The courier. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1894-1903, 1900-10-06
easily.

One charge his enemies made against
him in which there was truth. Ii
summed itself all up in that with heat
that was virtual acknowledgment OF its
doing the whole arrangement: that there
was always fight where he was. al
ways trouble" said the peace at any
price men. who counseled surrender
when Roosevelt was fighting for decent
Sunday through the enforcement OF the
law compelling the saloons to close.
Never any rest" No. There was
never any rest for the law breakers when
he was around. nor for those who would
avoid trouble by weakly surrendering
to them. Roosevelt gagged New York
exactly right when he set about his
turbulent programme OF enforcement OF
law The scandal was not that we were
being robbed by political cutthroats. but
that we submitted tamely. The formula
we heard so often from his lips in the
years that followed-honesty, manhood.
courage-was the exact prescription we
needed. We in the metropolis are
abundantly able to run the robbers out
of town and keep them out by just toll
lowing the road he made for US when he
run them out OF the police department.
But he made it, fighting. 1t was true
that there was never any rest while he
was at it. night or day. When he had
battled all day in Mulberry street, he
would sometimes get up at two o'clock
in the morning and go out on patrol to
find out the policemen who were stealing
the city's time. 1t became suddenly pos
sible to find policeman anywhere at
any hour Of the night in New York.
Within year after the old Tammany
reign had come back, an epidemic Of
night fires that cost many lives brought
from the firemen the loud protest that
policemen were not awake, and the chief
found it necessary to transfer half the
force Of precinct for sleeping on post.
No; there was never any rest when
Roosevelt was around. There was none
in congress during the elk years he was
a civil service commissioner under Har-
rison and Cleveland; and as result
where there had been l4,OOO places under
the merit and capacity rules OF the com
mission when he came in, there were
10000 when he vent out. To that ex-
tent spoils politics had been robbed OF
its sting. There was even less repose in
the navy department when he went there
as assistant secretary, fresh from the
fight in Mulberry street, to sharpen the
tools of war. 1t had familiar sound to
US in New York. when we heard the cry
go up that Roosevelt wanted row. and
he didn't care what it cost. He was ask
ing, il | remember rightly, for something
less than 81 ,OO0, 600 for target practice on
the big ships. The only notice he took
O: it was to demand another S5OO,OO0
about the time he got Dewey sent to the
east. was in Washington at the time,
and remember asking him about that.
Commodore Dewey was sometime spoken
Of in those days as if he were kind OF
fashion plate. And remember bis an
swer, as We were walking up Connect
cut avenue:
Dewey is all right, he said. "He has
a lion heart He is the man for that
place."
Not many of US will quarrel with him
about the wisdom of shooting away that
million in target practice. 1t made "tte
man behind the gun" Of which We arc
all so proud. The fact is that Roosevelt,
,r %. f.or,, ba;p~ a baotv mon 1;yap 70