Part 9

“You will know more, sir, later; a good deal more, or I am much in error. Young? Why, he is just out of school almost, yet he is a force to be reckoned with in New York. Later the nation will be criticizing or praising him. While respectful to the gray hairs and experience of his elders, not one of them can move him an iota from convictions as to men and measures once formed and rooted. He will not truckle nor cringe; he seems to court opposition to the point of being somewhat pugnacious. His political life will probably be turbulent; but he will be a figure, not a figure-head, in future developments--or if not, it will be because he gives up politics altogether.”

These opinions from men who knew Roosevelt all his life go to show that his course to the Presidency was clearly marked for him from the time he entered New York politics.

Jeremiah Curtin, the historian and philosopher, was another person who early became impressed with the idea that Roosevelt was a dynamic force for the highest place in the land. Curtin, in his “History of the Mongols,” wrote thus of seeing Roosevelt as a Civil Service Commissioner:

“All at once, in the large room before us, I saw a young man, alert to his duties and perfectly confident. There was no one else in the apartment. I told (Congressman) Greenhalge to look at him.

“‘That man looks precisely as if he had examined the building and, finding it suitable, has made up his mind to inhabit it!’

“‘He is the living picture of that pose,’ replied Greenhalge; ‘but do you know him? That is Theodore Roosevelt!’”

The assassination of President McKinley, which led Roosevelt to the White House, simply hastened the goal which was already in sight.

From his early days in politics he took a high moral stand and formed the habit of going to the people over the heads of the politicians whenever he thought that the public interest required such drastic measures. He set for himself a high standard, yet, when he quitted the Presidency, that standard had been set even higher than when he made his first campaign for clean politics in the New York Legislature.

Roosevelt’s first notable act on entering the Presidency was to retain in office all of McKinley’s subordinates. It had been the habit on the three previous occasions when Vice-Presidents succeeded Presidents through the death of the President to change the personnel of the higher offices, especially in the Cabinet. Roosevelt did not think this a wise course. He asked all of the members of the Cabinet to stay and help him carry out McKinley’s policies.

Some of his friends told him this would make him only “a pale copy of McKinley.” He told them that he was not concerned in following or not following in McKinley’s footsteps. What he wanted to do was to face and solve the new problems that arose.

THE GREAT COAL STRIKE

In the fall of 1902 he adopted a course of action in regard to labor disputes that, at the time, called forth much criticism, but which from the public standpoint was soon justified.

That spring a universal strike began in the anthracite coal regions. It was continued through the summer and early fall. The feeling between the mine operators and the miners was very bitter, and the big operators had banded together and refused to yield a point in their dispute with their workers.

As winter approached a coal famine menaced the nation. In the East, where anthracite is the principal household fuel, soft coal proved to be a very poor substitute.

The Governor of Massachusetts and the Mayor of New York were among the conservative men who urged Roosevelt to take action. They pointed out that if the coal famine continued the suffering throughout the Northeast would be alarming and that disastrous riots were liable to occur.

Roosevelt delayed interfering as long as possible, though he directed Carroll Wright, head of the Labor Bureau, to report all of the facts of the case to him.

The coal operators, knowing that the suffering among the miners was great, felt confident that if the government did not interfere, the miners would be forced to yield. Bent on winning, they refused to see that the rights of the people were affected.

Roosevelt saw things from the people’s viewpoint and tried to get both sides to submit to a commission of arbitration, with a promise to accept its decision. Under this arrangement the miners were to go to work as soon as the commission was appointed, at the old rate of wages. The miners, headed by John Mitchell, agreed to this proposition. The operators refused and Roosevelt confined his efforts to securing an agreement between the operators and the miners.

On October 3 he called the representatives of both before him. This time Roosevelt, by sheer force of will, secured his object. The operators obstinately held out for the appointment of a commission of five that did not include even one representative of labor. Roosevelt insisted that labor be represented and carried his point. Human rights had triumphed over property rights.

When the battle was over the President stood clearly before the people as a man who would champion them against the so-called captains of industry when it was necessary to do so.

The President let it be known early in his administration that in the South he would appoint good Democrats to office rather than bad Republicans.

It was while the President was making appointments of Democrats to office in the South, winning praise from those who had never before praised anything Republican, that the famous Booker T. Washington incident took place.

It had been through the help of the South that Washington had been able to accomplish his great work as a negro educator, but this section of the country, with the negro as a social problem very close to it, bitterly resented Roosevelt’s dining with the colored man.

The South took it as an affront, though evidently the President had not thought one way or the other as to the possible consequences. The criticisms heaped upon him he ignored.

Roosevelt did not long remain in the bad graces of the Southern people. He did not permit the South to forget that his mother was a Georgian woman, and that her brothers had fought in the Confederacy. The following incident illustrates the fine diplomacy with which he won back the regard of the Southern people:

On one of his Southern trips his train stopped at Charlotte. N. C. A committee of women led by Mrs. Thomas J. Jackson, widow of General Stonewall Jackson, was at the depot to meet Colonel Roosevelt. When he was introduced he referred to himself as by right a Southerner, and then being introduced to Mrs. Jackson, he added a remark which flashed through the South:

“What! The widow of the great Stonewall Jackson? Why, it is worth the whole trip down here to have a chance to shake your hand,” and he reminded her that he had appointed her grandson to a cadetship at West Point.

The South loved a fighter, and Roosevelt put his knowledge of this fact to good use when he went on a campaigning tour of that territory. If there had been anything timorous about him he would have attacked the Democracy in Minnesota, where it would be safe to do so. Instead, he picked out Atlanta, where his audience was composed almost entirely of Democrats.

The audience tried to roar him down. For five minutes the tumult went on. It seemed as if the meeting could not go on. Roosevelt then made a characteristically audacious move. There was a table near him, and he leaped upon it. The mob was startled into stillness. Before it could recover from its surprise, he had poured forth a half-dozen striking sentences, and by that time his opponents were interested enough to give him a hearing.

A FRANK CANDIDATE

From the date of his entering the Presidency until after the election of 1904 Roosevelt was under restraint. Although he knew that his policies had the full approval of the people, he felt himself to be a President by accident. It is well known that he desired a nomination and election in 1904.

“I do not believe in playing the hypocrite,” he said. “Any strong man fit to be President would desire a nomination and re-election after his first term. Lincoln was President in so great a crisis that perhaps he neither could nor did feel any personal interest in his own re-election. But at present I should like to be elected President just as John Quincy Adams, or McKinley, or Cleveland, or John Adams, or Washington himself desired to be elected. It is pleasant to think that one’s countrymen think well of him. But I shall not do anything whatever to secure my nomination save to try to carry on the public business in such shape that decent citizens will believe I have shown wisdom, integrity and courage.”

From the start his nomination was assured, although there was already strong opposition to him on the part of many machine politicians.

No other name than his was seriously considered in the convention. He was nominated for the Presidency at Chicago on June 23, with Charles W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, as candidate for Vice-President. He was elected in November by a popular vote of 2,523,750 over Alton B. Parker, the Democratic candidate, and a majority over all candidates of 1,735,403. The vote in the electoral college was 336 for Roosevelt to 140 for Parker.

It was the largest popular support that any President of the United States had ever received.

BUILDING THE PANAMA CANAL

In foreign affairs the most important action Roosevelt took during the second administration was in regard to the building of the Panama Canal. His action is still termed “unconstitutional” by many people, and a bill is now under discussion to compensate Colombia for the alleged damages she sustained through the secession of the State of Panama, and the building of the canal without her consent.

Roosevelt’s defense, and the defense of his eminent Secretary of State, John Hay, was, to put it bluntly, “We got the canal.”

During the four centuries that had passed since Balboa crossed the Isthmus, statesmen had talked of connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by an Isthmus canal. It had been talked about in Washington for a half-century, but nothing had come of it.

Shortly after Roosevelt became President, an agreement was reached with the French Panama Company, and the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was signed, by which the United States acquired possession, so far as Europe was concerned, which warranted her undertaking the task.

The logical location for the canal was the line already begun by the French company in Panama. Panama belonged to Colombia. Colombia had promised friendly co-operation. Her delegate to the Pan-American Congress in Mexico had joined in the unanimous vote which requested the United States to proceed with building the canal.

Both Colombia and the Isthmus had been places of frequent revolutions and outbreaks. Many times United States warships had been forced to patrol the Isthmus, at times at the urgent request of the Colombian government. Through another revolution Colombia had come under the dictatorship of Marquin, its former vice-president. Marquin, although he had consented to the Hay-Herran Treaty, by which Colombia had agreed to the building of the canal, now made use of his power as a dictator to break his promise. He summoned a congress especially to break the canal treaty. This congress, which Roosevelt describes as “a congress of mere puppets,” carried out Marquin’s wishes. The treaty was rejected.

The President, through Secretary Hay, had warned Colombia that grave consequences might follow her rejection of the treaty. He had information that the entire population of Panama felt that it was of vital concern to their prosperity that the canal be immediately built; newspaper correspondents predicted a revolution on the Isthmus.

On November 8, 1903, the revolution occurred. The Colombian troops stationed on the Isthmus joined in the revolution, and there was no bloodshed, except the life of an unfortunate Chinaman.

Roosevelt immediately recognized the Republic of Panama and the other principal nations did likewise. A canal treaty was at once negotiated with the new republic, and, after considerable debate in the Senate, the treaty was ratified by that body and the work on the canal began.

Roosevelt’s case against Colombia was that, so long as the United States was considering the alternative route through Nicaragua, Colombia eagerly pressed this country to build a canal across the Isthmus. When the United States was committed to this latter course, Colombia, under her usurper, refused to fulfil the agreement, with the hope of securing the rights and property of the French Panama Company, so as to secure the $40,000,000 the United States had authorized as payment to this company. John Hay thus defended Roosevelt’s course: “The action of the President in the Panama matter is not only in the strictest accordance with the principles of justice and equity, and in line with the best precedents of our public policy, but it was the only course he could have taken in compliance with our treaty rights and obligations.”

In November, 1906, the President’s interest in the work on the canal led him to go in person to Panama. This act caused a storm of disapproval in certain quarters, similar to that which President Wilson met when he decided to attend the peace conference at Paris. Roosevelt’s critics pointed out that no President had ever gone beyond the bounds of his country. Roosevelt went and let his critics howl. Here, in one thing at least, Wilson and Roosevelt were in agreement, namely, that where the President of this country sets foot that place is within the sphere of the United States.

XIII

Good Will Abroad; A Square Deal at Home

In Roosevelt’s opinion and in the opinion of the entire country, his act in sending the fleet upon its world mission did more to favorably advertise the United States to the world and to establish cordial international relations, than any other of his deeds as President. His object in sending the battle fleet on this voyage was to prove to foreign nations that American battleships could be assembled in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the Atlantic, without this movement assuming the nature of a threat against any Asiatic or European power.

The impression prevailed among foreign navies that the American fleet could not pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The English and German naval authorities thought it impossible to take their own fleets of great battleships around the world, and, of course, they did not believe that the American fleet could make the voyage.

Then, too, Europe was expecting a war between the United States and Japan and thought that if such a fleet sailed into the Pacific, Japan would think that the United States intended to attack her. Roosevelt desired to clear up all of these notions. He wanted to establish friendly relations with Japan and he wanted more than anything else to arouse the pride of the American people in their navy.

All of the President’s purposes were accomplished. The cruise made a deep and favorable impression abroad, and no single thing in the history of the new United States Navy did as much to stimulate the American public’s enthusiasm as this voyage. Everything worked out just as was thus predicted by the “London Spectator” when the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads:

“All over America the people will follow the movements of the fleet; they will learn something of the intricate details of the coaling and commissariat work under war-like conditions, and in a word their attention will be aroused. Next time Mr. Roosevelt or his representatives appeal to the country for new battleships they will do so to people whose minds have been influenced one way or the other. The naval programme will not have stood still. We are sure that, apart from increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet, this is the aim which Roosevelt has in mind. He has a policy which projects itself far into the future, but it is an entire misreading of it to suppose that it is aimed narrowly and definitely at any single power.”

The fleet of sixteen battleships which, though it may seem small in comparison with the navies that have been engaged in the world war, was a large one in those days, went through the Strait of Magellan to San Francisco. From there Roosevelt ordered them to sail to New Zealand and Australia, stopping at the Philippines, China and Japan, then home through the Suez Canal, stopping in the Mediterranean. There was never a hitch or a delay in the schedule. The most notable incident of the cruise was the warm reception given to the fleet by the Japanese. When the fleet returned after its sixteen months’ voyage, Roosevelt greeted it in Hampton Roads. The battleships arrived there on Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1907.

Roosevelt’s views on the success of this expedition are best summed up in the following address, which he spoke on the flagship of the admiral to the officers and enlisted men:

“Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor, and over the world’s rim, and this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon. You have been in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; four times you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the great oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent. Ever your general course has been westward; and now you come back to the port from which you set sail. This is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat can but follow in your footsteps.

“The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America, through the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast. The armored cruiser squadron met you, and left you again, when you were half-way round the world. In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention has happened to a single battleship, nor yet to the cruisers or torpedo boats. You left this coast in a high state of efficiency and you return with your efficiency increased; better prepared than when you left, not only in personnel, but even in material. During your world cruise you have taken your regular gunnery practice, and skilled though you were before with the guns, you have grown more skilful still; and through practice you have improved in battle tactics, though here there is more room for improvement than in your gunnery. Incidentally, I suppose I need hardly say that one measure of your fitness must be your clear recognition of the need always steadily to strive to render yourselves more fit; if you ever grow to think that you are fit enough, you can make up your minds that from that moment you will begin to go backward.

“As a war machine the fleet comes back in better shape than it went out. In addition, you, the officers and men of this formidable fighting force, have shown yourselves the best of all possible ambassadors and heralds of peace. Wherever you have landed you have borne yourselves so as to make us at home proud of being your countrymen. You have shown that the best type of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear to the utmost possible advantage when his business is to behave himself on shore, and to make a good impression in a foreign land. We are proud of all the ships and all the men in this whole fleet, and we welcome you home to the country whose good repute among nations has been raised by what you have done.”

OUR FIRST SHIELD against BOLSHEVISM

Roosevelt’s chief service to his country while President was undoubtedly that of preventing the huge combinations and trusts which threatened to gain control of the country during his administration.

For years great business corporations had been in formation. They controlled enormous wealth and their financial power led them to disregard public opinion, even to the extent of defying the law.

Public disapproval was growing stronger and stronger. Independent newspapers and magazines had informed the public of the oppressive methods of these trusts. A leader was wanted. Roosevelt became that leader.

The foe was mighty. It had entrenched itself in Congress, yet Roosevelt won several noteworthy victories and started the nation in the way of ending this evil.

The warfare against the trusts was continued throughout Roosevelt’s entire administration. Measures for the control of the trusts were prepared and pressed on Congress with Rooseveltian strenuosity.

A railway rate bill was passed, forbidding under severe penalties the fraud of rebates. A general pure food law was passed, penalizing the act of adulteration, and requiring that every article of medicine or food should be labeled and sold for just what it was. With these and several other measures, corporation fraud was thus brought to a halt.

At this period Roosevelt was a flaming fire. His spirit was as a fierce blaze consuming the materialism that had crept from the ranks of business into public life. Popular grievances against unjust exploitation by leaders of industry became to him the signal to attack. His ordering of the suit of dissolution against the Northern Securities Company subjected him to the enmity of powerful men, yet before a short time passed the opinion became general that his decision had been vital to the public good.

He aroused the bitter opposition of Big Business by his successful endeavors to control it, but time proved that by his act on behalf of the people he had saved the vested interests from the wholesale division by Congress of such monopolies had they been formed.

While he was the first of our Presidents to come into conflict with corporate power, he nevertheless favored and promoted legitimate business, and he stood for the protection of American industries from the cheap labor of Europe.

His suit for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company was one of the most significant acts of his administration. This suit was not brought to a successful conclusion until 1911, but the credit for its prosecution is due mainly to him.

In all these measures Roosevelt was simply carrying out his doctrine of the square deal, which he began to preach when he assumed public office and which in different language, but with unvarying purpose, he preached to the end of his life.

His doctrine of fair dealing is best summed up in this speech spoken at Dallas, Tex., April 5, 1905:

“When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and probably nobody that speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing. In other words, it is not in the power of any human being to devise legislation or administration by which each man shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him as a quack.... All any of us can pretend to do is to come as near as our imperfect abilities will allow to securing through governmental agencies an equal opportunity for each man to show the stuff that is in him; and that must be done with no more intention of discrimination against the rich man than the poor man, or against the poor man than the rich man; with the intention of safeguarding every man, rich or poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what his powers permit him to do; always providing he does not wrong his neighbor.”

This view he re-emphasized at another place: