PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
In the first week of September 1901, President McKinley was killed
by an anarchist in Buffalo. The young man who shot him was rather
weak-minded, and had been led to believe, by the speeches and writings
of others, craftier and wickeder than himself, that he could help the
poor and unfortunate by murdering the President. This he treacherously
did while shaking hands with him.
One of the leaders of the poisonous brood who had made this young
man believe such villainous nonsense was a foreign woman named Emma
Goldman, who for twenty or thirty years went up and down the land,
trying to overthrow the law and government, yet always calling for the
protection of both when she was in danger. The American Government
tolerated this mischief-maker until 1919, when it properly sent her,
and others of her stripe, back to their own country.
President McKinley, who was the gentlest and kindest of men, did not
die immediately from the bullet wound, but lingered for about a week.
Vice-President Roosevelt joined him in Buffalo, and came to believe,
from the reports of the doctors, that the President would get well.
So he returned to his family who were in the Adirondacks. A few days
later, while Mr. Roosevelt was mountain-climbing, a message came that
the President was worse and that the Vice-President must come at once
to Buffalo. He drove fifty miles by night, in a buckboard down the
mountain roads, took a special train, and arrived in Buffalo the next
afternoon.
Mr. McKinley was dead, and Theodore Roosevelt took the oath of office
as President. He was under forty-three years of age, the youngest man
who had ever become President.
It is important to note his first act. It was to insist that all of Mr.
McKinley's Cabinet remain in office. Thus he secured for the continued
service of the Nation, some of its ablest men: Mr. Hay, one of the
most accomplished Secretaries of State we have ever had, and Mr. Root,
Secretary of War, and afterwards Secretary of State, whose highly
trained legal mind placed him at the head of his profession.
A test of a great man, as well as a test of a modest man, in the true
sense, is whether he is willing to have other able and eminent men
around him as his assistants and fellow-workers. The most remarkable
instances of this among our Presidents were Washington and Lincoln.
The latter appointed men not because they admired him, or were
personally agreeable to him; indeed some of his strongest and bitterest
antagonists were put in his Cabinet, because he knew that they could
well serve the country.
Mr. McKinley had chosen excellent Cabinet officers, and these Mr.
Roosevelt kept in office, promoting them and appointing other men of
high ability to other offices as the need arose. He did not care to
shine as a great man among a group of second-rate persons; he preferred
to be chief among his peers, the leader of the strongest and most
sagacious of his time.
In saying this, I do not mean to compare Roosevelt with Washington or
Lincoln or any of the noble figures of the past. Such comparisons are
made too often; every President for fifty years has been acclaimed
by his admirers as "the greatest since Lincoln," or "as great as
Lincoln." This is both foolish and useless. There has been no character
in our land like Lincoln; he stands alone. What we can say of Mr.
Roosevelt, now, is that he was admired and beloved by millions of his
fellow-countrymen while he lived; that his was an extraordinary and
entirely different character from that of any of our Presidents; and
that upon his death thousands who had opposed him and bitterly hated
him but a few years before, were altering their opinion and speaking
of him in admiration--with more than the mere respect which custom
pays to the dead. This has gone on, and other unusual signs have been
given of the world's esteem for him. So much we can say; and leave the
determination of his place in our history for a later time than ours.
One thing which many people feared when Roosevelt became President was
that he would get the country into a war. They thought he liked war for
its own sake. Men said: "Oh! this Roosevelt is such a rash, impulsive
fellow! He will have us in a war in a few months!" The exact opposite
was the truth. He kept our country and our flag respected throughout
the world; he avoided two possible wars; he helped end a foreign war;
we lived at peace. Of him it can truly be said: he kept us out of war,
and he kept us in the paths of honor.
He preached the doctrine of the square deal.
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country, is good
enough to be given a square deal afterward. More than that no man is
entitled to, and less than that no man shall have."[14]
[14] Springfield, Ill., July 4, 1503. Thayer, p. 212.
He did not seek help and rewards from the rich by enabling them to prey
upon the poor; neither did he seek the votes and applause of the poor
by cheap and unjust attacks upon the rich. To the people who expect
a public man to lean unfairly to one side or the other; who cannot
understand any different way of acting, he was a constant puzzle.
"Oh! we have got him sized up!" they would say, "he is for the labor
unions against the capitalist!" and in a few months they would be
puzzled again: "No; he is for Wall Street and he is down on the poor
laboring man."
For a long time they could not get it into their heads that he was for
the honest man, whether laboring man or capitalist, and against the
dishonest man, whether laboring man or capitalist.
"While I am President the doors of the White House will open as easily
for the labor leader as for the capitalist,--_and no easier_."[15]
[15] Hagedorn, p. 242.
Many Presidents might have said the first part of that sentence. Few of
them would have added the last three words.
He annoyed many people in the South by inviting a very able and eminent
Negro, Booker T. Washington, to eat luncheon with him. According to the
curious way of thinking on this subject, Mr. Washington who had been
good enough to eat dinner at the table of the Queen of England, was not
good enough to eat at the White House. Shortly after being violently
denounced for being too polite to a Negro, he was still more violently
denounced for being too harsh to Negroes. He discharged from the Army
some riotous and disorderly Negro soldiers. Persons with small natures
had attacked him for showing courtesy to a distinguished man; other
persons with equally small natures now attacked him for acting justly
towards mutinous soldiers.
What did he do while he was President? What laws were passed by
Congress, which he advocated or urged, and which he approved by his
signature? Here are some of them as they are given by Mr. Washburn,[16]
a Congressman of that time:
[16] Washburn, "Theodore Roosevelt," p. 128.
The Elkins Anti-Rebate Law, to end unjust business dealings of the
railroads.
The creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor.
The law for building the Panama Canal.
The laws to prevent impure and poisonous food being sold under false
labels; and the law to establish the proper inspection of meat.
The creation of the Bureau of Immigration.
The law limiting the working hours of employees and protecting them in
case of injury in their occupations.
The law against child-labor in the District of Columbia.
The reformation of the Consular Service.
The law to stop corporations from giving great sums of money for
political purposes at election time.
You will notice that these were not laws to enable a few rich men to
get richer still at the expense of the many; neither were they designed
to help dishonest labor leaders to plunder the employers. They were
aimed to bring about justice between man and man, to protect the weak.
There was, when Mr. Roosevelt became President, a long standing
dispute between this country and England and Canada about the boundary
of Alaska. This was quickly settled by arbitration; our rights were
secured; and all possible causes of war were removed.
The South American country, Colombia, made an attempt to block the
building of the Panama Canal. This canal had been planned to run
through the State of Panama, which was part of the Republic of
Colombia. It was a part of that country, however, separated by fifteen
days' journey from the capital city, Bogotá, and so separated in
friendship from the rest of the country that it had made over fifty
attempts in fifty years to revolt and gain independence. Our State
Department, through Mr. Hay, had come to an understanding with the
Minister from Colombia as to the canal, and the amount we were to pay
Colombia for the privilege of building this important waterway, for the
benefit of the whole world.
But the Colombian Government at that time were a slippery lot,--
dealing with them, said President Roosevelt, "was like trying to
nail currant jelly to a wall." It struck them that they would do
well to squeeze more money yet out of Uncle Sam, and that they might
by twisting and turning, get forty million dollars as easily as ten
millions. So they delayed and quibbled.
In the meantime, the people of Panama, not wishing to lose the
advantage of the canal, and desiring greatly to take any opportunity to
free themselves from the Colombians who had plundered them for years,
declared a revolution, which took place without bloodshed. Colombian
troops, coming to try to reconquer Panama, were forbidden to land by
our ships, acting under President Roosevelt's orders. We were under
treaty agreement to preserve order on the Isthmus. Our Government
recognized the new Republic of Panama, an act which was promptly
followed by all the nations of the earth. We then opened negotiations
with Panama, paid the money to her, and built the Canal.
Of course the politicians in Colombia howled with rage. A tricky
horse-dealer, who has a horse which he has abused for years, but
desires to sell to a customer for four times its value, would be
angry if the horse ran away, and he lost not only the animal, but
also his chances of swindling the customer. So with the Colombians.
Some people in this country took up their cry, and professed to feel
great sorrow for Colombia. It was noticed, however, that this sorrow
seemed to afflict most pitifully the people who were strongest in their
opposition to Mr. Roosevelt, and this caused a suspicion that their
pretended horror at the act of our Government was not so much based
upon any knowledge of the facts, as upon a readiness to think evil
of the President. Others who joined in an expression of grief at the
time, and later attempted to bolster up Colombia's claims for damages,
belonged to that class referred to in connection with the sinking of
the _Maine_, who always think the best of any foreign country and
suspect the worst of their own.
The fact that other countries instantly recognized Panama, and that
President Roosevelt's action was completely and emphatically endorsed
by Secretary Hay, proved that the Panama incident was an example of
the promptness, wisdom and courage in the conduct of foreign relations
which leads alike to justice and the satisfactory settlement of
difficult problems. For not the bitterest opponent of Mr. Roosevelt's
administration ever dared to cast a shadow of doubt upon the honesty
of Secretary Hay. The canal is now built, thanks in large part to
President Roosevelt, and we have had a chance to see that wise
decisions may often be reached swiftly; whereas dawdling, hesitation
and timidity, which are sometimes mistaken for statesmanship, are
more than apt to end, not only in general injustice, but in practical
failure.
The war between Russia and Japan took place during President
Roosevelt's term of office. After it had been going on over a year,
and Japan had won victories by land and sea, the President asked
both countries to open negotiations for peace. He continued to exert
strong influence in every quarter to help bring the two enemies to an
agreement. Only since his death has it become generally known how hard
he worked to this end. A peace conference was held at Kittery Navy Yard
in Maine, and a treaty was signed which ended the war.
For his action in this, President Roosevelt was the first American
to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This was a sad reverse to the
predictions of those who had been so sure that he was longing to start
wars, instead of end them. Indeed, men who prophesied evil about Mr.
Roosevelt, as well as those who tried to catch him in traps, had a
most disappointing experience. The Nobel Prize consisted of a diploma,
and an award in money of $40,000. This he tried to devote to helping
the cause of peace between capital and labor in America. When Congress
failed to take the needed action to apply his money for this purpose,
it was returned to him. During the Great War he gave all of it to
different relief organizations, like the Red Cross, and other societies
for helping the sufferers.
The President assembled the most powerful fleet we had ever had
together, sixteen battleships, with destroyers, and sent them on a
cruise around the world. This was bitterly opposed at the time. Public
men and newspapers predicted that the fleet could never make the
voyage, or that even if it could, its effect would be to cause war
with some other nation. The most emphatic predictions were made by a
famous newspaper that the entrance of the fleet into the Pacific Ocean
would be the signal for a declaration of war upon us by a foreign
power. Nothing of the sort happened. The cruise attracted to the
American navy the admiration of the world; it immensely increased the
usefulness of the Navy itself by the experience it gave the officers
and men; and it served warning upon anybody who needed it (and some
folk did need it) that America was not a country of dollar-chasing
Yankees, rich and helpless, but that it had the ability to defend
itself.
This was an illustration of Roosevelt's use of the old saying: "Speak
softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." When he first repeated
this, it was seized upon by the newspapers for its amusing quality, and
he was henceforth pictured as carrying a tremendous bludgeon, of the
sort which giants usually bore in the tale of "Jack the Giant Killer."
Timid folk thought that it proved their worst fears about his fondness
for a fight. They failed to notice the "Speak softly" part of the
saying. It was only a vivid way of advising his countrymen to be quiet
and polite in their dealings with other nations, but not to let America
become defenseless. What hasty and shallow critics denounced as the
threat of a bully, proved in practice to be the sagacious advice of a
statesman, whose promise when he took office, to preserve the peace and
honor of his beloved country, was kept faithfully and precisely.
And he was able to keep the peace, to fill the office of President for
seven years without having a shot fired by our forces, because he
made it clear that this country would not submit to wrong, would not
argue or bicker with foreign trespassers, kidnappers, highwaymen or
murderers, but would promptly fight them. He did not fill the air with
beautiful words about his love of peace; but we had peace. For as he
knew perfectly well, there were countries, like Canada, with which we
could live at peace for a hundred years and more, without needing forts
or guns between them and us, because we think alike on most subjects,
and respect each other's honor.
And there were other countries, Germany in particular, against whom
all her neighbors have to live armed to the teeth, and in deadly fear,
because the Germans respect nothing on earth except force. To argue
or plead with the Germans, as he well knew, was not only a waste of
time, it was worse: it was a direct invitation to war. Because since
1870 the Germans think that any country which professes to love peace,
any country whose statesmen utter noble thoughts about peace, is
simply a cowardly country, bent on making money, and afraid to fight.
So when,--during Roosevelt's administration, the biggest swaggering
"gun-man" of the world, the Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, made a threat
against the peace of America, Roosevelt no more read him pretty
lectures about his love of peace, than he would have recited poetry to
that other gun-man in the hotel in Dakota years before. He simply told
the Kaiser in a few words, just what would happen if Germany didn't
drop it. It was so quietly done that nobody knew anything at all about
it until years afterward. There was no delay; there was no endless
note-writing; there was no blustering; the Kaiser climbed down; _and
there was no war_.
This, I am inclined to think, was one of the most important events of
Roosevelt's seven years in the White House. If we wish America to live
henceforth in peace and in honor, there is no incident of the past
thirty years which should be studied by every American with more care.
Germany began her attack on the world long before 1914. She bullied
here, and she schemed and plotted there, but she was at work for years.
In 1898 she tried to range the countries of Europe against us, as we
went to war with Spain. England stood our friend and kept her off.
Germany sent a fleet meddling into Manila Harbor to annoy and threaten
Admiral Dewey. He refused to be frightened by them however and as an
English squadron which was also there played the part of a good friend,
the German admiral had his trip for nothing.
Later, about a year after Mr. Roosevelt became President, the German
Kaiser discovered a way, as he thought, to grab some territory in
South America. Our Monroe Doctrine, which insures peace in the Western
Hemisphere, by forbidding European nations to seize land here, was
an obstacle to the Kaiser. He disliked it. But taking as pretext the
fact that some people in Venezuela owed money to various Europeans,
including Germans, he induced England and Italy to join in sending a
fleet for a blockade of the Venezuelan coast. The English and Italians
agreed, before long, to arbitrate their difficulty with Venezuela,
and moreover they had no intention of seizing land. The German plan
was quite different. They threatened to bombard Venezuelan towns,
and we know enough now of their methods to say that they were hoping
for something which might serve as an excuse for landing troops and
taking possession of towns and territory. This was in defiance of our
Monroe Doctrine; it aimed at setting up an Emperor's colonies in South
America, and putting the peace of both South and North America into
danger. Mr. Roosevelt did not mean to allow it.
But consider the situation. Germany was the foremost military power of
the world. Her army was almost the greatest; probably the best trained
and equipped. Ours was one of the smallest. Germany was not engaged in
difficulties elsewhere. She faced us across no barriers but the sea.
No great French and British armies held the lines against her, as they
did in later years when once more she threatened America. No mighty
British fleet held the seas and kept the German Navy cooped up where it
could do no harm,--except to such merchant ships, passenger steamers
and hospital boats as it could strike from under the water. We faced
Germany alone. But we had two means of defense. One of them was Admiral
Dewey and his ships. The first of them, however, and the only one
needed, was the cool-headed and brave-hearted man in the White House.
He told the German Ambassador, quietly and without bluster, that unless
the Kaiser agreed to arbitrate his quarrel with Venezuela, and unless
he agreed within a short time, ten days or less, Admiral Dewey would be
ordered to Venezuela to protect it against a German attack. The German
ambassador said that, of course, as the All Highest Kaiser had refused
once before to arbitrate, there could be nothing done about it. All
Highests do not arbitrate. People simply have to step aside.
President Roosevelt informed the German Ambassador that this meant war.
A few days later when the German Ambassador was again at the White
House, the President asked if the Kaiser had changed his mind. The
Ambassador seemed to think that it was a joke. The Kaiser change his
mind at the bidding of a Yankee President! It was almost funny!
[Illustration: THE ROUGH RIDER
_With Mr. Punch's best wishes to Colonel Roosevelt, President of the
United States._
(A Cartoon in _Punch_ when Colonel Roosevelt became President.)]
"All right," said President Roosevelt, "I can change my mind. Admiral
Dewey will not even wait until Tuesday to start for Venezuela. He will
go on Monday. If you are cabling to Berlin, please tell them that."
The pompous Ambassador was much flustered. He hurried away, but
returned in about a day and a half, still out of breath.
"Mr. President," he said, "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has agreed
to arbitrate with Venezuela."
So there was no delay, no long and distressing argument; and there was
no war. The President could do this because he knew his countrymen;
he knew that they were not cowards. He knew they never had failed to
back up their leader in the White House. He knew that no President
need worry about loyalty when he tells America that a foreign enemy
is making threats. He had seen his courageous predecessor, Grover
Cleveland, rouse America, as one man, over another Venezuelan incident,
a dozen or more years before. And he knew that the only occasion
when America had ever seemed about to fall into doubt and hesitation
in time of danger, was when that doubt and hesitation began in the
White House,--in the administration of Buchanan, before the Civil War.
America will always support her President, if war threatens,--but
America expects him to show leadership. Timidity in the leader will
make timidity in the nation.
So the Kaiser changed his mind and gave in,--why? Because he knew
that there was a President in the White House whose words were easy
to understand; they did not have to be interpreted nor explained. And
moreover, when these words were uttered, the President would make them
good, every one.