5^mrjr 
 
 
MRS. ANN 7 IE RILEY HALE. 
 
 {Front is. RoQseveltietn Fact 6 Fable) 
 
Rooseveltian 
 Fact and Fable 
 
 By Mrs. Annie Riley Hale 
 
 Illustrations by Will H. Chandlee 
 
 
 BROADWAY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 NEW YORK 
 
E757 
 HI? 
 
 Copyright. 1908. 
 
 BY 
 
 MRS. ANNIE RILEY HALK 
 All rierhts reserved. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To the Galleries, 
 to whom my hero has played so long 
 
 and so successfully, 
 this little volume is affectionately dedicated. 
 
AUTHOR S PREFACE. 
 
 The book is intended merely as a contribution to the 
 truth of history, and is offered without malice, and 
 without apology. Its author is neither Mr. Roose 
 velt s apologist nor his accuser, save as the Facts 
 accuse him. She has no personal grudge to satisfy in 
 the publication of things derogatory, and no private 
 wrongs to avenge. As a disinterested "looker-on here 
 in Vienna" during the past five years, she has watched 
 the progress of events surrounding the head of the 
 nation, and noted the utterances falling from Execu 
 tive lips. She has marveled ofttimes at the swift in 
 genuity with which these events were wrested from 
 their original setting, and given a wholly different col 
 oring from that they at first wore ; marvelled likewise 
 at the equal celerity with which other doings and say 
 ings of the Strenuous President were hustled com 
 pletely out of sight, and the public mind immediately 
 occupied with different matters. Out of this watching 
 and wondering grew the idea for this little book. 
 
 To those whose admiration for Roosevelt is a mat 
 ter of conviction rather than of fore-ordination; to 
 those who still have the courage to look a fact in the 
 face, and the honesty to assign it its proper place in 
 any summing up of character, this faithful compila 
 tion of Fact and Fable may appeal with some force, 
 and to that extent fulfill its modest mission of shed 
 ding light in dark places. But having been born and 
 reared a Presbyterian, the writer early learned the 
 folly of going counter to a fore-ordained belief, and 
 
il PREFACE 
 
 how idle and irrelevant is any evidence in the court 
 whose mind is made up in advance of it. 
 
 All this class of Rooseveltian worshippers therefore, 
 large or small as the case may be are hereby 
 warned against wasting any valuable time on these 
 pages. 
 
 It may be true, as P. T. Barnum once observed, that 
 "the Americans love to be humbugged," love it, at 
 least, while the delusion lasts. 
 
 But there are straw indications, here and there, that 
 many of them are emerging from the Roosevelt spell. 
 The time seems ripe for appealing from the American 
 people drunk to the American people sober; and to 
 take advantage of the lull in the shouting, for applying 
 the historic measuring-rod to the Roosevelt dimensions. 
 
 A. R. H. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PAGE 
 
 His Public Beginnings I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The San Juan Hill Myth 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "Roosevelt s Round Robin" 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 "Roosevelt Reform" Legends 41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Court Favorites 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Roosevelt, the Preacher 72 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Roosevelt and the "Bosses" 78 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Roosevelt and the Press 86 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Roosevelt and the Mothers 96 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Roosevelt and the Catholic Church 118 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Roosevelt and the Negro ......... 136 
 
ii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. PAGE 
 
 The "Ananias Club," "Undesirable Citizens," and 
 
 the "Rich Man s Conspiracy" 147 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE BIG STICK 167 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 "MY POLICIES" I7 2 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Csesar Puts by the Crown 191 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE. 
 CHAPTER I. : - 
 
 HIS PUBLIC BEGINNINGS . 
 
 It is recorded that when District Worker "J oe " 
 Murray had quarreled with his chief, Barney Hess, 
 and was casting about in 1881 for a proper instrument 
 of revenge upon Hess, he hit upon Theodore Roose 
 velt as his most available candidate to represent the 
 Twenty-first District in the New York Assembly, in 
 the year of our Lord, 1882. 
 
 Theodore is described at that time as a thin, pale 
 stripling, just emerged from Harvard and European 
 travel, in his twenty-third year. 
 
 The reason assigned by the historians for Murray s 
 choice of this untried political quantity was that his 
 Family Name was one to conjure with in the Twenty- 
 first District, being a Name of great age and eminent 
 respectability in that locality. The adoring Jacob Riis 
 rapturously asserts: "It was the bluest of old Knick 
 erbocker blood !" A less fervid, but perhaps more ac 
 curate historian, affirms: "It (the Name) had been 
 borne by five generations of smug, sleek, thrifty busi- 
 .ness men, following an ancestor of homely, sturdy 
 frugality. Though they had not been of great im 
 portance in civil life, aldermen and other municipal 
 officers had risen from their ranks. They were men 
 of substance and power. A remote strain of Jewish 
 blood had possibly intensified the native Dutch shrewd 
 ness." Nothing particularly high-sounding about this 
 
2 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 lineage, to ears unattuned to the higher Rooseveltian 
 symphonies, even tho one must concede it is always a 
 problem beset with more or less difficulty to deter 
 mine the precise quantity and quality of "blue blood" 
 in this Red-White-and-Blue Republic of ours. 
 
 Perhaps "A Member of the Well-Known Bulloch 
 Family of Georgia" may save the day for T. Roose 
 velt s:; aristocratic pretensions, however, it is with 
 more important things than the Roosevelt "blue blood" 
 that; this narrative is concerned. 
 
 Having- been elected a New York Assemblyman in 
 1882, by the grace of "Joe" Murray and the accumu 
 lations of his thrifty Dutch ancestors, our hero quickly 
 "found himself" politically. It appears that at first he 
 went in for "reform," tho the reform program ex 
 hibits serious breaks early in his career. The above- 
 quoted historian further says of the Name: "Pursuit 
 of money for money s sake had worn its keen edge to 
 dullness. Fads of charity and public service had 
 grasped this good name. It was known by its works 
 as well as by its thousands." 
 
 Theodore Senior whose death occurred in the 
 third year of his son s college course had been active 
 in New York s Social Settlement and Charitable or 
 ganizations. It was partly following a family tradi 
 tion, therefore, when the son flashed his maiden sword 
 under the banners of reform. Again, the political 
 complexion of New York at this time (and most all 
 other times) made the reform program the only 
 alternative for a legislative novice seeking to attract 
 attention. 
 
 A well-known political writer thus sums up the sit 
 uation : "Tammany Democrats looted the city ; ma 
 chine Republicans as regularly looted the State. Ma 
 chine Republicans covered up their own iniquities by 
 exposing the city wickedness of Tammany. Tam 
 many Democrats defended their plunderous strong- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 3 
 
 holds by bombarding the hypocrisy and crookedness of 
 the up-State hordes." In a place where political cor 
 ruption was the established order, in both the great 
 parties, our young statesman quickly perceived that 
 the easiest way to focus on himself the wondering gaze 
 of the multitude, was to make a noise like a "re 
 former" and so he chose his role. His aggressive 
 temper, and the odd sense of proportion A all matters 
 affecting himself which hath ever covered him like a 
 garment provoked some derision in this first legis 
 lative Assembly, and from the older Republican mem 
 bers the gentle admonition to "go back and sit down." 
 Needless to say, the attractions and advantages of a 
 back seat have never appealed strongly to the Roose 
 velt fancy. 
 
 His "strenuosity," as it became later known to the 
 nation, was not so pronounced in those days, tho he 
 early exhibited the restless energy which delights in 
 "stirring things up," and an insatiable craving for the 
 lime-light which time hath not abated. In this first 
 year, he learned the value of dramatic display, and 
 from his trading ancestry he drew the full importance 
 of liberal advertising. It was remarked of him even 
 then that he went out of his way to cultivate the favor 
 of newspaper men. The devoted Riis (at that time on 
 the staff of the New York Sun) makes an heroic 
 episode of the noisy part his virtuous young so Ion bore 
 in the impeachment of a federal judge in this first ses 
 sion of the N. Y. Legislature, tho , it seems, nothing 
 much came of the impeachment. Even Riis admits, 
 "in the end the corruptionists escaped" a fate which 
 appears to have pursued the reform measures of this 
 particular reformer throughout his reforming career. 
 But as in this instance, the faithful Riis took care of 
 the "glory" for his hero, even so, there hath ever been 
 found an obliging and clever artist to paint the re 
 former in letters of light, with little or no attention 
 
4 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 paid to the insubstantial character of the reform. In 
 deed, as much as possible, the people are made to for 
 get about the reform, and to concentrate their 
 thoughts upon the reformer. The reform is but an 
 incident the reformer is the main thing. 
 
 Francis Leupp, Indian Commissioner, and member 
 of the "Tennis Cabinet," finds evidence of rare prom 
 ise in the fact that, "while still a mere youth, Roose 
 velt had risen to the leadership of the Republican side 
 in the Assembly at Albany." Historian Leupp did not 
 think it necessary to remark in that same connection, 
 that the New York Assembly in which Roosevelt "rose 
 to the leadership of the Republican side" was over 
 whelmingly Democratic, having come in with the vic 
 torious Cleveland over the wreck of the Republican 
 machine; and that so many of the veteran Republican 
 legislators had gone down to defeat, Roosevelt 
 whose district was a Republican stronghold easily 
 captured the barren honor of "minority leader" on the 
 floor. The emptiness of the title, per se, is well set 
 forth in the following story: The nine-year-old son 
 of John Sharp Williams, Minority Leader in the Na 
 tional Congress, was required by his teacher in a pub 
 lic school exercise, to write down the name of his 
 father s vocation. "Please, ma am," said Kit, hesitat 
 ingly, holding up his hand for attention, "he is leader 
 of the minority, but I don t know what that is, nor 
 how to spell it. But I know he goes over to the Capitol 
 every morning." "Oh, well," returned the sapient 
 shooter of juvenile ideas, "just say he works at the 
 Capitol !" When the incident was related to the face 
 tious Mississippian, he remarked with grim humor: 
 "Better 50 years a scrub-lady than a cycle of mock- 
 sway !" 
 
 In this Democratic Assembly of 1883, Roosevelt as 
 "minority leader," accredited with reform leanings, 
 was permitted to introduce and pass a primary law 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 5 
 
 recommended in Governor Cleveland s message, but 
 from the rest of the Cleveland reform program, he 
 appears to have held aloof. 
 
 This is notably true of the Civil Service law which 
 was passed by this Democratic Legislature, and later 
 appropriated by Mr. Roosevelt s biographers as one 
 of his achievements. Fact and Fable are so sharply 
 at issue in the matter that it becomes necessary to be 
 specific. 
 
 Stratemeyer in his "American Boy s Life of Theo 
 dore Roosevelt," says : 
 
 "One of the greatest services done by Roosevelt at 
 that time (when he was assemblyman) was the sup 
 port given by him to a Civil Service law for the 
 State." On page 34 of Leupp s "The Man, Roose 
 velt," may be found the statement: "Mr. Roosevelt 
 who had been his (Dorman B. Eaton s) enthusiastic 
 colleague in the National Civil Service Reform 
 League, was author of the bill which passed the New 
 York Legislature during Gov. Cleveland s administra 
 tion, about simultaneously with the Federal Act." Riis 
 likewise claims the credit of this first New York Civil 
 Service law for his hero, and with a fine disregard of 
 chronology, says this "Roosevelt law" was made the 
 model for the national law ! 
 
 Now for the Facts in the case so grossly and 
 strangely perverted by the aforesaid authorities. Civil 
 Service Reform had been agitated by such men as 
 George Wm. Curtis, Carl Schurz, and Allen Jenckes 
 of Rhode Island, while Roosevelt was yet in pina 
 fores back in the 6o s. Several Presidents had en 
 dorsed it, and finally through the persistent efforts of 
 Pendleton, Democrat, of Ohio, in Congress, assisted 
 by Dorman B. Eaton, Independent, of New York, and 
 backed by the Curtis crowd and the Civil Service Re 
 form League on the outside, a national Civil Service 
 law was placed on the statute books in January, 1883, 
 
6 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 This was about the time the New York Legislature 
 convened, which five months later passed the first ef 
 fective State civil service law, with Grover Cleveland 
 in the governor s chair. Five months later, yet Riis 
 says it furnished the model for the Federal law. 
 Perhaps if the dear, simple-hearted old Dane had sus 
 pected how little his hero had to do with framing or 
 passing this law, he would not have been tempted to 
 play such havoc with the dates. So far from having 
 fathered or promoted this state Civil Service law, the 
 records show that Roosevelt did not even vote for it. 
 Several bills were introduced (none of them by Roose 
 velt), the one which finally passed by a vote of 96 to 2 
 was introduced by Michael C. Murphy of New York 
 City, and chairman of the Committee on Affairs of 
 Cities. There were about 85 Democrats and 48 Re 
 publicans in the Assembly, and on pp. 1338-39 of the 
 Assembly Journal Theodore Roosevelt is recorded "not 
 voting" on this bill, tho if he was not present when the 
 vote was taken, he was shortly before, and perhaps the 
 eulogists will explain why he was not on hand to honor 
 with his vote a measure for which he was supposed 
 to have such patriotic zeal that they have marked it for 
 his own. 
 
 In 1884, the Republican machine came into its own 
 again, and began to celebrate its return to power by 
 assaulting the Cleveland Civil Service law. While 
 there is no evidence that Roosevelt openly joined in 
 the attack, neither is there any proof that he made 
 any strenuous defence of it. Certainly, tho he was a 
 prominent member of that Assembly, he could not, or 
 did not prevent its emasculation at the hands of its 
 enemies. Concerning this coy attitude toward Civil 
 Service in its inception, John W. Bennett, in his 
 "Roosevelt and the Republic," says : 
 
 "In the civil service matter, Theodore Roosevelt s 
 action was characteristic. This wise and discreet 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 7 
 
 young man had already learned not to pin his faith to 
 new and strange measures of doubtful and untried 
 popularity. Let others do the pioneer work. The 
 band-wagon must be well filled and tooling along 
 swimmingly before he claims a seat, he then sees to 
 it that the most conspicuous place is accorded him. 
 Our discreet young solon as in after life was im 
 pulsive only on the surface. Impulsiveness with him 
 was a stage business, used only for dramatic and ad 
 vertising purposes. Under the skin, Theodore 
 Roosevelt was wary as a wood-lynx. . . . Time 
 would tell how the crowd would take this Cleveland 
 measure, supported by impossible Tammany men. If 
 popular, there would be plenty of time to use it in 
 one s business; if it proved a fiasco, the Tammany 
 shoulders were broad and strong Roosevelt s skirts 
 were clean." 
 
 We next find our hero, at the age of twenty-six, 
 figuring in national politics. He was made chairman 
 of the New York delegation to the National Conven 
 tion of 1884 which cast its vote for Senator Edmunds, 
 leader of the Reform forces in the State. 
 
 Blaine, "the Plumed Knight" of brilliant parts and 
 besmirched reputation, was everywhere supported by 
 machine Republicans, and the allied forces of corrup 
 tion. He was hostile to everything which savored of 
 reform, civil service, tariff revision, and clean poli 
 tics. In addition, the Mulligan and Fisher letters had 
 unearthed a black scandal connected with his name, 
 convicting him of using his office of Speaker for pri 
 vate gain a scandal which not even his dazzling and 
 magnetic personal qualities could wholly offset. The 
 Reformers would have none of him, and Roosevelt, 
 Curtis and Company fought him valiantly in caucus 
 and in convention. But Blaine secured the nomina 
 tion of his party, despite the Reform contingent, and 
 
8 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 flung- down the gauntlet to Grover Cleveland and the 
 "unterrified Democracy." 
 
 Hundreds of Independent Republicans abandoned 
 their party to its fate, and gave their votes to the Dem 
 ocratic candidate who brought into the contest a rec 
 ord for official efficiency and clean politics. 
 
 And what of Theodore Roosevelt in this crisis? The 
 Cleveland program was the Roosevelt program, as 
 Roosevelt himself had noisily proclaimed it from his 
 seat among the Reformers. Surely, for this earnest, 
 insistent young "reformer," of lofty ideals and clam 
 orous honesty, there could be but one choice between 
 these two. Nay, gentle reader, be not o erhasty in 
 judging the actions of the great. Theodore Roose 
 velt bade adieu to his Reform associates without a 
 tremor, and cheerily took his stand under the soiled 
 banner of "the Plumed Knight." 
 
 This crucial test applied at the outset of his politi 
 cal career, demonstrated that which has had frequent 
 demonstration since, that, above everything else, Mr. 
 Roosevelt is a partizan. And one may be a partizan, 
 and be a good man, so far as honesty goes. Or one 
 may be a civic reformer, if he prefers that role, tho 
 this is more difficult. But one must make a choice 
 the two are absolutely incompatible. 
 
 It were as easy to serve God and Mammon. 
 
 Roosevelt is accredited somewhere with the pious 
 formula, that "sometimes a man must sacrifice party 
 allegiance to the public weal," or words to that effect ; 
 but he is extremely fortunate in never having encoun 
 tered this painful necessity in his own experience. The 
 closest inspection of his political record throughout, 
 fails to discover a. single instance wherein he permitted 
 party action to separate him for ever so short a time 
 from the Republican fold. Even Historian Leupp 
 makes the surprising statement: "Born with the men 
 tal and moral equipment of an independent, he has 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 9 
 
 made of himself, by unremitting endeavor, a pretty 
 good partisan." How fortunate is Mr. Roosevelt 
 again in having a discerning biographer to wreathe his 
 partizanry with the halo of self-sacrifice! 
 
 In that third session of the New York Assembly of 
 which Roosevelt was a prominent member, a measure 
 came up which was vital to good government. This 
 was a constitutional Amendment for municipal home 
 rule, whose effect was to exempt the city s affairs from 
 interference or control by the State government at 
 Albany a prolific source of corruption and misrule. 
 This Amendment would have done more than any 
 thing else to secure the municipal reforms for which 
 Roosevelt had put forth such noisy advocacy. At the 
 critical moment, when its friends were pressing it to a 
 vote, Roosevelt suddenly became solicitous about the 
 legal form of it, and defeated it by springing upon it 
 the time-honored device of legislative crooks, of refer 
 ring it to the Judiciary Committee. 
 
 It was never heard of more. 
 
 As assemblyman, Roosevelt also got through a "re 
 form" measure, taking away from aldermen the power 
 of confirming mayoralty appointments. 
 
 New York mayors were sometimes Republican, the 
 Board of Aldermen was nearly always Democratic. 
 As this law would prevent a virtuous Republican 
 mayor from being handicapped in his appointments by 
 corrupt Democratic aldermen, it was of course, in the 
 interests of "good government" Once establish the 
 doctrine that all good was practically resident in the 
 Republican party; that no evil was so much to be 
 dreaded for the State or the city as Democratic control, 
 and Jhe path was made smooth for our "reformer s" 
 feet. David Harum s liberal dictum, that "one man 
 has as much human nature as another if not more," 
 has no place in the Roosevelt reform creed. 
 
 Panegryist Riis gives us this explanation of Roose- 
 
10 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 velt s choice of a political career, warm from his 
 hero s lips: "I suppose, for one thing, plain, every 
 day duty sent me there to begin with. But more than 
 that, I wanted to belong to the governing class, not to 
 the governed" concerning which, an unfeeling critic 
 makes the cynical observation, "It could never occur 
 to him, that the two might be the same." 
 
 But taking his motive at his own appraisement, let 
 us see, as this narrative proceeds, whether the "plain 
 duty" or the "governing" instinct ran ahead in the 
 race. 
 
 Yet whatever harsh verdict the Facts may bring in 
 at the close of the Roosevelt trial, it will be modified 
 in every charitable mind by a perusal of the worship 
 ful biographies of Messrs. Leupp and Riis. 
 
 Scant admiration goes to the fulsome adulation of 
 a President, with patronage to dispense; or to the 
 fawning that goeth before thrift; but real genuine 
 affection, wherever bestowed, should command not 
 only respect but sympathy. Especially does this apply 
 to the dog-like devotion of Jacob Riis, the simple- 
 . hearted, simple-minded old Dane, whose love for his 
 \chief is as sincere as his judgment of him is awry. It 
 is worthy of note also, that Mr. Riis has never accepted 
 any of the "spoils of office" in liquidation of his hero- 
 worship debt. 
 
 One can but feel, however, that this epic-hymning 
 pair would have made out a stronger case for their 
 "arma virumque," had not their enthusiasm betrayed 
 them into reproducing upon their luminous pages a 
 youthful portrait of "Theodore Roosevelt at twenty- 
 four," which is well, to say the least of it disquieting. 
 It suggests the villain in the play "being good" for a 
 season; or, more aptly, the melodramatic hero of a 
 mining camp, who has come to church, it is true, but 
 whether to join with the worshippers, or raise a row 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE II 
 
 on the back seat, is a question not to be settled at a 
 glance. 
 
 However the students of history and psychology 
 may agree in the future, that the devices which 
 brought Theodore Roosevelt into the "governing 
 class" were not such as to develop the man s better 
 nature, that he had a better nature, no one will doubt 
 who reads the idyllic odes to Roosevelt, penned by 
 Jacob Riis. We are ready to believe that "Teddy" 
 may have had something "really good and sweet" in 
 his early make-up, albeit the look of that young 
 photograph is disconcerting. 
 
 Its friends should suppress it. 
 
12 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SAN JUAN HILL MYTH. 
 
 "It was on his war record that he made his cam 
 paign for the governorship of New York." 
 
 This, being quoted from Historian Leupp, must be 
 authoritative. 
 
 An irreverent critic has dubbed Leupp s book "a 
 Campaign Life of Roosevelt," it having appeared 
 simultaneously (in January) with the campaign year 
 of 1904. 
 
 Perhaps as the "war record" had done such valiant 
 and successful campaign service in New York in 1898, 
 it was still counted on to fire a few shots in the Presi 
 dential fight of 1904. A war record which has made 
 so many drafts on the nation s gratitude, should be 
 something out of the ordinary, and may be worth in 
 vestigating. 
 
 In the winter of 1897-98 prior to the Spanish- Amer 
 ican blaze, Roosevelt (according to the biographers) 
 made the acquaintance of one Leonard Wood, an army 
 surgeon, who was immediately engaged as military 
 coach for the future commander of the "Rough 
 Riders." 
 
 Wood had also been McKinley s family physician 
 when McKinley was a congressman, and now stood in 
 high favor with the President. 
 
 As both Wood and Roosevelt were spoiling for a 
 fight, it was speedily arranged with President McKin- 
 le*y that Wood should be made Colonel, and Roosevelt 
 Lieutenant-colonel of a regiment which Roosevelt 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 13 
 
 had decided should be called "the Rough Riders." 
 From Historian Leupp we get the information that 
 "the idea of the Rough Rider regiment was Roose 
 velt s own." There is a tradition (found in encyclo 
 paedias) that the original "Rough Riders" were a 
 class of couriers employed on the Western frontiers in 
 1859, before the days of the "pony express," and 
 Colonel Wm. F. Cody "Buffalo Bill" had made 
 them a feature of his "Wild Western Show." 
 
 How entirely natural, how perfectly in keeping with 
 everything bearing the stamp of Rooseveltian activity 
 before and since, that when our nascent "war-lord" 
 came to choose his fighting men, he should find the 
 regimentals best suited to his fancy under a circus tent ! 
 
 So many "ideas" and "policies" have been attributed 
 to Mr. Roosevelt which rightfully belonged elsewhere, 
 that it is positively refreshing to encounter one Roose 
 veltian idea whose authorship is beyond dispute. 
 
 The "Rough Riders" had been riding, while Roose 
 velt was yet in swaddling clothes, but the idea of deck 
 ing out a regiment of soldiers in their picturesque 
 garb was as Mr. Leupp claims for him "all his 
 own." 
 
 After some drilling and parading on American soil, 
 bv way of getting the spectacular brigade well into the 
 public eye, we find the gallant Rough Riders "drawing 
 first blood" in Cuba, at the ill-considered and prema 
 turely fought battle of Las Guasimas. As has been 
 so often recounted, the Rough Riders under Wood 
 and Roosevelt ran into an ambush on this occasion 
 Spaniards hidden in an old cemetery between the 
 creek and the road from which they were narrowly 
 rescued by the timely arrival of the Negro troops, this 
 last having furnished the text for much reproachful 
 oratory since the Brownsville affair. 
 
 As it was, 68 brave fellows went down before the 
 unseen fire, 16 of them to rise no more. Among the 
 
 I 
 
14 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLfi 
 
 slain was the gallant Captain Allyn Capron, who had 
 done more than anyone else to increase the efficiency 
 of the Rough Rider brigade. Reliable military his 
 torians relate that General Wheeler, who commanded 
 the cavalry, had weakly yielded to the importunities of 
 "the ardent young Roosevelt and others" in giving the 
 order for this attack, or "reconnaissance"; thereby 
 violating his own order from the superior officer to 
 wait for General Lawton with the infantry. 
 
 And that "rough old General Lawton," coming up 
 and seeing the blunder, "said some unpleasant things" 
 bluntly charging the blood of Captain Capron and 
 the slain troopers upon this unauthorized haste. 
 
 Roosevelt received his first baptism of fire and blood 
 at Las Guasimas, and having accomplished his pur 
 pose of securing for the "Rough Riders" the credit of 
 having "started things in Cuba," it is not to be sup 
 posed he allowed the casualties of war to disturb his 
 complacent reflections. There was more "glory" 
 ahead. Panegyrist Riis says : 
 
 "All the way up, it (the Rough Rider regiment) 
 had been the vanguard. ... 10 days of marching 
 and fighting in the bush culminated in the storming of 
 the San Juan hills, with Colonel Roosevelt in full com 
 mand, Colonel Wood having been deservedly promoted 
 after Las Guasimas !" 
 
 The piece-de-resistance of all the Rough Rider ex 
 ploits, as it exists in the popular fancy was the as 
 sault on the Spanish entrenchments on top of San 
 Juan Hill. This has been "sung in song and story" 
 until it ranks in the annals of military glory with 
 Pickett s charge up the Gettysburg Heights. It is a 
 thankless task to show that, as a Rough Rider achieve 
 ment, it more properly finds a place among Baron 
 Munchausen s Tales, or in some standard work on 
 mythology, yet such is the merciless showing of the 
 Facts. Let us first note the heroic Fable. The New 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 1 5 
 
 York Sun of date, July 4, 1898, published the follow 
 ing vivid account of the San Juan charge : "When 
 they came to the open, smooth hillside, there was no 
 protection. Bullets were raining down at them, and 
 shot and shells from the batteries were sweeping 
 everything. 
 
 "There was a moment s hesitation, and then came 
 the order : Forward, charge ! Colonel Roosevelt led, 
 waving his sword. Out into the open the men went 
 and up the hill. Death to every man seemed certain. 
 The crackle of the Mauser rifles was continuous. Out 
 of the brush came the Riders. Up, up they went, with 
 the colored troops alongside of them, not a man flinch 
 ing, and forming as they ran. Roosevelt was a hun 
 dred feet in the lead. Up, up they went, in the face 
 of death, men dropping from the ranks at every step. 
 The Rough Riders acted like veterans. It was an in 
 spiring sight and an awful one. . . . The more 
 Spaniards were killed, the more seemed to take their 
 places. The rain of shells and bullets doubled. Men 
 dropped faster and faster, but others took their places. 
 . . . Roosevelt sat erect on his horse (all authorities 
 now agree there was not a horse in the fight), holding 
 his sword, and shouting for his men to follow him. 
 Finally, his horse was shot from under him, but he 
 landed on his feet, and continued calling for his men 
 to advance. . . . 
 
 "He charged up the hill afoot. It seemed an age to 
 the men who were watching, and to the Rough Riders 
 the hill must have seemed miles high. But they were 
 undaunted. They went on, firing as fast as their guns 
 would work. At last the top of the Hill was reached. 
 The Spaniards in the trenches could still have anni 
 hilated the Americans, but the Yankee daring dazed 
 them. They wavered for an instant, and then turned 
 and ran. 
 
 "The position was won, and the block-house cap- 
 
l6 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tured. In the rush, more than half of the Rough 
 Riders were wounded." . . . 
 
 This vivid, glowing picture, with Roosevelt on 
 horseback as the central figure, was copied in the 
 press throughout the country, and the Russian mili 
 tary painter, Vereschagin, was inveigled into commit 
 ting the salient details to canvas. Riis declares with 
 ecstatic fervor, that "it will live forever in the Ameri 
 can mind," and cause a thrill in the American heart, 
 unequalled by any other vibration before or since. 
 
 It really seems nothing short of sacrilege to mar 
 this heroic picture in any of its inspiring details. Yet 
 the clear, cold light of history, unmindful of the pangs 
 of the hero-worshippers, has been steadily turned on 
 this glowing battle scene, with the cruel result (to the 
 worshippers) of completely eliminating the central 
 heroic figure horse and all ! 
 
 The first to turn on the disillusioning stream was 
 Senator Alger in his "Spanish-American War," pub 
 lished in 1901. 
 
 On page 164 of Alger s History, we read: "A part 
 of the cavalry division which first attacked Kettle 
 Hill, did not advance on San Juan Ridge at the time of 
 the assault by Kent s infantry division. The 1st Vol 
 unteer Cavalry, under Colonel Roosevelt, as well as 
 parts of the Regular regiments which captured Kettle 
 Hill, did not join the infantry in its charge on San 
 Juan block-house and that portion of San Juan Ridge 
 to the left of Santiago Road, commonly known as 
 San Juan Hill" 
 
 The "Kettle Hill" here referred to, was a low, steep 
 knoll, surmounted by a farm house and some huge iron 
 caldrons whence its name to the right of San Juan 
 Ridge whereon were the main Spanish entrench 
 ments, and separated from them by an open, grass- 
 covered glade, a third of a mile wide. "Kettle Hill" 
 therefore presented the first obstacle to the American 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 17 
 
 advance, and was held by a skirmish line of Spaniards, 
 who quickly gave way before the attacking force, con 
 sisting (according to Alger, p. 157) of "one squadron 
 of the ist Cavalry, the Qth Cavalry (colored), and the 
 ist Volunteer Cavalry (under Colonel Roosevelt), who 
 all charged together over the crest." 
 
 And here, according to the best authorities, the gal 
 lant Rough Riders rested on their laurels. Having 
 easily dislodged the Spaniards from this unimportant 
 and slightly defended hillock, they calmly watched 
 their comrades, the Infantry division led by Hawkins 
 and Kent, storm and capture the main Spanish posi 
 tion on top of San Juan Hill. 
 
 Historian Alger who was Secretary-of-War Alger 
 when this history was in the making very cleverly 
 makes Historian Roosevelt himself corroborate his ac 
 count of the disposition of the troops in this battle, by 
 citing an isolated paragraph from the "Rough Riders," 
 pp. 134-136: "No sooner were we on the crest of Ket 
 tle Hill than the Spaniards from their line in our front, 
 where they were strongly entrenched, opened fire upon 
 us. with their rifles and two pieces of artillery. . . . 
 On the top of the hill was a huge iron kettle, probably 
 used for sugar refining. Several of our men took shel 
 ter behind this. We had a splendid view of the charge 
 on San Juan block-house to our left and a third of a 
 mile to the front, where the Infantry of Kent, led by 
 Hawkins, were climbing the Hill." . . . 
 
 The average reader will wonder how he missed this 
 tell-tale paragraph in Colonel Roosevelt s book, which 
 somehow or other conveys such an impression of 
 Rough Rider valor and omnipresent activity, that one 
 forgets all other participants in the war, and agrees 
 with Mr. Dooley that the book should have been 
 named "Alone in Cuba." Surely Historian Alger has 
 made a mistake. We turn to the indicated page in 
 credulously. No, there it is as quoted, securely sand- 
 
1 8 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 wiched between Rough Rider acts fore and aft in the 
 rapidly moving picture paeans to right of it, paeans to 
 left of it. Yet obscured as it is by the more important 
 business (in the mind of the author) of glorifying the 
 Rough Riders, and completely lost as it has been in all 
 the shouting evoked by the publication of the myth; 
 here is the statement in plain black and white from 
 their gallant commander himself, that, instead of lead 
 ing the charge on the San Juan block-house, the dash 
 ing troopers (including their commander) viewed it 
 from behind the sugar kettle a third of a mile away ! 
 
 We never could have believed it upon any other 
 authority, though other authorities are not lacking. 
 The military reports of General J. Ford Kent, of Cap 
 tains A. C. Markley, Henry Wygant and Charles 
 Dodge of the 24th Infantry, all of whom took part in 
 the San Juan Hill charge, make no mention of Colonel 
 Roosevelt or the Rough Riders. Captain Herbert H. 
 Sargent s book on the Santiago campaign, and General 
 Shafter s (Commanding General) Report in 1898, es 
 tablish the fact that Las Guasimas was a cavalry fight, 
 but that the victory at San Juan was due primarily to 
 the Infantry. 
 
 Moreover the Cavalry division was only one-sixth 
 of the strength of the corps actively engaged before 
 Santiago on this July 1st, and the Rough Riders made 
 up but one-fifth or less of the Cavalry. So that the 
 whole Rough Rider organization counted not more 
 than one-thirtieth in the fight, and their commander 
 directing only about 500 men out of 16,000 could not 
 have had any great influence upon the result. 
 
 Commenting on Roosevelt s statement that, at a cer 
 tain stage of the battle he "found himself at the front, 
 in command of fragments of all six regiments of the 
 Cavalry division," John W. Bennett asks : "What had 
 become of Wheeler, Sumner and Wood? not to speak 
 of the other brigade and regimental officers, many of 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE IQ 
 
 whom, down to lieutenant-colonel, must have out 
 ranked Roosevelt? Did they all think themselves in 
 command of all six regiments? Participants in a bat 
 tle rarely get the true historic perspective, or properly 
 fauge their own or the part borne by others in the 
 ght. Disinterested civilians like Bonsai say the In 
 fantry took the Hill and the Cavalry came afterward. 
 This seems to be the Fact." 
 
 It long ago became apparent to the country, that 
 there was not enough glory in that Spanish-American 
 imbroglio to "go around." 
 
 Barring the Sampson-Schley controversy, and the 
 Dewey Parade, most of the participants even includ 
 ing Richmond Pearson Hobson have tacitly agreed 
 that it served its highest mission in furnishing a con 
 venient stage setting for the Rough Rider star actor, 
 and to let it go at that. By the time the 5th Army 
 Corps were mustered out on Long Island in the sum 
 mer of 1898, Theodore Roosevelt, commander of 500 
 men in an army of 16,000, loomed bigger than every 
 living soldier in the Republic ! 
 
 Such things are incredible, and inexplicable to the 
 understanding of the ordinary individual, but it is all 
 clear as day in the mind of the press agent. 
 
 The New York Sun of date June 28, 1908, under an 
 editorial caption, "Once More the Old Fiction," calls 
 attention to the recurring persistence of this San Juan 
 Hill fable every time a Rough Rider dies (or gets 
 himself arrested for disorderly conduct), citing a case 
 in point an obituary sketch of Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Augur of the 24th Infantry who died at Fort Thomas, 
 Ky., on June 25th and concludes by severely holding 
 Roosevelt responsible for the wide circulation of the 
 misleading picture, and calls on him to "either suppress 
 the picture, or courageously change the mendacious 
 title." 
 
 In view of its present attitude, it must make the Sun 
 
2O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 mighty mad to remember (or does the Sun remem 
 ber?) that this "mendacious" picture of the Rough 
 Rider charge appeared in large type on its own front 
 page on the morning of July 4, 1898. Ten short years 
 make a wonderful difference in the point-of-view some 
 times, but the Sun may take comfort in the thought 
 that it is not the first or only great dispenser of truth 
 who has been too hasty in enlightening the world. 
 
 Moreover, as appears from Mr. Roosevelt s own ac 
 count of the San Juan battle, he did not claim to have 
 led the charge on the block-house, but distinctly states 
 that he "viewed" it from the crest of "Kettle Hill"; 
 and as probably for one person who read the book, a 
 thousand read the newspaper story, perhaps the Sun s 
 responsibility for the wide circulation of the menda 
 cious account, is greater than Mr. Roosevelt s. 
 
 True, the book ("The Rough Riders") did not ap 
 pear until 1900, after Mr. Roosevelt had been safely 
 elected Governor of New York "on his war record," 
 according to Leupp and was on his unconscious way 
 to the White House. True also, that there is nowhere 
 any mention of Roosevelt s having "courageously" de 
 nied this "mendacious" newspaper account during the 
 gubernatorial campaign which was "made on it," 
 soothing his conscience no doubt with the mental res 
 ervation that he had at least told the truth in his book. 
 As further experience of the Roosevelt conscience, re 
 veals occasions wherein it was appeased on much slen 
 derer grounds, there is no special reason for carping in 
 th is instance. 
 
 After all, why should the Sun or any other ill-na 
 tured stickler for accuracy be raising a rumpus now 
 about the Facts in this bit of Spanish- American his 
 tory, when Mr. Roosevelt has been enjoying the sub 
 stantial benefits of the popular fiction for ten years? 
 
 Certainly, it is not with any thought of undoing 
 what has been done, or of depriving Mr. Roosevelt of 
 
FORT MYER. 
 
 "PERHAPS, LIKE RIIS, HE HAD LEARNED TO 
 LOVE THE PICTURE." 
 
 {Fating page ?l.Roosc-c_cltian Fact & Fable. \ 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 21 
 
 the fruit of his toil. It is only interesting as a striking 
 instance of the curious and ingenious fashion in which 
 Fable has donned the garb of truth to serve the needs 
 of Roosevelt, and as throwing considerable light on 
 Rc oseveltian methods early in his career. 
 
 In 1902, Mr. Roosevelt being President, Verescha- 
 gin, the famous Russian painter of war scenes, came to 
 Washington, and taking up his abode at Fort Meyer, 
 began his now celebrated painting of the San Juan 
 Hill Charge. By whose order, or upon whose initia 
 tive, this was done, no one now living in Washington 
 appears to have any knowledge. There are residents 
 who "remember that an effort was made to induce the 
 Government to buy the picture," but by whom this 
 effort was made no one will undertake to affirm. Cer 
 tain old newspaper correspondents of Washington re 
 member vaguely seeing the painting "while it was on 
 exhibition at the White House," but the White House 
 ushers are all afflicted with confusing recollections. 
 "It may have been there, or it may not," is the baffling 
 reply to all queries. Inquiry of Wm. Loeb, Jr., as to 
 "when this picture was at the White House?" elicited 
 the illuminating response, that he "has no idea where 
 the picture is now, nor whether any copies of it are 
 extant in Washington." Diligent search in various 
 quarters has failed to discover any "copies" of the 
 painting in Washington. 
 
 From a Fort Meyer employee, the writer learned 
 that the picture was sent to New York, after Verescha- 
 gin s death in 1904, and sold for $10,000. This Ft. 
 Meyer employee, who was on the spot when the paint 
 ing was being executed, further vouchsafed the infor 
 mation, that the work was done mostly "under cover/ 
 the artist not inviting public inspection; that he (the 
 Ft. Meyer attache) had seen it only once, and was 
 struck with the equestrian figure of the President in 
 the center; that the President came several times to 
 
22 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Fort Meyer during the progress of the painting and 
 was in consultation with the artist. 
 
 Perhaps by this time the President had forgotten 
 the details of the battle which he had put into his 
 "Rough Rider" annals; perhaps familiarity with the 
 sight of that horse-back figure in the thick of the fray, 
 had convinced him of its truth; perhaps, like Riis, he 
 had learned to "love the picture," and as we have 
 learned by this time, the President is notoriously 
 "short of memory." The artist, Vereschagin, might 
 have unfolded a tale to set all doubts at rest, but he 
 did not tarry long in this country, after finishing this 
 masterpiece, and thereafter very prudently got himself 
 drowned on board a Russian battleship at the siege of 
 Port Arthur, thereby escaping likely membership in 
 the "Ananias Club." 
 
 This San Juan Hill picture, in what it represents, 
 and taken in connection with Historian Leupp s state 
 ment that it secured the governorship of New York, is 
 a conspicuous and fitting illustration of the sort of 
 foundation on which was reared this fair structure of 
 Rooseveltian greatness and fame. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "ROOSEVELT S ROUND ROBIN." 
 
 The dictionary definition of "round robin" is: "A 
 petition or manifesto signed by a number of persons, 
 the signatures being inscribed in a circle, so that no 
 one should have precedence of the others"; but who 
 ever imagines Colonel Roosevelt taking part in any 
 business where "no one is to have precedence of the 
 others," does not know the man. This is entirely op 
 posed to the Rooseveltian scheme of things. 
 
 There came a time, it is true, when he was none too 
 eager to have the authorship of the Cuban Round 
 Robin ascribed to him, but at the time of the promul 
 gation of that historic paper, he took some pains, as 
 this chapter will show, to have it associated with his 
 name, and to appropriate all the credit for the good 
 results claimed for it. 
 
 Biographer Riis calls it "Roosevelt s Round Robin" 
 in his "Roosevelt, the Citizen," and Riis should be 
 good authority on this point. His testimony is rein 
 forced by the New York Tribune and New York Sun 
 of date August 5, 1898, both good Roosevelt wit 
 nesses at that time. The Tribune published a dis 
 patch from Santiago de Cuba, date August 3rd, to 
 the effect that Major-General Shafter had summoned 
 all the commanding and medical officers of the 5th 
 Army Corps to a conference, resulting in the framing 
 and sending of the famous Round Robin to the Sec 
 retary of War at Washington. 
 
 The Tribune further states: "As an explanation of 
 
24 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the situation, the following letter from Colonel Roose 
 velt to General Shafter was handed by the latter to a 
 correspondent of the Associated Press for publica 
 tion." 
 
 Then follows the "Colonel Roosevelt letter": 
 "Major-General Shafter, Sir: "In a meeting of the 
 general and medical officers called by you at the Pal 
 ace this morning, we were all, as you know, unani 
 mous in view of what should be done with the army. 
 To keep us here, in the opinion of every officer com 
 manding a division or a brigade, will simply involve 
 the destruction of thousands. There is no possible 
 reason for not shipping practically the entire com 
 mand north at once. Yellow fever cases are very 
 few in the Cavalry division, where I command one of 
 the two brigades, and not one true case of yellow 
 fever has occurred in this division, except among the 
 men sent to the hospital at Siboney, where they have, 
 I believe, contracted it. But in this division there have 
 been 1,500 cases of malarial fever. Not a man has died 
 from it, but the whole command is so weakened and 
 shattered as to be ripe for dying like rotten sheep when 
 a real yellow fever epidemic, instead of a fake epi 
 demic like the present strikes us, as it is bound to, if we 
 stay here at the height of the sickness season, August 
 and the beginning of September. Quarantine against 
 malarial fever is much like quarantining against the 
 tooth-ache. All of us are certain, as soon as the au 
 thorities at Washington fully appreciate the condi 
 tions of the army, to be sent home. If we are kept 
 here, it will in all human possibility mean an appalling 
 disaster, for the surgeons here estimate that over half 
 the army, if kept here during the sickly season, will 
 die. This is not only terrible from the standpoint of 
 the individual lives lost, but it means ruin from the 
 standpoint of military efficiency of the flower of the 
 American Army, for the great bulk of the regulars 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 25 
 
 are here with you. The sick list, large tho j it is, ex 
 ceeding 4,000, affords but a faint index of the debili 
 tation of the Army. Not 10 per cent, are fit for active 
 work. Six weeks on the North Maine coast, for in 
 stance, or elsewhere, where the yellow-fever germs 
 cannot possibly propagate, would make us all as fit as 
 fighting-cocks, able as we are and eager to take a lead 
 ing part in the great campaign against Havana in the 
 Fall, even if we are not allowed to try Porto Rica. 
 We can be moved north if moved at once, with abso 
 lute safety to the country, altho of course it would 
 have been infinitely better if we had been moved north 
 or to Porto Rico two weeks ago. If there were any 
 object in keeping us here, we would face yellow fever 
 with as much indifference as we face bullets, but there 
 is no object in it. The four immune regiments or 
 dered here are sufficient to garrison the city and sur 
 rounding towns, and there is absolutely nothing for us 
 to do here, and there has not been since the city sur 
 rendered. It is impossible to move into the interior. 
 Every shifting of camp doubles the sick rate in our 
 present weakened condition, and anyhow, the interior 
 is rather worse than the coast, as / have found by 
 actual reconnaissance. Our present camps are as 
 healthy as any camps at this end of the Island can be. 
 I write only because I cannot see our men who have 
 fought so bravely and who have endured extreme 
 hardship and danger so uncomplainingly, go to de 
 struction without striving so far as lies in me to avert 
 a doom as fearful as it is unnecessary and undeserved. 
 "Yours respectfully, 
 
 "THEODORE ROOSEVELT, 
 "Colonel Commanding First Brigade." 
 Had not "circumstances" rendered the immediate 
 suppression of this famous epistle expedient for many 
 reasons, besides rescuing the "brave fellows" from the 
 yawning yellow fever peril, it might also have served 
 
26 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 a more peaceful but not less noble purpose as a model 
 of English composition in an eighth-grade Grammar 
 School. Mr. Roosevelt s fame as a writer is as wide 
 spread as his renown as statesman and warrior, and 
 the inspiration this historic document would impart to 
 the literary buds which flower in the public school at 
 mosphere, as well as the ease with which they could 
 copy its ornate, pellucid style, must commend its use 
 to all progressive and patriotic instructors in English. 
 
 On the same page with the "Colonel Roosevelt let 
 ter" in the old files of the New York dailies, is found 
 the "Round Robin," addressed to Major-General Shaf- 
 ter, and by him forwarded to the War Department: 
 "We, the undersigned officers commanding the vari 
 ous brigades, divisions, etc., of the Army of Occupa 
 tion in Cuba, are of the unanimous opinion that this 
 army should be at once taken out of the Island of Cuba 
 and sent to some point on the northern sea coast of 
 the United States ; that it can be done without danger 
 to the people of the United States; that yellow fever 
 in the Army at present is not epidemic ; that there are 
 only a few sporadic cases; but that the army is disa 
 bled by malarial fever to the extent that its efficiency 
 is destroyed, and that it is in a condition to be practi 
 cally entirely destroyed by an epidemic of yellow fever 
 which is sure to come in the near future. We know 
 from the reports of competent officers, and from per 
 sonal observations, that the Army is unable to move 
 into the interior, and that there are no facilities for 
 such a move, if attempted, and that it could not be 
 attempted until too late. 
 
 "Moreover, the best medical authorities of the Is 
 land say that, with our present equipment, we could 
 not live in the interior during the rainy season, without 
 losses from malarial fever, which is almost as deadly 
 as yellow fever. This Army must be moved at once, 
 or perish. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 27 
 
 "As the Army can be safely moved now, the persons 
 responsible for preventing such a move, will be re 
 sponsible for the unnecessary loss of many thousands 
 Gi lives. Our opinions are the result of careful per 
 sonal observation, and they are also based on the unani 
 mous opinion of our medical officers with the army, 
 who understand the situation absolutely. 
 
 "Signed: Maj.-Gen. Jos. Wheeler, Maj-Gen. J. 
 Ford Kent, Maj-Gen. J. C. Bates, Maj.-Gen. Adnah 
 R. Chaff ee, Maj.-Gen. H. W. Lawton, Brig.-Gen. 
 Sam l S. Sumner, Brig-Gen. Will Ludlow, Brig.-Gen. 
 Adelbert Ames, Brig.-Gen. Leonard Wood and Col. 
 Theodore Roosevelt." 
 
 As appears from the above, the Round Robin was 
 merely the Roosevelt letter boiled down and with the 
 edge taken off. Even thus, it was too much for the 
 military palate of bluff old General Lawton, who ac 
 companied his signature to the memorable petition with 
 the following protest : 
 
 "In signing the above letter, I do so with the under 
 standing it has been seen and approved by the Com 
 manding-General. I desire to express it as my strong 
 opinion that the best medical authorities of the Island, 
 and all the surgeons of the command be also required 
 to sign the paper. I desire also to express the opinion 
 that the mandatory language used in the letter is im 
 politic and unnecessary. . . . Milder expressions to 
 those in high authority accomplish just as much, &c., 
 &c." 
 
 At this time "the Big Stick" had not been heard of, 
 but General Lawton appears to have caught a pro 
 phetic swish of it in the Round Robin, and to have 
 otherwise regarded with suspicion this apparently 
 proper paper. 
 
 Needless to add, General Lawton s protest was not 
 "handed to the press correspondent for publication," 
 along with the Round Robin and the Colonel Roose- 
 
28 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 velt letter, but found its way with these to the War 
 Department, and is reproduced on page 267 of Alger s 
 History. 
 
 However the responsibility for the Round Robin 
 proper may be divided up among the "signers in the 
 circles," there can be no possible question as to the 
 authorship and individual responsibility for the com 
 munication signed "Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel, com 
 manding the First Brigade." The only question one 
 which has rarely if ever been raised, be it remembered 
 is, how did these important communications, car 
 rying such weighty state secrets, and presumably in 
 tended only for the confidential ear of the War De 
 partment, find their way into the public prints? We 
 know who received praise for the action, at the time 
 when it was hastily adjudged worthy of praise, from 
 an editorial which appeared in the New York Tribune 
 of that same date, August 5, 1898: "Colonel Theodore 
 Roosevelt is credited with having taken the initiative 
 in making representations which put any delay in this 
 matter out of the question. 
 
 "If the Round Robin was due to his efforts, then 
 his well-known aggressive activity has been of good 
 value to his fellow soldiers, &c." 
 
 That the Tribune s view of the matter was not 
 shared by President McKinley and the War Depart 
 ment, appears from Alger s statement: "When Presi 
 dent McKinley read the Round Robin for the first 
 time in the newspapers, he became very much excited 
 and indignant. . . . The matter was regarded so 
 seriously that, after a conference at the White House, 
 the following reprimand was cabled to General Shaf- 
 ter: "White House, Washington, August 5, 1898. 
 Maj.-Gen. Shafter, Santiago: 
 
 "At this time when peace is talked of, it seems 
 strange that you should give out your cable signed by 
 your general officers, concerning conditions of your 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 2O, 
 
 army to the Associated Press, without permission from 
 the War Department. You did not even await a reply 
 to your communication. 
 
 "R. A. ALGER, Secretary of War." 
 
 To which Gen. Shafter cabled prompt reply : 
 
 "To the Hon. R. A. Alger, Secretary of War, 
 Washington: The report was given out, as I have 
 learned since, before it reached me. I called the gen 
 eral officers together to tell them what I proposed to 
 do, to express to them my views and to ask them to 
 give me theirs. I found we all felt alike. Someone 
 then proposed they write me a letter setting forth their 
 views, and I told them to do so. Meanwhile I wrote 
 my telegram, and later it was handed in and forwarded 
 with the letter of the surgeons and that of the officers. 
 It was not until some time after, that I learned this 
 letter had been given to the press. It zvas a foolish, im 
 proper thing to do, and I regret very much that it 
 occurred. . . . 
 
 "Roosevelt s letter I know nothing of, nor of what 
 he said. ... I have been very careful about giving 
 to the press any information, and I will continue to 
 be so. 
 
 "W. R. SHAFTER, Major-General." 
 
 This telegram in which Gen. Shafter completely ex 
 onerates himself from any complicity or responsibility 
 for the "foolish and improper" publications, is found 
 in full in the New York Sun of issue August 6, 1898, 
 in a dispatch from Washington, on page 271 of Alger s 
 book, with the significant elision (in the book) of the 
 sentence referring to "Roosevelt s letter." 
 
 Now then, the New York Tribune of August 5, 
 1898, stated that the Roosevelt letter had been handed 
 by General Shafter (to whom it was ostensibly ad 
 dressed) to a correspondent of the Associated Press 
 for publication ; but General Shafter, the highest com 
 manding officer of the Army in Cuba, in a cablegram 
 
30 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 to the Secretary of War, which is to become part of 
 the history of the country, emphatically denies this 
 statement, and further disclaims all knowledge of the 
 letter or its contents. If there were any missing link 
 in the chain of evidence fixing the responsibility for 
 this publication upon Theodore Roosevelt, it was fur 
 nished by Senator Foraker in an illuminating sentence 
 uttered in the Senate last Spring. 
 
 Wm. Alden Smith of Michigan had declined to pro 
 duce in the Senate a letter addressed to him by Presi 
 dent Roosevelt, or to confirm a report of it which had 
 appeared in the morning paper, saying he was not re 
 sponsible for its publication, as he "made it a rule never 
 to divulge any personal communication from the Pres 
 ident." (Wise Senator Smith!) 
 
 Whereupon Senator Foraker, with his most judicial 
 air, enunciated the following syllogism: "There are 
 but two parties to a letter, the man who writes it and 
 the man who receives it. Since the recipient in this 
 case declares he did not give it to the public, it must 
 have come from the White House." 
 
 So it is manifest, the only "two parties" to the Round 
 Robin letter were Colonel Roosevelt and the press cor 
 respondent ! 
 
 Close attention to the subject matter of that letter 
 must convince any candid mind that it was never in 
 tended for General Shafter, but for the public to whom 
 it was "handed" without delay. Such a letter in 
 tended merely as a private communication to a superior 
 officer is an absurdity, on its face. The minute and ex 
 pansive details as to the physical features of the Is 
 land, and the condition of the Army, addressed to the 
 commanding officer who was on the spot, and supposed 
 to be as familiar with the whole situation even as 
 Colonel Roosevelt himself, must have appeared very 
 Pickwickian to any but the Rooseveltian sense of hu 
 mor. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 3! 
 
 The Round Robin letter was the picturesque fore 
 runner of that notable series of "personal communi 
 cations" which Mr. Roosevelt has thought proper to 
 "hand" to the press before mailing to their lawful re 
 cipients ; and which have formed such a unique feature 
 of his public career. 
 
 Concerning the Round Robin, on page 269 of his 
 "Spanish- American War," Alger says: "Of the 
 Round Robin itself, I have no criticism to offer. 
 
 "General Shafter invited his officers to a confer 
 ence, and himself telegraphed to the War Department 
 their conclusions and recommendations, which was 
 entirely proper for him to do. But I do criticise the 
 agencies through which these alarming utterances 
 were given to the world. 
 
 "The publication of the Round Robin at that time 
 was one of the most unfortunate and regrettable inci 
 dents of the war. It did not, as commonly reported, 
 result in the selection of Montauk Point, nor hasten 
 the return of the Santiago Army, as every possible 
 effort had already been made, and was then making 
 for the re-patriation of our troops. . . . 
 
 "The Round Robin dated August 3rd was not re 
 ceived at the War Department until August 4th, after 
 General Shafter had already been ordered to send the 
 Cavalry division back on August 1st, and the entire 
 Army on August 3rd. For reasons of public policy, 
 these orders, as well as the alarming messages re 
 ceived from General Shafter as to the condition of the 
 Army, were not made public. It was therefore gen 
 erally believed that the Round Robin was responsible 
 for the order issued for the return of the 5th Corps, 
 and for the selection of Montauk Point. As a matter 
 of fact, it had nothing to do with either. . . . On 
 the other hand, the information this startling paper 
 made known, not only brought terror and anguish to 
 half the communities and neighborhoods in the land, 
 
32 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 but it returned to Cuba in due time to spread demorali 
 zation among our troops. ... It threatened and 
 might have accomplished an interruption of the peace 
 negotiations then in progress between the United 
 States and Spain, which had reached their most deli 
 cate stage at the time when the Round Robin, with all 
 its suggestion of panic and disaster, was made public 
 to the four corners of the earth. That a satisfactory 
 agreement between the two governments was at last 
 reached, cannot be credited to those who precipitately 
 gave out information which might have prevented 
 it. ... 
 
 "Moreover, the publication of this official letter was 
 a gross breach of army regulations and military disci 
 pline; and through its agency the enemy secured in 
 formation regarding our situation, when the Govern 
 ment was most anxious to conceal the facts, until the 
 acceptance of the demands of the United States could 
 be secured." 
 
 A wayfaring man or a quick-witted child may grasp 
 the proposition, had a less debilitated foe than Spain 
 been given to understand that disease in the American 
 ranks was fighting on her side, she would not have been 
 o er hasty in concluding terms of peace. Besides the 
 international complications threatened by the Round 
 Robin publication, Alger thus writes of its effect at 
 home: "It would be impossible to exaggerate the 
 mischievous and wicked effects of the Round Robin. 
 It afflicted the country with a plague of anguish and 
 apprehension. There are martyrs in all wars, but the 
 most piteous of these are the silent, helpless, heart 
 broken ones who stay at home to weep and pray and 
 wait the mother, sister, wife, and sweetheart. To 
 their natural suspense and suffering, these publications 
 added the pangs of imaginary terrors. They had en 
 dured through sympathy, the battle-field, the wasting 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 33 
 
 hardships of the camp, the campaign in the tropics, 
 the fever-stricken trench. 
 
 "They might at least have been spared this wanton 
 torture, this impalpable and formless, yet overwhelm 
 ing blow." (Span.- Am. War, p. 273.) 
 
 And there was yet another feature of the Round 
 Robin episode, which has not been much exploited, 
 and which places the insistent demand of the noble 
 Rough Riders to be removed from Cuba in no very 
 heroic light. 
 
 In order to relieve the 5th Army Corps at Santiago, 
 five regiments of U. S. Volunteers so-called "im- 
 munes" were ordered there for garrison duty, and 
 of this Alger says: "As soon as the announcement 
 was made that the "immune" regiments were to be 
 sent to Santiago, many protests were received against 
 such action. No attention, however, could be paid to 
 these communications." 
 
 One of these protests, sent by Senator Bacon of 
 Georgia, against allowing the 3rd regiment of Volun 
 teers, a company of young Georgians, to go into the 
 fever-stricken country, set forth the facts, that these 
 young fellows most of them minors had not stood 
 any "immune" test ; that, as a matter of fact, they were 
 not as much "immune" as the soldiers already in Cuba, 
 and quite naturally, they had no greater relish for be 
 ing sent there "to die like rotten sheep" than the men 
 who were so urgently seeking to avoid that fate ; that, 
 of course, if there were fighting to be done, and more 
 men needed, they were volunteers, and ready for ac 
 tion. But to be sent into a pestilential region as a 
 vicarious sacrifice for the soldiers who had reaped the 
 "glory of the fighting" and were now fleeing the pesti 
 lence, was a wholly different matter, and did not ap 
 peal either to their sense of justice or of patriotic 
 duty. 
 
 Poubtless considerations of this nature formed the 
 
34 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 basis of the "many other protests" filed with the War 
 Department. But as Secretary Aljrer relates, "no at 
 tention could be paid to them." The fiat had gone 
 forth. The star actor in the gallant Rough Rider 
 show had heard the curtain call in New York he 
 must away! The 5th Corps must be repatriated, and 
 the "immunes" must take their chances with the fever. 
 
 On page 271 of Alger s book, occurs this statement: 
 "Every possible effort was made to ascertain the name 
 of the person responsible for its (the Round Robin) 
 publication, that he might be called to proper account 
 for the act, but in vain." 
 
 It is very painful to encounter a snag like this in 
 the smooth current of an apparently truthful narra 
 tive, and from the pen of a man whose historic integ 
 rity is above reproach. But there are extenuating cir 
 cumstances. A present United States Senator who 
 served in the Cuban campaign, is authority for the 
 statement, "Alger knew who was the author of the 
 Round Robin mischief, and made no secret of his 
 wrath in a conversation I had with him on my return 
 from the war." There is other evidence that the Secre 
 tary of War was not suffering from any delusion re 
 garding the military character of the Rough Rider 
 commander. 
 
 On the same date (August 5, 1898) on which it 
 published the Round Robin and the "Colonel Roose 
 velt letter," the New York Sun, in a dispatch from 
 Washington, published an interesting bit of corre 
 spondence between Colonel Roosevelt and the Secre 
 tary of War of a previous date, July 23rd, which the 
 dispatch stated the Secretary had just given out for 
 publication. This ran as follows : "Santiago de Cuba, 
 July 23. My Dear Mr. Secretary : I am writing with 
 the knowledge and approval of General Wheeler. We 
 earnestly hope that you will send us most of the regu 
 lars, and at any rate the cavalry division, including 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 35 
 
 the Rough Riders, who are as good as any regulars, 
 and three times as good as any state troops, to Porto 
 Rica. 
 
 "There are 1,800 effective men in this division. If 
 those who were left behind were joined to them, we 
 could land at Porto Rica in this cavalry division close 
 to 4,000 men, who would be worth easily any 10,000 
 National Guards armed with black powder, Spring- 
 fields, or other archaic weapons, &c., &c., &c. 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 "THEODORE ROOSEVELT." 
 
 Following this, the Sun gives the rebuke which was 
 cabled to Colonel Roosevelt: "Your letter of the 23rd 
 is received. The regular army, the volunteer army, 
 and the Rough Riders have done well, but I suggest 
 that, unless you want to spoil the effects and glory of 
 your victory, you make no invidious comparisons. The 
 Rough Riders are no better than other volunteers. 
 They had an advantage in their arms, for which they 
 ought to be very grateful. 
 
 "R. A. ALGER, Secretary of War." 
 
 The hero-worshippers were scandalized by this 
 publication, and the obedient press "wondered why 
 Secretary Alger wanted to publish a correspondence 
 of this sort"; even as Secretary Alger doubtless won 
 dered why Colonel Roosevelt wanted to publish a cor 
 respondence like the Round Robin. 
 
 "The Rough Riders are no better than other volun 
 teers!" 
 
 The promulgation of this new and strange and au 
 dacious doctrine stamps the promulgator as a man of 
 exceptional moral courage. But Alger resigned from 
 the War Department in 1899 probably in disgust 
 and his "Spanish-American War" did not appear until 
 1901, after Mr. Roosevelt, by the death of McKinley, 
 had succeeded to the presidency. 
 
 There is a rumor which the writer of this took 
 
36 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 some pains to verify that the Alger History was 
 edited, revised and partly written by a wtll-known 
 newspaper man of Washington. Ah! Now the light 
 breaks on what was before enveloped in mystery. Un 
 der the deft, discriminating touches of one of those 
 clever, chameleon artists who manufacture editorials 
 for the Washington local press, one understands how 
 the incriminating sentence, "I know nothing of the 
 Roosevelt letter, nor of what he said," disappeared 
 from the Shafter telegram. It is perfectly clear like 
 wise, how the Roosevelt letter itself, and all reference 
 to it, or to any possible connection he might have had 
 with the Round Robin, were most carefully omitted 
 from the Alger book. For these Washington artists 
 are thoroughly imbued with the conviction handed to 
 them with their salaries that there is no crime in the 
 category like lese majeste toward the White House 
 throne. Historical accuracy, individual conviction, 
 and every other consideration must be sacrificed to the 
 paramount duty of making the "present administra 
 tion" whatever its complexion and while it lasts in 
 all its details and appurtenances, "one grand, sweet 
 song!" 
 
 But while this explains the misleading paragraph 
 and the significant omissions in the Alger book, it 
 does not explain the "conspiracy of silence" between 
 the War Department, the military authorities in Cuba, 
 and the New York press all of whom had knowl 
 edge of the facts to shield Colonel Roosevelt in the 
 Summer of 1898 from the consequences of his "gross 
 breach of army regulations and of military disci 
 pline" according to Alger. 
 
 To understand this, one must review the political 
 situation in New York at that time. The Republican 
 outlook in that State was not a cheerful one, as the 
 managers themselves admitted. Governor Black s 
 overwhelming plurality in 1896 had given an extra 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 37 
 
 reckless swing to the Platt machine. The "Boss" in 
 terpreted the sweeping Republican victory as a special 
 tribute to his personal popularity. But Governor 
 Black no sooner began to rule than he began to blun 
 der. Then the Canal scandal was unearthed, revealing 
 $3,000,000 of the people s money wasted and stolen by 
 Republican leaders and heelers. To re-nominate 
 Black, with all the sins of his administration crying to 
 Heaven, meant certain defeat at the polls ; and no other 
 available candidate was in sight. Finally after a 
 gloomy conference, one of the leaders remarked to an 
 other, "If Teddy comes home a hero, we will nomi 
 nate and elect him governor." That settled it. "Teddy 
 must come home a hero !" 
 
 In that same historic summer of 1898, Richard 
 Croker was accredited with the cynical remark, that 
 "no man need be nominated for governor of New 
 York, who could not show at least one scar received in 
 the Cuban fight." 
 
 And so it came about, as set forth by Historian 
 Leupp that "Teddy" made his campaign for the gov 
 ernorship upon his "war record," and "court-martial 
 proceedings" would not have looked well in a "war 
 record" employed in such a noble cause. John W. 
 Bennett in his (pp. 102-12) "Roosevelt and the Re 
 public," gives an interesting account of another im 
 portant factor which entered into this far-reaching 
 gubernatorial campaign. Bennett relates that Roose 
 velt made a bargain with the "Citizens Union" the 
 Independent organization of New York who were en 
 couraged by the peculiar political muddle to put out a 
 ticket to accept their nomination, upon condition they 
 would allow him to use the backing of the Independ 
 ents as a "club" to force the regular Republican nom 
 ination; with the further understanding that if he 
 failed to secure the Republican nomination, he would 
 be free to reject the Independent nomination also. Tp 
 
38 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 this the Independents agreed, stipulating in their turn, 
 that they would select the other names on their ticket, 
 and that not all of them would be Republicans. To 
 this, Roosevelt agreed also, and thus they parted, with 
 the distinct understanding that if he ran for governor 
 at all, he was irrevocably committed to the Independ 
 ent nomination. The Republican nomination was to 
 be additional. Thus the agreement stood for weeks, 
 while the Independents perfected their organization 
 involving some statutory complications and ear 
 nestly canvassed the State in Roosevelt s behalf. Then 
 when this Independent side-show had served the pur 
 pose for which he had engaged it that of capturing 
 the Republican nomination Roosevelt calmly threw 
 over the Independents, and took up his political head 
 quarters in the camp of Platt, Odell & Co. the very 
 men whom he had covenanted with the Independents 
 to overthrow. The Independents, astonished and ag 
 grieved, contented themselves with publishing the facts 
 and naming another candidate, but too late to do any 
 effective work for him. They had "shot their bolt" 
 for Roosevelt, and it was past recall. Commenting on 
 this episode, Bennett says: "If a cleverer piece of 
 political manipulation can be found in the history of 
 the United States, it has escaped our notice. Roose 
 velt demonstrated himself a past master at the game of 
 politics. Squeamish persons might object to the bad 
 faith involved, but they make the mistake of judging 
 Roosevelt by ordinary standards. 
 
 "What would have been rank trickery in Platt, Quay, 
 or Gorman, might be quite laudable in a gentleman of 
 high and holy motives, seeking an end much to be de 
 sired." 
 
 Roosevelt had not had the nomination many weeks 
 before his astute political sagacity warned him that he 
 would be beaten unless he broke the policy of silence 
 imposed on him by the Platt machine, and openly de- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 39 
 
 nounced the Canal thieves. Taking his cue with the 
 promptitude of the born actor, he rushed through the 
 State, carrying a few Rough Riders along as a re 
 minder of his "war record," declaring from the rear 
 end of his car at every stop that, "if there were Canal 
 thieves, they should be punished." By dint of work 
 ing both roles at once, as military hero and civic re 
 former, ably assisted by the substantial efforts of the 
 Republican machine and the contributory blunders of 
 Richard Croker, our Strenuous hero attained his goal 
 the State House at Albany, by a narrow plurality of 
 17,000 votes, as contrasted with Gov. Black s plurality 
 of 212,000, two years previous, and Odell s plurality 
 of 111,000, two years later. After all, the "war rec 
 ord" may have had a great deal to overcome in the 
 way of reluctance on the part of voters to support this 
 particular hero and reformer. And the "Round Robin" 
 incident, which was a part of the "war record," was 
 completely relegated to the limbo of oblivion, dropped 
 from the stage properties henceforth. 
 
 But for those silent witnesses, the yellowed files of 
 the New York dailies of ten years back, there is no 
 scrip nor sign to show that Mr. Roosevelt ever had 
 any connection with the once famous document. 
 
 True, the devoted Riis, who has the happy faculty 
 of turning every Rooseveltian act into a paean of 
 praise, in his book (which was not brought out until 
 his hero became President) speaks of it: "The Colonel 
 of the Rough Riders at the head of his men on San 
 Juan Hill, much as I like the picture, is not half so 
 heroic a figure to me, as Roosevelt in this hour of 
 danger and doubt, shouldering the blame for the step 
 he knew to be right!" 
 
 This is interesting as showing to what maudlin 
 lengths of misrepresentation even a good man may go, 
 when he resigns himself unreservedly to the trans 
 ports of hero-worship, and also as pointing to the fact 
 
4O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 that Riis also knew Roosevelt to be the author of the 
 Round Robin. 
 
 So far from "shouldering the blame for what he 
 knew to be right" tho everybody else knew it to be 
 wrong there is every reason to believe Roosevelt 
 tried to affix the blame of the publication if blame 
 there should be upon Gen. Shatter, by authorizing the 
 New York Tribune s statement that "Gen. Shafter 
 had handed the letter to the press correspondent." If 
 Col. Roosevelt did not authorize that statement, who 
 did? 
 
 He and the press correspondent were the only two 
 individuals who had any knowledge of the letter prior 
 to its being given to the public. 
 
 Perhaps the correspondent just dreamed Gen. Shaf 
 ter handed it to him. 
 
 President Roosevelt was rather severe upon a "con 
 spiracy of silence" some years later, when Negro sol 
 diers were the guilty party ; but will the American peo 
 ple render harsher judgment in the case of negroes 
 following a blind racial instinct than in the case of 
 the highest military and governmental officials in the 
 land? It was a curious trick of Fate, that the benefi 
 ciary of the Round-Robin "conspiracy of silence" 
 should by means of it, mount the steps of his judg 
 ment-throne to pass sentence upon the negroes ! Un 
 less the Roosevelt sense of humor is an inappreciable 
 quantity, he must smile to himself over this sometimes. 
 
"MOUNTED THE STEPS OF HIS JUDGMENT-THRONE 
 TO PASS SENTENCE ON THE NEGROES." 
 
 Facias page -H.Rooscv, liian Fact & Fable. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 4! 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 "ROOSEVELT-REFORM" LEGENDS. 
 
 Of all the plastic poses struck by Mr. Roosevelt be 
 fore an admiring public, the one which suits him best 
 is that of "reformer." Out of the entertaining notion 
 that the universe somehow revolves about his belt, 
 was evolved that other engaging idea that everything 
 was wrong until he touched it. With him, to see is to 
 condemn, and having condemned, the natural and logi 
 cal business is to "reform." He would have "re 
 formed" all those faulty statesmen and so-called 
 "great men" of the Past, had they not considerately 
 passed off the boards before he came up with them. 
 Having escaped in the flesh, he was forced to content 
 himself with assailing their memories, and pointing out 
 to this generation of deluded Americans, the radical 
 defects and moral deformities of such men as Thomas 
 Jefferson, James Madison, Monroe, Morris, Otis, Sam 
 uel Adams, and Patrick Henry; while Aaron Burr 
 and Jefferson Davis are selected to point the moral 
 and adorn the hideous tale of American treason. All 
 these weighty deliberations, and infallible estimates 
 were made up by the author at the mature age of 
 thirty, and handed out in his Lives of Benton and 
 Morris, and his "Winning of the West." 
 
 Any Rooseveltian admirer who has not yet found 
 opportunity to become acquainted with his hero in his 
 capacity as a maker of literature, should take a day off 
 and read some of these marvelous literary creations. 
 It will be hard work, but it will repay the trouble, in 
 
42 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the illumination it will shed on the writer s order of 
 intellect and cast of thought; more especially on that 
 bumptious arrogance and "cock-suredness" which hath 
 ever characterized the great thinkers of all ages. 
 
 Having settled the case of the dead statesman in his 
 books, Mr. Roosevelt next turns his attention to their 
 living prototypes, the politicians, who, as everybody 
 knows, are always in need of "reforming." 
 
 So hot has been his pursuit of their manifold wick 
 edness, and so faithfully have the newspaper claquers 
 heralded the proceedings, that the average American 
 who absorbs his knowledge of men and affairs from 
 his morning paper between morsels of toast and cof 
 fee, who reads no histories, consults no official records, 
 and wastes no valuable time putting two and two to 
 gether to reach a conclusion not being voiced by the 
 crowd is morally certain that Roosevelt is the great 
 est civic reformer that ever came down the American 
 pike ; and that whenever he passes in the neighborhood 
 of Thomas Circle in Washington, the bronze statue of 
 Martin Luther trembles on its base. Equally certain 
 is this well-informed average American that all the 
 "wicked trusts" and "high financiers" in the country 
 are cowering in their predatory lairs, in hourly expec 
 tation of a blow from the Big Stick. 
 
 It will be an interesting, tho difficult and delicate 
 task, to investigate these "reform" legends which have 
 taken such a hold on the popular mind. But we shall 
 ask these plain, every-day Americans, those who toil 
 and spin, and love and hope ; those who have no special 
 interest in fostering delusions either in themselves or 
 in others about the "governing class," to travel with 
 us a little way into the realm of Fact. 
 
 Let us get right down to "brass tacks" the historic 
 and official records and find out for ourselves what 
 has actually been done by this Strenuous "reformer" 
 who is claiming so much glory for his performances. 
 
"HE MAKES THE BRONZE STATUE OF MARTIN LUTHER 
 
 TREMBLE ON ITS BASE." 
 (Rooseveltian I- act & Fable.) 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 43 
 
 We have seen how he toyed with the Civil-Service 
 law, passed by the New York Legislature during Gov 
 ernor Cleveland s administration ; have seen also how 
 lightly he shed his "reform" garment to don the par- 
 tizan regimentals of Elaine in 1884. After Elaine s 
 defeat, finding his old Reform associates in New York 
 look somewhat coldly on him, Roosevelt sought the se 
 clusion of the Dakota wilds, and solace for his 
 -wounded spirit in the warm blood of grizzlies and other 
 roaming beasts. It was here he acquired some ac 
 quaintance with, and taste for, cow-boy life and man 
 ners. Here also, he is supposed to have gained in a 
 few months, that intimate knowledge of the habits and 
 peculiarities of the wild creatures denizens of the 
 forest, field, air and water which was to throw con 
 fusion and terror into the ranks of the "nature-fakirs" 
 (some of whom had vainly devoted their lives to the 
 same study) in after years. 
 
 From the Dakota wilds, our hero answered the par- 
 tizan call from his native State to come back and carry 
 the Republican standard in the mayoralty contest of 
 New York in 1886, when Henry George and his So 
 cialistic followers were threatening "property and re 
 spectability" in that city. 
 
 The result was the election of the Tammany candi 
 date, and Roosevelt came out a poor third in the vot 
 ing. This was not particularly flattering, but then he 
 had saved the city from the "anarchists" saved it to 
 Tammany and the "interests," and laid another votive 
 offering before "the star-eyed goddess of Reform!" 
 
 As a reward for his active services in the Harrison- 
 Cleveland campaign of 1888, Roosevelt asked to be 
 made Assistant Secretary of State. But Elaine, the 
 then premier, opposed his appointment, having no 
 fancy seemingly for this aggressive and self-assertive 
 trouble-maker to complicate affairs of state in his De 
 partment. Such is the short-lived gratitude of princes 
 
44 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE * 
 
 and "plumed-knights." Foiled in this design of ad 
 vancing his position among the "governing class/ 
 Roosevelt was forced to accept the humbler office of 
 Civil- Service Commissioner. 
 
 But by the attention this attracted, from the flam 
 boyant methods of the new incumbent, it suddenly took 
 rank with the most important offices in the Govern 
 ment. The pioneer work done by Cleveland, Eaton, 
 Lyman, and others, had cleared the way and assured 
 the popularity of the "merit system." The new Com 
 missioner was taking no risk in championing it, and 
 he had no sooner warmed his seat than through 
 effusive magazine articles, he was telling the country 
 all about Civil-Service. He lambasted its "enemies" ; 
 courted newspaper controversies with congressmen and 
 senators who had been heard to criticise the system. 
 An unsympathetic observer remarks : "It was not his 
 fault that these men were prominent, nor his misfor 
 tune that, because of their prominence he could by 
 means of these controversies mount into the public 
 view." 
 
 The work which had hitherto been done quietly and 
 unostentatiously, was now done clamorously and in big 
 type. Historian Leupp unconsciously confirms this: 
 "Whoever expected Mr. Roosevelt to remain long hid 
 den in any position, however insignificant, did not 
 know the man. . . . Hence it came about that on 
 Mr. Roosevelt s entrance into it, the Civil-Service Com 
 mission, for the first time since its foundation, threw 
 open its office doors freely to all comers. The news 
 paper correspondents in Washington were made wel 
 come, and furnished with any information that could 
 properly be given out." 
 
 Naturally enough, the eyes of the country were fre 
 quently turned toward the Civil Service Commission, 
 where "the thunderous Roosevelt always held the cen 
 ter of the stage," Just as naturally the impression 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 45 
 
 grew that here was the original if not the only C. S. 
 
 reformer. 
 
 Biographer Riis tells us: "He found 14,000 Gov 
 ernment employees under Civil-Service rules, and left 
 40,000." Riis likewise makes the unblushing state 
 ment: "In the New York Legislature he had forced 
 through a civil service law that was substantially the 
 same as he was here set to enforce (as C. S. Com 
 missioner)." 
 
 We have seen how he "forced it through," by de 
 clining to honor it with his vote ! 
 
 Pushing aside fulsome biographies and "inspired" 
 newspaper reports, let us for a little while inspect some 
 facts and figures taken fresh from the books of the 
 Civil-Service Commission. At the end of Arthur s 
 administration and the beginning of Cleveland s re 
 gime, there were in the classified service about 14,500 
 places out of a total 125,000. During his first term 
 President Cleveland by executive orders, added 7,000 
 places to the classified service ; natural growth added 
 5,000 more. So that when Cleveland left office in 
 1889, the date of Roosevelt s entrance as Commis 
 sioner, there were approximately 28,000 employees un 
 der civil service rules, representing a gain of nearly 
 100 per cent, in four years. 
 
 Civil Service reform made slow progress under 
 President Harrison, until he was defeated for re-elec 
 tion, and then, Jan. 5, 1893 two months before he 
 must yield the place to President Cleveland, Harrison, 
 by executive order, placed all the free-delivery post- 
 offices under the classified service. 
 
 By this "eleventh-hour" coup, 7,660 places were 
 added to the classified list, and 7,660 Republicans were 
 threby made secure from the anticipated assaults of 
 Cleveland s hungry followers. Before this, Harrison 
 had added only about 350 other places in the three 
 vears of his administration, and yet this shabby par- 
 
46 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tizan trick has been charged up on the credit side of 
 Mr. Roosevelt s Civil-Service account! 
 
 When Cleveland returned to the helm, he resumed 
 the extension of the classified list, placing therein 
 teachers in the Indian schools, meat inspectors, mes 
 sengers in the Departments, and watchmen. Smaller 
 customs-houses, steamship mail clerks, railway mail 
 clerks, and many excepted places in the postal service 
 were also included. Roosevelt resigned in May, 1895, 
 to become Police-Commissioner of New York City, 
 but the Civil-Service Commission appears to have 
 wagged along pretty well without him. 
 
 The Treasury Department, Pension agencies, In 
 dian affairs, and the Government printery were all suc 
 cessively brought under the Commission, and by the 
 Cleveland order of May 6, 1896, nearly half the places 
 in the executive list were brought under C. S. rules, a 
 gain of 25 per cent, since Harrison s exit. A recent 
 writer on Civil Service says : "Cleveland was also ac 
 cused of getting his partizans under cover of Civil 
 Service before giving up his official ghost; but as his 
 sweeping order was made nearly a year before his term 
 expired, and his work in the same direction had been 
 so consistent throughout, the charge has little force. 
 
 For practical, consistent work, Cleveland stands 
 head and shoulders above every other presidential 
 civil-service reformer. While his work was done 
 quietly and simply, it was thorough, greatly strength 
 ening the weak places, and striking down evasion and 
 fraud." The same writer speaks thus of Roosevelt: 
 "Without adding to or subtracting from Roosevelt s 
 record as C. S. Commissioner, we may say he was an 
 efficient officer, despite his bluster and grand-stand 
 posing. . . . Aside from the clamor of it, however, 
 his record is in no sense extraordinary. Had Roose 
 velt never been connected with the Civil-Service Com 
 mission, it is more than probable the cause would be 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 47 
 
 just as far advanced. . . . Effective fighting was 
 done by his predecessors and by his overshadowing 
 chief. His work in the Commission was that of a 
 faithful, but noisy and spectacular, tho very ordinary 
 officer, nothing more." 
 
 Certain is it, that but for Harrison s "eleventh-hour" 
 stroke, for the protection of his partizans, his adminis 
 tration under which Roosevelt served the bulk of his 
 term as Commissioner would have meant very little 
 for the cause of Civil-Service reform; and but for 
 Cleveland s timely return to power to swell the classi 
 fied list during the last two years of Roosevelt s term 
 as Commissioner, there would have been no such 
 plethoric array of Civil-Service figures for anybody to 
 translate into Roosevelt "reform" glory. 
 
 So much for his Civil-Service halo, which suffered 
 further tarnishment during his administration of the 
 presidency. Historian Leupp gives an amusing ac 
 count (Leupp didn t intend to be amusing) of Roose 
 velt when Commissioner, assembling all the Southern 
 newspaper representatives in Washington, and bidding 
 them spread the glad tidings throughout the benighted 
 and poverty-stricken Southland that He Roosevelt, 
 was now at the helm ; and that it was his magnanimous 
 desire that the blessings of Civil Service fall equally 
 upon the descendants of the secessionist and the slave- 
 driver. Leup adds, with charming naivette: "The 
 effect was magical. The examinations on the South 
 ern routes began to swarm with bright young fellows, 
 to whom, by the then modest standards of the South a 
 salary of $1,200 waf riches!" 
 
 It is very painful to have to subtract anything from 
 Mr. Roosevelt s Southern credit-sheet, but facts are 
 facts, and this is a true story. 
 
 That the South has found a better use for her 
 "bright young fellows" than to permit them to stag 
 nate in the executive Departments at Washington, is 
 
48 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 abundantly proven by the notorious fact, that far 
 fewer men from the South have been caught by the 
 departmental lure than from any other section of the 
 country. The heads of the C. S. Commission will tell 
 you to-day, that despite the cordial invitations ex 
 tended not only by Roosevelt, but by several of his 
 successors, the examinations on the Southern routes 
 have not "swarmed" with applicants, and that all ef 
 forts on the part of the Commission have been una 
 vailing to induce Southern young men to abandon 
 more independent, not to say more lucrative jobs at 
 home. It is no exaggeration to say that, with the 
 South s industrial renaissance, at any time during the 
 past twenty years, a thoroughly efficient cotton buyer 
 or travelling salesman received more salary some of 
 them twice as much, as Mr. Leupp says, "by the 
 South s modest standards," was accounted "riches." 
 It is not improbable that the South s standard of 
 riches and of most other things, is not more "modest" 
 than are Mr. Leupp s demands on the public credulity 
 with his Roosevelt fairy tales. 
 
 Having exhausted all the arts of the press-agent in 
 the office of the Civil-Service Commission, Roosevelt 
 wearied of the place, and and turned his eyes toward 
 New York "the storm-center." He was accredited 
 with congressional aspirations at that time, and in or 
 der to get himself prominently before the people, 
 Leupp says, "he yielded to Mayor Strong s solicta- 
 tions" to become the head of the re-organized Police 
 Commission. 
 
 Another authority says Mayor Strong offered him 
 the position in response to a timely suggestion from 
 one of Roosevelt s friends, that Roosevelt would like 
 to have it. That is immaterial. Friends and foes alike 
 testify that he made a good police commissioner, one 
 of the best New York has had. Bennett says of him 
 in this capacity: "Roosevelt is an excellent censor of 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 49 
 
 commonplace morality. He appreciates order and re 
 spectability. Order and respectability are the things 
 policemen are designed to enforce. Roosevelt was in 
 his element." 
 
 He was also in his element in being assigned the 
 agreeable task of castigating Tammany offenders. Of 
 all his "reform" roles, none has given him such holy 
 joy as that of the Republican St. George slaying the 
 Tammany dragon. Parkhurst, the fiery zealot, in his 
 crusade against police rottenness, had blazed the way ; 
 Mayor Strong, elected on the reform wave, had re 
 organized the Board. Everything was in readiness for 
 the coming of Roosevelt, and he came. Needless to 
 say, the work of reform went on merrily, and with the 
 usual brass-band accompaniment. 
 
 As it had been in the C. S. Commission, so it was 
 in the Police Board, the doors were thrown wide open 
 to interviewers, and for months the city talked of 
 Roosevelt and police, to the secret joy of certain 
 "high financiers" who knew the people thus harm 
 lessly engaged, would not keep such close tab on their 
 maneuvers. Of which, J. W. Bennett testifies: "Roose 
 velt and Parkhurst, both resonantly honest, cast out 
 real Tammany devils whose numbers were legion, 
 while the Interests/ silently, deftly, swiftly, captured 
 New York public privileges richer than Golconda." 
 
 So intent was the Strenuous commissioner in im 
 pressing his own righteous will upon the New York 
 police system, that he ruthlessly trampled police stat 
 utes, which to mere ordinary thinkers might seem to 
 make for fairness. One of these was that no man 
 should be dismissed from the service without a trial, 
 and the Commissioner s action was reviewable by the 
 courts. Another was, that policemen should be chosen 
 by competitive examination. During Mr. Roosevelt s 
 administration of police affairs, 100 men "walked the 
 plank" without trial ; and the candidates for examine- 
 
5O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tion, were chosen by himself he of course being- the 
 best and final judge of their fitness! When as an 
 Assemblyman, he had been appointed to investigate 
 Tammany wickedness, he had found this arbitrary se 
 lection of men by the Police Board, a final sign of 
 partizan depravity. 
 
 Historian Leupp finds it necessary to "explain" this 
 apparent inconsistency, as he does many other things in 
 his "campaign life" of Roosevelt. 
 
 Leupp evinces occasional glimmerings of the fact 
 (of which Riis appears wholly oblivious), that there 
 may be somewhere abroad in the land a different view 
 (erroneous of course) of the Roosevelt acts from that 
 so enthusiastically held by himself and other members 
 of the "Tennis Cabinet" ; or at least that some of these 
 acts are susceptible of being "misjudged" by some per 
 verse and mischievous critic. And so Apologist Leupp 
 puts forth with impressive gravity a blanket "explana 
 tion" of all suspicious Roosevelt acts : His hero, tho 
 a man of lofty moral concepts, yet has a saving "prac 
 tical" side (he owned to this himself later, it will be 
 remembered), which invariably rushes in, in the nick 
 of time, to save his "reform" policies from running to 
 the demnition-bow-wows in the Democratic camp. 
 
 This Apologist Leupp calls "sacrificing the lesser to 
 the larger good," "the larger good" being always the 
 success of the Republican party, and the personal 
 glorification of T. Roosevelt. The "lesser good" may 
 be most any old thing which happens to conflict with 
 these laudable ends. Should the laudable ends them 
 selves be at variance, as has occasionally happened 
 why then the Republican party becomes the "lesser 
 good." Whatever goes or stays, T. Roosevelt must 
 have personal glory. 
 
 Though opinions differ as to his "reform" methods 
 on the New York police force, there is practical unan- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 5! 
 
 imity in the testimony that they produced an awful row 
 in the Board. One writer says : "The friction became 
 public, and discipline suffered." He also asserts that, 
 ,in the factional strife engendered by his methods,** 
 Roosevelt was driven into a corner, and rinding him 
 self without support, threw up his hands. Instead of 
 holding on to the end, like a thoroughbred fighter, he 
 quit, like a fake prize fighter, retired under fire, and 
 went to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 
 which Friend Lodge had in readiness for him at 
 Washington." 
 
 Needless to state, this raconteur is not catalogued 
 among Mr. Roosevelt s admirers. But here is what 
 Apologist Leupp says of that portion of his hero s ca 
 reer: "The result was disappointing. For in spite of a 
 series of notable reforms, the influence of one of his 
 colleagues blocked so many of his projects for im 
 provement, that he was glad of the chance afforded by 
 President McKinley s election to go to Washington as 
 Assistant Secretary of the Navy." 
 
 Which may, after all, be only another way of stating 
 the same fact. 
 
 In his "Roosevelt and the Republic," John W. Ben 
 nett does not lavish praise upon Mr. Roosevelt, tho he 
 exonerates him from any taint of "dollar lust," and 
 says he might have served his country better in the 
 office of Secretary of the Navy, in beating off the rapa 
 cious and conscienceless naval constructors who beset 
 the Government at that time, than by the most signal 
 gallantry on the battle-field: "A man of stern integrity 
 in financial matters, such as Roosevelt undoubtedly is, 
 was sorely needed right there to fight American 
 ghouls, rather than Spanish soldiers. . . . There 
 were plenty of volunteers to fight the Spaniards in the 
 field, few to fight the grafters at home." 
 
 As to how well the Assistant-Secretary deserved this 
 
52 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 encomium from his sometime unsparing critic, as well 
 as to his methods of "beating-off" the pirates with 
 ships to sell, we learn from Leupp s "campaign life," 
 see pp. 107-110. With much explanatory preamble, 
 and apologies on the side, Leupp gives in detail, a dra 
 matic incident in the office of the Assistant Secretary, 
 when he one day surprised him in the act of excoriat 
 ing an attorney for one of these rascally naval con 
 tractors. Leupp would have beat a hasty retreat, but a 
 signal from his chief, rooted him to the spot, and made 
 him an involuntary witness of the verbal storm. The 
 attorney was told in thunderous tones that he "ought 
 to be ashamed of himself to come there day after day, 
 offering his worthless craft to the Government in its 
 time of need," and letting fly a few more fulminating 
 bolts, the chief actor in the one-act farce conclued 
 wrathfully: "No! I don t want any more of your old 
 tubs. The one I bought yesterday is good for nothing 
 except to sink somewhere in the path of the enemy s 
 fleet. It will be God s mercy if she doesn t go down 
 with brave men on her men who go to war and risk 
 their lives, instead of staying home to sell rotten hulks 
 to the Government!" 
 
 Then after the naval grafter had crawled through 
 the small hole adapted to his shrivelled dimensions, the 
 facile actor turns toward his admiring audience with 
 a beaming smile: "You came just in time," he cried. 
 (To be sure, just in time to give it a write-up.) "I 
 wanted you to hear what I had to say to that fellow; 
 not that it would add materially to your pleasure, but 
 that it would humiliate him to have anyone else present 
 while I gave him his punishment. It is the only way 
 I have of getting even!" 
 
 This incident illustrates to a dot the quality of the 
 Roosevelt "reforms." He "got even" with the naval 
 grafter with a verbal castigation, even while confessing 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 53 
 
 to him that he had bought his "rotten hulks," and as 
 both he and the naval grafter knew he intended to 
 buy others, and to pay the price demanded, after he 
 had satisfied his melodramatic instincts with this child 
 ish rodomontade. His responsibility to the Govern 
 ment, and to the American sailors whose lives he was 
 jeopardizing on these worthless ships, does not appear 
 to have weighed on him greatly. 
 
 Apologist Leupp says, "It was the best he could do" ; 
 that, if he had refused these insecure and high-priced 
 boats, "Heaven only knew where any good ones were 
 coming from to take their places (immediately). . . . 
 He was not the man to waste much time figuring on 
 the consequences. . . . The one fact which stared 
 him in the face was that the Government must have 
 coalers, and right away !" 
 
 Ah! Here is the Senegambian in the Roosevelt- 
 Leupp puzzle picture. For the Assistant-Secretary to 
 have adopted the resolute and obviously proper course 
 of refusing this worthless craft, and of holding the 
 whole grafting horde up to public scorn until they 
 were forced to furnish better ships, would have de 
 layed the war with Spain, in which Roosevelt thirsted 
 to bear a spectacular part. According to his biogra 
 phers, he had done much "to bring the Cuban contro 
 versy to a head"; he admits it himself with com 
 mendable modesty, and now his martial spirit, aroused 
 to fever-pitch, would brook no delay. 
 
 In his view, the all-important thing was to rush the 
 war with Spain. All other considerations were sec 
 ondary. Here again, he is subordinating "the lesser 
 to the larger good." The "lesser good" in this case 
 was the honor of the American Government; protec 
 tion to American sailors ; and justice to American tax 
 payers. All these were ruthlessly, but justifiably sac 
 rificed to the "larger good" of gratifying Mr. Roose- 
 
54 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 velt s military spirit, and subserving his personal am 
 bitions ! 
 
 The author of "Roosevelt and the Republic" scores 
 somewhat in : "When men and nations stand up to be 
 judged before some higher, more clear-sighted civili 
 zation of the future, the part played by many American 
 newspapers and public officers in forcing a war with 
 Spain, will not be a subject of highest praise." How 
 much of this "praise" or condemnation of the future 
 should go to Mr. Roosevelt, may not be determined 
 with exactitude. As is generally conceded, he was a 
 "very busy" Assistant-Secretary. During the frequent 
 and prolonged absences of Secretary Long, the nomi 
 nal head of the Navy Department, Roosevelt was in 
 entire charge. We all know what it means when Mr. 
 Roosevelt "takes charge" of things; there must be ac 
 tion of some sort. If it were he who sent the Maine on 
 her foolish and fateful errand into Cuban waters, there 
 should be no difficulty in gauging his responsibility for 
 the war. 
 
 Even now, ten years from the date of the conflict, 
 without waiting for the light of a future civilization, 
 there is a growing conviction that, that "glorious war 
 for humanity," was neither so glorious nor so humane 
 as it once appeared. Even now, some of Mr. Roose 
 velt s admirers regret the premature haste of biogra 
 phers in claiming so much credit for his efforts in 
 "bringing it to a head." True, it made him governor 
 of New York, according to Leupp, and that, in 
 Leupp s and Roosevelt s view, was subserving "the 
 larger good." 
 
 It is recorded that when Governor Roosevelt sent 
 his first message to the Legislature, "New Yorkers 
 blinked, rubbed their eyes, and blinked again. Had 
 they after all elected Roosevelt President? Or had 
 New York over night become an independent nation? 
 
KOOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 55 
 
 For the message congratulated the PEOPLE OF 
 NEW YORK on carrying to a successful conclusion 
 one of the most righteous wars of modern times ! 
 
 This first message likewise ran the whole gamut of 
 righteous legislation which the new governor wanted 
 enacted at once. He ordered an investigation of the 
 Canal scandal, and that there might be no suspicion 
 of bad faith, he commissioned two Democratic law 
 yers, Messrs. McFarlane and Fox, to conduct the in 
 vestigation. The lawyers reported crookedness a 
 plenty, but for technical reasons, clear only to the pro 
 fession, the offenders could not be prosecuted. In the 
 end, no Canal thieves were punished. The story of 
 the State Trust Co. investigation will be told else 
 where. He dismissed Lou Payn, whose administration 
 of the office of Insurance Commissioner had been no 
 toriously scandalous, but permitted him to go un 
 scathed, and permitted Platt to name his successor. He 
 revived and placed upon the statute-book the civil ser 
 vice law passed by Cleveland and scuttled by Black. 
 He also advocated the Ford Franchise law, a measure 
 to tax the big corporations introduced by Senator Ford, 
 and characterized as a "mild reform, but a step in 
 the right direction." 
 
 Some progress was also made in dealing with labor 
 problems, and tenement conditions, but the extent of 
 the Roosevelt achievements in his administration of 
 the governorship, may be inferred from the following 
 summary in the New York Tribune, usually a very 
 friendly critic of Roosevelt: 
 
 "His position at the beginning of his term was ex 
 ceedingly strong, and he might have made it impreg 
 nable. Doubtless he has meant to do so, but he has not 
 succeeded. He has rendered himself liable to attacks 
 which it will not be the easiest thing in the world to 
 repel, and is now forced to admit that he needs an 
 other term to finish the work which his own indiscre- 
 
56 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tions have made unnecessarily difficult. ... In case 
 his desire for re-election is gratified, we shall hope to 
 see him grow to the full stature befitting a great 
 office." . . . 
 
 And the rest of the "Roosevelt-Reform" legends, are 
 they not written in the book of the Acts of T. Roose 
 velt, President of the United States? 
 
ELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COURT FAVORITES. 
 
 There is a traditional idea, gathered from the his 
 tories of dissolute European kings, that it is a final 
 and fatal sign of weakness in a ruler, to be swayed in 
 his executive acts by considerations of personal favorit 
 ism. Charles I. of England, and Louis XVI. of 
 France lost their heads through the baleful influence of 
 court favorites. Theodore Roosevelt, as ruler and re 
 former, has frequently "lost his head" metaphorically 
 in cases involving the promotion or protection of his 
 personal favorites, but the American people have not 
 yet acquired the habit of visiting even political decapi 
 tation upon such rulers. 
 
 The first "court favorite" to turn aside "the strong 
 lance of justice" in the Roosevelt armory was Elihu 
 Root, one time Secretary of War, now Secretary of 
 State, and at the time Roosevelt was enacting the role 
 of "Reform Governor" of New York. Root was also 
 one of the directors of the New York State Trust 
 Company, a flourishing and outwardly impeccable 
 banking establishment. In January, 1900, Mr. Kling 
 of New York presented to the Governor a grave and 
 specific indictment of the management of this State 
 Trust Company, and asked for the appointment of a 
 commission to investigate the Company s affairs. 
 These charges, if true, were enough to send the whole 
 board of directors to the penitentiary for long terms. 
 
 The Governor was much moved by these revela 
 tions, and declared he must know all the facts. He 
 
58 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 appointed former Adjutant-General Avery D. Andrews 
 of New York City as a special investigy.or in the mat 
 ter, with instructions to "go to the bottom of it, no 
 matter whom it might affect." 
 
 Charles Edward Russell, who wrote an account of 
 the incident, says : 
 
 "The State Trust matter properly belonged to the 
 official care of H. P. Kilburn, Superintendent of the 
 State Banking Department. For some reason not offi 
 cially disclosed, the Governor totally ignored Mr. Kil 
 burn. . . . Whereupon Mr. Kilburn started an in 
 vestigation of his own." . . . 
 
 New York newspapers, taking the scent, conducted 
 a third. 
 
 General Andrews finished first. His appointment 
 was telegraphed him on Jan. i2th, and he began work 
 on the 1 3th. His investigation lasted less than five 
 hours. Then he ceased his labors and returned two 
 documents. One was a report of what he had found, 
 and the other a letter asking to be relieved from fur 
 ther research into the matter. . . . Gen. Andrews 
 was relieved according to his request. No one was ap 
 pointed in his place; his report was locked up in Al 
 bany; and Supt. Kilburn s report coming in shortly 
 afterward, that, too, was consigned to oblivion. . . . 
 
 In spite of all demands, the government refused to 
 make either public, to give any idea of the contents of 
 either, or to take any action on either. . . . On March 
 12 the New York World managed to secure in some 
 way a copy of the Kilburn report (so sedulously sup 
 pressed at Albany), and published it practically in 
 full. . . . The country gasped at the official con 
 firmation it contained of the worst charges made by 
 Kling, or hinted at by the newspapers. There seemed 
 no longer a chance to doubt that the official investiga 
 tion had been muzzled because of the prominence of 
 the persons involved, who now stood forth in the white 
 light, painfully conspicuous. They were: 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 59 
 
 _ -> . ** 
 
 "Elihu Root, then Secretary of War, 
 
 "John W. Griggs, then Attorney- General of U. S., 
 
 "Thomas F. Ryan, 
 
 "William C. Whitney, et al., who were convicted by 
 the evidence of making illegal loans to dummies, poli 
 ticians, and directors. Lou F. Payn, Insurance Com 
 missioner, was one of the men to profit by the crooked 
 ness to the extent of more than $400,000. 
 
 "Elihu Root negotiated a loan to the dummy office 
 boy." 
 
 Secretary Root has been the brains of the Roosevelt 
 Administration. His cool, guiding hand has toned 
 down many a spectacular performance, and licked 
 "my policies" into some semblance of statesmanship. 
 
 It was Root who explained with lawyer-like pa 
 tience, that certain jingo demonstrations were "acts of 
 war," and when the threatened collision was with a 
 first-class power, it was Root who pointed the way to 
 a graceful back-down. With the exception of Hay, 
 Root, Taft, Hitchcock, and Wilson, whom he inherited 
 from McKinley the men whom President Roosevelt 
 has collected about him, have been of the garden vari 
 ety, these being the fittest instruments to execute the 
 Strenuous will. It is not every Cabinet officer who will 
 permit a President to use him as a messenger boy, see 
 Historian Leupp s explanation of Secretary Gage s 
 resignation from the Treasury Department, pages 
 73-74. Leupp likewise gives the superfluous informa 
 tion (p. 58) : "With Mr. Roosevelt the counsel of 
 valued associates is always welcome, but his decisions 
 he prefers to make himself." 
 
 Whoever imagined Mr. Roosevelt following any 
 man s lead? Perish the unworthy thought! But if 
 Roosevelt has used Root, the service has been mutual. 
 
 One of the most conspicuous favorites of the Roose 
 velt regime is General Leonard Wood, the military 
 governor of the Moro country in the Philippines. His- 
 
6O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 torian Leupp testifies: "Wood s advancement from a 
 captain s grade in the army medical service to a full 
 major-generalcy in five years, is perhaps the most re 
 markable recorded in our day," and Leupp ascribes 
 Wood s good fortune in large measure to Roosevelt s 
 grateful recollection of the important part Wood 
 played in making him the commander of the Rough 
 Riders. When on August 8, 1903, Roosevelt raised 
 Wood to the rank of Major-General over the heads of 
 many older and more worthy aspirants, there was a 
 storm of angry protest from many quarters. Brig.- 
 Gen. Thos. M. Anderson, commenting in the Inde 
 pendent, says: 
 
 "Wood has been promoted over 67 officers of cav 
 alry, 66 of artillery, and 150 of infantry. He has also 
 passed over 27 adjutant-generals, 16 inspector-gen 
 erals, 35 quartermasters, n judge-advocates, 27 com 
 missaries, 27 paymasters, 49 engineers, and 8 of the 
 ordinance. Lastly, but not least, he has jumped over 
 70 of his own corps. In all, 596 of higher rank and 
 longer experience passed over in five years ! This 
 would seem to indicate that in our generation the 
 scalpel is mightier than the sword." 
 
 When the Senate was asked to confirm Wood s ap 
 pointment in December, 1903, they were at the same 
 time confronted with certain charges against him, 
 which a committee was appointed to investigate. And 
 these were the accusations pointed at the confirmation 
 of Leonard Wood as Major-General: 
 
 I. That he never had any military experience, but 
 was merely a regimental doctor ; II. that he performed 
 no military services of special distinction and merit 
 during the Cuban campaign, and was made a briga 
 dier-general through personal and political influence; 
 III. that he won his place as governor-general of Cuba 
 by intrigue and undermining his superiors. Letters 
 between Major Runcie and Wood were produced, 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 6 1 
 
 showing connivance with Runcie to attack General 
 Brooke, and subsequent mean abandonment of Runcie ; 
 IV. that he put his relatives in positions of financial 
 profit in Cuba, and was open to the suspicion of 
 making financial profit himself; V. that he granted a 
 ten-years concession to the Jai Alai Co., a notorious 
 gambling establishment in Havana, for a material if 
 not a corrupt consideration." 
 
 This last charge was preferred by Bishop Canler of 
 Atlanta, Ga. 
 
 Senator Henry M. Teller, speaking in the U. S. Sen 
 ate Dec. 8, 1903, charged Gen. Wood with having 
 maintained a lobby at Washington in the interest of 
 the Cuban reciprocity treaty, a measure designed to 
 benefit the Sugar Trust and injure American sugar 
 growers, a measure which Senator Carmack wittily 
 characterized as "combining the attractions of a bar 
 gain-counter and a missionary-box ; a rare opportunity 
 to serve God and get your money back," according 
 to its advocates. Senator Teller stated that he ai?d 
 other senators were in receipt of letters from the Gov 
 ernor-General of Cuba, in the interest of this legisla 
 tion, further affirming: "A more indefensible thing 
 for an army officer to do, could not be conceived of. I 
 venture to say that under ordinary circumstances, any 
 officer who would write such a letter, would be 
 cashiered." Senator Teller also charged that Gov 
 ernor-General Wood, commencing in September, 1901, 
 had sent out letters and telegrams to the alcaldes of 
 the different towns in Cuba, urging them to demand 
 concessions of this character. 
 
 The demand in reality came from American owners 
 of sugar lands in Cuba, who were also members of the 
 Sugar Trust. 
 
 Whatever the findings of the Senate committee as 
 to these accusations against President Roosevelt s pet 
 army officer, it is not difficult to guess what they 
 
62 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 found when they knew whom they had to please in the 
 findings Leonard Wood vaulted lightly over the 
 heads of the battle-scarred veterans, and landed in the 
 Moro country with his title of Major-General securely 
 fastened to his coat-collar, and with the additional title 
 of Military Governor of the islands. 
 
 Historic precedent and parallel are not wanting for 
 this act of favoritism. It is said the Duke of Marl- 
 borough owed his first advancement to the questionable 
 influence of his sister, Arabella. Napoleon received 
 the command of the army of Italy because Barras ap 
 proved his marriage to the widow Beauharnais. But 
 the favoritism shown Napoleon and Marlborough 
 found justification in their great military careers. 
 
 General Wood has not yet given proof of great mili 
 tary capacity, either before or since his promotion. If 
 the standard of military historians be accepted, that nc 
 engagement in which the loss is less than 100, shall be 
 rated as a battle Wood never commanded even a 
 brigade in battle. But his critics lose sight of the fact 
 that Gen. Wood had enjoyed the advantage of putting 
 T. Roosevelt through his first military paces, a privi 
 lege denied to Marlborough and Napoleon and what 
 are mere battles in comparison with this great and sig 
 nal distinction? 
 
 Francis B. Loomis was Assistant-Secretary of State 
 when John Hay, by reason of illness, was much ab 
 sent, and the first duties of the office frequently de 
 volved upon Loomis. When that brilliant Panama 
 coup was executed, whereby we gained not only an 
 immediate permit to "dig the ditch" between the 
 oceans, but likewise came into possession of some very 
 valuable machinery belonging to the French Panama 
 Company who had abandoned the enterprise, and all 
 for the trifling sum of $50,000,000, a mere bagatelle, 
 it was Loomis who in an interesting address before 
 the New York Quill Club, defended the "irregular" 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 63 
 
 method of acquiring the right of way across the Pan 
 ama strip, and loudly extolled the President s course. 
 In the language of the Hon. Samuel G. Ely the, Loo mis 
 is reported as "handing out a nifty line of language" 
 on this occasion. He represented President Roosevelt 
 as "peering into the future" and seeing the consum 
 mation of "this great world enterprise" by his own 
 hand, naturally, he was attracted by the vision. An 
 irreverent critic in the U. S. Senate remarked at the 
 time, that, had the President "peered into the law" as 
 studiously as Mr. Loomis says he "peered into the fu 
 ture," he might have found a shorter as well as a more 
 honorable Canal route across Nicaragua; and some 
 other disgruntled folk have remarked since, that the 
 whole trouble with this inter-oceanic Canal is, that it 
 seems to be a continuous process of "peering into the 
 future" like Pope s "man who never is, but always 
 to be blest." But this is a digression. Assistant-Sec 
 retary Loomis, in this "interesting" address, quieted all 
 scruples, and made the whole Panama transaction 
 smooth and fair to the minds of the American people. 
 And when this same Assistant-Secretary Loomis later 
 became involved in an embarrassing complication with 
 the Asphalt Trust and the Venezuelan government, 
 Roosevelt was not the man to desert a friend in need. 
 
 It appears that adventurous foreigners have for 
 years been going into the Central and South American 
 States, and securing "concessions" from some incom 
 petent or corrupt officials of their governments to 
 pretty nearly everything worth having in the way of 
 natural wealth in those countries. Then these rascally 
 foreigners go home and "capitalize" these concessions, 
 and then the trouble begins. Americans had also been 
 in this concession-hunting business. Back in the eigh 
 ties, Horatio R. Hamilton of New York had secured 
 asphalt, timber, and navigation "concessions" from 
 somebody in temporary control in Venezuela, promis- 
 
64 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 ing in return certain navigable and other improve 
 ments in Venezuelan territory, and then proceeded to 
 "capitalize" his Venezuelan holdings in the United 
 States. 
 
 There was no pretense of carrying out the stipula 
 tions involving outlay by Hamilton or his assignees, 
 but the asphalt mine proved more lucrative than a gold 
 mine to the American stockholders. Miles of city 
 streets were paved from it, by aldermen willing to pay 
 good prices. 
 
 The Barber Asphalt Co., the General Asphalt Co., 
 the New York and Bermudez Asphalt Co., all differ 
 ent names for the same asphalt combine were flour 
 ishing like green bay trees, when the plucky little 
 Venezuelan President, Castro, decided he would put a 
 stop to this wholesale plundering of his people, and 
 started a suit for the annulment of the franchise. 
 
 The success of this suit would accomplish two re 
 sults not at all approved by the Trust. American cit 
 ies might get cheaper pavements, and Venezuelans 
 might get some benefit of their own natural resources. 
 
 The story of this affair is well told in Bennett s 
 "Roosevelt and the Republic," pp. 186-90: "Those 
 patriotic gentlemen of asphalt fame who had been see 
 ing to it that American municipalities paid $3 a square 
 yard for paving worth $1.50, now invaded Washing 
 ton to prevent their labors from being undone. Lob 
 bies were organized about the State and other depart 
 ments. Newspapers scored Castro. Statesmen de 
 nounced Castro. He was ambitious, self-seeking, 
 crooked, bent upon holding up saintly foreigners and 
 despoiling them. His country was going to the dogs ; 
 he was about to be overthrown. There was a terrible 
 state of affairs in Venezuela. . . . Castro stuck to 
 his text. The suit for annulment went serenely for 
 ward. If the conceSvSionaires had a claim, let them 
 press it in the courts of Venezuela. The concession 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 6$ 
 
 rested upon Venezuelan governmental authority ; its in 
 terpretation should certainly rest there also. Castro 
 was at the head of a sovereign nation, the same sover 
 eign nation which was recognized when the concession 
 was accepted. No objection was then made to the au 
 thority of Venezuela s government. Then it was giv 
 ing away the heritage of the Venezuelan people. Now 
 that the Venezuelan government was trying to reclaim 
 that heritage for its people, it would hear no question 
 ing of its authority. Castro s position was unimpeach 
 able. He had justice and law, too, upon his side. . . . 
 Then came forward that pure and ingenuous public 
 servant, Assistant-Secretary of State Francis B. 
 Loomis, one of the high-minded men whom President 
 Roosevelt delighted to honor, and suggested that Cas 
 tro arbitrate. Castro was barely polite. The courts of 
 Venezuela were open. American concessionaires 
 would get all they were entitled to, no more. . . . 
 Faithfully did the State Department stand by the 
 Asphalt Trust. Diligently, with Francis B. Loomis as 
 spokesman, did the Administration at Washington 
 labor to preserve to the Asphalt Trust its monopoly of 
 the paving material most favored in American cities. 
 . . . The situation became critical when Castro ap 
 pointed a receiver for the New York and Bermudez 
 Co., and the receiver was mining asphalt and placing 
 it on American markets in competition with the Trust. 
 ... So insistently did the State Department urge and 
 threaten, that it brought out a protest from the Ameri 
 can minister in Venezuela, Herbert W. Bowen. He 
 said he could not properly exert such pressure for the 
 concessionaires, that their cause lacked righteousness. 
 Besides, he was embarrassed by the fact that the for 
 mer American minister to Venezuela (Mr. Loomis), 
 and the then Assistant-Secretary of State, his superior, 
 had, when in Venezuela, openly pressed against the 
 Venezuelan government claims in which he (Loomis) 
 
66 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 had a pecuniary interest. He had used his position for 
 private gain. . . . All this had injured the standing 
 of America s representative in Venezuela, &c., &c." 
 
 Naturally enough, this protest from the American 
 minister, falling into the hands of Loomis, who was 
 practically head of the State Department, was not 
 given to the public. On the other hand, the things he 
 required of the minister became more and more galling, 
 until Bowen could stand it no longer, and being unable 
 to make any impression on the State Department, he 
 resolved to appeal to the American people. He gave 
 the story of the whole unsavory mess to the New York 
 Herald which printed it in full. The country will re 
 member the storm which burst on Bowen s head. Ben 
 nett thus describes it: Minister Bowen was angrily 
 recalled by the man whom he had accused. Hot with 
 indignation, Bowen came. Secretary Taft, the general 
 utility man of the Roosevelt administration, was as 
 signed to apply the white-wash. The big Secretary 
 gave the white coat to Francis B. Loomis. It seemed 
 as agreeable to him. as a dose of wormwood, but it was 
 done heroically. Mr. Taft has never balked yet at a 
 job set for him by the Dutch Uncle/ whose heir-ex 
 pectant he is. ... Shades were pretty dark for the 
 thickest coat of white- wash but it sufficed. . . . Hot 
 in the anger of an honest man, Minister Bowen went 
 before the President and offered to prove his charges 
 to the satisfaction of a disinterested person who might 
 go into them. . . . That was not the point. His 
 charges might or might not be true. He was undiplo*- 
 ma-tic. . . . State Department iniquity could do the 
 Administration no harm while it was unknown to the 
 public. . . . Minister Bowen made it known to ihe 
 public. . . . He was obviously a traitor to the Ad 
 ministration. . . . No ! No ! there was no explana 
 tion. . . . He had violated diplomatic courtesy. Pie 
 had been, insubordinate. Honesty was all right in its 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 6? 
 
 place, but it was not in a class with courtesy, and sub 
 ordination in an Administration that was absolutely 
 above suspicion! Minister Bowen was officially 
 branded as an Ananias, Roosevelt himself giving the 
 mud bath. . . . Bowen, who mingled too much blunt 
 and straightforward honesty with his diplomatic tact, 
 retired from the service in disgrace. . . . Loornis 
 was promoted to a ministry and permitted later to drop 
 silently out of sight." 
 
 Similar to this, though not quite so flagrant, was the 
 favoritism displayed in the case of Hon. Paul Morton, 
 one-time vice-president and traffic manager of the 
 Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, 
 and in 1904-05 Secretary of the Navy in President 
 Roosevelt s Cabinet. 
 
 Morton had not, like Loomis and Wood, rendered 
 such conspicuous personal service to his chief, and was 
 not rightfully entitled to the same consideration. He 
 was, moreover, the son of a prominent Democrat, a 
 member of Cleveland s Cabinet; and tho he himself 
 had sought to avert the consequences of his father s 
 sin by joining the Republican party, and tho Demo 
 cratic affiliation was never a bar sinister to Roose- 
 veltian favor when the said Democrats could serve 
 Rooseveltian ends, it was obviously a handicap. Sec 
 retary Morton, therefore, could only claim such im 
 munity as is freely extended to all those about the 
 Strenuous person who are obedient to the Strenuous 
 will. This, however, was sufficient to hide Mr. Morton 
 in the day of his threatened calamity, when the Sher 
 man Anti-trust law arose and pointed an accusing rin 
 ger at him. 
 
 On Jan. 9, 1905, one of those impertinent Demo 
 crats who ever and anon disturb the placid current of 
 Republican equanimity, arose in the House of Repre 
 sentatives, and offered the following "Resolution of 
 Inquiry Relative to Hon. Paul Morton: Whereas the 
 
6& ROOSEVELTIAN PACT AND FABLE 
 
 traffic manager of the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe 
 Ry. Co., gave evidence on Dec. 29, 1904, before the 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, showing that said 
 railroad did on, and after Aug. 19, 1902, grant secret 
 rebates to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., said re 
 bates, according to the Chicago Inter-Ocean, amount 
 ing to $400,000; and whereas it is claimed, that the 
 effect of this secret rebate was to bankrupt certain 
 competitors; and whereas the head of the traffic de 
 partment of said railroad during the time this secret 
 rebate was allowed, was the present Secretary of the 
 Navy, the Hon. Paul Morton, who is reported as de 
 fending the granting of said rebate, Resolved: I. That 
 the Attorney-General be requested to inform this 
 House whether the act of Mr. Paul Morton in allow 
 ing the said rebate to the Col. Fuel and Iron Co. is not 
 in flagrant violation of law, and what steps if any have 
 been taken to prosecute him criminally for said act. 
 II. That this House respectfully asks the President 
 whether it is in harmony with his message of Decem 
 ber 6th, wherein he declares it is necessary to put a 
 complete stop to all rebates, and also conductive to the 
 public interests, to retain Mr. Morton as Secretary of 
 the Navy." 
 
 Then up-rose that great head of the Judiciary Com 
 mittee, and devoted friend of Temperance, Hon. John 
 J. Jenkins of Wisconsin, and promptly "moved that 
 both these resolutions be laid on the table," and the 
 thing was done. It is seldom that a partizan majority 
 fails to respond to a call of that kind. Too much 
 publicity had been given the affair, however, to make it 
 easy for a "trust-busting" President to ignore it en 
 tirely, and with his usual flourisji of trumpets he or 
 dered an "investigation" of the Honorable Paul s guilt. 
 After that, there were some occasional references in 
 the press to the "Judson-Harmon report," which was 
 returned, but never divulged. It sleeps with the re- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 69 
 
 port of that New York State Trust Company investi 
 gation, and like that, may some day be available to the 
 "future historian." Mr. Morton remained in President 
 Roosevelt s Cabinet until he got ready to retire, June 
 30, 1905, whence he graduated to the presidency of a 
 big Trust Company, where the salary was much larger, 
 and the "resolutions of inquiry" much less annoying. 
 
 President Roosevelt has lavished administration 
 favors upon George B. Cortelyou, having appointed 
 him successively, Secretary of the Bureau of Com 
 merce and Labor, Postmaster-General, and Secretary 
 of the Treasury. 
 
 Some persons are possessed of a crude notion that 
 experience and special study of the subjects embraced 
 by the various executive Departments, are essential to 
 the successful administration of them, but Mr. Roose 
 velt knows that the more Cabinet officers are shifted 
 about, the better they do. And this is exemplified in 
 the case of Mr. Cortelyou. 
 
 From the position of private secretary to the Presi 
 dent, he was promoted to the head of the new Depart 
 ment of Commerce and Labor. Having remained in 
 this post long enough to learn the state secrets of the 
 "close corporations," Mr. Cortelyou was selected as the 
 most available and effective Manager of the Roosevelt 
 presidential campaign in 1904. 
 
 Only when we remember the envious and ill-natured 
 slings about an "accidental President," prior to No 
 vember, 1904, and how galling were such expressions 
 to a man of Mr. Roosevelt s spirit, can we realize how 
 much was at stake in this campaign, wherein Cortelyou 
 was set the task of silencing all cavil as to Roosevelt s 
 "overwhelming popularity." 
 
 Right royally did the Chairman of the Republican 
 National Committee execute his mission. Campaign 
 funds flowed generously, and the sources of supply 
 were carefully concealed from the prying, vulgar 
 
7O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 crowd, with the solitary exception of Judge Parker s 
 "malicious" charges, to which no one of course paid 
 any attention after they had been denied by our virtu 
 ous President. There is a pretty story, circulated in 
 the newspapers at the time, that after the November 
 returns were all in, the President-elect approached his 
 wife with mock, smiling deference, and the words: 
 "My dear Edith, I congratulate you that you are no 
 longer an accident !" Truer words were never spoken. 
 Just how little of accident (or freedom), and how 
 much of design entered into the result of that election, 
 no one knew better than Roosevelt, except perhaps his 
 faithful lieutenant, Cortelyou, or his "dear friend Har- 
 riman." 
 
 Manager Cortelyou had earned a promotion, and 
 stepped with a sense of conscious merit into the posi 
 tion of Postmaster-General. From this he mounted to 
 the head of the Treasury Department, to take charge of 
 "Uncle Sam s pocket-book" just in time to help Har- 
 riman, Morgan, Hill, Rockefeller, and a few more of 
 the erstwhile "criminally rich," but now "substantial 
 and conservative business men," save the country, not 
 from the wicked Democrats this time, but from a dis 
 astrous money-panic which had the temerity and the 
 inopportuneness to happen under Roosevelt rule. 
 
 But the versatile and resourceful Cortelyou was 
 equal to this appalling event also. He issued Panama 
 bonds, to the amount of $50,000,000, and deposited 
 most of the money thus raised in the State of New 
 York, which had already swallowed up all the money 
 in the country, giving to two banks owned by John D. 
 Rockefeller in the City of New York alone, the sum of 
 $24,000,000. Senator Gore of Oklahoma made the 
 facetious remark in the Senate last Spring, that, if 
 Secretary Cortelyou could only have spared John D. 
 $5,000,000 more, he would have had enough to pay that 
 $29,000,000 fine he owes the Government, without 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE fl 
 
 ous inconvenience to himself. Secretary Cortelyou s 
 next promotion will no doubt be as a high-salaried 
 bank-president. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt s fondness for William H. Taft, 
 whom he has named in the presidential succession, 
 would require a chapter by itself, a chapter also lack 
 ing the historic perspective which should give it a place 
 in this book, while the trial is still in progress to de 
 termine whether Roosevelt has loved Mr. Taft "wisely, 
 or too well." 
 
 A list of the Roosevelt "court favorites" would not 
 be complete, without mention of his barber, Wm. B. 
 Dulaney, colored, whom the President has recently 
 placed on the Government pay-roll as an "expert ac 
 countant" in the office of the Auditor of the Navy ; tho 
 Dulaney performs no duties in the office of his ap 
 pointment, the duties of his nominal position being per 
 formed by the other Government employees ; and Wil 
 liam is only required to draw his departmental salary 
 of $1,600, and to continue his tonsorial attendance upon 
 the President, for another Government salary. In 
 this, Mr. Roosevelt demonstrates both his devotion to 
 the colored race, and to the cause of Civil Service. 
 The former, it seems, should appease to some extent, 
 the wrathful emotions stirred in the A fro- American 
 bosom by the Brownsville decree. But the trouble is, 
 only one negro can serve as barber to the President, 
 whilst there are so many negroes who are mad about 
 Brownsville ! 
 
72 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ROOSEVELT, THE PREACHER. 
 
 "Oh, master ! grant us only this, we prithee ; 
 Preach not ! but mutely guide to bless, we prithee ! 
 We walk not straight? Nay, tis thou who squintest 
 Go heal thy sight, and leave us in peace, we prithee." 
 
 Rubaiyat. 
 
 Concerning a ruler of Mr. Roosevelt s many-sided 
 personality, there must of necessity exist various, and 
 sometimes conflicting opinions. 
 
 The only Roosevelt trait about which there is practi 
 cal unanimity of view, with never a dissenting note, is 
 his preaching habit. All agree on this point, however 
 widely they may diverge at others. Rooseveltian 
 critics of every degree, hostile, friendly, serious, jibing, 
 caustic or gay, can all rally on this common meeting- 
 ground to hear Roosevelt, the preacher. 
 
 It appears to have been one of his earliest developed 
 tendencies. Riis reveals him to us teaching a Sunday- 
 school class at a tender age, and tho this appears to 
 have had a stormy sequel Riis relating that he became 
 involved in a row with the Sunday-School authorities, 
 wherein of course Roosevelt cleaned up the bunch and 
 came off with flying colors this only adds the heroic 
 touch so necessary to the Riis view of all Rooseveltian 
 performances. 
 
 He carried his preaching habit into his public life, 
 and so insistent and platitudinous were his precepts, 
 that they provoked Thomas Brackett Reed s famous 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND F^ABLE ?3 
 
 sarcasm, that what he "particularly admired about 
 Roosevelt, was his original discovery of the Ten Com 
 mandments." All his public addresses, and even his 
 state papers strongly betoken the moral guide and 
 ethical teacher, whilst his impressive manner of drag 
 ging forth some old maxim or well-established truism 
 and stamping it with the bran-new Roosevelt O. K., 
 has conveyed a wide-spread notion of him as "a man 
 of sensitive moral sense" and of deep religious convic 
 tions. 
 
 It was Drummond who said, "the religious life of 
 a great many people consists entirely of religious 
 phraseology," and taking this standard, one easily 
 comprehends the popular notion anent Roosevelt s 
 "goodness." 
 
 His "religious phraseology" has been more abun 
 dant and obtrusive than that of any other president or 
 public man the country has produced, more even than 
 the average pulpit-occupant who is paid to preach. 
 
 Wherever he goes, he sets up an impromptu pulpit, 
 and his pious enunciations fall like the rain and sun 
 shine, upon the just and the unjust accompanied with 
 a timely warning to the latter to look sharp ! 
 
 So impressed were some of the patriots in Congress 
 with the great value to the people of this movable pres 
 idential pulpit, that when the railroads were restrained 
 (two years ago) from their munificent and indiscrimi 
 nate practice of handing out passes to everybody una 
 ble to pay or walk (like senators, congressmen, federal 
 judges, and such like impecunious persons, including 
 the President of the United States), these congres 
 sional patriots promptly voted an additional $25,000 a 
 year for the President s "travelling expenses," in order 
 that "the great unwashed" might not be deprived of 
 the privilege of gazing upon the countenance, and 
 listening to the inspired words of the Preacher. 
 
 True, some one (Representative Underwood of Ala- 
 
74 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 bama) pointed out, awkwardly enough, that there was 
 a constitutional provision forbidding this sort of 
 thing; and having "the courage of his convictions" in 
 the back of his head, and a copy of the Constitution in 
 his hand, he rose and read it to the astounded and 
 grieved legislators: Article II. Sec. I. (7) Const. U. S. : 
 
 "The President shall, at stated times, receive for his 
 services a compensation, which shall neither be in 
 creased nor diminished during the period for which 
 he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
 uithin that period any other emolument from the 
 United States or any of them! 
 
 The Constitutional objector and his supporters were 
 promptly overruled, the discussion taking a non-par 
 tisan turn. The Hon. Wm. Bourke Cockran of New 
 York, Bourke the Magnificent, the Oratorical, than 
 whom no man living better knows the value of spon 
 taneous eloquence, gave his voice to the measure, de 
 claring in his impassioned Celtic speech, it would be a 
 shame for the sake of a paltry $25,000 a year, to deny 
 to the people the profit and pleasure of seeing and 
 hearing their Chief Magistrate. 
 
 Mr. Sherley of Kentucky did not purpose to let any 
 small, picayunish notions of expenditure enter into his 
 large, Blue-grass liberality towards the head of the 
 Nation. The idea advanced by some of the objectors, 
 that the Executive, having all his expenses except 
 the food on his table and the clothes on his back paid 
 out of the public Treasury, might, with a salary of 
 $50,000, move about over the country at his own ex 
 pense, with as much ease as congressmen, Supreme 
 justices, and other public servants, who out of much 
 smaller salaries had also to provide houses, servant- 
 hire, equipages, &c., for themselves and families, 
 was denounced as rank socialism. The "points of 
 order" leveled at the bill (it having ridden in on a 
 general appropriation bill) were likewise brushed aside, 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 75 
 
 and the House of Representatives cast its vote in favor 
 of making the people pay the railroad fare of the 
 Presidential circuit-rider. 
 
 When the bill reached the Senate, Senator Bailey 
 suggested that, if the measure were so framed as not 
 to become effective until the present Executive had re 
 tired from office, and for the benefit of some future 
 President, that would remove the Constitutional ob 
 jection. 
 
 But no, no! That would not answer. The people 
 wanted to hear Roosevelt ! 
 
 His high moral precepts, his beautiful platitudes 
 anent law and order, his wonderful pronouncements 
 on the evils afflicting the body politic, as well as the 
 governmental remedies implied, when not boldly ex 
 pressed, must appeal to every patriotic senator as a 
 great means of educating the masses. Senator Till- 
 man, ever on the qui vive for the African in the legis- 
 lacive wood-pile, while conceding Mr. Roosevelt s un 
 usual gifts as a preacher, expressed the fear that the 
 President s travelling companions, in a campaign year 
 for instance, might not be such as could properly adorn 
 a preacher s staff. Tillman was tormented with a 
 vision of "Uncle Joe" Cannon, "Little Tim" Woodruff, 
 and other sporty Republican spell-binders accompany 
 ing these moralizing and highly instructive pleasure 
 jaunts. Senator Fo raker also had doubts about the 
 constitutionality of the measure, and always thought 
 ful of Roosevelt, Foraker proposed that the resolution 
 be divorced from the appropriation bill, and made a 
 separate and independent bill, so that if the President 
 should wish to veto it, upon the ground of its uncon- 
 stitutionality (so sure was Foraker that President 
 Roosevelt would not accept any unconstitutional 
 favors), he might do so, without the embarrassment 
 of vetoing the whole Appropriation bill. This 
 thought fulness upon Senator Foraker s part turned 
 
?6 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 out to be wholly unnecessary, since the President 
 promptly signed the bill when presented to him with 
 never a constitutional misgiving and it became a law 
 June 25, 1006. 
 
 After all, as Grover Cleveland s Irish henchman re 
 marked to him on one occasion : "What is the Consti 
 tution, between friends?" And they were all "friends" 
 in that first session of the 59th Congress. 
 
 With the Republican President urging the passage 
 of a measure taken bodily out of the Democratic na 
 tional platform; and all the Republican representa 
 tives in Congress forced to vote for it except Sena 
 tor Foraker, and "the man with sand" from Massachu 
 setts Samuel McCall, rancorous party lines were 
 effaced almost. In the noble enthusiasm evoked by 
 the righteous battle for railroad-rate regulation, ever. 
 the Tillman lion and the Teddy-bear consented to "lie 
 down" for a season; though as might have been ex 
 pected, they got into a scrap before they rose up. 
 
 The battle won, and everybody in fine humor, they 
 were ready to donate an additional $25,000 a year to 
 send the presidential voice crying again into the wil 
 derness, to prepare the way for other gigantic reforms. 
 
 The Roosevelt sermons are too long and too numer 
 ous to be reproduced in any work of ordinary size, but 
 here are a few sample texts : 
 
 "Let reverence for the law be taught in schools and 
 colleges, be written in primers and spelling books; be 
 published from pulpits, be proclaimed in legislative 
 houses, and enforced in the courts of justice." 
 
 "He is the most unsafe adviser who would suggest 
 the doing of evil that good may come." 
 
 "The party man who blindly follows party, right or 
 wrong, and who fails to make that party in any way 
 better, commits a crime against the country." 
 
 "The people who do harm in the end are not the 
 wrong-doers whom all execrate ; but they are the men 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 77 
 
 who do not do quite as much wrong, but who are 
 applauded instead of being execrated." 
 
 "Calhoun s purposes seem to have been in the main 
 pure ; but few criminals have worked as much harm 
 to their country as he did. The plea of good intentions 
 is not one that can be allowed to have much weight in 
 passing historical judgment upon a man whose wrong- 
 headedness and distorted way of looking at things, 
 produced, or helped to produce such incalculable evil." 
 
 "A man is not a good citizen, I care not how lofty 
 his thoughts are in the abstract, if his actions do not 
 square with his professions." 
 
 Sometimes the utterances are Delphic in character, 
 like, "We must shackle cunning, as we have shackled 
 force" ; and then all the people fall on their faces and 
 cry, "Great is Theodore, oracle and preacher !" 
 
 To find fault with the exponent of such immaculate 
 theories is but a thankless office usually. But taking 
 Text Number 6 as our guide, we will now turn from 
 the realm of ornamental philosophy to the considera 
 tion of a few historic Facts. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "There must be no compromise with official corrup 
 tion. . . . We can not trust those base beings who 
 treat politics only as a game out of which to wring 
 a soiled livelihood. . . . The real and dangerous 
 foe is the corrupt politician. . . . No man who is 
 corrupt, no tnan who condones corruption in others, 
 can possibly do his duty by the community." 
 
 This is taken from the Rooseveltian repertoire of 
 ornamental texts, but when it comes to the business of 
 advancing his own political ends, Roosevelt imme 
 diately becomes "a practical man," and Rooseveltian 
 practice is a far cry from Rooseveltian preachment, as 
 these presents shall demonstrate. 
 
 The acknowledged prince of political corruptionists 
 in New York when Roosevelt was seeking the nomi 
 nation for governor, was Thomas C. Platt, other 
 wise designated as "his feline majesty of the U. S. 
 Senate"; and his disciple and lieutenant in political 
 chicanery, was Benjamin B. Odell. When after a 
 conference with these two, Roosevelt learned that in 
 order to secure the Republican nomination, he must 
 break with the Independents whose alliance he had 
 sought, and with whom he had covenanted to over 
 throw Platt and Odell, he did not hesitate to break 
 faith with his Independent allies and join forces with 
 the corruptionists. 
 
 Roosevelt himself refers to Odell as "my trusted 
 friend and adviser in every crisis." This ideal friend- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 79 
 
 ship suffered some estrangement, in after years when 
 "the trusted friend and adviser" had nothing more to 
 contribute to the Rooseveltian program a fate which 
 has not infrequently overtaken the Roosevelt friend 
 ships. In the summer of 1900, having announced his 
 wish for another term as Governor, Roosevelt de 
 clared : "Under no circumstances could I, or would I, 
 accept the nomination for the vice-presidency," 
 adding, "I am happy to state that Senator Platt cor 
 dially acquiesces in my views in the matter." This 
 virtual acknowledgment of Platt domination received 
 very striking and emphatic confirmation some weeks 
 later, when Roosevelt donned his Rough Rider regi 
 mentals and went down to Philadelphia, where sat the 
 Republican National Convention, and swearing by all 
 his gods that he "would not be the vice-presidential 
 candidate" quiescently suffered Platt, Quay and 
 Company to "kick him upstairs" into the vice-presi 
 dency ! 
 
 Various explanations have been given of this epi 
 sode in the Rooseveltian march of events, some 
 friendly and apologetic, others cynical, and all in 
 genious. But the episode itself seems to stand out in 
 sufficient bas relief, without explanation of any kind. 
 It was very characteristic and typical of the Roose 
 velt mode (now very familiar) of fierce charge, and 
 quick surrender. Some have speculated on whether he 
 was really sincere in his clamorous renunciation (we 
 have had so many verbal renunciations from him 
 since) of the vice-presidential nomination, or cleverly 
 scheming to get it. ... That seems immaterial. 
 The point is, the whole proceeding shows him to have 
 been in the hands of Platt, Platt, the corrupt politi 
 cal "boss," with whom Roosevelt, the preacher, says, 
 "There must be no compromise." He knew he could 
 not have the re-nomination for Governor, if Platt op 
 posed it; and if Platt wanted him to be the Vice-Presi- 
 
8O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 dent, that was all there was in it for Roosevelt, and 
 he was never the man to pass up the only things in 
 sight. 
 
 It was an open secret that McKinley didn t want 
 Roosevelt for a running mate, and Marc Hanna, Mc- 
 Kinley s manager, who was a "practical" politician ^i 
 the old-fashioned pattern with no misleading "re 
 form" frills basted on him had no fancy for this 
 newly risen Rough Rider type, whose chief political 
 asset was a perennial circus parade. 
 
 But Platt, Quay & Co. willed it otherwise, and 
 Platt, Quay & Co. were in the lead in that Convention. 
 Hanna was overruled in the matter of the vice-presi 
 dential candidate, and told to confine his personal at 
 tention to the "barrel." From this it will appear that 
 Roosevelt as governor had not proved an acceptable 
 quantity to "his Feline Majesty," and this of course 
 is seized upon by the hero-worshippers as presumptive 
 and inductive proof of Rooseveltian virtue. But it 
 was a fact observed by all, that as governor, Roose 
 velt was openly friendly with "the machine" ; he him 
 self had announced before election, in a letter to his 
 friend Leupp (one of those strictly personal communi 
 cations of his, w r hich in some inadvertent fashion al 
 ways find their way into the public prints), that, if 
 elected, he "would consult and treat with the leaders 
 not once, but continuously, and earnestly strive to 
 agree with them on all important questions." 
 
 Yet it would be difficult to imagine two men more 
 opposite in temperament and methods, than Platt and 
 Roosevelt, albeit possessing practically the same 
 standards of political ethics with the slight balance, 
 if any, going to Platt. It is not surprising that they 
 were not harmonious. Platt himself throws some 
 light on the situation when he says : "It was not that 
 Roosevelt wouldn t do what we wanted. It was the 
 things he did, that we didn t want." 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 8 1 
 
 The story of Mr. Roosevelt s unholy "compromises" 
 with the political "Bosses" after he became President, 
 is a long and interesting one, and may be summed up 
 in Friend Leupp s statement that "Mr. Roosevelt 
 cherishes an almost morbid horror of doing anything 
 to split his party!" 
 
 How is that as a prime qualification for the leading 
 performer in a "reform" programme? 
 
 The Pennsylvania appointments, McMichael as 
 Philadelphia postmaster, and McClain (one of the 
 impeccable "city fathers" of Philadelphia) as Internal- 
 Revenue Collector, made early in his administration, 
 show President Roosevelt subservient to the "Boss- 
 rule" in that State. In 1902, the New York Nation 
 stated that Addicks, the giant corruptionist of Dela 
 ware making Platt and Quay almost respectable by 
 comparison "was made the sole dispenser of federal 
 patronage in that State, having the President s sup 
 port. In order to appoint an Addicks tool U. S. Dis 
 trict Attorney, Mr. Roosevelt passed over the tem 
 porary incumbent of the office, J. P. Nields, who was 
 endorsed by nearly every lawyer in the State, irre 
 spective of party, by both federal judges, and the en 
 tire judiciary of Delaware. The Addicks tool, W. M. 
 Byrne, was notoriously unfit, having been rebuked in 
 open court by Judge Bradford for neglect of duty, 
 and to take such a man at the behest of Addicks, was 
 unspeakably degrading and humiliating. . . . 
 
 "The loathing which the honest people of Delaware 
 and of the whole country felt for Addicks could not 
 have been unknown to President Roosevelt. The 
 facts were beyond dispute. . . . What excuse does 
 the President give for this flagrant compounding with 
 brazen corruption? He says, in effect: that Addicks 
 had 12,000 votes behind him, while his Republican 
 opponents could show but 8,000; that he, Roosevelt, 
 cannot interfere with a factional fight within his own 
 
82 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 party; that he is forced to deal with any party leader 
 whom the majority of the party voters send him, and 
 that he must recognize Addicks as he has recognized 
 Platt and Quay." . . . 
 
 How is this, as a rule of conduct, for a President 
 "with a sensitive moral sense," to embrace brigands 
 whenever they come to him with the party label on 
 their backs? But it seems not even this dubious rule 
 would apply to Addicks. The Nation goes on to say 
 of him: "He was not yet elected senator; not like 
 Quay, a successful pirate in charge of the ship. Ad 
 dicks was still fighting, and the beleaguered crew 
 hoped to beat him off; whereupon the President, see 
 ing the piratical assailants outnumber the crew in dan 
 ger of massacre by 12 to 8, decides to go to the aid of 
 the buccaneers !" 
 
 Friend Leupp, in his Campaign Book of Apologies 
 for Roosevelt, says that this "unfortunate excuse" for 
 the President s course in the Addicks mix-up, was 
 unwisely and incontinently put out by Postmaster- 
 General Payne, during the President s absence, and 
 Leupp is rather severe upon Payne for so misrepre 
 senting his incorruptible and high-minded chief. Not 
 that Leupp denies the facts in Roosevelt s alignment 
 with Addicks ; or with the other Republican "bosses," 
 he admits them all ; but Leup has a different "explana 
 tion" of the President s motives, from that given out 
 by Payne ; though Leupp s book is a remarkable illumi 
 nation of the text that, "explanations never explain." 
 The Apologist makes no effort to square the Presi 
 dent s action in the Byrne case with his removal of 
 Internal-Revenue Collector Bingham of Alabama, 
 "for the corrupt and vicious scheme of denying to ne 
 groes qualified to vote under the laws of the State, 
 their just political rights," though even in the judg 
 ment of Northern Republicans, Byrne s offence was 
 fully as flagrant as Bingham s. Did the President 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 83 
 
 pause to inquire whether the Collector and his asso 
 ciates represented the dominant faction among Ala 
 bama Republicans? What is good for Delaware 
 might be considered good for Alabama, tho this is 
 by no means a solitary instance wherein President 
 Roosevelt has taken observations of longitude and 
 latitude in making federal appointments. The reason 
 assigned by Apologist Leupp for the President s de 
 ferring to the wishes of the "bosses" in the distribu 
 tion of federal patronage, resulting ofttimes in ap 
 pointments so obnoxious to his righteous feelings, is, 
 that "senatorial courtesy would hold up any appoint 
 ment not endorsed by the Senators from the State in 
 which the appointment is to be made." 
 
 And will Apologist Leupp or some other competent 
 authority, kindly inform us what became of this same 
 obstructing "senatorial courtesy" in the South Caro 
 lina Crum case? Not only the Senators from that 
 State, but every Southern Senator on the floor, voicing 
 the unanimous white sentiment of the entire South 
 country, vehemently protested against the appoint 
 ment of a negro Collector of the Port at Charleston, 
 but it did not prevent his appointment. Republican 
 Senators appear to have done their best in upholding 
 their end of "senatorial courtesy," having refused to 
 confirm the appointment of Crum through a long, a 
 short, and an extra session of Congress. Only after 
 our Strenuous and sinuous and law-abiding Presi 
 dent had taken advantage of a provision in the Consti 
 tution never designed to fit such cases, but only for 
 filling vacancies caused by death or resignation, to 
 appoint his negro Collector during a recess of Con 
 gress, and the Senate still withholding confirmation 
 during the extra session convened in November, 1903, 
 he attempted a still further twisting of the Constitu 
 tion, in his "constructive recess" appointments of Dr. 
 Crum, Mr. Byrne, Leonard Wood et al. ; and finally, 
 
84 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 when the close of both the extra and regular sessions 
 found the Crum appointment still unconfirmed, he 
 threatened and there was a rumor of an all-night 
 seance at the White House endeavoring to restrain 
 him from carrying out the threat, to hold another 
 extra summer session of Congress to compass Crum s 
 appointment, then, and not till then, did the Republi 
 can Senate yield in the matter of "senatorial cour 
 tesy," and promised his Strenuosity, if he would only 
 get quiet, they would confirm his negro Collector of 
 the Port of Charleston the first thing at the following 
 regular session, e en tho Tollman s "pitchfork" and 
 every Southern objector barred the way! And the 
 Republican Senate kept its pledge. 
 
 When the "Reform battle" was on in Philadelphia in 
 1906, when the decent people of that city were making 
 a life-or-death struggle to wrest their municipal gov 
 ernment from the hands of the corrupt "gang" which 
 had so long abused their patience, Wayne MacVeagh, 
 Garfield s Attorney-General, and one of the reform 
 leaders, in an article in the North American, pointed 
 to "the extraordinary fact, that the whole effective 
 power of the Administration at Washington zvas 
 against the reformers." 
 
 Commenting on the alliance between the Executive 
 Department of the National Government and the 
 "Bosses" engaged in despoiling Philadelphia and the 
 State, MacVeagh asserts: "Almost every person in 
 Pennsylvania honored with a commission bearing the 
 signature of Roosevelt, was the avowed, persistent, 
 and reckless opponent of that decency and honesty in 
 politics for which the President is supposed to stand." 
 
 MacVeagh was to learn, in common with many other 
 people, that President Roosevelt will "stand for" most 
 any good thing when the "standing for" involves 
 nothing more than the formulation of a high-sound 
 ing preachment. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 85 
 
 So long as people are willing to accept words for 
 deeds; so long as they are content with profession 
 instead of performance, and exempt from honest criti 
 cism those in high official position; just so long will 
 artists of the Rooseveltian genus flourish in this world 
 of "mortals" discovered by Puck. 
 
86 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE PRESS. 
 
 "Let me have free access to the channels of pub 
 licity and I care not who makes my country s laws, 
 or what the other fellow does." 
 
 In these words according to one who once held 
 an intimate and honored place in the Roosevelt press- 
 bureau is embodied Mr. Roosevelt s full political 
 creed, "the other fellow" being a polite Rooseveltian 
 figure-of -speech for a personal or political foe. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt s clever and powerful manipulation 
 of press agencies is conceded by both friends and 
 foes; the tone adopted being admiring or censuring, 
 according to their respective bents, but all agree as 
 to the fact. Those seeking historic parallels have 
 likened him to Bismarck, and to Louis XIV., the 
 "Grand Monarch" of France, who secured his totter 
 ing throne for half a century by looking after the wel 
 fare of all literary men within his realm. Mr. Roose 
 velt s influence over the press appears to have been 
 secured by a happy combination of the methods of the 
 "Grand Monarch" and the "Iron Chancellor." A 
 Washington correspondent thus writes of him: "Mr. 
 Roosevelt has adopted two methods to bring the body 
 of correspondents to a proper state of humility and 
 subjection. He has rewarded with a lavish hand, and 
 he uas been equally unsparing in his punishments." 
 
 Until he came into the presidency, Roosevelt was 
 not in a position to employ any cast-iron or "big- 
 stick" methods toward the publicity hosts, and his 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 87 
 
 attitude toward newspaper men, magazine writers and 
 the literary cult in general, was most cordial and con 
 ciliatory. 
 
 After his establishment in the White House, he 
 selected about 40 out of the 200 or more newspaper 
 correspondents in Washington to be his special messen 
 gers to the public, and these are known, in the popular 
 parlance of the Capital, as "White-House cuckoos." 
 These are the birds which roost close to the Executive 
 chamber, and give out to their editors for the benefit 
 of an expectant public, the internal workings of the 
 Executive mind. By means of these, the public is kept 
 closely informed as to the President s views, pur 
 poses and plans. 
 
 One of the best-known newspaper men of Wash 
 ington, who was at one time "Capitol reporter" and 
 political writer on the staff of the principal Wash 
 ington daily, and incidentally a "White House 
 cuckoo," in an article published in Harper s Weekly 
 (Sept. 28, 1907), thus affirms: 
 
 "Theodore Roosevelt secured his popularity through 
 publicity; has retained, strengthened, and extended it 
 through publicity. . . . The unbroken chain of per 
 sonal triumphs scored by Roosevelt the President, can 
 be traced directly to the press-bureau of which he is 
 the sole manager, and the cuckoos the mere reporters 
 of his views and attitudes. . . . 
 
 "And woe betide the luckless cuckoo who violates 
 the President s confidence, or misinterprets his opin 
 ions! He chooses his press-agents as he does the 
 members of his Cabinet, and it is as incumbent upon 
 the one as upon the other to step aside whenever the 
 President desires a change, only in the case of the 
 deposed cuckoo, when he flutters with broken wing 
 from his roost under the White House eves, he may 
 find that his editor has separated him from his sal 
 ary, not always, but sometimes." 
 
88 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Needless to say, this "cuckoo" had been "separated" 
 from his White House perch, though his efficiency as 
 a journalist still insured him a salary. Because of his 
 deposed state, some persons may discredit his utter 
 ances and attribute them to personal spite; but the 
 point seems not well taken. It is perfectly patent 
 that he could not honorably give out information 
 about the internal workings of the presidential press- 
 bureau while he was part and parcel of the same. Be 
 ing "down-and-out," it was optional with him as to 
 what use he should make of knowledge therein ob 
 tained, and the President in deposing him must take 
 his chances on that score, and this he must have known. 
 It would seem that the ex-cuckoo s testimony is en 
 titled to as much credence at least as any other "wit 
 ness for the State." 
 
 The assertions of this particular ex-cuckoo, he says, 
 are "based on personal experience of about a year as 
 assistant press-agent under the President, and on 
 close observation extending over the entire period of 
 his occupancy of the White House." 
 
 He further testifies: "The presidential cuckoo has 
 an extremely difficult and hazardous task, but he 
 learns considerable detail of White House methods 
 and purposes under the present regime. ... In 
 handling his press-agents, President Roosevelt ob 
 serves the Napoleonic method of not entrusting the 
 full details of a campaign to any of them." 
 
 The writer goes on to explain that, in this way, the 
 President will have one set of reporters contradict the 
 information he has given out through others, when 
 contradiction seems expedient. When he wishes to 
 launch some plan or "policy," he throws out at first, 
 by means of an obedient cuckoo, what may be called 
 "a feeler" ; and waits to see the effect. If popular 
 approval is instant and preponderant, well and good, 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 89 
 
 the first statement concerning the President s inten 
 tions will stand. 
 
 If, however, the original promulgation fails to 
 strike a popular chord, and there are indications of 
 strong dissent and sharp criticism from powerful 
 sources, another obedient cuckoo is immediately set 
 to work to convince the public mind that the Presi 
 dent was "misrepresented by the first report. The 
 above quoted ex-cuckoo says : "It was thus he 
 launched the Taft boom nearly two years before elec 
 tion. He chose to start it in Washington, where Con 
 gress was in session, and he would thus be able to 
 locate the enemies as well as the supporters of the 
 idea. And so he told his Washington cuckoo the 
 contrite writer of these lines to publish the fact, that 
 it is President Roosevelt s wish to have his Secretary 
 of War succeed him in the White House. At the same 
 time, he told some of the out-of-town cuckoos to 
 knock the suggestion in their papers." 
 
 Thus Mr. Roosevelt learned in short order which 
 congressmen were friendly, and who of them were 
 hostile to the Taft presidential idea. The two con 
 flicting statements left the President s position in 
 doubt, and those who sought an interview on the sub 
 ject, found him wrapped in non-committal silence, or 
 "impenetrable ambiguity." 
 
 He waited six months before he set the out-of-town 
 cuckoos openly to work on the Taft boom. Then the 
 whole broad continent rang with it. 
 
 In his speech before the National Editorial Asso 
 ciation at Jamestown in June, 1907, Roosevelt uttered 
 probably the most sincere sentiment of his being: "It 
 is of course a truism to say, that no other body of our 
 countrymen wield as extensive an influence as those 
 who write for the daily press and for other periodi 
 cals." 
 
 At this Jamestown meeting, he treated the publicity 
 
9O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 hosts to a revised resume of "my policies" to make 
 an editorial holiday and to give the country a con 
 gressional forecast of the measures he would recom 
 mend the following winter. The speech was duly re 
 ported by all the assembled journalists to their re 
 spective papers throughout the land, and by the time 
 Congress convened, the "policies" had been thor 
 oughly aired and exploited. He has all of the actor s 
 appreciation of the value of "advance notices." It is 
 thus he wins most of his battles. His "cuckoos" are 
 sent before, to spy out the land, "where all the shores 
 of promise lie, and where the rocks that he must flee" 
 and thus fore-warned, fore-armed and equipped at 
 every point, the Roosevelt battleship sails proudly into 
 port. A veteran Washington newspaper man, who 
 has watched the Roosevelt career closely, says : "After 
 careful and extended observation, it can be truthfully 
 asserted that scarcely a publication in the United 
 States of broad circulation and influence, but has 
 upon its staff in an important capacity, a Roo seven, 
 cuckoo. He has invited to Washington, and enter 
 tained at the White House, a larger number of men 
 who write than have any half dozen of his predeces 
 sors. The list of those he has singled out for this 
 distinction is a long one, and includes cartoonists as 
 well as writers." 
 
 Apropos of this, shortly after the Panama coup set 
 all the tongues to wagging, and all the "knockers" to 
 knocking, Alfred Henry Lewis, a clever political 
 writer of the day, was calling at the White House. 
 
 The Panama stroke possessing something of a 
 Jacksonian flavor, and Jackson himself being still a 
 popular hero in the memory of many American citi 
 zens, some in the mountains of Tennessee yet casting 
 their votes for him at every election, according to the 
 "delineators" of mountaineer types Lewis recounts 
 that at this interview referred to, Mr. Roosevelt 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE pi 
 
 brought his fist down on the table with characteristic 
 emphasis and exclaimed: 
 
 "Andrew Jackson was my kind of a man !" Some 
 persons carried a dim recollection of Roosevelt refer 
 ring to Andrew Jackson in his "Life of Benton" as 
 the "ignorant, headstrong" President who "appealed 
 to the passions and prejudices, but never to the reason 
 of his hearers," and who had been selected when the 
 public mind was in a "wholly irrational state." But 
 now that Roosevelt himself had done something which 
 he and his admirers fondly imagined savored of Jack 
 son, the latter immediately becomes Roosevelt s "kind 
 of a man!" To be sure, why not? 
 
 The tip was sufficient for Alfred Henry Lewis. The 
 brilliant writer whose keen satiric lancet had pierced 
 many a fake panoply of other public men promptly 
 took the presidential cue, and went off to write a most 
 ingenious "parallel" between "Andrew Jackson, Old 
 Hickory; and Theodore Roosevelt, New Hickory!" 
 (See "Success" magazine for Sept., 1904.) 
 
 Those who would witness a marvelous transforma 
 tion of a satiric scalpel into a spellbinder s paint brush 
 are referred to this Lewis "parallel," which combines 
 in a rare degree, misstatement, exaggeration, and ful 
 some adulation. It is probably true, if "Old Hickory" 
 had wanted that Panama strip, he would have seized it, 
 in the nick of time, just as Roosevelt did, with slight 
 regard for law or precedent, with two very impor 
 tant differences: Jackson would never have planned 
 that impromptu stroke, nor would he have apologized 
 for it afterwards, as did Mr. Roosevelt. (See Senator 
 Hoar s speeches in the Senate Nov., 1903, and Feb., 
 1904.) 
 
 Again, when the scandal in the Post Office was un 
 earthed, in 1903, and "smelled to Heaven" ; when after 
 much talk and bluster, and righteous "orders for a 
 thorough investigation," some months elapsed, and ill* 
 
92 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 natured critics began to hint at a Government "white 
 wash" for the guilty; William Allen White, another 
 literary friend of Mr. Roosevelt s, blossomed out in an 
 article on "Roosevelt and the Postal Frauds" (Sept. 
 McClure s, 1904), wherein the President is depicted 
 as the stern and virtuous judge, and relentless investi 
 gator, inexorably proclaiming, "Let no guilty man 
 escape," and impervious alike to personal appeals and 
 to the unholy political pressure which certain sena 
 torial "bosses" sought to bring to bear. 
 
 Apologist Leupp also treats of the Postal Frauds in 
 his "Campaign Life," and clears all suspicious circum 
 stances with a comprehensive arraignment of Post 
 master-General Payne, "a dyed-in-the-wool politician, 
 with a politician s traditional contempt for reform" 
 whose previous political training as an exploiter of 
 Democratic crimes and Republican virtues, had not 
 fitted him to be an ideal "investigator" when the sub 
 ject of the investigation was his own Department. As 
 Leupp naively puts it: "He was puzzled to decide just 
 how to go at the task of raking over the misdeeds of 
 his Republican associates." 
 
 This of course explains all the queer doings in the 
 conduct of the Postal Frauds; why Machen, a Demo 
 crat, and Tyner (a helpless old man whom nobody of 
 consequence was especially interested in shielding) 
 were selected to feel the full weight of governmental 
 discipline, while other equal, if not greater offenders, 
 were permitted to go unscathed. 
 
 President Roosevelt has put into the public service 
 more newspaper men and other writers than can 
 be easily enumerated, but the following partial list 
 will convey a general idea of this phase of Roose- 
 veltian activity: Whitelaw Reid, ambassador to Eng 
 land; Robt. J. Wynne, correspondent of a New York 
 paper, and president of a Dining Club in Washington, 
 composed almost exclusively of newspaper men, was 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 93 
 
 successively advanced to the post of Assistant-Post- 
 master-General, then to the head of the Department, 
 and finally to be Consul-General to London, the best 
 paying post in the consular service. Of the three 
 
 D. C. Commissioners who govern Washington under 
 the direction of Congress and the President, two were 
 active newspaper men when appointed by Roosevelt. 
 Maj. John M. Carson, of the New York Times, was 
 made chief of the Bureau of Manufactures; Francis 
 
 E. Leupp, a newspaper man, was made Indian Com 
 missioner; George Horton, appointed consul-general 
 at Athens; Albert Halstead, Consul at Birmingham, 
 England ; J. Martin Miller is Consul somewhere in Eu 
 rope; and Jos. Rucklin Bishop was taken from the 
 editorship of a New York paper, and made the secre 
 tary of the Panama Canal Commission, at a salary of 
 $10,000 a year. 
 
 It has passed into a proverb in Washington : "Write 
 a biography of Roosevelt, and pull out a consulship." 
 
 President Roosevelt s method of dealing with the 
 Washington correspondents is thus described by one 
 of them: "When President Roosevelt gets ready to 
 lodge a fresh impression in the public mind, or to con 
 tradict something displeasing to him which has ap 
 peared in the public press, he assembles the Washing 
 ton representatives usually his cuckoo flock, tho 
 sometimes an outsider gets in, too and addresses 
 them after this fashion : While you are on no account, 
 to quote me personally, yet these are the facts, which 
 you can make such use of as you think proper, and 
 they will not be contradicted. In communicating the 
 facts, the President makes a great show of frankness, 
 and of taking the press representatives into his confi 
 dence, so that a general feeling of good fellowship 
 pervades the interview. Sometimes this frankness is 
 carried to e remes, as when the President assails 
 some public character, calling him "a scoundrel," or 
 
94 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 "a crook," &c., in the presence of the reporters, and it 
 is really very much to the credit of the newspaper men 
 of W asnm gton, that they have allowed so few of the 
 President s reckless criticism of others to get into 
 print." 
 
 This correspondent, whose stay in Washington 
 covers four administrations, concluded his description 
 of Mr. Roosevelt s method with the correspondents, 
 with "No other President in my knowledge, has ever 
 done this." 
 
 The next day after one of these Roosevelt confi 
 dential chats with the newspaper hosts, the press of 
 the country teems with what "the President thinks," 
 or what "the President intends"; and if the presiden 
 tial intentions and meditations do not find ready re 
 sponse in the popular heart, the responsibility is on 
 the misleading newspapers, and not on the worthy 
 President. 
 
 Naturally, since he relies so implicitly upon the 
 power of the press, he chafes under the criticisms of 
 that power. Editor Noyes, of the Washington Even 
 ing Star, speaking before the National Editorial As 
 sociation at Jamestown, said of Roosevelt: "He has 
 declared himself in favor of clean, healthy newspa 
 pers, with clean, healthy criticisms, which shall be 
 fearless and truthful ; but when it comes to the test, 
 it is seen that he does not relish these fearless and 
 truthful criticisms when they are exercised at his ex 
 pense. Not a bit of it. He goes on in his old way, 
 doing things in a hasty, ill-considered manner, and his 
 output of vituperous epithets is rather larger than 
 ever." 
 
 The Evening Star is Republican in politics. 
 
 The New York Sun s strictures upon Rooseveltian 
 conduct have become notorious, and Roosevelt has 
 more than once observed of its editor: "I wish some 
 body would take it into his head to pull him (the Sun) 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 95 
 
 apart for purposes of dissection, in order to ascer 
 tain what sort of human he is, and then forget how to 
 put the parts together again !" 
 
 This pious wish for the Sun s carping editor only 
 illustrates the Rooseveltian inability to comprehend 
 adverse criticism of himself. 
 
 That any one should impugn his motives, or ques 
 tion his sincerity, or infallibility, argues something 
 radically wrong with the audacious questioner, some 
 abnormality, which calls for vivisection! 
 
 Wasn t it Thomas Carlyle who said: "The greatest 
 of all faults is to be conscious of none?" 
 
 When Theodore Roosevelt is assigned his final 
 place in the Hall of Fame, he will most probably oc 
 cupy a niche (as yet unveiled) underneath which is 
 inscribed : "He was the greatest self -advertiser among 
 the sons of men." 
 
96 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE MOTHERS. 
 
 In the days when every utterance from the Rough 
 Rider commander and the Hero of San Juan was duly 
 recounted and applauded, in the buoyant confidence 
 that when the words could not pass muster for real 
 wisdom or real wit, they would be accepted by the 
 people as "real cute," an exuberant writer in the Metro 
 politan, Cosmopolitan, or some other polite magazine, 
 thus describes the Hero s home-coming: When the 
 ships bringing the victorious Rough Riders touched 
 shore, and they stepped forth amid the plaudits of the 
 assembled multitude, the spokesman of the political 
 delegation commissioned to welcome Colonel Roose 
 velt and whisper gubernatorial hopes in his ear, 
 stepped up to him, and after cordial greeting, inquired 
 after his health. 
 
 "I feel like a bull-moose!" responded the gallant 
 Colonel, and thus it was recorded in the magazine. 
 
 It is not surprising that the exponent of such lusty 
 animalism should be found exploiting Napoleon s view 
 of womankind, "that she is greatest who hath borne the 
 most sons for the Republic." Hence among the first 
 presidential lectures to the people, is the one to mothers, 
 on the duties of maternity, and the awful, awful sin of 
 race-suicide ! 
 
 The mother s vitality, the father s financial ability 
 to care for a numerous brood, are secondary considera 
 tions inde ed not mentioned. 
 
 It is not the quality but the size of the family that is 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 important; the first and greatest Rooseveltian com 
 mandment is like that post-diluvian one : "Be fruitful 
 and multiply, and replenish the earth" the "earth" 
 being a polite name for the United States, while Roose 
 velt is steering the ship of state. 
 
 After the first fulmination against the race-suicide 
 criminals, we find Roosevelt figuring in "Motherb 
 Congresses," and such like assemblies, ever reiterating 
 the cardinal idea. All mothers "look good" to Roose 
 velt, but those are most esteemed who can exhibit the 
 longest family registers. There is apparently no rec 
 ognition of the fact that there are mothers, and moth 
 ers; so-called Christian mothers as faithless to their 
 trusts as Medea, whilst some of the truest, sweetest 
 mothers the world has ever known, have been the old- 
 maid guardians of orphaned ones who never tasted the 
 joys of maternity. But having said so much in praise 
 and exaltation of the office and estate of motherhood, 
 we shall at least expect to find President Roosevelt 
 treating the individual mother or using the term 
 genetically the individual woman with marked con 
 sideration. 
 
 Let us see how the Rooseveltian preachment com 
 ports with Rooseveltian practice in this regard in spe 
 cific instances. 
 
 The President holds every year certain official recep 
 tions ; one in honor of the Supreme Court, one for the 
 Foreign Ambassadors, one for Congress, and one for 
 the Army and Navy. Not a great while after Mr. 
 Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency, at a White 
 House reception given to the Supreme Court, some 
 members of the Diplomatic Corps arriving about the 
 same time as the Supreme Justices, through some 
 body s blundering, the Diplomats were presented to 
 the President and his "receiving line" before the wait 
 ing justices in whose honor the reception was held. 
 
 This was of course a serious breach of official eti- 
 
$% ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 quette, for which no one, however, could possibly hold 
 President Roosevelt responsible, since he is not sup 
 posed to attend to such details. While it was regret 
 table, there being no lives lost and no bones broken, 
 sensible people were not disposed to magnify the inci 
 dent. It appears, however, that some of the justices 
 were resentful (cherishing a great notion of their dig 
 nity as one of their constitutional traditions), and even 
 threatened to leave without greeting the President, tho 
 they did not carry out the threat. 
 
 The Society editor of one of the Washington dailies, 
 a woman highly respected in her profession, heard in 
 the course of the evening the remarks of the offended 
 justices, and in her report of the reception, she re 
 ferred to the incident, as she avers, with no thought of 
 malice or wrong doing. Those who know her testify 
 that she is a conscientious and accurate reporter ; that, 
 with large opportunities to write unpleasant things, she 
 has carefully abstained from the sensational and un 
 worthy. 
 
 But Washington correspondents and reporters of 
 every class and degree have learned that, under the 
 Roosevelt Administration, it is a flagrant example of 
 lese majeste to chronicle any misdeed or mischance 
 occurring at the White House ; and this Society editor 
 was to have the fact impressed on her in most uncom 
 fortable fashion. As soon as her story of the reception 
 appeared in the paper next day, its Managing Editor 
 received a phone message from the President s private 
 secretary, telling him the writer of the story would no 
 longer be permitted to enter the White House, and he 
 must send some one else to report the social doings 
 under the presidential roof ; if he desired an explana 
 tion, he could call at the Executive office. It is un 
 happily true, that with very many managing editors 
 and some in this town of Washington, such a message 
 from the White House would have meant dismissal 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 99 
 
 for the offending reporter. But fortunately in this 
 case, the editor, possessing a quality which many lack, 
 and upon investigation rinding his Society reporter 
 had only stated the facts, refused to be influenced by 
 the presidential displeasure; and quietly informed the 
 Executive office that Miss Blank would remain in his 
 employ, and that if she were not acceptable to the 
 White House authorities, he would make up his paper 
 without the chronicling of White House social news 
 thereafter. And for three years, this particular W r ash- 
 ington paper was not represented at White House 
 functions. At the end of that time, the owner of the 
 paper died, and the office changed managing editors, 
 likewise proprietors. In due time came the same in 
 sistent demand from the White House for a change in 
 the head of the Society department, and the new man 
 ager being of different caliber to the old acceded to 
 the unworthy request, and gave Miss Blank her dis 
 charge. Only think of presidential vengeance pursu 
 ing for three years a young woman who had not only 
 her own living to earn, but upon whose efforts com 
 bined with her sister s, two aged and semi-invalid pa 
 rents were dependent. The writer had the young 
 woman s own assurance that this circumstance was 
 brought to Mr. Roosevelt s attention by her friends, 
 who tried in vain to remove from her the Wliite House 
 cloud of disapproval. Not only the local paper with 
 which she was connected, but all the big New York 
 press bureaus, which had employed her to gather their 
 Washington Society notes, were notified that Miss 
 Blank was persona non grata at the White House ; and 
 while this did not prevent her furnishing to them social 
 news from other quarters, it greatly crippled her use 
 fulness, and involved a pecuniary loss to her of four 
 or five hundred dollars each winter. And consider, if 
 you please, the nature and magnitude of the offence 
 for which this woman suffered this persecution ! 
 
lOO ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 It has been stated in certain quarters, that not the 
 President, but his wife had been the cause of this 
 woman s banishment from the White House, that Mr. 
 Roosevelt himself had so stated to the managing editor. 
 
 All who admire the President more in this Adamic 
 role are welcome to accept this plea. To the mind of 
 the writer, the most pathetic feature in the whole story 
 is, that the mother of the young woman, old and in 
 valid, and hailing from the rock-ribbed Republican 
 State of Pennsylvania, grieved most of all, that her 
 daughter should have fallen under the displeasure of a 
 Republican President! 
 
 In the summer of 1903, Postmaster-General Payne 
 (according to Historian Leupp removed Miss Huldah 
 Todd, postmistress at Greenwood, Del., because she 
 was distasteful to Senator Allee, the latter having 
 donned his toga by the grace of Addicks, and Miss 
 Todd s brothers so it was charged were guilty of 
 the heinous offence of belonging to the anti-Addicks 
 element of Delaware. This of course was ample cause 
 for overturning Civil-Service in Miss Todd s case, by 
 an administration with a particularly sensitive con 
 science toward Civil-Service. But Apologist Leupp 
 says it was all the fault of that "blundering" Post 
 master-General Payne. Payne appears to have been as 
 useful in the capacity of scapegoat in those early days 
 as Wm. Loeb, Jr., in more recent times. 
 
 Anyway, by the time the matter was brought to the 
 attention of our good President, the deed was done, 
 and past recall. Sifting the evidence in his most judi 
 cial temper, and rinding himself in "a most uncomfort 
 able position" by some conflict in the testimony, he 
 finally delivered a verdict as convincing as it was orac 
 ular, and must have been entirely satis fatcory to Miss 
 Todd : "Had he been consulted before the Postmaster- 
 General acted, he would not have considered the case 
 against Miss Todd strong enough to warrant her dis- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLfe IOX 
 
 missal ; as she was already out, however, and her place 
 filled, he did not consider the evidence in her favor 
 strong enough to demand her reinstatement." This 
 reasonable and righteous decree does not appear to 
 have met with the popular favor it deserved, since 
 Leupp says : "The whole effect of Mr. Payne s tactless 
 performance was to bring unnecessary public censure 
 upon the President," and he darkly hints that for less 
 offences, Cabinet officers have resigned. 
 
 The saddest case wherein a woman was made to feel 
 the weight of the "Big Stick," which has fallen under 
 public observation, is that of Mrs. Minor Morris, the 
 brutal mode of whose ejectment from the White House 
 on January 4, 1906, shocked the whole country such 
 portion of the country at least as keep their sensibili 
 ties in trim for receiving a shock. Here again, nobody 
 would have thought of holding President Roosevelt 
 responsible had he not voluntarily assumed the re 
 sponsibility since the outrage upon Mrs. Morris and 
 affront to American womanhood, was the work of an 
 ill-bred underling an assistant secretary of some sort, 
 and the ruffianly White House guards who executed 
 the secretary s order. The President was as innocent 
 of the outrage as he was ignorant of it at the time it 
 occurred. An account of the affair appearing in one 
 of the afternoon papers, however, an account written 
 by an eye-witness of the proceedings, and which, while 
 exonerating Mrs. Morris of everything except a fool 
 ish desire to petition the President for some private 
 grievance, showed the conduct of the under-secretary 
 (whose name was Barnes) and his ruffianly minions in 
 a most unfavorable light, President Roosevelt had his 
 private secretary write to the editor of the paper that 
 this account of the Morris incident published by him 
 was "very displeasing to the President and everyone 
 else at the White House !" 
 
 Whereupon the plucky Washington editor (may his 
 
IO2 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tribe increase!) sent back the prompt and vigorous 
 reply that he was satisfied his reporter had stated only 
 the facts as he witnessed them, that he the editor 
 had been managing his paper for some years without 
 any suggestions from the White House, and if the "Big 
 Stick" was to inaugurate a policy of muzzling the 
 press, it must begin with some other than the Wash 
 ington Evening Star, or words to that effect. 
 
 The Washington Star is a staunch Republican or 
 gan, and up to the date of the Morris incident had 
 been a consistent supporter of the Roosevelt adminis 
 tration. Yet its venerable and respected editor, Mr. 
 Crosby S. Noyes, in an address before the National 
 Editorial Association, June 13, 1907, speaking of Pres 
 ident Roosevelt, said: "His hasty approval of the 
 brutal deeds of his subordinates at the White House 
 when the knock-down-and-drag-out outrage was 
 committed upon Mrs. Minor Morris, a refined, cul 
 tured, respectable Christian woman, was an act of 
 cruel, heartless injustice." 
 
 The incident was published in detail by the press 
 throughout the country at the time, but as some of 
 these accounts tho not all evinced the artistic 
 touches of the White House cuckoos, ft were well to 
 state the facts connected with it in this truthful his 
 tory of Rooseveltian acts, that all men may know them, 
 and be able to distinguish them from the "inspired" 
 fables they may encounter elsewhere. 
 
 From the time of issuance of his reprimand to the 
 Evening Star for publishing the truth, President 
 Roosevelt made Secretary Barnes s cause his own, and 
 the movements instituted and the means employed to 
 vindicate Barnes, must be considered as carrying the 
 President s endorsement. The first statement of the 
 unhappy occurrence, given out by a newspaper man 
 who witnessed it from the door of the White House 
 press room, is as follows: 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE IO3 
 
 "Coming in from lunch at I o clock, I noticed in 
 the general lobby, near Mr. Loeb s door, a lady whom 
 I afterwards found out to be Mrs. Minor Morris, sit 
 ting very quietly, evidently waiting to see one of the 
 secretaries. 
 
 "She was not different in appearance from other 
 well-dressed women, and I gave no special heed to 
 her, as I passed into the press-room which opens off 
 the lobby and engaged in conversation with three 
 other newspaper men who were in there. The door to 
 the press-room is always open, and as it was near the 
 President s lunch hour, everything was unusually 
 quiet in the lobby. . . . Very suddenly we heard a 
 loud exclamation which sounded like, Oh, no, no ! 
 Don t do that ! 
 
 "All of us jumped to the door and entered the main 
 room, where we found a secret-service man and Officer 
 Freeh in the act of pulling the woman out of the chair 
 in which she was sitting. Prior to this, we had heard 
 no loud voice, and I am positive there was no boister 
 ous conduct. 
 
 "A word spoken above an ordinary tone would have 
 reached our ears very easily. The men pulled the 
 woman to the door, where Officer Murphy relieved the 
 secret-service man. Their object was to get her to 
 the guard-room just opposite the Treasury Building. 
 To do this, they had to carry her down the path lead- 
 Ing to the basement of the White House, and through 
 the long corridor used during receptions. Before go 
 ing twenty feet Mrs. Morris fell to her knees, but was 
 jerked to her feet and dragged on. Before they dis 
 appeared from sight, she must have fallen six or eight 
 times. Just before disappearing thro the archway 
 leading to the basement, I saw a negro man, Charlie 
 Reeder, the President s footman, rush out and pick 
 her up by the heels. The last I saw of Mrs. Morris 
 she was being carried off like a sack of salt, with the 
 
IO4 ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 negro at her feet, and her dress hanging above her 
 knees. I went around to the guard-room, and saw 
 Mrs. Morris literally thrown into a waiting cab, which 
 carried her to the House of Detention." 
 
 This account of the manner of Mrs. Morris s arrest 
 and expulsion from the White House, was corro 
 borated by other newspaper men who were in the press 
 room at the time, and who had no plausible motive for 
 misrepresentation. Moved by the indignation ex 
 pressed in the local press, at the Capitol, and in Wash 
 ington circles generally, Secretary Barnes, the princi 
 pal in the disgraceful scene, issued the following 
 statement from the White House, manifestly with the 
 President s sanction : "Mrs. Morris called at the 
 Executive office yesterday about I o clock, and asked 
 to be allowed to see the President. . . . Upon in 
 quiry as to the nature of her business, she stated with 
 considerable reluctance, that her husband had been 
 unjustly dismissed from the War Department; that 
 she did not propose to have anything to do with the 
 Secretary of War concerning it, but that she wanted 
 the President to take it up and see that justice was 
 done. She was informed that the President could not 
 give personal attention to such a matter, and that the 
 decision of the Secretary of War would be final. She 
 insisted that she must see the President, and when told 
 that that was out of the question, she asserted in a 
 boisterous manner that she would not be prevented 
 from seeing him, and that she would remain where 
 she was for a month, if need be, unless she saw him 
 sooner. She was allowed to remain for some mo 
 ments. When Mr. Barnes returned to the reception 
 room shortly after, he found her pacing excitedly to 
 and fro, and informed her as quietly as possible, that 
 she could not see the President, and it would be use 
 less for her to wait. She replied in a loud voice that 
 she would see him, and that she would stay there 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE IO5 
 
 until she did. She was again advised to drop the 
 matter and go away quietly. This in still louder tones 
 she refused to do. She was then told she must either 
 leave the office at once voluntarily, or it would be 
 necessary to have her put out of the building. At this 
 she shrieked at the top of her voice, I will not be 
 put out/ rushed to a chair, threw herself into it, 
 and shouted: Don t you have any hands laid on me. 
 I m going to stay here until I see the President! Mrs. 
 Morris s piercing shrieks were heard throughout the 
 building, and it became necessary in the interest of 
 order to have her removed. She was accordingly 
 taken in charge by a police officer who had witnessed 
 the whole affair. He asked her to go with him quietly. 
 She refused, and told him that if she was removed, she 
 would have to be dragged every step of the way. Be 
 fore applying force, the officer asked her three times 
 to leave the office quietly. She shrieked her refusal to 
 each request, and was then led from the room. 
 
 "She struggled violently with the two police officers, 
 striking, kicking and biting them all the way from 
 the office building to the eastern entrance of the 
 White House. As soon as she was outside the office 
 building, she threw herself on the ground, and it be 
 came necessary to carry her. The officers repeatedly 
 asked her to stand up, and walk quietly with them, so 
 that they would not to have to use force, but she re 
 fused to do so, and defied them with shrieks that were 
 heard throughout the White House. She was finally 
 removed to police headquarters, where she was 
 charged with disorderly conduct. . . . There is no 
 truth whatever in the statement made by many of the 
 morning papers, that a negro laid hold of Mrs. Morris 
 and assisted in carrying her. One of the colored 
 messengers of the office followed the policemen, and 
 gathered up such small articles as were dropped in the 
 
IO6 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 woman s struggles, but there was no other foundation 
 whatever for the statement." 
 
 As will be seen, this Barnes statement, issued undei 
 Executive approval, represents Mrs. Morris behaving 
 very badly indeed upon the occasion of her ill-fated 
 call at the White House, and like the story turned in 
 by the cub reporter, "it is important, if true." Con 
 sidering what it had to defend, one may almost forgive 
 the gross exaggerations and whole-cloth fabrications 
 which it was later proven to contain. 
 
 Mrs. Morris testified that Barnes s statement of 
 what occurred was wholly false, except the part relat 
 ing to telling him the nature of her business with the 
 President, which she did, reluctantly as he says, be 
 cause he informed her that it would first have to be 
 transmitted to the President through one of his secre 
 taries, before she would be accorded an audience with 
 him, if at all. As she was averse to speaking to him 
 at all on the subject, she says she purposely lowered 
 her voice, that others might not hear; that when told 
 the President was engaged, and could not see her then, 
 she had replied that if there were any chance of seeing 
 him for even five minutes, she would gladly wait all 
 day, as she had nothing particular to do; and that, 
 tho Mr. Barnes was exceedingly gruff and rude in 
 his manner from the outset, she at no time raised her 
 voice above the ordinary tone in her pleading with 
 him for a presidential hearing, until he signalled to the 
 officers to seize her, and then she uttered the exclama 
 tion heard in the press-room, and which brought the 
 reporters on the scene. As her story in this particular 
 is fully corroborated by five or six reputable newspa 
 per men of Washington, there seems no good reason 
 to doubt it, nor to accept in lieu of it Barnes s state 
 ment that "her shrieks rang throughout the White 
 House" before he ordered her forcibly removed not 
 even though the latter was issued under Executive 
 
ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 107 
 
 sanction. Of his assertion that she threw herself on 
 the ground, Mrs. Morris said she fainted, and this 
 also is easily credited, if there was any faint in her 
 that was certainly the occasion for it. It is the greater 
 pity that the poor woman could not remain uncon 
 scious throughout the whole degrading proceedings. 
 Barnes, later, was forced to retract his emphatic denial 
 of the negro footman s part in the dragging-out per 
 formance. Too many witnesses w r ere found who had 
 "seen it with their own eyes," and told Mr. Barnes 
 so, up and down, without any blinking. Then the 
 noble secretary, backed by his chivalrici chief, took 
 refuge behind the excuse that the officers who reported 
 the matter to him, had their attention so engrossed by 
 the struggling, screaming Mrs. Morris, that they could 
 not affirm positively (tho Mr. Barnes had affirmed 
 very positively for them) who else had assisted their 
 humane efforts. This is what "Uncle Remus" would 
 call "a mighty likely tale!" Their engrossed atten 
 tion also prevented their noticing or affirming posi 
 tively who subtracted the seven or eight dollars from 
 the purse, which was dropped with the other "small 
 articles in the woman s struggles," and which Mrs. 
 Morris said was empty when returned to her. 
 
 Consider this for a moment, if you will, fellow- 
 citizens of free America! An American mother, a 
 lady and a Christian, is insulted, assaulted, and robbed 
 in the White Palace by the Potomac which was built 
 for Washington, occupied by Jefferson, Madison, 
 Monroe and the two Adamses; by the chivalric Jack 
 son, and the great-hearted Lincoln, and the silent, pro 
 digious Captain who said, "Let us have peace." In 
 all the long, illustrious line of American Presidents 
 who had gone before, there was none whose reign had 
 looked on such a spectacle. Let us at least return 
 thanks for this. 
 
 And what said Theodore Roosevelt, the then occu- 
 
io8 ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 pant of the historic mansion, of this unseemly happen, 
 ing beneath his official roof -tree? 
 
 Surely the President who has gone out of his way 
 to expatiate more than all his predecessors upon the 
 dignity and beatitude of motherhood, as soon as the 
 facts in the case are brought out, will repent his hasty 
 message to the Evening Star, will use "the Big Stick" 
 upon the miscreant Barnes, and send some kindly 
 message of apology to his victim? 
 
 We shall see. The ejectment occurred on January 
 4th. On the I7th, Senator Tillman whose special 
 mission in the United States Senate is to see that no 
 Roosevelt misdemeanors "get by," without his ringing 
 the publicity bells on them announced more in sor 
 row than anger, that he had waited nearly two weeks 
 for the President to make reparation, and finally, fail 
 ing to discover that the Chief Magistrate who had sent 
 a message of sympathy to Fitzsimmons, the prize 
 fighter, had made any movement to assuage Mrs. Mor 
 ris s injured feelings, he (Tillman) felt it his duty, 
 &c., &c. 
 
 As he was detailing the incident in his graphic way, 
 Tillman was interrupted by Senator Hale of Maine, 
 that same Senator Hale, who on a former occasion, 
 had risen with so much dignity, and announced : "If 
 the Senator from South Carolina will but modify his 
 extreme language toward the Chief Executive, I will 
 assure him of my support in his resolution against the 
 constructive recess proposition. I believe the Con 
 stitution of our fathers to be a frank, open document, 
 framed by open, fair-minded men, who never intended 
 it to be a trap for any of us." 
 
 And now Senator Hale, with equal dignity, sternly 
 rebuked Tillman for "making such serious and de 
 famatory charges against the President of all the 
 United States, having nothing whatever that he ad 
 duces as proof. It is not seemly that he should 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 tliis chamber the place to exploit his personal malice 
 toward the nation s Chief." 
 
 The Senator from Maine should have learned ere 
 this, that Tillman, tho only "a corn-field lawyer/ upon 
 his own confession seldom came into court without 
 his "proofs" well-primed and assorted. White with 
 wrath, tho with marvelous composure (for him), he 
 now faced the Maine Senator : 
 
 "I want to say to you, sir, that if you will offer a 
 resolution appointing a committee of this body, 
 composed of Republicans alone to examine into the 
 facts, I will give you the names of four witnesses, as 
 reputable as you or I, who will swear to the statement 
 I have made as to what actually occurred." 
 
 Hale not anticipating this broadside, wavered some 
 what, but resuming the original line of attack, reiter 
 ated, "Let us have the proof"; and Tillman fired back: 
 "Bring on your committee." 
 
 Finally, after some sparring, Hale, who had raised 
 the issue, told Tillman, if he would offer a resolution 
 for an investigation into the facts of the case, "no 
 body on this side the Chamber will oppose your reso 
 lution." 
 
 Tillman, never the man to decline a gage-of -battle 
 flung squarely in his teeth, thereupon gave notice that 
 he would offer such a resolution in the Senate the fol 
 lowing morning. Then rose up that courtly gentle 
 man of the old school, Senator Daniel of Virginia, and 
 "hoped the Senator from South Carolina would re 
 consider this intention. Not that he Daniel as 
 everybody knew, would condone any mistreatment or 
 discourtesy shown a lady. But he did not consider it 
 seemly or consistent with senatorial dignity or good 
 taste, for the Senate to inquire into the domestic 
 affairs of the President s house, any more than it 
 would be proper for the President to inquire into 
 domestic happenings in a Senator s home. He thought 
 
IIO ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 they must assume that the President would do thft 
 proper thing in the matter, &c., &c., &c. 
 
 Ironically acknowledging his indebtedness to both 
 the Senator from Maine and from Virginia, for the 
 lesson in manners he so much needed, Tillman stuck to 
 his text: Barnes was a public servant, paid out of the 
 public Treasury ; Congress appropriated the money 
 from which he was paid. If he had been guilty of 
 improper and unofficial conduct, and his official mas 
 ter, the President of the United States, failed to call 
 him to account, it was both the right and the duty of 
 Congress to inquire into his offence. 
 
 Stating further that he would leave the question of 
 senatorial dignity, courtesy, &c., for the Maine and 
 Virginia and other Senators to settle, whilst he would 
 strive to see justice done to this maltreated woman. 
 
 True to his word, next morning Tillman offered his 
 resolution, and Senator Daniel, pursuing his courteous 
 idea, promptly moved to table it. 
 
 All the Democratic Southern Senators, who couldn t 
 dodge it by being either absent or "paired," voted with 
 the Virginia Senator, except eight: 
 
 The two Senators from Kentucky, two from Mis 
 sissippi, two from South Carolina, one from Mis 
 souri (Stone), and the one from Tennessee (Frazier), 
 who was present, voted to sustain Senator Tillman s 
 resolution of inquiry. 
 
 All the Republican Senators voted to table it except 
 Hale, who taking counsel only of his own fairminded- 
 ness, had assured Tillman that "no one on that side 
 of the Chamber would oppose it." 
 
 Foiled in his honest purpose, and rebuked by his 
 own Southern colleagues for a breach of senatorial 
 decorum, Tillman subsided on the Morris case for 
 some weeks. The nine-days wonder over, the inci 
 dent would probably have slept with others of its kind 
 in the limbo of things forgot, had President Roosevelt 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE III 
 
 been content to let bad enough alone. But his Strenu- 
 osity never goes in for half-way measures in such 
 laudable undertakings as this. By way of further put 
 ting the seal of his approval on Barnes, and the stigma 
 of his disapproval upon Mrs. Morris, Roosevelt on 
 April i 1906, appointed his delectable under-secretary 
 to be City Postmaster for the city of Washington, one 
 of the most important and lucrative positions within 
 the gift of the Executive. 
 
 When the Barnes appointment came to the Senate 
 for confirmation, Tillman brandished the "pitch- fork" 
 afresh. He sent a written statement to the Committee 
 on Post-offices and Post-roads, preferring specific 
 charges against Barnes: That he had been guilty of 
 brutal conduct in ordering Mrs. Morris s arrest, and 
 had issued a false statement about it afterwards ; that 
 he had lodged a charge of insanity against Mrs. Mor 
 ris, causing her to remain a prisoner several hours; 
 and that he had caused the circulation of stories derog 
 atory to her character and mental condition. 
 
 To these charges against Barnes, Tillman ap 
 pended the names of seven well-known newspaper men 
 of Washington, whom he asked to have called as wit 
 nesses in the case. 
 
 The battle was on between the "pitch-fork" and 
 "the Big Stick." 
 
 Roosevelt was forced to go through the form of 
 ordering an "investigation" of the Barnes-Morris inci 
 dent. Maj. Sylvester, Chief of Police for the City of 
 Washington, conducted the investigation. Some very 
 interesting facts were brought out in the evidence 
 submitted. Tillman reviewed them all in the open 
 Senate, and they were inserted in the Congressional 
 Record of that date, where they may be found to-day. 
 
 It appeared that Officer Freeh, Barnes s brother-in- 
 law, and one of those to execute his brutal order, had 
 at first only charged Mrs. Morris with "disorderly 
 
112 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 conduct" when they arrived at the police station; but 
 on returning to the White House, and conferring with 
 his amiable relative, he learned that he should have 
 said she was crazy; and he accordingly rushed back 
 and lodged the additional charge of insanity. This 
 necessitated holding her a prisoner, until a medical 
 board could be found to pass upon her sanity. The 
 doctors, when called, promptly removed the charge of 
 insanity, saying that while much shaken up, and very 
 hysterical, "she was not insane." 
 
 One of the things adduced by the argument for the 
 defense, as evidence of Mrs. Morris s mental disor 
 ders, was the statement of the police matron, that as 
 soon as she was released from the grip of the officers, 
 "she fell on her knees in the parlor of the Detention 
 House, and prayed aloud !" 
 
 Tillman s expression in commenting upon this dam 
 aging testimony, was very characteristic and amusing. 
 
 Numerous letters and statements were produced, all 
 dealing with Mrs. Morris s peculiarities and eccen 
 tricities, to show how little deserving she was of any 
 public sympathy. About the most important of these 
 was a statement obtained from Dr.. A. B. Weaver of 
 Asheville, N. C, to the effect that Mrs. Morris, two 
 years before on her return from Florida, had stopped 
 in Asheville, and been under the professional care of 
 Dr. Weaver, who testified that, "she was very pe 
 culiar indeed, what is commonly called a crank." 
 
 When Dr. and Mrs. Morris issued a statement, 
 sworn to before a notary public, that neither of them 
 had ever been in Asheville, N. C., neither two years 
 previous nor at any other time, "this pink of medical 
 propriety" as Tillman characterized him issued a 
 retraction in the Asheville paper, saying he "had 
 treated a Mrs. Morris at the time referred to, but 
 whether Mrs. Minor Morris, or some other Morris, 
 he could not say positively; he had supposed it to IP 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the same from the fact her husband was a physician, 
 but he really did not remember the first name of his 
 former patient; and he concluded by complaining that 
 he had been tricked into making an unprofessional 
 statement about a patient, having believed it to be 
 confidential, and not for publication." 
 
 The Weaver deposition was typical of many others, 
 and whatever credence should attach to them, they 
 bear prima facie evidence of the fact, that somebody 
 had been in the "muck-raking" business, to further 
 increase the woes of Mrs. Minor Morris ; and 
 whether Barnes or Roosevelt had manipulated the 
 "muck-rake" will be settled according to individual 
 opinion and preference. Tillman also pointed out the 
 important fact that none of these so-called "affidavits" 
 collected for Maj. Sylvester s use, which had any 
 bearing on the case, were sworn to ; but were simply 
 uncertified statements; that he (Tillman) had person 
 ally inspected them all and knew such to be the fact. 
 He stated it on his honor as a senator, at any rate, 
 showing the farcical character of Maj. Sylvester s 
 "investigation." Tillman likewise called attention to 
 the very peculiar circumstance, that of the seven 
 newspaper witnesses whom he had cited, only one, 
 Elmer E. Payne, had been permitted to testify in the 
 case. He had prepared, at someone s request, a 
 "memorandum" for the President, which set forth Mr. 
 Barnes s conduct in the best-possible light; applying 
 the white-wash brush deftly where it was most needed, 
 and conveying the general impression that the under 
 secretary "had really done the best he could, under 
 the circumstances!" This "memorandum" showed a 
 marked revision of Mr. Payne s first impression of the 
 affair, as according to his associates in the press-room, 
 he was as indignant as any of them the afternoon it 
 occurred. 
 
 Tillman s illuminating "pitch-fork" brought forth 
 
114 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the further interesting circumstance, that, about the 
 time Maj. Sylvester and Elmer E. Payne rendered 
 their important services to the cause of Barnes, two 
 Annapolis cadetships were awarded by the President 
 to the two sons respectively, of Maj. Sylvester and of 
 Mr. Payne. Of course, it might only have been a 
 coincidence, wholly unconnected with the Barnes case, 
 but Tillman regarded it as "very peculiar" (almost as 
 "peculiar" as Mrs. Morris herself) the more espe 
 cially, as the President is supposed to award the cadet- 
 ships within his bestowal only to sons of Army and 
 Navy officers, who have no congressional districts 
 from which they could be appointed. Merely a coin 
 cidence, but "very peculiar!" 
 
 To make a long story short, Mr. Barnes was vindi 
 cated and confirmed, and still rules over the City Post- 
 Office in Washington. "The Big Stick" had prevailed 
 over the "Pitch- fork," as was of course to be ex 
 pected; but it is such a valiant and fearless "Pitch 
 fork" withal, that the mothers of the country at least 
 should pause to do it reverence. 
 
 In concluding his defence of Mrs. Morris, Senator 
 Tillman said : "It is not my province to play Don 
 Quixote, and roam around the country, in Washington, 
 or elsewhere, as the champion of distressed women. 
 But in my home, since my mother now dead, used to 
 hug me to her bosom and say "My son, tell the 
 truth ; and since her departure, my association for 38 
 years with another woman as wife who has been an 
 inspiration and solace, my every instinct as a man has 
 taught me to respect and love women. 
 
 "And when I see a man who ought to be a gentle 
 man, altho in high official position, ignore his plain 
 duty to seek out the truth, make due apology, right the 
 wrong as far as he could, and punish those about him 
 who are guilty of this outrage, I would have been false 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 115 
 
 to every instinct of my nature, if I had remained silent 
 on this occasion. . . . 
 
 In a magazine article (Sept. Review of Reviews, 
 1896), Mr. Roosevelt once observed: "In Tillman 
 and Watson is embodied retribution on the South for 
 having failed to educate her cracker, the poor white 
 which gives them strength." 
 
 It is related that, after Mr. Watson had explained 
 to Roosevelt s satisfaction that he did not belong in 
 the "cracker" class, but had had a "grandfather" 
 who, if the Honorable Tom s account is to be credited, 
 was really more distinguished than any Roosevelt 
 grandfather of whom we have record, the gracious 
 Roosevelt promptly made the amende honourable for 
 his error in Mr. Watson s case. Senator Tillman 
 (whose lineage is probably as good as either Wat 
 son s or Roosevelt s) declined to join in the "grand 
 father" controversy, thereby demonstrating himself a 
 better man than either. 
 
 Questions of family, rank, and official titles aside, 
 it may be safely left to the chivalric sense of the world 
 to decide, whether Senator Tillman or President 
 Roosevelt appears in the more manly role, in the un 
 happy occurrence above related. And Mrs. Morris, 
 what of her? Ah, yes, Mrs. Morris! The newspa 
 pers stated about a year ago that "Mrs. Minor Mor 
 ris, the lady so summarily ejected from the White 
 House some time ago, has been adjudged insane by a 
 board of alienists, and sent to a private sanitarium." 
 
 That was all. Just a press-dispatch, but to those 
 acquainted with the circumstances, how full of tragic 
 import! A Washington woman of high character 
 and culture, who was associated with Mrs. Morris in 
 the League of American Pen- women, testified of her: 
 "She zi as a little peculiar, tho I always liked her, per 
 ceiving her good traits as well as her peculiarities. 
 She was one of the brainiest women in the League, 
 
Il6 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 and perhaps the most accomplished. Besides being 
 an essayist and poet of no mean order, she was a 
 brilliant pianist, having had exceptional advantages in 
 the best musical schools of Europe. Her technique 
 surpassed that of many professionals. She was kind- 
 hearted, and deeply religious. She was moreover a 
 very generous woman with her means, and more loyal 
 in her friendships than the average woman. I always 
 found her truthful and honorable. She was foolishly 
 fond of her husband (perhaps this made her "a little 
 peculiar" in the City of Washington), and that was 
 what caused her trouble. She didn t care for the sal 
 ary attached to her husband s position in the War De 
 partment, but she felt that some sort of disgrace or 
 blight hung over him because of it. And so she re 
 solved in his absence to make her appeal to the Presi 
 dent, with such unhappy sequel. She was extremely 
 jealous of her dignity, and this, added to her quick, 
 excitable temper, made her a little inharmonious with 
 some members of the League. Her husband seemed 
 fond of her also, and they appeared very happy in 
 their home." 
 
 "Jealous of her dignity," super-sensitive, ah ! pitying 
 Heaven! What agonies of mortification must this 
 woman have endured! Is it matter for wonder, that 
 brooding over her wrongs, smarting under her deep 
 humiliation, morbid imaginings took possession of her 
 reason ? And does the man who has such keen appre 
 ciation of retributive justice for others, and keeps 
 such close tab on cause and effect, where it involves 
 a local election, that he sent his Secretary of State to 
 New York to charge the murder of McKinley on 
 Wm. Randolph Hearst in a Marc Anthony harangue 
 over Caesar s body does he feel no twinge of con 
 science for this chattering mad-woman, and the wreck 
 of her happy home? Her only offence so far as he 
 was concerned, was taking at its full face value his 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 117 
 
 posing as Haroun the Just; and such was her faith 
 in, and admiration for him, that one little kindly 
 message from him would have gone far toward heal 
 ing her wounds, grievous tho they were. But it might 
 not be. 
 
 Platitudes anent mothers, and motherhood in the 
 abstract, are one thing. Kindness to real mothers, if 
 it involves any sacrifice of the doctrine of Roosevelt 
 infallibility, is what Kipling calls "another story." 
 
 Since this went to press, Mrs. Morris has returned 
 to Washington in normal mental health, having es 
 caped from the asylum where she was fraudulently 
 detained for ten months, as she will undertake to prove 
 in the courts. 
 
Il8 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 There is a craning of necks in the neighborhood of 
 Fifteenth street, on Sunday mornings, among those 
 citizens of Washington, in whom the sight of the 
 President is still potent to cause a flutter of excite 
 ment. 
 
 For at such times, President Roosevelt may be seen, 
 attended by his secret-service guard, betaking his way 
 with his "seven-league-boot" stride to the Dutch Re 
 formed church near Fifteenth and O streets, where he 
 claims membership, and where, when in Washington, 
 he is consistent in attendance. 
 
 Knowing his church affiliations to be Protestant, 
 one does not readily understand the statement so fre 
 quently made, therefore, that Mr. Roosevelt owes 
 much of his power and popularity to the friendship 
 of the Roman Catholic church. While the religious 
 tolerance prescribed by our Constitution makes it in 
 cumbent upon the President to treat Catholics with as 
 much consideration as other sects, there is no good 
 reason, easily discerned, why these should be shown 
 any special favors over others by our Chief Execu 
 tive. Yet such seems to have been the fact in the case 
 cf President Roosevelt, according to the testimony of 
 his friends. 
 
 At a White House dinner given to capital and labor 
 leaders on Nov. 12, 1904, shortly after Mr. Roose 
 velt s election to the presidency, the Hon. Paul Mor 
 ton, Secretary of the Navy (and of subsequent Santa 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Fe notoriety), one of the speakers of the occasion, 
 among other felicitations, said: "It is a notable fact, 
 without an important exception, that the Catholic 
 press of the United States supported President Roose 
 velt in the last election. The policy of the United 
 States in working in hearty co-operation with the 
 Catholic church in settling the question of friar lands 
 in the Philippines, is believed to have stimulated this 
 friendliness." 
 
 As the haziest notions appear to exist in the minds 
 of Americans, in regard to the "friar lands" transac 
 tion, it may not be amiss to review the facts, for the 
 benefit of the uninformed, misinformed, and o er well- 
 informed. 
 
 When, by the Treaty of Paris which marked the 
 close of Spanish-American hostilities, the United 
 States came into possession of the Philippine Islands 
 and all of the inhabitants thereof, not the least of the 
 troubles we acquired by this cession was the compli 
 cation arising from what were known as "the friar 
 lands" in the Philippine Archipelago. 
 
 These lands, comprising about 425,000 acres, had 
 been appropriated by the religious orders of Spanish 
 priests, or friars, more especially the Dominicans, the 
 Augustinians, and the Recoletos (the "barefoot" 
 friars), who during the Spanish sovereignty of the 
 Archipelago, were the virtual and actual rulers of the 
 Filipinos, having been invested by Spain with all pow 
 ers, political and governmental, as well as ecclesiasti- 
 ca and educational. The friars were the instruments 
 of the oppressive rule in the Islands with which Spain 
 was charged, and typified to the people the worst ex 
 actions of the tyrannous home government. In the 
 two revolts against the Spanish government which 
 had occurred in the Philippines before the United 
 States came into the game, a bitter feeling of hatred 
 and opposition had grown up among the people 
 
I2O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 against the friars, which was agrarian as well as po 
 litical. When sovereignty over the Islands was trans 
 ferred from Spain to the United States, whose Consti 
 tution requires absolute separation of church and 
 state wherever American jurisdiction extends, the 
 problem for the New Philippine Government was, how 
 to get rid of the friars who had already caused so 
 much trouble, and tho stripped of their civil func 
 tions by the new authority, were still potent to cause 
 a seething tumult wherever they appeared. During 
 the war, many of these priests had been driven from 
 their respective parishes into Manilla, where they 
 were under the protection of the American soldiery, 
 and by the Treaty of Paris, as well as by the American 
 Constitution, were guaranteed freedom of speech and 
 religious opinion. They claimed the ownership and 
 control of these large agricultural tracts, as "vested 
 property rights," and they were demanding rentals of 
 their Filipino tenants upon the one hand, which the 
 Filipinos refused to pay, or from the New Philippine 
 Government upon the other, the prompt eviction of 
 these delinquent tenants. The people held that the 
 friars had no just claim to these lands, having plun- 
 derously seized them to begin with, and extortionately 
 used them afterwards. 
 
 However, the friars having been sustained in their 
 proprietary rights for ages by the Spanish Govern 
 ment, and by the supreme head of the church, the 
 Roman Pontiff, and enjoying the traditional advan 
 tage of the "nine points" of possession, the United 
 States Government resolved, in the interest of peace 
 in the Islands, to purchase anew from the friars or 
 from their ecclesiastical head, the Pope, these lands 
 which the United States had already acquired from 
 Spain by treaty, and by the payment of $20,000,000 
 for both the Islands and the peoples. And so it fell 
 out, that the then Governor-General of the Philip- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 121 
 
 pines, William H. Taft, being on a visit to the United 
 States in the Spring of 1902, was commissioned by 
 President Roosevelt to "go by" Rome on his return to 
 the Islands, for the purpose of negotiating with Pope 
 Leo the purchase of "friar lands" in the Philippines. 
 
 Although there was official denial of any diplomatic 
 import in Mr. Taft s mission to the Vatican, our Con 
 stitution not permitting any diplomatic relations with 
 any sort of church dignitary, the correspondence be 
 tween the Governor-General and the Holy See, bears 
 all the usual "ear-marks" of diplomatic exchanges. 
 True, Governor Taft s letter of instructions from 
 Secretary of War Root contained the paragraph: 
 
 "Your errand will not be in any sense or degree 
 diplomatic in its nature, but will be purely a business 
 matter of negotiation by you as Governor of the Phil 
 ippines for the purchase of property from the owners 
 thereof, and the settlement of land titles, in such man 
 ner as to contribute to the best interests of the people 
 of the Islands." 
 
 But this same letter of instructions concludes with 
 the usual assurance to regularly appointed ambassa 
 dors and envoys-extraordinary to Foreign Courts. 
 
 "Any assistance which you may desire, whether on 
 the part of officers of the civil government or of mili 
 tary officers, to enable you to perform the duties 
 above described (the negotiations with the Vatican) 
 in a manner satisfactory to yourself, will be afforded/* 
 
 Governor Taft also carried credential letters from 
 Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, and from Mr. Roosevelt, 
 the President of United States, together with a pres 
 ent from the latter to Pope Leo, consisting of a set of 
 his literary works! Mr. Taft s first formal greeting 
 to the Papal See, upon arrival, opened with: "Your 
 Holiness : On my departure from Washington, Presi 
 dent Roosevelt committed to my hands an autograph 
 note of personal greeting, and eight bound volumes of 
 
122 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 his literary works to be delivered to your Holi 
 ness." . . . 
 
 Further diving into the "diplomatic correspond 
 ence" connected with this affair, does not divulge the 
 fact that there was any express stipulation that His 
 Holiness should read the "eight bound volumes" thus 
 presented, tho if there were any implied obligation of 
 that kind, it may account in part for the non-success 
 of Ambassador Taft s main proposition to the Vati 
 can. At any rate, it would seem a wise precaution, in 
 future missions of this delicate nature, to leave out 
 the "literary works." 
 
 In an article published in the Independent (of Aug. 
 14, 1902) entitled "The First American Mission to 
 the Vatican," Salvatore Cortesi, the Rome corre 
 spondent of the American Associated Press, gives an 
 interesting account of Mr. Taft s proceedings upon 
 his arrival in Rome. Cortesi writes as a resident Cath 
 olic, and a faithful reporter of news : 
 
 "From Washington they had taken great pains to 
 proclaim that the mission of the Governor of the Phil 
 ippines had not the least diplomatic character, the 
 Constitution not allowing the United States to enter 
 tain relations of that kind with any head of any re 
 ligion. However, Judge Taft was provided with cre 
 dentials and with an autograph letter from President 
 Roosevelt to Leo XIII., exactly like Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid for the coronation of King Edward VII., or like 
 Lord Denbigh, the special envoy of England, who sim 
 ilarly to Judge Taft, congratulated the Pope on his 
 twenty-five years of Pontificate. The American rep 
 resentative seemed in reality more of a special envoy 
 than the other two, as he even had a present from the 
 President to the Pope, consisting in a set of the liter 
 ary works of the former, and the instructions given to 
 him by Secretary Root ended precisely as to any other 
 ambassador or envoy extraordinary. Besides, once in 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 123 
 
 Rome, Governor Taft thought it his duty to be the 
 first to pay visits to the ambassadors of France, Aus 
 tria, Spain and Portugal, accredited to the Holy See, 
 thus putting himself on an equality with them. . . . 
 A few days after he arrived in the Eternal City there 
 was a Consistory at the Vatican, which is one of the 
 most gorgeous and important functions of the Roman 
 Church, and Governor Taft accepted an invitation to 
 assist at it in the diplomatic tribune, together with the 
 ambassadors of the great Catholic Powers, he being 
 styled Envoy e Extraordinaire of the President of the 
 United States. . . . Therefore, at the same time that 
 in Washington they were emphatically denying the 
 mission having anything to do with diplomacy, its 
 head, either through the influence of the Roman at 
 mosphere, or with the view of reaching a success su 
 perior to that which he eventually obtained, was act 
 ing as tho he had that diplomatic character which his 
 Government seemed so anxious to deny him." 
 
 Cortesi further states that before the arrival of the 
 American mission in Rome, he had received a letter 
 from "a prominent writer in Washington" who was 
 close to the White House throne, as follows : 
 
 "Judge Taft does not go as Ambassador or Envoy, 
 and there has never been any intention on the part of 
 the Government of sending one, altho it has been 
 strongly urged by both the Ireland and Corrigan fac 
 tions. There is to be no recognition of the temporal 
 power, directly or indirectly; let that be distinctly un 
 derstood." 
 
 After the arrival of the "mission," and while it was 
 exchanging notes with the Vatican, this Rome corre 
 spondent of the press was furnished with still further 
 assurance by the editor of a prominent New York 
 paper, which stated: "Governor Taft is not in any 
 sense a diplomatic representative, and the greatest care 
 has been taken on this side to make it quite clear that 
 
124 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 we had no intention of getting mixed up in the con 
 troversy over the question of the Pope s temporal sov 
 ereignty." 
 
 All of which "inspired" assurances as to the char 
 acter of Judge Taft s mission to the Vatican, savor 
 strongly of that Shakespearian lady who was thought 
 to "protest too much." Another interesting circum 
 stance which throws some light on the Taft mission 
 to Rome, was, that it was undertaken at the instance 
 of Archbishop Ireland, Mr. Roosevelt s oldtime friend 
 and political ally, tho Cortesi says this circumstance 
 was one of the obstacles to Judge Taft s success. He 
 says, moreover: 
 
 "The presence among the advisers of the Governor 
 of Bishop O Gorman, one of Archbishop Ireland s 
 best friends, had the effect of raising the question of 
 persons, and the suspicion of personal advantage, on 
 the part of the Archbishop and his adherents, which I 
 am sure are without foundation, but which neverthe 
 less aroused the animosity of the two parties which 
 my friend in Washington called, the Ireland and Cor- 
 rigan factions, who are as divided and opposed in 
 Rome as in America. ... Of course the followers 
 of Ireland were for the success of the mission, while 
 the others wanted to see the friars triumph." . . . 
 
 On the whole, this Rome correspondent is disposed 
 to take an optimistic view of Governor Taft s "first 
 mission to the Vatican" ; thinkc he "did very well, con 
 sidering"; and says despite the "Ireland-Corrigan" 
 factional note injected, and despite the further fact 
 that Cardinal Satolli, "the only member of the Sacred 
 College who has a really perfect knowledge of Ameri 
 can habits and feelings, and a true love for the United 
 States, was not included in the commission of Cardi 
 nals which studied the American propositions, the con 
 clusions reached are not so unsatisfactory as might 
 have been expected, as between the Vatican and the 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 125 
 
 United States was secured a broad basis of negotia 
 tion, to be carried on in Manila, by the Governor and 
 the Apostolic Delegate, as to specified details." 
 
 "A broad basis of negotiation" looking to future 
 adjustments. 
 
 This has that delightfully vague, ambiguous flavor, 
 always detected in diplomatic utterances; but how 
 about that straight, plain business proposition, which 
 Secretary Root says Governor Taft went to lay before 
 the head of the Roman church in his "purely business" 
 capacity as the owner and vender of "friar lands?" 
 
 It is all set forth in detail in the "Annual Report of 
 the Secretary of War for the year 1902," see pp. 
 233-60. The first thought suggested to a dispassion 
 ate mind in its perusal, is that, here is a vast amount of 
 diplomatic pow-wowing and kow-towing, for a "purely 
 business" transaction. And the second query arising 
 is, what substantial advantage accrued to the United 
 States Government, or to its Philippine subjects, from 
 this remarkable real-estate deal? On page 250 of the 
 aforesaid Secretary s report, we find the form of 
 agreement or concordat drawn up between Pope Leo 
 and President Roosevelt through their intermediaries, 
 Cardinal Rampolla and William Howard Taft, Civil 
 Governor of the Philippines, and submitted by them to 
 His Holiness: 
 
 I. The Philippine government agrees to buy all the 
 agricultural lands, buildings, irrigation plants, and 
 other improvements thereon, situate in the Philippine 
 Archipelago, of the Dominican, Augustinia, and 
 Recolet orders, and to pay therefor a reasonable and 
 fair price, to be fixed in Mexican dollars by a tribunal 
 of arbitration to be composed of five members, two to 
 be appointed by His Holiness, the Pope, two by the 
 Philippine government, and the fifth to be appointed 
 by the governor-general of India. ... A majority 
 of the tribunal may make the award. . . . 
 
126 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 The expenses of the tribunal of arbitration, includ 
 ing reasonable compensation to each of the members, 
 shall be paid by the Philippine government. The 
 price (for the lands) shall be paid in three install 
 ments, one-third cash within thirty days, one-third in 
 nine months after date of the first payment, and the 
 remaining one-third in eighteen months, the deferred 
 payments to bear 4^ per cent, interest from the date 
 of the first payment. The purchase money shall be 
 paid to the representative of the Roman Catholic 
 Church to be designated by the Pope, and the receipt 
 of such representative shall be full acquittance to the 
 extent of the amount paid by the Philippine Govern 
 ment. 
 
 II. The Philippine Government agrees to release by 
 legislative act to the representatives of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, designated by His Holiness, the 
 Pope, all lands or enclosures upon which Roman 
 Catholic churches or conventos now stand, which were 
 never by deed or formal grant conveyed by Spain to 
 the Roman Catholic Church, the same to be held by 
 such representatives for the use of the Roman Catho 
 lics of the parishes in which such churches and con 
 vents stand; without prejudice, however, to the title, 
 if any, of the municipality in which any such church 
 or convent may stand, in ordinary courts of law." . . . 
 
 III. The Philippine government and the Holy See 
 will by compromise, if possible, reach an agreement in 
 respect to the charitable, educational, and other trusts, 
 concerning which there is now dispute as to the proper 
 trustee, by determining which of the trusts shall be 
 administered by the civil government, and which, if 
 any, shall be administered by the Roman Catholic 
 Church, &c., &c." . . . 
 
 IV. The reasonable rentals, if any, which ought to 
 be paid for convents and other church buildings which 
 have been occupied by United States troops during the 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 127 
 
 insurrection, shall be ascertained for the information 
 of both parties, by the above-mentioned tribunal of 
 arbitration. ... In each case they shall take into 
 consideration the question whether or not the church 
 or convent was enemy s property, occupied in time of 
 war without incurring obligation to pay rent, &c., &c. 
 . . . The Secretary of War undertakes to present to 
 the Congress of the United States the results of the 
 inquiry herein provided for, with request for author 
 ity and means to pay the rentals so ascertained to be 
 due." . . . 
 
 Such, as set forth in Secretary Root s report, were 
 the obligations proposed to be incurred by the United 
 States Government, and their representatives in the 
 Philippines, in this Papal land bargain, and the coun 
 ter concessions demanded are thus outlined (p. 251) : 
 "The foregoing stipulations are made on the follow 
 ing conditions : 
 
 (a) That titles of the three religious orders to the 
 agricultural lands mentioned in paragraph I, and of 
 any subsequent grantees thereof, shall be duly con 
 veyed by deeds of usual and proper form to the Phil 
 ippine Government, and no part of the purchase price 
 shall be paid until this provision is complied with. 
 
 (b) That all members of the four religious orders 
 of Dominicans, Augustinians, Recoletos, and Francis 
 cans now in the Philippines, shall withdraw one-half 
 within nine months after the date of the first payment, 
 and one-half within eighteen months thereafter, and 
 meantime they shall not teach, preach, or do parish 
 work in the parishes of the Archipelago; except, that 
 for a period of two years after the first payment, a 
 sufficient number of such members may remain to con 
 duct the schools, university, and conventual churches 
 now conducted by them, withdrawing from the Islands 
 at the close of such period j and that no Spanish meni- 
 
128 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 bers of said four orders shall hereafter be sent to the 
 Islands. . . . 
 
 His Holiness on his part hereby agrees to the stipu 
 lations and conditions hereinbefore set forth, and con 
 tracts that the four religious orders herein named, and 
 their members, shall comply with the stipulations and 
 conditions on their part to be performed." . . . 
 
 In his second formal communication to the Pope. 
 Governor Taft had stated that the only purpose the 
 American Government had in this proposal, was to 
 "secure political peace and absence of disturbance in 
 the Philippines; that the Filipino people, as a whole, 
 are deeply incensed against these four religious or 
 ders in the Islands, because responsible, as they sup 
 pose, for the alleged oppressions of Spain. . . . Nor 
 was this understanding without foundation, for by the 
 laws in force under the Spanish regime, the heads of 
 these religious orders and the head of the hierarchy, 
 the Archbishop of Manila, were of the Council of the 
 Governor-General of the Islands." 
 
 Governor Taft further calls the attention of the 
 Holy Father to the fact, that "these orders have a 
 newspaper which is still published by them, and which 
 is in spirit, anti-American, anti-Filipino, and pro- 
 Spanish." 
 
 It clearly appears from this showing of the Gov 
 ernor-General, that these obnoxious friars were "pub 
 lic enemies," and by all known rules of war, and all 
 laws of nations, they could have been banished by the 
 Philippine government, and their lands made confis 
 cate to the State. It is a well-known fact, referred to 
 both by Root and Taft, that it was part of Aguinal- 
 do s plan had he and his insurgent band succeeded 
 in establishing their independence to thus banish the 
 friars and appropriate their holdings for the use of the 
 "Philippine Republic." 
 
 It could not have been, therefore, to conciliate their 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE I2Q 
 
 Filipino subjects, that the American Government de 
 cided to adopt this liberal policy toward the Spanish 
 priests in the Philippines and their ecclesiastical Head 
 at Rome. Such liberal policy might be justified, how 
 ever, if it had secured its ostensible purpose, to wit, 
 the immediate and peacable withdrawal of the Span 
 ish friars from the Philippine Islands, but did it? 
 
 The Pope s reply (of July 9, 1902) to the articles 
 of agreement submitted by Governor Taft (as above 
 recited) is also given in Secretary Root s Report 
 (pp. 252-4), and says in effect: That the Holy See is 
 much gratified by the attitude assumed by the Ameri 
 can Government, and "on the economical points the 
 views of the Holy See accord almost entirely with 
 those of the American and Philippine governments"; 
 but further than this, the Holy Father does not share 
 the American and Filipino view of the religious orders 
 aforesaid, nor can he consent to their withdrawal from 
 the Islands. On the contrary, he says most emphati 
 cally : 
 
 "The Holy See cannot accept the proposition of the 
 Philippine government to recall from the Archipelago 
 in a fixed time all the religious of Spanish nation 
 ality Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, Reco- 
 letos and to prevent their return in the future. . . . 
 Such a measure would be, in the eyes of the Filipinos 
 and of the entire Catholic world, the explicit confir 
 mation of all the accusations brought against the said 
 religious by their enemies, accusations of which the 
 falsity, or at least the evident exaggeration can not 
 be disputed. . . . Finally, if the American Govern 
 ment, respecting as it does individual rights, does not 
 dare interdict the Philippine soil to the Spanish re 
 ligious of the four orders above named, how could 
 the Pope do it } he the common father of all, the sup 
 port and born defender of the religious?" 
 
 Did the Holy Father intend the last words to carry 
 
I3O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 any satirical import? Certainly, they clearly indicated 
 that in the matter of removing the friars, the Ameri 
 can Government had as much "rights in the premises" 
 as the Pope. Then why pursue the subject further 
 with the Papal head? If this were the purely com 
 mercial transaction, which all the Administration or 
 gans had taken so much pains to proclaim it, when 
 the only important stipulation on the American side 
 had been rejected, and the main advantage sought had 
 failed of accomplishment, surely the shrewd Ameri 
 can business sense would prompt the immediate break 
 ing off of Papal negotiations. But was such the case? 
 Not a bit of it. The complaisant American Govern 
 ment, manipulated for the nonce by Messrs. Roose 
 velt and Taft, returned a polite message to His Holi 
 ness, that, while they are very sorry he cannot see his 
 way clear to accede to their proposal of retiring the 
 friars, they still hope His Holiness will accept the 
 money for the lands, and all their other generous pro 
 posals ; while they upon their part, are perfectly willing 
 to accept the diplomatic assurances of His Holiness 
 that he will do the best he can for them; and that he 
 will send his Apostolic Delegate to Manila, who with 
 the assistance of the amiable Governor-General, Wm. 
 Howard Taft, will no doubt be able to "find a way" 
 for an amicable adjustment of all present and future 
 difficulties! And so this unique negotiation between 
 the Vatican and the United States ended by the latter 
 paying to the former, seven and a quarter million dol 
 lars, for lands to which our Government already had 
 a clear title, and to secure an advantage which it was 
 understood in advance, would not be secured. If this 
 was a strictly "business" transaction, as given out, it 
 is not immediately apparent to an innocent bystander 
 "whereabouts" the United States "got in" on the deal. 
 "Uncle Sam s" usual trading astuteness seems to have 
 been off duty. This surprising complaisance of the 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 13! 
 
 United States authorities toward the Papal See be 
 comes the more remarkable when contrasted with the 
 action of Catholic Governments in the case of these 
 same troublous religious orders, who, realizing the 
 tremendous influence of these orders with the heads 
 of the church, "have (according to Cortesi), without 
 even trying to come to any agreement with the Hcly 
 See, adopted severe measures against the friars." 
 
 The defenders and apologists of the "friar-lands" 
 purchase explain that, for the United States to have 
 banished these hostile and turbulent friars, upon its 
 own authority, and devoted their so-called possessions 
 to the betterment of the people whom they had so long 
 oppressed, "would have been very un-American! Oh ! 
 Having set aside the cardinal doctrine of our Ameri 
 can Declaration, in the purchase of the Philippines and 
 the imposing on the inhabitants a rule which they 
 didn t want, it was probably imperative to give to the 
 world some conspicuous, signal proof that the "pres 
 ent Administration" was yet running on American 
 lines, in spots anyway. And whenever there is an 
 emergency call for a shining example of virtue, per 
 sonal, civic, or national, T. Roosevelt is your man ! It 
 is extremely lucky (for the friars) that this call came 
 while he was running the Government, some other 
 President might have missed this glorious opportunity 
 for disinterested benevolence! 
 
 The first intimation to the general public that the 
 "friar-lands" transaction was neither so benevolent 
 nor so disinterested as appeared at the first blush, was 
 given by the publication of the "Storer-Roosevelt" 
 correspondence four years later (December, 1906), 
 wherein Mr. Roosevelt is shown to have aided and 
 abetted his "dear friends," Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy 
 Storer, in their very natural efforts to advance Arch 
 bishop Ireland to a Cardinalate, the Storers being 
 prominent and influential Catholics, and up to the time 
 
132 ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 of the sensational divulgence of the correspondence, 
 very intimate friends of Mr. Roosevelt. The story of 
 how "Dear Bellamy" and "Dear Maria" joined the 
 "Ananias Club" after that unhappy denouement, be 
 longs to another chapter, but when Governor of New 
 York, in reply to a letter from Mrs. Storer bespeak 
 ing his aid in the matter, Roosevelt wrote: "I need 
 not say what a pleasure it would be for me to do any 
 thing I can for Archbishop Ireland. You know how 
 high a regard I have always felt for him. He repre 
 sents the type of Catholicism which in my opinion 
 must prevail in the United States if the Catholic 
 Church is to attain its full measure of power and use 
 fulness with our people and under our form of gov 
 ernment." 
 
 He also wrote to Mrs. Storer at this time (while 
 Governor of New York) that he had written to Presi 
 dent McKinley in Ireland s behalf, but warns her that 
 "the President cannot (in his official capacity) try to 
 get a certain archbishop made a cardinal, because it 
 would be a g ood thing from the standpoint of the body 
 politic here, than he can try to get a certain Methodist 
 minister made bishop for similar reasons." . . . Then 
 follows his contemptuous reference to the Protestant 
 clergymen of "that fool type, who want to abolish the 
 army canteen," and says that, officially, he could not 
 even oppose one of these who was aspiring to be 
 bishop. 
 
 Now no one can justly find fault with Mr. Roose 
 velt for praising Archbishop Ireland, nor for valuing 
 his friendship as a man ; but if his non-sectarian role 
 were genuine, and he were honest in proclaiming, as 
 he has so often done, that he wanted to give all sects 
 a "square deal," why must he couple eulogiums of the 
 Catholic prelate with such unflattering allusions to 
 the Protestant clergy, even of "that fool type" who 
 would abolish the army canteen? To "Dear Bellamy," 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 133 
 
 while he was ambassador at Madrid, Mr. Roosevelt 
 as Governor wrote: "On every account, I should feel 
 that the election of Archbishop Ireland to the cardinal- 
 ate would be a most fortunate thing for us in the 
 United States, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. . . . 
 While I would not like to have this letter published, 
 you are most welcome to show it to anyone you see 
 fit." . . . 
 
 But Mr. Storer states, that after Roosevelt became 
 Vice-president, he manifested great apprehension lest 
 the Protestant public should learn of his Catholic sym 
 pathies and activities, and of his relations with Arch 
 bishop Ireland, and wrote to ask Mrs. Storer if she 
 had ever allowed his letters on the subject to get out 
 of her possession? He had heard in some way that 
 Cardinal Rampolla at Rome had one of them. 
 
 This, it would seem, taken in connection with one 
 very frank passage in a letter to Mrs. Storer, should 
 help Catholics and non-Catholics to place the proper 
 valuation on Mr. Roosevelt s "Catholic sympathies and 
 activities." The passage referred to is the playful re 
 mark to "Dear Maria," that "this Dutch-Reformed 
 individual appears to be collecting a great deal of 
 Catholic interest and information ; it is not exactly 
 support, but rather a desire to be supported." 
 
 This passage is unique, in that it is the solitary ex 
 pression in all the voluminous Roosevelt output, which 
 evinces a momentary flash of honest introspection and 
 frank humor at his own expense. In the midst of the 
 great mass of solemn pomposity, and absorbed self- 
 appreciation, this little side remark, so appealingly 
 human, to his "warmest of friends, and staunchest of 
 supporters" shines like a good deed in an evil world ! 
 
 As all who read the Roosevelt-Storer correspond 
 ence will remember, Mr. Storer states, that in the 
 siimrner of 1903, after his appointment as ambassador 
 to Vienna, while on a visit to President Roosevelt a{ 
 
134 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Oyster Bay, the latter had delivered to him an oral 
 message to the Pope, Pius X. to the effect that Arch 
 bishop Ireland was his Roosevelt s friend; and that 
 the President would be much gratified if Ireland could 
 be promoted to be a cardinal, or words to that effect. 
 Monsignor O Connell was also commissioned by Mr. 
 Roosevelt to say the same thing to Pius X., which he 
 did on Sept. 24, 1903 ; and the Pope had transmitted a 
 message, saying the President s wishes would prob 
 ably be fulfilled. 
 
 But it seems, just about the time the Pope had made 
 up his mind to give Archbishop Ireland a red hat, 
 somebody else turned up in Rome with another "oral 
 message" from President Roosevelt, that he would be 
 pleased to see Archbishop Farley made a cardinal ! It 
 was this report from Rome which called forth Mrs. 
 Storer s protesting letters to President Roosevelt and 
 Judge Taft, demanding an explanation of this apparent 
 double dealing. "Dear Maria" might have been 
 spared a public reprimand from her presidential 
 friend, and much consequent mortification, if she had 
 only appreciated the fact that the "Dutch-Reformed 
 individual" who wished to receive, rather than to give 
 Catholic support, could not concentrate his sympathies 
 and activities on any one aspirant for the cardinalate, 
 however much he might esteem him personally. While 
 Archbishop Ireland had a large following of Catholic 
 voters in the West, Archbishop Farley had some use 
 ful Eastern connections. 
 
 There is a story current in Washington, for the 
 truth of which the writer does not vouch : A Catholic 
 priest and a layman, living in a Balitmore suburb, had 
 the same name; in consequence, letters for the one 
 were sometimes opened by the other. In the summer 
 of 1904 the layman was astonished to receive a letter 
 which ran: "Instruct your parishioners to vote for 
 Roosevelt and Fairbanks in this election," 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 135 
 
 Signed by the Papal Delegate at Washington. 
 
 The story may or may not be true. It is repro 
 duced only because it tallies so exactly with the public 
 statement of the Hon. Paul Morton, that "the Catho 
 lic press of the United States, without exception, sup 
 ported President Roosevelt in the last election." 
 
 Tho it is a well-known fact (on which Mr. Roose 
 velt builded so confidently), that members of the Ro 
 man Catholic faith are more deferential to the wishes 
 of their church superiors, than are the laymen of other 
 sects, it would seem that self-respecting lay-Catholics, 
 those at least who breathe the liberty-loving air of 
 America, would resent being made pawns on the politi 
 cal chess-board, to serve the personal ambitions of 
 either a Catholic prelate, or a Dutch Reformed Presi 
 dent. 
 
136 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ROOSEVELT AND THE NEGRO. 
 
 The very general dislike and distrust felt for Presi 
 dent Roosevelt during his first term by Southerners 
 was attributed by Northerners, almost without excep 
 tion, to the Booker Washington luncheon at the White 
 House. 
 
 In like manner, the more recent bouquets flung at 
 his feet by admiring hands in the South, have all been 
 charged up to the Brownsville edict, and the conse 
 quent humiliation of the 25th Infantry. 
 
 As a Southerner, with some jealous regard for the 
 honor and reputation of her section, the writer wishes 
 we might sometime reach a point where we could be 
 accredited with a perception of some other things in 
 Heaven or earth besides the Race Problem ; and occa 
 sionally be swayed by some other influence than our 
 traditional and reputedly dominant prejudice against 
 the negroes. Until this time arrives, it would be at 
 least gratifying to see Southerners manifesting this 
 prejudice in an intelligent and discriminating fashion, 
 and not behold them striking blindly at everything in 
 the North or upon the part of Northerners, which looks 
 like a subversion of the Southern code. 
 
 Barring the extremely questionable taste, and the 
 manifest impropriety, of any hospitable demonstration 
 in the Nation s house of which the Nation had not sig 
 nified its approval, Roosevelt s lunching with Booker 
 Washington was one of the most natural and un- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 137 
 
 studied things he has ever done, and to that extent, one 
 of the least reprehensible. 
 
 Born and reared in the North, where the few resi 
 dent negroes enjoy all the public utlities with the 
 whites, without discrimination ; and educated at Har 
 vard, where the negro students share with the white 
 boys the privileges of the mess-hall, it probably never 
 entered President Roosevelt s head, that there was any 
 reason why he and the Tuskegee professor should not 
 partake of the same repast under the National roof. 
 
 Assuredly, if under his own roof, and in his private 
 capacity as Theodore Roosevelt, Citizen, he had chosen 
 to wine and dine negroes every day in the week, he 
 was clearly within the domain of his own personal 
 rights ; and the only sensible comment for any disap 
 proving observer was, de gustibus. Of this Booker 
 Washington incident, Historian Leupp, ever close to 
 the Roosevelt throne, says : "Mr. Washington is one of 
 the men whom President Roosevelt most admires, and 
 whom he is proudest to number among his friends. 
 They meet on terms of frank equality, except inas 
 much as the presidential office itself confers a special 
 dignity upon its occupant which all patriotic Ameri 
 cans recognize." . . . 
 
 This ought to settle it, so far as Mr. Roosevelt is 
 concerned. The accident of his presidential rank 
 might square-off the accident of Booker T. s black 
 skin, and make "honors easy" between them on every 
 account. 
 
 And really, considerations of race, policy and official 
 rank aside, if one seeks only a fair estimate of the 
 mentality and character of the two men as revealed 
 in their writings and speeches, one must admit that 
 Washington s evince the more orderly mental pro 
 cesses, and the greater self-restraint. Flashes of 
 originality, scintillations of genius, and far reaches of 
 thought, are not observable in either. They both pos- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 sess in a remarkable degree the faculty of turning 
 things to their own advantage, and sticking comfort 
 able feathers both black and white into their indi 
 vidual nests. This thrifty trait alone should make 
 them very congenial companions. Truly there seems 
 no good reason to dissent from Friend Leupp s state 
 ment, that Mr. Roosevelt meets Booker Washington 
 upon a plane of "frank equality" except where he 
 drops below. The writer thoroughly agrees with Mr. 
 Leupp s strictures upon the "torrential Southern jour 
 nalism" which made so much fuss over the luncheon. 
 It was a great mistake. The South should have passed 
 it over with the philosophic remark: "If the Negro 
 and the white race of the North can stand it, we can." 
 As a matter of fact, the immediate effect of the inci 
 dent fell much more uncomfortably upon the North 
 than upon the South. The owners of Northern hotels, 
 cafes, barrooms, and barber shops were suddenly beset 
 with numerous damage-suits by pestiferous black liti 
 gants, who were refused accommodation, and who, 
 emboldened by the White House luncheon, were not to 
 be put off with the usual devices. If Mr. Roosevelt 
 were carrying out "the Northern idea" in this affair, 
 it proved a Northern chick which came quickly home 
 to roost in most disagreeable fashion. 
 
 In the South, where no pretence is maintained about 
 "equality" in matters social, no such laws (forbidding 
 discrimination in public accommodations) exist, and 
 the owners of public resorts are subjected to no such 
 annoyance as this occurring in the North; and which, 
 as a further unhappy consequence, engenders an in 
 tense racial animosity toward the Negro, in the North, 
 which bodes ill for the future of his race in this coun 
 try. 
 
 Perhaps it was a perception of these truths, which 
 led the independent press of the North to condemn the 
 Roosevelt- Washington luncheon in no uncertain terms. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Certainly it was this criticism, if any, and not the "tor 
 rential Southern journals," which disturbed the Roose- 
 veltian complacency in the matter, and led him to "re 
 gret" the incident, as was so widely rumored, though 
 Leupp thinks, without sufficient "authority." 
 
 In executing his righteous decree to abolish the In- 
 dianola (Mississippi) post-office, and force the in 
 habitants of the Southern town to send thirty miles for 
 their mail, President Roosevelt is represented by his 
 glorifying biographer as exercising much self-restraint 
 and virtuous forbearance toward a community which 
 was so "barbarous" as not to want a negress as a 
 postmistress. The President s clemency in the matter 
 shines all the more by contrast with Postmaster-Gen 
 eral Payne s severe temper, who was so "indignant at 
 the poor woman s treatment" that he wanted to "send 
 her back to Indianola under military escort, place a 
 cordon of troops around the post-office to protect its 
 occupant and its business from further molestation 
 until the excitement died down !" 
 
 Postmaster-General Payne s notion about the proper 
 means to allay popular excitement in a Southern com 
 munity, is as remarkable as his holy zeal for the cause 
 of the persecuted colored postmistress; and the latter 
 is particularly impressive when we remember that this 
 is the noble public servant who deprived Miss Todd 
 (a white postmistress) of her office in Delaware, be 
 cause her brothers had the temerity to oppose the 
 saintly and patriotic Addicks! And if memory serves 
 us aright, this is the same Postmaster-General who in 
 1904 dismissed from the Postal Service Col. John Bell 
 Brownlow of Tennessee, a man who had served in the 
 Civil War on the Union side, whose father, the famous 
 "Parson" Brownlow, had been the staunchest sup 
 porter of the Union cause in Eastern Tennessee, had 
 served as Tennessee s "war governor," and later as 
 United States Senator, yet this man, Col. John Brown- 
 
I4O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 low, his son, who had been an honest and efficient pub 
 lic servant for 24 years, against whose record there 
 was not a breath, was ruthlessly and summarily 
 thrown out of the service without cause and without a 
 hearing, to gratify the peevish whim of Payne. But 
 the magnanimous President, who had upheld his Post 
 master-General in both these righteous acts, which sig 
 nalized so strikingly the effectiveness of Civil-Ser 
 vice rules under the Roosevelt regime, was not to be 
 influenced by his extreme counsel in the case of the 
 recalcitrant Mississippiaris not he ! In a lofty spirit 
 of pitying scorn for the narrow race prejudice of these 
 benighted Southerners, tho "not a whit less indig 
 nant than Payne," we are informed, he preferred to "fit 
 the punishment to the crime; (to borrow the chaste 
 language of Leupp) a community which had relapsed 
 into barbarism had no longer any claim upon the lux 
 uries that accompany modern civilization. No armed 
 force was sent to compel it to be decent against its will ; 
 a privilege it had enjoyed while decent, simply dropped 
 out Avhen it surrendered its self-respect!" 
 
 If the citizens of Indianola, or any portion of them, 
 had as was charged forced this colored postmistress 
 either by violence or threats of violence, to resign her 
 office and leave the town, there was a clear provision 
 of the Constitution belonging to the legislation of the 
 Reconstruction era, under which the offenders could 
 have been punished. But without making any attempt 
 to call them to account according to forms of law, our 
 Strenuous and virtuous President preferred to go the 
 Indianolans one better in the matter of violating the 
 Constitution. 
 
 And so he closed up their post-office, which he had 
 no more legal right to do, than he had to close their 
 churches, or their court-house. 
 
 Commentator Leupp further elucidates the incon 
 sistency and absurdity of the Southern position toward 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 14! 
 
 the Negro, by citing the fact that these Indianola citi- 
 ezns, after all the fuss and trouble they had made over 
 receiving their mail from the hand of a negress, and 
 after they paid the penalty of their folly, hired a negro 
 man to go to the nearest post-office 30 miles distant 
 and bring the mail addressed to Indianola, thus receiv 
 ing it at last from a pair of black hands ! 
 
 Of course any one with the born intelligence of the 
 humble candle-fly must readily perceive the force of 
 this Leuppine reasoning. 
 
 Southerners so stupid as not to see that taking their 
 mail from "a pair of black hands" serving in the lowly 
 capacity of their own hired servant, had precisely the 
 same bearing on the "social-equality" dogma, as taking 
 it from black hands which were handing it out to them 
 with all the official airs borrowed from Federal author 
 ity are not worth the consideration of philosophers 
 of the Leuppine and Rooseveltian genus ! 
 
 Having trampled upon the Constitution in the In 
 dianola affair, with no unpleasant consequences to 
 anybody except the aforesaid stupid Southerners (who 
 most likely would not have cast any ballots for Roose 
 velt, any way), the Strenuous one was in the mood for 
 further trampling, in the Crum appointment to the 
 Port of Charleston, S. C, and if report be true, he 
 trampled some other laws, in this case, which a great 
 many people regard as binding as the Constitution; 
 but, of course, these are persons of ordinary under 
 standing and standards of honor, which can not be 
 applied to the actions of the great and only T. R. 
 
 It was asserted at the time of the Crum appoint 
 ment, upon the authority of certain reputable citizens 
 of Charleston, that President Roosevelt while on his 
 visit to the Charleston Exposition in the Spring of 
 1902. had given his word to a prominent business man 
 of that city, that he would not appoint a negro as Col 
 lector of Customs at Charleston. 
 
142 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Of course this prominent and reputable Charles- 
 toman has discovered and acknowledged his mistake by 
 this time; and if not, you can find his name on the 
 membership roll of the "Ananias Club." 
 
 But by far the most reckless, vicious and disastrous 
 Rooseveltian trampling of law and precedent in the 
 case of the negroes, in the view of Northern col 
 ored voters, aye, there s the rub, was in his whole 
 sale dismissal of the 25th Infantry who were charged 
 with shooting up a Texas town. This alas! raised a 
 tumult that was not confined to the South country, but 
 rolled uproariously through the Northern belt from 
 Cape Cod to the sweep of the Oregon, and wherever 
 colored votes are specially prized and counted. It was 
 no doubt a wholesome premonition of this unpleasant 
 uproar, which led our sapient President to defer the 
 Brownsville order, prepared in October, until after the 
 November elections of 1906. There is as little reason 
 to doubt that he wishes now he had withheld it until 
 after the November elections of 1908! 
 
 It is probable, however, that this active and re 
 sourceful Executive might have had the Brownsville 
 incident relegated to the rear, and the memory of it 
 erased from the Negro mind, before the date fixed for 
 counting the ballots, had it not been for the incon 
 venient and mischievous meddling of Senator Foraker, 
 who not only focused the attention of the whole coun 
 try upon the affair, with his Senate "investigation," 
 but also by and far, and much more he had in 
 tensified the burning sense of wrong in the mind of 
 the whole Negro race, culminating in a threatened re 
 volt from the "Heir Apparent" at the polls ! No won 
 der Roosevelt loves Foraker ! 
 
 This Foraker persistence in keeping alive the 
 Brownsville incident, made it incumbent upon our 
 prudent and adaptable President to send a Special 
 Message to the last Congress asking for a Congres- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 143 
 
 sional decree under which these discharged and dis 
 graced Negro soldiers might re-enlist such of them at 
 least, as could prove their innocence to the satisfaction 
 of the President, he the omniscient judge who, little 
 more than a year before had been so thoroughly sat 
 isfied of the guilt of all! 
 
 And this provoked Senator Tillman s cynical resolu 
 tion, asking that every senator be provided with exact 
 copies of the President s two orders, "the one dis 
 charging the Negro soldiers, and the one taking it 
 back!" 
 
 Between the polite attentions of Foraker and of 
 Tillman, the Rooseveltian pathway through the 59th 
 and 6oth Congresses has not been as flowery as it 
 might have been. One readily understands the warm 
 regard Mr. Roosevelt entertains for them both. 
 
 Mortifying to relate, the Brownsville decree was 
 greeted with a unanimous burst of applause from the 
 South country. Without waiting for particulars, with 
 out caring about particulars, evidently, all the South 
 ern hats went up for Roosevelt! Southern hats being 
 proverbially of generous width of brim, when they are 
 all in the air at once, they naturally obscure the South 
 ern vision to other happenings at the time. 
 
 So absorbed were the Southerners with their Roose 
 velt huzzas, that another order of his to the War De 
 partment, coincident with the Brownsville order, en 
 tirely escaped their notice; it is here given for their 
 benefit, and that they may see how hasty and ill-con 
 sidered is much of the Southern cheering for Roose 
 velt; Col. Wm. L. Pitcher, of the 2/th Infantry, and 
 commander at Fort Sheridan near Chicago, was re 
 ported to have said in commenting on the Brownsville 
 disturbance: "For the life of me, I can not see why 
 the United States should try to make soldiers out of 
 the negroes. Certainly there are enough fine white 
 
144 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 young men in this big country to make soldiers of, 
 without recruiting from such a source." 
 
 This alleged statement by Col. Pitcher which ap 
 peared in the public press, having been brought to 
 President Roosevelt s attention, the following com 
 munication in regard to it was sent to the War De 
 partment by Secretary Loeb : 
 
 "The President directs that an immediate report be 
 called for from Col. Pitcher, to know whether or not 
 he is correctly quoted in the enclosed clipping; and if 
 he is correctly quoted, the President directs that pro 
 ceedings be taken against him for such punishment 
 as can be inflicted. The President thinks that such 
 conduct is but little better than that of the offending 
 negro troops themselves." 
 
 Now it will hardly be disputed that the sentiment ex 
 pressed in Col. Pitcher s statement receives hearty en 
 dorsement throughout the South ; riot, let it be said, 
 because the South does not recognize that the negroes 
 properly trained and officered, make very good sol 
 diers, and have shown themselves capable of facing 
 dangers and winning battles; but the South s opposi 
 tion to negro soldiers is based upon the same ground 
 as her opposition to them as electors, as civil officers, 
 or any other capacity which brings them into social 
 relations with the whites, resulting in racial friction 
 and strife. Whether this Southern view be right or 
 wrong, tenable, or untenable, it is unequivocally and 
 solidly the Southern position, on which there has never 
 been any wavering. Whether, if the Negro question 
 could be divested of its sectional and political compli 
 cations, this Southern view would not quickly become 
 the Anglo-Saxon view of the entire country, is an in 
 teresting speculation, which may not be settled at this 
 time, tho there are straw indications that such would 
 be the case. But that is not the point in the Browns 
 ville case. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 145 
 
 The present policy of this Government is to make 
 soldiers of the negroes, and so long as this obtains, it 
 is certainly only common justice to give them "a square 
 deal" before the law. Whether this was done in the 
 Brownsville imbroglio, is not the province of this little 
 book to decide. It only seeks to point out President 
 Roosevelt s vacillating course in the matter, and the 
 small justification for Southern plaudits. In the win 
 ter following the Brownsville edict, it was announced 
 in the papers that the President had selected Ralph 
 Tyler, a negro journalist of Columbus, Ohio, to be 
 Inspector of Customs at Cincinnati. 
 
 Then all the Southern hats went into the air again; 
 for now was it imminent that Foraker was to "get it 
 in the neck." As usual, the Southern shouters did not 
 watch for the sequel to this announcement. It will 
 probably be news to many of them, to this good day, 
 that when the Ohio protests began to pour into the 
 White House, and it was gently whispered into the 
 Executive ear that a negro Inspector of Customs at 
 Cincinnati, would split "the party in twain in Ohio, he 
 quietly and modestly backed down on his Ohio ap 
 pointment he who had over-ridden the Constitution, 
 senatorial courtesy and his pledged word to his South 
 ern entertainers in order to land Crum in the Charles 
 ton Custom House and instead, made Ralph Tyler 
 the Auditor of the Navy Department in Washington, 
 where his coming created immediate turmoil, resulting 
 in the resignation of at least six white clerks. It is 
 asserted upon good Washington authority, that under 
 Tyler s regime, this Department has become the head 
 quarters for negro politicians. 
 
 It may be that the country is a long distance yet 
 from the proper solution of its Negro problem. Cer 
 tainly, it may be observed, that neither the North nor 
 the South has yet brought to its consideration, that 
 broad, national, patriotic spirit, in which alone it can 
 
146 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 ever be settled wisely and amicably. Meantime, it may 
 be truthfully said, that Theodore Roosevelt has done 
 more uselessly to agitate the question and keep it at 
 the acute stage, without offering a single helpful idea; 
 has more sharply accentuated its sectional feature by 
 far its worst feature so far as the South is concerned 
 than any other man who has ever sat in the seat of 
 the Presidents. As such, he has no clear title to any 
 Southern hand-clapping. Neither has his course 
 earned the confidence and good-will of either whites or 
 negroes. 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 147 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE "ANANIAS CLUB;" "UNDESIRABLE CITIZENS;" 
 "RICH MAN S CONSPIRACY." 
 
 As clearly appears to any dispassionate observer, 
 the Rooseveltian pathway has been much beset with 
 liars of various kinds and degrees. So keen is his 
 faculty for ferreting these out, and so unerring his 
 instinct for spotting them, that he has not infrequently 
 discovered them in places least suspected by their 
 neighbors and acquaintances, until Mr. Roosevelt 
 turned on the search-light and revealed them in their 
 true no, no, in their mendacious character. He has 
 put the Ananias badge upon some in high official posi 
 tion, and on others alas, who at one time held an hon 
 ored place in the esteem and affections even of their 
 deluded fellow countrymen. But as truth is said to 
 be no respecter of persons, much less is mendacity, as 
 proven by Mr. Roosevelt. 
 
 He has encountered these disciples of Ananias 
 among the quick and the dead, on the cold, storied 
 page of history, and in the warm, living present. 
 Thomas Jefferson, the founder of Democracy, and 
 distinguished in some other ways, Mr. Roosevelt 
 found, upon inspection, to be "constitutionally inca 
 pable of putting a proper value on truthfulness." 
 
 Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a New England 
 publicist of some note, once pointed out that, of the 
 two men, Jefferson and Hamilton, who are popularly 
 supposed to have furnished opposing political ideals 
 for this country, Jefferson has by far the larger fol- 
 
148 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 lowing. In fact, Mr. Higginson affirms, "the average 
 American, no matter what party affiliations he may 
 claim, consciously or unconsciously, accepts the Jeffer- 
 sonian theory of government." In the light of th s 
 fact, which has other endorsement than Higginson s, 
 Mr. Roosevelt s charge of mendacity against Jeffer 
 son has almost the force of a national indictment. Can 
 it be that "the average American" is, by instinct and 
 habit, "constitutionally incapable of putting a proper 
 value on truthfulness?" Most assuredly, those who 
 "have dared lift their puny voices against the infallible 
 purposes, opinions, or recollections of T. Roosevelt, 
 have quickly found themselves in this mendacious 
 class, for whom is rightly provided no court of appeal. 
 
 There is no particular shock to American sensi 
 bilities in T. R. s discovery of Napoleon s "utter un- 
 scrupulousness, and marvelous mendacity." We have 
 long entertained the opinion that the Man of Destiny 
 was "no gentleman," from his treatment of poor 
 Josephine, and certain traditions that have come down 
 to us about his table manners. So if it pleases our 
 T. R. to add lying to the Napoleonic accomplishments, 
 we shall enter no demurrer. N. Bonaparte being one 
 of those European "down-and-outs" and "dead-so- 
 longs," who have left not even a shining "footprint on 
 the sand" for the emulation of American youth, but 
 only those warning initials, N. B. to "take notice" 
 and avoid his fate, most anything that T. R. or any 
 body else may wish to say in derogation of the once 
 mighty ruler, whose Star of Destiny has set in eternal 
 gloom, cannot get up any controversy on this side the 
 water. 
 
 With Jefferson and other American statesmen who 
 have come under the lambasting pen of Historian 
 Roosevelt, the case is different, naturally. 
 
 But the liveliest American interest was aroused 
 when Mr. Roosevelt began applying his favorite epi- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 149 
 
 thet to prominent living citizens of the Republic. The 
 first of these to receive the Ananias decoration was 
 Judge Alton B. Parker of New York, who as some 
 persons may remember was the Democratic candi 
 date for President in 1904, when T. Roosevelt was 
 leading the Republican hosts. In October of that 
 year, Judge Parker issued from Esopus the statement : 
 "Vast sums of money have been contributed for the 
 control of this election in aid of the Administration by 
 corporations and trusts." 
 
 This statement was of course promptly nailed by 
 Administration organs as "a campaign lie." 
 
 Then on Oct. 31 in a speech at the Madison Square 
 Garden, Parker reiterated his charge and inserted in 
 it a pin-prick for Roosevelt, as follows : "In an earlier 
 utterance, I have referred in detail to what is notori 
 ously going on in the matter of the collection of funds 
 by the Republican party for this campaign. . . . 
 Congress creates a new Department of Commerce and 
 Labor. Of that Department, the President appoints 
 a Secretary (Cortelyou), who has been his private 
 secretary. Within that Department provision is made 
 for the collection from large corporations including 
 the so-called trusts of information which, be it borne 
 in mind, is to be submitted to the President, for pub 
 lic or private use as he may direct. ... By grace 
 of the same Executive, this Secretary of Commerce 
 and Labor, through whose Department this informa 
 tion is collected, becomes Chairman of the Republican 
 National Committee. His chief duty in this position 
 is to collect funds for the purpose of securing the 
 election of the President. And it is more notorious 
 that there has resulted from this organized importun 
 ity whatever may be the precise way in which it is 
 made effective an overflowing treasury to the Com 
 mittee, of which boast is openly made." . . . 
 
 In Jersey City, Nov. I, Judge Parker again: "As I 
 
I5O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 have taken occasion to say before, and deem it my 
 duty to say again, the trusts are furnishing the money 
 with which they hope to carry this election." 
 
 President Roosevelt, with commendable self-re 
 straint, waited until Nov. 5 three days before elec 
 tion, and then let fly the fulminations of his wrath 
 and righteous denial of the "slanderous accusations re 
 peated time and again by Judge Parker. . . . He 
 has neither produced nor can produce any proof of 
 their truth. ... I speak, lest the silence of self- 
 respect be misunderstood. The gravamen of these 
 charges lies in the assertion that the corporations have 
 been blackmailed into contributing, and in the impli 
 cation, which in one or two of Mr. Parker s speeches 
 has the form of assertion, that they (the trusts) have 
 been promised certain immunities or favors, or have 
 been assured that they would receive some kind of 
 improper consideration in view of their contributions. 
 . . . Mr. Parker s accusations against Mr. Corteiyou 
 and me are inventions. // true, they would brand 
 both of us with infamy; and inasmuch as they are 
 false, heavy must be the responsibility of the man 
 making them. ... I cannot understand how any 
 honorable man, a candidate for the highest office in 
 the gift of the nation, can take refuge not merely in 
 personalities, but such base and unworthy personali 
 ties. . . . The statements made by Mr. Parker are 
 unqualifiedly and atrociously false!" 
 
 And so it came about, when Judge Parker was bur 
 ied neath the snow of adverse ballots on November 8, 
 1904, he also went down to political death with Mr. 
 Roosevelt s Ananias decorations pinned all over him. 
 
 The accusations anent the campaign contributions 
 by the trusts, were forgotten for a time. The man 
 who had made them was found guilty of that gravest 
 American offence of "failing like failure;" the man 
 who had issued such indignant, manly denial of them 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 15! 
 
 was riding the top crest of "succeeding like success." 
 Rebuked by both President Roosevelt and the Ameri 
 can people, there seemed no immediate role open to 
 Judge Parker, except to "keep still, and be good." 
 And so he retired to the shades of Esopus, silenced if 
 not convinced. 
 
 But tho the publicity organs grind slowly, they 
 sometimes grind well, even for a defeated presidential 
 aspirant, and to the manifest discomfiture of the man 
 entrusted with the job. The investigations and con 
 sequent exposures of crookedness in the big life in 
 surance companies of New York in 1906, brought out 
 in sworn testimony the fact that the Equitable, Mutual 
 and New York Life had contributed $150,000 to the 
 Republican campaign fund of 1904, the same being 
 the money of their trusting policy holders. This dam 
 aging revelation being sworn to before a Committee 
 empowered to take evidence in the case, was not de 
 nied by the Republican managers, denial in this case 
 being rather risky, since both Treasurer Bliss and 
 Chairman Cortelyou could have been summoned on 
 the witness-stand by the investigating Committee. 
 
 Cut off from the sacred right of "denial" by this 
 hard, unyielding circumstance, Mr. Roosevelt was 
 represented in the public press, as "much stirred and 
 grieved by the Insurance disclosures." He was even 
 reported to have remarked to one of his intimates, 
 that he "felt his election in 1904 was somewhat dis 
 credited" by the Insurance scandals, and he "wanted 
 to know" if there were not some means of restoring 
 the money ! 
 
 This was immediately construed by a trusting pub 
 lic as fresh proof of that "sensitive moral sense" ac 
 credited to Mr. Roosevelt, and no doubt the despoiled 
 widows and orphans were comforted in a measure by 
 the knowledge thus afforded, that their virtuous Pres 
 ident "suffered with them" (mentally) over their 
 
152 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 losses. George W. Perkins of the New York Life 
 should have been able to quiet the Rooseveltian mis 
 givings to a degree, since he it was, we believe, who 
 had owned to contributing the Insurance money to the 
 Republican fund in a Bryan campaign year, and justi 
 fied it upon the ground that it was better to do this 
 than to allow the country to go to the demnition bow 
 wows under Bryan! This eminently patriotic view 
 (in which Mr. Roosevelt doubtless concurred) was 
 perfectly natural to men in the Perkins class; only, 
 it did seem, in the pious cant of that class, a trifle "un- 
 American" not to allow the innocent policyholders to 
 choose their own mode of going to destruction, 
 whether at the hands of Bryan or the Insurance com 
 panies. 
 
 This George W. Perkins, as we learn from an article 
 in July Munsey (1903) entitled "Men About the Pres 
 ident," from the pen of a Roosevelt admirer, was "one 
 of President Roosevelt s close friends and unofficial 
 counselors, who could have almost any position in the 
 power of the President to offer!" 
 
 Quite naturally, this "close friend and unofficial 
 counselor" of President Roosevelt wanted to have him 
 elected in 1904, and probably thought also, that Par 
 ker s splashing around in that impudent fashion about 
 the "Interests," showed him to be as great a menace 
 to the country as Bryan. 
 
 And so Friend Perkins was again ready to lay the 
 money of widows and orphans upon the altar of his 
 country and his Rooseveltian friendship, only of 
 course, out of delicate consideration for the "sensitive 
 moral sense" of his Presidential friend, he kept the 
 painful fact from him, until it was too late to do any 
 thing except "grieve and wonder." 
 
 The Insurance disclosures revived the memory of 
 the Parker charges, and vindicated their truth m large 
 measure, though nobody was so irreverent as to con- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 153 
 
 nect President Roosevelt s name in any official way 
 with the "corruption fund." Judge Parker s accusa 
 tions received further confirmation in the Spring of 
 1907, by the publication of the now famous "Harri- 
 man letters," which brought President Roosevelt di 
 rectly into the fray. 
 
 Those who keep track of current events will re 
 member the sensational headline, "President Roose 
 velt on Harriman s Trail," which appeared in the pub 
 lic prints about March 23, 1907, followed by the an 
 nouncement: "President Roosevelt is understood to 
 have reached a determination to prosecute E. H. Har- 
 riman. Under the President s personal direction, the 
 Department of Justice is looking into the matter, altho 
 the final hearings on the Harriman Merger will not be 
 held until April 4th. The President wants to know 
 whether on the evidence already submitted, he can 
 make a case against Harriman under the Sherman 
 Anti-trust law, or under the Interstate Commerce 
 Act." . . . 
 
 On being informed by the Government s lawyers 
 that Harriman, if prosecuted at all for his iniquitous 
 "Chicago-Alton deal," would have to be prosecuted 
 under the State laws of Illinois, President Roosevelt 
 promptly called Gov. Deneen and Attorney-General 
 Stead into the conference, and being confronted with 
 the further astounding fact, brought forward by the 
 Illinois attorney-general, that there was not at present, 
 any State statute which was competent to deal with 
 the Harriman offence, he had Gov. Deneen to formu 
 late a bill at once, and submit it to the Legislature 
 which if enacted into law, would make it impossible 
 in the future for criminals of the Harriman type to 
 escape the just reward of their crimes. 
 
 The public was not informed at the time (and but 
 for the untimely production of Harriman s letter to 
 Sydney Webster, it is not likely it would ever have 
 
154 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 been so informed), that in the Fall campaign of 1906, 
 E. H. Harriman had politely but firmly refused the 
 Hon. Jim Sherman s (he that is now James School- 
 craft, but at that time Chairman of the Republican 
 Congressional Committee) solicitations for funds with 
 which to carry the Grand Old Party to victory in New 
 York State, the reading public was not informed of 
 this at the time of the righteous and vigorous Roose 
 velt purpose to impale Harriman upon the teeth of the 
 law; and if the reading public had been acquainted 
 with this antecedent event, the Roosevelt claquers 
 would not have permitted any logical connection be 
 tween it and the proposed Harriman prosecution, not 
 if they knew it! 
 
 But the publication, on April 3rd, 1907, of Harri- 
 man s letter to his personal friend and business aJ- 
 viser, Sydney Webster (who had just sent him a 
 friendly warning to beware of being drawn into poli 
 tics), throws a flood of cruel light upon the whole un 
 happy Harriman-Roosevelt mix-up. 
 
 This letter, which came to light on the aforesaid 
 date, was penned by Harriman late in Dec., 1905, and 
 contained the following startling information : "About 
 a week before election, in the autumn of 1904, when 
 it looked certain that the State ticket would go Demo 
 cratic, and was doubtful as to Roosevelt himself, he, 
 the President, sent me a request to go to Washington 
 to confer upon the political conditions of New York 
 State. ... I complied, and he told me he under 
 stood the campaign could not be successfully carried 
 on without sufficient money, and asked me if I could 
 help them in raising the necessary funds, as the na 
 tional Committee, under control of Chairman Cortel- 
 you, had utterly failed of obtaining them, and there 
 was a large amount due from them to the New York 
 State committee. . . . We talked over what could 
 be done for Depew, and finally he agreed that if found 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 155 
 
 necessary, he would appoint him as ambassador to 
 Paris. . . . With full belief that the President 
 would keep this agreement, I came back to New York, 
 sent for Treasurer Bliss, who told me I was their last 
 hope, and that they had exhausted every other re 
 source. In his presence I called up an intimate friend 
 of Senator Depew, told him that in order to carry New 
 York, it was necessary that $200,000 should be raised 
 at once, and if he would help, I would subscribe $50,- 
 ooo. . . . After a few words over the telephone, the 
 gentleman said he would let me know, which he did, 
 probably in three or four hours, with the result, that 
 the whole amount ($260,000) had been raised. 
 The checks were given to Treasurer Bliss, who took 
 them to Chairman Cortelyou. If there were any 
 among them of Life Insurance companies, or any other 
 like organizations, of course Cortelyou must have in 
 formed the President. I do not know who the sub 
 scribers were, other than the friend of Depew, who 
 was an individual. This amount enabled the New 
 York State committee to continue its work, with the 
 result that at least 50,000 votes were turned in the 
 City of New York alone, making a difference of 100,- 
 ooo votes in the general result." . . . 
 
 After the noise caused by this bomb exploding at 
 Mr. Roosevelt s feet, and the responsive explosion of 
 Rooseveltian wrath, had somewhat subsided; after 
 "the short ugly word" had been passed from the out 
 raged President to the railway magnate and "malefac 
 tor of great wealth," and Roosevelt had prepared and 
 submitted what the New York Sun cynically charac 
 terized as "his defensive, protective, and antiseptic 
 statement" to Representative Jim Sherman (now 
 James Schoolcraft, and Candidate for the Vice-presi 
 dency) ; Harriman explained, quietly enough, that he 
 was not responsible for the publication of the un 
 lucky epistle; that he learned to his dismay, that it had 
 
156 ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 been reproduced from stenographic notes by a former 
 employe of his, who had been dismissed, and by this 
 unscrupulous stenographer sold to a New York news 
 paper. That he very much regretted the making pub 
 lic of what he had intended for the eyes of his friend 
 alone. But, now that the letter was out, through no 
 fault of his, he had nothing to retract as to the state 
 ments therein contained. He had related only facts 
 as to what occurred between the President and him 
 self in the Fall of 1904, and he was ready to defend 
 it with his latest breath, and anything else of value he 
 possessed, or words to that effect. 
 
 It is manifestly not the province of this modest little 
 volume, to decide so delicate a question as an issue of 
 veracity between a President of the United States, and 
 a president of a Railway Merger, who was also a 
 "malefactor of great wealth," and after his rencontre 
 with the President, acquired some other titles more or 
 less flattering. 
 
 The candid reader must determine for himself, 
 whether Mr. Harriman s letter to Sydney Webster 
 carries the ring of truth, and what possible motive he 
 could have had for stating anything but his honest 
 recollection of the transaction, recited to his friend at 
 a time when he could not have expected the letter to 
 be made public, whatever may have been the mode or 
 the motive for its final publication. For it must be 
 borne in mind, that the letter was written more than 
 a year before any proceedings had been instituted by 
 the President against Harriman, several months even 
 before Harriman s churlish refusal to contribute to 
 Mr. Sherman s campaign needs, and while he was yet 
 on the friendliest terms with President Roosevelt. 
 The candid reader will likewise form his own opinion 
 of the aforesaid "defensive, protective, and antiseptic 
 statement" given out by Mr. Roosevelt to the Hon. 
 Jim. beg pardon, to the Hon. James Schoolcraft 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 157 
 
 Sherman of New York. Herein Mr. Roosevelt is con 
 victed of trying to make it appear that Harriman had 
 taken the initiative in the negotiations of 1904, and 
 that he Roosevelt had allowed him to come to Wash 
 ington at his own request. Thus, Mr. Roosevelt 
 writes to Mr. Sherman: "On his (Harriman s) re 
 turn from spending the summer in Europe, on Sept. 
 20, he wrote me, stating that if I thought it desirable, 
 he would come to see me at any time, then or later. 
 On Sept. 23 I answered his letter saying: At pres 
 ent there is nothing for me to see you about, tho there 
 were one or two points in my letter of acceptance 
 which I would like to have discussed with you before 
 putting it out. >: 
 
 Hereupon Harriman, with the cold, business instinct 
 of a "practical man," and troubled now with no fool 
 ish squeamishness about the sanctity of a personal cor 
 respondence, promptly gave to the press the following 
 letter which he says he received while in Europe: 
 "White House, Washington, June 29, 1904. My Dear 
 Mr. Harriman : I thank you for your letter. As soon 
 as you come home, I shall want to see you. The fight 
 will doubtless be hot then. It has been a real pleasure 
 to see you this year. Very truly yours, Theodore 
 Roosevelt." 
 
 All of this interesting and highly instructive Harri- 
 man-Roosevelt correspondence (too voluminous for 
 reproduction here) may be found in the issues (April 
 2nd, 3rd and 4th, 1907) of the Washington Post, and 
 in other large dailies of the country. Senator Gore, 
 on April 9, 1908, had one of them read in the Senate 
 and inserted in the Congressional Record, page 4745, 
 which he had quoted from the New York Tribune of 
 April 3, 1907. 
 
 As this one, we understand, has been pronounced a 
 "forgery" by some of Mr. Roosevelt s Western ad 
 mirers, we give it as quoted f roni the Tribune : 
 
158 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 "Oct. 14, 1904. My Dear Harriman : A suggestion 
 has come to me in a roundabout way that you do not 
 think it wise to come on to see me in these closing 
 weeks of the campaign, but that you are reluctant to 
 refuse, inasmuch as I have asked you. Now, my dear 
 sir, you and I are practical men, and you are on the 
 ground and know the conditions better than I do. If 
 you think there is any danger of your visit to me caus 
 ing trouble, or if you think there is nothing special I 
 should be informed about, or no matter in which I 
 could give aid, why, of course, give up the visit for 
 the time being, and then a few weeks hence, before I 
 write my message, I shall ask you to come down to 
 discuss certain Government matters not connected with 
 the campaign. With great regards, Sincerely yours, 
 Theodore Roosevelt.," 
 
 It is asserted, upon the authority of a United States 
 Senator and a lawyer of repute, that any signed com 
 munication appearing in the public prints, and not 
 contradicted by the signer, becomes a public fact, fur 
 ther established by the legal liability of any newspa 
 per publishing a bogus letter. We respectfully call the 
 attention of our Western enthusiasts to this opinion, 
 and to the further fact that their hero himself never 
 denied (with all his great powers of denial) the au 
 thorship of this letter, but included it somewhat para 
 phrased and edited perhaps in his "defensive, pro 
 tective and antiseptic" before referred to. 
 
 The only thing in this Harriman mix-up which Mr. 
 Roosevelt branded as a malicious falsehood, was the 
 statement, that "I ever asked him to contribute to the 
 presidential or my personal campaign!" 
 
 Ah, but that was not the Harriman statement ! Mr. 
 Harriman stated, as clearly appears from his letter, 
 and reiterated by him afterwards, that Mr. Roosevelt 
 asked him to raise funds for the New York State cam 
 paign, and if before his and Mr. Roosevelt s eyes there 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 swung the political aphorism, "as goes New York, so 
 goes the nation," nothing of this sort is mentioned in 
 their correspondence. True, Mr. Roosevelt had prom 
 ised as a reward of the Harriman services, to appoint 
 Senator Depew ambassador to Paris, a promise 
 which he did not afterwards find it "necessary" to 
 keep, it appears. 
 
 However the Roosevelt-Harriman contention may 
 be settled, according to individual opinion and prefer 
 ence, it clearly appears above it all, as also from the 
 Insurance exposures, that Judge Parker only spoke 
 forth "the words of truth and soberness" in his cam 
 paign charges of 1904; and if there were any doubt 
 about it, it would be settled in some minds by an edi 
 torial appearing in the Washington Post (which usu 
 ally has a fresh boquet every morning for the Roose 
 velt plate) some months ago, commenting on some 
 body s jesting proposal of Alton B. for the Democratic 
 presidential nomination, the Post seriously affirmed, 
 that if the country had known as much about the 
 "campaign contributions" in 1904 as it does now, there 
 is no reason to doubt that Judge Parker would at this 
 moment be seated in the White House. 
 
 It was certainly not the Judge s fault that the coun 
 try didn t know all about these unholy "campaign con 
 tributions." He had done his best to enlighten the 
 country on that head, but the country, it seems, at that 
 time preferred to accept the T. R. version; and just so 
 long as the country evinces this marvelous avidity for 
 Rooseveltian fable, just so long will Rooseveltian fable 
 pass current. The supply will always be equal to the 
 demand, with no danger of shrinkage or short crops. 
 
 Yet tho the Parker charges have been fully estab 
 lished, probably not even the wicked editors of the 
 New York Sun and Harper s Weekly would be so 
 cruel as to apply Mr. Roosevelt s own verdict, that, "if 
 
160 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 true, they brand both Mr. Cortelyou and me with 
 infamy." 
 
 Nobody in this courteous age would wish to say 
 anything like that of either Mr. Roosevelt or Mr. Cor 
 telyou. They are both very proper, virtuous gentle 
 men, who are sometimes driven by political exigencies, 
 to adopt the ordinary methods of the ordinary "prac 
 tical" politician, -without the ordinary politician s 
 saving grace of frankness. 
 
 In the political gossip which the Hon. James School- 
 craft (we got it right that time!) Sherman carried to 
 President Roosevelt of the Harriman-Sherman inter 
 view over the subject of campaign funds in 1906, Har- 
 riman is represented as not only so impervious to 
 patriotic -appeal, as not to care whether New York 
 was saved from Hearst and Socialism or not, but like 
 wise so lost to decency as to declare, that "when he 
 wanted anything he could buy the New York Legisla 
 ture no matter what its political complexion or he 
 could buy Congress, or buy the Judiciary if neces 
 sary!" 
 
 This brazen assertion from the wealthy corruption- 
 ist naturally gave a great shock to the moral sensi 
 bilities of both President Roosevelt and Secretary 
 Root (so reported by the Washington local press), 
 Root probably receiving an extra shock on his own ac 
 count, since this same "indecent" Harriman had openly 
 asserted that all the successful "octopus" schemes of 
 Mr. Thos. F. Ryan of New York had been manipu 
 lated for him by "the adroit mind" of Elihu Roott 
 Truly, E. H. Harriman s "cup of iniquity was full." 
 
 He was not only "a deliberate and malicious falsi 
 fier," but also "an undesirable citizen of the same class 
 as Eugene Debs, and Haywood and Mover!" 
 
 True, Mr. Harriman denied the assertions imputed 
 to him by the Hon. Jim (oh, you know the rest), tho 
 not the one anent the Ryan-Root combination, he evi-* 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE l6l 
 
 dently entertaining the crude idea that one man has as 
 many rights as another in this country in the matter 
 of denial. He was to learn his mistake. He had been 
 branded as a "liar" officially branded as such, and the 
 brand bore the T. R. signature, which made it unmis 
 takable. Hereafter, none of the Harriman statements 
 will be believed by any proper-minded persons. An ! 
 the saddest part of it all was, that this had befallen one 
 who was once a "dear friend" and trusty campaign 
 ally; who had even been bidden to state councils, to 
 confer on "governmental details" in the letter of ac 
 ceptance, and the anticipated message ! 
 
 Alas, poor Harriman! He doubtless deserved his 
 fate, which of course made it all the harder to bear, 
 and his only crumb of comfort that time-honored 
 solace of the miserable was in the knowledge that he 
 was not the first nor only victim of Rooseveltian love- 
 grown-cold. 
 
 There was ex-Senator William E. Chandler of New 
 Hampshire, a Republican of unflinching personal in 
 tegrity, tho confessedly a partizan, who stood so 
 high in Rooseveltian esteem in the Spring of 1906, that 
 he was made the President s chosen emissary to the 
 Democratic camp in the negotiations between the lat 
 ter and the White House over the pending railroad 
 rate bill. And then when that unnatural and short 
 lived Tillman-Bailey-Roosevelt alliance went all to 
 smithereens, with the result on the face of the returns, 
 that either the President or his intermediaries (Chand 
 ler and Attorney-General Moody) had been guilty of 
 bad faith toward the Democratic allies, Mr. Roosevelt 
 promptly charged that he had been misrepresented by 
 Senator Chandler. Chandler reiterating his "misrep 
 resentation," Mr. Roosevelt changed the charge to a 
 shorter, uglier accusation, and his discredited emissary 
 had no choice but to wear his Ananias badge as grace 
 fully as possible, seeing it had been pinned on by his, 
 
1 62 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 own political sovereign, who was forced to do it in 
 order to save his own political honor ! 
 
 Then there were Mr. Roosevelt s Catholic friends, 
 "Dear Bellamy" and "Dear Maria" Storer, with whom 
 he had been corresponding for years on the freest, 
 most intimate terms, in regard to a project dear to 
 them all three, the elevation of Archbishop Ireland 
 to the cardinalate. (See the full text of the Roosevelt- 
 Storer correspondence in Washington Post of date 
 December gth, loth, nth, I2th, I3th, i7th, i8th, 28th, 
 1906.) 
 
 But alas!, there came a time when, by some un 
 toward leaking, Mr. Roosevelt s intrigues, or at 
 tempted intrigues with the Vatican, became known to 
 the public, and the American Constitution being rather 
 explicit on this score, he was again confronted with 
 the hard alternative of being compromised before the 
 American public himself, or compromising his friends, 
 with the usual sequel. Pursuing his usual chivalric 
 lines in such cases, he administered a stinging rebuke 
 to poor "dear Maria" in the form of a letter, which he 
 exhibited to others before mailing to Mrs. Storer. 
 "Dear Bellamy" was given the Ananias decoration, 
 because of his assertion that President Roosevelt had 
 in the summer of 1903 sent a message to the Pope by 
 him in regard to making Ireland a cardinal. 
 
 But "dear Bellamy" does not appear to have worn 
 his new honors as submissively as some others, simi 
 larly decorated more honor to him ! 
 
 He gave to the press enough of the mutual corre 
 spondence to vindicate his and his wife s position; he 
 likewise said : "When the President denies authorizing 
 my oral message to the Pope, he forgets that he told 
 Archbishop Ireland the same thing, and that I have 
 the Archbishop s letter to prove it." 
 
 Along with the correspondence, Mr. Storer pub 
 lished the following : 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND I 7 ABLE 163 
 
 "I cannot trust myself to express fully the feeling 
 of indignation with which I read the letter to Mrs. 
 Storer. Tho I was in the public service, I felt, and 
 still feel, that I had lost none of the rights which a 
 man has to judge of the propriety of letters addressed 
 to his wife, and to resent an improper communication. 
 I did not then know what I have since learned, that 
 the letter was not even written for my wife s eyes or 
 mine alone, but had been shown to others before it 
 was sent, and thus used to make a case against a lady, 
 a trusting friend, who could not be heard in her own 
 defence. My wife was deliberately accused of having 
 quoted isolated sentences from the President s letters 
 to convince other persons that he was doing exactly 
 what, as he asserts he had explicitly stated that he 
 would not do. . . . The tone of long-suffering and 
 outraged patience, the careful omission of anything 
 that the writer himself had done, or authorised to be 
 done in the matter complained of, the quotation from 
 the letters written at the time of my errand to the 
 Pope, without any of the facts which would give those 
 letters their true character, or show that they were an 
 angry complaint because what he had directed to be 
 done, had become known, these things, with the 
 abusive personal characterization of my wife, and the 
 assumed indignation with what had been permitted 
 where not expressly directed seemed to me to put 
 the letter outside the limit of anything justifiable even 
 in a stranger." . . . 
 
 Time and space forbid anything like a full member 
 ship list of the now famous "Ananias Club" founded 
 by Mr. Roosevelt. Suffice it to say, that for a while 
 in Washington, it looked like pretty nearly everybody 
 in the nation would be proven a liar except Roose 
 velt! 
 
 Then the "liars" were given a little respite, after 
 
164 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Harriman s misdemeanors brought the "undesirable 
 citizens" into the lime-light. 
 
 These also comprise a numerous class (embracing 
 at present all who intend to vote for Bryan), but in 
 the beginning the charter membership was small, 
 Harriman, Debs, Hay wood and Moyer. No just plea 
 can be made for the first two, the one being a rich 
 malefactor, and the other a red-handed anarchist by 
 all the rules of the game. But the circumstances sur 
 rounding the last two at the time of the President s 
 denunciation, made it a little grave. Haywood and 
 Moyer were labor-union leaders, and on that account, 
 may have belonged in the anarchistic class in the opin 
 ion of some people. But the significant thing in Mr. 
 Roosevelt s characterization is, that these two men 
 were on trial for their lives ; were charged with a cap 
 ital crime. They might, or might not, be guilty of 
 complicity in the murder of Idaho s governor; the de 
 cision lay as yet in the hands of "twelve unprejudiced 
 jurors. Was it consistent with Presidential decorum, 
 or with the "square deal" guaranteed by the laws of 
 the country, for Mr. Roosevelt to attempt to influence 
 the jury, and anticipate their verdict with a pronun- 
 ciamento of his own? 
 
 Some there were who thought they perceived a 
 marked decline in Mr. Roosevelt s popularity after this 
 episode, but this also passed, in the quickly moving 
 Roosevelt cyclorama, and was forgotten, so he 
 hoped. 
 
 Then in the late Spring of 1907, Mr. Roosevelt 
 dreamed a bad dream, which he deemed it his duty to 
 communicate immediately to his publicity-monger?. 
 This perturbed vision was of a political "black hand"; 
 there was a "rich man s conspiracy" to defeat the 
 Roosevelt Policies! 
 
 The discovery of this iniquitous plot is ascribed to 
 the President s private secretary, Wm. Loeb, Jr. He 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE l6$ 
 
 it was who "caught on" to it, identified the conspira 
 tors, and dragged them to the light. Mr. Loeb has 
 been the subject of some facetious newspaper com 
 ment, because he once (so the story goes) became 
 panicky over a ferocious attack by Jack-rabbits while 
 accompanying one of the President s hunting trips in 
 the West. 
 
 This encounter with the Jack-rabbits perhaps un 
 strung Mr. Loeb s nerves, and pre-disposed him to 
 frightful apparitions. The plot, as given in detail in 
 the press, was as follows: A drunken Senator, bab 
 bling in his cups, had told an intimate friend of Presi 
 dent Roosevelt at a dinner party, that $5,000,000, 
 not a penny more nor less had been subscribed by 
 some of the "criminally rich" to defeat Mr. Roose 
 velt, or "any man of his type," for election to the pres 
 idency; and with consistent plutocratic cunning, this 
 bibulous and plotting Senator offered the Roosevelt 
 intimate $25,000 to come into the conspiracy ! 
 
 Think of trying to corrupt a Roosevelt intimate with 
 a paltry $25,000 ! No other evidence is needed of the 
 conspirator s maudlin condition. Of course the inti 
 mate only waited long enough to get the names of all 
 the wicked and predatory plotters to post off to the 
 White House, and communicate the alarming news to 
 Loeb, and Loeb, after getting "good and scared" 
 went and told the President, and the President told 
 the cuckoos, and the cuckoos told the country ! 
 
 And does the country believe it? Great pains have 
 been taken to give out the impression to the country 
 that it should love Mr. Roosevelt for the "enemies he 
 has made." Wall Street and all the Captains of "pred 
 atory wealth" have been pictured lined up in a solid 
 phalanx against Roosevelt and Roosevelt "policies." 
 No attention whatever is paid to the fact that Roose 
 velt was born into the wealthy class, and naturally 
 sympathizes with them, his life-long associates and 
 
1 66 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 friends, more than with this strange, uncouth, and 
 horny-handed multitude. No account is taken of 
 Roosevelt s plutocratic associates and intimates. One 
 of the reasons assigned for Platt s consenting to his 
 nomination for governor in 1898, was that "two influ 
 ential campaign contributors, Mr. Morgan and Mr. 
 Whitney especially Mr. Morgan liked him." It 
 will be remembered that Mr. Morgan was at an Oys 
 ter Bay conference in 1904, for which the Roosevelt 
 cuckoos supplied some innocent and plausible expla 
 nation. In this (1908) campaign year of grace, when 
 Mr. Archbold s (vice-president of Standard Oil) pri 
 vate yacht is observed at the Oyster Bay moorings, 
 Mr. Loeb hastens to assure a curious and interested 
 public that Mr. Archbold s visit "has no political sig 
 nificance!" I don t know what we should do without 
 Loeb. Without his ever-present, and ever-satisfying 
 explanations, we would lose the key to the Roose- 
 veltian combination time out of number. 
 
 One thing stands out in bold relief, from the In 
 surance investigations and the Harriman letters, and 
 that is, that Roosevelt was made President in 1904 in 
 consequence of a "rich man s conspiracy" ; and if there 
 is any "rich men s conspiracy" existent at present, it 
 may be safely argued that it is not against Roosevelt, 
 but against the toiling masses, and by all the signs of 
 the Roosevelt zodiac, he is in it, of it, and for it! 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 167 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BIG STICK. 
 
 "An American President is no bloodless, tame af 
 fair. He selects his own cabineteers, and of his mo 
 tion may disband them. He rules ; he isn t ruled. He 
 listens, but he decides. His veto is equal to two-thirds 
 of Congress. He arbitrarily controls 200,000 under 
 lings of government, who draw an aggregate annual 
 salary of 200 million dollars. An English king may 
 hardly name his cook, or select his coachman. The 
 President is in absolute command of the Army and 
 Navy, and may order them to attack anybody or any 
 thing, at home or abroad, and they will obey that or 
 der. Legally, he has no power to declare war; but 
 since in fact he may provoke it, begin it, and end it, 
 one sees that the Constitution, while providing a dis 
 tinction, has forgotten to provide a difference. Every 
 department of government is under the presidential 
 thumb. He is, if not above, then beyond the law ; for 
 the highest courts will not issue its writs of summons, 
 subpoena, attachment, mandamus, injunction, or con 
 tempt against him. There are but two checks to your 
 President, public opinion and the Congressional 
 power of impeachment. The latter has been resorted 
 to but once, and it failed." 
 
 In this graphic language has Alfred Henry Lewis, 
 one of the Roosevelt boomers in 1904, set forth the 
 varied governmental functions of our Chief Execu 
 tive. Whether he caught the idea of the "big stick" 
 from Mr. Lewis inspiring epigrams, or evolved it out 
 
i68 ROOSEVELT: AN FAcf AND FABLE 
 
 of his own inner strenuousness, pretty soon after this, 
 or was it before? It really doesn t matter, for it 
 seems to be as well established as the Ten Command 
 ments or the Golden Rule or any other ancient wis 
 dom which has neither beginning nor end at some 
 point in his well-marked and well-advertised career 
 therefore T. R. let fall the careless remark which 
 was to secure him more fame than all his voluminous 
 "literary works," or all his strenuous speechifying, 
 more even than the unprecedented output of presiden 
 tial messages, regular and special. 
 
 " Speak softly, carry a big stick, and you will travel 
 far," quoth T. R. in that lucky moment when his Star 
 of Destiny twinkled in the American firmament. 
 Altho "speak softly" seems to have had precedence of 
 the "big stick" in the original grouping, the latter has 
 so far distanced it in the business of "travelling far," 
 that many persons do not even remember that "speak 
 ing softly" was once the ornamental antithesis of the 
 Roosevelt BIG STICK. This has grown by what it 
 feeds upon, until it fills all the land with its bigness, 
 and has completely revolutionized our former ideals of 
 government. Most thoughtful students of our Con 
 stitution realize that it gives too much power to the 
 President. It has been pointed out by more than one 
 conservative publicist, that this Executive power, even 
 within Constitutional limits, might become a great 
 menace to popular government, when placed in the 
 hands of a self-seeking, unscrupulous President. For 
 tunately for the Republic, most of her presidents, while 
 evincing the common infirmities of our infirm hu 
 manity, have not shown an aggressive spirit in the 
 matter of transcending the bounds set for them by 
 the Constitution. 
 
 We may even go further than that, and say that 
 few of the Presidents preceding Roosevelt have even 
 come up to the full measure of their Constitutional 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 169 
 
 prerogatives. It may also be asserted with utmost 
 truth, and without any exaggeration, that Theodore 
 Roosevelt has overridden his Constitutional bounds 
 oftener and further than any other President the 
 country has had. The BIG STICK has indeed "trav 
 elled far" in its inroads upon the Constitution. 
 
 The favorite method inaugurated by the rule of the 
 BIG STICK is to rule by means of commissions and 
 bureaus, which are to act "within the discretion of the 
 President." And so we have a Panama Commission 
 appointed by the President, which is administering 
 affairs on the Isthmus, and what the Commission is 
 not empowered to do, the President is supplying by 
 Executive order. Courts are created, and judges ap 
 pointed by Executive order, and Congress has nothing 
 to say or to do about any of it, except to appropriate 
 the money as the President calls for it. 
 
 We have also a Philippine Commission, which oper 
 ates the machinery of government for the Filipinos, 
 and is answerable to no one but the President. The 
 Philippine Courts are also established by Executive 
 order, and the judicial decisions are in entire accord 
 with the Roosevelt "policies." When the head of the 
 Insular Office was asked: "Who advised Mr. Roose 
 velt that the title to the friar lands was vested in the 
 Pope?" he replied, "It was so decided by the Philip 
 pine Court." 
 
 "And who established the authority of the Philip 
 pine court?" and the answer was, "President Roose 
 velt." Ah ! the service was mutual. 
 
 When President Roosevelt sent Secretary Taft on 
 his last visit of inspection to the Islands, the amiable 
 Secretary brought back a most optimistic report. But 
 if everything isn t "lovely, and the goose hanging 
 high" in the Philippines, it is hanging too far away 
 to disturb the reflections of the average American citi 
 zen. 
 
I7O ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 So many commissions and bureaus have been cre 
 ated whose members are appointed by the President, 
 and act "within his discretion," that the fear has been 
 expressed in some quarters, that all the functions of 
 Congress are being gradually absorbed by the Execu 
 tive, and pretty soon, if the present trend continues, 
 Congress will be in the forlorn position of nothing to 
 do but sigh like Othello over its vanished occupa 
 tion! Many of these commissions are given super 
 vision of work which the standing committees of Con 
 gress are appointed to do. 
 
 For instance, Congress has a committee on Rivers 
 and Harbors, which is supposed to look after all 
 needed improvements in inland waterways and which, 
 having a most efficient membership, has very thor 
 oughly fulfilled the purpose of its appointment. But 
 the Strenuous President decided that we needed also 
 an "Inland Waterways Commission" ; and so he ap 
 pointed one, by authority of the BIG STICK, and 
 without the consent of Congress which of course must 
 appropriate the money to pay the Commission, if it is 
 paid. The last advices from the "Inland Waterways 
 Commission," stated that Congress had not come up 
 with the requisite appropriation, but that the BIG 
 STICK had announced to the "congress of Govern 
 ors" assembled at the White House, "if Congress 
 did not find a way pretty soon to perpetuate the In 
 land Waterways Commission, that he would!" 
 
 Whereupon Senator Teller remarked in his quiet, 
 plaintive fashion: 
 
 "If the President can find a way to maintain this 
 commission without any appropriation from Congress, 
 it may be economy to let him do it !" 
 
 The subjects calling for BIG STICK regulation 
 range from the highest to the most trivial affairs of 
 the nation. But whether it is delivering an ultimatum 
 and timely warning to a foreign power little ones, 
 
ROOSEVELT: AN FACT AND FABLE 171 
 
 that is, like the Latin-American Republics, or caus 
 ing the arrest and suspension of a steamboat pilot for 
 the daring impertinence of running his boat in such 
 manner as to outdistance the one carrying the Presi 
 dential person, there is the same complacent intima 
 tion of "the divine right" of this Rooseveltian sceptre. 
 The days of the rule of the BIG STICK are now 
 numbered. But still reaching after "the good, the 
 beautiful, and the true," Mr. Roosevelt has recently 
 suggested that a "commission to look after sanitary 
 conditions in rural homes, particularly in the South," 
 is one of the urgent needs of the times, but the sug 
 gestion doesn t appear to have evoked any very great 
 enthusiasm. If Mr. Roosevelt has any future de 
 signs on the colored vote, either for himself or for 
 others, some one who is interested in him, should give 
 him the friendly tip, that a strenuous enforcement of 
 sanitary laws upon the colored population of the 
 South would likely cause as great a hostile commotion 
 as Brownsville! 
 
172 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 So much has been said in the press, in Congress, 
 and in the boarding-houses of the Roosevelt "policies," 
 and so insistent and clamorous has been the claim of 
 the Strenuous one himself that he had "policies," that 
 the average American comprehends in some vague 
 general way, that T. R. either has better policies than 
 anybody else in the policy business, or more of em, 
 or probably both the average American is not quite 
 clear. But if you ask this average American with 
 this well-defined conviction about the Roosevelt poli 
 cies what are these policies? nine chances to one, 
 he will be thrown into stammering confusion, and 
 cannot even hazard an intelligent guess. 
 
 Sympathy has always gone to the U. S. Senator 
 who, when accused of complicity in "the rich men s 
 conspiracy" to defeat the only policies of the only 
 T. R., stoutly protested his innocence, and urged in 
 defense, that he was an ardent admirer of Mr. Roose 
 velt, and that he had always voted for the "Policies," 
 whenever he could find out what they were ! 
 
 The best known writer on public men and political 
 subjects in Washington, was asked by a bewildered on 
 looker, as to the "Policies," and he replied: "Mr. 
 Roosevelt has been on both sides of the tariff, on both 
 sides of the Negro question, on both sides of the 
 Octopus chase, and on both sides of Civil-Service 
 Reform." 
 
 No wonder that poor U. S. Senator was confused J 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 173 
 
 William Jennings Bryan, ever more charitable in 
 his judgment of Roosevelt, than Roosevelt has ever 
 been in his judgment of Bryan once attempted a 
 formal classification of the Roosevelt policies, as fol 
 lows: 
 
 "Democratic doctrines advocated by Roosevelt: 
 "I. Railroad Regulation. II. Enforcement of Anti 
 trust law. III. The Income tax. IV. Arbitration in 
 Labor disputes. 
 
 "Democratic doctrines Roosevelt has not endorsed: 
 I. Tariff Reform. II. Election of U. S. senators by 
 popular vote. III. Ultimate Independence for the 
 Filipinos. IV. Restraint of government by Injunc 
 tion. (This was before the date of the Chicago Anti- 
 injunction plank.) 
 
 " [/n-Democratic doctrines of Roosevelt: 
 "I. National Incorporation of railroads and other 
 interstate corporations. II. Ship subsidy. III. Asset 
 Currency. IV. Militarism." 
 
 With this categorical outline as a lamp to our feet, 
 we will travel apace into the realm of history and 
 official record, to see what we can discover about the 
 famous "POLICIES." 
 
 Early in 1906, when Mr. Roosevelt gave forth his 
 strenuous "Yi, yi, yip! siss-boom!" mandate to Con 
 gress to "regulate the railroad rates," it is related that 
 the Hon. Nelson Aldrich from Rhode Island other 
 wise known unofficially as "the Boss of the Senate" 
 mistook it for the "college yell of a Correspondence 
 School of Economics" ; but on becoming convinced 
 that it proceeded from the White House, the Boss sat 
 up and made extensive observations. Faithfully in 
 the weeks that followed, did this conscientious servant 
 of the "Interests" strive to thwart this foolish "regu 
 lating" Act, by the eccentric, erratic, and chaotic Pres 
 ident (who was unfortunately attached to the Boss s 
 own party at this time), and his absurd Democratic 
 
ROOSEVELIIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 following. But by and by, this pitiful Democratic 
 minority became not so pitiful as was its wont. Not 
 attempting to explain, even to itself, why the strenuous 
 Republican President had chosen to champion a meas 
 ure taken bodily from the Democratic platform and 
 about which the platform on which he was elected, 
 had been ominously silent, this hard-working and as 
 tute Democratic minority, being able to decipher a 
 good thing when it was stuck under its legislative nose, 
 kept steadily on the railroad-rate job, until it was as 
 certained that the President had secured enough 
 pledged votes on the Republican side of the Senate, 
 which added to the entire Democratic contingent 
 could carry the bill on its final passage. This bill, as 
 agreed upon between the President and his Democratic 
 allies, would empower the Interstate Commerce Com 
 mission to fix the shipping rates of common carriers 
 at a reasonable figure, where there was complaint of 
 exorbitant charge by the carrier; with the narrowest 
 possible opportunity for the courts to review and over 
 turn the Commission s findings. This was the sort of 
 railroad-rate bill the Democrats favored, and this was 
 the sort the President favored, and would support with 
 his pledged Republican votes, at least this was the 
 message Chandler and Moody brought from him to 
 the Democratic Senators who were engineering the 
 bill. 
 
 But this sort of a railroad-rate bill was by no means 
 pleasing to the Hon. Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Is 
 land, the aforesaid Senate-Boss. Accounts vary as 
 to the subsequent proceedings, in some minor details. 
 Some assert, that when everything was in readiness 
 for a final vote on the rate bill carrying a narrow court 
 review, in that merry month of May, 1906; when all 
 was peace and quietness along the Potomac, the "big 
 stick" and the "pitchfork" having been both wreathed 
 in peach-blossoms and tied together with red-white- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 175 
 
 and-blue ribbons for the occasion, suddenly the wily 
 Senate Boss arose and beckoned to Senator Allison of 
 Iowa ; and that between them they fixed up the scheme 
 which caused the President s sudden change of front, 
 and sent the bolt out of the clear blue into the Demo 
 cratic camp, causing angry turmoil where gladness 
 and harmony had reigned. Others say that Senator 
 Allison was sick abed at the time the "Amendment" 
 bearing his name was formulated and laid before the 
 President and knew nothing about it until it was all 
 over. 
 
 All agree that the adroit Senator from Rhode Is 
 land carried the so-called "Allison Amendment" for 
 years the Boss had been modestly launching his 
 choicest measures under other Senators names to the 
 White House, and in presenting it, took occasion to 
 whisper, lago-like, into the Executive ear: "Do you 
 realize that you are playing into the hands of Tillman 
 and Bailey, who are preparing to cut the throat of the 
 Republican Party? And that they are simply making 
 a tool and an object of ridicule of you?" 
 
 The Boss was better acquainted with the temper of 
 the "tool" than were the wicked, designing Democrats. 
 To "cut the throat of the Republican Party" might 
 have been condoned, if T. Roosevelt were to be glori 
 fied over the remains ; but that he should appear in the 
 unflattering light of a "tool" and an "object of ridi 
 cule" was not to be endured for a moment ! The Boss 
 who had come nearer to being unhorsed than ever 
 before in his victorious career was once more in the 
 ascendant. 
 
 It was all up with the "narrow court-review." The 
 "Allison Amendment" which provided for a very 
 broad court-review, was promptly espoused by Mr. 
 Roosevelt, and in this emasculated form, the railroad- 
 rate regulation which had promised so gloriously for 
 
176 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the cause of the shippers against the railroad "octo 
 pus" finally passed both Houses and became the law. 
 
 Tillman uttered his scornful charge of "bad faith" 
 against the President, in the open court of the Senate, 
 and he adduced Senator Chandler s statement in 
 proof of the Rooseveltian perfidy. Senator Lodge, 
 who wears always a Roosevelt chip on his shoulder, 
 rushed out to the telephone, and obtaining the White 
 House connection, told His Strenuous Majesty what 
 dreadful things Tillman was uttering on the floor of 
 the Senate at that very moment. Soon Lodge was 
 back in the Senate Chamber, armed with the Executive 
 denial, and interrupted Mr. Tillman s oratorical flow 
 long enough to tell him, with his most emphatic, un 
 compromising manner, and in his best Boston gram 
 mar, that the things he was attributing to the Presi 
 dent upon the authority of Senator Chandler, were 
 absolutely and unqualifiedly -false, upon the Presi 
 dent s own avowal now then !" It appears that even 
 Tillman was staggered by the force of this presidential 
 denial, for he dropped into silence for the time. 
 
 Two days later, however, Tillman returned to the 
 charge, this time armed with Senator Chandler s 
 written and certified statement as to what transpired 
 between the President and himself in the railroad rate 
 negotiation. Chandler retracted nothing of his previ 
 ous statement, but reaffirmed and added to ; and a 
 note from Loeb to Senator Chandler was introduced 
 as refuting evidence of the President s disingenuous 
 showing that Tillman had approached him with a re 
 quest for negotiations. 
 
 Roosevelt does not evince his usual shrewdness in 
 this. It was all very well to charge Harriman with 
 making advances to the White House throne, but it 
 was too great a straining of public credulity in the case 
 of Tillman. It may well be doubted, if Lodge himself 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 177 
 
 believed that Senator Tillman would make an over 
 ture of any kind to President Roosevelt. 
 
 In one of the most dramatic and impressive scenes 
 ever enacted in the Senate, Tillman, with unprece 
 dented calmness, and with the dignity and solemnity of 
 a judge passing sentence, arraigned President Roose 
 velt before the "facts and the evidence," for breaking 
 faith with his Democratic allies, without cause and 
 without warning; and for surrendering the people s 
 cause to the railroad "interests." "I do not say," de 
 clared the Pitchfork Senator in his most judicial tone, 
 "that the President was bound not to change his mind ; 
 but I do say, that, having come to a definite and posi 
 tive agreement with us through his own accredited 
 agents, he was bound to give notice of such change; 
 and to claim otherwise, as Attorney-General Moody 
 is trying to do is to assert that the ordinary code of 
 honor which obtains among gentlemen, is not bind 
 ing upon the President and his Cabinet." 
 
 Senator Bailey, rather more charitable than Till 
 man, and probably with a more accurate discernment 
 of the situation, was inclined to think the President 
 had merely "surrendered" to the Boss; and he ironi 
 cally congratulated "the Senator from Rhode Island 
 on having resumed control of the Republican Party"; 
 at the same time he declared : "Let us hear no more 
 of this man-of-iron in the White House. He has 
 shown himself in this, a man-of-clay, and very ordi 
 nary clay at that !" 
 
 Meantime Mr. Roosevelt, finding himself in a most 
 awkward position before the public, had recourse to 
 his usual panacea. He assembled his faithful 
 "cuckoo" flock to the White House, and "gave out" a 
 statement for the press: All legislation is based upon 
 compromise, as they knew; the President could not 
 force his will upon Congress; he must take what he 
 could get, and do the best he could. The Allison bill, 
 
1/8 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 being the last compromise submitted, seemed to em 
 body about all in the way of rate regulation that could 
 be obtained at present; and so the President had de 
 cided to recommend that to Congress, as the best they 
 could do ! 
 
 The astonished "cuckoos" listened in silence being 
 well-trained birds tho most of them had received 
 previous and authoritative information, that the Presi 
 dent had corraled and counted enough Republican 
 votes in the Senate to pass with the help of the Dem 
 ocrats the form of bill (with the "narrow court-re 
 view") which he had at first declared he would sup 
 port. But the first duty of a presidential cuckoo is 
 like that of "the famous Six Hundred," "theirs 
 not to reason why; theirs, but to do or die!" And so 
 they did, finding it preferable to death or dismissal. 
 And now, oh faithful cuckoo-brood, bend attentive ear 
 to another interesting bit of information with which 
 your presidential master would regale the public mind, 
 and give it something else to think about besides his 
 own unhappy predicament in the railroad-rate legisla 
 tion. He has caught from far-off Texas the pre 
 monitory rumblings of Mr. Bailey s factional fight in 
 his own State; he has been advised that Mr. Bailey s 
 seemingly frank and earnest advovacy of railroad-rate 
 regulation is only a pose, the Texas Senator being in 
 fact in direct collusion with the "octopus" ; he has 
 heard also that Tillman distrusts Bailey; he (the Presi 
 dent) cannot of course compromise his own position, 
 by any unholy alliance with the suspected Texas Sen 
 ator, and so (by way of demonstrating his absolute 
 incorruptibility before all the people) he accepts a 
 measure framed by Senator Aldrich, whose patriotic 
 devotion to the people s cause, is always above re 
 proach ! 
 
 And so next day, the country was warned through 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 1/9 
 
 the obedient publicity hosts to have a care, and keep 
 an eye upon Senator Bailey ! 
 
 Then followed Bailey s memorable angry defence 
 in the Senate, wherein he freely applied the Ananias 
 decoration to the President or to the newspaper hosts, 
 he didn t care which whoever was most entitled to 
 wear it. Tillman sustained Bailey, remarking in his 
 characteristic way, "Here seems to be another muck 
 rake, with its handle in the White House." 
 
 But consider for a moment, if you please, gentle 
 reader, this spectacle of the President of the United 
 States, assailing in the presence of an irresponsible 
 newspaper clique the honor of a U. S. Senator, in 
 anticipation of a charge not yet brought against it, and 
 when it was, clearly a matter for the State of Texas 
 to deal with, and decide. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Texas later decided it, decided 
 it twice, we believe, in Senator Bailey s favor. But 
 even had the verdict been adverse, and Mr. Bailey con 
 victed of too great friendliness with the "Interests" 
 as was charged was it fitting, or seemly, think you, 
 that the man who had shielded Elihu Root, Paul Mor 
 ton, and Francis B. Loomis, to say nothing of his 
 own shady connection with Harriman and the Insur 
 ance Companies, should cast the first stone at him? 
 The malicious cunning, the ineffable meanness, and 
 the Pecksniffian pharisaism of this covert thrust at the 
 Texas Senator, put it outside the pale of anything 
 presidential which this country had ever before wit 
 nessed, and let us hope that it will continue sui generis. 
 
 This is a faithful report of the way in which Mr. 
 Roosevelt "advocated" the Democratic doctrine of 
 railroad-rate regulation, and if you think it lacks offi 
 cial confirmation, kindly consult the Congressional 
 Records and the Washington newspaper files of that 
 period, March, April and May, 1906. 
 
 If this Rate Bill has secured any great practical 
 
I So ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 benefits to the toiling masses, few persons are so well 
 posted as to be able to put a finger on them, off-hand. 
 It was a very large legislative mountain, which labored 
 strenuously and resonantly for many months, and in 
 the end, a very small legislative mouse came forth; 
 yet small as it is, it is the only reform measure which 
 can hold a brief for Roosevelt in the day of his trial. 
 Let him have the full measure of credit, therefore, for 
 all there is in it. 
 
 And now let us take a peep at his Anti-trust record, 
 of which there has been such noisy exploitation. If 
 you have taken your impression of Rooseveltian 
 "trust-busting" from the newspapers, and the special 
 claquers who are retained to fill magazine space for 
 the glorification of Roosevelt, you probably think that 
 organized wealth and large industrial combines 
 "operating in restraint of trade" have never had such 
 an uncompromising foe and vigorous prosecutor in 
 this country, as the present Strenuous occupant of the 
 White House. But if you are asked the specific ques 
 tion, which trusts has he busted? you will probably 
 be puzzled for a reply. And if you want an exact 
 and succinct statement of what has been actually done, 
 or of what has been attempted by the Roosevelt Ad- 
 "ministration, in the direction of curbing the trusts, you 
 may find it in a neat little pamphlet issued by the De 
 partment of Justice, containing a complete list of all 
 "civil and criminal cases instituted by the United 
 States under the Sherman Anti-Trust law of 1890 and 
 the Act to Regulate Commerce (of 1887) as Amended, 
 including the Elkins Act" (1903). This record of 
 anti-trust prosecution by the Government covers four 
 Administrations, Harrison s, Cleveland s second 
 term, McKinley s, and Roosevelt s down to Dec. 2, 
 1907, and Roosevelt s portion, briefly condensed, is as 
 follows: Actions of every kind under the Sherman 
 law, brought by the Roosevelt Administration, are 34 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE l8l 
 
 in number, comprising 16 bills in equity, and 18 crim 
 inal indictments. Of these 34 cases, only 8 are of the 
 major class, all the others being of minor importance, 
 and just such cases as have been instituted in the 
 courts every year since the law was enacted, under 
 Democratic and Republican administrations alike. Of 
 these 8 big cases, only three have been won by the 
 Government, as compared with six important cases 
 won by the Government in the eight years preceding 
 Roosevelt. 
 
 Under the Act to Regulate Commerce (approved 
 1887), 48 suits were instituted by Harrison s Admin 
 istration, 102 cases prosecuted under Cleveland s sec 
 ond Administration, 15 under McKinley s, and 21 
 under Roosevelt. 
 
 Most of the actions aimed at "predatory wealth" by 
 the Roosevelt Administration, have been brought un 
 der the Elkins Rebate law (approved 1903) which his 
 predecessors in office did not have, tho they repeatedly 
 won rebate cases under the old statute to regulate 
 commerce. The cases, both civil and criminal, insti 
 tuted under the Elkins Act, which are accredited to 
 Mr. Roosevelt s Administration, are 129, yet it may 
 be questioned, if in all the 129, there was one so 
 flagrant as that of the Santa Fe Railway Company, 
 which implicated his dear friend and cabineteer, Paul 
 Morton, and was therefore quietly quashed. 
 
 Many of the cases instituted under the Roosevelt 
 regime have been of small importance, and of the 
 three big cases prosecuted and won under the Sherman 
 law, namely, U. S. vs. Northern Securities Co. ; U. S. 
 vs. Swift & Co. (Beef Trust) ; and U. S. vs. General 
 Paper Co. (Paper Trust), what has been the practical 
 outcome? An injunction was granted against the 
 Paper Company, and the combination was ordered 
 dissolved; yet a large delegation, representing the 
 largest consumers of white print paper in the country, 
 
1 82 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 called on President Roosevelt in November, 1907, to 
 inform him the decree had been wholly ineffective, and 
 that the Paper Trust still controls prices. It will be 
 remembered that one of the things the last Congress 
 was most urgently importuned to do, was to take the 
 duty off wood-pulp and print paper, in order to afford 
 some relief from the exorbitant prices of the Paper 
 Trust. The case against the packers was equally dis 
 appointing. An attempt to bring criminal action 
 against the officers of the Beef Trust, ended in failure, 
 and the housewives of the country can probably testify 
 as to the effect of the Government s victory in lower 
 ing the price of beef. Of the Northern Securities 
 merger, Bennett in his "Roosevelt and the Republic" 
 says : "The merger has been a hard fact in the North 
 west since those days in 1901, when the Hill-Morgan 
 interests gained control of the Northern Pacific and 
 the Burlington railways. It was as hard a fact after 
 the Government victory as before. Now it is as hard 
 a fact as it was before the Government brought its 
 suit. ... As to results, the rose is just as sweet by 
 any other name, the merger just as profitable by any 
 other title or no title at all, as by the title of the 
 Northern Securities Company/ 
 
 Thus it will appear, that when we come to sum up 
 the practical results of the Roosevelt "trust-busting," 
 we haven t much to the good. 
 
 Nor has he consistently adhered to the "trust-bust 
 ing" theory, not in several conspicuous and notable 
 instances. These are sufficient to indicate pretty 
 clearly, that whenever trust prosecution was going to 
 involve any of Mr. Roosevelt s "dear friends," or hin 
 der his personal ambitions, the Roosevelt roaring-lion 
 in the path of the "wicked" trust became suddenly a 
 timid sheep. E. H. Harriman was as much of a "rich 
 malefactor" in 1904, when Roosevelt sought his aid, 
 and affectionately put him in the same "practical" 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 183 
 
 class with himself, as he was in 1907, when the Strenu 
 ous "trust-buster" almost threw the State of Illinois 
 into the Chicago River in his efforts to "get at" the 
 wicked Harriman. 
 
 Yet the only observable difference (to a dispassion 
 ate on-looker) between the "dear Harriman" of 1904 
 and the "undesirable citizen" of 1907, is that in the one 
 case he was a compliant campaign contributor, and in 
 the other he had refused to contribute to Republican 
 resources in 1906, and (a much greater offence) had 
 said some unflattering things about Roosevelt in the 
 same connection. 
 
 Again, when the U. S. Steel Corporation wanted to 
 absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co. in the winter 
 of 1907, its president, Mr. Gary, came to Washington, 
 and apprised Mr. Roosevelt of his "octopus" inten 
 tion ; at the same time asking immunity from the Sher 
 man anti-trust law, and darkly hinting that if such 
 immunity were not granted, it would result very dis 
 astrously for the "business interests" of the country, 
 and precipitate a worse panic than the one already on. 
 
 The newspaper gossip of Washington averred that 
 the conference between the Steel-Trust magnate and 
 the Presidential octopus-chaser, lasted all night, but 
 at daybreak, Mr. Gary came away smiling and confi 
 dent. 
 
 The story of the all-night White House seance may 
 be an invention, but it is no invention that the Steel 
 Trust did absorb the Tennessee Coal and Iron Co., 
 and you may search the records of the Attorney-Gen 
 eral s Office in vain for any suit instituted by the Gov 
 ernment against the Steel Trust in consequence. The 
 most recent instance in which Mr. Roosevelt stayed 
 his prosecuting hand against monopolistic greed, was 
 the case of the New Haven Railway merger last May 
 (1908). Investigations instituted by the Department 
 of Justice several months previous, brought out the 
 
184 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 fact that this Railway Company had swallowed up all 
 competing lines, and monopolized about all the trans 
 portation facilities in three States. 
 
 The rumor getting abroad that the merger was liable 
 to prosecution by the Government, brought several 
 vice-presidents of the Company to Washington to con 
 fer with President Roosevelt. These were given to 
 understand so they said that no action would be 
 taken against the Company, for the present at least, 
 and on no account, without due notification. Mean 
 time the government attorneys, under the direction of 
 Attorney-General Bonaparte, prepared an indictment 
 of the New Haven Co. for gross violation of the Sher 
 man Anti-trust law. News of this brought Vice-presi 
 dent Tymothy E. Byrnes promptly to a White House 
 conference, on Thursday, May 21, and when it ended, 
 Mr. Byrnes gave out the statement, that he had no 
 fear of government prosecution for his Company. 
 
 When therefore suit was filed against the New 
 Haven merger next day (May 22) in Boston in the 
 U. S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachu 
 setts, probably Mr. Byrnes was the most surprised 
 man in the country except Mr. Roosevelt. The lat 
 ter immediately telephoned to the Attorney-General s 
 office a peremptory order to "kill the news" of the 
 suit, and stop the proceedings. But the afternoon pa 
 pers had already published the item, and when in the 
 Cabinet meeting next morning, the President angrily 
 demanded an explanation of Mr. Bonaparte, the Attor 
 ney-General, greatly to his credit, met the issue 
 squarely. He had supposed it to be the policy of this 
 Administration to punish offenders against the Anti 
 trust law. The New Haven Railway Company had 
 come within the exercise of that law, upon the find 
 ings of the Department. And furthermore, his fight 
 ing blood stirred evidently by the flourish of the Big 
 Stick the President must understand, that the peti- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 185 
 
 tion filed in the Boston Court against the New Haven 
 Railway Company would stand, or he, the Attorney- 
 General who had ordered the petition, would tender 
 his resignation from the Cabinet. 
 
 This ultimatum from the Attorney-General had the 
 effect of cooling the presidential ire and retiring the 
 Big Stick from the controversy. 
 
 A report of the Cabinet clash which appeared in the 
 newspapers was promptly rebuked as he has rebuked 
 so many things with an Executive denial. Every 
 body was too polite of course to continue the subject, 
 but the man who had reported the incident, one of the 
 most accurate, and conservative newspaper men of 
 Washington, assured the writer that the facts are as 
 above related. 
 
 So much for the Roosevelt enforcement of anti 
 trust laws. Of his championship of the income tax, 
 ascribed to him by Mr. Bryan, we have heard but lit 
 tle; and certainly nothing has been accomplished in 
 this direction by anybody, if we except the tax on the 
 incomes of the "criminal rich" levied every four years 
 for the purpose of electing to office the men who make 
 it possible for them to continue their "crimes." 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was the beneficiary of a very large 
 "income-tax" of this sort four years ago. 
 
 As to arbitration in labor disputes, there is the Coal 
 Strike Commission of some years ago, on the credit 
 side of the Roosevelt balance sheet; for this, being 
 one of his earliest presidential acts, is also probably 
 the best. Longer lease of power has not improved 
 the Roosevelt "policies," nor sweetened the Roose- 
 veltian spirit. On the other side of the balance sheet 
 is his sending the United States troops to Goldfield, 
 Neveda, to overawe and crush the miners who had re 
 fused to accept cashier s checks in payment for their 
 wages, without some form of guaranty from the mine 
 owners. The report of the commission which the 
 
1 86 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 President later sent to investigate the conditions, 
 proved the sending of the troops to Goldfield to have 
 been wholly unnecessary, and unwarranted by law. It 
 was very characteristic of Roosevelt, to send the 
 troops first, and the investigating commission after 
 wards, though a reversal of the program might have 
 saved a great deal of trouble, and needless irritation to 
 the miners. 
 
 True, the troops were sent at the request of the 
 Governor of the State, but as afterwards transpired, 
 this request had been obtained from the Governor 
 while in a compliant mood superinduced by convivial 
 banqueting, provided by the mine owners, among 
 whom was the delectable Simon Guggenheim of Col 
 orado, the plethoric gentleman who "had the price," 
 and didn t mind giving it for a seat in the United 
 States Senate, nor boasting about it afterwards. 
 
 Of the "un-Democratic" policies attributed to 
 Roosevelt, namely, national incorporations of rail 
 roads (there is some difference of opinion as to the 
 authorship of this "policy"), asset currency, ship- 
 subsidy, and militarism, not much need be said, except 
 that any man espousing them, may be allowed all the 
 glory he can extract from the espousal. 
 
 The last mentioned, militarism, is probably the 
 most genuine and truly representative Rooseveltian 
 "policy." He would like to be a "war lord," tho at 
 present his war record is neither very long nor very 
 glorious. But if allowed to work his own sweet will 
 in this nation, he would maintain a large standing- 
 army, and a costly, spectacular fleet. 
 
 It is worthy of note, that the "policy" which is most 
 essentially his own, which most accurately reflects his 
 ruling passion, is at the same time the most dangerous 
 and destructive one for this Republic. 
 
 If we wish to see what militarism of the Roose- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 1 87 
 
 vcltian type does for a people, we need only look across 
 the sea to France the puppet nation. 
 
 Roosevelt asked the Congress just past for four 
 additional battleships, and inspired a battle royal for 
 them upon the part of the more ardent and martial 
 spirits in Congress. But older and wiser counsel pre 
 vailed, and Congress appropriated money for two new 
 battleships. 
 
 Roosevelt has sent more messages to Congress 
 regular, special and "extra" than any other Presi 
 dent the sun ever shone upon, yet for the most part, 
 they give very little specific information anent the 
 "policies." 
 
 Unlike the messages of ordinary presidents, which 
 have only aimed at conveying their authors policies, 
 opinions and recommendations in matters govern 
 mental, the Roosevelt communications to Congress are 
 expansive and comprehensive treatises of universal 
 knowledge ; but when they come to Handing out exact 
 information as to "what the matter is in America," and 
 what Mr. Roosevelt thinks had better be done about it, 
 these oracular messages are much like a certain bill 
 which Mr. Blythe says Dr. Seth Low recently submit 
 ted for the President s consideration, and "which, 
 when you read it one way, handed out enormous quan 
 tities of up-lift for the toiling masses, and when you 
 read it another way, was not without its crumbs of 
 comfort for the spoiling classes." 
 
 This bill must have found instant favor with Mr. 
 Roosevelt, who, as a "good Lord, good Devil" orator, 
 is unsurpassed. This Delphic mode of expression is 
 what his admirers call "being fair to both sides," but 
 it is sorely puzzling to the honest seeker after truth 
 who is trying to find out "where Mr. Roosevelt is at." 
 
 On January 31, 1908, president Roosevelt sent a 
 message to Congress, which was a notable exception to 
 the great mass of Rooseveltian iteration. 
 
1 88 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 This message is clear-cut, vigorous and manly, and 
 couched in such cogent, irreproachable English, that 
 suspicious persons detected the fine, Italian hand of 
 Secretary Root in the composition of it. But the re 
 form note in this message was unequivocal. It de 
 nounced the trusts and all their works, and did not at 
 the same time, as one of the Roosevelt delineators 
 puts it "shake labor in the other hand." But alas ! 
 just as the people were settling comfortably down on 
 something really tangible and definite in the shape of 
 Roosevelt "policies," near two months later, on March 
 25, Mr. Roosevelt sent another message to Congress, 
 which sounded much like a "surrender to the trusts, 
 in return for their assistance in nominating Mr. Taft," 
 and this upon the deliberate, open charge of a Re 
 publican ex-Senator who has some reputation as a 
 civic reformer, and was at one time a close friend of 
 Mr. Roosevelt. 
 
 In the June and July numbers of Everybody s Mag 
 azine, Lincoln Steffins the man who has taken the 
 lid off of several municipal "hells," and poked the 
 lurid fires for the entertainment of the public, gives 
 some interesting interviews with presidential possi 
 bilities (at that time), Roosevelt-Taft-LaFollette, and 
 Bryan Jon Jonson, as to "What the Matter is in 
 America and What to do about it." One naturally 
 expects some illuminating passages from this source 
 as to the political wisdom of T. Roosevelt; but disap 
 pointment meets us on the threshold. The Stefiins 
 probing finger is restrained in some mysterious way 
 from the Roosevelt lid. This we are given to under 
 stand at the outset, covers a political and civic "Holy 
 of Holies," before which we must stand with bared 
 heads and bated breath, as the officiating priest "the 
 Square Deal" (all copyrights reserved, T. R.), reveals 
 to our profane and wondering eyes such of the esoteric, 
 Rooseveltian mysteries as seem safe and expedient for 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 189 
 
 the common people, and with this elucidation we 
 must fain be content. 
 
 We are indebted to Mr. Steffins, however, for pre 
 senting his hero to us in a brand new light, when he 
 has him naively admitting "that he does not know what 
 the matter is, fundamentally; and that he does not 
 know what to do about it, fundamentally, he wishes 
 he did !" 
 
 Such modesty from T. R. is as surprising as it h 
 novel, and also raises our hopes. If he is neither 
 able to diagnose the American malady, nor to prescribe 
 for it, there is clearly no longer any excuse for giving 
 him charge of the case. As a leader of our national 
 destinies, he is disqualified and disbarred by his own 
 words. Was it this unwonted modesty which over 
 came him when he reached the heroic height of third- 
 term renunciation? Perhaps. But tho T. R. may not 
 know what is the fundamental trouble in our body 
 politic, nor what to do about it, and we are perfectly 
 willing to take his word for it he always knows what 
 to do on the eve of a political campaign which involves 
 a struggle for the spoils. 
 
 He put so many good sound Democratic doctrines 
 into that January message, that the Democratic 
 Minority leader of Congress, with all his Sharpness 
 was caught in the trap. For weeks he contributed to 
 Republican vexation in the House, and to the gaiety 
 of the galleries, by yanking these Democratic meas 
 ures out of the President s message and inviting the 
 Republican majority to join with the minority in pass 
 ing them, which of course the Republican majority 
 declined to do, even as Roosevelt knew they would. 
 And if the majority were at all disturbed by the fact 
 that they were put in the attitude of opposing their 
 President s "policies" before the country there was 
 no outward sign of such embarrassment. The only 
 thing in the Democratic filibuster which troubled the 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 majority, was the useless prolongation of the session 
 into the hot weather. In the end, John Sharp was left 
 all flattened out under the Elephant s hoofs still 
 clutching the Roosevelt "policies !" With this net re 
 sult. The attention of the whole country was focused 
 upon the fact that the Roosevelt recommendations 
 were such that Democrats could endorse and support 
 them. 
 
 Now, then; with the Democracy putting its O. K. 
 on Mr. Roosevelt, and Mr. Roosevelt putting his O. K. 
 on Mr. Taft, and Mr. Taft sworn to carry out the 
 "policies," let the befogged voters find the firing line 
 in this campaign, if they can ! There are many men in 
 the Republic who can make rings all around Mr. 
 Roosevelt in the matter of oratory, literature, states 
 manship, and even as fighters, his particular boast. 
 But when it comes to the skillful manipulation of the 
 game of "practical" politics, T. Roosevelt is like Uncle 
 Remus s Brer Rabbit, "a leetle de soonest ob de 
 bunch !" 
 
 One who has shown much commendable persever 
 ance in becoming familiar with the literary writings 
 of Roosevelt, says, apropos of his accredited Demo 
 cratic tendencies, that "contempt hardly expresses the 
 feeling of the Spanish War hero for Thomas Jeffer 
 son. . . . There are scores of references, direct and 
 indirect, which evince an intense and bitter hatred of 
 the man who foiled Hamilton s plans for a centralized 
 government." 
 
 So far as we have been able to interpret Mr. Roose 
 velt s ideals of government, he goes Alxender Hamil 
 ton one better, and fashions them upon those of the 
 Kaiser and the Czar. He did not quite reach the point 
 of ashing Congress for a Commission to take off our 
 heads, "within the discretion of the President," but 
 that would doubtless have come with the "third 
 term," 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE IQI 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CAESAR PUTS BY THE CROWN. 
 
 Altho* the Constitution does not fix the limit of 
 presidential service in the United States, the prece 
 dent established by our first President, and followed 
 by all his successors, has made the two-term custom 
 and tradition as binding as any written law; and is 
 probably more respected by the mass of the people 
 than a great many of the graven statutes. When Mr. 
 Roosevelt was elected Vice-president in 1900, he was 
 at the same time elected president in the event of cer 
 tain untoward happenings, which in this case hap 
 pened. When therefore he was re-elected in 1904, it 
 probably never occurred to anybody except himself 
 that he was entitled to any more presidential runs, and 
 there was no occasion for any lofty and resonant re 
 nunciation of a third-term program, so far as the pub 
 lic was concerned. Since a man can only renounce 
 that which he possesses, or is reasonably sure of ob 
 taining and in this case, it is only a lively hope the 
 force of this great Roosevelt self-sacrifice is not read 
 ily obvious to just a plain every-day sort of person, 
 accustomed to reason about things in just a plain 
 every-day fashion. His election-night declaration, 
 that he would not again be a candidate for the presi 
 dency, did not attract very much attention, nor im 
 press anybody very deeply at the time, it seems, most 
 persons passing it by as one of the more harmless 
 manifestations of Rooseveltism until sometime af 
 terwards, when it became manifest that Mr, Roosevelt 
 
192 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 repented his hasty renunciation of a third-term ambi 
 tion. 
 
 Then was inaugurated that systematized effort by 
 all the various press agencies in the employ of Roose 
 velt, to create the impression that there was a great 
 popular demand for a continuance of Roosevelt rule. 
 This suggestion, appearing here and there in the press, 
 in special articles, and in cartoons, as early as 1906, 
 became more frequent in 1907, and grew more insist 
 ent up to the time of the Chicago Convention in June, 
 1908. Finding himself handicapped both by presiden 
 tial precedent and his own express declaration, Mr. 
 Roosevelt found it necessary either to declare for him 
 self or for some other, in order to justify his activity 
 in strengthening his hold upon the "organization," so 
 that it would still be his to wield either in the interest 
 of his own candidacy, or of a candidate of his selec 
 tion. Thus in November, 1907, he issued his famous 
 order to his Cabinet heads, to forbid Federal office 
 holders who might go to the National Convention be 
 ing instructed for himself, at the same time ordering 
 them to go uninstructed, so that they would still lie in 
 the hollow of Roosevelt s hand, to be turned to him 
 self, or to another, as events might render expedient 
 or imperative. And so he let it be known through his 
 faithful cuckoos that it was his desire to have Secre 
 tary Taft as his successor. Still the third-term talk 
 kept up, in one form or another, and the President 
 when appealed to for confirmation or denial, took ref 
 uge in non-committal silence or "impenetrable ambig 
 uity" to quote Colonel George Harvey. 
 
 So patent was it that the President was playing a 
 waiting game in the presidential nomination, that it 
 elicited an open rebuke from one of the members of 
 our highest tribunal. Justice Brewer of the U. S. Su 
 preme Court, addressing the Civic Forum of New 
 York, Nov. 20, 1907, in advocacy of a single seven- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 193 
 
 year elective term for our presidents, said: "If that 
 were the provision, with ineligibility to re-election, we 
 should not now have the spectacle of our strenuous 
 President playing hide and seek with the office." 
 
 Finally this intermittent and recrudescent third-term 
 talk for Roosevelt caused such uneasiness and uncer 
 tainty in the ranks of the Taft boomers, that they re 
 solved to force Mr. Roosevelt to a positive, unequivo 
 cal declaration of his position, which they did. As 
 he could not yet read his fate in the stars, he was 
 forced to reiterate his election-night declaration. And 
 so the campaign for Mr. Taft s nomination went mer 
 rily forward, with Roosevelt as commander-in-chief 
 of all the forces in the field. Federal officeholders in 
 every portion of the Union were set to work on the 
 Taft boom, and those keeping tab on the maneuvering, 
 reported them all very busy. Where federal appoint 
 ees were found more favorable to some other presi 
 dential aspirant, they were promptly displaced, and 
 Taft men put in. President Roosevelt had long since 
 abolished a safeguard which Grover Cleveland had 
 imposed for the protection of Civil Service employees, 
 that they should not be dismissed without a charge 
 filed against them by the head of the Department, and 
 an opportunity afforded them for a reply to the 
 charge. 
 
 Our foreign possessions, and our construction of 
 the Panama Canal, "as the President may direct," had 
 opened up numberless opportunities for special ap 
 pointments, and temporary appointments by the Presi 
 dent, all of which were bestowed as "spoils" upon 
 those who could serve the President s purposes. Mr. 
 Hitchcock was taken from the head of the Post Office 
 Department, and made the manager of the Taft cam- 
 pagin. His knowledge of postal affairs might make 
 him as useful in that capacity as Manager Cortelyou s 
 knowledge of corporation affairs had made him* 
 
194 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 Washington dispatches of March, 1907, gave in detail 
 the story of 32 postmasters appointed in Ohio to help 
 Secretary Taft control the State. 
 
 So flagrant and notorious was this manipulation oi 
 federal offices in the interest of Mr. Taft s candi 
 dacy, that a writer in the March, 1908, Arena, George 
 L. Rees, emphatically charges: "Mr. Roosevelt has 
 farmed out federal patronage in as shameful a man 
 ner as the French Louises sold the tax-collectorships 
 to the highest bidders. 
 
 But in this manner, Mr. Roosevelt built up a pow 
 erful "organization," which was to be the obedient 
 creature of his imperious will when the time came to 
 use it. Then about two or three months before the 
 date fixed for the Republican National Convention, 
 sinister reports began to circulate anent Mr. Taft s 
 "inherent weakness" as a candidate; and tho Presi 
 dent Roosevelt was still depicted as the ardent, strenu 
 ous supporter of his heir-apparent, the impression was 
 getting more and more prevalent, that the country 
 wanted not Taft, but Roosevelt ! 
 
 In the days when he was "playing hide-and-seek" 
 with the third-term lure, President Roosevelt was re 
 ported as saying, "if he believed he could break the 
 Solid South, he might be tempted to reconsider his de 
 termination not to try again for the presidency," and 
 whether this inspired John Temple Graves maudlin 
 toast, or the maudlin toast inspired "Teddy s" wob 
 bling on the third-term proposition, is not recalled in 
 the exact order of sequence nor does it matter. What 
 interests and impresses us is T. R. s sudden and affec 
 tionate solicitude for the Solid South. When he was 
 making up his general estimates of peoples and things, 
 which he has embalmed in his "literary works," he had 
 observed that "through the Southern character has 
 ever run a streak of coarse and brutal barbarism." 
 Not content with the ordinary appellation of "traitors," 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 he had in a Washington address referred to the ex- 
 Confederates as "anarchists" ; and he had gone out of 
 his way to be particularly offensive in his characteri 
 zation of Jefferson Davis, even assailing his private 
 character, which at least had escaped criticism from 
 reputable Northerners before the time of Roosevelt. 
 
 But now if the "brutal and barbarous, traitorous 
 and anarchistic" South will only display a genial rift 
 in its solid front for the Roosevelt sun-god, and 
 thereby afford him an excuse for going back on his 
 word, and attempting to overturn the third-term prece 
 dent, the magnanimous T. R. is willing to forgive and 
 forget "until after election" anyhow ! 
 
 And so, about a week or two before the Chicago 
 meet, a pretty story appeared in one of the Washing 
 ton papers, written by a Georgian, describing a won 
 derful "Roosevelt wave" in the Sunny South; begin 
 ning in the little town of Rossville, the home of Presi 
 dent Roosevelt s mother (by way of lending a romantic 
 touch), a petition was circulated, beseeching for four 
 years more of Roosevelt, and with incredible rapidity 
 it grew and grew, until 30,000 Southerners had affixed 
 their signatures to the petition! 
 
 The writer of the story avowed himself wholly at a 
 loss to account for the phenomenon, averring it was 
 "unprecedented" in the political history of the coun 
 try. But being from Georgia, we think he should 
 have been able to understand most any ovation to a 
 "Member of the Well-known Bulloch Family," and it 
 is likely the "signers" themselves could not have given 
 any better explanation of their enthusiasm, had they 
 been asked. 
 
 It was freely rumored in the Washington papers 
 that though everything was in readiness for Mr. 
 Taft s nomination, there was a strong likelihood of the 
 Convention "stampeding" for Roosevelt, and dis 
 patches from Chicago gave out the thrilling news that 
 
196 ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 mention of the "stampede" was sending nervous chills 
 up the spinal cords of the Taft men. 
 
 Then the fateful day dawned, and Washington 
 headlines reported 50 minutes cheering for the namt 
 of Roosevelt in the Chicago Convention! 
 
 After this, the stampede seemed imminent, and we 
 bowed our heads in Christian resignation, and waited 
 for the final rush. If 30,000 "signers" in Georgia and 
 50 minutes hand-clapping in Chicago are not war 
 ranted to bring on a stampede, we have no clue to the 
 proper combination, and no advice worth offering. 
 That this combination should have worked, we are 
 convinced, because we are reliably informed it was 
 expected to, but it didn t. The stampeders got all 
 balled up, for some unknown reason, and the stam 
 pede refused to work, and went all "a-gley" like mice 
 and men and other perverse things. Instead of the 
 stampede, there was only the steady crunch, crunch of 
 the "steam-roller," rolling over the "Allies" and seat 
 ing the Taft delegations. And then it was duly an 
 nounced that the Hon. William Howard Taft, and the 
 Hon. James Schoolcraft Sherman would lead the Re 
 publican hosts to victory in November, 1908. 
 
 And while the New York Sun and Harper s Weekly 
 were feeling contrite and mean over the uncharitable 
 things they had been saying about T. R. s wishing to 
 take the nomination away from Taft; and after the 
 New York Times had declared editorially that T. R. s 
 resolutely putting off a crown like that, which the 
 American people were literally forcing on his head 
 was one of the most sublime acts of self-abnegation 
 the world had ever seen, this story was given the 
 writer, first-hand, by an active participant in that Chi 
 cago drama, one of the wheel-horses in the camp of 
 the Allies, who vouches for its truth : "On the night 
 before the day when the balloting was to begin, a 
 messenger came from Washington; a man close to 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 the President, an ex-Senator. Knowing my opposi 
 tion to Taft, and thinking perhaps I might be more 
 friendly to Roosevelt, he took me aside, and said: If 
 the Convention should stampede for Roosevelt, I am 
 authorized to say he would accept. I replied to him : 
 My friend, the President has reached this conclusion 
 too late. He has overplayed his Taft game, and in 
 my judgment, Mr. Taft will be nominated to-morrow. 
 And it was so, but it is probable that no one of the 
 so-called Allies was more sore over the result of that 
 balloting than was Mr. Roosevelt!" 
 
 And thus did our Caesar put by the coveted crown, 
 tho like his great Roman prototype, with much in 
 ward heart-burning, and many a fond, lingering look 
 behind. 
 
 And now it is announced, as the next thing on the 
 Rooseveltian program, he is going to Africa, elephant- 
 hunting, a most appropriate occupation and to work 
 off his joy over Mr. Taft s nomination. It is also 
 announced that he is to write a book about his African 
 travels, for which an American publishing company 
 completely overturning the traditional crust-in-a-gar- 
 ret notion of the wages of genius have offered him 
 a dollar a word! If the book lambasts the wild living 
 creatures of Africa as mush as some of his others do 
 the dead statesmen of America, it will probably fur 
 nish very interesting reading matter for the Nature- 
 fakirs ; otherwise, and if the publishers are depending 
 on the general reading public, they are likely to lose 
 money on their $i a word investment. They are 
 doubtless calculating on the phenomenal personal pop 
 ularity of the author, of which there has been such 
 persistent, insistent proclamation by the newspaper 
 claquers. 
 
 Without assuming to deny the much exploited 
 Roosevelt popularity, let us submit it to a little critical 
 dissection, in the instances wherein it has been sub- 
 
ROOSEVELTIAN FACT AND FABLE 
 
 jected to a practical test. When he ran for governor 
 of New York as was noted in another place he re 
 ceived a bare 17,000 plurality, which while sufficient 
 to make him governor, was not a striking proof of 
 "overwhelming personal popularity" in his own State, 
 numbering 1,500,000 voters. When he was elected 
 President in 1904, when most of the shouting over 
 the "phenomenal popularity" was pulled off an old 
 Republican resident of Washington, a man accus 
 tomed to keep tab on popular elections, and rarely 
 found tripping in his "riggers," estimated that the ex 
 cess of Roosevelt s plurality over McKinley s, corre 
 sponded very closely to the normal increase in the 
 Republican voting population, whilst his large plurality 
 over Parker was accounted for by the disgruntled 
 Democratic vote which stayed at home. After the in 
 teresting revelation made by the Insurance investiga 
 tion and the Harriman letters of the Roosevelt-Co rtel- 
 you campaign methods, it would seem his large plu 
 rality over Parker might be accounted for in some 
 other ways beside Democratic disaffection. Surely, in 
 the light of those revelations, no one will claim that 
 the election of 1904 carries convincing evidence of 
 Theodore Roosevelt s "overwhelming personal popu 
 larity." It may be as claimed, that he has this "over 
 whelming popularity," but it may also be claimed that 
 it has never successfully stood any practical test. 
 
 Perhaps Fate was kinder to T. R. than he knew, in 
 not permitting him to risk the explosion of the "popu- 
 lar-idol"conceit in this campaign year of our Lord, 1908. 
 To conclude otherwise, is to despair of the love of 
 truth and the sense of humor in the American people. 
 
LOAN DEPT. 
 
 book is due on the last dat 
 
 %-^0__ 
 
 
 LD 2lA-50m-3, 6-> 
 (07097slO)476B 
 
 .General Library 
 
 Uaiversity of California 
 
 Berkeley