Secretary Root left on Monday and Governor Taft took his place. I have
missed, and shall miss, Root dreadfully. He has been the ablest, most
generous and most disinterested friend and adviser that any President
could hope to have; and immediately after leaving he rendered me a great
service by a speech at the Union League Club, in which he said in most
effective fashion the very things I should have liked him to say; and
his words, moreover, carried weight as the words of no other man at this
time addressing such an audience could have done. Taft is a splendid
fellow and will be an aid and comfort in every way. But, as mother says,
he is too much like me to be able to give me as good advice as Mr. Root
was able to do because of the very differences of character between us.
If after fully thinking the matter over you remain firmly convinced that
you want to go into the army, well and good. I shall be rather sorry for
your decision, because I have great confidence in you and I believe that
in civil life you could probably win in the end a greater prize than
will be open to you if you go into the army--though, of course, a man
can do well in the army. I know perfectly well that you will have
hard times in civil life. Probably most young fellows when they have
graduated from college, or from their post-graduate course, if they take
any, feel pretty dismal for the first few years. In ordinary cases it
at first seems as if their efforts were not leading anywhere, as if
the pressure around the foot of the ladder was too great to permit
of getting up to the top. But I have faith in your energy, your
perseverance, your ability, and your power to force yourself to the
front when you have once found out and taken your line. However, you and
I and mother will talk the whole matter over when you come back here on
Easter.