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CHAPTER XIV
Assuming the Presidency

I
N September, 1901, Mr. Roosevelt was spending a few days in the wilderness of the Adirondacks. President McKinley had gone to Buffalo, New York, to visit the Pan-American Exposition and make an address. It was on September 6 that the country and the world were shocked by the news of the shooting of Mr. McKinley at the hands of an anarchist. Mr. Roosevelt was found and hurried to Buffalo, where the cabinet was gathered, awaiting the inevitable end.
Mr. McKinley died on the I4th, and Mr. Roosevelt at once took the oath of office at Buffalo. In Mr. McKinley's first term, Mr. Hobart, of New Jersey, had been Vice-Presi-dent, and it had been Mr. McKinley's method to treat Mr. Hobart as a close personal and official adviser, rather than to hold him aloof. If Mr. Hobart had lived, he would have been renominated in 1900, and

HIS   DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE
(Apropos  of  President  Roosevelt's  policy  with  regard to appointments to office.)
Prom Puck.    Copyright, 1901.    By permission

Assuming the Presidency

75

PUNCH,  OR THE  LONDON  CHARIVARI.—september 25, 1901.

THE  ROUGH  RIDER.'
WITH  MB.  PUNCH'S  BEST  WISHES  TO  PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.

76

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

VACCINATING  THE  TRUSTS
Give the doctor time ; his patient has a lot of arms that need attention.
From the Journal (Minneapolis)

A   GLIMPSE   INTO   THE   FUTURE.—FAST   AND
TIGHT
(President   Roosevelt   endeavoring   to   regulate   the
trusts by proper Government control.)
From the Pioneer Press (St. Paul)

Mr. Roosevelt's career, however distinguished, must have been different in its external facts. When Mr. Roosevelt was selected at Philadelphia, Mr. McKinley promptly assured him that if the ticket should be elected, he would expect to treat Mr. Roose-

 

THE TARIFF-REVISION HORSE AND THE CONGRESSIONAL   RIDER
president roosevelt : " I could ride that critter, but I haven't any intention of trying it." From the Tribune (Minneapolis)

THE ROUGH RIDER TO THE RESCUE
(President Roosevelt assisting in the completion of a reciprocity treaty with Cuba.)
From the Journal  (Minneapolis)

Assuming the Presidency

77

s

 

THE AMERICAN HEIICDLES
(A Swiss tribute to President Roosevelt.    After the assassination   of   President   McKinley   President   Roosevelt took vigorous measures against Anarchists.) From Ncbelspalter (Zurich)

THE NEW BROTHERHOOD OP STRENUOSITY
(Apropos   of   the   German   Emperor's   request   as   to   his American yacht.)
Prom the North American (Philadelphia)

velt exactly as he had treated Mr. Hobart.    Mr. McKinley had been true to this promise
in so far as he had found opportunity.

Mr. Roosevelt, furthermore, was on terms of personal friendship with several members of Mr. McKinley's cabinet. In an article prepared at the request of the present writer, for the review of
reviews, in 1896, Mr. Roosevelt had discussed the office of Vice-President, and had held that its incumbent should have close and harmonious relations with the President and the cabinet in order to preserve continuity of policy and of administrative work in case of his being called to the executive chair through the President's death.
BRER   LION   AND   BRER   EAGLE " I  ain't gwineter peck  yo'  tail,  Brer Lion,"  sez Brer
Eagle, sezee; " but aeu agin, I ain't gwineter gush 'bout yo'.
Brer Lion he 'low dey kin git 'long fine on dat track."
("He has never gushed over England; nevertheless, his
admiration   and   respect  for   England  are   sincere."     Daily
Chronicle   correspondent   on   President   Roosevelt's   Policy.)
From the  Westminster Budget
Mr. Roosevelt, therefore, did not have to hesitate or take counsel in September, in order to decide precisely what his general course of action should be. Because he knew his own mind, he was able to give the country instant and welcome reassurance. The fact that he was devotedly loyal to Mr. McKinley and a supporter of the administration's

78

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

THE   NATION   ENDORSES   PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT'S COURSE From  the  Times   (Minneapolis)

THE  WASHINGTON   SCHOOLMASTER Prom the Chronicle  (Chicago)
policies, made it the easier for him to  assume his new responsibilities.

He immediately declared that it would be his intention to carry out unbroken the pending plans and policies of the administration in accordance with Mr. McKinley's well-known views. He further invited every
ROOSEVELT'S   BIGGEST   GAME From the Herald (New York)

Assuming the Presidency

79

ANOTHER   DEMOCRATIC   DISASTER
(President  Roosevelt,  by  his  anti-trust  legislation and his settlement of the coal strike, has pulled out the main supports of the Democratic platform for the impending campaign.)—From Judge

member of Mr. McKinley's cabinet to retain his portfolio, with an earnestness that not one of them could withstand.
Almost at once in his administration he had to face the problem of enforcing the Sherman anti-trust law against railroad and industrial combinations. He took the safe position that it was his business to enforce the laws, and to follow the advice of the Attorney-General on the application of the law to any given case. This explains the action against the Northern Securities Company brought early in his administration by Attorney-General Knox.
In every subsequent case under that law, Mr. Roosevelt was not the crusader against modern business methods or aggregations of capital, but he was the firm executive, sworn'to enforce the law, and acting always on the advice of his constitutional counselors, like Attorney-General Knox, and Secretary Root who was then at the head of the War Department.
Obviously, there were new policies to be shaped and executed relating to our

" WE SNATCHED THE CLOTHES OF THE WHIGS WHILE THEY WERE IN SWIMMING."— Disraeli.
(Referring to President Roosevelt's activity against the trusts, which the Democrats looked upon as being essential, according to Democratic doctrine.) From the Eagle (Brooklyn, N. Y.)

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A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

THE NEW HERCULES From Nebelspaller  (Zurich)

(President Roosevelt begins to figure prominently in the foreign cartoons. In most of them he is well treated, although the Germans already show signs of treating him with that disfavor which they have visited of late upon all things American and English. In the drawing from Klculileraclatsch, on this page, he stands at Uncle Sam's elbow while that old gentleman swaps stories with John Bull about their respective bad legs, labeled the Transvaal and the Philippines.)

VfHY  NOT  AN  AUTOMATIC   SUBSTITUTE?

" It   is   announced   that  the   President   will   omit handshaking during his Western tour."
From  the  Eagle   (Brooklyn,  N.  Y.)

uncle sam : " I guess I can get ready for Thanksgiving now."    Inquirer   (Phil.,   November,   1902)

JOHN BULL AND UNCLE SAM THE MOUNTAIN-CLIMBERS From   Kladderadatsch   (Berlin)

Assuming the Presidency

81

THE HANDWRITING ON THE BAND WAGON From the Herald  (New York)

occupation of Cuba and our acquisition of the Philippines and other insular possessions. But Secretary Root was in direct charge of all these insular matters, as well as of army reorganization; and Mr. Roosevelt, besides having profound respect for Mr. Root's legal and executive talents, had always been able to work with him in perfect harmony and co-operation.

Mr. Roosevelt's personality impressed itself at once upon European statesmen and the foreign press. His face became familiar in the illustrated papers and cartoons of Europe. He was frequently likened, in his energetic and versatile qualities, to the German Emperor.

That distinguished monarch almost immediately, through diplomatic and ie'ss formal channels came into friendly touch with the American President. He sent his brother, Prince Henry, to visit this country and to give his greetings to President Roosevelt. The Emperor ordered an Amer-

" LOOK OUT, TEDDY ! " Prom the Times  (Denver)

82

A Cartoon History of Roosevelt's Career

ican yacht, and the President's daughter christened it at the launching in the presence of Prince Henry and Mr. Roosevelt.
The English press was cordial and appreciative, and felt that Roosevelt was a man of broad views of international affairs, while finding also some reassurance in his retention of Mr. John Hay as Secretary of State.
Even more sensational, at the time of it, than the prosecution of the Northern Securities Company, was the President's intervention in the great anthracite coal strike in Pennsylvania in 1902. The former case had involved a combination of three great Western railroad systems. The coal situation was the result of a stubborn contest between the organized miners who desired better pay, better conditions of labor, and the recognition of their union, and the five or six railroad corporations that had monopolized the anthracite coal production and were managing it for their own associated welfare.
The strike was so stubborn and complete that there was danger lest the great cities of New Y<3rk and Philadelphia should be without their supply of fuel during the season of 1902-3, and general business interests were also suffering. The workmen desired to arbitrate, but the so-called coal barons refused, and stood upon their rights to manage their own affairs in their own way.
Mr. Roosevelt found that the law permitted him, through the Bureau of Labor, to make inquiry into all the facts and to seek to bring about conciliation. In the end he was able to secure a satisfactory arbitration, as a result of which the men were gainers; and the anthracite industry has been carried on in a peaceful way ever since.
The President's leadership in these matters had the approval of the country, and resulted in the election of a Republican Congress in the fall of 1902.

Copyright, Underwood & Underwood.
PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT AS  AN  OPEN-ATR   SPEAKER   IN   THE FALL OF 1902
Furthermore, several State conventions, as for example those of the Pacific Coast, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and others,—looking ahead two years,—made formal declaration of their intention to support Mr. Roosevelt for President in 1904.