Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 22

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 22

CONSERVING OUR NATURAL WEALTH

 

Most important in his own estimation and from the standpoint of

personal credit, was Roosevelt’s work for the conservation of the

natural resources of the country. In May, 1908, he called a conference

of the Governors of all the states for this purpose.

 

The natural wealth of the nation was disappearing at an alarming rate.

The forests were being destroyed by wasteful methods of lumbering and

by devastating fires. The coal supply was being wastefully handled.

Ignorance and greed were exhausting the fisheries. These things needed

wise and honest treatment and the conference led to the formation of a

National Conservation Commission to take these matters in hand.

 

 

PRESIDENTIAL DIVERSIONS

 

While President Roosevelt coined many expressive terms that still

remain as part of American speech--such phrases as “Malefactors

of great wealth,” “Speak softly but carry a big stick,” “Swollen

fortunes,” originated with him.

 

He branded so many men as liars that a newspaper humorist coined the

name “Ananias Club,” and used it to include most of those who had

incurred Mr. Roosevelt’s enmity. The name stuck, but it did not deter

Mr. Roosevelt from going right on calling a spade a spade.

 

Roosevelt kept his mind fresh in the stifling political atmosphere of

the Capitol by keeping in touch with his Rough Rider and cowboy friends.

 

In spite of his strenuous battles, Roosevelt always found time for

play and diversion while he was an occupant of the White House.

He it was who started the army upon a course of physical training

that undoubtedly had a bearing upon its efficiency in France. Old

swivel-chair officers secretly rebelled against his order that they

should show their physical ability by periodical long-distance hikes

and rides, but when the President showed that he was willing to lead

the way and undergo the same tests, there was nothing to do but submit.

 

 

SELECTS TAFT TO SUCCEED HIM

 

Roosevelt was now confronted by the problem as to whether he should

run for a third term. Previously, in a public address, he had made the

statement that he would not be a candidate for a third term. If he had

listened to the pleadings of his friends and allowed himself to be

nominated there is no doubt that he would have been elected.

 

His answer to the pleas of his admirers and to the voice of perhaps

his own ambition was to select William Howard Taft as his successor

and to urge his nomination, taking care to let the Republican national

convention know that he himself would refuse a nomination. Taft was

nominated on the first ballot.

 

On March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inaugurated as President of the

United States. That day Roosevelt left Washington.

 

 

 

 

“Let us therefore boldly face the life of strife, resolute to do our

duty well and manfully; resolute to uphold righteousness by deed and

by word; resolute to be both honest and brave; to serve high ideals,

yet to use practical methods. Above all, let us shrink from no strife,

moral or physical, within or without the nation, provided we are

certain that the strife is justified, for it is only through strife,

through hard and dangerous endeavor, that we shall ultimately win the

goal of true national greatness.

 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.”

 

 

 

 

XIV

 

The “Bull Moose”

 

 

After more than a year’s absence in Africa and Europe, Roosevelt

returned to the United States in June, 1910, and again, both by

inclination and the compelling force of circumstances, took an active

interest in politics.

 

While Roosevelt was hunting in Africa, there came a sharp division in

the Republican party. The conservatives who supported Taft and the

rebels who could see no good in his policies developed into bitter

factions, each of which tried to win the support of Roosevelt when he

returned home crowned with world honors. For a time Roosevelt kept

silent, hearing both sides of the matter, weighing the evidence in

the dispute, trying to determine whether it was wise to continue the

support he had given Taft formerly, or to listen to these new but

strong voices that had arisen in his party since he himself left the

Presidency.

 

The first indication of the stand Roosevelt was to take appeared when

he let it become known that he approved Gifford Pinchot’s stand in his

controversy with Ballinger, whom Taft had supported. He also announced

that he opposed certain treaties with Japan and South America which

Taft was advocating. As the months passed Taft became the champion

of conservative Republicanism, and the forceful personality and

progressive spirit of Roosevelt made him the natural leader of the

revolting group.

 

In 1910 Roosevelt made a tour of the country, in which he announced the

doctrine of the New Nationalism. He advocated a closer relation between

the states and the national government; making economic opportunity

equal; conserving the resources of the nation; military preparedness;

and the shifting of the viewpoints of the courts from too much emphasis

on the security of property and contracts to a greater concern for the

welfare of human beings.

 

To these principles Roosevelt added, in 1912, the issues of direct

nominations, preferential primaries, the initiative, the referendum,

and the recall for judicial decisions as well as for officials. These

reforms he announced as a new Charter for Democracy and when, in 1912,

in answer to the appeal of seven Governors, he announced that he would

become a candidate for the Presidency, these doctrines were embodied in

the platform of his party.

 

Roosevelt made a typically strenuous fight for the control of

delegates to the national Republican Convention, and when he was

defeated he and his supporters created the Progressive party, by which

at Chicago, he was nominated for the Presidency. In response to those

who criticised him for seeking a third term when he had previously

announced that he would not accept another nomination, he explained

that he had meant three consecutive terms.

 

It was while he was conducting a whirlwind campaign for election that

he was shot by a crank. The shooting occurred in Milwaukee. Roosevelt

was entering the automobile that was to drive him to the meeting place

when the fanatic fired at him. The bullet lodged in his shoulder.

With characteristic dauntlessness, Roosevelt insisted on going on the

platform, where he told the waiting multitude that he had been shot,

and then went on to deliver a rousing speech that lasted over an hour.

 

When Woodrow Wilson heard of the assault upon Roosevelt, he

chivalrously offered to discontinue his own campaign, but the Colonel

refused this concession. After a few days spent in recuperation he

resumed his speaking tour with undiminished vigor. In the Presidential

election which followed he received eighty-eight electoral votes. He

had divided the Republican party in all states. In twenty-eight of the

states he received a majority over Taft. Through this division in the

Republican ranks, Woodrow Wilson became President.

 

 

WORLD PEACE

 

While Roosevelt and Wilson were for the most part in opposition to

each other, some have wrongly said, with regard to the proposal for

a league of nations, that Roosevelt was backward and reactionary in

his attitude. This is directly confuted by the prophetic speech he

delivered at Christiania, Norway, May 5, 1910, while on his world tour.

His utterance there shows that fundamentally President Wilson and he

were thinking alike on this subject:

 

“Something should be done as soon as possible to check the growth of

armaments, especially naval armaments, by international agreement.

No one power could or should act by itself; for it is eminently

undesirable, from the standpoint of peace and righteousness, that a

power which really does believe in peace should place itself at the

mercy of some rival which may at bottom have no such belief and no

intention of acting on it.

 

“But, granted sincerity of purpose, the great powers of the world

should find no insurmountable difficulty in reaching an agreement which

would put an end to the present costly and growing extravagances of

expenditures on naval armaments. An agreement merely to limit the size

of ships would have been very useful a few years ago, and would still

be of use; but the agreement should go much further.

 

“Finally, it would be a master stroke if those great powers honestly

bent on peace would form a league of peace, not only to keep peace

among themselves, but to prevent by force if necessary, its being

broken by others.

 

“The supreme difficulty in connection with developing the peace work of

The Hague arises from the lack of any executive power, of any police

power to enforce the decrees of the court. In any community of any size

the authority of the courts rests upon actual or potential force; on

the existence of a police, or on the knowledge that the able-bodied men

of the country are both ready and willing to see that the decrees of

judicial and legislative bodies are put into effect.

 

“In new and wild communities where there is violence, an honest man

must protect himself, and until other means of securing his safety are

devised, it is both foolish and wicked to persuade him to surrender his

arms while the men who are dangerous to the community remain there. He

should not renounce the right to protect himself by his own efforts until the community is so organized that it can effectively relieve the individual of the duty of putting down violence.