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THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1919

CHAPTER 12

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS PRESIDENT by dr. albert shaw

[Dr. Albert Shaw, on whose matchless editorials in the Review of Reviews I have fed for twenty-five years, was one of Colonel Roosevelt's most intimate friends. The Colonel has talked with me, times without number, about his appreciation of Dr. Shaw and of the splendid help that he had always given him in his fight for righteousness in this country, and I asked Dr. Shaw to share this tribute of affection for our mutual friend by giving me for this volume an estimate of Theodore Roosevelt as President. He cheerfully complied with my request and gave me this ideal paper.]
FOR one hundred and thirty years there has been in existence an office of growing prestige and authority in the world known as the American Presidency. This office has been filled by men of greatly varying qualities. All of them have been men of respectable attainments, and the list presents a high average of merit. It is not often, however, that in any country a statesman comes to the front who seems to embody in his own personality the best characteristics of his generation, so that he himself is a real epitome of his people and his times. Pericles, in the golden age of Athens, was a leader of this kind. All that was best in the civilization of Greece seems to have been represented in the mind and character of Pericles. Although the permanent qualities of Washington and Lincoln have been generally admitted, there has never been agreement as respects either of these great Presidents upon the question whether or not they were in a broad sense the personal exponents of the America of their respective generations. My own opinion is that we are arriving at a better understanding of the personality of each of these men, and that their representative qualities will grow more apparent as the intrinsic points attain more emphasis and the accidental points fall into their due place of relative unimportance.

No matter, however, what may be thought in future regarding the broadly representative character of Washington or Lincoln, there will never be any disposition to deny the extraordinary extent to which Theodore Roosevelt as President was the typical American of his generation.

No public man of any country has ever put himself so completely upon record as Roosevelt. There are many millions of living Americans who have heard him speak from the platform and who have distinct impressions of their own regarding his personality and his physical, mental, and moral attributes. There are also hundreds of thousands of men and women who had some personal acquaintance with him, and at least ten thousand people now living who knew him quite well. There are other thousands who have received characteristic letters from him.

It is much easier to write, in a reminiscent way, about a man who was not widely known than about one whom everybody has had ample opportunity to understand and appreciate. Washington lived in a period when facilities were lacking, so that comparatively little was recorded about any public man. There was no shorthand reporting, typewriting machines were not known, and a very scanty and meagre kind of Journalism was given to discussion rather than to news. Lincoln's conspicuous public career was comparatively short, and the surviving information about the earlier part of his public life is relatively scanty.

Mr. Roosevelt, by contrast, lived in a period of fully developed publicity. When he was not doing things that caused others to write about him, he was himself writing books and articles that illustrated his own mentality and convictions. It was impossible for him to write extensively, in the field of American history and biography, without expressing himself, so that the reader felt that he was learning to know the author as well as the subject matter. This was true of his earlier work on the "Naval History of the War of 1812," and his volumes, entitled "The Winning of the West." The story of Roosevelt, therefore, will, when it is fully told by some great historian and biographer of the future, be a history of the development of the United States in the period covering the greater part of his life-time.

The youth of Roosevelt illustrates the growth of American life and society, as typified in the history of his family and connections both North and South. His education at Harvard illustrates American college life as it was some forty years ago. His intellectual interests relate themselves, particularly, to the condition of the country as it was in his boyhood. All that lay behind us of pioneer development was fascinating to him, and he identified himself in sympathy, knowledge, and personal experience with the further and later westward movements in the subduing of the continent. The animal life of the country, the forest and streams, the mountains—all were ardently studied in the spirit of naturalist and explorer as well as in that of the keen student and observer of the processes of nation building.

From this eager study of nature and of the country's resources and growth, Theodore Roosevelt gained an early reward in the form of an abounding physical vitality that supported his prodigious mental activity throughout his entire life. This physical vigor, together with his efficient industry, was the dominating thing in his career on the personal side.

Thus Roosevelt brought to the Presidency great vigor of mind and body, and a special preparation which had consisted of diligent study of American history and political problems. And this study, had been made not only in books, but also in a varied experience which had made him an authority in several definite fields. In whatever kind of effort he had been engaged, as a part of the training which fitted him for the supreme test of the world's greatest office, he had always shown capacity for seeing the possibilities of the thing he was doing, and for putting his great fund of vital force into the day's work, whatever it might be.

During Harrison's administration and a part of Cleveland's, he had served as Civil Service Commissioner at Washington and had come to know thoroughly the methods of administration in the government departments, and the practical aspects of the so-called "spoils system." This identification with the great work of improving government machinery had gone far toward fitting him for his subsequent place at the head of the government.
As Police Commissioner in New York he had shown himself a kind of "social engineer," working intensely to improve the conditions of living for the masses of people in the crowded parts of the metropolis.

As Assistant Secretary of the Navy and as Colonel of the Rough Riders he had gained practical experience, so that he was especially competent to deal with everything having to do with the defenses of the country.

Returning from Cuba to become Governor of New York, he had entered upon a new set of political and administrative experiences that contributed in no small measure to his rounded fitness for the Presidency. A less vital and capable man might have gone through similar experiences, culminating in the Governorship of a State, without becoming pre-eminently fitted for the leadership of the nation in its supreme post of responsibility and power.

Many men, indeed, of Mr. Roosevelt's own generation had gone through varied experiences more or less comparable with his. But Roosevelt possessed the most exceptional capacity for the assimilation of experiences, by virtue of his great personal endowments of mental and physical strength, taken together with his moral qualities of single-heartedness, courage and public-mindedness.

All these statements that I have made are obvious enough, because I am merely assembling points that are familiar to everyone who has given any thought to the career of Theodore Roosevelt. Yet it is necessary to have in mind the physical, mental and moral aspects of Roosevelt's personality, together with the varied experiences of his earlier life, in order to appreciate the man who became President in 1901 when in his forty-third year—the youngest President of the United States.

The boyishness of Roosevelt was so conspicuous a trait that no one ever thought of him as other than a young man to the very day of his death. He had a number of grandchildren, yet he seemed at sixty a young man, like his sons. His youthfulness was not related to juvenility or immaturity. He had left those qualities behind him and had shown rare manliness while very young. His literary work had been surprisingly mature, so that the books he wrote in his twenties held their own—without apologies for the novice hand—on the shelf with the writings of his later years.

He had been conspicuous for his courage in facing the most difficult problems during his first term in the Legislature soon after he left college. He had been chairman of the great New York State delegation at the Republican National Convention of 1884 when he was twenty-five years of age. I followed his work in that convention with the utmost admiration, and I knew him closely in a number of subsequent conventions, including the latest ones that he attended. He was always buoyant and youthful, at the same time that he was serious of purpose and alive to his responsibilities.

This youthful quality had much to do with the magnetism of Theodore Roosevelt and the charm which was felt by every one who associated with him. It was derived in part from his perfect health and wonderful physical vitality. He was always spontaneous and always able to turn rapidly from one thing to another. His spirits were so high, his energy so great, and his sympathy so wide, that he would have appeared wholly irrepressible but for the innate dignity that never failed him, and the perfection of manner that has never been surpassed by any incumbent of the White House.

I once saw him come down the main stairway to greet a distinguished Archbishop who was to be a luncheon guest. A small dog had arrived that morning from Oyster Bay and had not yet seen the head of the family. The joy of the little animal was so overwhelming as his master came down the stairs that, forgetting everything, the President was on the floor with the dog while the Archbishop stood at attention eight or ten feet away. But Mr. Roosevelt was himself again as President in fifteen seconds, and the Archbishop enjoyed and perfectly understood the boyishness of the nation's head; for the Archbishop, though an old man, had a boyish heart and knew the President well as a man whose sense of propriety was never really at fault.

I remember on another occasion a conversation with the most experienced of the "White House ushers. This man had been attached to the White House staff through a number of administrations. He was waiting for the President to come down to breakfast, and with a sweeping remark that was complimentary about former incumbents of the White House, he went on to say:

'' But there was never any man here like this man. He begins earlier; works harder; sees more people, and puts in longer hours than anybody who has ever been President. Yet he is never tired,- no matter how late he works; and he always comes down the stairs in the morning looking as fresh as the dew on the
roses! And he steps up to me and says, 'Well, D	,
how is everything about the place? If anything is going wrong just let me know and we win have it straightened out at once.' ' At that moment the President came down the stairs with a firm tread, a clear eye, and a radiant smile, justifying everything that the admiring usher had said.

His marvelous executive ability was due in great part to the habit he had formed of constant industry and of perfect concentration of mind. Many people can accomplish-a creditable amount of work if undisturbed and if allowed to work consecutively at one thing. Mr. Roosevelt could not only work without being sensitive to disturbances, but he could turn rapidly from one thing to another, compass each fresh situation, and bring to bear his whole power of decision. I have seen him for many hours at a time working at his desk in the White House offices, dealing with a great number of matters that were of vastly different degrees of importance. It need not be said that things which for one reason or another could not be settled were not rashly disposed of merely for the sake of clearing his desk. But if the case was in hand, he did not hesitate. He was never groping in the valley of indecision. His was neither the parliamentary temperament nor the judicial temperament, but it was in the highest sense that of the executive. He could lay out his work and perform it.

A President who is not only willing, but anxious, to see people will not be left in solitude. Mr. Roosevelt, who could have had a third term with an overwhelming endorsement of the country but for his own firm resistance, did not step down to private life with the sense of relief that men feel who are fatigued and overburdened. He was able to say that he "liked his job'' and that he had had a '' corking good time.'' This is perfectly true; and it was due to a remarkable power of adjustment and balance. Mr. Roosevelt had been busy, buoyant and happy in a number of previous periods when doing different kinds of work.

He lived in the "White House what for him was a normal existence. While public affairs of great moment had their full claim on his time and effort and were never neglected, he had also time for family life, for recreation, for reading and study, and for the stimulus and pleasure of social intercourse. During all these years in the White House there was probably no family in the United States that enjoyed a more agreeable domestic life, with due regard for privacy, with vast attention to reading and to the processes of education, and with constant devotion to the proper requirements of sport and recreation.

Mr. Roosevelt's knowledge of books in many fields was unsurpassed, while it may be suggested that Mrs. Roosevelt's acquaintance with the best books for children and young people, through practical experience in the domestic circle, was hardly equaled, excepting perhaps by a few specialists having charge of children's rooms in our public libraries.

President Roosevelt found so much zest in his daily exercise that it ministered undoubtedly to his efficiency as a public servant. While dealing with matters of the utmost delicacy and importance through the earlier hours of the day, it was no unusual thing for him to have the telephone busy in arranging to have three members of his so-called Tennis Cabinet present at exactly four o 'clock. His exercise was usually vigorous, and always taken in a systematic way, leaving him with ample time for the other parts of his daily program.

At a given hour in the forenoon, the folding doors from his private office opened upon a large company of people assembled in the adjoining Cabinet Room. Many of these were members of Congress or officials from different States or cities. There were people from all professions and walks of life who had come with credentials which admitted them to the waiting rooms. President Roosevelt met these companies of callers with a graciousness of manner that put everybody at ease. His marvelous memory served him well on such occasions.

Many of the callers were people whom he had met casually when on speaking tours throughout the country. Invariably he remembered them, even though he had not seen them for many years, and he always gave them a pleasant feeling by questions which showed how definitely he remembered occasions and people, particularly where children were concerned. Many of these callers had requests to make regarding appointments to office or other things of an official kind. Mr. Roosevelt, with a rapid sweep of the eye, noted everybody who was present and managed to give each person the feeling of having received a nod and a smile.

Explaining to the others that Senators and Representatives had business to attend to on the Hill, he gave these officials the precedence and enabled them all to transact their business without a minute of undue waiting. After observing official proprieties in this fashion, he gave the preference to ladies and elderly people. In thousands of instances, of course, he was obliged to say that the thing requested could not be done; but he knew how to say it in such a way as to spare the feelings of the visitor. If one must say "No," it is well to be prompt and frank rather than to prolong the suspense. No public man has ever known better than President Roosevelt how to say "no" in a way that should make friends rather than .ill-wishers. A few people there might be each morning with whom the President desired to consult more at length. These were quietly asked to wait until the others were disposed of, and then each one had his separate interview.

Almost every day there were luncheon guests forming an agreeable group, quite dominated but always drawn out by the President's wonderful brilliancy, humor and variety as a conversationalist. At these luncheon parties were to be found visiting statesmen, soldiers, scholars, literary personages, explorers, reformers, ecclesiastics and notable people from all parts of our own country and from Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. The President was so widely read and so active-minded that he derived healthy stimulus from meeting all these people, and was the better fitted for two hours more of afternoon work by reason of his personal contacts.

After his recreation hour, there intervened an hour or two of reading and family life before the more formal evening meal, when very frequently there were also distinguished guests. After nine or ten o'clock in the evening, President Roosevelt was able to withdraw to his private study on the second floor of the "White House, where for an hour, or, if need be two or three hours, he might work with stenographers upon important letters, diplomatic memoranda, messages to Congress or the drafts of speeches and addresses that he was to make.

It was not his habit to defer preparation of addresses until the last moment; and still less did he believe that he could trust to some kind of inspiration when on his feet. If he was going off to deliver a series of speeches, he preferred to plan the series definitely in advance, and he dictated the essential parts of all of them before delivering the first. He could of course modify them ad libitum as he went along, but he never relied upon fluency as a substitute for preparation. His messages to Congress were studiously prepared and were always ready well in advance.

One reason why Mr. Roosevelt as President was able to see so many people, and to have his days so full of varied contacts, was the practical way in which he used his powers of assimilation. He was fond of saying to some of his friends that they had never taken too much of his time or that their letters to him were not too long, because he was making it a point to get more from them for his purposes than they were able to get from him. As a man who was reading, for example, everything that was worth while about travel, exploration, hunting and colonial and political conditions in Africa, he knew how to supplement his knowledge by eager questioning of some returned traveler or, better still, some personage identified with affairs in South Africa, the Soudan, or elsewhere.

"While swift in decision, President Roosevelt always sought to avail himself of the best possible advice before acting. Members of his Cabinet were consulted fully about all that pertained to their departments, and were constantly called upon to aid in the formulation of broad policies, whether domestic or foreign. What may be called the moral momentum of the administration was Mr. Roosevelt's own. In the expression of policies, and in his discussions of public affairs, he was almost invariably aided by Cabinet officers and other trusted advisers. He was not resentful of criticism in points of detail, but constantly availed himself of the services of critics upon whom he could rely.

Thus his official relations were exceedingly frank and agreeable, and his administration was greatly strengthened in its prestige and in its achievements by the exceptionally good team work of the official personnel.

In the McKinley campaign of 1896, Mr. Roosevelt had taken very strong ground against the free silver movement and had been regarded in the West and South as the embodiment of the spirit and attitude of "Wall Street and the "money trust." He was not particularly fond of financial and economic questions as such, but he seized upon any phases of them that involved principles of public morality. The silver movement to him was abhorrent because he thought it fundamentally dishonest. He was in some danger of misjudging great masses of his fellow countrymen at that time, and of aspersing their motives.

Later on he realized that their intentions had been upright, although their views upon the money question were erroneous. I had occasion at that time, in what I believed to be his own interest, to blue-pencil a manuscript of his to the sacrifice of many of its most readable paragraphs. He had written it in the heat and fervor of the campaign, and its challenges were personal, unsparing and very widely distributed. In after years he mentioned the matter not infrequently, and always with thanks for what he characterized as the cool judgment and foresight of the editorial revision.

His acceptance of the verdict at the moment was a remarkable illustration of his capacity for taking disinterested advice on its merits, and without being mortally offended. The manuscript as I revised it holds its place to-day among his collected essays. He had dictated it hastily at night after an evening of campaign speaking, and the political and moral force of the article remained, while the trenchant assaults upon individuals and groups (who afterward became his personal friends and his permanent allies in politics) were eliminated.

Even in the making of those attacks, he was wholly free from ill-feeling or malice. He was engaged in a fight, was confident of the justice of his cause, and was hitting—a little harder than he realized—some opponents whose motives were good but whose facts and logic were mistaken. Life for him was so full of wholesome interest, and his healthy zest for various studies and activities was so absorbing, that it was quite impossible for him to cherish grudges or to cultivate animosities.

The United States had come through the period of the Spanish War with a greatly enlarged place in the world. Mr. Roosevelt brought to the Presidential office the qualities needed for that era. His Americanism was supported by so much of vigor, courage and frank audacity that his prestige made itself felt everywhere. The Monroe Doctrine was more fully vindicated than ever before in the adjustment of the Panama Canal policies, the arbitration of the Venezuela claims and in other ways. Good understandings between the British Empire and the United States were promoted as a basis of American policy. Mr. Roosevelt's relations with foreign diplomats at "Washington were cordial and sincere, and during his years in office we were more entirely on good terms with the world than at any previous moment in our history.

The Roosevelt period was marked by the massing of capital and the lessening of competition in railroads and industries. The forming of trusts and combinations called attention to the dangers of unrestrained capitalistic control. President Roosevelt led in the movement for reforming railroad management and for controlling trusts. In the working out of these problems of "big business," there were new alignments, and the President's strongest support came from quarters which had once looked upon him with suspicion as the special protege of the circles of wealth and privilege.

Everybody, however, came to see that his sole object was to build public policy upon sound principles of justice, with a "square deal" for all men alike. He was a life-long exponent of right-mindedness in public affairs; and the processes of reform which were set in motion while he occupied the White House will have accomplished results of profound importance for more than one generation.