Speech or Document 32

SAYINGS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

FROM THE OUTSET OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE, COLONEL ROOSEVELT WAS NOTED FOR HIS ABILITY TO SCORE HIS POINT WITH CLARITY AND POSITIVENESS.  MANY OF HIS EPIGRAMMATIC UTTERANCES, SUCH AS THE FOLLOWING HAVE BECOME COINS CURRENT IN THE LANGUAGE:

I INTEND to vote the Republican Presidential ticket.  A man can not act both without and within the party; he can do either, but he can not possibly do both.  Each course has its advantages, and each has its disadvantages, and one can not take the advantages or the disadvantages separately.  I went in with my eyes open to do what I could within the party; I did my best and got beaten, and I propose to stand by the result.— From a statement in 1884, when Roosevelt was twenty-five years of age, during the Blaine-Cleveland campaign.  Roosevelt had supported Edmunds for the nomination against Blaine.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.—From the "Life of Benton," 1886.

The man who becomes Europeanized, who loses his power of doing good work on this side of the water and who loses his love for his native land is not a traitor, but he is a silly and undesirable citizen.—From " American Ideals," 1897.

Unquestionably no community that is actually diminishing in numbers is in a healthy condition, and as the world is now, with huge waste places still to fill up with much of the competition between the races reducing itself to the warfare of the cradle, no race has any chance to win a great place unless it consists of good breeders as well as of good fighters.—From "American Ideals," 1897.

We do not wish, in politics, in literature, or in art, to develop that unwholesome parochial spirit, that overexaltation of the little community at the expense of the great nation, which produces what has been described as the patriotism of the village, the patriotism of the belfry.  .  .  .  The patriotism of the village or the belfry is bad, but the lack of all patriotism is even worse.— From "American Ideals," 1897.

Peace is a goddess only when she comes with a sword girt on thigh.—From "American Ideals," 1897

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.— From " The Strenuous Life," 1900.

When at the White House

The mechanism of modern business is so delicate that extreme care must be taken not to interfere with it in a spirit of rashness or ignorance.  Many of those who have made it their vocation to denounce the great industrial combinations, which are popularly, although with technical inaccuracy, known as “trusts," appeal especially to hatred and fear.  These are precisely the two emotions, particularly when combined with ignorance, which unfit men for the exercise of cool and steady judgment.—From first annual message, December 3, 1901.

When home ties are loosened, when men and women cease to regard a worthy family life, with all its duties fully performed, and all its responsibilities lived up to, as the life best worth living; then evil days for the commonwealth are at hand.  There are regions in our land, and classes of our population, where the birth rate has sunk below the death rate.  Surely it should need no demonstration to show that willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement.—From sixth annual message, December 3, 1906.

As I emphatically disbelieve in seeing Harvard or any other college turn out mollycoddles instead of vigorous men, I may add that I do not in the least object to a sport because it is rough.— From a speech at Cambridge, Mass., February 23, 1907.

This nation should help in every practicable way in the education of the Chinese people, so that the vast and populous Empire of China may gradually adapt itself to modern conditions.  .  .  .  Our educators should, so far as possible, take concerted action to this end.—From seventh annual message, December 3, 1907.

There is no moral difference between gambling at cards or in lotteries or on race track and gambling in the stock market.  One method is just as pernicious to the body politic as the other kind, and in degree the evil worked is far greater.  —From special message, January 31, 1908.

There is a homely old adage which runs: " Speak softly and carry a big stick: you will go far." If the American Nation will speak softly, and yet build, and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.—From addresses and messages.

Let us all strive, according to our ability and as far as conditions will permit, to secure to the man of one color who behaves uprightly and honestly, with thrift and with foresight, the same opportunity for reward and for living his life under the protection of the law and without molestation by outsiders, that would be his if he were of an other color.  The avenues of employments should be open to one as to the other; the protection of the laws should be guaranteed to one as to the other.— From a speech at Washington, November 26, 1908.

What He Said in Europe

The deadening effect on any race of the adoption of a logical and extreme socialistic system could not be overstated; it would spell sheer destruction; it would produce grosser wrong and outrage, fouler immorality than any existing system.  But this does not mean that we may not with great advantage adopt certain of the principles proposed by some given set of men who happen to call themselves Socialists; to be afraid to do so would be to make a mark of weakness on our part.— From the Sorbonne address, April 23, 1910.

One of the prime dangers of civilization has always been its tendency to cause the loss of the virile fighting qualities, of the fighting edge.  When men get too comfortable and lead too luxurious lives, there is always danger lest the softness eat like an acid into their manliness of fiber.  The barbarian, because of the very conditions of his life, is forced to keep and develop certain hardy qualities which the man of civilization tends to lose, whether he be clerk, factory hand, merchant, or even a certain type of farmer.— University of Berlin address, May 12, 1910.

In our complex industrial civilization of today the peace of righteousness and justice, the only kind of peace worth having, is at least as necessary in the industrial world as it is among nations.  There is at least as much need to curb the cruel greed and arrogance of part of the world of capital, to curb the cruel greed and violence of part of the world of labor, as to check a cruel and unhealthy militarism in international relationships.— From the University of Berlin address, May 12, 1910.

There are certain problems which both of us [Great Britain and America] have to solve, and as to which our standards should be the same.  The Englishman, the man of the British Isles in his various homes across the sea, and the American, both at home and abroad are brought into contact with utterly alien peoples, some with a civilization more ancient than our own, others still in, or having but recently arisen from, the barbarism which our people left behind ages ago.

It would be foolish indeed to pay heed to the unwise persons who desire disarmament to be begun by the very people who, of all others, should not be left helpless before any possible foe.  But we must reprobate quite as strongly both the leaders and the peoples who practice, or encourage, or condone, aggression and iniquity by the strong at the expense of the weak.  We should tolerate lawlessness and wickedness neither by the weak nor by the strong; and both weak and strong we should in return treat with scrupulous fairness.— From an address at Oxford University, England, June 7, 1910.

The New Nationalism

All that the new Nationalism means is the application of certain old-time moralities to the changed conditions of the day.  I wish to see greater governmental efficiency because we have to deal with greater business efficiency.  Simple laws are all that are necessary in small communities where there is no big business and each man works for himself.  When you get masses of wealth gathered together and great corporations developing, conditions then become so changed that there must be an increase in governmental activity to control the wealth for business efficiency.  I would not do wrong to the great corporation, but I don't intend to rely only on the big corporation's good nature to see that the corporation doesn't do harm against us.  I want to see such control of the wealth now gathered for business uses as to favor the honest man who uses the wealth genuinely for the service of the public and to make the dishonest man feel that he has to do what is right; and if he doesn't feel it, we shall see to it that he does.  That is my whole creed.— From speech at Riverhead, L.  I., September 15, 1910.

So long as I have any influence left I shall protest against arbitration between this and any other country which will not keep its agreements.  Arbitration is all well enough under favorable conditions, but not otherwise.  It isn't right to arbitrate with a country when you know that that country will not keep an agreement if it comes to a pinch.

If you think that the people of the United States want universal peace arbitration I suggest that you go to California and investigate conditions.  I have no use for liars, national, international, or those found in private life.— From a speech in Arlington Cemetery, May 31, 1911.

I am in this fight for certain principles, and the first and most important of these goes back to Sinai, and is embodied in the commandment, " Thou shalt not steal," " Thou shalt not steal a nomination." Thou shalt neither steal in politics nor in business.  Thou shalt not steal from the people the birthright of the people to rule themselves.

I hold, in the language of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, that “stealing is stealing." No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.  No truly honest man should be satisfied with an office to which his title is not as valid as that of the homestead which shelters his family.— From a speech in Chicago, June 22, 1912.

For the Protection of Labor

In the last twenty years an increasing percentage of our people have come to depend on industry for their livelihood, so that today the wage workers in industry rank in importance side by side with the tiller of the soil.  As a people we can not afford to let any group of citizens, any individual citizen, live or labor under conditions which are injurious to the common welfare.  Industry, therefore, must submit to such public regulation as will make it a means of life and health, not of death or inefficiency.  We must protect the crushable elements at the base of our present industrial structure.— From a speech in Chicago, August 6, 1912.

During the last half of the nineteenth century the leaders of reaction in the United States, political and financial alike, gradually grew to recognize in the judiciary their most powerful potential ally.  There was very little actual corruption on the bench; on the contrary, our Judges have been, on the whole, both able and upright public servants, standing on a level probably higher than that of any other civil servants of the Government.  But their whole training and the aloofness of their position on the bench prevent their having, as a rule, any real knowledge of, or understanding sympathy with, the lives and needs of the ordinary hard-working toiler.— From a speech at Santiago, Chile, November 22, 1913.

It seems to me that we should realize with the keenest gratitude how much we owe to the fact that by steady application of the Monroe Doctrine this country has succeeded in preventing the colonization of this continent by the great military Old World powers.  If it had not been for the existence of that doctrine, and its support by this Government under Presidents of all shades of political belief, the great military nations of the Old World would unquestionably long ere this have possessed masses of territory in the western hemisphere.  In such case nothing under heaven could have prevented our being involved in European struggles like the present.  We would also in such case be under the crushing burden of immense armaments in time of peace, a burden the bearing of which has grown more enormous year by year in Europe.  Well meaning and amiable but shortsighted persons have from time to time protested against the Monroe Doctrine and said it was outworn.  I wish these good persons would seriously consider the present contest and realize that if it had not been for the Monroe Doctrine in the past, and if the Monroe Doctrine were at this moment abandoned, the United States would, in all probability, have been drawn into the present dreadful struggle.— From a speech at Hartford.  Conn., August 15, 1914.

It is the country's duty to put itself into such shape that it will be able to defend its rights if they are invaded.  I myself have seen the plans of at least two empires now involved in the war to capture our great cities and hold them for ransom because our standing army is too weak to protect them.  I have seen plans prepared deliberately to take both San Francisco and New York and hold them for ransom that would cripple our country and give funds to the enemy for carrying on the war.— From a speech at Trenton, N.  J., October 30, 1914.

Criticism of the Wilson Administration

To the extent of my power I supported Mr.  Wilson either by silence or by open championship as long as there was the remotest chance that in standing by him as President I was also standing by the honor and interest of the country.  I construed every doubt, both as regards Mexico, as regards Germany, and as regards Belgium, in his favor, often against my innermost convictions, as long as it was possible to do so.
I insisted to myself and to others that President Wilson doubtless had some definite plan; that he doubtless had sources of information unknown to the outside public which rendered proper his course, both as regards Mexico and Belgium, until I became convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that such was not the case; that he had no secret facts at his command, other than corroborative of the facts known to me and to all other intelligent men, and that he had no plan whatever save by adroit elocution to cover inaction and refusal to perform national and international duty.  — From an article in The Metropolitan Magazine, May, 1915.

We have been culpably, well nigh criminally, remiss as a nation in not preparing ourselves during this year; and if, with the lessons taught the world by the dreadful tragedies of the last twelve months, we continue with soft complaisance to stand helpless and naked before the world, we shall excite only contempt and derision, if, and when, disaster ultimately overwhelms us.— From a speech in San Francisco, July 21, 1915.

Professional pacifists, the peace-at-any-price, non-resistance, universal arbitration people are seeking to Chinafy this country.— From a speech in San Francisco, July 21, 1915.

During the last year this nation has negotiated some thirty all-inclusive peace treaties by which it is agreed that if any issue arises, no matter of what kind, between itself and any other nation, it would take no final steps about it until a commission of investigation had discussed the matter for a year.  This was an explicit promise in each case that if American women were raped and American men were murdered, as had actually occurred in Mexico, or American men, women, and children drowned on the high seas, as in the case of the Gulflight and Lusitania, or if a foreign power secured and fortified Magdalena Bay or the Island of St.  Thomas, we would appoint a commission and listen to a year's conversation before taking action.— From a speech in San Francisco, July 21, 1915.

Before We Entered the War

Unfortunately it is evident that many of our public men are afraid of Germany, afraid of the professional German-American vote, and are willing to sacrifice the honor of this country to their fears.  There is practically no French-American or English-American vote; and these politicians therefore feel that they can act against England and France with safety — and their motto is safety first.— From a speech in Brooklyn, January 30, 1916.

Now you can have universal training or you can have voluntary training, but when you use the word “voluntary “after” universal “you are using a weasel word which sucks the meaning out.

These are weasel words.— From a speech in St.  Louis, May 31, 1916.

I believe in democratic training, where the multi-millionaire and the son of the bricklayer will be in the same dog tent, and then have the best one of the bunch, whether the multi-millionaire's son or the bricklayer's son, made the officer.  —From a speech in Oyster Bay, July 4, 1916.

Instead of speaking softly and carrying a big stick, President Wilson spoke bombastically and carried a dishrag.— From a speech at Louisville, October 19, 1916.

President Wilson has seen the Mexicans during these three and a half years become socially, politically, and morally bankrupt.  He has not helped Mexico.  He has ruined Mexico.  The jungle is creeping over the great plantations.  The cattle on the ranches have been wantonly and wastefully slaughtered.  The thoroughbred stock farms which were the work of decades have been destroyed.  Irrigation plants are out of service, railroad terminals have been burnt, rolling stock and locomotives broken up and damaged beyond repair.  Mines that furnished employment to scores of thousands are standing idle.  The National Treasury has been emptied.  A paper currency, debased and worthless, has been substituted for the nation's money.  All the means of an orderly, economic life have been destroyed.  An epidemic of typhus rages that twice has menaced the health of our border cities.  The country no longer produces sufficient foodstuffs.  Actual starvation is upon the people.  Sixty thousand white men, who were one of the great civilizing and developing forces of Mexico, are in exile.— From a speech at Phoenix, Ariz., October 22, 1916.

You say that hereafter nobody shall be neutral as respects the disturbance of the world's peace for an object which the world's opinion can not sanction.  What do you mean by this, Mr.  Wilson? Why do you delay action to the future when you had The Hague Convention to warrant action in the present when Belgium's neutrality was invaded, her cities despoiled, her men and women slaughtered? ...  If you mean what you say as to the future, then you must mean precisely and exactly that this is your duty in the present.  Do it now, Mr.  President.  It is sheer hypocrisy to chatter ten days before election as to what ought to be done in the future when throughout your whole term of office you have failed in the present to do what you now say is your duty.— From a speech in Brooklyn, October 29, 1916.

I criticize him [Wilson] now because he has adroitly and cleverly and with sinister ability appealed to all that is weakest and most unworthy in the American character; and also because he has adroitly and cleverly and with sinister ability sought to mislead many men and women who are neither weak nor unworthy, but who have been misled by a shadow dance of words.  He has made our statesmanship a thing of empty elocution.  He has covered his fear of standing for the right behind a veil of rhetorical phrases.  He has wrapped the true heart of the nation in a spangled shroud of rhetoric.  He has kept the eyes of the people dazzled so that they know not what is real and what is false, so that they turn bewildered, unable to discern the difference between the glitter that veneers evil and the stark realities of courage and honesty, of truth and strength.  In the face of the world he has covered this nation's face with shame as with a garment.— From a speech at Cooper Union, November 2, 1916.

I care little for the cubist school in patriotism.  The effort to be original or being fantastic is always cheap.  Second-rate work is always second-rate, even if it is done badly.— From a speech on "Nationalism in Literature and Art," November 15, 1916.

After We Entered the War

The war has clearly raised two problems, the problem of the present, which is to help our allies to win this war by endeavoring in every way now to offset the effect of our utter failure to prepare in advance ; and the permanent problem, the problem of defense against a future — perhaps a distant, perhaps an immediately impending future — attack upon us when we have no allies ; the problem of preparing our strength as a permanent policy so that never again shall we be caught as shamefully unprepared as now, so that never again shall we be forced as at present to owe our safety purely to the valor of our allies and not to our own courage and strength, — From a speech at the county fair at Chatham, N.  Y., September 5,

Much has been said about our being against the German Government but not against the German people.  The attitude of the German-American press and the German Alliance in this country in their hearty support of the German Government and the practically unanimous support of that Government heretofore by the Germans at home shows that at present the Germans are back of the German Government.  They have enthusiastically supported its policy of brutal disregard of the rights of others.  Until they reverse themselves, until they cast off the yoke of militaristic autocracy, they identify themselves with it and force us to be against them.

It is for the German people themselves to differentiate themselves from their Government.  Until they do this they force us to be against the German people as a necessary incident of being against the German Government.— From a speech at Kansas City, Mo., September 24, 1917.

America is not to be made a polyglot boarding house for money hunters of twenty different nationalities who have changed their former country for this country only as farm-yard beasts change one feeding trough for another.  America is a nation.  No man has any right to come here and no man should be permitted to stay here unless he becomes an American and nothing else.  Be loyal to the principles established by Washington and his fellows in 1776 and perpetuated by Lincoln and his fellows in 1861 and 1865.  We must have in this country only one flag, and that flag the American flag; only one language, the English language, the language of the Declaration of Independence, Washington's Farewell Address, Lincoln's Gettysburg speech and the second inaugural ; and but one loyalty, that to the United States.  — From a speech to munition workers at Bridgeport, Conn., November 3, 1917.

We must accept no peace except the peace of overwhelming victory.  To accept an inconclusive peace would mean that the whole war would have to be fought over again by ourselves or our children.  To accept an inconclusive peace would really mean to work for a German victory.  Those who now demand such a peace are not only the enemies of America, but of democracy throughout the world, and stand on the level of the Bolsheviki, who have betrayed both Russia and her allies to the militaristic and capitalistic autocracy of the Hohenzollerns.— From a speech before Ohio Society of New York, January 12, 1918.

But I believe that the great majority of my fellow-countrymen, when they finally take the trouble to think on the problem at all, will refuse to consent to or acquiesce in the Chinafication of this country.  I believe that they will refuse to follow those who would make right helpless before might, who would put a pigtail on Uncle Sam, and turn the Goddess of Liberty into a pacifist female huckster clutching a bag of dollars, which she has not the courage to guard against aggression.— From a speech at Chicago, April 29, 1918.

You stand up when " The Star-Spangled Banner " is sung, not because of men who previously sang it, but because of the men who stood the bombardment through the night — for the man who stood up to the killing and did the killing when the need came.  That is why you are proud to be Americans now.  Talking amounts to less than nothing, save just to the degree in which it is turned into action, and in this country of ours the man who is not only ready to fight for it, but to fit himself to fight for it, the man who has not raised himself to be a soldier, and the woman who has not raised her boy to be a soldier for the right — neither one of them is entitled to citizenship in the Republic.  Universal suffrage, to justify itself, must be based on universal service.  It is only you and your kind who have the absolutely clear title to the management of this Republic.— From a speech to soldiers at Camp Upton, November 18, 1917.

I ask that we in this generation prove ourselves the spiritual heirs both of the men who wore the blue and of the men who wore the gray.  But I make no appeal to the memory of the Copperhead pacifists who put peace above duty, who put love of ease and love of money-getting before devotion to country, and whose convictions were too weak to stir to action their tepid souls.  —From a speech in Kansas City, May 30, 1918.

Fifty-Fifty Americanism

As regards Americanism, we must insist that there be in this country but one nationality, the American nationality.  There must be no perpetuation in this country of separate national groups, with their separate languages and special loyalties to alien overseas flags.  There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country.  There is room here for only 100 per cent.  Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else.  We must have loyalty to only one flag, the American flag; and it is disloyal to the American flag to try to be loyal to any other, whether that other is a foreign flag or the black and red flag, which symbolize either anarchy or else treacherous hostility to a war for which the nation stands.  — From a speech at Republican Convention at Saratoga, July 19, 1918.

Two prime purposes of the American people at this time having precedence of all others are: First, to insist upon the absolute and thorough going Americanization of our entire citizenship; and, second, to win the war; to win it as speedily as possible, and end it by the peace of overwhelming victory, a peace which shall guarantee to us, and to our allies, and to all the well-behaved nations of the civilized world, lasting relief from the threat and horror of German world dominion.— From a speech before Republican Convention at Saratoga, N.  Y., July 19, 1918.
The End

A concluding word from Robert J. Kuniegel

TR AMERICAN PATRIOT hopes you enjoy our books.  Theodore Roosevelt lived his life in a manner that is the only way possible to make government responsive to the people.  He has written how to make meaningful reform possible not only for his generation but for future generations, if we read what he has said.  We only need to interest others in reading what he has said to transform our government. 

Reading the books on TR AMERICAN PATRIOT DOT COM  and having others do the same, will develop citizens and leaders capable of transforming American politics into a system of government that will be honest, and responsive to “a square deal”.  A square deal has no special deals for the rich, the middle class, or the poor.  Our government today has degenerated into a system that rewards citizens for not being productive.  It promotes entitlements under the guise of helping people, when in fact it only helps politicians to protect their own royal positions.  Policies that foster a special privileged class was the type of government policies Theodore Roosevelt fought against and won.  He was a visionary.  He knew this fight would need to be fought through the ages if we were to keep our country strong.  He was an intrepid pioneer that blazed a trail through a jungle of corrupt government, so that others might follow his proven and highly successful common sense approach toward honest government.  His fearless course helped make America a beacon of hope to all that seek justice.  His endless devotion to America helped make America a super power that no just nation has needed to fear as long as our citizens value his lofty resolute square deal policy toward our fellow citizens and those of other nations. 

Theodore Roosevelt’s greatest gift to this country is before us.  It is not in the past, if we as Americans recognize that his message is not just a story from American history pages.  His message is an example, clearly defined.  It details actions that are required if we desire to do something meaningful for our country.  Join the good fight today.  You only need to read and interest others to do the same.  

David Boyd, repeating what he had read, once said, “The person we become is because of our experiences in life, the people we meet, and the books we read. ” It is time to have others meet Theodore Roosevelt.  It is time for a Theodore Roosevelt revival, “Fear God and do your own part”.  Dare to help make Theodore Roosevelt the standard and not the exception.  America needs to adopt a wise, fearless and honest role model as the standard we revere, so that our public servants know what we expect.  The first step to honest government is no harder than setting proper standards of conduct for our public servants through the use of a proper role model.  Can you find one quality in Theodore Roosevelt that is not right in a public servant?  If you think you can, I bet your conjecture is based upon something other than truth and honest reasoning and this American would love an opportunity to debate any such conjecture.