Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 27

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 27

DEMOCRACY IN THE ARMY

 

Long before the United States entered the war Roosevelt with his

friend, Major-General Wood, vigorously advocated a policy of national

preparedness, urging universal military training for the nation’s

youth. In explanation of his desire to see universal military service

prevail the Colonel said:

 

“I want to see Mrs. Vanderbilt’s son and Mrs. Astor’s son, with Pat and

Jim of Telegraph Hill, sleeping under the same dog tent and eating the

same food. I want to see the officers selected from among them on the

strict basis of merit, without regard to anything else. Then we will

have a democratic system.”

 

Roosevelt took a great deal of pride in the five-star service button he

wore. In a conversation with newspaper men some months after his boys

had gone abroad, he told them that he had received news that Theodore

had been in action and a bullet had struck his trench helmet and

glanced off. Theodore wrote home, his father said, that he regretted he

had not been wounded, just for the experience. Later, Theodore was to

receive his full share of such experiences.

 

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

 

COLONEL ROOSEVELT AT SAGAMORE HILL]

 

At the time of this conversation public announcement had just been

made that “Archie” had been promoted in rank from second lieutenant to

captain. Roosevelt told his hearers that “Archie” had led a raiding

party out into No Man’s Land at night and that the promotion had been

won by gallantry under fire during this raid.

 

The Colonel said further that Kermit, with the Anglo-Indian forces in

Mesopotamia, as the leader of “a troop of Whirling Dervishes,” Indian

cavalry, had also been in action.

 

Later the Colonel’s pride in his family’s war record was to extend to

include the women of his family. Mrs. Roosevelt, in the heart-breaking

trials she passed through, had proven herself a true heroine. Her

daughters and daughters-in-law proved in many ways their devotion to

their country’s cause. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., did especially

effective work.

 

She was the first American woman sent abroad for war service by the

Y. M. C. A. She arrived in Paris a few weeks after Pershing. There

she conducted a French class for Americans, with ambulance drivers

for pupils. Then she worked in the first canteen in Paris, and was

in charge of all the women’s work in establishing the first American

officers’ hotel.

 

When she had been in Paris six months the army created “leave areas”

for the American soldiers. These areas were put under the control of

the Y. M. C. A., whose officials gave Mrs. Roosevelt charge of the

women’s part of the work.

 

 

 

 

REQUIEM

 

 

“Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die

And I laid me down with a will.

 

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.”

 

--_Robert Louis Stevenson._

 

 

 

 

XVIII

 

“Great-Heart”

 

 

Since Roosevelt’s death there have been many suggestions made for a

memorial to him. Many of the projects are highly commendable and well

worthy of popular support, yet the fact remains that Roosevelt’s own

works will bring coming generations their best remembrance of him.

 

Fortunately for posterity, this great American was a faithful recorder

of his own works, and libraries and book stores are full of his

writings or those of authorized biographers that give us a full range

of his extraordinarily active life. Fortunately, too, for the world is

the fact that Roosevelt recognized the film as another effective medium

for bringing him in touch with the people, and authorized before his

death the representation of his life and work in motion pictures.

 

The deep and permanent impression Roosevelt made on the people of

his time--which will extend far into the future to influence coming

generations of Americans, is due not only to his personal acts but

also to his literary work. As an author and as an editor, the Colonel

contributed historical writings and entertaining narratives to the

literature of our country that earned him brilliant distinction

and made his name and works familiar to all who read. His work as

a historian led to his election in 1912 to the Presidency of the

American Historical Association, and also to his admission into the

American Academy of Arts and Letters. Roosevelt served “The Outlook” as

contributing editor from 1909 to 1914 and then joined the staff of the

“Metropolitan Magazine,” remaining on its staff as contributing editor

until his death. His contributions to these magazines on contemporary

subjects were always interesting, forceful and constructive, and

exercised a profound influence on the life and development of the

nation.

 

That Roosevelt was born to be an author as well as a statesman is

proven by the fact that no matter how busy he was he always found

time to write. In college and while he was reading law in his uncle’s

office, he found time to write “The Naval War of 1812,” a standard

work on the subject. He wrote his “Life of Thomas Hart Benton” and

his “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman” while he was pursuing his arduous

career as a rancher. When his duties as Civil Service Commissioner at

Washington were pressing upon him he yet found time to write several

books on hunting, as well as part of his splendid work “The Winning

of the West.” Thus it was throughout his career. Greater and greater

grew the demands upon his time, yet the number of volumes to his credit

mounted steadily.

 

Since his cattle-raising venture had failed, and since he knew the

income from any public positions he should hold would be inadequate to

the expenses of the office and generally uncertain, he determined that

his pen should support him. The fact that, when he died, his income

from his writings was about one hundred thousand dollars a year shows

how well he kept his resolution.

 

Mr. J. H. Whigham, publisher of the “Metropolitan Magazine,” thus

interestingly describes the way in which Roosevelt formed and kept his

literary decisions:

 

“His first coming to the ‘Metropolitan’ was in keeping with all the

Colonel said and did. The thing that worried him most in making a

connection was whether he could faithfully carry out his part of the

bargain. I had known Roosevelt first in Cuba when I lived for some

weeks with the Rough Riders and shared the precarious but precious

potatoes of the Colonel’s own mess. It didn’t require much perspicacity

to see that he was the sort of leader to tie to and cherish.

Naturally, therefore, when the ‘Metropolitan Magazine’ came into my

control I looked around for Roosevelt. He was contributing editor of

‘The Outlook’ then, and there is no need to say that he couldn’t be

weaned away from his allegiance to the Abbotts, for whom he always had

the greatest affection. I managed, however, to get him interested in

what we were trying to do with the ‘Metropolitan,’ and he promised to

let me know if he ever changed his plans.

 

“When the war broke out I came back from Europe to find that the

Colonel’s time with ‘The Outlook’ was up. Before I could see him, he

had begun to publish some syndicated newspaper articles in which he

denounced the invasion of Belgium. Hurrying over to his office, which

was then in Forty-second Street, I caught him on the verge of closing a

year’s arrangement with the syndicate. I reminded him of my prior claim

which he freely granted. He couldn’t see, however, how he could deliver

full value to a monthly magazine. The syndicate could publish two or

three times a month and so get back their money. I told him that was

our affair. We wouldn’t worry about not getting our money’s worth. But

the Colonel said that he couldn’t avoid worrying. He didn’t like being

in the position of not being able to deliver full value. He had never

been in that position before, and he didn’t propose to be there now. I

gave him excellent reasons, as I thought, why he would be worth as much

to us as to any newspaper syndicate, and he was nearly convinced but

not quite. I left him feeling pretty sure that he would decide against

us. But I was determined not to lose him. After wracking my brains for

two or three hours for a new argument I suddenly remembered that I

had mentioned no period for the proposed association. Suppose that I

offered him a three years’ contract instead of one, would not that give

us a greater and more exclusive value and so satisfy the Colonel that

both parties would profit by the agreement? It was late at night and I

had difficulty in getting the number of his private wire at Oyster Bay.

Nevertheless I finally brought him to the telephone and made my new

proposal. He laughed; and said, ‘You seem to want me pretty badly. I’m

sure I can’t think why. It’s true your new offer puts a new complexion

on the matter. Come out and see me tomorrow at nine. I have to decide

this business by ten in the morning.’

 

“I went, and it was decided in our favor. We never regretted it and I’m

thankful to say the Colonel never regretted it either.”

 

The Colonel at the time of his death was also a regular contributor to

the “Kansas City Star.”

 

 

ROOSEVELT AT HOME

 

So far as his private life is concerned, Roosevelt will be recorded

in history as being thoroughly representative of that love of family,

domestic simplicity, and devotion to the duties of married life, which

go to make a great race. These traits were of course largely influenced

by Mrs. Roosevelt herself. She exercised a restraining power upon his

impulsiveness. Before entering on any enterprise, he always asked

himself, “What will she think of it?”

 

She was noted for her graceful mastery of every social situation, and

as Mistress of the White House, she cultivated and preserved those

traditions of hospitality that belong to that high place.

 

Roosevelt was a devout member of the Dutch Reformed Church. A friend

thus describes the Colonel’s attendance at a little church of his

faith in Washington: “He came in quietly, unattended, went well up

front, bowed a moment in prayer and was ready for the service. The

sermon was a good plain gospel sermon and he seemed to enjoy it. His

singing and responses to the scripture readings were like his talks to

Congress--clear and energetic, as if he didn’t care who heard him as

long as he knew he was right. Throughout the sermon he gave the most

earnest attention. He impressed one as being a man who believed in

exercising the same sincerity in religious matters as in any others,

and I got a new light on his now famous ‘square deal’ principles.”

 

After the service Roosevelt said:

 

“The services this morning were enjoyable. The sermon was good and

I agreed with him in the points he made that the home is the chief

foundation stone of the republic and the hope of the church. The ‘Holy,

Holy, Lord God Almighty’ is one of the grandest of hymns; after a week

spent on perplexing problems and in heated contests it does so rest my

soul to come into the house of the Lord and worship and to sing, and

mean it, the ‘Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,’ and to know that He is

my Father, and He takes me up into His life and plans, and to commune

personally with Christ who died for me. I am sure I get a wisdom not my

own and a superhuman strength in fighting the moral evils I am called to confront.”