Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 21

Great Heart The Life Story of Theodore Roosevelt 21

All of the President’s purposes were accomplished. The cruise made

a deep and favorable impression abroad, and no single thing in the

history of the new United States Navy did as much to stimulate the

American public’s enthusiasm as this voyage. Everything worked out just

as was thus predicted by the “London Spectator” when the fleet sailed

from Hampton Roads:

 

“All over America the people will follow the movements of the fleet;

they will learn something of the intricate details of the coaling

and commissariat work under war-like conditions, and in a word

their attention will be aroused. Next time Mr. Roosevelt or his

representatives appeal to the country for new battleships they will do

so to people whose minds have been influenced one way or the other. The

naval programme will not have stood still. We are sure that, apart from

increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet, this is the aim which

Roosevelt has in mind. He has a policy which projects itself far into

the future, but it is an entire misreading of it to suppose that it is

aimed narrowly and definitely at any single power.”

 

The fleet of sixteen battleships which, though it may seem small in

comparison with the navies that have been engaged in the world war, was

a large one in those days, went through the Strait of Magellan to San

Francisco. From there Roosevelt ordered them to sail to New Zealand

and Australia, stopping at the Philippines, China and Japan, then home

through the Suez Canal, stopping in the Mediterranean. There was never

a hitch or a delay in the schedule. The most notable incident of the

cruise was the warm reception given to the fleet by the Japanese. When

the fleet returned after its sixteen months’ voyage, Roosevelt greeted

it in Hampton Roads. The battleships arrived there on Washington’s

Birthday, February 22, 1907.

 

Roosevelt’s views on the success of this expedition are best summed up

in the following address, which he spoke on the flagship of the admiral

to the officers and enlisted men:

 

“Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor, and

over the world’s rim, and this morning the hearts of all who saw you

thrilled with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above

the horizon. You have been in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres;

four times you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the

great oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent. Ever your

general course has been westward; and now you come back to the port

from which you set sail. This is the first battle fleet that has ever

circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat can but follow in

your footsteps.

 

[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD

 

ROOSEVELT ARRIVING AT GARDINER, MONT., ON THE WAY TO YELLOWSTONE PARK]

 

“The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America,

through the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast. The armored

cruiser squadron met you, and left you again, when you were half-way

round the world. In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of

mention has happened to a single battleship, nor yet to the cruisers

or torpedo boats. You left this coast in a high state of efficiency

and you return with your efficiency increased; better prepared than

when you left, not only in personnel, but even in material. During your

world cruise you have taken your regular gunnery practice, and skilled

though you were before with the guns, you have grown more skilful

still; and through practice you have improved in battle tactics, though

here there is more room for improvement than in your gunnery.

Incidentally, I suppose I need hardly say that one measure of your

fitness must be your clear recognition of the need always steadily to

strive to render yourselves more fit; if you ever grow to think that

you are fit enough, you can make up your minds that from that moment

you will begin to go backward.

 

“As a war machine the fleet comes back in better shape than it went

out. In addition, you, the officers and men of this formidable fighting

force, have shown yourselves the best of all possible ambassadors and

heralds of peace. Wherever you have landed you have borne yourselves so

as to make us at home proud of being your countrymen. You have shown

that the best type of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear to

the utmost possible advantage when his business is to behave himself on

shore, and to make a good impression in a foreign land. We are proud of

all the ships and all the men in this whole fleet, and we welcome you

home to the country whose good repute among nations has been raised by

what you have done.”

 

 

OUR FIRST SHIELD against BOLSHEVISM

 

Roosevelt’s chief service to his country while President was

undoubtedly that of preventing the huge combinations and trusts which

threatened to gain control of the country during his administration.

 

For years great business corporations had been in formation. They

controlled enormous wealth and their financial power led them to

disregard public opinion, even to the extent of defying the law.

 

Public disapproval was growing stronger and stronger. Independent

newspapers and magazines had informed the public of the oppressive

methods of these trusts. A leader was wanted. Roosevelt became that

leader.

 

The foe was mighty. It had entrenched itself in Congress, yet Roosevelt

won several noteworthy victories and started the nation in the way of

ending this evil.

 

The warfare against the trusts was continued throughout Roosevelt’s

entire administration. Measures for the control of the trusts were

prepared and pressed on Congress with Rooseveltian strenuosity.

 

A railway rate bill was passed, forbidding under severe penalties the

fraud of rebates. A general pure food law was passed, penalizing the

act of adulteration, and requiring that every article of medicine or

food should be labeled and sold for just what it was. With these and

several other measures, corporation fraud was thus brought to a halt.

 

At this period Roosevelt was a flaming fire. His spirit was as a

fierce blaze consuming the materialism that had crept from the ranks

of business into public life. Popular grievances against unjust

exploitation by leaders of industry became to him the signal to attack.

His ordering of the suit of dissolution against the Northern Securities

Company subjected him to the enmity of powerful men, yet before a short

time passed the opinion became general that his decision had been vital

to the public good.

 

He aroused the bitter opposition of Big Business by his successful

endeavors to control it, but time proved that by his act on behalf

of the people he had saved the vested interests from the wholesale

division by Congress of such monopolies had they been formed.

 

While he was the first of our Presidents to come into conflict with

corporate power, he nevertheless favored and promoted legitimate

business, and he stood for the protection of American industries from

the cheap labor of Europe.

 

His suit for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company was one of

the most significant acts of his administration. This suit was not

brought to a successful conclusion until 1911, but the credit for its

prosecution is due mainly to him.

 

In all these measures Roosevelt was simply carrying out his doctrine

of the square deal, which he began to preach when he assumed public

office and which in different language, but with unvarying purpose, he

preached to the end of his life.

 

His doctrine of fair dealing is best summed up in this speech spoken at

Dallas, Tex., April 5, 1905:

 

“When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and probably

nobody that speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible to

give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or

if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is

his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the

dealing. In other words, it is not in the power of any human being to

devise legislation or administration by which each man shall achieve

success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any

man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him

as a quack.... All any of us can pretend to do is to come as near as

our imperfect abilities will allow to securing through governmental

agencies an equal opportunity for each man to show the stuff that is

in him; and that must be done with no more intention of discrimination

against the rich man than the poor man, or against the poor man than

the rich man; with the intention of safeguarding every man, rich or

poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him as nearly as may be a

fair chance to do what his powers permit him to do; always providing he

does not wrong his neighbor.”

 

This view he re-emphasized at another place:

 

“When I say a square deal I mean a square deal; exactly as much a

square deal for the rich man as for the poor man; but no more. Let each

stand on his merits, receive what is due him, and be judged according

to his deserts. To more he is not entitled, and less he shall not have.”

 

“This government was formed with, as its basic idea, the principle of

treating each man on his worth as a man, of paying no heed to whether

he was rich or poor, no heed to his creed or social standing, but

only to the way in which he performed his duties to himself, to his

neighbor, to the state. From this principle we cannot afford to vary by

so much as a hand’s breadth.”

 

It would be a mistake to think that while attacking the evils of

corporate power he did not also attack those men of Bolshevik

tendencies who out of mere discontent, tried to stir up class feeling.

 

This is what he had to say about these men:

 

“In dealing with both labor and capital and the questions affecting

both corporations and trade unions, there is one matter more important

to remember than aught else, and that is the infinite harm done by

preachers of mere discontent. These are the men who seek to excite a

violent class hatred against all men of wealth. They seek to turn wise

and proper movements for the better control of corporations and for

doing away with the abuses connected with wealth into a campaign of

hysterical excitement and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to

madness the brutal passions of mankind....”

 

One shudders to think of what fate would have befallen the United

States if the monopolies which Roosevelt curbed while he was President

had been allowed to flourish until this era of revolution. That the

working people of America are contented and peace-loving today is

largely due to Roosevelt’s saving them from exploitation by the trusts.