Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 19

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 19

In spite of his agreement with Senator Platt to consult him upon

important matters of government--a pledge Roosevelt faithfully kept--he

still became a thorn in the side of Platt and the machine politicians.

 

Immediately after his inauguration Governor Roosevelt cleaned house in

whirlwind fashion at Albany. Superintendent of Insurance Lou F. Payn,

who was thrown out of a job, ran to Senator Platt with this cry:

 

“I warned you that this fellow would soon have you dangling at his

chariot wheel. You would not believe me. He has begun by scalping

members of your ‘Old Guard.’ He’ll get you, too, soon.”

 

The big dispute between Roosevelt and Platt came when Roosevelt

determined that corporations must pay a franchise tax. He had bills

drawn up to this effect. His party leaders rebelled. Roosevelt gritted

his teeth and drove through the Legislature this franchise tax law.

Following this, Roosevelt let it be known that he would be the

candidate for renomination as Governor.

 

Platt and his henchmen decided that they had had quite enough of him.

To eliminate him from state politics they decided to shelve him in the

office of Vice-President. Platt and his friends went to the Republican

National Convention at Philadelphia determined to carry this plan

through. Mark Hanna was opposed to nominating Roosevelt as a candidate

for the Vice-Presidency. Platt joined forces with Senator Quay.

 

Roosevelt discovered the plan to get rid of him, and gave the

newspapers an interview in which he stated positively that he would not

accept the nomination; that his most valued friends had advised him

against being a candidate, and that he would follow their advice.

 

Senator Platt went on with his plans. He conferred with Senator Hanna.

Roosevelt came to Platt’s rooms.

 

“I shall go to the New York caucus and tell the delegates that I shall,

if nominated for Vice-President, arise in the convention and decline.”

 

“But you cannot be renominated for Governor, and you are going to be

nominated for Vice-President,” was the retort Platt claims to have made.

 

“I cannot be renominated?” queried Roosevelt.

 

“No. Your successor is in this room!” said Platt, pointing to Chairman

Odell.

 

Facing this situation, Roosevelt let it be known that he would yield

if the convention “took the bit in its teeth” and insisted upon

nominating him.

 

The wisdom of the nomination of Roosevelt as McKinley’s running

mate was vindicated at the polls. The McKinley-Roosevelt ticket

smothered that of Bryan and his mate, and New York State remained in

the Republican column. Senator Platt went down to Washington for the

inauguration with the remark:

 

“I am going to see Roosevelt put on the veil.”

 

But Platt and the men who thought Roosevelt was safely out of the way

were overlooking the fact that Roosevelt’s fortune was in the hand of a

greater power than theirs.

 

Roosevelt’s term as Vice-President proved to be short. He took office

on March 4, 1901, and presided over the Senate at the succeeding

session. With McKinley and his Cabinet his relations were intimate and

cordial.

 

In September Roosevelt went camping with his family in the Adirondacks.

There he received the news of the shooting of President McKinley, who

died before the Vice-President could reach his bedside. Roosevelt took

the oath of office as President at Buffalo on the evening of September

14.

 

The new President fully appreciated the deplorable circumstances under

which he became the head of the nation. He issued this proclamation:

 

“In this hour of deep and national bereavement I wish to state that it

shall be my aim to continue absolutely and without variance the policy

of President McKinley, for the peace, prosperity and honor of our

beloved country.” Roosevelt kept this pledge to the letter.

 

Afterward Senator Platt, with true political sagacity, claimed credit

for his insistence upon the nomination for the Vice-Presidency, since

it had led to Roosevelt becoming President of the United States. Those,

however, who knew of the anxiety of the New York politicians to get rid

of Roosevelt as a factor in state politics looked the other way and

winked.

 

 

 

 

XII

 

First Years in the Presidency

 

 

When Roosevelt was a member of the New York Legislature, Andrew D.

White, President of Cornell College, who had been keenly watching his

career, remarked to his class:

 

“Young gentlemen, some of you will enter public life. I call your

attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our legislature. He is on the

right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future for a young

man, but let me tell you that if any man of his age was ever pointed

straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roosevelt.”

 

Mr. White was not alone in his opinion. George W. Curtis, who was then

editor of Harper’s “Easy Chair,” thus answered a man who sneered at the

youth and obscurity of Roosevelt:

 

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, HARRIS & EWING

 

ROOSEVELT’S CABINET IN 1908]

 

“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.