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THEODORE ROOSEVELT
1919

CHAPTER.23
FAVORS WAR AND CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION
IN the early struggles of the temperance cause one of the heaviest blows the liquor people received was the abolition of intoxicants from the army canteen. For years and years thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, were spent in newspaper advertising and in specific literature claiming that removing the drink feature of the canteen from the army had injured the soldiers; that they went away from the camp to the vile drinking-places near to it and poisoned themselves with bad liquor and polluted themselves with evil habits. They insisted most that its removal had greatly increased the social evil. The advertising department of the brewers was so persistent, that it not only wrote its own arguments for insertion in the daily and weekly newspapers, but it also prepared articles which appeared as editorials in many of the cosmopolitan papers. The same editorial, word for word, often appeared in eastern, western, northern and southern daily papers bearing about the same date. During President Roosevelt's administration there was a tremendous attempt to restore drink to the canteen in the army. A leading New York City Republican paper, which had usually been on the right side of moral questions, one day printed an editorial giving in detail the damage that the removal of the canteen had brought and asking for its return to the army. It said, emphatically, that two of the leading members of President Roosevelt's Cabinet were not only in favor of it, but that they intended to use their influence for its restoration. Feeling that it was then time to enter a protest against such a movement I went to the chief to do so.

Knowing Colonel Roosevelt's life-long hostility to the saloon, knowing that his whole life was at right angles to what it represented and with faith in his wisdom on such a subject, I went down to Washington, told the President my alarm and asked him if he would not set his foot down on the movement. He said to me, "Do not be alarmed; give yourself no trouble at all on the subject; the removal of the drink from the army was a most fortunate thing for the men themselves and the nation they represent, and I promise you that so long as I am President, or so long as I shall have any influence whatever in the Republican party or in American polities, intoxicants shall never come back into the canteen. You can take the first train back home and feel certain that the nation will not take a back step on such an economic or moral question.'' Bidding him good-bye, I suggested that it would be an excellent plan for the two able members of his Cabinet, who like some other good men were mistaken on the subject, to lessen their supposed zeal in advocating the claim of the liquor dealers, and thus save his administration from the just criticism of the church people.

During the last campaign for the repeal of prohibition in Maine, the liquor people started a rumor that Theodore Roosevelt was about to publish an editorial in the Outlook on the failure of prohibition in Maine. The rumor came to the ears of Rev. Dr. P. A. Baker, national superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, who was at that time engaged in the Maine campaign. He came to New York post haste and sought an interview with Mr. Roosevelt. He secured an appointment for the next morning at the Outlook office at eleven o'clock. Dr. Baker, Eev. J. A. Patterson and I met Colonel Roosevelt. I told him that I knew that rumor was false, but that Dr. Baker was very anxious to have authority for an official denial of the same as he feared such a rumor, if not instantly and authoritatively denied, might lose the State to prohibition. He snapped out instantly, "Give yourself no concern, gentlemen, I will not touch it! I will not touch it! Dr. Baker and Dr. Iglehart are Methodists, and Dr. Patterson is a Presbyterian. You good Methodists, and you good Presbyterian, and the good people of other denominations are right in such an overwhelming majority of cases that I think it perfectly safe to stay with them as I always have done. I never trained with that crowd in my life (referring to the liquor men), and I never will."

A telegram came from my personal friend, Mr. J. Frank Burke, superintendent of the Oregon State Anti-Saloon League, on March 15, 1912, stating that on the platform and in the press it was charged that Colonel Roosevelt was on his way, rapidly, to a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's hell and asked me as the Colonel's friend to wire a denial of the slanderous statements to be used at a political meeting to be held in.Portland that same night. This telegram went back in reply:

"Statement diabolical falsehood. Roosevelt never claimed total abstainer. Drinks almost nothing. No alcohol in eye or muscle. Not a spot on him, body, mind or soul. The bloom of best American civilization. Idol of people. Christly McKinley suffered same villainous slander from same source. Hell is not far from lying scandalmonger."

Though corresponding with the Colonel regularly, I did not care to irritate him with this slander, but in a letter in May, 1912, I gave him the text of the two telegrams received. His answer was the following:
en Route, pullman private cab oceanic,
may 14, 1912.

my deaR friend: You are a trump! I am very glad you sent precisely that telegram. You are absolutely correct. I have never claimed to be a total abstainer, but I drink as little as most total abstainers, for I really doubt whether on an average, year in and year out, I drink more than is given for medicinal purposes to many people. I never touch whiskey, and I have never drunk a cocktail or a highball in my life. I doubt whether I have drunk a dozen tea-spoonfuls of brandy since I came back from Africa, and as far as I now recollect, in each case it was for medicinal purposes. In Africa during the eleven months I drank exactly seven ounces of brandy; this was under our doctor's direction in my first fever attack, and once when I was completely exhausted. My experience on these two occasions convinced me that tea was better than brandy, and during the last six months in Africa I took no brandy, even when sick, taking tea instead. I drink just about as much as Dr. Lyman Abbott—and I say this with his permission.
Faithfully yours,
theodore roosevelt.

Colonel Roosevelt nursed his wrath until he could nail the lie, which he did in his successful suit against an editor, in which he got the complete vindication which he demanded and deserved.

Never since that day has any person of responsibility dared repeat the foul slander, and Theodore Roosevelt stands as a superb personality against the iniquity of the saloon and its intimate partnership with corrupt politics.

On January 4, 1917, at my request, Colonel Roosevelt gave me in condensed form his views against the saloon as he had so often done in private conversation. He called his stenographer and began:
my dear doctor iglehart: It has been my very good fortune to be associated with you ever since the days when I was president of the Police Commission of New York, when I worked hand in hand with you, and with the Ministers' Association that you represented on behalf of temperance, and of doing away with the evil of the saloon power in New York City. At that time, our fight was for a proper observance of the Sunday law. There could have been no more practical illustration of the hideous evil, wrought by the liquor traffic, than was afforded by the results of its stoppage for the few Sundays during which we were able to keep the saloons absolutely closed. During this period, the usual mass of individuals up in the courts on Monday morning, on charges of being drunk and disorderly and committing assaults, diminished by two-thirds or over. The hospitals, such as Bellevue, showed a similar diminution of persons brought to them because of alcoholism and crimes due to drunkenness. On the other hand, the healthy Sunday resorts in the neighborhood of New York showed a great increase in business. Men who would otherwise have stayed in New York drinking, while their wives and children suffered in the heated tenement houses, took these same wives and children for a Sunday holiday in the country. Unfortunately, by the end of that time, the decisions of the courts and juries had so hampered our action that, to a very large extent, the old system was reinstated. While this was partly because public opinion had not been educated to sustain us, it was partly because of the alliance between the saloon power and the politicians. Any man who fails to take into account both of these facts is blinding himself to two of the prime factors in the misgovernment of our citizens and in the misery of our city populations. If you care to know my views more fully, as written at the time, I refer you to my chapter on the subject printed in a book called. "American Ideals." The only change I have since to record is a constantly growing appreciation of the wide-reaching evil of the liquor traffic, and of the need of extending, by every method possible through our country, a full understanding of what this evil is.
Sincerely yours,
theodore roosevelt.
In "American Ideals," to which Colonel Roosevelt referred me, I find these references to criminals who were office holders and political leaders. There was one case of an assemblyman who served several terms in the Legislature, while his private business was to carry on corrupt negotiations between the excise commissioners and owners of low haunts who wished licenses. The president of a powerful semi-political association was by profession a burglar, while the man who received the goods he stole was an alderman. Another alderman was elected while Ms hair was still short from a term in State Prison. A school trustee had been convicted of embezzlement and was the associate of criminals. A prominent official in the Police Department was interested in. disreputable houses and gambling saloons, and was backed politically by their proprietors.

In a section under the heading, "The Liquor Seller in Politics," there is this description of the saloon as a headquarters for both political parties: "Preparatory to the general election of 1884, there were held in the various districts of New York ten hundred and seven primaries and political conventions of all parties, and of these no less than six hundred and thirty-three took place in liquor saloons—a showing that leaves small ground for wonder at the low average grade of the nominees."
In urging National Prohibition as a war measure, Colonel Roosevelt said:

"When we are threatened with a shortage of foodstuffs, when it is our duty to supply food to our allies to our utmost ability, we should see that needed food necessities are not diverted from their proper use. Most of the belligerent nations of Europe have taken up this problem and settled it. Let us begin at once to see to it that our grain is kept for food and not put into alcoholic beverages.

In a letter received from the Colonel on December 19, 1917, he said:
my DEAR mR. iglehaet: I thank you for your book and appreciate your sending it to me, and I wish to congratulate you on what has happened in Congress and the success that is crowning your long fight against alcoholism.

The American saloon has been one of the most mischievous elements in American social, political and industrial life. No man has warred more valiantly against it than you have, and I am glad that it has been my privilege to stand with you in the contest.
It will be seen from the date of this letter that it was written the day after Congress finally accepted the National Constitutional Prohibition Resolution and the decision of Congress which he congratulates refers to that action which was the death knell of the liquor traffic in America.

To a number of other persons he expressed the same views with reference to National Constitutional Prohibition, among them Wayne B. Wheeler, Rev. A. B. Wood, Senator Frederick Davenport, and others.
HE  FAVORED  WOMAN  SUFFRAGE Colonel Roosevelt was a champion of Woman Suffrage; was one of the first great political leaders to espouse that cause, and it is likely he made more friends for it than any other one man. I spoke at the Methodist church at Oyster Bay, New York, one Sunday morning, and after the service a young woman who said she was from Kentucky, snapped her black eyes and said, "What you said about woman's influence in driving out the saloon is true. But when you pictured woman on her knees praying God to wipe out this curse, why did you not suggest that men help God to answer that prayer by giving her the right to vote?" Colonel Roosevelt, who attended service at that church that morning, standing near, heard her question and said, "She is correct in her belief that women would vote against the saloon. I have just returned from a tour of Michigan in behalf of woman suffrage, and in the windows of the saloons I saw large placards, 'Vote against "Woman Suffrage,' and on the streets I saw advertisements of the saloon in living forms muttering out in their intoxication, 'Vote against the Women.' Of one thing I am convinced, and that is that the liquor people fear woman's vote as a deadly enemy."

One of the last things Mr. Roosevelt did before he died was to write a letter asking Congress to pass the Constitutional Female Suffrage Resolution. Thousands, if not millions, of people, who had been against woman suffrage or had been lukewarm on the subject, were stirred into enthusiastic approval because Colonel Roosevelt was so certain of the wisdom and practicability of this reform, which came in the adoption of the amendment by Congress shortly after his death, to the lasting benefit of the nation.