It seems strange that up to the very time of America’s participation in
the war there should be people in this country who did not realize the
self-sacrificing work for the national cause done by the Colonel, yet
such was true.
At a mass meeting in Madison Square Garden Roosevelt was talking about
the part the United States should take in the war, when a man shouted:
“Why aren’t you over there yourself?”
Some men cried, “Put him out!” But Roosevelt raised his hand for
silence and said, “No, don’t put him out. Let him stay. I want to
answer him.”
When the audience was still he went on:
“I couldn’t go myself, but I did send my four sons, every one of
whose lives is a thousand times dearer to me than my own. There, you
creature, that is my answer to any man who dares to ask an American
father why he isn’t engaged in this war.”
The scorching anger of the Colonel and the scorn of the audience made
the heckler slink away with a rebuke he will always remember.