Chapter 21

ROOSEVELT'S FIRST ADMINISTRATION, 1901-1905

[1902]

The sentiment noted at the end of the last chapter seemed to be the motive of Mr. Roosevelt's public life. Not only was he better informed on the whole than almost any President who had sat in the chair before, but he was a good lawyer, familiar with national and general history and awake to all contemporary doings, questions, and interests south, west, east, and abroad. He was also more a man of action and affairs than any of his predecessors. He had, in a very high degree, alertness, energy, courage, initiative, dispatch. Physically as well as mentally vigorous, he read much, heard all who could usefully inform him, apprehended easily, decided quickly, and toiled like Hercules. He was just and catholic in spirit, appreciating whatever was good in any section of the country or class of people. He respected precedent but was not its slave. Rather than walk always in ruts with never a jolt, he preferred some risks of tumbling over hummocks. Few public men of any age or country have more fully met Aristotle's test of a statesman: "ability to see facts as they exist and to do the things needing to be done."

He had able aids; pre-eminent among these were John Hay, Secretary of State, and Elihu Root, Secretary of War. Each was, to say the least, the peer of his greatest predecessors in his office. It was mainly to Mr. Root that we were indebted for starting the Cubans prosperously as an independent nation. His service for the Philippines so far as it went was not less distinguished; and he effected vitally important reorganization and reform in the war office.

A well co-ordinated plan was developed whereby army officers were given advanced training in the various branches of military science as in the European countries. Neither the President nor Secretary Root advocated a large standing army, but they both strove to bring the army "to the very highest point of efficiency of any army in the civilized world." The ability of Secretary Root to inaugurate reforms in a department which when he became its head was overridden by tradition, was well expressed by President Roosevelt as follows: "Elihu Root is the ablest man I have known in our governmental service. I will go further. He is the greatest man that has appeared in the public life of any country, in any position, on either side of the ocean in my time."

Under Secretary Hay our State Department attained unprecedented prestige, due in part to the higher position among the nations now accorded us. This result itself Mr. Hay had done much to achieve; and he passed hardly a month in his office without making some further addition to the renown and influence of his country. If the United States has--which may be doubted--raised up diplomatists with Mr. Hay's mastery of international law and practice and his art and skill in conducting delicate negotiations, we have probably never had his equal in diplomatic initiative, or in the thorough preparation and presentation of cases. He did not meet occasions merely but made them, not arbitrarily but for the world's good. Settling the Alaskan boundary favorably to the United States at every point save one, crumbling with the single stroke of his Pauncefote treaty that Clayton-Bulwer rock on which Evarts, Blaine, and Frelinghuysen in turn had tried dynamite in vain, were deeds seldom matched in statecraft.

By an act of Congress, in 1903, a new member was added to the President's cabinet in the person of the Secretary of the Department of Commerce and Labor. George B. Cortelyou was the first man appointed to that office. Two bureaus, those of corporations and of manufactures, were created for the department. The other bureaus, such as the Bureau of Statistics, Bureau of Standards of Weights and Measures and Coast and Geodetic Survey, were transferred from the other departments. The place of this new department was defined by the President in the following: "to aid in strengthening our domestic and foreign markets, in perfecting our transportation facilities, in building up our merchant marine, in preventing the entrance of undesirable immigrants, in improving commercial and industrial conditions, and in bringing together on common ground those necessary partners in industrial progress--capital and labor."

The same interests that forbade Cuban reciprocity opposed tariff concessions to the Philippines. A 25 per cent reduction from the Dingley rates was the best that Congress would grant, though the commission besought one of at least 75 per cent. For a time our behavior in this too much resembled English and Spanish dealings with colonies centuries ago. The United States acquired from the Philippine religious orders 422,337 acres of land, three-fifths of it highly cultivated and thickly inhabited, for $7,239,000. In all, the government owned about 61,000,000 out of the perhaps 70,000,000 acres of land in the islands. Of the government lands, 40,000,000 acres were forest.

The law of July 1, 1902, to supplement the commission, provided for a native assembly of not more than 100 members or less than 50, with annual sessions of 90 days. Municipal autonomy was allowed and became common. An efficient constabulary was established, also a Philippine mint and coinage system on a gold basis. Careful exploitation of the agricultural, mineral, and other resources of the islands was provided for, as well as an increasing number of public improvements in the interest of order, health, and cleanliness. To promote investment in the Philippine public works, 4 per cent bonds were issued, guaranteed by the United States.

Preparatory to forming the Philippine Assembly the commission took a census of the islands. In 1905 the population returned from 342 islands was 7,635,426. Of this number only about 9 per cent were wild tribes, though more than half the entire population could neither read nor write in any language. Of the 370,000 pupils in the newly established schools, or double the number in attendance two years previously, one in nine on the average had some understanding of English. Twelve thousand adults were in the night schools, chiefly engaged in acquiring the English language.