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LIFE AND WORK OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL

 CHAPTER SIXTEEN

 APOSTLE OF PREPAREDNESS

Twenty Years of Warning to the United States—He Practiced What He Preached—Urged Universal Training in 1914—Roused the American Spirit— Offers of Personal Service Rejected—Statement 6j/ Roosevelt and Taft—The Colonel's Attitude on the Great War.
Theodore Roosevelt preached the gospel of preparedness to the American people for more than twenty years. Even when the effect was indeed little more than that of "a voice crying in the wilderness," he urged the nation to prepare for eventualities that all human history pointed to as inevitable. That his advice and urgent warnings were received with apathy by successive Congresses that refused to take them seriously was no fault of his. He did his duty as he saw it, and carried into practice, so far as he could, the principles of preparedness which he preached, whenever official opportunity was given him to do so.

Within that period of twenty years, two foreign wars were thrust upon the United States—and both found the nation unprepared in a military sense. Only the Navy was ready when the war with Spain came in 1898—and its preparedness is admitted to have been due to the patriotic work of Theodore Roosevelt, then in the Navy Department as Assistant Secretary. Sensing the coming conflict, he had insisted on naval preparation, and the gunnery practice for which he had almost begged ammunition from Congress bore fruit in the battles of Manila Bay and Santiago. It was preparedness of a kind that saved American lives.

May it not then be justifiably suggested in the light of what has happened since, that the lives of many Americans—and many Europeans too—might have been saved in the years just gone, had the nation followed the urgent advice of Theodore Roosevelt and put itself in a position to protest against the breach of treaties and the atrocities of militarism in Europe—with a strong right arm ready to back up its protests and enforce respect for them?

If such protests as we did make were disregarded, why was it? Because the autocratic arch-enemies of human democracy knew that we were in no position to enforce them, and believed we could not do so. Hence the slaughter and the suffering and the terrific cost of a prolonged war.

When Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the Presidency on the death of McKinley, those who were alarmed about what he might do also suggested that with his combative propensities he was likely to involve the country in war. Yet there never has been an administration, as afterwards appeared, when we were more perfectly at peace with all the world, nor were our foreign relations ever in danger of producing hostilities. But this was not due in the least to the adoption of a timid or yielding foreign policy; on the contrary, it was owing to the firmness of the President in all foreign questions and the knowledge which other nations soon acquired that President Roosevelt was a man who never threatened unless he meant to carry out the threat, the result being that he was not obliged to threaten at all.
 Preparedness in 1914
The European war came, and there were times when Colonel Roosevelt assailed the Wilson administration bitterly, when he called for proper preparation against the looming peril, when he called for universal military service and a great Navy, when he demanded that we do something more than pretend a neutrality that more than nine-tenths of the country abominated.

He was busy with the trial at Syracuse the day the Lusitania was sunk, on May 7, 1915, and that night he dictated a statement that rang through America as to what America's plain duty had become. He would have sent Von Bernstorff out of the country, seized the German merchant marine, and got ready for the stern business of protecting American honor.

All of these things eventuated, but it can never be forgotten that Colonel Roosevelt sensed thus early the morality and the practicality of their immediate operation.

He Denounced Germany
From the very outset of the European war Colonel Roosevelt's denunciations of Germany's militaristic policy began. German newspapers, remembering his eulogies of the Kaiser, bitterly attacked him. With renewed energy, day in and day out, in speeches, editorials and interviews, he pleaded for "preparedness" on the part of the United States, flayed the pacifists and excoriated the sentiments of those who sang "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier."

In December, 1915, he wrote to Progressive leaders in Oregon, again saying that he would not again be a candidate for the presidency.   "Perhaps the public is a little tired of me," he added.

Nevertheless, when the Progressives convened in June, 1916, eighteen months later, the mention of his name brought forth cheering which lasted for ninety-three consecutive minutes. He declined to accept the nomination. An effort had been made to nominate him at the Republican national convention, and although he withheld his consent to this, his refusal to parley with the old wing of the party cast a gloom over Hughes' supporters. After Hughes' nomination he gave him his indorsement, much to the disgust of the Progressives, who saw themselves left adrift without their idolized leader, but the damage had then been done to the hopes of both Republicans and Progressives. Again, as in 1911, Roosevelt's attitude, this time because of his aloofness, contributed largely to the election of Woodrow Wilson.
Criticized the Administration From the beginning of the European war until the day when he was silenced by death, Colonel Roosevelt made America's concern in the struggle his constant theme. Beginning with his intense feeling over the sinking of the Lusitania, he insisted on the immediate entrance of the United States into the war and criticized the administration with vitriolic fire until war was declared.

To the end he maintained his dynamic denunciations of lack of military preparedness, calling daily for a larger army and navy, universal military training in time of peace and governmental ownership of munitions plants. He bitterly criticized the War Department, alleging its failure to provide sufficient equipment for American troops, and, only two weeks before the operation performed upon him in New York, went to Washington and delivered a sensational philippic before the National Press Club.

Months before the United States entered the war he set about organizing a brigade, which he hoped he might be given permission to lead against Germany, recruiting it from his old-time associates in the Rough Riders , and from young officers, college men, engineers and athletes. It was one of his bitterest disappointments that the War Department could not see its way clear to permit the use of such an organization, and he relinquished the project only after a lengthy correspondence with Secretary Baker.

Roused the American Spirit
Colonel Roosevelt would have had the United States protest and take action at the very beginning in 1914, when Belgium was invaded, declared his friend, Senator Lodge, in his memorial address to Congress after the Colonel's death. "He would have had us go to war when the murders of the Lusitania were perpetrated. He tried to stir the soul and rouse the spirit of the American people, and despite every obstacle he did awaken them, so that when the hour came, in April, 1917, a large proportion of the American people were even then ready in spirit and in hope.

"How telling his work has been was proved by the confession of his country's enemies, for when he died the only discordant note, the only harsh words, came from the German press. Germany knew whose voice it was that had more powerfully than any other called Americans to the battle in behalf of freedom and civilization."
Offers of Service Rejected
When the United States at length entered the World War, Colonel Roosevelt did his best to go into the active service of his country. He tried so earnestly indeed that there was a never-to-be-forgotten pathos in his endeavors •—to see this strong, eager man balked at every turn of his enthusiastic patriotism by a hostile administration.

His friends, and they were legion, wanted him to raise a division, not necessarily to be commanded by him. They were willing to endure all of the preliminary expense to train themselves. The groundwork was all laid. But the administration would have none of Colonel Roosevelt's participation.

Again and again after his sons had gone to France to join General Pershing he referred to the war as "exclusive," but always he declared that the nation must conduct the war to a victorious finish. He opposed indifference to haste in combating Germany, and any tendency to "let others do it."

Because he was not permitted to go to Europe at the head of a body of soldiers, Colonel Roosevelt was denied the reward which his friend, Senator Lodge, declared he would have ranked above all others, the great prize of death in battle.

"But he was a patriot in every fibre of his being, and personal disappointment in no manner slackened or cooled his zeal. Everything that he could do to forward the war, to quicken preparation, to stimulate patriotism, to urge on efficient action, was done. Day and night, in season and out of season, he never ceased his labors."

In such war work Colonel Roosevelt was indeed very active, speaking with his full power in support of the Liberty Loans, in arraignment of sedition and pacifism, and in urging liberal contributions for the Bed Cross. He gave largely out of his own means, and not long before his death he turned his Nobel Peace Prize cash, which had grown considerably from its original $40,000, over to the seven-branched War Work Service of the United States.

Roosevelt and Taft Ask Fair Play
In view of President Wilson's public demand in the fall of 1918 for the election of a Democratic Congress, ex-President Roosevelt and Taft in New York made public the following joint statement through the Republican national committee:

We approach this subject as Americans and only as Americans. When this war broke out we would have welcomed action by the President which would have eliminated all questions of party politics. It would have enabled us all to stand behind him to the end without regard to anything except national considerations. Instead of this, partisan lines have been strictly drawn from the first, and now the President announces that only Democrats can be intrusted with future power, and only those Democrats who do his will. Because of this reflection on other patriotic Americans we appeal for fair play.
The next Congress will serve from March 4, 1919, to March 4, 1921. In that period—

First—The war must be fought to unconditional success unless this is achieved before.

Second—The terms of world peace must be settled.

Third—The Democratic administration, after expending billions of treasure and exercising more absolute power than any administration in our history, must give an account of its stewardship.

Fourth—The change from war conditions to peace must be brought about with the least disturbance and the work of reconstruction must be broadly begun.

A Republican Congress will be much better qualified than one controlled by Democrats to aid the country in adopting the measures needed for these four great tasks, and for the following reasons:

First—Even as a minority party the Republicans made the winning of the war possible by passing the original draft bill. Without this we could not have trained and landed the two millions of men now in France. As a minority party the Republicans forced upon a reluctant President and Secretary of War, after an injurious delay of four months, the amended draft act without which we could not have put two more millions at the front by next July. The Speaker, the leader and the chairman of the military committee of the Democratic House opposed the original draft with all the vigor possible. It was saved, and so our country's cause was saved by the Republican minority.

Second—The new Senate must approve, by two-thirds vote, the terms of peace. Those terms should be settled not by one man only. It is one-man control we are fighting in this war to suppress. If the peace treaty is to be useful in the future, it must be approved by the great body of the American people. The President has indicated a willingness to make a peace by negotiation. He has not demanded, as he might have done in three lines, that which the American people demand—an unconditional surrender. His exchange of notes with Germany has caused a deep concern among our people lest he may, by his parleying with her, concede her a peace around a council table instead of a sentence from a court. The fourteen points which the President and Germany assume that they have already agreed upon are so general and vague that such a peace would be no treaty at all, but only a protocol to an interminable discussion. The President is without final power to bind the United States to those fourteen points, although his language does not suggest it.

Still less has he the power to bind our noble allies. We do not know that these points include all that our allies may justly demand, or do not concede something they may justly withhold. For what they have done for us we owe our allies the highest good faith. It is of capital importance, therefore, that we should now elect a Senate which shall be independent to interpret and enforce the will of the American people in the matter of this world peace and not merely submit to the uncontrolled will of Mr. Wilson.

Nor can the attitude of the House of Representatives be ignored in this peace. Every affirmative obligation binding the United States in that treaty must be performed by the House as part of the Congress. The present Democratic majority in the House has been subservient to the will of the President in every respect except when critical issues in the conduct of the war have been involved. The President has not hesitated publicly to discipline those of his party who have disagreed with him and the lesson has had its effect. A new Democratic Congress, with its old leaders thus chastened, will offer no opposition to his will. They will not be consulted in the future more than in the past. In a Democratic Congress the American people will not have the service of an independent, courageous, co-ordinate branch of the government to moderate his uncontrolled will. It is not safe to intrust to one man such unlimited power. It is not in accord with the traditions of the republic.

Third—The Republicans voted without objection billions to be expended by this administration. Six hundred and forty millions for aviation were given to the executive to build aero planes without a single limitation as to the manner or method of its expenditure. A Senate committee has deplored the waste and failure in the use of that money. The debts which have been created by this war the people will be paying to the third and fourth generation. They have a right to know how these enormous sums have been expended. Only a Republican Congress will have the courage to exact a detailed and accurate story of that stewardship.

Fourth—The work of reconstruction must not be done by one man, or finally formulated according to his academic theories and ideals. The President was not elected when such issues were before the people. His mandate of power was not given in the light of the momentous questions which will soon force themselves for solution. He was elected as a peace President and because he had kept us out of war. The American people should therefore place in the branch of the government charged constitutionally with adopting policies of reconstruction a Congress which will not register the will of one man, but, fresh from the people, will enact the will of the people.
We earnestly deprecate extending the unified uncontrolled leadership of a commander-in-chief to the making of a permanent treaty of peace or to the framing of those measures of reconstruction which must seriously affect the happiness and prosperity of the American people for a century. We urge all Americans, who are Americans first, to vote for a Republican. Congress.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT,
WILLAM H. TAFT

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APOSTLE    OP   PREPAREDNESS ^V\     Part of the original joint statement, in the Colonel's own handwriting, issued by Roosevelt and Taft in their reunion at the Union League Club in New York just before the congressional election, 1918. The upper section is in Roosevelt** handwriting, the lower in Taft's. Roosevelt generously put Taft's name first in the introduction; note how Taft courteously amended it so that Roosevelt, the earlier President, who made Taft his successor, came first as it was Driven, to the public. 

Attitude on the Great War
, 
In a speech at Carnegie Hall, New York, October 28, 1918, two weeks before the armistice ended hostilities in the Great War, Colonel Roosevelt said:

"I believe in putting this war through to our last man and to our last dollar rather than to fail in beating Germany to her knees. That is the spirit of our wonderful fighting men that our soldiers at the front have. The world has never seen finer fighting men than our soldiers at the front. But let this people never forget that in the bitter weather of last winter we left our small army overseas without a sufficient number of overcoats or shoes; we got uniforms from the British; we got our cannon and our machine guns from the hard-pressed French, the tanks from the British and French; we had practically no airplanes at the front until seventeen months after we went to war—in short, our governmental shortcomings were so lamentable that even now we can fight at all only because of the weapons our allies give us.

"I hold that it was a foolish and evil thing to have failed to prepare during the two years and a half after the World War began, and a foolish thing and evil thing to have shown the hesitation and delay and incompetency displayed in making our strength effective, which we showed for over a year after we had finally helplessly drifted stern foremost into the war. I hold that it is upon efficiency and upon an absolute disregard of all political considerations that we must rely in speeding up the war. Let us try to win it at once; but let us set ourselves resolutely to win it, no matter what the cost and no matter how long it takes. I hold that it is necessary clearly to face the dreadful blunders and worse than blunders that have been made, in order to avoid repeating them in the future. But I hold with even greater tenacity that it is our duty to treat these blunders, not in any way as an excuse for failure to do our duty, but as an additional incentive to devoting every ounce of strength we have to winning the war. If we had prepared in advance, the war would have been over ninety days after we entered it. If the administration had used with moderate efficiency the results of the lavish generosity of Congress our armies and the Allied armies would have been doing long ago what they are doing now in October. I trust our people will keep well in mind, as a lesson concerning the mere money cost of unpreparedness, that the enormous sums we have had to raise by taxation and by borrowing are at the very least twice as great as if we had begun to prepare in advance, without hurry and confusion and without the attendant waste and extravagance and profiteering, and with the patriotic and businesslike refusal to consider politics or anything else except winning the war.

Unconditional Surrender, but a Just Peace "We should accept no peace not based on the unconditional surrender of Germany and her vassal allies, Austria and Turkey, and upon the freeing of the subject races of Austria and Turkey from the yoke of the Austrian, the Magyar, and the Turk. Therefore, it is inexcusable in us, and is a reflection upon our good faith, to have remained so long without declaring war on Turkey, for it is mere hypocrisy to talk of making the world safe for democracy so long as we are not at war with Turkey, and have not insisted upon putting the Turk out of Europe and freeing the Armenians and the Syrians of all creeds from his yoke, and giving Palestine to be made a Jewish state.
"I would not subject the German or the Magyar to the dominion of anyone else. But neither would I permit them to lord it over anyone else. The true way to put a stop to Germany's ability again to convulse the world by an effort to secure world dominion is to give, not autonomy, but freedom to all the nations that now cower under the tyranny of Germany and her allies. Belgium, of course, must be restored and amply indemnified, and all the gold that Germany has cannot repay Belgium for the frightful wrongs so wantonly committed against her by Germany during the last four years. France must receive back Alsace and Lorraine, and Germany must be forced to carry out her broken promise to the Danes of North Schleswig. All of Poland must be a separate commonwealth, with a seafront on the Baltic; Finland, the Baltic provinces, Lithuania, and Ukrainia, must be made as absolutely independent of Germany as of Russia; the Czecho-Slovaks and the Jugo-Slavs must be made into independent commonwealths; the Roumanians in East Hungary restored to Roumania; the Italians of Southwestern Austria joined to Italy; the Greeks safeguarded in their rights; Constantinople made a free city, and all other injustices remedied in so far as it is humanly possible to do so. The German strangle-hold must be removed from Russia, and we should ourselves help Russia so far as she will permit us to do so, and we cannot efficiently do so unless our government acts with infinitely greater wisdom, forethought, insight, and resolution than it has shown in its handling of the Siberian matters for the last six months.

The Work of Reconstruction
"Then, when the end of the war is come and we have obtained the peace of complete victory, a peace obtained by machine guns and not typewriters, we shall have to turn to the affairs of our own household and undertake the work of reconstruction with cool intelligence and resolution, with firm determination not to be misled by the visionaries and fanatics who, under the plea of helping the average man, would bring our whole civilization to ruin.

 In the fight for Americanism there must be no sagging back.
—Roosevelt's Last Message.