AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN ADDRESSES
by
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
With an Introduction presenting a Description of the Conditions under
which the Addresses were given during Mr. Roosevelt's Journey in 1910
from Khartum through Europe to New York
by LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT
1910
FOREWORD
My original intention had been to return to the United States direct
from Africa, by the same route I took when going out. I altered this
intention because of receiving from the Chancellor of Oxford
University, Lord Curzon, an invitation to deliver the Romanes Lecture
at Oxford. The Romanes Foundation had always greatly interested me,
and I had been much struck by the general character of the annual
addresses, so that I was glad to accept. Immediately afterwards, I
received and accepted invitations to speak at the Sorbonne in Paris,
and at the University of Berlin. In Berlin and at Oxford, my addresses
were of a scholastic character, designed especially for the learned
bodies which I was addressing, and for men who shared their interests
in scientific and historical matters. In Paris, after consultation
with the French Ambassador, M. Jusserand, through whom the invitation
was tendered, I decided to speak more generally, as the citizen of
one republic addressing the citizens of another republic.
When, for these reasons, I had decided to stop in Europe on my way
home, it of course became necessary that I should speak to the Nobel
Prize Committee in Christiania, in acknowledgment of the Committee's
award of the peace prize, after the Peace of Portsmouth had closed the
war between Japan and Russia.
While in Africa, I became greatly interested in the work of the
Government officials and soldiers who were there upholding the cause
of civilization. These men appealed to me; in the first place, because
they reminded me so much of our own officials and soldiers who have
reflected such credit on the American name in the Philippines, in
Panama, in Cuba, in Porto Rico; and, in the next place, because I was
really touched by the way in which they turned to me, with the
certainty that I understood and believed in their work, and with the
eagerly expressed hope that when I got the chance I would tell the
people at home what they were doing and would urge that they be
supported in doing it.
In my Egyptian address, my endeavor was to hold up the hands of these
men, and at the same time to champion the cause of the missionaries,
of the native Christians, and of the advanced and enlightened
Mohammedans in Egypt. To do this it was necessary emphatically to
discourage the anti-foreign movement, led, as it is, by a band of
reckless, foolish, and sometimes murderous agitators. In other words,
I spoke with the purpose of doing good to Egypt, and with the hope of
deserving well of the Egyptian people of the future, unwilling to
pursue the easy line of moral culpability which is implied in saying
pleasant things of that noisy portion of the Egyptian people of
to-day, who, if they could have their way, would irretrievably and
utterly ruin Egypt's future. In the Guildhall address, I carried out
the same idea.
I made a number of other addresses, some of which--those, for
instance, at Budapest, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and the
University of Christiania,--I would like to present here; but
unfortunately they were made without preparation, and were not taken
down in shorthand, so that with the exception of the address made at
the dinner in Christiania and the address at the Cambridge Union these
can not be included.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
SAGAMORE HILL,
July 15, 1910.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Roosevelt as an Orator.
PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE SUDAN
An Address at the American Mission in Khartum, March 16, 1910.
LAW AND ORDER IN EGYPT
An Address before the National University in Cairo, March 28, 1910.
CITIZENSHIP IN A REPUBLIC
An Address Delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910.
INTERNATIONAL PEACE
An Address before the Nobel Prize Committee Delivered at Christiania,
Norway, May 5, 1910.
THE COLONIAL POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES
An Address Delivered at Christiania, Norway, on the Evening of
May 5, 1910.
THE WORLD MOVEMENT
An Address Delivered at the University of Berlin, May 12, 1910.
THE CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS
An Address at the Cambridge Union, May 26, 1910.
BRITISH RULE IN AFRICA
Address Delivered at the Guildhall, London, May 31, 1910.
BIOLOGICAL ANALOGIES IN HISTORY[1]
Delivered at Oxford, June 7, 1910.
[1] The text of this lecture, which is the Romanes Lecture for
1910, is included in the present volume under the courteous
permission of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
APPENDIX
INTRODUCTION
Mr. Roosevelt as an Orator
In the tumult, on the one hand of admiration and praise and on the
other of denunciation and criticism, which Mr. Roosevelt's tour in
Africa and Europe excited throughout the civilized world, there was
one--and I am inclined to think only one--note of common agreement.
Friends and foes united in recognizing the surprising versatility of
talents and of ability which the activities of his tour displayed.
Hunters and explorers, archæologists and ethnologists, soldiers and
sailors, scientists and university doctors, statesmen and politicians,
monarchs and diplomats, essayists and historians, athletes and
horsemen, orators and occasional speakers, met him on equal terms. The
purpose of the present volume is to give to American readers, by
collecting a group of his transatlantic addresses and by relating some
incidents and effects of their delivery, some impression of one
particular phase of Mr. Roosevelt's foreign journey,--an impression of
the influence on public thought which he exerted as an orator.
No one would assert that Mr. Roosevelt possesses that persuasive grace
of oratory which made Mr. Gladstone one of the greatest public
speakers of modern times. For oratory as a fine art, he has no use
whatever; he is neither a stylist nor an elocutionist; what he has to
say he says with conviction and in the most direct and effective
phraseology that he can find through which to bring his hearers to his
way of thinking. Three passages from the Guildhall speech afford
typical illustrations of the incisiveness of his English and of its
effect on his audience.
Fortunately you have now in the Governor of East Africa, Sir Percy
Girouard, a man admirably fitted to deal wisely and firmly with
the many problems before him. He is on the ground and knows the
needs of the country and is zealously devoted to its interests.
All that is necessary is to follow his lead and to give him
cordial support and backing. The principle upon which I think it
is wise to act in dealing with far-away possessions is this:
choose your man, change him if you become discontented with him,
but while you keep him, back him up.
* * * * *
I have met people who had some doubt whether the Sudan would pay.
Personally, I think it probably will. But I may add that, in my
judgment, this does not alter the duty of England to stay there.
It is not worth while belonging to a big nation unless the big
nation is willing, when the necessity arises, to undertake a big
task. I feel about you in the Sudan just as I felt about us in
Panama. When we acquired the right to build the Panama Canal, and
entered on the task, there were worthy people who came to me and
said they wondered whether it would pay. I always answered that it
was one of the great world-works that had to be done; that it was
our business as a nation to do it, if we were ready to make good
our claim to be treated as a great World Power; and that as we
were unwilling to abandon the claim, no American worth his salt
ought to hesitate about performing the task. I feel just the same
way about you in the Sudan.
* * * * *
It was with this primary object of establishing order that you
went into Egypt twenty-eight years ago; and the chief and ample
justification for your presence in Egypt was this absolute
necessity of order being established from without, coupled with
your ability and willingness to establish it. Now, either you have
the right to be in Egypt, or you have not; either it is, or it is
not your duty to establish and keep order. If you feel that you
have not the right to be in Egypt, if you do not wish to establish
and keep order there, why then by all means get out of Egypt. If,
as I hope, you feel that your duty to civilized mankind and your
fealty to your own great traditions alike bid you to stay, then
make the fact and the name agree, and show that you are ready to
meet in very deed the responsibility which is yours.
There may be little Ciceronian grace about these passages, but there
is unmistakable verbal power. So many words of one syllable and of
Saxon derivation are used as to warrant the opinion that the speaker
possesses a distinctive style. That it is an effective style was
proved by the response of the audience, which greeted these particular
passages (although they contain by implication frank criticisms of the
British people) with cheers and cries of "Hear, hear!" It should be
remembered, too, that the audience, a distinguished one, while neither
hostile nor antipathetic, came in a distinctly critical frame of mind.
Like the man from Missouri, they were determined "to be shown" the
value of Mr. Roosevelt's personality and views before they accepted
them. That they did accept them, that the British people accepted
them, I shall endeavor to show a little later.
There are people who entertain the notion that it is characteristic of
Mr. Roosevelt to speak on the spur of the moment, trusting to the
occasion to furnish him with both his ideas and his inspiration.
Nothing could be more contrary to the facts. It is true that in his
European journey he developed a facility in extemporaneous
after-dinner speaking or occasional addresses, that was a surprise
even to his intimate friends. At such times, what he said was full of
apt allusions, witty comment (sometimes at his own expense), and
bubbling good humor. The address to the undergraduates at the
Cambridge Union, and his remarks at the supper of the Institute of
British Journalists in Stationers' Hall, are good examples of this
kind of public speaking. But his important speeches are carefully and
painstakingly prepared. It is his habit to dictate the first draft to
a stenographer. He then takes the typewritten original and works over
it, sometimes sleeps over it, and edits it with the greatest care. In
doing this, he usually calls upon his friends, or upon experts in the
subject he is dealing with, for advice and suggestion.
Of the addresses collected in this volume, three--the lectures at the
Sorbonne, at the University of Berlin, and at Oxford--were written
during the winter of 1909, before Mr. Roosevelt left the Presidency; a
fourth, the Nobel Prize speech, was composed during the hunting trip
in Africa, and the original copy, written with indelible pencil on
sheets of varying size and texture, and covered with interlineations
and corrections, bears all the marks of life in the wilderness. The
Cairo and Guildhall addresses were written and rewritten with great
care beforehand. The remaining three, "Peace and Justice in the
Sudan," "The Colonial Policy of the United States," and the speech at
the University of Cambridge were extemporaneous. The Cairo and
Guildhall speeches are on the same subject, and sprang from the same
sources, and although one was delivered at the beginning, and the
other at the close of a three months' journey, they should, in order
to be properly understood, be read as one would read two chapters of
one work.
When Mr. Roosevelt reached Egypt, he found the country in one of those
periods of political unrest and religious fanaticism which have during
the last twenty-five years given all Europe many bad quarters of an
hour. Technically a part of the Ottoman Empire and a province of the
Sultan of Turkey, Egypt is practically an English protectorate. During
the quarter of a century since the tragic death of General Gordon at
Khartum, Egypt has made astonishing progress in prosperity, in the
administration of justice, and in political stability. All Europe
recognizes this progress to be the fruit of English control and
administration. At the time of Mr. Roosevelt's visit, a faction, or
party, of native Egyptians, calling themselves Nationalists, had come
into somewhat unsavory prominence; they openly urged the expulsion of
the English, giving feverish utterance to the cry "Egypt for the
Egyptians!" In Egypt, this cry means more than a political antagonism;
it means the revival of the ancient and bitter feud between
Mohammedanism and Christianity. It is in effect a cry of "Egypt for
the Moslem!" The Nationalist party had by no means succeeded in
affecting the entire Moslem population, but it had succeeded in
attracting to itself all the adventurers, and lovers of darkness and
disorder who cultivate for their own personal gain such movements of
national unrest. The non-Moslem population, European and native, whose
ability and intelligence is indicated by the fact that, while they
form less than ten per cent. of the inhabitants, they own more than
fifty per cent. of the property, were staunch supporters of the
English control which the Nationalists wished to overthrow. The
Nationalists, however, appeared to be the only people who were not
afraid to talk openly and to take definite steps. Just before Mr.
Roosevelt's arrival, Boutros Pasha, the Prime Minister, a native
Egyptian Christian, and one of the ablest administrative officers that
Egypt has ever produced, had been brutally assassinated by a
Nationalist. The murder was discussed everywhere with many shakings of
the head, but in quiet corners, and low tones of voice. Military and
civil officers complained in private that the home government was
paying little heed to the assassination and to the spirit of disorder
which brought it about. English residents, who are commonly courageous
and outspoken in great crises, gave one the impression of speaking in
whispers in the hope that if it were ignored, the agitation might die
away instead of developing into riot and bloodshed.
Now this way of dealing with a law-breaker and political agitator is
totally foreign to Mr. Roosevelt; even his critics admit that he both
talks and fights in the open. In two speeches in Khartum, one at a
dinner given in his honor by British military and civil officers, and
one at a reception arranged by native Egyptian military men and
officials, he pointed out in vigorous language the dangers of
religious fanaticism and the kind of "Nationalism" that condones
assassination. Newspaper organs of the Nationalists attacked him for
these speeches when he arrived in Cairo. This made him all the more
determined to say the same things in Cairo when the proper opportunity
came, especially as officials, both military and civil, of high rank
and responsibility, had persistently urged him to do what he properly
could to arouse the attention of the British Government to the
Egyptian situation. The opportunity came in an invitation to address
the University of Cairo. His speech was carefully thought out and was
written with equal care; some of his friends, both Egyptian, and
English, whom he consulted, were in the uncertain frame of mind of
hoping that he would mention the assassination of Boutros, but
wondering whether he really ought to do so. Mr. Roosevelt spoke with
all his characteristic effectiveness of enunciation and gesture. He
was listened to with earnest attention and vigorous applause by a
representative audience of Egyptians and Europeans, of Moslems and
Christians. The address was delivered on the morning of March 28th; in
the afternoon the comment everywhere was, "Why haven't these things
been said in public before?" Of course the criticisms of the extreme
Nationalists were very bitter. Their newspapers, printed in Arabic,
devoted whole pages to denunciations of the speech. They protested to
the university authorities against the presentation of the honorary
degree which was conferred upon Mr. Roosevelt; they called him "a
traitor to the principles of George Washington," and "an advocate of
despotism"; an orator at a Nationalist mass meeting explained that Mr.
Roosevelt's "opposition to political liberty" was due to his Dutch
origin, "for the Dutch, as every one knows, have treated their
colonies more cruelly than any other civilized nation"; one paper
announced that the United States Senate had recorded its disapproval
of the speech by taking away Mr. Roosevelt's pension of five thousand
dollars, in amusing ignorance of the fact that Mr. Roosevelt never had
any pension of any kind whatsoever. On the other hand, government
officers of authority united with private citizens of distinction
(including missionaries, native Christians, and many progressive
Moslems) in expressing, personally and by letter, approval of the
speech as one that would have a wide influence in Egypt in supporting
the efforts of those who are working for the development of a stable,
just, and enlightened form of government. In connection with the more
widely-known Guildhall address on the same subject it unquestionably
has such an influence.
Between the delivery of the Cairo speech and that of the next fixed
address, the lecture at the Sorbonne in Paris on April 23d, there were
a number of extemporaneous and occasional addresses of which no
permanent record has been, or can be made. Some of these were
responses to speeches of welcome made by municipal officials on
railway platforms, or were replies to toasts at luncheons and dinners.
In Rome, Mayor Nathan gave a dinner in his honor in the Campidoglio,
or City Hall, which was attended by a group of about fifty men
prominent in Italian official or private life. On this occasion the
Mayor read an address of welcome in French, to which Mr. Roosevelt
made a reply touching upon the history of Italy and some of the
social problems with which the Italian people have to deal in common
with the other civilized nations of the earth. He began his reply in
French, but soon broke off, and continued in English, asking the Mayor
to translate it, sentence by sentence, into Italian for the assembled
guests, most of whom did not speak English. Both the speech itself and
the personality of the speaker made a marked impression upon his
hearers; and after his retirement from the hall in which the dinner
was held, what he said furnished almost the sole subject of animated
conversation, until the party separated. In Budapest, under the dome
of the beautiful House of Parliament, Count Apponyi, one of the great
political leaders of modern Hungary, on behalf of the Hungarian
delegates to the Inter-Parliamentary Union presented to Mr. Roosevelt
an illuminated address in which was recorded the latter's achievements
in behalf of human rights, human liberty, and international justice.
Mr. Roosevelt in his reply showed an intimate familiarity with the
Hungarian history such as, Count Apponyi afterwards said, he had never
met in any other public man outside of Hungary. Although entirely
extemporaneous, this reply may be taken as a fair exemplification of
the spirit of all his speeches during his foreign journey. Briefly, in
referring to some allusions in Count Apponyi's speech to the great
leaders of liberty in the United States and in Hungary, he asserted
that the principles for which he had endeavored to struggle during his
political career were principles older than those of George Washington
or Abraham Lincoln; older, indeed, than the principles of Kossuth, the
great Hungarian leader; they were the principles enunciated in the
Decalogue and the Golden Rule. One of the significant things about
these sermons by Mr. Roosevelt--I call them sermons because he
frequently himself uses the phrase, "I preach"--is that nobody spoke,
or apparently thought the word cant in connection with them. They were
accepted as the genuine and spontaneous expression of a man who
believes that the highest moral principles are quite compatible with
all the best social joys of life, and with dealing knockout blows when
it is necessary to fight in order to redress wrongs or to maintain
justice.
The people of Paris are perhaps as quick to detect and to laugh at
cant or moral platitudes as anybody of the modern world. And yet the
Sorbonne lecture, delivered by invitation of the officials of the
University of Paris, on April 23d, saturated as it was with moral
ideas and moral exhortation, was a complete success. The occasion
furnished an illustration of the power of moral ideas to interest and
to inspire. The streets surrounding the hall were filled with an
enormous crowd long before the hour announced for the opening of the
doors; and even ticket-holders had great difficulty in gaining
admission. The spacious amphitheatre of the Sorbonne was filled with a
representative audience, numbering probably three thousand people.
Around the hall, were statues of the great masters of French
intellectual life--Pascal, Descartes, Lavoisier, and others. On the
wall was one of the Puvis de Chavannes's most beautiful mural
paintings. The group of university officials and academicians on the
dais, from which Mr. Roosevelt spoke, lent to the occasion an
appropriate university atmosphere. The simple but perfect arrangement
of the French and American flags back of the speaker suggested its
international character.
The speech was an appeal for moral rather than for intellectual or
material greatness. It was received with marked interest and approval;
the passage ending with a reference to "cold and timid souls who know
neither victory nor defeat," was delivered with real eloquence, and
aroused a long-continued storm of applause. With characteristic
courage, Mr. Roosevelt attacked race suicide when speaking to a race
whose population is diminishing, and was loudly applauded.
Occasionally with quizzical humor he interjected an extemporaneous
sentence in French, to the great satisfaction of his audience. A
passage of peculiar interest was the statement of his creed regarding
the relation of property-rights to human rights; it was not in his
original manuscript but was written on the morning of the lecture as
the result of a discussion of the subject of vested interests with one
or two distinguished French publicists. He first pronounced this
passage in English, and then repeated it in French, enforced by
gestures which so clearly indicated his desire to have his hearers
unmistakably understand him in spite of defective pronunciation of a
foreign tongue that the manifest approval of the audience was
expressed in a curious mingling of sympathetic laughter and prolonged
and serious applause.
A fortnight after the Sorbonne address, I received from a friend, an
American military officer living in Paris who knows well its general
habit of mind, a letter from which I venture to quote here, because it
so strikingly portrays the influence that Mr. Roosevelt exerted as an
orator during his European journey:
I find that Paris is still everywhere talking of Mr. Roosevelt. It
was a thing almost without precedent that this _blasé_ city kept
up its interest in him without abatement for eight days; but that
a week after his departure should still find him the main topic of
conversation is a fact which has undoubtedly entered into Paris
history. The _Temps_ [one of the foremost daily newspapers of
Paris] has had fifty-seven thousand copies of his Sorbonne
address printed and distributed free to every schoolteacher in
France and to many other persons. The Socialist or revolutionary
groups and press had made preparations for a monster demonstration
on May first. Walls were placarded with incendiary appeals and
their press was full of calls to arms. Monsieur Briand [the Prime
Minister] flatly refused to allow the demonstration, and gave
orders accordingly to Monsieur Lépine [the Chief of Police]. For
the first time since present influences have governed France,
certainly in fifteen years, the police and the troops were
authorized to _use their arms in self-defence_. The result of this
firmness was that the leaders countermanded the demonstration, and
there can be no doubt that many lives were saved and a new point
gained in the possibility of governing Paris as a free city, yet
one where order must be preserved, votes or no votes. Now this
stiff attitude of M. Briand and the Conseil is freely attributed
in intelligent quarters to Mr. Roosevelt. French people say it is
a repercussion of his visit, of his Sorbonne lecture, and that
going away he left in the minds of these people some of that
intangible spirit of his--in other words, they felt what he would
have felt in a similar emergency, and for the first time in their
lives showed a disregard of voters when they were bent upon
mischief. It is rather an extraordinary verdict, but it has seized
the Parisian imagination, and I, for one, believe it is correct.
Some of the English newspapers, while generally approving of the
Sorbonne address, expressed the feeling that it contained some
platitudes. Of course it did; for the laws of social and moral health,
like the laws of hygiene, are platitudes. It was interesting to have a
French engineer and mathematician of distinguished achievements, who
discussed with me the character and effect of the Sorbonne address,
rather hotly denounce those who affected to regard Mr. Roosevelt's
restatement of obvious, but too often forgotten truth, as
platitudinous. "The finest and most beautiful things in life," said
this scientist, "the most abstruse scientific discoveries, are based
upon platitudes. It is a platitude to say that the whole is greater
than a part, or that the shortest distance between two points is a
straight line, and yet it is upon such platitudes that astronomy, by
aid of which we have penetrated some of the far-off mysteries of the
universe, is based. The greatest cathedrals are built of single blocks
of stone, and a single block of stone is a platitude. Tear the
architectural structure to pieces, and you have nothing left but the
single, common, platitudinous brick; but for that reason do you say
that your architectural structure is platitudinous? The effect of Mr.
Roosevelt's career and personality, which rest upon the secure
foundation of simple and obvious truths, is like that of a fine
architectural structure, and if a man can see only the single bricks
or stones of which it is composed, so much the worse for him."
Of the addresses included in this volume the next in chronological
order was that on "International Peace," officially delivered before
the Nobel Prize Committee, but actually a public oration spoken in the
National Theatre of Christiania, before an audience of two or three
thousand people. The Norwegians did everything to make the occasion a
notable one. The streets were almost impassable from the crowds of
people who assembled about the theatre, but who were unable to gain
admission. An excellent orchestra played an overture, especially
composed for the occasion by a distinguished Norwegian composer, in
which themes from the _Star-Spangled Banner_ and from Norwegian
national airs and folk-songs were ingeniously intertwined. The day was
observed as a holiday in Christiania, and the entire city was
decorated with evergreens and flags. On the evening of the same day,
the Nobel Prize Committee gave a dinner in honor of Mr. Roosevelt
which was attended by two or three hundred guests,--both men and
women. General Bratlie, at one time Norwegian Minister of War, made an
address of welcome, reviewing with appreciation Mr. Roosevelt's
qualities both as a man of war and as a man of peace. The address in
this volume, entitled, "Colonial Policy of the United States" was Mr.
Roosevelt's reply to General Bratlie's personal tribute. It was wholly
extemporaneous, but was taken down stenographically; and it adds to
its interest to note the fact that on the evening of its delivery it
was the first public utterance on any question of American politics
which Mr. Roosevelt had made since he left America a year previous.
The Nobel Prize speech and this address taken together form a pretty
complete exposition of what may perhaps be called, for want of a
better term, Mr. Roosevelt's "peace with action" doctrine.
"The World Movement," the address at the University of Berlin, was the
first of two distinctively academic, or scholastic utterances, the
other, of course, being the Romanes lecture. The Sorbonne speech was
almost purely sociological and ethical. There are, to be sure, social
and moral applications made of the theories laid down at Berlin and at
Oxford; but these two university addresses are distinctly for a
university audience. My own judgment is that the Sorbonne and
Guildhall addresses were more effective in their human interest and
their immediate political influence. But at both Berlin and Oxford,
Mr. Roosevelt showed that he could deal with scholarly subjects in a
scholarly fashion. It may be that he desired on these two occasions to
give some indication that, although universally regarded as a man of
action, he is entitled also to be considered as a man of thought. The
lecture at the University of Berlin was a brilliant and picturesque
academic celebration in which doctors' gowns, military uniforms, and
the somewhat bizarre dress of the representatives of the undergraduate
student corps, mingled in kaleidoscopic effect. One interesting
feature of the ceremony was the singing by a finely trained student
chorus without instrumental accompaniment, of _Hail Columbia_ and _The
Star-Spangled Banner_, harmonized as only the Germans can harmonize
choral music. The Emperor and the Empress, with several members of the
Imperial family, attended the lecture. Those who sat near the Emperor
could see that he followed the address with genuine interest, nodding
his head, or smiling now and then with approval at some incisively
expressed idea, or some phrase of interjected humor, or a
characteristic gesture on the part of the speaker. In one respect the
lecture was a _tour de force_. On account of a sharp attack of
bronchitis, from which he was then recovering, it was not decided by
the physicians in charge until the morning of the lecture that Mr.
Roosevelt could use his voice for one hour in safety. Arrangements had
been made to have some one else read the lecture if at the last moment
it should be necessary; and the fact that Mr. Roosevelt was able to
do it himself effectively under these circumstances indicates that he
has some of the physical as well as the intellectual attributes of the
practised orator.
Mr. Roosevelt's first public speech in England was made at the
University of Cambridge on May 26th when he received the honorary
degree of LL.D. His address on this occasion was not, like the Romanes
lecture at Oxford, a part of the academic ceremony connected with the
conferring of the honorary degree. It was spoken to an audience of
undergraduates when, after the academic exercises in the Senate House,
he was elected to honorary membership in the Union Society, the
well-known Cambridge debating club which has trained some of the best
public speakers of England. At Oxford the doctors and dignitaries
cracked the jokes--in Latin--while the undergraduates were highly
decorous. At Cambridge, on the other hand, the students indulged in
the traditional pranks which often lend a color of gaiety to
University ceremonies at both Oxford and Cambridge. Mr. Roosevelt
entered heartily into the spirit of the undergraduates, and it was
evident that they, quite as heartily, liked his understanding of the
fact that the best university and college life consists in a judicious
mixture of the grave and the gay. The honor which these undergraduates
paid to their guest was seriously intended, was admirably planned,
and its genuineness was all the more apparent because it had a note of
pleasantry. Mr. Roosevelt spoke as a university student to university
students and what he said, although brief, extemporaneous, and even
unpremeditated, deserves to be included with his more important
addresses, because it affords an excellent example of his
characteristic habit of making an occasion of social gaiety also an
occasion of expressing his belief in the fundamental moral principles
of social and political life. The speech was frequently interrupted by
the laughter and applause of the audience, and the theory which Mr.
Roosevelt propounded, that any man in any walk of life may achieve
genuine success simply by developing ordinary qualities to a more than
ordinary degree, was widely quoted and discussed by the press of Great
Britain.
Next in chronological order comes the Guildhall speech. In the
picturesqueness of its setting, in the occasion which gave rise to it,
in the extraordinary effect it had upon public opinion in Great
Britain, the continent of Europe, and America, and in the courage
which it evinced on the part of the speaker, it is in my judgment the
most striking of all Mr. Roosevelt's foreign addresses.
The occasion was a brilliant and notable one. The ancient and splendid
Guildhall--one of the most perfect Gothic interiors in England, which
has historical associations of more than five centuries--was filled
with a representative gathering of English men and women. On the dais,
or stage, at one end of the hall, sat the Lord Mayor and the Lady
Mayoress, and the special guests of the occasion were conducted by
ushers, in robes and carrying maces, down a long aisle flanked with
spectators on either side and up the steps of the dais, where they
were presented. Their names were called out at the beginning of the
aisle, and as the ushers and the guest moved along, the audience
applauded, little or much, according to the popularity of the
newcomer. Thus John Burns and Mr. Balfour were greeted with
enthusiastic hand-clapping and cheers, although they belong, of
course, to opposite parties. The Bishop of London, Lord Cromer, the
maker of modern Egypt, Sargent, the painter, and Sir Edward Grey, the
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, were among those greeted in
this way. In the front row on one side of the dais were seated the
aldermen of the city in their red robes, and various officials in wigs
and gowns lent to the scene a curiously antique aspect to the American
eye. Happily, the City of London has carefully preserved the
historical traditions connected with it and with the Guilds, or groups
of merchants, which in the past had so much to do with the management
of its affairs. Among the invited guests, for example, were the
Master of the Mercers' Company, the Master of the Grocers' Company,
the Master of the Drapers' Company, the Master of the Skinners'
Company, the Master of the Haberdashers' Company, the Master of the
Salters' Company, the Master of the Ironmongers' Company, the Master
of the Vintners' Company, and the Master of the Clothworkers' Company.
These various trades, of course, are no longer carried on by Guilds,
but by private firms or corporations, and yet the Guild organization
is still maintained as a sort of social or semi-social recognition of
the days when the Guildhall was not merely a great assembly-room, but
the place in which the Guilds actually managed the affairs of their
city. It was in such a place and amid such surroundings that Mr.
Roosevelt was formally nominated and elected a Freeman of the ancient
City of London.
Mr. Roosevelt's speech was far from being extemporaneous; it had been
carefully thought out beforehand, and was based upon his experiences
during the previous March, in Egypt; it was really the desire of
influential Englishmen in Africa to have him say something about
Egyptian affairs that led him to make a speech at all. He had had
ample time to think, and he had thought a good deal, yet it was
plainly to be seen that the frankness of his utterance, his
characteristic attitude and gestures, and the pungent quality of his
oratory at first startled his audience, accustomed to more
conventional methods of public speaking. But he soon captured and
carried his hearers with him, as is indicated by the exclamations of
approval on the part of the audience which were incorporated in the
verbatim report of the speech in the London _Times_. It is no
exaggeration to say that his speech became the talk of England--in
clubs, in private homes, and in the newspapers. Of course there was
some criticism, but, on the whole, it was received with commendation.
The extreme wing of the Liberal party, whom we should call
Anti-Imperialists, but who are in Great Britain colloquially spoken of
as "Little Englanders," took exception to it, but even their
disapproval, save in a few instances of bitter personal attack, was
mild. The London _Chronicle_, which is perhaps the most influential of
the morning newspapers representing the Anti-Imperialist view, was of
the opinion that the speech was hardly necessary, because it asserted
that the Government and the British nation have long been of Mr.
Roosevelt's own opinion. The _Westminster Gazette_, the leading
evening Liberal paper, also asserted that "none of the broad
considerations advanced by Mr. Roosevelt have been absent from the
minds of Ministers, and of Sir Edward Grey in particular. We regret
that Mr. Roosevelt should have thought it necessary to speak out
yesterday, not on the narrow ground of etiquette or precedent, but
because we cannot bring ourselves to believe that his words are
calculated to make it any easier to deal with an exceedingly difficult
problem."
The views of these two newspapers fairly express the rather mild
opposition excited by the speech among those who regard British
control in Egypt as a question of partisan politics. On the other
hand, the best and most influential public opinion, while recognizing
the unconventionality of Mr. Roosevelt's course, heartily approved of
both the matter and the manner of the speech. The London _Times_ said:
"Mr. Roosevelt has reminded us in the most friendly way of what we are
at least in danger of forgetting, and no impatience of outside
criticism ought to be allowed to divert us from considering the
substantial truth of his words. His own conduct of great affairs and
the salutary influence of his policy upon American public life ... at
least give him a right, which all international critics do not
possess, to utter a useful, even if not wholly palatable, warning."
The _Daily Telegraph_, after referring to Mr. Roosevelt as "a
practical statesman who combines with all his serious force a famous
sense of humor," expressed the opinion that his "candor is a tonic,
which not only makes plain our immediate duty but helps us to do it.
In Egypt, as in India, there is no doubt as to the alternative he has
stated so vigorously: we must govern or go; and we have no intention
of going." The _Pall Mall Gazette's_ opinion was that Mr. Roosevelt
"delivered a great and memorable speech--a speech that will be read
and pondered over throughout the world."
The London _Spectator_, which is one of the ablest and most thoughtful
journals published in the English language, and which reflects the
most intelligent, broad-minded, and influential public opinion in the
British Empire, devoted a large amount of space to a consideration of
the speech. The _Spectator's_ position in English journalism is such
that I make no apology for a somewhat long quotation from its comment:
Perhaps the chief event of the week has been Mr. Roosevelt's
speech at the Guildhall. Timid, fussy, and pedantic people have
charged Mr. Roosevelt with all sorts of crimes because he had the
courage to speak out, and have even accused him of unfriendliness
to this country because of his criticisms. Happily the British
people as a whole are not so foolish. Instinctively they have
recognized and thoroughly appreciated the good feeling of Mr.
Roosevelt's speech. Only true friends speak as he spoke.... The
barrel-organs, of course, grind out the old tune about Mr.
Roosevelt's tactlessness. In reality he is a very tactful as well
as a very shrewd man. It is surely the height of tactfulness to
recognize that the British people are sane enough and sincere
enough to like being told the truth. His speech is one of the
greatest compliments ever paid to a people by a statesman of
another country.... Mr. Roosevelt has made exactly the kind of
speech we expected him to make--a speech strong, clear, fearless.
He has told us something useful and practical, and has not lost
himself in abstractions and platitudes.... The business of a
trustee is not to do what the subject of the trust likes or thinks
he likes, but to do, however much he may grumble, what is in his
truest and best interests. Unless a trustee is willing to do that,
and does not trouble about abuse, ingratitude, and accusations of
selfishness, he had better give up his trust altogether.... We
thank Mr. Roosevelt once again for giving us so useful a reminder
of our duty in this respect.
These notes of approval were repeated in a great number of letters
which Mr. Roosevelt received from men and women in all walks of life,
men in distinguished official position and "men in the street." There
were some abusive letters, chiefly anonymous, but the general tone of
this correspondence is fairly illustrated by the following:
Allow me, an old colonist in his eighty-fourth year, to thank you
most heartily for your manly address at the Guildhall and for your
life-work in the cause of humanity. If I ever come to the great
Republic, I shall do myself the honor of seeking an audience of
your Excellency. I may do so on my one hundredth birthday! With
best wishes and profound respect.
The envelope of this letter was addressed to "His Excellency
'Govern-or-go' Roosevelt." That the _Daily Telegraph_ and that the
"man in the street" should independently seize upon this salient point
of the address--the "govern-or-go" theory--is significant.
American readers are sufficiently familiar with Mr. Roosevelt's
principles regarding protectorate or colonial government; any
elaborate explanation or exposition of his views is unnecessary. But
it may be well to repeat that he has over and over again said that all
subject peoples, whether in colonies, protectorates, or insular
possessions like the Philippines and Porto Rico, should be governed
for their own benefit and development and should never be exploited
for the mere profit of the controlling powers. It may be well, too, to
add Mr. Roosevelt's own explanation of his criticism of
sentimentality. "Weakness, timidity, and sentimentality," he said in
the Guildhall address, "many cause even more far-reaching harm than
violence and injustice. Of all broken reeds sentimentality is the most
broken reed on which righteousness can lean." Referring to these
phrases, a correspondent a day or two after the speech asked
if the word "sentiment" might not be substituted for the word
"sentimentality." Mr. Roosevelt wrote the following letter in reply:
DEAR SIR: I regard sentiment as the exact antithesis of
sentimentality, and to substitute "sentiment" for "sentimentality"
in my speech would directly invert its meaning. I abhor
sentimentality, and, on the other hand, I think no man is worth
his salt who is not profoundly influenced by sentiment, and who
does not shape his life in accordance with a high ideal.
Faithfully yours,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
The Romanes lecture at Oxford University was the last of Mr.
Roosevelt's transatlantic speeches. I can think of no greater
intellectual honor that an English-speaking man can receive than to
have conferred upon him by the queen of all universities, the highest
honorary degree in her power to give, and in addition, to be invited
to address the dignitaries and dons and doctors of that university as
a scholar speaking to scholars. There is no American university man
who may not feel entirely satisfied with the way in which the American
university graduate stood the Oxford test on that occasion. He took in
good part the jokes and pleasantries pronounced in Latin by the
Chancellor, Lord Curzon; but after the ceremonies of initiation were
finished, after the beadles had, in response to the order of the
Chancellor, conducted "_Doctorem Honorabilem ad Pulpitum_," and after
the Chancellor had, this time in very direct and beautiful English,
welcomed him to membership in the University, he delivered an address,
the serious scholarship of which held the attention of those who heard
it and arrested the attention of many thousands of others who received
the lecture through the printed page.
The foregoing review of the chief public addresses which Mr. Roosevelt
made during his foreign journey, I think justifies the assertion that,
for variety of subject, variety of occasion, and variety of the fields
of thought and action upon which his speeches had a direct and
manifest influence, he is entitled to be regarded as a public orator
of remarkable distinction and power.
By way of explanation it may perhaps be permissible to add that I met
Mr. Roosevelt in Khartum on March 14, 1910, and travelled with him
through the Sudan, Egypt, the continent of Europe and England, to New
York; I heard all his important speeches, and most of the occasional
addresses; much of the voluminous correspondence which the speeches
gave rise to passed through my hands; and I talked with many men, both
in public and private life, in the various countries through which
the journey was taken about the addresses themselves and their effect
upon world-politics. If there is a failure in these pages to give an
intelligent or an adequate impression of the oratorial features of Mr.
Roosevelt's African and European journey, it is not because there was
any lack of opportunity to observe or learn the facts.
LAWRENCE F. ABBOTT.
* * * * *
PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE SUDAN
An Address at the American Mission[2] in Khartum, March 16, 1910
[2] The American Mission at Khartum is under the auspices of the
United Presbyterian Church of America. The Rev. Dr. John Giffen
introduced Mr. Roosevelt to the assembly.--L.F.A.
I have long wished to visit the Sudan. I doubt whether in any other
region of the earth there is to be seen a more striking instance of
the progress, the genuine progress, made by the substitution of
civilization for savagery than what we have seen in the Sudan for the
past twelve years. I feel that you here owe a peculiar duty to the
Government under which you live--a peculiar duty in the direction of
doing your full worth to make the present conditions perpetual. It is
incumbent on every decent citizen of the Sudan to uphold the present
order of things; to see that there is no relapse; to see that the
reign of peace and justice continues. But you here have that duty
resting upon you to a peculiar degree, and your best efforts must be
given in all honor, and as a matter, not merely of obligation, but as
a matter of pride on your part, towards the perpetuation of the
condition of things that has made this progress possible, of the
Government as it now stands--as you represent it, Slatin Pasha.[3]
[3] One of the most distinguished officers of the Anglo-Egyptian
Army whose well-known book, _Fire and Sword in the Sudan_, gives a
graphic picture of the conditions England has had to deal with in
the Sudan.--L.F.A.