Short sketch of life and accomplishments:

All our sketches are inadequate; there are many more accomplishments to be found in our books. The following clips were cut from “Life and Work of Theodore Roosevelt by Thomas Russell. When you read the following consider how things would be different today if not for the life of Theodore Roosevelt. If you decide to learn a little more about him you may discover that his writings and life examples were meant to help his country avoid the hardships of corruption and decay.

Partial Chronology
Born in New York City in
1858

Graduate at Harvard in
1880

Law Student (New York University) in     .1881

Elected   to   New   York   Legislature   three   times, in
1881-1882-1883

Republican candidate for Speaker in
1883


    Delegate to New York Republican State Convention in
    1884

   First of the four Delegates-at-Large from New York to Republican National Convention (the other three being Andrew D. White, John I. Gilbert and Edwin Packard). (His practical management of the New York State Convention secured the election of these four delegates-at-large, and placed him at the head of the delegation which included George "William Curtis and Thomas C.    Platt)
    1884

Ranchman in North Dakota
1884-1889

Republican Candidate for Mayor of New York   
1886

United States Civil Service Commissioner   
1889-1895

President New York Police Commission   
1895-1897

Assistant Secretary United States Navy   
1897-1898
  
    Organized Rough Riders (First U. S. Volunteer Cav
alry), Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel in Cuba
Campaign, in which he took the lead in the bat
tles of Las Guasimas and San Juan Hill   
    1898

Governor of New York (elected in 1898)   
 1899-1900

Vice President of United States (unanimously nominated in 1900)
1901

Succeeded to the Presidency September 14
1901

Elected President (by largest majority ever given a
candidate)
1904

President of United States 7 years
1909

Initiated our Forest and Land and River Reclamation Policy
1901

Settled the coal strike
1902

Enforced the Monroe Doctrine in Venezuela,
1902, 1903,


Enforced the Monroe Doctrine in Santo Domingo in
1905-1907


    Recognized Republic of Panama and initiated construction of Panama Canal in
    1903

    Re-elected President (is the only Vice-President who became President through the death of his predecessor and then succeeded himself)
    1904

Negotiated the Russo-Japanese Peace Treaty
1905

   Outlined solution of Algeciras Conference concerning Africa (France, Germany, Spain, Morocco, Italy and United States)
    1906

   (He wrote the terms on the French Ambassador's visiting card.) Received the Nobel Peace Prize   
    1906

   Established Roosevelt Foundation for Industrial
Peace
    1907

Secured Santo Domingo Treaty, recognizing MonroeDoctrine
1907

Sent our fleet round the world—42,000 miles—(first national fleet to circumnavigate the globe)
1907-1908

    Assembled first House of Governors in Conservation
movement
    1908

Editor of "The Outlook"
1909-1914

Tour of Africa and Europe
1909-1910

Special Ambassador to England at funeral of Edward VII
1910

Lectured at European Universities, Oxford, Paris,
and Berlin (delivering the Romanes Lecture at
Oxford)
1910


At the written request of Governors of seven Stateshe led the Progressive Campaign
1912

Toured South America
1913


Toured South America again; discovered and explored 600 miles of unknown river, which the Brazilian Government named after him, Rio Teodoro   
1914

Attacked "invisible government" in New York   
1914

Proved Ms attack and defeated Barnes libel suit... .
1915

Initiated the Preparedness movement   
1916

Declined  Progressive  nomination   and   supported Hughes
1916

Organized Roosevelt Legion of 150,000 men and tenered it to the Government
1917

Championed more efficient and vigorous prosecutionof war
1918

Gave four sons to the service (three wounded, one killed)  1918

Turned over Nobel Peace Prize to Soldiers' Aid Society   
1918


Some Results of His Life Work
150 National Forests with an area of over 300,000 square miles 5 great National Parks. 4 Reservations for Big Game 51 Bird Reservations. 22 Reservations of American Antiquities.

His Land Reclamation, Forest, and Game Preserve Policy saved and dedicated to public use an area greater than all Germany—greater than the combined area of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

He was the first to begin this system of Reserves. Since then, under the influence of his initiative, eleven other Reserves of American Antiquities have been added to the list.

He built the Panama Canal, the greatest public work in all history. From sea to sea, across the isthmus, he carved, "Theodore Roosevelt, his mark."
He built the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona (opened 1911). He raised the United States Navy from near the bottom to second place.

He made three fleets ready and munitioned; and sent Dewey to the Philippines, two months in advance of the Spanish war. The victories of Manila and Santiago and their fruits were due to his preparedness.

       At Santo Domingo in 1905 he made the United Statesreceiver of customs; paid forty-five per cent to Santo Domingo and fifty-five per cent to foreign creditors; restored peace without firing a shot; enforced the Monroe Doctrine. This was embodied in the treaty with Santo Domingo, ratified in 1907, and established a precedent followed in Costa Rica. He established a policy of civil protectorate for the smaller states.
Measures for Social and Industrial Justice and Welfare, he made leading public policies.


He enforced and extended the eight-hour law and made it alive.
Appointed the first Country Life Commission.


Secured Workmen's Compensation and Employer's Liability Laws.
Developed the Bureau of Mines.


Maintained the open shop, for both union and nonunion labor.

His book, "Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood," published in 1912, following his policy as Governor of New York, practically initiated the movement for national legislation to protect woman labor and forbid child labor, in works under Federal control.

When he became Civil Service Commissioner in 1889, he found 14,000 Government officers under the civil service rules. He left 40,000 there; and as Jacob Riis said in 1904, "there are 125,000 now, and when the ransomed number 200,000, it will still be Roosevelt's work." Appointed by President Benjamin Harrison, he fought and defeated Harrison's Postmaster General over the appointment of postmen in Indianapolis, Harrison's home town. He was retained in office by President Cleveland in 1893-4-5; and when Roosevelt insisted on retiring at the end of his term, Grover Cleveland wrote him: "You are certainly to be congratulated upon the extent and permanency of the civil service reform methods which you have so substantially aided in bringing about. The struggle for its firm establishment and recognition is past. Its faithful application and reasonable expansion remain, subjects of deep interest to all who really desire the best attainable service."

In 1890, after a year of service as National Civil Service Commissioner, he came to Chicago and helped us in our struggle for city and State civil service laws. At a mass meeting we held in Madison Street Theatre in March, 1890, addressing an audience, half supporters, half opponents, he said: "Every ward heeler who now ekes out a miserable existence at the expense of officeholders and candidates is opposed to our policy, and we are proud to acknowledge it. Every politician who sees nothing but reward of office in the success of a party or a principle is opposed to us, and we are not sorry for it. * * "We propose to keep a man in office as long as he serves the public faithfully and courteously. * * We propose that no incumbent shall be dismissed from the service unless he proves untrustworthy or incompetent, and that no one not specially qualified for the duties of the position shall be appointed. These two statements we consider eminently practical and American in principle." (Riis, pp 109-110.)

On Government operation of railways he said: "Before that question can be so much as discussed, it ought to be definitely settled that, if the Government takes control, of either telegraph line or railway, it must do it to manage it purely as a business undertaking, and must manage it with a service wholly unconnected with politics. I should like to call the special attention of the gentlemen in bodies interested in increasing the sphere of State action—interested in giving the State control more and more over railways, over telegraph lines, and over other things of the sort—to the fact that the condition precedent upon success is to establish an absolutely non-partisan governmental system. When that point is once settled, we can discuss the advisability of doing what these gentlemen wish, but not before." (Riis, p. 112.)

He exemplified the psychological truth that man cannot be split up into departments; that the intellect is the whole man thinking; the sensibilities are the whole man feeling; and the will is the whole man deciding. In few men are they so thoroughly commingled. Still, it is convenient to consider his qualities in the established classification.

Let us simply observe his personality in three groups of qualities; namely, those of his intellect, those of his ethical nature or character, and those of his temperament.

Leading traits of his intellect were:


1.    Nobleness.   He took things in the large, high way, and not in the low or petty way.


2.    Idealism.   He  saw  that  everything contains  a promise of something better; that everything could be improved.    He saw things both as they are in reality and also in imagination, as if the improvements had come into being, and things were freed of defects.


3.    Concentrated application.   His intellect was overpoweringly active.   His extraordinary endowments combined ceaseless activity with single-eyed attention to the chosen goal.   His industry was marvelous.   His intellect, sensibilities, and will combined instinctively in this.


4.    Insight or intuition.    He had immediate understanding of people.   He saw into things deeply and with instinctive perception. He simply absorbed the best thought of the past and of his time.


5. Geniality. He was intellectually akin to and attuned to the life of the world about him. He shared the life of his kind, human kind, and was always cordial and hearty and social, and of good fellowship. This trait characterized him intellectually, ethically, and temperamentally.

In his moral nature:

1.    Rectitude was his leading trait.   He was upright and downright.   He saw straight. He gave and demanded the square deal and fair play.   Out of this came


2.    Honesty.   He was honest to the core.


3.    Fidelity.   He was faithful.   He enlisted for the war.   He stayed through to the end.


4.    Patriotism.   He was always a plus American.


5.    Dutifulness.   He overflowed with zeal for good. In home life he was an exemplar.   Wife, children, parents, relatives, and countless friends, found him ever a model of clean, pure, high living.

In inborn temperament:

1.    Chivalrous courage comes first.   "I will fear no evil," was his attitude, consciously and unconsciously. He never feared the face of man.   "Fear God and Take Your Own Part" entitled one of his last books, and characterized his life.   His spirit was dauntless.   This was higher and deeper than fearlessness.   It was intrepid
gallantry for the worthy cause.


2.    Power, which is force, ready and easy in use, he had beyond most men.   He had phenomenal driving energy.   Vigorous, strong, rugged, he was indeed a man of might. Alertness.   He was ever quick.   He had dashing initiative.   "A young fellow of infinite dash and originality," said John Hay in 1901.


3.    Joyousness continuously radiated from him.   He delighted in doing his daily task and doing it well.   He was a clean, true sport.   He saw life as a strenuous work, brightened into a mighty game.   He always made the first move.   He drank delight of battle with his peers.   "Delighted" was the greeting in his heart and on his lips. He saw everything with a sparkle of humor.


4.    Unselfish ambition.   Just as he naturally saw that
things could be better, he was ambitious and determined to make them better.   "Follow the gleam" (of the vision of better things) was his natural rule of action.

He was a genius. A genius is an enlargement of the common mind and heart—a man with eye to see, heart to conceive, and hand to execute, more than other men. His power of concentration on the thing in hand and ease in transferring his concentrated attention to the next were great.

To illustrate—A Congressman brought him a Water Power Bill. The President slowly passed his eye down over it from beginning to end, and handed it back with the remark: "Yes, that's important, and the Waterways Commission ought to have that before them." "But, Mr. President, I should like to have you familiarize yourself with it. I believe it will interest you." "I have done so," replied Roosevelt, "you can examine me on it, if you wish."

A continental author and statesman was visiting New York during the campaign of 1910. A New York lawyer took him to an open-air meeting where Roosevelt was speaking. A voice in the crowd cried: "Tell us about
Cuba and San Juan Hill." T.R.:" Oh, you want to hear how we helped out the Cigar Makers' Strike?" And a concluding paragraph of the speech followed. Five minutes later, being introduced to the continental author, he said: "I enjoyed reading your new book on Social Democracy and especially your views in the seventh chapter."

Roosevelt's intellectual output is monumental.


In the thirty-seven years from 1882 to 1919, he for a time conducted a ranch, contributed articles to many periodicals, served as visitor to Harvard University, was editor of "The Outlook" four years, brought out forty-three volumes of books, and a similar volume of messages and reports, besides unnumbered editorials and addresses.

The volumes may be classified thus:
Histories: Winning of the West, four volumes; Naval War of 1812, History of New York City, History of the Royal Navy (being the sixth volume of a large English work and dealing with the British Navy in the war of 1812), The Rough Riders, The Philippines (one volume each)     9


Biographies: Of Cromwell, Benton and Grouverneur
Morris     3


Science: The Deer Family; Life Histories of African
Game Animals (two volumes); Through the Bra
zilian Wilderness      4


Political and Literary Essays and Sketches     13


Narratives and Sketches of Ranch Life, and Hunting
Experiences     13


Autobiography        1


It was a topic of conversation in North Dakota in the eighties, that he brought over a freight-car load of books with him and worked there in winter evenings on his "Winning of the West."

Of his quality as a nature-lover and observer, let John Burroughs speak. Describing a trip with Roosevelt through Yellowstone Park in the spring of 1903, he says: "A woman * * wrote me to protest against the hunting, and hoped I would teach the President to love the animals as much as I did—as if he did not love them much more, because his love is founded upon knowledge, and because they had been a part of his life. * * The President said: "I will not fire a gun in the park; then I shall have no explanations to make. * * The President suddenly jumped out, and with his soft hat * * captured a mouse that was running along over the ground near us. * * He wanted it for Dr. Merriam, on the chance that it might be a new species. While we all went fishing in the afternoon, the President skinned his mouse, and prepared the pelt to be sent to Washington. It was done as neatly as a professed taxidermist would have done it. This was the only game the President killed in the park. * * It turned out not to be a new species, as it should have been, but a species new to the park. * * His instincts as a naturalist * * lie back of all his hunting expeditions, and in a large measure * * prompt them. Certain it is that his hunting records contain more live natural history than any similar records known to me, unless it be those of Charles St. John, the Scotch naturalist-sportsman.    The chief qualification of a born observer is an alert, sensitive, objective type of mind, and this Roosevelt has in a preeminent degree." ("Camping with Roosevelt," pp. 6-41-66-7-103.)

And here we may remember his great constituency of young people. As the '' Tribune'' of his native city said: "Millions who have no spokesmen to make articulate : their emotions, who lack words to express their grief, mourn Theodore Roosevelt surely quite as sincerely as those who fill papers with their tributes and draw up resolutions of regret. Among these mute mourners are the boys of America. In their Pantheon Theodore Roosevelt, hero of San Juan, mighty hunter, slayer of lion, bear, wolf, and panther, explorer, occupied a throne more exalted than any mythical hero.

"He was the eternal boy. His were the boy's enthusiasms and unlimited capacity for swift movement of body and brain. And the boys shall mourn the passing of this full-colored, virile man long after grief has faded from older and colder hearts and minds, untouched by the eternal dawn."

He published over a book a year, besides administering all these offices, leading these public movements, and rearing a family of children.
Here are some of his literary titles:

Washington's Maxim (Address, U. S. Naval College, June, 1897):
    "To be Prepared for War is the Most Effectual Means to
      Promote Peace.
"The War of America the Unready." (1913.)
"Speak Softly—and Carry a Big Stick—You Will Go Far."
'' Our Poorer Brother.''
"The Strenuous Life."
"The Square Deal."
"Fear God and Take Your Own Part."•'Realizable Ideals."
'' Applied Idealism.''
"A Book Lover's Holiday in the Open."
"Ranch Life and Hunting Trail."
"The New Nationalism."
"The Peace of Righteousness."
"We Stand at Armageddon and We Battle for the Lord."

When he was born 83.9 per cent of our people lived on farms or in rural homes. Railways and other instrumentalities and influences drew the people to the cities. When he became President, although the total population had more than doubled, the rural population had fallen to 59.5 per cent of the whole. And with the urbanizing tendency came also the tendency to make each man part of a machine. Roosevelt, city born and bred, realized the need of conserving the farms and forests, the fauna and flora, the waters and minerals, the natural resources, and the men, women, and children of the land.

As Governor of New York, he brought together in the Executive Chamber at Albany, a conference of forty of the best guides and woodsmen of the Adirondacks, and initiated a program of forest, stream, and game preservation, and the propagation of food fish and sporting fish. "The game wardens in the forests must be woodsmen, and they should have no outside business." * * "The State should not permit within its limits, factories to make bird skins or bird feathers into articles of ornament or wearing apparel." * * "A primeval forest is a great sponge which absorbs and distills the rain water. And when it is destroyed the result is apt to be an alternation of flood and drought;"—said his message to the New York Legislature in January, 1900. As President he found Gifford Pinchot already in office as head of the infant Forestry Bureau, retained him there throughout his two presidential terms, and left him there. In Roosevelt's first message to Congress, December 3rd, 1901, he said: "The forest and water problems are perhaps the most vital internal problems of the United States.'' June 17, 1902, the Land Reclamation Act was passed, under which during his term of office over 3,000,000 acres (an area approximating that of Connecticut) were reclaimed, irrigated, and made productive.

February 1, 1905, the Act was passed on his recommendation transferring the National Forests from the Interior Department, where they had been treated as part of the general public lands, to the Department of Agriculture, classifying them as part of the cultivated resources of the United States.

In 1907, the Government published sixty-one bulletins of Forestry, with a total of over 1,000,000 copies distributed to the people (compared with three bulletins and 82,000 copies in 1901). The Forestry Bureau under his direction secured the publication of bulletins of scientific forestry facts in 50,000,000 copies of newspapers per month, at a total expense of $6,000 a year. The area of National Forests was increased from forty-three millions to one hundred and ninety-four millions of acres (303,125 square miles, an increase of 235,937 square miles, com-pared with the area of the German states, 208,780 square miles). His water power policy required grants of such power on the public domain, in the National Forests and on navigable streams, to be for limited periods, with protection for navigation, under Federal regulation, and requiring payment for value received.

 
President Roosevelt put new life into the Government. As he had put new life into the Municipal Government of New York City, and into the State Government of the Empire State, he did the same in fuller measure for the Nation.

He realized the need of conserving the achievements and institutions of the past, of keeping the governmental mind open to new ideas, and ready to adopt new methods and enter new fields of governmental action, when the need for it was shown. He conserved the fruits of the past while planting for the future.

He realized the need of new light from the advice of competent men who were not parts of the Government, who were not walled in by official habit and routine, and who saw things from the viewpoint of up-to-date business, and with the trained experience of specialists. When the world war came, this example was to some extent followed, and where followed, proved of immeasurable value. He initiated the practice of appointing unpaid voluntary commissions; and appointed and received the aid of six such commissions in the six years 1903-1909, viz: Com-missions on Organization of Government Scientific Work (Charles D. Walcott, Chairman); on Department Methods (Charles H. Keep, Chairman); on Public Lands; on Inland Waterways; on Country Life; and on National Conservation. These commissions rendered great service in promoting the adoption of modern methods; in opening the eyes "of the nation to the fact that even its natural resources were not inexhaustible; that our continental system of rivers should be conserved and developed as a unit for transportation, for climatic stabilization, and as a by-product, for water-power development; that our forests and mines and soils were the treasuries of the future; that undiscriminating exploitation meant national impoverishment; that the farmers by isolation were handicapped in securing needed labor, in securing expression and recognition of their needs—and that where those needs coincided with national needs it was proper governmental policy to ascertain and seek to satisfy them.

The new life which he put into our municipal, state and national governments was in part the consequence, in part the guiding influence, and in part the source, of mighty movements for the regeneration of public life in America. He blazed a new trail through the complexities of modern life. It was a trail of applied idealism, applied democracy. "It is better," he wrote, "for the Government to help a poor man make a living for his family than to help a rich man make more profit for his company." It led to the movement for overcoming what he called the "human deficit." In this term human deficit he grouped occupational diseases, child labor, overwork and premature exhaustion, economic dependence of women, industrial accidents, inadequate wages, involuntary unemployment, illiteracy, and impoverished old age. These are the evils to be overcome. He led the pioneers and blazed the trail leading to the conservation and enlargement of the common life of the people. And as he initiated the movement for efficiency in the work of governmental departments, so he initiated the movement for efficiency in every field of public work. This has grown into a general movement for efficiency in industry, in education, in the charitable and penal institutions, and in the higher activities of the community, including those of philanthropy and religion.

Beginning with the attempt to cut out the circumlocution office from the national Government, and extending through the political and industrial life as an eliminator of waste, the movement extended to the salvaging of the human unit itself. Wasted vitality, mutilated lives and impoverished progeny were objects of his anxious concern and vigorous efforts to overcome. He saw even more clearly that competition is war; that unregulated, unrestricted competition is ruinous; that the civil laws which were built up around the maxim, '' competition is the life of trade," belonged to the period of isolation and scattered development; that those laws had served a useful purpose; but that society, industrial and economic, had outgrown those conditions; that a time comes in every growing community where competition is the death of trade; that unfair competition is destructive; that regulation to prevent such unfairness is an immediate requisite; that growth and increase are the natural rewards of excellence; that great size is not a wrong in business; that not bigness but badness was what called for repression; that combination is the step beyond competition; and that both competition and combination of industries need public regulation and supervision with ceaseless vigilance.

To the statesmen of our centennial period, who loved the glorious record of our unparalleled prosperity, who on one side promoted broad construction and rejoiced in the old flag and liberal appropriations, and who on the other stood for strict construction and home rule, and between whom were waged the tariff and currency debates (all of which have their most important places in governmental life), these new ideas were like new wine in old bottles.

It will ever remain true that the governmental machine cannot stop for repairs; that it must go on operating and renewing at the same time. Men who can do what Roosevelt did are indispensable when the critical period of renewal during operation is upon us.

"Speak softly—and carry a big stick; you will go far," was his counsel and his practice. He said this of the Monroe Doctrine, and styled a large and efficient navy the big stick. Timid souls, and Mr. and Mrs. Grundys, and opponents of change, saw the big stick. They didn't always heed his soft speech. He went far, farther, higher and better—beyond what his best friend hoped or his most determined opponent feared. Such people no more comprehend him than a fly on St- Peter's dome, poising for a moment on its downmost rim, comprehends the greatness of that majestic creation of Michael Angelo. And they did not disturb him.

In 1884 "at the Chicago Convention," says our statesman, diplomat, university president, Andrew D. White, "though he was in a small minority" (and at the age of 25, the youngest man in the convention) "nothing daunted him. As he stood upon a bench and addressed the chairman, there came from the galleries on all sides a howl and yell, "Sit down! Sit down!" with whistling and cat-calls. All to no purpose; the mob might as well have tried to whistle down a bronze statue. Roosevelt, slight in build as he then was, was greater than all that crowd combined. He stood quietly through it all, defied the mob, and finally obliged them to listen to him." (White, Autobiography, p. 205). It was in this speech that he opposed the conventional method of a mere "call of states" and demanded a roll call of individual delegates. "Let each man stand accountable to those whom he represents for his vote.'' (Tuesday, June 3,1884, supporting the colored man, John E. Lynch, for temporary Chairman). The new precedent he thus helped to establish has been followed ever since.

Such men make mistakes—otherwise they would not be men. Roosevelt made mistakes, and looking backward, he frequently publicly so declared.

"A friend of his one day took him to task for some mistake he had made in one of his appointments. "My dear sir," replied the President, "where you know of one mistake I have made, I know of ten." (Burroughs, pp. 22-3.)

He saw large; and when his "speak softly" was turned away and disregarded, he spoke loudly with a magnifying — even exaggerating — trumpet. He was intensely human, and he was intensely loved. He was so human that we couldn't help loving him, even when we were against him. "Dancing down the way of life he came, with life and love and courage and fun stickin' out all over him."

"The dandy copper of the Broadway squad," was first applied to him as New York Legislator in" 1882, and again when he was President of the Police Board in 1895. There is a mark of widespread recognition, of fine quality and good heart that comes to few public men—that came to him—the affectionate nickname. He always was and always will be '' Teddy, dear." " Teddy'' was his college nickname, which stayed with him through life; and he became "Teddy dear" to all America. Beautiful was his friend's tribute in the Chicago Evening Post in 1916, the day after the Republican  Convention took Hughes in his place: "Ah, Teddy, dear—and did you hear—the news that's goin' 'round? They say you've gone from off the stage, that strange cold men whom we respect but love not, must be our meat for all the days to come. Our hearts are broke. We need you every minute. Ah, the fun of you and the glory of you! Ah, Teddy, dear—we love you now and always."

In every city, town, and hamlet, there were men of vision, in advance of their time, men brooding over plans of national aid for the emigrant; men like Buffalo Jones, striving to save the buffalo; men like Gifford Pinchot, striving to save the forests; men like Father Curran and John Mitchell, trying to help the miners; men like Booker Washington, striving to uplift the colored people.

In Roosevelt they found a leader and a friend. They flocked to him naturally, and found a tonic stimulant in his genial courage and effective leadership.

He knew that in big business, in big politics, in government, and in international diplomacy, we must still sight along the line of the Ten Commandments.

There were men with him and against him that forgot it.

Germany forgot it.

Sometimes politicians and big business men forgot it.

Roosevelt remembered it. Roosevelt stands for the revival of conscience in American public life. Theodore, as we know, means '' Gift of God.'' Truly he was the gift of God to the American people.

He remembered that governments are instituted to secure the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and that our Constitution was ordained to promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity.

Higher laws than those of economics control the development of a nation's life and expression of its consciousness. That development and expression must be true to the line of the Ten Commandments. That development and expression at times seem to sleep a long, long sleep. Suddenly bursting seams and lines of growth show everywhere, like a century plant as it bursts in bloom; and the flower and fruiting of a great period is seen in the career of a man instinct with the life—the hope—the need—the ideals—the aspirations of his people. Such a man was Roosevelt. Born rich and gentle and citified, he sought the country and the wild. He became poor, and he loved the common people. He ate and drank with publicans and sinners; and the common people heard him gladly.
Riches hamper and obstruct; they add power to the right man; but at the start they dull the spirit. One hundred poor young men rise for one rich young man. Roosevelt found in aristocratic birth an invidious bar. But he was the exceptional one

 
This was the Happy Warrior—he
That every man at arms would wish to be.
Ocean tides from the Atlantic and Pacific that meet in inlets of his creation at Panama shall chant his requiem. The murmur of innumerable trees in the National Forests that he saved shall forever sing his threnody. Waterfalls that he dedicated to freedom on every mountain side shall perpetually cast rainbows into the sunlight as tributes to his praise.
Already plans are making for his monument. A tablet marks his victory in the park of San Juan Hill. Well might there be a Roosevelt Park in every town, and a Roosevelt Hill in every range, and his name be inscribed on the walls of every student society, political club, and Boy Scouts' hall.

But we who remain must remember what he exemplified. Better far that each of us, in his measure, be a living remembrance. Beauty and truth and goodness and courage are not dead. They spring eternal in the breast of man. As each new springtime heaps the orchards full of bloom and scent, so the eternal spirit of goodness brings to flower and fruit each year a group of heroes and of leaders. Like soldiers in the phalanx, we must close ranks and go forward, remembering

The stubborn spearmen still make good
Their dark, impenetrable wood,
 Each stepping where his comrade stood,
The instant that he fell.

It is right to mourn the passing of Theodore Roosevelt. It is right to rejoice in the rich legacy of patriotic ideals he has left us. But it is rather for us, the living, to be here dedicated to the unfinished work he and his associates have thus far so nobly advanced.
We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord. Armageddon, in the Apocalypse, was the field of battle between the Faithful and True and the unclean spirits of all the world, led by the Beast.

Three months ago, Armageddon was in Flanders. One month ago it was in the streets of Moscow and Petrograd. The Beast had taken on the form of Bolshevism. In this new disguise, he has now moved on to Berlin; and we learn that the Bolshevist movement is spreading westward to Dresden and Leipsic and Hamburg and Brussels.

Well may we set our house in order against it; for, like the influenza, it may spread even to our doors. We should take courage from Roosevelt, and follow his example, and stand for law and order. Let us say, "Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil." We will fear God and take our own part. For we stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.


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