of successful effort--in short, for all the things that an +eager young man desires. He was received and patted on the back by a man +who was a great man to the world in which he lived. He was introduced +to the audience as a young man whose achievement was such as to +promise much for the future, and moreover he was given a place in the +post-office--as I have said, this was long before the day of Civil +Service Reform. + +Now, to the wrong kind of man all this might have meant nothing at +all. But in Joe Murray's case it meant everything. He was by nature as +straight a man, as fearless and as stanchly loyal, as any one whom I +have ever met, a man to be trusted in any position demanding courage, +integrity, and good faith. He did his duty in the public service, and +became devotedly attached to the organization which he felt had given +him his chance in life. When I knew him he was already making his +way up; one of the proofs and evidences of which was that he owned a +first-class racing trotter--"Alice Lane"--behind which he gave me more +than one spin. During this first winter I grew to like Joe and his +particular cronies. But I had no idea that they especially returned the +liking, and in the first row we had in the organization (which arose +over a movement, that I backed, to stand by a non-partisan method of +street-cleaning) Joe and all his friends stood stiffly with the machine, +and my side, the reform side, was left with only some half-dozen votes +out of three or four hundred. I had expected no other outcome and took +it good-humoredly, but without changing my attitude. + +Next fall, as the elections drew near, Joe thought he would like to make +a drive at Jake Hess, and after considerable planning decided that his +best chance lay in the fight for the nomination to the Assembly, the +lower house of the Legislature. He picked me as the candidate with whom +he would be most likely to win; and win he did. It was not my fight, it +was Joe's; and it was to him that I owe my entry into politics. I had +at that time neither the reputation nor the ability to have won the +nomination for myself, and indeed never would have thought of trying for +it. + +Jake Hess was entirely good-humored about it. In spite of my being +anti-machine, my relations with him had been friendly and human, and +when he was beaten he turned in to help Joe elect me. At first they +thought they would take me on a personal canvass through the saloons +along Sixth Avenue. The canvass, however, did not last beyond the first +saloon. I was introduced with proper solemnity to the saloon-keeper--a +very important personage, for this was before the days when +saloon-keepers became merely the mortgaged chattels of the brewers--and +he began to cross-examine me, a little too much in the tone of one who +was dealing with a suppliant for his favor. He said he expected that I +would of course treat the liquor business fairly; to which I answered, +none too cordially, that I hoped I should treat all interests fairly. +He then said that he regarded the licenses as too high; to which I +responded that I believed they were really not high enough, and that +I should try to have them made higher. The conversation threatened to +become stormy. Messrs. Murray and Hess, on some hastily improvised plea, +took me out into the street, and then Joe explained to me that it was +not worth my while staying in Sixth Avenue any longer, that I had better +go right back to Fifth Avenue and attend to my friends there, and that +he would look after my interests on Sixth Avenue. I was triumphantly +elected. + +Once before Joe had interfered in similar fashion and secured the +nomination of an Assemblyman; and shortly after election he had grown +to feel toward this Assemblyman that he must have fed on the meat which +rendered Caesar proud, as he became inaccessible to the ordinary mortals +whose place of resort was Morton Hall. He eyed me warily for a +short time to see if I was likely in this respect to follow in my +predecessor's footsteps. Finding that I did not, he and all my other +friends and supporters assumed toward me the very pleasantest attitude +that it was possible to assume. They did not ask me for a thing. They +accepted as a matter of course the view that I was absolutely straight +and was trying to do the best I could in the Legislature. They desired +nothing except that I should make a success, and they supported me with +hearty enthusiasm. I am a little at a loss to know quite how to express +the quality in my relationship with Joe Murray and my other friends of +this period which rendered that relationship so beneficial to me. When I +went into politics at this time I was not conscious of going in with +the set purpose to benefit other people, but of getting for myself a +privilege to which I was entitled in common with other people. So it was +in my relationship with these men. If there had lurked in the innermost +recesses of my mind anywhere the thought that I was in some way a +patron or a benefactor, or was doing something noble by taking part +in politics, or that I expected the smallest consideration save what +I could earn on my own merits, I am certain that somehow or other the +existence of that feeling would have been known and resented. As a +matter of fact, there was not the slightest temptation on my part to +have any such feeling or any one of such feelings. I no more expected +special consideration in politics than I would have expected it in the +boxing ring. I wished to act squarely to others, and I wished to be able +to show that I could hold my own as against others. The attitude of my +new friends toward me was first one of polite reserve, and then that of +friendly alliance. Afterwards I became admitted to comradeship, and then +to leadership. I need hardly say how earnestly I believe that men should +have a keen and lively sense of their obligations in politics, of their +duty to help forward great causes, and to struggle for the betterment of +conditions that are unjust to their fellows, the men and women who are +less fortunate in life. But in addition to this feeling there must be a +feeling of real fellowship with the other men and women engaged in the +same task, fellowship of work, with fun to vary the work; for unless +there is this feeling of fellowship, of common effort on an equal plane +for a common end, it will be difficult to keep the relations wholesome +and natural. To be patronized is as offensive as to be insulted. No one +of us cares permanently to have some one else conscientiously striving +to do him good; what we want is to work with that some one else for the +good of both of us--any man will speedily find that other people can +benefit him just as much as he can benefit them. + +Neither Joe Murray nor I nor any of our associates at that time were +alive to social and industrial needs which we now all of us recognize. +But we then had very clearly before our minds the need of practically +applying certain elemental virtues, the virtues of honesty and +efficiency in politics, the virtue of efficiency side by side with +honesty in private and public life alike, the virtues of consideration +and fair dealing in business as between man and man, and especially as +between the man who is an employer and the man who is an employee. +On all fundamental questions Joe Murray and I thought alike. We never +parted company excepting on the question of Civil Service Reform, where +he sincerely felt that I showed doctrinaire affinities, that I sided +with the pharisees. We got back again into close relations as soon as +I became Police Commissioner under Mayor Strong, for Joe was then made +Excise Commissioner, and was, I believe, the best Excise Commissioner +the city of New York ever had. He is now a farmer, his boys have been +through Columbia College, and he and I look at the questions, political, +social, and industrial, which confront us in 1913 from practically the +same standpoint, just as we once looked at the questions that confronted +us in 1881. + +There are many debts that I owe Joe Murray, and some for which he was +only unconsciously responsible. I do not think that a man is fit to do +good work in our American democracy unless he is able to have a +genuine fellow-feeling for, understanding of, and sympathy with his +fellow-Americans, whatever their creed or their birthplace, the section +in which they live, or the work which they do, provided they possess +the only kind of Americanism that really counts, the Americanism of the +spirit. It was no small help to me, in the effort to make myself a good +citizen and good American, that the political associate with whom I was +on closest and most intimate terms during my early years was a man born +in Ireland, by creed a Catholic, with Joe Murray's upbringing; just +as it helped me greatly at a later period to work for certain vitally +necessary public needs with Arthur von Briesen, in whom the spirit of +the "Acht-und-Vierziger" idealists was embodied; just as my whole life +was influenced by my long association with Jacob Riis, whom I am tempted +to call the best American I ever knew, although he was already a young +man when he came hither from Denmark. + +I was elected to the Legislature in the fall of 1881, and found myself +the youngest man in that body. I was reelected the two following +years. Like all young men and inexperienced members, I had considerable +difficulty in teaching myself to speak. I profited much by the advice +of a hard-headed old countryman--who was unconsciously paraphrasing +the Duke of Wellington, who was himself doubtless paraphrasing somebody +else. The advice ran: "Don't speak until you are sure you have something +to say, and know just what it is; then say it, and sit down." + +My first days in the Legislature were much like those of a boy in a +strange school. My fellow-legislators and I eyed one another with mutual +distrust. Each of us chose his seat, each began by following the lead of +some veteran in the first routine matters, and then, in a week or two, +we began to drift into groups according to our several affinities. The +Legislature was Democratic. I was a Republican from the "silk stocking" +district, the wealthiest district in New York, and I was put, as one +of the minority members, on the Committee of Cities. It was a coveted +position. I did not make any effort to get on, and, as far as I know, +was put there merely because it was felt to be in accordance with the +fitness of things. + +A very short experience showed me that, as the Legislature was then +constituted, the so-called party contests had no interest whatever for +me. There was no real party division on most of the things that were of +concern in State politics, both Republicans and Democrats being for and +against them. My friendships were made, not with regard to party +lines, but because I found, and my friends found, that we had the same +convictions on questions of principle and questions of policy. The only +difference was that there was a larger proportion of these men among the +Republicans than among the Democrats, and that it was easier for me at +the outset to scrape acquaintance, among the men who felt as I did, with +the Republicans. They were for the most part from the country districts. + +My closest friend for the three years I was there was Billy O'Neill, +from the Adirondacks. He kept a small crossroads store. He was a young +man, although a few years older than I was, and, like myself, had won +his position without regard to the machine. He had thought he would +like to be Assemblyman, so he had taken his buggy and had driven around +Franklin County visiting everybody, had upset the local ring, and came +to the Legislature as his own master. There is surely something in +American traditions that does tend toward real democracy in spite of our +faults and shortcomings. In most other countries two men of as different +antecedents, ancestry, and surroundings as Billy O'Neill and I would +have had far more difficulty in coming together. I came from the biggest +city in America and from the wealthiest ward of that city, and he from +a backwoods county where he kept a store at a crossroads. In all the +unimportant things we seemed far apart. But in all the important things +we were close together. We looked at all questions from substantially +the same view-point, and we stood shoulder to shoulder in every +legislative fight during those three years. He abhorred demagogy just +as he abhorred corruption. He had thought much on political problems; he +admired Alexander Hamilton as much as I did, being a strong believer +in a powerful National government; and we both of us differed from +Alexander Hamilton in being stout adherents of Abraham Lincoln's views +wherever the rights of the people were concerned. Any man who has met +with success, if he will be frank with himself, must admit that there +has been a big element of fortune in the success. Fortune favored me, +whereas her hand was heavy against Billy O'Neill. All his life he had to +strive hard to wring his bread from harsh surroundings and a reluctant +fate; if fate had been but a little kinder, I believe he would have had +a great political career; and he would have done good service for the +country in any position in which he might have been put. + +There were other Republicans, like Isaac Hunt and Jonas van Duzer and +Walter Howe and Henry Sprague, who were among my close friends and +allies; and a gigantic one-eyed veteran of the Civil War, a gallant +General, Curtis from St. Lawrence County; and a capital fellow, whom +afterwards, when Governor, I put on the bench, Kruse, from Cattaraugus +County. Kruse was a German by birth; as far as I know, the only German +from Cattaraugus County at that time; and, besides being a German, he +was also a Prohibitionist. Among the Democrats were Hamden Robb and +Thomas Newbold, and Tom Welch of Niagara, who did a great service in +getting the State to set aside Niagara Falls Park--after a discouraging +experience with the first Governor before whom we brought the bill, who +listened with austere patience to our arguments in favor of the State +establishing a park, and then conclusively answered us by the question, +"But, gentlemen, why should we spend the people's money when just as +much water will run over the Falls without a park as with it?" Then +there were a couple of members from New York and Brooklyn, Mike Costello +and Pete Kelly. + +Mike Costello had been elected as a Tammany man. He was as fearless as +he was honest. He came from Ireland, and had accepted the Tammany Fourth +of July orations as indicating the real attitude of that organization +towards the rights of the people. A month or two in Albany converted him +to a profound distrust of applied Tammany methods. He and I worked +hand in hand with equal indifference to our local machines. His machine +leaders warned him fairly that they would throw him out at the next +election, which they did; but he possessed a seasoned-hickory toughness +of ability to contend with adverse circumstances, and kept his head well +above water. A better citizen does not exist; and our friendship has +never faltered. + +Peter Kelly's fate was a tragedy. He was a bright, well-educated young +fellow, an ardent believer in Henry George. At the beginning he and I +failed to understand each other or to get on together, for our theories +of government were radically opposed. After a couple of months spent in +active contests with men whose theories had nothing whatever to do with +their practices, Kelly and I found in our turn that it really did not +make much difference what our abstract theories were on questions that +were not before the Legislature, in view of the fact that on the actual +matters before the Legislature, the most important of which involved +questions of elementary morality, we were heartily at one. We began to +vote together and act together, and by the end of the session found that +in all practical matters that were up for action we thought together. +Indeed, each of us was beginning to change his theories, so that even +in theory we were coming closer together. He was ardent and generous; he +was a young lawyer, with a wife and children, whose ambition had tempted +him into politics, and who had been befriended by the local bosses +under the belief that they could count upon him for anything they really +wished. Unfortunately, what they really wished was often corrupt. Kelly +defied them, fought the battles of the people with ardor and good faith, +and when the bosses refused him a renomination, he appealed from them +to the people. When we both came up for reelection, I won easily in my +district, where circumstances conspired to favor me; and Kelly, with +exactly the same record that I had, except that it was more creditable +because he took his stand against greater odds, was beaten in his +district. Defeat to me would have meant merely chagrin; to Kelly it +meant terrible material disaster. He had no money. Like every rigidly +honest man, he had found that going into politics was expensive and that +his salary as Assemblyman did not cover the financial outgo. He had lost +his practice and he had incurred the ill will of the powerful, so that +it was impossible at the moment to pick up his practice again; and +the worry and disappointment affected him so much that shortly after +election he was struck down by sickness. Just before Christmas some of +us were informed that Kelly was in such financial straits that he and +his family would be put out into the street before New Year. This was +prevented by the action of some of his friends who had served with him +in the Legislature, and he recovered, at least to a degree, and took +up the practice of his profession. But he was a broken man. In the +Legislature in which he served one of his fellow-Democrats from +Brooklyn was the Speaker--Alfred C. Chapin, the leader and the foremost +representative of the reform Democracy, whom Kelly zealously supported. +A few years later Chapin, a very able man, was elected Mayor of Brooklyn +on a reform Democratic ticket. Shortly after his election I was asked +to speak at a meeting in a Brooklyn club at which various prominent +citizens, including the Mayor, were present. I spoke on civic decency, +and toward the close of my speech I sketched Kelly's career for my +audience, told them how he had stood up for the rights of the people of +Brooklyn, and how the people had failed to stand up for him, and the way +he had been punished, precisely because he had been a good citizen who +acted as a good citizen should act. I ended by saying that the reform +Democracy had now come into power, that Mr. Chapin was Mayor, and that I +very earnestly hoped recognition would at last be given to Kelly for the +fight he had waged at such bitter cost to himself. My words created some +impression, and Mayor Chapin at once said that he would take care of +Kelly and see that justice was done him. I went home that evening much +pleased. In the morning, at breakfast, I received a brief note from +Chapin in these words: "It was nine last evening when you finished +speaking of what Kelly had done, and when I said that I would take care +of him. At ten last night Kelly died." He had been dying while I was +making my speech, and he never knew that at last there was to be a +tardy recognition of what he had done, a tardy justification for the +sacrifices he had made. The man had fought, at heavy cost to himself and +with entire disinterestedness, for popular rights; but no recognition +for what he had done had come to him from the people, whose interest he +had so manfully upheld. + +Where there is no chance of statistical or mathematical measurement, it +is very hard to tell just the degree to which conditions change from one +period to another. This is peculiarly hard to do when we deal with such +a matter as corruption. Personally I am inclined to think that in public +life we are on the whole a little better and not a little worse than we +were thirty years ago, when I was serving in the New York Legislature. +I think the conditions are a little better in National, in State, and in +municipal politics. Doubtless there are points in which they are worse, +and there is an enormous amount that needs reformation. But it does seem +to me as if, on the whole, things had slightly improved. + +When I went into politics, New York City was under the control of +Tammany, which was from time to time opposed by some other--and +evanescent--city Democratic organization. The up-country Democrats had +not yet fallen under Tammany sway, and were on the point of developing a +big country political boss in the shape of David B. Hill. The Republican +party was split into the Stalwart and Half-Breed factions. Accordingly +neither party had one dominant boss, or one dominant machine, each being +controlled by jarring and warring bosses and machines. The corruption +was not what it had been in the days of Tweed, when outside individuals +controlled the legislators like puppets. Nor was there any such +centralization of the boss system as occurred later. Many of the members +were under the control of local bosses or local machines. But the +corrupt work was usually done through the members directly. + +Of course I never had anything in the nature of legal proof of +corruption, and the figures I am about to give are merely approximate. +But three years' experience convinced me, in the first place, that there +were a great many thoroughly corrupt men in the Legislature, perhaps a +third of the whole number; and, in the next place, that the honest men +outnumbered the corrupt men, and that, if it were ever possible to get +an issue of right and wrong put vividly and unmistakably before them +in a way that would arrest their attention and that would arrest the +attention of their constituents, we could count on the triumph of the +right. The trouble was that in most cases the issue was confused. To +read some kinds of literature one would come to the conclusion that the +only corruption in legislative circles was in the form of bribery by +corporations, and that the line was sharp between the honest man who was +always voting against corporations and the dishonest man who was always +bribed to vote for them. My experience was the direct contrary of +this. For every one bill introduced (not passed) corruptly to favor a +corporation, there were at least ten introduced (not passed, and in this +case not intended to be passed) to blackmail corporations. The majority +of the corrupt members would be found voting for the blackmailing bills +if they were not paid, and would also be found voting in the interests +of the corporation if they were paid. The blackmailing, or, as they were +always called, the "strike" bills, could themselves be roughly divided +into two categories: bills which it would have been proper to pass, +and those that it would not have been proper to pass. Some of the bills +aimed at corporations were utterly wild and improper; and of these a +proportion might be introduced by honest and foolish zealots, whereas +most of them were introduced by men who had not the slightest intention +of passing them, but who wished to be paid not to pass them. The most +profitable type of bill to the accomplished blackmailer, however, was a +bill aimed at a real corporate abuse which the corporation, either from +wickedness or folly, was unwilling to remedy. Of the measures introduced +in the interest of corporations there were also some that were proper +and some that were improper. The corrupt legislators, the "black horse +cavalry," as they were termed, would demand payment to vote as the +corporations wished, no matter whether the bill was proper or improper. +Sometimes, if the bill was a proper one, the corporation would have the +virtue or the strength of mind to refuse to pay for its passage, and +sometimes it would not. + +A very slight consideration of the above state of affairs will show +how difficult it was at times to keep the issue clear, for honest and +dishonest men were continually found side by side voting now against and +now for a corporation measure, the one set from proper and the other set +from grossly improper motives. Of course part of the fault lay in the +attitudes of outsiders. It was very early borne in upon me that almost +equal harm was done by indiscriminate defense of, and indiscriminate +attack on, corporations. It was hard to say whether the man who prided +himself upon always antagonizing the corporations, or the man who, on +the plea that he was a good conservative, always stood up for them, was +the more mischievous agent of corruption and demoralization. + +In one fight in the House over a bill as to which there was a bitter +contest between two New York City street railway organizations, I saw +lobbyists come down on the floor itself and draw venal men out into the +lobbies with almost no pretense of concealing what they were doing. +In another case in which the elevated railway corporations of New York +City, against the protest of the Mayor and the other local authorities, +rushed through a bill remitting over half their taxes, some of the +members who voted for the measure probably thought it was right; but +every corrupt man in the House voted with them; and the man must +indeed have been stupid who thought that these votes were given +disinterestedly. + +The effective fight against this bill for the revision of the elevated +railway taxes--perhaps the most openly crooked measure which during my +time was pushed at Albany--was waged by Mike Costello and myself. We +used to spend a good deal of time in industrious research into the +various bills introduced, so as to find out what their authors really +had in mind; this research, by the way, being highly unappreciated and +much resented by the authors. In the course of his researches Mike +had been puzzled by an unimportant bill, seemingly related to a +Constitutional amendment, introduced by a local saloon-keeper, whose +interests, as far as we knew, were wholly remote from the Constitution, +or from any form of abstract legal betterment. However, the measure +seemed harmless; we did not interfere; and it passed the House. Mike, +however, followed its career in the Senate, and at the last moment, +almost by accident, discovered that it had been "amended" by the +simple process of striking out everything after the enacting clause and +unobtrusively substituting the proposal to remit the elevated railway +taxes! The authors of the change wished to avoid unseemly publicity; +their hope was to slip the measure through the Legislature and have +it instantly signed by the Governor, before any public attention was +excited. In the Senate their plan worked to perfection. There was in +the Senate no fighting leadership of the forces of decency; and for such +leadership of the non-fighting type the representatives of corruption +cared absolutely nothing. By bold and adroit management the substitution +in the Senate was effected without opposition or comment. The bill (in +reality, of course, an absolutely new and undebated bill) then came back +to the House nominally as a merely amended measure, which, under the +rules, was not open to debate unless the amendment was first by vote +rejected. This was the great bill of the session for the lobby; and +the lobby was keenly alive to the need of quick, wise action. No public +attention whatever had so far been excited. Every measure was taken +to secure immediate and silent action. A powerful leader, whom the +beneficiaries of the bill trusted, a fearless and unscrupulous man, +of much force and great knowledge of parliamentary law, was put in the +chair. Costello and I were watched; and when for a moment we were out +of the House, the bill was brought over from the Senate, and the clerk +began to read it, all the black horse cavalry, in expectant mood, being +in their seats. But Mike Costello, who was in the clerk's room, happened +to catch a few words of what was being read. In he rushed, despatched a +messenger for me, and began a single-handed filibuster. The Speaker +pro tem called him to order. Mike continued to speak and protest; +the Speaker hammered him down; Mike continued his protests; the +sergeant-at-arms was sent to arrest and remove him; and then I bounced +in, and continued the protest, and refused to sit down or be silent. +Amid wild confusion the amendment was declared adopted, and the bill +was ordered engrossed and sent to the Governor. But we had carried our +point. The next morning the whole press rang with what had happened; +every detail of the bill, and every detail of the way it had been +slipped through the Legislature, were made public. All the slow and +cautious men in the House, who had been afraid of taking sides, now came +forward in support of us. Another debate was held on the proposal to +rescind the vote; the city authorities waked up to protest; the +Governor refused to sign the bill. Two or three years later, after much +litigation, the taxes were paid; in the newspapers it was stated that +the amount was over $1,500,000. It was Mike Costello to whom primarily +was due the fact that this sum was saved the public, and that the forces +of corruption received a stinging rebuff. He did not expect recognition +or reward for his services; and he got none. The public, if it knew of +what he had done, promptly forgot it. The machine did not forget it, and +turned him down at the next election. + +One of the stand-by "strikes" was a bill for reducing the elevated +railway fare, which at that time was ten cents, to five cents. In +one Legislature the men responsible for the introduction of the bill +suffered such an extraordinary change of heart that when the bill +came up--being pushed by zealous radicals who really were honest--the +introducers actually voted against it! A number of us who had been very +doubtful about the principle of the bill voted for it simply because +we were convinced that money was being used to stop it, and we hated to +seem to side with the corruptionists. Then there came a wave of popular +feeling in its favor, the bill was reintroduced at the next session, +the railways very wisely decided that they would simply fight it on its +merits, and the entire black horse cavalry contingent, together with all +the former friends of the measure, voted against it. Some of us, who in +our anger at the methods formerly resorted to for killing the bill had +voted for it the previous year, with much heart-searching again voted +for it, as I now think unwisely; and the bill was vetoed by the then +Governor, Grover Cleveland. I believe the veto was proper, and those +who felt as I did supported the veto; for although it was entirely right +that the fare should be reduced to five cents, which was soon afterwards +done, the method was unwise, and would have set a mischievous precedent. + +An instance of an opposite kind occurred in connection with a great +railway corporation which wished to increase its terminal facilities in +one of our great cities. The representatives of the railway brought +the bill to me and asked me to look into it, saying that they were well +aware that it was the kind of bill that lent itself to blackmail, and +that they wished to get it through on its merits, and invited the +most careful examination. I looked carefully into it, found that the +municipal authorities and the property-owners whose property was to be +taken favored it, and also found that it was an absolute necessity +from the standpoint of the city no less than from the standpoint of the +railway. So I said I would take charge of it if I had guarantees that no +money should be used and nothing improper done in order to push it. This +was agreed to. I was then acting as chairman of the committee before +which the bill went. + +A very brief experience proved what I had already been practically sure +of, that there was a secret combination of the majority of the committee +on a crooked basis. On one pretext or another the crooked members of the +committee held the bill up, refusing to report it either favorably or +unfavorably. There were one or two members of the committee who were +pretty rough characters, and when I decided to force matters I was not +sure that we would not have trouble. There was a broken chair in the +room, and I got a leg of it loose and put it down beside me where it +was not visible, but where I might get at it in a hurry if necessary. I +moved that the bill be reported favorably. This was voted down without +debate by the "combine," some of whom kept a wooden stolidity of look, +while others leered at me with sneering insolence. I then moved that it +be reported unfavorably, and again the motion was voted down by the same +majority and in the same fashion. I then put the bill in my pocket and +announced that I would report it anyhow. This almost precipitated a +riot, especially when I explained, in answer to statements that my +conduct would be exposed on the floor of the Legislature, that in that +case I should give the Legislature the reasons why I suspected that the +men holding up all report of the bill were holding it up for purposes +of blackmail. The riot did not come off; partly, I think, because the +opportune production of the chair-leg had a sedative effect, and partly +owing to wise counsels from one or two of my opponents. + +Accordingly I got the bill reported to the Legislature and put on the +calendar. But here it came to a dead halt. I think this was chiefly +because most of the newspapers which noticed the matter at all treated +it in such a cynical spirit as to encourage the men who wished to +blackmail. These papers reported the introduction of the bill, and said +that "all the hungry legislators were clamoring for their share of the +pie"; and they accepted as certain the fact that there was going to be a +division of "pie." This succeeded in frightening honest men, and also in +relieving the rogues; the former were afraid they would be suspected of +receiving money if they voted for the bill, and the latter were given a +shield behind which to stand until they were paid. I was wholly +unable to move the bill forward in the Legislature, and finally a +representative of the railway told me that he thought he would like +to take the bill out of my hands, that I did not seem able to get it +through, and that perhaps some "older and more experienced" leader could +be more successful. I was pretty certain what this meant, but of course +I had no kind of proof, and moreover I was not in a position to say that +I could promise success. Accordingly, the bill was given into the charge +of a veteran, whom I believe to have been a personally honest man, but +who was not inquisitive about the motives influencing his colleagues. +This gentleman, who went by a nickname which I shall incorrectly call +"the bald eagle of Weehawken," was efficient and knew his job. After a +couple of weeks a motion to put the bill through was made by "the +bald eagle"; the "black horse cavalry," whose feelings had undergone a +complete change in the intervening time, voted unanimously for it, in +company with all the decent members; and that was the end. Now here was +a bit of work in the interest of a corporation and in the interest of +a community, which the corporation at first tried honestly to have put +through on its merits. The blame for the failure lay primarily in the +supine indifference of the community to legislative wrong-doing, so long +as only the corporations were blackmailed. + +Except as above mentioned, I was not brought in contact with big +business, save in the effort to impeach a certain judge. This judge +had been used as an instrument in their business by certain of the men +connected with the elevated railways and other great corporations at +that time. We got hold of his correspondence with one of these men, and +it showed a shocking willingness to use the judicial office in any way +that one of the kings of finance of that day desired. He had actually +held court in one of that financier's rooms. One expression in one of +the judge's letters to this financier I shall always remember: "I am +willing to go to the very verge of judicial discretion to serve your +vast interests." The curious thing was that I was by no means certain +that the judge himself was corrupt. He may have been; but I am inclined +to think that, aside from his being a man of coarse moral fiber, the +trouble lay chiefly in the fact that he had a genuine--if I had not +so often seen it, I would say a wholly inexplicable--reverence for +the possessor of a great fortune as such. He sincerely believed that +business was the end of existence, and that judge and legislator +alike should do whatever was necessary to favor it; and the bigger the +business the more he desired to favor it. Big business of the kind that +is allied with politics thoroughly appreciated the usefulness of such a +judge, and every effort was strained to protect him. We fought hard--by +"we" I mean some thirty or forty legislators, both Republicans and +Democrats--but the "black horse cavalry," and the timid good men, and +the dull conservative men, were all against us; and the vote in the +Legislature was heavily against impeachment. The minority of the +committee that investigated him, with Chapin at its head, recommended +impeachment; the argument for impeachment before the committee was made +by Francis Lynde Stetson. + +It was my first experience of the kind. Various men whom I had known +well socially and had been taught to look up to, prominent business men +and lawyers, acted in a way which not only astounded me, but which I +was quite unable to reconcile with the theories I had formed as to their +high standing--I was little more than a year out of college at the time. +Generally, as has been always the case since, they were careful to avoid +any direct conversation with me on a concrete case of what we now +call "privilege" in business and in politics, that is, of the alliance +between business and politics which represents improper favors rendered +to some men in return for improper conduct on the part of others being +ignored or permitted. + +One member of a prominent law firm, an old family friend, did, however, +take me out to lunch one day, evidently for the purpose of seeing just +what it was that I wished and intended to do. I believe he had a +genuine personal liking for me. He explained that I had done well in the +Legislature; that it was a good thing to have made the "reform play," +that I had shown that I possessed ability such as would make me useful +in the right kind of law office or business concern; but that I must not +overplay my hand; that I had gone far enough, and that now was the time +to leave politics and identify myself with the right kind of people, the +people who would always in the long run control others and obtain the +real rewards which were worth having. I asked him if that meant that I +was to yield to the ring in politics. He answered somewhat impatiently +that I was entirely mistaken (as in fact I was) about there being merely +a political ring, of the kind of which the papers were fond of talking; +that the "ring," if it could be called such--that is, the inner +circle--included certain big business men, and the politicians, lawyers, +and judges who were in alliance with and to a certain extent dependent +upon them, and that the successful man had to win his success by the +backing of the same forces, whether in law, business, or politics. + +This conversation not only interested me, but made such an impression +that I always remembered it, for it was the first glimpse I had of that +combination between business and politics which I was in after years so +often to oppose. In the America of that day, and especially among +the people whom I knew, the successful business man was regarded by +everybody as preeminently the good citizen. The orthodox books on +political economy, not only in America but in England, were written +for his especial glorification. The tangible rewards came to him, the +admiration of his fellow-citizens of the respectable type was apt to +be his, and the severe newspaper moralists who were never tired of +denouncing politicians and political methods were wont to hold up +"business methods" as the ideal which we were to strive to introduce +into political life. Herbert Croly, in "The Promise of American Life," +has set forth the reasons why our individualistic democracy--which +taught that each man was to rely exclusively on himself, was in no way +to be interfered with by others, and was to devote himself to his own +personal welfare--necessarily produced the type of business man +who sincerely believed, as did the rest of the community, that the +individual who amassed a big fortune was the man who was the best and +most typical American. + +In the Legislature the problems with which I dealt were mainly problems +of honesty and decency and of legislative and administrative efficiency. +They represented the effort, the wise, the vitally necessary effort, to +get efficient and honest government. But as yet I understood little of +the effort which was already beginning, for the most part under very bad +leadership, to secure a more genuine social and industrial justice. Nor +was I especially to blame for this. The good citizens I then knew best, +even when themselves men of limited means--men like my colleague Billy +O'Neill, and my backwoods friends Sewall and Dow--were no more awake +than I was to the changing needs the changing times were bringing. +Their outlook was as narrow as my own, and, within its limits, as +fundamentally sound. + +I wish to dwell on the soundness of our outlook on life, even though as +yet it was not broad enough. We were no respecters of persons. Where our +vision was developed to a degree that enabled us to see crookedness, we +opposed it whether in great or small. As a matter of fact, we found that +it needed much more courage to stand up openly against labor men when +they were wrong than against capitalists when they were wrong. The +sins against labor are usually committed, and the improper services to +capitalists are usually rendered, behind closed doors. Very often the +man with the moral courage to speak in the open against labor when it is +wrong is the only man anxious to do effective work for labor when labor +is right. + +The only kinds of courage and honesty which are permanently useful to +good institutions anywhere are those shown by men who decide all cases +with impartial justice on grounds of conduct and not on grounds of +class. We found that in the long run the men who in public blatantly +insisted that labor was never wrong were the very men who in private +could not be trusted to stand for labor when it was right. We grew +heartily to distrust the reformer who never denounced wickedness unless +it was embodied in a rich man. Human nature does not change; and that +type of "reformer" is as noxious now as he ever was. The loud-mouthed +upholder of popular rights who attacks wickedness only when it is allied +with wealth, and who never publicly assails any misdeed, no matter how +flagrant, if committed nominally in the interest of labor, has either a +warped mind or a tainted soul, and should be trusted by no honest man. +It was largely the indignant and contemptuous dislike aroused in our +minds by the demagogues of this class which then prevented those of us +whose instincts at bottom were sound from going as far as we ought to +have gone along the lines of governmental control of corporations and +governmental interference on behalf of labor. + +I did, however, have one exceedingly useful experience. A bill was +introduced by the Cigar-Makers' Union to prohibit the manufacture of +cigars in tenement-houses. I was appointed one of a committee of three +to investigate conditions in the tenement-houses and see if legislation +should be had. Of my two colleagues on the committee, one took no +interest in the measure and privately said he did not think it was +right, but that he had to vote for it because the labor unions were +strong in his district and he was pledged to support the bill. The +other, a sporting Tammany man who afterwards abandoned politics for the +race-track, was a very good fellow. He told me frankly that he had to be +against the bill because certain interests which were all-powerful and +with which he had dealings required him to be against it, but that I +was a free agent, and that if I would look into the matter he believed I +would favor the legislation. As a matter of fact, I had supposed I would +be against the legislation, and I rather think that I was put on the +committee with that idea, for the respectable people I knew were against +it; it was contrary to the principles of political economy of the +_laissez-faire_ kind; and the business men who spoke to me about it +shook their heads and said that it was designed to prevent a man doing +as he wished and as he had a right to do with what was his own. + +However, my first visits to the tenement-house districts in question +made me feel that, whatever the theories might be, as a matter of +practical common sense I could not conscientiously vote for the +continuance of the conditions which I saw. These conditions rendered +it impossible for the families of the tenement-house workers to live +so that the children might grow up fitted for the exacting duties +of American citizenship. I visited the tenement-houses once with +my colleagues of the committee, once with some of the labor union +representatives, and once or twice by myself. In a few of the +tenement-houses there were suites of rooms ample in number where the +work on the tobacco was done in rooms not occupied for cooking or +sleeping or living. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, +there were one, two, or three room apartments, and the work of +manufacturing the tobacco by men, women, and children went on day and +night in the eating, living, and sleeping rooms--sometimes in one room. +I have always remembered one room in which two families were living. On +my inquiry as to who the third adult male was I was told that he was +a boarder with one of the families. There were several children, +three men, and two women in this room. The tobacco was stowed about +everywhere, alongside the foul bedding, and in a corner where there were +scraps of food. The men, women, and children in this room worked by day +and far on into the evening, and they slept and ate there. They were +Bohemians, unable to speak English, except that one of the children knew +enough to act as interpreter. + +Instead of opposing the bill I ardently championed it. It was a poorly +drawn measure, and the Governor, Grover Cleveland, was at first doubtful +about signing it. The Cigar-makers' Union then asked me to appear before +the Governor and argue for it. I accordingly did so, acting as spokesman +for the battered, undersized foreigners who represented the Union +and the workers. The Governor signed the bill. Afterwards this +tenement-house cigar legislation was declared invalid by the Court +of Appeals in the Jacobs decision. Jacobs was one of the rare +tenement-house manufacturers of cigars who occupied quite a suite +of rooms, so that in his case the living conditions were altogether +exceptional. What the reason was which influenced those bringing the +suit to select the exceptional instead of the average worker I do not +know; of course such action was precisely the action which those most +interested in having the law broken down were anxious to see taken. +The Court of Appeals declared the law unconstitutional, and in their +decision the judges reprobated the law as an assault upon the "hallowed" +influences of "home." It was this case which first waked me 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. The judges who rendered this decision were well-meaning +men. They knew nothing whatever of tenement-house conditions; they +knew nothing whatever of the needs, or of the life and labor, of +three-fourths of their fellow-citizens in great cities. They knew +legalism, but not life. Their choice of the words "hallowed" and "home," +as applicable to the revolting conditions attending the manufacture of +cigars in tenement-houses, showed that they had no idea what it was +that they were deciding. Imagine the "hallowed" associations of a "home" +consisting of one room where two families, one of them with a boarder, +live, eat, and work! This decision completely blocked tenement-house +reform legislation in New York for a score of years, and hampers it to +this day. It was one of the most serious setbacks which the cause of +industrial and social progress and reform ever received. + +I had been brought up to hold the courts in especial reverence. The +people with whom I was most intimate were apt to praise the courts for +just such decisions as this, and to speak of them as bulwarks against +disorder and barriers against demagogic legislation. These were the same +people with whom the judges who rendered these decisions were apt +to foregather at social clubs, or dinners, or in private life. Very +naturally they all tended to look at things from the same standpoint. Of +course it took more than one experience such as this Tenement Cigar Case +to shake me out of the attitude in which I was brought up. But various +decisions, not only of the New York court but of certain other State +courts and even of the United States Supreme Court, during the quarter +of a century following the passage of this tenement-house legislation, +did at last thoroughly wake me to the actual fact. I grew to realize +that all that Abraham Lincoln had said about the Dred Scott decision +could be said with equal truth and justice about the numerous decisions +which in our own day were erected as bars across the path of social +reform, and which brought to naught so much of the effort to secure +justice and fair dealing for workingmen and workingwomen, and for plain +citizens generally. + +Some of the wickedness and inefficiency in public life was then +displayed in simpler fashion than would probably now be the case. Once +or twice I was a member of committees which looked into gross and widely +ramifying governmental abuses. On the whole, the most important part I +played was in the third Legislature in which I served, when I acted as +chairman of a committee which investigated various phases of New York +City official life. + +The most important of the reform measures our committee recommended was +the bill taking away from the Aldermen their power of confirmation over +the Mayor's appointments. We found that it was possible to get citizens +interested in the character and capacity of the head of the city, so +that they would exercise some intelligent interest in his conduct and +qualifications. But we found that as a matter of fact it was impossible +to get them interested in the Aldermen and other subordinate officers. +In actual practice the Aldermen were merely the creatures of the local +ward bosses or of the big municipal bosses, and where they controlled +the appointments the citizens at large had no chance whatever to make +their will felt. Accordingly we fought for the principle, which I +believe to be of universal application, that what is needed in our +popular government is to give plenty of power to a few officials, and to +make these few officials genuinely and readily responsible to the people +for the exercise of that power. Taking away the confirming power of the +Board of Aldermen did not give the citizens of New York good government. +We knew that if they chose to elect the wrong kind of Mayor they would +have bad government, no matter what the form of the law was. But we did +secure to them the chance to get good government if they desired, and +this was impossible as long as the old system remained. The change was +fought in the way in which all similar changes always are fought. The +corrupt and interested politicians were against it, and the battle-cries +they used, which rallied to them most of the unthinking conservatives, +were that we were changing the old constitutional system, that we were +defacing the monuments of the wisdom of the founders of the government, +that we were destroying that distinction between legislative and +executive power which was the bulwark of our liberties, and that we were +violent and unscrupulous radicals with no reverence for the past. + +Of course the investigations, disclosures, and proceedings of the +investigating committee of which I was chairman brought me into +bitter personal conflict with very powerful financiers, very powerful +politicians, and with certain newspapers which these financiers and +politicians controlled. A number of able and unscrupulous men were +fighting, some for their financial lives, and others to keep out of +unpleasantly close neighborhood to State's prison. This meant that there +were blows to be taken as well as given. In such political struggles, +those who went in for the kind of thing that I did speedily excited +animosities among strong and cunning men who would stop at little to +gratify their animosity. Any man engaged in this particular type of +militant and practical reform movement was soon made to feel that he had +better not undertake to push matters home unless his own character was +unassailable. On one of the investigating committees on which I served +there was a countryman, a very able man, who, when he reached New York +City, felt as certain Americans do when they go to Paris--that the moral +restraints of his native place no longer applied. With all his ability, +he was not shrewd enough to realize that the Police Department was +having him as well as the rest of us carefully shadowed. He was caught +red-handed by a plain-clothes man doing what he had no business to do; +and from that time on he dared not act save as those who held his secret +permitted him to act. Thenceforth those officials who stood behind the +Police Department had one man on the committee on whom they could count. +I never saw terror more ghastly on a strong man's face than on the face +of this man on one or two occasions when he feared that events in the +committee might take such a course as to force him into a position where +his colleagues would expose him even if the city officials did not. +However, he escaped, for we were never able to get the kind of proof +which would warrant our asking for the action in which this man could +not have joined. + +Traps were set for more than one of us, and if we had walked into these +traps our public careers would have ended, at least so far as following +them under the conditions which alone make it worth while to be in +public life at all. A man can of course hold public office, and many a +man does hold public office, and lead a public career of a sort, even if +there are other men who possess secrets about him which he cannot afford +to have divulged. But no man can lead a public career really worth +leading, no man can act with rugged independence in serious crises, nor +strike at great abuses, nor afford to make powerful and unscrupulous +foes, if he is himself vulnerable in his private character. Nor will +clean conduct by itself enable a man to render good service. I have +always been fond of Josh Billings's remark that "it is much easier to +be a harmless dove than a wise serpent." There are plenty of decent +legislators, and plenty of able legislators; but the blamelessness and +the fighting edge are not always combined. Both qualities are necessary +for the man who is to wage active battle against the powers that prey. +He must be clean of life, so that he can laugh when his public or his +private record is searched; and yet being clean of life will not +avail him if he is either foolish or timid. He must walk warily and +fearlessly, and while he should never brawl if he can avoid it, he must +be ready to hit hard if the need arises. Let him remember, by the way, +that the unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can +be avoided; but never hit softly. + +Like most young men in politics, I went through various oscillations +of feeling before I "found myself." At one period I became so impressed +with the virtue of complete independence that I proceeded to act on each +case purely as I personally viewed it, without paying any heed to the +principles and prejudices of others. The result was that I speedily +and deservedly lost all power of accomplishing anything at all; and I +thereby learned the invaluable lesson that in the practical activities +of life no man can render the highest service unless he can act +in combination with his fellows, which means a certain amount of +give-and-take between him and them. Again, I at one period began to +believe that I had a future before me, and that it behooved me to be +very far-sighted and scan each action carefully with a view to its +possible effect on that future. This speedily made me useless to the +public and an object of aversion to myself; and I then made up my mind +that I would try not to think of the future at all, but would proceed on +the assumption that each office I held would be the last I ever should +hold, and that I would confine myself to trying to do my work as well as +possible while I held that office. I found that for me personally this +was the only way in which I could either enjoy myself or render good +service to the country, and I never afterwards deviated from this plan. + +As regards political advancement the bosses could of course do a good +deal. At that time the warring Stalwart and Half-Breed factions of +the Republican party were supporting respectively President Arthur +and Senator Miller. Neither side cared for me. The first year in the +Legislature I rose to a position of leadership, so that in the second +year, when the Republicans were in a minority, I received the minority +nomination for Speaker, although I was still the youngest man in the +House, being twenty-four years old. The third year the Republicans +carried the Legislature, and the bosses at once took a hand in the +Speakership contest. I made a stout fight for the nomination, but the +bosses of the two factions, the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, combined +and I was beaten. I was much chagrined for the moment. But the fact that +I had fought hard and efficiently, even though defeated, and that I had +made the fight single-handed, with no machine back of me, assured my +standing as floor leader. My defeat in the end materially strengthened +my position, and enabled me to accomplish far more than I could have +accomplished as Speaker. As so often, I found that the titular +position was of no consequence; what counted was the combination of the +opportunity with the ability to accomplish results. The achievement was +the all-important thing; the position, whether titularly high or +low, was of consequence only in so far as it widened the chance for +achievement. After the session closed four of us who looked at politics +from the same standpoint and were known as Independent or Anti-Machine +Republicans were sent by the State Convention as delegates-at-large +to the Republican National Convention of 1884, where I advocated, as +vigorously as I knew how, the nomination of Senator George F. Edmunds. +Mr. Edmunds was defeated and Mr. Blaine nominated. Mr. Blaine was +clearly the choice of the rank and file of the party; his nomination +was won in fair and aboveboard fashion, because the rank and file of the +party stood back of him; and I supported him to the best of my ability +in the ensuing campaign. + +The Speakership contest enlightened me as regards more things than the +attitude of the bosses. I had already had some exasperating experiences +with the "silk stocking" reformer type, as Abraham Lincoln called it, +the gentlemen who were very nice, very refined, who shook their heads +over political corruption and discussed it in drawing-rooms and parlors, +but who were wholly unable to grapple with real men in real life. They +were apt vociferously to demand "reform" as if it were some concrete +substance, like cake, which could be handed out at will, in tangible +masses, if only the demand were urgent enough. These parlor reformers +made up for inefficiency in action by zeal in criticising; and they +delighted in criticising the men who really were doing the things which +they said ought to be done, but which they lacked the sinewy power to +do. They often upheld ideals which were not merely impossible but highly +undesirable, and thereby played into the hands of the very politicians +to whom they professed to be most hostile. Moreover, if they believed +that their own interests, individually or as a class, were jeoparded, +they were apt to show no higher standards than did the men they usually +denounced. + +One of their shibboleths was that the office should seek the man and not +the man the office. This is entirely true of certain offices at certain +times. It is entirely untrue when the circumstances are different. +It would have been unnecessary and undesirable for Washington to +have sought the Presidency. But if Abraham Lincoln had not sought the +Presidency he never would have been nominated. The objection in such a +case as this lies not to seeking the office, but to seeking it in any +but an honorable and proper manner. The effect of the shibboleth in +question is usually merely to put a premium on hypocrisy, and therefore +to favor the creature who is willing to rise by hypocrisy. When I ran +for Speaker, the whole body of machine politicians was against me, and +my only chance lay in arousing the people in the different districts. To +do this I had to visit the districts, put the case fairly before the men +whom I saw, and make them understand that I was really making a fight +and would stay in the fight to the end. Yet there were reformers who +shook their heads and deplored my "activity" in the canvass. Of course +the one thing which corrupt machine politicians most desire is to have +decent men frown on the activity, that is, on the efficiency, of the +honest man who genuinely wishes to reform politics. + +If efficiency is left solely to bad men, and if virtue is confined +solely to inefficient men, the result cannot be happy. When I entered +politics there were, as there always had been--and as there always will +be--any number of bad men in politics who were thoroughly efficient, +and any number of good men who would like to have done lofty things in +politics but who were thoroughly inefficient. If I wished to accomplish +anything for the country, my 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 my ideal, and +to the best of my ability I strove to live up to it. + +To a young man, life in the New York Legislature was always interesting +and often entertaining. There was always a struggle of some kind on +hand. Sometimes it was on a naked question of right and wrong. Sometimes +it was on a question of real constructive statesmanship. Moreover, there +were all kinds of humorous incidents, the humor being usually of the +unconscious kind. In one session of the Legislature the New York City +Democratic representatives were split into two camps, and there were +two rivals for leadership. One of these was a thoroughly good-hearted, +happy-go-lucky person who was afterwards for several years in Congress. +He had been a local magistrate and was called Judge. Generally he and I +were friendly, but occasionally I did something that irritated him. He +was always willing to vote for any other member's bill himself, and he +regarded it as narrow-minded for any one to oppose one of his +bills, especially if the opposition was upon the ground that it was +unconstitutional--for his views of the Constitution were so excessively +liberal as to make even me feel as if I belonged to the straitest sect +of strict constructionists. On one occasion he had a bill to appropriate +money, with obvious impropriety, for the relief of some miscreant whom +he styled "one of the honest yeomanry of the State." When I explained to +him that it was clearly unconstitutional, he answered, "Me friend, the +Constitution don't touch little things like that," and then added, with +an ingratiating smile, "Anyhow, I'd never allow the Constitution to +come between friends." At the time I was looking over the proofs of Mr. +Bryce's "American Commonwealth," and I told him the incident. He put it +into the first edition of the "Commonwealth"; whether it is in the last +edition or not, I cannot say. + +On another occasion the same gentleman came to an issue with me in +a debate, and wound up his speech by explaining that I occupied what +"lawyers would call a quasi position on the bill." His rival was a man +of totally different type, a man of great natural dignity, also born in +Ireland. He had served with gallantry in the Civil War. After the close +of the war he organized an expedition to conquer Canada. The expedition, +however, got so drunk before reaching Albany that it was there +incarcerated in jail, whereupon its leader abandoned it and went into +New York politics instead. He was a man of influence, and later occupied +in the Police Department the same position as Commissioner which I +myself at one time occupied. He felt that his rival had gained too much +glory at my expense, and, walking over with ceremonious solemnity to +where the said rival was sitting close beside me, he said to him: "I +would like you to know, Mr. Cameron [Cameron, of course, was not the +real name], that Mr. Roosevelt knows more law in a wake than you do in a +month; and, more than that, Michael Cameron, what do you mane by quoting +Latin on the floor of this House when you don't know the alpha and +omayga of the language?" + +There was in the Legislature, during the deadlock above mentioned, a man +whom I will call Brogan. He looked like a serious elderly frog. I +never heard him speak more than once. It was before the Legislature was +organized, or had adopted any rules; and each day the only business was +for the clerk to call the roll. One day Brogan suddenly rose, and the +following dialogue occurred: + + Brogan. Misther Clu-r-r-k! + The Clerk. The gentleman from New York. + Brogan. I rise to a point of ordher under the rules! + The Clerk. There are no rules. + Brogan. Thin I object to them! + The Clerk. There are no rules to object to. + Brogan. Oh! [nonplussed; but immediately recovering himself]. + Thin I move that they be amended until there ar-r-re! + +The deadlock was tedious; and we hailed with joy such enlivening +incidents as the above. + +During my three years' service in the Legislature I worked on a very +simple philosophy of government. It was that personal character and +initiative are the prime requisites in political and social life. It +was not only a good but an absolutely indispensable theory as far as it +went; but it was defective in that it did not sufficiently allow for +the need of collective action. I shall never forget the men with whom +I worked hand in hand in these legislative struggles, not only my +fellow-legislators, but some of the newspaper reporters, such as Spinney +and Cunningham; and then in addition the men in the various districts +who helped us. We had made up our minds that we must not fight fire with +fire, that on the contrary the way to win out was to equal our foes in +practical efficiency and yet to stand at the opposite plane from them in +applied morality. + +It was not always easy to keep the just middle, especially when +it happened that on one side there were corrupt and unscrupulous +demagogues, and on the other side corrupt and unscrupulous +reactionaries. Our effort was to hold the scales even between both. We +tried to stand with the cause of righteousness even though its advocates +were anything but righteous. We endeavored to cut out the abuses of +property, even though good men of property were misled into upholding +those abuses. We refused to be frightened into sanctioning improper +assaults upon property, although we knew that the champions of property +themselves did things that were wicked and corrupt. We were as yet by +no means as thoroughly awake as we ought to have been to the need of +controlling big business and to the damage done by the combination of +politics with big business. In this matter I was not behind the rest +of my friends; indeed, I was ahead of them, for no serious leader in +political life then appreciated the prime need of grappling with these +questions. One partial reason--not an excuse or a justification, but a +partial reason--for my slowness in grasping the importance of action in +these matters was the corrupt and unattractive nature of so many of the +men who championed popular reforms, their insincerity, and the folly +of so many of the actions which they advocated. Even at that date I had +neither sympathy with nor admiration for the man who was merely a money +king, and I did not regard the "money touch," when divorced from other +qualities, as entitling a man to either respect or consideration. As +recited above, we did on more than one occasion fight battles, in +which we neither took nor gave quarter, against the most prominent and +powerful financiers and financial interests of the day. But most of the +fights in which we were engaged were for pure honesty and decency, and +they were more apt to be against that form of corruption which found +its expression in demagogy than against that form of corruption which +defended or advocated privilege. Fundamentally, our fight was part of +the eternal war against the Powers that Prey; and we cared not a whit in +what rank of life these powers were found. + +To play the demagogue for purposes of self-interest is a cardinal sin +against the people in a democracy, exactly as to play the courtier for +such purposes is a cardinal sin against the people under other forms of +government. A man who stays long in our American political life, if he +has in his soul the generous desire to do effective service for great +causes, inevitably grows to regard himself merely as one of many +instruments, all of which it may be necessary to use, one at one time, +one at another, in achieving the triumph of those causes; and whenever +the usefulness of any one has been exhausted, it is to be thrown aside. +If such a man is wise, he will gladly do the thing that is next, when +the time and the need come together, without asking what the future +holds for him. Let the half-god play his part well and manfully, and +then be content to draw aside when the god appears. Nor should he feel +vain regrets that to another it is given to render greater services and +reap a greater reward. Let it be enough for him that he too has served, +and that by doing well he has prepared the way for the other man who can +do better. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN COWBOY LAND + +Though I had previously made a trip into the then Territory of Dakota, +beyond the Red River, it was not until 1883 that I went to the Little +Missouri, and there took hold of two cattle ranches, the Chimney Butte +and the Elkhorn. + +It was still the Wild West in those days, the Far West, the West of +Owen Wister's stories and Frederic Remington's drawings, the West of +the Indian and the buffalo-hunter, the soldier and the cow-puncher. That +land of the West has gone now, "gone, gone with lost Atlantis," gone to +the isle of ghosts and of strange dead memories. It was a land of vast +silent spaces, of lonely rivers, and of plains where the wild game +stared at the passing horseman. It was a land of scattered ranches, of +herds of long-horned cattle, and of reckless riders who unmoved looked +in the eyes of life or of death. In that land we led a free and hardy +life, with horse and with rifle. We worked under the scorching midsummer +sun, when the wide plains shimmered and wavered in the heat; and we knew +the freezing misery of riding night guard round the cattle in the late +fall round-up. In the soft springtime the stars were glorious in our +eyes each night before we fell asleep; and in the winter we rode through +blinding blizzards, when the driven snow-dust burned our faces. There +were monotonous days, as we guided the trail cattle or the beef herds, +hour after hour, at the slowest of walks; and minutes or hours teeming +with excitement as we stopped stampedes or swam the herds across rivers +treacherous with quicksands or brimmed with running ice. We knew toil +and hardship and hunger and thirst; and we saw men die violent deaths +as they worked among the horses and cattle, or fought in evil feuds with +one another; but we felt the beat of hardy life in our veins, and ours +was the glory of work and the joy of living. + +It was right and necessary that this life should pass, for the safety of +our country lies in its being made the country of the small home-maker. +The great unfenced ranches, in the days of "free grass," necessarily +represented a temporary stage in our history. The large migratory flocks +of sheep, each guarded by the hired shepherds of absentee owners, were +the first enemies of the cattlemen; and owing to the way they ate out +the grass and destroyed all other vegetation, these roving sheep +bands represented little of permanent good to the country. But the +homesteaders, the permanent settlers, the men who took up each his own +farm on which he lived and brought up his family, these represented from +the National standpoint the most desirable of all possible users of, +and dwellers on, the soil. Their advent meant the breaking up of the big +ranches; and the change was a National gain, although to some of us an +individual loss. + +I first reached the Little Missouri on a Northern Pacific train about +three in the morning of a cool September day in 1883. Aside from the +station, the only building was a ramshackle structure called the Pyramid +Park Hotel. I dragged my duffle-bag thither, and hammered at the door +until the frowsy proprietor appeared, muttering oaths. He ushered me +upstairs, where I was given one of the fourteen beds in the room which +by itself constituted the entire upper floor. Next day I walked over +to the abandoned army post, and, after some hours among the gray log +shacks, a ranchman who had driven into the station agreed to take me +out to his ranch, the Chimney Butte ranch, where he was living with his +brother and their partner. + +The ranch was a log structure with a dirt roof, a corral for the horses +near by, and a chicken-house jabbed against the rear of the ranch house. +Inside there was only one room, with a table, three or four chairs, a +cooking-stove, and three bunks. The owners were Sylvane and Joe Ferris +and William J. Merrifield. Later all three of them held my commissions +while I was President. Merrifield was Marshal of Montana, and as +Presidential elector cast the vote of that State for me in 1904; Sylvane +Ferris was Land Officer in North Dakota, and Joe Ferris Postmaster at +Medora. There was a fourth man, George Meyer, who also worked for me +later. That evening we all played old sledge round the table, and at one +period the game was interrupted by a frightful squawking outside which +told us that a bobcat had made a raid on the chicken-house. + +After a buffalo hunt with my original friend, Joe Ferris, I entered into +partnership with Merrifield and Sylvane Ferris, and we started a cow +ranch, with the maltese cross brand--always known as "maltee cross," by +the way, as the general impression along the Little Missouri was that +"maltese" must be a plural. Twenty-nine years later my four friends of +that night were delegates to the First Progressive National Convention +at Chicago. They were among my most constant companions for the few +years next succeeding the evening when the bobcat interrupted the game +of old sledge. I lived and worked with them on the ranch, and with them +and many others like them on the round-up; and I brought out from +Maine, in order to start the Elkhorn ranch lower down the river, my two +backwoods friends Sewall and Dow. My brands for the lower ranch were the +elkhorn and triangle. + +I do not believe there ever was any life more attractive to a vigorous +young fellow than life on a cattle ranch in those days. It was a fine, +healthy life, too; it taught a man self-reliance, hardihood, and the +value of instant decision--in short, the virtues that ought to come +from life in the open country. I enjoyed the life to the full. After the +first year I built on the Elkhorn ranch a long, low ranch house of +hewn logs, with a veranda, and with, in addition to the other rooms, a +bedroom for myself, and a sitting-room with a big fire-place. I got out +a rocking-chair--I am very fond of rocking-chairs--and enough books to +fill two or three shelves, and a rubber bathtub so that I could get +a bath. And then I do not see how any one could have lived more +comfortably. We had buffalo robes and bearskins of our own killing. We +always kept the house clean--using the word in a rather large sense. +There were at least two rooms that were always warm, even in the +bitterest weather; and we had plenty to eat. Commonly the mainstay +of every meal was game of our own killing, usually antelope or deer, +sometimes grouse or ducks, and occasionally, in the earlier days, +buffalo or elk. We also had flour and bacon, sugar, salt, and canned +tomatoes. And later, when some of the men married and brought out their +wives, we had all kinds of good things, such as jams and jellies made +from the wild plums and the buffalo berries, and potatoes from the +forlorn little garden patch. Moreover, we had milk. Most ranchmen at +that time never had milk. I knew more than one ranch with ten thousand +head of cattle where there was not a cow that could be milked. We made +up our minds that we would be more enterprising. Accordingly, we started +to domesticate some of the cows. Our first effort was not successful, +chiefly because we did not devote the needed time and patience to the +matter. And we found that to race a cow two miles at full speed on +horseback, then rope her, throw her, and turn her upside down to milk +her, while exhilarating as a pastime, was not productive of results. +Gradually we accumulated tame cows, and, after we had thinned out the +bobcats and coyotes, more chickens. + +The ranch house stood on the brink of a low bluff overlooking the broad, +shallow bed of the Little Missouri, through which at most seasons there +ran only a trickle of water, while in times of freshet it was filled +brimful with the boiling, foaming, muddy torrent. There was no neighbor +for ten or fifteen miles on either side of me. The river twisted down +in long curves between narrow bottoms bordered by sheer cliff walls, +for the Bad Lands, a chaos of peaks, plateaus, and ridges, rose abruptly +from the edges of the level, tree-clad, or grassy, alluvial meadows. +In front of the ranch-house veranda was a row of cottonwood trees with +gray-green leaves which quivered all day long if there was a breath of +air. From these trees came the far-away, melancholy cooing of mourning +doves, and little owls perched in them and called tremulously at night. +In the long summer afternoons we would sometimes sit on the piazza, when +there was no work to be done, for an hour or two at a time, watching the +cattle on the sand-bars, and the sharply channeled and strangely carved +amphitheater of cliffs across the bottom opposite; while the vultures +wheeled overhead, their black shadows gliding across the glaring white +of the dry river-bed. Sometimes from the ranch we saw deer, and once +when we needed meat I shot one across the river as I stood on the +piazza. In the winter, in the days of iron cold, when everything was +white under the snow, the river lay in its bed fixed and immovable as a +bar of bent steel, and then at night wolves and lynxes traveled up and +down it as if it had been a highway passing in front of the ranch house. +Often in the late fall or early winter, after a hard day's hunting, or +when returning from one of the winter line camps, we did not reach the +ranch until hours after sunset; and after the weary tramping in the +cold it was keen pleasure to catch the first red gleam of the fire-lit +windows across the snowy wastes. + +The Elkhorn ranch house was built mainly by Sewall and Dow, who, like +most men from the Maine woods, were mighty with the ax. I could chop +fairly well for an amateur, but I could not do one-third the work they +could. One day when we were cutting down the cottonwood trees, to begin +our building operations, I heard some one ask Dow what the total cut had +been, and Dow not realizing that I was within hearing, answered: "Well, +Bill cut down fifty-three, I cut forty-nine, and the boss he beavered +down seventeen." Those who have seen the stump of a tree which has +been gnawed down by a beaver will understand the exact force of the +comparison. + +In those days on a cow ranch the men were apt to be away on the various +round-ups at least half the time. It was interesting and exciting work, +and except for the lack of sleep on the spring and summer round-ups +it was not exhausting work; compared to lumbering or mining or +blacksmithing, to sit in the saddle is an easy form of labor. The ponies +were of course grass-fed and unshod. Each man had his own string of +nine or ten. One pony would be used for the morning work, one for the +afternoon, and neither would again be used for the next three days. A +separate pony was kept for night riding. + +The spring and early summer round-ups were especially for the branding +of calves. There was much hard work and some risk on a round-up, but +also much fun. The meeting-place was appointed weeks beforehand, and all +the ranchmen of the territory to be covered by the round-up sent their +representatives. There were no fences in the West that I knew, and their +place was taken by the cowboy and the branding-iron. The cattle wandered +free. Each calf was branded with the brand of the cow it was following. +Sometimes in winter there was what we called line riding; that is, camps +were established and the line riders traveled a definite beat across the +desolate wastes of snow, to and fro from one camp to another, to prevent +the cattle from drifting. But as a rule nothing was done to keep the +cattle in any one place. In the spring there was a general round-up in +each locality. Each outfit took part in its own round-up, and all the +outfits of a given region combined to send representatives to the two or +three round-ups that covered the neighborhoods near by into which their +cattle might drift. For example, our Little Missouri round-up generally +worked down the river from a distance of some fifty or sixty miles above +my ranch toward the Kildeer Mountains, about the same distance below. +In addition we would usually send representatives to the Yellowstone +round-up, and to the round-up along the upper Little Missouri; and, +moreover, if we heard that cattle had drifted, perhaps toward the Indian +reservation southeast of us, we would send a wagon and rider after them. + +At the meeting-point, which might be in the valley of a half-dry stream, +or in some broad bottom of the river itself, or perchance by a couple of +ponds under some queerly shaped butte that was a landmark for the region +round about, we would all gather on the appointed day. The chuck-wagons, +containing the bedding and food, each drawn by four horses and driven +by the teamster cook, would come jolting and rattling over the +uneven sward. Accompanying each wagon were eight or ten riders, the +cow-punchers, while their horses, a band of a hundred or so, were driven +by the two herders, one of whom was known as the day wrangler and one +as the night wrangler. The men were lean, sinewy fellows, accustomed +to riding half-broken horses at any speed over any country by day or by +night. They wore flannel shirts, with loose handkerchiefs knotted round +their necks, broad hats, high-heeled boots with jingling spurs, and +sometimes leather shaps, although often they merely had their trousers +tucked into the tops of their high boots. There was a good deal of rough +horse-play, and, as with any other gathering of men or boys of high +animal spirits, the horse-play sometimes became very rough indeed; and +as the men usually carried revolvers, and as there were occasionally one +or two noted gun-fighters among them, there was now and then a shooting +affray. A man who was a coward or who shirked his work had a bad time, +of course; a man could not afford to let himself be bullied or treated +as a butt; and, on the other hand, if he was "looking for a fight," he +was certain to find it. But my own experience was that if a man did not +talk until his associates knew him well and liked him, and if he did +his work, he never had any difficulty in getting on. In my own round-up +district I speedily grew to be friends with most of the men. When I went +among strangers I always had to spend twenty-four hours in living +down the fact that I wore spectacles, remaining as long as I could +judiciously deaf to any side remarks about "four eyes," unless it became +evident that my being quiet was misconstrued and that it was better to +bring matters to a head at once. + +If, for instance, I was sent off to represent the Little Missouri brands +on some neighboring round-up, such as the Yellowstone, I usually showed +that kind of diplomacy which consists in not uttering one word that +can be avoided. I would probably have a couple of days' solitary ride, +mounted on one horse and driving eight or ten others before me, one of +them carrying my bedding. Loose horses drive best at a trot, or canter, +and if a man is traveling alone in this fashion it is a good thing to +have them reach the camp ground sufficiently late to make them desire +to feed and sleep where they are until morning. In consequence I never +spent more than two days on the journey from whatever the point was at +which I left the Little Missouri, sleeping the one night for as limited +a number of hours as possible. + +As soon as I reached the meeting-place I would find out the wagon +to which I was assigned. Riding to it, I turned my horses into the +saddle-band and reported to the wagon boss, or, in his absence, to the +cook--always a privileged character, who was allowed and expected to +order men around. He would usually grumble savagely and profanely about +my having been put with his wagon, but this was merely conventional on +his part; and if I sat down and said nothing he would probably soon ask +me if I wanted anything to eat, to which the correct answer was that I +was not hungry and would wait until meal-time. The bedding rolls of +the riders would be strewn round the grass, and I would put mine down a +little outside the ring, where I would not be in any one's way, with my +six or eight branding-irons beside it. The men would ride in, laughing +and talking with one another, and perhaps nodding to me. One of their +number, usually the wagon foreman, might put some question to me as to +what brands I represented, but no other word would be addressed to me, +nor would I be expected to volunteer any conversation. Supper would +consist of bacon, Dutch oven bread, and possibly beef; once I won +the good graces of my companions at the outset by appearing with two +antelope which I had shot. After supper I would roll up in my bedding as +soon as possible, and the others would follow suit at their pleasure. + +At three in the morning or thereabouts, at a yell from the cook, all +hands would turn hurriedly out. Dressing was a simple affair. Then each +man rolled and corded his bedding--if he did not, the cook would leave +it behind and he would go without any for the rest of the trip--and came +to the fire, where he picked out a tin cup, tin plate, and knife and +fork, helped himself to coffee and to whatever food there was, and ate +it standing or squatting as best suited him. Dawn was probably breaking +by this time, and the trampling of unshod hoofs showed that the night +wrangler was bringing in the pony herd. Two of the men would then run +ropes from the wagon at right angles to one another, and into this as +a corral the horses would be driven. Each man might rope one of his own +horses, or more often point it out to the most skillful roper of the +outfit, who would rope it for him--for if the man was an unskillful +roper and roped the wrong horse or roped the horse in the wrong place +there was a chance of the whole herd stampeding. Each man then saddled +and bridled his horse. This was usually followed by some resolute +bucking on the part of two or three of the horses, especially in +the early days of each round-up. The bucking was always a source of +amusement to all the men whose horses did not buck, and these fortunate +ones would gather round giving ironical advice, and especially adjuring +the rider not to "go to leather"--that is, not to steady himself in the +saddle by catching hold of the saddle-horn. + +As soon as the men had mounted, the whole outfit started on the long +circle, the morning circle. Usually the ranch foreman who bossed a given +wagon was put in charge of the men of one group by the round-up foreman; +he might keep his men together until they had gone some ten or fifteen +miles from camp, and then drop them in couples at different points. Each +couple made its way toward the wagon, gathering all the cattle it could +find. The morning's ride might last six or eight hours, and it was still +longer before some of the men got in. Singly and in twos and threes they +appeared from every quarter of the horizon, the dust rising from the +hoofs of the steers and bulls, the cows and calves, they had collected. +Two or three of the men were left to take care of the herd while the +others changed horses, ate a hasty dinner, and then came out to the +afternoon work. This consisted of each man in succession being sent into +the herd, usually with a companion, to cut out the cows of his brand or +brands which were followed by unbranded calves, and also to cut out any +mavericks or unbranded yearlings. We worked each animal gently out to +the edge of the herd, and then with a sudden dash took it off at a run. +It was always desperately anxious to break back and rejoin the herd. +There was much breakneck galloping and twisting and turning before its +desire was thwarted and it was driven to join the rest of the cut--that +is, the other animals which had been cut out, and which were being held +by one or two other men. Cattle hate being alone, and it was no easy +matter to hold the first one or two that were cut out; but soon they +got a little herd of their own, and then they were contented. When +the cutting out had all been done, the calves were branded, and all +misadventures of the "calf wrestlers," the men who seized, threw, and +held each calf when roped by the mounted roper, were hailed with yelling +laughter. Then the animals which for one reason or another it was +desired to drive along with the round-up were put into one herd and left +in charge of a couple of night guards, and the rest of us would loaf +back to the wagon for supper and bed. + +By this time I would have been accepted as one of the rest of the +outfit, and all strangeness would have passed off, the attitude of my +fellow cow-punchers being one of friendly forgiveness even toward my +spectacles. Night guards for the cattle herd were then assigned by the +captain of the wagon, or perhaps by the round-up foreman, according to +the needs of the case, the guards standing for two hours at a time +from eight in the evening till four in the morning. The first and last +watches were preferable, because sleep was not broken as in both of +the other two. If things went well, the cattle would soon bed down and +nothing further would occur until morning, when there was a repetition +of the work, the wagon moving each day eight or ten miles to some +appointed camping-place. + +Each man would picket his night horse near the wagon, usually choosing +the quietest animal in his string for that purpose, because to saddle +and mount a "mean" horse at night is not pleasant. When utterly +tired, it was hard to have to get up for one's trick at night herd. +Nevertheless, on ordinary nights the two hours round the cattle in the +still darkness were pleasant. The loneliness, under the vast empty sky, +and the silence, in which the breathing of the cattle sounded loud, and +the alert readiness to meet any emergency which might suddenly arise +out of the formless night, all combined to give one a sense of subdued +interest. Then, one soon got to know the cattle of marked individuality, +the ones that led the others into mischief; and one also grew to +recognize the traits they all possessed in common, and the impulses +which, for instance, made a whole herd get up towards midnight, each +beast turning round and then lying down again. But by the end of the +watch each rider had studied the cattle until it grew monotonous, and +heartily welcomed his relief guard. A newcomer, of course, had any +amount to learn, and sometimes the simplest things were those which +brought him to grief. + +One night early in my career I failed satisfactorily to identify the +direction in which I was to go in order to reach the night herd. It was +a pitch-dark night. I managed to get started wrong, and I never found +either the herd or the wagon again until sunrise, when I was greeted +with withering scorn by the injured cow-puncher, who had been obliged to +stand double guard because I failed to relieve him. + +There were other misadventures that I met with where the excuse was +greater. The punchers on night guard usually rode round the cattle in +reverse directions; calling and singing to them if the beasts seemed +restless, to keep them quiet. On rare occasions something happened that +made the cattle stampede, and then the duty of the riders was to keep +with them as long as possible and try gradually to get control of them. + +One night there was a heavy storm, and all of us who were at the wagons +were obliged to turn out hastily to help the night herders. After a +while there was a terrific peal of thunder, the lightning struck right +by the herd, and away all the beasts went, heads and horns and tails in +the air. For a minute or two I could make out nothing except the dark +forms of the beasts running on every side of me, and I should have been +very sorry if my horse had stumbled, for those behind would have trodden +me down. Then the herd split, part going to one side, while the other +part seemingly kept straight ahead, and I galloped as hard as ever +beside them. I was trying to reach the point--the leading animals--in +order to turn them, when suddenly there was a tremendous splashing in +front. I could dimly make out that the cattle immediately ahead and to +one side of me were disappearing, and the next moment the horse and I +went off a cut bank into the Little Missouri. I bent away back in the +saddle, and though the horse almost went down he just recovered himself, +and, plunging and struggling through water and quicksand, we made the +other side. Here I discovered that there was another cowboy with +the same part of the herd that I was with; but almost immediately we +separated. I galloped hard through a bottom covered with big cottonwood +trees, and stopped the part of the herd that I was with, but very soon +they broke on me again, and repeated this twice. Finally toward morning +the few I had left came to a halt. + +It had been raining hard for some time. I got off my horse and leaned +against a tree, but before long the infernal cattle started on again, +and I had to ride after them. Dawn came soon after this, and I was +able to make out where I was and head the cattle back, collecting other +little bunches as I went. After a while I came on a cowboy on foot +carrying his saddle on his head. He was my companion of the previous +night. His horse had gone full speed into a tree and killed itself, the +man, however, not being hurt. I could not help him, as I had all I could +do to handle the cattle. When I got them to the wagon, most of the other +men had already come in and the riders were just starting on the long +circle. One of the men changed my horse for me while I ate a hasty +breakfast, and then we were off for the day's work. + +As only about half of the night herd had been brought back, the circle +riding was particularly heavy, and it was ten hours before we were back +at the wagon. We then changed horses again and worked the whole herd +until after sunset, finishing just as it grew too dark to do anything +more. By this time I had been nearly forty hours in the saddle, changing +horses five times, and my clothes had thoroughly dried on me, and I fell +asleep as soon as I touched the bedding. Fortunately some men who had +gotten in late in the morning had had their sleep during the daytime, so +that the rest of us escaped night guard and were not called until four +next morning. Nobody ever gets enough sleep on a round-up. + +The above was the longest number of consecutive hours I ever had to be +in the saddle. But, as I have said, I changed horses five times, and it +is a great lightening of labor for a rider to have a fresh horse. Once +when with Sylvane Ferris I spent about sixteen hours on one horse, +riding seventy or eighty miles. The round-up had reached a place called +the ox-bow of the Little Missouri, and we had to ride there, do some +work around the cattle, and ride back. + +Another time I was twenty-four hours on horseback in company with +Merrifield without changing horses. On this occasion we did not travel +fast. We had been coming back with the wagon from a hunting trip in +the Big Horn Mountains. The team was fagged out, and we were tired of +walking at a snail's pace beside it. When we reached country that the +driver thoroughly knew, we thought it safe to leave him, and we loped in +one night across a distance which it took the wagon the three following +days to cover. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the ride was +delightful. All day long we had plodded at a walk, weary and hot. At +supper time we had rested two or three hours, and the tough little +riding horses seemed as fresh as ever. It was in September. As we rode +out of the circle of the firelight, the air was cool in our faces. +Under the bright moonlight, and then under the starlight, we loped +and cantered mile after mile over the high prairie. We passed bands of +antelope and herds of long-horn Texas cattle, and at last, just as the +first red beams of the sun flamed over the bluffs in front of us, we +rode down into the valley of the Little Missouri, where our ranch house +stood. + +I never became a good roper, nor more than an average rider, according +to ranch standards. Of course a man on a ranch has to ride a good many +bad horses, and is bound to encounter a certain number of accidents, +and of these I had my share, at one time cracking a rib, and on another +occasion the point of my shoulder. We were hundreds of miles from a +doctor, and each time, as I was on the round-up, I had to get through my +work for the next few weeks as best I could, until the injury healed +of itself. When I had the opportunity I broke my own horses, doing it +gently and gradually and spending much time over it, and choosing the +horses that seemed gentle to begin with. With these horses I never had +any difficulty. But frequently there was neither time nor opportunity +to handle our mounts so elaborately. We might get a band of horses, each +having been bridled and saddled two or three times, but none of them +having been broken beyond the extent implied in this bridling and +saddling. Then each of us in succession would choose a horse (for his +string), I as owner of the ranch being given the first choice on each +round, so to speak. The first time I was ever on a round-up Sylvane +Ferris, Merrifield, Meyer, and I each chose his string in this fashion. +Three or four of the animals I got were not easy to ride. The effort +both to ride them and to look as if I enjoyed doing so, on some cool +morning when my grinning cowboy friends had gathered round "to see +whether the high-headed bay could buck the boss off," doubtless was of +benefit to me, but lacked much of being enjoyable. The time I smashed +my rib I was bucked off on a stone. The time I hurt the point of my +shoulder I was riding a big, sulky horse named Ben Butler, which went +over backwards with me. When we got up it still refused to go anywhere; +so, while I sat it, Sylvane Ferris and George Meyer got their ropes on +its neck and dragged it a few hundred yards, choking but stubborn, all +four feet firmly planted and plowing the ground. When they released +the ropes it lay down and wouldn't get up. The round-up had started; so +Sylvane gave me his horse, Baldy, which sometimes bucked but never +went over backwards, and he got on the now rearisen Ben Butler. To my +discomfiture Ben started quietly beside us, while Sylvane remarked, +"Why, there's nothing the matter with this horse; he's a plumb gentle +horse." Then Ben fell slightly behind and I heard Sylvane again, "That's +all right! Come along! Here, you! Go on, you! Hi, hi, fellows, help me +out! he's lying on me!" Sure enough, he was; and when we dragged Sylvane +from under him the first thing the rescued Sylvane did was to execute +a war-dance, spurs and all, on the iniquitous Ben. We could do nothing +with him that day; subsequently we got him so that we could ride him; +but he never became a nice saddle-horse. + +As with all other forms of work, so on the round-up, a man of ordinary +power, who nevertheless does not shirk things merely because they are +disagreeable or irksome, soon earns his place. There were crack riders +and ropers who, just because they felt such overweening pride in their +own prowess, were not really very valuable men. Continually on the +circles a cow or a calf would get into some thick patch of bulberry bush +and refuse to come out; or when it was getting late we would pass some +bad lands that would probably not contain cattle, but might; or a steer +would turn fighting mad, or a calf grow tired and want to lie down. +If in such a case the man steadily persists in doing the unattractive +thing, and after two hours of exasperation and harassment does finally +get the cow out, and keep her out, of the bulberry bushes, and drives +her to the wagon, or finds some animals that have been passed by in the +fourth or fifth patch of bad lands he hunts through, or gets the calf +up on his saddle and takes it in anyhow, the foreman soon grows to treat +him as having his uses and as being an asset of worth in the round-up, +even though neither a fancy roper nor a fancy rider. + +When at the Progressive Convention last August, I met George Meyer for +the first time in many years, and he recalled to me an incident on one +round-up where we happened to be thrown together while driving some cows +and calves to camp. When the camp was only just across the river, two of +the calves positively refused to go any further. He took one of them +in his arms, and after some hazardous maneuvering managed to get on +his horse, in spite of the objections of the latter, and rode into the +river. My calf was too big for such treatment, so in despair I roped +it, intending to drag it over. However, as soon as I roped it, the calf +started bouncing and bleating, and, owing to some lack of dexterity on +my part, suddenly swung round the rear of the horse, bringing the rope +under his tail. Down went the tail tight, and the horse "went into +figures," as the cow-puncher phrase of that day was. There was a cut +bank about four feet high on the hither side of the river, and over this +the horse bucked. We went into the water with a splash. With a "pluck" +the calf followed, described a parabola in the air, and landed beside +us. Fortunately, this took the rope out from under the horse's tail, +but left him thoroughly frightened. He could not do much bucking in the +stream, for there were one or two places where we had to swim, and the +shallows were either sandy or muddy; but across we went, at speed, and +the calf made a wake like Pharaoh's army in the Red Sea. + +On several occasions we had to fight fire. In the geography books of my +youth prairie fires were always portrayed as taking place in long grass, +and all living things ran before them. On the Northern cattle plains the +grass was never long enough to be a source of danger to man or beast. +The fires were nothing like the forest fires in the Northern woods. But +they destroyed large quantities of feed, and we had to stop them where +possible. The process we usually followed was to kill a steer, split it +in two lengthwise, and then have two riders drag each half-steer, the +rope of one running from his saddle-horn to the front leg, and that of +the other to the hind leg. One of the men would spur his horse over or +through the line of fire, and the two would then ride forward, dragging +the steer bloody side downward along the line of flame, men following +on foot with slickers or wet horse-blankets, to beat out any flickering +blaze that was still left. It was exciting work, for the fire and the +twitching and plucking of the ox carcass over the uneven ground maddened +the fierce little horses so that it was necessary to do some riding +in order to keep them to their work. After a while it also became very +exhausting, the thirst and fatigue being great, as, with parched lips +and blackened from head to foot, we toiled at our task. + +In those years the Stockman's Association of Montana was a powerful +body. I was the delegate to it from the Little Missouri. The meetings +that I attended were held in Miles City, at that time a typical cow +town. Stockmen of all kinds attended, including the biggest men in the +stock business, men like old Conrad Kohrs, who was and is the finest +type of pioneer in all the Rocky Mountain country; and Granville +Stewart, who was afterwards appointed Minister by Cleveland, I think +to the Argentine; and "Hashknife" Simpson, a Texan who had brought his +cattle, the Hashknife brand, up the trail into our country. He and +I grew to be great friends. I can see him now the first time we met, +grinning at me as, none too comfortable, I sat a half-broken horse at +the edge of a cattle herd we were working. His son Sloan Simpson went to +Harvard, was one of the first-class men in my regiment, and afterwards +held my commission as Postmaster at Dallas. + +At the stockmen's meeting in Miles City, in addition to the big +stockmen, there were always hundreds of cowboys galloping up and down +the wide dusty streets at every hour of the day and night. It was a +picturesque sight during the three days the meetings lasted. There was +always at least one big dance at the hotel. There were few dress suits, +but there was perfect decorum at the dance, and in the square dances +most of the men knew the figures far better than I did. With such a +crowd in town, sleeping accommodations of any sort were at a premium, +and in the hotel there were two men in every bed. On one occasion I had +a roommate whom I never saw, because he always went to bed much later +than I did and I always got up much earlier than he did. On the last +day, however, he rose at the same time and I saw that he was a man I +knew named Carter, and nicknamed "Modesty" Carter. He was a stalwart, +good-looking fellow, and I was sorry when later I heard that he had been +killed in a shooting row. + +When I went West, the last great Indian wars had just come to an end, +but there were still sporadic outbreaks here and there, and occasionally +bands of marauding young braves were a menace to outlying and lonely +settlements. Many of the white men were themselves lawless and brutal, +and prone to commit outrages on the Indians. Unfortunately, each race +tended to hold all the members of the other race responsible for the +misdeeds of a few, so that the crime of the miscreant, red or white, +who committed the original outrage too often invited retaliation upon +entirely innocent people, and this action would in its turn arouse +bitter feeling which found vent in still more indiscriminate +retaliation. The first year I was on the Little Missouri some Sioux +bucks ran off all the horses of a buffalo-hunter's outfit. One of the +buffalo-hunters tried to get even by stealing the horses of a Cheyenne +hunting party, and when pursued made for a cow camp, with, as a result, +a long-range skirmish between the cowboys and the Cheyennes. One of the +latter was wounded; but this particular wounded man seemed to have +more sense than the other participants in the chain of wrong-doing, and +discriminated among the whites. He came into our camp and had his wound +dressed. + +A year later I was at a desolate little mud road ranch on the Deadwood +trail. It was kept by a very capable and very forceful woman, with sound +ideas of justice and abundantly well able to hold her own. Her husband +was a worthless devil, who finally got drunk on some whisky he obtained +from an outfit of Missouri bull-whackers--that is, freighters, driving +ox wagons. Under the stimulus of the whisky he picked a quarrel with his +wife and attempted to beat her. She knocked him down with a stove-lid +lifter, and the admiring bull-whackers bore him off, leaving the lady +in full possession of the ranch. When I visited her she had a man named +Crow Joe working for her, a slab-sided, shifty-eyed person who later, +as I heard my foreman explain, "skipped the country with a bunch of +horses." The mistress of the ranch made first-class buckskin shirts of +great durability. The one she made for me, and which I used for years, +was used by one of my sons in Arizona a couple of winters ago. I had +ridden down into the country after some lost horses, and visited the +ranch to get her to make me the buckskin shirt in question. There +were, at the moment, three Indians there, Sioux, well behaved and +self-respecting, and she explained to me that they had been resting +there waiting for dinner, and that a white man had come along and tried +to run off their horses. The Indians were on the lookout, however, and, +running out, they caught the man; but, after retaking their horses and +depriving him of his gun, they let him go. "I don't see why they let him +go," exclaimed my hostess. "I don't believe in stealing Indians' horses +any more than white folks'; so I told 'em they could go along and hang +him--I'd never cheep. Anyhow, I won't charge them anything for their +dinner," concluded my hostess. She was in advance of the usual morality +of the time and place, which drew a sharp line between stealing +citizens' horses and stealing horses from the Government or the Indians. + +A fairly decent citizen, Jap Hunt, who long ago met a violent death, +exemplified this attitude towards Indians in some remarks I once heard +him make. He had started a horse ranch, and had quite honestly purchased +a number of broken-down horses of different brands, with the view of +doctoring them and selling them again. About this time there had been +much horse-stealing and cattle-killing in our Territory and in Montana, +and under the direction of some of the big cattle-growers a committee +of vigilantes had been organized to take action against the rustlers, +as the horse thieves and cattle thieves were called. The vigilantes, or +stranglers, as they were locally known, did their work thoroughly; but, +as always happens with bodies of the kind, toward the end they grew +reckless in their actions, paid off private grudges, and hung men on +slight provocation. Riding into Jap Hunt's ranch, they nearly hung him +because he had so many horses of different brands. He was finally let +off. He was much upset by the incident, and explained again and again, +"The idea of saying that I was a horse thief! Why, I never stole a horse +in my life--leastways from a white man. I don't count Indians nor the +Government, of course." Jap had been reared among men still in the stage +of tribal morality, and while they recognized their obligations to one +another, both the Government and the Indians seemed alien bodies, in +regard to which the laws of morality did not apply. + +On the other hand, parties of savage young bucks would treat lonely +settlers just as badly, and in addition sometimes murder them. Such a +party was generally composed of young fellows burning to distinguish +themselves. Some one of their number would have obtained a pass from +the Indian Agent allowing him to travel off the reservation, which pass +would be flourished whenever their action was questioned by bodies of +whites of equal strength. I once had a trifling encounter with such a +band. I was making my way along the edge of the bad lands, northward +from my lower ranch, and was just crossing a plateau when five Indians +rode up over the further rim. The instant they saw me they whipped +out their guns and raced full speed at me, yelling and flogging their +horses. I was on a favorite horse, Manitou, who was a wise old fellow, +with nerves not to be shaken by anything. I at once leaped off him and +stood with my rifle ready. + +It was possible that the Indians were merely making a bluff and intended +no mischief. But I did not like their actions, and I thought it likely +that if I allowed them to get hold of me they would at least take my +horse and rifle, and possibly kill me. So I waited until they were a +hundred yards off and then drew a bead on the first. Indians--and, for +the matter of that, white men--do not like to ride in on a man who is +cool and means shooting, and in a twinkling every man was lying over the +side of his horse, and all five had turned and were galloping backwards, +having altered their course as quickly as so many teal ducks. + +After this one of them made the peace sign, with his blanket first, and +then, as he rode toward me, with his open hand. I halted him at a fair +distance and asked him what he wanted. He exclaimed, "How! Me good +Injun, me good Injun," and tried to show me the dirty piece of paper on +which his agency pass was written. I told him with sincerity that I was +glad that he was a good Indian, but that he must not come any closer. He +then asked for sugar and tobacco. I told him I had none. Another Indian +began slowly drifting toward me in spite of my calling out to keep back, +so I once more aimed with my rifle, whereupon both Indians slipped to +the other side of their horses and galloped off, with oaths that did +credit to at least one side of their acquaintance with English. I now +mounted and pushed over the plateau on to the open prairie. In those +days an Indian, although not as good a shot as a white man, was +infinitely better at crawling under and taking advantage of cover; and +the worst thing a white man could do was to get into cover, whereas out +in the open if he kept his head he had a good chance of standing off +even half a dozen assailants. The Indians accompanied me for a couple of +miles. Then I reached the open prairie, and resumed my northward ride, +not being further molested. + +In the old days in the ranch country we depended upon game for fresh +meat. Nobody liked to kill a beef, and although now and then a maverick +yearling might be killed on the round-up, most of us looked askance at +the deed, because if the practice of beef-killing was ever allowed to +start, the rustlers--the horse thieves and cattle thieves--would be sure +to seize on it as an excuse for general slaughter. Getting meat for the +ranch usually devolved upon me. I almost always carried a rifle when I +rode, either in a scabbard under my thigh, or across the pommel. Often +I would pick up a deer or antelope while about my regular work, when +visiting a line camp or riding after the cattle. At other times I would +make a day's trip after them. In the fall we sometimes took a wagon +and made a week's hunt, returning with eight or ten deer carcasses, and +perhaps an elk or a mountain sheep as well. I never became more than a +fair hunter, and at times I had most exasperating experiences, either +failing to see game which I ought to have seen, or committing some +blunder in the stalk, or failing to kill when I fired. Looking back, +I am inclined to say that if I had any good quality as a hunter it was +that of perseverance. "It is dogged that does it" in hunting as in many +other things. Unless in wholly exceptional cases, when we were very +hungry, I never killed anything but bucks. + +Occasionally I made long trips away from the ranch and among the Rocky +Mountains with my ranch foreman Merrifield; or in later years with +Tazewell Woody, John Willis, or John Goff. We hunted bears, both the +black and the grizzly, cougars and wolves, and moose, wapiti, and white +goat. On one of these trips I killed a bison bull, and I also killed a +bison bull on the Little Missouri some fifty miles south of my ranch on +a trip which Joe Ferris and I took together. It was rather a rough trip. +Each of us carried only his slicker behind him on the saddle, with some +flour and bacon done up in it. We met with all kinds of misadventures. +Finally one night, when we were sleeping by a slimy little prairie pool +where there was not a stick of wood, we had to tie the horses to the +horns of our saddles; and then we went to sleep with our heads on the +saddles. In the middle of the night something stampeded the horses, and +away they went, with the saddles after them. As we jumped to our feet +Joe eyed me with an evident suspicion that I was the Jonah of the party, +and said: "O Lord! I've never done anything to deserve this. Did you +ever do anything to deserve this?" + +In addition to my private duties, I sometimes served as deputy sheriff +for the northern end of our county. The sheriff and I crisscrossed in +our public and private relations. He often worked for me as a hired hand +at the same time that I was his deputy. His name, or at least the +name he went by, was Bill Jones, and as there were in the neighborhood +several Bill Joneses--Three Seven Bill Jones, Texas Bill Jones, and +the like--the sheriff was known as Hell Roaring Bill Jones. He was a +thorough frontiersman, excellent in all kinds of emergencies, and a +very game man. I became much attached to him. He was a thoroughly good +citizen when sober, but he was a little wild when drunk. Unfortunately, +toward the end of his life he got to drinking very heavily. When, in +1905, John Burroughs and I visited the Yellowstone Park, poor Bill +Jones, very much down in the world, was driving a team in Gardiner +outside the park. I had looked forward to seeing him, and he was equally +anxious to see me. He kept telling his cronies of our intimacy and of +what we were going to do together, and then got drinking; and the result +was that by the time I reached Gardiner he had to be carried out and +left in the sage-brush. When I came out of the park, I sent on in +advance to tell them to be sure to keep him sober, and they did so. But +it was a rather sad interview. The old fellow had gone to pieces, and +soon after I left he got lost in a blizzard and was dead when they found +him. + +Bill Jones was a gun-fighter and also a good man with his fists. On one +occasion there was an election in town. There had been many threats that +the party of disorder would import section hands from the neighboring +railway stations to down our side. I did not reach Medora, the forlorn +little cattle town which was our county seat, until the election was +well under way. I then asked one of my friends if there had been any +disorder. Bill Jones was standing by. "Disorder hell!" said my friend. +"Bill Jones just stood there with one hand on his gun and the other +pointing over toward the new jail whenever any man who didn't have a +right to vote came near the polls. There was only one of them tried to +vote, and Bill knocked him down. Lord!" added my friend, meditatively, +"the way that man fell!" "Well," struck in Bill Jones, "if he hadn't +fell I'd have walked round behind him to see what was propping him up!" + +In the days when I lived on the ranch I usually spent most of the +winter in the East, and when I returned in the early spring I was always +interested in finding out what had happened since my departure. On one +occasion I was met by Bill Jones and Sylvane Ferris, and in the course +of our conversation they mentioned "the lunatic." This led to a question +on my part, and Sylvane Ferris began the story: "Well, you see, he was +on a train and he shot the newsboy. At first they weren't going to do +anything to him, for they thought he just had it in for the newsboy. But +then somebody said, 'Why, he's plumb crazy, and he's liable to shoot any +of us!' and then they threw him off the train. It was here at Medora, +and they asked if anybody would take care of him, and Bill Jones said he +would, because he was the sheriff and the jail had two rooms, and he was +living in one and would put the lunatic in the other." Here Bill Jones +interrupted: "Yes, and more fool me! I wouldn't take charge of another +lunatic if the whole county asked me. Why" (with the air of a man +announcing an astounding discovery), "that lunatic didn't have his right +senses! He wouldn't eat, till me and Snyder got him down on the shavings +and made him eat." Snyder was a huge, happy-go-lucky, kind-hearted +Pennsylvania Dutchman, and was Bill Jones's chief deputy. Bill +continued: "You know, Snyder's soft-hearted, he is. Well, he'd think +that lunatic looked peaked, and he'd take him out for an airing. Then +the boys would get joshing him as to how much start he could give him +over the prairie and catch him again." Apparently the amount of the +start given the lunatic depended upon the amount of the bet to which the +joshing led up. I asked Bill what he would have done if Snyder hadn't +caught the lunatic. This was evidently a new idea, and he responded that +Snyder always did catch him. "Well, but suppose he hadn't caught him?" +"Well," said Bill Jones, "if Snyder hadn't caught the lunatic, I'd have +whaled hell out of Snyder!" + +Under these circumstances Snyder ran his best and always did catch the +patient. It must not be gathered from this that the lunatic was badly +treated. He was well treated. He become greatly attached to both Bill +Jones and Snyder, and he objected strongly when, after the frontier +theory of treatment of the insane had received a full trial, he was +finally sent off to the territorial capital. It was merely that all the +relations of life in that place and day were so managed as to give ample +opportunity for the expression of individuality, whether in sheriff or +ranchman. The local practical joker once attempted to have some fun at +the expense of the lunatic, and Bill Jones described the result. "You +know Bixby, don't you? Well," with deep disapproval, "Bixby thinks he +is funny, he does. He'd come and he'd wake that lunatic up at night, and +I'd have to get up and soothe him. I fixed Bixby all right, though. I +fastened a rope on the latch, and next time Bixby came I let the lunatic +out on him. He 'most bit Bixby's nose off. I learned Bixby!" + +Bill Jones had been unconventional in other relations besides that of +sheriff. He once casually mentioned to me that he had served on the +police force of Bismarck, but he had left because he "beat the Mayor +over the head with his gun one day." He added: "The Mayor, he didn't +mind it, but the Superintendent of Police said he guessed I'd better +resign." His feeling, obviously, was that the Superintendent of Police +was a martinet, unfit to take large views of life. + +It was while with Bill Jones that I first made acquaintance with Seth +Bullock. Seth was at that time sheriff in the Black Hills district, and +a man he had wanted--a horse thief--I finally got, I being at the time +deputy sheriff two or three hundred miles to the north. The man went by +a nickname which I will call "Crazy Steve"; a year or two afterwards +I received a letter asking about him from his uncle, a thoroughly +respectable man in a Western State; and later this uncle and I met at +Washington when I was President and he a United States Senator. It +was some time after "Steve's" capture that I went down to Deadwood on +business, Sylvane Ferris and I on horseback, while Bill Jones drove the +wagon. At a little town, Spearfish, I think, after crossing the last +eighty or ninety miles of gumbo prairies, we met Seth Bullock. We had +had rather a rough trip, and had lain out for a fortnight, so I suppose +we looked somewhat unkempt. Seth received us with rather distant +courtesy at first, but unbent when he found out who we were, remarking, +"You see, by your looks I thought you were some kind of a tin-horn +gambling outfit, and that I might have to keep an eye on you!" He then +inquired after the capture of "Steve"--with a little of the air of +one sportsman when another has shot a quail that either might have +claimed--"My bird, I believe?" Later Seth Bullock became, and has ever +since remained, one of my stanchest and most valued friends. He served +as Marshal for South Dakota under me as President. When, after the close +of my term, I went to Africa, on getting back to Europe I cabled Seth +Bullock to bring over Mrs. Bullock and meet me in London, which he did; +by that time I felt that I just had to meet my own people, who spoke my +neighborhood dialect. + +When serving as deputy sheriff I was impressed with the advantage the +officer of the law has over ordinary wrong-doers, provided he thoroughly +knows his own mind. There are exceptional outlaws, men with a price on +their heads and of remarkable prowess, who are utterly indifferent to +taking life, and whose warfare against society is as open as that of a +savage on the war-path. The law officer has no advantage whatever over +these men save what his own prowess may--or may not--give him. Such a +man was Billy the Kid, the notorious man-killer and desperado of New +Mexico, who was himself finally slain by a friend of mine, Pat Garrett, +whom, when I was President, I made collector of customs at El Paso. +But the ordinary criminal, even when murderously inclined, feels just a +moment's hesitation as to whether he cares to kill an officer of the +law engaged in his duty. I took in more than one man who was probably a +better man than I was with both rifle and revolver; but in each case I +knew just what I wanted to do, and, like David Harum, I "did it first," +whereas the fraction of a second that the other man hesitated put him in +a position where it was useless for him to resist. + +I owe more than I can ever express to the West, which of course means to +the men and women I met in the West. There were a few people of bad type +in my neighborhood--that would be true of every group of men, even in a +theological seminary--but I could not speak with too great affection and +respect of the great majority of my friends, the hard-working men and +women who dwelt for a space of perhaps a hundred and fifty miles along +the Little Missouri. I was always as welcome at their houses as they +were at mine. Everybody worked, everybody was willing to help everybody +else, and yet nobody asked any favors. The same thing was true of the +people whom I got to know fifty miles east and fifty miles west of my +own range, and of the men I met on the round-ups. They soon accepted me +as a friend and fellow-worker who stood on an equal footing with them, +and I believe the most of them have kept their feeling for me ever +since. No guests were ever more welcome at the White House than these +old friends of the cattle ranches and the cow camps--the men with whom +I had ridden the long circle and eaten at the tail-board of a +chuck-wagon--whenever they turned up at Washington during my Presidency. +I remember one of them who appeared at Washington one day just before +lunch, a huge, powerful man who, when I knew him, had been distinctly a +fighting character. It happened that on that day another old friend, +the British Ambassador, Mr. Bryce, was among those coming to lunch. Just +before we went in I turned to my cow-puncher friend and said to him with +great solemnity, "Remember, Jim, that if you shot at the feet of the +British Ambassador to make him dance, it would be likely to cause +international complications"; to which Jim responded with unaffected +horror, "Why, Colonel, I shouldn't think of it, I shouldn't think of +it!" + +Not only did the men and women whom I met in the cow country quite +unconsciously help me, by the insight which working and living with them +enabled me to get into the mind and soul of the average American of the +right type, but they helped me in another way. I made up my mind that +the men were of just the kind whom it would be well to have with me if +ever it became necessary to go to war. When the Spanish War came, I gave +this thought practical realization. + +Fortunately, Wister and Remington, with pen and pencil, have made these +men live as long as our literature lives. I have sometimes been asked +if Wister's "Virginian" is not overdrawn; why, one of the men I have +mentioned in this chapter was in all essentials the Virginian in real +life, not only in his force but in his charm. Half of the men I worked +with or played with and half of the men who soldiered with me afterwards +in my regiment might have walked out of Wister's stories or Remington's +pictures. + +There were bad characters in the Western country at that time, of +course, and under the conditions of life they were probably more +dangerous than they would have been elsewhere. I hardly ever had any +difficulty, however. I never went into a saloon, and in the little +hotels I kept out of the bar-room unless, as sometimes happened, the +bar-room was the only room on the lower floor except the dining-room. I +always endeavored to keep out of a quarrel until self-respect forbade +my making any further effort to avoid it, and I very rarely had even the +semblance of trouble. + +Of course amusing incidents occurred now and then. Usually these took +place when I was hunting lost horses, for in hunting lost horses I was +ordinarily alone, and occasionally had to travel a hundred or a hundred +and fifty miles away from my own country. On one such occasion I +reached a little cow town long after dark, stabled my horse in an empty +outbuilding, and when I reached the hotel was informed in response to my +request for a bed that I could have the last one left, as there was only +one other man in it. The room to which I was shown contained two double +beds; one contained two men fast asleep, and the other only one man, +also asleep. This man proved to be a friend, one of the Bill Joneses +whom I have previously mentioned. I undressed according to the fashion +of the day and place, that is, I put my trousers, boots, shaps, and +gun down beside the bed, and turned in. A couple of hours later I was +awakened by the door being thrown open and a lantern flashed in my face, +the light gleaming on the muzzle of a cocked .45. Another man said to +the lantern-bearer, "It ain't him"; the next moment my bedfellow was +covered with two guns, and addressed, "Now, Bill, don't make a fuss, +but come along quiet." "I'm not thinking of making a fuss," said Bill. +"That's right," was the answer; "we're your friends; we don't want to +hurt you; we just want you to come along, you know why." And Bill pulled +on his trousers and boots and walked out with them. Up to this +time there had not been a sound from the other bed. Now a match was +scratched, a candle lit, and one of the men in the other bed looked +round the room. At this point I committed the breach of etiquette of +asking questions. "I wonder why they took Bill," I said. There was no +answer, and I repeated, "I wonder why they took Bill." "Well," said the +man with the candle, dryly, "I reckon they wanted him," and with that +he blew out the candle and conversation ceased. Later I discovered that +Bill in a fit of playfulness had held up the Northern Pacific train at +a near-by station by shooting at the feet of the conductor to make him +dance. This was purely a joke on Bill's part, but the Northern Pacific +people possessed a less robust sense of humor, and on their complaint +the United States Marshal was sent after Bill, on the ground that by +delaying the train he had interfered with the mails. + +The only time I ever had serious trouble was at an even more primitive +little hotel than the one in question. It was also on an occasion when +I was out after lost horses. Below the hotel had merely a bar-room, a +dining-room, and a lean-to kitchen; above was a loft with fifteen or +twenty beds in it. It was late in the evening when I reached the place. +I heard one or two shots in the bar-room as I came up, and I disliked +going in. But there was nowhere else to go, and it was a cold night. +Inside the room were several men, who, including the bartender, were +wearing the kind of smile worn by men who are making believe to like +what they don't like. A shabby individual in a broad hat with a cocked +gun in each hand was walking up and down the floor talking with strident +profanity. He had evidently been shooting at the clock, which had two or +three holes in its face. + +He was not a "bad man" of the really dangerous type, the true man-killer +type, but he was an objectionable creature, a would-be bad man, a bully +who for the moment was having things all his own way. As soon as he saw +me he hailed me as "Four eyes," in reference to my spectacles, and said, +"Four eyes is going to treat." I joined in the laugh and got behind the +stove and sat down, thinking to escape notice. He followed me, however, +and though I tried to pass it off as a jest this merely made him more +offensive, and he stood leaning over me, a gun in each hand, using very +foul language. He was foolish to stand so near, and, moreover, his heels +were close together, so that his position was unstable. Accordingly, in +response to his reiterated command that I should set up the drinks, I +said, "Well, if I've got to, I've got to," and rose, looking past him. + +As I rose, I struck quick and hard with my right just to one side of the +point of his jaw, hitting with my left as I straightened out, and then +again with my right. He fired the guns, but I do not know whether this +was merely a convulsive action of his hands or whether he was trying to +shoot at me. When he went down he struck the corner of the bar with his +head. It was not a case in which one could afford to take chances, and +if he had moved I was about to drop on his ribs with my knees; but he +was senseless. I took away his guns, and the other people in the room, +who were now loud in their denunciation of him, hustled him out and put +him in a shed. I got dinner as soon as possible, sitting in a corner +of the dining-room away from the windows, and then went upstairs to bed +where it was dark so that there would be no chance of any one shooting +at me from the outside. However, nothing happened. When my assailant +came to, he went down to the station and left on a freight. + +As I have said, most of the men of my regiment were just such men as +those I knew in the ranch country; indeed, some of my ranch friends were +in the regiment--Fred Herrig, the forest ranger, for instance, in whose +company I shot my biggest mountain ram. After the regiment was disbanded +the careers of certain of the men were diversified by odd incidents. Our +relations were of the friendliest, and, as they explained, they felt +"as if I was a father" to them. The manifestations of this feeling were +sometimes less attractive than the phrase sounded, as it was chiefly +used by the few who were behaving like very bad children indeed. The +great majority of the men when the regiment disbanded took up the +business of their lives where they had dropped it a few months +previously, and these men merely tried to help me or help one another +as the occasion arose; no man ever had more cause to be proud of his +regiment than I had of mine, both in war and in peace. But there was +a minority among them who in certain ways were unsuited for a life of +peaceful regularity, although often enough they had been first-class +soldiers. + +It was from these men that letters came with a stereotyped opening which +always caused my heart to sink--"Dear Colonel: I write you because I am +in trouble." The trouble might take almost any form. One correspondent +continued: "I did not take the horse, but they say I did." Another +complained that his mother-in-law had put him in jail for bigamy. In +the case of another the incident was more markworthy. I will call him +Gritto. He wrote me a letter beginning: "Dear Colonel: I write you +because I am in trouble. I have shot a lady in the eye. But, Colonel, +I was not shooting at the lady. I was shooting at my wife," which he +apparently regarded as a sufficient excuse as between men of the world. +I answered that I drew the line at shooting at ladies, and did not hear +any more of the incident for several years. + +Then, while I was President, a member of the regiment, Major Llewellyn, +who was Federal District Attorney under me in New Mexico, wrote me a +letter filled, as his letters usually were, with bits of interesting +gossip about the comrades. It ran in part as follows: "Since I last +wrote you Comrade Ritchie has killed a man in Colorado. I understand +that the comrade was playing a poker game, and the man sat into the game +and used such language that Comrade Ritchie had to shoot. Comrade Webb +has killed two men in Beaver, Arizona. Comrade Webb is in the Forest +Service, and the killing was in the line of professional duty. I was out +at the penitentiary the other day and saw Comrade Gritto, who, you may +remember, was put there for shooting his sister-in-law [this was the +first information I had had as to the identity of the lady who was shot +in the eye]. Since he was in there Comrade Boyne has run off to old +Mexico with his (Gritto's) wife, and the people of Grant County think he +ought to be let out." Evidently the sporting instincts of the people of +Grant County had been roused, and they felt that, as Comrade Boyne had +had a fair start, the other comrade should be let out in order to see +what would happen. + +The men of the regiment always enthusiastically helped me when I was +running for office. On one occasion Buck Taylor, of Texas, accompanied +me on a trip and made a speech for me. The crowd took to his speech from +the beginning and so did I, until the peroration, which ran as follows: +"My fellow-citizens, vote for my Colonel! vote for my Colonel! _and he +will lead you, as he led us, like sheep to the slaughter_!" This hardly +seemed a tribute to my military skill; but it delighted the crowd, and +as far as I could tell did me nothing but good. + +On another tour, when I was running for Vice-President, a member of +the regiment who was along on the train got into a discussion with +a Populist editor who had expressed an unfavorable estimate of my +character, and in the course of the discussion shot the editor--not +fatally. We had to leave him to be tried, and as he had no money I +left him $150 to hire counsel--having borrowed the money from Senator +Wolcott, of Colorado, who was also with me. After election I received +from my friend a letter running: "Dear Colonel: I find I will not have +to use that $150 you lent me, as we have elected our candidate for +District Attorney. So I have used it to settle a horse transaction in +which I unfortunately became involved." A few weeks later, however, I +received a heartbroken letter setting forth the fact that the District +Attorney--whom he evidently felt to be a cold-blooded formalist--had +put him in jail. Then the affair dropped out of sight until two or three +years later, when as President I visited a town in another State, +and the leaders of the delegation which received me included both my +correspondent and the editor, now fast friends, and both of them ardent +supporters of mine. + +At one of the regimental reunions a man, who had been an excellent +soldier, in greeting me mentioned how glad he was that the judge had let +him out in time to get to the reunion. I asked what was the matter, and +he replied with some surprise: "Why, Colonel, don't you know I had +a difficulty with a gentleman, and . . . er . . . well, I killed the +gentleman. But you can see that the judge thought it was all right or he +wouldn't have let me go." Waiving the latter point, I said: "How did it +happen? How did you do it?" Misinterpreting my question as showing +an interest only in the technique of the performance, the ex-puncher +replied: "With a .38 on a .45 frame, Colonel." I chuckled over the +answer, and it became proverbial with my family and some of my friends, +including Seth Bullock. When I was shot at Milwaukee, Seth Bullock wired +an inquiry to which I responded that it was all right, that the weapon +was merely "a .38 on a .45 frame." The telegram in some way became +public, and puzzled outsiders. By the way, both the men of my regiment +and the friends I had made in the old days in the West were themselves a +little puzzled at the interest shown in my making my speech after being +shot. This was what they expected, what they accepted as the right thing +for a man to do under the circumstances, a thing the non-performance of +which would have been discreditable rather than the performance being +creditable. They would not have expected a man to leave a battle, for +instance, because of being wounded in such fashion; and they saw no +reason why he should abandon a less important and less risky duty. + +One of the best soldiers of my regiment was a huge man whom I made +marshal of a Rocky Mountain State. He had spent his hot and lusty youth +on the frontier during its viking age, and at that time had naturally +taken part in incidents which seemed queer to men "accustomed to die +decently of zymotic diseases." I told him that an effort would doubtless +be made to prevent his confirmation by the Senate, and therefore that +I wanted to know all the facts in his case. Had he played faro? He had; +but it was when everybody played faro, and he had never played a brace +game. Had he killed anybody? Yes, but it was in Dodge City on occasions +when he was deputy marshal or town marshal, at a time when Dodge City, +now the most peaceful of communities, was the toughest town on the +continent, and crowded with man-killing outlaws and road agents; and he +produced telegrams from judges of high character testifying to the need +of the actions he had taken. Finally I said: "Now, Ben, how did you +lose that half of your ear?" To which, looking rather shy, he responded: +"Well, Colonel, it was bit off." "How did it happen, Ben?" "Well, you +see, I was sent to arrest a gentleman, and him and me mixed it up, and +he bit off my ear." "What did you do to the gentleman, Ben?" And Ben, +looking more coy than ever, responded: "Well, Colonel, we broke about +even!" I forebore to inquire what variety of mayhem he had committed on +the "gentleman." After considerable struggle I got him confirmed by +the Senate, and he made one of the best marshals in the entire service, +exactly as he had already made one of the best soldiers in the regiment; +and I never wish to see a better citizen, nor a man in whom I would more +implicitly trust in every way. + +When, in 1900, I was nominated for Vice-President, I was sent by the +National Committee on a trip into the States of the high plains and the +Rocky Mountains. These had all gone overwhelmingly for Mr. Bryan on +the free-silver issue four years previously, and it was thought that I, +because of my knowledge of and acquaintanceship with the people, might +accomplish something towards bringing them back into line. It was +an interesting trip, and the monotony usually attendant upon such a +campaign of political speaking was diversified in vivid fashion by +occasional hostile audiences. One or two of the meetings ended in riots. +One meeting was finally broken up by a mob; everybody fought so that the +speaking had to stop. Soon after this we reached another town where we +were told there might be trouble. Here the local committee included an +old and valued friend, a "two-gun" man of repute, who was not in the +least quarrelsome, but who always kept his word. We marched round to +the local opera-house, which was packed with a mass of men, many of them +rather rough-looking. My friend the two-gun man sat immediately behind +me, a gun on each hip, his arms folded, looking at the audience; fixing +his gaze with instant intentness on any section of the house from which +there came so much as a whisper. The audience listened to me with +rapt attention. At the end, with a pride in my rhetorical powers which +proceeded from a misunderstanding of the situation, I remarked to the +chairman: "I held that audience well; there wasn't an interruption." To +which the chairman replied: "Interruption? Well, I guess not! Seth had +sent round word that if any son of a gun peeped he'd kill him!" + +There was one bit of frontier philosophy which I should like to see +imitated in more advanced communities. Certain crimes of revolting +baseness and cruelty were never forgiven. But in the case of ordinary +offenses, the man who had served his term and who then tried to make +good was given a fair chance; and of course this was equally true of +the women. Every one who has studied the subject at all is only too +well aware that the world offsets the readiness with which it condones +a crime for which a man escapes punishment, by its unforgiving +relentlessness to the often far less guilty man who _is_ punished, +and who therefore has made his atonement. On the frontier, if the man +honestly tried to behave himself there was generally a disposition to +give him fair play and a decent show. Several of the men I knew and whom +I particularly liked came in this class. There was one such man in my +regiment, a man who had served a term for robbery under arms, and who +had atoned for it by many years of fine performance of duty. I put him +in a high official position, and no man under me rendered better service +to the State, nor was there any man whom, as soldier, as civil officer, +as citizen, and as friend, I valued and respected--and now value and +respect--more. + +Now I suppose some good people will gather from this that I favor men +who commit crimes. I certainly do not favor them. I have not a +particle of sympathy with the sentimentality--as I deem it, the +mawkishness--which overflows with foolish pity for the criminal and +cares not at all for the victim of the criminal. I am glad to see +wrong-doers punished. The punishment is an absolute necessity from the +standpoint of society; and I put the reformation of the criminal second +to the welfare of society. But I do desire to see the man or woman +who has paid the penalty and who wishes to reform given a helping +hand--surely every one of us who knows his own heart must know that he +too may stumble, and should be anxious to help his brother or sister who +has stumbled. When the criminal has been punished, if he then shows a +sincere desire to lead a decent and upright life, he should be given the +chance, he should be helped and not hindered; and if he makes good, he +should receive that respect from others which so often aids in creating +self-respect--the most invaluable of all possessions. + + + +CHAPTER V + +APPLIED IDEALISM + +In the spring of 1899 I was appointed by President Harrison Civil +Service Commissioner. For nearly five years I had not been very +active in political life; although I had done some routine work in the +organization and had made campaign speeches, and in 1886 had run for +Mayor of New York against Abram S. Hewitt, Democrat, and Henry George, +Independent, and had been defeated. + +I served six years as Civil Service Commissioner--four years under +President Harrison and then two years under President Cleveland. I +was treated by both Presidents with the utmost consideration. Among my +fellow-Commissioners there was at one time ex-Governor Hugh Thompson, of +South Carolina, and at another time John R. Proctor, of Kentucky. They +were Democrats and ex-Confederate soldiers. I became deeply attached to +both, and we stood shoulder to shoulder in every contest in which the +Commission was forced to take part. + +Civil Service Reform had two sides. There was, first, the effort to +secure a more efficient administration of the public service, and, +second, the even more important effort to withdraw the administrative +offices of the Government from the domain of spoils politics, and +thereby cut out of American political life a fruitful source of +corruption and degradation. The spoils theory of politics is that +public office is so much plunder which the victorious political party is +entitled to appropriate to the use of its adherents. Under this system +the work of the Government was often done well even in those days, when +Civil Service Reform was only an experiment, because the man running an +office if himself an able and far-sighted man, knew that inefficiency +in administration would be visited on his head in the long run, and +therefore insisted upon most of his subordinates doing good work; and, +moreover, the men appointed under the spoils system were necessarily +men of a certain initiative and power, because those who lacked these +qualities were not able to shoulder themselves to the front. Yet there +were many flagrant instances of inefficiency, where a powerful chief +quartered friend, adherent, or kinsman upon the Government. Moreover, +the necessarily haphazard nature of the employment, the need of +obtaining and holding the office by service wholly unconnected with +official duty, inevitably tended to lower the standard of public +morality, alike among the office-holders and among the politicians who +rendered party service with the hope of reward in office. Indeed, the +doctrine that "To the victor belong the spoils," the cynical battle-cry +of the spoils politician in America for the sixty years preceding my own +entrance into public life, is so nakedly vicious that few right-thinking +men of trained mind defend it. To appoint, promote, reduce, and +expel from the public service, letter-carriers, stenographers, women +typewriters, clerks, because of the politics of themselves or their +friends, without regard to their own service, is, from the standpoint of +the people at large, as foolish and degrading as it is wicked. + +Such being the case, it would seem at first sight extraordinary that +it should be so difficult to uproot the system. Unfortunately, it was +permitted to become habitual and traditional in American life, so that +the conception of public office as something to be used primarily for +the good of the dominant political party became ingrained in the mind +of the average American, and he grew so accustomed to the whole process +that it seemed part of the order of nature. Not merely the politicians +but the bulk of the people accepted this in a matter-of-course way as +the only proper attitude. There were plenty of communities where the +citizens themselves did not think it natural, or indeed proper, that +the Post-Office should be held by a man belonging to the defeated +party. Moreover, unless both sides were forbidden to use the offices for +purposes of political reward, the side that did use them possessed +such an advantage over the other that in the long run it was out of the +question for the other not to follow the bad example that had been set. +Each party profited by the offices when in power, and when in opposition +each party insincerely denounced its opponents for doing exactly what it +itself had done and intended again to do. + +It was necessary, in order to remedy the evil, both gradually to change +the average citizen's mental attitude toward the question, and also to +secure proper laws and proper administration of the laws. The work is +far from finished even yet. There are still masses of office-holders +who can be used by an unscrupulous Administration to debauch political +conventions and fraudulently overcome public sentiment, especially in +the "rotten borough" districts--those where the party is not strong, +and where the office-holders in consequence have a disproportionate +influence. This was done by the Republican Administration in 1912, to +the ruin of the Republican party. Moreover, there are numbers of States +and municipalities where very little has as yet been done to do away +with the spoils system. But in the National Government scores of +thousands of offices have been put under the merit system, chiefly +through the action of the National Civil Service Commission. + +The use of Government offices as patronage is a handicap difficult +to overestimate from the standpoint of those who strive to get good +government. Any effort for reform of any sort, National, State, or +municipal, results in the reformers immediately finding themselves face +to face with an organized band of drilled mercenaries who are paid out +of the public chest to train themselves with such skill that ordinary +good citizens when they meet them at the polls are in much the position +of militia matched against regular troops. Yet these citizens themselves +support and pay their opponents in such a way that they are drilled +to overthrow the very men who support them. Civil Service Reform is +designed primarily to give the average American citizen a fair chance in +politics, to give to this citizen the same weight in politics that the +"ward heeler" has. + +Patronage does not really help a party. It helps the bosses to get +control of the machinery of the party--as in 1912 was true of the +Republican party--but it does not help the party. On the average, the +most sweeping party victories in our history have been won when the +patronage was against the victors. All that the patronage does is +to help the worst element in the party retain control of the party +organization. Two of the evil elements in our Government against which +good citizens have to contend are, 1, the lack of continuous activity +on the part of these good citizens themselves, and, 2, the ever-present +activity of those who have only an evil self-interest in political +life. It is difficult to interest the average citizen in any particular +movement to the degree of getting him to take an efficient part in it. +He wishes the movement well, but he will not, or often cannot, take +the time and the trouble to serve it efficiently; and this whether +he happens to be a mechanic or a banker, a telegraph operator or a +storekeeper. He has his own interests, his own business, and it is +difficult for him to spare the time to go around to the primaries, to +see to the organization, to see to getting out the vote--in short, to +attend to all the thousand details of political management. + +On the other hand, the spoils system breeds a class of men whose +financial interest it is to take this necessary time and trouble. They +are paid for so doing, and they are paid out of the public chest. +Under the spoils system a man is appointed to an ordinary clerical or +ministerial position in the municipal, Federal, or State government, not +primarily because he is expected to be a good servant, but because he +has rendered help to some big boss or to the henchman of some big boss. +His stay in office depends not upon how he performs service, but upon +how he retains his influence in the party. This necessarily means that +his attention to the interests of the public at large, even though real, +is secondary to his devotion to his organization, or to the interest of +the ward leader who put him in his place. So he and his fellows attend +to politics, not once a year, not two or three times a year, like the +average citizen, but every day in the year. It is the one thing that +they talk of, for it is their bread and butter. They plan about it and +they scheme about it. They do it because it is their business. I do not +blame them in the least. I blame us, the people, for we ought to make +it clear as a bell that the business of serving the people in one of the +ordinary ministerial Government positions, which have nothing to do +with deciding the policy of the Government, should have no necessary +connection with the management of primaries, of caucuses, and +of nominating conventions. As a result of our wrong thinking and +supineness, we American citizens tend to breed a mass of men whose +interests in governmental matters are often adverse to ours, who are +thoroughly drilled, thoroughly organized, who make their livelihood +out of politics, and who frequently make their livelihood out of +bad politics. They know every little twist and turn, no matter how +intricate, in the politics of their several wards, and when election +day comes the ordinary citizen who has merely the interest that all good +men, all decent citizens, should have in political life, finds himself +as helpless before these men as if he were a solitary volunteer in the +presence of a band of drilled mercenaries on a field of battle. There +are a couple of hundred thousand Federal offices, not to speak of State +and municipal offices. The men who fill these offices, and the men who +wish to fill them, within and without the dominant party for the time +being, make a regular army, whose interest it is that the system +of bread-and-butter politics shall continue. Against their concrete +interest we have merely the generally unorganized sentiment of the +community in favor of putting things on a decent basis. The large number +of men who believe vaguely in good are pitted against the smaller but +still larger number of men whose interest it often becomes to act +very concretely and actively for evil; and it is small wonder that the +struggle is doubtful. + +During my six years' service as Commissioner the field of the merit +system was extended at the expense of the spoils system so as to include +several times the number of offices that had originally been included. +Generally this was done by the introduction of competitive entrance +examinations; sometimes, as in the Navy-Yards, by a system of +registration. This of itself was good work. + +Even better work was making the law efficient and genuine where it +applied. As was inevitable in the introduction of such a system, there +was at first only partial success in its application. For instance, +it applied to the ordinary employees in the big custom-houses and +post-offices, but not to the heads of these offices. A number of the +heads of the offices were slippery politicians of a low moral grade, +themselves appointed under the spoils system, and anxious, directly +or indirectly, to break down the merit system and to pay their own +political debts by appointing their henchmen and supporters to the +positions under them. Occasionally these men acted with open and naked +brutality. Ordinarily they sought by cunning to evade the law. The Civil +Service Reformers, on the other hand, were in most cases not much used +to practical politics, and were often well-nigh helpless when pitted +against veteran professional politicians. In consequence I found at the +beginning of my experiences that there were many offices in which the +execution of the law was a sham. This was very damaging, because it +encouraged the politicians to assault the law everywhere, and, on the +other hand, made good people feel that the law was not worth while +defending. + +The first effort of myself and my colleagues was to secure the genuine +enforcement of the law. In this we succeeded after a number of lively +fights. But of course in these fights we were obliged to strike a large +number of influential politicians, some of them in Congress, some of +them the supporters and backers of men who were in Congress. Accordingly +we soon found ourselves engaged in a series of contests with prominent +Senators and Congressmen. There were a number of Senators and +Congressmen--men like Congressman (afterwards Senator) H. C. Lodge, of +Massachusetts; Senator Cushman K. Davis, of Minnesota; Senator Orville +H. Platt, of Connecticut; Senator Cockrell, of Missouri; Congressman +(afterwards President) McKinley, of Ohio, and Congressman Dargan, +of South Carolina--who abhorred the business of the spoilsman, who +efficiently and resolutely championed the reform at every turn, and +without whom the whole reform would certainly have failed. But there +were plenty of other Senators and Congressmen who hated the whole reform +and everything concerned with it and everybody who championed it; +and sometimes, 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. These men were always waging war +against us, and they usually had the more or less open support of a +certain number of Government officials, from Cabinet officers down. The +Senators and Congressmen in question opposed us in many different ways. +Sometimes, for instance, they had committees appointed to investigate +us--during my public career without and within office I grew accustomed +to accept appearances before investigating committees as part of +the natural order of things. Sometimes they tried to cut off the +appropriation for the Commission. + +Occasionally we would bring to terms these Senators or Congressmen +who fought the Commission by the simple expedient of not holding +examinations in their districts. This always brought frantic appeals +from their constituents, and we would explain that unfortunately the +appropriations had been cut, so that we could not hold examinations in +every district, and that obviously we could not neglect the districts +of those Congressmen who believed in the reform and therefore in the +examinations. The constituents then turned their attention to the +Congressman, and the result was that in the long run we obtained +sufficient money to enable us to do our work. On the whole, the +most prominent leaders favored us. Any man who is the head of a big +department, if he has any fitness at all, wishes to see that department +run well; and a very little practical experience shows him that +it cannot be run well if he must make his appointments to please +spoilsmongering politicians. As with almost every reform that I have +ever undertaken, most of the opposition took the guise of shrewd +slander. Our opponents relied chiefly on downright misrepresentation of +what it was that we were trying to accomplish, and of our methods, acts, +and personalities. I had more than one lively encounter with the authors +and sponsors of these misrepresentations, which at the time were full of +interest to me. But it would be a dreary thing now to go over the record +of exploded mendacity, or to expose the meanness and malice shown by +some men of high official position. A favorite argument was to call +the reform Chinese, because the Chinese had constructed an inefficient +governmental system based in part on the theory of written competitive +examinations. The argument was simple. There had been written +examinations in China; it was proposed to establish written examinations +in the United States; therefore the proposed system was Chinese. The +argument might have been applied still further. For instance, the +Chinese had used gunpowder for centuries; gunpowder is used in +Springfield rifles; therefore Springfield rifles were Chinese. One +argument is quite as logical as the other. It was impossible to answer +every falsehood about the system. But it was possible to answer certain +falsehoods, especially when uttered by some Senator or Congressman of +note. Usually these false statements took the form of assertions that +we had asked preposterous questions of applicants. At times they also +included the assertion that we credited people to districts where they +did not live; this simply meaning that these persons were not known to +the active ward politicians of those districts. + +One opponent with whom we had a rather lively tilt was a Republican +Congressman from Ohio, Mr. Grosvenor, one of the floor leaders. Mr. +Grosvenor made his attack in the House, and enumerated our sins in +picturesque rather than accurate fashion. There was a Congressional +committee investigating us at the time, and on my next appearance before +them I asked that Mr. Grosvenor be requested to meet me before the +committee. Mr. Grosvenor did not take up the challenge for several +weeks, until it was announced that I was leaving for my ranch in Dakota; +whereupon, deeming it safe, he wrote me a letter expressing his ardent +wish that I should appear before the committee to meet him. I promptly +canceled my ticket, waited, and met him. He 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. For +instance, he had been trapped into making the unwary remark, "I do not +want to repeal the Civil Service Law, and I never said so." I produced +the following extract from one of his speeches: "I will vote not only to +strike out this provision, but I will vote to repeal the whole law." To +this he merely replied that there was "no inconsistency between those +two statements." He asserted that "Rufus P. Putnam, fraudulently +credited to Washington County, Ohio, never lived in Washington County, +Ohio, or in my Congressional district, or in Ohio as far as I know." +We produced a letter which, thanks to a beneficent Providence, he had +himself written about Mr. Rufus P. Putnam, in which he said: "Mr. Rufus +P. Putnam is a legal resident of my district and has relatives living +there now." He explained, 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. He said: "I have not +been informed of one applicant who has found a place in the classified +service from my district." We confronted him with the names of eight. He +looked them over and said, "Yes, the eight men are living in my district +as now constituted," but added that his district had been gerrymandered +so that he could no longer tell who did and who didn't live in it. When +I started further to question him, he accused me of a lack of humor in +not appreciating that his statements were made "in a jesting way," and +then announced 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"--a frank admission that he did not +consider exactitude of statement necessary when he was speaking as a +Congressman. Finally he rose with great dignity and said that it was his +"constitutional right" not to be questioned elsewhere as to what he said +on the floor of the House of Representatives; and accordingly he left +the delighted committee to pursue its investigations without further aid +from him. + +A more important opponent was the then Democratic leader of the Senate, +Mr. Gorman. In a speech attacking the Commission Mr. Gorman described +with moving pathos how a friend of his, "a bright young man from +Baltimore," a Sunday-school scholar, well recommended by his pastor, +wished to be a letter-carrier; and how he went before us to be examined. +The first question we asked him, said Mr. Gorman, was the shortest route +from Baltimore to China, to which the "bright young man" responded that +he didn't want to go to China, and had never studied up that route. +Thereupon, said Mr. Gorman, we asked him all about the steamship lines +from the United States to Europe, then branched him off into geology, +tried him in chemistry, and finally turned him down. + +Apparently Mr. Gorman did not know that we kept full records of our +examinations. I at once wrote to him stating that I had carefully looked +through all our examination papers and had not been able to find one +question even remotely resembling any of these questions which he +alleged had been asked, and that I would be greatly obliged if he would +give me the name of the "bright young man" who had deceived him. + +However, that "bright young man" remained permanently without a name. +I also asked Mr. Gorman, if he did not wish to give us the name of +his informant, to give us the date of the examination in which he was +supposed to have taken part; and I offered, if he would send down a +representative to look through our files, to give him all the aid we +could in his effort to discover any such questions. But Mr. Gorman, not +hitherto known as a sensitive soul, expressed himself as so shocked +at the thought that the veracity of the "bright young man" should be +doubted that he could not bring himself to answer my letter. So I made +a public statement to the effect that no such questions had ever been +asked. Mr. Gorman brooded over this; and during the next session of +Congress he rose and complained that he had received a very "impudent" +letter from me (my letter was a respectful note calling attention to +the fact that, if he wished, he could by personal examination satisfy +himself that his statements had no foundation in fact). He further +stated that he had been "cruelly" called to account by me because he +had been endeavoring to right a "great wrong" that the Civil Service +Commission had committed; but he never, then or afterwards, furnished +any clue to the identity of that child of his fondest fancy, the bright +young man without a name.[*] + + [*] This is a condensation of a speech I at the time made to + the St. Louis Civil Service Reform Association. Senator + Gorman was then the Senate leader of the party that had just + been victorious in the Congressional elections. + +The incident is of note chiefly as shedding light on the mental make-up +of the man who at the time was one of the two or three most influential +leaders of the Democratic party. Mr. Gorman had been Mr. Cleveland's +party manager in the Presidential campaign, and was the Democratic +leader in Congress. It seemed extraordinary that he should be so +reckless as to make statements with no foundation in fact, which he +might have known that I would not permit to pass unchallenged. Then, +as now, the ordinary newspaper, in New York and elsewhere, was quite as +reckless in its misstatements of fact about public men and measures; but +for a man in Mr. Gorman's position of responsible leadership such action +seemed hardly worth while. However, it is at least to be said for +Mr. Gorman that he was not trying by falsehood to take away any man's +character. It would be well for writers and speakers to bear in mind +the remark of Pudd'nhead Wilson to the effect that while there are nine +hundred and ninety-nine kinds of falsehood, the only kind specifically +condemned in Scripture, just as murder, theft, and adultery are +condemned, is bearing false witness against one's neighbor. + +One of the worst features of the old spoils system was the ruthless +cruelty and brutality it so often bred in the treatment of faithful +public servants without political influence. Life is hard enough and +cruel enough at best, and this is as true of public service as of +private service. Under no system will it be possible to do away with all +favoritism and brutality and meanness and malice. But at least we can +try to minimize the exhibition of these qualities. I once came across +a case in Washington which very keenly excited my sympathy. Under an +Administration prior to the one with which I was connected a lady had +been ousted from a Government position. She came to me to see if she +could be reinstated. (This was not possible, but by active work I did +get her put back in a somewhat lower position, and this only by an +appeal to the sympathy of a certain official.) She was so pallid and so +careworn that she excited my sympathy and I made inquiries about +her. She was a poor woman with two children, a widow. She and her two +children were in actual want. She could barely keep the two children +decently clad, and she could not give them the food growing children +need. Three years before she had been employed in a bureau in a +department of Washington, doing her work faithfully, at a salary of +about $800. It was enough to keep her and her two children in clothing, +food, and shelter. One day the chief of the bureau called her up and +told her he was very sorry that he had to dismiss her. In great +distress she asked him why; she thought that she had been doing her work +satisfactorily. He answered her that she had been doing well, and that +he wished very much that he could keep her, that he would do so if he +possibly could, but that he could not; for a certain Senator, giving his +name, a very influential member of the Senate, had demanded her place +for a friend of his who had influence. The woman told the bureau chief +that it meant turning her out to starve. She had been thirteen or +fourteen years in the public service; she had lost all touch with her +friends in her native State; dismissal meant absolute want for her and +her children. On this the chief, who was a kind man, said he would not +have her turned out, and sent her back to her work. + +But three weeks afterwards he called her up again and told her he could +not say how sorry he was, but the thing had to be done. The Senator had +been around in person to know why the change had not been made, and had +told the chief that he would be himself removed if the place were not +given him. The Senator was an extremely influential man. His wants had +to be attended to, and the woman had to go. And go she did, and turned +out she was, to suffer with her children and to starve outright, or to +live in semi-starvation, just as might befall. I do not blame the bureau +chief, who hated to do what he did, although he lacked the courage to +refuse; I do not even very much blame the Senator, who did not know +the hardship that he was causing, and who had been calloused by long +training in the spoils system; but this system, a system which permits +and encourages such deeds, is a system of brutal iniquity. + +Any man accustomed to dealing with practical politics can with +difficulty keep a straight face when he reads or listens to some of the +arguments advanced against Civil Service Reform. One of these arguments, +a favorite with machine politicians, takes the form of an appeal to +"party loyalty" in filling minor offices. Why, again and again these +very same machine politicians take just as good care of henchmen of +the opposite party as of those of their own party. In the underworld of +politics the closest ties are sometimes those which knit together the +active professional workers of opposite political parties. A friend +of mine in the New York Legislature--the hero of the alpha and omega +incident--once remarked to me: "When you have been in public life a +little longer, Mr. Roosevelt, you will understand that there are no +politics in politics." In the politics to which he was referring this +remark could be taken literally. + +Another illustration of this truth was incidentally given me, at about +the same time, by an acquaintance, a Tammany man named Costigan, a good +fellow according to his lights. I had been speaking to him of a fight in +one of the New York downtown districts, a Democratic district in which +the Republican party was in a hopeless minority, and, moreover, +was split into the Half-Breed and Stalwart factions. It had been an +interesting fight in more than one way. For instance, the Republican +party, at the general election, polled something like five hundred +and fifty votes, and yet at the primary the two factions polled +seven hundred and twenty-five all told. The sum of the parts was thus +considerably greater than the whole. There had been other little details +that made the contest worthy of note. The hall in which the primary was +held had been hired by the Stalwarts from a conscientious gentleman. To +him the Half-Breeds applied to know whether they could not hire the hall +away from their opponents, and offered him a substantial money advance. +The conscientious gentleman replied that his word was as good as his +bond, that he had hired the hall to the Stalwarts, and that it must +be theirs. But he added that he was willing to hire the doorway to +the Half-Breeds if they paid him the additional sum of money they had +mentioned. The bargain was struck, and the meeting of the hostile hosts +was spirited, when the men who had rented the doorway sought to bar the +path of the men who had rented the hall. I was asking my friend Costigan +about the details of the struggle, as he seemed thoroughly acquainted +with them, and he smiled good-naturedly over my surprise at there having +been more votes cast than there were members of the party in the whole +district. Said I, "Mr. Costigan, you seem to have a great deal of +knowledge about this; how did it happen?" To which he replied, "Come +now, Mr. Roosevelt, you know it's the same gang that votes in all the +primaries." + +So much for most of the opposition to the reform. There was, however, +some honest and at least partially justifiable opposition both to +certain of the methods advocated by Civil Service Reformers and to +certain of the Civil Service Reformers themselves. The pet shibboleths +of the opponents of the reform were that the system we proposed to +introduce would give rise to mere red-tape bureaucracy, and that the +reformers were pharisees. Neither statement was true. Each statement +contained some truth. + +If men are not to be appointed by favoritism, wise or unwise, honest or +dishonest, they must be appointed in some automatic way, which generally +means by competitive examination. The easiest kind of competitive +examination is an examination in writing. This is entirely appropriate +for certain classes of work, for lawyers, stenographers, typewriters, +clerks, mathematicians, and assistants in an astronomical observatory, +for instance. It is utterly inappropriate for carpenters, detectives, +and mounted cattle inspectors along the Rio Grande--to instance +three types of employment as to which I had to do battle to prevent +well-meaning bureaucrats from insisting on written competitive entrance +examinations. It would be quite possible to hold a very good competitive +examination for mounted cattle inspectors by means of practical tests +in brand reading and shooting with rifle and revolver, in riding +"mean" horses and in roping and throwing steers. I did my best to have +examinations of this kind instituted, but my proposal was of precisely +the type which most shocks the routine official mind, and I was never +able to get it put into practical effect. + +The important point, and the point most often forgotten by zealous +Civil Service Reformers, was to remember that the routine competitive +examination was merely a means to an end. It did not always produce +ideal results. But it was normally better than a system of appointments +for spoils purposes; it sometimes worked out very well indeed; and in +most big governmental offices it not only gave satisfactory results, +but was the only system under which good results could be obtained. For +instance, when I was Police Commissioner we appointed some two thousand +policemen at one time. It was utterly impossible for the Commissioners +each to examine personally the six or eight thousand applicants. +Therefore they had to be appointed either on the recommendation of +outsiders or else by written competitive examination. The latter +method--the one we adopted--was infinitely preferable. We held a rigid +physical and moral pass examination, and then, among those who passed, +we held a written competitive examination, requiring only the knowledge +that any good primary common school education would meet--that is, a +test of ordinary intelligence and simple mental training. Occasionally +a man who would have been a good officer failed, and occasionally a man +who turned out to be a bad officer passed; but, as a rule, the men with +intelligence sufficient to enable them to answer the questions were of a +type very distinctly above that of those who failed. + +The answers returned to some of the questions gave an illuminating idea +of the intelligence of those answering them. For instance, one of our +questions in a given examination was a request to name five of the New +England States. One competitor, obviously of foreign birth, answered: +"England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Cork." His neighbor, who +had probably looked over his shoulder but who had North of Ireland +prejudices, made the same answer except that he substituted Belfast +for Cork. A request for a statement as to the life of Abraham Lincoln +elicited, among other less startling pieces of information, the fact +that many of the applicants thought that he was a general in the Civil +War; several thought that he was President of the Confederate States; +three thought he had been assassinated by Jefferson Davis, one by Thomas +Jefferson, one by Garfield, several by Guiteau, and one by Ballington +Booth--the last representing a memory of the fact that he had been shot +by a man named Booth, to whose surname the writer added the name with +which he was most familiar in connection therewith. A request to name +five of the States that seceded in 1861 received answers that included +almost every State in the Union. It happened to be at the time of the +silver agitation in the West, and the Rocky Mountain States accordingly +figured in a large percentage of the answers. Some of the men thought +that Chicago was on the Pacific Ocean. Others, in answer to a query as +to who was the head of the United States Government, wavered between +myself and Recorder Goff; one brilliant genius, for inscrutable reasons, +placed the leadership in the New York Fire Department. Now of course +some of the men who answered these questions wrong were nevertheless +quite capable of making good policemen; but it is fair to assume that +on the average the candidate who has a rudimentary knowledge of the +government, geography, and history of his country is a little better +fitted, in point of intelligence, to be a policeman than the one who has +not. + +Therefore I felt convinced, after full experience, that as regards very +large classes of public servants by far the best way to choose the men +for appointment was by means of written competitive examination. But +I absolutely split off from the bulk of my professional Civil Service +Reform friends when they advocated written competitive examinations for +promotion. In the Police Department I found these examinations a serious +handicap in the way of getting the best men promoted, and never in any +office did I find that the written competitive promotion examination did +any good. The reason for a written competitive entrance examination is +that it is impossible for the head of the office, or the candidate's +prospective immediate superior, himself to know the average candidate +or to test his ability. But when once in office the best way to test any +man's ability is by long experience in seeing him actually at work. +His promotion should depend upon the judgment formed of him by his +superiors. + +So much for the objections to the examinations. Now for the objections +to the men who advocated the reform. As a rule these men were +high-minded and disinterested. Certain of them, men like the leaders +in the Maryland and Indiana Reform Associations, for instances, +Messrs. Bonaparte and Rose, Foulke and Swift, added common sense, broad +sympathy, and practical efficiency to their high-mindedness. But in New +York, Philadelphia, and Boston there really was a certain mental and +moral thinness among very many of the leaders in the Civil Service +Reform movement. It was this quality which made them so profoundly +antipathetic to vigorous and intensely human people of the stamp of +my friend Joe Murray--who, as I have said, always felt that my Civil +Service Reform affiliations formed the one blot on an otherwise +excellent public record. The Civil Service Reform movement was one from +above downwards, and the men who took the lead in it were not men who as +a rule possessed a very profound sympathy with or understanding of the +ways of thought and life of their average fellow-citizen. They were not +men who themselves desired to be letter-carriers or clerks or policemen, +or to have their friends appointed to these positions. Having no +temptation themselves in this direction, they were eagerly anxious to +prevent other people getting such appointments as a reward for political +services. In this they were quite right. It would be impossible to run +any big public office to advantage save along the lines of the strictest +application of Civil Service Reform principles; and the system should be +extended throughout our governmental service far more widely than is now +the case. + +But there are other and more vital reforms than this. Too many Civil +Service Reformers, when the trial came, proved tepidly indifferent +or actively hostile to reforms that were of profound and far-reaching +social and industrial consequence. Many of them were at best lukewarm +about movements for the improvement of the conditions of toil and +life among men and women who labor under hard surroundings, and were +positively hostile to movements which curbed the power of the great +corporation magnates and directed into useful instead of pernicious +channels the activities of the great corporation lawyers who advised +them. + +Most of the newspapers which regarded themselves as the especial +champions of Civil Service Reform and as the highest exponents of civic +virtue, and which distrusted the average citizen and shuddered over the +"coarseness" of the professional politicians, were, nevertheless, given +to vices even more contemptible than, although not so gross as, those +they denounced and derided. Their editors were refined men of cultivated +tastes, whose pet temptations were backbiting, mean slander, and +the snobbish worship of anything clothed in wealth and the outward +appearances of conventional respectability. They were not robust or +powerful men; they felt ill at ease in the company of rough, strong +men; often they had in them a vein of physical timidity. They avenged +themselves to themselves for an uneasy subconsciousness of their +own shortcomings by sitting in cloistered--or, rather, pleasantly +upholstered--seclusion, and sneering at and lying about men who made +them feel uncomfortable. Sometimes these were bad men, who made them +feel uncomfortable by the exhibition of coarse and repellent vice; and +sometimes they were men of high character, who held ideals of courage +and of service to others, and who looked down and warred against the +shortcomings of swollen wealth, and the effortless, easy lives of those +whose horizon is bounded by a sheltered and timid respectability. +These newspapers, owned and edited by these men, although free from the +repulsive vulgarity of the yellow press, were susceptible to influence +by the privileged interests, and were almost or quite as hostile to +manliness as they were to unrefined vice--and were much more hostile +to it than to the typical shortcomings of wealth and refinement. They +favored Civil Service Reform; they favored copyright laws, and the +removal of the tariff on works of art; they favored all the proper (and +even more strongly all the improper) movements for international peace +and arbitration; in short, they favored all good, and many goody-goody, +measures so long as they did not cut deep into social wrong or make +demands on National and individual virility. They opposed, or were +lukewarm about, efforts to build up the army and the navy, for they were +not sensitive concerning National honor; and, above all, they opposed +every non-milk-and-water effort, however sane, to change our social and +economic system in such a fashion as to substitute the ideal of justice +towards all for the ideal of kindly charity from the favored few to the +possibly grateful many. + +Some of the men foremost in the struggle for Civil Service Reform have +taken a position of honorable leadership in the battle for those other +and more vital reforms. But many of them promptly abandoned the field of +effort for decency when the battle took the form, not of a fight against +the petty grafting of small bosses and small politicians--a vitally +necessary battle, be it remembered--but of a fight against the great +intrenched powers of privilege, a fight to secure justice through the +law for ordinary men and women, instead of leaving them to suffer cruel +injustice either because the law failed to protect them or because it +was twisted from its legitimate purposes into a means for oppressing +them. + +One of the reasons why the boss so often keeps his hold, especially in +municipal matters, is, or at least has been in the past, because so +many of the men who claim to be reformers have been blind to the need +of working in human fashion for social and industrial betterment. Such +words as "boss" and "machine" now imply evil, but both the implication +the words carry and the definition of the words themselves are somewhat +vague. A leader is necessary; but his opponents always call him a boss. +An organization is necessary; but the men in opposition always call it a +machine. Nevertheless, there is a real and deep distinction between the +leader and the boss, between organizations and machines. A political +leader who fights openly for principles, and who keeps his position of +leadership by stirring the consciences and convincing the intellects of +his followers, so that they have confidence in him and will follow him +because they can achieve greater results under him than under any one +else, is doing work which is indispensable in a democracy. The boss, on +the other hand, is a man who does not gain his power by open means, but +by secret means, and usually by corrupt means. Some of the worst and +most powerful bosses in our political history either held no public +office or else some unimportant public office. They made no appeal +either to intellect or conscience. Their work was done behind closed +doors, and consisted chiefly in the use of that greed which gives in +order that in return it may get. A boss of this kind can pull wires in +conventions, can manipulate members of the Legislature, can control +the giving or withholding of office, and serves as the intermediary for +bringing together the powers of corrupt politics and corrupt business. +If he is at one end of the social scale, he may through his agents +traffic in the most brutal forms of vice and give protection to the +purveyors of shame and sin in return for money bribes. If at the other +end of the scale, he may be the means of securing favors from high +public officials, legislative or executive, to great industrial +interests; the transaction being sometimes a naked matter of bargain and +sale, and sometimes being carried on in such manner that both parties +thereto can more or less successfully disguise it to their consciences +as in the public interest. The machine is simply another name for the +kind of organization which is certain to grow up in a party or section +of a party controlled by such bosses as these and by their henchmen, +whereas, of course, an effective organization of decent men is essential +in order to secure decent politics. + +If these bosses were responsible for nothing but pure wickedness, they +would probably last but a short time in any community. And, in any +event, if the men who are horrified by their wickedness were themselves +as practical and as thoroughly in touch with human nature, the bosses +would have a short shrift. The trouble is that the boss does understand +human nature, and that he fills a place which the reformer cannot fill +unless he likewise understands human nature. Sometimes the boss is a man +who cares for political power purely for its own sake, as he might care +for any other hobby; more often he has in view some definitely selfish +object such as political or financial advancement. He can rarely +accomplish much unless he has another side to him. A successful boss is +very apt to be a man who, in addition to committing wickedness in his +own interest, also does look after the interests of others, even if not +from good motives. There are some communities so fortunate that there +are very few men who have private interests to be served, and in +these the power of the boss is at a minimum. There are many country +communities of this type. But in communities where there is poverty and +ignorance, the conditions are ripe for the growth of a boss. Moreover, +wherever big business interests are liable either to be improperly +favored or improperly discriminated against and blackmailed by public +officials--and the result is just as vicious in one case as in the +other--the boss is almost certain to develop. The best way of getting at +this type of boss is by keeping the public conscience aroused and alert, +so that it will tolerate neither improper attack upon, nor improper +favoritism towards, these corporations, and will quickly punish any +public servant guilty of either. + +There is often much good in the type of boss, especially common in big +cities, who fulfills towards the people of his district in rough +and ready fashion the position of friend and protector. He uses his +influence to get jobs for young men who need them. He goes into court +for a wild young fellow who has gotten into trouble. He helps out with +cash or credit the widow who is in straits, or the breadwinner who is +crippled or for some other cause temporarily out of work. He organizes +clambakes and chowder parties and picnics, and is consulted by the +local labor leaders when a cut in wages is threatened. For some of +his constituents he does proper favors, and for others wholly improper +favors; but he preserves human relations with all. He may be a very bad +and very corrupt man, a man whose action in blackmailing and protecting +vice is of far-reaching damage to his constituents. But these +constituents are for the most part men and women who struggle hard +against poverty and with whom the problem of living is very real and +very close. They would prefer clean and honest government, if this +clean and honest government is accompanied by human sympathy, human +understanding. But an appeal made to them for virtue in the abstract, an +appeal made by good men who do not really understand their needs, will +often pass quite unheeded, if on the other side stands the boss, the +friend and benefactor, who may have been guilty of much wrong-doing in +things that they are hardly aware concern them, but who appeals to them, +not only for the sake of favors to come, but in the name of gratitude +and loyalty, and above all of understanding and fellow-feeling. They +have a feeling of clan-loyalty to him; his and their relations may be +substantially those which are right and proper among primitive people +still in the clan stage of moral development. The successful fight +against this type of vicious boss, and the type of vicious politics +which produces it, can be made only by men who have a genuine +fellow-feeling for and understanding of the people for and with whom +they are to work, and who in practical fashion seek their social and +industrial benefit. + +There are communities of poor men, whose lives are hard, in which the +boss, though he would be out of place in a more advanced community, if +fundamentally an honest man, meets a real need which would otherwise not +be met. Because of his limitations in other than purely local matters +it may be our duty to fight such a boss; but it may also be our duty +to recognize, within his limitations, both his sincerity and his +usefulness. + +Yet again even the boss who really is evil, like the business man who +really is evil, may on certain points be sound, and be doing good work. +It may be the highest duty of the patriotic public servant to work with +the big boss or the big business man on these points, while refusing +to work with him on others. In the same way there are many self-styled +reformers whose conduct is such as to warrant Tom Reed's bitter remark, +that when Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a +scoundrel he was ignorant of the infinite possibilities contained in the +word reform. Yet, none the less, it is our duty to work for the +reforms these men champion, without regard to the misconduct of the men +themselves on other points. I have known in my life many big business +men and many big political bosses who often or even generally did evil, +but who on some occasions and on certain issues were right. I never +hesitated to do battle against these men when they were wrong; and, on +the other hand, as long as they were going my way I was glad to have +them do so. To have repudiated their aid when they were right and were +striving for a right end, and for what was of benefit to the people--no +matter what their motives may have been--would have been childish, and +moreover would have itself been misconduct against the people. + +My duty was to stand with every one while he was right, and to stand +against him when he went wrong; and this I have tried to do as regards +individuals and as regards groups of individuals. When a business man or +labor leader, politician or reformer, is right, I support him; when +he goes wrong, I leave him. When Mr. Lorimer upheld the war for the +liberation of Cuba, I supported him; when he became United States +Senator by improper methods, I opposed him. The principles or methods +which the Socialists advocate and which I believe to be in the interest +of the people I support, and those which I believe to be against the +interest of the people I oppose. Moreover, when a man has done evil, but +changes, and works for decency and righteousness, and when, as far as +I can see, the change is real and the man's conduct sincere, then I +welcome him and work heartily with him, as an equal with an equal. +For thirty years after the Civil War the creed of mere materialism was +rampant in both American politics and American business, and many, many +strong men, in accordance with the prevailing commercial and political +morality, did things for which they deserve blame and condemnation; but +if they now sincerely change, and strive for better things, it is unwise +and unjust to bar them from fellowship. So long as they work for evil, +smite them with the sword of the Lord and of Gideon! When they change +and show their faith by their works, remember the words of Ezekiel: "If +the wicked will turn from all the sins he has committed, and keep all my +statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, +he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they +shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done +he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? +saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways and +live?" + +Every man who has been in practical politics grows to realize that +politicians, big and little, are no more all of them bad than they are +all of them good. Many of these men are very bad men indeed, but there +are others among them--and some among those held up to special obloquy, +too--who, even although they may have done much that is evil, also show +traits of sterling worth which many of their critics wholly lack. There +are few men for whom I have ever felt a more cordial and contemptuous +dislike than for some of the bosses and big professional politicians +with whom I have been brought into contact. On the other hand, in +the case of some political leaders who were most bitterly attacked as +bosses, I grew to know certain sides of their characters which inspired +in me a very genuine regard and respect. + +To read much of the assault on Senator Hanna, one would have thought +that he was a man incapable of patriotism or of far-sighted devotion to +the country's good. I was brought into intimate contact with him only +during the two and a half years immediately preceding his death. I was +then President, and perforce watched all his actions at close range. +During that time he showed himself to be a man of rugged sincerity of +purpose, of great courage and loyalty, and of unswerving devotion to the +interests of the Nation and the people as he saw those interests. He was +as sincerely desirous of helping laboring men as of helping capitalists. +His ideals were in many ways not my ideals, and there were points where +both by temperament and by conviction we were far apart. Before this +time he had always been unfriendly to me; and I do not think he ever +grew to like me, at any rate not until the very end of his life. +Moreover, I came to the Presidency under circumstances which, if he +had been a smaller man, would inevitably have thrown him into violent +antagonism to me. He was the close and intimate friend of President +McKinley. He was McKinley's devoted ally and follower, and his trusted +adviser, who was in complete sympathy with him. Partly because of this +friendship, his position in the Senate and in the country was unique. + +With McKinley's sudden death Senator Hanna found himself bereft of his +dearest friend, while I, who had just come to the Presidency, was in his +view an untried man, whose trustworthiness on many public questions +was at least doubtful. Ordinarily, as has been shown, not only in +our history, but in the history of all other countries, in countless +instances, over and over again, this situation would have meant +suspicion, ill will, and, at the last, open and violent antagonism. Such +was not the result, in this case, primarily because Senator Hanna had in +him the quality that enabled him to meet a serious crisis with dignity, +with power, and with disinterested desire to work for the common good. +Within a few days of my accession he called on me, and with entire +friendliness and obvious sincerity, but also with entire self-respect, +explained that he mourned McKinley as probably no other man did; that he +had not been especially my friend, but that he wished me to understand +that thenceforward, on every question where he could conscientiously +support me, I could count upon his giving me as loyal aid as it was +in his power to render. He added that this must not be understood as +committing him to favor me for nomination and election, because that +matter must be left to take care of itself as events should decide; but +that, aside from this, what he said was to be taken literally; in other +words, he would do his best to make my Administration a success by +supporting me heartily on every point on which he conscientiously could, +and that this I could count upon. He kept his word absolutely. He never +became especially favorable to my nomination; and most of his close +friends became bitterly opposed to me and used every effort to persuade +him to try to bring about my downfall. Most men in his position would +have been tempted to try to make capital at my expense by antagonizing +me and discrediting me so as to make my policies fail, just for the +sake of making them fail. Senator Hanna, on the contrary, did everything +possible to make them succeed. He kept his word in the letter and the +spirit, and on every point on which he felt conscientiously able to +support me he gave me the heartiest and most effective support, and did +all in his power to make my Administration a success; and this with +no hope of any reward for himself, of any gratitude from me, or of any +appreciation by the public at large, but solely because he deemed such +action necessary for the well-being of the country as a whole. + +My experience with Senator Quay was similar. I had no personal relations +with him before I was President, and knew nothing of him save by +hearsay. Soon after I became President, Senator Quay called upon me, +told me he had known me very slightly, that he thought most men who +claimed to be reformers were hypocrites, but that he deemed me sincere, +that he thought conditions had become such that aggressive courage +and honesty were necessary in order to remedy them, that he believed I +intended to be a good and efficient President, and that to the best +of his ability he would support me in it making my Administration a +success. He kept his word with absolute good faith. He had been in the +Civil War, and was a medal of honor man; and I think my having been in +the Spanish War gave him at the outset a kindly feeling toward me. +He was also a very well-read man--I owe to him, for instance, my +acquaintance with the writings of the Finnish novelist Topelius. Not +only did he support me on almost every public question in which I was +most interested--including, I am convinced, every one on which he felt +he conscientiously could do so--but he also at the time of his death +gave a striking proof of his disinterested desire to render a service to +certain poor people, and this under conditions in which not only would +he never know if the service were rendered but in which he had no reason +to expect that his part in it would ever be made known to any other man. + +Quay was descended from a French voyageur who had some Indian blood in +him. He was proud of this Indian blood, took an especial interest in +Indians, and whenever Indians came to Washington they always called on +him. Once during my Administration a delegation of Iroquois came over +from Canada to call on me at the White House. Their visit had in it +something that was pathetic as well as amusing. They represented the +descendants of the Six Nations, who fled to Canada after Sullivan +harried their towns in the Revolutionary War. Now, a century and a +quarter later, their people thought that they would like to come back +into the United States; and these representatives had called upon me +with the dim hope that perhaps I could give their tribes land on which +they could settle. As soon as they reached Washington they asked Quay to +bring them to call on me, which he did, telling me that of course their +errand was hopeless and that he had explained as much to them, but that +they would like me to extend the courtesy of an interview. At the close +of the interview, which had been conducted with all the solemnities of +calumet and wampum, the Indians filed out. Quay, before following them, +turned to me with his usual emotionless face and said, "Good-by, Mr. +President; this reminds one of the Flight of a Tartar Tribe, doesn't +it?" I answered, "So you're fond of De Quincey, Senator?" to which Quay +responded, "Yes; always liked De Quincey; good-by." And away he went +with the tribesmen, who seemed to have walked out of a remote past. + +Quay had become particularly concerned about the Delawares in the Indian +Territory. He felt that the Interior Department did not do them justice. +He also felt that his colleagues of the Senate took no interest in them. +When in the spring of 1904 he lay in his house mortally sick, he sent +me word that he had something important to say to me, and would have +himself carried round to see me. I sent back word not to think of doing +so, and that on my way back from church next Sunday I would stop in +and call on him. This I accordingly did. He was lying in his bed, death +written on his face. He thanked me for coming, and then explained +that, as he was on the point of death and knew he would never return to +Washington--it was late spring and he was about to leave--he wished to +see me to get my personal promise that, after he died, I would myself +look after the interests of the Delaware Indians. He added that he did +not trust the Interior Department--although he knew that I did not share +his views on this point--and that still less did he believe that any of +his colleagues in the Senate would exert themselves in the interests of +the Delawares, and that therefore he wished my personal assurance that I +would personally see that no injustice was done them. I told him I would +do so, and then added, in rather perfunctory fashion, that he must not +take such a gloomy view of himself, that when he got away for the summer +I hoped he would recover and be back all right when Congress opened. A +gleam came into the old fighter's eyes and he answered: "No, I am dying, +and you know it. I don't mind dying; but I do wish it were possible for +me to get off into the great north woods and crawl out on a rock in the +sun and die like a wolf!" + +I never saw him again. When he died I sent a telegram of sympathy to his +wife. A paper which constantly preached reform, and which kept up its +circulation by the no less constant practice of slander, a paper which +in theory condemned all public men who violated the eighth commandment, +and in practice subsisted by incessant violation of the ninth, assailed +me for sending my message to the dead man's wife. I knew the editors of +this paper, and the editor who was their predecessor. They had led +lives of bodily ease and the avoidance of bodily risk; they earned their +livelihood by the practice of mendacity for profit; and they delivered +malignant judgment on a dead man who, whatever his faults, had in his +youth freely risked his life for a great ideal, and who when death was +already clutching his breast had spent almost his last breath on behalf +of humble and friendless people whom he had served with disinterested +loyalty. + +There is no greater duty than to war on the corrupt and unprincipled +boss, and on the corrupt and unprincipled business man; and for the +matter of that, on the corrupt and unprincipled labor leader also, +and on the corrupt and unprincipled editor, and on any one else who is +corrupt and unprincipled. But where the conditions are such, whether in +politics or in business, that the great majority of men have behaved in +a way which is gradually seen to be improper, but which at one time did +not conflict with the generally accepted morality, then the warfare on +the system should not include warfare on the men themselves, unless +they decline to amend their ways and to dissociate themselves from the +system. There are many good, unimaginative citizens who in politics +or in business act in accordance with accepted standards, in a +matter-of-course way, without questioning these standards; until +something happens which sharply arouses them to the situation, whereupon +they try to work for better things. The proper course in such event is +to let bygones be bygones, and if the men prove by their actions the +sincerity of their conversion, heartily to work with them for the +betterment of business and political conditions. + +By the time that I was ending my career as Civil Service Commissioner +I was already growing to understand that mere improvement in political +conditions by itself was not enough. I dimly realized that an even +greater fight must be waged to improve economic conditions, and to +secure social and industrial justice, justice as between individuals +and justice as between classes. I began to see that political effort was +largely valuable as it found expression and resulted in such social and +industrial betterment. I was gradually puzzling out, or trying to puzzle +out, the answers to various questions--some as yet unsolvable to any of +us, but for the solution of which it is the bounden duty of all of us to +work. I had grown to realize very keenly that the duty of the Government +to protect women and children must be extended to include the protection +of all the crushable elements of labor. I saw that it was the affair of +all our people to see that justice obtained between the big corporation +and its employees, and between the big corporation and its smaller +rivals, as well as its customers and the general public. I saw that it +was the affair of all of us, and not only of the employer, if dividends +went up and wages went down; that it was to the interest of all of us +that a full share of the benefit of improved machinery should go to the +workman who used the machinery; and also that it was to the interest of +all of us that each man, whether brain worker or hand worker, should +do the best work of which he was capable, and that there should be +some correspondence between the value of the work and the value of the +reward. It is these and many similar questions which in their sum +make up the great social and industrial problems of to-day, the most +interesting and important of the problems with which our public life +must deal. + +In handling these problems I believe that much can be done by the +Government. Furthermore, I believe that, after all that the Government +can do has been done, there will remain as the most vital of all factors +the individual character of the average man and the average woman. +No governmental action can do more than supplement individual action. +Moreover, there must be collective action of kinds distinct from +governmental action. A body of public opinion must be formed, must +make itself felt, and in the end transform, and be transformed by, the +gradual raising of individual standards of conduct. + +It is curious to see how difficult it is to make some men understand +that insistence upon one factor does not and must not mean failure fully +to recognize other factors. The selfish individual needs to be taught +that we must now shackle cunning by law exactly as a few centuries back +we shackled force by law. Unrestricted individualism spells ruin to +the individual himself. But so does the elimination of individualism, +whether by law or custom. It is a capital error to fail to recognize the +vital need of good laws. It is also a capital error to believe that good +laws will accomplish anything unless the average man has the right stuff +in him. The toiler, the manual laborer, has received less than justice, +and he must be protected, both by law, by custom, and by the exercise +of his right to increase his wage; and yet to decrease the quantity and +quality of his work will work only evil. There must be a far greater +meed of respect and reward for the hand worker than we now give him, if +our society is to be put on a sound basis; and this respect and reward +cannot be given him unless he is as ambitious to do the best possible +work as is the highest type of brain worker, whether doctor or writer or +artist. There must be a raising of standards, and not a leveling down to +the standard of the poorest and most inefficient. There is urgent need +of intelligent governmental action to assist in making the life of the +man who tills the soil all that it should be, and to see that the manual +worker gets his full share of the reward for what he helps produce; but +if either farmer, mechanic, or day laborer is shiftless or lazy, if he +shirks downright hard work, if he is stupid or self-indulgent, then no +law can save him, and he must give way to a better type. + +I suppose that some good people will misunderstand what I say, and +will insist on taking only half of it as representing the whole. Let +me repeat. When I say, that, even after we have all the good laws +necessary, the chief factor in any given man's success or failure must +be that man's own character, it must not be inferred that I am in the +least minimizing the importance of these laws, the real and vital need +for them. The struggle for individual advancement and development can be +brought to naught, or indefinitely retarded, by the absence of law or by +bad law. It can be immeasurably aided by organized effort on the part +of the State. Collective action and individual action, public law and +private character, are both necessary. It is only by a slow and patient +inward transformation such as these laws aid in bringing about that men +are really helped upward in their struggle for a higher and a fuller +life. Recognition of individual character as the most important of all +factors does not mean failure fully to recognize that we must have good +laws, and that we must have our best men in office to enforce these +laws. The Nation collectively will in this way be able to be of real and +genuine service to each of us individually; and, on the other hand, +the wisdom of the collective action will mainly depend on the high +individual average of citizenship. + +The relationship of man and woman is the fundamental relationship that +stands at the base of the whole social structure. Much can be done by +law towards putting women on a footing of complete and entire equal +rights with man--including the right to vote, the right to hold and use +property, and the right to enter any profession she desires on the same +terms as a man. Yet when this has been done it will amount to little +unless on the one hand the man himself realizes his duty to the woman, +and unless on the other hand the woman realizes that she has no claim to +rights unless she performs the duties that go with those rights and that +alone justify her in appealing to them. A cruel, selfish, or licentious +man is an abhorrent member of the community; but, after all, his actions +are no worse in the long run than those of the woman who is content to +be a parasite on others, who is cold, selfish, caring for nothing but +frivolous pleasure and ignoble ease. The law of worthy effort, the +law of service for a worthy end, without regard to whether it brings +pleasure or pain, is the only right law of life, whether for man or for +woman. The man must not be selfish; nor, if the woman is wise, will she +let the man grow selfish, and this not only for her own sake but for +his. One of the prime needs is to remember that almost every duty is +composed of two seemingly conflicting elements, and that over-insistence +on one, to the exclusion of the other, may defeat its own end. Any man +who studies the statistics of the birth-rate among the native Americans +of New England, or among the native French of France, needs not to be +told that when prudence and forethought are carried to the point of cold +selfishness and self-indulgence, the race is bound to disappear. Taking +into account the women who for good reasons do not marry, or who when +married are childless or are able to have but one or two children, it is +evident that the married woman able to have children must on an average +have four or the race will not perpetuate itself. This is the mere +statement of a self-evident truth. Yet foolish and self-indulgent +people often resent this statement as if it were in some way possible +by denunciation to reverse the facts of nature; and, on the other hand, +improvident and shiftless people, inconsiderate and brutal people, treat +the statement as if it justified heads of families in having enormous +numbers of badly nourished, badly brought up, and badly cared for +children for whom they make no effort to provide. A man must think +well before he marries. He must be a tender and considerate husband and +realize that there is no other human being to whom he owes so much of +love and regard and consideration as he does to the woman who with pain +bears and with labor rears the children that are his. No words can paint +the scorn and contempt which must be felt by all right-thinking men, not +only for the brutal husband, but for the husband who fails to show full +loyalty and consideration to his wife. Moreover, he must work, he must +do his part in the world. On the other hand, the woman must realize that +she has no more right to shirk the business of wifehood and motherhood +than the man has to shirk his business as breadwinner for the household. +Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to +enter, and when their work is as valuable as that of a man it should be +paid as highly. Yet normally for the man and the woman whose welfare +is more important than the welfare of any other human beings, the woman +must remain the housemother, the homekeeper, and the man must remain the +breadwinner, the provider for the wife who bears his children and for +the children she brings into the world. No other work is as valuable or +as exacting for either man or woman; it must always, in every healthy +society, be for both man and woman the prime work, the most important +work; normally all other work is of secondary importance, and must +come as an addition to, not a substitute for, this primary work. The +partnership should be one of equal rights, one of love, of self-respect, +and unselfishness, above all a partnership for the performance of the +most vitally important of all duties. The performance of duty, and not +an indulgence in vapid ease and vapid pleasure, is all that makes life +worth while. + +Suffrage for women should be looked on from this standpoint. Personally +I feel that it is exactly as much a "right" of women as of men to vote. +But the important point with both men and women is to treat the +exercise of the suffrage as a duty, which, in the long run, must be +well performed to be of the slightest value. I always favored woman's +suffrage, but only tepidly, until my association with women like Jane +Addams and Frances Kellor, who desired it as one means of enabling them +to render better and more efficient service, changed me into a zealous +instead of a lukewarm adherent of the cause--in spite of the fact that +a few of the best women of the same type, women like Mary Antin, did not +favor the movement. A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon +the character of the user. The mere possession of the vote will no more +benefit men and women not sufficiently developed to use it than the +possession of rifles will turn untrained Egyptian fellaheen into +soldiers. This is as true of woman as of man--and no more true. +Universal suffrage in Hayti has not made the Haytians able to govern +themselves in any true sense; and woman suffrage in Utah in no shape or +way affected the problem of polygamy. I believe in suffrage for women +in America, because I think they are fit for it. I believe for women, +as for men, more in the duty of fitting one's self to do well and wisely +with the ballot than in the naked right to cast the ballot. + +I wish that people would read books like the novels and stories, at once +strong and charming, of Henry Bordeaux, books like Kathleen Norris's +"Mother," and Cornelia Comer's "Preliminaries," and would use these, +and other such books, as tracts, now and then! Perhaps the following +correspondence will give a better idea than I can otherwise give of the +problems that in everyday life come before men and women, and of the +need that the man shall show himself unselfish and considerate, and do +his full share of the joint duty: + +January 3, 1913. + +_Colonel Theodore Roosevelt_: + +Dear Sir--I suppose you are willing to stand sponsor for the assertion +that the women of the country are not doing their duty unless they have +large families. I wonder if you know the real reason, after all. Society +and clubs are held largely to blame, but society really takes in so few +people, after all. I thought, when I got married at twenty, that it was +the proper thing to have a family, and, as we had very little of this +world's goods, also thought it the thing to do all the necessary work +for them. I have had nine children, did all my own work, including +washing, ironing, house-cleaning, and the care of the little ones as +they came along, which was about every two years; also sewed everything +they wore, including trousers for the boys and caps and jackets for the +girls while little. I also helped them all in their school work, and +started them in music, etc. But as they grew older I got behind the +times. I never belonged to a club or a society or lodge, nor went to any +one's house scarcely; there wasn't time. In consequence, I knew nothing +that was going on in the town, much less the events of the country, and +at the same time my husband kept growing in wisdom and knowledge, +from mixing with men and hearing topics of the times discussed. At the +beginning of our married life I had just as quick a mind to grasp things +as he did, and had more school education, having graduated from a three +years' high school. My husband more and more declined to discuss things +with me; as he said, "I didn't know anything about it." When I'd ask +he'd say, "Oh, you wouldn't understand if I'd tell you." So here I am, +at forty-five years, hopelessly dull and uninteresting, while he can +mix with the brightest minds in the country as an equal. He's a strong +Progressive man, took very active part in the late campaign, etc. I +am also Progressive, and tried my best, after so many years of shut-in +life, to grasp the ideas you stood for, and read everything I could find +during the summer and fall. But I've been out of touch with people too +long now, and my husband would much rather go and talk to some woman who +hasn't had any children, because she knows things (I am not specifying +any particular woman). I simply bore him to death because I'm not +interesting. Now, tell me, how was it my fault? I was only doing what +I thought was my duty. No woman can keep up with things who never talks +with any one but young children. As soon as my children grew up they +took the same attitude as their father, and frequently say, "Oh, mother +doesn't know." They look up to and admire their father because he's a +man of the world and knows how to act when he goes out. How can I urge +my daughters now to go and raise large families? It means by the time +you have lost your figure and charm for them they are all ashamed of +you. Now, as a believer in woman's rights, do a little talking to the +men as to their duties to their wives, or else refrain from urging +us women to have children. I am only one of thousands of middle-class +respectable women who give their lives to raise a nice family, and then +who become bitter from the injustice done us. Don't let this go into the +waste-basket, but think it over. + +Yours respectfully, + +---- ----. + + +New York, January 11, 1913. + +_My Dear Mrs. ----_: + +Most certainly your letter will not go into the waste-paper basket. I +shall think it over and show it to Mrs. Roosevelt. Will you let me +say, in the first place, that a woman who can write such a letter is +certainly not "hopelessly dull and uninteresting"! If the facts are as +you state, then I do not wonder that you feel bitterly and that you +feel that the gravest kind of injustice has been done you. I have always +tried to insist to men that they should do their duty to the women even +more than the women to them. Now I hardly like to write specifically +about your husband, because you might not like it yourself. It seems to +me almost incredible that any man who is the husband of a woman who has +borne him nine children should not feel that they and he are lastingly +her debtors. You say that you have had nine children, that you did all +your own work, including washing, ironing, house-cleaning, and the care +of the little ones as they came along; that you sewed everything they +wore, including trousers for the boys and caps and jackets for the girls +while little; that you helped them all in their school work and started +them in music; but that as they grew older you got behind the times, +that you never belonged to a club or society or lodge, nor went to any +one's house, as you hardly had time to do so; and that in consequence +your husband outgrew you, and that your children look up to him and not +to you and feel that they have outgrown you. If these facts are so, you +have done a great and wonderful work, and the only explanation I can +possibly give of the attitude you describe on the part of your husband +and children is that they do not understand what it is that you have +done. I emphatically believe in unselfishness, but I also believe that +it is a mistake to let other people grow selfish, even when the other +people are husband and children. + +Now, I suggest that you take your letter to me, of which I send you back +a copy, and this letter, and then select out of your family the one with +whom you feel most sympathy, whether it is your husband or one of your +children. Show the two letters to him or her, and then have a frank talk +about the matter. If any man, as you say, becomes ashamed of his wife +because she has lost her figure in bearing his children, then that man +is a hound and has every cause to be ashamed of himself. I am sending +you a little book called "Mother," by Kathleen Norris, which will give +you my views on the matter. Of course there are base and selfish men, +just as there are, although I believe in smaller number, base and +selfish women. Man and woman alike should profit by the teachings in +such a story as this of "Mother." + +Sincerely yours, + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + +January 21, 1913. + +_Colonel Theodore Roosevelt_: + +My dear Sir--Your letter came as a surprise, for I wasn't expecting +an answer. The next day the book came, and I thank you for your ready +sympathy and understanding. I feel as though you and Mrs. Roosevelt +would think I was hardly loyal to my husband and children; but knowing +of no other way to bring the idea which was so strong in my mind to your +notice, I told my personal story. If it will, in a small measure, be the +means of helping some one else by molding public opinion, through you, I +shall be content. You have helped me more than you know. Just having you +interested is as good as a tonic, and braces me up till I feel as though +I shall refuse to be "laid on the shelf." . . . To think that you'd +bother to send me a book. I shall always treasure it both for the text +of the book and the sender. I read it with absorbing interest. The +mother was so splendid. She was ideal. The situations are so startlingly +real, just like what happens here every day with variations. + +---- ----. + +A narrative of facts is often more convincing than a homily; and these +two letters of my correspondent carry their own lesson. + +Parenthetically, let me remark that whenever a man thinks that he +has outgrown the woman who is his mate, he will do well carefully to +consider whether his growth has not been downward instead of upward, +whether the facts are not merely that he has fallen away from his wife's +standard of refinement and of duty. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE NEW YORK POLICE + +In the spring of 1895 I was appointed by Mayor Strong Police +Commissioner, and I served as President of the Police Commission of New +York for the two following years. Mayor Strong had been elected Mayor +the preceding fall, when the general anti-Democratic wave of that year +coincided with one of the city's occasional insurrections of virtue and +consequent turning out of Tammany from municipal control. He had been +elected on a non-partisan ticket--usually (although not always) the +right kind of ticket in municipal affairs, provided it represents not +a bargain among factions but genuine non-partisanship with the genuine +purpose to get the right men in control of the city government on a +platform which deals with the needs of the average men and women, the +men and women who work hard and who too often live hard. I was appointed +with the distinct understanding that I was to administer the Police +Department with entire disregard of partisan politics, and only from the +standpoint of a good citizen interested in promoting the welfare of all +good citizens. My task, therefore, was really simple. Mayor Strong had +already offered me the Street-Cleaning Department. For this work I did +not feel that I had any especial fitness. I resolutely refused to accept +the position, and the Mayor ultimately got a far better man for his +purpose in Colonel George F. Waring. The work of the Police Department, +however, was in my line, and I was glad to undertake it. + +The man who was closest to me throughout my two years in the Police +Department was Jacob Riis. By this time, as I have said, I was +getting our social, industrial, and political needs into pretty fair +perspective. I was still ignorant of the extent to which big men of +great wealth played a mischievous part in our industrial and social +life, but I was well awake to the need of making ours in good faith +both an economic and an industrial as well as a political democracy. I +already knew Jake Riis, because his book "How the Other Half Lives" had +been to me both an enlightenment and an inspiration for which I felt I +could never be too grateful. Soon after it was written I had called at +his office to tell him how deeply impressed I was by the book, and that +I wished to help him in any practical way to try to make things a little +better. I have always had a horror of words that are not translated +into deeds, of speech that does not result in action--in other words, +I believe in realizable ideals and in realizing them, in preaching what +can be practiced and then in practicing it. Jacob Riis had drawn an +indictment of the things that were wrong, pitifully and dreadfully +wrong, with the tenement homes and the tenement lives of our +wage-workers. In his book he had pointed out how the city government, +and especially those connected with the departments of police and +health, could aid in remedying some of the wrongs. + +As President of the Police Board I was also a member of the Health +Board. In both positions I felt that with Jacob Riis's guidance I would +be able to put a goodly number of his principles into actual effect. +He and I looked at life and its problems from substantially the same +standpoint. Our ideals and principles and purposes, and our beliefs as +to the methods necessary to realize them, were alike. After the election +in 1894 I had written him a letter which ran in part as follows: + +It is very important to the city to have a business man's Mayor, but it +is more important to have a workingman's Mayor; and I want Mr. Strong to +be that also. . . . It is an excellent thing to have rapid transit, but +it is a good deal more important, if you look at matters with a proper +perspective, to have ample playgrounds in the poorer quarters of the +city, and to take the children off the streets so as to prevent them +growing up toughs. In the same way it is an admirable thing to have +clean streets; indeed, it is an essential thing to have them; but it +would be a better thing to have our schools large enough to give ample +accommodation to all who should be pupils and to provide them with +proper playgrounds. + +And I added, while expressing my regret that I had not been able to +accept the street-cleaning commissionership, that "I would have +been delighted to smash up the corrupt contractors and put the +street-cleaning force absolutely out of the domain of politics." + +This was nineteen years ago, but it makes a pretty good platform in +municipal politics even to-day--smash corruption, take the municipal +service out of the domain of politics, insist upon having a Mayor who +shall be a workingman's Mayor even more than a business man's Mayor, and +devote all attention possible to the welfare of the children. + +Therefore, as I viewed it, there were two sides to the work: first, the +actual handling of the Police Department; second, using my 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. The two +problems were closely connected; for one thing never to be forgotten in +striving to better the conditions of the New York police force is the +connection between the standard of morals and behavior in that force and +the general standard of morals and behavior in the city at large. The +form of government of the Police Department at that time was such as +to make it a matter of extreme difficulty to get good results. It +represented that device of old-school American political thought, the +desire to establish checks and balances so elaborate that no man shall +have power enough to do anything very bad. In practice this always means +that no man has power enough to do anything good, and that what is bad +is done anyhow. + +In most positions the "division of powers" theory works unmitigated +mischief. The only way to get good service is to give somebody power to +render it, facing the fact that power which will enable a man to do +a job well will also necessarily enable him to do it ill if he is the +wrong kind of man. What is normally needed is the concentration in the +hands of one man, or of a very small body of men, of ample power to +enable him or them to do the work that is necessary; and then the +devising of means to hold these men fully responsible for the exercise +of that power by the people. This of course means that, if the people +are willing to see power misused, it will be misused. But it also means +that if, as we hold, the people are fit for self-government--if, in +other words, our talk and our institutions are not shams--we will get +good government. I do not contend that my theory will automatically +bring good government. I do contend that it will enable us to get as +good government as we deserve, and that the other way will not. + +The then government of the Police Department was so devised as to render +it most difficult to accomplish anything good, while the field for +intrigue and conspiracy was limitless. There were four Commissioners, +two supposed to belong to one party and two to the other, although, as +a matter of fact, they never divided on party lines. There was a Chief, +appointed by the Commissioners, but whom they could not remove without a +regular trial subject to review by the courts of law. This Chief and +any one Commissioner had power to hold up most of the acts of the other +three Commissioners. It was made easy for the four Commissioners to come +to a deadlock among themselves; and if this danger was avoided, it was +easy for one Commissioner, by intriguing with the Chief, to bring the +other three to a standstill. The Commissioners were appointed by the +Mayor, but he could not remove them without the assent of the Governor, +who was usually politically opposed to him. In the same way the +Commissioners could appoint the patrolmen, but they could not remove +them, save after a trial which went up for review to the courts. + +As was inevitable under our system of law procedure, this meant that the +action of the court was apt to be determined by legal technicalities. +It was possible to dismiss a man from the service for quite insufficient +reasons, and to provide against the reversal of the sentence, if the +technicalities of procedure were observed. But the worst criminals +were apt to be adroit men, against whom it was impossible to get legal +evidence which a court could properly consider in a criminal trial +(and the mood of the court might be to treat the case as if it were a +criminal trial), although it was easy to get evidence which would render +it not merely justifiable but necessary for a man to remove them from +his private employ--and surely the public should be as well treated as +a private employer. Accordingly, most of the worst men put out were +reinstated by the courts; and when the Mayor attempted to remove one of +my colleagues who made it his business to try to nullify the work done +by the rest of us, the Governor sided with the recalcitrant Commissioner +and refused to permit his removal. + +Nevertheless, an astounding quantity of work was done in reforming the +force. We had a good deal of power, anyhow; we exercised it to the full; +and we accomplished some things by assuming the appearance of a power +which we did not really possess. + +The first fight I made was to keep politics absolutely out of the force; +and not only politics, but every kind of improper favoritism. Doubtless +in making thousands of appointments and hundreds of promotions there +were men who contrived to use influence of which I was ignorant. But +these cases must have been few and far between. 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. As Civil Service Commissioner I had been instructing heads +of departments and bureaus how to get men appointed without regard to +politics, and assuring them that by following our methods they +would obtain first-class results. As Police Commissioner I was able +practically to apply my own teachings. + +The appointments to the police force were made as I have described +in the last chapter. We paid not the slightest attention to a man's +politics or creed, or where he was born, so long as he was an American +citizen; and on an average we obtained far and away the best men +that had ever come into the Police Department. It was of course very +difficult at first to convince both the politicians and the people that +we really meant what we said, and that every one really would have a +fair trial. There had been in previous years the most widespread +and gross corruption in connection with every activity in the Police +Department, and there had been a regular tariff for appointments +and promotions. Many powerful politicians and many corrupt outsiders +believed that in some way or other it would still be possible to secure +appointments by corrupt and improper methods, and many good citizens +felt the same conviction. I endeavored to remove the impression from the +minds of both sets of people by giving the widest publicity to what we +were doing and how we were doing it, by making the whole process open +and aboveboard, and by making it evident that we would probe to the +bottom every charge of corruption. + +For instance, I received visits at one time from a Catholic priest, and +at another time from a Methodist clergyman, who had parishioners who +wished to enter the police force, but who did not believe they could +get in save by the payment of money or through political pressure. The +priest was running a temperance lyceum in connection with his church, +and he wished to know if there would be a chance for some of the young +men who belonged to that lyceum. The Methodist clergyman came from a +little patch of old native America which by a recent extension had been +taken within the limits of the huge, polyglot, pleasure-loving city. His +was a small church, most of the members being shipwrights, mechanics, +and sailormen from the local coasters. In each case I assured my visitor +that we wanted on the force men of the exact type which he said he could +furnish. I also told him that I was as anxious as he was to find out +if there was any improper work being done in connection with the +examinations, and that I would like him to get four or five of his men +to take the examinations without letting me know their names. Then, +whether the men failed or succeeded, he and I would take their papers +and follow them through every stage so that we could tell at once +whether they had been either improperly favored or improperly +discriminated against. This was accordingly done, and in each case my +visitor turned up a few weeks later, his face wreathed in smiles, to +say that his candidates had passed and that everything was evidently all +straight. During my two years as President of the Commission I think +I appointed a dozen or fifteen members of that little Methodist +congregation, and certainly twice that number of men from the temperance +lyceum of the Catholic church in question. They were all men of the +very type I most wished to see on the force--men of strong physique and +resolute temper, sober, self-respecting, self-reliant, with a strong +wish to improve themselves. + +Occasionally I would myself pick out a man and tell him to take the +examination. Thus one evening I went down to speak in the Bowery at +the Young Men's Institute, a branch of the Young Men's Christian +Association, at the request of Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge. While there +he told me he wished to show me a young Jew who had recently, by an +exhibition of marked pluck and bodily prowess, saved some women and +children from a burning building. The young Jew, whose name was +Otto Raphael, was brought up to see me; a powerful fellow, with a +good-humored, intelligent face. I asked him about his education, and +told him to try the examination. He did, passed, was appointed, and +made an admirable officer; and he and all his family, wherever they may +dwell, have been close friends of mine ever since. Otto Raphael was a +genuine East Sider. He and I were both "straight New York," to use the +vernacular of our native city. 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. Otto's parents had come over from Russia, and not only in +social standing but in pay a policeman's position meant everything to +him. It enabled Otto to educate his little brothers and sisters who had +been born in this country, and to bring over from Russia two or three +kinsfolk who had perforce been left behind. + +Rather curiously, it was by no means as easy to keep politics and +corruption out of the promotions as out of the entrance examinations. +This was because I could take complete charge of the entrance +examinations myself; and, moreover, they were largely automatic. In +promotions, on the other hand, the prime element was the record and +capacity of the officer, and for this we had largely to rely upon the +judgment of the man's immediate superiors. This doubtless meant that in +certain cases that judgment was given for improper reasons. + +However, there were cases where I could act on personal knowledge. One +thing that we did was to endeavor to recognize gallantry. We did not +have to work a revolution in the force as to courage in the way that +we had to work a revolution in honesty. They had always been brave +in dealing with riotous and violent criminals. But they had gradually +become very corrupt. Our great work, therefore, was the stamping out of +dishonesty, and this work we did thoroughly, so far as the ridiculous +bi-partisan law under which the Department was administered would +permit. But we were anxious that, while stamping out what was evil in +the force, we should keep and improve what was good. While warring +on dishonesty, we made every effort to increase efficiency. It has +unfortunately been shown by sad experience that at times a police +organization which is free from the taint of corruption may yet show +itself weak in some great crisis or unable to deal with the more +dangerous kinds of criminals. This we were determined to prevent. + +Our efforts were crowned with entire success. The improvement in the +efficiency of the force went hand in hand with the improvement in +its honesty. The men in uniform and the men in plain clothes--the +detectives--did better work than ever before. The aggregate of crimes +where punishment followed the commission of the crime increased, while +the aggregate of crimes where the criminal escaped punishment decreased. +Every discredited politician, every sensational newspaper, and every +timid fool who could be scared by clamor was against us. All three +classes strove by every means in their power to show that in making the +force honest we had impaired its efficiency; and by their utterances +they tended to bring about the very condition of things against which +they professed to protest. But we went steadily along the path we +had marked out. The fight was hard, and there was plenty of worry and +anxiety, but we won. I was appointed in May, 1895. In February, 1897, +three months before I resigned to become Assistant Secretary of the +Navy, the Judge who charged the Grand Jury of New York County was able +to congratulate them on the phenomenal decrease in crime, especially +of the violent sort. This decrease was steady during the two years. +The police, after the reform policy was thoroughly tried, proved more +successful than ever before in protecting life and property and in +putting down crime and criminal vice. + +The part played by the recognition and reward of actual personal prowess +among the members of the police force in producing this state of affairs +was appreciable, though there were many other factors that combined to +bring about the betterment. The immense improvement in discipline +by punishing all offenders without mercy, no matter how great their +political or personal influence; the resolute warfare against every kind +of criminal who had hitherto been able corruptly to purchase protection; +the prompt recognition of ability even where it was entirely unconnected +with personal prowess--all these were elements which had enormous weight +in producing the change. Mere courage and daring, and the rewarding of +courage and daring, cannot supply the lack of discipline, of ability, +of honesty. But they are of vital consequence, nevertheless. No police +force is worth anything if its members are not intelligent and honest; +but neither is it worth anything unless its members are brave, hardy, +and well disciplined. + +We showed recognition of daring and of personal prowess in two ways: +first, by awarding a medal or a certificate in remembrance of the deed; +and, second, by giving it weight in making any promotion, especially to +the lower grades. In the higher grades--in all promotions above that of +sergeant, for instance--resolute and daring courage cannot normally +be considered as a factor of determining weight in making promotions; +rather is it a quality the lack of which unfits a man for promotion. For +in the higher places we must assume the existence of such a quality in +any fit candidate, and must make the promotion with a view to the man's +energy, executive capacity, and power of command. In the lower grades, +however, marked gallantry should always be taken into account in +deciding among different candidates for any given place. + +During our two years' service we found it necessary over a hundred times +to single out men for special mention because of some feat of heroism. +The heroism usually took one of four forms: saving somebody from +drowning, saving somebody from a burning building, stopping a +runaway team, or arresting some violent lawbreaker under exceptional +circumstances. To illustrate our method of action, I will take two of +the first promotions made after I became Commissioner. One case was +that of an old fellow, a veteran of the Civil War, who was at the time +a roundsman. I happened to notice one day that he had saved a woman from +drowning, and had him summoned so that I might look into the matter. +The old fellow brought up his record before me, and showed not a little +nervousness and agitation; for it appeared that he had grown gray in the +service, had performed feat after feat of heroism, but had no political +backing of any account. No heed had ever been paid him. He was one of +the quiet men who attend solely to duty, and although a Grand Army +man, he had never sought to use influence of any kind. Now, at last, he +thought there was a chance for him. He had been twenty-two years on +the force, and during that time had saved some twenty-five persons from +death by drowning, varying the performance two or three times by +saving persons from burning buildings. Twice Congress had passed laws +especially to empower the then Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman, +to give him a medal for distinguished gallantry in saving life. The +Life-Saving Society had also given him its medal, and so had the Police +Department. There was not a complaint in all his record against him +for any infraction of duty, and he was sober and trustworthy. He was +entitled to his promotion; and he got it, there and then. It may be +worth mentioning that he kept on saving life after he was given his +sergeantcy. On October 21, 1896, he again rescued a man from drowning. +It was at night, nobody else was in the neighborhood, and the dock from +which he jumped was in absolute darkness, and he was ten minutes in the +water, which was very cold. He was fifty-five years old when he saved +this man. It was the twenty-ninth person whose life he had saved during +his twenty-three years' service in the Department. + +The other man was a patrolman whom we promoted to roundsman for activity +in catching a burglar under rather peculiar circumstances. I happened to +note his getting a burglar one week. Apparently he had fallen into the +habit, for he got another next week. In the latter case the burglar +escaped from the house soon after midnight, and ran away toward Park +Avenue, with the policeman in hot chase. The New York Central Railroad +runs under Park Avenue, and there is a succession of openings in the +top of the tunnel. Finding that the policeman was gaining on him, the +burglar took a desperate chance and leaped down one of these openings, +at the risk of breaking his neck. Now the burglar was running for his +liberty, and it was the part of wisdom for him to imperil life or 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; and a week after I had the officer up and promoted him, +for he was sober, trustworthy, and strictly attentive to duty. + +Now I think that any decent man of reasonable intelligence will agree +that we were quite right in promoting men in cases like these, and quite +right in excluding politics from promotions. Yet it was because of our +consistently acting in this manner, resolutely warring on dishonesty +and on that peculiar form of baseness which masquerades as "practical" +politics, and steadily refusing to pay heed to any consideration +except the good of the service and the city, and the merits of the men +themselves, that we drew down upon our heads the bitter and malignant +animosity of the bread-and-butter spoils politicians. They secured the +repeal of the Civil Service Law by the State Legislature. They attempted +and almost succeeded in the effort to legislate us out of office. They +joined with the baser portion of the sensational press in every species +of foul, indecent falsehood and slander as to what we were doing. They +attempted to seduce or frighten us by every species of intrigue and +cajolery, of promise of political reward and threat of political +punishment. They failed in their purpose. I believe in political +organizations, and I believe in practical politics. If a man is +not practical, he is of no use anywhere. But when politicians treat +practical politics as foul politics, and when they turn what ought to +be a necessary and useful political organization into a machine run by +professional spoilsmen of low morality in their own interest, then it +is time to drive the politician from public life, and either to mend or +destroy the machine, according as the necessity may determine. + +We promoted to roundsman a patrolman, with an already excellent record, +for gallantry shown in a fray which resulted in the death of his +antagonist. He was after a gang of toughs who had just waylaid, robbed, +and beaten a man. They scattered and he pursued the ringleader. Running +hard, he gained on his man, whereupon the latter suddenly turned and +fired full in his face. The officer already had his revolver drawn, +and the two shots rang out almost together. The policeman was within +a fraction of death, for the bullet from his opponent's pistol went +through his helmet and just broke the skin of his head. His own aim was +truer, and the man he was after fell dead, shot through the heart. I +may explain that I have not the slightest sympathy with any policy which +tends to put the policeman at the mercy of a tough, or which deprives +him of efficient weapons. While Police Commissioner we punished any +brutality by the police with such immediate severity that all cases of +brutality practically came to an end. No decent citizen had anything +to fear from the police during the two years of my service. But we +consistently encouraged the police to prove that the violent criminal +who endeavored to molest them or to resist arrest, or to interfere with +them in the discharge of their duty, was himself in grave jeopardy; and +we had every "gang" broken up and the members punished with whatever +severity was necessary. Of course where possible the officer merely +crippled the criminal who was violent. + +One of the things that we did while in office was to train the men in +the use of the pistol. A school of pistol practice was established, +and the marksmanship of the force was wonderfully improved. The man +in charge of the school was a roundsman, Petty, whom we promoted to +sergeant. He was one of the champion revolver shots of the country, +and could hit just about where he aimed. Twice he was forced to fire at +criminals who resisted arrest, and in each case he hit his man in the +arm or leg, simply stopping him without danger to his life. + +In May, 1896, a number of burglaries occurred far uptown, in the +neighborhood of One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Street and Union Avenue. +Two officers were sent out each night to patrol the streets in plain +clothes. About two o'clock on the morning of May 8 they caught a glimpse +of two men loitering about a large corner house, and determined to +make them explain their actions. In order to cut off their escape, one +officer went down one street and one the other. The first officer, whose +name was Ryan, found the two men at the gateway of the side entrance of +the house, and hailed to know what they were doing. Without answering, +they turned and ran toward Prospect Avenue, with Ryan in close pursuit. +After running about one hundred feet, one of them turned and fired three +shots at Ryan, but failed to hit him. The two then separated, and the +man who had done the shooting escaped. The other man, whose name proved +to be O'Connor, again took to his heels, with Ryan still after him; +they turned the corner and met the other officer, whose name was Reid, +running as hard as he could toward the shooting. When O'Connor saw +himself cut off by Reid, he fired at his new foe, the bullet cutting +Reid's overcoat on the left shoulder. Reid promptly fired in return, +his bullet going into O'Connor's neck and causing him to turn a complete +somersault. The two officers then cared for their prisoner until the +ambulance arrived, when he was taken to the hospital and pronounced +mortally wounded. His companion was afterward caught, and they turned +out to be the very burglars for whom Reid and Ryan had been on the +lookout. + +In December, 1896, one of our officers was shot. A row occurred in a +restaurant, which ended in two young toughs drawing their revolvers +and literally running amuck, shooting two or three men. A policeman, +attracted by the noise, ran up and seized one of them, whereupon the +other shot him in the mouth, wounding him badly. Nevertheless, the +officer kept his prisoner and carried him to the station-house. The +tough who had done the shooting ran out and was seized by another +officer. The tough fired at him, the bullet passing through the +officer's overcoat, but he was promptly knocked down, disarmed, and +brought to the station-house. In this case neither policeman used his +revolver, and each brought in his man, although the latter was armed and +resisted arrest, one of the officers taking in his prisoner after having +been himself severely wounded. A lamentable feature of the case was that +this same officer was a man who, though capable of great gallantry, was +also given to shirking his work, and we were finally obliged to dismiss +him from the force, after passing over two or three glaring misdeeds in +view of his record for courage. + +We promoted another man on account of finding out accidentally that he +had performed a notable feat, which he had forborne even to mention, +so that his name never came on the roll of honor. Late at night, while +patrolling a lonely part of his post, he came upon three young toughs +who had turned highwaymen and were robbing a peddler. He ran in at once +with his night-stick, whereupon the toughs showed fight, and one of +them struck at him with a bludgeon, breaking his left hand. The officer, +however, made such good use of his night-stick that he knocked down two +of his assailants, whereupon the third ran away, and he brought both of +his prisoners to the station-house. Then he went round to the hospital, +had his broken hand set in plaster, and actually reported for duty at +the next tour, without losing one hour. He was a quiet fellow, with a +record free from complaints, and we made him roundsman. + +The mounted squad have, of course, many opportunities to distinguish +themselves in stopping runaways. In May, 1895, a mounted policeman +named Heyer succeeded in stopping a runaway at Kingsbridge under rather +noteworthy circumstances. Two men were driving in a buggy, when the +horse stumbled, and in recovering himself broke the head-stall, so that +the bridle fell off. The horse was a spirited trotter, and at once ran +away at full speed. Heyer saw the occurrence, and followed at a run. +When he got alongside the runaway he seized him by the forelock, guided +him dexterously over the bridge, preventing him from running into the +numerous wagons that were on the road, and finally forced him up a hill +and into a wagon-shed. Three months later this same officer saved a man +from drowning. + +The members of the bicycle squad, which was established shortly after we +took office, soon grew to show not only extraordinary proficiency on +the wheel, but extraordinary daring. They frequently stopped runaways, +wheeling alongside of them, and grasping the horses while going at full +speed; and, what was even more remarkable, they managed not only to +overtake but to jump into the vehicle and capture, on two or three +different occasions, men who were guilty of reckless driving, and who +fought violently in resisting arrest. They were picked men, being young +and active, and any feat of daring which could be accomplished on the +wheel they were certain to accomplish. + +Three of the best riders of the bicycle squad, whose names and records +happen to occur to me, were men of the three ethnic strains most +strongly represented in the New York police force, being respectively of +native American, German, and Irish parentage. + +The German was a man of enormous power, and he was able to stop each +of the many runaways he tackled without losing his wheel. Choosing his +time, he would get alongside the horse and seize the bit in his left +hand, keeping his right on the crossbar of the wheel. By degrees he then +got the animal under control. He never failed to stop it, and he +never lost his wheel. He also never failed to overtake any "scorcher," +although many of these were professional riders who deliberately +violated the law to see if they could not get away from him; for the +wheelmen soon get to know the officers whose beats they cross. + +The Yankee, though a tall, powerful man and a very good rider, scarcely +came up to the German in either respect; he possessed exceptional +ability, however, as well as exceptional nerve and coolness, and he also +won his promotion. He stopped about as many runaways; but when the +horse was really panic-stricken he usually had to turn his wheel loose, +getting a firm grip on the horse's reins and then kicking his wheel +so that it would fall out of the way of injury from the wagon. On one +occasion he had a fight with a drunken and reckless driver who was +urging to top speed a spirited horse. He first got hold of the horse, +whereupon the driver lashed both him and the beast, and the animal, +already mad with terror, could not be stopped. The officer had of course +kicked away his wheel at the beginning, and after being dragged along +for some distance he let go the beast and made a grab at the wagon. +The driver hit him with his whip, but he managed to get in, and after +a vigorous tussle overcame his man, and disposed of him by getting him +down and sitting on him. This left his hands free for the reins. By +degrees he got the horse under control, and drove the wagon round to the +station-house, still sitting on his victim. "I jounced up and down +on him to keep him quiet when he turned ugly," he remarked to me +parenthetically. Having disposed of the wagon, he took the man round to +the court, and on the way the prisoner suddenly sprang on him and tried +to throttle him. Convinced at last that patience had ceased to be a +virtue, he quieted his assailant with a smash on the head that took all +the fight out of him until he was brought before the judge and fined. +Like the other "bicycle cops," this officer made a number of arrests of +criminals, such as thieves, highwaymen, and the like, in addition to his +natural prey--scorchers, runaways, and reckless drivers. + +The third member of the trio, a tall, sinewy man with flaming red hair, +which rather added to the terror he inspired in evil-doers, was usually +stationed in a tough part of the city, where there was a tendency to +crimes of violence, and incidentally an occasional desire to harass +wheelmen. The officer was as good off his wheel as on it, and he +speedily established perfect order on his beat, being always willing to +"take chances" in getting his man. He was no respecter of persons, +and when it became his duty to arrest a wealthy man for persistently +refusing to have his carriage lamps lighted after nightfall, he brought +him in with the same indifference that he displayed in arresting a +street-corner tough who had thrown a brick at a wheelman. + +Occasionally a policeman would perform work which ordinarily comes +within the domain of the fireman. In November, 1896, an officer who had +previously saved a man from death by drowning added to his record by +saving five persons from burning. He was at the time asleep, when he was +aroused by a fire in a house a few doors away. Running over the roofs +of the adjoining houses until he reached the burning building, he +found that on the fourth floor the flames had cut off all exit from an +apartment in which there were four women, two of them over fifty, and +one of the others with a six-months-old baby. The officer ran down to +the adjoining house, broke open the door of the apartment on the same +floor--the fourth--and crept out on the coping, less than three inches +wide, that ran from one house to the other. Being a large and very +powerful and active man, he managed to keep hold of the casing of the +window with one hand, and with the other to reach to the window of the +apartment where the women and child were. The firemen appeared, and +stretched a net underneath. The crowd that was looking on suddenly +became motionless and silent. Then, one by one, he drew the women out of +their window, and, holding them tight against the wall, passed them into +the other window. The exertion in such an attitude was great, and he +strained himself badly; but he possessed a practical mind, and as soon +as the women were saved he began a prompt investigation of the cause +of the fire, and arrested two men whose carelessness, as was afterward +proved, caused it. + +Now and then a man, though a brave man, proved to be slack or stupid or +vicious, and we could make nothing out of him; but hardihood and courage +were qualities upon which we insisted and which we rewarded. Whenever +I see the police force attacked and vilified, I always remember my +association with it. The cases I have given above are merely instances +chosen almost at random among hundreds of others. Men such as those +I have mentioned have the right stuff in them! If they go wrong, the +trouble is with the system, and therefore with us, the citizens, for +permitting the system to go unchanged. The conditions of New York life +are such as to make the police problem therein more difficult than in +any other of the world's great capitals. I am often asked if policemen +are honest. I believe that the great majority of them want to be honest +and will be honest whenever they are given the chance. The New York +police force is a body thoroughly representative of the great city +itself. As I have said above, the predominant ethnic strains in it are, +first, the men of Irish birth or parentage, and, following these, the +native Americans, usually from the country districts, and the men of +German birth or parentage. There are also Jews, Scandinavians, Italians, +Slavs, and men of other nationalities. All soon become welded into one +body. They are physically a fine lot. Moreover, their instincts are +right; they are game, they are alert and self-reliant, they prefer to +act squarely if they are allowed so to act. All that they need is to be +given the chance to prove themselves honest, brave, and self-respecting. + +The law at present is much better than in our day, so far as governing +the force is concerned. There is now a single Commissioner, and the +Mayor has complete power over him. The Mayor, through his Commissioner, +now has power to keep the police force on a good level of conduct if +with resolution and common sense he insists on absolute honesty within +the force and at the same time heartily supports it against the criminal +classes. To weaken the force in its dealings with gangs and toughs +and criminals generally is as damaging as to permit dishonesty, and, +moreover, works towards dishonesty. But while under the present law very +much improvement can be worked, there is need of change of the law which +will make the Police Commissioner a permanent, non-partisan official, +holding office so long as he proves thoroughly fit for the job, +completely independent of the politicians and privileged interests, and +with complete power over the force. This means that there must be the +right law, and the right public opinion back of the law. + +The many-sided ethnic character of the force now and then gives rise to, +or affords opportunity for, queer happenings. Occasionally it enables +one to meet emergencies in the best possible fashion. While I was Police +Commissioner an anti-Semitic preacher from Berlin, Rector Ahlwardt, came +over to New York to preach a crusade against the Jews. Many of the New +York Jews were much excited and asked me to prevent him from speaking +and not to give him police protection. This, I told them, was +impossible; and if possible would have been undesirable because it +would have made him a martyr. The proper thing to do was to make him +ridiculous. Accordingly I detailed for his protection a Jew sergeant and +a score or two of Jew policemen. He made his harangue against the Jews +under the active protection of some forty policemen, every one of them a +Jew! It was the most effective possible answer; and incidentally it was +an object-lesson to our people, whose greatest need it is to learn that +there must be no division by class hatred, whether this hatred be that +of creed against creed, nationality against nationality, section against +section, or men of one social or industrial condition against men +of another social and industrial condition. We must ever judge each +individual on his own conduct and merits, and not on his membership +in any class, whether that class be based on theological, social, or +industrial considerations. + +Among my political opponents when I was Police Commissioner was the +head of a very influential local Democratic organization. He was a +State Senator usually known as Big Tim Sullivan. Big Tim represented +the morals of another era; that is, his principles and actions were very +much those of a Norman noble in the years immediately succeeding the +Battle of Hastings. (This will seem flattery only to those who are not +acquainted with the real histories and antecedents of the Norman nobles +of the epoch in question.) His application of these eleventh-century +theories to our nineteenth-century municipal democratic conditions +brought him into sharp contact with me, and with one of my right-hand +men in the Department, Inspector John McCullough. Under the old +dispensation this would have meant that his friends and kinsfolk were +under the ban. + +Now it happened that in the Department at that time there was a +nephew or cousin of his, Jerry D. Sullivan. I found that Jerry was an +uncommonly good man, a conscientious, capable officer, and I promoted +him. I do not know whether Jerry or Jerry's cousin (Senator Sullivan) +was more astonished. The Senator called upon me to express what I am +sure was a very genuine feeling of appreciation. Poor Jerry died, I +think of consumption, a year or two after I left the Department. He was +promoted again after I left, and he then showed that he possessed the +very rare quality of gratitude, for he sent me a telegram dated January +15, 1898, running as follows: "Was made sergeant to-day. I thank you for +all in my first advancement." And in a letter written to me he said: "In +the future, as in the past, I will endeavor at all times to perform my +duty honestly and fearlessly, and never cause you to feel that you were +mistaken in me, so that you will be justly proud of my record." The +Senator, though politically opposed to me, always kept a feeling of +friendship for me after this incident. He served in Congress while I was +President. + +The police can be used to help all kinds of good purposes. When I was +Police Commissioner much difficulty had been encountered in locating +illegal and fraudulent practitioners of medicine. Dr. Maurice Lewi +called on me, with a letter from James Russell Parsons, the Secretary of +the Board of Regents at Albany, and asked me if I could not help. +After questioning him I found that the local authorities were eager to +prosecute these men, but could not locate them; and I made up my mind +I would try my hand at it. Accordingly, a sealed order was sent to the +commanding officer of each police precinct in New York, not to be opened +until just before the morning roll call, previous to the police squad +going on duty. This order required that, immediately upon reaching post, +each patrolman should go over his beat and enter upon a sheet of paper, +provided for that purpose, the full name and address of every doctor +sign there appearing. Immediately upon securing this information, the +patrolman was instructed to return the sheet to the officer in charge of +the precinct. The latter in turn was instructed to collect and place +in one large envelope and to return to Police Headquarters all the +data thus received. As a result of this procedure, within two hours the +prosecuting officials of the city of New York were in possession of the +name and address of every person in New York who announced himself as +a physician; and scores of pretended physicians were brought to book or +driven from the city. + +One of the perennially serious and difficult problems, and one of the +chief reasons for police blackmail and corruption, is to be found in the +excise situation in New York. When I was Police Commissioner, New York +was a city with twelve or fifteen thousand saloons, with a State law +which said they should be closed on Sundays, and with a local sentiment +which put a premium on violating the law by making Sunday the most +profitable day in the week to the saloon-keeper who was willing to take +chances. It was this willingness to take chances that furnished to the +corrupt politician and the corrupt police officer their opportunities. + +There was in New York City a strong sentiment in favor of honesty in +politics; there was also a strong sentiment in favor of opening the +saloons on Sundays; and, finally, there was a strong sentiment in favor +of keeping the saloons closed on Sunday. Unfortunately, many of the men +who favored honest government nevertheless preferred keeping the saloons +open to having honest government; and many others among the men who +favored honest government put it second to keeping the saloons closed. +Moreover, among the people who wished the law obeyed and the saloons +closed there were plenty who objected strongly to every step necessary +to accomplish the result, although they also insisted that the result +should be accomplished. + +Meanwhile the politicians found an incredible profit in using the law as +a club to keep the saloons in line; all except the biggest, the owners +of which, or the owners of the breweries back of which, sat in the inner +councils of Tammany, or controlled Tammany's allies in the Republican +organization. The police used the partial and spasmodic enforcement +of the law as a means of collecting blackmail. The result was that the +officers of the law, the politicians, and the saloon-keepers became +inextricably tangled in a network of crime and connivance at crime. The +most powerful saloon-keepers controlled the politicians and the police, +while the latter in turn terrorized and blackmailed all the other +saloon-keepers. It was not a case of non-enforcement of the law. The +law was very actively enforced, but it was enforced with corrupt +discrimination. + +It is difficult for men who have not been brought into contact with that +side of political life which deals with the underworld to understand the +brazen openness with which this blackmailing of lawbreakers was carried +out. A further very dark fact was that many of the men responsible for +putting the law on the statute-books in order to please one element of +their constituents, also connived at or even profited by the corrupt +and partial non-enforcement of the law in order to please another set of +their constituents, or to secure profit for themselves. The organ of the +liquor-sellers at that time was the Wine and Spirit Gazette. The editor +of this paper believed in selling liquor on Sunday, and felt that it was +an outrage to forbid it. But he also felt that corruption and blackmail +made too big a price to pay for the partial non-enforcement of the law. +He made in his paper a statement, the correctness of which was never +questioned, which offers a startling commentary on New York politics of +that period. In this statement he recited the fact that the system of +blackmail had been brought to such a state of perfection, and had become +so oppressive to the liquor dealers themselves, that they communicated +at length on the subject with Governor Hill (the State Democratic boss) +and then with Mr. Croker (the city Democratic boss). Finally the matter +was formally taken up by a committee of the Central Association of +Liquor Dealers in an interview they held with Mr. Martin, my Tammany +predecessor as President of the police force. In matter-of-course way +the editor's statement continues: "An agreement was made between the +leaders of Tammany Hall and the liquor dealers according to which the +monthly blackmail paid to the force should be discontinued in return for +political support." Not only did the big bosses, State and local, treat +this agreement, and the corruption to which it was due, as normal and +proper, but they never even took the trouble to deny what had been done +when it was made public. Tammany and the police, however, did not fully +live up to the agreement; and much discrimination of a very corrupt +kind, and of a very exasperating kind to liquor-sellers who wished to be +honest, continued in connection with the enforcing of the law. + +In short, the agreement was kept only with those who had "pull." These +men with "pull" were benefited when their rivals were bullied and +blackmailed by the police. The police, meanwhile, who had bought +appointment or promotion, and the politicians back of them, extended the +blackmailing to include about everything from the pushcart peddler and +the big or small merchant who wished to use the sidewalk illegally for +his goods, up to the keepers of the brothel, the gambling-house, and the +policy-shop. The total blackmail ran into millions of dollars. New York +was a wide-open town. The big bosses rolled in wealth, and the corrupt +policemen who ran the force lost all sense of decency and justice. +Nevertheless, I wish to insist on the fact that the honest men on the +patrol posts, "the men with the night-sticks," remained desirous to see +honesty obtain, although they were losing courage and hope. + +This was the situation that confronted me when I came to Mulberry +Street. The saloon was the chief source of mischief. It was with the +saloon that I had to deal, and there was only one way to deal with +it. That was to enforce the law. The howl that rose was deafening. The +professional politicians raved. The yellow press surpassed themselves +in clamor and mendacity. A favorite assertion was that I was enforcing +a "blue" law, an obsolete law that had never before been enforced. As +a matter of fact, I was only enforcing honestly a law that had hitherto +been enforced dishonestly. There was very little increase in the number +of arrests made for violating the Sunday law. Indeed, there were weeks +when the number of arrests went down. The only difference was that +there was no protected class. Everybody was arrested alike, and I took +especial pains to see that there was no discrimination, and that the +big men and the men with political influence were treated like every one +else. The immediate effect was wholly good. I had been told that it +was not possible to close the saloons on Sunday and that I could +not succeed. However, I did succeed. The warden of Bellevue Hospital +reported, two or three weeks after we had begun, that for the first time +in its existence there had not been a case due to a drunken brawl in the +hospital all Monday. The police courts gave the same testimony, while +savings banks recorded increased deposits and pawnshops hard times. +The most touching of all things was the fact that we received letters, +literally by the hundred, from mothers in tenement-houses who had never +been allowed to take their children to the country in the wide-open +days, and who now found their husbands willing to take them and their +families for an outing on Sunday. Jake Riis and I spent one Sunday from +morning till night in the tenement districts, seeing for ourselves what +had happened. + +During the two years that we were in office things never slipped back +to anything like what they had been before. But we did not succeed +in keeping them quite as highly keyed as during these first weeks. As +regards the Sunday-closing law, this was partly because public sentiment +was not really with us. The people who had demanded honesty, but who +did not like to pay for it by the loss of illegal pleasure, joined the +openly dishonest in attacking us. Moreover, all kinds of ways of evading +the law were tried, and some of them were successful. The statute, for +instance, permitted any man to take liquor with meals. After two +or three months a magistrate was found who decided judicially that +seventeen beers and one pretzel made a meal--after which decision joy +again became unconfined in at least some of the saloons, and the yellow +press gleefully announced that my "tyranny" had been curbed. But my +prime object, that of stopping blackmail, was largely attained. + +All kinds of incidents occurred in connection with this crusade. One of +them introduced me to a friend who remains a friend yet. His name was +Edward J. Bourke. He was one of the men who entered the police force +through our examinations shortly after I took office. I had summoned +twenty or thirty of the successful applicants to let me look over them; +and as I walked into the hall, one of them, a well-set-up man, called +out sharply to the others, "Gangway," making them move to one side. +I found he had served in the United States navy. The incident was +sufficient to make me keep him in mind. A month later I was notified by +a police reporter, a very good fellow, that Bourke was in difficulties, +and that he thought I had better look into the matter myself, as Bourke +was being accused by certain very influential men of grave misconduct in +an arrest he had made the night before. Accordingly, I took the matter +up personally. I found that on the new patrolman's beat the preceding +night--a new beat--there was a big saloon run by a man of great +influence in political circles known as "King" Calahan. After midnight +the saloon was still running in full blast, and Bourke, stepping inside, +told Calahan to close up. It was at the time filled with "friends of +personal liberty," as Governor Hill used at that time, in moments of +pathos, to term everybody who regarded as tyranny any restriction on the +sale of liquor. Calahan's saloon had never before in its history been +closed, and to have a green cop tell him to close it seemed to him so +incredible that he regarded it merely as a bad jest. On his next round +Bourke stepped in and repeated the order. Calahan felt that the jest +had gone too far, and by way of protest knocked Bourke down. This was +an error of judgment on his part, for when Bourke arose he knocked down +Calahan. The two then grappled and fell on the floor, while the "friends +of personal liberty" danced around the fight and endeavored to stamp on +everything they thought wasn't Calahan. However, Bourke, though pretty +roughly handled, got his man and shut the saloon. When he appeared +against the lawbreaker in court next day, he found the court-room +crowded with influential Tammany Hall politicians, backed by one or +two Republican leaders of the same type; for Calahan was a baron of +the underworld, and both his feudal superiors and his feudal inferiors +gathered to the rescue. His backers in court included a Congressman and +a State Senator, and so deep-rooted was the police belief in "pull" +that his own superiors had turned against Bourke and were preparing to +sacrifice him. Just at this time I acted on the information given me by +my newspaper friend by starting in person for the court. The knowledge +that I knew what was going on, that I meant what I said, and that I +intended to make the affair personal, was all that was necessary. Before +I reached the court all effort to defend Calahan had promptly ceased, +and Bourke had come forth triumphant. I immediately promoted him to +roundsman. He is a captain now. He has been on the force ever since, +save that when the Spanish War came he obtained a holiday without pay +for six months and reentered the navy, serving as gun captain in one of +the gunboats, and doing his work, as was to be expected, in first-rate +fashion, especially when under fire. + +Let me again say that when men tell me that the police are irredeemably +bad I remember scores and hundreds of cases like this of Bourke, like +the case I have already mentioned of Raphael, like the other cases I +have given above. + +It is useless to tell me that these men are bad. They are naturally +first-rate men. 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. I never coddled these men. I punished +them severely whenever I thought their conduct required it. All I did +was to try to be just; to reward them when they did well; in short, to +act squarely by them. I believe that, as a whole, they liked me. When, +in 1912, I ran for President on the Progressive ticket, I received a +number of unsigned letters inclosing sums of money for the campaign. One +of these inclosed twenty dollars. The writer, who did not give his +name, said that he was a policeman, that I had once had him before me on +charges, and had fined him twenty dollars; that, as a matter of fact, +he had not committed the offense for which I fined him, but that the +evidence was such that he did not wonder that I had been misled, and +never blamed me for it, because I had acted squarely and had given +honest and decent men a chance in the Police Department; and that now he +inclosed a twenty-dollar bill, the amount of the fine inflicted on him +so many years before. I have always wished I knew who the man was. + +The disciplinary courts were very interesting. But it was +extraordinarily difficult to get at the facts in the more complicated +cases--as must always be true under similar circumstances; for +ordinarily it is necessary to back up the superior officer who makes +the charge, and yet it is always possible that this superior officer is +consciously or unconsciously biased against his subordinate. + +In the courts the charges were sometimes brought by police officers and +sometimes by private citizens. In the latter case we would get queer +insights into twilight phases of New York life. It was necessary to be +always on our guard. Often an accusation would be brought against the +policeman because he had been guilty of misconduct. Much more often the +accusation merely meant that the officer had incurred animosity by doing +his duty. I remember one amusing case where the officer was wholly to +blame but had acted in entire good faith. + +One of the favorite and most demoralizing forms of gambling in New York +was policy-playing. The policy slips consisted of papers with three rows +of figures written on them. The officer in question was a huge pithecoid +lout of a creature, with a wooden face and a receding forehead, and his +accuser whom he had arrested the preceding evening was a little grig +of a red-headed man, obviously respectable, and almost incoherent with +rage. The anger of the little red-headed man was but natural, for he had +just come out from a night in the station-house. He had been arrested +late in the evening on suspicion that he was a policy-player, because of +the rows of figures on a piece of paper which he had held in his hand, +and because at the time of his arrest he had just stepped into the +entrance of the hall of a tenement-house in order to read by lamplight. +The paper was produced in evidence. There were the three rows of figures +all right, but, as the accused explained, hopping up and down with rage +and excitement, they were all of them the numbers of hymns. He was the +superintendent of a small Sunday-school. He had written down the hymns +for several future services, one under the other, and on the way home +was stopping to look at them, under convenient lamp-posts, and finally +by the light of the lamp in a tenement-house hallway; and it was this +conduct which struck the sagacious man in uniform as "suspicious." + +One of the saddest features of police work is dealing with the social +evil, with prostitutes and houses of ill fame. In so far as the law gave +me power, I always treated the men taken in any raid on these houses +precisely as the women were treated. My experience brought me to the +very strong conviction that there ought not to be any toleration by law +of the vice. I do not know of any method which will put a complete +stop to the evil, but I do know certain things that ought to be done to +minimize it. One of these is treating men and women on an exact equality +for the same act. Another is the establishment of night courts and of +special commissions to deal with this special class of cases. Another +is that suggested by the Rev. Charles Stelzle, of the Labor Temple--to +publish conspicuously the name of the owner of any property used for +immoral purposes, after said owner had been notified of the use and has +failed to prevent it. Another is to prosecute the keepers and backers of +brothels, men and women, as relentlessly and punish them as severely as +pickpockets and common thieves. They should never be fined; they should +be imprisoned. As for the girls, the very young ones and first +offenders should be put in the charge of probation officers or sent to +reformatories, and the large percentage of feeble-minded girls and of +incorrigible girls and women should be sent to institutions created for +them. We would thus remove from this hideous commerce the articles +of commerce. Moreover, the Federal Government must in ever-increasing +measure proceed against the degraded promoters of this commercialism, +for their activities are inter-State and the Nation can often deal with +them more effectively than the States; although, as public sentiment +becomes aroused, Nation, State, and municipality will all cooperate +towards the same end of rooting out the traffic. But the prime need is +to raise the level of individual morality; and, moreover, to encourage +early marriages, the single standard of sex-morality, and a strict sense +of reciprocal conjugal obligation. The women who preach late marriages +are by just so much making it difficult to better the standard of +chastity. + +As regards the white slave traffic, the men engaged in it, and the women +too, are far worse criminals than any ordinary murderers can be. For +them there is need of such a law as that recently adopted in England +through the efforts of Arthur Lee, M.P., a law which includes whipping +for the male offenders. There are brutes so low, so infamous, so +degraded and bestial in their cruelty and brutality, that the only way +to get at them is through their skins. Sentimentality on behalf of such +men is really almost as unhealthy and wicked as the criminality of the +men themselves. My experience is that there should be no toleration of +any "tenderloin" or "red light" district, and that, above all, there +should be the most relentless war on commercialized vice. The men who +profit and make their living by the depravity and the awful misery +of other human beings stand far below any ordinary criminals, and no +measures taken against them can be too severe. + +As for the wretched girls who follow the dreadful trade in question, a +good deal can be done by a change in economic conditions. This ought +to be done. When girls are paid wages inadequate to keep them from +starvation, or to permit them to live decently, a certain proportion are +forced by their economic misery into lives of vice. The employers and +all others responsible for these conditions stand on a moral level not +far above the white slavers themselves. But it is a mistake to suppose +that either the correction of these economic conditions or the abolition +of the white slave trade will wholly correct the evil or will even reach +the major part of it. The economic factor is very far from being the +chief factor in inducing girls to go into this dreadful life. As with so +many other problems, while there must be governmental action, there must +also be strengthening of the average individual character in order to +achieve the desired end. Even where economic conditions are bad, girls +who are both strong and pure will remain unaffected by temptations to +which girls of weak character or lax standards readily yield. Any man +who knows the wide variation in the proportions of the different races +and nationalities engaged in prostitution must come to the conclusion +that it is out of the question to treat economic conditions as the sole +conditions or even as the chief conditions that determine this question. +There are certain races--the Irish are honorably conspicuous among +them--which, no matter what the economic pressure, furnish relatively +few inmates of houses of ill fame. I do not believe that the differences +are due to permanent race characteristics; this is shown by the +fact that the best settlement houses find that practically all their +"long-term graduates," so to speak, all the girls that come for a long +period under their influence, no matter what their race or national +origin, remain pure. In every race there are some naturally vicious +individuals and some weak individuals who readily succumb under economic +pressure. A girl who is lazy and hates hard work, a girl whose mind is +rather feeble, and who is of "subnormal intelligence," as the phrase now +goes, or a girl who craves cheap finery and vapid pleasure, is always +in danger. A high ideal of personal purity is essential. Where the same +pressure under the same economic conditions has tenfold the effect +on one set of people that it has on another, it is evident that the +question of moral standards is even more important than the question +of economic standards, very important though this question is. It is +important for us to remember that the girl ought to have the chance, not +only for the necessaries of life, but for innocent pleasure; and that +even more than the man she must not be broken by overwork, by excessive +toil. Moreover, public opinion and the law should combine to hunt +down the "flagrant man swine" who himself hunts down poor or silly or +unprotected girls. But we must not, in foolish sentimentality, excuse +the girl from her duty to keep herself pure. Our duty to achieve the +same moral level for the two sexes must be performed by raising the +level for the man, not by lowering it for the woman; and the fact that +society must recognize its duty in no shape or way relieves, not even +to the smallest degree, the individual from doing his or her duty. +Sentimentality which grows maudlin on behalf of the willful prostitute +is a curse; to confound her with the entrapped or coerced girl, the real +white slave, is both foolish and wicked. There are evil women just as +there are evil men, naturally depraved girls just as there are naturally +depraved young men; and the right and wise thing, the just thing, to +them, and the generous thing to innocent girls and decent men, is to +wage stern war against the evil creatures of both sexes. + +In company with Jacob Riis, I did much work that was not connected with +the actual discipline of the force or indeed with the actual work of +the force. There was one thing which he and I abolished--police +lodging-houses, which were simply tramp lodging-houses, and a fruitful +encouragement to vagrancy. Those who read Mr. Riis's story of his own +life will remember the incidents that gave him from actual personal +experience his horror of these tramp lodging-houses. As member of the +Health Board I was brought into very close relations with the conditions +of life in the tenement-house districts. Here again I used to visit the +different tenement-house regions, usually in company with Riis, to +see for myself what the conditions were. It was largely this personal +experience that enabled me while on the Health Board to struggle not +only zealously, but with reasonable efficiency and success, to improve +conditions. We did our share in making forward strides in the matter of +housing the working people of the city with some regard to decency and +comfort. + +The midnight trips that Riis and I took enabled me to see what the +Police Department was doing, and also gave me personal insight into some +of the problems of city life. It is one thing to listen in perfunctory +fashion to tales of overcrowded tenements, and it is quite another +actually to see what that overcrowding means, some hot summer night, by +even a single inspection during the hours of darkness. There was a very +hot spell one midsummer while I was Police Commissioner, and most of +each night I spent walking through the tenement-house districts and +visiting police stations to see what was being done. It was a tragic +week. We did everything possible to alleviate the suffering. Much of it +was heartbreaking, especially the gasping misery of the little children +and of the worn-out mothers. Every resource of the Health Department, of +the Police Department, and even the Fire Department (which flooded the +hot streets) was taxed in the effort to render service. The heat killed +such multitudes of horses that the means at our disposal for removing +the poor dead beasts proved quite inadequate, although every nerve was +strained to the limit. In consequence we received scores of complaints +from persons before whose doors dead horses had remained, festering +in the heat, for two or three days. One irascible man sent us furious +denunciations, until we were at last able to send a big dray to drag +away the horse that lay dead before his shop door. The huge dray already +contained eleven other dead horses, and when it reached this particular +door it broke down, and it was hours before it could be moved. The +unfortunate man who had thus been cursed with a granted wish closed +his doors in despair and wrote us a final pathetic letter in which he +requested us to remove either the horses or his shop, he didn't care +which. + +I have spoken before of my experience with the tenement-house cigar +factory law which the highest court of New York State declared +unconstitutional. My experience in the Police Department taught me +that not a few of the worst tenement-houses were owned by wealthy +individuals, who hired the best and most expensive lawyers to persuade +the courts that it was "unconstitutional" to insist on the betterment of +conditions. These business men and lawyers were very adroit in using +a word with fine and noble associations to cloak their opposition to +vitally necessary movements for industrial fair play and decency. They +made it evident that they valued the Constitution, not as a help +to righteousness, but as a means for thwarting movements against +unrighteousness. After my experience with them I became more set than +ever in my distrust of those men, whether business men or lawyers, +judges, legislators, or executive officers, who seek to make of the +Constitution a fetich for the prevention of the work of social reform, +for the prevention of work in the interest of those men, women, and +children on whose behalf we should be at liberty to employ freely every +governmental agency. + +Occasionally during the two years we had to put a stop to riotous +violence, and now and then on these occasions some of the labor union +leaders protested against the actions of the police. By this time I was +becoming a strong believer in labor unions, a strong believer in the +rights of labor. For that very reason I was all the more bound to see +that lawlessness and disorder were put down, and that no rioter was +permitted to masquerade under the guise of being a friend of labor or a +sympathizer with labor. I was scrupulous to see that the labor men had +fair play; that, for instance, they were allowed to picket just so far +as under the law picketing could be permitted, so that the strikers had +ample opportunity peacefully to persuade other labor men not to take +their places. But I made it clearly and definitely understood that under +no circumstances would I permit violence or fail to insist upon the +keeping of order. If there were wrongs, I would join with a full heart +in striving to have them corrected. But where there was violence +all other questions had to drop until order was restored. This is a +democracy, and the people have the power, if they choose to exercise +it, to make conditions as they ought to be made, and to do this strictly +within the law; and therefore the first duty of the true democrat, of +the man really loyal to the principles of popular government, is to see +that law is enforced and order upheld. It was a peculiar gratification +to me that so many of the labor leaders with whom I was thrown in +contact grew cordially to accept this view. When I left the Department, +several called upon me to say how sorry they were that I was not to +continue in office. One, the Secretary of the Journeyman Bakers' and +Confectioners' International Union, Henry Weismann, wrote me expressing +his regret that I was going, and his appreciation as a citizen of what +I had done as Police Commissioner; he added: "I am particularly +grateful for your liberal attitude toward organized labor, your cordial +championship of those speaking in behalf of the toilers, and your +evident desire to do the right thing as you saw it at whatever cost." + +Some of the letters I received on leaving the Department were from +unexpected sources. Mr. E. L. Godkin, an editor who in international +matters was not a patriotic man, wrote protesting against my taking the +Assistant-Secretaryship of the Navy, and adding: "I have a concern, as +the Quakers say, to put on record my earnest belief that in New York you +are doing the greatest work of which any American to-day is capable, +and exhibiting to the young men of the country the spectacle of a very +important office administered by a man of high character in the most +efficient way amid a thousand difficulties. As a lesson in politics I +cannot think of anything more instructive." + +About the same time I had a letter from Mr. (afterwards Ambassador) +James Bryce, also expressing regret that I was leaving the Police +Department, but naturally with much more appreciation of the work that +was to be done in the Navy Department. This letter I quote, with his +permission, because it conveys a lesson to those who are inclined always +to think that the conditions of the present time are very bad. It was +written July 7, 1897. Mr. Bryce spoke of the possibility of coming to +America in a month or so, and continued: "I hope I may have a chance +of seeing you if I do get over, and of drawing some comfort from you +as regards your political phenomena, which, so far as I can gather +from those of your countrymen I have lately seen, furnish some good +opportunities for a persistent optimist like myself to show that he is +not to be lightly discouraged. Don't suppose that things are specially +'nice,' as a lady would say, in Europe either. They are not." Mr. Bryce +was a very friendly and extraordinary competent observer of things +American; and there was this distinct note of discouragement about our +future in the intimate letter he was thus sending. Yet this was at the +very time when the United States was entering on a dozen years during +which our people accomplished more good, and came nearer realizing the +possibilities of a great, free, and conscientious democracy, than during +any other dozen years in our history, save only the years of Lincoln's +Presidency and the period during which the Nation was founded. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WAR OF AMERICA THE UNREADY + +I suppose the United States will always be unready for war, and +in consequence will always be exposed to great expense, and to the +possibility of the gravest calamity, when the Nation goes to war. This +is no new thing. Americans learn only from catastrophes and not from +experience. + +There would have been no war in 1812 if, in the previous decade, +America, instead of announcing that "peace was her passion," instead of +acting on the theory that unpreparedness averts war, had been willing to +go to the expense of providing a fleet of a score of ships of the line. +However, in that case, doubtless the very men who in the actual +event deplored the loss of life and waste of capital which their own +supineness had brought about would have loudly inveighed against the +"excessive and improper cost of armaments"; so it all came to about the +same thing in the end. + +There is no more thoroughgoing international Mrs. Gummidge, and no +more utterly useless and often utterly mischievous citizen, than the +peace-at-any-price, universal-arbitration type of being, who is always +complaining either about war or else about the cost of the armaments +which act as the insurance against war. There is every reason why +we should try to limit the cost of armaments, as these tend to grow +excessive, but there is also every reason to remember that in the +present stage of civilization a proper armament is the surest guarantee +of peace--and is the only guarantee that war, if it does come, will not +mean irreparable and overwhelming disaster. + +In the spring of 1897 President McKinley appointed me Assistant +Secretary of the Navy. I owed the appointment chiefly to the efforts of +Senator H. C. Lodge of Massachusetts, who doubtless was actuated mainly +by his long and close friendship for me, but also--I like to believe--by +his keen interest in the navy. The first book I had ever published, +fifteen years previously, was "The History of the Naval War of 1812"; +and I have always taken the interest in the navy which every good +American ought to take. At the time I wrote the book, in the early +eighties, the navy had reached its nadir, and we were then utterly +incompetent to fight Spain or any other power that had a navy at all. +Shortly afterwards we began timidly and hesitatingly to build up +a fleet. It is amusing to recall the roundabout steps we took to +accomplish our purpose. In the reaction after the colossal struggle of +the Civil War our strongest and most capable men had thrown their whole +energy into business, into money-making, into the development, and above +all the exploitation and exhaustion at the most rapid rate possible, of +our natural resources--mines, forests, soil, and rivers. These men were +not weak men, but they permitted themselves to grow shortsighted +and selfish; and while many of them down at the bottom possessed the +fundamental virtues, including the fighting virtues, others were purely +of the glorified huckster or glorified pawnbroker type--which when +developed to the exclusion of everything else makes about as poor a +national type as the world has seen. This unadulterated huckster or +pawnbroker type is rarely keenly sympathetic in matters of social and +industrial justice, and is usually physically timid and likes to cover +an unworthy fear of the most just war under high-sounding names. + +It was reinforced by the large mollycoddle vote--the people who are soft +physically and morally, or who have a twist in them which makes them +acidly cantankerous and unpleasant as long as they can be so with +safety to their bodies. In addition there are the good people with no +imagination and no foresight, who think war will not come, but that if +it does come armies and navies can be improvised--a very large element, +typified by a Senator I knew personally who, in a public speech, in +answer to a question as to what we would do if America were suddenly +assailed by a first-class military power, answered that "we would build +a battle-ship in every creek." Then, among the wise and high-minded +people who in self-respecting and genuine fashion strive earnestly +for peace, there are the foolish fanatics always to be found in such a +movement and always discrediting it--the men who form the lunatic fringe +in all reform movements. + +All these elements taken together made a body of public opinion so +important during the decades immediately succeeding the Civil War as to +put a stop to any serious effort to keep the Nation in a condition of +reasonable military preparedness. The representatives of this opinion +then voted just as they now do when they vote against battle-ships or +against fortifying the Panama Canal. It would have been bad enough if +we had been content to be weak, and, in view of our weakness, not to +bluster. But we were not content with such a policy. We wished to enjoy +the incompatible luxuries of an unbridled tongue and an unready hand. +There was a very large element which was ignorant of our military +weakness, or, naturally enough, unable to understand it; and another +large element which liked to please its own vanity by listening to +offensive talk about foreign nations. Accordingly, too many of our +politicians, especially in Congress, found that the cheap and easy thing +to do was to please the foolish peace people by keeping us weak, and to +please the foolish violent people by passing denunciatory resolutions +about international matters--resolutions which would have been +improper even if we had been strong. Their idea was to please both the +mollycoddle vote and the vote of the international tail-twisters by +upholding, with pretended ardor and mean intelligence, a National policy +of peace with insult. + +I abhor unjust war. I abhor injustice and bullying by the strong at +the expense of the weak, whether among nations or individuals. I abhor +violence and bloodshed. I believe that war should never be resorted to +when, or so long as, it is honorably possible to avoid it. I respect all +men and women who from high motives and with sanity and self-respect do +all they can to avert war. I advocate preparation for war in order +to avert war; and I should never advocate war unless it were the only +alternative to dishonor. I describe the folly of which so many of our +people were formerly guilty, in order that we may in our own day be on +our guard against similar folly. + +We did not at the time of which I write take our foreign duties +seriously, and as we combined bluster in speech with refusal to make +any preparation whatsoever for action, we were not taken seriously in +return. Gradually a slight change for the better occurred, the writings +of Captain Mahan playing no small part therein. We built some modern +cruisers to start with; the people who felt that battle-ships were +wicked compromising with their misguided consciences by saying that the +cruisers could be used "to protect our commerce"--which they could not +be, unless they had battle-ships to back them. Then we attempted to +build more powerful fighting vessels, and as there was a section of +the public which regarded battle-ships as possessing a name immorally +suggestive of violence, we compromised by calling the new ships armored +cruisers, and making them combine with exquisite nicety all the defects +and none of the virtues of both types. Then we got to the point of +building battle-ships. But there still remained a public opinion, as old +as the time of Jefferson, which thought that in the event of war all +our problem ought to be one of coast defense, that we should do +nothing except repel attack; an attitude about as sensible as that of a +prize-fighter who expected to win by merely parrying instead of hitting. +To meet the susceptibilities of this large class of well-meaning people, +we provided for the battle-ships under the name of "coast defense +battle-ships"; meaning thereby that we did not make them quite as +seaworthy as they ought to have been, or with quite as much coal +capacity as they ought to have had. Then we decided to build real +battle-ships. But there still remained a lingering remnant of public +opinion that clung to the coast defense theory, and we met this +in beautiful fashion by providing for "sea-going coast defense +battle-ships"--the fact that the name was a contradiction in terms being +of very small consequence compared to the fact that we did thereby get +real battle-ships. + +Our men had to be trained to handle the ships singly and in fleet +formation, and they had to be trained to use the new weapons of +precision with which the ships were armed. Not a few of the older +officers, kept in the service under our foolish rule of pure seniority +promotion, were not competent for the task; but a proportion of the +older officers were excellent, and this was true of almost all the +younger officers. They were naturally first-class men, trained in the +admirable naval school at Annapolis. They were overjoyed that at last +they were given proper instruments to work with, and they speedily grew +to handle these ships individually in the best fashion. They were fast +learning to handle them in squadron and fleet formation; but when the +war with Spain broke out, they had as yet hardly grasped the principles +of modern scientific naval gunnery. + +Soon after I began work as Assistant Secretary of the Navy I became +convinced that the war would come. The revolt in Cuba had dragged its +weary length until conditions in the island had become so dreadful as to +be a standing disgrace to us for permitting them to exist. There is much +that I sincerely admire about the Spanish character; and there are few +men for whom I have felt greater respect than for certain gentlemen of +Spain whom I have known. But Spain attempted to govern her colonies on +archaic principles which rendered her control of them incompatible with +the advance of humanity and intolerable to the conscience of mankind. +In 1898 the so-called war in Cuba had dragged along for years with +unspeakable horror, degradation, and misery. It was not "war" at all, +but murderous oppression. Cuba was devastated. + +During those years, while we continued at "peace," several hundred times +as many lives were lost, lives of men, women, and children, as were lost +during the three months' "war" which put an end to this slaughter and +opened a career of peaceful progress to the Cubans. Yet there were +misguided professional philanthropists who cared so much more for names +than for facts that they preferred a "peace" of continuous murder to +a "war" which stopped the murder and brought real peace. Spain's +humiliation was certain, anyhow; indeed, it was more certain without +war than with it, for she could not permanently keep the island, and she +minded yielding to the Cubans more than yielding to us. Our own direct +interests were great, because of the Cuban tobacco and sugar, and +especially because of Cuba's relation to the projected Isthmian Canal. +But even greater were our interests from the standpoint of humanity. +Cuba was at our very doors. It was a dreadful thing for us to sit +supinely and watch her death agony. It was our duty, even more from +the standpoint of National honor than from the standpoint of National +interest, to stop the devastation and destruction. Because of these +considerations I favored war; and to-day, when in retrospect it is +easier to see things clearly, there are few humane and honorable men who +do not believe that the war was both just and necessary. + +The big financiers and the men generally who were susceptible to touch +on the money nerve, and who cared nothing for National honor if it +conflicted even temporarily with business prosperity, were against +the war. The more fatuous type of philanthropist agreed with them. The +newspapers controlled by, or run in the interests of, these two classes +deprecated war, and did everything in their power to prevent any +preparation for war. As a whole the people in Congress were at that time +(and are now) a shortsighted set as regards international matters. There +were a few men, Senators Cushman K. Davis,[*] for instance, and John +Morgan, who did look ahead; and Senator H. C. Lodge, who throughout his +quarter of a century of service in the Senate and House has ever stood +foremost among those who uphold with farsighted fearlessness and strict +justice to others our national honor and interest; but most of the +Congressmen were content to follow the worst of all possible courses, +that is, to pass resolutions which made war more likely, and yet to +decline to take measures which would enable us to meet the war if it did +come. + + [*] In a letter written me just before I became Assistant + Secretary, Senator Davis unburdened his mind about one of + the foolish "peace" proposals of that period; his letter + running in part: "I left the Senate Chamber about three + o'clock this afternoon when there was going on a deal of + mowing and chattering over the treaty by which the United + States is to be bound to arbitrate its sovereign + functions--for policies are matters of sovereignty. . . . + The + aberrations of the social movement are neither progress nor + retrogression. They represent merely a local and temporary + sagging of the line of the great orbit. Tennyson knew this + when he wrote that fine and noble 'Maud.' I often read it, + for to do so does me good." After quoting one of Poe's + stories the letter continues: "The world will come out all + right. Let him who believes in the decline of the military + spirit observe the boys of a common school during the recess + or the noon hour. Of course when American patriotism speaks + out from its rank and file and demands action or expression, + and when, thereupon, the 'business man,' so called, places + his hand on his stack of reds as if he feared a policeman + were about to disturb the game, and protests until American + patriotism ceases to continue to speak as it had started to + do--why, you and I get mad, and I swear. I hope you will be + with us here after March 4. We can then pass judgment + together on the things we don't like, and together indulge + in hopes that I believe are prophetic." + +However, in the Navy Department we were able to do a good deal, thanks +to the energy and ability of some of the bureau chiefs, and to the +general good tone of the service. I soon found my natural friends and +allies in such men as Evans, Taylor, Sampson, Wainwright, Brownson, +Schroeder, Bradford, Cowles, Cameron, Winslow, O'Neil, and others like +them. I used all the power there was in my office to aid these men in +getting the material ready. I also tried to gather from every source +information as to who the best men were to occupy the fighting +positions. + +Sound naval opinion was overwhelmingly in favor of Dewey to command +one squadron. I was already watching him, for I had been struck by an +incident in his past career. It was at a time when there was threat of +trouble with Chile. Dewey was off the Argentine, and was told to get +ready to move to the other coast of South America. If the move became +necessary, he would have to have coal, and yet if he did not make the +move, the coal would not be needed. In such a case a man afraid of +responsibility always acts rigidly by the regulations and communicates +with the Department at home to get authority for everything he does; +and therefore he usually accomplishes nothing whatever, but is able to +satisfy all individuals with red-tape minds by triumphantly pointing out +his compliance with the regulations. In a crisis, the man worth his +salt is the man who meets the needs of the situation in whatever way +is necessary. Dewey purchased the coal and was ready to move at once if +need arose. The affair blew over; the need to move did not occur; and +for some time there seemed to be a chance that Dewey would get into +trouble over having purchased the coal, for our people are like +almost all other peoples in requiring responsible officers under such +conditions to decide at their own personal peril, no matter which course +they follow. However, the people higher up ultimately stood by Dewey. + +The incident made me feel that here was a man who could be relied upon +to prepare in advance, and to act promptly, fearlessly, and on his own +responsibility when the emergency arose. Accordingly I did my best to +get him put in command of the Asiatic fleet, the fleet where it was most +essential to have a man who would act without referring things back +to the home authorities. An officer senior to him, of the respectable +commonplace type, was being pushed by certain politicians who I knew had +influence with the Navy Department and with the President. I would have +preferred to see Dewey get the appointment without appealing to any +politician at all. But while this was my preference, the essential thing +was to get him the appointment. For a naval officer to bring pressure to +get himself a soft and easy place is unpardonable; but a large leniency +should be observed toward the man who uses influence only to get himself +a place in the picture near the flashing of the guns. There was a +Senator, Proctor of Vermont, who I knew was close to McKinley, and who +was very ardent for the war, and desirous to have it fought in the +most efficient fashion. I suggested to Dewey that he should enlist the +services of Senator Proctor, which was accordingly done. In a fortunate +hour for the Nation, Dewey was given command of the Asiatic squadron. + +When the Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor, war became inevitable. +A number of the peace-at-any-price men of course promptly assumed the +position that she had blown herself up; but investigation showed that +the explosion was from outside. And, in any event, it would have been +impossible to prevent war. The enlisted men of the navy, who often grew +bored to the point of desertion in peace, became keyed up to a high +pitch of efficiency, and crowds of fine young fellows, from the interior +as well as from the seacoast, thronged to enlist. The navy officers +showed alert ability and unwearied industry in getting things ready. +There was one deficiency, however, 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 battle-ship 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 attache 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; but Wainwright was about the only +other man who was. And 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. The shots that hit are the shots that count! + +Like the people, the Government was for a long time unwilling to prepare +for war, because so many honest but misguided men believed that the +preparation itself tended to bring on the war. I did not in the least +share this feeling, and whenever I was left as Acting Secretary I did +everything in my power to put us in readiness. I knew that in the event +of war Dewey could be slipped like a wolf-hound from a leash; I was sure +that if he were given half a chance he would strike instantly and with +telling effect; and I made up my mind that all I could do to give him +that half-chance should be done. I was in the closest touch with Senator +Lodge throughout this period, and either consulted him about or notified +him of all the moves I was taking. By the end of February I felt it was +vital to send Dewey (as well as each of our other commanders who +were not in home waters) instructions that would enable him to be in +readiness for immediate action. On the afternoon of Saturday, February +25, when I was Acting Secretary, Lodge called on me just as I was +preparing the order, which (as it was addressed to a man of the right +stamp) was of much importance to the subsequent operations. Admiral +Dewey speaks of the incident as follows, in his autobiography: + +"The first real step [as regards active naval preparations] was taken +on February 25, when telegraphic instructions were sent to the Asiatic, +European, and South Atlantic squadrons to rendezvous at certain +convenient points where, should war break out, they would be most +available. + +"The message to the Asiatic squadron bore the signature of that +Assistant Secretary who had seized the opportunity while Acting +Secretary to hasten preparations for a conflict which was inevitable. As +Mr. Roosevelt reasoned, precautions for readiness would cost little in +time of peace, and yet would be invaluable in case of war. His cablegram +was as follows: + +"'Washington, February 25, '98. + +"'_Dewey, Hong Kong_: + +"'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.' + +"(The reference to keeping the Olympia until further orders was due to +the fact that I had been notified that she would soon be recalled to the +United States.)" + +All that was needed with Dewey was to give him the chance to get ready, +and then to strike, without being hampered by orders from those not on +the ground. Success in war depends very largely upon choosing a man fit +to exercise such powers, and then giving him the powers. + +It would be instructive to remember, if only we were willing to do so, +the fairly comic panic which swept in waves over our seacoast, first +when it became evident that war was about to be declared, and then when +it was declared. The public waked up to the sufficiently obvious fact +that the Government was in its usual state--perennial unreadiness for +war. Thereupon the people of the seaboard district passed at one bound +from unreasoning confidence that war never could come to unreasoning +fear as to what might happen now that it had come. That acute +philosopher Mr. Dooley proclaimed that in the Spanish War we were in a +dream, but that the Spaniards were in a trance. This just about summed +up the facts. Our people had for decades scoffed at the thought of +making ready for possible war. Now, when it was too late, they not +only backed every measure, wise and unwise, that offered a chance of +supplying a need that ought to have been met before, but they also fell +into a condition of panic apprehension as to what the foe might do. + +For years we had been saying, just as any number of our people now say, +that no nation would venture to attack us. Then when we did go to war +with an exceedingly feeble nation, we, for the time being, rushed to the +other extreme of feeling, and attributed to this feeble nation plans of +offensive warfare which it never dreamed of making, and which, if +made, it would have been wholly unable to execute. Some of my readers +doubtless remember the sinister intentions and unlimited potentialities +for destruction with which the fertile imagination of the yellow press +endowed the armored cruiser Viscaya when she appeared in American waters +just before war was declared. The state of nervousness along much of +the seacoast was funny in view of the lack of foundation for it; but +it offered food for serious thought as to what would happen if we ever +became engaged with a serious foe. + +The Governor of one State actually announced that he would not permit +the National Guard of that State to leave its borders, the idea being to +retain it against a possible Spanish invasion. So many of the business +men of the city of Boston took their securities inland to Worcester that +the safe deposit companies of Worcester proved unable to take care of +them. In my own neighborhood on Long Island clauses were gravely put +into leases to the effect that if the property were destroyed by the +Spaniards the lease should lapse. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy I +had every conceivable impossible request made to me. Members of Congress +who had actively opposed building any navy came clamorously around to +ask each for a ship for some special purpose of protection connected +with his district. It seems incredible, but it is true, that not only +these Congressmen but the Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade of +different coast cities all lost their heads for the time being, and +raised a deafening clamor and brought every species of pressure to bear +on the Administration to get it to adopt the one most fatal course--that +is, to distribute the navy, ship by ship, at all kinds of points and in +all kinds of ports with the idea of protecting everything everywhere, +and thereby rendering it absolutely certain that even the Spanish fleet, +poor though it was, would be able to pick up our own navy ship by ship +in detail. One Congressman besought me for a ship to protect Jekyll +Island, off the coast of Georgia, an island which derived its +sole consequence because it contained the winter homes of certain +millionaires. A lady whose husband occupied a very influential position, +and who was normally a most admirable and sensible woman, came to insist +that a ship should be anchored off a huge seaside hotel because she had +a house in the neighborhood. + +There were many such instances. One stood out above the others. A +certain seaboard State contained in its Congressional delegation one of +the most influential men in the Senate, and one of the most influential +men in the lower house. These two men had been worse than lukewarm about +building up the navy, and had scoffed at the idea of there ever being +any danger from any foreign power. With the advent of war the feelings +of their constituents, and therefore their own feelings, suffered an +immediate change, and they demanded that a ship be anchored in the +harbor of their city as a protection. Getting no comfort from me, they +went "higher up," and became a kind of permanent committee in attendance +upon the President. They were very influential men in the Houses, with +whom it was important for the Administration to keep on good terms; and, +moreover, they possessed a pertinacity as great as the widow who won her +case from the unjust judge. Finally the President gave in and notified +me to see that a ship was sent to the city in question. I was bound +that, as long as a ship had to be sent, it should not be a ship worth +anything. Accordingly a Civil War Monitor, with one smooth-bore gun, +managed by a crew of about twenty-one naval militia, was sent to the +city in question, under convoy of a tug. It was a hazardous trip for the +unfortunate naval militiamen, but it was safely accomplished; and joy +and peace descended upon the Senator and the Congressman, and upon the +President whom they had jointly harassed. Incidentally, the fact that +the protecting war-vessel would not have been a formidable foe to +any antagonists of much more modern construction than the galleys of +Alcibiades seemed to disturb nobody. + +This was one side of the picture. The other side was that the crisis at +once brought to the front any amount of latent fighting strength. There +were plenty of Congressmen who showed cool-headed wisdom and resolution. +The plain people, the men and women back of the persons who lost their +heads, set seriously to work to see that we did whatever was necessary, +and made the job a thorough one. The young men swarmed to enlist. In +time of peace it had been difficult to fill the scanty regular army and +navy, and there were innumerable desertions; now the ships and regiments +were over-enlisted, and so many deserters returned in order to fight +that it became difficult to decide what to do with them. England, and +to a less degree Japan, were friendly. The great powers of Continental +Europe were all unfriendly. They jeered at our ships and men, and with +fatuous partisanship insisted that the Spaniards would prove too much +for our "mercenaries" because we were a commercial people of low ideals +who could not fight, while the men whom we attempted to hire for that +purpose were certain to run on the day of battle. + +Among my friends was the then Army Surgeon Leonard Wood. He was a +surgeon. Not having an income, he had to earn his own living. He had +gone through the Harvard Medical School, and had then joined the army +in the Southwest as a contract doctor. He had every physical, moral, +and mental quality which fitted him for a soldier's life and for +the exercise of command. In the inconceivably wearing and harassing +campaigns against the Apaches he had served nominally as a surgeon, +really in command of troops, on more than one expedition. He was as +anxious as I was that if there were war we should both have our part in +it. I had always felt that if there were a serious war I wished to be in +a position to explain to my children why I did take part in it, and not +why I did not take part in it. Moreover, I had very deeply felt that it +was our duty to free Cuba, and I had publicly expressed this feeling; +and when a man takes such a position, he ought to be willing to make his +words good by his deeds unless there is some very strong reason to the +contrary. He should pay with his body. + +As soon as war was upon us, Wood and I began to try for a chance to +go to the front. Congress had authorized the raising of three National +Volunteer Cavalry regiments, wholly apart from the State contingents. +Secretary Alger of the War Department was fond of me personally, and +Wood was his family doctor. Alger had been a gallant soldier in the +Civil War, and was almost the only member of the Administration who felt +all along that we would have to go to war with Spain over Cuba. He liked +my attitude in the matter, and because of his remembrance of his +own experiences he sympathized with my desire to go to the front. +Accordingly he offered me the command of one of the regiments. I told +him that after six weeks' service in the field I would feel competent to +handle the regiment, but that I would not know how to equip it or how +to get it into the first action; but that Wood was entirely competent +at once to take command, and that if he would make Wood colonel I would +accept the lieutenant-colonelcy. General Alger thought this an act of +foolish self-abnegation on my part--instead of its being, what it +was, the wisest act I could have performed. He told me to accept the +colonelcy, and that he would make Wood lieutenant-colonel, and that Wood +would do the work anyway; but I answered that I did not wish to rise on +any man's shoulders; that I hoped to be given every chance that my deeds +and abilities warranted; but that I did not wish what I did not earn, +and that above all I did not wish to hold any position where any one +else did the work. He laughed at me a little and said I was foolish, but +I do not think he really minded, and he promised to do as I wished. True +to his word, he secured the appointment of Wood as colonel and of myself +as lieutenant-colonel of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry. This +was soon nicknamed, both by the public and by the rest of the army, +the Rough Riders, doubtless because the bulk of the men were from the +Southwestern ranch country and were skilled in the wild horsemanship of +the great plains. + +Wood instantly began the work of raising the regiment. He first +assembled several old non-commissioned officers of experience, put them +in office, and gave them blanks for requisitions for the full equipment +of a cavalry regiment. He selected San Antonio as the gathering-place, +as it was in a good horse country, near the Gulf from some port on which +we would have to embark, and near an old arsenal and an old army +post from which we got a good deal of stuff--some of it practically +condemned, but which we found serviceable at a pinch, and much better +than nothing. He organized a horse board in Texas, and began purchasing +all horses that were not too big and were sound. A day or two after he +was commissioned he wrote out in the office of the Secretary of War, +under his authority, telegrams to the Governors of Arizona, New Mexico, +Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, in substance as follows: + +The President desires to raise --- volunteers in your Territory to form +part of a regiment of mounted riflemen to be commanded by Leonard Wood, +Colonel; Theodore Roosevelt, Lieutenant-Colonel. He desires that the men +selected should be young, sound, good shots and good riders, and that +you expedite by all means in your power the enrollment of these men. + +(Signed) R. A. ALGER, Secretary of War. + +As soon as he had attended to a few more odds and ends he left +Washington, and the day after his arrival in San Antonio the troops +began to arrive. + +For several weeks before I joined the regiment, to which Wood went ahead +of me, I continued as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, trying to +get some coherence of plan between the War Department and the Navy +Department; and also being used by Wood to finish getting the equipment +for the regiment. As regards finding out what the plans of the War +Department were, the task was simple. They had no plans. Even during the +final months before the outbreak of hostilities very little was done in +the way of efficient preparation. On one occasion, when every one knew +that the declaration of war was sure to come in a few days, I went on +military business to the office of one of the highest line generals of +the army, a man who at that moment ought to have been working eighteen +hours out of the twenty-four on the vital problems ahead of him. What he +was actually doing was trying on a new type of smart-looking uniform +on certain enlisted men; and he called me in to ask my advice as to the +position of the pockets in the blouse, with a view to making it look +attractive. An aide of this general--funnily enough a good fighting man +in actual service--when I consulted him as to what my uniform for the +campaign should be, laid special stress upon my purchasing a pair of +black top boots for full dress, explaining that they were very effective +on hotel piazzas and in parlors. I did not intend to be in any hotel +if it could possibly be avoided; and as things turned out, I had no +full-dress uniform, nothing but my service uniform, during my brief +experience in the army. + +I suppose that war always does bring out what is highest and lowest in +human nature. The contractors who furnish poor materials to the army or +the navy in time of war stand on a level of infamy only one degree above +that of the participants in the white slave traffic themselves. But +there is conduct far short of this which yet seems inexplicable to any +man who has in him any spirit of disinterested patriotism combined +with any power of imagination. Respectable men, who I suppose lack the +imagination thoroughly to realize what they are doing, try to make money +out of the Nation's necessities in war at the very time that other men +are making every sacrifice, financial and personal, for the cause. In +the closing weeks of my service as Assistant Secretary of the Navy we +were collecting ships for auxiliary purposes. Some men, at cost to their +own purses, helped us freely and with efficiency; others treated the +affair as an ordinary business transaction; and yet others endeavored, +at some given crisis when our need was great, to sell us inferior +vessels at exorbitant prices, and used every pressure, through Senators +and Congressmen, to accomplish their ends. In one or two cases they did +accomplish them too, until we got a really first-class board established +to superintend such purchases. A more curious experience was in +connection with the point chosen for the starting of the expedition +against Cuba. I had not supposed that any human being could consider +this matter save from the standpoint of military need. But one morning +a very wealthy and influential man, a respectable and upright man +according to his own lights, called on me to protest against our choice +of Tampa, and to put in a plea for a certain other port, on the ground +that his railroad was entitled to its share of the profit for hauling +the army and equipment! I happened to know that at this time this +very man had kinsfolk with the army, who served gallantly, and the +circumstances of his coming to me were such as to show that he was not +acting secretly, and had no idea that there was anything out of the way +in his proposal. I think the facts were merely that he had been trained +to regard business as the sole object in life, and that he lacked the +imagination to enable him to understand the real nature of the request +that he was making; and, moreover, he had good reason to believe that +one of his business competitors had been unduly favored. + +The War Department was in far worse shape than the Navy Department. The +young officers turned out from West Point are precisely as good as the +young officers turned out from Annapolis, and this always has been true. +But at that time (something has been done to remedy the worst conditions +since), and ever since the close of the Civil War, the conditions were +such that after a few years the army officer stagnated so far as his +profession was concerned. When the Spanish War broke out the navy really +was largely on a war footing, as any navy which is even respectably +cared for in time of peace must be. The admirals, captains, and +lieutenants were continually practicing their profession in almost +precisely the way that it has to be practiced in time of war. Except +actually shooting at a foe, most of the men on board ship went through +in time of peace practically all that they would have to go through in +time of war. The heads of bureaus in the Navy Department were for the +most part men who had seen sea service, who expected to return to sea +service, and who were preparing for needs which they themselves knew by +experience. Moreover, the civilian head of the navy had to provide for +keeping the ships in a state of reasonable efficiency, and Congress +could not hopelessly misbehave itself about the navy without the fact at +once becoming evident. + +All this was changed so far as the army was concerned. Not only was it +possible to decrease the efficiency of the army without being called +to account for it, but the only way in which the Secretary of War could +gain credit for himself or the Administration was by economy, and the +easiest way to economize was in connection with something that would not +be felt unless war should arise. The people took no interest whatever in +the army; demagogues clamored against it, and, inadequate though it +was in size, insisted that it should be still further reduced. Popular +orators always appealed to the volunteers; the regulars had no votes and +there was no point in politicians thinking of them. The chief activity +shown by Congressmen about the army was in getting special army posts +built in places where there was no need for them. Even the work of the +army in its campaigns against the Indians was of such a character that +it was generally performed by small bodies of fifty or a hundred +men. Until a man ceased being a lieutenant he usually had plenty of +professional work to attend to and was employed in the field, and, in +short, had the same kind of practice that his brother in the navy had, +and he did his work as well. But once past this stage he had almost +no opportunity to perform any work corresponding to his rank, and but +little opportunity to do any military work whatsoever. The very best +men, men like Lawton, Young, Chaffee, Hawkins, and Sumner, to mention +only men under or beside whom I served, remained good soldiers, soldiers +of the best stamp, in spite of the disheartening conditions. But it +was not to be expected that the average man could continue to grow +when every influence was against him. Accordingly, when the Spanish War +suddenly burst upon us, a number of inert elderly captains and field +officers were, much against their own wishes, suddenly pitchforked into +the command of regiments, brigades, and even divisions and army corps. +Often these men failed painfully. This was not their fault; it was the +fault of the Nation, that is, the fault of all of us, of you, my reader, +and of myself, and of those like us, because we had permitted conditions +to be such as to render these men unfit for command. Take a stout +captain of an out-of-the-way two-company post, where nothing in the +world ever occurred even resembling military action, and where the only +military problem that really convulsed the post to its foundations was +the quarrel between the captain and the quartermaster as to how high a +mule's tail ought to be shaved (I am speaking of an actual incident). +What could be expected of such a man, even though thirty-five years +before he had been a gallant second lieutenant in the Civil War, if, +after this intervening do-nothing period, he was suddenly put in command +of raw troops in a midsummer campaign in the tropics? + +The bureau chiefs were for the most part elderly incompetents, whose +idea was to do their routine duties in such way as to escape the +censure of routine bureaucratic superiors and to avoid a Congressional +investigation. They had not the slightest conception of preparing +the army for war. It was impossible that they could have any such +conception. The people and the Congress did not wish the army prepared +for war; and those editors and philanthropists and peace advocates who +felt vaguely that if the army were incompetent their principles were +safe, always inveighed against any proposal to make it efficient, on the +ground that this showed a natural bloodthirstiness in the proposer. When +such were the conditions, it was absolutely impossible that either the +War Department or the army could do well in the event of war. Secretary +Alger happened to be Secretary when war broke out, and all the +responsibility for the shortcomings of the Department were visited +upon his devoted head. He was made the scapegoat for our National +shortcomings. The fault was not his; the fault and responsibility +lay with us, the people, who for thirty-three years had permitted our +representatives in Congress and in National executive office to bear +themselves so that it was absolutely impossible to avoid the great bulk +of all the trouble that occurred, and of all the shortcomings of which +our people complained, during the Spanish War. The chief immediate cause +was the conditions of red-tape bureaucracy which existed in the War +Department at Washington, which had prevented any good organization +or the preparation of any good plan of operation for using our men and +supplies. The recurrence of these conditions, even though in somewhat +less aggravated form, in any future emergency is as certain as sunrise +unless we bring about the principle of a four years' detail in the staff +corps--a principle which Congress has now for years stubbornly refused +to grant. + +There are nations who only need to have peaceful ideals inculcated, and +to whom militarism is a curse and a misfortune. There are other nations, +like our own, so happily situated that the thought of war is never +present to their minds. They are wholly free from any tendency +improperly to exalt or to practice militarism. These nations should +never forget that there must be military ideals no less than peaceful +ideals. The exaltation of Nogi's career, set forth so strikingly in +Stanley Washburn's little volume on the great Japanese warrior, contains +much that is especially needed for us of America, prone as we are to +regard the exigencies of a purely commercial and industrial civilization +as excusing us from the need of admiring and practicing the heroic and +warlike virtues. + +Our people are not military. We need normally only a small standing +army; but there should be behind it a reserve of instructed men big +enough to fill it up to full war strength, which is over twice the peace +strength. Moreover, the young men of the country should realize that it +is the duty of every one of them to prepare himself so that in time of +need he may speedily become an efficient soldier--a duty now generally +forgotten, but which should be recognized as one of the vitally +essential parts of every man's training. + +In endeavoring to get the "Rough Riders" equipped I met with some +experiences which were both odd and instructive. There were not enough +arms and other necessaries to go round, and there was keen rivalry among +the intelligent and zealous commanders of the volunteer organizations as +to who should get first choice. Wood's experience was what enabled us to +equip ourselves in short order. There was another cavalry organization +whose commander was at the War Department about this time, and we had +been eyeing him with much alertness as a rival. One day I asked him +what his plans were about arming and drilling his troops, who were of +precisely the type of our own men. He answered that he expected "to give +each of the boys two revolvers and a lariat, and then just turn them +loose." I reported the conversation to Wood, with the remark that we +might feel ourselves safe from rivalry in that quarter; and safe we +were. + +In trying to get the equipment I met with checks and rebuffs, and in +return was the cause of worry and concern to various bureau chiefs +who were unquestionably estimable men in their private and domestic +relations, and who doubtless had been good officers thirty years +before, but who were as unfit for modern war as if they were so many +smooth-bores. One fine old fellow did his best to persuade us to take +black powder rifles, explaining with paternal indulgence that no one yet +really knew just what smokeless powder might do, and that there was a +good deal to be said in favor of having smoke to conceal us from the +enemy. I saw this pleasing theory actually worked out in practice later +on, for the National Guard regiments with us at Santiago had black +powder muskets, and the regular artillery black powder guns, and they +really might almost as well have replaced these weapons by crossbows +and mangonels. We succeeded, thanks to Wood, in getting the same cavalry +carbines that were used by the regulars. We were determined to do this, +not only because the weapons were good, but because this would in all +probability mean that we were brigaded with the regular cavalry, which +it was certain would be sent immediately to the front for the fighting. + +There was one worthy bureau chief who was continually refusing +applications of mine as irregular. In each case I would appeal to +Secretary Alger--who helped me in every way--and get an order from him +countenancing the irregularity. For instance, I found out that as we +were nearer the July date than the January date for the issuance of +clothing, and as it had long been customary to issue the winter clothing +in July, so as to give ample leisure for getting it to all the various +posts, it was therefore solemnly proposed to issue this same winter +clothing to us who were about to start for a summer campaign in the +tropics. This would seem incredible to those who have never dealt with +an inert officialdom, a red-tape bureaucracy, but such is the fact. I +rectified this and got an order for khaki clothing. We were then told we +would have to advertise thirty days for horses. This meant that we would +have missed the Santiago expedition. So I made another successful appeal +to the Secretary. Other difficulties came up about wagons, and various +articles, and in each case the same result followed. On the last +occasion, when I came up in triumph with the needed order, the worried +office head, who bore me no animosity, but who did feel that fate had +been very unkind, threw himself back in his chair and exclaimed with a +sigh: "Oh, dear! I had this office running in such good shape--and then +along came the war and upset everything!" His feeling was that war was +an illegitimate interruption to the work of the War Department. + +There were of course department heads and bureau chiefs and assistants +who, in spite of the worthlessness of the system, and of the paralyzing +conditions that had prevailed, remained first-class men. An example +of these was Commissary-General Weston. His energy, activity, +administrative efficiency, and common sense were supplemented by an +eager desire to help everybody do the best that could be done. Both in +Washington and again down at Santiago we owed him very much. When I was +President, it was my good fortune to repay him in part our debt, +which means the debt of the people of the country, by making him a +major-general. + +The regiment assembled at San Antonio. When I reached there, the men, +rifles, and horses, which were the essentials, were coming in fast, and +the saddles, blankets, and the like were also accumulating. Thanks to +Wood's exertions, when we reached Tampa we were rather better equipped +than most of the regular regiments. We adhered strictly to field +equipment, allowing no luxuries or anything else unnecessary, and so +we were able to move off the field when ordered, with our own +transportation, leaving nothing behind. + +I suppose every man tends to brag about his regiment; but it does seem +to me that there never was a regiment better worth bragging about +than ours. Wood was an exceptional commander, of great power, with a +remarkable gift for organization. The rank and file were as fine natural +fighting men as ever carried a rifle or rode a horse in any country or +any age. We had a number of first-class young fellows from the East, +most of them from colleges like Harvard, Yale, and Princeton; but +the great majority of the men were Southwesterners, from the then +territories of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, Arizona, and New Mexico. They +were accustomed to the use of firearms, accustomed to taking care of +themselves in the open; they were intelligent and self-reliant; they +possessed hardihood and endurance and physical prowess; and, above all, +they had the fighting edge, the cool and resolute fighting temper. They +went into the war with full knowledge, having deliberately counted the +cost. In the great majority of cases each man was chiefly anxious to +find out what he should do to make the regiment a success. They bought, +first and last, about 800 copies of the cavalry drill regulations and +studied them industriously. Such men were practically soldiers to +start with, in all the essentials. It is small wonder that with them as +material to work upon the regiment was raised, armed, equipped, drilled, +sent on trains to Tampa, embarked, disembarked, and put through two +victorious offensive--not defensive--fights in which a third of the +officers and one-fifth of the men were killed or wounded, all within +sixty days. It is a good record, and it speaks well for the men of the +regiment; and it speaks well for Wood.[*] + + [*] To counterbalance the newspapers which ignorantly and + indiscriminately praised all the volunteers there were + others whose blame was of the same intelligent quality. The + New York _Evening Post_, on June 18, gave expression to the + following gloomy foreboding: "Competent observers have + remarked that nothing more extraordinary has been done than + the sending to Cuba of the First United States Volunteer + Cavalry, known as the 'rough riders.' Organized but four + weeks, barely given their full complement of officers, and + only a week of regular drill, these men have been sent to + the front before they have learned the first elements of + soldiering and discipline, or have even become acquainted + with their officers. In addition to all this, like the + regular cavalry, they have been sent with only their + carbines and revolvers to meet an enemy armed with long-range + rifles. There have been few cases of such military + cruelty in our military annals." A week or so after this not + wholly happy prophecy was promulgated, the "cruelty" was + consummated, first at Las Guasimas and then in the San Juan + fighting. + +Wood was so busy getting the regiment ready that when I reached San +Antonio he turned most of the drilling of it over to me. This was a +piece of great good fortune for me, and I drilled the men industriously, +mounted and unmounted. I had plenty to learn, and the men and the +officers even more; but we went at our work with the heartiest good +will. We speedily made it evident that there was no room and no mercy +for any man who shirked any duty, and we accomplished good results. +The fact is that the essentials of drill and work for a cavalry or an +infantry regiment are easy to learn, which of course is not true for the +artillery or the engineers or for the navy. The reason why it takes +so long to turn the average civilized man into a good infantryman +or cavalryman is because it takes a long while to teach the average +untrained man how to shoot, to ride, to march, to take care of himself +in the open, to be alert, resourceful, cool, daring, and resolute, to +obey quickly, as well as to be willing, and to fit himself, to act on +his own responsibility. If he already possesses these qualities, there +is very little difficulty in making him a soldier; all the drill that is +necessary to enable him to march and to fight is of a simple character. +Parade ground and barrack square maneuvers are of no earthly consequence +in real war. When men can readily change from line to column, and column +to line, can form front in any direction, and assemble and scatter, and +can do these things with speed and precision, they have a fairly good +grasp of the essentials. When our regiment reached Tampa it could +already be handled creditably at fast gaits, and both in mass and +extended formations, mounted and dismounted. + +I had served three years in the New York National Guard, finally +becoming a captain. This experience was invaluable to me. It enabled me +at once to train the men in the simple drill without which they would +have been a mob; for although the drill requirements are simple, +they are also absolutely indispensable. But if I had believed that my +experience in the National Guard had taught me all that there was to +teach about a soldier's career, it would have been better for me not to +have been in it at all. There were in the regiment a number of men who +had served in the National Guard, and a number of others who had served +in the Regular Army. Some of these latter had served in the field in +the West under campaign conditions, and were accustomed to long marches, +privation, risk, and unexpected emergencies. These men were of the +utmost benefit to the regiment. They already knew their profession, and +could teach and help the others. But if the man had merely served in +a National Guard regiment, or in the Regular Army at some post in a +civilized country where he learned nothing except what could be picked +up on the parade ground, in the barracks, and in practice marches of a +few miles along good roads, then it depended purely upon his own good +sense whether he had been helped or hurt by the experience. If he +realized that he had learned only five per cent of his profession, that +there remained ninety-five per cent to accomplish before he would be a +good soldier, why, he had profited immensely. + +To start with five per cent handicap was a very great advantage; and if +the man was really a good man, he could not be overtaken. But if the +man thought that he had learned all about the profession of a soldier +because he had been in the National Guard or in the Regular Army under +the conditions I have described, then he was actually of less use than +if he had never had any military experience at all. Such a man was +apt to think that nicety of alignment, precision in wheeling, and +correctness in the manual of arms were the ends of training and the +guarantees of good soldiership, and that from guard mounting to sentry +duty everything in war was to be done in accordance with what he had +learned in peace. As a matter of fact, most of what he had learned was +never used at all, and some of it had to be unlearned. The one thing, +for instance, that a sentry ought never to do in an actual campaign is +to walk up and down a line where he will be conspicuous. His business +is to lie down somewhere off a ridge crest where he can see any one +approaching, but where a man approaching cannot see him. As for the +ceremonies, during the really hard part of a campaign only the barest +essentials are kept. + +Almost all of the junior regular officers, and many of the senior +regular officers, were fine men. But, through no fault of their own, had +been forced to lead lives that fairly paralyzed their efficiency when +the strain of modern war came on them. The routine elderly regular +officer who knew nothing whatever of modern war was in most respects +nearly as worthless as a raw recruit. The positions and commands +prescribed in the text-books were made into fetishes by some of these +men, and treated as if they were the ends, instead of the not always +important means by which the ends were to be achieved. In the Cuban +fighting, for instance, it would have been folly for me to have taken my +place in the rear of the regiment, the canonical text-book position. My +business was to be where I could keep most command over the regiment, +and, in a rough-and-tumble, scrambling fight in thick jungle, this had +to depend upon the course of events, and usually meant that I had to be +at the front. I saw in that fighting more than one elderly regimental +commander who unwittingly rendered the only service he could render to +his regiment by taking up his proper position several hundred yards in +the rear when the fighting began; for then the regiment disappeared in +the jungle, and for its good fortune the commanding officer never saw it +again until long after the fight was over. + +After one Cuban fight a lieutenant-colonel of the regulars, in command +of a regiment, who had met with just such an experience and had rejoined +us at the front several hours after the close of the fighting, asked me +what my men were doing when the fight began. I answered that they were +following in trace in column of twos, and that the instant the shooting +began I deployed them as skirmishers on both sides of the trail. He +answered triumphantly, "You can't deploy men as skirmishers from column +formation"; to which I responded, "Well, I did, and, what is more, if +any captain had made any difficulty about it, I would have sent him +to the rear." My critic was quite correct from the parade ground +standpoint. The prescribed orders at that time were to deploy the column +first into a line of squads at correct intervals, and then to give an +order which, if my memory serves correctly, ran: "As skirmishers, by the +right and left flanks, at six yards, take intervals, march." The order I +really gave ran more like this: "Scatter out to the right there, quick, +you! scatter to the left! look alive, look alive!" And they looked +alive, and they scattered, and each took advantage of cover, and forward +went the line. + +Now I do not wish what I have said to be misunderstood. If ever we have +a great war, the bulk of our soldiers will not be men who have had any +opportunity to train soul and mind and body so as to meet the iron needs +of an actual campaign. Long continued and faithful drill will alone put +these men in shape to begin to do their duty, and failure to recognize +this on the part of the average man will mean laziness and folly and +not the possession of efficiency. Moreover, if men have been trained +to believe, for instance, that they can "arbitrate questions of +vital interest and national honor," if they have been brought up with +flabbiness of moral fiber as well as flabbiness of physique, then there +will be need of long and laborious and faithful work to give the needed +tone to mind and body. But if the men have in them the right stuff, it +is not so very difficult. + +At San Antonio we entrained for Tampa. In various sociological books +by authors of Continental Europe, there are jeremiads as to the way +in which service in the great European armies, with their minute and +machine-like efficiency and regularity, tends to dwarf the capacity +for individual initiative among the officers and men. There is no such +danger for any officer or man of a volunteer organization in America +when our country, with playful light-heartedness, has pranced into war +without making any preparation for it. I know no larger or finer field +for the display of an advanced individualism than that which opened +before us as we went from San Antonio to Tampa, camped there, and +embarked on a transport for Cuba. Nobody ever had any definite +information to give us, and whatever information we unearthed on our +own account was usually wrong. Each of us had to show an alert and +not overscrupulous self-reliance in order to obtain food for his men, +provender for his horses, or transportation of any kind for any object. +One lesson early impressed on me was that if I wanted anything to eat it +was wise to carry it with me; and if any new war should arise, I would +earnestly advise the men of every volunteer organization always to +proceed upon the belief that their supplies will not turn up, and to +take every opportunity of getting food for themselves. + +Tampa was a scene of the wildest confusion. There were miles of tracks +loaded with cars of the contents of which nobody seemed to have any +definite knowledge. General Miles, who was supposed to have supervision +over everything, and General Shafter, who had charge of the expedition, +were both there. But, thanks to the fact that nobody had had any +experience in handling even such a small force as ours--about 17,000 +men--there was no semblance of order. Wood and I were bound that we +should not be left behind when the expedition started. When we were +finally informed that it was to leave next morning, we were ordered to +go to a certain track to meet a train. We went to the track, but the +train never came. Then we were sent to another track to meet another +train. Again it never came. However, we found a coal train, of which we +took possession, and the conductor, partly under duress and partly in a +spirit of friendly helpfulness, took us down to the quay. + +All kinds of other organizations, infantry and cavalry, regular and +volunteer, were arriving at the quay and wandering around it, and there +was no place where we could get any specific information as to what +transport we were to have. Finally Wood was told to "get any ship you +can get which is not already assigned." He borrowed without leave a +small motor boat, and commandeered the transport Yucatan. When asked by +the captain what his authority was, he reported that he was acting "by +orders of General Shafter," and directed the ship to be brought to +the dock. He had already sent me word to be ready, as soon as the ship +touched the pier, to put the regiment aboard her. I found that she had +already been assigned to a regular regiment, and to another volunteer +regiment, and as it was evident that not more than half of the men +assigned to her could possibly get on, I was determined that we +should not be among the men left off. The volunteer regiment offered +a comparatively easy problem. I simply marched my men past them to the +allotted place and held the gangway. With the regulars I had to be a +little more diplomatic, because their commander, a lieutenant-colonel, +was my superior in rank, and also doubtless knew his rights. He sent +word to me to make way, to draw my regiment off to one side, and let his +take possession of the gangway. I could see the transport coming in, +and could dimly make out Wood's figure thereon. Accordingly I played for +time. I sent respectful requests through his officers to the commander +of the regulars, entered into parleys, and made protestations, until the +transport got near enough so that by yelling at the top of my voice I +was able to get into a--highly constructive--communication with Wood. +What he was saying I had no idea, but he was evidently speaking, and +on my own responsibility I translated it into directions to hold the +gangway, and so informed the regulars that I was under the orders of +my superior and of a ranking officer, and--to my great regret, etc., +etc.--could not give way as they desired. As soon as the transport was +fast we put our men aboard at the double. Half of the regular regiment +got on, and the other half and the other volunteer regiment went +somewhere else. + +We were kept several days on the transport, which was jammed with men, +so that it was hard to move about on the deck. Then the fleet got +under way, and we steamed slowly down to Santiago. Here we disembarked, +higgledy-piggledy, just as we had embarked. Different parts of different +outfits were jumbled together, and it was no light labor afterwards to +assemble the various batteries. For instance, one transport had guns, +and another the locks for the guns; the two not getting together for +several days after one of them had been landed. Soldiers went here, +provisions there; and who got ashore first largely depended upon +individual activity. Fortunately for us, my former naval aide, when I +had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Lieutenant-Commander Sharp, a +first-class fellow, was there in command of a little ship to which I had +succeeded in getting him appointed before I left the Navy Department. He +gave us a black pilot, who took our transport right in shore, the others +following like a flock of sheep; and we disembarked with our rifles, +ammunition belts, and not much else. In theory it was out of our turn, +but if we had not disembarked then, Heaven only knows when our turn +would have come, and we did not intend to be out of the fighting if we +could help it. I carried some food in my pockets, and a light waterproof +coat, which was my sole camp equipment for the next two or three days. +Twenty-four hours after getting ashore we marched from Daiquiri, where +we had landed, to Siboney, also on the coast, reaching it during a +terrific downpour of rain. When this was over, we built a fire, dried +our clothes, and ate whatever we had brought with us. + +We were brigaded with the First and Tenth Regular Cavalry, under +Brigadier-General Sam Young. He was a fine type of the American regular. +Like General Chaffee, another of the same type, he had entered the army +in the Civil War as a private. Later, when I was President, it was my +good fortune to make each of them in succession Lieutenant-General of +the army of the United States. When General Young retired and General +Chaffee was to take his place, the former sent to the latter his three +stars to wear on his first official presentation, with a note that they +were from "Private Young to Private Chaffee." The two fine old fellows +had served in the ranks, one in the cavalry, one in the infantry, in +their golden youth, in the days of the great war nearly half a century +before; each had grown gray in a lifetime of honorable service under the +flag, and each closed his active career in command of the army. General +Young was one of the few men who had given and taken wounds with the +saber. He was an old friend of mine, and when in Washington before +starting for the front he told me that if we got in his brigade he would +put us into the fighting all right. He kept his word. + +General Young had actively superintended getting his two regular +regiments, or at least a squadron of each, off the transports, and late +that night he sent us word that he had received permission to move at +dawn and strike the Spanish advance position. He directed us to move +along a ridge trail with our two squadrons (one squadron having been +left at Tampa), while with the two squadrons of regulars, one of the +First and one of the Tenth, under his personal supervision, he marched +up the valley trail. Accordingly Wood took us along the hill trail early +next morning, till we struck the Spaniards, and began our fight just as +the regulars began the fight in the valley trail. + +It was a mountainous country covered with thick jungle, a most confusing +country, and I had an awful time trying to get into the fight and trying +to do what was right when in it; and all the while I was thinking that +I was the only man who did not know what I was about, and that all the +others did--whereas, as I found out later, pretty much everybody else +was as much in the dark as I was. There was no surprise; we struck the +Spaniards exactly where we had expected; then Wood halted us and put +us into the fight deliberately and in order. He ordered us to deploy +alternately by troops to the right and left of the trail, giving our +senior major, Brodie, a West Pointer and as good a soldier as ever wore +a uniform, the left wing, while I took the right wing. I was told if +possible to connect with the regulars who were on the right. In theory +this was excellent, but as the jungle was very dense the first troop +that deployed to the right vanished forthwith, and I never saw it again +until the fight was over--having a frightful feeling meanwhile that I +might be court-martialed for losing it. The next troop deployed to the +left under Brodie. Then the third came along, and I started to deploy it +to the right as before. + +By the time the first platoon had gotten into the jungle I realized that +it likewise would disappear unless I kept hold of it. I managed to +keep possession of the last platoon. One learns fast in a fight, and I +marched this platoon and my next two troops in column through the jungle +without any attempt to deploy until we got on the firing line. This +sounds simple. But it was not. I did not know when I had gotten on the +firing line! I could hear a good deal of firing, some over to my right +at a good distance, and the rest to the left and ahead. I pushed on, +expecting to strike the enemy somewhere between. + +Soon we came to the brink of a deep valley. There was a good deal of +cracking of rifles way off in front of us, but as they used smokeless +powder we had no idea as to exactly where they were, or who they were +shooting at. Then it dawned on us that we were the target. The bullets +began to come overhead, making a sound like the ripping of a silk dress, +with sometimes a kind of pop; a few of my men fell, and I deployed the +rest, making them lie down and get behind trees. Richard Harding Davis +was with us, and as we scanned the landscape with our glasses it was +he who first pointed out to us some Spaniards in a trench some +three-quarters of a mile off. It was difficult to make them out. There +were not many of them. However, we finally did make them out, and +we could see their conical hats, for the trench was a poor one. We +advanced, firing at them, and drove them off. + +What to do then I had not an idea. The country in front fell away into +a very difficult jungle-filled valley. There was nothing but jungle all +around, and if I advanced I was afraid I might get out of touch with +everybody and not be going in the right direction. Moreover, as far as +I could see, there was now nobody in front who was shooting at us, +although some of the men on my left insisted that our own men had fired +into us--an allegation which I soon found was almost always made in such +a fight, and which in this case was not true. At this moment some of the +regulars appeared across the ravine on our right. The first thing they +did was to fire a volley at us, but one of our first sergeants went up a +tree and waved a guidon at them and they stopped. Firing was still going +on to our left, however, and I was never more puzzled to know what to +do. I did not wish to take my men out of their position without orders, +for fear that I might thereby be leaving a gap if there was a Spanish +force which meditated an offensive return. On the other hand, it did +not seem to me that I had been doing enough fighting to justify my +existence, and there was obviously fighting going on to the left. I +remember that I kept thinking of the refrain of the fox-hunting song, +"Here's to every friend who struggled to the end"; in the hunting field +I had always acted on this theory, and, no matter how discouraging +appearances might be, had never stopped trying to get in at the death +until the hunt was actually over; and now that there was work, and not +play, on hand, I intended to struggle as hard as I knew how not to +be left out of any fighting into which I could, with any possible +propriety, get. + +So I left my men where they were and started off at a trot toward where +the firing was, with a couple of orderlies to send back for the men in +case that proved advisable. Like most tyros, I was wearing my sword, +which in thick jungle now and then got between my legs--from that day on +it always went corded in the baggage. I struck the trail, and began to +pass occasional dead men. Pretty soon I reached Wood and found, much to +my pleasure, that I had done the right thing, for as I came up word was +brought to him that Brodie had been shot, and he at once sent me to take +charge of the left wing. It was more open country here, and at least I +was able to get a glimpse of my own men and exercise some control over +them. There was much firing going on, but for the life of me I could not +see any Spaniards, and neither could any one else. Finally we made up +our minds that they were shooting at us from a set of red-tiled ranch +buildings a good way in front, and these I assaulted, finally charging +them. Before we came anywhere near, the Spaniards, who, as it proved, +really were inside and around them, abandoned them, leaving a few dead +men. + +By the time I had taken possession of these buildings all firing had +ceased everywhere. I had not the faintest idea what had happened: +whether the fight was over; or whether this was merely a lull in the +fight; or where the Spaniards were; or whether we might be attacked +again; or whether we ought ourselves to attack somebody somewhere else. +I got my men in order and sent out small parties to explore the ground +in front, who returned without finding any foe. (By this time, as a +matter of fact, the Spaniards were in full retreat.) Meanwhile I was +extending my line so as to get into touch with our people on the right. +Word was brought to me that Wood had been shot--which fortunately proved +not to be true--and as, if this were so, it meant that I must take +charge of the regiment, I moved over personally to inquire. Soon I +learned that he was all right, that the Spaniards had retreated along +the main road, and that Colonel Wood and two or three other officers +were a short distance away. Before I reached them I encountered a +captain of the Ninth Cavalry, very glum because his troopers had not +been up in time to take part in the fight, and he congratulated me--with +visible effort!--upon my share in our first victory. I thanked him +cordially, not confiding in him that till that moment I myself knew +exceeding little about the victory; and proceeded to where Generals +Wheeler, Lawton, and Chaffee, who had just come up, in company with +Wood, were seated on a bank. They expressed appreciation of the way that +I had handled my troops, first on the right wing and then on the left! +As I was quite prepared to find I had committed some awful sin, I did my +best to accept this in a nonchalant manner, and not to look as relieved +as I felt. As throughout the morning I had preserved a specious aspect +of wisdom, and had commanded first one and then the other wing, the +fight was really a capital thing for me, for practically all the men +had served under my actual command, and thenceforth felt an enthusiastic +belief that I would lead them aright. + +It was a week after this skirmish before the army made the advance on +Santiago. Just before this occurred General Young was stricken down with +fever. General Wheeler, who had commanded the Cavalry Division, was put +in general charge of the left wing of the army, which fought before the +city itself. Brigadier-General Sam Sumner, an excellent officer, who had +the second cavalry brigade, took command of the cavalry division, and +Wood took command of our brigade, while, to my intense delight, I got +my regiment. I therefore had command of the regiment before the stiffest +fighting occurred. Later, when Wood was put in command in Santiago, I +became the brigade commander. + +Late in the evening we camped at El Poso. There were two regular +officers, the brigade commander's aides, Lieutenants A. L. Mills and W. +E. Shipp, who were camped by our regiment. Each of my men had food in +his haversack, but I had none, and I would have gone supperless to bed +if Mills and Shipp had not given me out of their scanty stores a big +sandwich, which I shared with my orderly, who also had nothing. Next +morning my body servant Marshall, an ex-soldier of the Ninth (Colored) +Cavalry, a fine and faithful fellow, had turned up and I was able in my +turn to ask Mills and Shipp, who had eaten all their food the preceding +evening, to take breakfast with me. A few hours later gallant Shipp was +dead, and Mills, an exceptionally able officer, had been shot through +the head from side to side, just back of the eyes; yet he lived, +although one eye was blinded, and before I left the Presidency I gave +him his commission as Brigadier-General. + +Early in the morning our artillery began firing from the hill-crest +immediately in front of where our men were camped. Several of the +regiment were killed and wounded by the shrapnel of the return fire of +the Spaniards. One of the shrapnel bullets fell on my wrist and raised +a bump as big as a hickory nut, but did not even break the skin. Then +we were marched down from the hill on a muddy road through thick jungle +towards Santiago. The heat was great, and we strolled into the fight +with no definite idea on the part of any one as to what we were to do +or what would happen. There was no plan that our left wing was to make +a serious fight that day; and as there were no plans, it was naturally +exceedingly hard to get orders, and each of us had to act largely on his +own responsibility. + +Lawton's infantry division attacked the little village of El Caney, some +miles to the right. Kent's infantry division and Sumner's dismounted +cavalry division were supposed to detain the Spanish army in Santiago +until Lawton had captured El Caney. Spanish towns and villages, however, +with their massive buildings, are natural fortifications, as the French +found in the Peninsular War, and as both the French and our people found +in Mexico. The Spanish troops in El Caney fought very bravely, as did +the Spanish troops in front of us, and it was late in the afternoon +before Lawton accomplished his task. + +Meanwhile we of the left wing had by degrees become involved in a fight +which toward the end became not even a colonel's fight, but a squad +leader's fight. The cavalry division was put at the head of the line. +We were told to march forward, cross a little river in front, and then, +turning to the right, march up alongside the stream until we connected +with Lawton. Incidentally, this movement would not have brought us +into touch with Lawton in any event. But we speedily had to abandon any +thought of carrying it out. The maneuver brought us within fair range +of the Spanish intrenchments along the line of hills which we called the +San Juan Hills, because on one of them was the San Juan blockhouse. On +that day my regiment had the lead of the second brigade, and we marched +down the trail following in trace behind the first brigade. Apparently +the Spaniards could not make up their minds what to do as the three +regular regiments of the first brigade crossed and defiled along the +other bank of the stream, but when our regiment was crossing they began +to fire at us. + +Under this flank fire it soon became impossible to continue the march. +The first brigade halted, deployed, and finally began to fire back. Then +our brigade was halted. From time to time some of our men would fall, +and I sent repeated word to the rear to try to get authority to attack +the hills in front. Finally General Sumner, who was fighting the +division in fine shape, sent word to advance. The word was brought to +me by Mills, who said that my orders were to support the regulars in +the assault on the hills, and that my objective would be the red-tiled +ranch-house in front, on a hill which we afterwards christened Kettle +Hill. I mention Mills saying this because it was exactly the kind of +definite order the giving of which does so much to insure success in a +fight, as it prevents all obscurity as to what is to be done. The order +to attack did not reach the first brigade until after we ourselves +reached it, so that at first there was doubt on the part of their +officers whether they were at liberty to join in the advance. + +I had not enjoyed the Guasimas fight at all, because I had been so +uncertain as to what I ought to do. But the San Juan fight was entirely +different. The Spaniards had a hard position to attack, it is true, +but we could see them, and I knew exactly how to proceed. I kept on +horseback, merely because I found it difficult to convey orders along +the line, as the men were lying down; and it is always hard to get men +to start when they cannot see whether their comrades are also going. +So I rode up and down the lines, keeping them straightened out, and +gradually worked through line after line until I found myself at +the head of the regiment. By the time I had reached the lines of the +regulars of the first brigade I had come to the conclusion that it was +silly to stay in the valley firing at the hills, because that was really +where we were most exposed, and that the thing to do was to try to +rush the intrenchments. Where I struck the regulars there was no one +of superior rank to mine, and after asking why they did not charge, and +being answered that they had no orders, I said I would give the order. +There was naturally a little reluctance shown by the elderly officer in +command to accept my order, so I said, "Then let my men through, sir," +and I marched through, followed by my grinning men. The younger officers +and the enlisted men of the regulars jumped up and joined us. I waved +my hat, and we went up the hill with a rush. Having taken it, we looked +across at the Spaniards in the trenches under the San Juan blockhouse to +our left, which Hawkins's brigade was assaulting. I ordered our men to +open fire on the Spaniards in the trenches. + +Memory plays funny tricks in such a fight, where things happen quickly, +and all kinds of mental images succeed one another in a detached kind +of way, while the work goes on. As I gave the order in question there +slipped through my mind Mahan's account of Nelson's orders that each +ship as it sailed forward, if it saw another ship engaged with an +enemy's ship, should rake the latter as it passed. When Hawkins's +soldiers captured the blockhouse, I, very much elated, ordered a charge +on my own hook to a line of hills still farther on. Hardly anybody heard +this order, however; only four men started with me, three of whom were +shot. I gave one of them, who was only wounded, my canteen of water, and +ran back, much irritated that I had not been followed--which was quite +unjustifiable, because I found that nobody had heard my orders. General +Sumner had come up by this time, and I asked his permission to lead the +charge. He ordered me to do so, and this time away we went, and stormed +the Spanish intrenchments. There was some close fighting, and we took +a few prisoners. We also captured the Spanish provisions, and ate them +that night with great relish. One of the items was salted flying-fish, +by the way. There were also bottles of wine, and jugs of fiery spirit, +and as soon as possible I had these broken, although not before one +or two of my men had taken too much liquor. Lieutenant Howze, of the +regulars, an aide of General Sumner's, brought me an order to halt where +I was; he could not make up his mind to return until he had spent an +hour or two with us under fire. The Spaniards attempted a counter-attack +in the middle of the afternoon, but were driven back without effort, our +men laughing and cheering as they rose to fire; because hitherto they +had been assaulting breastworks, or lying still under artillery fire, +and they were glad to get a chance to shoot at the Spaniards in the +open. We lay on our arms that night and as we were drenched with sweat, +and had no blankets save a few we took from the dead Spaniards, we found +even the tropic night chilly before morning came. + +During the afternoon's fighting, while I was the highest officer at our +immediate part of the front, Captains Boughton and Morton of the regular +cavalry, two as fine officers as any man could wish to have beside him +in battle, came along the firing line to tell me that they had heard +a rumor that we might fall back, and that they wished to record their +emphatic protest against any such course. I did not believe there was +any truth in the rumor, for the Spaniards were utterly incapable of any +effective counter-attack. However, late in the evening, after the fight, +General Wheeler visited us at the front, and he told me to keep myself +in readiness, as at any moment it might be decided to fall back. Jack +Greenway was beside me when General Wheeler was speaking. I answered, +"Well, General, I really don't know whether we would obey an order to +fall back. We can take that city by a rush, and if we have to move +out of here at all I should be inclined to make the rush in the right +direction." Greenway nodded an eager assent. The old General, after a +moment's pause, expressed his hearty agreement, and said that he would +see that there was no falling back. He had been very sick for a couple +of days, but, sick as he was, he managed to get into the fight. He was a +gamecock if ever there was one, but he was in very bad physical shape +on the day of the fight. If there had been any one in high command to +supervise and press the attack that afternoon, we would have gone +right into Santiago. In my part of the line the advance was halted only +because we received orders not to move forward, but to stay on the crest +of the captured hill and hold it. + +We are always told that three-o'clock-in-the-morning courage is the most +desirable kind. Well, my men and the regulars of the cavalry had just +that brand of courage. At about three o'clock on the morning after the +first fight, shooting began in our front and there was an alarm of a +Spanish advance. I was never more pleased than to see the way in which +the hungry, tired, shabby men all jumped up and ran forward to the +hill-crest, so as to be ready for the attack; which, however, did not +come. As soon as the sun rose the Spaniards again opened upon us with +artillery. A shell burst between Dave Goodrich and myself, blacking us +with powder, and killing and wounding several of the men immediately +behind us. + +Next day the fight turned into a siege; there were some stirring +incidents; but for the most part it was trench work. A fortnight later +Santiago surrendered. Wood won his brigadier-generalship by the capital +way in which he handled his brigade in the fight, and in the following +siege. He was put in command of the captured city; and in a few days I +succeeded to the command of the brigade. + +The health of the troops was not good, and speedily became very bad. +There was some dysentery, and a little yellow fever; but most of +the trouble was from a severe form of malarial fever. The Washington +authorities had behaved better than those in actual command of the +expedition at one crisis. Immediately after the first day's fighting +around Santiago the latter had hinted by cable to Washington that they +might like to withdraw, and Washington had emphatically vetoed the +proposal. I record this all the more gladly because there were not +too many gleams of good sense shown in the home management of the war; +although I wish to repeat that the real blame for this rested primarily +with us ourselves, the people of the United States, who had for years +pursued in military matters a policy that rendered it certain that there +would be ineptitude and failure in high places if ever a crisis came. +After the siege the people in Washington showed no knowledge whatever +of the conditions around Santiago, and proposed to keep the army there. +This would have meant that at least three-fourths of the men would +either have died or have been permanently invalided, as a virulent form +of malaria was widespread, and there was a steady growth of dysentery +and other complaints. No object of any kind was to be gained by keeping +the army in or near the captured city. General Shafter tried his best to +get the Washington authorities to order the army home. As he failed to +accomplish anything, he called a council of the division and brigade +commanders and the chief medical officers to consult over the situation. + +Although I had command of a brigade, I was only a colonel, and so I +did not intend to attend, but the General informed me that I was +particularly wanted, and accordingly I went. At the council General +Shafter asked the medical authorities as to conditions, and they united +in informing him that they were very bad, and were certain to grow +much worse; and that in order to avoid frightful ravages from disease, +chiefly due to malaria, the army should be sent back at once to some +part of the northern United States. The General then explained that he +could not get the War Department to understand the situation; that he +could not get the attention of the public; and that he felt that there +should be some authoritative publication which would make the War +Department take action before it was too late to avert the ruin of the +army. All who were in the room expressed their agreement. + +Then the reason for my being present came out. It was explained to me +by General Shafter, and by others, that as I was a volunteer officer +and intended immediately to return to civil life, I could afford to take +risks which the regular army men could not afford to take and ought +not to be expected to take, and that therefore I ought to make the +publication in question; because to incur the hostility of the War +Department would not make any difference to me, whereas it would be +destructive to the men in the regular army, or to those who hoped to +get into the regular army. I thought this true, and said I would write +a letter or make a statement which could then be published. +Brigadier-General Ames, who was in the same position that I was, also +announced that he would make a statement. + +When I left the meeting it was understood that I was to make my +statement as an interview in the press; but Wood, who was by that time +Brigadier-General commanding the city of Santiago, gave me a quiet hint +to put my statement in the form of a letter to General Shafter, and this +I accordingly did. When I had written my letter, the correspondent +of the Associated Press, who had been informed by others of what had +occurred, accompanied me to General Shafter. I presented the letter to +General Shafter, who waved it away and said: "I don't want to take it; +do whatever you wish with it." I, however, insisted on handing it to +him, whereupon he shoved it toward the correspondent of the Associated +Press, who took hold of it, and I released my hold. General Ames made +a statement direct to the correspondent, and also sent a cable to the +Assistant Secretary of the Navy at Washington, a copy of which he +gave to the correspondent. By this time the other division and brigade +commanders who were present felt that they had better take action +themselves. They united in a round robin to General Shafter, which +General Wood dictated, and which was signed by Generals Kent, Gates, +Chaffee, Sumner, Ludlow, Ames, and Wood, and by myself. General Wood +handed this to General Shafter, and it was made public by General +Shafter precisely as mine was made public.[*] Later I was much amused +when General Shafter stated that he could not imagine how my letter and +the round robin got out! When I saw this statement, I appreciated how +wise Wood had been in hinting to me not to act on the suggestion of the +General that I should make a statement to the newspapers, but to put +my statement in the form of a letter to him as my superior officer, a +letter which I delivered to him. Both the letter and the round robin +were written at General Shafter's wish, and at the unanimous suggestion +of all the commanding and medical officers of the Fifth Army Corps, and +both were published by General Shafter. + + [*] General Wood writes me: "The representative of the + Associated Press was very anxious to get a copy of this + despatch or see it, and I told him it was impossible for him + to have it or see it. I then went in to General Shafter and + stated the case to him, handing him the despatch, saying, + 'The matter is now in your hands.' He, General Shafter, then + said, 'I don't care whether this gentleman has it or not,' + and I left then. When I went back the General told me he had + given the Press representative a copy of the despatch, and + that he had gone to the office with it." + +In a regiment the prime need is to have fighting men; the prime virtue +is to be able and eager to fight with the utmost effectiveness. I have +never believed that this was incompatible with other virtues. On the +contrary, while there are of course exceptions, I believe that on the +average the best fighting men are also the best citizens. I do not +believe that a finer set of natural soldiers than the men of my regiment +could have been found anywhere, and they were first-class citizens in +civil life also. One fact may perhaps be worthy of note. Whenever we +were in camp and so fixed that we could have regular meals, we used to +have a general officers' mess, over which I of course presided. During +our entire service there was never a foul or indecent word uttered at +the officers' mess--I mean this literally; and there was very little +swearing--although now and then in the fighting, if there was a moment +when swearing seemed to be the best method of reaching the heart of the +matter, it was resorted to. + +The men I cared for most in the regiment were the men who did the best +work; and therefore my liking for them was obliged to take the shape of +exposing them to the most fatigue and hardship, of demanding from them +the greatest service, and of making them incur the greatest risk. Once +I kept Greenway and Goodrich at work for forty-eight hours, without +sleeping, and with very little food, fighting and digging trenches. I +freely sent the men for whom I cared most, to where death might smite +them; and death often smote them--as it did the two best officers in my +regiment, Allyn Capron and Bucky O'Neil. My men would not have respected +me had I acted otherwise. Their creed was my creed. The life even of the +most useful man, of the best citizen, is not to be hoarded if there be +need to spend it. I felt, and feel, this about others; and of course +also about myself. This is one reason why I have always felt impatient +contempt for the effort to abolish the death penalty on account of +sympathy with criminals. I am willing to listen to arguments in favor of +abolishing the death penalty so far as they are based purely on grounds +of public expediency, although these arguments have never convinced me. +But inasmuch as, without hesitation, in the performance of duty, I have +again and again sent good and gallant and upright men to die, it seems +to me the height of a folly both mischievous and mawkish to contend +that criminals who have deserved death should nevertheless be allowed +to shirk it. No brave and good man can properly shirk death; and no +criminal who has earned death should be allowed to shirk it. + +One of the best men with our regiment was the British military attache, +Captain Arthur Lee, an old friend. The other military attaches were +herded together at headquarters and saw little. Captain Lee, who had +known me in Washington, escaped and stayed with the regiment. We grew to +feel that he was one of us, and made him an honorary member. There were +two other honorary members. One was Richard Harding Davis, who was with +us continually and who performed valuable service on the fighting line. +The other was a regular officer, Lieutenant Parker, who had a battery +of gatlings. We were with this battery throughout the San Juan fighting, +and we grew to have the strongest admiration for Parker as a soldier and +the strongest liking for him as a man. During our brief campaign we were +closely and intimately thrown with various regular officers of the type +of Mills, Howze, and Parker. We felt not merely fondness for them as +officers and gentlemen, but pride in them as Americans. It is a +fine thing to feel that we have in the army and in the navy modest, +efficient, gallant gentlemen of this type, doing such disinterested work +for the honor of the flag and of the Nation. No American can overpay the +debt of gratitude we all of us owe to the officers and enlisted men of +the army and of the navy. + +Of course with a regiment of our type there was much to learn both among +the officers and the men. There were all kinds of funny incidents. One +of my men, an ex-cow-puncher and former round-up cook, a very good +shot and rider, got into trouble on the way down on the transport. +He understood entirely that he had to obey the officers of his own +regiment, but, like so many volunteers, or at least like so many +volunteers of my regiment, he did not understand that this obligation +extended to officers of other regiments. One of the regular officers on +the transport ordered him to do something which he declined to do. When +the officer told him to consider himself under arrest, he responded +by offering to fight him for a trifling consideration. He was brought +before a court martial which sentenced him to a year's imprisonment at +hard labor with dishonorable discharge, and the major-general commanding +the division approved the sentence. + +We were on the transport. There was no hard labor to do; and the prison +consisted of another cow-puncher who kept guard over him with his +carbine, evidently divided in his feelings as to whether he would like +most to shoot him or to let him go. When we landed, somebody told the +prisoner that I intended to punish him by keeping him with the baggage. +He at once came to me in great agitation, saying: "Colonel, they say +you're going to leave me with the baggage when the fight is on. Colonel, +if you do that, I will never show my face in Arizona again. Colonel, if +you will let me go to the front, I promise I will obey any one you say; +any one you say, Colonel," with the evident feeling that, after this +concession, I could not, as a gentleman, refuse his request. Accordingly +I answered: "Shields, there is no one in this regiment more entitled to +be shot than you are, and you shall go to the front." His gratitude was +great, and he kept repeating, "I'll never forget this, Colonel, never." +Nor did he. When we got very hard up, he would now and then manage to +get hold of some flour and sugar, and would cook a doughnut and bring it +round to me, and watch me with a delighted smile as I ate it. He behaved +extremely well in both fights, and after the second one I had him +formally before me and remitted his sentence--something which of course +I had not the slightest power to do, although at the time it seemed +natural and proper to me. + +When we came to be mustered out, the regular officer who was doing the +mustering, after all the men had been discharged, finally asked me where +the prisoner was. I said, "What prisoner?" He said, "The prisoner, +the man who was sentenced to a year's imprisonment with hard labor +and dishonorable discharge." I said, "Oh! I pardoned him"; to which he +responded, "I beg your pardon; you did what?" This made me grasp the +fact that I had exceeded authority, and I could only answer, "Well, I +did pardon him, anyhow, and he has gone with the rest"; whereupon the +mustering-out officer sank back in his chair and remarked, "He was +sentenced by a court martial, and the sentence was approved by the +major-general commanding the division. You were a lieutenant-colonel, +and you pardoned him. Well, it was nervy, that's all I'll say." + +The simple fact was that under the circumstances it was necessary for me +to enforce discipline and control the regiment, and therefore to reward +and punish individuals in whatever way the exigencies demanded. I often +explained to the men what the reasons for an order were, the first time +it was issued, if there was any trouble on their part in understanding +what they were required to do. They were very intelligent and very eager +to do their duty, and I hardly ever had any difficulty the second time +with them. If, however, there was the slightest willful shirking of duty +or insubordination, I punished instantly and mercilessly, and the whole +regiment cordially backed me up. To have punished men for faults and +shortcomings which they had no opportunity to know were such would have +been as unwise as to have permitted any of the occasional bad characters +to exercise the slightest license. It was a regiment which was sensitive +about its dignity and was very keenly alive to justice and to courtesy, +but which cordially approved absence of mollycoddling, insistence upon +the performance of duty, and summary punishment of wrong-doing. + +In the final fighting at San Juan, when we captured one of the trenches, +Jack Greenway had seized a Spaniard, and shortly afterwards I found Jack +leading his captive round with a string. I told him to turn him over to +a man who had two or three other captives, so that they should all be +taken to the rear. It was the only time I ever saw Jack look aggrieved. +"Why, Colonel, can't I keep him for myself?" he asked, plaintively. I +think he had an idea that as a trophy of his bow and spear the Spaniard +would make a fine body servant. + +One reason that we never had the slightest trouble in the regiment was +because, when we got down to hard pan, officers and men shared exactly +alike. It is all right to have differences in food and the like in times +of peace and plenty, when everybody is comfortable. But in really hard +times officers and men must share alike if the best work is to be done. +As long as I had nothing but two hardtacks, which was the allowance to +each man on the morning after the San Juan fight, no one could complain; +but if I had had any private little luxuries the men would very +naturally have realized keenly their own shortages. + +Soon after the Guasimas fight we were put on short commons; and as I +knew that a good deal of food had been landed and was on the beach at +Siboney, I marched thirty or forty of the men down to see if I could not +get some and bring it up. I finally found a commissary officer, and he +asked me what I wanted, and I answered, anything he had. So he told me +to look about for myself. I found a number of sacks of beans, I think +about eleven hundred pounds, on the beach; and told the officer that +I wanted eleven hundred pounds of beans. He produced a book of +regulations, and showed me the appropriate section and subdivision which +announced that beans were issued only for the officers' mess. This did +me no good, and I told him so. He said he was sorry, and I answered that +he was not as sorry as I was. I then "studied on it," as Br'r Rabbit +would say, and came back with a request for eleven hundred pounds of +beans for the officers' mess. He said, "Why, Colonel, your officers +can't eat eleven hundred pounds of beans," to which I responded, "You +don't know what appetites my officers have." He then said he would send +the requisition to Washington. I told him I was quite willing, so long +as he gave me the beans. He was a good fellow, so we finally effected a +working compromise--he got the requisition and I got the beans, although +he warned me that the price would probably be deducted from my salary. + +Under some regulation or other only the regular supply trains were +allowed to act, and we were supposed not to have any horses or mules in +the regiment itself. This was very pretty in theory; but, as a matter of +fact, the supply trains were not numerous enough. My men had a natural +genius for acquiring horseflesh in odd ways, and I continually found +that they had staked out in the brush various captured Spanish cavalry +horses and Cuban ponies and abandoned commissary mules. Putting these +together, I would organize a small pack train and work it industriously +for a day or two, until they learned about it at headquarters and +confiscated it. Then I would have to wait for a week or so until my +men had accumulated some more ponies, horses, and mules, the regiment +meanwhile living in plenty on what we had got before the train was +confiscated. + +All of our men were good at accumulating horses, but within our own +ranks I think we were inclined to award the palm to our chaplain. There +was not a better man in the regiment than the chaplain, and there could +not have been a better chaplain for our men. He took care of the sick +and the wounded, he never spared himself, and he did every duty. In +addition, he had a natural aptitude for acquiring mules, which made some +admirer, when the regiment was disbanded, propose that we should have a +special medal struck for him, with, on the obverse, "A Mule passant and +Chaplain regardant." After the surrender of Santiago, a Philadelphia +clergyman whom I knew came down to General Wheeler's headquarters, +and after visiting him announced that he intended to call on the Rough +Riders, because he knew their colonel. One of General Wheeler's aides, +Lieutenant Steele, who liked us both individually and as a regiment, +and who appreciated some of our ways, asked the clergyman, after he +had announced that he knew Colonel Roosevelt, "But do you know Colonel +Roosevelt's regiment?" "No," said the clergyman. "Very well, then, let +me give you a piece of advice. When you go down to see the Colonel, +don't let your horse out of your sight; and if the chaplain is there, +don't get off the horse!" + +We came back to Montauk Point and soon after were disbanded. We had been +in the service only a little over four months. There are no four months +of my life to which I look back with more pride and satisfaction. I +believe most earnestly and sincerely in peace, but as things are yet in +this world the nation that cannot fight, the people that have lost the +fighting edge, that have lost the virile virtues, occupy a position as +dangerous as it is ignoble. The future greatness of America in no small +degree depends upon the possession by the average American citizen of +the qualities which my men showed when they served under me at Santiago. + +Moreover, there is one thing in connection with this war which it is +well that our people should remember, our people who genuinely love the +peace of righteousness, the peace of justice--and I would be ashamed to +be other than a lover of the peace of righteousness and of justice. The +true preachers of peace, who strive earnestly to bring nearer the +day when peace shall obtain among all peoples, and who really do help +forward the cause, are men who never hesitate to choose righteous war +when it is the only alternative to unrighteous peace. These are the men +who, like Dr. Lyman Abbott, have backed every genuine movement for peace +in this country, and who nevertheless recognized our clear duty to war +for the freedom of Cuba. + +But there are other men who put peace ahead of righteousness, and who +care so little for facts that they treat fantastic declarations +for immediate universal arbitration as being valuable, instead of +detrimental, to the cause they profess to champion, and who seek to make +the United States impotent for international good under the pretense of +making us impotent for international evil. All the men of this kind, and +all of the organizations they have controlled, since we began our career +as a nation, all put together, have not accomplished one hundredth part +as much for both peace and righteousness, have not done one hundredth +part as much either for ourselves or for other peoples, as was +accomplished by the people of the United States when they fought the war +with Spain and with resolute good faith and common sense worked out the +solution of the problems which sprang from the war. + +Our army and navy, and above all our people, learned some lessons from +the Spanish War, and applied them to our own uses. During the following +decade the improvement in our navy and army was very great; not in +material only, but also in personnel, and, above all, in the ability to +handle our forces in good-sized units. By 1908, when our battle fleet +steamed round the world, the navy had become in every respect as fit +a fighting instrument as any other navy in the world, fleet for fleet. +Even in size there was but one nation, England, which was completely +out of our class; and in view of our relations with England and all the +English-speaking peoples, this was of no consequence. Of our army, +of course, as much could not be said. Nevertheless the improvement in +efficiency was marked. Our artillery was still very inferior in training +and practice to the artillery arm of any one of the great Powers such +as Germany, France, or Japan--a condition which we only then began +to remedy. But the workmanlike speed and efficiency with which the +expedition of some 6000 troops of all arms was mobilized and transported +to Cuba during the revolution of 1908 showed that, as regards our +cavalry and infantry, we had at least reached the point where we could +assemble and handle in first-rate fashion expeditionary forces. This is +mighty little to boast of, for a Nation of our wealth and population; +it is not pleasant to compare it with the extraordinary feats of +contemporary Japan and the Balkan peoples; but, such as it is, it +represents a long stride in advance over conditions as they were in +1898. + + +APPENDIX A + +A MANLY LETTER + +There was a sequel to the "round robin" incident which caused a little +stir at the moment; Secretary Alger had asked me to write him freely +from time to time. Accordingly, after the surrender of Santiago, I wrote +him begging that the cavalry division might be put into the Porto Rican +fighting, preparatory to what we supposed would be the big campaign +against Havana in the fall. In the letter I extolled the merits of the +Rough Riders and of the Regulars, announcing with much complacency that +each of our regiments was worth "three of the National Guard regiments, +armed with their archaic black powder rifles."[*] Secretary Alger +believed, mistakenly, that I had made public the round robin, and +was naturally irritated, and I suddenly received from him a published +telegram, not alluding to the round robin incident, but quoting my +reference to the comparative merits of the cavalry regiments and the +National Guard regiments and rebuking me for it. The publication of the +extract from my letter was not calculated to help me secure the votes of +the National Guard if I ever became a candidate for office. However, I +did not mind the matter much, for I had at the time no idea of being +a candidate for anything--while in the campaign I ate and drank and +thought and dreamed regiment and nothing but regiment, until I got the +brigade, and then I devoted all my thoughts to handling the brigade. +Anyhow, there was nothing I could do about the matter. + + [*] I quote this sentence from memory; it is substantially + correct. + +When our transport reached Montauk Point, an army officer came aboard +and before doing anything else handed me a sealed letter from the +Secretary of War which ran as follows:-- + +WAR DEPARTMENT, + +WASHINGTON, + +August 10, 1898. + +DEAR COL. ROOSEVELT: + +You have been a most gallant officer and in the battle before Santiago +showed superb soldierly qualities. I would rather add to, than detract +from, the honors you have so fairly won, and I wish you all good things. +In a moment of aggravation under great stress of feeling, first because +I thought you spoke in a disparaging manner of the volunteers (probably +without intent, but because of your great enthusiasm for your own men) +and second that I believed your published letter would embarrass the +Department I sent you a telegram which with an extract from a private +letter of yours I gave to the press. I would gladly recall both if I +could, but unable to do that I write you this letter which I hope you +will receive in the same friendly spirit in which I send it. Come and +see me at a very early day. No one will welcome you more heartily than +I. + +Yours very truly, (Signed) R. A. ALGER. + +I thought this a manly letter, and paid no more heed to the incident; +and when I was President, and General Alger was Senator from Michigan, +he was my stanch friend and on most matters my supporter. + + +APPENDIX B + +THE SAN JUAN FIGHT + +The San Juan fight took its name from the San Juan Hill or hills--I do +not know whether the name properly belonged to a line of hills or to +only one hill. + +To compare small things with large things, this was precisely as the +Battle of Gettysburg took its name from the village of Gettysburg, where +only a small part of the fighting was done; and the battle of Waterloo +from the village of Waterloo, where none of the fighting was done. +When it became the political interest of certain people to endeavor to +minimize my part in the Santiago fighting (which was merely like that of +various other squadron, battalion and regimental commanders) some of my +opponents laid great stress on the alleged fact that the cavalry did not +charge up San Juan Hill. We certainly charged some hills; but I did not +ask their names before charging them. To say that the Rough Riders and +the cavalry division, and among other people myself, were not in the +San Juan fight is precisely like saying that the men who made Pickett's +Charge, or the men who fought at Little Round Top and Culps Hill, were +not at Gettysburg; or that Picton and the Scotch Greys and the French +and English guards were not at Waterloo. The present Vice-President of +the United States in the campaign last year was reported in the press +as repeatedly saying that I was not in the San Juan fight. The documents +following herewith have been printed for many years, and were accessible +to him had he cared to know or to tell the truth. + +These documents speak for themselves. The first is the official report +issued by the War Department. From this it will be seen that there +were in the Santiago fighting thirty infantry and cavalry regiments +represented. Six of these were volunteer, of which one was the Rough +Riders. The other twenty-four were regular regiments. The percentage of +loss of our regiment was about seven times as great as that of the +other five volunteer regiments. Of the twenty-four regular regiments, +twenty-two suffered a smaller percentage of loss than we suffered. +Two, the Sixth United States Infantry and the Thirteenth United States +Infantry, suffered a slightly greater percentage of loss--twenty-six per +cent and twenty-three per cent as against twenty-two per cent. + + +NOMINATIONS BY THE PRESIDENT + +To be Colonel by Brevet + +Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, First Volunteer Cavalry, for +gallantry in battle, Las Guasima, Cuba, June 24, 1898. + +To be Brigadier-General by Brevet + +Lieutenant-Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, First Volunteer Cavalry, for +gallantry in battle, Santiago de Cuba, July 1, 1898. (Nominated for +brevet colonel, to rank from June 24, 1898.) + + +FORT SAN JUAN, CUBA, July 17, 1898. + +THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C. (Through +military channels) + +SIR: I have the honor to invite attention to the following list of +officers and enlisted men who specially distinguished themselves in the +action at Las Guasimas, Cuba, June 24, 1898. + +These officers and men have been recommended for favorable consideration +by their immediate commanding officers in their respective reports, and +I would respectfully urge that favorable action be taken. + +OFFICERS + +. . . . . + +In First United States Volunteer Cavalry--Colonel Leonard Wood, +Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt. + +Respectfully, JOSEPH WHEELER, Major-General United States Volunteers, +Commanding. + + +HEADQUARTERS SECOND CAVALRY BRIGADE, CAMP NEAR SANTIAGO DE CUBA, CUBA, +June 29, 1898. + +THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL CAVALRY DIVISION. + +SIR: By direction of the major-general commanding the Cavalry Division, +I have the honor to submit the following report of the engagement of +a part of this brigade with the enemy at Guasimas, Cuba, on June 24th, +accompanied by detailed reports from the regimental and other commanders +engaged, and a list of the killed and wounded: + +. . . . . + +I cannot speak too highly of the efficient manner in which Colonel Wood +handled his regiment, and of his magnificent behavior on the field. The +conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt, as reported to me by my +two aides, deserves my highest commendation. Both Colonel Wood and +Lieutenant-Colonel Roosevelt disdained to take advantage of shelter or +cover from the enemy's fire while any of their men remained exposed to +it--an error of judgment, but happily on the heroic side. + +. . . . . + +Very respectfully, S. B. M. YOUNG, Brigadier General United States +Volunteers, Commanding. + + +HEADQUARTERS FIRST DIVISION SECOND ARMY CORPS CAMP MACKENZIE, GA., +December 30, 1898. + +ADJUTANT-GENERAL, Washington, D. C. + +SIR: I have the honor to recommend Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, late Colonel +First United States Volunteer Cavalry, for a medal of honor, as a reward +for conspicuous gallantry at the battle of San Juan, Cuba, on July 1, +1898. + +Colonel Roosevelt by his example and fearlessness inspired his men, and +both at Kettle Hill and the ridge known as San Juan he led his command +in person. I was an eye-witness of Colonel Roosevelt's action. + +As Colonel Roosevelt has left the service, a Brevet Commission is of no +particular value in his case. + +Very respectfully, SAMUEL S. SUMNER, Major-General United States +Volunteers. + + +WEST POINT, N. Y., December 17, 1898. + +MY DEAR COLONEL: I saw you lead the line up the first hill--you were +certainly the first officer to reach the top--and through your efforts, +and your personally jumping to the front, a line more or less thin, but +strong enough to take it, was led by you to the San Juan or first hill. +In this your life was placed in extreme jeopardy, as you may recall, +and as it proved by the number of dead left in that vicinity. Captain +Stevens, then of the Ninth Cavalry, now of the Second Cavalry, was +with you, and I am sure he recalls your gallant conduct. After the line +started on the advance from the first hill, I did not see you until our +line was halted, under a most galling fire, at the extreme front, where +you afterwards entrenched. I spoke to you there and gave instructions +from General Sumner that the position was to be held and that there +would be no further advance till further orders. You were the senior +officer there, took charge of the line, scolded me for having my horse +so high upon the ridge; at the same time you were exposing yourself most +conspicuously, while adjusting the line, for the example was necessary, +as was proved when several colored soldiers--about eight or ten, +Twenty-fourth Infantry, I think--started at a run to the rear to assist +a wounded colored soldier, and you drew your revolver and put a short +and effective stop to such apparent stampede--it quieted them. That +position was hot, and now I marvel at your escaping there. . . . Very +sincerely yours, ROBERT L. HOWZE. + + +WEST POINT, N. Y., December 17, 1898. + +I hereby certify that on July 1, 1898, Colonel (then Lieutenant-Colonel) +Theodore Roosevelt, First Volunteer Cavalry, distinguished himself +through the action, and on two occasions during the battle when I was an +eye-witness, his conduct was most conspicuous and clearly distinguished +above other men, as follows: + +1. At the base of San Juan, or first hill, there was a strong wire +fence, or entanglement, at which the line hesitated under a galling +fire, and where the losses were severe. Colonel Roosevelt jumped through +the fence and by his enthusiasm, his example and courage succeeded in +leading to the crest of the hill a line sufficiently strong to capture +it. In this charge the Cavalry Brigade suffered its greatest loss, +and the Colonel's life was placed in extreme jeopardy, owing to the +conspicuous position he took in leading the line, and being the first +to reach the crest of that hill, while under heavy fire of the enemy at +close range. + +2. At the extreme advanced position occupied by our lines, Colonel +Roosevelt found himself the senior, and under his instructions from +General Sumner to hold that position. He displayed the greatest bravery +and placed his life in extreme jeopardy by unavoidable exposure to +severe fire while adjusting and strengthening the line, placing the men +in positions which afforded best protection, etc., etc. His conduct +and example steadied the men, and on one occasion by severe but not +unnecessary measures prevented a small detachment from stampeding to the +rear. He displayed the most conspicuous gallantry, courage and coolness, +in performing extraordinarily hazardous duty. + +ROBERT L. HOWZE, Captain A. A. G., U. S. V. (First Lieutenant Sixth +United States Cavalry.) + + +TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C. + +HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, WEST POINT, N. Y., April 5, +1899. + +LIEUTENANT-COLONEL W. H. CARTER, Assistant Adjutant-General United +States Army, Washington, D. C. + +SIR: In compliance with the request, contained in your letter of April +30th, of the Board convened to consider the awarding of brevets, medals +of honor, etc., for the Santiago Campaign, that I state any facts, +within my knowledge as Adjutant-General of the Brigade in which +Colonel Theodore Roosevelt served, to aid the Board in determining, in +connection with Colonel Roosevelt's application for a medal of honor, +whether his conduct at Santiago was such as to distinguish him above +others, I have the honor to submit the following: + +My duties on July 1, 1898, brought me in constant observation of and +contact with Colonel Roosevelt from early morning until shortly before +the climax of the assault of the Cavalry Division on the San Juan +Hill--the so-called Kettle Hill. During this time, while under the +enemy's artillery fire at El Poso, and while on the march from El Poso +by the San Juan ford to the point from which his regiment moved to the +assault--about two miles, the greater part under fire--Colonel Roosevelt +was conspicuous above any others I observed in his regiment in the +zealous performance of duty, in total disregard of his personal danger +and in his eagerness to meet the enemy. At El Poso, when the enemy +opened on that place with artillery fire, a shrapnel bullet grazed and +bruised one of Colonel Roosevelt's wrists. The incident did not lessen +his hazardous exposure, but he continued so exposed until he had placed +his command under cover. In moving to the assault of San Juan Hill, +Colonel Roosevelt was most conspicuously brave, gallant and indifferent +to his own safety. He, in the open, led his regiment; no officer +could have set a more striking example to his men or displayed greater +intrepidity. + +Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, A. L. MILLS, Colonel United +States Army, Superintendent. + + +HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SANTIAGO DE CUBA, SANTIAGO DE CUBA, December +30, 1898. + +TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL, UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C. + +SIR: I have the honor to make the following statement relative to +the conduct of Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, late First United States +Volunteer Cavalry, during the assault upon San Juan Hill, July 1, 1898. + +I have already recommended this officer for a medal of honor, which I +understand has been denied him, upon the ground that my previous letter +was too indefinite. I based my recommendation upon the fact that Colonel +Roosevelt, accompanied only by four or five men, led a very desperate +and extremely gallant charge on San Juan Hill, thereby setting a +splendid example to the troops and encouraging them to pass over the +open country intervening between their position and the trenches of the +enemy. In leading this charge, he started off first, as he supposed, +with quite a following of men, but soon discovered that he was alone. He +then returned and gathered up a few men and led them to the charge, as +above stated. The charge in itself was an extremely gallant one, and the +example set a most inspiring one to the troops in that part of the line, +and while it is perfectly true that everybody finally went up the hill +in good style, yet there is no doubt that the magnificent example set by +Colonel Roosevelt had a very encouraging effect and had great weight in +bringing up the troops behind him. During the assault, Colonel Roosevelt +was the first to reach the trenches in his part of the line and killed +one of the enemy with his own hand. + +I earnestly recommend that the medal be conferred upon Colonel +Roosevelt, for I believe that he in every way deserves it, and that +his services on the day in question were of great value and of a most +distinguished character. + +Very respectfully, LEONARD WOOD, Major-General, United States +Volunteers. Commanding Department of Santiago de Cuba. + + +HUNTSVILLE, ALA., January 4, 1899. + +THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL, UNITED STATES ARMY, Washington, D. C. + +SIR: I have the honor to recommend that a "Congressional Medal of Honor" +be given to Theodore Roosevelt (late Colonel First Volunteer Cavalry), +for distinguished conduct and conspicuous bravery in command of his +regiment in the charge on San Juan Hill, Cuba, July 1, 1898. + +In compliance with G. O. 135, A. G. O. 1898, I enclose my certificate +showing my personal knowledge of Colonel Roosevelt's conduct. + +Very respectfully, C. J. STEVENS, Captain Second Cavalry. + +I hereby certify that on July 1, 1898, at the battle of San Juan, Cuba, +I witnessed Colonel (then Lieutenant-Colonel) Roosevelt, First Volunteer +Cavalry, United States of America, mounted, leading his regiment in +the charge on San Juan. By his gallantry and strong personality he +contributed most materially to the success of the charge of the Cavalry +Division up San Juan Hill. + +Colonel Roosevelt was among the first to reach the crest of the hill, +and his dashing example, his absolute fearlessness and gallant leading +rendered his conduct conspicuous and clearl distinguished above other +men. + +C. J. STEVENS, Captain Second Cavalry. (Late First Lieutenant Ninth +Cavalry.) + + +YOUNG'S ISLAND, S. C., December 28, 1898. + +TO THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL, UNITED STATES ARMY. Washington, D. C. + +SIR: Believing that information relating to superior conduct on the part +of any of the higher officers who participated in the Spanish-American +War (and which information may not have been given) would be appreciated +by the Department over which you preside, I have the honor to call your +attention to the part borne by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, of the late +First United States Volunteer Cavalry, in the battle of July 1st last. +I do this not only because I think you ought to know, but because his +regiment as a whole were very proud of his splendid actions that day +and believe they call for that most coveted distinction of the American +officer, the Medal of Honor. Held in support, he brought his regiment, +at exactly the right time, not only up to the line of regulars, but went +through them and headed, on horseback, the charge on Kettle Hill; this +being done on his own initiative, the regulars as well as his own men +following. He then headed the charge on the next hill, both regulars and +the First United States Volunteer Cavalry following. He was so near +the intrenchments on the second hill, that he shot and killed with a +revolver one of the enemy before they broke completely. He then led the +cavalry on the chain of hills overlooking Santiago, where he remained in +charge of all the cavalry that was at the extreme front for the rest of +that day and night. His unhesitating gallantry in taking the initiative +against intrenchments lined by men armed with rapid fire guns certainly +won him the highest consideration and admiration of all who witnessed +his conduct throughout that day. + +What I here write I can bear witness to from personally having seen. + +Very respectfully, M. J. JENKINS, Major Late First United States +Cavalry. + + +PRESCOTT, A. T., December 25, 1898. + +I was Colonel Roosevelt's orderly at the battle of San Juan Hill, and +from that time on until our return to Montauk Point. I was with him all +through the fighting, and believe I was the only man who was always with +him, though during part of the time Lieutenants Ferguson and Greenwald +were also close to him. He led our regiment forward on horseback until +he came to the men of the Ninth Cavalry lying down. He led us through +these and they got up and joined us. He gave the order to charge on +Kettle Hill, and led us on horseback up the hill, both Rough Riders and +the Ninth Cavalry. He was the first on the hill, I being very nearly +alongside of him. Some Spanish riflemen were coming out of the +intrenchments and he killed one with his revolver. He took the men on +to the crest of the hill and bade them begin firing on the blockhouse on +the hill to our left, the one the infantry were attacking. When he +took it, he gave the order to charge, and led the troops on Kettle Hill +forward against the blockhouse on our front. He then had charge of all +the cavalry on the hills overlooking Santiago, where we afterwards dug +our trenches. He had command that afternoon and night, and for the rest +of the time commanded our regiment at this point. + +Yours very truly, H. P. BARDSHAR. + + +CAMBRIDGE, MD., March 27, 1902. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT, President of the United States. Washington, D. C. + +DEAR SIR: At your request, I send you the following extracts from my +diary, and from notes taken on the day of the assault on San Juan. I +kept in my pocket a small pad on which incidents were noted daily from +the landing until the surrender. On the day of the fight notes were +taken just before Grimes fired his first gun, just after the third reply +from the enemy--when we were massed in the road about seventy paces +from Grimes' guns, and when I was beginning to get scared and to think +I would be killed--at the halt just before you advanced, and under the +shelter of the hills in the evening. Each time that notes were taken, +the page was put in an envelope addressed to my wife. At the first +chance they were mailed to her, and on my arrival in the United States +the story of the fight, taken from these notes, was entered in the diary +I keep in a book. I make this lengthy explanation that you may see that +everything put down was fresh in my memory. + +I quote from my diary: "The tension on the men was great. Suddenly a +line of men appeared coming from our right. They were advancing through +the long grass, deployed as skirmishers and were under fire. At +their head, or rather in front of them and leading them, rode Colonel +Roosevelt. He was very conspicuous, mounted as he was. The men were the +'Rough Riders,' so-called. I heard some one calling to them not to fire +into us, and seeing Colonel Carrol, reported to him, and was told to go +out and meet them, and caution them as to our position, we being between +them and the enemy. I did so, speaking to Colonel Roosevelt. I also +told him we were under orders not to advance, and asked him if he had +received any orders. He replied that he was going to charge the Spanish +trenches. I told this to Colonel Carrol, and to Captain Dimmick, our +squadron commander. A few moments after the word passed down that our +left (Captain Taylor) was about to charge. Captain McBlain called out, +'we must go in with those troops; we must support Taylor.' I called this +to Captain Dimmick, and he gave the order to assault." + +"The cheer was taken up and taken up again, on the left, and in the +distance it rolled on and on. And so we started. Colonel Roosevelt, of +the Rough Riders, started the whole movement on the left, which was the +first advance of the assault." + +The following is taken from my notes and was hastily jotted down on the +field: "The Rough Riders came in line--Colonel Roosevelt said he would +assault--Taylor joined them with his troop--McBlain called to Dimmick, +'let us go, we must go to support them.' Dimmick said all right--and so, +with no orders, we went in." + +I find many of my notes are illegible from perspiration. My authority +for saying Taylor went in with you, "joined with his troop" was the word +passed to me and repeated to Captain Dimmick that Taylor was about to +charge with you. I could not see his troop. I have not put it in my +diary, but in another place I have noted that Colonel Carrol, who was +acting as brigade commander, told me to ask you if you had any orders. + +I have the honor to be, Very respectfully, Your obedient servant, +HENRY ANSON BARBER, Captain Twenty-Eighth Infantry, (formerly of Ninth +Cavalry.) + + +HEADQUARTERS PACIFIC DIVISION, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., May 11, 1905. + +DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: As some discussion has arisen in the public prints +regarding the battle of San Juan, Cuba, July 1, 1898, and your personal +movements during that day have been the subject of comment, it may not +be amiss in me to state some facts coming under my personal observation +as Commanding General of the Cavalry Division of which your regiment +formed a part. It will, perhaps, be advisable to show first how I came +to be in command, in order that my statement may have due weight as an +authoritative statement of facts: I was placed in command of the +Cavalry Division on the afternoon of June 30th by General Shafter; the +assignment was made owing to the severe illness of General Wheeler, who +was the permanent commander of said Division. Brigadier General Young, +who commanded the Second Cavalry Brigade, of which your regiment--the +First Volunteer Cavalry--formed a part, was also very ill, and I found +it necessary to relieve him from command and place Colonel Wood, of +the Rough Riders, in command of the Brigade; this change placed you in +command of your regiment. + +The Division moved from its camp on the evening of June 30th, and +bivouacked at and about El Poso. I saw you personally in the vicinity +of El Poso, about 8 A.M., July 1st. I saw you again on the road leading +from El Poso to the San Juan River; you were at the head of your +regiment, which was leading the Second Brigade, and immediately behind +the rear regiment of the First Brigade. My orders were to turn to the +right at San Juan River and take up a line along that stream and try and +connect with General Lawton, who was to engage the enemy at El Caney. On +reaching the river we came under the fire of the Spanish forces posted +on San Juan Ridge and Kettle Hill. The First Brigade was faced to the +front in line as soon as it had cleared the road, and the Second Brigade +was ordered to pass in rear of the first and face to the front when +clear of the First Brigade. This movement was very difficult, owing to +the heavy undergrowth, and the regiments became more or less tangled up, +but eventually the formation was accomplished, and the Division stood +in an irregular line along the San Juan River, the Second Brigade on +the right. We were subjected to a heavy fire from the forces on San +Juan Ridge and Kettle Hill; our position was untenable, and it became +necessary to assault the enemy or fall back. Kettle Hill was immediately +in front of the Cavalry, and it was determined to assault that hill. The +First Brigade was ordered forward, and the Second Brigade was ordered +to support the attack; personally, I accompanied a portion of the Tenth +Cavalry, Second Brigade, and the Rough Riders were to the right. This +brought your regiment to the right of the house which was at the summit +of the hill. Shortly after I reached the crest of the hill you came +to me, accompanied, I think, by Captain C. J. Stevens, of the Ninth +Cavalry. We were then in a position to see the line of intrenchments +along San Juan Ridge, and could see Kent's Infantry Division engaged on +our left, and Hawkins' assault against Fort San Juan. You asked me for +permission to move forward and assault San Juan Ridge. I gave you the +order in person to move forward, and I saw you move forward and assault +San Juan Ridge with your regiment and portions of the First and Tenth +Cavalry belonging to your Brigade. I held a portion of the Second +Brigade as a reserve on Kettle Hill, not knowing what force the enemy +might have in reserve behind the ridge. The First Brigade also moved +forward and assaulted the ridge to the right of Fort San Juan. There +was a small lake between Kettle Hill and San Juan Ridge, and in moving +forward your command passed to the right of this lake. This brought +you opposite a house on San Juan Ridge--not Fort San Juan proper, but a +frame house surrounded by an earthwork. The enemy lost a number of men +at this point, whose bodies lay in the trenches. Later in the day I rode +along the line, and, as I recall it, a portion of the Tenth Cavalry was +immediately about this house, and your regiment occupied an irregular +semi-circular position along the ridge and immediately to the right of +the house. You had pickets out to your front; and several hundred yards +to your front the Spaniards had a heavy outpost occupying a house, with +rifle pits surrounding it. Later in the day, and during the following +day, the various regiments forming the Division were rearranged and +brought into tactical formation, the First Brigade on the left and +immediately to the right of Fort San Juan, and the Second Brigade on the +right of the First. + +This was the position occupied by the Cavalry Division until the final +surrender of the Spanish forces, on July 17, 1898. + +In conclusion allow me to say, that I saw you, personally, at about 8 +A.M., at El Poso; later, on the road to San Juan River; later, on the +summit of Kettle Hill, immediately after its capture by the Cavalry +Division. I saw you move forward with your command to assault San Juan +Ridge, and I saw you on San Juan Ridge, where we visited your line +together, and you explained to me the disposition of your command. + +I am, sir, with much respect, Your obedient servant, SAMUEL S. SUMNER, +Major-General United States Army. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE NEW YORK GOVERNORSHIP + +In September, 1898, the First Volunteer Cavalry, in company with most +of the rest of the Fifth Army Corps, was disembarked at Montauk Point. +Shortly after it was disbanded, and a few days later, I was nominated +for Governor of New York by the Republican party. Timothy L. Woodruff +was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor. He was my stanch friend +throughout the term of our joint service. + +The previous year, the machine or standpat Republicans, who were under +the domination of Senator Platt, had come to a complete break with the +anti-machine element over the New York mayoralty. This had brought +the Republican party to a smash, not only in New York City, but in the +State, where the Democratic candidate for Chief Judge of the Court +of Appeals, Alton B. Parker, was elected by sixty or eighty thousand +majority. Mr. Parker was an able man, a lieutenant of Mr. Hill's, +standing close to the conservative Democrats of the Wall Street type. +These conservative Democrats were planning how to wrest the Democratic +party from the control of Mr. Bryan. They hailed Judge Parker's victory +as a godsend. The Judge at once loomed up as a Presidential possibility, +and was carefully groomed for the position by the New York Democratic +machine, and its financial allies in the New York business world. + +The Republicans realized that the chances were very much against them. +Accordingly the leaders were in a chastened mood and ready to nominate +any candidate with whom they thought there was a chance of winning. I +was the only possibility, and, accordingly, under pressure from certain +of the leaders who recognized this fact, and who responded to popular +pressure, Senator Platt picked me for the nomination. He was entirely +frank in the matter. He made no pretense that he liked me personally; +but he deferred to the judgment of those who insisted that I was the +only man who could be elected, and that therefore I had to be nominated. + +Foremost among the leaders who pressed me on Mr. Platt (who "pestered" +him about me, to use his own words) were Mr. Quigg, Mr. Odell--then +State Chairman of the Republican organization, and afterwards +Governor--and Mr. Hazel, now United States Judge. Judge Hazel did not +know me personally, but felt that the sentiment in his city, Buffalo, +demanded my nomination, and that the then Republican Governor, Mr. +Black, could not be reelected. Mr. Odell, who hardly knew me personally, +felt the same way about Mr. Black's chances, and, as he had just taken +the State Chairmanship, he was very anxious to win a victory. Mr. Quigg +knew me quite well personally; he had been in touch with me for years, +while he was a reporter on the _Tribune_, and also when he edited a +paper in Montana; he had been on good terms with me while he was in +Congress and I was Civil Service Commissioner, meeting me often in +company with my especial cronies in Congress--men like Lodge, Speaker +Tom Reed, Greenhalge, Butterworth, and Dolliver--and he had urged my +appointment as Police Commissioner on Mayor Strong. + +It was Mr. Quigg who called on me at Montauk Point to sound me about the +Governorship; Mr. Platt being by no means enthusiastic over Mr. Quigg's +mission, largely because he disapproved of the Spanish War and of my +part in bringing it about. Mr. Quigg saw me in my tent, in which he +spent a couple of hours with me, my brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, +being also present. Quigg spoke very frankly to me, stating that he +earnestly desired to see me nominated and believed that the great body +of Republican voters in the State so desired, but that the organization +and the State Convention would finally do what Senator Platt desired. He +said that county leaders were already coming to Senator Platt, hinting +at a close election, expressing doubt of Governor Black's availability +for reelection, and asking why it would not be a good thing to nominate +me; that now that I had returned to the United States this would go on +more and more all the time, and that he (Quigg) did not wish that +these men should be discouraged and be sent back to their localities to +suppress a rising sentiment in my favor. For this reason he said that +he wanted from me a plain statement as to whether or not I wanted the +nomination, and as to what would be my attitude toward the organization +in the event of my nomination and election, whether or not I would "make +war" on Mr. Platt and his friends, or whether I would confer with them +and with the organization leaders generally, and give fair consideration +to their point of view as to party policy and public interest. He said +he had not come to make me any offer of the nomination, and had no +authority to do so, nor to get any pledges or promises. He simply wanted +a frank definition of my attitude towards existing party conditions. + +To this 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. Quigg +said that this was precisely what he supposed I would say, that it was +all anybody could expect, and that he would state it to Senator Platt +precisely as I had put it to him, which he accordingly did; and, +throughout my term as Governor, Quigg lived loyally up to our +understanding.[*] + + [*] In a letter to me Mr. Quigg states, what I had + forgotten, that I told him to tell the Senator that I would + talk freely with him, and had no intention of becoming a + factional leader with a personal organization, yet that 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. + +After being nominated, I made a hard and aggressive campaign through the +State. My opponent was a respectable man, a judge, behind whom stood +Mr. Croker, the boss of Tammany Hall. My object was to make the people +understand that it was Croker, and not the nominal candidate, who was my +real opponent; that the choice lay between Crokerism and myself. Croker +was a powerful and truculent man, the autocrat of his organization, and +of a domineering nature. For his own reasons he insisted upon Tammany's +turning down an excellent Democratic judge who was a candidate for +reelection. This gave me my chance. Under my attack, Croker, who was a +stalwart fighting man and who would not take an attack tamely, himself +came to the front. I was able to fix the contest in the public mind as +one between himself and myself; and, against all probabilities, I won by +the rather narrow margin of eighteen thousand plurality. + +As I have already said, there is a lunatic fringe to every reform +movement. At least nine-tenths of all the sincere reformers supported +me; but the ultra-pacifists, the so-called anti-imperialists, or +anti-militarists, or peace-at-any-price men, preferred Croker to me; +and another knot of extremists who had at first ardently insisted that +I must be "forced" on Platt, as soon as Platt supported me themselves +opposed me _because_ he supported me. After election John Hay wrote me +as follows: "While you are Governor, I believe the party can be +made solid as never before. You have already shown that a man may be +absolutely honest and yet practical; a reformer by instinct and a wise +politician; brave, bold, and uncompromising, and yet not a wild ass +of the desert. The exhibition made by the professional independents in +voting against you for no reason on earth except that somebody else was +voting for you, is a lesson that is worth its cost." + +At that time boss rule was at its very zenith. Mr. Bryan's candidacy in +1896 on a free silver platform had threatened such frightful business +disaster as to make the business men, the wage-workers, and the +professional classes generally, turn eagerly to the Republican party. +East of the Mississippi the Republican vote for Mr. McKinley was larger +by far than it had been for Abraham Lincoln in the days when the life of +the Nation was at stake. Mr. Bryan championed many sorely needed reforms +in the interest of the plain people; but many of his platform proposals, +economic and otherwise, were of such a character that to have put them +into practice would have meant to plunge all our people into conditions +far worse than any of those for which he sought a remedy. The free +silver advocates included sincere and upright men who were able to make +a strong case for their position; but with them and dominating them were +all the believers in the complete or partial repudiation of National, +State, and private debts; and not only the business men but the +workingmen grew to feel that under these circumstances too heavy a price +could not be paid to avert the Democratic triumph. The fear of Mr. Bryan +threw almost all the leading men of all classes into the arms of whoever +opposed him. + +The Republican bosses, who were already very powerful, and who were +already in fairly close alliance with the privileged interests, now +found everything working to their advantage. Good and high-minded men +of conservative temperament in their panic played into the hands of the +ultra-reactionaries of business and politics. The alliance between the +two kinds of privilege, political and financial, was closely cemented; +and wherever there was any attempt to break it up, the cry was at once +raised that this merely represented another phase of the assault on +National honesty and individual and mercantile integrity. As so often +happens, the excesses and threats of an unwise and extreme radicalism +had resulted in immensely strengthening the position of the +beneficiaries of reaction. This was the era when the Standard Oil +Company achieved a mastery of Pennsylvania politics so far-reaching +and so corrupt that it is difficult to describe it without seeming to +exaggerate. + +In New York State, United States Senator Platt was the absolute boss of +the Republican party. "Big business" was back of him; yet at the time +this, the most important element in his strength, was only imperfectly +understood. It was not until I was elected Governor that I myself came +to understand it. We were still accustomed to talking of the "machine" +as if it were something merely political, with which business had +nothing to do. Senator Platt did not use his political position to +advance his private fortunes--therein differing absolutely from many +other political bosses. He lived in hotels and had few extravagant +tastes. Indeed, I could not find that he had any tastes at all except +for politics, and on rare occasions for a very dry theology wholly +divorced from moral implications. But big business men contributed +to him large sums of money, which enabled him to keep his grip on +the machine and secured for them the help of the machine if they were +threatened with adverse legislation. The contributions were given in the +guise of contributions for campaign purposes, of money for the good +of the party; when the money was contributed there was rarely talk of +specific favors in return.[*] It was simply put into Mr. Platt's hands +and treated by him as in the campaign chest. Then he distributed it +in the districts where it was most needed by the candidates and +organization leaders. Ordinarily no pledge was required from the latter +to the bosses, any more than it was required by the business men +from Mr. Platt or his lieutenants. No pledge was needed. It was all a +"gentlemen's understanding." As the Senator once said to me, if a man's +character was such that it was necessary to get a promise from him, it +was clear proof that his character was such that the promise would not +be worth anything after it was made. + + [*] Each nation has its own pet sins to which it is merciful + and also sins which it treats as most abhorrent. In America + we are peculiarly sensitive about big money contributions + for which the donors expect any reward. In England, where in + some ways the standard is higher than here, such + contributions are accepted as a matter of course, nay, as + one of the methods by which wealthy men obtain peerages. It + would be well-nigh an impossibility for a man to secure a + seat in the United States Senate by mere campaign + contributions, in the way that seats in the British House of + Lords have often been secured without any scandal being + caused thereby. + +It must not be forgotten that some of the worst practices of the machine +in dealings of this kind represented merely virtues in the wrong place, +virtues wrenched out of proper relation to their surroundings. A man in +a doubtful district might win only because of the help Mr. Platt gave +him; he might be a decent young fellow without money enough to finance +his own campaign, who was able to finance it only because Platt of his +own accord found out or was apprised of his need and advanced the money. +Such a man felt grateful, and, because of his good qualities, joined +with the purely sordid and corrupt heelers and crooked politicians to +become part of the Platt machine. In his turn Mr. Platt was recognized +by the business men, the big contributors, as an honorable man; not only +a man of his word, but a man who, whenever he received a favor, could be +trusted to do his best to repay it on any occasion that arose. I believe +that usually the contributors, and the recipient, sincerely felt that +the transaction was proper and subserved the cause of good politics +and good business; and, indeed, as regards the major part of the +contributions, it is probable that this was the fact, and that the only +criticism that could properly be made about the contributions was that +they were not made with publicity--and at that time neither the parties +nor the public had any realization that publicity was necessary, or any +adequate understanding of the dangers of the "invisible empire" +which throve by what was done in secrecy. Many, probably most, of the +contributors of this type never wished anything personal in exchange for +their contributions, and made them with sincere patriotism, desiring in +return only that the Government should be conducted on a proper basis. +Unfortunately, it was, in practice, exceedingly difficult to distinguish +these men from the others who contributed big sums to the various party +bosses with the expectation of gaining concrete and personal advantages +(in which the bosses shared) at the expense of the general public. It +was very hard to draw the line between these two types of contributions. + +There was but one kind of money contributions as to which it seemed to +me absolutely impossible for either the contributor or the recipient to +disguise to themselves the evil meaning of the contribution. This was +where a big corporation contributed to both political parties. I knew of +one such case where in a State campaign a big corporation which had many +dealings with public officials frankly contributed in the neighborhood +of a hundred thousand dollars to one campaign fund and fifty thousand +dollars to the campaign fund of the other side--and, I believe, made +some further substantial contributions in the same ratio of two dollars +to one side for every one dollar given to the other. The contributors +were Democrats, and the big contributions went to the Democratic +managers. The Republican was elected, and after his election, when +a matter came up affecting the company, in which its interests were +hostile to those of the general public, the successful candidate, then +holding a high State office, was approached by his campaign managers +and the situation put frankly before him. He was less disturbed than +astonished, and remarked, "Why, I thought So-and-so and his associates +were Democrats and subscribed to the Democratic campaign fund." "So they +did," was the answer; "they subscribed to them twice as much as they +subscribed to us, but if they had had any idea that you intended doing +what you now say you will do, they would have subscribed it all to the +other side, and more too." The State official in his turn answered that +he was very sorry if any one had subscribed under a misapprehension, +that it was no fault of his, for he had stated definitely and clearly +his position, that he of course had no money wherewith himself to return +what without his knowledge had been contributed, and that all he could +say was that any man who had subscribed to his campaign fund under the +impression that the receipt of the subscription would be a bar to the +performance of public duty was sadly mistaken. + +The control by Mr. Platt and his lieutenants over the organization was +well-nigh complete. There were splits among the bosses, and insurgent +movements now and then, but the ordinary citizens had no control over +the political machinery except in a very few districts. There were, +however, plenty of good men in politics, men who either came from +districts where there was popular control, or who represented a genuine +aspiration towards good citizenship on the part of some boss or group of +bosses, or else who had been nominated frankly for reasons of expediency +by bosses whose attitude towards good citizenship was at best one of +Gallio-like indifference. At the time when I was nominated for Governor, +as later when Mr. Hughes was nominated and renominated for Governor, +there was no possibility of securing the nomination unless the bosses +permitted it. In each case the bosses, the machine leaders, took a man +for whom they did not care, because he was the only man with whom they +could win. In the case of Mr. Hughes there was of course also the fact +of pressure from the National Administration. But the bosses were never +overcome in a fair fight, when they had made up their minds to fight, +until the Saratoga Convention in 1910, when Mr. Stimson was nominated +for Governor. + +Senator Platt had the same inborn capacity for the kind of politics +which he liked that many big Wall Street men have shown for not wholly +dissimilar types of finance. It was his chief interest, and he +applied himself to it unremittingly. He handled his private business +successfully; but it was politics in which he was absorbed, and he +concerned himself therewith every day in the year. He had built up an +excellent system of organization, and the necessary funds came from +corporations and men of wealth who contributed as I have described +above. The majority of the men with a natural capacity for organization +leadership of the type which has generally been prevalent in New York +politics turned to Senator Platt as their natural chief and helped build +up the organization, until under his leadership it became more powerful +and in a position of greater control than any other Republican machine +in the country, excepting in Pennsylvania. The Democratic machines +in some of the big cities, as in New York and Boston, and the country +Democratic machine of New York under David B. Hill, were probably +even more efficient, representing an even more complete mastery by +the bosses, and an even greater degree of drilled obedience among the +henchmen. It would be an entire mistake to suppose that Mr. Platt's +lieutenants were either all bad men or all influenced by unworthy +motives. He was constantly doing favors for men. He had won the +gratitude of many good men. In the country districts especially, there +were many places where his machine included the majority of the best +citizens, the leading and substantial citizens, among the inhabitants. +Some of his strongest and most efficient lieutenants were disinterested +men of high character. + +There had always been a good deal of opposition to Mr. Platt and the +machine, but the leadership of this opposition was apt to be found only +among those whom Abraham Lincoln called the "silk stockings," and much +of it excited almost as much derision among the plain people as the +machine itself excited anger or dislike. Very many of Mr. Platt's +opponents really disliked him and his methods, for aesthetic rather than +for moral reasons, and the bulk of the people half-consciously felt this +and refused to submit to their leadership. The men who opposed him in +this manner were good citizens according to their lights, prominent in +the social clubs and in philanthropic circles, men of means and often +men of business standing. They disliked coarse and vulgar politicians, +and they sincerely reprobated all the shortcomings that were recognized +by, and were offensive to, people of their own caste. They had not the +slightest understanding of the needs, interests, ways of thought, and +convictions of the average small man; and the small man felt this, +although he could not express it, and sensed that they were really not +concerned with his welfare, and that they did not offer him anything +materially better from his point of view than the machine. + +When reformers of this type attempted to oppose Mr. Platt, they usually +put up either some rather inefficient, well-meaning person, who +bathed every day, and didn't steal, but whose only good point was +"respectability," and who knew nothing of the great fundamental +questions looming before us; or else they put up some big business man +or corporation lawyer who was wedded to the gross wrong and injustice +of our economic system, and who neither by personality nor by programme +gave the ordinary plain people any belief that there was promise of +vital good to them in the change. The correctness of their view was +proved by the fact that as soon as fundamental economic and social +reforms were at stake the aesthetic, as distinguished from the genuinely +moral, reformers, for the most part sided with the bosses against the +people. + +When I became Governor, the conscience of the people was in no way or +shape aroused, as it has since become roused. The people accepted and +practiced in a matter-of-course way as quite proper things which they +would not now tolerate. They had no definite and clearly outlined +conception of what they wished in the way of reform. They on the whole +tolerated, and indeed approved of, the machine; and there had been no +development on any considerable scale of reformers with the vision to +see what the needs of the people were, and the high purpose sanely to +achieve what was necessary in order to meet these needs. I knew both the +machine and the silk-stocking reformers fairly well, from many years' +close association with them. The machine as such had no ideals at all, +although many of the men composing it did have. On the other hand, the +ideals of very many of the silk-stocking reformers did not relate to +the questions of real and vital interest to our people; and, singularly +enough, in international matters, these same silk-stockings were no more +to be trusted than the average ignorant demagogue or shortsighted spoils +politicians. I felt that these men would be broken reeds to which to +trust in any vital contest for betterment of social and industrial +conditions. + +I had neither the training nor the capacity that would have enabled me +to match Mr. Platt and his machine people on their own ground. Nor did +I believe that the effort to build up a machine of my own under the then +existing conditions would meet the needs of the situation so far as the +people were concerned. I therefore made no effort to create a machine of +my own, and consistently adopted the plan of going over the heads of the +men holding public office and of the men in control of the organization, +and appealing directly to the people behind them. The machine, for +instance, had a more or less strong control over the great bulk of the +members of the State Legislature; but in the last resort the people +behind these legislators had a still greater control over them. I made +up my mind that the only way I could beat the bosses whenever the need +to do so arose (and unless there was such need I did not wish to try) +was, not by attempting to manipulate the machinery, and not by trusting +merely to the professional reformers, but by making my appeal as +directly and as emphatically as I knew how to the mass of voters +themselves, to the people, to the men who if waked up would be able to +impose their will on their representatives. My success depended upon +getting the people in the different districts to look at matters in my +way, and getting them to take such an active interest in affairs as to +enable them to exercise control over their representatives. + +There were a few of the Senators and Assemblymen whom I could reach by +seeing them personally and putting before them my arguments; but most of +them were too much under the control of the machine for me to shake +them loose unless they knew that the people were actively behind me. In +making my appeal to the people as a whole I was dealing with an entirely +different constituency from that which, especially in the big cities, +liked to think of itself as the "better element," the particular +exponent of reform and good citizenship. I was dealing with shrewd, +hard-headed, kindly men and women, chiefly concerned with the absorbing +work of earning their own living, and impatient of fads, who had grown +to feel that the associations with the word "reformer" were not much +better than the associations with the word "politician." I had to +convince these men and women of my good faith, and, moreover, of my +common sense and efficiency. They were most of them strong partisans, +and an outrage had to be very real and very great to shake them even +partially loose from their party affiliations. Moreover, they took +little interest in any fight of mere personalities. They were not +influenced in the least by the silk-stocking reform view of Mr. Platt. +I knew that if they were persuaded that I was engaged in a mere faction +fight against him, that it was a mere issue between his ambition and +mine, they would at once become indifferent, and my fight would be lost. + +But I felt that I could count on their support wherever I could show +them that the fight was not made just for the sake of the row, that it +was not made merely as a factional contest against Senator Platt and the +organization, but was waged from a sense of duty for real and tangible +causes such as the promotion of governmental efficiency and honesty, +and forcing powerful moneyed men to take the proper attitude toward the +community at large. They stood by me when I insisted upon having the +canal department, the insurance department, and the various departments +of the State Government run with efficiency and honesty; they stood by +me when I insisted upon making wealthy men who owned franchises pay +the State what they properly ought to pay; they stood by me when, in +connection with the strikes on the Croton Aqueduct and in Buffalo, I +promptly used the military power of the State to put a stop to rioting +and violence. + +In the latter case my chief opponents and critics were local politicians +who were truckling to the labor vote; but in all cases coming under the +first two categories I had serious trouble with the State leaders of the +machine. I always did my best, in good faith, to get Mr. Platt and the +other heads of the machine to accept my views, and to convince them, +by repeated private conversations, that I was right. I never wantonly +antagonized or humiliated them. I did not wish to humiliate them or to +seem victorious over them; what I wished was to secure the things that +I thought it essential to the men and women of the State to secure. If I +could finally persuade them to support me, well and good; in such case I +continued to work with them in the friendliest manner. + +If after repeated and persistent effort I failed to get them to support +me, then I made a fair fight in the open, and in a majority of cases I +carried my point and succeeded in getting through the legislation which +I wished. In theory the Executive has nothing to do with legislation. In +practice, as things now are, the Executive is or ought to be peculiarly +representative of the people as a whole. As often as not the action +of the Executive offers the only means by which the people can get the +legislation they demand and ought to have. Therefore a good executive +under the present conditions of American political life must take a very +active interest in getting the right kind of legislation, in addition +to performing his executive duties with an eye single to the public +welfare. More than half of my work as Governor was in the direction of +getting needed and important legislation. I accomplished this only by +arousing the people, and riveting their attention on what was done. + +Gradually the people began to wake up more and more to the fact that the +machine politicians were not giving them the kind of government which +they wished. As this waking up grew more general, not merely in New York +or any other one State, but throughout most of the Nation, the power +of the bosses waned. Then a curious thing happened. The professional +reformers who had most loudly criticized these bosses began to change +toward them. Newspaper editors, college presidents, corporation lawyers, +and big business men, all alike, had denounced the bosses and had taken +part in reform movements against them so long as these reforms dealt +only with things that were superficial, or with fundamental things that +did not affect themselves and their associates. But the majority +of these men turned to the support of the bosses when the great new +movement began clearly to make itself evident as one against privilege +in business no less than against privilege in politics, as one for +social and industrial no less than for political righteousness and fair +dealing. The big corporation lawyer who had antagonized the boss in +matters which he regarded as purely political stood shoulder to shoulder +with the boss when the movement for betterment took shape in direct +attack on the combination of business with politics and with the +judiciary which has done so much to enthrone privilege in the economic +world. + +The reformers who denounced political corruption and fraud when shown +at the expense of their own candidates by machine ward heelers of a low +type hysterically applauded similar corrupt trickery when practiced by +these same politicians against men with whose political and industrial +programme the reformers were not in sympathy. I had always been +instinctively and by nature a democrat, but if I had needed conversion +to the democratic ideal here in America the stimulus would have been +supplied by what I saw of the attitude, not merely of the bulk of the +men of greatest wealth, but of the bulk of the men who most prided +themselves upon their education and culture, when we began in good faith +to grapple with the wrong and injustice of our social and industrial +system, and to hit at the men responsible for the wrong, no matter how +high they stood in business or in politics, at the bar or on the bench. +It was while I was Governor, and especially in connection with the +franchise tax legislation, that I first became thoroughly aware of the +real causes of this attitude among the men of great wealth and among the +men who took their tone from the men of great wealth. + +Very soon after my victory in the race for Governor I had one or two +experiences with Senator Platt which showed in amusing fashion how +absolute the rule of the boss was in the politics of that day. Senator +Platt, who was always most kind and friendly in his personal relations +with me, asked me in one day to talk over what was to be done at Albany. +He had the two or three nominal heads of the organization with him. They +were his lieutenants, who counseled and influenced him, whose advice he +often followed, but who, when he had finally made up his mind, merely +registered and carried out his decrees. After a little conversation the +Senator asked if I had any member of the Assembly whom I wished to +have put on any committee, explaining that the committees were being +arranged. I answered no, and expressed my surprise at what he had said, +because I had not understood the Speaker who appointed the committees +had himself been agreed upon by the members-elect. "Oh!" responded the +Senator, with a tolerant smile, "He has not been chosen yet, but of +course whoever we choose as Speaker will agree beforehand to make the +appointments we wish." I made a mental note to the effect that if they +attempted the same process with the Governor-elect they would find +themselves mistaken. + +In a few days the opportunity to prove this arrived. Under the preceding +Administration there had been grave scandals about the Erie Canal, the +trans-State Canal, and these scandals had been one of the chief issues +in the campaign for the Governorship. The construction of this work was +under the control of the Superintendent of Public Works. In the actual +state of affairs his office was by far the most important office under +me, and I intended to appoint to it some man of high character and +capacity who could be trusted to do the work not merely honestly and +efficiently, but without regard to politics. A week or so after the +Speakership incident Senator Platt asked me to come and see him (he was +an old and physically feeble man, able to move about only with extreme +difficulty). + +On arrival I found the Lieutenant-Governor elect, Mr. Woodruff, who had +also been asked to come. The Senator informed me that he was glad to +say that I would have a most admirable man as Superintendent of Public +Works, as he had just received a telegram from a certain gentleman, whom +he named, saying that he would accept the position! He handed me the +telegram. The man in question was a man I liked; later I appointed him +to an important office in which he did well. But he came from a city +along the line of the canal, so that I did not think it best that he +should be appointed anyhow; and, moreover, what was far more important, +it was necessary to have it understood at the very outset that the +Administration was my Administration and was no one else's but mine. So +I told the Senator very politely that I was sorry, but that I could not +appoint his man. This produced an explosion, but I declined to lose my +temper, merely repeating that I must decline to accept any man chosen +for me, and that I must choose the man myself. Although I was very +polite, I was also very firm, and Mr. Platt and his friends finally +abandoned their position. + +I appointed an engineer from Brooklyn, a veteran of the Civil War, +Colonel Partridge, who had served in Mayor Low's administration. He was +an excellent man in every way. He chose as his assistant, actively to +superintend the work, a Cornell graduate named Elon Hooker, a man with +no political backing at all, picked simply because he was the best +equipped man for the place. The office, the most important office under +me, was run in admirable fashion throughout my Administration; I +doubt if there ever was an important department of the New York State +Government run with a higher standard of efficiency and integrity. + +But this was not all that had to be done about the canals. Evidently +the whole policy hitherto pursued had been foolish and inadequate. I +appointed a first-class non-partisan commission of business men and +expert engineers who went into the matter exhaustively, and their report +served as the basis upon which our entire present canal system is based. +There remained the question of determining whether the canal officials +who were in office before I became Governor, and whom I had declined to +reappoint, had been guilty of any action because of which it would be +possible to proceed against them criminally or otherwise under the law. +Such criminal action had been freely charged against them during the +campaign by the Democratic (including the so-called mugwump) press. To +determine this matter I appointed two Democratic lawyers, Messrs. Fox +and MacFarlane (the latter Federal District Attorney for New York under +President Cleveland), and put the whole investigation in their hands. +These gentlemen made an exhaustive investigation lasting several months. +They reported that there had been grave delinquency in the prosecution +of the work, delinquency which justified public condemnation of those +responsible for it (who were out of office), but that there was +no ground for criminal prosecution. I laid their report before the +Legislature with a message in which I said: "There is probably no lawyer +of high standing in the State who, after studying the report of counsel +in this case and the testimony taken by the investigating commission, +would disagree with them as to the impracticability of a successful +prosecution. Under such circumstances the one remedy was a thorough +change in the methods and management. This change has been made." + +When my successor in the Governorship took office, Colonel Partridge +retired, and Elon Hooker, finding that he could no longer act with +entire disregard of politics and with an eye single to the efficiency of +the work, also left. A dozen years later--having in the meantime made +a marked success in a business career--he became the Treasurer of the +National Progressive party. + +My action in regard to the canals, and the management of his office, +the most important office under me, by Colonel Partridge, established +my relations with Mr. Platt from the outset on pretty nearly the right +basis. But, besides various small difficulties, we had one or two +serious bits of trouble before my duties as Governor ceased. It must be +remembered that Mr. Platt was to all intents and purposes a large part +of, and sometimes a majority of, the Legislature. There were a few +entirely independent men such as Nathaniel Elsberg, Regis Post, and +Alford Cooley, in each of the two houses; the remainder were under the +control of the Republican and Democratic bosses, but could also be more +or less influenced by an aroused public opinion. The two machines were +apt to make common cause if their vital interests were touched. It was +my business to devise methods by which either the two machines could be +kept apart or else overthrown if they came together. + +My desire was to achieve results, and not merely to issue manifestoes +of virtue. It is very easy to be efficient if the efficiency is based +on unscrupulousness, and it is still easier to be virtuous if one is +content with the purely negative virtue which consists in not doing +anything wrong, but being wholly unable to accomplish anything positive +for good. My favorite quotation from Josh Billings again applies: It is +so much easier to be a harmless dove than a wise serpent. My duty was to +combine both idealism and efficiency. At that time the public conscience +was still dormant as regards many species of political and business +misconduct, as to which during the next decade it became sensitive. I +had to work with the tools at hand and to take into account the feeling +of the people, which I have already described. My aim was persistently +to refuse to be put in a position where what I did would seem to be a +mere faction struggle against Senator Platt. My aim was to make a fight +only when I could so manage it that there could be no question in the +minds of honest men that my prime purpose was not to attack Mr. Platt +or any one else except as a necessary incident to securing clean and +efficient government. + +In each case I did my best to persuade Mr. Platt not to oppose me. I +endeavored to make it clear to him that I was not trying to wrest the +organization from him; and I always gave him in detail the reasons why I +felt I had to take the position I intended to adopt. It was only after I +had exhausted all the resources of my patience that I would finally, if +he still proved obstinate, tell him that I intended to make the fight +anyhow. As I have said, the Senator was an old and feeble man in +physique, and it was possible for him to go about very little. Until +Friday evening he would be kept at his duties at Washington, while I was +in Albany. If I wished to see him it generally had to be at his hotel +in New York on Saturday, and usually I would go there to breakfast with +him. The one thing I would not permit was anything in the nature of a +secret or clandestine meeting. I always insisted on going openly. Solemn +reformers of the tom-fool variety, who, according to their custom, paid +attention to the name and not the thing, were much exercised over my +"breakfasting with Platt." Whenever I breakfasted with him they became +sure that the fact carried with it some sinister significance. The +worthy creatures never took the trouble to follow the sequence of facts +and events for themselves. If they had done so they would have seen that +any series of breakfasts with Platt always meant that I was going to +do something he did not like, and that I was trying, courteously and +frankly, to reconcile him to it. My object was to make it as easy as +possible for him to come with me. As long as there was no clash between +us there was no object in my seeing him; it was only when the clash came +or was imminent that I had to see him. A series of breakfasts was always +the prelude to some active warfare.[*] In every instance I substantially +carried my point, although in some cases not in exactly the way in which +I had originally hoped. + + [*] To illustrate my meaning I quote from a letter of mine + to Senator Platt of December 13, 1899. He had been trying to + get me to promote a certain Judge X over the head of another + Judge Y. I wrote: "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." + +There were various measures to which he gave a grudging and querulous +assent without any break being threatened. I secured the reenactment +of the Civil Service Law, which under my predecessor had very foolishly +been repealed. I secured a mass of labor legislation, including the +enactment of laws to increase the number of factory inspectors, to +create a Tenement House Commission (whose findings resulted in further +and excellent legislation to improve housing conditions), to regulate +and improve sweatshop labor, to make the eight-hour and prevailing rate +of wages law effective, to secure the genuine enforcement of the act +relating to the hours of railway workers, to compel railways to equip +freight trains with air-brakes, to regulate the working hours of women +and protect both 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. I tried hard but failed to secure an +employers' liability law and the state control of employment offices. +There was hard fighting over some of these bills, and, what was much +more serious, there was effort to get round the law by trickery and by +securing its inefficient enforcement. I was continually helped by men +with whom I had gotten in touch while in the Police Department; men such +as James Bronson Reynolds, through whom I first became interested in +settlement work on the East Side. Once or twice I went suddenly down to +New York City without warning any one and traversed the tenement-house +quarters, visiting various sweat-shops picked at random. Jake Riis +accompanied me; and as a result of our inspection we got not only +an improvement in the law but a still more marked improvement in its +administration. Thanks chiefly to the activity and good sense of Dr. +John H. Pryor, of Buffalo, and by the use of every pound of pressure +which as Governor I could bring to bear in legitimate fashion--including +a special emergency message--we succeeded in getting through a bill +providing for the first State hospital for incipient tuberculosis. We +got valuable laws for the farmer; laws preventing the adulteration of +food products (which laws were equally valuable to the consumer), and +laws helping the dairyman. In addition to labor legislation I was able +to do a good deal for forest preservation and the protection of our +wild life. All that later I strove for in the Nation in connection with +Conservation was foreshadowed by what I strove to obtain for New York +State when I was Governor; and I was already working in connection with +Gifford Pinchot and Newell. I secured better administration, and some +improvement in the laws themselves. The improvement in administration, +and in the character of the game and forest wardens, was secured partly +as the result of a conference in the executive chamber which I held with +forty of the best guides and woodsmen of the Adirondacks. + +As regards most legislation, even that affecting labor and the forests, +I got on fairly well with the machine. But on the two issues in which +"big business" and the kind of politics which is allied to big business +were most involved we clashed hard--and clashing with Senator Platt +meant clashing with the entire Republican organization, and with the +organized majority in each house of the Legislature. One clash was in +connection with the Superintendent of Insurance, a man whose office made +him a factor of immense importance in the big business circles of New +York. The then incumbent of the office was an efficient man, the boss +of an up-State county, a veteran politician and one of Mr. Platt's +right-hand men. Certain investigations which I made--in the course of +the fight--showed that this Superintendent of Insurance had been engaged +in large business operations in New York City. These operations had +thrown him into a peculiarly intimate business contact of one sort and +another with various financiers with whom I did not deem it expedient +that the Superintendent of Insurance, while such, should have any +intimate and secret money-making relations. Moreover, the gentleman +in question represented the straitest sect of the old-time spoils +politicians. I therefore determined not to reappoint him. Unless I could +get his successor confirmed, however, he would stay in under the law, +and the Republican machine, with the assistance of Tammany, expected to +control far more than a majority of all the Senators. + +Mr. Platt issued an ultimatum to me that the incumbent must be +reappointed or else that he would fight, and that if he chose to fight +the man would stay in anyhow because I could not oust him--for under the +New York Constitution the assent of the Senate was necessary not only +to appoint a man to office but to remove him from office. As always with +Mr. Platt, I persistently refused to lose my temper, no matter what +he said--he was much too old and physically feeble for there to be any +point of honor in taking up any of his remarks--and I merely explained +good-humoredly that I had made up my mind and that the gentleman +in question would not be retained. As for not being able to get his +successor confirmed, I pointed out that as soon as the Legislature +adjourned I could and would appoint another man temporarily. Mr. +Platt then said that the incumbent would be put back as soon as the +Legislature reconvened; I admitted that this was possible, but +added cheerfully that I would remove him again just as soon as that +Legislature adjourned, and that even though I had an uncomfortable time +myself, I would guarantee to make my opponents more uncomfortable still. +We parted without any sign of reaching an agreement. + +There remained some weeks before final action could be taken, and the +Senator was confident that I would have to yield. His most efficient +allies were the pretended reformers, most of them my open or covert +enemies, who loudly insisted that I must make an open fight on the +Senator himself and on the Republican organization. This was what he +wished, for at that time there was no way of upsetting him within the +Republican party; and, as I have said, if I had permitted the contest +to assume the shape of a mere faction fight between the Governor and the +United States Senator, I would have insured the victory of the +machine. So I blandly refused to let the thing become a personal fight, +explaining again and again that I was perfectly willing to appoint an +organization man, and naming two or three whom I was willing to appoint, +but also explaining that I would not retain the incumbent, and would not +appoint any man of his type. Meanwhile pressure on behalf of the said +incumbent began to come from the business men of New York. + +The Superintendent of Insurance was not a man whose ill will the big +life insurance companies cared to incur, and company after company +passed resolutions asking me to reappoint him, although in private some +of the men who signed these resolutions nervously explained that they +did not mean what they had written, and hoped I would remove the man. A +citizen prominent in reform circles, marked by the Cato-like austerity +of his reform professions, had a son who was a counsel for one of the +insurance companies. The father was engaged in writing letters to the +papers demanding in the name of uncompromising virtue that I should not +only get rid of the Superintendent of Insurance, but in his place should +appoint somebody or other personally offensive to Senator Platt--which +last proposition, if adopted, would have meant that the Superintendent +of Insurance would have stayed in, for the reasons I have already given. +Meanwhile the son came to see me on behalf of the insurance company he +represented and told me that the company was anxious that there should +be a change in the superintendency; that if I really meant to fight, +they thought they had influence with four of the State Senators, +Democrats and Republicans, whom they could get to vote to confirm +the man I nominated, but that they wished to be sure that I would not +abandon the fight, because it would be a very bad thing for them if I +started the fight and then backed down. I told my visitor that he need +be under no apprehensions, that I would certainly see the fight through. +A man who has much to do with that kind of politics which concerns both +New York politicians and New York business men and lawyers is not easily +surprised, and therefore I felt no other emotion than a rather sardonic +amusement when thirty-six hours later I read in the morning paper +an open letter from the officials of the very company who had been +communicating with me in which they enthusiastically advocated the +renomination of the Superintendent. Shortly afterwards my visitor, +the young lawyer, called me up on the telephone and explained that the +officials did not mean what they had said in this letter, that they had +been obliged to write it for fear of the Superintendent, but that if +they got the chance they intended to help me get rid of him. I thanked +him and said I thought I could manage the fight by myself. I did not +hear from him again, though his father continued to write public demands +that I should practice pure virtue, undefiled and offensive. + +Meanwhile Senator Platt declined to yield. I had picked out a man, +a friend of his, who I believed would make an honest and competent +official, and whose position in the organization was such that I did not +believe the Senate would venture to reject him. However, up to the +day before the appointment was to go to the Senate, Mr. Platt remained +unyielding. I saw him that afternoon and tried to get him to yield, but +he said No, that if I insisted, it would be war to the knife, and my +destruction, and perhaps the destruction of the party. I said I was +very sorry, that I could not yield, and if the war came it would have +to come, and that next morning I should send in the name of the +Superintendent's successor. We parted, and soon afterwards I received +from the man who was at the moment Mr. Platt's right-hand lieutenant +a request to know where he could see me that evening. I appointed the +Union League Club. My visitor went over the old ground, explained that +the Senator would under no circumstances yield, that he was certain to +win in the fight, that my reputation would be destroyed, and that he +wished to save me from such a lamentable smash-up as an ending to my +career. I could only repeat what I had already said, and after half an +hour of futile argument I rose and said that nothing was to be gained by +further talk and that I might as well go. 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 to-morrow 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. My success in the affair, coupled with the +appointment of Messrs. Partridge and Hooker, secured me against further +effort to interfere with my handling of the executive departments. + +It was in connection with the insurance business that I first met Mr. +George W. Perkins. He came to me with a letter of introduction from the +then Speaker of the National House of Representatives, Tom Reed, +which ran: "Mr. Perkins is a personal friend of mine, whose +straightforwardness and intelligence will commend to you whatever he has +to say. If you will give him proper opportunity to explain his business, +I have no doubt that what he will say will be worthy of your attention." +Mr. Perkins wished to see me with reference to a bill that had just been +introduced in the Legislature, which aimed to limit the aggregate volume +of insurance that any New York State company could assume. There +were then three big insurance companies in New York--the Mutual Life, +Equitable, and New York Life. Mr. Perkins was a Vice-President of +the New York Life Insurance Company and Mr. John A. McCall was its +President. I had just finished my fight against the Superintendent of +Insurance, whom I refused to continue in office. Mr. McCall had written +me a very strong letter urging that he be retained, and had done +everything he could to aid Senator Platt in securing his retention. The +Mutual Life and Equitable people had openly followed the same course, +but in private had hedged. They were both backing the proposed bill. Mr. +McCall was opposed to it; he was in California, and just before starting +thither he had been told by the Mutual Life and Equitable that the +Limitation Bill was favored by me and would be put through if such a +thing were possible. Mr. McCall did not know me, and on leaving for +California told Mr. Perkins that from all he could learn he was sure I +was bent on putting this bill through, and that nothing he could say +to me would change my view; in fact, because he had fought so hard +to retain the old Insurance Superintendent, he felt that I would be +particularly opposed to anything he might wish done. + +As a matter of fact, I had no such feeling. I had been carefully +studying the question. I had talked with the Mutual Life and Equitable +people about it, but was not committed to any particular course, and had +grave doubts as to whether it was well to draw the line on size instead +of on conduct. I was therefore very glad to see Perkins and get a new +point of view. I went over the matter with a great deal of care and at +considerable length, and after we had thrashed the matter out pretty +fully and Perkins had laid before me in detail the methods employed by +Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and other European countries to handle +their large insurance companies, I took the position that there +undoubtedly were evils in the insurance business, but that they did not +consist in insuring people's lives, for that certainly was not an evil; +and I did not see how the real evils could be eradicated by limiting or +suppressing a company's ability to protect an additional number of lives +with insurance. I therefore announced that I would not favor a bill that +limited volume of business, and would not sign it if it were passed; +but that I favored legislation that would make it impossible to place, +through agents, policies that were ambiguous and misleading, or to pay +exorbitant prices to agents for business, or to invest policy-holders' +money in improper securities, or to give power to officers to use +the company's funds for their own personal profit. In reaching this +determination I was helped by Mr. Loeb, then merely a stenographer in +my office, but who had already attracted my attention both by his +efficiency and by his loyalty to his former employers, who were for +the most part my political opponents. Mr. Loeb gave me much information +about various improper practices in the insurance business. I began +to gather data on the subject, with the intention of bringing about +corrective legislation, for at that time I expected to continue +in office as Governor. But in a few weeks I was nominated as +Vice-President, and my successor did nothing about the matter. + +So far as I remember, this was the first time the question of correcting +evils in a business by limiting the volume of business to be done was +ever presented to me, and my decision in the matter was on all fours +with the position I have always since taken when any similar principle +was involved. At the time when I made my decision about the Limitation +Bill, I was on friendly terms with the Mutual and Equitable people +who were back of it, whereas I did not know Mr. McCall at all, and Mr. +Perkins only from hearing him discuss the bill. + +An interesting feature of the matter developed subsequently. Five years +later, after the insurance investigations took place, the Mutual Life +strongly urged the passage of a Limitation Bill, and, because of the +popular feeling developed by the exposure of the improper practices of +the companies, this bill was generally approved. Governor Hughes adopted +the suggestion, such a bill was passed by the Legislature, and Governor +Hughes signed it. This bill caused the three great New York companies to +reduce markedly the volume of business they were doing; it threw a great +many agents out of employment, and materially curtailed the foreign +business of the companies--which business was bringing annually a +considerable sum of money to this country for investment. In short, +the experiment worked so badly that before Governor Hughes went out of +office one of the very last bills he signed was one that permitted the +life insurance companies to increase their business each year by an +amount representing a certain percentage of the business they had +previously done. This in practice, within a few years, practically +annulled the Limitation Bill that had been previously passed. The +experiment of limiting the size of business, of legislating against it +merely because it was big, had been tried, and had failed so completely +that the authors of the bill had themselves in effect repealed it. My +action in refusing to try the experiment had been completely justified. + +As a sequel to this incident I got Mr. Perkins to serve on the Palisade +Park Commission. At the time I was taking active part in the effort to +save the Palisades from vandalism and destruction by getting the States +of New York and New Jersey jointly to include them in a public park. +It is not easy to get a responsible and capable man of business to +undertake such a task, which is unpaid, which calls on his part for an +immense expenditure of time, money, and energy, which offers no +reward of any kind, and which entails the certainty of abuse and +misrepresentation. Mr. Perkins accepted the position, and has filled +it for the last thirteen years, doing as disinterested, efficient, +and useful a bit of public service as any man in the State has done +throughout these thirteen years. + +The case of most importance in which I clashed with Senator Platt +related to a matter of fundamental governmental policy, and was the +first step I ever took toward bringing big corporations under effective +governmental control. In this case I had to fight the Democratic machine +as well as the Republican machine, for Senator Hill and Senator Platt +were equally opposed to my action, and the big corporation men, the big +business men back of both of them, took precisely the same view of these +matters without regard to their party feelings on other points. What +I did convulsed people at that time, and marked the beginning of the +effort, at least in the Eastern states, to make the great corporations +really responsible to popular wish and governmental command. But we +have gone so far past the stage in which we then were that now it seems +well-nigh incredible that there should have been any opposition at all +to what I at that time proposed. + +The substitution of electric power for horse power in the street car +lines of New York offered a fruitful chance for the most noxious type of +dealing between business men and politicians. The franchises granted by +New York were granted without any attempt to secure from the grantees +returns, in the way of taxation or otherwise, for the value received. +The fact that they were thus granted by improper favoritism, a +favoritism which in many cases was unquestionably secured by downright +bribery, led to all kinds of trouble. In return for the continuance +of these improper favors to the corporations the politicians expected +improper favors in the way of excessive campaign contributions, often +contributed by the same corporation at the same time to two opposing +parties. Before I became Governor a bill had been introduced into the +New York Legislature to tax the franchises of these street railways. It +affected a large number of corporations, but particularly those in New +York and Buffalo. It had been suffered to slumber undisturbed, as none +of the people in power dreamed of taking it seriously, and both the +Republican and Democratic machines were hostile to it. Under the rules +of the New York Legislature a bill could always be taken up out of its +turn and passed if the Governor sent in a special emergency message on +its behalf. + +After I was elected Governor I had my attention directed to the +franchise tax matter, looked into the subject, and came to the +conclusion that it was a matter of plain decency and honesty that these +companies should pay a tax on their franchises, inasmuch as they did +nothing that could be considered as service rendered the public in lieu +of a tax. This seemed to me so evidently the common-sense and decent +thing to do that I was hardly prepared for the storm of protest and +anger which my proposal aroused. Senator Platt and the other machine +leaders did everything to get me to abandon my intention. As usual, +I saw them, talked the matter all over with them, and did my best to +convert them to my way of thinking. Senator Platt, I believe, was quite +sincere in his opposition. He did not believe in popular rule, and he +did believe that the big business men were entitled to have things their +way. He profoundly distrusted the people--naturally enough, for the kind +of human nature with which a boss comes in contact is not of an exalted +type. He felt that anarchy would come if there was any interference +with a system by which the people in mass were, under various necessary +cloaks, controlled by the leaders in the political and business worlds. +He wrote me a very strong letter of protest against my attitude, +expressed in dignified, friendly, and temperate language, but using one +word in a curious way. This was the word "altruistic." He stated in his +letter that he had not objected to my being independent in politics, +because he had been sure that I had the good of the party at heart, and +meant to act fairly and honorably; but that he had been warned, before +I became a candidate, by a number of his business friends that I was a +dangerous man because I was "altruistic," and that he now feared that +my conduct would justify the alarm thus expressed. I was interested in +this, not only because Senator Platt was obviously sincere, but because +of the way in which he used "altruistic" as a term of reproach, as if it +was Communistic or Socialistic--the last being a word he did use to me +when, as now and then happened, he thought that my proposals warranted +fairly reckless vituperation. + +Senator Platt's letter ran in part as follows: + +"When the subject of your nomination was under consideration, there was +one matter that gave me real anxiety. I think you will have no +trouble in appreciating the fact that it was _not_ the matter of your +independence. I think we have got far enough along in our political +acquaintance for you to see that my support in a convention does +not imply subsequent 'demands,' nor any other relation that may not +reasonably exist for the welfare of the party. . . . The thing that did +bother me was this: 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 own 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. . . . +You have just adjourned a Legislature which created a good opinion +throughout the State. I congratulate you heartily upon this fact because +I sincerely believe, as everybody else does, that this good impression +exists very largely as a result of your personal influence in the +Legislative chambers. But at the last moment, and to my very great +surprise, you did a thing which has caused the business community of New +York to wonder how far the notions of Populism, as laid down in Kansas +and Nebraska, have taken hold upon the Republican party of the State of +New York." + +In my answer I pointed out to the Senator that I had as Governor +unhesitatingly acted, at Buffalo and elsewhere, to put down mobs, +without regard to the fact that the professed leaders of labor furiously +denounced me for so doing; but that I could no more tolerate wrong +committed in the name of property than wrong committed against property. +My letter ran in part as follows: + +"I knew that you had just the feelings that you describe; that is, apart +from my 'impulsiveness,' you felt that there was a justifiable anxiety +among men of means, and especially men representing large corporate +interests, lest I might feel too strongly on what you term the +'altruistic' side in matters of labor and capital and as regards the +relations of the State to great corporations. . . . 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 really do not correct the +evils at all, or else only 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. I understand +perfectly that such an attitude of moderation is apt to be misunderstood +when passions are greatly excited and when victory is apt to rest with +the extremists on one side or the other; yet I think it is in the long +run the only wise attitude. . . . I appreciate absolutely [what Mr. +Platt had said] that any applause I get will be too evanescent for a +moment's consideration. I appreciate absolutely that the people who now +loudly approve of my action in the franchise tax bill will forget all +about it in a fortnight, and that, on the other hand, the very powerful +interests adversely affected will always remember it. . . . [The +leaders] urged upon me that I personally could not afford to take this +action, for under no circumstances could I ever again be nominated for +any public office, as no corporation would subscribe to a campaign fund +if I was on the ticket, and that they would subscribe most heavily to +beat me; and when I asked if this were true of Republican corporations, +the cynical answer was made that the corporations that subscribed most +heavily to the campaign funds subscribed impartially to both party +organizations. Under all these circumstances, it seemed to me there +was no alternative but to do what I could to secure the passage of the +bill." + +These two letters, written in the spring of 1899, express clearly the +views of the two elements of the Republican party, whose hostility +gradually grew until it culminated, thirteen years later. In 1912 the +political and financial forces of which Mr. Platt had once been the +spokesman, usurped the control of the party machinery and drove out of +the party the men who were loyally endeavoring to apply the principles +of the founders of the party to the needs and issues of their own day. + +I had made up my mind that if I could get a show in the Legislature +the bill would pass, because the people had become interested and the +representatives would scarcely dare to vote the wrong way. Accordingly, +on April 27, 1899, I sent a special message to the Assembly, certifying +that the emergency demanded the immediate passage of the bill. The +machine leaders were bitterly angry, and the Speaker actually tore up +the message without reading it to the Assembly. That night they were +busy trying to arrange some device for the defeat of the bill--which +was not difficult, as the session was about to close. At seven the +next morning I was informed of what had occurred. At eight I was in the +Capitol at the Executive chamber, and sent in another special message, +which opened as follows: "I learn that the emergency message which I +sent last evening to the Assembly on behalf of the Franchise Tax Bill +has not been read. I therefore send hereby another message on the +subject. I need not impress upon the Assembly the need of passing this +bill at once." I sent this message to the Assembly, by my secretary, +William J. Youngs, afterwards United States District Attorney of Kings, +with an intimation that if this were not promptly read I should come +up in person and read it. Then, as so often happens, the opposition +collapsed and the bill went through both houses with a rush. I had in +the House stanch friends, such as Regis Post and Alford Cooley, men of +character and courage, who would have fought to a finish had the need +arisen. + +My troubles were not at an end, however. The bill put the taxation in +the hands of the local county boards, and as the railways sometimes +passed through several different counties, this was inadvisable. It was +the end of the session, and the Legislature adjourned. The corporations +affected, through various counsel, and the different party leaders +of both organizations, urged me not to sign the bill, laying especial +stress on this feature, and asking that I wait until the following year, +when a good measure could be put through with this obnoxious feature +struck out. I had thirty days under the law in which to sign the bill. +If I did not sign it by the end of that time it would not become a law. +I answered my political and corporation friends by telling them that I +agreed with them that this feature was wrong, but that I would rather +have the bill with this feature than not have it at all; and that I was +not willing to trust to what might be done a year later. Therefore, I +explained, I would reconvene the Legislature in special session, and if +the legislators chose to amend the bill by placing the power of taxation +in the State instead of in the county or municipality, I would be glad; +but that if they failed to amend it, or amended it improperly, I would +sign the original bill and let it become law as it was. + +When the representatives of Mr. Platt and of the corporations affected +found they could do no better, they assented to this proposition. +Efforts were tentatively made to outwit me, by inserting amendments that +would nullify the effect of the law, or by withdrawing the law when the +Legislature convened; which would at once have deprived me of the +whip hand. On May 12 I wrote Senator Platt, outlining the amendments I +desired, and said: "Of course it must be understood that I will sign the +present bill if the proposed bill containing the changes outlined above +fails to pass." On May 18 I notified the Senate leader, John Raines, +by telegram: "Legislature has no power to withdraw the Ford bill. If +attempt is made to do so, I will sign the bill at once." On the same +day, by telegram, I wired Mr. Odell concerning the bill the leaders were +preparing: "Some provisions of bill very objectionable. I am at work on +bill to show you to-morrow. The bill must not contain greater changes +than those outlined in my message." My wishes were heeded, and when I +had reconvened the Legislature it amended the bill as I outlined in my +message; and in its amended form the bill became law. + +There promptly followed something which afforded an index of the good +faith of the corporations that had been protesting to me. As soon as the +change for which they had begged was inserted in the law, and the law +was signed, they turned round and refused to pay the taxes; and in the +lawsuit that followed, they claimed that the law was unconstitutional, +because it contained the very clause which they had so clamorously +demanded. Senator David B. Hill had appeared before me on behalf of the +corporations to argue for the change; and he then appeared before the +courts to make the argument on the other side. The suit was carried +through to the Supreme Court of the United States, which declared the +law constitutional during the time that I was President. + +One of the painful duties of the chief executive in States like New +York, as well as in the Nation, is the refusing of pardons. Yet I can +imagine nothing more necessary from the standpoint of good citizenship +than the ability to steel one's heart in this matter of granting +pardons. The pressure is always greatest in two classes of cases: first, +that where capital punishment is inflicted; second, that where the +man is prominent socially and in the business world, and where in +consequence his crime is apt to have been one concerned in some way with +finance. + +As regards capital cases, the trouble is that emotional men and women +always see only the individual whose fate is up at the moment, and +neither his victim nor the many millions of unknown individuals who +would in the long run be harmed by what they ask. Moreover, almost any +criminal, however brutal, has usually some person, often a person whom +he has greatly wronged, who will plead for him. If the mother is alive +she will always come, and she cannot help feeling that the case in which +she is so concerned is peculiar, that in this case a pardon should be +granted. It was really heartrending to have to see the kinsfolk and +friends of murderers who were condemned to death, and among the very +rare occasions when anything governmental or official caused me to lose +sleep were the times when I had to listen to some poor mother making a +plea for a criminal so wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved, that it +would have been a crime on my part to remit his punishment. + +On the other hand, there were certain crimes where requests for leniency +merely made me angry. Such crimes were, for instance, rape, or the +circulation of indecent literature, or anything connected with what +would now be called the "white slave" traffic, or wife murder, or gross +cruelty to women and children, or seduction and abandonment, or the +action of some man in getting a girl whom he had seduced to commit +abortion. I am speaking in each instance of cases that actually came +before me, either while I was Governor or while I was President. In an +astonishing number of these cases men of high standing signed petitions +or wrote letters asking me to show leniency to the criminal. In two or +three of the cases--one where some young roughs had committed rape on a +helpless immigrant girl, and another in which a physician of wealth +and high standing had seduced a girl and then induced her to commit +abortion--I rather lost my temper, and wrote to the individuals who had +asked for the pardon, saying that I extremely regretted that it was +not in my power to increase the sentence. I then let the facts be made +public, for I thought that my petitioners deserved public censure. +Whether they received this public censure or not I did not know, but +that my action made them very angry I do know, and their anger gave me +real satisfaction. The list of these petitioners was a fairly long one, +and included two United States Senators, a Governor of a State, two +judges, an editor, and some eminent lawyers and business men. + +In the class of cases where the offense was one involving the misuse of +large sums of money the reason for the pressure was different. Cases of +this kind more frequently came before me when I was President, but they +also came before me when I was Governor, chiefly in the cases of county +treasurers who had embezzled funds. A big bank president, a railway +magnate, an official connected with some big corporation, or a +Government official in a responsible fiduciary position, necessarily +belongs among the men who have succeeded in life. This means that his +family are living in comfort, and perhaps luxury and refinement, and +that his sons and daughters have been well educated. In such a case +the misdeed of the father comes as a crushing disaster to the wife and +children, and the people of the community, however bitter originally +against the man, grow to feel the most intense sympathy for the +bowed-down women and children who suffer for the man's fault. It is +a dreadful thing in life that so much of atonement for wrong-doing +is vicarious. If it were possible in such a case to think only of the +banker's or county treasurer's wife and children, any man would pardon +the offender at once. Unfortunately, it is not right to think only of +the women and children. The very fact that in cases of this class there +is certain to be pressure from high sources, pressure sometimes by men +who have been beneficially, even though remotely, interested in the +man's criminality, no less than pressure because of honest sympathy with +the wife and children, makes it necessary that the good public servant +shall, no matter how deep his sympathy and regret, steel his heart and +do his duty by refusing to let the wrong-doer out. My experience of the +way in which pardons are often granted is one of the reasons why I +do not believe that life imprisonment for murder and rape is a proper +substitute for the death penalty. The average term of so-called life +imprisonment in this country is only about fourteen years. + +Of course there were cases where I either commuted sentences or pardoned +offenders with very real pleasure. For instance, when President, I +frequently commuted sentences for horse stealing in the Indian Territory +because the penalty for stealing a horse was disproportionate to the +penalty for many other crimes, and the offense was usually committed by +some ignorant young fellow who found a half-wild horse, and really did +not commit anything like as serious an offense as the penalty indicated. +The judges would be obliged to give the minimum penalty, but would +forward me memoranda stating that if there had been a less penalty they +would have inflicted it, and I would then commute the sentence to the +penalty thus indicated. + +In one case in New York I pardoned outright a man convicted of murder +in the second degree, and I did this on the recommendation of a friend, +Father Doyle of the Paulist Fathers. I had become intimate with the +Paulist Fathers while I was Police Commissioner, and I had grown to feel +confidence in their judgment, for I had found that they always told me +exactly what the facts were about any man, whether he belonged to their +church or not. In this case the convicted man was a strongly built, +respectable old Irishman employed as a watchman around some big +cattle-killing establishments. The young roughs of the neighborhood, +which was then of a rather lawless type, used to try to destroy the +property of the companies. In a conflict with a watchman a member of one +of the gangs was slain. The watchman was acquitted, but the neighborhood +was much wrought up over the acquittal. Shortly afterwards, a gang of +the same roughs attacked another watchman, the old Irishman in question, +and finally, to save his own life, he was obliged in self-defense to +kill one of his assailants. The feeling in the community, however, was +strongly against him, and some of the men high up in the corporation +became frightened and thought that it would be better to throw over the +watchman. He was convicted. Father Doyle came to me, told me that he +knew the man well, that he was one of the best members of his church, +admirable in every way, that he had simply been forced to fight for his +life while loyally doing his duty, and that the conviction represented +the triumph of the tough element of the district and the abandonment of +this man, by those who should have stood by him, under the influence of +an unworthy fear. I looked into the case, came to the conclusion that +Father Doyle was right, and gave the man a full pardon before he had +served thirty days. + +The various clashes between myself and the machine, my triumph in them, +and the fact that the people were getting more and more interested +and aroused, brought on a curious situation in the Republican National +Convention at Philadelphia in June, 1900. Senator Platt and the New +York machine leaders had become very anxious to get me out of the +Governorship, chiefly because of the hostility of the big corporation +men towards me; but they had also become convinced that there was such +popular feeling on my behalf that it would be difficult to refuse me a +renomination if I demanded it. They accordingly decided to push me for +Vice-President, taking advantage of the fact that there was at that time +a good deal of feeling for me in the country at large. [See Appendix B +to this chapter.] I myself did not appreciate that there was any such +feeling, and as I greatly disliked the office of Vice-President and was +much interested in the Governorship, I announced that I would not accept +the Vice-Presidency. I was one of the delegates to Philadelphia. On +reaching there I found that the situation was complicated. Senator +Hanna appeared on the surface to have control of the Convention. He was +anxious that I should not be nominated as Vice-President. Senator Platt +was anxious that I should be nominated as Vice-President, in order to +get me out of the New York Governorship. Each took a position opposite +to that of the other, but each at that time cordially sympathized with +the other's feelings about me--it was the manifestations and not the +feelings that differed. My supporters in New York State did not wish +me nominated for Vice-President because they wished me to continue as +Governor; but in every other State all the people who admired me were +bound that I should be nominated as Vice-President. These people were +almost all desirous of seeing Mr. McKinley renominated as President, but +they became angry at Senator Hanna's opposition to me as Vice-President. +He in his turn suddenly became aware that if he persisted he might find +that in their anger these men would oppose Mr. McKinley's renomination, +and although they could not have prevented the nomination, such +opposition would have been a serious blow in the campaign which was to +follow. Senator Hanna, therefore, began to waver. + +Meanwhile a meeting of the New York delegation was called. Most of the +delegates were under the control of Senator Platt. The Senator notified +me that if I refused to accept the nomination for Vice-President I +would be beaten for the nomination for Governor. I answered that I would +accept the challenge, that we would have a straight-out fight on the +proposition, and that I would begin it at once by telling the assembled +delegates of the threat, and giving fair warning that I intended to +fight for the Governorship nomination, and, moreover, that I intended to +get it. This brought Senator Platt to terms. The effort to instruct +the New York delegation for me was abandoned, and Lieutenant-Governor +Woodruff was presented for nomination in my place. + +I supposed that this closed the incident, and that no further effort +would be made to nominate me for the Vice-Presidency. On the contrary, +the effect was directly the reverse. The upset of the New York machine +increased the feeling of the delegates from other States that it was +necessary to draft me for the nomination. By next day Senator Hanna +himself concluded that this was a necessity, and acquiesced in the +movement. As New York was already committed against me, and as I was +not willing that there should be any chance of supposing that the New +Yorkers had nominated me to get rid of me, the result was that I was +nominated and seconded from outside States. No other candidate was +placed in the field. + +By this time the Legislature had adjourned, and most of my work as +Governor of New York was over. One unexpected bit of business arose, +however. It was the year of the Presidential campaign. Tammany, which +had been lukewarm about Bryan in 1896, cordially supported him in +1900; and when Tammany heartily supports a candidate it is well for the +opposing candidate to keep a sharp lookout for election frauds. The city +government was in the hands of Tammany; but I had power to remove +the Mayor, the Sheriff, and the District Attorney for malfeasance or +misfeasance in office. Such power had not been exercised by any previous +Governor, as far as I knew; but it existed, and if the misfeasance or +malfeasance warranted it, and if the Governor possessed the requisite +determination, the power could be, and ought to be, exercised. + +By an Act of the Legislature, a State Bureau of Elections had been +created in New York City, and a Superintendent of Elections appointed +by the Governor. The Chief of the State Bureau of Elections was +John McCullagh, formerly in the Police Department when I was Police +Commissioner. The Chief of Police for the city was William F. Devery, +one of the Tammany leaders, who represented in the Police Department +all that I had warred against while Commissioner. On November 4 Devery +directed his subordinates in the Police Department to disregard the +orders which McCullagh had given to his deputies, orders which were +essential if we were to secure an honest election in the city. I had +just returned from a Western campaign trip, and was at Sagamore Hill. I +had no direct power over Devery; but the Mayor had; and I had power over +the Mayor. Accordingly, I at once wrote to the Mayor of New York, to the +Sheriff of New York, and to the District Attorney of New York County the +following letters: + +STATE OF NEW YORK OYSTER BAY, November 5, 1900. + +To the Mayor of the City of New York. + +Sir: My attention has been called to the official order issued by Chief +of Police Devery, in which he directs his subordinates to disregard the +Chief of the State Election Bureau, John McCullagh, and his deputies. +Unless you have already taken steps to secure the recall of this order, +it is necessary for me to point out that I shall be obliged to hold you +responsible as the head of the city government for the action of the +Chief of Police, if it should result in any breach of the peace and +intimidation or any crime whatever against the election laws. The State +and city authorities should work together. I will not fail to call to +summary account either State or city authority in the event of either +being guilty of intimidation or connivance at fraud or of failure to +protect every legal voter in his rights. I therefore hereby notify +you that in the event of any wrong-doing following upon the failure +immediately to recall Chief Devery's order, or upon any action or +inaction on the part of Chief Devery, I must necessarily call you to +account. + +Yours, etc., THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + +STATE OF NEW YORK OYSTER BAY, November 5, 1900. + +To the Sheriff of the County of New York. + +Sir: My attention has been called to the official order issued by Chief +of Police Devery in which he directs his subordinates to disregard the +Chief of the State Election Bureau, John McCullagh, and his deputies. + +It is your duty to assist in the orderly enforcement of the law, and I +shall hold you strictly responsible for any breach of the public peace +within your county, or for any failure on your part to do your full duty +in connection with the election to-morrow. + +Yours truly, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + + +STATE OF NEW YORK OYSTER BAY, November 5, 1900. + +To the District Attorney of the County of New York. + +Sir: My attention has been called to the official order issued by Chief +of Police Devery, in which he directs his subordinates to disregard the +Chief of the State Election Bureau, John McCullagh, and his deputies. + +In view of this order I call your attention to the fact that it is your +duty to assist in the orderly enforcement of the law, and there must be +no failure on your part to do your full duty in the matter. + +Yours truly, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +These letters had the desired effect. The Mayor promptly required Chief +Devery to rescind the obnoxious order, which was as promptly done. The +Sheriff also took prompt action. The District Attorney refused to heed +my letter, and assumed an attitude of defiance, and I removed him from +office. On election day there was no clash between the city and State +authorities; the election was orderly and honest. + + +APPENDIX A + +CONSERVATION + +As foreshadowing the course I later, as President, followed in this +matter, I give extracts from one of my letters to the Commission, and +from my second (and last) Annual Message. I spent the first months of my +term in investigations to find out just what the situation was. + +On November 28, 1899, I wrote to the Commission as follows: + +". . . I have had very many complaints before this as to the +inefficiency of the game wardens and game protectors, the complaints +usually taking the form that the men have been appointed and are +retained without due regard to the duties to be performed. I do not wish +a man to be retained or appointed who is not thoroughly fit to perform +the duties of game protector. The Adirondacks are entitled to a peculiar +share of the Commission's attention, both from the standpoint of +forestry, and from the less important, but still very important, +standpoint of game and fish protection. The men who do duty as game +protectors in the Adirondacks should, by preference, be appointed from +the locality itself, and should in all cases be thorough woodsmen. The +mere fact that a game protector has to hire a guide to pilot him through +the woods is enough to show his unfitness for the position. I want +as game protectors men of courage, resolution, and hardihood, who can +handle the rifle, ax, and paddle; who can camp out in summer or winter; +who can go on snow-shoes, if necessary; who can go through the woods by +day or by night without regard to trails. + +"I should like full information about all your employees, as to their +capacities, as to the labor they perform, as to their distribution from +and where they do their work." + +Many of the men hitherto appointed owed their positions principally to +political preference. The changes I recommended were promptly made, +and much to the good of the public service. In my Annual Message, in +January, 1900, I said: + +"Great progress has been made through the fish hatcheries in the +propagation of valuable food and sporting fish. The laws for the +protection of deer have resulted in their increase. Nevertheless, as +railroads tend to encroach on the wilderness, the temptation to illegal +hunting becomes greater, and the danger from forest fires increases. +There is need of great improvement both in our laws and in their +administration. The game wardens have been too few in number. More +should be provided. None save fit men must be appointed; and their +retention in office must depend purely upon the zeal, ability, and +efficiency with which they perform their duties. The game wardens in the +forests must be woodsmen; and they should have no outside business. +In short, there should be a thorough reorganization of the work of +the Commission. A careful study of the resources and condition of the +forests on State land must be made. It is certainly not too much to +expect that the State forests should be managed as efficiently as the +forests on private lands in the same neighborhoods. And the measure +of difference in efficiency of management must be the measure of +condemnation or praise of the way the public forests have been managed. + +"The subject of forest preservation is of the utmost importance to +the State. The Adirondacks and Catskills should be great parks kept in +perpetuity for the benefit and enjoyment of our people. Much has been +done of late years towards their preservation, but very much remains to +be done. The provisions of law in reference to sawmills and wood-pulp +mills are defective and should be changed so as to prohibit dumping +dye-stuff, sawdust, or tan-bark, in any amount whatsoever, into the +streams. Reservoirs should be made, but not where they will tend to +destroy large sections of the forest, and only after a careful and +scientific study of the water resources of the region. The people of +the forest regions are themselves growing more and more to realize the +necessity of preserving both the trees and the game. A live deer in the +woods will attract to the neighborhood ten times the money that could +be obtained for the deer's dead carcass. Timber theft on the State lands +is, of course, a grave offense against the whole public. + +"Hardy outdoor sports, like hunting, are in themselves of no small value +to the National character and should be encouraged in every way. Men who +go into the wilderness, indeed, men who take part in any field sports +with horse or rifle, receive a benefit which can hardly be given by even +the most vigorous athletic games. + +"There is a further and more immediate and practical end in view. A +primeval forest is a great sponge which absorbs and distills the rain +water. And when it is destroyed the result is apt to be an alternation +of flood and drought. Forest fires ultimately make the land a desert, +and are a detriment to all that portion of the State tributary to the +streams through the woods where they occur. Every effort should be made +to minimize their destructive influence. We need to have our system of +forestry gradually developed and conducted along scientific principles. +When this has been done it will be possible to allow marketable lumber +to be cut everywhere without damage to the forests--indeed, with +positive advantage to them. But until lumbering is thus conducted, +on strictly scientific principles no less than upon principles of the +strictest honesty toward the State, we cannot afford to suffer it at +all in the State forests. Unrestrained greed means the ruin of the great +woods and the drying up of the sources of the rivers. + +"Ultimately the administration of the State lands must be so centralized +as to enable us definitely to place responsibility in respect to +everything concerning them, and to demand the highest degree of trained +intelligence in their use. + +"The State should not permit within its limits factories to make bird +skins or bird feathers into articles of ornament or wearing apparel. +Ordinary birds, and especially song birds, should be rigidly protected. +Game birds should never be shot to a greater extent than will offset the +natural rate of increase. . . . Care should be taken not to encourage +the use of cold storage or other market systems which are a benefit to +no one but the wealthy epicure who can afford to pay a heavy price for +luxuries. These systems tend to the destruction of the game, which would +bear most severely upon the very men whose rapacity has been appealed to +in order to secure its extermination. . . ." + +I reorganized the Commission, putting Austin Wadsworth at its head. + + +APPENDIX B + +THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1900 + +My general scheme of action as Governor was given in a letter I wrote +one of my supporters among the independent district organization +leaders, Norton Goddard, on April 16, 1900. It runs in part as follows: +"Nobody can tell, and least of all the machine itself, whether the +machine intends to renominate me next fall or not. If for some reason I +should be weak, whether on account of faults or virtues, doubtless the +machine will throw me over, and I think I am not uncharitable when I say +they would feel no acute grief at so doing. It would be very strange if +they did feel such grief. If, for instance, we had strikes which led +to riots, I would of course be obliged to preserve order and stop the +riots. Decent citizens would demand that I should do it, and in any +event I should do it wholly without regard to their demands. But, once +it was done, they would forget all about it, while a great many laboring +men, honest but ignorant and prejudiced, would bear a grudge against +me for doing it. This might put me out of the running as a candidate. +Again, the big corporations undoubtedly want to beat me. They prefer +the chance of being blackmailed to the certainty that they will not be +allowed any more than their due. Of course they will try to beat me +on some entirely different issue, and, as they are very able and very +unscrupulous, nobody can tell that they won't succeed. . . . I have been +trying to stay in with the organization. I did not do it with the idea +that they would renominate me. I did it with the idea of getting things +done, and in that I have been absolutely successful. Whether Senator +Platt and Mr. Odell endeavor to beat me, or do beat me, for the +renomination next fall, is of very small importance compared to the fact +that for my two years I have been able to make a Republican majority +in the Legislature do good and decent work and have prevented any split +within the party. The task was one of great difficulty, because, on the +one hand, I had to keep clearly before me the fact that it was better to +have a split than to permit bad work to be done, and, on the other hand, +the fact that to have that split would absolutely prevent all _good_ +work. The result has been that I have avoided a split and that as a net +result of my two years and the two sessions of the Legislature, +there has been an enormous improvement in the administration of the +Government, and there has also been a great advance in legislation." + +To show my reading of the situation at the time I quote from a letter +of mine to Joseph B. Bishop, then editor of the _Commercial Advertiser_, +with whom towards the end of my term I had grown into very close +relations, and who, together with two other old friends, Albert Shaw, +of the _Review of Reviews_, and Silas McBee, now editor of the +_Constructive Quarterly_, knew the inside of every movement, so far as I +knew it myself. The letter, which is dated April 11, 1900, runs in part +as follows: "The dangerous element as far as I am concerned comes from +the corporations. The [naming certain men] crowd and those like them +have been greatly exasperated by the franchise tax. They would like to +get me out of politics for good, but at the moment they think the best +thing to do is to put me into the Vice-Presidency. Naturally I will +not be opposed openly on the ground of the corporations' grievance; but +every kind of false statement will continually be made, and men like +[naming the editors of certain newspapers] will attack me, not as the +enemy of corporations, but as their tool! There is no question whatever +that if the leaders can they will upset me." + +One position which as Governor (and as President) I consistently took, +seems to me to represent what ought to be a fundamental principle in +American legislative work. I steadfastly refused to advocate any law, no +matter how admirable in theory, if there was good reason to believe that +in practice it would not be executed. I have always sympathized with the +view set forth by Pelatiah Webster in 1783--quoted by Hannis Taylor +in his _Genesis of the Supreme Court_--"Laws or ordinances of any kind +(especially of august bodies of high dignity and consequence) which +fail of execution, are much worse than none. They weaken the government, +expose it to contempt, destroy the confidence of all men, native and +foreigners, in it, and expose both aggregate bodies and individuals who +have placed confidence in it to many ruinous disappointments which +they would have escaped had no such law or ordinance been made." This +principle, by the way, not only applies to an internal law which cannot +be executed; it applies even more to international action, such as a +universal arbitration treaty which cannot and will not be kept; and +most of all it applies to proposals to make such universal arbitration +treaties at the very time that we are not keeping our solemn promise +to execute limited arbitration treaties which we have already made. A +general arbitration treaty is merely a promise; it represents merely a +debt of honorable obligation; and nothing is more discreditable, for +a nation or an individual, than to cover up the repudiation of a debt +which can be and ought to be paid, by recklessly promising to incur a +new and insecure debt which no wise man for one moment supposes ever +will be paid. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +OUTDOORS AND INDOORS + +There are men who love out-of-doors who yet never open a book; and other +men who love books but to whom the great book of nature is a +sealed volume, and the lines written therein blurred and illegible. +Nevertheless among those men whom I have known the love of books and the +love of outdoors, in their highest expressions, have usually gone hand +in hand. It is an affectation for the man who is praising outdoors to +sneer at books. Usually the keenest appreciation of what is seen in +nature is to be found in those who have also profited by the hoarded +and recorded wisdom of their fellow-men. Love of outdoor life, love of +simple and hardy pastimes, can be gratified by men and women who do +not possess large means, and who work hard; and so can love of good +books--not of good bindings and of first editions, excellent enough in +their way but sheer luxuries--I mean love of reading books, owning them +if possible of course, but, if that is not possible, getting them from a +circulating library. + +Sagamore Hill takes its name from the old Sagamore Mohannis, who, +as chief of his little tribe, signed away his rights to the land two +centuries and a half ago. The house stands right on the top of the hill, +separated by fields and belts of woodland from all other houses, and +looks out over the bay and the Sound. We see the sun go down beyond long +reaches of land and of water. Many birds dwell in the trees round the +house or in the pastures and the woods near by, and of course in winter +gulls, loons, and wild fowl frequent the waters of the bay and the +Sound. We love all the seasons; the snows and bare woods of winter; +the rush of growing things and the blossom-spray of spring; the yellow +grain, the ripening fruits and tasseled corn, and the deep, leafy shades +that are heralded by "the green dance of summer"; and the sharp fall +winds that tear the brilliant banners with which the trees greet the +dying year. + +The Sound is always lovely. In the summer nights we watch it from the +piazza, and see the lights of the tall Fall River boats as they steam +steadily by. Now and then we spend a day on it, the two of us together +in the light rowing skiff, or perhaps with one of the boys to pull an +extra pair of oars; we land for lunch at noon under wind-beaten oaks +on the edge of a low bluff, or among the wild plum bushes on a spit +of white sand, while the sails of the coasting schooners gleam in the +sunlight, and the tolling of the bell-buoy comes landward across the +waters. + +Long Island is not as rich in flowers as the valley of the Hudson. Yet +there are many. Early in April there is one hillside near us which glows +like a tender flame with the white of the bloodroot. About the same time +we find the shy mayflower, the trailing arbutus; and although we rarely +pick wild flowers, one member of the household always plucks a little +bunch of mayflowers to send to a friend working in Panama, whose soul +hungers for the Northern spring. Then there are shadblow and delicate +anemones, about the time of the cherry blossoms; the brief glory of the +apple orchards follows; and then the thronging dogwoods fill the forests +with their radiance; and so flowers follow flowers until the springtime +splendor closes with the laurel and the evanescent, honey-sweet locust +bloom. The late summer flowers follow, the flaunting lilies, and +cardinal flowers, and marshmallows, and pale beach rosemary; and the +goldenrod and the asters when the afternoons shorten and we again begin +to think of fires in the wide fireplaces. + +Most of the birds in our neighborhood are the ordinary home friends of +the house and the barn, the wood lot and the pasture; but now and then +the species make queer shifts. The cheery quail, alas! are rarely found +near us now; and we no longer hear the whip-poor-wills at night. But +some birds visit us now which formerly did not. When I was a boy neither +the black-throated green warbler nor the purple finch nested around us, +nor were bobolinks found in our fields. The black-throated green warbler +is now one of our commonest summer warblers; there are plenty of purple +finches; and, best of all, the bobolinks are far from infrequent. I had +written about these new visitors to John Burroughs, and once when he +came out to see me I was able to show them to him. + +When I was President, we owned a little house in western Virginia; a +delightful house, to us at least, although only a shell of rough boards. +We used sometimes to go there in the fall, perhaps at Thanksgiving, and +on these occasions we would have quail and rabbits of our own shooting, +and once in a while a wild turkey. We also went there in the spring. Of +course many of the birds were different from our Long Island friends. +There were mocking-birds, the most attractive of all birds, and blue +grosbeaks, and cardinals and summer redbirds, instead of scarlet +tanagers, and those wonderful singers the Bewick's wrens, and Carolina +wrens. All these I was able to show John Burroughs when he came to visit +us; although, by the way, he did not appreciate as much as we did one +set of inmates of the cottage--the flying squirrels. We loved having the +flying squirrels, father and mother and half-grown young, in their nest +among the rafters; and at night we slept so soundly that we did not in +the least mind the wild gambols of the little fellows through the rooms, +even when, as sometimes happened, they would swoop down to the bed and +scuttle across it. + +One April I went to Yellowstone Park, when the snow was still very deep, +and I took John Burroughs with me. I wished to show him the big game of +the Park, the wild creatures that have become so astonishingly tame and +tolerant of human presence. In the Yellowstone the animals seem always +to behave as one wishes them to! It is always possible to see the sheep +and deer and antelope, and also the great herds of elk, which are shyer +than the smaller beasts. In April we found the elk weak after the +short commons and hard living of winter. Once without much difficulty +I regularly rounded up a big band of them, so that John Burroughs could +look at them. I do not think, however, that he cared to see them as much +as I did. The birds interested him more, especially a tiny owl the size +of a robin which we saw perched on the top of a tree in mid-afternoon +entirely uninfluenced by the sun and making a queer noise like a cork +being pulled from a bottle. I was rather ashamed to find how much +better his eyes were than mine in seeing the birds and grasping their +differences. + +When wolf-hunting in Texas, and when bear-hunting in Louisiana and +Mississippi, I was not only enthralled by the sport, but also by the +strange new birds and other creatures, and the trees and flowers I had +not known before. By the way, there was one feast at the White House +which stands above all others in my memory--even above the time when +I lured Joel Chandler Harris thither for a night, a deed in which to +triumph, as all who knew that inveterately shy recluse will testify. +This was "the bear-hunters' dinner." I had been treated so kindly by my +friends on these hunts, and they were such fine fellows, men whom I was +so proud to think of as Americans, that I set my heart on having them +at a hunters' dinner at the White House. One December I succeeded; there +were twenty or thirty of them, all told, as good hunters, as daring +riders, as first-class citizens as could be found anywhere; no finer set +of guests ever sat at meat in the White House; and among other game +on the table was a black bear, itself contributed by one of these same +guests. + +When I first visited California, it was my good fortune to see the "big +trees," the Sequoias, and then to travel down into the Yosemite, with +John Muir. Of course of all people in the world he was the one with whom +it was best worth while thus to see the Yosemite. He told me that when +Emerson came to California he tried to get him to come out and camp with +him, for that was the only way in which to see at their best the majesty +and charm of the Sierras. But at the time Emerson was getting old and +could not go. John Muir met me with a couple of packers and two mules +to carry our tent, bedding, and food for a three days' trip. The first +night was clear, and we lay down in the darkening aisles of the great +Sequoia grove. The majestic trunks, beautiful in color and in symmetry, +rose round us like the pillars of a mightier cathedral than ever was +conceived even by the fervor of the Middle Ages. Hermit thrushes sang +beautifully in the evening, and again, with a burst of wonderful music, +at dawn. I was interested and a little surprised to find that, unlike +John Burroughs, John Muir cared little for birds or bird songs, and knew +little about them. The hermit-thrushes meant nothing to him, the trees +and the flowers and the cliffs everything. The only birds he noticed +or cared for were some that were very conspicuous, such as the +water-ousels--always particular favorites of mine too. The second night +we camped in a snow-storm, on the edge of the canyon walls, under the +spreading limbs of a grove of mighty silver fir; and next day we went +down into the wonderland of the valley itself. I shall always be glad +that I was in the Yosemite with John Muir and in the Yellowstone with +John Burroughs. + +Like most Americans interested in birds and books, I know a good +deal about English birds as they appear in books. I know the lark of +Shakespeare and Shelley and the Ettrick Shepherd; I know the nightingale +of Milton and Keats; I know Wordsworth's cuckoo; I know mavis and merle +singing in the merry green wood of the old ballads; I know Jenny Wren +and Cock Robin of the nursery books. Therefore I had always much desired +to hear the birds in real life; and the opportunity offered in June, +1910, when I spent two or three weeks in England. As I could snatch but +a few hours from a very exciting round of pleasures and duties, it was +necessary for me to be with some companion who could identify both song +and singer. In Sir Edward Grey, a keen lover of outdoor life in all +its phases, and a delightful companion, who knows the songs and ways of +English birds as very few do know them, I found the best possible guide. + +We left London on the morning of June 9, twenty-four hours before I +sailed from Southampton. Getting off the train at Basingstoke, we drove +to the pretty, smiling valley of the Itchen. Here we tramped for three +or four hours, then again drove, this time to the edge of the New +Forest, where we first took tea at an inn, and then tramped through the +forest to an inn on its other side, at Brockenhurst. At the conclusion +of our walk my companion made a list of the birds we had seen, putting +an asterisk (*) opposite those which we had heard sing. There were +forty-one of the former and twenty-three of the latter, as follows: + + * Thrush, * blackbird, * lark, * yellowhammer, * robin, + *wren, * golden-crested wren, * goldfinch, * chaffinch, * + *greenfinch, pied wagtail, sparrow, * dunnock (hedge, + accentor), missel thrush, starling, rook, jackdaw, + *blackcap, * garden warbler, * willow warbler, * chiffchaff, + * wood warbler, tree-creeper, * reed bunting, * sedge + warbler, coot, water hen, little grebe (dabchick), tufted + duck, wood pigeon, stock dove, * turtle dove, peewit, tit (? + coal-tit), * cuckoo, * nightjar, * swallow, martin, swift, + pheasant, partridge. + +The valley of the Itchen is typically the England that we know from +novel and story and essay. It is very beautiful in every way, with a +rich, civilized, fertile beauty--the rapid brook twisting among its reed +beds, the rich green of trees and grass, the stately woods, the gardens +and fields, the exceedingly picturesque cottages, the great handsome +houses standing in their parks. Birds were plentiful; I know but few +places in America where one would see such an abundance of individuals, +and I was struck by seeing such large birds as coots, water hens, +grebes, tufted ducks, pigeons, and peewits. In places in America as +thickly settled as the valley of the Itchen, I should not expect to see +any like number of birds of this size; but I hope that the efforts of +the Audubon societies and kindred organizations will gradually make +themselves felt until it becomes a point of honor not only with the +American man, but with the American small boy, to shield and protect all +forms of harmless wild life. True sportsmen should take the lead in such +a movement, for if there is to be any shooting there must be something +to shoot; the prime necessity is to keep, and not kill out, even the +birds which in legitimate numbers may be shot. + +The New Forest is a wild, uninhabited stretch of heath and woodland, +many of the trees gnarled and aged, and its very wildness, the lack of +cultivation, the ruggedness, made it strongly attractive in my eyes, and +suggested my own country. The birds of course were much less plentiful +than beside the Itchen. + +The bird that most impressed me on my walk was the blackbird. I had +already heard nightingales in abundance near Lake Como, and had also +listened to larks, but I had never heard either the blackbird, the song +thrush, or the blackcap warbler; and while I knew that all three were +good singers, I did not know what really beautiful singers they were. +Blackbirds were very abundant, and they played a prominent part in the +chorus which we heard throughout the day on every hand, though perhaps +loudest the following morning at dawn. In its habits and manners the +blackbird strikingly resembles our American robin, and indeed looks +exactly like a robin, with a yellow bill and coal-black plumage. It +hops everywhere over the lawns, just as our robin does, and it lives +and nests in the gardens in the same fashion. Its song has a general +resemblance to that of our robin, but many of the notes are far +more musical, more like those of our wood thrush. Indeed, there were +individuals among those we heard certain of whose notes seemed to me +almost to equal in point of melody the chimes of the wood thrush; and +the highest possible praise for any song-bird is to liken its song to +that of the wood thrush or hermit thrush. I certainly do not think that +the blackbird has received full justice in the books. I knew that he was +a singer, but I really had no idea how fine a singer he was. I suppose +one of his troubles has been his name, just as with our own catbird. +When he appears in the ballads as the merle, bracketed with his cousin +the mavis, the song thrush, it is far easier to recognize him as the +master singer that he is. It is a fine thing for England to have such +an asset of the countryside, a bird so common, so much in evidence, so +fearless, and such a really beautiful singer. + +The thrush is a fine singer too, a better singer than our American +robin, but to my mind not at the best quite as good as the blackbird at +his best; although often I found difficulty in telling the song of one +from the song of the other, especially if I only heard two or three +notes. + +The larks were, of course, exceedingly attractive. It was fascinating +to see them spring from the grass, circle upwards, steadily singing and +soaring for several minutes, and then return to the point whence +they had started. As my companion pointed out, they exactly fulfilled +Wordsworth's description; they soared but did not roam. It is quite +impossible wholly to differentiate a bird's voice from its habits and +surroundings. Although in the lark's song there are occasional musical +notes, the song as a whole is not very musical; but it is so joyous, +buoyant and unbroken, and uttered under such conditions as fully to +entitle the bird to the place he occupies with both poet and prose +writer. + +The most musical singer we heard was the blackcap warbler. To my ear +its song seemed more musical than that of the nightingale. It was +astonishingly powerful for so small a bird; in volume and continuity +it does not come up to the songs of the thrushes and of certain other +birds, but in quality, as an isolated bit of melody, it can hardly be +surpassed. + +Among the minor singers the robin was noticeable. We all know this +pretty little bird from the books, and I was prepared to find him as +friendly and attractive as he proved to be, but I had not realized how +well he sang. It is not a loud song, but very musical and attractive, +and the bird is said to sing practically all through the year. The song +of the wren interested me much, because it was not in the least like +that of our house wren, but, on the contrary, like that of our winter +wren. The theme is the same as the winter wren's, but the song did not +seem to me to be as brilliantly musical as that of the tiny singer of +the North Woods. The sedge warbler sang in the thick reeds a mocking +ventriloquial lay, which reminded me at times of the less pronounced +parts of our yellow-breasted chat's song. The cuckoo's cry was +singularly attractive and musical, far more so than the rolling, many +times repeated, note of our rain-crow. + +We did not reach the inn at Brockenhurst until about nine o'clock, just +at nightfall, and a few minutes before that we heard a nightjar. It did +not sound in the least like either our whip-poor-will or our night-hawk, +uttering a long-continued call of one or two syllables, repeated over +and over. The chaffinch was very much in evidence, continually chaunting +its unimportant little ditty. I was pleased to see the bold, masterful +missel thrush, the stormcock as it is often called; but this bird breeds +and sings in the early spring, when the weather is still tempestuous, +and had long been silent when we saw it. The starlings, rooks, and +jackdaws did not sing, and their calls were attractive merely as the +calls of our grackles are attractive; and the other birds that we +heard sing, though they played their part in the general chorus, were +performers of no especial note, like our tree-creepers, pine warblers, +and chipping sparrows. The great spring chorus had already begun to +subside, but the woods and fields were still vocal with beautiful bird +music, the country was very lovely, the inn as comfortable as possible, +and the bath and supper very enjoyable after our tramp; and altogether I +passed no pleasanter twenty-four hours during my entire European trip. + +Ten days later, at Sagamore Hill, I was among my own birds, and was much +interested as I listened to and looked at them in remembering the notes +and actions of the birds I had seen in England. On the evening of the +first day I sat in my rocking-chair on the broad veranda, looking across +the Sound towards the glory of the sunset. The thickly grassed hillside +sloped down in front of me to a belt of forest from which rose the +golden, leisurely chiming of the wood thrushes, chanting their vespers; +through the still air came the warble of vireo and tanager; and after +nightfall we heard the flight song of an ovenbird from the same belt +of timber. Overhead an oriole sang in the weeping elm, now and then +breaking his song to scold like an overgrown wren. Song-sparrows and +catbirds sang in the shrubbery; one robin had built its nest over the +front and one over the back door, and there was a chippy's nest in the +wistaria vine by the stoop. During the next twenty-four hours I saw and +heard, either right around the house or while walking down to bathe, +through the woods, the following forty-two birds: + +Little green heron, night heron, red-tailed hawk, yellow-billed cuckoo, +kingfisher, flicker, humming-bird, swift, meadow-lark, red-winged +blackbird, sharp-tailed finch, song sparrow, chipping sparrow, bush +sparrow, purple finch, Baltimore oriole, cowbunting, robin, wood thrush, +thrasher, catbird, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, yellow warbler, +black-throated green warbler, kingbird, wood peewee, crow, blue jay, +cedar-bird, Maryland yellowthroat, chickadee, black and white +creeper, barn swallow, white-breasted swallow, ovenbird, thistlefinch, +vesperfinch, indigo bunting, towhee, grasshopper-sparrow, and screech +owl. + +The birds were still in full song, for on Long Island there is little +abatement in the chorus until about the second week of July, when +the blossoming of the chestnut trees patches the woodland with frothy +greenish-yellow.[*] + + [*] Alas! the blight has now destroyed the chestnut trees, + and robbed our woods of one of their distinctive beauties. + +Our most beautiful singers are the wood thrushes; they sing not only in +the early morning but throughout the long hot June afternoons. Sometimes +they sing in the trees immediately around the house, and if the air is +still we can always hear them from among the tall trees at the foot of +the hill. The thrashers sing in the hedgerows beyond the garden, the +catbirds everywhere. The catbirds have such an attractive song that it +is extremely irritating to know that at any moment they may interrupt +it to mew and squeal. The bold, cheery music of the robins always seems +typical of the bold, cheery birds themselves. The Baltimore orioles nest +in the young elms around the house, and the orchard orioles in the apple +trees near the garden and outbuildings. Among the earliest sounds of +spring is the cheerful, simple, homely song of the song-sparrow; and in +March we also hear the piercing cadence of the meadow-lark--to us one +of the most attractive of all bird calls. Of late years now and then +we hear the rollicking, bubbling melody of the bobolink in the pastures +back of the barn; and when the full chorus of these and of many other +of the singers of spring is dying down, there are some true hot-weather +songsters, such as the brightly hued indigo buntings and thistlefinches. +Among the finches one of the most musical and plaintive songs is that of +the bush-sparrow--I do not know why the books call it field-sparrow, +for it does not dwell in the open fields like the vesperfinch, the +savannah-sparrow, and grasshopper-sparrow, but among the cedars and +bayberry bushes and young locusts in the same places where the prairie +warbler is found. Nor is it only the true songs that delight us. We love +to hear the flickers call, and we readily pardon any one of their number +which, as occasionally happens, is bold enough to wake us in the +early morning by drumming on the shingles of the roof. In our ears the +red-winged blackbirds have a very attractive note. We love the screaming +of the red-tailed hawks as they soar high overhead, and even the calls +of the night heron that nest in the tall water maples by one of the wood +ponds on our place, and the little green herons that nest beside the +salt marsh. It is hard to tell just how much of the attraction in any +bird-note lies in the music itself and how much in the associations. +This is what makes it so useless to try to compare the bird songs of one +country with those of another. A man who is worth anything can no more +be entirely impartial in speaking of the bird songs with which from +his earliest childhood he has been familiar than he can be entirely +impartial in speaking of his own family. + +At Sagamore Hill we love a great many things--birds and trees and books, +and all things beautiful, and horses and rifles and children and hard +work and the joy of life. We have great fireplaces, and in them the logs +roar and crackle during the long winter evenings. The big piazza is for +the hot, still afternoons of summer. As in every house, there are things +that appeal to the householder because of their associations, but +which would not mean much to others. Naturally, any man who has been +President, and filled other positions, accumulates such things, with +scant regard to his own personal merits. Perhaps our most cherished +possessions are a Remington bronze, "The Bronco Buster," given me by my +men when the regiment was mustered out, and a big Tiffany silver vase +given to Mrs. Roosevelt by the enlisted men of the battleship Louisiana +after we returned from a cruise on her to Panama. It was a real surprise +gift, presented to her in the White House, on behalf of the whole crew, +by four as strapping man-of-war's-men as ever swung a turret or pointed +a twelve-inch gun. The enlisted men of the army I already knew well--of +course I knew well the officers of both army and navy. But the enlisted +men of the navy I only grew to know well when I was President. On the +Louisiana Mrs. Roosevelt and I once dined at the chief petty officers' +mess, and on another battleship, the Missouri (when I was in company +with Admiral Evans and Captain Cowles), and again on the Sylph and on +the Mayflower, we also dined as guests of the crew. When we finished our +trip on the Louisiana I made a short speech to the assembled crew, +and at its close one of the petty officers, the very picture of what a +man-of-war's-man should look like, proposed three cheers for me in terms +that struck me as curiously illustrative of America at her best; he +said, "Now then, men, three cheers for Theodore Roosevelt, the typical +American citizen!" That was the way in which they thought of the +American President--and a very good way, too. It was an expression that +would have come naturally only to men in whom the American principles of +government and life were ingrained, just as they were ingrained in the +men of my regiment. I need scarcely add, but I will add for the +benefit of those who do not know, that this attitude of self-respecting +identification of interest and purpose is not only compatible with but +can only exist when there is fine and real discipline, as thorough +and genuine as the discipline that has always obtained in the most +formidable fighting fleets and armies. The discipline and the mutual +respect are complementary, not antagonistic. During the Presidency all +of us, but especially the children, became close friends with many of +the sailor men. The four bearers of the vase to Mrs. Roosevelt were +promptly hailed as delightful big brothers by our two smallest boys, who +at once took them to see the sights of Washington in the landau--"the +President's land-ho!" as, with seafaring humor, our guests immediately +styled it. Once, after we were in private life again, Mrs. Roosevelt +was in a railway station and had some difficulty with her ticket. A +fine-looking, quiet man stepped up and asked if he could be of help; he +remarked that he had been one of the Mayflower's crew, and knew us well; +and in answer to a question explained that he had left the navy in +order to study dentistry, and added--a delicious touch--that while thus +preparing himself to be a dentist he was earning the necessary money to +go on with his studies by practicing the profession of a prize-fighter, +being a good man in the ring. + +There are various bronzes in the house: Saint-Gaudens's "Puritan," a +token from my staff officers when I was Governor; Proctor's cougar, the +gift of the Tennis Cabinet--who also gave us a beautiful silver bowl, +which is always lovingly pronounced to rhyme with "owl" because that was +the pronunciation used at the time of the giving by the valued friend +who acted as spokesman for his fellow-members, and who was himself the +only non-American member of the said Cabinet. There is a horseman by +Macmonnies, and a big bronze vase by Kemys, an adaptation or development +of the pottery vases of the Southwestern Indians. Mixed with all of +these are gifts from varied sources, ranging from a brazen Buddha sent +me by the Dalai Lama and a wonderful psalter from the Emperor Menelik to +a priceless ancient Samurai sword, coming from Japan in remembrance +of the peace of Portsmouth, and a beautifully inlaid miniature suit of +Japanese armor, given me by a favorite hero of mine, Admiral Togo, when +he visited Sagamore Hill. There are things from European friends; a +mosaic picture of Pope Leo XIII in his garden; a huge, very handsome +edition of the Nibelungenlied; a striking miniature of John Hampden from +Windsor Castle; editions of Dante, and the campaigns of "Eugenio von +Savoy" (another of my heroes, a dead hero this time); a Viking cup; the +state sword of a Uganda king; the gold box in which the "freedom of the +city of London" was given me; a beautiful head of Abraham Lincoln given +me by the French authorities after my speech at the Sorbonne; and many +other things from sources as diverse as the Sultan of Turkey and the +Dowager Empress of China. Then there are things from home friends: a +Polar bear skin from Peary; a Sioux buffalo robe with, on it, painted +by some long-dead Sioux artist, the picture story of Custer's fight; a +bronze portrait plaque of Joel Chandler Harris; the candlestick used in +sealing the Treaty of Portsmouth, sent me by Captain Cameron Winslow; +a shoe worn by Dan Patch when he paced a mile in 1:59, sent me by his +owner. There is a picture of a bull moose by Carl Rungius, which seems +to me as spirited an animal painting as I have ever seen. In the north +room, with its tables and mantelpiece and desks and chests made of woods +sent from the Philippines by army friends, or by other friends for other +reasons; with its bison and wapiti heads; there are three paintings by +Marcus Symonds--"Where Light and Shadow Meet," "The Porcelain Towers," +and "The Seats of the Mighty"; he is dead now, and he had scant +recognition while he lived, yet surely he was a great imaginative +artist, a wonderful colorist, and a man with a vision more wonderful +still. There is one of Lungren's pictures of the Western plains; and a +picture of the Grand Canyon; and one by a Scandinavian artist who could +see the fierce picturesqueness of workaday Pittsburgh; and sketches of +the White House by Sargent and by Hopkinson Smith. + +The books are everywhere. There are as many in the north room and in the +parlor--is drawing-room a more appropriate name than parlor?--as in the +library; the gun-room at the top of the house, which incidentally has +the loveliest view of all, contains more books than any of the other +rooms; and they are particularly delightful books to browse among, just +because they have not much relevance to one another, this being one of +the reasons why they are relegated to their present abode. But the books +have overflowed into all the other rooms too. + +I could not name any principle upon which the books have been gathered. +Books are almost as individual as friends. There is no earthly use in +laying down general laws about them. Some meet the needs of one person, +and some of another; and each person should beware of the booklover's +besetting sin, of what Mr. Edgar Allan Poe calls "the mad pride of +intellectuality," taking the shape of arrogant pity for the man who does +not like the same kind of books. Of course there are books which a man +or woman uses as instruments of a profession--law books, medical books, +cookery books, and the like. I am not speaking of these, for they are +not properly "books" at all; they come in the category of time-tables, +telephone directories, and other useful agencies of civilized life. I +am speaking of books that are meant to be read. Personally, granted that +these books are decent and healthy, the one test to which I demand +that they all submit is that of being interesting. If the book is not +interesting to the reader, then in all but an infinitesimal number of +cases it gives scant benefit to the reader. Of course any reader ought +to cultivate his or her taste so that good books will appeal to it, and +that trash won't. But after this point has once been reached, the needs +of each reader must be met in a fashion that will appeal to those needs. +Personally the books by which I have profited infinitely more than +by any others have been those in which profit was a by-product of the +pleasure; that is, I read them because I enjoyed them, because I liked +reading them, and the profit came in as part of the enjoyment. + +Of course each individual is apt to have some special tastes in which +he cannot expect that any but a few friends will share. Now, I am very +proud of my big-game library. I suppose there must be many big-game +libraries in Continental Europe, and possibly in England, more extensive +than mine, but I have not happened to come across any such library in +this country. Some of the originals go back to the sixteenth century, +and there are copies or reproductions of the two or three most famous +hunting books of the Middle Ages, such as the Duke of York's translation +of Gaston Phoebus, and the queer book of the Emperor Maximilian. It is +only very occasionally that I meet any one who cares for any of these +books. On the other hand, I expect to find many friends who will turn +naturally to some of the old or the new books of poetry or romance or +history to which we of the household habitually turn. Let me add that +ours is in no sense a collector's library. Each book was procured +because some one of the family wished to read it. We could never afford +to take overmuch thought for the outsides of books; we were too much +interested in their insides. + +Now and then I am asked as to "what books a statesman should read," and +my answer is, poetry and novels--including short stories under the +head of novels. I don't mean that he should read only novels and modern +poetry. If he cannot also enjoy the Hebrew prophets and the Greek +dramatists, he should be sorry. He ought to read interesting books on +history and government, and books of science and philosophy; and really +good books on these subjects are as enthralling as any fiction ever +written in prose or verse. Gibbon and Macaulay, Herodotus, Thucydides +and Tacitus, the Heimskringla, Froissart, Joinville and Villehardouin, +Parkman and Mahan, Mommsen and Ranke--why! there are scores and scores +of solid histories, the best in the world, which are as absorbing as +the best of all the novels, and of as permanent value. The same thing +is true of Darwin and Huxley and Carlyle and Emerson, and parts of Kant, +and of volumes like Sutherland's "Growth of the Moral Instinct," or +Acton's Essays and Lounsbury's studies--here again I am not trying to +class books together, or measure one by another, or enumerate one in a +thousand of those worth reading, but just to indicate that any man or +woman of some intelligence and some cultivation can in some line or +other of serious thought, scientific or historical or philosophical or +economic or governmental, find any number of books which are charming to +read, and which in addition give that for which his or her soul hungers. +I do not for a minute mean that the statesman ought not to read a great +many different books of this character, just as every one else should +read them. But, in the final event, the statesman, and the publicist, +and the reformer, and the agitator for new things, and the upholder of +what is good in old things, all need more than anything else to know +human nature, to know the needs of the human soul; and they will find +this nature and these needs set forth as nowhere else by the great +imaginative writers, whether of prose or of poetry. + +The room for choice is so limitless that to my mind it seems absurd to +try to make catalogues which shall be supposed to appeal to all the best +thinkers. This is why I have no sympathy whatever with writing lists of +the One Hundred Best Books, or the Five-Foot Library. It is all right +for a man to amuse himself by composing a list of a hundred very good +books; and if he is to go off for a year or so where he cannot get +many books, it is an excellent thing to choose a five-foot library of +particular books which in that particular year and on that particular +trip he would like to read. But there is no such thing as a hundred +books that are best for all men, or for the majority of men, or for +one man at all times; and there is no such thing as a five-foot library +which will satisfy the needs of even one particular man on different +occasions extending over a number of years. Milton is best for one mood +and Pope for another. Because a man likes Whitman or Browning or Lowell +he should not feel himself debarred from Tennyson or Kipling or Korner +or Heine or the Bard of the Dimbovitza. Tolstoy's novels are good at one +time and those of Sienkiewicz at another; and he is fortunate who can +relish "Salammbo" and "Tom Brown" and the "Two Admirals" and "Quentin +Durward" and "Artemus Ward" and the "Ingoldsby Legends" and "Pickwick" +and "Vanity Fair." Why, there are hundreds of books like these, each one +of which, if really read, really assimilated, by the person to whom +it happens to appeal, will enable that person quite unconsciously to +furnish himself with much ammunition which he will find of use in the +battle of life. + +A book must be interesting to the particular reader at that particular +time. But there are tens of thousands of interesting books, and some of +them are sealed to some men and some are sealed to others; and some stir +the soul at some given point of a man's life and yet convey no message +at other times. The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs +without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs +should be. He must not hypocritically pretend to like what he does not +like. Yet at the same time he must avoid that most unpleasant of all +the indications of puffed-up vanity which consists in treating mere +individual, and perhaps unfortunate, idiosyncrasy as a matter of pride. +I happen to be devoted to Macbeth, whereas I very seldom read Hamlet +(though I like parts of it). Now I am humbly and sincerely conscious +that this is a demerit in me and not in Hamlet; and yet it would not do +me any good to pretend that I like Hamlet as much as Macbeth when, as +a matter of fact, I don't. I am very fond of simple epics and of ballad +poetry, from the Nibelungenlied and the Roland song through "Chevy +Chase" and "Patrick Spens" and "Twa Corbies" to Scott's poems and +Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" and "Othere." On the other hand, I +don't care to read dramas as a rule; I cannot read them with enjoyment +unless they appeal to me very strongly. They must almost be AEschylus +or Euripides, Goethe or Moliere, in order that I may not feel after +finishing them a sense of virtuous pride in having achieved a task. Now +I would be the first to deny that even the most delightful old English +ballad should be put on a par with any one of scores of dramatic +works by authors whom I have not mentioned; I know that each of these +dramatists has written what is of more worth than the ballad; only, I +enjoy the ballad, and I don't enjoy the drama; and therefore the ballad +is better for me, and this fact is not altered by the other fact that +my own shortcomings are to blame in the matter. I still read a number of +Scott's novels over and over again, whereas if I finish anything by Miss +Austen I have a feeling that duty performed is a rainbow to the soul. +But other booklovers who are very close kin to me, and whose taste +I know to be better than mine, read Miss Austen all the time--and, +moreover, they are very kind, and never pity me in too offensive a +manner for not reading her myself. + +Aside from the masters of literature, there are all kinds of books which +one person will find delightful, and which he certainly ought not +to surrender just because nobody else is able to find as much in the +beloved volume. There is on our book-shelves a little pre-Victorian +novel or tale called "The Semi-Attached Couple." It is told with much +humor; it is a story of gentlefolk who are really gentlefolk; and to me +it is altogether delightful. But outside the members of my own family +I have never met a human being who had even heard of it, and I don't +suppose I ever shall meet one. I often enjoy a story by some living +author so much that I write to tell him so--or to tell her so; and at +least half the time I regret my action, because it encourages the writer +to believe that the public shares my views, and he then finds that the +public doesn't. + +Books are all very well in their way, and we love them at Sagamore +Hill; but children are better than books. Sagamore Hill is one of three +neighboring houses in which small cousins spent very happy years of +childhood. In the three houses there were at one time sixteen of these +small cousins, all told, and once we ranged them in order of size and +took their photograph. There are many kinds of success in life worth +having. It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful +business man, or railroad man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or +doctor; or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of +a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions. But for +unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things +go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and +achievement lose their importance by comparison. It may be true that +he travels farthest who travels alone; but the goal thus reached is not +worth reaching. And as for a life deliberately devoted to pleasure as +an end--why, the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a +by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is +met in the doing. There is a bit of homely philosophy, quoted by Squire +Bill Widener, of Widener's Valley, Virginia, which sums up one's duty in +life: "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are." + +The country is the place for children, and if not the country, a city +small enough so that one can get out into the country. When our own +children were little, we were for several winters in Washington, and +each Sunday afternoon the whole family spent in Rock Creek Park, which +was then very real country indeed. I would drag one of the children's +wagons; and when the very smallest pairs of feet grew tired of trudging +bravely after us, or of racing on rapturous side trips after flowers and +other treasures, the owners would clamber into the wagon. One of these +wagons, by the way, a gorgeous red one, had "Express" painted on it in +gilt letters, and was known to the younger children as the "'spress" +wagon. They evidently associated the color with the term. Once while we +were at Sagamore something happened to the cherished "'spress" wagon to +the distress of the children, and especially of the child who owned it. +Their mother and I were just starting for a drive in the buggy, and we +promised the bereaved owner that we would visit a store we knew in East +Norwich, a village a few miles away, and bring back another "'spress" +wagon. When we reached the store, we found to our dismay that the wagon +which we had seen had been sold. We could not bear to return without +the promised gift, for we knew that the brains of small persons are much +puzzled when their elders seem to break promises. Fortunately, we saw in +the store a delightful little bright-red chair and bright-red table, +and these we brought home and handed solemnly over to the expectant +recipient, explaining that as there unfortunately was not a "'spress" +wagon we had brought him back a "'spress" chair and "'spress" table. +It worked beautifully! The "'spress" chair and table were received with +such rapture that we had to get duplicates for the other small member +of the family who was the particular crony of the proprietor of the new +treasures. + +When their mother and I returned from a row, we would often see the +children waiting for us, running like sand-spiders along the beach. They +always liked to swim in company with a grown-up of buoyant temperament +and inventive mind, and the float offered limitless opportunities +for enjoyment while bathing. All dutiful parents know the game of +"stage-coach"; each child is given a name, such as the whip, the nigh +leader, the off wheeler, the old lady passenger, and, under penalty of +paying a forfeit, must get up and turn round when the grown-up, who is +improvising a thrilling story, mentions that particular object; and when +the word "stage-coach" is mentioned, everybody has to get up and turn +round. Well, we used to play stage-coach on the float while in swimming, +and instead of tamely getting up and turning round, the child whose +turn it was had to plunge overboard. When I mentioned "stage-coach," the +water fairly foamed with vigorously kicking little legs; and then there +was always a moment of interest while I counted, so as to be sure +that the number of heads that came up corresponded with the number of +children who had gone down. + +No man or woman will ever forget the time when some child lies sick of a +disease that threatens its life. Moreover, much less serious sickness is +unpleasant enough at the time. Looking back, however, there are elements +of comedy in certain of the less serious cases. I well remember one such +instance which occurred when we were living in Washington, in a small +house, with barely enough room for everybody when all the chinks were +filled. Measles descended on the household. In the effort to keep the +children that were well and those that were sick apart, their mother and +I had to camp out in improvised fashion. When the eldest small boy was +getting well, and had recovered his spirits, I slept on a sofa beside +his bed--the sofa being so short that my feet projected over anyhow. One +afternoon the small boy was given a toy organ by a sympathetic friend. +Next morning early I was waked to find the small boy very vivacious +and requesting a story. Having drowsily told the story, I said, "Now, +father's told you a story, so you amuse yourself and let father go to +sleep"; to which the small boy responded most virtuously, "Yes, father +will go to sleep and I'll play the organ," which he did, at a distance +of two feet from my head. Later his sister, who had just come down with +the measles, was put into the same room. The small boy was convalescing, +and was engaged in playing on the floor with some tin ships, together +with two or three pasteboard monitors and rams of my own manufacture. He +was giving a vivid rendering of Farragut at Mobile Bay, from memories +of how I had told the story. My pasteboard rams and monitors were +fascinating--if a naval architect may be allowed to praise his own +work--and as property they were equally divided between the little girl +and the small boy. The little girl looked on with alert suspicion from +the bed, for she was not yet convalescent enough to be allowed down on +the floor. The small boy was busily reciting the phases of the fight, +which now approached its climax, and the little girl evidently suspected +that her monitor was destined to play the part of victim. + +Little boy. "And then they steamed bang into the monitor." + +Little girl. "Brother, don't you sink my monitor!" + +Little boy (without heeding, and hurrying toward the climax). "And the +torpedo went at the monitor!" + +Little girl. "My monitor is not to sink!" + +Little boy, dramatically: "And bang the monitor sank!" + +Little girl. "It didn't do any such thing. My monitor always goes to bed +at seven, and it's now quarter past. My monitor was in bed and couldn't +sink!" + +When I was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Leonard Wood and I used +often to combine forces and take both families of children out to walk, +and occasionally some of their playmates. Leonard Wood's son, I found, +attributed the paternity of all of those not of his own family to me. +Once we were taking the children across Rock Creek on a fallen tree. +I was standing on the middle of the log trying to prevent any of the +children from falling off, and while making a clutch at one peculiarly +active and heedless child I fell off myself. As I emerged from the water +I heard the little Wood boy calling frantically to the General: "Oh! oh! +The father of all the children fell into the creek!"--which made me feel +like an uncommonly moist patriarch. Of course the children took much +interest in the trophies I occasionally brought back from my hunts. When +I started for my regiment, in '98, the stress of leaving home, which +was naturally not pleasant, was somewhat lightened by the next to +the youngest boy, whose ideas of what was about to happen were hazy, +clasping me round the legs with a beaming smile and saying, "And is my +father going to the war? And will he bring me back a bear?" When, some +five months later, I returned, of course in my uniform, this little boy +was much puzzled as to my identity, although he greeted me affably +with "Good afternoon, Colonel." Half an hour later somebody asked him, +"Where's father?" to which he responded, "I don't know; but the Colonel +is taking a bath." + +Of course the children anthropomorphized--if that is the proper +term--their friends of the animal world. Among these friends at one +period was the baker's horse, and on a very rainy day I heard the little +girl, who was looking out of the window, say, with a melancholy shake of +her head, "Oh! there's poor Kraft's horse, all soppin' wet!" + +While I was in the White House the youngest boy became an _habitue_ of +a small and rather noisome animal shop, and the good-natured owner would +occasionally let him take pets home to play with. On one occasion I was +holding a conversation with one of the leaders in Congress, Uncle +Pete Hepburn, about the Railroad Rate Bill. The children were strictly +trained not to interrupt business, but on this particular occasion the +little boy's feelings overcame him. He had been loaned a king-snake, +which, as all nature-lovers know, is not only a useful but a beautiful +snake, very friendly to human beings; and he came rushing home to show +the treasure. He was holding it inside his coat, and it contrived to +wiggle partly down the sleeve. Uncle Pete Hepburn naturally did not +understand the full import of what the little boy was saying to me as +he endeavored to wriggle out of his jacket, and kindly started to help +him--and then jumped back with alacrity as the small boy and the snake +both popped out of the jacket. + +There could be no healthier and pleasanter place in which to bring up +children than in that nook of old-time America around Sagamore Hill. +Certainly I never knew small people to have a better time or a better +training for their work in after life than the three families of cousins +at Sagamore Hill. It was real country, and--speaking from the somewhat +detached point of view of the masculine parent--I should say there was +just the proper mixture of freedom and control in the management of the +children. They were never allowed to be disobedient or to shirk lessons +or work; and they were encouraged to have all the fun possible. They +often went barefoot, especially during the many hours passed in various +enthralling pursuits along and in the waters of the bay. They swam, +they tramped, they boated, they coasted and skated in winter, they were +intimate friends with the cows, chickens, pigs, and other live stock. +They had in succession two ponies, General Grant and, when the General's +legs became such that he lay down too often and too unexpectedly in +the road, a calico pony named Algonquin, who is still living a life of +honorable leisure in the stable and in the pasture--where he has to be +picketed, because otherwise he chases the cows. Sedate pony Grant used +to draw the cart in which the children went driving when they were very +small, the driver being their old nurse Mame, who had held their mother +in her arms when she was born, and who was knit to them by a tie as +close as any tie of blood. I doubt whether I ever saw Mame really +offended with them except once when, out of pure but misunderstood +affection, they named a pig after her. They loved pony Grant. Once I +saw the then little boy of three hugging pony Grant's fore legs. As +he leaned over, his broad straw hat tilted on end, and pony Grant +meditatively munched the brim; whereupon the small boy looked up with +a wail of anguish, evidently thinking the pony had decided to treat him +like a radish. + +The children had pets of their own, too, of course. Among them guinea +pigs were the stand-bys--their highly unemotional nature fits them +for companionship with adoring but over-enthusiastic young masters and +mistresses. Then there were flying squirrels, and kangaroo rats, gentle +and trustful, and a badger whose temper was short but whose nature was +fundamentally friendly. The badger's name was Josiah; the particular +little boy whose property he was used to carry him about, clasped firmly +around what would have been his waist if he had had any. Inasmuch as +when on the ground the badger would play energetic games of tag with +the little boy and nip his bare legs, I suggested that it would be +uncommonly disagreeable if he took advantage of being held in the little +boy's arms to bite his face; but this suggestion was repelled with +scorn as an unworthy assault on the character of Josiah. "He bites legs +sometimes, but he never bites faces," said the little boy. We also had +a young black bear whom the children christened Jonathan Edwards, partly +out of compliment to their mother, who was descended from that great +Puritan divine, and partly because the bear possessed a temper in +which gloom and strength were combined in what the children regarded as +Calvinistic proportions. As for the dogs, of course there were many, +and during their lives they were intimate and valued family friends, +and their deaths were household tragedies. One of them, a large yellow +animal of several good breeds and valuable rather because of psychical +than physical traits, was named "Susan" by his small owners, in +commemoration of another retainer, a white cow; the fact that the cow +and the dog were not of the same sex being treated with indifference. +Much the most individual of the dogs and the one with the strongest +character was Sailor Boy, a Chesapeake Bay dog. He had a masterful +temper and a strong sense of both dignity and duty. He would never let +the other dogs fight, and he himself never fought unless circumstances +imperatively demanded it; but he was a murderous animal when he did +fight. He was not only exceedingly fond of the water, as was to be +expected, but passionately devoted to gunpowder in every form, for +he loved firearms and fairly reveled in the Fourth of July +celebrations--the latter being rather hazardous occasions, as the +children strongly objected to any "safe and sane" element being injected +into them, and had the normal number of close shaves with rockets, Roman +candles, and firecrackers. + +One of the stand-bys for enjoyment, especially in rainy weather, was the +old barn. This had been built nearly a century previously, and was as +delightful as only the pleasantest kind of old barn can be. It stood +at the meeting-spot of three fences. A favorite amusement used to be an +obstacle race when the barn was full of hay. The contestants were timed +and were started successively from outside the door. They rushed inside, +clambered over or burrowed through the hay, as suited them best, dropped +out of a place where a loose board had come off, got over, through, or +under the three fences, and raced back to the starting-point. When they +were little, their respective fathers were expected also to take part +in the obstacle race, and when with the advance of years the fathers +finally refused to be contestants, there was a general feeling of pained +regret among the children at such a decline in the sporting spirit. + +Another famous place for handicap races was Cooper's Bluff, a gigantic +sand-bank rising from the edge of the bay, a mile from the house. If +the tide was high there was an added thrill, for some of the contestants +were sure to run into the water. + +As soon as the little boys learned to swim they were allowed to go off +by themselves in rowboats and camp out for the night along the Sound. +Sometimes I would go along so as to take the smaller children. Once +a schooner was wrecked on a point half a dozen miles away. She +held together well for a season or two after having been cleared of +everything down to the timbers, and this gave us the chance to make +camping-out trips in which the girls could also be included, for we put +them to sleep in the wreck, while the boys slept on the shore; squaw +picnics, the children called them. + +My children, when young, went to the public school near us, the little +Cove School, as it is called. For nearly thirty years we have given +the Christmas tree to the school. Before the gifts are distributed I am +expected to make an address, which is always mercifully short, my own +children having impressed upon me with frank sincerity the attitude of +other children to addresses of this kind on such occasions. There are of +course performances by the children themselves, while all of us parents +look admiringly on, each sympathizing with his or her particular +offspring in the somewhat wooden recital of "Darius Green and his Flying +Machine" or "The Mountain and the Squirrel had a Quarrel." But the tree +and the gifts make up for all shortcomings. + +We had a sleigh for winter; but if, when there was much snow, the whole +family desired to go somewhere, we would put the body of the farm wagon +on runners and all bundle in together. We always liked snow at Christmas +time, and the sleigh-ride down to the church on Christmas eve. One +of the hymns always sung at this Christmas eve festival begins, "It's +Christmas eve on the river, it's Christmas eve on the bay." All good +natives of the village firmly believe that this hymn was written here, +and with direct reference to Oyster Bay; although if such were the case +the word "river" would have to be taken in a hyperbolic sense, as the +nearest approach to a river is the village pond. I used to share this +belief myself, until my faith was shaken by a Denver lady who wrote that +she had sung that hymn when a child in Michigan, and that at the present +time her little Denver babies also loved it, although in their case the +river was not represented by even a village pond. + +When we were in Washington, the children usually went with their mother +to the Episcopal church, while I went to the Dutch Reformed. But if any +child misbehaved itself, it was sometimes sent next Sunday to church +with me, on the theory that my companionship would have a sedative +effect--which it did, as I and the child walked along with rather +constrained politeness, each eying the other with watchful readiness +for the unexpected. On one occasion, when the child's conduct fell just +short of warranting such extreme measures, his mother, as they were on +the point of entering church, concluded a homily by a quotation +which showed a certain haziness of memory concerning the marriage and +baptismal services: "No, little boy, if this conduct continues, I shall +think that you neither love, honor, nor obey me!" However, the culprit +was much impressed with a sense of shortcoming as to the obligations he +had undertaken; so the result was as satisfactory as if the quotation +had been from the right service. + +As for the education of the children, there was of course much of it +that represented downright hard work and drudgery. There was also +much training that came as a by-product and was perhaps almost as +valuable--not as a substitute but as an addition. After their supper, +the children, when little, would come trotting up to their mother's +room to be read to, and it was always a surprise to me to notice the +extremely varied reading which interested them, from Howard Pyle's +"Robin Hood," Mary Alicia Owen's "Voodoo Tales," and Joel Chandler +Harris's "Aaron in the Wild Woods," to "Lycides" and "King John." If +their mother was absent, I would try to act as vice-mother--a poor +substitute, I fear--superintending the supper and reading aloud +afterwards. The children did not wish me to read the books they desired +their mother to read, and I usually took some such book as "Hereward the +Wake," or "Guy Mannering," or "The Last of the Mohicans" or else some +story about a man-eating tiger, or a man-eating lion, from one of the +hunting books in my library. These latter stories were always favorites, +and as the authors told them in the first person, my interested auditors +grew to know them by the name of the "I" stories, and regarded them as +adventures all of which happened to the same individual. When Selous, +the African hunter, visited us, I had to get him to tell to the younger +children two or three of the stories with which they were already +familiar from my reading; and as Selous is a most graphic narrator, and +always enters thoroughly into the feeling not only of himself but of +the opposing lion or buffalo, my own rendering of the incidents was cast +entirely into the shade. + +Besides profiting by the more canonical books on education, we profited +by certain essays and articles of a less orthodox type. I wish to +express my warmest gratitude for such books--not of avowedly didactic +purpose--as Laura Richards's books, Josephine Dodge Daskam's "Madness of +Philip," Palmer Cox's "Queer People," the melodies of Father Goose and +Mother Wild Goose, Flandreau's "Mrs. White's," Myra Kelly's stories of +her little East Side pupils, and Michelson's "Madigans." It is well to +take duties, and life generally, seriously. It is also well to remember +that a sense of humor is a healthy anti-scorbutic to that portentous +seriousness which defeats its own purpose. + +Occasionally bits of self-education proved of unexpected help to the +children in later years. Like other children, they were apt to take to +bed with them treasures which they particularly esteemed. One of the +boys, just before his sixteenth birthday, went moose hunting with the +family doctor, and close personal friend of the entire family, Alexander +Lambert. Once night overtook them before they camped, and they had to +lie down just where they were. Next morning Dr. Lambert rather enviously +congratulated the boy on the fact that stones and roots evidently +did not interfere with the soundness of his sleep; to which the boy +responded, "Well, Doctor, you see it isn't very long since I used to +take fourteen china animals to bed with me every night!" + +As the children grew up, Sagamore Hill remained delightful for them. +There were picnics and riding parties, there were dances in the north +room--sometimes fancy dress dances--and open-air plays on the green +tennis court of one of the cousin's houses. The children are no longer +children now. Most of them are men and women, working out their own +fates in the big world; some in our own land, others across the great +oceans or where the Southern Cross blazes in the tropic nights. Some of +them have children of their own; some are working at one thing, some at +another; in cable ships, in business offices, in factories, in newspaper +offices, building steel bridges, bossing gravel trains and steam +shovels, or laying tracks and superintending freight traffic. They have +had their share of accidents and escapes; as I write, word comes from +a far-off land that one of them, whom Seth Bullock used to call "Kim" +because he was the friend of all mankind, while bossing a dangerous +but necessary steel structural job has had two ribs and two back teeth +broken, and is back at work. They have known and they will know joy and +sorrow, triumph and temporary defeat. But I believe they are all the +better off because of their happy and healthy childhood. + +It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks, +and the greatest of all prizes are those connected with the home. No +father and mother can hope to escape sorrow and anxiety, and there are +dreadful moments when death comes very near those we love, even if for +the time being it passes by. But life is a great adventure, and the +worst of all fears is the fear of living. There are many forms of +success, many forms of triumph. But there is no other success that in +any shape or way approaches that which is open to most of the many, many +men and women who have the right ideals. These are the men and the women +who see that it is the intimate and homely things that count most. They +are the men and women who have the courage to strive for the happiness +which comes only with labor and effort and self-sacrifice, and only to +those whose joy in life springs in part from power of work and sense of +duty. + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PRESIDENCY; MAKING AN OLD PARTY PROGRESSIVE + +On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was shot by an Anarchist in the +city of Buffalo. I went to Buffalo at once. The President's condition +seemed to be improving, and after a day or two we were told that he +was practically out of danger. I then joined my family, who were in the +Adirondacks, near the foot of Mount Tahawus. A day or two afterwards +we took a long tramp through the forest, and in the afternoon I climbed +Mount Tahawus. After reaching the top I had descended a few hundred feet +to a shelf of land where there was a little lake, when I saw a guide +coming out of the woods on our trail from below. I felt at once that he +had bad news, and, sure enough, he handed me a telegram saying that the +President's condition was much worse and that I must come to Buffalo +immediately. It was late in the afternoon, and darkness had fallen by +the time I reached the clubhouse where we were staying. It was some time +afterwards before I could get a wagon to drive me out to the nearest +railway station, North Creek, some forty or fifty miles distant. The +roads were the ordinary wilderness roads and the night was dark. But we +changed horses two or three times--when I say "we" I mean the driver +and I, as there was no one else with us--and reached the station just at +dawn, to learn from Mr. Loeb, who had a special train waiting, that the +President was dead. That evening I took the oath of office, in the house +of Ansley Wilcox, at Buffalo. + +On three previous occasions the Vice-President had succeeded to the +Presidency on the death of the President. In each case there had been +a reversal of party policy, and a nearly immediate and nearly complete +change in the personnel of the higher offices, especially the Cabinet. +I had never felt that this was wise from any standpoint. If a man is fit +to be President, he will speedily so impress himself in the office that +the policies pursued will be his anyhow, and he will not have to bother +as to whether he is changing them or not; while as regards the offices +under him, the important thing for him is that his subordinates shall +make a success in handling their several departments. The subordinate is +sure to desire to make a success of his department for his own sake, and +if he is a fit man, whose views on public policy are sound, and whose +abilities entitle him to his position, he will do excellently under +almost any chief with the same purposes. + +I at once announced that I would continue unchanged McKinley's policies +for the honor and prosperity of the country, and I asked all the members +of the Cabinet to stay. There were no changes made among them save as +changes were made among their successors whom I myself appointed. I +continued Mr. McKinley's policies, changing and developing them and +adding new policies only as the questions before the public changed and +as the needs of the public developed. Some of my friends shook their +heads over this, telling me that the men I retained would not be "loyal +to me," and that I would seem as if I were "a pale copy of McKinley." +I told them that I was not nervous on this score, and that if the men +I retained were loyal to their work they would be giving me the loyalty +for which I most cared; and that if they were not, I would change them +anyhow; and that as for being "a pale copy of McKinley," I was not +primarily concerned with either following or not following in his +footsteps, but in facing the new problems that arose; and that if I were +competent I would find ample opportunity to show my competence by my +deeds without worrying myself as to how to convince people of the fact. + +For the reasons I have already given in my chapter on the Governorship +of New York, the Republican party, which in the days of Abraham Lincoln +was founded as the radical progressive party of the Nation, had been +obliged during the last decade of the nineteenth century to uphold +the interests of popular government against a foolish and illjudged +mock-radicalism. It remained the Nationalist as against the +particularist or State's rights party, and in so far it remained +absolutely sound; for little permanent good can be done by any party +which worships the State's rights fetish or which fails to regard the +State, like the county or the municipality, as merely a convenient unit +for local self-government, while in all National matters, of importance +to the whole people, the Nation is to be supreme over State, county, and +town alike. But the State's rights fetish, although still effectively +used at certain times by both courts and Congress to block needed +National legislation directed against the huge corporations or in the +interests of workingmen, was not a prime issue at the time of which I +speak. In 1896, 1898, and 1900 the campaigns were waged on two great +moral issues: (1) the imperative need of a sound and honest currency; +(2) the need, after 1898, of meeting in manful and straightforward +fashion the extraterritorial problems arising from the Spanish War. On +these great moral issues the Republican party was right, and the men who +were opposed to it, and who claimed to be the radicals, and their allies +among the sentimentalists, were utterly and hopelessly wrong. This had, +regrettably but perhaps inevitably, tended to throw the party into the +hands not merely of the conservatives but of the reactionaries; of men +who, sometimes for personal and improper reasons, but more often with +entire sincerity and uprightness of purpose, distrusted anything that +was progressive and dreaded radicalism. These men still from force of +habit applauded what Lincoln had done in the way of radical dealing +with the abuses of his day; but they did not apply the spirit in which +Lincoln worked to the abuses of their own day. Both houses of Congress +were controlled by these men. Their leaders in the Senate were Messrs. +Aldrich and Hale. The Speaker of the House when I became President +was Mr. Henderson, but in a little over a year he was succeeded by Mr. +Cannon, who, although widely differing from Senator Aldrich in matters +of detail, represented the same type of public sentiment. There were +many points on which I agreed with Mr. Cannon and Mr. Aldrich, and some +points on which I agreed with Mr. Hale. I made a resolute effort to get +on with all three and with their followers, and I have no question that +they made an equally resolute effort to get on with me. We succeeded in +working together, although with increasing friction, for some years, I +pushing forward and they hanging back. Gradually, however, I was forced +to abandon the effort to persuade them to come my way, and then I +achieved results only by appealing over the heads of the Senate and +House leaders to the people, who were the masters of both of us. I +continued in this way to get results until almost the close of my term; +and the Republican party became once more the progressive and indeed the +fairly radical progressive party of the Nation. When my successor was +chosen, however, the leaders of the House and Senate, or most of them, +felt that it was safe to come to a break with me, and the last or short +session of Congress, held between the election of my successor and his +inauguration four months later, saw a series of contests +between the majorities in the two houses of Congress and the +President,--myself,--quite as bitter as if they and I had belonged to +opposite political parties. However, I held my own. I was not able to +push through the legislation I desired during these four months, but +I was able to prevent them doing anything I did not desire, or undoing +anything that I had already succeeded in getting done. + +There were, of course, many Senators and members of the lower house with +whom up to the very last I continued to work in hearty accord, and with +a growing understanding. I have not the space to enumerate, as I would +like to, these men. For many years Senator Lodge had been my close +personal and political friend, with whom I discussed all public +questions that arose, usually with agreement; and our intimately close +relations were of course unchanged by my entry into the White House. He +was of all our public men the man who had made the closest and wisest +study of our foreign relations, and more clearly than almost any +other man he understood the vital fact that the efficiency of our +navy conditioned our national efficiency in foreign affairs. Anything +relating to our international relations, from Panama and the navy to the +Alaskan boundary question, the Algeciras negotiations, or the peace of +Portsmouth, I was certain to discuss with Senator Lodge and also with +certain other members of Congress, such as Senator Turner of Washington +and Representative Hitt of Illinois. Anything relating to labor +legislation and to measures for controlling big business or efficiently +regulating the giant railway systems, I was certain to discuss with +Senator Dolliver or Congressman Hepburn or Congressman Cooper. With +men like Senator Beveridge, Congressman (afterwards Senator) Dixon, +and Congressman Murdock, I was apt to discuss pretty nearly everything +relating to either our internal or our external affairs. There were +many, many others. The present president of the Senate, Senator Clark, +of Arkansas, was as fearless and high-minded a representative of the +people of the United States as I ever dealt with. He was one of the men +who combined loyalty to his own State with an equally keen loyalty to +the people of all the United States. He was politically opposed to me; +but when the interests of the country were at stake, he was incapable of +considering party differences; and this was especially his attitude +in international matters--including certain treaties which most of +his party colleagues, with narrow lack of patriotism, and complete +subordination of National to factional interest, opposed. I have never +anywhere met finer, more faithful, more disinterested, and more +loyal public servants than Senator O. H. Platt, a Republican, from +Connecticut, and Senator Cockrell, a Democrat, from Missouri. They were +already old men when I came to the Presidency; and doubtless there +were points on which I seemed to them to be extreme and radical; but +eventually they found that our motives and beliefs were the same, +and they did all in their power to help any movement that was for the +interest of our people as a whole. I had met them when I was Civil +Service Commissioner and Assistant Secretary of the Navy. All I ever had +to do with either was to convince him that a given measure I championed +was right, and he then at once did all he could to have it put into +effect. If I could not convince them, why! that was my fault, or my +misfortune; but if I could convince them, I never had to think again as +to whether they would or would not support me. There were many other men +of mark in both houses with whom I could work on some points, whereas +on others we had to differ. There was one powerful leader--a burly, +forceful man, of admirable traits--who had, however, been trained in +the post-bellum school of business and politics, so that his attitude +towards life, quite unconsciously, reminded me a little of Artemus +Ward's view of the Tower of London--"If I like it, I'll buy it." There +was a big governmental job in which this leader was much interested, +and in reference to which he always wished me to consult a man whom +he trusted, whom I will call Pitt Rodney. One day I answered him, "The +trouble with Rodney is that he misestimates his relations to cosmos"; +to which he responded, "Cosmos--Cosmos? Never heard of him. You stick +to Rodney. He's your man!" Outside of the public servants there were +multitudes of men, in newspaper offices, in magazine offices, in +business or the professions or on farms or in shops, who actively +supported the policies for which I stood and did work of genuine +leadership which was quite as effective as any work done by men in +public office. Without the active support of these men I would have +been powerless. In particular, the leading newspaper correspondents +at Washington were as a whole a singularly able, trustworthy, and +public-spirited body of men, and the most useful of all agents in the +fight for efficient and decent government. + +As for the men under me in executive office, I could not overstate the +debt of gratitude I owe them. From the heads of the departments, the +Cabinet officers, down, the most striking feature of the Administration +was the devoted, zealous, and efficient work that was done as soon as it +became understood that the one bond of interest among all of us was the +desire to make the Government the most effective instrument in advancing +the interests of the people as a whole, the interests of the average men +and women of the United States and of their children. I do not think I +overstate the case when I say that most of the men who did the best work +under me felt that ours was a partnership, that we all stood on the same +level of purpose and service, and that it mattered not what position any +one of us held so long as in that position he gave the very best that +was in him. We worked very hard; but I made a point of getting a couple +of hours off each day for equally vigorous play. The men with whom I +then played, whom we laughingly grew to call the "Tennis Cabinet," have +been mentioned in a previous chapter of this book in connection with +the gift they gave me at the last breakfast which they took at the White +House. There were many others in the public service under me with whom I +happened not to play, but who did their share of our common work just as +effectively as it was done by us who did play. Of course nothing could +have been done in my Administration if it had not been for the zeal, +intelligence, masterful ability, and downright hard labor of these men +in countless positions under me. I was helpless to do anything except +as my thoughts and orders were translated into action by them; and, +moreover, each of them, as he grew specially fit for his job, used to +suggest to me the right thought to have, and the right order to give, +concerning that job. It is of course hard for me to speak with cold and +dispassionate partiality of these men, who were as close to me as were +the men of my regiment. But the outside observers best fitted to pass +judgment about them felt as I did. At the end of my Administration Mr. +Bryce, the British Ambassador, told me 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. I repeat this statement with the permission +of Mr. Bryce. + +At about the same time, or a little before, in the spring of 1908, there +appeared in the English _Fortnightly Review_ an article, evidently by +a competent eye witness, setting forth more in detail the same views to +which the British Ambassador thus privately gave expression. It was in +part as follows: + +"Mr. Roosevelt has gathered around him a body of public servants who +are nowhere surpassed, I question whether they are anywhere equaled, for +efficiency, self-sacrifice, and an absolute devotion to their country's +interests. Many of them are poor men, without private means, who have +voluntarily abandoned high professional ambitions and turned their backs +on the rewards of business to serve their country on salaries that are +not merely inadequate, but indecently so. There is not one of them +who is not constantly assailed by offers of positions in the world +of commerce, finance, and the law that would satisfy every material +ambition with which he began life. There is not one of them who could +not, if he chose, earn outside Washington from ten to twenty times the +income on which he economizes as a State official. But these men are +as indifferent to money and to the power that money brings as to the +allurements of Newport and New York, or to merely personal distinctions, +or to the commercialized ideals which the great bulk of their +fellow-countrymen accept without question. They are content, and more +than content, to sink themselves in the National service without a +thought of private advancement, and often at a heavy sacrifice of +worldly honors, and to toil on . . . sustained by their own native +impulse to make of patriotism an efficient instrument of public +betterment." + +The American public rarely appreciate the high quality of the work +done by some of our diplomats--work, usually entirely unnoticed and +unrewarded, which redounds to the interest and the honor of all of +us. The most useful man in the entire diplomatic service, during my +presidency, and for many years before, was Henry White; and I say +this having in mind the high quality of work done by such admirable +ambassadors and ministers as Bacon, Meyer, Straus, O'Brien, Rockhill, +and Egan, to name only a few among many. When I left the presidency +White was Ambassador to France; shortly afterwards he was removed by Mr. +Taft, for reasons unconnected with the good of the service. + +The most important factor in getting the right spirit in my +Administration, next to the insistence upon courage, honesty, and a +genuine democracy of desire to serve the plain people, was my insistence +upon the theory that the executive power was limited only by specific +restrictions and prohibitions appearing in the Constitution or imposed +by the Congress under its Constitutional powers. My view was that +every executive officer, and above all every executive officer in high +position, was a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively +to do all he could for the people, and not to content himself with the +negative merit of keeping his talents undamaged in a napkin. I declined +to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation +could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific +authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right +but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless +such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under +this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done +many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the +departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of +executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted +for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever +manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or +legislative prohibition. I did not care a rap for the mere form and +show of power; I cared immensely for the use that could be made of the +substance. The Senate at one time objected to my communicating with them +in printing, preferring the expensive, foolish, and laborious practice +of writing out the messages by hand. It was not possible to return to +the outworn archaism of hand writing; but we endeavored to have the +printing made as pretty as possible. Whether I communicated with the +Congress in writing or by word of mouth, and whether the writing was by +a machine, or a pen, were equally, and absolutely, unimportant matters. +The importance lay in what I said and in the heed paid to what I said. +So as to my meeting and consulting Senators, Congressmen, politicians, +financiers, and labor men. I consulted all who wished to see me; and if +I wished to see any one, I sent for him; and where the consultation took +place was a matter of supreme unimportance. I consulted every man +with the sincere hope that I could profit by and follow his advice; I +consulted every member of Congress who wished to be consulted, hoping to +be able to come to an agreement of action with him; and I always finally +acted as my conscience and common sense bade me act. + +About appointments I was obliged by the Constitution to consult the +Senate; and the long-established custom of the Senate meant that in +practice this consultation was with individual Senators and even with +big politicians who stood behind the Senators. I was only one-half the +appointing power; I nominated; but the Senate confirmed. In practice, +by what was called "the courtesy of the Senate," the Senate normally +refused to confirm any appointment if the Senator from the State +objected to it. In exceptional cases, where I could arouse public +attention, I could force through the appointment in spite of the +opposition of the Senators; in all ordinary cases this was impossible. +On the other hand, the Senator could of course do nothing for any man +unless I chose to nominate him. In consequence the Constitution itself +forced the President and the Senators from each State to come to a +working agreement on the appointments in and from that State. + +My course was to insist on absolute fitness, including honesty, as a +prerequisite to every appointment; and to remove only for good cause, +and, where there was such cause, to refuse even to discuss with the +Senator in interest the unfit servant's retention. Subject to these +considerations, I normally accepted each Senator's recommendations for +offices of a routine kind, such as most post-offices and the like, but +insisted on myself choosing the men for the more important positions. +I was willing to take any good man for postmaster; but in the case of +a Judge or District Attorney or Canal Commissioner or Ambassador, I +was apt to insist either on a given man or else on any man with a given +class of qualifications. If the Senator deceived me, I took care that he +had no opportunity to repeat the deception. + +I can perhaps best illustrate my theory of action by two specific +examples. In New York Governor Odell and Senator Platt sometimes worked +in agreement and sometimes were at swords' points, and both wished to be +consulted. To a friendly Congressman, who was also their friend, I wrote +as follows on July 22, 1903: + +"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." + +This was written in connection with events which led up to my refusing +to accept Senator Platt's or Governor Odell's suggestions as to a +Federal Judgeship and a Federal District Attorneyship, and insisting +on the appointment, first of Judge Hough and later of District Attorney +Stimson; because in each case I felt that the work to be done was of so +high an order that I could not take an ordinary man. + +The other case was that of Senator Fulton, of Oregon. Through Francis +Heney I was prosecuting men who were implicated in a vast network of +conspiracy against the law in connection with the theft of public land +in Oregon. I had been acting on Senator Fulton's recommendations for +office, in the usual manner. Heney had been insisting that Fulton was +in league with the men we were prosecuting, and that he had recommended +unfit men. Fulton had been protesting against my following Heney's +advice, particularly as regards appointing Judge Wolverton as United +States Judge. Finally Heney laid before me a report which convinced me +of the truth of his statements. I then wrote to Fulton as follows, on +November 20, 1905: "My dear Senator Fulton: I inclose you herewith a +copy of the report made to me by Mr. Heney. I have seen the originals +of the letters from you and Senator Mitchell quoted therein. I do not +at this time desire to discuss the report itself, which of course I must +submit to the Attorney-General. But I have been obliged to reach the +painful conclusion that your own letters as therein quoted tend to show +that you recommended for the position of District Attorney B when you +had good reason to believe that he had himself been guilty of fraudulent +conduct; that you recommended C for the same position simply because it +was for B's interest that he should be so recommended, and, as there is +reason to believe, because he had agreed to divide the fees with B if he +were appointed; and that you finally recommended the reappointment of +H with the knowledge that if H were appointed he would abstain from +prosecuting B for criminal misconduct, this being why B advocated H's +claims for reappointment. If you care to make any statement in the +matter, I shall of course be glad to hear it. As the District Judge of +Oregon I shall appoint Judge Wolverton." In the letter I of course gave +in full the names indicated above by initials. Senator Fulton gave no +explanation. I therefore ceased to consult him about appointments under +the Department of Justice and the Interior, the two departments in which +the crookedness had occurred--there was no question of crookedness +in the other offices in the State, and they could be handled in the +ordinary manner. Legal proceedings were undertaken against his colleague +in the Senate, and one of his colleagues in the lower house, and the +former was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary. + +In a number of instances the legality of executive acts of my +Administration was brought before the courts. They were uniformly +sustained. For example, prior to 1907 statutes relating to the +disposition of coal lands had been construed as fixing the flat price at +$10 to $20 per acre. The result was that valuable coal lands were sold +for wholly inadequate prices, chiefly to big corporations. By executive +order the coal lands were withdrawn and not opened for entry until +proper classification was placed thereon by Government agents. There was +a great clamor that I was usurping legislative power; but the acts were +not assailed in court until we brought suits to set aside entries made +by persons and associations to obtain larger areas than the statutes +authorized. This position was opposed on the ground that the +restrictions imposed were illegal; that the executive orders were +illegal. The Supreme Court sustained the Government. In the same way our +attitude in the water power question was sustained, the Supreme Court +holding that the Federal Government had the rights we claimed over +streams that are or may be declared navigable by Congress. Again, when +Oklahoma became a State we were obliged to use the executive power +to protect Indian rights and property, for there had been an enormous +amount of fraud in the obtaining of Indian lands by white men. Here we +were denounced as usurping power over a State as well as usurping power +that did not belong to the executive. The Supreme Court sustained our +action. + +In connection with the Indians, by the way, it was again and again +necessary to assert the position of the President as steward of the +whole people. I had a capital Indian Commissioner, Francis E. Leupp. I +found that I could rely on his judgment not to get me into fights that +were unnecessary, and therefore I always backed him to the limit when +he told me that a fight was necessary. On one occasion, for example, +Congress passed a bill to sell to settlers about half a million acres of +Indian land in Oklahoma at one and a half dollars an acre. I refused to +sign it, and turned the matter over to Leupp. The bill was accordingly +withdrawn, amended so as to safeguard the welfare of the Indians, and +the minimum price raised to five dollars an acre. Then I signed the +bill. We sold that land under sealed bids, and realized for the Kiowa, +Comanche, and Apache Indians more than four million dollars--three +millions and a quarter more than they would have obtained if I had +signed the bill in its original form. In another case, where there +had been a division among the Sac and Fox Indians, part of the tribe +removing to Iowa, the Iowa delegation in Congress, backed by two Iowans +who were members of my Cabinet, passed a bill awarding a sum of nearly +a half million dollars to the Iowa seceders. They had not consulted +the Indian Bureau. Leupp protested against the bill, and I vetoed it. A +subsequent bill was passed on the lines laid down by the Indian Bureau, +referring the whole controversy to the courts, and the Supreme Court in +the end justified our position by deciding against the Iowa seceders and +awarding the money to the Oklahoma stay-at-homes. + +As to all action of this kind there have long been two schools of +political thought, upheld with equal sincerity. The division has not +normally been along political, but temperamental, lines. The course I +followed, of regarding the executive as subject only to the people, and, +under the Constitution, bound to serve the people affirmatively in cases +where the Constitution does not explicitly forbid him to render the +service, was substantially the course followed by both Andrew Jackson +and Abraham Lincoln. Other honorable and well-meaning Presidents, such +as James Buchanan, took the opposite and, as it seems to me, narrowly +legalistic view that the President is the servant of Congress rather +than of the people, and can do nothing, no matter how necessary it be to +act, unless the Constitution explicitly commands the action. Most able +lawyers who are past middle age take this view, and so do large numbers +of well-meaning, respectable citizens. My successor in office took this, +the Buchanan, view of the President's powers and duties. + +For example, under my Administration we found that one of the favorite +methods adopted by the men desirous of stealing the public domain was +to carry the decision of the Secretary of the Interior into court. By +vigorously opposing such action, and only by so doing, we were able +to carry out the policy of properly protecting the public domain. My +successor not only took the opposite view, but recommended to Congress +the passage of a bill which would have given the courts direct appellate +power over the Secretary of the Interior in these land matters. This +bill was reported favorably by Mr. Mondell, Chairman of the House +Committee on public lands, a Congressman who took the lead in every +measure to prevent the conservation of our natural resources and +the preservation of the National domain for the use of home-seekers. +Fortunately, Congress declined to pass the bill. Its passage would have +been a veritable calamity. + +I acted on the theory that the President could at any time in his +discretion withdraw from entry any of the public lands of the United +States and reserve the same for forestry, for water-power sites, for +irrigation, and other public purposes. Without such action it would +have been impossible to stop the activity of the land thieves. No one +ventured to test its legality by lawsuit. My successor, however, himself +questioned it, and referred the matter to Congress. Again Congress +showed its wisdom by passing a law which gave the President the power +which he had long exercised, and of which my successor had shorn +himself. + +Perhaps the sharp difference between what may be called the +Lincoln-Jackson and the Buchanan-Taft schools, in their views of the +power and duties of the President, may be best illustrated by comparing +the attitude of my successor toward his Secretary of the Interior, Mr. +Ballinger, when the latter was accused of gross misconduct in office, +with my attitude towards my chiefs of department and other subordinate +officers. More than once while I was President my officials were +attacked by Congress, generally because these officials did their duty +well and fearlessly. In every such case I stood by the official +and refused to recognize the right of Congress to interfere with me +excepting by impeachment or in other Constitutional manner. On the other +hand, wherever I found the officer unfit for his position I promptly +removed him, even although the most influential men in Congress fought +for his retention. The Jackson-Lincoln view is that a President who is +fit to do good work should be able to form his own judgment as to his +own subordinates, and, above all, of the subordinates standing highest +and in closest and most intimate touch with him. My secretaries +and their subordinates were responsible to me, and I accepted the +responsibility for all their deeds. As long as they were satisfactory to +me I stood by them against every critic or assailant, within or without +Congress; and as for getting Congress to make up my mind for me about +them, the thought would have been inconceivable to me. My successor took +the opposite, or Buchanan, view when he permitted and requested Congress +to pass judgment on the charges made against Mr. Ballinger as an +executive officer. These charges were made to the President; the +President had the facts before him and could get at them at any time, +and he alone had power to act if the charges were true. However, he +permitted and requested Congress to investigate Mr. Ballinger. The party +minority of the committee that investigated him, and one member of +the majority, declared that the charges were well founded and that Mr. +Ballinger should be removed. The other members of the majority declared +the charges ill founded. The President abode by the view of the +majority. Of course believers in the Jackson-Lincoln theory of the +Presidency would not be content with this town meeting majority and +minority method of determining by another branch of the Government what +it seems the especial duty of the President himself to determine for +himself in dealing with his own subordinate in his own department. + +There are many worthy people who reprobate the Buchanan method as a +matter of history, but who in actual life reprobate still more strongly +the Jackson-Lincoln method when it is put into practice. These persons +conscientiously believe that the President should solve every doubt in +favor of inaction as against action, that he should construe strictly +and narrowly the Constitutional grant of powers both to the National +Government, and to the President within the National Government. In +addition, however, to the men who conscientiously believe in this course +from high, although as I hold misguided, motives, there are many men who +affect to believe in it merely because it enables them to attack and to +try to hamper, for partisan or personal reasons, an executive whom +they dislike. There are other men in whom, especially when they are +themselves in office, practical adherence to the Buchanan principle +represents not well-thought-out devotion to an unwise course, but simple +weakness of character and desire to avoid trouble and responsibility. +Unfortunately, in practice it makes little difference which class +of ideas actuates the President, who by his action sets a cramping +precedent. Whether he is highminded and wrongheaded or merely infirm +of purpose, whether he means well feebly or is bound by a mischievous +misconception of the powers and duties of the National Government and +of the President, the effect of his actions is the same. The President's +duty is to act so that he himself and his subordinates shall be able to +do efficient work for the people, and this efficient work he and they +cannot do if Congress is permitted to undertake the task of making up +his mind for him as to how he shall perform what is clearly his sole +duty. + +One of the ways in which by independent action of the executive we were +able to accomplish an immense amount of work for the public was through +volunteer unpaid commissions appointed by the President. It was possible +to get the work done by these volunteer commissions only because of the +enthusiasm for the public service which, starting in the higher +offices at Washington, made itself felt throughout the Government +departments--as I have said, I never knew harder and more disinterested +work done by any people than was done by the men and women of all ranks +in the Government service. The contrast was really extraordinary between +their live interest in their work and the traditional clerical apathy +which has so often been the distinguishing note of governmental work +in Washington. Most of the public service performed by these volunteer +commissions, carried on without a cent of pay to the men themselves, +and wholly without cost to the Government, was done by men the great +majority of whom were already in the Government service and already +charged with responsibilities amounting each to a full man's job. + +The first of these Commissions was the Commission on the Organization +of Government Scientific Work, whose Chairman was Charles D. Walcott. +Appointed March 13, 1903, its duty was to report directly to the +President "upon the organization, present condition, and needs of the +Executive Government work wholly or partly scientific in character, and +upon the steps which should be taken, if any, to prevent the duplication +of such work, to co-ordinate its various branches, to increase its +efficiency and economy, and to promote its usefulness to the Nation +at large." This Commission spent four months in an examination which +covered the work of about thirty of the larger scientific and executive +bureaus of the Government, and prepared a report which furnished the +basis for numerous improvements in the Government service. + +Another Commission, appointed June 2, 1905, was that on Department +Methods--Charles H. Keep, Chairman--whose task was to "find out what +changes are needed to place the conduct of the executive business of +the Government in all its branches on the most economical and effective +basis in the light of the best modern business practice." The letter +appointing this Commission laid down nine principles of effective +Governmental work, the most striking of which was: "The existence of any +method, standard, custom, or practice is no reason for its continuance +when a better is offered." This Commission, composed like that just +described, of men already charged with important work, performed its +functions wholly without cost to the Government. It was assisted by a +body of about seventy experts in the Government departments chosen +for their special qualifications to carry forward a study of the best +methods in business, and organized into assistant committees under +the leadership of Overton W. Price, Secretary of the Commission. These +assistant committees, all of whose members were still carrying on their +regular work, made their reports during the last half of 1906. The +Committee informed itself fully regarding the business methods of +practically every individual branch of the business of the Government, +and effected a marked improvement in general efficiency throughout the +service. The conduct of the routine business of the Government had never +been thoroughly overhauled before, and this examination of it resulted +in the promulgation of a set of working principles for the transaction +of public business which are as sound to-day as they were when +the Committee finished its work. The somewhat elaborate and costly +investigations of Government business methods since made have served +merely to confirm the findings of the Committee on Departmental Methods, +which were achieved without costing the Government a dollar. The actual +saving in the conduct of the business of the Government through the +better methods thus introduced amounted yearly to many hundreds of +thousands of dollars; but a far more important gain was due to the +remarkable success of the Commission in establishing a new point of view +in public servants toward their work. + +The need for improvement in the Governmental methods of transacting +business may be illustrated by an actual case. An officer in charge of +an Indian agency made a requisition in the autumn for a stove costing +seven dollars, certifying at the same time that it was needed to keep +the infirmary warm during the winter, because the old stove was worn +out. Thereupon the customary papers went through the customary routine, +without unusual delay at any point. The transaction moved like a glacier +with dignity to its appointed end, and the stove reached the infirmary +in good order in time for the Indian agent to acknowledge its arrival in +these words: "The stove is here. So is spring." + +The Civil Service Commission, under men like John McIlhenny and +Garfield, rendered service without which the Government could have been +conducted with neither efficiency nor honesty. The politicians were +not the only persons at fault; almost as much improper pressure for +appointments is due to mere misplaced sympathy, and to the spiritless +inefficiency which seeks a Government office as a haven for the +incompetent. An amusing feature of office seeking is that each man +desiring an office is apt to look down on all others with the same +object as forming an objectionable class with which _he_ has nothing in +common. At the time of the eruption of Mt. Pelee, when among others +the American Consul was killed, a man who had long been seeking an +appointment promptly applied for the vacancy. He was a good man, of +persistent nature, who felt I had been somewhat blind to his merits. The +morning after the catastrophe he wrote, saying that as the consul was +dead he would like his place, and that I could surely give it to him, +because "even the office seekers could not have applied for it yet!" + +The method of public service involved in the appointment and the work of +the two commissions just described was applied also in the establishment +of four other commissions, each of which performed its task without +salary or expense for its members, and wholly without cost to the +Government. The other four commissions were: + +Commission on Public Lands; + +Commission on Inland Waterways; + +Commission on Country Life; and + +Commission on National Conservation. + +All of these commissions were suggested to me by Gifford Pinchot, who +served upon them all. The work of the last four will be touched upon in +connection with the chapter on Conservation. These commissions by their +reports and findings directly interfered with many place-holders who +were doing inefficient work, and their reports and the action +taken thereon by the Administration strengthened the hands of those +administrative officers who in the various departments, and especially +in the Secret Service, were proceeding against land thieves and other +corrupt wrong-doers. Moreover, the mere fact that they did efficient +work for the public along lines new to veteran and cynical politicians +of the old type created vehement hostility to them. Senators like Mr. +Hale and Congressmen like Mr. Tawney were especially bitter against +these commissions; and towards the end of my term they were followed +by the majority of their fellows in both houses, who had gradually been +sundered from me by the open or covert hostility of the financial or +Wall Street leaders, and of the newspaper editors and politicians who +did their bidding in the interest of privilege. These Senators and +Congressmen asserted that they had a right to forbid the President +profiting by the unpaid advice of disinterested experts. Of course I +declined to admit the existence of any such right, and continued the +Commissions. My successor acknowledged the right, upheld the view of the +politicians in question, and abandoned the commissions, to the lasting +detriment of the people as a whole. + +One thing is worth pointing out: During the seven and a half years of +my Administration we greatly and usefully extended the sphere of +Governmental action, and yet we reduced the burden of the taxpayers; +for we reduced the interest-bearing debt by more than $90,000,000. To +achieve a marked increase in efficiency and at the same time an increase +in economy is not an easy feat; but we performed it. + +There was one ugly and very necessary task. This was to discover and +root out corruption wherever it was found in any of the departments. The +first essential was to make it clearly understood that no political or +business or social influence of any kind would for one moment be even +considered when the honesty of a public official was at issue. It took +a little time to get this fact thoroughly drilled into the heads both +of the men within the service and of the political leaders without. The +feat was accomplished so thoroughly that every effort to interfere in +any shape or way with the course of justice was abandoned definitely and +for good. Most, although not all, of the frauds occurred in connection +with the Post-Office Department and the Land Office. + +It was in the Post-Office Department that we first definitely +established the rule of conduct which became universal throughout the +whole service. Rumors of corruption in the department became rife, and +finally I spoke of them to the then First Assistant Postmaster-General, +afterwards Postmaster-General, Robert J. Wynne. He reported to me, after +some investigation, that in his belief there was doubtless corruption, +but that it was very difficult to get at it, and that the offenders +were confident and defiant because of their great political and business +backing and the ramifications of their crimes. Talking the matter over +with him, I came to the conclusion that the right man to carry on the +investigation was the then Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General, now +a Senator from Kansas, Joseph L. Bristow, who possessed the iron +fearlessness needful to front such a situation. Mr. Bristow had perforce +seen a good deal of the seamy side of politics, and of the extent of the +unscrupulousness with which powerful influence was brought to bear to +shield offenders. Before undertaking the investigation he came to see +me, and said that he did not wish to go into it unless he could be +assured that I would stand personally behind him, and, no matter where +his inquiries led him, would support him and prevent interference +with him. I answered that I would certainly do so. He went into +the investigation with relentless energy, dogged courage, and keen +intelligence. His success was complete, and the extent of his services +to the Nation are not easily to be exaggerated. He unearthed a really +appalling amount of corruption, and he did his work with such absolute +thoroughness that the corruption was completely eradicated. + +We had, of course, the experience usual in all such investigations. At +first there was popular incredulity and disbelief that there was much +behind the charges, or that much could be unearthed. Then when the +corruption was shown there followed a yell of anger from all directions, +and a period during which any man accused was forthwith held guilty +by the public; and violent demands were made by the newspapers for the +prosecution not only of the men who could be prosecuted with a fair +chance of securing conviction and imprisonment, but of other men whose +misconduct had been such as to warrant my removing them from office, but +against whom it was not possible to get the kind of evidence which would +render likely conviction in a criminal case. Suits were brought against +all the officials whom we thought we could convict; and the public +complained bitterly that we did not bring further suits. We secured +several convictions, including convictions of the most notable +offenders. The trials consumed a good deal of time. Public attention was +attracted to something else. Indifference succeeded to excitement, and +in some subtle way the juries seemed to respond to the indifference. One +of the worst offenders was acquitted by a jury; whereupon not a few of +the same men who had insisted that the Government was derelict in not +criminally prosecuting every man whose misconduct was established so as +to make it necessary to turn him out of office, now turned round and, +inasmuch as the jury had not found this man guilty of crime, demanded +that he should be reinstated in office! It is needless to say that the +demand was not granted. There were two or three other acquittals, of +prominent outsiders. Nevertheless the net result was that the majority +of the worst offenders were sent to prison, and the remainder dismissed +from the Government service, if they were public officials, and if +they were not public officials at least so advertised as to render +it impossible that they should ever again have dealings with the +Government. The department was absolutely cleaned and became one of the +very best in the Government. Several Senators came to me--Mr. Garfield +was present on the occasion--and said that they were glad I was putting +a stop to corruption, but they hoped I would avoid all scandal; that if +I would make an example of some one man and then let the others quietly +resign, it would avoid a disturbance which might hurt the party. They +were advising me in good faith, and I was as courteous as possible in +my answer, but explained that I would have to act with the utmost rigor +against the offenders, no matter what the effect on the party, and, +moreover, that I did not believe it would hurt the party. It did not +hurt the party. It helped the party. A favorite war-cry in American +political life has always been, "Turn the rascals out." We made it +evident that, as far as we were concerned, this war-cry was pointless; +for we turned our own rascals out. + +There were important and successful land fraud prosecutions in several +Western States. Probably the most important were the cases prosecuted in +Oregon by Francis J. Heney, with the assistance of William J. Burns, +a secret service agent who at that time began his career as a great +detective. It would be impossible to overstate the services rendered to +the cause of decency and honesty by Messrs. Heney and Burns. Mr. Heney +was my close and intimate adviser professionally and non-professionally, +not only as regards putting a stop to frauds in the public lands, but +in many other matters of vital interest to the Republic. No man in the +country has waged the battle for National honesty with greater courage +and success, with more whole-hearted devotion to the public good; and +no man has been more traduced and maligned by the wrong-doing agents +and representatives of the great sinister forces of evil. He secured the +conviction of various men of high political and financial standing +in connection with the Oregon prosecutions; he and Burns behaved with +scrupulous fairness and propriety; but their services to the public +caused them to incur the bitter hatred of those who had wronged the +public, and after I left office the National Administration turned +against them. One of the most conspicuous of the men whom they had +succeeded in convicting was pardoned by President Taft--in spite of the +fact that the presiding Judge, Judge Hunt, had held that the +evidence amply warranted the conviction, and had sentenced the man to +imprisonment. As was natural, the one hundred and forty-six land-fraud +defendants in Oregon, who included the foremost machine political +leaders in the State, furnished the backbone of the opposition to me in +the Presidential contest of 1912. The opposition rallied behind Messrs. +Taft and LaFollette; and although I carried the primaries handsomely, +half of the delegates elected from Oregon under instructions to vote for +me, sided with my opponents in the National Convention--and as regards +some of them I became convinced that the mainspring of their motive +lay in the intrigue for securing the pardon of certain of the men whose +conviction Heney had secured. + +Land fraud and post-office cases were not the only ones. We were +especially zealous in prosecuting all of the "higher up" offenders +in the realms of politics and finance who swindled on a large scale. +Special assistants of the Attorney-General, such as Mr. Frank Kellogg, +of St. Paul, and various first-class Federal district attorneys in +different parts of the country secured notable results: Mr. Stimson and +his assistants, Messrs. Wise, Denison, and Frankfurter, in New York, for +instance, in connection with the prosecution of the Sugar Trust and of +the banker Morse, and of a great metropolitan newspaper for opening its +columns to obscene and immoral advertisements; and in St. Louis Messrs. +Dyer and Nortoni, who, among other services, secured the conviction and +imprisonment of Senator Burton, of Kansas; and in Chicago Mr. Sims, +who raised his office to the highest pitch of efficiency, secured the +conviction of the banker Walsh and of the Beef Trust, and first broke +through the armor of the Standard Oil Trust. It is not too much to say +that these men, and others like them, worked a complete revolution in +the enforcement of the Federal laws, and made their offices organized +legal machines fit and ready to conduct smashing fights for the people's +rights and to enforce the laws in aggressive fashion. When I took the +Presidency, it was a common and bitter saying that a big man, a rich +man, could not be put in jail. We put many big and rich men in jail; +two United States Senators, for instance, and among others two great +bankers, one in New York and one in Chicago. One of the United States +Senators died, the other served his term. (One of the bankers was +released from prison by executive order after I left office.) These were +merely individual cases among many others like them. Moreover, we +were just as relentless in dealing with crimes of violence among the +disorderly and brutal classes as in dealing with the crimes of cunning +and fraud of which certain wealthy men and big politicians were guilty. +Mr. Sims in Chicago was particularly efficient in sending to the +penitentiary numbers of the infamous men who batten on the "white +slave" traffic, after July, 1908, when by proclamation I announced +the adherence of our Government to the international agreement for the +suppression of the traffic. + +The views I then held and now hold were expressed in a memorandum made +in the case of a Negro convicted of the rape of a young Negro girl, +practically a child. A petition for his pardon had been sent me. + +WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C., August 8, 1904. + +The application for the commutation of sentence of John W. Burley is +denied. This man committed the most hideous crime known to our laws, and +twice before he has committed crimes of a similar, though less horrible, +character. In my judgment there is no justification whatever for paying +heed to the allegations that he is not of sound mind, allegations made +after the trial and conviction. Nobody would pretend that there has ever +been any such degree of mental unsoundness shown as would make people +even consider sending him to an asylum if he had not committed this +crime. Under such circumstances he should certainly be esteemed sane +enough to suffer the penalty for his monstrous deed. I have scant +sympathy with the plea of insanity advanced to save a man from the +consequences of crime, when unless that crime had been committed it +would have been impossible to persuade any responsible authority to +commit him to an asylum as insane. Among the most dangerous criminals, +and especially among those prone to commit this particular kind of +offense, there are plenty of a temper so fiendish or so brutal as to be +incompatible with any other than a brutish order of intelligence; but +these men are nevertheless responsible for their acts; and nothing more +tends to encourage crime among such men than the belief that through the +plea of insanity or any other method it is possible for them to escape +paying the just penalty of their crimes. The crime in question is one +to the existence of which we largely owe the existence of that spirit +of lawlessness which takes form in lynching. It is a crime so revolting +that the criminal is not entitled to one particle of sympathy from any +human being. It is essential that the punishment for it should be not +only as certain but as swift as possible. The jury in this case did +their duty by recommending the infliction of the death penalty. It is +to be regretted that we do not have special provision for more summary +dealing with this type of case. The more we do what in us lies to +secure certain and swift justice in dealing with these cases, the more +effectively do we work against the growth of that lynching spirit which +is so full of evil omen for this people, because it seeks to avenge one +infamous crime by the commission of another of equal infamy. + +The application is denied and the sentence will be carried into effect. + +(Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +One of the most curious incidents of lawlessness with which I had to +deal affected an entire State. The State of Nevada in the year 1907 +was gradually drifting into utter governmental impotence and downright +anarchy. The people were at heart all right; but the forces of evil had +been permitted to get the upper hand, and for the time being the decent +citizens had become helpless to assert themselves either by controlling +the greedy corporations on the one hand or repressing the murderous +violence of certain lawless labor organizations on the other hand. The +Governor of the State was a Democrat and a Southern man, and in the +abstract a strong believer in the doctrine of State's Rights. But his +experience finally convinced him that he could obtain order only through +the intervention of the National Government; and then he went over too +far and wished to have the National Government do his police work for +him. In the Rocky Mountain States there had existed for years what +was practically a condition of almost constant war between the wealthy +mine-owners and the Western Federation of Miners, at whose head stood +Messrs. Haywood, Pettibone, and Moyer, who were about that time indicted +for the murder of the Governor of Idaho. Much that was lawless, much +that was indefensible, had been done by both sides. The Legislature of +Nevada was in sympathy with, or at least was afraid of not expressing +sympathy for, Messrs. Moyer, Haywood, Pettibone, and their associates. +The State was practically without any police, and the Governor had +recommended the establishment of a State Constabulary, along the lines +of the Texas Rangers; but the Legislature rejected his request. The +Governor reported to me the conditions as follows. During 1907 the +Goldfield mining district became divided into two hostile camps. Half +of the Western Federation of Miners were constantly armed, and arms and +ammunition were purchased and kept by the union as a body, while the +mine-owners on their side retained large numbers of watchmen and guards +who were also armed and always on duty. In addition to these opposing +forces there was, as the Governor reported, an unusually large number of +the violent and criminal element, always attracted to a new and +booming mining camp. Under such conditions the civil authorities were +practically powerless, and the Governor, being helpless to avert civil +war, called on me to keep order. I accordingly threw in a body of +regular troops under General Funston. These kept order completely, and +the Governor became so well satisfied that he thought he would like +to have them there permanently! This seemed to me unhealthy, and on +December 28, 1907, I notified him that while I would do my duty, the +first need was that the State authorities should do theirs, and that +the first step towards this was the assembling of the Legislature. +I concluded my telegram: "If within five days from receipt of this +telegram you shall have issued the necessary notice to convene the +Legislature of Nevada, I shall continue the troops during a period of +three weeks. If when the term of five days has elapsed the notice has +not been issued, the troops will be immediately returned to their former +stations." I had already investigated the situation through a committee, +composed of the Chief of the Bureau of Corporations, Mr. H. K. Smith, +the Chief of the Bureau of Labor, Mr. C. P. Neill, and the Comptroller +of the Treasury, Mr. Lawrence Murray. These men I could thoroughly +trust, and their report, which was not over-favorable to either side, +had convinced me that the only permanent way to get good results was to +insist on the people of the State themselves grappling with and solving +their own troubles. The Governor summoned the Legislature, it met, and +the constabulary bill was passed. The troops remained in Nevada until +time had been given for the State authorities to organize their force so +that violence could at once be checked. Then they were withdrawn. + +Nor was it only as regards their own internal affairs that I sometimes +had to get into active communication with the State authorities. There +has always been a strong feeling in California against the immigration +of Asiatic laborers, whether these are wage-workers or men who occupy +and till the soil. I believe this to be fundamentally a sound and proper +attitude, an attitude which must be insisted upon, and yet which can be +insisted upon in such a manner and with such courtesy and such sense of +mutual fairness and reciprocal obligation and respect as not to give any +just cause of offense to Asiatic peoples. In the present state of +the world's progress it is highly inadvisable that peoples in wholly +different stages of civilization, or of wholly different types of +civilization even although both equally high, shall be thrown into +intimate contact. This is especially undesirable when there is a +difference of both race and standard of living. In California the +question became acute in connection with the admission of the Japanese. +I then had and now have a hearty admiration for the Japanese people. +I believe in them; I respect their great qualities; I wish that our +American people had many of these qualities. Japanese and American +students, travelers, scientific and literary men, merchants engaged in +international trade, and the like can meet on terms of entire equality +and should be given the freest access each to the country of the other. +But the Japanese themselves would not tolerate the intrusion into +their country of a mass of Americans who would displace Japanese in the +business of the land. I think they are entirely right in this position. +I would be the first to admit that Japan has the absolute right to +declare on what terms foreigners shall be admitted to work in her +country, or to own land in her country, or to become citizens of her +country. America has and must insist upon the same right. The people +of California were right in insisting that the Japanese should not +come thither in mass, that there should be no influx of laborers, of +agricultural workers, or small tradesmen--in short, no mass settlement +or immigration. + +Unfortunately, during the latter part of my term as President certain +unwise and demagogic agitators in California, to show their disapproval +of the Japanese coming into the State, adopted the very foolish +procedure of trying to provide by law that the Japanese children should +not be allowed to attend the schools with the white children, and +offensive and injurious language was used in connection with the +proposal. The Federal Administration promptly took up the matter with +the California authorities, and I got into personal touch with them. At +my request the Mayor of San Francisco and other leaders in the movement +came on to see me. I explained that the duty of the National Government +was twofold: in the first place, to meet every reasonable wish and every +real need of the people of California or any other State in dealing +with the people of a foreign power; and, in the next place, itself +exclusively and fully to exercise the right of dealing with this foreign +power. + +Inasmuch as in the last resort, including that last of all resorts, war, +the dealing of necessity had to be between the foreign power and the +National Government, it was impossible to admit that the doctrine +of State sovereignty could be invoked in such a matter. As soon as +legislative or other action in any State affects a foreign nation, then +the affair becomes one for the Nation, and the State should deal with +the foreign power purely through the Nation. + +I explained that I was in entire sympathy with the people of California +as to the subject of immigration of the Japanese in mass; but that of +course I wished to accomplish the object they had in view in the way +that would be most courteous and most agreeable to the feelings of the +Japanese; that all relations between the two peoples must be those of +reciprocal justice, and that it was an intolerable outrage on the part +of newspapers and public men to use offensive and insulting language +about a high-spirited, sensitive, and friendly people; and that such +action as was proposed about the schools could only have bad effects, +and would in no shape or way achieve the purpose that the Californians +had in mind. I also explained that I would use every resource of the +National Government to protect the Japanese in their treaty rights, and +would count upon the State authorities backing me up to the limit in +such action. In short, I insisted upon the two points (1) that the +Nation and not the individual States must deal with matters of such +international significance and must treat foreign nations with entire +courtesy and respect; and (2) that the Nation would at once, and in +efficient and satisfactory manner, take action that would meet the needs +of California. I both asserted the power of the Nation and offered a +full remedy for the needs of the State. This is the right, and the only +right, course. The worst possible course in such a case is to fail to +insist on the right of the Nation, to offer no action of the Nation to +remedy what is wrong, and yet to try to coax the State not to do what +it is mistakenly encouraged to believe it has the power to do, when no +other alternative is offered. + +After a good deal of discussion, we came to an entirely satisfactory +conclusion. The obnoxious school legislation was abandoned, and I +secured an arrangement with Japan under which the Japanese themselves +prevented any immigration to our country of their laboring people, it +being distinctly understood that if there was such emigration the United +States would at once pass an exclusion law. It was of course infinitely +better that the Japanese should stop their own people from coming rather +than that we should have to stop them; but it was necessary for us to +hold this power in reserve. + +Unfortunately, after I left office, a most mistaken and ill-advised +policy was pursued towards Japan, combining irritation and inefficiency, +which culminated in a treaty under which we surrendered this important +and necessary right. It was alleged in excuse that the treaty provided +for its own abrogation; but of course it is infinitely better to have a +treaty under which the power to exercise a necessary right is explicitly +retained rather than a treaty so drawn that recourse must be had to the +extreme step of abrogating if it ever becomes necessary to exercise the +right in question. + +The arrangement we made worked admirably, and entirely achieved its +purpose. No small part of our success was due to the fact that we +succeeded in impressing on the Japanese that we sincerely admired and +respected them, and desired to treat them with the utmost consideration. +I cannot too strongly express my indignation with, and abhorrence +of, reckless public writers and speakers who, with coarse and vulgar +insolence, insult the Japanese people and thereby do the greatest wrong +not only to Japan but to their own country. + +Such conduct represents that nadir of underbreeding and folly. The +Japanese are one of the great nations of the world, entitled to stand, +and standing, on a footing of full equality with any nation of Europe +or America. I have the heartiest admiration for them. They can teach us +much. Their civilization is in some respects higher than our own. It is +eminently undesirable that Japanese and Americans should attempt to +live together in masses; any such attempt would be sure to result +disastrously, and the far-seeing statesmen of both countries should join +to prevent it. + +But this is not because either nation is inferior to the other; it is +because they are different. The two peoples represent two civilizations +which, although in many respects equally high, are so totally +distinct in their past history that it is idle to expect in one or two +generations to overcome this difference. One civilization is as old +as the other; and in neither case is the line of cultural descent +coincident with that of ethnic descent. Unquestionably the ancestors of +the great majority both of the modern Americans and the modern Japanese +were barbarians in that remote past which saw the origins of the +cultured peoples to which the Americans and the Japanese of to-day +severally trace their civilizations. But the lines of development of +these two civilizations, of the Orient and the Occident, have been +separate and divergent since thousands of years before the Christian +era; certainly since that hoary eld in which the Akkadian predecessors +of the Chaldean Semites held sway in Mesopotamia. An effort to mix +together, out of hand, the peoples representing the culminating points +of two such lines of divergent cultural development would be fraught +with peril; and this, I repeat, because the two are different, not +because either is inferior to the other. Wise statesmen, looking to the +future, will for the present endeavor to keep the two nations from mass +contact and intermingling, precisely because they wish to keep each in +relations of permanent good will and friendship with the other. + +Exactly what was done in the particular crisis to which I refer is shown +in the following letter which, after our policy had been successfully +put into execution, I sent to the then Speaker of the California lower +house of the Legislature: + +THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, February 8, 1909. + +HON P. A. STANTON, Speaker of the Assembly, Sacramento, California: + +I trust there will be no misunderstanding of the Federal Government's +attitude. We are jealously endeavoring to guard the interests of +California and of the entire West in accordance with the desires of our +Western people. By friendly agreement with Japan, we are now carrying +out a policy which, while meeting the interests and desires of the +Pacific slope, is yet compatible, not merely with mutual self-respect, +but with mutual esteem and admiration between the Americans and +Japanese. The Japanese Government is loyally and in good faith doing its +part to carry out this policy, precisely as the American Government +is doing. The policy aims at mutuality of obligation and behavior. In +accordance with it the purpose is that the Japanese shall come here +exactly as Americans go to Japan, which is in effect that travelers, +students, persons engaged in international business, men who sojourn for +pleasure or study, and the like, shall have the freest access from one +country to the other, and shall be sure of the best treatment, but that +there shall be no settlement in mass by the people of either country in +the other. During the last six months under this policy more Japanese +have left the country than have come in, and the total number in the +United States has diminished by over two thousand. These figures are +absolutely accurate and cannot be impeached. In other words, if the +present policy is consistently followed and works as well in the future +as it is now working, all difficulties and causes of friction +will disappear, while at the same time each nation will retain its +self-respect and the good will of the other. But such a bill as this +school bill accomplishes literally nothing whatever in the line of the +object aimed at, and gives just and grave cause for irritation; while +in addition the United States Government would be obliged immediately to +take action in the Federal courts to test such legislation, as we hold +it to be clearly a violation of the treaty. On this point I refer you to +the numerous decisions of the United States Supreme Court in regard to +State laws which violate treaty obligations of the United States. The +legislation would accomplish nothing beneficial and would certainly +cause some mischief, and might cause very grave mischief. In short, the +policy of the Administration is to combine the maximum of efficiency in +achieving the real object which the people of the Pacific Slope have at +heart, with the minimum of friction and trouble, while the misguided men +who advocate such action as this against which I protest are following a +policy which combines the very minimum of efficiency with the maximum of +insult, and which, while totally failing to achieve any real result for +good, yet might accomplish an infinity of harm. If in the next year or +two the action of the Federal Government fails to achieve what it is now +achieving, then through the further action of the President and Congress +it can be made entirely efficient. I am sure that the sound judgment of +the people of California will support you, Mr. Speaker, in your effort. +Let me repeat that at present we are actually doing the very thing which +the people of California wish to be done, and to upset the arrangement +under which this is being done cannot do good and may do great harm. +If in the next year or two the figures of immigration prove that the +arrangement which has worked so successfully during the last six months +is no longer working successfully, then there would be ground for +grievance and for the reversal by the National Government of its present +policy. But at present the policy is working well, and until it works +badly it would be a grave misfortune to change it, and when changed it +can only be changed effectively by the National Government. + +THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +In foreign and domestic affairs alike the policy pursued during my +Administration was simple. In foreign affairs the principle from which +we never deviated was to have the Nation behave toward other nations +precisely as a strong, honorable, and upright man behaves in dealing +with his fellow-men. There is no such thing as international law in the +sense that there is municipal law or law within a nation. Within the +nation there is always a judge, and a policeman who stands back of the +judge. The whole system of law depends first upon the fact that there is +a judge competent to pass judgment, and second upon the fact that there +is some competent officer whose duty it is to carry out this judgment, +by force if necessary. In international law there is no judge, unless +the parties in interest agree that one shall be constituted; and there +is no policeman to carry out the judge's orders. In consequence, as +yet each nation must depend upon itself for its own protection. The +frightful calamities that have befallen China, solely because she has +had no power of self-defense, ought to make it inexcusable in any wise +American citizen to pretend to patriotic purpose, and yet to fail to +insist that the United States shall keep in a condition of ability if +necessary to assert its rights with a strong hand. It is folly of the +criminal type for the Nation not to keep up its navy, not to fortify +its vital strategic points, and not to provide an adequate army for its +needs. On the other hand, it is wicked for the Nation to fail in either +justice, courtesy, or consideration when dealing with any other power, +big or little. John Hay was Secretary of State when I became President, +and continued to serve under me until his death, and his and my views +as to the attitude that the Nation should take in foreign affairs were +identical, both as regards our duty to be able to protect ourselves +against the strong and as regards our duty always to act not only justly +but generously toward the weak. + +John Hay was one of the most delightful of companions, one of the most +charming of all men of cultivation and action. Our views on foreign +affairs coincided absolutely; but, as was natural enough, in domestic +matters he felt much more conservative than he did in the days when as +a young man he was private secretary to the great radical democratic +leader of the '60's, Abraham Lincoln. He was fond of jesting with me +about my supposedly dangerous tendencies in favor of labor against +capital. When I was inaugurated on March 4, 1905, I wore a ring he sent +me the evening before, containing the hair of Abraham Lincoln. This ring +was on my finger when the Chief Justice administered to me the oath of +allegiance to the United States; I often thereafter told John Hay that +when I wore such a ring on such an occasion I bound myself more than +ever to treat the Constitution, after the manner of Abraham Lincoln, +as a document which put human rights above property rights when the +two conflicted. The last Christmas John Hay was alive he sent me the +manuscript of a Norse saga by William Morris, with the following note: + +Christmas Eve, 1904. + +DEAR THEODORE: In your quality of Viking this Norse saga should belong +to you, and in your character of Enemy of Property this Ms. of William +Morris will appeal to you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and many happy +years, I am yours affectionately, + +JOHN HAY. + +In internal affairs I cannot say that I entered the Presidency with any +deliberately planned and far-reaching scheme of social betterment. I +had, however, certain strong convictions; and I was on the lookout for +every opportunity of realizing those convictions. I was bent upon making +the Government the most efficient possible instrument in helping +the people of the United States to better themselves in every way, +politically, socially, and industrially. I believed with all my heart +in real and thoroughgoing democracy, and I wished to make this +democracy industrial as well as political, although I had only partially +formulated the methods I believed we should follow. I believed in the +people's rights, and therefore in National rights and States' rights +just exactly to the degree in which they severally secured popular +rights. I believed in invoking the National power with absolute freedom +for every National need; and I believed that the Constitution should be +treated as the greatest document ever devised by the wit of man to aid +a people in exercising every power necessary for its own betterment, and +not as a straitjacket cunningly fashioned to strangle growth. As for the +particular methods of realizing these various beliefs, I was content +to wait and see what method might be necessary in each given case as it +arose; and I was certain that the cases would arise fast enough. + +As the time for the Presidential nomination of 1904 drew near, it became +evident that I was strong with the rank and file of the party, but that +there was much opposition to me among many of the big political leaders, +and especially among many of the Wall Street men. A group of these men +met in conference to organize this opposition. It was to be done with +complete secrecy. But such secrets are very hard to keep. I speedily +knew all about it, and took my measures accordingly. The big men in +question, who possessed much power so long as they could work under +cover, or so long as they were merely throwing their weight one way or +the other between forces fairly evenly balanced, were quite helpless +when fighting in the open by themselves. I never found out that anything +practical was even attempted by most of the men who took part in the +conference. Three or four of them, however, did attempt something. The +head of one big business corporation attempted to start an effort to +control the delegations from New Jersey, North Carolina, and certain +Gulf States against me. The head of a great railway system made +preparations for a more ambitious effort looking towards the control of +the delegations from Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and California +against me. He was a very powerful man financially, but his power +politically was much more limited, and he did not really understand his +own limitations or the situation itself, whereas I did. He could not +have secured a delegate against me from Iowa, Nebraska, or Kansas. In +Colorado and California he could have made a fight, but even there I +think he would have been completely beaten. However, long before the +time for the Convention came around, it was recognized that it was +hopeless to make any opposition to my nomination. The effort was +abandoned, and I was nominated unanimously. Judge Parker was nominated +by the Democrats against me. Practically all the metropolitan newspapers +of largest circulation were against me; in New York City fifteen out +of every sixteen copies of papers issued were hostile to me. I won by a +popular majority of about two million and a half, and in the electoral +college carried 330 votes against 136. It was by far the largest popular +majority ever hitherto given any Presidential candidate. + +My opponents during the campaign had laid much stress upon my supposed +personal ambition and intention to use the office of President to +perpetuate myself in power. I did not say anything on the subject +prior to the election, as I did not wish to say anything that could be +construed into a promise offered as a consideration in order to secure +votes. But on election night, after the returns were in I issued the +following statement: "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." + +The reason for my choice of the exact phraseology used was twofold. In +the first place, many of my supporters were insisting that, as I had +served only three and a half years of my first term, coming in from the +Vice-Presidency when President McKinley was killed, I had really had +only one elective term, so that the third term custom did not apply to +me; and I wished to repudiate this suggestion. I believed then (and I +believe now) the third term custom or tradition to be wholesome, and, +therefore, I was determined to regard its substance, refusing to quibble +over the words usually employed to express it. On the other hand, I did +not wish simply and specifically to say that I would not be a candidate +for the nomination in 1908, because if I had specified the year when I +would not be a candidate, it would have been widely accepted as meaning +that I intended to be a candidate some other year; and I had no such +intention, and had no idea that I would ever be a candidate again. +Certain newspaper men did ask me if I intended to apply my prohibition +to 1912, and I answered that I was not thinking of 1912, nor of 1920, +nor of 1940, and that I must decline to say anything whatever except +what appeared in my statement. + +The Presidency is a great office, and the power of the President can be +effectively used to secure a renomination, especially if the President +has the support of certain great political and financial interests. It +is for this reason, and this reason alone, that the wholesome principle +of continuing in office, so long as he is willing to serve, an incumbent +who has proved capable, is not applicable to the Presidency. Therefore, +the American people have wisely established a custom against allowing +any man to hold that office for more than two consecutive terms. +But every shred of power which a President exercises while in office +vanishes absolutely when he has once left office. An ex-President stands +precisely in the position of any other private citizen, and has not one +particle more power to secure a nomination or election than if he had +never held the office at all--indeed, he probably has less because of +the very fact that he has held the office. Therefore the reasoning on +which the anti-third term custom is based has no application whatever +to an ex-President, and no application whatever to anything except +consecutive terms. As a barrier of precaution against more than two +consecutive terms the custom embodies a valuable principle. Applied +in any other way it becomes a mere formula, and like all formulas +a potential source of mischievous confusion. Having this in mind, I +regarded the custom as applying practically, if not just as much, to a +President who had been seven and a half years in office as to one +who had been eight years in office, and therefore, in the teeth of a +practically unanimous demand from my own party that I accept another +nomination, and the reasonable certainty that the nomination would be +ratified at the polls, I felt that the substance of the custom applied +to me in 1908. On the other hand, it had no application whatever to any +human being save where it was invoked in the case of a man desiring a +third consecutive term. Having given such substantial proof of my own +regard for the custom, I deem it a duty to add this comment on it. I +believe that it is well to have a custom of this kind, to be generally +observed, but that it would be very unwise to have it definitely +hardened into a Constitutional prohibition. It is not desirable +ordinarily that a man should stay in office twelve consecutive years as +President; but most certainly the American people are fit to take care +of themselves, and stand in no need of an irrevocable self-denying +ordinance. They should not bind themselves never to take action which +under some quite conceivable circumstances it might be to their great +interest to take. It is obviously of the last importance to the safety +of a democracy that in time of real peril it should be able to command +the service of every one among its citizens in the precise position +where the service rendered will be most valuable. It would be a +benighted policy in such event to disqualify absolutely from the +highest office a man who while holding it had actually shown the highest +capacity to exercise its powers with the utmost effect for the public +defense. If, for instance, a tremendous crisis occurred at the end of +the second term of a man like Lincoln, as such a crisis occurred at the +end of his first term, it would be a veritable calamity if the American +people were forbidden to continue to use the services of the one man +whom they knew, and did not merely guess, could carry them through the +crisis. The third term tradition has no value whatever except as it +applies to a third consecutive term. While it is well to keep it as +a custom, it would be a mark both of weakness and unwisdom for the +American people to embody it into a Constitutional provision which could +not do them good and on some given occasion might work real harm. + +There was one cartoon made while I was President, in which I appeared +incidentally, that was always a great favorite of mine. It pictured an +old fellow with chin whiskers, a farmer, in his shirt-sleeves, with his +boots off, sitting before the fire, reading the President's Message. On +his feet were stockings of the kind I have seen hung up by the dozen in +Joe Ferris's store at Medora, in the days when I used to come in to town +and sleep in one of the rooms over the store. The title of the picture +was "His Favorite Author." This was the old fellow whom I always used to +keep in mind. He had probably been in the Civil War in his youth; he had +worked hard ever since he left the army; he had been a good husband and +father; he had brought up his boys and girls to work; he did not wish to +do injustice to any one else, but he wanted justice done to himself and +to others like him; and I was bound to secure that justice for him if it +lay in my power to do so.[*] + +[*] I believe I realized fairly well this ambition. I shall turn to +my enemies to attest the truth of this statement. The New York _Sun_, +shortly before the National Convention of 1904, spoke of me as follows: + +"President Roosevelt holds that his nomination by the National +Republican Convention of 1904 is an assured thing. He makes no +concealment of his conviction, and it is unreservedly shared by his +friends. We think President Roosevelt is right. + +"There are strong and convincing reasons why the President should feel +that success is within his grasp. He has used the opportunities that +he found or created, and he has used them with consummate skill and +undeniable success. + +"The President has disarmed all his enemies. Every weapon they had, +new or old, has been taken from them and added to the now unassailable +Roosevelt arsenal. Why should people wonder that Mr. Bryan clings to +silver? Has not Mr. Roosevelt absorbed and sequestered every vestige of +the Kansas City platform that had a shred of practical value? +Suppose that Mr. Bryan had been elected President. What could he have +accomplished compared with what Mr. Roosevelt has accomplished? Will his +most passionate followers pretend for one moment that Mr. Bryan could +have conceived, much less enforced, any such pursuit of the trusts as +that which Mr. Roosevelt has just brought to a triumphant issue? Will +Mr. Bryan himself intimate that the Federal courts would have turned to +his projects the friendly countenance which they have lent to those of +Mr. Roosevelt? + +"Where is 'government by injunction' gone to? The very emptiness of that +once potent phrase is beyond description! A regiment of Bryans could not +compete with Mr. Roosevelt in harrying the trusts, in bringing wealth to +its knees, and in converting into the palpable actualities of action the +wildest dreams of Bryan's campaign orators. He has outdone them all. + +"And how utterly the President has routed the pretensions of Bryan, and +of the whole Democratic horde in respect to organized labor! How empty +were all their professions, their mouthings and their howlings in the +face of the simple and unpretentious achievements of the President! In +his own straightforward fashion he inflicted upon capital in one short +hour of the coal strike a greater humiliation than Bryan could have +visited upon it in a century. He is the leader of the labor unions of +the United States. Mr. Roosevelt has put them above the law and above +the Constitution, because for him they are the American people." [This +last, I need hardly say, is merely a rhetorical method of saying that I +gave the labor union precisely the same treatment as the corporation.] + +Senator La Follette, in the issue of his magazine immediately following +my leaving the Presidency in March, 1909, wrote as follows: + +"Roosevelt steps from the stage gracefully. He has ruled his party to a +large extent against its will. He has played a large part in the +world's work, for the past seven years. The activities of his remarkably +forceful personality have been so manifold that it will be long before +his true rating will be fixed in the opinion of the race. He is said to +think that the three great things done by him are the undertaking of the +construction of the Panama Canal and its rapid and successful carrying +forward, the making of peace between Russia and Japan, and the sending +around the world of the fleet. + +"These are important things, but many will be slow to think them his +greatest services. The Panama Canal will surely serve mankind when in +operation; and the manner of organizing this work seems to be fine. +But no one can say whether this project will be a gigantic success or +a gigantic failure; and the task is one which must, in the nature of +things, have been undertaken and carried through some time soon, as +historic periods go, anyhow. The Peace of Portsmouth was a great thing +to be responsible for, and Roosevelt's good offices undoubtedly saved +a great and bloody battle in Manchuria. But the war was fought out, and +the parties ready to quit, and there is reason to think that it was +only when this situation was arrived at that the good offices of the +President of the United States were, more or less indirectly, invited. +The fleet's cruise was a strong piece of diplomacy, by which we informed +Japan that we will send our fleet wherever we please and whenever we +please. It worked out well. + +"But none of these things, it will seem to many, can compare with some +of Roosevelt's other achievements. Perhaps he is loath to take credit as +a reformer, for he is prone to spell the word with question marks, and +to speak disparagingly of 'reform.' + +"But for all that, this contemner of 'reformers' made reform respectable +in the United States, and this rebuker of 'muck-rakers' has been the +chief agent in making the history of 'muck-raking' in the United States +a National one, conceded to be useful. He has preached from the White +House many doctrines; but among them he has left impressed on the +American mind the one great truth of economic justice couched in the +pithy and stinging phrase 'the square deal.' The task of making reform +respectable in a commercialized world, and of giving the Nation a slogan +in a phrase, is greater than the man who performed it is likely to +think. + +"And, then, there is the great and statesmanlike movement for the +conservation of our National resources, into which Roosevelt so +energetically threw himself at a time when the Nation as a whole knew +not that we are ruining and bankrupting ourselves as fast as we can. +This is probably the greatest thing Roosevelt did, undoubtedly. This +globe is the capital stock of the race. It is just so much coal and oil +and gas. This may be economized or wasted. The same thing is true of +phosphates and other mineral resources. Our water resources are immense, +and we are only just beginning to use them. Our forests have been +destroyed; they must be restored. Our soils are being depleted; they +must be built up and conserved. + +"These questions are not of this day only or of this generation. They +belong all to the future. Their consideration requires that high moral +tone which regards the earth as the home of a posterity to whom we owe a +sacred duty. + +"This immense idea Roosevelt, with high statesmanship, dinned into the +ears of the Nation until the Nation heeded. He held it so high that it +attracted the attention of the neighboring nations of the continent, +and will so spread and intensify that we will soon see the world's +conferences devoted to it. + +"Nothing can be greater or finer than this. It is so great and so fine +that when the historian of the future shall speak of Theodore Roosevelt +he is likely to say that he did many notable things, among them that of +inaugurating the movement which finally resulted in the square deal, +but that his greatest work was inspiring and actually beginning a world +movement for staying terrestrial waste and saving for the human race +the things upon which, and upon which alone, a great and peaceful and +progressive and happy race life can be founded. + +"What statesman in all history has done anything calling for so wide a +view and for a purpose more lofty?" + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE NATION + +When Governor of New York, as I have already described, I had been in +consultation with Gifford Pinchot and F. H. Newell, and had shaped +my recommendations about forestry largely in accordance with their +suggestions. Like other men who had thought about the national future at +all, I had been growing more and more concerned over the destruction of +the forests. + +While I had lived in the West I had come to realize the vital need of +irrigation to the country, and I had been both amused and irritated +by the attitude of Eastern men who obtained from Congress grants of +National money to develop harbors and yet fought the use of the Nation's +power to develop the irrigation work of the West. Major John Wesley +Powell, the explorer of the Grand Canyon, and Director of the Geological +Survey, was the first man who fought for irrigation, and he lived to see +the Reclamation Act passed and construction actually begun. Mr. F. H. +Newell, the present Director of the Reclamation Service, began his +work as an assistant hydraulic engineer under Major Powell; and, unlike +Powell, he appreciated the need of saving the forests and the soil +as well as the need of irrigation. Between Powell and Newell came, as +Director of the Geological Survey, Charles D. Walcott, who, after +the Reclamation Act was passed, by his force, pertinacity, and tact, +succeeded in putting the act into effect in the best possible manner. +Senator Francis G. Newlands, of Nevada, fought hard for the cause of +reclamation in Congress. He attempted to get his State to act, and when +that proved hopeless to get the Nation to act; and was ably assisted +by Mr. G. H. Maxwell, a Californian, who had taken a deep interest in +irrigation matters. Dr. W. J. McGee was one of the leaders in all the +later stages of the movement. But Gifford Pinchot is the man to whom +the nation owes most for what has been accomplished as regards the +preservation of the natural resources of our country. He led, and indeed +during its most vital period embodied, the fight for the preservation +through use of our forests. He played one of the leading parts in +the effort to make the National Government the chief instrument in +developing the irrigation of the arid West. He was the foremost leader +in the great struggle to coordinate all our social and governmental +forces in the effort to secure the adoption of a rational and farseeing +policy for securing the conservation of all our national resources. He +was already in the Government service as head of the Forestry Bureau +when I became President; he continued throughout my term, not only as +head of the Forest service, but as the moving and directing spirit in +most of the conservation work, and as counsellor and assistant on most +of the other work connected with the internal affairs of the country. +Taking into account the varied nature of the work he did, its vital +importance to the nation and the fact that as regards much of it he +was practically breaking new ground, and taking into account also +his tireless energy and activity, his fearlessness, his complete +disinterestedness, his single-minded devotion to the interests of the +plain people, and his extraordinary efficiency, I believe it is but +just to say that among the many, many public officials who under my +administration rendered literally invaluable service to the people of +the United States, he, on the whole, stood first. A few months after I +left the Presidency he was removed from office by President Taft. + +The first work I took up when I became President was the work of +reclamation. Immediately after I had come to Washington, after the +assassination of President McKinley, while staying at the house of +my sister, Mrs. Cowles, before going into the White House, Newell and +Pinchot called upon me and laid before me their plans for National +irrigation of the arid lands of the West, and for the consolidation of +the forest work of the Government in the Bureau of Forestry. + +At that time a narrowly legalistic point of view toward natural +resources obtained in the Departments, and controlled the Governmental +administrative machinery. Through the General Land Office and other +Government bureaus, the public resources were being handled and +disposed of in accordance with the small considerations of petty +legal formalities, instead of for the large purposes of constructive +development, and the habit of deciding, whenever possible, in favor of +private interests against the public welfare was firmly fixed. It was +as little customary to favor the bona-fide settler and home builder, as +against the strict construction of the law, as it was to use the law in +thwarting the operations of the land grabbers. A technical compliance +with the letter of the law was all that was required. + +The idea that our natural resources were inexhaustible still obtained, +and there was as yet no real knowledge of their extent and condition. +The relation of the conservation of natural resources to the problems +of National welfare and National efficiency had not yet dawned on the +public mind. The reclamation of arid public lands in the West was still +a matter for private enterprise alone; and our magnificent river system, +with its superb possibilities for public usefulness, was dealt with by +the National Government not as a unit, but as a disconnected series of +pork-barrel problems, whose only real interest was in their effect +on the reelection or defeat of a Congressman here and there--a theory +which, I regret to say, still obtains. + +The place of the farmer in the National economy was still regarded +solely as that of a grower of food to be eaten by others, while the +human needs and interests of himself and his wife and children still +remained wholly outside the recognition of the Government. + +All the forests which belonged to the United States were held and +administered in one Department, and all the foresters in Government +employ were in another Department. Forests and foresters had nothing +whatever to do with each other. The National Forests in the West (then +called forest reserves) were wholly inadequate in area to meet the +purposes for which they were created, while the need for forest +protection in the East had not yet begun to enter the public mind. + +Such was the condition of things when Newell and Pinchot called on me. I +was a warm believer in reclamation and in forestry, and, after listening +to my two guests, I asked them to prepare material on the subject for +me to use in my first message to Congress, of December 3, 1901. This +message laid the foundation for the development of irrigation and +forestry during the next seven and one-half years. It set forth the +new attitude toward the natural resources in the words: "The Forest +and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal problems of the +United States." + +On the day the message was read, a committee of Western Senators and +Congressmen was organized to prepare a Reclamation Bill in accordance +with the recommendations. By far the most effective of the Senators +in drafting and pushing the bill, which became known by his name, was +Newlands. The draft of the bill was worked over by me and others at +several conferences and revised in important particulars; my active +interference was necessary to prevent it from being made unworkable by +an undue insistence upon States Rights, in accordance with the efforts +of Mr. Mondell and other Congressmen, who consistently fought for local +and private interests as against the interests of the people as a whole. + +On June 17, 1902, the Reclamation Act was passed. It set aside the +proceeds of the disposal of public lands for the purpose of reclaiming +the waste areas of the arid West by irrigating lands otherwise +worthless, and thus creating new homes upon the land. The money so +appropriated was to be repaid to the Government by the settlers, and to +be used again as a revolving fund continuously available for the work. + +The impatience of the Western people to see immediate results from the +Reclamation Act was so great that red tape was disregarded, and the work +was pushed forward at a rate previously unknown in Government affairs. +Later, as in almost all such cases, there followed the criticisms of +alleged illegality and haste which are so easy to make after results +have been accomplished and the need for the measures without which +nothing could have been done has gone by. These criticisms were in +character precisely the same as that made about the acquisition of +Panama, the settlement of the anthracite coal strike, the suits against +the big trusts, the stopping of the panic of 1907 by the action of the +Executive concerning the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; and, in short, +about most of the best work done during my administration. + +With the Reclamation work, as with much other work under me, 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. + +Every item of the whole great plan of Reclamation now in effect was +undertaken between 1902 and 1906. By the spring of 1909 the work was an +assured success, and the Government had become fully committed to its +continuance. The work of Reclamation was at first under the United +States Geological Survey, of which Charles D. Walcott was at that time +Director. In the spring of 1908 the United States Reclamation Service +was established to carry it on, under the direction of Frederick +Hayes Newell, to whom the inception of the plan was due. 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 have 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. + +Although the gross expenditure under the Reclamation Act is not yet +as large as that for the Panama Canal, the engineering obstacles to be +overcome have been almost as great, and the political impediments many +times greater. The Reclamation work had to be carried on at widely +separated points, remote from railroads, under the most difficult +pioneer conditions. The twenty-eight projects begun in the years 1902 +to 1906 contemplated the irrigation of more than three million acres +and the watering of more than thirty thousand farms. Many of the +dams required for this huge task are higher than any previously built +anywhere in the world. They feed main-line canals over seven thousand +miles in total length, and involve minor constructions, such as culverts +and bridges, tens of thousands in number. + +What the Reclamation Act has done for the country is by no means limited +to its material accomplishment. This Act and the results flowing from it +have helped powerfully to prove to the Nation that it can handle its own +resources and exercise direct and business-like control over them. The +population which the Reclamation Act has brought into the arid West, +while comparatively small when compared with that in the more closely +inhabited East, has been a most effective contribution to the National +life, for it has gone far to transform the social aspect of the West, +making for the stability of the institutions upon which the welfare of +the whole country rests: it has substituted actual homemakers, who have +settled on the land with their families, for huge, migratory bands of +sheep herded by the hired shepherds of absentee owners. + +The recent attacks on the Reclamation Service, and on Mr. Newell, arise +in large part, if not altogether, from an organized effort to repudiate +the obligation of the settlers to repay the Government for what it has +expended to reclaim the land. The repudiation of any debt can always +find supporters, and in this case it has attracted the support not only +of certain men among the settlers who hope to be relieved of paying what +they owe, but also of a variety of unscrupulous politicians, some highly +placed. It is unlikely that their efforts to deprive the West of +the revolving Irrigation fund will succeed in doing anything but +discrediting these politicians in the sight of all honest men. + +When in the spring of 1911 I visited the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, and +opened the reservoir, I made a short speech to the assembled people. +Among other things, I said to the engineers present that in the name of +all good citizens I thanked them for their admirable work, as efficient +as it was honest, and conducted according to the highest standards of +public service. As I looked at the fine, strong, eager faces of those +of the force who were present, and thought of the similar men in the +service, in the higher positions, who were absent, and who were no less +responsible for the work done, I felt a foreboding that they would +never receive any real recognition for their achievement; and, only half +humorously, I warned them not to expect any credit, or any satisfaction, +except their own knowledge that they had done well a first-class job, +for that probably the only attention Congress would ever pay them would +be to investigate them. Well, a year later a Congressional Committee +actually did investigate them. The investigation was instigated by some +unscrupulous local politicians and by some settlers who wished to be +relieved from paying their just obligations; and the members of the +Committee joined in the attack on as fine and honorable a set of public +servants as the Government has ever had; an attack made on them solely +because they were honorable and efficient and loyal to the interests +both of the Government and the settlers. + +When I became President, the Bureau of Forestry (since 1905 the United +States Forest Service) was a small but growing organization, under +Gifford Pinchot, occupied mainly with laying the foundation of American +forestry by scientific study of the forests, and with the promotion of +forestry on private lands. It contained all the trained foresters in the +Government service, but had charge of no public timberland whatsoever. +The Government forest reserves of that day were in the care of a +Division in the General Land Office, under the management of clerks +wholly without knowledge of forestry, few if any of whom had ever seen +a foot of the timberlands for which they were responsible. Thus the +reserves were neither well protected nor well used. There were no +foresters among the men who had charge of the National Forests, and no +Government forests in charge of the Government foresters. + +In my first message to Congress I strongly recommended the consolidation +of the forest work in the hands of the trained men of the Bureau of +Forestry. This recommendation was repeated in other messages, but +Congress did not give effect to it until three years later. In the +meantime, by thorough study of the Western public timberlands, the +groundwork was laid for the responsibilities which were to fall upon +the Bureau of Forestry when the care of the National Forests came to be +transferred to it. It was evident that trained American Foresters would +be needed in considerable numbers, and a forest school was established +at Yale to supply them. + +In 1901, at my suggestion as President, the Secretary of the Interior, +Mr. Hitchcock, made a formal request for technical advice from the +Bureau of Forestry in handling the National Forests, and an extensive +examination of their condition and needs was accordingly taken up. The +same year a study was begun of the proposed Appalachian National Forest, +the plan of which, already formulated at that time, has since been +carried out. A year later experimental planting on the National Forests +was also begun, and studies preparatory to the application of practical +forestry to the Indian Reservations were undertaken. In 1903, so +rapidly did the public work of the Bureau of Forestry increase, that the +examination of land for new forest reserves was added to the study +of those already created, the forest lands of the various States were +studied, and cooperation with several of them in the examination and +handling of their forest lands was undertaken. While these practical +tasks were pushed forward, a technical knowledge of American Forests +was rapidly accumulated. The special knowledge gained was made public +in printed bulletins; and at the same time the Bureau undertook, through +the newspaper and periodical press, to make all the people of the United +States acquainted with the needs and the purposes of practical +forestry. It is doubtful whether there has ever been elsewhere under the +Government such effective publicity--publicity purely in the interest of +the people--at so low a cost. Before the educational work of the Forest +Service was stopped by the Taft Administration, it was securing +the publication of facts about forestry in fifty million copies of +newspapers a month at a total expense of $6000 a year. Not one cent has +ever been paid by the Forest Service to any publication of any kind for +the printing of this material. It was given out freely, and published +without cost because it was news. Without this publicity the Forest +Service could not have survived the attacks made upon it by the +representatives of the great special interests in Congress; nor could +forestry in America have made the rapid progress it has. + +The result of all the work outlined above was to bring together in the +Bureau of Forestry, by the end of 1904, the only body of forest experts +under the Government, and practically all of the first-hand information +about the public forests which was then in existence. In 1905, the +obvious foolishness of continuing to separate the foresters and the +forests, reenforced by the action of the First National Forest Congress, +held in Washington, brought about the Act of February 1, 1905, +which transferred the National Forests from the care of the Interior +Department to the Department of Agriculture, and resulted in the +creation of the present United States Forest Service. + +The men upon whom the responsibility of handling some sixty million +acres of National Forest lands was thus thrown were ready for the work, +both in the office and in the field, because they had been preparing +for it for more than five years. Without delay they proceeded, under the +leadership of Pinchot, to apply to the new work the principles they had +already formulated. One of these was to open all the resources of the +National Forests to regulated use. Another was that of putting every +part of the land to that use in which it would best serve the public. +Following this principle, the Act of June 11, 1906, was drawn, and its +passage was secured from Congress. This law throws open to settlement +all land in the National Forests that is found, on examination, to be +chiefly valuable for agriculture. Hitherto all such land had been closed +to the settler. + +The principles thus formulated and applied may be summed up in the +statement that the rights of the public to the natural resources +outweigh private rights, and must be given its first consideration. +Until that time, in dealing with the National Forests, and the public +lands generally, private rights had almost uniformly been allowed to +overbalance public rights. The change we made was right, and was vitally +necessary; but, of course, it created bitter opposition from private +interests. + +One of the principles whose application was the source of much hostility +was this: It is better for the Government to help a poor man to make a +living for his family than to help a rich man make more profit for his +company. This principle was too sound to be fought openly. It is the +kind of principle to which politicians delight to pay unctuous homage in +words. But we translated the words into deeds; and when they found that +this was the case, many rich men, especially sheep owners, were stirred +to hostility, and they used the Congressmen they controlled to assault +us--getting most aid from certain demagogues, who were equally glad +improperly to denounce rich men in public and improperly to serve them +in private. The Forest Service established and enforced regulations +which favored the settler as against the large stock owner; required +that necessary reductions in the stock grazed on any National Forest +should bear first on the big man, before the few head of the small man, +upon which the living of his family depended, were reduced; and made +grazing in the National Forests a help, instead of a hindrance, to +permanent settlement. As a result, the small settlers and their families +became, on the whole, the best friends the Forest Service has; although +in places their ignorance was played on by demagogues to influence them +against the policy that was primarily for their own interest. + +Another principle which led to the bitterest antagonism of all was +this--whoever (except a bona-fide settler) takes public property for +private profit should pay for what he gets. In the effort to apply +this principle, the Forest Service obtained a decision from the +Attorney-General that it was legal to make the men who grazed sheep and +cattle on the National Forests pay for what they got. Accordingly, in +the summer of 1906, for the first time, such a charge was made; and, in +the face of the bitterest opposition, it was collected. + +Up to the time the National Forests were put under the charge of the +Forest Service, the Interior Department had made no effort to establish +public regulation and control of water powers. Upon the transfer, the +Service immediately began its fight to handle the power resources of the +National Forests so as to prevent speculation and monopoly and to yield +a fair return to the Government. On May 1, 1906, an Act was passed +granting the use of certain power sites in Southern California to the +Edison Electric Power Company, which Act, at the suggestion of the +Service, limited the period of the permit to forty years, and required +the payment of an annual rental by the company, the same conditions +which were thereafter adopted by the Service as the basis for all +permits for power development. Then began a vigorous fight against +the position of the Service by the water-power interests. The right +to charge for water-power development was, however, sustained by the +Attorney-General. + +In 1907, the area of the National Forests was increased by Presidential +proclamation more than forty-three million acres; the plant necessary +for the full use of the Forests, such as roads, trails, and telephone +lines, began to be provided on a large scale; the interchange of field +and office men, so as to prevent the antagonism between them, which is +so destructive of efficiency in most great businesses, was established +as a permanent policy; and the really effective management of the +enormous area of the National Forests began to be secured. + +With all this activity in the field, the progress of technical forestry +and popular education was not neglected. In 1907, for example, sixty-one +publications on various phases of forestry, with a total of more than a +million copies, were issued, as against three publications, with a +total of eighty-two thousand copies, in 1901. By this time, also, the +opposition of the servants of the special interests in Congress to the +Forest Service had become strongly developed, and more time appeared +to be spent in the yearly attacks upon it during the passage of the +appropriation bills than on all other Government Bureaus put together. +Every year the Forest Service had to fight for its life. + +One incident in these attacks is worth recording. While the Agricultural +Appropriation Bill was passing through the Senate, in 1907, Senator +Fulton, of Oregon, secured an amendment providing that the President +could not set aside any additional National Forests in the six +Northwestern States. This meant retaining some sixteen million of acres +to be exploited by land grabbers and by the representatives of the great +special interests, at the expense of the public interest. But for four +years the Forest Service had been gathering field notes as to what +forests ought to be set aside in these States, and so was prepared to +act. It was equally undesirable to veto the whole agricultural bill, and +to sign it with this amendment effective. Accordingly, a plan to create +the necessary National Forest in these States before the Agricultural +Bill could be passed and signed was laid before me by Mr. Pinchot. I +approved it. The necessary papers were immediately prepared. I signed +the last proclamation a couple of days before, by my signature, the bill +became law; and, when the friends of the special interests in the Senate +got their amendment through and woke up, they discovered that sixteen +million acres of timberland had been saved for the people by putting +them in the National Forests before the land grabbers could get at them. +The opponents of the Forest Service 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. + +By 1908, the fire prevention work of the Forest Service had become so +successful that eighty-six per cent of the fires that did occur were +held down to an area of five acres or less, and the timber sales, which +yielded $60,000 in 1905, in 1908 produced $850,000. In the same year, in +addition to the work of the National Forests, the responsibility for the +proper handling of Indian timberlands was laid upon the Forest Service, +where it remained with great benefit to the Indians until it was +withdrawn, as a part of the attack on the Conservation policy made after +I left office. + +By March 4, 1909, nearly half a million acres of agricultural land in +the National Forests had been opened to settlement under the Act of +June 11, 1906. The business management of the Forest Service became so +excellent, thanks to the remarkable executive capacity of the Associate +Forester, Overton W. Price (removed after I left office), that it +was declared by a well-known firm of business organizers to compare +favorably with the best managed of the great private corporations, +an opinion which was confirmed by the report of a Congressional +investigation, and by the report of the Presidential Committee on +Department method. The area of the National Forests had increased from +43 to 194 million acres; the force from about 500 to more than 3000. +There was saved for public use in the National Forests more Government +timberland during the seven and a half years prior to March 4, 1909, +than during all previous and succeeding years put together. + +The idea that the Executive is the steward of the public welfare was +first formulated and given practical effect in the Forest Service by its +law officer, George Woodruff. The laws were often insufficient, and it +became well-nigh impossible to get them amended in the public interest +when once the representatives of privilege in Congress grasped the fact +that I would sign no amendment that contained anything not in the public +interest. It was necessary to use what law was already in existence, +and then further to supplement it by Executive action. The practice +of examining every claim to public land before passing it into private +ownership offers a good example of the policy in question. This +practice, which has since become general, was first applied in the +National Forests. Enormous areas of valuable public timberland were +thereby saved from fraudulent acquisition; more than 250,000 acres were +thus saved in a single case. + +This theory of stewardship in the interest of the public was well +illustrated by the establishment of a water-power policy. Until the +Forest Service changed the plan, water-powers on the navigable streams, +on the public domain, and in the National Forests were given away for +nothing, and substantially without question, to whoever asked for them. +At last, under the principle that public property should be paid for +and should not be permanently granted away when such permanent grant is +avoidable, the Forest Service established the policy of regulating the +use of power in the National Forests in the public interest and making +a charge for value received. This was the beginning of the water-power +policy now substantially accepted by the public, and doubtless soon to +be enacted into law. But there was at the outset violent opposition to +it on the part of the water-power companies, and such representatives of +their views in Congress as Messrs. Tawney and Bede. + +Many bills were introduced in Congress aimed, in one way or another, at +relieving the power companies of control and payment. When these bills +reached me I refused to sign them; and the injury to the public interest +which would follow their passage was brought sharply to public attention +in my message of February 26, 1908. The bills made no further progress. + +Under the same principle of stewardship, railroads and other +corporations, which applied for and were given rights in the National +Forests, were regulated in the use of those rights. In short, the public +resources in charge of the Forest Service were handled frankly and +openly for the public welfare under the clear-cut and clearly set forth +principle that the public rights come first and private interest second. + +The natural result of this new attitude was the assertion in every form +by the representatives of special interests that the Forest Service +was exceeding its legal powers and thwarting the intention of Congress. +Suits were begun wherever the chance arose. It is worth recording that, +in spite of the novelty and complexity of the legal questions it had +to face, no court of last resort has ever decided against the Forest +Service. This statement includes two unanimous decisions by the Supreme +Court of the United States (U. S. vs. Grimaud, 220 U. S., 506, and Light +vs. U. S., 220 U. S., 523). + +In its administration of the National Forests, the Forest Service +found that valuable coal lands were in danger of passing into private +ownership without adequate money return to the Government and +without safeguard against monopoly; and that existing legislation was +insufficient to prevent this. When this condition was brought to my +attention I withdrew from all forms of entry about sixty-eight million +acres of coal land in the United States, including Alaska. The refusal +of Congress to act in the public interest was solely responsible for +keeping these lands from entry. + +The Conservation movement was a direct outgrowth of the forest movement. +It was nothing more than the application to our other natural resources +of the principles which had been worked out in connection with the +forests. Without the basis of public sentiment which had been built up +for the protection of the forests, and without the example of public +foresight in the protection of this, one of the great natural resources, +the Conservation movement would have been impossible. The first formal +step was the creation of the Inland Waterways Commission, appointed +on March 14, 1907. In my letter appointing the Commission, I called +attention to the value of our streams as great natural resources, and to +the need for a progressive plan for their development and control, and +said: "It is not possible to properly frame so large a plan as this +for the control of our rivers without taking account of the orderly +development of other natural resources. Therefore I ask that the Inland +Waterways Commission shall 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 prosperous homes." + +Over a year later, writing on the report of the Commission, I said: + +"The preliminary Report of the Inland Waterways Commission was excellent +in every way. It outlines a general plan of waterway improvement which +when adopted will give assurance that the improvements will yield +practical results in the way of increased navigation and water +transportation. In every essential feature the plan recommended by the +Commission is new. In the principle of coordinating all uses of the +waters and treating each waterway system as a unit; in the principle +of correlating water traffic with rail and other land traffic; in the +principle of expert initiation of projects in accordance with commercial +foresight and the needs of a growing country; and in the principle +of cooperation between the States and the Federal Government in the +administration and use of waterways, etc.; the general plan proposed by +the Commission is new, and at the same time sane and simple. The plan +deserves unqualified support. I regret that it has not yet been adopted +by Congress, but I am confident that ultimately it will be adopted." + +The most striking incident in the history of the Commission was the trip +down the Mississippi River in October, 1907, when, as President of the +United States, I was the chief guest. This excursion, with the meetings +which were held and the wide public attention it attracted, gave the +development of our inland waterways a new standing in public estimation. +During the trip a letter was prepared and presented to me asking me +to summon a conference on the conservation of natural resources. My +intention to call such a conference was publicly announced at a great +meeting at Memphis, Tenn. + +In the November following I wrote to each of the Governors of the +several States and to the Presidents of various important National +Societies concerned with natural resources, inviting them to attend the +conference, which took place May 13 to 15, 1908, in the East Room of the +White House. It is doubtful whether, except in time of war, any new idea +of like importance has ever been presented to a Nation and accepted +by it with such effectiveness and rapidity, as was the case with this +Conservation movement when it was introduced to the American people +by the Conference of Governors. The first result was the unanimous +declaration of the Governors of all the States and Territories upon +the subject of Conservation, a document which ought to be hung in every +schoolhouse throughout the land. A further result was the appointment of +thirty-six State Conservation Commissions and, on June 8, 1908, of the +National Conservation Commission. The task of this Commission was to +prepare an inventory, the first ever made for any nation, of all the +natural resources which underlay its property. The making of this +inventory was made possible by an Executive order which placed +the resources of the Government Departments at the command of the +Commission, and made possible the organization of subsidiary committees +by which the actual facts for the inventory were prepared and digested. +Gifford Pinchot was made chairman of the Commission. + +The report of the National Conservation Commission was not only the +first inventory of our resources, but was unique in the history of +Government in the amount and variety of information brought together. It +was completed in six months. It laid squarely before the American people +the essential facts regarding our natural resources, when facts were +greatly needed as the basis for constructive action. This report was +presented to the Joint Conservation Congress in December, at which there +were present Governors of twenty States, representatives of twenty-two +State Conservation Commissions, and representatives of sixty National +organizations previously represented at the White House conference. +The report was unanimously approved, and transmitted to me, January +11, 1909. On January 22, 1909, I transmitted the report of the National +Conservation Commission to Congress with a Special Message, in which +it was accurately described as "one of the most fundamentally important +documents ever laid before the American people." + +The Joint Conservation Conference of December, 1908, suggested to me the +practicability of holding a North American Conservation Conference. I +selected Gifford Pinchot to convey this invitation in person to Lord +Grey, Governor General of Canada; to Sir Wilfrid Laurier; and to +President Diaz of Mexico; giving as reason for my action, in the letter +in which this invitation was conveyed, the fact that: "It is evident +that natural resources are not limited by the boundary lines which +separate nations, and that the need for conserving them upon this +continent is as wide as the area upon which they exist." + +In response to this invitation, which included the colony of +Newfoundland, the Commissioners assembled in the White House on February +18, 1909. The American Commissioners were Gifford Pinchot, Robert Bacon, +and James R. Garfield. After a session continuing through five days, the +Conference united in a declaration of principles, and suggested to the +President of the United States "that all nations should be invited to +join together in conference on the subject of world resources, and their +inventory, conservation, and wise utilization." Accordingly, on February +19, 1909, Robert Bacon, Secretary of State, addressed to forty-five +nations a letter of invitation "to send delegates to a conference to be +held at The Hague at such date to be found convenient, there to meet +and consult the like delegates of the other countries, with a view of +considering a general plan for an inventory of the natural resources +of the world and to devising a uniform scheme for the expression of +the results of such inventory, to the end that there may be a general +understanding and appreciation of the world's supply of the material +elements which underlie the development of civilization and the welfare +of the peoples of the earth." After I left the White House the project +lapsed. + +Throughout the early part of my Administration the public land policy +was chiefly directed to the defense of the public lands against fraud +and theft. Secretary Hitchcock's efforts along this line resulted in +the Oregon land fraud cases, which led to the conviction of Senator +Mitchell, and which made Francis J. Heney known to the American people +as one of their best and most effective servants. These land fraud +prosecutions under Mr. Heney, together with the study of the public +lands which preceded the passage of the Reclamation Act in 1902, and +the investigation of land titles in the National Forests by the Forest +Service, all combined to create a clearer understanding of the need of +land law reform, and thus led to the appointment of the Public Lands +Commission. This Commission, appointed by me on October 22, 1903, was +directed to report to the President: "Upon the condition, operation, and +effect of the present land laws, and to recommend such changes as are +needed to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands +to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to +secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources +of the public lands." It proceeded without loss of time to make a +personal study on the ground of public land problems throughout the +West, to confer with the Governors and other public men most concerned, +and to assemble the information concerning the public lands, the laws +and decisions which governed them, and the methods of defeating or +evading those laws, which was already in existence, but which remained +unformulated in the records of the General Land Office and in the mind +of its employees. The Public Lands Commission made its first preliminary +report on March 7, 1904. It found "that the present land laws do not fit +the conditions of the remaining public lands," and recommended specific +changes to meet the public needs. A year later the second report of the +Commission recommended still further changes, and said "The fundamental +fact that characterizes the situation under the present land laws +is this, that the number of patents issued is increasing out of all +proportion to the number of new homes." This report laid the foundation +of the movement for Government control of the open range, and included +by far the most complete statement ever made of the disposition of the +public domain. + +Among the most difficult topics considered by the Public Lands +Commission was that of the mineral land laws. This subject was referred +by the Commission to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, which +reported upon it through a Committee. This Committee made the very +important recommendation, among others, "that the Government of the +United States should retain title to all minerals, including coal +and oil, in the lands of unceded territory, and lease the same to +individuals or corporations at a fixed rental." The necessity for +this action has since come to be very generally recognized. Another +recommendation, since partly carried into effect, was for the separation +of the surface and the minerals in lands containing coal and oil. + +Our land laws have of recent years proved inefficient; yet the land laws +themselves have not been so much to blame as the lax, unintelligent, and +often corrupt administration of these laws. The appointment on March 4, +1907, of James R. Garfield as Secretary of the Interior led to a new era +in the interpretation and enforcement of the laws governing the +public lands. His administration of the Interior Department was beyond +comparison the best we have ever had. It was based primarily on the +conception that it is as much the duty of public land officials to +help the honest settler get title to his claim as it is to prevent the +looting of the public lands. The essential fact about public land frauds +is not merely that public property is stolen, but that every claim +fraudulently acquired stands in the way of the making of a home or a +livelihood by an honest man. + +As the study of the public land laws proceeded and their administration +improved, a public land policy was formulated in which the saving of +the resources on the public domain for public use became the leading +principle. There followed the withdrawal of coal lands as already +described, of oil lands and phosphate lands, and finally, just at the +end of the Administration, of water-power sites on the public domain. +These withdrawals were made by the Executive in order to afford to +Congress the necessary opportunity to pass wise laws dealing with their +use and disposal; and the great crooked special interests fought them +with incredible bitterness. + +Among the men of this Nation interested in the vital problems affecting +the welfare of the ordinary hard-working men and women of the Nation, +there is none whose interest has been more intense, and more wholly free +from taint of thought of self, than that of Thomas Watson, of Georgia. +While President I often discussed with him the condition of women on +the small farms, and on the frontier, the hardship of their lives as +compared with those of the men, and the need for taking their welfare +into consideration in whatever was done for the improvement of life on +the land. I also went over the matter with C. S. Barrett, of Georgia, +a leader in the Southern farmers' movement, and with other men, such as +Henry Wallace, Dean L. H. Bailey, of Cornell, and Kenyon Butterfield. +One man from whose advice I especially profited was not an American, but +an Irishman, Sir Horace Plunkett. In various conversations he described +to me and my close associates the reconstruction of farm life which had +been accomplished by the Agricultural Organization Society of Ireland, +of which he was the founder and the controlling force; and he discussed +the application of similar methods to the improvements of farm life +in the United States. In the spring of 1908, at my request, Plunkett +conferred on the subject with Garfield and Pinchot, and the latter +suggested to him the appointment of a Commission on Country Life as a +means for directing the attention of the Nation to the problems of the +farm, and for securing the necessary knowledge of the actual conditions +of life in the open country. After long discussion a plan for a Country +Life Commission was laid before me and approved. The appointment of the +Commission followed in August, 1908. In the letter of appointment the +reasons for creating the Commission were set forth as follows: "I doubt +if any other nation can bear comparison with our own in the amount +of attention given by the Government, both Federal and State, to +agricultural matters. But practically the whole of this effort has +hitherto been directed toward increasing the production of crops. Our +attention has been concentrated almost exclusively on getting better +farming. In the beginning this was unquestionably the right thing to do. +The farmer must first of all grow good crops in order to support himself +and his family. But when this has been secured, the effort for better +farming should cease to stand alone, and should be accompanied by the +effort for better business and better living on the farm. It is at least +as important that the farmer should get the largest possible return in +money, comfort, and social advantages from the crops he grows, as that +he should get the largest possible return in crops from the land he +farms. Agriculture is not the whole of country life. The great rural +interests are human interests, and good crops are of little value to the +farmer unless they open the door to a good kind of life on the farm." + +The Commission on Country Life did work of capital importance. By means +of a widely circulated set of questions the Commission informed itself +upon the status of country life throughout the Nation. Its trip through +the East, South, and West brought it into contact with large numbers of +practical farmers and their wives, secured for the Commissioners a most +valuable body of first-hand information, and laid the foundation for the +remarkable awakening of interest in country life which has since taken +place throughout the Nation. + +One of the most illuminating--and incidentally one of the most +interesting and amusing--series of answers sent to the Commission was +from a farmer in Missouri. He stated that he had a wife and 11 living +children, he and his wife being each 52 years old; and that they owned +520 acres of land without any mortgage hanging over their heads. He had +himself done well, and his views as to why many of his neighbors had +done less well are entitled to consideration. These views are expressed +in terse and vigorous English; they cannot always be quoted in full. He +states that the farm homes in his neighborhood are not as good as they +should be because too many of them are encumbered by mortgages; that the +schools do not train boys and girls satisfactorily for life on the farm, +because they allow them to get an idea in their heads that city life is +better, and that to remedy this practical farming should be taught. To +the question whether the farmers and their wives in his neighborhood are +satisfactorily organized, he answers: "Oh, there is a little one-horse +grange gang in our locality, and every darned one thinks they ought +to be a king." To the question, "Are the renters of farms in your +neighborhood making a satisfactory living?" he answers: "No; because +they move about so much hunting a better job." To the question, "Is the +supply of farm labor in your neighborhood satisfactory?" the answer is: +"No; because the people have gone out of the baby business"; and when +asked as to the remedy, he answers, "Give a pension to every mother who +gives birth to seven living boys on American soil." To the question, +"Are the conditions surrounding hired labor on the farm in your +neighborhood satisfactory to the hired men?" he answers: "Yes, unless he +is a drunken cuss," adding that he would like to blow up the stillhouses +and root out whiskey and beer. To the question, "Are the sanitary +conditions on the farms in your neighborhood satisfactory?" he answers: +"No; too careless about chicken yards, and the like, and poorly covered +wells. In one well on neighbor's farm I counted seven snakes in the wall +of the well, and they used the water daily: his wife dead now and he is +looking for another." He ends by stating that the most important single +thing to be done for the betterment of country life is "good roads"; but +in his answers he shows very clearly that most important of all is the +individual equation of the man or woman. + +Like the rest of the Commissions described in this chapter, the Country +Life Commission cost the Government not one cent, but laid before the +President and the country a mass of information so accurate and so +vitally important as to disturb the serenity of the advocates of things +as they are; and therefore it incurred the bitter opposition of the +reactionaries. The report of the Country Life Commission was transmitted +to Congress by me on February 9, 1909. In the accompanying message I +asked for $25,000 to print and circulate the report and to prepare for +publication the immense amount of valuable material collected by the +Commission but still unpublished. The reply made by Congress was not +only a refusal to appropriate the money, but a positive prohibition +against continuing the work. The Tawney amendment to the Sundry Civil +bill forbade the President to appoint any further Commissions unless +specifically authorized by Congress to do so. Had this prohibition +been enacted earlier _and complied with_, it would have prevented the +appointment of the six Roosevelt commissions. But I would not have +complied with it. Mr. Tawney, one of the most efficient representatives +of the cause of special privilege as against public interest to be found +in the House, was later, in conjunction with Senator Hale and others, +able to induce my successor to accept their view. As what was almost my +last official act, I replied to Congress that if I did not believe the +Tawney amendment to be unconstitutional I would veto the Sundry Civil +bill which contained it, and that if I were remaining in office I would +refuse to obey it. The memorandum ran in part: + +"The chief object of this provision, however, is to prevent the +Executive repeating what it has done within the last year in connection +with the Conservation Commission and the Country Life Commission. It is +for the people of the country to decide whether or not they believe in +the work done by the Conservation Commission and by the Country Life +Commission. . . . + +"If they believe in improving our waterways, in preventing the waste of +soil, in preserving the forests, in thrifty use of the mineral resources +of the country for the nation as a whole rather than merely for private +monopolies, in working for the betterment of the condition of the men +and women who live on the farms, then they will unstintedly condemn the +action of every man who is in any way responsible for inserting this +provision, and will support those members of the legislative branch who +opposed its adoption. I would not sign the bill at all if I thought +the provision entirely effective. But the Congress cannot prevent the +President from seeking advice. Any future President can do as I have +done, and ask disinterested men who desire to serve the people to give +this service free to the people through these commissions. . . . + +"My successor, the President-elect, in a letter to the Senate Committee +on Appropriations, asked for the continuance and support of the +Conservation Commission. The Conservation Commission was appointed at +the request of the Governors of over forty States, and almost all of +these States have since appointed commissions to cooperate with the +National Commission. Nearly all the great national organizations +concerned with natural resources have been heartily cooperating with the +commission. + +"With all these facts before it, the Congress has refused to pass a law +to continue and provide for the commission; and it now passes a law with +the purpose of preventing the Executive from continuing the commission +at all. The Executive, therefore, must now either abandon the work and +reject the cooperation of the States, or else must continue the work +personally and through executive officers whom he may select for that +purpose." + +The Chamber of Commerce of Spokane, Washington, a singularly energetic +and far-seeing organization, itself published the report which Congress +had thus discreditably refused to publish. + +The work of the Bureau of Corporations, under Herbert Knox Smith, +formed an important part of the Conservation movement almost from the +beginning. Mr. Smith was a member of the Inland Waterways Commission and +of the National Conservation Commission and his Bureau prepared material +of importance for the reports of both. The investigation of standing +timber in the United States by the Bureau of Corporations furnished +for the first time a positive knowledge of the facts. Over nine hundred +counties in timbered regions were covered by the Bureau, and the work +took five years. The most important facts ascertained were that forty +years ago three-fourths of the standing timber in the United States +was publicly owned, while at the date of the report four-fifths of the +timber in the country was in private hands. The concentration of private +ownership had developed to such an amazing extent that about two hundred +holders owned nearly one-half of all privately owned timber in the +United States; and of this the three greatest holders, the Southern +Pacific Railway, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Weyerhaeuser +Timber Company, held over ten per cent. Of this work, Mr. Smith says: + +"It was important, indeed, to know the facts so that we could take +proper action toward saving the timber still left to the public. But of +far more importance was the light that this history (and the history +of our other resources) throws on the basic attitude, tradition and +governmental beliefs of the American people. The whole standpoint of +the people toward the proper aim of government, toward the relation of +property to the citizen, and the relation of property to the government, +were brought out first by this Conservation work." + +The work of the Bureau of Corporations as to water power was equally +striking. In addition to bringing the concentration of water-power +control first prominently to public attention, through material +furnished for my message in my veto of the James River Dam Bill, the +work of the Bureau showed that ten great interests and their allies held +nearly sixty per cent of the developed water power of the United States. +Says Commissioner Smith: "Perhaps the most important thing in the whole +work was its clear demonstration of the fact that the only effective +place to control water power in the public interest is at the power +sites; that as to powers now owned by the public it is absolutely +essential that the public shall retain title. . . . The only way in +which the public can get back to itself the margin of natural advantage +in the water-power site is to rent that site at a rental which, added +to the cost of power production there, will make the total cost of water +power about the same as fuel power, and then let the two sell at the +same price, i. e., the price of fuel power." + +Of the fight of the water-power men for States Rights at the St. Paul +Conservation Congress in September, 1909, Commissioner Smith says: + +"It was the first open sign of the shift of the special interests to the +Democratic party for a logical political reason, namely, because of the +availability of the States Rights idea for the purposes of the large +corporations. It marked openly the turn of the tide." + +Mr. Smith brought to the attention of the Inland Waterways Commission +the overshadowing importance to waterways of their relation with +railroad lines, the fact that the bulk of the traffic is long distance +traffic, that it cannot pass over the whole distance by water, while it +can go anywhere by rail, and that therefore the power of the rail lines +to pro-rate or not to pro-rate, with water lines really determines the +practical value of a river channel. The controlling value of terminals +and the fact that out of fifty of our leading ports, over half the +active water frontage in twenty-one ports was controlled by the +railroads, was also brought to the Commission's attention, and reports +of great value were prepared both for the Inland Waterways Commission +and for the National Conservation Commission. In addition to developing +the basic facts about the available timber supply, about waterways, +water power, and iron ore, Mr. Smith helped to develop and drive into +the public conscience the idea that the people ought to retain title to +our natural resources and handle them by the leasing system. + +The things accomplished that have been enumerated above were of +immediate consequence to the economic well-being of our people. In +addition certain things were done of which the economic bearing was more +remote, but which bore directly upon our welfare, because they add to +the beauty of living and therefore to the joy of life. Securing a great +artist, Saint-Gaudens, to give us the most beautiful coinage since the +decay of Hellenistic Greece was one such act. In this case I had power +myself to direct the Mint to employ Saint-Gaudens. The first, and +most beautiful, of his coins were issued in thousands before Congress +assembled or could intervene; and a great and permanent improvement was +made in the beauty of the coinage. In the same way, on the advice +and suggestion of Frank Millet, we got some really capital medals by +sculptors of the first rank. Similarly, the new buildings in Washington +were erected and placed in proper relation to one another, on plans +provided by the best architects and landscape architects. I also +appointed a Fine Arts Council, an unpaid body of the best architects, +painters, and sculptors in the country, to advise the Government as +to the erection and decoration of all new buildings. The "pork-barrel" +Senators and Congressmen felt for this body an instinctive, and perhaps +from their standpoint a natural, hostility; and my successor a couple +of months after taking office revoked the appointment and disbanded the +Council. + +Even more important was the taking of steps to preserve from destruction +beautiful and wonderful wild creatures whose existence was threatened by +greed and wantonness. During the seven and a half years closing on March +4, 1909, more was accomplished for the protection of wild life in the +United States than during all the previous years, excepting only the +creation of the Yellowstone National Park. The record includes the +creation of five National Parks--Crater Lake, Oregon; Wind Cave, South +Dakota; Platt, Oklahoma; Sully Hill, North Dakota, and Mesa Verde, +Colorado; four big game refuges in Oklahoma, Arizona, Montana, and +Washington; fifty-one bird reservations; and the enactment of laws for +the protection of wild life in Alaska, the District of Columbia, and +on National bird reserves. These measures may be briefly enumerated as +follows: + +The enactment of the first game laws for the Territory of Alaska in +1902 and 1908, resulting in the regulation of the export of heads and +trophies of big game and putting an end to the slaughter of deer for +hides along the southern coast of the Territory. + +The securing in 1902 of the first appropriation for the preservation of +buffalo and the establishment in the Yellowstone National Park of the +first and now the largest herd of buffalo belonging to the Government. + +The passage of the Act of January 24, 1905, creating the Wichita Game +Preserves, the first of the National game preserves. In 1907, 12,000 +acres of this preserve were inclosed with a woven wire fence for +the reception of the herd of fifteen buffalo donated by the New York +Zoological Society. + +The passage of the Act of June 29, 1906, providing for the establishment +of the Grand Canyon Game Preserve of Arizona, now comprising 1,492,928 +acres. + +The passage of the National Monuments Act of June 8, 1906, under which +a number of objects of scientific interest have been preserved for all +time. Among the Monuments created are Muir Woods, Pinnacles National +Monument in California, and the Mount Olympus National Monument, +Washington, which form important refuges for game. + +The passage of the Act of June 30, 1906, regulating shooting in the +District of Columbia and making three-fourths of the environs of the +National Capital within the District in effect a National Refuge. + +The passage of the Act of May 23, 1908, providing for the establishment +of the National Bison Range in Montana. This range comprises about +18,000 acres of land formerly in the Flathead Indian Reservation, on +which is now established a herd of eighty buffalo, a nucleus of which +was donated to the Government by the American Bison Society. + +The issue of the Order protecting birds on the Niobrara Military +Reservation, Nebraska, in 1908, making this entire reservation in effect +a bird reservation. + +The establishment by Executive Order between March 14, 1903, and +March 4, 1909, of fifty-one National Bird Reservations distributed in +seventeen States and Territories from Porto Rico to Hawaii and Alaska. +The creation of these reservations at once placed the United States +in the front rank in the world work of bird protection. Among these +reservations are the celebrated Pelican Island rookery in Indian River, +Florida; the Mosquito Inlet Reservation, Florida, the northernmost home +of the manatee; the extensive marshes bordering Klamath and Malhuer +Lakes in Oregon, formerly the scene of slaughter of ducks for market +and ruthless destruction of plume birds for the millinery trade; the +Tortugas Key, Florida, where, in connection with the Carnegie Institute, +experiments have been made on the homing instinct of birds; and the +great bird colonies on Laysan and sister islets in Hawaii, some of the +greatest colonies of sea birds in the world. + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BIG STICK AND THE SQUARE DEAL + +One of the vital questions with which as President I had to deal was the +attitude of the Nation toward the great corporations. Men who understand +and practice the deep underlying philosophy of the Lincoln school of +American political thought are necessarily Hamiltonian in their belief +in a strong and efficient National Government and Jeffersonian in their +belief in the people as the ultimate authority, and in the welfare +of the people as the end of Government. The men who first applied the +extreme Democratic theory in American life were, like Jefferson, ultra +individualists, for at that time what was demanded by our people was the +largest liberty for the individual. During the century that had elapsed +since Jefferson became President the need had been exactly reversed. +There had been in our country a riot of individualistic materialism, +under which complete freedom for the individual--that ancient license +which President Wilson a century after the term was excusable has called +the "New" Freedom--turned out in practice to mean perfect freedom for +the strong to wrong the weak. The total absence of governmental control +had led to a portentous growth in the financial and industrial world +both of natural individuals and of artificial individuals--that is, +corporations. In no other country in the world had such enormous +fortunes been gained. In no other country in the world was such power +held by the men who had gained these fortunes; and these men almost +always worked through, and by means of, the giant corporations which +they controlled. The power of the mighty industrial overlords of +the country had increased with giant strides, while the methods of +controlling them, or checking abuses by them, on the part of the people, +through the Government, remained archaic and therefore practically +impotent. The courts, not unnaturally, but most regrettably, and to +the grave detriment of the people and of their own standing, had for a +quarter of a century been on the whole the agents of reaction, and by +conflicting decisions which, however, in their sum were hostile to the +interests of the people, had left both the nation and the several +States well-nigh impotent to deal with the great business combinations. +Sometimes they forbade the Nation to interfere, because such +interference trespassed on the rights of the States; sometimes they +forbade the States to interfere (and often they were wise in this), +because to do so would trespass on the rights of the Nation; but always, +or well-nigh always, their action was negative action against the +interests of the people, ingeniously devised to limit their power +against wrong, instead of affirmative action giving to the people power +to right wrong. They had rendered these decisions sometimes as upholders +of property rights against human rights, being especially zealous in +securing the rights of the very men who were most competent to take care +of themselves; and sometimes in the name of liberty, in the name of +the so-called "new freedom," in reality the old, old "freedom," +which secured to the powerful the freedom to prey on the poor and the +helpless. + +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. + +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 doctrines +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 +governmental 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 the 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. + +When I became President, the question as to the method by which the +United States Government was to control the corporations was not yet +important. The absolutely vital question was whether the Government had +power to control them at all. This question had not yet been decided in +favor of the United States Government. It was useless to discuss methods +of controlling big business by the National Government until it was +definitely settled that the National Government had the power to control +it. A decision of the Supreme Court had, with seeming definiteness, +settled that the National Government had not the power. + +This decision I caused to be annulled by the court that had rendered +it; and the present power of the National Government to deal effectively +with the trusts is due solely to the success of the Administration in +securing this reversal of its former decision by the Supreme Court. + +The Constitution was formed very largely because it had become +imperative to give to some central authority the power to regulate and +control interstate commerce. At that time when corporations were in +their infancy and big combinations unknown, there was no difficulty +in exercising the power granted. In theory, the right of the Nation +to exercise this power continued unquestioned. But changing conditions +obscured the matter in the sight of the people as a whole; and +the conscious and the unconscious advocates of an unlimited and +uncontrollable capitalism gradually secured the whittling away of the +National power to exercise this theoretical right of control until it +practically vanished. After the Civil War, with the portentous growth +of industrial combinations in this country, came a period of reactionary +decisions by the courts which, as regards corporations, culminated in +what is known as the Knight case. + +The Sherman Anti-Trust Law was enacted in 1890 because the formation of +the Tobacco Trust and the Sugar Trust, the only two great trusts then +in the country (aside from the Standard Oil Trust, which was a gradual +growth), had awakened a popular demand for legislation to destroy +monopoly and curb industrial combinations. This demand the Anti-Trust +Law was intended to satisfy. The Administrations of Mr. Harrison and Mr. +Cleveland evidently construed this law as prohibiting such combinations +in the future, not as condemning those which had been formed prior +to its enactment. In 1895, however, the Sugar Trust, whose output +originally was about fifty-five per cent of all sugar produced in the +United States, obtained control of three other companies in Philadelphia +by exchanging its stock for theirs, and thus increased its business +until it controlled ninety-eight per cent of the entire product. Under +Cleveland, the Government brought proceedings against the Sugar Trust, +invoking the Anti-Trust Law, to set aside the acquisition of these +corporations. The test case was on the absorption of the Knight Company. +The Supreme Court of the United States, with but one dissenting vote, +held adversely to the Government. They took the ground that the power +conferred by the Constitution to regulate and control interstate +commerce did not extend to the production or manufacture of commodities +within a State, and that nothing in the Sherman Anti-Trust Law +prohibited a corporation from acquiring all the stock of other +corporations through exchange of its stock for theirs, such exchange +not being "commerce" in the opinion of the Court, even though by such +acquisition the corporation was enabled to control the entire production +of a commodity that was a necessary of life. The effect of this decision +was not merely the absolute nullification of the Anti-Trust Law, so +far as industrial corporations were concerned, but was also in effect a +declaration that, under the Constitution, the National Government could +pass no law really effective for the destruction or control of such +combinations. + +This decision left the National Government, that is, the people of the +Nation, practically helpless to deal with the large combinations of +modern business. The courts in other cases asserted the power of +the Federal Government to enforce the Anti-Trust Law so far as +transportation rates by railways engaged in interstate commerce were +concerned. But so long as the trusts were free to control the production +of commodities without interference from the General Government, they +were well content to let the transportation of commodities take care of +itself--especially as the law against rebates was at that time a dead +letter; and the Court by its decision in the Knight case had interdicted +any interference by the President or by Congress with the production of +commodities. It was on the authority of this case that practically all +the big trusts in the United States, excepting those already mentioned, +were formed. Usually they were organized as "holding" companies, each +one acquiring control of its constituent corporations by exchanging its +stock for theirs, an operation which the Supreme Court had thus decided +could not be prohibited, controlled, regulated, or even questioned by +the Federal Government. + +Such was the condition of our laws when I acceded to the Presidency. +Just before my accession, a small group of financiers, desiring to +profit by the governmental impotence to which we had been reduced by the +Knight decision, had arranged to take control of practically the entire +railway system in the Northwest--possibly as the first step toward +controlling the entire railway system of the country. This control of +the Northwestern railway systems was to be effected by organizing a new +"holding" company, and exchanging its stock against the stock of the +various corporations engaged in railway transportation throughout that +vast territory, exactly as the Sugar Trust had acquired control of the +Knight company and other concerns. This company was called the Northern +Securities Company. Not long after I became President, on the advice of +the Attorney-General, Mr. Knox, and through him, I ordered proceedings +to be instituted for the dissolution of the company. As far as could be +told by their utterances at the time, among all the great lawyers in the +United States Mr. Knox was the only one who believed that this action +could be sustained. The defense was based expressly on the ground that +the Supreme Court in the Knight case had explicitly sanctioned the +formation of such a company as the Northern Securities Company. The +representatives of privilege intimated, and sometimes asserted outright, +that in directing the action to be brought I had shown a lack of respect +for the Supreme Court, which had already decided the question at issue +by a vote of eight to one. Mr. Justice White, then on the Court and +now Chief Justice, set forth the position that the two cases were in +principle identical with incontrovertible logic. In giving the views of +the dissenting minority on the action I had brought, he said: + +"The parallel between the two cases [the Knight case and the Northern +Securities case] is complete. The one corporation acquired the stock +of other and competing corporations in exchange for its own. It was +conceded for the purposes of the case, that in doing so monopoly had +been brought about in the refining of sugar, that the sugar to be +produced was likely to become the subject of interstate commerce, and +indeed that part of it would certainly become so. But the power of +Congress was decided not to extend to the subject, because the ownership +of the stock in the corporations was not itself commerce." + +Mr. Justice White was entirely correct in this statement. The cases were +parallel. It was necessary to reverse the Knight case in the interests +of the people against monopoly and privilege just as it had been +necessary to reverse the Dred Scott case in the interest of the people +against slavery and privilege; just as later it became necessary to +reverse the New York Bakeshop case in the interest of the people +against that form of monopolistic privilege which put human rights below +property rights where wage workers were concerned. + +By a vote of five to four the Supreme Court reversed its decision in +the Knight case, and in the Northern Securities case sustained the +Government. The power to deal with industrial monopoly and suppress it +and to control and regulate combinations, of which the Knight case had +deprived the Federal Government, was thus restored to it by the Northern +Securities case. After this later decision was rendered, suits were +brought by my direction against the American Tobacco Company and the +Standard Oil Company. Both were adjudged criminal conspiracies, and +their dissolution ordered. The Knight case was finally overthrown. +The vicious doctrine it embodied no longer remains as an obstacle to +obstruct the pathway of justice when it assails monopoly. Messrs. +Knox, Moody, and Bonaparte, who successively occupied the position of +Attorney-General under me, were profound lawyers and fearless and +able men; and they completely established the newer and more wholesome +doctrine under which the Federal Government may now deal with +monopolistic combinations and conspiracies. + +The decisions rendered in these various cases brought under my direction +constitute the entire authority upon which any action must rest that +seeks through the exercise of national power to curb monopolistic +control. The men who organized and directed the Northern Securities +Company were also the controlling forces in the Steel Corporation, which +has since been prosecuted under the act. The proceedings against the +Sugar Trust for corruption in connection with the New York Custom House +are sufficiently interesting to be considered separately. + +From the standpoint of giving complete control to the National +Government over big corporations engaged in inter-State business, it +would be impossible to over-estimate the importance of the Northern +Securities decision and of the decisions afterwards rendered in line +with it in connection with the other trusts whose dissolution was +ordered. The success of the Northern Securities case definitely +established the power of the Government to deal with all great +corporations. Without this success the National Government must have +remained in the impotence to which it had been reduced by the Knight +decision as regards the most important of its internal functions. But +our success in establishing the power of the National Government to curb +monopolies did not establish the right method of exercising that +power. We had gained the power. We had not devised the proper method of +exercising it. + +Monopolies can, although in rather cumbrous fashion, be broken up by +law suits. Great business combinations, however, cannot possibly be made +useful instead of noxious industrial agencies merely by law suits, and +especially by law suits supposed to be carried on for their destruction +and not for their control and regulation. I at once began to urge upon +Congress the need of laws supplementing the Anti-Trust Law--for this law +struck at all big business, good and bad, alike, and as the event +proved was very inefficient in checking bad big business, and yet was +a constant threat against decent business men. I strongly urged the +inauguration of a system of thoroughgoing and drastic Governmental +regulation and control over all big business combinations engaged in +inter-State industry. + +Here I was able to accomplish only a small part of what I desired to +accomplish. I was opposed both by the foolish radicals who desired to +break up all big business, with the impossible ideal of returning to +mid-nineteenth century industrial conditions; and also by the great +privileged interests themselves, who used these ordinarily--but +sometimes not entirely--well-meaning "stool pigeon progressives" to +further their own cause. The worst representatives of big business +encouraged the outcry for the total abolition of big business, because +they knew that they could not be hurt in this way, and that such an +outcry distracted the attention of the public from the really efficient +method of controlling and supervising them, in just but masterly +fashion, which was advocated by the sane representatives of reform. +However, we succeeded in making a good beginning by securing the passage +of a law creating the Department of Commerce and Labor, and with it the +erection of the Bureau of Corporations. The first head of the Department +of Commerce and Labor was Mr. Cortelyou, later Secretary of the +Treasury. He was succeeded by Mr. Oscar Straus. The first head of +the Bureau of Corporations was Mr. Garfield, who was succeeded by Mr. +Herbert Knox Smith. No four better public servants from the standpoint +of the people as a whole could have been found. + +The Standard Oil Company took the lead in opposing all this legislation. +This was natural, for it had been the worst offender in the amassing of +enormous fortunes by improper methods of all kinds, at the expense of +business rivals and of the public, including the corruption of public +servants. If any man thinks this condemnation extreme, I refer him to +the language officially used by the Supreme Court of the nation in its +decision against the Standard Oil Company. Through their counsel, and +by direct telegrams and letters to Senators and Congressmen from various +heads of the Standard Oil organization, they did their best to kill the +bill providing for the Bureau of Corporations. I got hold of one or two +of these telegrams and letters, however, and promptly published them; +and, as generally happens in such a case, the men who were all-powerful +as long as they could work in secret and behind closed doors became +powerless as soon as they were forced into the open. The bill went +through without further difficulty. + +The true way of dealing with monopoly is to prevent it by administrative +action before it grows so powerful that even when courts condemn it they +shrink from destroying it. The Supreme Court in the Tobacco and Standard +Oil cases, for instance, used very vigorous language in condemning these +trusts; but the net result of the decision was of positive advantage to +the wrongdoers, and this has tended to bring the whole body of our law +into disrepute in quarters where it is of the very highest importance +that the law be held in respect and even in reverence. My effort was to +secure the creation of a Federal Commission which should neither excuse +nor tolerate monopoly, but prevent it when possible and uproot it +when discovered; and which should in addition effectively control and +regulate all big combinations, and should give honest business certainty +as to what the law was and security as long as the law was obeyed. Such +a Commission would furnish a steady expert control, a control adapted to +the problem; and dissolution is neither control nor regulation, but is +purely negative; and negative remedies are of little permanent avail. +Such a Commission would have complete power to examine into every big +corporation engaged or proposing to engage in business between the +States. It would have the power to discriminate sharply between +corporations that are doing well and those that are doing ill; and the +distinction between those who do well and those who do ill would +be defined in terms so clear and unmistakable that no one could +misapprehend them. Where a company is found seeking its profits through +serving the community by stimulating production, lowering prices, or +improving service, while scrupulously respecting the rights of others +(including its rivals, its employees, its customers, and the general +public), and strictly obeying the law, then no matter how large its +capital, or how great the volume of its business it would be encouraged +to still more abundant production, or better service, by the fullest +protection that the Government could afford it. On the other hand, if +a corporation were found seeking profit through injury or oppression +of the community, by restricting production through trick or device, +by plot or conspiracy against competitors, or by oppression of +wage-workers, and then extorting high prices for the commodity it had +made artificially scarce, it would be prevented from organizing if its +nefarious purpose could be discovered in time, or pursued and suppressed +by all the power of Government whenever found in actual operation. Such +a commission, with the power I advocate, would put a stop to abuses of +big corporations and small corporations alike; it would draw the line on +conduct and not on size; it would destroy monopoly, and make the biggest +business man in the country conform squarely to the principles laid down +by the American people, while at the same time giving fair play to the +little man and certainty of knowledge as to what was wrong and what was +right both to big man and little man. + +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. + +Thanks to a first-class railway man, Paul Morton of the Santa Fe, son of +Mr. Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture, I was able completely to stop +the practice. Mr. Morton volunteered to aid the Government in abolishing +rebates. He frankly stated that he, like every one else, had been guilty +in the matter; but he insisted that he uttered the sentiments of +the decent railway men of the country when he said that he hoped the +practice would be stopped, and that if I would really stop it, and not +merely make believe to stop it, he would give the testimony which would +put into the hands of the Government the power to put a complete check +to the practice. Accordingly he testified, and on the information which +he gave us we were able to take such action through the Inter-State +Commerce Commission and the Department of Justice, supplemented by +the necessary additional legislation, that the evil was absolutely +eradicated. He thus rendered, of his own accord, at his own personal +risk, and from purely disinterested motives, an invaluable service to +the people, a service which no other man who was able to render was +willing to render. As an immediate sequel, the world-old alliance +between Blifil and Black George was immediately revived against Paul +Morton. In giving rebates he had done only what every honest railway +man in the country had been obliged to do because of the failure of the +Government to enforce the prohibition as regards dishonest railway +men. But unlike his fellows he had then shown the courage and sense of +obligation to the public which made him come forward and without +evasion or concealment state what he had done, in order that we might +successfully put an end to the practice; and put an end to the practice +we did, and we did it because of the courage and patriotism he had +shown. The unscrupulous railway men, whose dishonest practices were +thereby put a stop to, and the unscrupulous demagogues who were either +under the influence of these men or desirous of gaining credit with +thoughtless and ignorant people no matter who was hurt, joined in +vindictive clamor against Mr. Morton. They actually wished me to +prosecute him, although such prosecution would have been a piece of +unpardonable ingratitude and treachery on the part of the public toward +him--for I was merely acting as the steward of the public in this +matter. I need hardly say that I stood by him; and later he served under +me as Secretary of the Navy, and a capital Secretary he made too. + +We not only secured the stopping of rebates, but in the Hepburn Rate +Bill we were able to put through a measure which gave the Inter-State +Commerce Commission for the first time real control over the railways. +There were two or three amusing features in the contest over this bill. +All of the great business interests which objected to Governmental +control banded to fight it, and they were helped by the honest men of +ultra-conservative type who always dread change, whether good or bad. We +finally forced it through the House. In the Senate it was referred to +a committee in which the Republican majority was under the control of +Senator Aldrich, who took the lead in opposing the bill. There was one +Republican on the committee, however, whom Senator Aldrich could +not control--Senator Dolliver, of Iowa. The leading Democrat on the +committee was Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, with whom I was not on +good terms, because I had been obliged to cancel an invitation to him to +dine at the White House on account of his having made a personal assault +in the Senate Chamber on his colleague from South Carolina; and later I +had to take action against him on account of his conduct in connection +with certain land matters. Senator Tillman favored the bill. The +Republican majority in the committee under Senator Aldrich, when they +acted adversely on the bill, turned it over to Senator Tillman, thereby +making him its sponsor. The object was to create what it was hoped would +be an impossible situation in view of the relations between Senator +Tillman and myself. I regarded the action as simply childish. It was a +curious instance of how able and astute men sometimes commit blunders +because of sheer inability to understand intensity of disinterested +motive in others. I did not care a rap about Mr. Tillman's getting +credit for the bill, or having charge of it. I was delighted to go with +him or with any one else just so long as he was traveling in my way--and +no longer. + +There was another amusing incident in connection with the passage of the +bill. All the wise friends of the effort to secure Governmental control +of corporations know that this Government control must be exercised +through administrative and not judicial officers if it is to be +effective. Everything possible should be done to minimize the chance +of appealing from the decisions of the administrative officer to the +courts. But it is not possible Constitutionally, and probably would not +be desirable anyhow, completely to abolish the appeal. Unwise zealots +wished to make the effort totally to abolish the appeal in connection +with the Hepburn Bill. Representatives of the special interests wished +to extend the appeal to include what it ought not to include. Between +stood a number of men whose votes would mean the passage of, or the +failure to pass, the bill, and who were not inclined towards either +side. Three or four substantially identical amendments were proposed, +and we then suddenly found ourselves face to face with an absurd +situation. The good men who were willing to go with us but had +conservative misgivings about the ultra-radicals would not accept a good +amendment if one of the latter proposed it; and the radicals would not +accept their own amendment if one of the conservatives proposed it. +Each side got so wrought up as to be utterly unable to get matters into +proper perspective; each prepared to stand on unimportant trifles; each +announced with hysterical emphasis--the reformers just as hysterically +as the reactionaries--that the decision as regards each unimportant +trifle determined the worth or worthlessness of the measure. Gradually +we secured a measurable return to sane appreciation of the essentials. +Finally both sides reluctantly agreed to accept the so-called Allison +amendment which did not, as a matter of fact, work any change in the +bill at all. The amendment was drawn by Attorney-General Moody after +consultation with the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and was forwarded +by me to Senator Dolliver; it was accepted, and the bill became law. + +Thanks to this law and to the way in which the Inter-State Commerce +Commission was backed by the Administration, the Commission, under men +like Prouty, Lane, and Clark, became a most powerful force for good. +Some of the good that we had accomplished was undone after the close of +my Administration by the unfortunate law creating a Commerce Court; but +the major part of the immense advance we had made remained. There was +one point on which I insisted, and upon which it is necessary always to +insist. The Commission cannot do permanent good unless it does justice +to the corporations precisely as it exacts justice from them. The +public, the shippers, the stock and bondholders, and the employees, all +have their rights, and none should be allowed unfair privileges at the +expense of the others. Stock watering and swindling of any kind should +of course not only be stopped but punished. When, however, a road is +managed fairly and honestly, and when it renders a real and needed +service, then the Government must see that it is not so burdened as to +make it impossible to run it at a profit. There is much wise +legislation necessary for the safety of the public, or--like workmen's +compensation--necessary to the well-being of the employee, which +nevertheless imposes such a burden on the road that the burden must be +distributed between the general public and the corporation, or there +will be no dividends. In such a case it may be the highest duty of the +commission to raise rates; and the commission, when satisfied that the +necessity exists, in order to do justice to the owners of the road, +should no more hesitate to raise rates, than under other circumstances +to lower them. + +So much for the "big stick" in dealing with the corporations when they +went wrong. Now for a sample of the square deal. + +In the fall of 1907 there were severe business disturbances and +financial stringency, culminating in a panic which arose in New York +and spread over the country. The damage actually done was great, and the +damage threatened was incalculable. Thanks largely to the action of +the Government, the panic was stopped before, instead of being merely a +serious business check, it became a frightful and Nation-wide calamity, +a disaster fraught with untold misery and woe to all our people. For +several days the Nation trembled on the brink of such a calamity, of +such a disaster. + +During these days both the Secretary of the Treasury and I personally +were in hourly communication with New York, following every change in +the situation, and trying to anticipate every development. It was +the obvious duty of the Administration to take every step possible to +prevent appalling disaster by checking the spread of the panic before +it grew so that nothing could check it. And events moved with such +speed that it was necessary to decide and to act on the instant, as each +successive crisis arose, if the decision and action were to accomplish +anything. The Secretary of the Treasury took various actions, some +on his own initiative, some by my direction. Late one evening I was +informed that two representatives of the Steel Corporation wished to see +me early the following morning, the precise object not being named. Next +morning, while at breakfast, I was informed that Messrs. Frick and +Gary were waiting at the office. I at once went over, and, as the +Attorney-General, Mr. Bonaparte, had not yet arrived from Baltimore, +where he had been passing the night, I sent a message asking the +Secretary of State, Mr. Root, who was also a lawyer, to join us, which +he did. Before the close of the interview and in the presence of the +three gentlemen named, I dictated a note to Mr. Bonaparte, setting forth +exactly what Messrs. Frick and Gary had proposed, and exactly what I +had answered--so that there might be no possibility of misunderstanding. +This note was published in a Senate Document while I was still +President. It runs as follows: + +THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, November 4, 1907. + +My dear Mr. Attorney-General: + +Judge E. H. Gary and Mr. H. C. Frick, on behalf of the Steel +Corporation, have just called upon me. They state that there is a +certain business firm (the name of which I have not been told, but +which is of real importance in New York business circles), which will +undoubtedly fail this week if help is not given. Among its assets are +a majority of the securities of the Tennessee Coal Company. Application +has been urgently made to the Steel Corporation to purchase this stock +as the only means of avoiding a failure. Judge Gary and Mr. Frick +informed me that as a mere business transaction they do not care to +purchase the stock; that under ordinary circumstances they would not +consider purchasing the stock, because but little benefit will come to +the Steel Corporation from the purchase; that they are aware that the +purchase will be used as a handle for attack upon them on the ground +that they are striving to secure a monopoly of the business and prevent +competition--not that this would represent what could honestly be said, +but what might recklessly and untruthfully be said. + +They further informed me that, as a matter of fact, the policy of the +company has been to decline to acquire more than sixty per cent of +the steel properties, and that this purpose has been persevered in for +several years past, with the object of preventing these accusations, +and, as a matter of fact, their proportion of steel properties has +slightly decreased, so that it is below this sixty per cent, and the +acquisition of the property in question will not raise it above sixty +per cent. But they feel that it is immensely to their interest, as to +the interest of every responsible business man, to try to prevent a +panic and general industrial smash-up at this time, and that they are +willing to go into this transaction, which they would not otherwise +go into, because it seems the opinion of those best fitted to express +judgment in New York that it will be an important factor in preventing +a break that might be ruinous; and that this has been urged upon them by +the combination of the most responsible bankers in New York who are now +thus engaged in endeavoring to save the situation. But they asserted +that they did not wish to do this if I stated that it ought not to be +done. I answered that, while of course I could not advise them to take +the action proposed, I felt it no public duty of mine to interpose any +objections. + +Sincerely yours, (Signed) THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +HON. CHARLES J. BONAPARTE, Attorney-General. + +Mr. Bonaparte received this note in about an hour, and that same morning +he came over, acknowledged its receipt, and said that my answer was the +only proper answer that could have been made, having regard both to +the law and to the needs of the situation. He stated that the legal +situation had been in no way changed, and that no sufficient ground +existed for prosecution of the Steel Corporation. But I acted purely on +my own initiative, and the responsibility for the act was solely mine. + +I was intimately acquainted with the situation in New York. The word +"panic" means fear, unreasoning fear; to stop a panic it is necessary +to restore confidence; and at the moment the so-called Morgan interests +were the only interests which retained a full hold on the confidence of +the people of New York--not only the business people, but the immense +mass of men and women who owned small investments or had small savings +in the banks and trust companies. Mr. Morgan and his associates were +of course fighting hard to prevent the loss of confidence and the panic +distrust from increasing to such a degree as to bring any other big +financial institutions down; for this would probably have been followed +by a general, and very likely a worldwide, crash. The Knickerbocker +Trust Company had already failed, and runs had begun on, or were +threatened as regards, two other big trust companies. These companies +were now on the fighting line, and it was to the interest of everybody +to strengthen them, in order that the situation might be saved. It was +a matter of general knowledge and belief that they, or the individuals +prominent in them, held the securities of the Tennessee Coal and Iron +Company, which securities had no market value, and were useless as a +source of strength in the emergency. The Steel Corporation securities, +on the contrary, were immediately marketable, their great value being +known and admitted all over the world--as the event showed. The proposal +of Messrs. Frick and Gary was that the Steel Corporation should at once +acquire the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company, and thereby substitute, +among the assets of the threatened institutions (which, by the way, +they did not name to me), securities of great and immediate value for +securities which at the moment were of no value. It was necessary for +me to decide on the instant, before the Stock Exchange opened, for the +situation in New York was such that any hour might be vital, and failure +to act for even an hour might make all subsequent effort to act utterly +useless. From the best information at my disposal, I believed (what +was actually the fact) that the addition of the Tennessee Coal and +Iron property would only increase the proportion of the Steel Company's +holdings by about four per cent, making them about sixty-two per cent +instead of about fifty-eight per cent of the total value in the country; +an addition which, by itself, in my judgment (concurred in, not only by +the Attorney-General but by every competent lawyer), worked no change +in the legal status of the Steel corporation. The diminution in the +percentage of holdings, and production, has gone on steadily, and the +percentage is now about ten per cent less than it was ten years ago. + +The action was emphatically for the general good. It offered the only +chance for arresting the panic, and it did arrest the panic. I answered +Messrs. Frick and Gary, as set forth in the letter quoted above, to the +effect that I did not deem it my duty to interfere, that is, to forbid +the action which more than anything else in actual fact saved the +situation. The result justified my judgment. The panic was stopped, +public confidence in the solvency of the threatened institution being at +once restored. + +Business was vitally helped by what I did. The benefit was not only +for the moment. It was permanent. Particularly was this the case in the +South. Three or four years afterwards I visited Birmingham. Every man +I met, without exception, who was competent to testify, informed me +voluntarily that the results of the action taken had been of the utmost +benefit to Birmingham, and therefore to Alabama, the industry having +profited to an extraordinary degree, not only from the standpoint of the +business, but from the standpoint of the community at large and of the +wage-workers, by the change in ownership. The results of the action I +took were beneficial from every standpoint, and the action itself, at +the time when it was taken, was vitally necessary to the welfare of the +people of the United States. + +I would have been derelict in my duty, I would have shown myself a timid +and unworthy public servant, if in that extraordinary crisis I had not +acted precisely as I did act. In every such crisis the temptation to +indecision, to non-action, is great, for excuses can always be found for +non-action, and action means risk and the certainty of blame to the man +who acts. But if the man is worth his salt he will do his duty, he will +give the people the benefit of the doubt, and act in any way which +their interests demand and which is not affirmatively prohibited by law, +unheeding the likelihood that he himself, when the crisis is over and +the danger past, will be assailed for what he has done. + +Every step I took in this matter was open as the day, and was known in +detail at the moment to all people. The press contained full accounts of +the visit to me of Messrs. Frick and Gary, and heralded widely and +with acclamation the results of that visit. At the time the relief and +rejoicing over what had been done were well-nigh universal. The danger +was too imminent and too appalling for me to be willing to condemn those +who were successful in saving them from it. But I fully understood and +expected that when there was no longer danger, when the fear had been +forgotten, attack would be made upon me; and as a matter of fact after +a year had elapsed the attack was begun, and has continued at intervals +ever since; my ordinary assailant being some politician of rather cheap +type. + +If I were on a sail-boat, 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. + +There were many other things that we did in connection with +corporations. One of the most important was the passage of the meat +inspection law because of scandalous abuses shown to exist in the great +packing-houses in Chicago and elsewhere. There was a curious result of +this law, similar to what occurred in connection with the law providing +for effective railway regulation. The big beef men bitterly opposed the +law; just as the big railway men opposed the Hepburn Act. Yet three +or four years after these laws had been put on the statute books every +honest man both in the beef business and the railway business came to +the conclusion that they worked good and not harm to the decent business +concerns. They hurt only those who were not acting as they should have +acted. The law providing for the inspection of packing-houses, and the +Pure Food and Drugs Act, were also extremely important; and the way in +which they were administered was even more important. It would be hard +to overstate the value of the service rendered in all these cases +by such cabinet officers as Moody and Bonaparte, and their outside +assistants of the stamp of Frank Kellogg. + +It would be useless to enumerate all the suits we brought. Some of +them I have already touched upon. Others, such as the suits against the +Harriman railway corporations, which were successful, and which had +been rendered absolutely necessary by the grossly improper action of the +corporations concerned, offered no special points of interest. The Sugar +Trust proceedings, however, may be mentioned as showing just the kind of +thing that was done and the kind of obstacle encountered and overcome in +prosecutions of this character. + +It was on the advice of my secretary, William Loeb, Jr., afterward head +of the New York Custom-House, that the action was taken which started +the uncovering of the frauds perpetrated by the Sugar Trust and other +companies in connection with the importing of sugar. Loeb had from time +to time told me that he was sure that there was fraud in connection with +the importations by the Sugar Trust through the New York Custom-House. +Finally, some time toward the end of 1904, he informed me that Richard +Parr, a sampler at the New York Appraisers' Stores (whose duties took +him almost continually on the docks in connection with the sampling of +merchandise), had called on him, and had stated that in his belief the +sugar companies were defrauding the Government in the matter of weights, +and had stated that if he could be made an investigating officer of +the Treasury Department, he was confident that he could show there was +wrongdoing. Parr had been a former school fellow of Loeb in Albany, and +Loeb believed him to be loyal, honest, and efficient. He thereupon laid +the matter before me, and advised the appointment of Parr as a special +employee of the Treasury Department, for the specific purpose of +investigating the alleged sugar frauds. I instructed the Treasury +Department accordingly, and was informed that there was no vacancy in +the force of special employees, but that Parr would be given the first +place that opened up. Early in the spring of 1905 Parr came to Loeb +again, and said that he had received additional information about the +sugar frauds, and was anxious to begin the investigation. Loeb again +discussed the matter with me; and I notified the Treasury Department to +appoint Parr immediately. On June 1, 1905, he received his appointment, +and was assigned to the port of Boston for the purpose of gaining +some experience as an investigating officer. During the month he was +transferred to the Maine District, with headquarters at Portland, where +he remained until March, 1907. During his service in Maine he uncovered +extensive wool smuggling frauds. At the conclusion of the wool case, he +appealed to Loeb to have him transferred to New York, so that he might +undertake the investigation of the sugar underweighing frauds. I now +called the attention of Secretary Cortelyou personally to the matter, +so that he would be able to keep a check over any subordinates who might +try to interfere with Parr, for the conspiracy was evidently widespread, +the wealth of the offenders great, and the corruption in the service +far-reaching--while moreover as always happens with "respectable" +offenders, there were many good men who sincerely disbelieved in the +possibility of corruption on the part of men of such high financial +standing. Parr was assigned to New York early in March, 1907, and at +once began an active investigation of the conditions existing on the +sugar docks. This terminated in the discovery of a steel spring in one +of the scales of the Havemeyer & Elder docks in Brooklyn, November 20, +1907, which enabled us to uncover what were probably the most colossal +frauds ever perpetrated in the Customs Service. From the beginning of +his active work in the investigation of the sugar frauds in March, 1907, +to March 4, 1909, Parr, from time to time, personally reported to Loeb, +at the White House, the progress of his investigations, and Loeb in his +turn kept me personally advised. On one occasion there was an attempt +made to shunt Parr off the investigation and substitute another agent of +the Treasury, who was suspected of having some relations with the sugar +companies under investigation; but Parr reported the facts to Loeb, +I sent for Secretary Cortelyou, and Secretary Cortelyou promptly took +charge of the matter himself, putting Parr back on the investigation. + +During the investigation Parr was subjected to all sorts of harassments, +including an attempt to bribe him by Spitzer, the dock superintendent +of the Havemeyer & Elder Refinery, for which Spitzer was convicted and +served a term in prison. Brzezinski, a special agent, who was assisting +Parr, was convicted of perjury and also served a term in prison, he +having changed his testimony, in the trial of Spitzer for the attempted +bribery of Parr, from that which he gave before the Grand Jury. For his +extraordinary services in connection with this investigation Parr was +granted an award of $100,000 by the Treasury Department. + +District-Attorney Stimson, of New York, assisted by Denison, +Frankfurter, Wise, and other employees of the Department of Justice, +took charge of the case, and carried on both civil and criminal +proceedings. The trial in the action against the Sugar Trust, for the +recovery of duties on the cargo of sugar, which was being sent over the +scales at the time of the discovery of the steel spring by Parr, was +begun in 1908; judgment was rendered against the defendants on March +5, 1909, the day after I left office. Over four million dollars were +recovered and paid back into the United States Treasury by the sugar +companies which had perpetrated the various forms of fraud. These frauds +were unearthed by Parr, Loeb, Stimson, Frankfurter, and the other men +mentioned and their associates, and it was to them that the people owed +the refunding of the huge sum of money mentioned. We had already secured +heavy fines from the Sugar Trust, and from various big railways, and +private individuals, such as Edwin Earle, for unlawful rebates. In the +case of the chief offender, the American Sugar Refining Company (the +Sugar Trust), criminal prosecutions were carried on against every living +man whose position was such that he would naturally know about the +fraud. All of them were indicted, and the biggest and most responsible +ones were convicted. The evidence showed that the president of the +company, Henry O. Havemeyer, virtually ran the entire company, and was +responsible for all the details of the management. He died two weeks +after the fraud was discovered, just as proceedings were being begun. +Next to him in importance was the secretary and treasurer, Charles R. +Heike, who was convicted. Various other officials and employees of the +Trust, and various Government employees, were indicted, and most of +them convicted. Ernest W. Gerbracht, the superintendent of one of the +refineries, was convicted, but his sentence was commuted to a short +jail imprisonment, because he became a Government witness and greatly +assisted the Government in the suits. + +Heike's sentence was commuted so as to excuse him from going to the +penitentiary; just as the penitentiary sentence of Morse, the big New +York banker, who was convicted of gross fraud and misapplication of +funds, was commuted. Both commutations were granted long after I left +office. In each case the commutation was granted because, as was stated, +of the prisoner's age and state of health. In Morse's case the President +originally refused the request, saying that Morse had exhibited +"fraudulent and criminal disregard of the trust imposed upon him," that +"he was entirely unscrupulous as to the methods he adopted," and +"that he seemed at times to be absolutely heartless with regard to the +consequences to others, and he showed great shrewdness in obtaining +large sums of money from the bank without adequate security and without +making himself personally liable therefor." The two cases may be +considered in connection with the announcement in the public press that +on May 17, 1913, the President commuted the sentence of Lewis A. Banks, +who was serving a very long term penitentiary sentence for an attack on +a girl in the Indian Territory; "the reason for the commutation which is +set forth in the press being that 'Banks is in poor health.'" + +It is no easy matter to balance the claims of justice and mercy in such +cases. In these three cases, of all of which I had personal cognizance, +I disagreed radically with the views my successors took, and with the +views which many respectable men took who in these and similar cases, +both while I was in office and afterward, urged me to show, or to ask +others to show, clemency. It then seemed to me, and it now seems to me, +that such clemency is from the larger standpoint a gross wrong to the +men and women of the country. + +One of the former special assistants of the district-attorney, Mr. W. +Cleveland Runyon, in commenting bitterly on the release of Heike +and Morse on account of their health, pointed out that their health +apparently became good when once they themselves became free men, and +added: + +"The commutation of these sentences amounts to a direct interference +with the administration of justice by the courts. Heike got a $25,000 +salary and has escaped his imprisonment, but what about the six $18 a +week checkers, who were sent to jail, one of them a man of more than +sixty? It is cases like this that create discontent and anarchy. They +make it seem plain that there is one law for the rich and another for +the poor man, and I for one will protest." + +In dealing with Heike the individual (or Morse or any other individual), +it is necessary to emphasize the social aspects of his case. The moral +of the Heike case, as has been well said, is "how easy it is for a man +in modern corporate organization to drift into wrongdoing." The +moral restraints are loosened in the case of a man like Heike by +the insulation of himself from the sordid details of crime, through +industrially coerced intervening agents. Professor Ross has made the +penetrating observation that "distance disinfects dividends"; it also +weakens individual responsibility, particularly on the part of the very +managers of large business, who should feel it most acutely. One of the +officers of the Department of Justice who conducted the suit, and who +inclined to the side of mercy in the matter, nevertheless writes: "Heike +is a beautiful illustration of mental and moral obscuration in the +business life of an otherwise valuable member of society. Heike had +an ample share in the guidance of the affairs of the American Sugar +Company, and we are apt to have a foreshortened picture of his +responsibility, because he operated from the easy coign of vantage of +executive remoteness. It is difficult to say to what extent he did, +directly or indirectly, profit by the sordid practices of his company. +But the social damage of an individual in his position may be just as +deep, whether merely the zest of the game or hard cash be his dominant +motive." + +I have coupled the cases of the big banker and the Sugar Trust official +and the case of the man convicted of a criminal assault on a woman. All +of the criminals were released from penitentiary sentences on grounds of +ill health. The offenses were typical of the worst crimes committed +at the two ends of the social scale. One offense was a crime of brutal +violence; the other offenses were crimes of astute corruption. All of +them were offenses which in my judgment were of such a character that +clemency towards the offender worked grave injustice to the community +as a whole, injustice so grave that its effects might be far-reaching in +their damage. + +Every time that rape or criminal assault on a woman is pardoned, and +anything less than the full penalty of the law exacted, a premium is +put on the practice of lynching such offenders. Every time a big moneyed +offender, who naturally excites interest and sympathy, and who has +many friends, is excused from serving a sentence which a man of less +prominence and fewer friends would have to serve, justice is discredited +in the eyes of plain people--and to undermine faith in justice is to +strike at the foundation of the Republic. As for ill health, it must +be remembered that few people are as healthy in prison as they would be +outside; and there should be no discrimination among criminals on this +score; either all criminals who grow unhealthy should be let out, or +none. Pardons must sometimes be given in order that the cause of justice +may be served; but in cases such as these I am considering, while I know +that many amiable people differ from me, I am obliged to say that in my +judgment the pardons work far-reaching harm to the cause of justice. + +Among the big corporations themselves, even where they did wrong, there +was a wide difference in the moral obliquity indicated by the wrongdoer. +There was a wide distinction between the offenses committed in the case +of the Northern Securities Company, and the offenses because of which +the Sugar Trust, the Tobacco Trust, and the Standard Oil Trust were +successfully prosecuted under my Administration. It was vital to destroy +the Northern Securities Company; but the men creating it had done so in +open and above-board fashion, acting under what they, and most of the +members of the bar, thought to be the law established by the Supreme +Court in the Knight sugar case. But the Supreme Court in its decree +dissolving the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trusts, condemned them in the +severest language for moral turpitude; and an even severer need of +condemnation should be visited on the Sugar Trust. + +However, all the trusts and big corporations against which we +proceeded--which included in their directorates practically all the +biggest financiers in the country--joined in making the bitterest +assaults on me and on my Administration. Of their actions I wrote as +follows to Attorney-General Bonaparte, who had been a peculiarly close +friend and adviser through the period covered by my public life in high +office and who, together with Attorney-General Moody, possessed the same +understanding sympathy with my social and industrial program that +was possessed by such officials as Straus, Garfield, H. K. Smith, and +Pinchot. The letter runs: + +January 2, 1908. + +My dear Bonaparte: + +I must congratulate you on your admirable speech at Chicago. You said +the very things it was good to say at this time. What you said bore +especial weight because it represented what you had done. You have shown +by what you have actually accomplished that the law is enforced against +the wealthiest corporation, and the richest and most powerful manager +or manipulator of that corporation, just as resolutely and fearlessly as +against the humblest citizen. The Department of Justice is now in very +fact the Department of Justice, and justice is meted out with an even +hand to great and small, rich and poor, weak and strong. Those who have +denounced you and the action of the Department of Justice are either +misled, or else are the very wrongdoers, and the agents of the very +wrongdoers, who have for so many years gone scot-free and flouted the +laws with impunity. Above all, you are to be congratulated upon the +bitterness felt and expressed towards you by the representatives and +agents of the great law-defying corporations of immense wealth, who, +until within the last half-dozen years, have treated themselves and have +expected others to treat them as being beyond and above all possible +check from law. + +It was time to say something, for the representatives of predatory +wealth, of wealth accumulated on a giant scale by iniquity, +by wrongdoing in many forms, by plain swindling, by oppressing +wage-workers, by manipulating securities, by unfair and unwholesome +competition and by stock-jobbing,--in short, by conduct abhorrent to +every man of ordinarily decent conscience, have during the last few +months made it evident that they are banded together to work for a +reaction, to endeavor to overthrow and discredit all who honestly +administer the law, and to secure a return to the days when every +unscrupulous wrongdoer could do what he wished unchecked, provided he +had enough money. They attack you because they know your honesty and +fearlessness, and dread them. The enormous sums of money these men have +at their control enable them to carry on an effective campaign. They +find their tools in a portion of the public press, including especially +certain of the great New York newspapers. They find their agents in +some men in public life,--now and then occupying, or having occupied, +positions as high as Senator or Governor,--in some men in the pulpit, +and most melancholy of all, in a few men on the bench. By gifts to +colleges and universities they are occasionally able to subsidize in +their own interest some head of an educational body, who, save only a +judge, should of all men be most careful to keep his skirts clear from +the taint of such corruption. There are ample material rewards for those +who serve with fidelity the Mammon of unrighteousness, but they are +dearly paid for by that institution of learning whose head, by example +and precept, teaches the scholars who sit under him that there is one +law for the rich and another for the poor. The amount of money the +representatives of the great moneyed interests are willing to spend can +be gauged by their recent publication broadcast throughout the papers +of this country from the Atlantic to the Pacific of huge advertisements, +attacking with envenomed bitterness the Administration's policy of +warring against successful dishonesty, advertisements that must have +cost enormous sums of money. This advertisement, as also a pamphlet +called "The Roosevelt Panic," and one or two similar books and +pamphlets, are written especially in the interest of the Standard Oil +and Harriman combinations, but also defend all the individuals and +corporations of great wealth that have been guilty of wrongdoing. From +the railroad rate law to the pure food law, every measure for honesty +in business that has been pressed during the last six years, has been +opposed by these men, on its passage and in its administration, with +every resource that bitter and unscrupulous craft could suggest, and the +command of almost unlimited money secure. These men do not themselves +speak or write; they hire others to do their bidding. Their spirit and +purpose are made clear alike by the editorials of the papers owned in, +or whose policy is dictated by, Wall Street, and by the speeches of +public men who, as Senators, Governors, or Mayors, have served these +their masters to the cost of the plain people. At one time one of their +writers or speakers attacks the rate law as the cause of the panic; he +is, whether in public life or not, usually a clever corporation lawyer, +and he is not so foolish a being as to believe in the truth of what he +says; he has too closely represented the railroads not to know well that +the Hepburn Rate Bill has helped every honest railroad, and has hurt +only the railroads that regarded themselves as above the law. At another +time, one of them assails the Administration for not imprisoning people +under the Sherman Anti-Trust Law; for declining to make what he well +knows, in view of the actual attitude of juries (as shown in the Tobacco +Trust cases and in San Francisco in one or two of the cases brought +against corrupt business men) would have been the futile endeavor to +imprison defendants whom we are actually able to fine. He raises the +usual clamor, raised by all who object to the enforcement of the law, +that we are fining corporations instead of putting the heads of the +corporations in jail; and he states that this does not really harm the +chief offenders. Were this statement true, he himself would not be found +attacking us. The extraordinary violence of the assault upon our policy +contained in speeches like these, in the articles in the subsidized +press, in such huge advertisements and pamphlets as those above referred +to, and the enormous sums of money spent in these various ways, give a +fairly accurate measure of the anger and terror which our actions have +caused the corrupt men of vast wealth to feel in the very marrow of +their being. + +The man thus attacking us is usually, like so many of his fellows, +either a great lawyer, or a paid editor who takes his commands from the +financiers and his arguments from their attorneys. If the former, he has +defended many malefactors, and he knows well that, thanks to the advice +of lawyers like himself, a certain kind of modern corporation has been +turned into an admirable instrument by which to render it well nigh +impossible to get at the really guilty man, so that in most cases the +only way of punishing the wrong is by fining the corporation or by +proceeding personally against some of the minor agents. These lawyers +and their employers are the men mainly responsible for this state of +things, and their responsibility is shared with the legislators who +ingeniously oppose the passing of just and effective laws, and with +those judges whose one aim seems to be to construe such laws so that +they cannot be executed. Nothing is sillier than this outcry on behalf +of the "innocent stockholders" in the corporations. We are besought to +pity the Standard Oil Company for a fine relatively far less great than +the fines every day inflicted in the police courts upon multitudes of +push cart peddlers and other petty offenders, whose woes never extort +one word from the men whose withers are wrung by the woes of the mighty. +The stockholders have the control of the corporation in their own hands. +The corporation officials are elected by those holding the majority of +the stock and can keep office only by having behind them the good-will +of these majority stockholders. They are not entitled to the slightest +pity if they deliberately choose to resign into the hands of great +wrongdoers the control of the corporations in which they own the stock. +Of course innocent people have become involved in these big corporations +and suffer because of the misdeeds of their criminal associates. Let +these innocent people be careful not to invest in corporations where +those in control are not men of probity, men who respect the laws; above +all let them avoid the men who make it their one effort to evade or defy +the laws. But if these honest innocent people are in the majority in +any corporation they can immediately resume control and throw out of +the directory the men who misrepresent them. Does any man for a moment +suppose that the majority stockholders of the Standard Oil are others +than Mr. Rockefeller and his associates themselves and the beneficiaries +of their wrongdoing? When the stock is watered so that the innocent +investors suffer, a grave wrong is indeed done to these innocent +investors as well as to the public; but the public men, lawyers and +editors, to whom I refer, do not under these circumstances express +sympathy for the innocent; on the contrary they are the first to protest +with frantic vehemence against our efforts by law to put a stop to +over-capitalization and stock-watering. The apologists of successful +dishonesty always declaim against any effort to punish or prevent it on +the ground that such effort will "unsettle business." It is they who by +their acts have unsettled business; and the very men raising this +cry spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in securing, by speech, +editorial, book or pamphlet, the defense by misstatement of what they +have done; and yet when we correct their misstatements by telling the +truth, they declaim against us for breaking silence, lest "values be +unsettled!" They have hurt honest business men, honest working men, +honest farmers; and now they clamor against the truth being told. + +The keynote of all these attacks upon the effort to secure honesty in +business and in politics, is expressed in a recent speech, in which the +speaker stated that prosperity had been checked by the effort for the +"moral regeneration of the business world," an effort which he denounced +as "unnatural, unwarranted, and injurious" and for which he stated the +panic was the penalty. The morality of such a plea is precisely as great +as if made on behalf of the men caught in a gambling establishment when +that gambling establishment is raided by the police. If such words mean +anything they mean that those whose sentiments they represent stand +against the effort to bring about a moral regeneration of business which +will prevent a repetition of the insurance, banking, and street railroad +scandals in New York; a repetition of the Chicago and Alton deal; a +repetition of the combination between certain professional politicians, +certain professional labor leaders and certain big financiers from the +disgrace of which San Francisco has just been rescued; a repetition of +the successful efforts by the Standard Oil people to crush out every +competitor, to overawe the common carriers, and to establish a monopoly +which treats the public with the contempt which the public deserves so +long as it permits men like the public men of whom I speak to represent +it in politics, men like the heads of colleges to whom I refer to +educate its youth. The outcry against stopping dishonest practices among +the very wealthy is precisely similar to the outcry raised against every +effort for cleanliness and decency in city government because, forsooth, +it will "hurt business." The same outcry is made against the Department +of Justice for prosecuting the heads of colossal corporations that is +made against the men who in San Francisco are prosecuting with impartial +severity the wrongdoers among business men, public officials, and labor +leaders alike. The principle is the same in the two cases. Just as +the blackmailer and the bribe giver stand on the same evil eminence +of infamy, so the man who makes an enormous fortune by corrupting +Legislatures and municipalities and fleecing his stockholders and the +public stands on a level with the creature who fattens on the blood +money of the gambling house, the saloon and the brothel. Moreover, +both kinds of corruption in the last analysis are far more intimately +connected than would at first sight appear; the wrong-doing is at bottom +the same. Corrupt business and corrupt politics act and react, with +ever increasing debasement, one on the other; the rebate-taker, the +franchise-trafficker, the manipulator of securities, the purveyor and +protector of vice, the black-mailing ward boss, the ballot box stuffer, +the demagogue, the mob leader, the hired bully and mankiller, all alike +work at the same web of corruption, and all alike should be abhorred by +honest men. + +The "business" which is hurt by the movement for honesty is the kind of +business which, in the long run, it pays the country to have hurt. It +is the kind of business which has tended to make the very name "high +finance" a term of scandal to which all honest American men of business +should join in putting an end. One of the special pleaders for business +dishonesty, in a recent speech, in denouncing the Administration for +enforcing the law against the huge and corrupt corporations which +have defied the law, also denounced it for endeavoring to secure +a far-reaching law making employers liable for injuries to their +employees. It is meet and fit that the apologists for corrupt wealth +should oppose every effort to relieve weak and helpless people from +crushing misfortune brought upon them by injury in the business from +which they gain a bare livelihood and their employers fortunes. It is +hypocritical baseness to speak of a girl who works in a factory where +the dangerous machinery is unprotected as having the "right" freely +to contract to expose herself to dangers to life and limb. She has +no alternative but to suffer want or else to expose herself to such +dangers, and when she loses a hand or is otherwise maimed or disfigured +for life it is a moral wrong that the burden of the risk necessarily +incidental to the business should be placed with crushing weight upon +her weak shoulders and the man who has profited by her work escape +scot-free. This is what our opponents advocate, and it is proper that +they should advocate it, for it rounds out their advocacy of those most +dangerous members of the criminal class, the criminals of vast wealth, +the men who can afford best to pay for such championship in the press +and on the stump. + +It is difficult to speak about the judges, for it behooves us all to +treat with the utmost respect the high office of judge; and our judges +as a whole are brave and upright men. But there is need that those who +go wrong should not be allowed to feel that there is no condemnation of +their wrongdoing. A judge who on the bench either truckles to the mob or +bows down before a corporation; or who, having left the bench to become +a corporation lawyer, seeks to aid his clients by denouncing as enemies +of property all those who seek to stop the abuses of the criminal rich; +such a man performs an even worse service to the body politic than the +Legislator or Executive who goes wrong. In no way can respect for the +courts be so quickly undermined as by teaching the public through the +action of a judge himself that there is reason for the loss of such +respect. The judge who by word or deed makes it plain that the corrupt +corporation, the law-defying corporation, the law-defying rich man, +has in him a sure and trustworthy ally, the judge who by misuse of the +process of injunction makes it plain that in him the wage-worker has a +determined and unscrupulous enemy, the judge who when he decides in an +employers' liability or a tenement house factory case shows that he has +neither sympathy for nor understanding of those fellow-citizens of his +who most need his sympathy and understanding; these judges work as much +evil as if they pandered to the mob, as if they shrank from sternly +repressing violence and disorder. The judge who does his full duty well +stands higher, and renders a better service to the people, than any +other public servant; he is entitled to greater respect; and if he is a +true servant of the people, if he is upright, wise and fearless, he will +unhesitatingly disregard even the wishes of the people if they conflict +with the eternal principles of right as against wrong. He must serve +the people; but he must serve his conscience first. All honor to such a +judge; and all honor cannot be rendered him if it is rendered equally +to his brethren who fall immeasurably below the high ideals for which he +stands. There should be a sharp discrimination against such judges. They +claim immunity from criticism, and the claim is heatedly advanced by men +and newspapers like those of whom I speak. Most certainly they can claim +immunity from untruthful criticism; and their champions, the newspapers +and the public men I have mentioned, exquisitely illustrate by their own +actions mendacious criticism in its most flagrant and iniquitous form. + +But no servant of the people has a right to expect to be free from just +and honest criticism. It is the newspapers, and the public men whose +thoughts and deeds show them to be most alien to honesty and truth +who themselves loudly object to truthful and honest criticism of their +fellow-servants of the great moneyed interests. + +We have no quarrel with the individuals, whether public men, lawyers +or editors, to whom I refer. These men derive their sole power from the +great, sinister offenders who stand behind them. They are but puppets +who move as the strings are pulled by those who control the enormous +masses of corporate wealth which if itself left uncontrolled threatens +dire evil to the Republic. It is not the puppets, but the strong, +cunning men and the mighty forces working for evil behind, and to a +certain extent through, the puppets, with whom we have to deal. We seek +to control law-defying wealth, in the first place to prevent its +doing evil, and in the next place to avoid the vindictive and dreadful +radicalism which if left uncontrolled it is certain in the end to +arouse. Sweeping attacks upon all property, upon all men of means, +without regard to whether they do well or ill, would sound the death +knell of the Republic; and such attacks become inevitable if decent +citizens permit rich men whose lives are corrupt and evil to domineer +in swollen pride, unchecked and unhindered, over the destinies of this +country. We act in no vindictive spirit, and we are no respecters of +persons. If a labor union does what is wrong, we oppose it as fearlessly +as we oppose a corporation that does wrong; and we stand with equal +stoutness for the rights of the man of wealth and for the rights of the +wage-workers; just as much so for one as for the other. We seek to stop +wrongdoing; and we desire to punish the wrongdoer only so far as is +necessary in order to achieve this end. We are the stanch upholders of +every honest man, whether business man or wage-worker. + +I do not for a moment believe that our actions have brought on business +distress; so far as this is due to local and not world-wide causes, +and to the actions of any particular individuals, it is due to the +speculative folly and flagrant dishonesty of a few men of great +wealth, who now seek to shield themselves from the effects of their own +wrongdoings by ascribing its results to the actions of those who have +sought to put a stop to the wrongdoing. But if it were true that to +cut out rottenness from the body politic meant a momentary check to an +unhealthy seeming prosperity, I should not for one moment hesitate to +put the knife to the cancer. On behalf of all our people, on behalf no +less of the honest man of means than of the honest man who earns each +day's livelihood by that day's sweat of his brow, it is necessary to +insist upon honesty in business and politics alike, in all walks of +life, in big things and in little things; upon just and fair dealing +as between man and man. We are striving for the right in the spirit of +Abraham Lincoln when he said: + +"Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge may +speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the +wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited +toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the +lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three +thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord +are true and righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the +work we are in." + +Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +HON. CHARLES J. BONAPARTE. Attorney-General. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL JUSTICE + +By the time I became President I had grown to feel with deep intensity +of conviction that governmental agencies must find their justification +largely in the way in which they are used for the practical betterment +of living and working conditions among the mass of the people. I felt +that the fight was really for the abolition of privilege; and one of the +first stages in the battle was necessarily to fight for the rights of +the workingman. For this reason I felt most strongly that all that the +government could do in the interest of labor should be done. The Federal +Government can rarely act with the directness that the State governments +act. It can, however, do a good deal. My purpose was to make the +National Government itself a model employer of labor, the effort being +to make the per diem employee just as much as the Cabinet officer regard +himself as one of the partners employed in the service of the public, +proud of his work, eager to do it in the best possible manner, and +confident of just treatment. Our aim was also to secure good laws +wherever the National Government had power, notably in the Territories, +in the District of Columbia, and in connection with inter-State +commerce. I found the eight-hour law a mere farce, the departments +rarely enforcing it with any degree of efficiency. This I remedied +by executive action. Unfortunately, thoroughly efficient government +servants often proved to be the prime offenders so far as the +enforcement of the eight-hour law was concerned, because in their zeal +to get good work done for the Government they became harsh taskmasters, +and declined to consider the needs of their fellow-employees who served +under them. The more I had studied the subject the more strongly I had +become convinced that an eight-hour day under the conditions of labor +in the United States was all that could, with wisdom and propriety, be +required either by the Government or by private employers; that more +than this meant, on the average, a decrease in the qualities that tell +for good citizenship. I finally solved the problem, as far as Government +employees were concerned, by calling in Charles P. Neill, the head +of the Labor Bureau; and acting on his advice, I speedily made the +eight-hour law really effective. Any man who shirked his work, who +dawdled and idled, received no mercy; slackness is even worse than +harshness; for exactly as in battle mercy to the coward is cruelty to +the brave man, so in civil life slackness towards the vicious and idle +is harshness towards the honest and hardworking. + +We passed a good law protecting the lives and health of miners in the +Territories, and other laws providing for the supervision of employment +agencies in the District of Columbia, and protecting the health +of motormen and conductors on street railways in the District. We +practically started the Bureau of Mines. We provided for safeguarding +factory employees in the District against accidents, and for the +restriction of child labor therein. We passed a workmen's compensation +law for the protection of Government employees; a law which did not +go as far as I wished, but which was the best I could get, and which +committed the Government to the right policy. We provided for an +investigation of woman and child labor in the United States. We +incorporated the National Child Labor Committee. Where we had most +difficulty was with the railway companies engaged in inter-State +business. We passed an act improving safety appliances on railway trains +without much opposition, but we had more trouble with acts regulating +the hours of labor of railway employees and making those railways which +were engaged in inter-State commerce liable for injuries to or the death +of their employees while on duty. One important step in connection with +these latter laws was taken by Attorney-General Moody when, on behalf of +the Government, he intervened in the case of a wronged employee. It +is unjust that a law which has been declared public policy by the +representatives of the people should be submitted to the possibility of +nullification because the Government leaves the enforcement of it to the +private initiative of poor people who have just suffered some crushing +accident. It should be the business of the Government to enforce laws of +this kind, and to appear in court to argue for their constitutionality +and proper enforcement. Thanks to Moody, the Government assumed this +position. The first employers' liability law affecting inter-State +railroads was declared unconstitutional. We got through another, which +stood the test of the courts. + +The principle to which we especially strove to give expression, through +these laws and through executive action, was that a right is valueless +unless reduced from the abstract to the concrete. This sounds like a +truism. So far from being such, the effort practically to apply it was +almost revolutionary, and gave rise to the bitterest denunciation of us +by all the big lawyers, and all the big newspaper editors, who, whether +sincerely or for hire, gave expression to the views of the privileged +classes. Ever since the Civil War very many of the decisions of the +courts, not as regards ordinary actions between man and man, but as +regards the application of great governmental policies for social +and industrial justice, had been in reality nothing but ingenious +justification of the theory that these policies were mere high-sounding +abstractions, and were not to be given practical effect. The tendency of +the courts had been, in the majority of cases, jealously to exert their +great power in protecting those who least needed protection and hardly +to use their power at all in the interest of those who most needed +protection. Our desire was to make the Federal Government efficient as +an instrument for protecting the rights of labor within its province, +and therefore to secure and enforce judicial decisions which would +permit us to make this desire effective. Not only some of the Federal +judges, but some of the State courts invoked the Constitution in a +spirit of the narrowest legalistic obstruction to prevent the Government +from acting in defense of labor on inter-State railways. In effect, +these judges took the view that while Congress had complete power as +regards the goods transported by the railways, and could protect wealthy +or well-to-do owners of these goods, yet that it had no power to protect +the lives of the men engaged in transporting the goods. Such judges +freely issued injunctions to prevent the obstruction of traffic in +the interest of the property owners, but declared unconstitutional +the action of the Government in seeking to safeguard the men, and the +families of the men, without whose labor the traffic could not take +place. It was an instance of the largely unconscious way in which the +courts had been twisted into the exaltation of property rights over +human rights, and the subordination of the welfare of the laborer when +compared with the profit of the man for whom he labored. By what I fear +my conservative friends regarded as frightfully aggressive missionary +work, which included some uncommonly plain speaking as to certain unjust +and anti-social judicial decisions, we succeeded in largely, but by no +means altogether, correcting this view, at least so far as the best and +most enlightened judges were concerned. + +Very much the most important action I took as regards labor had nothing +to do with legislation, and represented executive action which was not +required by the Constitution. It illustrated as well as anything that +I did the theory which I have called the Jackson-Lincoln theory of the +Presidency; that is, that occasionally great national crises arise which +call for immediate and vigorous executive action, and that in such cases +it is the duty of the President to act upon the theory that he is the +steward of the people, and that the proper attitude for him to take is +that he is bound to assume that he has the legal right to do whatever +the needs of the people demand, unless the Constitution or the laws +explicitly forbid him to do it. + +Early in the spring of 1902 a universal strike began in the anthracite +regions. The miners and the operators became deeply embittered, and the +strike went on throughout the summer and the early fall without any sign +of reaching an end, and with almost complete stoppage of mining. In many +cities, especially in the East, the heating apparatus is designed +for anthracite, so that the bituminous coal is only a very partial +substitute. Moreover, in many regions, even in farmhouses, many of the +provisions are for burning coal and not wood. In consequence, the coal +famine became a National menace as the winter approached. In most big +cities and many farming districts east of the Mississippi the shortage +of anthracite threatened calamity. In the populous industrial States, +from Ohio eastward, it was not merely calamity, but the direct disaster, +that was threatened. Ordinarily conservative men, men very sensitive as +to the rights of property under normal conditions, when faced by this +crisis felt, quite rightly, that there must be some radical action. The +Governor of Massachusetts and the Mayor of New York both notified me, as +the cold weather came on, that if the coal famine continued the misery +throughout the Northeast, and especially in the great cities, would +become appalling, and the consequent public disorder so great that +frightful consequences might follow. It is not too much to say that the +situation which confronted Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, and +to a less degree the States of the Middle West, in October, 1902, was +quite as serious as if they had been threatened by the invasion of a +hostile army of overwhelming force. + +The big coal operators had banded together, 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 +were 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. They were, for the most part, men of unquestionably good private +life, and they were merely taking the extreme individualistic view of +the rights of property and the freedom of individual action upheld in +the _laissez-faire_ political economics. The mines were in the State +of Pennsylvania. There was no duty whatever laid upon me by the +Constitution in the matter, and I had in theory the power to act +directly unless the Governor of Pennsylvania or the Legislature, if +it were in session, should notify me that Pennsylvania could not keep +order, and request me as commander-in-chief of the army of the United +States to intervene and keep order. + +As long as I could avoid interfering I did so; but I directed the head +of the Labor Bureau, Carroll Wright, to make a thorough investigation +and lay the facts fully before me. As September passed without any sign +of weakening either among the employers or the striking workmen, +the situation became so grave that I felt I would have to try to do +something. The thing most feasible was to get both sides to agree to a +Commission of Arbitration, with a promise to accept its findings; the +miners to go to work as soon as the commission was appointed, at the old +rate of wages. To this proposition the miners, headed by John Mitchell, +agreed, stipulating only that I should have the power to name the +Commission. The operators, however, positively refused. They insisted +that all that was necessary to do was for the State to keep order, using +the militia as a police force; although both they and the miners asked +me to intervene under the Inter-State Commerce Law, each side requesting +that I proceed against the other, and both requests being impossible. + +Finally, on October 3, the representatives of both the operators and the +miners met before me, in pursuance of my request. The representatives of +the miners included as their head and spokesman John Mitchell, who kept +his temper admirably and showed to much advantage. The representatives +of the operators, on the contrary, came down in a most insolent frame of +mind, refused to talk of arbitration or other accommodation of any kind, +and used language that was insulting to the miners and offensive to me. +They were curiously ignorant of the popular temper; and when they went +away from the interview they, with much pride, gave their own account of +it to the papers, exulting in the fact that they had "turned down" both +the miners and the President. + +I refused to accept the rebuff, however, and continued the effort to get +an agreement between the operators and the miners. I was anxious to get +this agreement, because it would prevent the necessity of taking +the extremely drastic action I meditated, and which is hereinafter +described. + +Fortunately, this time we were successful. Yet we were on the verge of +failure, because of self-willed obstinacy on the part of the operators. +This obstinacy was utterly silly from their own standpoint, and +well-nigh criminal from the standpoint of the people at large. The +miners proposed that I should name the Commission, and that if I put +on a representative of the employing class I should also put on a labor +union man. The operators positively declined to accept the suggestion. +They insisted upon my naming a Commission of only five men, and +specified the qualifications these men should have, carefully choosing +these qualifications so as to exclude those whom it had leaked out I was +thinking of appointing, including ex-President Cleveland. They made the +condition that I was to appoint one officer of the engineer corps of +the army or navy, one man with experience of mining, one "man of +prominence," "eminent as a sociologist," one Federal judge of the +Eastern district of Pennsylvania, and one mining engineer. + +They positively refused to have me appoint any representative of labor, +or to put on an extra man. I was desirous of putting on the extra man, +because Mitchell and the other leaders of the miners had urged me +to appoint some high Catholic ecclesiastic. Most of the miners were +Catholics, and Mitchell and the leaders were very anxious to secure +peaceful acquiescence by the miners in any decision rendered, and they +felt that their hands would be strengthened if such an appointment +were made. They also, quite properly, insisted that there should be +one representative of labor on the commission, as all of the others +represented the propertied classes. The operators, however, absolutely +refused to acquiesce in the appointment of any representative of labor, +and also announced that they would refuse to accept a sixth man on the +Commission; although they spoke much less decidedly on this point. The +labor men left everything in my hands. + +The final conferences with the representatives of the operators took +place in my rooms on the evening of October 15. Hour after hour went by +while I endeavored to make the operators through their representatives +see that the country would not tolerate their insisting upon such +conditions; but in vain. The two representatives of the operators were +Robert Bacon and George W. Perkins. They were entirely reasonable. But +the operators themselves were entirely unreasonable. They had worked +themselves into a frame of mind where they were prepared to sacrifice +everything and see civil war in the country rather than back down and +acquiesce in the appointment of a representative of labor. It looked as +if a deadlock were inevitable. + +Then, suddenly, after about two hours' argument, it dawned on me that +they were not objecting to the thing, but to the name. I found that they +did not mind my appointing any man, whether he was a labor man or +not, so long as he was not appointed _as_ a labor man, or _as_ a +representative of labor; they did not object to my exercising any +latitude I chose in the appointments so long as they were made under the +headings they had given. I shall never forget 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 it with rapture; it gave +me an illuminating glimpse into one corner of the mighty brains of these +"captains of industry." In order to carry the great and vital point and +secure agreement by both parties, all that was necessary for me to do +was to commit a technical and nominal absurdity with a solemn face. This +I gladly did. I announced at once that I accepted the terms laid down. +With this understanding, I appointed the labor man I had all along +had in view, Mr. E. E. Clark, the head of the Brotherhood of Railway +Conductors, calling him an "eminent sociologist"--a term which I doubt +whether he had ever previously heard. He was a first-class man, whom +I afterward put on the Inter-State Commerce Commission. I added to the +Arbitration Commission, on my own authority, a sixth member, in the +person of Bishop Spalding, a Catholic bishop, of Peoria, Ill., one of +the very best men to be found in the entire country. The man whom the +operators had expected me to appoint as the sociologist was Carroll +Wright--who really was an eminent sociologist. I put him on as recorder +of the Commission, and added him as a seventh member as soon as +the Commission got fairly started. In publishing the list of the +Commissioners, when I came to Clark's appointment, I added: "As a +sociologist--the President assuming that 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." + +The relief of the whole country was so great that the sudden appearance +of the head of the Brotherhood of Railway Conductors as an "eminent +sociologist" merely furnished material for puzzled comment on the part +of the press. It was a most admirable Commission. It did a noteworthy +work, and its report is a monument in the history of the relations of +labor and capital in this country. The strike, by the way, brought me +into contact with more than one man who was afterward a valued friend +and fellow-worker. On the suggestion of Carroll Wright I appointed as +assistant recorders to the Commission Charles P. Neill, whom I afterward +made Labor Commissioner, to succeed Wright himself, and Mr. Edward +A. Moseley. Wilkes-Barre was the center of the strike; and the man in +Wilkes-Barre who helped me most was Father Curran; I grew to know +and trust and believe in him, and throughout my term in office, and +afterward, he was not only my stanch friend, but one of the men by whose +advice and counsel I profited most in matters affecting the welfare of +the miners and their families. + +I was greatly relieved at the result, for more than one reason. Of +course, first and foremost, my concern was to avert a frightful calamity +to the United States. In the next place I was anxious to save the great +coal operators and all of the class of big propertied men, of which they +were members, from the dreadful punishment which their own folly would +have brought on them if I had not acted; and one of the exasperating +things was that they were so blinded that they could not see that I was +trying to save them from themselves and to avert, not only for their +sakes, but for the sake of the country, the excesses which would have +been indulged in at their expense if they had longer persisted in their +conduct. + +The great Anthracite Strike of 1902 left an indelible impress upon +the people of the United States. It showed clearly to all wise and +far-seeing men that the labor problem in this country had entered upon +a new phase. Industry had grown. Great financial corporations, doing a +nation-wide and even a world-wide business, had taken the place of +the smaller concerns of an earlier time. The old familiar, intimate +relations between employer and employee were passing. A few generations +before, the boss had known every man in his shop; he called his men +Bill, Tom, Dick, John; he inquired after their wives and babies; he +swapped jokes and stories and perhaps a bit of tobacco with them. In the +small establishment there had been a friendly human relationship between +employer and employee. + +There was no such relation between the great railway magnates, who +controlled the anthracite industry, and the one hundred and fifty +thousand men who worked in their mines, or the half million women and +children who were dependent upon these miners for their daily bread. +Very few of these mine workers had ever seen, for instance, the +president of the Reading Railroad. Had they seen him many of them could +not have spoken to him, for tens of thousands of the mine workers were +recent immigrants who did not understand the language which he spoke and +who spoke a language which he could not understand. + +Again, a few generations ago an American workman could have saved money, +gone West and taken up a homestead. Now the free lands were gone. In +earlier days a man who began with pick and shovel might have come to own +a mine. That outlet too was now closed, as regards the immense majority, +and few, if any, of the one hundred and fifty thousand mine workers +could ever aspire to enter the small circle of men who held in their +grasp the great anthracite industry. The majority of the men who earned +wages in the coal industry, if they wished to progress at all, were +compelled to progress not by ceasing to be wage-earners, but by +improving the conditions under which all the wage-earners in all the +industries of the country lived and worked, as well of course, as +improving their own individual efficiency. + +Another change which had come about as a result of the foregoing was a +crass inequality in the bargaining relation between the employer and +the individual employee standing alone. 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 to-day--if not sold to-day--was lost forever. Moreover, +his labor was not like most commodities--a mere thing; it was part of +a living, breathing 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 these +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. + +A democracy can be such in fact only if there is some rough +approximation in similarity in stature among the men composing it. One +of us can deal in our private lives with the grocer or the butcher +or the carpenter or the chicken raiser, or if we are the grocer or +carpenter or butcher or farmer, we can deal with our customers, because +_we are all of about the same size_. Therefore a simple and poor society +can exist as a democracy on a basis of sheer individualism. But a rich +and complex industrial society cannot so exist; for some individuals, +and especially those artificial individuals called corporations, become +so very big that the ordinary individual is utterly dwarfed beside them, +and cannot deal with them on terms of equality. It therefore becomes +necessary for these ordinary individuals to combine in their turn, first +in order to act in their collective capacity through that biggest of all +combinations called the Government, and second, to act, also in their +own self-defense, through private combinations, such as farmers' +associations and trade unions. + +This the great coal operators did not see. They did not see that their +property rights, which they so stoutly defended, were of the same +texture as were the human rights, which they so blindly and hotly +denied. They did not see that the power which they exercised by +representing their stockholders was of the same texture as the power +which the union leaders demanded of representing the workmen, who had +democratically elected them. They did not see that the right to use +one's property as one will can be maintained only so long as it is +consistent with the maintenance of certain fundamental human rights, of +the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or, as we +may restate them in these later days, of the rights of the worker to a +living wage, to reasonable hours of labor, to decent working and +living conditions, to freedom of thought and speech and industrial +representation,--in short, to a measure of industrial democracy and, in +return for his arduous toil, to a worthy and decent life according to +American standards. Still another thing these great business leaders did +not see. They did not see that both their interests and the interests of +the workers must be accommodated, and if need be, subordinated, to the +fundamental permanent interests of the whole community. No man and no +group of men may so exercise their rights as to deprive the nation of +the things which are necessary and vital to the common life. A strike +which ties up the coal supplies of a whole section is a strike invested +with a public interest. + +So great was that public interest in the Coal Strike of 1902, so deeply +and strongly did I feel the wave of indignation which swept over the +whole country that had I not succeeded in my efforts to induce the +operators to listen to reason, I should reluctantly but none the less +decisively have taken a step which would have brought down upon my head +the execrations of many of "the captains of industry," as well as of +sundry "respectable" newspapers who dutifully take their cue from them. +As a man should be judged by his intentions as well as by his actions, I +will give here the story of the intervention that never happened. + +While the coal operators were exulting over the fact that they had +"turned down" the miners and the President, there arose in all parts +of the country an outburst of wrath so universal that even so naturally +conservative a man as Grover Cleveland wrote to me, expressing his +sympathy with the course I was following, his indignation at the conduct +of the operators, and his hope that I would devise some method of +effective action. In my own mind I was already planning effective +action; but it was of a very drastic character, and I did not wish +to take it until the failure of all other expedients had rendered it +necessary. Above all, I did not wish to talk about it until and unless I +actually acted. I had definitely determined that somehow or other act +I would, that somehow or other the coal famine should be broken. To +accomplish this end it was necessary that the mines should be run, and, +if I could get no voluntary agreement between the contending sides, that +an Arbitration Commission should be appointed which would command such +public confidence as to enable me, without too much difficulty, to +enforce its terms upon both parties. Ex-President Cleveland's letter not +merely gratified me, but gave me the chance to secure him as head of the +Arbitration Commission. I at once wrote him, stating that I would very +probably have to appoint an Arbitration Commission or Investigating +Commission to look into the matter and decide on the rights of the +case, whether or not the operators asked for or agreed to abide by the +decisions of such a Commission; and that I would ask him to accept the +chief place on the Commission. He answered that he would do so. I picked +out several first-class men for other positions on the Commission. + +Meanwhile the Governor of Pennsylvania had all the Pennsylvania +militia in the anthracite region, although without any effect upon the +resumption of mining. The method of action upon which I had determined +in the last resort was to get the Governor of Pennsylvania to ask me +to keep order. Then I would put in the army under the command of some +first-rate general. I would instruct this general to keep absolute +order, taking any steps whatever that was necessary to prevent +interference by the strikers or their sympathizers with men who wanted +to work. I would also instruct him to dispossess the operators and run +the mines as a receiver until such time as the Commission might make its +report, and until I, as President, might issue further orders in view of +this report. I had to find a man who possessed the necessary good sense, +judgment, and nerve to act in such event. He was ready to hand in the +person of Major-General Schofield. I sent for him, telling him that if +I had to make use of him it would be because the crisis was only less +serious than that of the Civil War, that the action taken would be +practically a war measure, and that if I sent him he must act in a +purely military capacity under me as commander-in-chief, paying no heed +to any authority, judicial or otherwise, except mine. He was a fine +fellow--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, and +he answered quietly that if I gave the order he would take possession +of the mines, and would guarantee to open them and to run them without +permitting any interference either by the owners or the strikers or +anybody else, so long as I told him to stay. I then saw Senator Quay, +who, like every other responsible man in high position, was greatly +wrought up over the condition of things. I told him that he need be +under no alarm as to the problem not being solved, that I was going to +make another effort to get the operators and miners to come together, +but that I would solve the problem in any event and get coal; that, +however, I did not wish to tell him anything of the details of my +intention, but merely to have him arrange that whenever I gave the word +the Governor of Pennsylvania should request me to intervene; that when +this was done I would be responsible for all that followed, and would +guarantee that the coal famine would end forthwith. The Senator made +no inquiry or comment, and merely told me that he in his turn would +guarantee that the Governor would request my intervention the minute I +asked that the request be made. + +These negotiations were concluded with the utmost secrecy, General +Schofield being the only man who knew exactly what my plan was, and +Senator Quay, two members of my Cabinet, and ex-President Cleveland and +the other men whom I proposed to put on the Commission, the only other +men who knew that I had a plan. As I have above outlined, my efforts to +bring about an agreement between the operators and miners were finally +successful. I was glad not to have to take possession of the mines on my +own initiative by means of General Schofield and the regulars. I was all +ready to act, and would have done so without the slightest hesitation or +a moment's delay if the negotiations had fallen through. And my action +would have been entirely effective. But it is never well to take drastic +action if the result can be achieved with equal efficiency in less +drastic fashion; and, although this was a minor consideration, I was +personally saved a good deal of future trouble by being able to avoid +this drastic action. At the time I should have been almost unanimously +supported. With the famine upon them the people would not have tolerated +any conduct that would have thwarted what I was doing. Probably no man +in Congress, and no man in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, would +have raised his voice against me. Although there would have been +plenty of muttering, nothing would have been done to interfere with the +solution of the problem which I had devised, _until the solution was +accomplished and the problem ceased to be a problem_. Once this was +done, and when people were no longer afraid of a coal famine, and began +to forget that they ever had been afraid of it, and to be indifferent as +regards the consequences to those who put an end to it, then my enemies +would have plucked up heart and begun a campaign against me. I doubt if +they could have accomplished much anyway, for the only effective remedy +against me would have been impeachment, and that they would not have +ventured to try.[*] + + [*] One of my appointees on the Anthracite Strike Commission + was Judge George Gray, of Delaware, a Democrat whose + standing in the country was second only to that of Grover + Cleveland. A year later he commented on my action as + follows: + +"I have no hesitation in saying that the President of the United States +was confronted in October, 1902, by the existence of a crisis more grave +and threatening than any that had occurred since the Civil War. I mean +that the cessation of mining in the anthracite country, brought about +by the dispute between the miners and those who controlled the greatest +natural monopoly in this country and perhaps in the world, had +brought upon more than one-half of the American people a condition +of deprivation of one of the necessaries of life, and the probable +continuance of the dispute threatened not only the comfort and health, +but the safety and good order, of the nation. He was without legal or +constitutional power to interfere, but his position as President of the +United States gave him an influence, a leadership, as first citizen +of the republic, that enabled him to appeal to the patriotism and good +sense of the parties to the controversy and to place upon them the moral +coercion of public opinion to agree to an arbitrament of the strike then +existing and threatening consequences so direful to the whole country. +He acted promptly and courageously, and in so doing averted the dangers +to which I have alluded. + +"So far from interfering or infringing upon property rights, the +Presidents' action tended to conserve them. The peculiar situation, as +regards the anthracite coal interest, was that they controlled a natural +monopoly of a product necessary to the comfort and to the very life of a +large portion of the people. A prolonged deprivation of the enjoyment of +this necessary of life would have tended to precipitate an attack upon +these property rights of which you speak; for, after all, it is vain +to deny that this property, so peculiar in its conditions, and which +is properly spoken of as a natural monopoly, is affected with a public +interest. + +"I do not think that any President ever acted more wisely, courageously +or promptly in a national crisis. Mr. Roosevelt deserves unstinted +praise for what he did." + +They would doubtless have acted precisely as they acted as regards the +acquisition of the Panama Canal Zone in 1903, and the stoppage of +the panic of 1907 by my action in the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company +matter. Nothing could have made the American people surrender the canal +zone. But after it was an accomplished fact, and the canal was +under way, then they settled down to comfortable acceptance of the +accomplished fact, and as their own interests were no longer in +jeopardy, they paid no heed to the men who attacked me because of what I +had done--and also continue to attack me, although they are exceedingly +careful not to propose to right the "wrong," in the only proper way if +it really was a wrong, by replacing the old Republic of Panama under the +tyranny of Colombia and giving Colombia sole or joint ownership of +the canal itself. In the case of the panic of 1907 (as in the case +of Panama), what I did was not only done openly, but depended for its +effect upon being done and with the widest advertisement. Nobody in +Congress ventured to make an objection at the time. No serious leader +outside made any objection. The one concern of everybody was to stop +the panic, and everybody was overjoyed that I was willing to take the +responsibility of stopping it upon my own shoulders. But a few months +afterward, the panic was a thing of the past. People forgot the +frightful condition of alarm in which they had been. They no longer had +a personal interest in preventing any interference with the stoppage of +the panic. Then the men who had not dared to raise their voices until +all danger was past came bravely forth from their hiding places and +denounced the action which had saved them. They had kept a hushed +silence when there was danger; they made clamorous outcry when there was +safety in doing so. + +Just the same course would have been followed in connection with the +Anthracite Coal Strike if I had been obliged to act in the fashion I +intended to act had I failed to secure a voluntary agreement between the +miners and the operators. Even as it was, my action was remembered with +rancor by the heads of the great moneyed interests; and as time went by +was assailed with constantly increasing vigor by the newspapers these +men controlled. Had I been forced to take possession of the mines, +these men and the politicians hostile to me would have waited until the +popular alarm was over and the popular needs met, just as they waited +in the case of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; and then they +would have attacked me precisely as they did attack me as regards the +Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. + +Of course, in labor controversies it was not always possible to champion +the cause of the workers, because in many cases strikes were called +which were utterly unwarranted and were fought by methods which cannot +be too harshly condemned. No straightforward man can believe, and no +fearless man will assert, that a trade union is always right. That +man is an unworthy public servant who by speech or silence, by direct +statement or cowardly evasion, invariably throws the weight of his +influence on the side of the trade union, whether it is right or wrong. +It has occasionally been my duty to give utterance to the feelings of +all right thinking men by expressing the most emphatic disapproval of +unwise or even immoral notions by representatives of labor. The man is +no true democrat, and if an American, is unworthy of the traditions +of his country who, in problems calling for the exercise of a moral +judgment, fails to take his stand on conduct and not on class. There are +good and bad wage-workers just as there are good and bad employers, and +good and bad men of small means and of large means alike. + +But a willingness to do equal and exact justice to all citizens, +irrespective of race, creed, section or economic interest and position, +does not imply a failure to recognize the enormous economic, political +and moral possibilities of the trade union. Just as democratic +government cannot be condemned because of errors and even crimes +committed by men democratically elected, so trade-unionism must not be +condemned because of errors or crimes of occasional trade-union leaders. +The problem lies deeper. While we must repress all illegalities and +discourage all immoralities, whether of labor organizations or of +corporations, we must recognize the fact that to-day the organization of +labor into trade unions and federations is necessary, is beneficent, +and is one of the greatest possible agencies in the attainment of a true +industrial, as well as a true political, democracy in the United States. + +This is a fact which many well-intentioned people even to-day do not +understand. They do not understand that the labor problem is a human +and a moral as well as an economic problem; that a fall in wages, an +increase in hours, a deterioration of labor conditions mean wholesale +moral as well as economic degeneration, and the needless sacrifice of +human lives and human happiness, while a rise of wages, a lessening of +hours, a bettering of conditions, mean an intellectual, moral and social +uplift of millions of American men and women. There are employers to-day +who, like the great coal operators, speak as though they were lords of +these countless armies of Americans, who toil in factory, in shop, in +mill and in the dark places under the earth. They fail to see that all +these men have the right and the duty to combine to protect themselves +and their families from want and degradation. They fail to see that +the Nation and the Government, within the range of fair play and a just +administration of the law, must inevitably sympathize with the men who +have nothing but their wages, with the men who are struggling for +a decent life, as opposed to men, however honorable, who are merely +fighting for larger profits and an autocratic control of big business. +Each man should have all he earns, whether by brain or body; and +the director, the great industrial leader, is one of the greatest of +earners, and should have a proportional reward; but no man should live +on the earnings of another, and there should not be too gross inequality +between service and reward. + +There are many men to-day, men of integrity and intelligence, who +honestly believe that we must go back to the labor conditions of half +a century ago. They are opposed to trade unions, root and branch. They +note the unworthy conduct of many labor leaders, they find instances +of bad work by union men, of a voluntary restriction of output, of +vexations and violent strikes, of jurisdictional disputes between unions +which often disastrously involve the best intentioned and fairest of +employers. All these things occur and should be repressed. But the same +critic of the trade union might find equal causes of complaint against +individual employers of labor, or even against great associations of +manufacturers. He might find many instances of an unwarranted cutting of +wages, of flagrant violations of factory laws and tenement house laws, +of the deliberate and systematic cheating of employees by means of truck +stores, of the speeding up of work to a point which is fatal to the +health of the workman, of the sweating of foreign-born workers, of +the drafting of feeble little children into dusty workshops, of +black-listing, of putting spies into union meetings and of the +employment in strike times of vicious and desperate ruffians, who +are neither better nor worse than are the thugs who are occasionally +employed by unions under the sinister name, "entertainment committees." +I believe that the overwhelming majority, both of workmen and of +employers, are law-abiding peaceful, and honorable citizens, and I do +not think that it is just to lay up the errors and wrongs of individuals +to the entire group to which they belong. I also think--and this is +a belief which has been borne upon me through many years of practical +experience--that the trade union is growing constantly in wisdom as well +as in power, and is becoming one of the most efficient agencies toward +the solution of our industrial problems, the elimination of poverty and +of industrial disease and accidents, the lessening of unemployment, +the achievement of industrial democracy and the attainment of a larger +measure of social and industrial justice. + +If I were a factory employee, a workman on the railroads or a +wage-earner of any sort, I would undoubtedly join the union of my trade. +If I disapproved of its policy, I would join in order to fight that +policy; if the union leaders were dishonest, I would join in order to +put them out. I believe in the union and I believe that all men who are +benefited by the union are morally bound to help to the extent of their +power in the common interests advanced by the union. Nevertheless, +irrespective of whether a man should or should not, and does or does +not, join the union of his trade, all the rights, privileges and +immunities of that man as an American and as a citizen should be +safeguarded and upheld by the law. We dare not make an outlaw of any +individual or any group, whatever his or its opinions or professions. +The non-unionist, like the unionist, must be protected in all his legal +rights by the full weight and power of the law. + +This question came up before me in the shape of the right of a non-union +printer named Miller to hold his position in the Government Printing +Office. As I said before, I believe in trade unions. I always prefer to +see a union shop. But any private preferences cannot control my public +actions. The Government can recognize neither union men nor non-union +men as such, and is bound to treat both exactly alike. In the Government +Printing Office not many months prior to the opening of the Presidential +campaign of 1904, when I was up for reelection, I discovered that a man +had been dismissed because he did not belong to the union. I reinstated +him. Mr. Gompers, the President of the American Federation of Labor, +with various members of the executive council of that body, called upon +me to protest on September 29, 1903, and I answered them as follows: + +"I thank you and your committee for your courtesy, and I appreciate the +opportunity to meet with you. It will always be a pleasure to see you +or any representative of your organizations or of your Federation as a +whole. + +"As regards the Miller case, I have little to add to what I have already +said. In dealing with it I ask you to remember that I am dealing purely +with the relation of the Government to its employees. I must govern +my action by the laws of the land, which I am sworn to administer, +and which differentiate any case in which the Government of the United +States is a party from all other cases whatsoever. These laws are +enacted for the benefit of the whole people, and cannot and must not be +construed as permitting the crimination against some of the people. I +am President of all the people of the United States, without regard to +creed, color, birthplace, occupation or social condition. My aim is +to do equal and exact justice as among them all. In the employment and +dismissal of men in the Government service I can no more recognize +the fact that a man does or does not belong to a union as being for or +against him than I can recognize the fact that he is a Protestant or a +Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being for or against him. + +"In the communications sent me by various labor organizations protesting +against the retention of Miller in the Government Printing Office, the +grounds alleged are twofold: 1, that he is a non-union man; 2, that he +is not personally fit. The question of his personal fitness is one to be +settled in the routine of administrative detail, and cannot be allowed +to conflict with or to complicate the larger question of governmental +discrimination for or against him or any other man because he is or is +not a member of a union. This is the only question now before me for +decision; and as to this my decision is final." + +Because of things I have done on behalf of justice to the workingman, I +have often been called a Socialist. Usually I have not taken the trouble +even to notice the epithet. I am not afraid of names, and I am not +one of those who fear to do what is right because some one else will +confound me with partisans with whose principles I am not in accord. +Moreover, I know that many American Socialists are high-minded and +honorable citizens, who in reality are merely radical social reformers. +They are oppressed by the brutalities and industrial injustices which we +see everywhere about us. When I recall how often I have seen Socialists +and ardent non-Socialists working side by side for some specific measure +of social or industrial reform, and how I have found opposed to them on +the side of privilege many shrill reactionaries who insist on calling +all reformers Socialists, I refuse to be panic-stricken by having this +title mistakenly applied to me. + +None the less, without impugning their motives, I do disagree most +emphatically with both the fundamental philosophy and the proposed +remedies of the Marxian Socialists. These Socialists are unalterably +opposed to our whole industrial system. They believe that the payment of +wages means everywhere and inevitably an exploitation of the laborer +by the employer, and that this leads inevitably to a class war between +those two groups, or, as they would say, between the capitalists and the +proletariat. They assert that this class war is already upon us and +can only be ended when capitalism is entirely destroyed and all the +machines, mills, mines, railroads and other private property used in +production are confiscated, expropriated or taken over by the workers. +They do not as a rule claim--although some of the sinister extremists +among them do--that there is and must be a continual struggle between +two great classes, whose interests are opposed and cannot be reconciled. +In this war they insist that the whole government--National, State and +local--is on the side of the employers and is used by them against +the workmen, and that our law and even our common morality are class +weapons, like a policeman's club or a Gatling gun. + +I have never believed, and do not to-day believe, that such a class war +is upon us, or need ever be upon us; nor do I believe that the interests +of wage-earners and employers cannot be harmonized, compromised and +adjusted. It would be idle to deny that wage-earners have certain +different economic interests from, let us say, manufacturers or +importers, just as farmers have different interests from sailors, and +fishermen from bankers. There is no reason why any of these economic +groups should not consult their group interests by any legitimate means +and with due regard to the common, overlying interests of all. I do +not even deny that the majority of wage-earners, because they have less +property and less industrial security than others and because they do +not own the machinery with which they work (as does the farmer) are +perhaps in greater need of acting together than are other groups in the +community. But I do insist (and I believe that the great majority of +wage-earners take the same view) that employers and employees have +overwhelming interests in common, both as partners in industry and as +citizens of the republic, and that where these interests are apart they +can be adjusted by so altering our laws and their interpretation as to +secure to all members of the community social and industrial justice. + +I have always maintained that our worst revolutionaries to-day are those +reactionaries who do not see and will not admit that there is any need +for change. Such men seem to believe that the four and a half million +Progressive voters, who in 1912 registered their solemn protest against +our social and industrial injustices, are "anarchists," who are not +willing to let ill enough alone. If these reactionaries had lived at an +earlier time in our history, they would have advocated Sedition Laws, +opposed free speech and free assembly, and voted against free schools, +free access by settlers to the public lands, mechanics' lien laws, the +prohibition of truck stores and the abolition of imprisonment for debt; +and they are the men who to-day oppose minimum wage laws, insurance +of workmen against the ills of industrial life and the reform of +our legislators and our courts, which can alone render such measures +possible. Some of these reactionaries are not bad men, but merely +shortsighted and belated. It is these reactionaries, however, who, by +"standing pat" on industrial injustice, incite inevitably to industrial +revolt, and it is only we who advocate political and industrial +democracy who render possible the progress of our American industry +on large constructive lines with a minimum of friction because with a +maximum of justice. + +Everything possible should be done to secure the wage-workers fair +treatment. There should be an increased wage for the worker of +increased productiveness. Everything possible should be done against the +capitalist who strives, not to reward special efficiency, but to use +it as an excuse for reducing the reward of moderate efficiency. The +capitalist is an unworthy citizen who pays the efficient man no more +than he has been content to pay the average man, and nevertheless +reduces the wage of the average man; and effort should be made by the +Government to check and punish him. When labor-saving machinery +is introduced, special care should be taken--by the Government if +necessary--to see that the wage-worker gets his share of the benefit, +and that it is not all absorbed by the employer or capitalist. The +following case, which has come to my knowledge, illustrates what I mean. +A number of new machines were installed in a certain shoe factory, and +as a result there was a heavy increase in production even though there +was no increase in the labor force. Some of the workmen were instructed +in the use of these machines by special demonstrators sent out by the +makers of the machines. These men, by reason of their special aptitudes +and the fact that they were not called upon to operate the machines +continuously nine hours every day, week in and week out, but only for an +hour or so at special times, were naturally able to run the machines at +their maximum capacity. When these demonstrators had left the factory, +and the company's own employees had become used to operating the +machines at a fair rate of speed, the foreman of the establishment +gradually speeded the machines and demanded a larger and still larger +output, constantly endeavoring to drive the men on to greater exertions. +Even with a slightly less maximum capacity, the introduction of this +machinery resulted in a great increase over former production with the +same amount of labor; and so great were the profits from the business in +the following two years as to equal the total capitalized stock of the +company. But not a cent got into the pay envelope of the workmen beyond +what they had formerly been receiving before the introduction of this +new machinery, notwithstanding that it had meant an added strain, +physical and mental, upon their energies, and that they were forced +to work harder than ever before. The whole of the increased profits +remained with the company. Now this represented an "increase of +efficiency," with a positive decrease of social and industrial justice. +The increase of prosperity which came from increase of production in no +way benefited the wage-workers. I hold that they were treated with gross +injustice; and that society, acting if necessary through the Government, +in such a case should bend its energies to remedy such injustice; and +I will support any proper legislation that will aid in securing the +desired end. + +The wage-worker should not only receive fair treatment; he should give +fair treatment. In order that prosperity may be passed around it is +necessary that the prosperity exist. In order that labor shall receive +its fair share in the division of reward it is necessary that there be +a reward to divide. Any proposal to reduce efficiency by insisting that +the most efficient shall be limited in their output to what the least +efficient can do, is a proposal to limit by so much production, and +therefore to impoverish by so much the public, and specifically to +reduce the amount that can be divided among the producers. This is all +wrong. Our protest must be against unfair division of the reward for +production. Every encouragement should be given the business man, the +employer, to make his business prosperous, and therefore to earn more +money for himself; and in like fashion every encouragement should be +given the efficient workman. We must always keep in mind that to reduce +the amount of production serves merely to reduce the amount that is +to be divided, is in no way permanently efficient as a protest against +unequal distribution and is permanently detrimental to the entire +community. But increased productiveness is not secured by excessive +labor amid unhealthy surroundings. The contrary is true. Shorter hours, +and healthful conditions, and opportunity for the wage-worker to make +more money, and the chance for enjoyment as well as work, all add to +efficiency. My contention is that there should be no penalization of +efficient productiveness, brought about under healthy conditions; +but that every increase of production brought about by an increase in +efficiency should benefit all the parties to it, including wage-workers +as well as employers or capitalists, men who work with their hands as +well as men who work with their heads. + +With the Western Federation of Miners I more than once had serious +trouble. The leaders of this organization had preached anarchy, and +certain of them were indicted for having practiced murder in the case of +Governor Steunenberg, of Idaho. On one occasion in a letter or speech I +coupled condemnation of these labor leaders and condemnation of certain +big capitalists, describing them all alike as "undesirable citizens." +This gave great offense to both sides. The open attack upon me was made +for the most part either by the New York newspapers which were frankly +representatives of Wall Street, or else by those so-called--and +miscalled--Socialists who had anarchistic leanings. Many of the latter +sent me open letters of denunciation, and to one of them I responded as +follows: + +THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, April 22, 1907. + +Dear Sir: + +I have received your letter of the 19th instant, in which you enclose +the draft of the formal letter which is to follow. I have been notified +that several delegations, bearing similar requests, are on the way +hither. In the letter you, on behalf of the Cook County, Moyer-Haywood +conference, protest against certain language I used in a recent letter +which you assert to be designed to influence the course of justice +in the case of the trial for murder of Messrs. Moyer and Haywood. I +entirely agree with you that it is improper to endeavor to influence the +course of justice, whether by threats or in any similar manner. For this +reason I have regretted most deeply the actions of such organizations as +your own in undertaking to accomplish this very result in the very case +of which you speak. For instance, your letter is headed "Cook +County Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone Conference," with the headlines: +"_Death_--cannot--will not--and shall not claim our brothers!" This +shows that you and your associates are not demanding a fair trial, or +working for a fair trial, but are announcing in advance that the verdict +shall only be one way and that you will not tolerate any other verdict. +Such action is flagrant in its impropriety, and I join heartily in +condemning it. + +But it is a simple absurdity to suppose that because any man is on trial +for a given offense he is therefore to be freed from all criticism upon +his general conduct and manner of life. In my letter to which you object +I referred to a certain prominent financier, Mr. Harriman, on the one +hand, and to Messrs. Moyer, Haywood and Debs on the other, as being +equally undesirable citizens. It is as foolish to assert that this was +designed to influence the trial of Moyer and Haywood as to assert that +it was designed to influence the suits that have been brought against +Mr. Harriman. I neither expressed nor indicated any opinion as to +whether Messrs. Moyer and Haywood were guilty of the murder of Governor +Steunenberg. If they are guilty, they certainly ought to be punished. +If they are not guilty, they certainly ought not to be punished. But no +possible outcome either of the trial or the suits can affect my judgment +as to the undesirability of the type of citizenship of those whom I +mentioned. Messrs. Moyer, Haywood, and Debs stand as representatives of +those men who have done as much to discredit the labor movement as the +worst speculative financiers or most unscrupulous employers of labor and +debauchers of legislatures have done to discredit honest capitalists and +fair-dealing business men. They stand as the representatives of those +men who by their public utterances and manifestoes, by the utterances of +the papers they control or inspire, and by the words and deeds of those +associated with or subordinated to them, habitually appear as guilty of +incitement to or apology for bloodshed and violence. If this does +not constitute undesirable citizenship, then there can never be any +undesirable citizens. The men whom I denounce represent the men who +have abandoned that legitimate movement for the uplifting of labor, with +which I have the most hearty sympathy; they have adopted practices which +cut them off from those who lead this legitimate movement. In every way +I shall support the law-abiding and upright representatives of labor, +and in no way can I better support them than by drawing the sharpest +possible line between them on the one hand, and, on the other hand, +those preachers of violence who are themselves the worst foes of the +honest laboring man. + +Let me repeat my deep regret that any body of men should so far forget +their duty to the country as to endeavor by the formation of societies +and in other ways to influence the course of justice in this matter. +I have received many such letters as yours. Accompanying them +were newspaper clippings announcing demonstrations, parades, and +mass-meetings designed to show that the representatives of labor, +without regard to the facts, demand the acquittal of Messrs. Haywood and +Moyer. Such meetings can, of course, be designed only to coerce court +or jury in rendering a verdict, and they therefore deserve all the +condemnation which you in your letters say should be awarded to those +who endeavor improperly to influence the course of justice. + +You would, of course, be entirely within your rights if you merely +announced that you thought Messrs. Moyer and Haywood were "desirable +citizens"--though in such case I should take frank issue with you and +should say that, wholly without regard to whether or not they are guilty +of the crime for which they are now being tried, they represent as +thoroughly undesirable a type of citizenship as can be found in this +country; a type which, in the letter to which you so unreasonably take +exception, I showed not to be confined to any one class, but to exist +among some representatives of great capitalists as well as among some +representatives of wage-workers. In that letter I condemned both types. +Certain representatives of the great capitalists in turn condemned +me for including Mr. Harriman in my condemnation of Messrs. Moyer and +Haywood. Certain of the representatives of labor in their turn condemned +me because I included Messrs. Moyer and Haywood as undesirable citizens +together with Mr. Harrison. 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. It seems to be a mark of utter +insincerity to fail thus to condemn both; and to apologize for either +robs the man thus apologizing of all right to condemn any wrongdoing in +any man, rich or poor, in public or in private life. + +You say 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 organization in the country. + +I treated anarchists and the bomb-throwing and dynamiting gentry +precisely as I treated other criminals. Murder is murder. It is not +rendered one whit better by the allegation that it is committed +on behalf of "a cause." It is true that law and order are not all +sufficient; but they are essential; lawlessness and murderous violence +must be quelled before any permanence of reform can be obtained. Yet +when they have been quelled, the beneficiaries of the enforcement of +law must in their turn be taught that law is upheld as a means to the +enforcement of justice, and that we will not tolerate its being turned +into an engine of injustice and oppression. The fundamental need in +dealing with our people, whether laboring men or others, is not charity +but justice; we must all work in common for the common end of +helping each and all, in a spirit of the sanest, broadest and deepest +brotherhood. + +It was not always easy to avoid feeling very deep anger with the +selfishness and short-sightedness shown both by the representatives of +certain employers' organizations and by certain great labor federations +or unions. One such employers' association was called the National +Association of Manufacturers. Extreme though the attacks sometimes made +upon me by the extreme labor organizations were, they were not quite +as extreme as the attacks made upon me by the head of the National +Association of Manufacturers, and as regards their attitude toward +legislation I came to the conclusion toward the end of my term that the +latter had actually gone further the wrong way than did the former--and +the former went a good distance also. The opposition of the National +Association of Manufacturers to every rational and moderate measure +for benefiting workingmen, such as measures abolishing child labor, or +securing workmen's compensation, caused me real and grave concern; for +I felt that it was ominous of evil for the whole country to have men who +ought to stand high in wisdom and in guiding force take a course and use +language of such reactionary type as directly to incite revolution--for +this is what the extreme reactionary always does. + +Often I was attacked by the two sides at once. In the spring of 1906 I +received in the same mail a letter from a very good friend of mine who +thought that I had been unduly hard on some labor men, and a letter from +another friend, the head of a great corporation, who complained about me +for both favoring labor and speaking against large fortunes. My answers +ran as follows: + +April 26, 1906. + +"Personal. _My dear Doctor_: + +"In one of my last letters to you I enclosed you a copy of a letter of +mine, in which I quoted from [So and so's] advocacy of murder. You may +be interested to know that he and his brother Socialists--in reality +anarchists--of the frankly murderous type have been violently attacking +my speech because of my allusion to the sympathy expressed for murder. +In _The Socialist_, of Toledo, Ohio, of April 21st, for instance, the +attack [on me] is based specifically on the following paragraph of my +speech, to which he takes violent exception: + +"We can no more and no less afford to condone evil in the man of capital +than evil in the man of no capital. The wealthy man who exults because +there is a failure of justice in the effort to bring some trust magnate +to an account for his misdeeds is as bad as, and no worse than, the +so-called labor leader who clamorously strives to excite a foul class +feeling on behalf of some other labor leader who is implicated in +murder. One attitude is as bad as the other, and no worse; in each case +the accused is entitled to exact justice; and in neither case is there +need of action by others which can be construed into an expression of +sympathy for crime. + +"Remember that this crowd of labor leaders have done all in their +power to overawe the executive and the courts of Idaho on behalf of men +accused of murder, and beyond question inciters of murder in the past." + +April 26, 1906. + +"_My dear Judge_: + +"I wish the papers had given more prominence to what I said as to the +murder part of my speech. But oh, my dear sir, I utterly and radically +disagree with you in what you say about large fortunes. I wish it were +in my power to devise some scheme to make it increasingly difficult to +heap them up beyond a certain amount. As the difficulties in the way +of such a scheme are very great, let us at least prevent their being +bequeathed after death or given during life to any one man in excessive +amount. + +"You and other capitalist friends, on one side, shy off at what I say +against them. Have you seen the frantic articles against me by [the +anarchists and] the Socialists of the bomb-throwing persuasion, on the +other side, because of what I said in my speech in reference to those +who, in effect, advocate murder?" + +On another occasion I was vehemently denounced in certain capitalistic +papers because I had a number of labor leaders, including miners from +Butte, lunch with me at the White House; and this at the very time that +the Western Federation of Miners was most ferocious in its denunciation +of me because of what it alleged to be my unfriendly attitude toward +labor. To one of my critics I set forth my views in the following +letter: + +November 26, 1903. + +"I have your letter of the 25th instant, with enclosure. These men, not +all of whom were miners, by the way, came here and were at lunch with +me, in company with Mr. Carroll D. Wright, Mr. Wayne MacVeagh, and +Secretary Cortelyou. They are as decent a set of men as can be. They all +agreed entirely with me in my denunciation of what had been done in the +Court d'Alene country; and it appeared that some of them were on the +platform with me when I denounced this type of outrage three years ago +in Butte. There is not one man who was here, who, I believe, was in +any way, shape or form responsible for such outrages. I find that the +ultra-Socialistic members of the unions in Butte denounced these men for +coming here, in a manner as violent--and I may say as irrational--as the +denunciation [by the capitalistic writer] in the article you sent me. +Doubtless the gentleman of whom you speak as your general manager is +an admirable man. I, of course, was not alluding to him; but I most +emphatically _was_ alluding to men who write such articles as that you +sent me. These articles are to be paralleled by the similar articles in +the Populist and Socialist papers when two years ago I had at dinner +at one time Pierpont Morgan, and at another time J. J. Hill, and at +another, Harriman, and at another time Schiff. Furthermore, they could +be paralleled by the articles in the same type of paper which at the +time of the Miller incident in the Printing Office were in a condition +of nervous anxiety because I met the labor leaders to discuss it. It +would have been a great misfortune if I had not met them; and it would +have been an even greater misfortune if after meeting them I had yielded +to their protests in the matter. + +"You say in your letter that you know that I am 'on record' as opposed +to violence. Pardon my saying that this seems to me not the right way to +put the matter, if by 'record' you mean utterance and not action. Aside +from what happened when I was Governor in connection, for instance with +the Croton dam strike riots, all you have to do is to turn back to what +took place last June in Arizona--and you can find out about it from +[Mr. X] of New York. The miners struck, violence followed, and the +Arizona Territorial authorities notified me they could not grapple with +the situation. Within twenty minutes of the receipt of the telegram, +orders were issued to the nearest available troops, and twenty-four +hours afterwards General Baldwin and his regulars were on the ground, +and twenty-four hours later every vestige of disorder had disappeared. +The Miners' Federation in their meeting, I think at Denver, a short +while afterwards, passed resolutions denouncing me. I do not know +whether the _Mining and Engineering Journal_ paid any heed to this +incident or know of it. If the _Journal_ did, I suppose it can hardly +have failed to understand that to put an immediate stop to rioting by +the use of the United States army is a fact of importance beside which +the criticism of my having 'labor leaders' to lunch, shrinks into the +same insignificance as the criticism in a different type of paper about +my having 'trust magnates' to lunch. 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 wage-worker +as to the head of a big corporation--_and no easier_. Anything else +seems to be not only un-American, but as symptomatic of an attitude +which will cost grave trouble if persevered in. To discriminate against +labor men from Butte because there is reason to believe that rioting has +been excited in other districts by certain labor unions, or individuals +in labor unions in Butte, would be to adopt precisely the attitude of +those who desire me to discriminate against all capitalists in Wall +street because there are plenty of capitalists in Wall Street who +have been guilty of bad financial practices and who have endeavored to +override or evade the laws of the land. In my judgment, the only safe +attitude for a private citizen, and still more for a public servant, to +assume, is that he will draw the line on conduct, discriminating against +neither corporation nor union as such, nor in favor of either as such, +but endeavoring to make the decent member of the union and the upright +capitalists alike feel that they are bound, not only by self-interest, +but by every consideration of principle and duty to stand together on +the matters of most moment to the nation." + +On another of the various occasions when I had labor leaders to dine +at the White House, my critics were rather shocked because I had John +Morley to meet them. The labor leaders in question included the heads +of the various railroad brotherhoods, men like Mr. Morrissey, in +whose sound judgment and high standard of citizenship I had peculiar +confidence; and I asked Mr. Morley to meet them because they represented +the exact type of American citizen with whom I thought he ought to be +brought in contact. + +One of the devices sometimes used by big corporations to break down the +law was to treat the passage of laws as an excuse for action on their +part which they knew would be resented by the public, it being their +purpose to turn this resentment against the law instead of against +themselves. The heads of the Louisville and Nashville road were bitter +opponents of everything done by the Government toward securing good +treatment for their employees. In February, 1908, they and various +other railways announced that they intended to reduce the wages of +their employees. A general strike, with all the attendant disorder and +trouble, was threatened in consequence. I accordingly sent the following +open letter to the Inter-State Commerce Commission: + +February 16, 1908. + +"To the Inter-State Commerce Commission: + +"I am informed that a number of railroad companies have served notice +of a proposed reduction of wages of their employees. One of them, the +Louisville and Nashville, in announcing the reduction, states that 'the +drastic laws inimical to the interests of the railroads that have in the +past year or two been enacted by Congress and the State Legislatures' +are largely or chiefly responsible for the conditions requiring the +reduction. + +"Under such circumstances it is possible that the public may soon be +confronted by serious industrial disputes, and the law provides that in +such case either party may demand the services of your Chairman and +of the Commissioner of Labor as a Board of Mediation and Conciliation. +These reductions in wages may be warranted, 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 wage-worker, 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. + +"Moreover, an industrial conflict between a railroad corporation and +its employees offers peculiar opportunities to any small number of +evil-disposed persons to destroy life and property and foment public +disorder. Of course, if life, property, and public order are endangered, +prompt and drastic measures for their protection become the first plain +duty. All other issues then become subordinate to the preservation of +the public peace, and the real merits of the original controversy are +necessarily lost from view. This vital consideration should be ever +kept in mind by all law-abiding and far-sighted members of labor +organizations. + +"It is sincerely to be hoped, therefore, that any wage controversy that +may arise between the railroads and their employees may find a peaceful +solution through the methods of conciliation and arbitration already +provided by Congress, which have proven so effective during the past +year. To this end the Commission should be in a position to have +available for any Board of Conciliation or Arbitration relevant data +pertaining to such carriers as may become involved in industrial +disputes. Should conciliation fail to effect a settlement and +arbitration be rejected, accurate information should be available in +order to develop a properly informed public opinion. + +"I therefore ask you to make such investigation, both of your records +and by any other means at your command, as will enable you to furnish +data concerning such conditions obtaining on the Louisville and +Nashville and any other roads, as may relate, directly or indirectly, to +the real merits of the possibly impending controversy. + +"THEODORE ROOSEVELT." + +This letter achieved its purpose, and the threatened reduction of +wages was not made. It was an instance of what could be accomplished +by governmental action. Let me add, however, with all the emphasis I +possess, that this does not mean any failure on my part to recognize the +fact that if governmental action places too heavy burdens on railways, +it will be impossible for them to operate without doing injustice to +somebody. Railways cannot pay proper wages and render proper service +unless they make money. The investors must get a reasonable profit or +they will not invest, and the public cannot be well served unless the +investors are making reasonable profits. There is every reason why rates +should not be too high, but they must be sufficiently high to allow +the railways to pay good wages. Moreover, when laws like workmen's +compensation laws, and the like are passed, it must always be kept in +mind by the Legislature that the purpose is to distribute over the whole +community a burden that should not be borne only by those least able +to bear it--that is, by the injured man or the widow and orphans of the +dead man. If the railway is already receiving a disproportionate return +from the public, then the burden may, with propriety, bear purely on the +railway; but if it is not earning a disproportionate return, then the +public must bear its share of the burden of the increased service the +railway is rendering. Dividends and wages should go up together; and the +relation of rates to them should never be forgotten. This of course does +not apply to dividends based on water; nor does it mean that if foolish +people have built a road that renders no service, the public must +nevertheless in some way guarantee a return on the investment; but it +does mean that the interests of the honest investor are entitled to +the same protection as the interests of the honest manager, the honest +shipper and the honest wage-earner. All these conflicting considerations +should be carefully considered by Legislatures before passing laws. One +of the great objects in creating commissions should be the provision of +disinterested, fair-minded experts who will really and wisely consider +all these matters, and will shape their actions accordingly. This is one +reason why such matters as the regulation of rates, the provision for +full crews on roads and the like should be left for treatment by railway +commissions, and not be settled off hand by direct legislative action. + + + +APPENDIX + +SOCIALISM + +As regards what I have said in this chapter concerning Socialism, I +wish to call especial attention to the admirable book on "Marxism versus +Socialism," which has just been published by Vladimir D. Simkhovitch. +What I have, here and elsewhere, merely pointed out in rough and +ready fashion from actual observation of the facts of life around me, +Professor Simkhovitch in his book has discussed with keen practical +insight, with profundity of learning, and with a wealth of applied +philosophy. Crude thinkers in the United States, and moreover honest and +intelligent men who are not crude thinkers, but who are oppressed by +the sight of the misery around them and have not deeply studied what has +been done elsewhere, are very apt to adopt as their own the theories +of European Marxian Socialists of half a century ago, ignorant that the +course of events has so completely falsified the prophecies contained +in these theories that they have been abandoned even by the authors +themselves. With quiet humor Professor Simkhovitch now and then makes +an allusion which shows that he appreciates to perfection this rather +curious quality of some of our fellow countrymen; as for example when +he says that "A Socialist State with the farmer outside of it is a +conception that can rest comfortably only in the head of an American +Socialist," or as when he speaks of Marx and Engels as men "to whom +thinking was not an irrelevant foreign tradition." Too many thoroughly +well-meaning men and women in the America of to-day glibly repeat and +accept--much as medieval schoolmen repeated and accepted authorized +dogma in their day--various assumptions and speculations by Marx and +others which by the lapse of time and by actual experiment have been +shown to possess not one shred of value. Professor Simkhovitch possesses +the gift of condensation as well as the gift of clear and logical +statement, and it is not possible to give in brief any idea of his +admirable work. Every social reformer who desires to face facts should +study it--just as social reformers should study John Graham Brooks's +"American Syndicalism." From Professor Simkhovitch's book we Americans +should learn: First, to discard crude thinking; second, to realize that +the orthodox or so-called scientific or purely economic or materialistic +socialism of the type preached by Marx is an exploded theory; and, +third, that many of the men who call themselves Socialists to-day are in +reality merely radical social reformers, with whom on many points good +citizens can and ought to work in hearty general agreement, and whom +in many practical matters of government good citizens well afford to +follow. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MONROE DOCTRINE AND THE PANAMA CANAL + +No nation can claim rights without acknowledging the duties that go +with the rights. It is a contemptible thing for a great nation to render +itself impotent in international action, whether because of cowardice or +sloth, or sheer inability or unwillingness to look into the future. It +is a very wicked thing for a nation to do wrong to others. But the most +contemptible and most wicked course of conduct is for a nation to use +offensive language or be guilty of offensive actions toward other people +and yet fail to hold its own if the other nation retaliates; and it is +almost as bad to undertake responsibilities and then not fulfil them. +During the seven and a half years that I was President, this Nation +behaved in international matters toward all other nations precisely as +an honorable man behaves to his fellow-men. We made no promise which +we could not and did not keep. We made no threat which we did not carry +out. We never failed to assert our rights in the face of the strong, and +we never failed to treat both strong and weak with courtesy and justice; +and against the weak when they misbehaved we were slower to assert our +rights than we were against the strong. + +As a legacy of the Spanish War we were left with peculiar relations +to the Philippines, Cuba, and Porto Rico, and with an immensely added +interest in Central America and the Caribbean Sea. As regards the +Philippines my belief was that we should train them for self-government +as rapidly as possible, and then leave them free to decide their own +fate. I did not believe in setting the time-limit within which we would +give them independence, because I did not believe it wise to try to +forecast how soon they would be fit for self-government; and once having +made the promise I would have felt that it was imperative to keep it. +Within a few months of my assuming office we had stamped out the last +armed resistance in the Philippines that was not of merely sporadic +character; and as soon as peace was secured we turned our energies to +developing the islands in the interests of the natives. We established +schools everywhere; we built roads; we administered an even-handed +justice; we did everything possible to encourage agriculture and +industry; and in constantly increasing measure we employed natives to +do their own governing, and finally provided a legislative chamber. No +higher grade of public officials ever handled the affairs of any colony +than the public officials who in succession governed the Philippines. +With the possible exception of the Sudan, and not even excepting +Algiers, I know of no country ruled and administered by men of the white +race where that rule and that administration have been exercised +so emphatically with an eye single to the welfare of the natives +themselves. The English and Dutch administrators of Malaysia have done +admirable work; but the profit to the Europeans in those States has +always been one of the chief elements considered; whereas in the +Philippines our whole attention was concentrated upon the welfare of the +Filipinos themselves, if anything to the neglect of our own interests. + +I do not believe that America has any special beneficial interest in +retaining the Philippines. Our work there has benefited us only as +any efficiently done work performed for the benefit of others does +incidentally help the character of those who do it. The people of the +islands have never developed so rapidly, from every standpoint, as +during the years of the American occupation. The time will come when +it will be wise to take their own judgment as to whether they wish to +continue their association with America or not. There is, however, +one consideration upon which we should insist. Either we should +retain complete control of the islands, or absolve ourselves from all +responsibility for them. Any half and half course would be both foolish +and disastrous. We are governing and have been governing the islands +in the interests of the Filipinos themselves. If after due time the +Filipinos themselves decide that they do not wish to be thus governed, +then I trust that we will leave; but when we do leave it must be +distinctly understood that we retain no protectorate--and above all that +we take part in no joint protectorate--over the islands, and give +them no guarantee, of neutrality or otherwise; that, in short, we +are absolutely quit of responsibility for them, of every kind and +description. + +The Filipinos were quite incapable of standing by themselves when we +took possession of the islands, and we had made no promise concerning +them. But we had explicitly promised to leave the island of Cuba, +had explicitly promised that Cuba should be independent. Early in my +administration that promise was redeemed. When the promise was made, +I doubt if there was a single ruler or diplomat in Europe who believed +that it would be kept. As far as I know, the United States was the first +power which, having made such a promise, kept it in letter and spirit. +England was unwise enough to make such a promise when she took Egypt. +It would have been a capital misfortune to have kept the promise, +and England has remained in Egypt for over thirty years, and will +unquestionably remain indefinitely; but though it is necessary for her +to do so, the fact of her doing so has meant the breaking of a positive +promise and has been a real evil. Japan made the same guarantee about +Korea, but as far as can be seen there was never even any thought of +keeping the promise in this case; and Korea, which had shown herself +utterly impotent either for self-government or self-defense, was in +actual fact almost immediately annexed to Japan. + +We made the promise to give Cuba independence; and we kept the promise. +Leonard Wood was left in as Governor for two or three years, and evolved +order out of chaos, raising the administration of the island to a level, +moral and material, which it had never before achieved. We also by +treaty gave the Cubans substantial advantages in our markets. Then we +left the island, turning the government over to its own people. After +four or five years a revolution broke out, during my administration, and +we again had to intervene to restore order. We promptly sent thither a +small army of pacification. Under General Barry, order was restored and +kept, and absolute justice done. The American troops were then withdrawn +and the Cubans reestablished in complete possession of their own +beautiful island, and they are in possession of it now. There are plenty +of occasions in our history when we have shown weakness or inefficiency, +and some occasions when we have not been as scrupulous as we should have +been as regards the rights of others. But I know of no action by +any other government in relation to a weaker power which showed such +disinterested efficiency in rendering service as was true in connection +with our intervention in Cuba. + +In Cuba, as in the Philippines and as in Porto Rico, Santo Domingo, and +later in Panama, no small part of our success was due to the fact that +we put in the highest grade of men as public officials. This practice +was inaugurated under President McKinley. I found admirable men in +office, and I continued them and appointed men like them as their +successors. The way that the custom-houses in Santo Domingo were +administered by Colton definitely established the success of our +experiment in securing peace for that island republic; and in Porto +Rico, under the administration of affairs under such officials as Hunt, +Winthrop, Post, Ward and Grahame, more substantial progress was achieved +in a decade than in any previous century. + +The Philippines, Cuba, and Porto Rico came within our own sphere of +governmental action. In addition to this we asserted certain rights in +the Western Hemisphere under the Monroe Doctrine. My endeavor was not +only to assert these rights, but frankly and fully to acknowledge the +duties that went with the rights. + +The Monroe Doctrine lays down the rule that the Western Hemisphere is +not hereafter to be treated as subject to settlement and occupation +by Old World powers. It is not international law; but it is a cardinal +principle of our foreign policy. There is no difficulty at the present +day in maintaining this doctrine, save where the American power whose +interest is threatened has shown itself in international matters both +weak and delinquent. The great and prosperous civilized commonwealths, +such as the Argentine, Brazil, and Chile, in the Southern half of South +America, have advanced so far that they no longer stand in any position +of tutelage toward the United States. They occupy toward us precisely +the position that Canada occupies. Their friendship is the friendship of +equals for equals. My view was that as regards these nations there was +no more necessity for asserting the Monroe Doctrine than there was to +assert it in regard to Canada. They were competent to assert it for +themselves. Of course if one of these nations, or if Canada, should be +overcome by some Old World power, which then proceeded to occupy its +territory, we would undoubtedly, if the American Nation needed our help, +give it in order to prevent such occupation from taking place. But the +initiative would come from the Nation itself, and the United States +would merely act as a friend whose help was invoked. + +The case was (and is) widely different as regards certain--not all--of +the tropical states in the neighborhood of the Caribbean Sea. Where +these states are stable and prosperous, they stand on a footing of +absolute equality with all other communities. But some of them have +been a prey to such continuous revolutionary misrule as to have grown +impotent either to do their duties to outsiders or to enforce their +rights against outsiders. The United States has not the slightest desire +to make aggressions on any one of these states. On the contrary, it +will submit to much from them without showing resentment. If any great +civilized power, Russia or Germany, for instance, had behaved toward us +as Venezuela under Castro behaved, this country would have gone to war +at once. We did not go to war with Venezuela merely because our people +declined to be irritated by the actions of a weak opponent, and showed a +forbearance which probably went beyond the limits of wisdom in refusing +to take umbrage at what was done by the weak; although we would +certainly have resented it had it been done by the strong. In the case +of two states, however, affairs reached such a crisis that we had to +act. These two states were Santo Domingo and the then owner of the +Isthmus of Panama, Colombia. + +The Santo Domingan case was the less important; and yet it possessed a +real importance, and moreover is instructive because the action there +taken should serve as a precedent for American action in all similar +cases. During the early years of my administration Santo Domingo was in +its usual condition of chronic revolution. There was always fighting, +always plundering; and the successful graspers for governmental power +were always pawning ports and custom-houses, or trying to put them up as +guarantees for loans. Of course the foreigners who made loans under +such conditions demanded exorbitant interest, and if they were Europeans +expected their governments to stand by them. So utter was the disorder +that on one occasion when Admiral Dewey landed to pay a call of ceremony +on the President, he and his party were shot at by revolutionists in +crossing the square, and had to return to the ships, leaving the call +unpaid. There was default on the interest due to the creditors; and +finally the latter insisted upon their governments intervening. Two or +three of the European powers were endeavoring to arrange for concerted +action, and I was finally notified that these powers intended to take +and hold several of the seaports which held custom-houses. + +This meant that unless I acted at once I would find foreign powers in +partial possession of Santo Domingo; in which event the very individuals +who, in the actual event deprecated the precaution taken to prevent such +action, would have advocated extreme and violent measures to undo the +effect of their own supineness. Nine-tenths of wisdom is to be wise in +time, and at the right time; and my whole foreign policy was based +on the exercise of intelligent forethought and of decisive action +sufficiently far in advance of any likely crisis to make it improbable +that we would run into serious trouble. + +Santo Domingo had fallen into such chaos that once for some weeks there +were two rival governments in it, and a revolution was being carried +on against each. At one period one government was at sea in a small +gunboat, but still stoutly maintained that it was in possession of +the island and entitled to make loans and declare peace or war. The +situation had become intolerable by the time that I interfered. There +was a naval commander in the waters whom I directed to prevent any +fighting which might menace the custom-houses. He carried out his +orders, both to his and my satisfaction, in thoroughgoing fashion. On +one occasion, when an insurgent force threatened to attack a town in +which Americans had interests, he notified the commanders on both sides +that he would not permit any fighting in the town, but that he would +appoint a certain place where they could meet and fight it out, and that +the victors should have the town. They agreed to meet his wishes, +the fight came off at the appointed place, and the victors, who if I +remember rightly were the insurgents, were given the town. + +It was the custom-houses that caused the trouble, for they offered the +only means of raising money, and the revolutions were carried on to +get possession of them. Accordingly I secured an agreement with the +governmental authorities, who for the moment seemed best able to speak +for the country, by which these custom-houses were placed under American +control. The arrangement was that we should keep order and prevent any +interference with the custom-houses or the places where they stood, and +should collect the revenues. Forty-five per cent of the revenue was then +turned over to the Santo Domingan Government, and fifty-five per cent +put in a sinking fund in New York for the benefit of the creditors. The +arrangement worked in capital style. On the forty-five per cent basis +the Santo Domingan Government received from us a larger sum than it +had ever received before when nominally all the revenue went to it. The +creditors were entirely satisfied with the arrangement, and no excuse +for interference by European powers remained. Occasional disturbances +occurred in the island, of course, but on the whole there ensued a +degree of peace and prosperity which the island had not known before for +at least a century. + +All this was done without the loss of a life, with the assent of all +the parties in interest, and without subjecting the United States to +any charge, while practically all of the interference, after the +naval commander whom I have mentioned had taken the initial steps in +preserving order, consisted in putting a first-class man trained in our +insular service at the head of the Santo Domingan customs service. We +secured peace, we protected the people of the islands against foreign +foes, and we minimized the chance of domestic trouble. We satisfied the +creditors and the foreign nations to which the creditors belonged; and +our own part of the work was done with the utmost efficiency and with +rigid honesty, so that not a particle of scandal was ever so much as +hinted at. + +Under these circumstances those who do not know the nature of the +professional international philanthropists would suppose that these +apostles of international peace would have been overjoyed with what we +had done. As a matter of fact, when they took any notice of it at all it +was to denounce it; and those American newspapers which are fondest +of proclaiming themselves the foes of war and the friends of peace +violently attacked me for averting war from, and bringing peace to, the +island. They insisted I had no power to make the agreement, and demanded +the rejection of the treaty which was to perpetuate the agreement. They +were, of course, wholly unable to advance a single sound reason of any +kind for their attitude. I suppose the real explanation was partly their +dislike of me personally, and unwillingness to see peace come through or +national honor upheld by me; and in the next place their sheer, simple +devotion to prattle and dislike of efficiency. They liked to have people +come together and talk about peace, or even sign bits of paper with +something about peace or arbitration on them, but they took no interest +whatever in the practical achievement of a peace that told for good +government and decency and honesty. They were joined by the many +moderately well-meaning men who always demand that a thing be done, but +also always demand that it be not done in the only way in which it is, +as a matter of fact, possible to do it. The men of this kind insisted +that of course Santo Domingo must be protected and made to behave +itself, and that of course the Panama Canal must be dug; but they +insisted even more strongly that neither feat should be accomplished in +the only way in which it was possible to accomplish it at all. + +The Constitution did not explicitly give me power to bring about the +necessary agreement with Santo Domingo. But the Constitution did not +forbid my doing what I did. I put the agreement into effect, and I +continued its execution for two years before the Senate acted; and I +would have continued it until the end of my term, if necessary, without +any action by Congress. But it was far preferable that there should be +action by Congress, so that we might be proceeding under a treaty which +was the law of the land and not merely by a direction of the Chief +Executive which would lapse when that particular executive left office. +I therefore did my best to get the Senate to ratify what I had done. +There was a good deal of difficulty about it. With the exception of one +or two men like Clark of Arkansas, the Democratic Senators acted in that +spirit of unworthy partisanship which subordinates national interest to +some fancied partisan advantage, and they were cordially backed by all +that portion of the press which took its inspiration from Wall Street, +and was violently hostile to the Administration because of its attitude +towards great corporations. Most of the Republican Senators under +the lead of Senator Lodge stood by me; but some of them, of the more +"conservative" or reactionary type, who were already growing hostile +to me on the trust question, first proceeded to sneer at what had +been done, and to raise all kinds of meticulous objections, which they +themselves finally abandoned, but which furnished an excuse on which +the opponents of the treaty could hang adverse action. Unfortunately the +Senators who were most apt to speak of the dignity of the Senate, and to +insist upon its importance, were the very ones who were also most apt +to try to make display of this dignity and importance by thwarting the +public business. This case was typical. The Republicans in question +spoke against certain provisions of the proposed treaty. They then, +having ingeniously provided ammunition for the foes of the treaty, +abandoned their opposition to it, and the Democrats stepped into the +position they had abandoned. Enough Republicans were absent to prevent +the securing of a two-thirds vote for the treaty, and the Senate +adjourned without any action at all, and with a feeling of entire +self-satisfaction at having left the country in the position of assuming +a responsibility and then failing to fulfil it. Apparently the Senators +in question felt that in some way they had upheld their dignity. All +that they had really done was to shirk their duty. Somebody had to do +that duty, and accordingly I did it. I went ahead and administered the +proposed treaty anyhow, considering it as a simple agreement on the part +of the Executive which would be converted into a treaty whenever +the Senate acted. After a couple of years the Senate did act, having +previously made some utterly unimportant changes which I ratified and +persuaded Santo Domingo to ratify. In all its history Santo Domingo has +had nothing happen to it as fortunate as this treaty, and the passing of +it saved the United States from having to face serious difficulties with +one or more foreign powers. + +It cannot in the long run prove possible 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. People may theorize about this as much as +they wish, but whenever a sufficiently strong outside nation becomes +sufficiently aggrieved, then either that nation will act or the United +States Government itself will have to act. We were face to face at one +period of my administration with this condition of affairs in Venezuela, +when Germany, rather feebly backed by England, undertook a blockade +against Venezuela to make Venezuela adopt the German and English view +about certain agreements. There was real danger that the blockade would +finally result in Germany's taking possession of certain cities or +custom-houses. I succeeded, however, in getting all the parties in +interest to submit their cases to the Hague Tribunal. + +By far the most important action I took in foreign affairs during the +time I was President related to the Panama Canal. Here again there was +much accusation about my having acted in an "unconstitutional" manner--a +position which can be upheld only if Jefferson's action in acquiring +Louisiana be also treated as unconstitutional; and at different stages +of the affair believers in a do-nothing policy denounced me as having +"usurped authority"--which meant, that when nobody else could or would +exercise efficient authority, I exercised it. + +During the nearly four hundred years that had elapsed since Balboa +crossed the Isthmus, there had been a good deal of talk about building +an Isthmus canal, and there had been various discussions of the subject +and negotiations about it in Washington for the previous half century. +So far it had all resulted merely in conversation; and the time had come +when unless somebody was prepared to act with decision we would have +to resign ourselves to at least half a century of further conversation. +Under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty signed shortly after I became President, +and thanks to our negotiations with the French Panama Company, the +United States at last acquired a possession, so far as Europe was +concerned, which warranted her in immediately undertaking the task. It +remained to decide where the canal should be, whether along the line +already pioneered by the French company in Panama, or in Nicaragua. +Panama belonged to the Republic of Colombia. Nicaragua bid eagerly for +the privilege of having the United States build the canal through her +territory. As long as it was doubtful which route we would decide +upon, Colombia extended every promise of friendly cooperation; at the +Pan-American Congress in Mexico her delegate joined in the unanimous +vote which requested the United States forthwith to build the canal; and +at her eager request we negotiated the Hay-Herran Treaty with her, which +gave us the right to build the canal across Panama. A board of experts +sent to the Isthmus had reported that this route was better than the +Nicaragua route, and that it would be well to build the canal over it +provided we could purchase the rights of the French company for forty +million dollars; but that otherwise they would advise taking the +Nicaragua route. Ever since 1846 we had had a treaty with the power then +in control of the Isthmus, the Republic of New Granada, the predecessor +of the Republic of Colombia and of the present Republic of Panama, by +which treaty the United States was guaranteed free and open right of way +across the Isthmus of Panama by any mode of communication that might +be constructed, while in return our Government guaranteed the perfect +neutrality of the Isthmus with a view to the preservation of free +transit. + +For nearly fifty years we had asserted the right to prevent the closing +of this highway of commerce. Secretary of State Cass in 1858 officially +stated the American position as follows: + +"Sovereignty has its duties as well as its rights, and none of these +local governments, even if administered with more regard to the just +demands of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in a +spirit of Eastern isolation, to close the gates of intercourse of the +great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that +these avenues of trade and travel belong to them and that they choose +to shut them, or, what is almost equivalent, to encumber them with such +unjust relations as would prevent their general use." + +We had again and again been forced to intervene to protect the transit +across the Isthmus, and the intervention was frequently at the request +of Colombia herself. The effort to build a canal by private capital had +been made under De Lesseps and had resulted in lamentable failure. Every +serious proposal to build the canal in such manner had been abandoned. +The United States had repeatedly announced that we would not permit +it to be built or controlled by any old-world government. Colombia was +utterly impotent to build it herself. Under these circumstances it +had become a matter of imperative obligation that we should build it +ourselves without further delay. + +I took final action in 1903. During the preceding fifty-three years the +Governments of New Granada and of its successor, Colombia, had been in +a constant state of flux; and the State of Panama had sometimes been +treated as almost independent, in a loose Federal league, and sometimes +as the mere property of the Government at Bogota; and there had been +innumerable appeals to arms, sometimes of adequate, sometimes for +inadequate, reasons. The following is a partial list of the disturbances +on the Isthmus of Panama during the period in question, as reported to +us by our consuls. It is not possible to give a complete list, and +some of the reports that speak of "revolutions" must mean unsuccessful +revolutions: + +May 22, 1850.--Outbreak; two Americans killed. War vessel demanded to +quell outbreak. + +October, 1850.--Revolutionary plot to bring about independence of the +Isthmus. + +July 22, 1851.--Revolution in four Southern provinces. + +November 14, 1851.--Outbreak at Chagres. Man-of-war requested for +Chagres. + +June 27, 1853.--Insurrection at Bogota, and consequent disturbance on +Isthmus. War vessel demanded. + +May 23, 1854.--Political disturbances. War vessel requested. + +June 28, 1854.--Attempted revolution. + +October 24, 1854.--Independence of Isthmus demanded by provincial +legislature. + +April, 1856.--Riot, and massacre of Americans. + +May 4, 1856.--Riot. + +May 18, 1856.--Riot. + +June 3, 1856.--Riot. + +October 2, 1856.--Conflict between two native parties. United States +force landed. + +December 18, 1858.--Attempted secession of Panama. + +April, 1859.--Riots. + +September, 1860.--Outbreak. + +October 4, 1860.--Landing of United States forces in consequence. + +May 23, 1861.--Intervention of the United States force required, by +intendente. + +October 2, 1861.--Insurrection and civil war. + +April 4, 1862.--Measures to prevent rebels crossing Isthmus. + +June 13, 1862.--Mosquera's troops refused admittance to Panama. + +March, 1865.--Revolution, and United States troops landed. + +August, 1865.--Riots; unsuccessful attempt to invade Panama. + +March, 1866.--Unsuccessful revolution. + +April, 1867.--Attempt to overthrow Government. + +August, 1867.--Attempt at revolution. + +July 5, 1868.--Revolution; provisional government inaugurated. + +August 29, 1868.--Revolution; provisional government overthrown. + +April, 1871.--Revolution; followed apparently by counter revolution. + +April, 1873.--Revolution and civil war which lasted to October, 1875. + +August, 1876.--Civil war which lasted until April, 1877. + +July, 1878.--Rebellion. + +December, 1878.--Revolt. + +April, 1879.--Revolution. + +June, 1879.--Revolution. + +March, 1883.--Riot. + +May, 1883.--Riot. + +June, 1884.--Revolutionary attempt. + +December, 1884.--Revolutionary attempt. + +January, 1885.--Revolutionary disturbances. + +March, 1885.--Revolution. + +April, 1887.--Disturbance on Panama Railroad. + +November, 1887.--Disturbance on line of canal. + +January, 1889.--Riot. + +January, 1895.--Revolution which lasted until April. + +March, 1895.--Incendiary attempt. + +October, 1899.--Revolution. + +February, 1900, to July, 1900.--Revolution. + +January, 1901.--Revolution. + +July, 1901.--Revolutionary disturbances. + +September, 1901.--City of Colon taken by rebels. + +March, 1902.--Revolutionary disturbances. + +July, 1902.--Revolution + +The above is only a partial list of the revolutions, rebellions, +insurrections, riots, and other outbreaks that occurred during the +period in question; yet they number fifty-three for the fifty-three +years, and they showed a tendency to increase, rather than decrease, in +numbers and intensity. One of them lasted for nearly three years before +it was quelled; another for nearly a year. In short, the experience +of over half a century had shown Colombia to be utterly incapable of +keeping order on the Isthmus. Only the active interference of the +United States had enabled her to preserve so much as a semblance of +sovereignty. Had it not been for the exercise by the United States of +the police power in her interest, her connection with the Isthmus would +have been sundered long before it was. In 1856, in 1860, in 1873, in +1885, in 1901, and again in 1902, sailors and marines from United States +warships were forced to land in order to patrol the Isthmus, to protect +life and property, and to see that the transit across the Isthmus +was kept open. In 1861, in 1862, in 1885, and in 1900, the Colombian +Government asked that the United States Government would land troops +to protect Colombian interests and maintain order on the Isthmus. The +people of Panama during the preceding twenty years had three times +sought to establish their independence by revolution or secession--in +1885, in 1895, and in 1899. + +The peculiar relations of the United States toward the Isthmus, and the +acquiescence by Colombia in acts which were quite incompatible with the +theory of her having an absolute and unconditioned sovereignty on the +Isthmus, are illustrated by the following three telegrams between two of +our naval officers whose ships were at the Isthmus, and the Secretary +of the Navy on the occasion of the first outbreak that occurred on +the Isthmus after I became President (a year before Panama became +independent): + +September 12, 1902. + +Ranger, Panama: + +United States guarantees perfect neutrality of Isthmus and that a free +transit from sea to sea be not interrupted or embarrassed. . . . Any +transportation of troops which might contravene these provisions of +treaty should not be sanctioned by you, nor should use of road be +permitted which might convert the line of transit into theater of +hostility. + +MOODY. + +COLON, September 20, 1902. + +Secretary Navy, Washington: + +Everything is conceded. The United States guards and guarantees traffic +and the line of transit. To-day I permitted the exchange of Colombian +troops from Panama to Colon, about 1000 men each way, the troops without +arms in trains guarded by American naval force in the same manner as +other passengers; arms and ammunition in separate train, guarded also by +naval force in the same manner as other freight. + +MCLEAN. + +PANAMA, October 3, 1902. + +Secretary Navy, Washington, D.C.: + +Have sent this communication to the American Consul at Panama: + +"Inform Governor, while trains running under United States protection, +I must decline transportation any combatants, ammunition, arms, which +might cause interruption to traffic or convert line of transit into +theater hostilities." + +CASEY. + +When the Government in nominal control of the Isthmus continually +besought American interference to protect the "rights" it could not +itself protect, and permitted our Government to transport Colombian +troops unarmed, under protection of our own armed men, while the +Colombian arms and ammunition came in a separate train, it is obvious +that the Colombian "sovereignty" was of such a character as to warrant +our insisting that inasmuch as it only existed because of our protection +there should be in requital a sense of the obligations that the +acceptance of this protection implied. + +Meanwhile Colombia was under a dictatorship. In 1898 M. A. Sanclamente +was elected President, and J. M. Maroquin Vice-President, of the +Republic of Colombia. On July 31, 1900, the Vice-President, Maroquin, +executed a "coup d'etat" by seizing the person of the President, +Sanclamente, and imprisoning him at a place a few miles out of Bogota. +Maroquin thereupon declared himself possessed of the executive power +because of "the absence of the President"--a delightful touch of +unconscious humor. He then issued a decree that public order was +disturbed, and, upon that ground, assumed to himself legislative power +under another provision of the constitution; that is, having +himself disturbed the public order, he alleged the disturbance as a +justification for seizing absolute power. Thenceforth Maroquin, without +the aid of any legislative body, ruled as a dictator, combining the +supreme executive, legislative, civil, and military authorities, in the +so-called Republic of Colombia. The "absence" of Sanclamente from the +capital became permanent by his death in prison in the year 1902. When +the people of Panama declared their independence in November, 1903, no +Congress had sat in Colombia since the year 1898, except the special +Congress called by Maroquin to reject the canal treaty, and which did +reject it by a unanimous vote, and adjourned without legislating on any +other subject. The constitution of 1886 had taken away from Panama the +power of self-government and vested it in Columbia. The _coup d'etat_ +of Maroquin took away from Colombia herself the power of government and +vested it in an irresponsible dictator. + +Consideration of the above facts ought to be enough to show any human +being that we were not dealing with normal conditions on the Isthmus +and in Colombia. We were dealing with the government of an irresponsible +alien dictator, and with a condition of affairs on the Isthmus +itself which was marked by one uninterrupted series of outbreaks +and revolutions. As for the "consent of the governed" theory, that +absolutely justified our action; the people on the Isthmus were the +"governed"; they were governed by Colombia, without their consent, and +they unanimously repudiated the Colombian government, and demanded that +the United States build the canal. + +I had done everything possible, personally and through Secretary Hay, +to persuade the Colombian Government to keep faith. Under the +Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, it was explicitly provided that the United States +should build the canal, should control, police and protect it, and keep +it open to the vessels of all nations on equal terms. We had assumed the +position of guarantor of the canal, including, of course, the building +of the canal, and of its peaceful use by all the world. The enterprise +was recognized everywhere as responding to an international need. It was +a mere travesty on justice to treat the government in possession of +the Isthmus as having the right--which Secretary Cass forty-five years +before had so emphatically repudiated--to close the gates of intercourse +on one of the great highways of the world. When we submitted to Colombia +the Hay-Herran Treaty, it had been settled that the time for delay, +the time for permitting any government of anti-social character, or of +imperfect development, to bar the work, had passed. The United States +had assumed in connection with the canal certain responsibilities not +only to its own people but to the civilized world, which imperatively +demanded that there should be no further delay in beginning the work. +The Hay-Herran Treaty, if it erred at all, erred in being overgenerous +toward Colombia. The people of Panama were delighted with the treaty, +and the President of Colombia, who embodied in his own person the entire +government of Colombia, had authorized the treaty to be made. But after +the treaty had been made the Colombia Government thought it had the +matter in its own hands; and the further thought, equally wicked and +foolish, came into the heads of the people in control at Bogota that +they would seize the French Company at the end of another year and take +for themselves the forty million dollars which the United States had +agreed to pay the Panama Canal Company. + +President Maroquin, through his Minister, had agreed to the +Hay-Herran Treaty in January, 1903. He had the absolute power of an +unconstitutional dictator to keep his promise or break it. He determined +to break it. To furnish himself an excuse for breaking it he devised +the plan of summoning a Congress especially called to reject the canal +treaty. This the Congress--a Congress of mere puppets--did, without a +dissenting vote; and the puppets adjourned forthwith without legislating +on any other subject. The fact that this was a mere sham, and that the +President had entire power to confirm his own treaty and act on it if he +desired, was shown as soon as the revolution took place, for on November +6 General Reyes of Colombia addressed the American Minister at Bogota, +on behalf of President Maroquin, saying that "if the Government of the +United States would land troops and restore the Colombian sovereignty" +the Colombian President would "declare martial law; and, by virtue of +vested constitutional authority, when public order is disturbed, would +approve by decree the ratification of the canal treaty as signed; or, if +the Government of the United States prefers, would call an extra session +of the Congress--with new and friendly members--next May to approve the +treaty." This, of course, is proof positive that the Colombian dictator +had used his Congress as a mere shield, and a sham shield at that, and +it shows how utterly useless it would have been further to trust his +good faith in the matter. + +When, in August, 1903, I became convinced that Colombia intended to +repudiate the treaty made the preceding January, under cover of securing +its rejection by the Colombian Legislature, I began carefully to +consider what should be done. By my direction, Secretary Hay, personally +and through the Minister at Bogota, repeatedly warned Colombia that +grave consequences might follow her rejection of the treaty. The +possibility of ratification did not wholly pass away until the close of +the session of the Colombian Congress on the last day of October. There +would then be two possibilities. One was that Panama would remain quiet. +In that case I was prepared to recommend to Congress that we should at +once occupy the Isthmus anyhow, and proceed to dig the canal; and I +had drawn out a draft of my message to this effect.[*] But from the +information I received, I deemed it likely that there would be a +revolution in Panama as soon as the Colombian Congress adjourned without +ratifying the treaty, for the entire population of Panama felt that +the immediate building of the canal was of vital concern to their +well-being. Correspondents of the different newspapers on the Isthmus +had sent to their respective papers widely published forecasts +indicating that there would be a revolution in such event. + + [*] See appendix at end of this chapter. + +Moreover, on October 16, at the request of Lieutenant-General Young, +Captain Humphrey, and Lieutenant Murphy, two army officers who +had returned from the Isthmus, saw me and told me that there would +unquestionably be a revolution on the Isthmus, that the people were +unanimous in their criticism of the Bogota Government and their disgust +over the failure of that Government to ratify the treaty; and that the +revolution would probably take place immediately after the adjournment +of the Colombian Congress. They did not believe that it would be before +October 20, but they were confident that it would certainly come at the +end of October or immediately afterwards, when the Colombian Congress +had adjourned. Accordingly I directed the Navy Department to station +various ships within easy reach of the Isthmus, to be ready to act in +the event of need arising. + +These ships were barely in time. On November 3 the revolution occurred. +Practically everybody on the Isthmus, including all the Colombian troops +that were already stationed there, joined in the revolution, and there +was no bloodshed. But on that same day four hundred new Colombian +troops were landed at Colon. Fortunately, the gunboat _Nashville_, under +Commander Hubbard, reached Colon almost immediately afterwards, and when +the commander of the Colombian forces threatened the lives and property +of the American citizens, including women and children, in Colon, +Commander Hubbard landed a few score sailors and marines to protect +them. By a mixture of firmness and tact he not only prevented any +assault on our citizens, but persuaded the Colombian commander to +reembark his troops for Cartagena. On the Pacific side a Colombian +gunboat shelled the City of Panama, with the result of killing one +Chinaman--the only life lost in the whole affair. + +No one connected with the American Government had any part in preparing, +inciting, or encouraging the revolution, and except for the reports of +our military and naval officers, which I forwarded to Congress, no one +connected with the Government had any previous knowledge concerning the +proposed revolution, except such as was accessible to any person who +read the newspapers and kept abreast of current questions and current +affairs. By the unanimous action of its people, and without the firing +of a shot, the state of Panama declared themselves an independent +republic. The time for hesitation on our part had passed. + +My belief then was, and the events that have occurred since have more +than justified it, that from the standpoint of the United States it +was imperative, not only for civil but for military reasons, that there +should be the immediate establishment of easy and speedy communication +by sea between the Atlantic and the Pacific. These reasons were not +of convenience only, but of vital necessity, and did not admit of +indefinite delay. The action of Colombia had shown not only that the +delay would be indefinite, but that she intended to confiscate the +property and rights of the French Panama Canal Company. The report of +the Panama Canal Committee of the Colombian Senate on October 14, +1903, on the proposed treaty with the United States, proposed that all +consideration of the matter should be postponed until October 31, 1904, +when the next Colombian Congress would have convened, because by that +time the new Congress would be in condition to determine whether through +lapse of time the French company had not forfeited its property and +rights. "When that time arrives," the report significantly declared, +"the Republic, without any impediment, will be able to contract and will +be in more clear, more definite and more advantageous possession, both +legally and materially." The naked meaning of this was that Colombia +proposed to wait a year, and then enforce a forfeiture of the rights and +property of the French Panama Company, so as to secure the forty million +dollars our Government had authorized as payment to this company. If we +had sat supine, this would doubtless have meant that France would have +interfered to protect the company, and we should then have had on the +Isthmus, not the company, but France; and the gravest international +complications might have ensued. Every consideration of international +morality and expediency, of duty to the Panama people, and of +satisfaction of our own national interests and honor, bade us take +immediate action. I recognized Panama forthwith on behalf of the United +States, and practically all the countries of the world immediately +followed suit. The State Department immediately negotiated a canal +treaty with the new Republic. One of the foremost men in securing the +independence of Panama, and the treaty which authorized the United +States forthwith to build the canal, was M. Philippe Bunau-Varilla, an +eminent French engineer formerly associated with De Lesseps and then +living on the Isthmus; his services to civilization were notable, and +deserve the fullest recognition. + +From the beginning to the end our course was straightforward and in +absolute accord with the highest of standards of international morality. +Criticism of it can come only from misinformation, or else from a +sentimentality which represents both mental weakness and a moral twist. +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. As for me personally, if I had hesitated to act, +and had not in advance discounted the clamor of those Americans who have +made a fetish of disloyalty to their country, I should have esteemed +myself as deserving a place in Dante's inferno beside the faint-hearted +cleric who was guilty of "il gran rifiuto." The facts I have given +above are mere bald statements from the record. They show that from +the beginning there had been acceptance of our right to insist on free +transit, in whatever form was best, across the Isthmus; and that towards +the end there had been a no less universal feeling that it was our +duty to the world to provide this transit in the shape of a canal--the +resolution of the Pan-American Congress was practically a mandate +to this effect. Colombia was then under a one-man government, a +dictatorship, founded on usurpation of absolute and irresponsible power. +She eagerly pressed us to enter into an agreement with her, as long +as there was any chance of our going to the alternative route through +Nicaragua. When she thought we were committed, she refused to fulfil the +agreement, with the avowed hope of seizing the French company's property +for nothing and thereby holding us up. This was a bit of pure bandit +morality. It would have achieved its purpose had I possessed as weak +moral fiber as those of my critics who announced that I ought to +have confined my action to feeble scolding and temporizing until the +opportunity for action passed. I did not lift my finger to incite the +revolutionists. The right simile to use is totally different. I simply +ceased to stamp out the different revolutionary fuses that were already +burning. When Colombia committed flagrant wrong against us, I considered +it no part of my duty to aid and abet her in her wrongdoing at our +expense, and also at the expense of Panama, of the French company, +and of the world generally. There had been fifty years of continuous +bloodshed and civil strife in Panama; because of my action Panama has +now known ten years of such peace and prosperity as she never before saw +during the four centuries of her existence--for in Panama, as in Cuba +and Santo Domingo, it was the action of the American people, against the +outcries of the professed apostles of peace, which alone brought peace. +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 a more than generous justice; we exercised patience +to beyond the verge of proper forbearance. When we did act and recognize +Panama, Colombia at once acknowledged her own guilt by promptly offering +to do what we had demanded, and what she had protested it was not in her +power to do. But the offer came too late. What we would gladly have done +before, it had by that time become impossible for us honorably to do; +for it would have necessitated our abandoning the people of Panama, our +friends, and turning them over to their and our foes, who would have +wreaked vengeance on them precisely because they had shown friendship to +us. Colombia was solely responsible for her own humiliation; and she had +not then, and has not now, one shadow of claim upon us, moral or legal; +all the wrong that was done was done by her. If, as representing the +American people, I had not acted precisely as I did, I would have been +an unfaithful or incompetent representative; and inaction at that crisis +would have meant not only indefinite delay in building the canal, but +also practical admission on our part that we were not fit to play the +part on the Isthmus which we had arrogated to ourselves. I acted on my +own responsibility in the Panama matter. John Hay spoke of this action +as follows: "The action of the President in the Panama matter is not +only in the strictest accordance with the principles of justice and +equity, and in line with all the best precedents of our public policy, +but it was the only course he could have taken in compliance with our +treaty rights and obligations." + +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. (For, be it remembered, +that certain other nations, Chile for example, will probably benefit +even more by our action than will the United States itself.) I am well +aware that the Colombian people have many fine traits; that there is +among them a circle of high-bred men and women which would reflect +honor on the social life of any country; and that there has been an +intellectual and literary development within this small circle which +partially atones for the stagnation and illiteracy of the mass of the +people; and I also know that even the illiterate mass possesses many +sterling qualities. But unfortunately in international matters every +nation must be judged by the action of its Government. The good people +in Colombia apparently made no effort, certainly no successful effort, +to cause the Government to act with reasonable good faith towards the +United States; and Colombia had to take the consequences. If Brazil, +or the Argentine, or Chile, had been in possession of the Isthmus, +doubtless the canal would have been built under the governmental control +of the nation thus controlling the Isthmus, with the hearty acquiescence +of the United States and of all other powers. But in the actual fact the +canal would not have been built at all save for the action I took. If +men choose to say that it would have been better not to build it, than +to build it as the result of such action, their position, although +foolish, is compatible with belief in their wrongheaded sincerity. But +it is hypocrisy, alike odious and contemptible, for any man to say both +that we ought to have built the canal and that we ought not to have +acted in the way we did act. + +After a sufficient period of wrangling, the Senate ratified the treaty +with Panama, and work on the canal was begun. The first thing that +was necessary was to decide the type of canal. I summoned a board of +engineering experts, foreign and native. They divided on their report. +The majority of the members, including all the foreign members, approved +a sea-level canal. The minority, including most of the American members, +approved a lock canal. Studying these conclusions, I came to the belief +that the minority was right. The two great traffic canals of the world +were the Suez and the Soo. The Suez Canal is a sea-level canal, and it +was the one best known to European engineers. The Soo Canal, through +which an even greater volume of traffic passes every year, is a lock +canal, and the American engineers were thoroughly familiar with it; +whereas, in my judgment, the European engineers had failed to pay proper +heed to the lessons taught by its operation and management. Moreover, +the engineers who were to do the work at Panama all favored a lock +canal. I came to the conclusion that a sea-level canal would be slightly +less exposed to damage in the event of war; that the running expenses, +apart from the heavy cost of interest on the amount necessary to build +it, would be less; and that for small ships the time of transit would +be less. But I also came to the conclusion that the lock canal at the +proposed level would cost only about half as much to build and would be +built in half the time, with much less risk; that for large ships the +transit would be quicker, and that, taking into account the interest +saved, the cost of maintenance would be less. Accordingly I recommended +to Congress, on February 19, 1906, that a lock canal should be built, +and my recommendation was adopted. Congress insisted upon having it +built by a commission of several men. I tried faithfully to get good +work out of the commission, and found it quite impossible; for a +many-headed commission is an extremely poor executive instrument. At +last I put Colonel Goethals in as head of the commission. Then, when +Congress still refused to make the commission single-headed, I +solved the difficulty by an executive order of January 6, 1908, which +practically accomplished the object by enlarging the powers of the +chairman, making all the other members of the commission dependent upon +him, and thereby placing the work under one-man control. Dr. Gorgas +had already performed an inestimable service by caring for the sanitary +conditions so thoroughly as to make the Isthmus as safe as a health +resort. Colonel Goethals proved to be the man of all others to do the +job. It would be impossible to overstate what he has done. It is the +greatest task of any kind that any man in the world has accomplished +during the years that Colonel Goethals has been at work. It is the +greatest task of its own kind that has ever been performed in the world +at all. Colonel Goethals has succeeded in instilling into the men under +him a spirit which elsewhere has been found only in a few victorious +armies. It is proper and appropriate that, like the soldiers of such +armies, they should receive medals which are allotted each man who has +served for a sufficient length of time. A finer body of men has never +been gathered by any nation than the men who have done the work of +building the Panama Canal; the conditions under which they have lived +and have done their work have been better than in any similar work ever +undertaken in the tropics; they have all felt an eager pride in their +work; and they have made not only America but the whole world their +debtors by what they have accomplished. + + + +APPENDIX + +COLOMBIA: THE PROPOSED MESSAGE TO CONGRESS + +The rough draft of the message I had proposed to send Congress ran as +follows: + +"The Colombian Government, through its representative here, and directly +in communication with our representative at Colombia, has refused to +come to any agreement with us, and has delayed action so as to make it +evident that it intends to make extortionate and improper terms with us. +The Isthmian Canal bill was, of course, passed upon the assumption that +whatever route was used, the benefit to the particular section of the +Isthmus through which it passed would be so great that the country +controlling this part would be eager to facilitate the building of the +canal. It is out of the question to submit to extortion on the part of a +beneficiary of the scheme. All the labor, all the expense, all the risk +are to be assumed by us and all the skill shown by us. Those controlling +the ground through which the canal is to be put are wholly incapable of +building it. + +"Yet the interest of international commerce generally and the interest +of this country generally demands that the canal should be begun with +no needless delay. The refusal of Colombia properly to respond to our +sincere and earnest efforts to come to an agreement, or to pay heed to +the many concessions we have made, renders it in my judgment necessary +that the United States should take immediate action on one of two lines: +either we should drop the Panama canal project and immediately begin +work on the Nicaraguan canal, or else we should purchase all the rights +of the French company, and, without any further parley with Colombia, +enter upon the completion of the canal which the French company +has begun. I feel that the latter course is the one demanded by the +interests of this Nation, and I therefore bring the matter to your +attention for such action in the premises as you may deem wise. If in +your judgment it is better not to take such action, then I shall proceed +at once with the Nicaraguan canal. + +"The reason that I advocate the action above outlined in regard to the +Panama canal is, in the first place, the strong testimony of the +experts that this route is the most feasible; and in the next place, the +impropriety from an international standpoint of permitting such conduct +as that to which Colombia seems to incline. The testimony of the experts +is very strong, not only that the Panama route is feasible, but that in +the Nicaragua route we may encounter some unpleasant surprises, and that +it is far more difficult to forecast the result with any certainty +as regards this latter route. As for Colombia's attitude, it is +incomprehensible upon any theory of desire to see the canal built upon +the basis of mutual advantage alike to those building it and to Colombia +herself. All we desire to do is to take up the work begun by the French +Government and to finish it. Obviously it is Colombia's duty to help +towards such completion. We are most anxious to come to an agreement +with her in which most scrupulous care should be taken to guard her +interests and ours. But we cannot consent to permit her to block +the performance of the work which it is so greatly to our interest +immediately to begin and carry through." + +Shortly after this rough draft was dictated the Panama revolution came, +and I never thought of the rough draft again until I was accused of +having instigated the revolution. This accusation is preposterous in +the eyes of any one who knows the actual conditions at Panama. Only the +menace of action by us in the interest of Colombia kept down revolution; +as soon as Colombia's own conduct removed such menace, all check on the +various revolutionary movements (there were at least three from entirely +separate sources) ceased; and then an explosion was inevitable, for +the French company knew that all their property would be confiscated +if Colombia put through her plans, and the entire people of Panama felt +that if in disgust with Colombia's extortions the United States turned +to Nicaragua, they, the people of Panama, would be ruined. Knowing the +character of those then in charge of the Colombian Government, I was not +surprised at their bad faith; but I was surprised at their folly. They +apparently had no idea either of the power of France or the power of +the United States, and expected to be permitted to commit wrong with +impunity, just as Castro in Venezuela had done. The difference was that, +unless we acted in self-defense, Colombia had it in her power to do +us serious harm, and Venezuela did not have such power. Colombia's +wrongdoing, therefore, recoiled on her own head. There was no new +lesson taught; it ought already to have been known to every one that +wickedness, weakness, and folly combined rarely fail to meet punishment, +and that the intent to do wrong, when joined to inability to carry +the evil purpose to a successful conclusion, inevitably reacts on the +wrongdoer. + +For the full history of the acquisition and building of the canal see +"The Panama Gateway," by Joseph Bucklin Bishop (Scribner's Sons). Mr. +Bishop has been for eight years secretary of the commission and is one +of the most efficient of the many efficient men to whose work on the +Isthmus America owes so much. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS + +There can be no nobler cause for which to work than the peace of +righteousness; and high honor is due those serene and lofty souls who +with wisdom and courage, with high idealism tempered by sane facing +of the actual facts of life, have striven to bring nearer the day when +armed strife between nation and nation, between class and class, between +man and man shall end throughout the world. Because all this is true, it +is also true that there are no men more ignoble or more foolish, no men +whose actions are fraught with greater possibility of mischief to their +country and to mankind, than those who exalt unrighteous peace as better +than righteous war. The men who have stood highest in our history, as in +the history of all countries, are those who scorned injustice, who were +incapable of oppressing the weak, or of permitting their country, with +their consent, to oppress the weak, but who did not hesitate to draw +the sword when to leave it undrawn meant inability to arrest triumphant +wrong. + +All this is so obvious that it ought not to be necessary to repeat it. +Yet every man in active affairs, who also reads about the past, grows +by bitter experience to realize that there are plenty of men, not only +among those who mean ill, but among those who mean well, who are ready +enough to praise what was done in the past, and yet are incapable of +profiting by it when faced by the needs of the present. During our +generation this seems to have been peculiarly the case among the men who +have become obsessed with the idea of obtaining universal peace by some +cheap patent panacea. + +There has been a real and substantial growth in the feeling for +international responsibility and justice among the great civilized +nations during the past threescore or fourscore years. There has been a +real growth of recognition of the fact that moral turpitude is involved +in the wronging of one nation by another, and that in most cases war is +an evil method of settling international difficulties. But as yet +there has been only a rudimentary beginning of the development of +international tribunals of justice, and there has been no development at +all of any international police power. Now, as I have already said, +the whole fabric of municipal law, of law within each nation, rests +ultimately upon the judge and the policeman; and the complete absence +of the policeman, and the almost complete absence of the judge, in +international affairs, prevents there being as yet any real homology +between municipal and international law. + +Moreover, the questions which sometimes involve nations in war are +far more difficult and complex than any questions that affect merely +individuals. Almost every great nation has inherited certain questions, +either with other nations or with sections of its own people, which it +is quite impossible, in the present state of civilization, to decide +as matters between private individuals can be decided. During the last +century at least half of the wars that have been fought have been +civil and not foreign wars. There are big and powerful nations which +habitually commit, either upon other nations or upon sections of their +own people, wrongs so outrageous as to justify even the most peaceful +persons in going to war. There are also weak nations so utterly +incompetent either to protect the rights of foreigners against their own +citizens, or to protect their own citizens against foreigners, that it +becomes a matter of sheer duty for some outside power to interfere in +connection with them. As yet in neither case is there any efficient +method of getting international action; and if joint action by several +powers is secured, the result is usually considerably worse than if only +one Power interfered. The worst infamies of modern times--such affairs +as the massacres of the Armenians by the Turks, for instance--have been +perpetrated in a time of nominally profound international peace, when +there has been a concert of big Powers to prevent the breaking of this +peace, although only by breaking it could the outrages be stopped. Be it +remembered that the peoples who suffered by these hideous massacres, +who saw their women violated and their children tortured, were actually +enjoying all the benefits of "disarmament." Otherwise they would not +have been massacred; for if the Jews in Russia and the Armenians in +Turkey had been armed, and had been efficient in the use of their arms, +no mob would have meddled with them. + +Yet amiable but fatuous persons, with all these facts before their eyes, +pass resolutions demanding universal arbitration for everything, and the +disarmament of the free civilized powers and their abandonment of their +armed forces; or else they write well-meaning, solemn little books, or +pamphlets or editorials, and articles in magazines or newspapers, to +show that it is "an illusion" to believe that war ever pays, because it +is expensive. This is precisely like arguing that we should disband the +police and devote our sole attention to persuading criminals that it +is "an illusion" to suppose that burglary, highway robbery and white +slavery are profitable. It is almost useless to attempt to argue with +these well-intentioned persons, because they are suffering under an +obsession and are not open to reason. They go wrong at the outset, for +they lay all the emphasis on peace and none at all on righteousness. +They are not all of them physically timid men; but they are usually men +of soft life; and they rarely possess a high sense of honor or a keen +patriotism. They rarely try to prevent their fellow countrymen from +insulting or wronging the people of other nations; but they always +ardently advocate that we, in our turn, shall tamely submit to wrong +and insult from other nations. As Americans their folly is peculiarly +scandalous, because if the principles they now uphold are right, it +means that it would have been better that Americans should never have +achieved their independence, and better that, in 1861, they should have +peacefully submitted to seeing their country split into half a dozen +jangling confederacies and slavery made perpetual. If unwilling to learn +from their own history, let those who think that it is an "illusion" to +believe that a war ever benefits a nation look at the difference between +China and Japan. China has neither a fleet nor an efficient army. It is +a huge civilized empire, one of the most populous on the globe; and it +has been the helpless prey of outsiders because it does not possess the +power to fight. Japan stands on a footing of equality with European +and American nations because it does possess this power. China now sees +Japan, Russia, Germany, England and France in possession of fragments of +her empire, and has twice within the lifetime of the present generation +seen her capital in the hands of allied invaders, because she in very +fact realizes the ideals of the persons who wish the United States +to disarm, and then trust that our helplessness will secure us a +contemptuous immunity from attack by outside nations. + +The chief trouble comes from the entire inability of these worthy +people to understand that they are demanding things that are mutually +incompatible when they demand peace at any price, and also justice and +righteousness. I remember one representative of their number, who used +to write little sonnets on behalf of the Mahdi and the Sudanese, these +sonnets setting forth the need that the Sudan should be both independent +and peaceful. As a matter of fact, the Sudan valued independence only +because it desired to war against all Christians and to carry on an +unlimited slave trade. It was "independent" under the Mahdi for a dozen +years, and during those dozen years the bigotry, tyranny, and cruel +religious intolerance were such as flourished in the seventh century, +and in spite of systematic slave raids the population decreased by +nearly two-thirds, and practically all the children died. Peace came, +well-being came, freedom from rape and murder and torture and highway +robbery, and every brutal gratification of lust and greed came, only +when the Sudan lost its independence and passed under English rule. Yet +this well-meaning little sonneteer sincerely felt that his verses were +issued in the cause of humanity. Looking back from the vantage point of +a score of years, probably every one will agree that he was an absurd +person. But he was not one whit more absurd than most of the more +prominent persons who advocate disarmament by the United States, the +cessation of up-building the navy, and the promise to agree to arbitrate +all matters, including those affecting our national interests and honor, +with all foreign nations. + +These persons would do no harm if they affected only themselves. Many +of them are, in the ordinary relations of life, good citizens. They are +exactly like the other good citizens who believe that enforced universal +vegetarianism or anti-vaccination is the panacea for all ills. But in +their particular case they are able to do harm because they affect our +relations with foreign powers, so that other men pay the debt which they +themselves have really incurred. It is the foolish, peace-at-any-price +persons who try to persuade our people to make unwise and improper +treaties, or to stop building up the navy. But if trouble comes and the +treaties are repudiated, or there is a demand for armed intervention, +it is not these people who will pay anything; they will stay at home in +safety, and leave brave men to pay in blood, and honest men to pay in +shame, for their folly. + +The trouble is that our policy is apt to go in zigzags, because +different sections of our people exercise at different times unequal +pressure on our government. One class of our citizens clamors for +treaties impossible of fulfilment, and improper to fulfil; another class +has no objection to the passage of these treaties so long as there is no +concrete case to which they apply, but instantly oppose a veto on their +application when any concrete case does actually arise. One of our +cardinal doctrines is freedom of speech, which means freedom of speech +about foreigners as well as about ourselves; and, inasmuch as we +exercise this right with complete absence of restraint, we cannot expect +other nations to hold us harmless unless in the last resort we are +able to make our own words good by our deeds. One class of our citizens +indulges in gushing promises to do everything for foreigners, another +class offensively and improperly reviles them; and it is hard to say +which class more thoroughly misrepresents the sober, self-respecting +judgment of the American people as a whole. The only safe rule is to +promise little, and faithfully to keep every promise; to "speak softly +and carry a big stick." + +A prime need for our nation, as of course for every other nation, is +to make up its mind definitely what it wishes, and not to try to pursue +paths of conduct incompatible one with the other. If this nation is +content to be the China of the New World, then and then only can it +afford to do away with the navy and the army. If it is content to +abandon Hawaii and the Panama Canal, to cease to talk of the Monroe +Doctrine, and to admit the right of any European or Asiatic power to +dictate what immigrants shall be sent to and received in America, +and whether or not they shall be allowed to become citizens and hold +land--why, of course, if America is content to have nothing to say +on any of these matters and to keep silent in the presence of armed +outsiders, then it can abandon its navy and agree to arbitrate all +questions of all kinds with every foreign power. In such event it can +afford to pass its spare time in one continuous round of universal +peace celebrations, and of smug self-satisfaction in having earned the +derision of all the virile peoples of mankind. Those who advocate such +a policy do not occupy a lofty position. But at least their position is +understandable. + +It is entirely inexcusable, however, to try to combine the unready hand +with the unbridled tongue. It is folly to permit freedom of speech about +foreigners as well as ourselves--and the peace-at-any-price persons are +much too feeble a folk to try to interfere with freedom of speech--and +yet to try to shirk the consequences of freedom of speech. It is folly +to try to abolish our navy, and at the same time to insist that we have +a right to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, that we have a right to control +the Panama Canal which we ourselves dug, that we have a right to retain +Hawaii and prevent foreign nations from taking Cuba, and a right to +determine what immigrants, Asiatic or European, shall come to our +shores, and the terms on which they shall be naturalized and shall +hold land and exercise other privileges. We are a rich people, and +an unmilitary people. In international affairs we are a short-sighted +people. But I know my countrymen. Down at bottom their temper is such +that they will not permanently tolerate injustice done to them. In the +long run they will no more permit affronts to their National honor than +injuries to their national interest. Such being the case, they will do +well to remember that the surest of all ways to invite disaster is to be +opulent, aggressive and unarmed. + +Throughout the seven and a half years that I was President, I pursued +without faltering one consistent foreign policy, a policy of genuine +international good will and of consideration for the rights of others, +and at the same time of steady preparedness. The weakest nations knew +that they, no less than the strongest, were safe from insult and injury +at our hands; and the strong and the weak alike also knew that we +possessed both the will and the ability to guard ourselves from wrong or +insult at the hands of any one. + +It was under my administration that the Hague Court was saved from +becoming an empty farce. It had been established by joint international +agreement, but no Power had been willing to resort to it. Those +establishing it had grown to realize that it was in danger of becoming a +mere paper court, so that it would never really come into being at all. +M. d'Estournelles de Constant had been especially alive to this danger. +By correspondence and in personal interviews he impressed upon me the +need not only of making advances by actually applying arbitration--not +merely promising by treaty to apply it--to questions that were up +for settlement, but of using the Hague tribunal for this purpose. I +cordially sympathized with these views. On the recommendation of John +Hay, I succeeded in getting an agreement with Mexico to lay a matter in +dispute between the two republics before the Hague Court. This was +the first case ever brought before the Hague Court. It was followed by +numerous others; and it definitely established that court as the great +international peace tribunal. By mutual agreement with Great Britain, +through the decision of a joint commission, of which the American +members were Senators Lodge and Turner, and Secretary Root, we were able +peacefully to settle the Alaska Boundary question, the only question +remaining between ourselves and the British Empire which it was not +possible to settle by friendly arbitration; this therefore represented +the removal of the last obstacle to absolute agreement between the two +peoples. We were of substantial service in bringing to a satisfactory +conclusion the negotiations at Algeciras concerning Morocco. We +concluded with Great Britain, and with most of the other great nations, +arbitration treaties specifically agreeing to arbitrate all matters, +and especially the interpretation of treaties, save only as regards +questions affecting territorial integrity, national honor and vital +national interest. We made with Great Britain a treaty guaranteeing the +free use of the Panama Canal on equal terms to the ships of all nations, +while reserving to ourselves the right to police and fortify the canal, +and therefore to control it in time of war. Under this treaty we are +in honor bound to arbitrate the question of canal tolls for coastwise +traffic between the Western and Eastern coasts of the United States. I +believe that the American position as regards this matter is right; but +I also believe that under the arbitration treaty we are in honor +bound to submit the matter to arbitration in view of Great Britain's +contention--although I hold it to be an unwise contention--that our +position is unsound. I emphatically disbelieve in making universal +arbitration treaties which neither the makers nor any one else would for +a moment dream of keeping. I no less emphatically insist that it is our +duty to keep the limited and sensible arbitration treaties which we have +already made. The importance of a promise lies not in making it, but in +keeping it; and the poorest of all positions for a nation to occupy in +such a matter is readiness to make impossible promises at the same time +that there is failure to keep promises which have been made, which can +be kept, and which it is discreditable to break. + +During the early part of the year 1905, the strain on the civilized +world caused by the Russo-Japanese War became serious. The losses of +life and of treasure were frightful. From all the sources of information +at hand, I grew most strongly to believe that a further continuation +of the struggle would be a very bad thing for Japan, and an even worse +thing for Russia. Japan was already suffering terribly from the drain +upon her men, and especially upon her resources, and had nothing further +to gain from continuance of the struggle; its continuance meant to her +more loss than gain, even if she were victorious. Russia, in spite of +her gigantic strength, was, in my judgment, apt to lose even more than +she had already lost if the struggle continued. I deemed it probable +that she would no more be able successfully to defend Eastern Siberia +and Northern Manchuria than she had been able to defend Southern +Manchuria and Korea. If the war went on, I thought it, on the whole, +likely that Russia would be driven west of Lake Baikal. But it was very +far from certain. There is no certainty in such a war. Japan might have +met defeat, and defeat to her would have spelt overwhelming disaster; +and even if she had continued to win, what she thus won would have been +of no value to her, and the cost in blood and money would have left her +drained white. I believed, therefore, that the time had come when it +was greatly to the interest of both combatants to have peace, and when +therefore it was possible to get both to agree to peace. + +I first satisfied myself that each side wished me to act, but that, +naturally and properly, each side was exceedingly anxious that the other +should not believe that the action was taken on its initiative. I then +sent an identical note to the two powers proposing that they should +meet, through their representatives, to see if peace could not be made +directly between them, and offered to act as an intermediary in bringing +about such a meeting, but not for any other purpose. Each assented to my +proposal in principle. There was difficulty in getting them to agree +on a common meeting place; but each finally abandoned its original +contention in the matter, and the representatives of the two nations +finally met at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire. I previously received the +two delegations at Oyster Bay on the U. S. S. Mayflower, which, together +with another naval vessel, I put at their disposal, on behalf of the +United States Government, to take them from Oyster Bay to Portsmouth. + +As is customary--but both unwise and undesirable--in such cases, +each side advanced claims which the other could not grant. The chief +difficulty came because of Japan's demand for a money indemnity. I felt +that it would be better for Russia to pay some indemnity than to go on +with the war, for there was little chance, in my judgment, of the war +turning out favorably for Russia, and the revolutionary movement already +under way bade fair to overthrow the negotiations entirely. I advised +the Russian Government to this effect, at the same time urging them to +abandon their pretensions on certain other points, notably concerning +the southern half of Saghalien, which the Japanese had taken. I also, +however, and equally strongly, advised the Japanese that in my judgment +it would be the gravest mistake on their part to insist on continuing +the war for the sake of a money indemnity; for Russia was absolutely +firm in refusing to give them an indemnity, and the longer the war +continued the less able she would be to pay. I pointed out that there +was no possible analogy between their case and that of Germany in the +war with France, which they were fond of quoting. The Germans held Paris +and half of France, and gave up much territory in lieu of the indemnity, +whereas the Japanese were still many thousand miles from Moscow, and had +no territory whatever which they wished to give up. I also pointed out +that in my judgment whereas the Japanese had enjoyed the sympathy of +most of the civilized powers at the outset of and during the continuance +of the war, they would forfeit it if they turned the war into one merely +for getting money--and, moreover, they would almost certainly fail to +get the money, and would simply find themselves at the end of a year, +even if things prospered with them, in possession of territory they +did not want, having spent enormous additional sums of money, and +lost enormous additional numbers of men, and yet without a penny of +remuneration. The treaty of peace was finally signed. + +As is inevitable under such circumstances, each side felt that it ought +to have got better terms; and when the danger was well past each side +felt that it had been over-reached by the other, and that if the war had +gone on it would have gotten more than it actually did get. The Japanese +Government had been wise throughout, except in the matter of announcing +that it would insist on a money indemnity. Neither in national nor in +private affairs is it ordinarily advisable to make a bluff which cannot +be put through--personally, I never believe in doing it under any +circumstances. The Japanese people had been misled by this bluff of +their Government; and the unwisdom of the Government's action in the +matter was shown by the great resentment the treaty aroused in +Japan, although it was so beneficial to Japan. There were various mob +outbreaks, especially in the Japanese cities; the police were roughly +handled, and several Christian churches were burned, as reported to me +by the American Minister. In both Russia and Japan I believe that the +net result as regards myself was a feeling of injury, and of dislike +of me, among the people at large. I had expected this; I regarded it as +entirely natural; and I did not resent it in the least. The Governments +of both nations behaved toward me not only with correct and entire +propriety, but with much courtesy and the fullest acknowledgment of the +good effect of what I had done; and in Japan, at least, I believe that +the leading men sincerely felt that I had been their friend. I had +certainly tried my best to be the friend not only of the Japanese people +but of the Russian people, and I believe that what I did was for the +best interests of both and of the world at large. + +During the course of the negotiations I tried to enlist the aid of the +Governments of one nation which was friendly to Russia, and of another +nation which was friendly to Japan, in helping bring about peace. I +got no aid from either. I did, however, receive aid from the Emperor +of Germany. His Ambassador at St. Petersburg was the one Ambassador +who helped the American Ambassador, Mr. Meyer, at delicate and doubtful +points of the negotiations. Mr. Meyer, who was, with the exception of +Mr. White, the most useful diplomat in the American service, rendered +literally invaluable aid by insisting upon himself seeing the Czar at +critical periods of the transaction, when it was no longer possible for +me to act successfully through the representatives of the Czar, who were +often at cross purposes with one another. + +As a result of the Portsmouth peace, I was given the Nobel Peace Prize. +This consisted of a medal, which I kept, and a sum of $40,000, which I +turned over as a foundation of industrial peace to a board of trustees +which included Oscar Straus, Seth Low and John Mitchell. In the present +state of the world's development industrial peace is even more essential +than international peace; and it was fitting and appropriate to devote +the peace prize to such a purpose. In 1910, while in Europe, one of my +most pleasant experiences was my visit to Norway, where I addressed the +Nobel Committee, and set forth in full the principles upon which I +had acted, not only in this particular case but throughout my +administration. + +I received another gift which I deeply appreciated, an original copy +of Sully's "Memoires" of "Henry le Grand," sent me with the following +inscription (I translate it roughly): + +PARIS, January, 1906. + +"The undersigned members of the French Parliamentary Group of +International Arbitration and Conciliation have decided to tender +President Roosevelt a token of their high esteem and their sympathetic +recognition of the persistent and decisive initiative he has taken +towards gradually substituting friendly and judicial for violent methods +in case of conflict between Nations. + +"They believe that the action of President Roosevelt, which has realized +the most generous hopes to be found in history, should be classed as a +continuance of similar illustrious attempts of former times, notably +the project for international concord known under the name of the 'Great +Design of Henry IV' in the memoirs of his Prime Minister, the Duke de +Sully. In consequence they have sought out a copy of the first edition +of these memoirs, and they take pleasure in offering it to him, with the +request that he will keep it among his family papers." + +The signatures include those of Emile Loubet, A. Carnot, d'Estournelles +de Constant, Aristide Briand, Sully Prudhomme, Jean Jaures, A. +Fallieres, R. Poincare, and two or three hundred others. + +Of course what I had done in connection with the Portsmouth peace +was misunderstood by some good and sincere people. Just as after the +settlement of the coal strike, there were persons who thereupon thought +that it was in my power, and was my duty, to settle all other strikes, +so after the peace of Portsmouth there were other persons--not only +Americans, by the way,--who thought it my duty forthwith to make myself +a kind of international Meddlesome Mattie and interfere for peace +and justice promiscuously over the world. Others, with a delightful +non-sequitur, jumped to the conclusion that inasmuch as I had helped to +bring about a beneficent and necessary peace I must of necessity have +changed my mind about war being ever necessary. A couple of days after +peace was concluded I wrote to a friend: "Don't you be misled by the +fact that just at the moment men are speaking well of me. They will +speak ill soon enough. As Loeb remarked to me to-day, some time soon I +shall have to spank some little international brigand, and then all the +well-meaning idiots will turn and shriek that this is inconsistent +with what I did at the Peace Conference, whereas in reality it will be +exactly in line with it." + +To one of my political opponents, Mr. Schurz, who wrote me +congratulating me upon the outcome at Portsmouth, and suggesting that +the time was opportune for a move towards disarmament, I answered in a +letter setting forth views which I thought sound then, and think sound +now. The letter ran as follows: + +OYSTER BAY, N. Y., September 8, 1905. + +My dear Mr. Schurz: I thank you for your congratulations. As to what you +say about disarmament--which I suppose is the rough equivalent of "the +gradual diminution of the oppressive burdens imposed upon the world by +armed peace"--I am not clear either as to what can be done or what ought +to be done. If I had been known as one of the conventional type of peace +advocates I could have done nothing whatever in bringing about peace +now, I would be powerless in the future to accomplish anything, and +I would not have been able to help confer the boons upon Cuba, the +Philippines, Porto Rico and Panama, brought about by our action therein. +If the Japanese had not armed during the last twenty years, this would +indeed be a sorrowful century for Japan. If this country had not fought +the Spanish War; if we had failed to take the action we did about +Panama; all mankind would have been the loser. While the Turks were +butchering the Armenians the European powers kept the peace and thereby +added a burden of infamy to the Nineteenth Century, for in keeping that +peace a greater number of lives were lost than in any European war since +the days of Napoleon, and these lives were those of women and children +as well as of men; while the moral degradation, the brutality inflicted +and endured, the aggregate of hideous wrong done, surpassed that of any +war of which we have record in modern times. Until people get it firmly +fixed in their minds that peace is valuable chiefly as a means to +righteousness, and that it can only be considered as an end when it also +coincides with righteousness, we can do only a limited amount to advance +its coming on this earth. There is of course no analogy at present +between international law and private or municipal law, because there +is no sanction of force for the former, while there is for the latter. +Inside our own nation the law-abiding man does not have to arm himself +against the lawless simply because there is some armed force--the +police, the sheriff's posse, the national guard, the regulars--which +can be called out to enforce the laws. At present there is no similar +international force to call on, and I do not as yet see how it could +at present be created. Hitherto peace has often come only because some +strong and on the whole just power has by armed force, or the threat of +armed force, put a stop to disorder. In a very interesting French book +the other day I was reading how the Mediterranean was freed from pirates +only by the "pax Britannica," established by England's naval force. The +hopeless and hideous bloodshed and wickedness of Algiers and Turkestan +was stopped, and could only be stopped, when civilized nations in the +shape of Russia and France took possession of them. The same was true +of Burma and the Malay States, as well as Egypt, with regard to England. +Peace has come only as the sequel to the armed interference of a +civilized power which, relatively to its opponent, was a just and +beneficent power. If England had disarmed to the point of being unable +to conquer the Sudan and protect Egypt, so that the Mahdists had +established their supremacy in northeastern Africa, the result would +have been a horrible and bloody calamity to mankind. It was only the +growth of the European powers in military efficiency that freed eastern +Europe from the dreadful scourge of the Tartar and partially freed it +from the dreadful scourge of the Turk. Unjust war is dreadful; a just +war may be the highest duty. To have the best nations, the free and +civilized nations, disarm and leave the despotisms and barbarisms +with great military force, would be a calamity compared to which the +calamities caused by all the wars of the nineteenth century would be +trivial. Yet it is not easy to see how we can by international agreement +state exactly which power ceases to be free and civilized and which +comes near the line of barbarism or despotism. For example, I suppose +it would be very difficult to get Russia and Japan to come to a common +agreement on this point; and there are at least some citizens of other +nations, not to speak of their governments, whom it would also be hard +to get together. + +This does not in the least mean that it is hopeless to make the effort. +It may be that some scheme will be developed. America, fortunately, +can cordially assist in such an effort, for no one in his senses would +suggest our disarmament; and though we should continue to perfect our +small navy and our minute army, I do not think it necessary to increase +the number of our ships--at any rate as things look now--nor the number +of our soldiers. Of course our navy must be kept up to the highest +point of efficiency, and the replacing of old and worthless vessels by +first-class new ones may involve an increase in the personnel; but not +enough to interfere with our action along the lines you have suggested. +But before I would know how to advocate such action, save in some such +way as commending it to the attention of The Hague Tribunal, I would +have to have a feasible and rational plan of action presented. + +It seems to me that a general stop in the increase of the war navies +of the world _might_ be a good thing; but I would not like to speak too +positively offhand. Of course it is only in continental Europe that the +armies are too large; and before advocating action as regards them I +should have to weigh matters carefully--including by the way such a +matter as the Turkish army. At any rate nothing useful can be done +unless with the clear recognition that we object to putting peace second +to righteousness. + +Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +HON. CARL SCHURZ, Bolton Landing, Lake George, N. Y. + +In my own judgment the most important service that I rendered to +peace was the voyage of the battle fleet round the world. I had become +convinced that for many reasons it was essential that we should have +it clearly understood, by our own people especially, but also by other +peoples, that the Pacific was as much our home waters as the Atlantic, +and that our fleet could and would at will pass from one to the other of +the two great oceans. It seemed to me evident that such a voyage would +greatly benefit the navy itself; would arouse popular interest in and +enthusiasm for the navy; and would make foreign nations accept as a +matter of course that our fleet should from time to time be gathered in +the Pacific, just as from time to time it was gathered in the Atlantic, +and that its presence in one ocean was no more to be accepted as a mark +of hostility to any Asiatic power than its presence in the Atlantic +was to be accepted as a mark of hostility to any European power. I +determined on the move without consulting the Cabinet, precisely as +I took Panama without consulting the Cabinet. A council of war never +fights, and in a crisis the duty of a leader is to lead and not to take +refuge behind the generally timid wisdom of a multitude of councillors. +At that time, as I happen to know, neither the English nor the German +authorities believed it possible to take a fleet of great battleships +round the world. They did not believe that their own fleets could +perform the feat, and still less did they believe that the American +fleet could. I made up my mind that it was time to have a show down in +the matter; because if it was really true that our fleet could not get +from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it was much better to know it and be +able to shape our policy in view of the knowledge. Many persons publicly +and privately protested against the move on the ground that Japan would +accept it as a threat. To this I answered nothing in public. In private +I said that I did not believe Japan would so regard it because Japan +knew my sincere friendship and admiration for her and realized that we +could not as a Nation have any intention of attacking her; and that if +there were any such feeling on the part of Japan as was alleged that +very fact rendered it imperative that that fleet should go. When in the +spring of 1910 I was in Europe I was interested to find that high naval +authorities in both Germany and Italy had expected that war would come +at the time of the voyage. They asked me if I had not been afraid of it, +and if I had not expected that hostilities would begin at least by the +time that the fleet reached the Straits of Magellan? I answered that I +did not expect it; that I believed that Japan would feel as friendly in +the matter as we did; but that if my expectations had proved mistaken, +it would have been proof positive that we were going to be attacked +anyhow, and that 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. + +My prime purpose was to impress the American people; and this purpose +was fully achieved. The cruise did make a very deep impression abroad; +boasting about what we have done does not impress foreign nations at +all, except unfavorably, but positive achievement does; and the two +American achievements that really impressed foreign peoples during the +first dozen years of this century were the digging of the Panama Canal +and the cruise of the battle fleet round the world. But the impression +made on our own people was of far greater consequence. No single +thing in the history of the new United States Navy has done as much to +stimulate popular interest and belief in it as the world cruise. This +effect was forecast in a well-informed and friendly English periodical, +the London _Spectator_. Writing in October, 1907, a month before the +fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, the _Spectator said_: + +"All over America the people will follow the movements of the fleet; +they will learn something of the intricate details of the coaling +and commissariat work under warlike conditions; and in a word +their attention will be aroused. Next time Mr. Roosevelt or his +representatives appeal to the country for new battleships they will do +so to people whose minds have been influenced one way or the other. The +naval programme will not have stood still. We are sure that, apart from +increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet, this is the aim which +Mr. Roosevelt has in mind. He has a policy which projects itself far +into the future, but it is an entire misreading of it to suppose that it +is aimed narrowly and definitely at any single Power." + +I first directed the fleet, of sixteen battleships, to go round through +the Straits of Magellan to San Francisco. From thence I ordered them to +New Zealand and Australia, then to the Philippines, China and Japan, +and home through Suez--they stopped in the Mediterranean to help the +sufferers from the earthquake at Messina, by the way, and did this work +as effectively as they had done all their other work. Admiral Evans +commanded the fleet to San Francisco; there Admiral Sperry took it; +Admirals Thomas, Wainwright and Schroeder rendered distinguished service +under Evans and Sperry. The coaling and other preparations were made in +such excellent shape by the Department that there was never a hitch, not +so much as the delay of an hour, in keeping every appointment made. +All the repairs were made without difficulty, the ship concerned +merely falling out of column for a few hours, and when the job was done +steaming at speed until she regained her position. Not a ship was left +in any port; and there was hardly a desertion. As soon as it was known +that the voyage was to be undertaken men crowded to enlist, just as +freely from the Mississippi Valley as from the seaboard, and for the +first time since the Spanish War the ships put to sea overmanned--and by +as stalwart a set of men-of-war's men as ever looked through a porthole, +game for a fight or a frolic, but withal so self-respecting and with +such a sense of responsibility that in all the ports in which they +landed their conduct was exemplary. The fleet practiced incessantly +during the voyage, both with the guns and in battle tactics, and came +home a much more efficient fighting instrument than when it started +sixteen months before. + +The best men of command rank in our own service were confident that the +fleet would go round in safety, in spite of the incredulity of foreign +critics. Even they, however, did not believe that it was wise to send +the torpedo craft around. I accordingly acquiesced in their views, as it +did not occur to me to consult the lieutenants. But shortly before the +fleet started, I went in the Government yacht Mayflower to inspect the +target practice off Provincetown. I was accompanied by two torpedo +boat destroyers, in charge of a couple of naval lieutenants, thorough +gamecocks; and I had the two lieutenants aboard to dine one evening. +Towards the end of the dinner they could not refrain from asking if the +torpedo flotilla was to go round with the big ships. I told them no, +that the admirals and captains did not believe that the torpedo boats +could stand it, and believed that the officers and crews aboard the +cockle shells would be worn out by the constant pitching and bouncing +and the everlasting need to make repairs. My two guests chorused an +eager assurance that the boats could stand it. They assured me that +the enlisted men were even more anxious to go than were the officers, +mentioning that on one of their boats the terms of enlistment of most +of the crew were out, and the men were waiting to see whether or not to +reenlist, as they did not care to do so unless the boats were to go on +the cruise. I answered that I was only too glad to accept the word of +the men who were to do the job, and that they should certainly go; and +within half an hour I sent out the order for the flotilla to be got +ready. It went round in fine shape, not a boat being laid up. I felt +that the feat reflected even more credit upon the navy than did the +circumnavigation of the big ships, and I wrote the flotilla commander +the following letter: + +May 18, 1908. + +My dear Captain Cone: + +A great deal of attention has been paid to the feat of our battleship +fleet in encircling South America and getting to San Francisco; and it +would be hard too highly to compliment the officers and enlisted men of +that fleet for what they have done. Yet if I should draw any distinction +at all it would be in favor of you and your associates who have taken +out the torpedo flotilla. Yours was an even more notable feat, and every +officer and every enlisted man in the torpedo boat flotilla has the +right to feel that he has rendered distinguished service to the United +States navy and therefore to the people of the United States; and I wish +I could thank each of them personally. Will you have this letter read by +the commanding officer of each torpedo boat to his officers and crew? + +Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. + +LIEUTENANT COMMANDER HUTCH. I. CONE, U. S. N., Commanding Second Torpedo +Flotilla, Care Postmaster, San Francisco, Cal. + +There were various amusing features connected with the trip. Most of +the wealthy people and "leaders of opinion" in the Eastern cities +were panic-struck at the proposal to take the fleet away from Atlantic +waters. The great New York dailies issued frantic appeals to Congress +to stop the fleet from going. The head of the Senate Committee on Naval +Affairs announced that the fleet should not and could not go because +Congress would refuse to appropriate the money--he being from an Eastern +seaboard State. However, I announced in response that I had enough money +to take the fleet around to the Pacific anyhow, that the fleet would +certainly go, and that if Congress did not choose to appropriate enough +money to get the fleet back, why, it would stay in the Pacific. There +was no further difficulty about the money. + +It was not originally my intention that the fleet should visit +Australia, but the Australian Government sent a most cordial invitation, +which I gladly accepted; for I have, as every American ought to have, a +hearty admiration for, and fellow feeling with, Australia, and I believe +that America should be ready to stand back of Australia in any serious +emergency. The reception accorded the fleet in Australia was wonderful, +and it showed the fundamental community of feeling between ourselves and +the great commonwealth of the South Seas. The considerate, generous, and +open-handed hospitality with which the entire Australian people treated +our officers and men could not have been surpassed had they been our +own countrymen. The fleet first visited Sydney, which has a singularly +beautiful harbor. The day after the arrival one of our captains noticed +a member of his crew trying to go to sleep on a bench in the park. +He had fixed above his head a large paper with some lines evidently +designed to forestall any questions from friendly would-be hosts: "I am +delighted with the Australian people. I think your harbor the finest in +the world. I am very tired and would like to go to sleep." + +The most noteworthy incident of the cruise was the reception given to +our fleet in Japan. In courtesy and good breeding, the Japanese can +certainly teach much to the nations of the Western world. I had been +very sure that the people of Japan would understand aright what the +cruise meant, and would accept the visit of our fleet as the signal +honor which it was meant to be, a proof of the high regard and +friendship I felt, and which I was certain the American people felt, +for the great Island Empire. The event even surpassed my expectations. I +cannot too strongly express my appreciation of the generous courtesy the +Japanese showed the officers and crews of our fleet; and I may add +that every man of them came back a friend and admirer of the Japanese. +Admiral Sperry wrote me a letter of much interest, dealing not only with +the reception in Tokyo but with the work of our men at sea; I herewith +give it almost in full: + +28 October, 1908. + +Dear Mr. Roosevelt: + +My official report of the visit to Japan goes forward in this mail, but +there are certain aspects of the affair so successfully concluded which +cannot well be included in the report. + +You are perhaps aware that Mr. Denison of the Japanese Foreign Office +was one of my colleagues at The Hague, for whom I have a very +high regard. Desiring to avoid every possibility of trouble or +misunderstanding, I wrote to him last June explaining fully the +character of our men, which they have so well lived up to, the +desirability of ample landing places, guides, rest houses and places for +changing money in order that there might be no delay in getting the men +away from the docks on the excursions in which they delight. Very few of +them go into a drinking place, except to get a resting place not to be +found elsewhere, paying for it by taking a drink. + +I also explained our system of landing with liberty men an unarmed +patrol, properly officered, to quietly take in charge and send off +to their ships any men who showed the slightest trace of disorderly +conduct. This letter he showed to the Minister of the Navy, who highly +approved of all our arrangements, including the patrol, of which I +feared they might be jealous. Mr. Denison's reply reached me in Manila, +with a memorandum from the Minister of the Navy which removed all +doubts. Three temporary piers were built for our boat landings, each +300 feet long, brilliantly lighted and decorated. The sleeping +accommodations did not permit two or three thousand sailors to remain on +shore, but the ample landings permitted them to be handled night and day +with perfect order and safety. + +At the landings and railroad station in Yokohama there were rest +houses or booths, reputable money changers and as many as a thousand +English-speaking Japanese college students acted as volunteer guides, +besides Japanese sailors and petty officers detailed for the purpose. +In Tokyo there were a great many excellent refreshment places, where the +men got excellent meals and could rest, smoke, and write letters, and +in none of these places would they allow the men to pay anything, though +they were more than ready to do so. The arrangements were marvelously +perfect. + +As soon as your telegram of October 18, giving the address to be made to +the Emperor, was received, I gave copies of it to our Ambassador to +be sent to the Foreign Office. It seems that the Emperor had already +prepared a very cordial address to be forwarded through me to you, after +delivery at the audience, but your telegram reversed the situation and +his reply was prepared. I am convinced that your kind and courteous +initiative on this occasion helped cause the pleasant feeling which was +so obvious in the Emperor's bearing at the luncheon which followed the +audience. X., who is reticent and conservative, told me that not only +the Emperor but all the Ministers were profoundly gratified by the +course of events. I am confident that not even the most trifling +incident has taken place which could in any way mar the general +satisfaction, and our Ambassador has expressed to me his great +satisfaction with all that has taken place. + +Owing to heavy weather encountered on the passage up from Manila the +fleet was obliged to take about 3500 tons of coal. + +The Yankton remained behind to keep up communication for a few days, and +yesterday she transmitted the Emperor's telegram to you, which was sent +in reply to your message through our Ambassador after the sailing of the +fleet. It must be profoundly gratifying to you to have the mission +on which you sent the fleet terminate so happily, and I am profoundly +thankful that, owing to the confidence which you displayed in giving +me this command, my active career draws to a close with such honorable +distinction. + +As for the effect of the cruise upon the training, discipline and +effectiveness of the fleet, the good cannot be exaggerated. It is a war +game in every detail. The wireless communication has been maintained +with an efficiency hitherto unheard of. Between Honolulu and Auckland, +3850 miles, we were out of communication with a cable station for only +one night, whereas three [non-American] men-of-war trying recently to +maintain a chain of only 1250 miles, between Auckland and Sydney, were +only able to do so for a few hours. + +The officers and men as soon as we put to sea turn to their gunnery and +tactical work far more eagerly than they go to functions. Every morning +certain ships leave the column and move off seven or eight thousand +yards as targets for range measuring fire control and battery practice +for the others, and at night certain ships do the same thing for +night battery practice. I am sorry to say that this practice is +unsatisfactory, and in some points misleading, owing to the fact +that the ships are painted white. At Portland, in 1903, I saw Admiral +Barker's white battleships under the searchlights of the army at a +distance of 14,000 yards, seven sea miles, without glasses, while the +Hartford, a black ship, was never discovered at all, though she passed +within a mile and a half. I have for years, while a member of the +General Board, advocated painting the ships war color at all times, and +by this mail I am asking the Department to make the necessary change in +the Regulations and paint the ships properly. I do not know that any one +now dissents from my view. Admiral Wainwright strongly concurs, and +the War College Conference recommended it year after year without a +dissenting voice. + +In the afternoons the fleet has two or three hours' practice at battle +maneuvers, which excite as keen interest as gunnery exercises. + +The competition in coal economy goes on automatically and reacts in a +hundred ways. It has reduced the waste in the use of electric light and +water, and certain chief engineers are said to keep men ranging over the +ships all night turning out every light not in actual and immediate use. +Perhaps the most important effect is the keen hunt for defects in +the machinery causing waste of power. The Yankton by resetting valves +increased her speed from 10 to 11 1/2 knots on the same expenditure. + +All this has been done, but the field is widening, the work has only +begun. + +* * * * * + +C. S. SPERRY. + +When I left the Presidency I finished seven and a half years of +administration, during which not one shot had been fired against a +foreign foe. We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the +world with whom a war cloud threatened, no nation in the world whom we +had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear. The cruise of the +battle fleet was not the least of the causes which ensured so peaceful +an outlook. + +When the fleet returned after its sixteen months' voyage around the +world I went down to Hampton Roads to greet it. The day was Washington's +Birthday, February 22, 1907. Literally on the minute the homing +battlecraft came into view. On the flagship of the Admiral I spoke to +the officers and enlisted men, as follows: + +"Admiral Sperry, Officers and Men of the Battle Fleet: + +"Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor, and over +the world's rim, and this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled +with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon. +You have been in the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres; four times +you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the great +oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent. Ever your general +course has been westward; and now you come back to the port from +which you set sail. This is the first battle fleet that has ever +circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat again can but +follow in your footsteps. + +"The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America, through +the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast. The armored cruiser +squadron met you, and left you again, when you were half way round the +world. You have falsified every prediction of the prophets of failure. +In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention has happened +to a single battleship, nor yet to the cruisers or torpedo boats. You +left this coast in a high state of battle efficiency, and you return +with your efficiency increased; better prepared than when you left, not +only in personnel but even in material. During your world cruise you +have taken your regular gunnery practice, and skilled though you were +before with the guns, you have grown more skilful still; and through +practice you have improved in battle tactics, though here there is more +room for improvement than in your gunnery. Incidentally, I suppose I +need hardly say that one measure of your fitness must be your clear +recognition of the need always steadily to strive to render yourselves +more fit; if you ever grow to think that you are fit enough, you can +make up your minds that from that moment you will begin to go backward. + +"As a war-machine, the fleet comes back in better shape than it went +out. In addition, you, the officers and men of this formidable fighting +force, have shown yourselves the best of all possible ambassadors and +heralds of peace. Wherever you have landed you have borne yourselves +so as to make us at home proud of being your countrymen. You have shown +that the best type of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear to +the utmost possible advantage when his business is to behave himself on +shore, and to make a good impression in a foreign land. We are proud of +all the ships and all the men in this whole fleet, and we welcome you +home to the country whose good repute among nations has been raised by +what you have done." + + + +APPENDIX A + +THE TRUSTS, THE PEOPLE, AND THE SQUARE DEAL + +[Written when Mr. Taft's administration brought suit to dissolve the +steel corporation, one of the grounds for the suit being the acquisition +by the Corporation of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; this action +was taken, with my acquiescence, while I was President, and while Mr. +Taft was a member of my cabinet; at the time he never protested against, +and as far as I knew approved of my action in this case, as in the +Harvester Trust case, and all similar cases.] + +The suit against the Steel Trust by the Government has brought vividly +before our people the need of reducing to order our chaotic Government +policy as regards business. As President, in Messages to Congress I +repeatedly called the attention of that body and of the public to the +inadequacy of the Anti-Trust Law by itself to meet business conditions +and secure justice to the people, and to the further fact that it might, +if left unsupplemented by additional legislation, work mischief, with no +compensating advantage; and I urged as strongly as I knew how that +the policy followed with relation to railways in connection with the +Inter-State Commerce Law should be followed by the National Government +as regards all great business concerns; and therefore that, as a +first step, the powers of the Bureau of Corporations should be greatly +enlarged, or else that there should be created a Governmental board or +commission, with powers somewhat similar to those of the Inter-State +Commerce Commission, but covering the whole field of inter-State +business, exclusive of transportation (which should, by law, be kept +wholly separate from ordinary industrial business, all common ownership +of the industry and the railway being forbidden). In the end I have +always believed that it would also be necessary to give the National +Government complete power over the organization and capitalization of +all business concerns engaged in inter-State commerce. + +A member of my Cabinet with whom, even more than with the various +Attorneys-General, I went over every detail of the trust situation, was +the one time Secretary of the Interior, Mr. James R. Garfield. He writes +me as follows concerning the suit against the Steel Corporation: + +"Nothing appeared before the House Committee that made me believe we +were deceived by Judge Gary. + +"This, I think, is a case that shows clearly the difference between +destructive litigation and constructive legislation. I have not yet seen +a full copy of the Government's petition, but our papers give nothing +that indicates any kind of unfair or dishonest competition such as +existed in both the Standard Oil and Tobacco Cases. As I understand it, +the competitors of the Steel Company have steadily increased in strength +during the last six or seven years. Furthermore, the per cent of the +business done by the Steel Corporation has decreased during that time. +As you will remember, at our first conference with Judge Gary, the Judge +stated that it was the desire and purpose of the Company to conform +to what the Government wished, it being the purpose of the Company +absolutely to obey the law both in spirit and letter. Throughout the +time that I had charge of the investigation, and while we were in +Washington, I do not know of a single instance where the Steel Company +refused any information requested; but, on the contrary, aided in every +possible way our investigation. + +"The position now taken by the Government is absolutely destructive +of legitimate business, because they outline no rule of conduct for +business of any magnitude. It is absurd to say that the courts can +lay down such rules. The most the courts can do is to find as legal or +illegal the particular transactions brought before them. Hence, after +years of tedious litigation there would be no clear-cut rule for future +action. This method of procedure is dealing with the device, not the +result, and drives business to the elaboration of clever devices, each +of which must be tested in the courts. + +"I have yet to find a better method of dealing with the anti-trust +situation than that suggested by the bill which we agreed upon in the +last days of your Administration. That bill should be used as a basis +for legislation, and there could be incorporated upon it whatever may +be determined wise regarding the direct control and supervision of +the National Government, either through a commission similar to the +Inter-State Commerce Commission or otherwise." + +Before taking up the matter in its large aspect, I wish to say one word +as to one feature of the Government suit against the Steel Corporation. +One of the grounds for the suit is the acquisition by the Steel +Corporation of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company; and it has been +alleged, on the authority of the Government officials engaged in +carrying on the suit, that as regards this transaction I was misled by +the representatives of the Steel Corporation, and that the facts were +not accurately or truthfully laid before me. This statement is not +correct. I believed at the time that the facts in the case were as +represented to me on behalf of the Steel Corporation, and my further +knowledge has convinced me that this was true. I believed at the time +that the representatives of the Steel Corporation told me the truth as +to the change that would be worked in the percentage of the business +which the proposed acquisition would give the Steel Corporation, and +further inquiry has convinced me that they did so. I was not misled. The +representatives of the Steel Corporation told me the truth as to what +the effect of the action at that time would be, and any statement that I +was misled or that the representatives of the Steel Corporation did +not thus tell me the truth as to the facts of the case is itself not in +accordance with the truth. In _The Outlook_ of August 19 last I gave +in full the statement I had made to the Investigating Committee of the +House of Representatives on this matter. That statement is accurate, and +I reaffirm everything I therein said, not only as to what occurred, but +also as to my belief in the wisdom and propriety of my action--indeed, +the action not merely was wise and proper, but it would have been a +calamity from every standpoint had I failed to take it. On page 137 of +the printed report of the testimony before the Committee will be found +Judge Gary's account of the meeting between himself and Mr. Frick and +Mr. Root and myself. This account states the facts accurately. It has +been alleged that the purchase by the Steel Corporation of the property +of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company gave the Steel Corporation +practically a monopoly of the Southern iron ores--that is, of the iron +ores south of the Potomac and the Ohio. My information, which I +have every reason to believe is accurate and not successfully to be +challenged, is that, of these Southern iron ores the Steel Corporation +has, including the property gained from the Tennessee Coal and Iron +Company, less than 20 per cent--perhaps not over 16 per cent. This is +a very much smaller percentage than the percentage it holds of the Lake +Superior ores, which even after the surrender of the Hill lease will +be slightly over 50 per cent. According to my view, therefore, +and unless--which I do not believe possible--these figures can be +successfully challenged, the acquisition of the Tennessee Coal and Iron +Company's ores in no way changed the situation as regards making the +Steel Corporation a monopoly.[*] The showing as to the percentage of +production of all kinds of steel ingots and steel castings in the +United States by the Steel Corporation and by all other manufacturers +respectively makes an even stronger case. It makes the case even +stronger than I put it in my testimony before the Investigating +Committee, for I was scrupulously careful to make statements that erred, +if at all, against my own position. It appears from the figures of +production that in 1901 the Steel Corporation had to its credit nearly +66 per cent of the total production as against a little over 34 per cent +by all other steel manufacturers. The percentage then shrank steadily, +until in 1906, the year before the acquisition of the Tennessee Coal and +Iron properties, the percentage was a little under 58 per cent. In spite +of the acquisition of these properties, the following year, 1907, the +total percentage shrank slightly, and this shrinking has continued until +in 1910 the total percentage of the Steel Corporation is but a little +over 54 per cent, and the percentage by all other steel manufacturers +but a fraction less than 46 per cent. Of the 54 3_10 per cent produced +by the Steel Corporation 1 9_10 per cent is produced by the former +Tennessee Coal and Iron Company. In other words, these figures show that +the acquisition of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company did not in the +slightest degree change the situation, and that during the ten +years which include the acquisition of these properties by the Steel +Corporation the percentage of total output of steel manufacturers in +this country by the Steel Corporation has shrunk from nearly 66 per cent +to but a trifle over 54 per cent. I do not believe that these figures +can be successfully controverted, and if not successfully controverted +they show clearly not only that the acquisition of the Tennessee +Coal and Iron properties wrought no change in the status of the Steel +Corporation, but that the Steel Corporation during the decade has +steadily lost, instead of gained, in monopolistic character. + + [*] My own belief is that our Nation should long ago have + adopted the policy of merely leasing for a term of years + mineral-bearing land; but it is the fault of us ourselves, + of the people, not of the Steel Corporation, that this + policy has not been adopted. + +So much for the facts in this particular case. Now for the general +subject. When my Administration took office, I found, not only that +there had been little real enforcement of the Anti-Trust Law and but +little more effective enforcement of the Inter-State Commerce Law, +but also that the decisions were so chaotic and the laws themselves so +vaguely drawn, or at least interpreted in such widely varying fashions, +that the biggest business men tended to treat both laws as dead letters. +The series of actions by which we succeeded in making the Inter-State +Commerce Law an efficient and most useful instrument in regulating the +transportation of the country and exacting justice from the big railways +without doing them injustice--while, indeed, on the contrary, securing +them against injustice--need not here be related. The Anti-Trust Law it +was also necessary to enforce as it had never hitherto been enforced; +both because it was on the statute-books and because it was imperative +to teach the masters of the biggest corporations in the land that they +were not, and would not be permitted to regard themselves as, above +the law. Moreover, where the combination has really been guilty of +misconduct the law serves a useful purpose, and in such cases as those +of the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trusts, if effectively enforced, the law +confers a real and great good. + +Suits were brought against the most powerful corporations in the land, +which we were convinced had clearly and beyond question violated the +Anti-Trust Law. These suits were brought with great care, and only where +we felt so sure of our facts that we could be fairly certain that +there was a likelihood of success. As a matter of fact, in most of the +important suits we were successful. It was imperative that these suits +should be brought, and very real good was achieved by bringing them, for +it was only these suits that made the great masters of corporate capital +in America fully realize that they were the servants and not the masters +of the people, that they were subject to the law, and that they would +not be permitted to be a law unto themselves; and the corporations +against which we proceeded had sinned, not merely by being big (which +we did not regard as in itself a sin), but by being guilty of unfair +practices towards their competitors, and by procuring fair advantages +from the railways. But the resulting situation has made it evident that +the Anti-Trust Law is not adequate to meet the situation that has grown +up because of modern business conditions and the accompanying tremendous +increase in the business use of vast quantities of corporate wealth. As +I have said, this was already evident to my mind when I was President, +and in communications to Congress I repeatedly stated the facts. But +when I made these communications there were still plenty of people +who did not believe that we would succeed in the suits that had +been instituted against the Standard Oil, the Tobacco, and other +corporations, and it was impossible to get the public as a whole to +realize what the situation was. Sincere zealots who believed that +all combinations could be destroyed and the old-time conditions of +unregulated competition restored, insincere politicians who knew better +but made believe that they thought whatever their constituents +wished them to think, crafty reactionaries who wished to see on the +statute-books laws which they believed unenforceable, and the almost +solid "Wall Street crowd" or representatives of "big business" who at +that time opposed with equal violence both wise and necessary and unwise +and improper regulation of business-all fought against the adoption of a +sane, effective, and far-reaching policy. + +It is a vitally necessary thing to have the persons in control of big +trusts of the character of the Standard Oil Trust and Tobacco Trust +taught that they are under the law, just as it was a necessary thing to +have the Sugar Trust taught the same lesson in drastic fashion by Mr. +Henry L. Stimson when he was United States District Attorney in the +city of New York. But to attempt to meet the whole problem not by +administrative governmental action but by a succession of lawsuits is +hopeless from the standpoint of working out a permanently satisfactory +solution. Moreover, the results sought to be achieved are achieved only +in extremely insufficient and fragmentary measure by breaking up all big +corporations, whether they have behaved well or ill, into a number of +little corporations which it is perfectly certain will be largely, and +perhaps altogether, under the same control. Such action is harsh and +mischievous if the corporation is guilty of nothing except its size; and +where, as in the case of the Standard Oil, and especially the Tobacco, +trusts, the corporation has been guilty of immoral and anti-social +practices, there is need for far more drastic and thoroughgoing action +than any that has been taken, under the recent decree of the Supreme +Court. In the case of the Tobacco Trust, for instance, the settlement in +the Circuit Court, in which the representatives of the Government +seem inclined to concur, practically leaves all of the companies still +substantially under the control of the twenty-nine original defendants. +Such a result is lamentable from the standpoint of justice. The decision +of the Circuit Court, if allowed to stand, means that the Tobacco Trust +has merely been obliged to change its clothes, that none of the real +offenders have received any real punishment, while, as the New York +Times, a pro-trust paper, says, the tobacco concerns, in their new +clothes, are in positions of "ease and luxury," and "immune from +prosecution under the law." + +Surely, miscarriage of justice is not too strong a term to apply to such +a result when considered in connection with what the Supreme Court said +of this Trust. That great Court in its decision used language which, +in spite of its habitual and severe self-restraint in stigmatizing +wrong-doing, yet unhesitatingly condemns the Tobacco Trust for moral +turpitude, saying that the case shows an "ever present manifestation +. . . of conscious wrong-doing" by the Trust, whose history is "replete +with the doing of acts which it was the obvious purpose of the statute +to forbid, . . . demonstrative of the existence from the beginning of a +purpose to acquire dominion and control of the tobacco trade, not by the +mere exertion of the ordinary right to contract and to trade, but by +methods devised in order to monopolize the trade by driving competitors +out of business, which were ruthlessly carried out upon the assumption +that to work upon the fears or play upon the cupidity of competitors +would make success possible." The letters from and to various officials +of the Trust, which were put in evidence, show a literally astounding +and horrifying indulgence by the Trust in wicked and depraved business +methods--such as the "endeavor to cause a strike in their [a rival +business firm's] factory," or the "shutting off the market" of an +independent tobacco firm by "taking the necessary steps to give them a +warm reception," or forcing importers into a price agreement by causing +and continuing "a demoralization of the business for such length of time +as may be deemed desirable" (I quote from the letters). A Trust guilty +of such conduct should be absolutely disbanded, and the only way to +prevent the repetition of such conduct is by strict Government +supervision, and not merely by lawsuits. + +The Anti-Trust Law cannot meet the whole situation, nor can any +modification of the principle of the Anti-Trust Law avail to meet +the whole situation. The fact is that many of the men who have called +themselves Progressives, and who certainly believe that they are +Progressives, represent in reality in this matter not progress at +all but a kind of sincere rural toryism. These men believe that it is +possible by strengthening the Anti-Trust Law to restore business to +the competitive conditions of the middle of the last century. Any such +effort is foredoomed to end in failure, and, if successful, would +be mischievous to the last degree. Business cannot be successfully +conducted in accordance with the practices and theories of sixty years +ago unless we abolish steam, electricity, big cities, and, in short, not +only all modern business and modern industrial conditions, but all the +modern conditions of our civilization. The effort to restore competition +as it was sixty years ago, and to trust for justice solely to this +proposed restoration of competition, is just as foolish as if we should +go back to the flintlocks of Washington's Continentals as a +substitute for modern weapons of precision. The effort to prohibit all +combinations, good or bad, is bound to fail, and ought to fail; when +made, it merely means that some of the worst combinations are not +checked and that honest business is checked. Our purpose should be, not +to strangle business as an incident of strangling combinations, but to +regulate big corporations in thoroughgoing and effective fashion, so as +to help legitimate business as an incident to thoroughly and completely +safeguarding the interests of the people as a whole. Against all such +increase of Government regulation the argument is raised that it +would amount to a form of Socialism. This argument is familiar; it is +precisely the same as that which was raised against the creation of +the Inter-State Commerce Commission, and of all the different utilities +commissions in the different States, as I myself saw, thirty years +ago, when I was a legislator at Albany, and these questions came up +in connection with our State Government. Nor can action be effectively +taken by any one State. Congress alone has power under the Constitution +effectively and thoroughly and at all points to deal with inter-State +commerce, and where Congress, as it should do, provides laws that +will give the Nation full jurisdiction over the whole field, then that +jurisdiction becomes, of necessity, exclusive--although until Congress +does act affirmatively and thoroughly it is idle to expect that the +States will or ought to rest content with non-action on the part of both +Federal and State authorities. This statement, by the way, applies also +to the question of "usurpation" by any one branch of our Government +of the rights of another branch. It is contended that in these recent +decisions the Supreme Court legislated; so it did; and it had to; +because Congress had signally failed to do its duty by legislating. +For the Supreme Court to nullify an act of the Legislature as +unconstitutional except on the clearest grounds is usurpation; to +interpret such an act in an obviously wrong sense is usurpation; but +where the legislative body persistently leaves open a field which it +is absolutely imperative, from the public standpoint, to fill, then no +possible blame attaches to the official or officials who step in because +they have to, and who then do the needed work in the interest of the +people. The blame in such cases lies with the body which has been +derelict, and not with the body which reluctantly makes good the +dereliction. + +A quarter of a century ago, Senator Cushman K. Davis, a statesman who +amply deserved the title of statesman, a man of the highest courage, of +the sternest adherence to the principles laid down by an exacting sense +of duty, an unflinching believer in democracy, who was as little to be +cowed by a mob as by a plutocrat, and moreover a man who possessed the +priceless gift of imagination, a gift as important to a statesman as to +a historian, in an address delivered at the annual commencement of +the University of Michigan on July 1, 1886, spoke as follows of +corporations: + +"Feudalism, with its domains, its untaxed lords, their retainers, +its exemptions and privileges, made war upon the aspiring spirit of +humanity, and fell with all its grandeurs. Its spirit walks the earth +and haunts the institutions of to-day, in the great corporations, with +the control of the National highways, their occupation of great domains, +their power to tax, their cynical contempt for the law, their sorcery +to debase most gifted men to the capacity of splendid slaves, their +pollution of the ermine of the judge and the robe of the Senator, their +aggregation in one man of wealth so enormous as to make Croesus seem a +pauper, their picked, paid, and skilled retainers who are summoned by +the message of electricity and appear upon the wings of steam. If we +look into the origin of feudalism and of the modern corporations--those +Dromios of history--we find that the former originated in a strict +paternalism, which is scouted by modern economists, and that the latter +has grown from an unrestrained freedom of action, aggression, and +development, which they commend as the very ideal of political wisdom. +_Laissez-faire_, says the professor, when it often means bind and gag +that the strongest may work his will. It is a plea for the survival of +the fittest--for the strongest male to take possession of the herd by +a process of extermination. If we examine this battle cry of political +polemics, we find that it is based upon the conception of the divine +right of property, and the preoccupation by older or more favored or +more alert or richer men or nations, of territory, of the forces of +nature, of machinery, of all the functions of what we call civilization. +Some of these men, who are really great, follow these conceptions to +their conclusions with dauntless intrepidity." + +When Senator Davis spoke, few men of great power had the sympathy and +the vision necessary to perceive the menace contained in the growth of +corporations; and the men who did see the evil were struggling blindly +to get rid of it, not by frankly meeting the new situation with new +methods, but by insisting upon the entirely futile effort to abolish +what modern conditions had rendered absolutely inevitable. Senator Davis +was under no such illusion. He realized keenly that it was absolutely +impossible to go back to an outworn social status, and that we must +abandon definitely the _laissez-faire_ theory of political economy, and +fearlessly champion a system of increased Governmental control, +paying no heed to the cries of the worthy people who denounce this as +Socialistic. He saw that, in order to meet the inevitable increase in +the power of corporations produced by modern industrial conditions, +it would be necessary to increase in like fashion the activity of the +sovereign power which alone could control such corporations. As has +been aptly said, the only way to meet a billion-dollar corporation is by +invoking the protection of a hundred-billion-dollar government; in other +words, of the National Government, for no State Government is strong +enough both to do justice to corporations and to exact justice from +them. Said Senator Davis in this admirable address, which should be +reprinted and distributed broadcast: + +"The liberty of the individual has been annihilated by the logical +process constructed to maintain it. We have come to a political +deification of Mammon. _Laissez-faire_ is not utterly blameworthy. It +begat modern democracy, and made the modern republic possible. There +can be no doubt of that. But there it reached its limit of political +benefaction, and began to incline toward the point where extremes meet. +. . . To every assertion that the people in their collective capacity of +a government ought to exert their indefeasible right of self-defense, it +is said you touch the sacred rights of property." + +The Senator then goes on to say that we now have to deal with an +oligarchy of wealth, and that the Government must develop power +sufficient enough to enable it to do the task. + +Few will dispute the fact that the present situation is not +satisfactory, and cannot be put on a permanently satisfactory basis +unless we put an end to the period of groping and declare for a fixed +policy, a policy which shall clearly define and punish wrong-doing, +which shall put a stop to the iniquities done in the name of business, +but which shall do strict equity to business. We demand that big +business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that +when any one engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right +he shall himself be given a square deal; and the first, and most +elementary, kind of square deal is to give him in advance full +information as to just what he can, and what he cannot, legally and +properly do. It is absurd, and much worse than absurd, to treat the +deliberate lawbreaker as on an exact par with the man eager to obey the +law, whose only desire is to find out from some competent Governmental +authority what the law is, and then to live up to it. Moreover, it is +absurd to treat the size of a corporation as in itself a crime. As +Judge Hook says in his opinion in the Standard Oil Case: "Magnitude +of business does not alone constitute a monopoly . . . the genius and +industry of man when kept to ethical standards still have full play, +and what he achieves is his . . . success and magnitude of business, the +rewards of fair and honorable endeavor [are not forbidden] . . . [the +public welfare is threatened only when success is attained] by +wrongful or unlawful methods." Size may, and in my opinion does, make a +corporation fraught with potential menace to the community; and may, and +in my opinion should, therefore make it incumbent upon the community to +exercise through its administrative (not merely through its judicial) +officers a strict supervision over that corporation in order to see +that it does not go wrong; but the size in itself does not signify +wrong-doing, and should not be held to signify wrong-doing. + +Not only should any huge corporation which has gained its position +by unfair methods, and by interference with the rights of others, by +demoralizing and corrupt practices, in short, by sheer baseness and +wrong-doing, be broken up, but it should be made the business of some +administrative governmental body, by constant supervision, to see that +it does not come together again, save under such strict control as shall +insure the community against all repetition of the bad conduct--and it +should never be permitted thus to assemble its parts as long as these +parts are under the control of the original offenders, for actual +experience has shown that these men are, from the standpoint of the +people at large, unfit to be trusted with the power implied in the +management of a large corporation. But nothing of importance is +gained by breaking up a huge inter-State and international industrial +organization _which has not offended otherwise than by its size_, into +a number of small concerns without any attempt to regulate the way in +which those concerns as a whole shall do business. Nothing is gained by +depriving the American Nation of good weapons wherewith to fight in the +great field of international industrial competition. Those who would +seek to restore the days of unlimited and uncontrolled competition, and +who believe that a panacea for our industrial and economic ills is to +be found in the mere breaking up of all big corporations, simply because +they are big, are attempting not only the impossible, but what, if +possible, would be undesirable. They are acting as we should act if +we tried to dam the Mississippi, to stop its flow outright. The effort +would be certain to result in failure and disaster; we would have +attempted the impossible, and so would have achieved nothing, or worse +than nothing. But by building levees along the Mississippi, not seeking +to dam the stream, but to control it, we are able to achieve our object +and to confer inestimable good in the course of so doing. + +This Nation should definitely adopt the policy of attacking, not +the mere fact of combination, but the evils and wrong-doing which so +frequently accompany combination. The fact that a combination is very +big is ample reason for exercising a close and jealous supervision over +it, because its size renders it potent for mischief; but it should not +be punished unless it actually does the mischief; it should merely be +so supervised and controlled as to guarantee us, the people, against +its doing mischief. We should not strive for a policy of unregulated +competition and of the destruction of all big corporations, that is, of +all the most efficient business industries in the land. Nor should +we persevere in the hopeless experiment of trying to regulate these +industries by means only of lawsuits, each lasting several years, and of +uncertain result. We should enter upon a course of supervision, control, +and regulation of these great corporations--a regulation which we should +not fear, if necessary, to bring to the point of control of monopoly +prices, just as in exceptional cases railway rates are now regulated. +Either the Bureau of Corporations should be authorized, or some other +governmental body similar to the Inter-State Commerce Commission should +be created, to exercise this supervision, this authoritative control. +When once immoral business practices have been eliminated by such +control, competition will thereby be again revived as a healthy factor, +although not as formerly an all-sufficient factor, in keeping the +general business situation sound. Wherever immoral business practices +still obtain--as they obtained in the cases of the Standard Oil Trust +and Tobacco Trust--the Anti-Trust Law can be invoked; and wherever such +a prosecution is successful, and the courts declare a corporation +to possess a monopolistic character, then that corporation should be +completely dissolved, and the parts ought never to be again assembled +save on whatever terms and under whatever conditions may be imposed by +the governmental body in which is vested the regulatory power. Methods +can readily be devised by which corporations sincerely desiring to +act fairly and honestly can on their own initiative come under this +thoroughgoing administrative control by the Government and thereby be +free from the working of the Anti-Trust Law. But the law will remain +to be invoked against wrongdoers; and under such conditions it could be +invoked far more vigorously and successfully than at present. + +It is not necessary in an article like this to attempt to work out +such a plan in detail. It can assuredly be worked out. Moreover, in my +opinion, substantially some such plan must be worked out or business +chaos will continue. Wrongdoing such as was perpetrated by the Standard +Oil Trust, and especially by the Tobacco Trust, should not only be +punished, but if possible punished in the persons of the chief authors +and beneficiaries of the wrong, far more severely than at present. But +punishment should not be the only, or indeed the main, end in view. Our +aim should be a policy of construction and not one of destruction. Our +aim should not be to punish the men who have made a big corporation +successful merely because they have made it big and successful, but +to exercise such thoroughgoing supervision and control over them as +to insure their business skill being exercised in the interest of the +public and not against the public interest. Ultimately, I believe that +this control should undoubtedly indirectly or directly extend to dealing +with all questions connected with their treatment of their employees, +including the wages, the hours of labor, and the like. Not only is the +proper treatment of a corporation, from the standpoint of the managers, +shareholders, and employees, compatible with securing from that +corporation the best standard of public service, but when the effort +is wisely made it results in benefit both to the corporation and to the +public. The success of Wisconsin in dealing with the corporations within +her borders, so as both to do them justice and to exact justice in +return from them toward the public, has been signal; and this Nation +should adopt a progressive policy in substance akin to the progressive +policy not merely formulated in theory but reduced to actual practice +with such striking success in Wisconsin. + +To sum up, then. It is practically impossible, and, if possible, +it would be mischievous and undesirable, to try to break up all +combinations merely because they are large and successful, and to put +the business of the country back into the middle of the eighteenth +century conditions of intense and unregulated competition between +small and weak business concerns. Such an effort represents not +progressiveness but an unintelligent though doubtless entirely +well-meaning toryism. Moreover, the effort to administer a law merely +by lawsuits and court decisions is bound to end in signal failure, and +meanwhile to be attended with delays and uncertainties, and to put a +premium upon legal sharp practice. Such an effort does not adequately +punish the guilty, and yet works great harm to the innocent. Moreover, +it entirely fails to give the publicity which is one of the best +by-products of the system of control by administrative officials; +publicity, which is not only good in itself, but furnishes the data +for whatever further action may be necessary. We need to formulate +immediately and definitely a policy which, in dealing with big +corporations that behave themselves and which contain no menace save +what is necessarily potential in any corporation which is of great size +and very well managed, shall aim not at their destruction but at their +regulation and supervision, so that the Government shall control them +in such fashion as amply to safeguard the interests of the whole public, +including producers, consumers, and wage-workers. This control should, +if necessary, be pushed in extreme cases to the point of exercising +control over monopoly prices, as rates on railways are now controlled; +although this is not a power that should be used when it is possible to +avoid it. The law should be clear, unambiguous, certain, so that honest +men may not find that unwittingly they have violated it. In short, our +aim should be, not to destroy, but effectively and in thoroughgoing +fashion to regulate and control, in the public interest, the great +instrumentalities of modern business, which it is destructive of the +general welfare of the community to destroy, and which nevertheless it +is vitally necessary to that general welfare to regulate and control. +Competition will remain as a very important factor when once we have +destroyed the unfair business methods, the criminal interference with +the rights of others, which alone enabled certain swollen combinations +to crush out their competitors--and, incidentally, the "conservatives" +will do well to remember that these unfair and iniquitous methods by +great masters of corporate capital have done more to cause popular +discontent with the propertied classes than all the orations of all the +Socialist orators in the country put together. + +I have spoken above of Senator Davis's admirable address delivered a +quarter of a century ago. Senator Davis's one-time partner, Frank B. +Kellogg, the Government counsel who did so much to win success for the +Government in its prosecutions of the trusts, has recently delivered +before the Palimpsest Club of Omaha an excellent address on the subject; +Mr. Prouty, of the Inter-State Commerce Commission, has recently, in +his speech before the Congregational Club of Brooklyn, dealt with +the subject from the constructive side; and in the proceedings of the +American Bar Association for 1904 there is an admirable paper on +the need of thoroughgoing Federal control over corporations doing an +inter-State business, by Professor Horace L. Wilgus, of the University +of Michigan. The National Government exercises control over inter-State +commerce railways, and it can in similar fashion, through an appropriate +governmental body, exercise control over all industrial organizations +engaged in inter-State commerce. This control should be exercised, not +by the courts, but by an administrative bureau or board such as the +Bureau of Corporations or the Inter-State Commerce Commission; for +the courts cannot with advantage permanently perform executive and +administrative functions. + + + +APPENDIX B + +THE CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS AND "THE NEW FREEDOM" + +In his book "The New Freedom," and in the magazine articles of which +it is composed, which appeared just after he had been inaugurated as +President, Mr. Woodrow Wilson made an entirely unprovoked attack upon +me and upon the Progressive party in connection with what he asserts +the policy of that party to be concerning the trusts, and as regards my +attitude while President about the trusts. + +I am reluctant to say anything whatever about President Wilson at the +outset of his Administration unless I can speak of him with praise. +I have scrupulously refrained from saying or doing one thing +since election that could put the slightest obstacle, even of +misinterpretation, in his path. It is to the interest of the country +that he should succeed in his office. I cordially wish him success, and +I shall cordially support any policy of his that I believe to be in the +interests of the people of the United States. But when Mr. Wilson, after +being elected President, within the first fortnight after he has been +inaugurated into that high office, permits himself to be betrayed into +a public misstatement of what I have said, and what I stand for, then he +forces me to correct his statements. + +Mr. Wilson opens his article by saying that the Progressive "doctrine is +that monopoly is inevitable, and that the only course open to the people +of the United States is to submit to it." This statement is without one +particle of foundation in fact. I challenge him to point out a sentence +in the Progressive platform or in any speech of mine which bears him +out. I can point him out any number which flatly contradict him. We have +never made any such statement as he alleges about monopolies. We have +said: "The corporation is an essential part of modern business. The +concentration of modern business, in some degree, is both inevitable and +necessary for National and international business efficiency." Does Mr. +Wilson deny this? Let him answer yes or no, directly. It is easy for +a politician detected in a misstatement to take refuge in evasive +rhetorical hyperbole. But Mr. Wilson is President of the United States, +and as such he is bound to candid utterance on every subject of public +interest which he himself has broached. If he disagrees with us, let him +be frank and consistent, and recommend to Congress that all corporations +be made illegal. Mr. Wilson's whole attack is largely based on a deft +but far from ingenuous confounding of what we have said of monopoly, +which we propose so far as possible to abolish, and what we have said of +big corporations, which we propose to regulate; Mr. Wilson's own vaguely +set forth proposals being to attempt the destruction of both in ways +that would harm neither. In our platform we use the word "monopoly" but +once, and then we speak of it as an abuse of power, coupling it with +stock-watering, unfair competition and unfair privileges. Does Mr. +Wilson deny this? If he does, then where else will he assert that we +speak of monopoly as he says we do? He certainly owes the people of the +United States a plain answer to the question. In my speech of acceptance +I said: "We favor strengthening the Sherman Law by prohibiting +agreements to divide territory or limit output; refusing to sell to +customers who buy from business rivals; to sell below cost in certain +areas while maintaining higher prices in other places; using the power +of transportation to aid or injure special business concerns; and all +other unfair trade practices." The platform pledges us to "guard and +keep open equally to all, the highways of American commerce." This is +the exact negation of monopoly. Unless Mr. Wilson is prepared to show +the contrary, surely he is bound in honor to admit frankly that he has +been betrayed into a misrepresentation, and to correct it. + +Mr. Wilson says that for sixteen years the National Administration has +"been virtually under the regulation of the trusts," and that the big +business men "have already captured the Government." Such a statement as +this might perhaps be pardoned as mere rhetoric in a candidate seeking +office--although it is the kind of statement that never under any +circumstances have I permitted myself to make, whether on the stump or +off the stump, about any opponent, unless I was prepared to back it up +with explicit facts. But there is an added seriousness to the charge +when it is made deliberately and in cold blood by a man who is at the +time President. In this volume I have set forth my relations with the +trusts. I challenge Mr. Wilson to controvert anything I have said, or to +name any trusts or any big business men who regulated, or in any +shape or way controlled, or captured, the Government during my term +as President. He must furnish specifications if his words are taken at +their face value--and I venture to say in advance that the absurdity +of such a charge is patent to all my fellow-citizens, not excepting Mr. +Wilson. + +Mr. Wilson says that the new party was founded "under the leadership of +Mr. Roosevelt, with the conspicuous aid--I mention him with no satirical +intention, but merely to set the facts down accurately--of Mr. George W. +Perkins, organizer of the Steel Trust." Whether Mr. Wilson's intention +was satirical or not is of no concern; but I call his attention to the +fact that he has conspicuously and strikingly failed "to set the facts +down accurately." Mr. Perkins was not the organizer of the Steel Trust, +and when it was organized he had no connection with it or with the +Morgan people. This is well known, and it has again and again been +testified to before Congressional committees controlled by Mr. Wilson's +friends who were endeavoring to find out something against Mr. Perkins. +If Mr. Wilson does not know that my statement is correct, he ought to +know it, and he is not to be excused for making such a misstatement as +he has made when he has not a particle of evidence in support of it. +Mr. Perkins was from the beginning in the Harvester Trust but, when Mr. +Wilson points out this fact, why does he not add that he was the only +man in that trust who supported me, and that the President of the trust +ardently supported Mr. Wilson himself? It is disingenuous to endeavor to +conceal these facts, and to mislead ordinary citizens about them. Under +the administrations of both Mr. Taft and Mr. Wilson, Mr. Perkins has +been singled out for special attack, obviously not because he belonged +to the Harvester and Steel Trusts, but because he alone among the +prominent men of the two corporations, fearlessly supported the only +party which afforded any real hope of checking the evil of the trusts. + +Mr. Wilson states that the Progressives have "a programme perfectly +agreeable to monopolies." + +The plain and unmistakable inference to be drawn from this and other +similar statements in his article, and the inference which he obviously +desired to have drawn, is that the big corporations approved the +Progressive plan and supported the Progressive candidate. If President +Wilson does not know perfectly well that this is not the case, he is +the only intelligent person in the United States who is thus ignorant. +Everybody knows that the overwhelming majority of the heads of the big +corporations supported him or Mr. Taft. It is equally well known that of +the corporations he mentions, the Steel and the Harvester Trusts, there +was but one man who took any part in the Progressive campaign, and that +almost all the others, some thirty in number, were against us, and some +of them, including the President of the Harvester Trust, openly and +enthusiastically for Mr. Wilson himself. If he reads the newspapers +at all, he must know that practically every man representing the +great financial interests of the country, and without exception every +newspaper controlled by Wall Street or State Street, actively supported +either him or Mr. Taft, and showed perfect willingness to accept either +if only they could prevent the Progressive party from coming into power +and from putting its platform into effect. + +Mr. Wilson says of the trust plank in that platform that it "did not +anywhere condemn monopoly except in words." Exactly of what else could a +platform consist? Does Mr. Wilson expect us to use algebraic signs? This +criticism is much as if he said the Constitution or the Declaration of +Independence contained nothing but words. The Progressive platform did +contain words, and the words were admirably designed to express thought +and meaning and purpose. Mr. Wilson says that I long ago "classified +trusts for us as good and bad," and said that I was "afraid only of the +bad ones." Mr. Wilson would do well to quote exactly what my language +was, and where it was used, for I am at a loss to know what statement +of mine it is to which he refers. But if he means that I say that +corporations can do well, and that corporations can also do ill, he is +stating my position correctly. I hold that a corporation does ill if it +seeks profit in restricting production and then by extorting high prices +from the community by reason of the scarcity of the product; through +adulterating, lyingly advertising, or over-driving the help; or +replacing men workers with children; or by rebates; or in any illegal +or improper manner driving competitors out of its way; or seeking to +achieve monopoly by illegal or unethical treatment of its competitors, +or in any shape or way offending against the moral law either in +connection with the public or with its employees or with its rivals. Any +corporation which seeks its profit in such fashion is acting badly. +It is, in fact, a conspiracy against the public welfare which the +Government should use all its powers to suppress. If, on the other hand, +a corporation seeks profit solely by increasing its products through +eliminating waste, improving its processes, utilizing its by-products, +installing better machines, raising wages in the effort to secure more +efficient help, introducing the principle of cooperation and mutual +benefit, dealing fairly with labor unions, setting its face against +the underpayment of women and the employment of children; in a +word, treating the public fairly and its rivals fairly: then such a +corporation is behaving well. It is an instrumentality of civilization +operating to promote abundance by cheapening the cost of living so as to +improve conditions everywhere throughout the whole community. Does Mr. +Wilson controvert either of these statements? If so, let him answer +directly. It is a matter of capital importance to the country that his +position in this respect be stated directly, not by indirect suggestion. + +Much of Mr. Wilson's article, although apparently aimed at the +Progressive party, is both so rhetorical and so vague as to need no +answer. He does, however, specifically assert (among other things +equally without warrant in fact) that the Progressive party says that it +is "futile to undertake to prevent monopoly," and only ventures to +ask the trusts to be "kind" and "pitiful"! It is a little difficult +to answer a misrepresentation of the facts so radical--not to say +preposterous--with the respect that one desires to use in speaking of or +to the President of the United States. I challenge President Wilson to +point to one sentence of our platform or of my speeches which affords +the faintest justification for these assertions. Having made this +statement in the course of an unprovoked attack on me, he cannot refuse +to show that it is true. I deem it necessary to emphasize here (but with +perfect respect) that I am asking for a plain statement of fact, not +for a display of rhetoric. I ask him, as is my right under the +circumstances, to quote the exact language which justifies him in +attributing these views to us. If he cannot do this, then a frank +acknowledgment on his part is due to himself and to the people. I quote +from the Progressive platform: "Behind the ostensible Government sits +enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging +no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government, +to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt +politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. . . . This +country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, +its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever +manner will best promote the general interest." This assertion is +explicit. We say directly that "the people" are absolutely to control in +any way they see fit, the "business" of the country. I again challenge +Mr. Wilson to quote any words of the platform that justify the +statements he has made to the contrary. If he cannot do it--and of +course he cannot do it, and he must know that he cannot do it--surely he +will not hesitate to say so frankly. + +Mr. Wilson must know that every monopoly in the United States opposes +the Progressive party. If he challenges this statement, I challenge him +in return (as is clearly my right) to name the monopoly that did support +the Progressive party, whether it was the Sugar Trust, the Steel Trust, +the Harvester Trust, the Standard Oil Trust, the Tobacco Trust, or any +other. Every sane man in the country knows well that there is not one +word of justification that can truthfully be adduced for Mr. Wilson's +statement that the Progressive programme was agreeable to the +monopolies. Ours was the only programme to which they objected, and they +supported either Mr. Wilson or Mr. Taft against me, indifferent as to +which of them might be elected so long as I was defeated. Mr. Wilson +says that I got my "idea with regard to the regulation of monopoly from +the gentlemen who form the United States Steel Corporation." Does Mr. +Wilson pretend that Mr. Van Hise and Mr. Croly got their ideas from the +Steel Corporation? Is Mr. Wilson unaware of the elementary fact that +most modern economists believe that unlimited, unregulated competition +is the source of evils which all men now concede must be remedied if +this civilization of ours is to survive? Is he ignorant of the fact that +the Socialist party has long been against unlimited competition? This +statement of Mr. Wilson cannot be characterized properly with any degree +of regard for the office Mr. Wilson holds. Why, the ideas that I +have championed as to controlling and regulating both competition and +combination in the interest of the people, so that the people shall be +masters over both, have been in the air in this country for a quarter of +a century. I was merely the first prominent candidate for President who +took them up. They are the progressive ideas, and progressive business +men must in the end come to them, for I firmly believe that in the +end all wise and honest business men, big and little, will support our +programme. Mr. Wilson in opposing them is the mere apostle of reaction. +He says that I got my "ideas from the gentlemen who form the Steel +Corporation." I did not. But I will point out to him something in +return. It was he himself, and Mr. Taft, who got the votes and the money +of these same gentlemen, and of those in the Harvester Trust. + +Mr. Wilson has promised to break up all trusts. He can do so only by +proceeding at law. If he proceeds at law, he can hope for success +only by taking what I have done as a precedent. In fact, what I did as +President is the base of every action now taken or that can be now +taken looking toward the control of corporations, or the suppression +of monopolies. The decisions rendered in various cases brought by my +direction constitute the authority on which Mr. Wilson must base any +action that he may bring to curb monopolistic control. Will Mr. Wilson +deny this, or question it in any way? With what grace can he describe +my Administration as satisfactory to the trusts when he knows that he +cannot redeem a single promise that he has made to war upon the trusts +unless he avails himself of weapons of which the Federal Government had +been deprived before I became President, and which were restored to +it during my Administration and through proceedings which I directed? +Without my action Mr. Wilson could not now undertake or carry on a +single suit against a monopoly, and, moreover, if it had not been for my +action and for the judicial decision in consequence obtained, Congress +would be helpless to pass a single law against monopoly. + +Let Mr. Wilson mark that the men who organized and directed the Northern +Securities Company were also the controlling forces in the very Steel +Corporation which Mr. Wilson makes believe to think was supporting me. +I challenge Mr. Wilson to deny this, and yet he well knew that it was +my successful suit against the Northern Securities Company which first +efficiently established the power of the people over the trusts. + +After reading Mr. Wilson's book, I am still entirely in the dark as to +what he means by the "New Freedom." Mr. Wilson is an accomplished and +scholarly man, a master of rhetoric, and the sentences in the book are +well-phrased statements, usually inculcating a morality which is sound +although vague and ill defined. There are certain proposals (already +long set forth and practiced by me and by others who have recently +formed the Progressive party) made by Mr. Wilson with which I cordially +agree. There are, however, certain things he has said, even as regards +matters of abstract morality, with which I emphatically disagree. +For example, in arguing for proper business publicity, as to which I +cordially agree with Mr. Wilson, he commits himself to the following +statement: + +"You know there is temptation in loneliness and secrecy. Haven't you +experienced it? I have. We are never so proper in our conduct as when +everybody can look and see exactly what we are doing. If you are off in +some distant part of the world and suppose that nobody who lives within +a mile of your home is anywhere around, there are times when you adjourn +your ordinary standards. You say to yourself, 'Well, I'll have a fling +this time; nobody will know anything about it.' If you were on the +Desert of Sahara, you would feel that you might permit yourself--well, +say, some slight latitude of conduct; but if you saw one of your +immediate neighbors coming the other way on a camel, you would behave +yourself until he got out of sight. The most dangerous thing in the +world is to get off where nobody knows you. I advise you to stay around +among the neighbors, and then you may keep out of jail. That is the only +way some of us can keep out of jail." + +I emphatically disagree with what seems to be the morality inculcated +in this statement, which is that a man is expected to do and is to be +pardoned for doing all kinds of immoral things if he does them alone +and does not expect to be found out. Surely it is not necessary, in +insisting upon proper publicity, to preach a morality of so basely +material a character. + +There is much more that Mr. Wilson says as to which I do not understand +him clearly, and where I condemn what I do understand. In economic +matters the course he advocates as part of the "New Freedom" simply +means the old, old "freedom" of leaving the individual strong man +at liberty, unchecked by common action, to prey on the weak and the +helpless. The "New Freedom" in the abstract seems to be the freedom +of the big to devour the little. In the concrete I may add that Mr. +Wilson's misrepresentations of what I have said seem to indicate that he +regards the new freedom as freedom from all obligation to obey the Ninth +Commandment. + +But, after all, my views or the principles of the Progressive party are +of much less importance now than the purposes of Mr. Wilson. These are +wrapped in impenetrable mystery. His speeches and writings serve but +to make them more obscure. If these attempts to refute his +misrepresentation of my attitude towards the trusts should result in +making his own clear, then this discussion will have borne fruits of +substantial value to the country. If Mr. Wilson has any plan of his +own for dealing with the trusts, it is to suppress all great industrial +organizations--presumably on the principle proclaimed by his Secretary +of State four years ago, that every corporation which produced more than +a certain percentage of a given commodity--I think the amount specified +was twenty-five per cent--no matter how valuable its service, should be +suppressed. The simple fact is that such a plan is futile. In operation +it would do far more damage than it could remedy. The Progressive plan +would give the people full control of, and in masterful fashion prevent +all wrongdoing by, the trusts, while utilizing for the public welfare +every industrial energy and ability that operates to swell abundance, +while obeying strictly the moral law and the law of the land. Mr. +Wilson's plan would ultimately benefit the trusts and would permanently +damage nobody but the people. For example, one of the steel corporations +which has been guilty of the worst practices towards its employees is +the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. Mr. Wilson and Mr. Bryan's plan +would, if successful, merely mean permitting four such companies, +absolutely uncontrolled, to monopolize every big industry in the +country. To talk of such an accomplishment as being "The New Freedom" is +enough to make the term one of contemptuous derision. + +President Wilson has made explicit promises, and the Democratic +platform has made explicit promises. Mr. Wilson is now in power, with +a Democratic Congress in both branches. He and the Democratic platform +have promised to destroy the trusts, to reduce the cost of living, and +at the same time to increase the well-being of the farmer and of the +workingman--which of course must mean to increase the profits of +the farmer and the wages of the workingman. He and his party won the +election on this promise. We have a right to expect that they will keep +it. If Mr. Wilson's promises mean anything except the very emptiest +words, he is pledged to accomplish the beneficent purposes he avows by +breaking up all the trusts and combinations and corporations so as to +restore competition precisely as it was fifty years ago. If he does not +mean this, he means nothing. He cannot do anything else under penalty +of showing that his promise and his performance do not square with each +other. + +Mr. Wilson says that "the trusts are our masters now, but I for one +do not care to live in a country called free even under kind masters." +Good! The Progressives are opposed to having masters, kind or unkind, +and they do not believe that a "new freedom" which in practice would +mean leaving four Fuel and Iron Companies free to do what they like in +every industry would be of much benefit to the country. The Progressives +have a clear and definite programme by which the people would be the +masters of the trusts instead of the trusts being their masters, as Mr. +Wilson says they are. With practical unanimity the trusts supported the +opponents of this programme, Mr. Taft and Mr. Wilson, and they evidently +dreaded our programme infinitely more than anything that Mr. Wilson +threatened. The people have accepted Mr. Wilson's assurances. Now let +him make his promises good. He is committed, if his words mean anything, +to the promise to break up every trust, every big corporation--perhaps +every small corporation--in the United States--not to go through +the motions of breaking them up, but really to break them up. He is +committed against the policy (of efficient control and mastery of +the big corporations both by law and by administrative action in +cooperation) proposed by the Progressives. Let him keep faith with +the people; let him in good faith try to keep the promises he has thus +repeatedly made. I believe that his promise is futile and cannot be +kept. I believe that any attempt sincerely to keep it and in good faith +to carry it out will end in either nothing at all or in disaster. But my +beliefs are of no consequence. Mr. Wilson is President. It is his acts +that are of consequence. He is bound in honor to the people of the +United States to keep his promise, and to break up, not nominally but in +reality, all big business, all trusts, all combinations of every sort, +kind, and description, and probably all corporations. What he says is +henceforth of little consequence. The important thing is what he +does, and how the results of what he does square with the promises and +prophecies he made when all he had to do was to speak, not to act. + + + +APPENDIX C + +THE BLAINE CAMPAIGN + +In "The House of Harper," written by J. Henry Harper, the following +passage occurs: "Curtis returned from the convention in company with +young Theodore Roosevelt and they discussed the situation thoroughly on +their trip to New York and came to the conclusion that it would be very +difficult to consistently support Blaine. Roosevelt, however, had a +conference afterward with Senator Lodge and eventually fell in line +behind Blaine. Curtis came to our office and found that we were +unanimously opposed to the support of Blaine, and with a hearty +good-will he trained his editorial guns on the 'Plumed Knight' of +Mulligan letter fame. His work was as effective and deadly as any fight +he ever conducted in the _Weekly_." This statement has no foundation +whatever in fact. I did not return from the convention in company with +Mr. Curtis. He went back to New York from the convention, whereas I +went to my ranch in North Dakota. No such conversation as that ever took +place between me and Mr. Curtis. In my presence, in speaking to a number +of men at the time in Chicago, Mr. Curtis said: "You younger men can, +if you think right, refuse to support Mr. Blaine, but I am too old a +Republican, and have too long been associated with the party, to break +with it now." Not only did I never entertain after the convention, but +I never during the convention or at any other time, entertained the +intention alleged in the quotation in question. I discussed the whole +situation with Mr. Lodge before going to the convention, and we had made +up our minds that if the nomination of Mr. Blaine was fairly made we +would with equal good faith support him. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Theodore Roosevelt, by Theodore Roosevelt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEODORE ROOSEVELT *** + +***** This file should be named 3335.txt or 3335.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/3/3335/ + +Produced by Dagny; John Bickers; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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