Theodore Roosevelt | Page 4

a political adversary, or for gratifying
his personal ambition, had a nobler source. I do not mean to imply that
Roosevelt, who was a most adroit politician, did not employ with
terrific effect the means accepted as honorable in political fighting. So
did Abraham Lincoln, who also, as a great Opportunist, was both a
powerful and a shrewd political fighter, but pledged to Righteousness.
It seems now tragic, but inevitable, that Roosevelt, after beginning and
carrying forward the war for the reconciliation between Capital and
Labor, should have been sacrificed by the Republican Machine, for that
Machine was a special organ of Capital, by which Capital made and
administered the laws of the States and of the Nation. But Roosevelt's
struggle was not in vain; before he died, many of those who worked for
his downfall in 1912 were looking up to him as the natural leader of the
country, in the new dangers which encompassed it. "Had he lived," said
a very eminent man who had done more than any other to defeat him,

"he would have been the unanimous candidate of the Republicans in
1920." Time brings its revenges swiftly. As I write these lines, it is not
Capital, but overweening Labor which makes its truculent demands on
the Administration at Washington, which it has already intimidated.
Well may we exclaim, "Oh, for the courage of Roosevelt!" And
whenever the country shall be in great anxiety or in direct peril from
the cowardice of those who have sworn to defend its welfare and its
integrity, that cry shall rise to the lips of true Americans.
Although I have purposely brought out what I believe to be the most
significant parts of Roosevelt's character and public life, I have not
wished to be uncritical. I have suppressed nothing. Fortunately for his
friends, the two libel suits which he went through in his later years,
subjected him to a microscopic scrutiny, both as to his personal and his
political life. All the efforts of very able lawyers, and of clever and
unscrupulous enemies to undermine him, failed; and henceforth his
advocates may rest on the verdicts given by two separate courts. As for
the great political acts of his official career, Time has forestalled eulogy.
Does any one now defend selling liquor to children and converting
them into precocious drunkards? Does any one defend sweat-shops, or
the manufacture of cigars under worse than unsanitary conditions?
Which of the packers, who protested against the Meat Inspection Bill,
would care to have his name made public; and which of the lawyers
and of the accomplices in the lobby and in Congress would care to have
it known that he used every means, fair and foul, to prevent depriving
the packers of the privilege of canning bad meat for Americans,
although foreigners insisted that the canned meat which they bought
should be whole some and inspected? Does any American now doubt
the wisdom and justice of conserving the natural re sources, of saving
our forests and our mineral sup plies, and of controlling the watershed
from which flows the water-supply of entire States?
These things are no longer in the field of debate. They are accepted just
as the railroad and the telegraph are accepted. But each in its time was a
novelty, a reform, and to secure its acceptance by the American people
and its sanction in the statute book, required the zeal, the energy, the
courage of one man- -Theodore Roosevelt. He had many helpers, but

he was the indispensable backer and accomplisher. When, therefore, I
have commended him for these great achievements, I have but echoed
what is now common opinion.
A contemporary can never judge as the historian a hundred years after
the fact judges, but the contemporary view has also its place, and it
may be really nearer to the living truth than is the conclusion formed
when the past is cold and remote and the actors are dead long ago. So a
friend's outlined portrait, though obviously not impartial, must be
nearer the truth than an enemy's can be--for the enemy is not impartial
either. We have fallen too much into the habit of imagining that only
hostile critics tell the truth.
I wish to express my gratitude to many persons who have assisted me
in my work. First of all, to Mrs. Roosevelt, for permission to use
various letters. Next, to President Roosevelt's sisters, Mrs. William S.
Cowles and Mrs. Douglas Robinson, for invaluable information.
Equally kind have been many of Roosevelt's associates in Government
and in political affairs: President William H. Taft, former Secretary of
War; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge; Senator Elihu Root and Colonel
Robert Bacon, former Secretaries of State; Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte,
former Attorney-General; Hon. George B. Cortelyou, former Secretary
of the Interior; Hon.