Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 16

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 16

The Rough Riders stood by their Colonel to the man. In the United

States disparaging remarks had been made about the Colonel and

his regiment. Some of the officials in Washington, angered at his

criticisms of the canned beef and the short supplies sent to the men,

took occasion to sneer at his campaign.

 

In the jungles of Cuba, however, the Rough Riders saw Roosevelt in

his true light. He looked after their comfort and well-being. He

sympathized with them in their predicaments. He understood them and

helped them out of many difficulties. When they broke rules he was as

merciful to them as it was possible to be, and whatever attitude he

assumed toward them was felt by them to be for their own good.

 

These were times when battles were won, not by the side that had the

greatest amount of shells and shock troops, but by those who displayed

a personal bravery, and Roosevelt fought in such a gallant manner that

those who had accused him of enlisting for personal motives soon grew

ashamed of their spitefulness.

 

Roosevelt was not given to profanity, but when there came times when

a soldier could only be handled by the use of language he knew, the

Colonel did not balk at using that language. It is said of him that

he once confessed to another officer in a repentant manner: “I swore

today.”

 

Then he made this explanation:

 

“A captain riding off in cool disregard of orders is enough to make

the sweetest-tempered archangel use ‘language.’ What I said, or rather

bellowed was: ‘What in ---- are you doing? Good ----, wheel into line!’

What I might have said was: ‘Really, my dear sir, do you not observe

that you are acting in direct opposition to my instructions? I beg that

you will not march your troop into Kamchatka.’ Well, one always thinks

afterward of what one might have said.”

 

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

 

HALL AT SAGAMORE HILL]

 

It is interesting to note that the original idea for a regiment such

as the Rough Riders was suggested to Roosevelt several years before

the Spanish War by no other man than Baron von Sternburg of the

German Embassy. The baron, when only seventeen, had served in the

Franco-Prussian War as a hussar. There was no war with Germany on the

American horizon in those days and the baron spent a week in camp at

Montauk with the Rough Riders upon their return.

 

On the Sunday before the regiment disbanded at Montauk, there came an

occasion of genuine surprise to the Colonel. He was asked out of his

tent by Lieutenant-Colonel Brodie and found the whole regiment formed

in a hollow square. When he entered the square one of the men stepped

forward and presented him with a splendid bronze of Remington’s “The

Bronco Buster.” Roosevelt was deeply touched and deeply appreciative of

this very appropriate gift. After the presentation the men filed past

and Roosevelt shook hands with each and bade him farewell.

 

The next morning the men scattered to their homes. Some went North and

South. Some went to the great cities of the East. Some turned to the

plains, the mountains and the deserts.

 

The straight-from-the-shoulder sermon the Colonel preached to his Rough

Riders as they went out to resume their citizen occupations was one

that made a permanent impression upon their lives.

 

“Get action; do things; be sane,” he said to them, “don’t flitter away

your time; create; act; take a place wherever you are and be somebody!”

 

Through the remainder of his historic career the Colonel never reached

too great a place to be out of touch with his Rough Riders, no matter

what humble positions they held. No member of the regiment ever came

to the White House to see his former chief without Roosevelt breaking

all engagements to shake his hand and talk over with him the stirring

events in Cuba.

 

It is said that when Senator Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, went to

call on President Roosevelt and was forced to wait before he could get

in to see him he asked of the doorkeeper: “Who is in there?”

 

“A former Rough Rider,” was the reply.

 

“Then,” queried Cullom, “what chance have I, merely a Senator?”

 

He turned away, promising to return at a time when he would not have to

compete with such an attraction.

 

Roosevelt’s experience during the Cuban campaign made him deeply

sympathetic with the lot of the soldier. This was in evidence when,

while he was President, our army was engaged in combating the guerilla

warfare in the Philippines. An order was then issued by the War

Department that while the names of officers killed should be reported

by cable, only the numbers of privates fallen should be sent.

 

The press of the country announced that a certain regiment had been

engaged in battle. The War Department was besieged by the parents of

the soldiers for information, but no news as to who were killed or

wounded came until the lists arrived by mail.

 

President Roosevelt was at Sagamore Hill when the facts were reported

to him. General Corbin was present. He asked the general what the order

meant. The general told him that it had been issued for the purpose of

economy, that each officer had a symbol in the cable code, but that to

transmit the name and regiment of each private would cost $25 or more

for each man. When this explanation had been made Roosevelt said:

 

“Corbin, can you telegraph from here to the Philippines?”

 

The general said that he could and suggested that he be allowed to do

so when he returned from Washington.

 

“No,” said Roosevelt, “we cannot wait. Send the order to have the names

telegraphed at once. Those mothers gave the best they had to their

country. We will not have them breaking their hearts for $25 or $50.”

 

Now that the world war is over and the question of whether the United

States is to depend on volunteer military organization or on regular

armies has been definitely settled in favor of the latter view, it is

well to admit that the decision is a wise one. A regiment like the

Rough Riders was exceptional among volunteers. Roosevelt himself,

in his book “The Rough Riders,” makes this comparison between the

volunteer regiment and the regular regiment:

 

“The regiment was a wholly exceptional volunteer organization, and its

career cannot be taken as in any way a justification for the belief

that the average volunteer regiment approaches the average regular

regiment in point of efficiency until it has had many months of active

service. In the first place, though the regular regiments may differ

markedly among themselves, yet the range of variation among them is

nothing like so wide as that among volunteer regiments, where at first

there is no common standard at all; the very best being, perhaps, up

to the level of the regulars while the very worst are no better than

mobs, and the great bulk come in between. The average regular regiment

is superior to the average volunteer regiment in the physique of the

enlisted men, who have been very carefully selected, who have been

trained to life in the open, and who know how to cook and take care of

themselves generally.”

 

 

 

 

X

 

“The Great Peace-Maker”

 

 

We have dwelt in this narrative principally upon Colonel Roosevelt’s

fighting qualities; perhaps because they are the most picturesque and

appeal more to the imagination of author and public. Yet the story

of Theodore Roosevelt’s life would be indeed lacking if it did not

emphasize the fact that underneath his philosophy of conflict for that

which was right there lay an abiding love of peace and a desire for

world brotherhood.

 

Roosevelt’s experiences taught him that in the era in which he lived

war at times was essential to establish justice. He did not believe in

surrendering to the blusterer, or to the ruler who tried to overrun his

neighbor’s boundaries by force. He trained himself to be a warrior and

a hunter because he believed that a strain of the primitive man was

necessary to combat the too often debilitating influences of modern

life.

 

His sons, in their manhood, became warriors like himself, but in their

youth he trained them to love animals and to deal kindly with men. His

advice to them under all circumstances was “Be kind!”

 

The man who was sneered at by his political foes as “The Man on

Horseback” became “The Great Peacemaker.”

 

His own words form the best illustration of his attitude toward world

amity:

 

“Whenever on any point we come in contact with a foreign power, I hope

that we shall always strive to speak courteously and respectfully

of that foreign power. Let us make it evident that we intend to do

justice. Then let us make it equally evident that we will not tolerate

injustice being done us in return. Let us further make it evident that

we use no words which we are not prepared to back up with deeds, and

that while our speech is always moderate we are ready and willing to

make it good. Such an attitude will be the surest possible guarantee of

that self-respecting peace the attainment of which is and must ever be

the prime aim of a self-governing people.”

 

His acts while President bore out his preaching. When The Hague

Tribunal of Arbitration was established, a large part of the work, so

far as this nation was concerned, fell to Roosevelt.

 

When the old Alaskan boundary dispute between Great Britain and the

United States arose again, at Roosevelt’s suggestion the matter was

settled for all time by a joint commission that met in London. This

commission decided in favor of America.

 

Another dramatic crisis arose for Roosevelt’s solution when an

American, Ion Perdicaris, and his English son-in-law were kidnapped

from their home near Tangier, in Morocco, by the Moorish bandit,

Raisuli, on May 18, 1904. The bandit demanded a ransom and other favors

from the Sultan of Morocco before he would release his prisoners.

Roosevelt ordered the U. S. S. Brooklyn, Rear-Admiral Chadwick

commanding, to go to Tangier. Admiral Jewell followed with three

warships. British warships joined the American fleet.

 

“Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!” was said to be the slogan that

Roosevelt hurled at the Sultan. Whether or not he uttered it, the

report rang like Concord’s bullet around the world. A month later the

American and Englishman had been released.