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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz + + +PREPARER'S NOTE + + This Etext was prepared from a 1920 edition, published by Charles + Scribner's Sons. The book was first published in 1913. + + + + + +Theodore Roosevelt + +An autobiography by Theodore Roosevelt + + + + +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[oops, broken--dag] + " 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 be 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 +Jaurés, 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 The Project Gutenberg Etext Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography + diff --git a/old/trabi10.zip b/old/trabi10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b920b85 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/trabi10.zip |