“Great-Heart”
Since Roosevelt’s death there have been many suggestions made for a
memorial to him. Many of the projects are highly commendable and well
worthy of popular support, yet the fact remains that Roosevelt’s own
works will bring coming generations their best remembrance of him.
Fortunately for posterity, this great American was a faithful recorder
of his own works, and libraries and book stores are full of his
writings or those of authorized biographers that give us a full range
of his extraordinarily active life. Fortunately, too, for the world is
the fact that Roosevelt recognized the film as another effective medium
for bringing him in touch with the people, and authorized before his
death the representation of his life and work in motion pictures.
The deep and permanent impression Roosevelt made on the people of
his time--which will extend far into the future to influence coming
generations of Americans, is due not only to his personal acts but
also to his literary work. As an author and as an editor, the Colonel
contributed historical writings and entertaining narratives to the
literature of our country that earned him brilliant distinction
and made his name and works familiar to all who read. His work as
a historian led to his election in 1912 to the Presidency of the
American Historical Association, and also to his admission into the
American Academy of Arts and Letters. Roosevelt served “The Outlook” as
contributing editor from 1909 to 1914 and then joined the staff of the
“Metropolitan Magazine,” remaining on its staff as contributing editor
until his death. His contributions to these magazines on contemporary
subjects were always interesting, forceful and constructive, and
exercised a profound influence on the life and development of the
nation.
That Roosevelt was born to be an author as well as a statesman is
proven by the fact that no matter how busy he was he always found
time to write. In college and while he was reading law in his uncle’s
office, he found time to write “The Naval War of 1812,” a standard
work on the subject. He wrote his “Life of Thomas Hart Benton” and
his “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman” while he was pursuing his arduous
career as a rancher. When his duties as Civil Service Commissioner at
Washington were pressing upon him he yet found time to write several
books on hunting, as well as part of his splendid work “The Winning
of the West.” Thus it was throughout his career. Greater and greater
grew the demands upon his time, yet the number of volumes to his credit
mounted steadily.
Since his cattle-raising venture had failed, and since he knew the
income from any public positions he should hold would be inadequate to
the expenses of the office and generally uncertain, he determined that
his pen should support him. The fact that, when he died, his income
from his writings was about one hundred thousand dollars a year shows
how well he kept his resolution.
Mr. J. H. Whigham, publisher of the “Metropolitan Magazine,” thus
interestingly describes the way in which Roosevelt formed and kept his
literary decisions:
“His first coming to the ‘Metropolitan’ was in keeping with all the
Colonel said and did. The thing that worried him most in making a
connection was whether he could faithfully carry out his part of the
bargain. I had known Roosevelt first in Cuba when I lived for some
weeks with the Rough Riders and shared the precarious but precious
potatoes of the Colonel’s own mess. It didn’t require much perspicacity
to see that he was the sort of leader to tie to and cherish.
Naturally, therefore, when the ‘Metropolitan Magazine’ came into my
control I looked around for Roosevelt. He was contributing editor of
‘The Outlook’ then, and there is no need to say that he couldn’t be
weaned away from his allegiance to the Abbotts, for whom he always had
the greatest affection. I managed, however, to get him interested in
what we were trying to do with the ‘Metropolitan,’ and he promised to
let me know if he ever changed his plans.
“When the war broke out I came back from Europe to find that the
Colonel’s time with ‘The Outlook’ was up. Before I could see him, he
had begun to publish some syndicated newspaper articles in which he
denounced the invasion of Belgium. Hurrying over to his office, which
was then in Forty-second Street, I caught him on the verge of closing a
year’s arrangement with the syndicate. I reminded him of my prior claim
which he freely granted. He couldn’t see, however, how he could deliver
full value to a monthly magazine. The syndicate could publish two or
three times a month and so get back their money. I told him that was
our affair. We wouldn’t worry about not getting our money’s worth. But
the Colonel said that he couldn’t avoid worrying. He didn’t like being
in the position of not being able to deliver full value. He had never
been in that position before, and he didn’t propose to be there now. I
gave him excellent reasons, as I thought, why he would be worth as much
to us as to any newspaper syndicate, and he was nearly convinced but
not quite. I left him feeling pretty sure that he would decide against
us. But I was determined not to lose him. After wracking my brains for
two or three hours for a new argument I suddenly remembered that I
had mentioned no period for the proposed association. Suppose that I
offered him a three years’ contract instead of one, would not that give
us a greater and more exclusive value and so satisfy the Colonel that
both parties would profit by the agreement? It was late at night and I
had difficulty in getting the number of his private wire at Oyster Bay.
Nevertheless I finally brought him to the telephone and made my new
proposal. He laughed; and said, ‘You seem to want me pretty badly. I’m
sure I can’t think why. It’s true your new offer puts a new complexion
on the matter. Come out and see me tomorrow at nine. I have to decide
this business by ten in the morning.’
“I went, and it was decided in our favor. We never regretted it and I’m
thankful to say the Colonel never regretted it either.”
The Colonel at the time of his death was also a regular contributor to
the “Kansas City Star.”