Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-09-15


into their heads. l suppose, that he had
come to crawl; but they were speedily
undeceived. l can see his face now,
as he checked the first one who limited
at trouble. l fancy that man can see
IT. toO-in his dreams.
Gentlemen, said Mr.. Roosevelt, Il
have come to get your point Of view
and see if we can't agree to help each
other out, But we want to make it clear
to ourselves at the start that the great
est damage any working man can do
to his cause is TO counsel violence
Order must be maintained; and, make
no mistake. l will maintain it
l tingled with pride when they
cheered him to the echo. They had
came to meet a politician; they met
man and they knew him at sight.
1t was after midnight when we plod-
ded home from that meeting through
snow two feet deep. Mr.. Roosevelt was
pleased and proud-proud of his fell
low citizens. They are all right" he
said. I'VE understand each other. and
we shall get along And they did get
along, with perfect confidence on both
sides.
! | read a story when I was a boy
| about a man, who, pursued by re-
! lentless enemy. dwelt in security be
cause Of his belief that his plotting
could not hurt an honest man. Mr..
Roosevelt constantly made me think of
| him. He spoke of it only once, but
saw him act out that belief hundred
times. Mulberry street could never
have been made to take any stock in
| Whom ~ RnnGnNAlt
it tried to catch him. Jobs innumera-
| bic were put up to disCredit the pres
ident of the board and inveigle him
into awkward positions. Probably he
never knew of one-tenth of them. l
| often made them out long after they
were scattered to the winds. Mr. Roose-
welt walked through them with perfect
unConcern, kicking aside the snares
| that were set so deliberately to catch
| him The politicians who saw him walk
apparently blindly into trap and be-
| held him emerge with damage to the
trap only, could not understand it.
| They concluded it was his luck 1t was
not It was his sense. He told me once
after such time that it was a matter
of conviction with him that no frank
and honest man could be in the long
tiers. whatever appearances might for
the moment indicate. 50 he walked
unframed in it all. Bismarck con-
founded the councils of Europe
at times by practicing Rousevelt's plan
as a trick. He spoke the truth bluntly
when the plOtters expected him TO lie,
and rounded them up easily.
One charge his enemies made against
him in which there was truth. 1t
summed itself all up in that with a
heat that was virtual acknowledge
ment Of its being the whole arraign-
ment; that there was always a fight
where he was. Always trouble" said
| the peace at-any- price men, who coun-
seled surrender when Roosevelt was
lighting for a decent Sunday through
the enforcement Of the law COMPEL
| ing the saloons to close. Never any
rest" Mo- there was never any rest
for the laWbreakers when he was
around. nor for those who would avoid
trouble" by weakly surrendering
them. Roosevelt gagged New York eX-
aCtly right when he set about his tur-
bulent program of enforcement of law.
| The scandal was not that We were be-
| ing robbed by political cutthoats. but
that we submitted tamely. The formu-
| la we heard so often from his lips in
| the years that followed-honesty. man
| hood. cOurage-was the exact prescrip-
ton we needed. We in the metropolis
are abundantly able to run the rob-
| bers out of town and keep them out
| by just following the road he made for
us when he ran them out of the police
| department. But he made it. fighting. 1t
was true that here never was 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 60 out
on patrol to find out the policemen who
were stealing the city's time. 1t become
suddenly possible to find a policeman
anywhere at any hour Of the night in
| New York. Within a year after the old
| Tammany regime 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 six years he
was a civil service commissioner under
Harrison and Cleveland; and as a re-
suit, where there had been $4,000 places
under the merit and capacity rules Of
the commission when he came in, there
We're 10000 when he went out. To that
extent spoils politics had been robbed
Of its sting. There was even less re-
pose 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 ia
miliar sound to us in New York when
We heard the cry go up that Roosevelt
wanted a row and didn't care what it
cost. He was asking, if I remember
rightly. for something less than 81, O0O,-
900 for target practice on the big ships
The only notice he took Of il was to
demand another $500, 900 about the time
he got Dewey sent to the East | was
in Washington at the time and l re-
member asking him about that. Com
modore Dewey was sometimes spoken Of |
in those days as il he were kind of |
fashion plate. And I remember his |
answer as we were walking up Con- !
neCticut avenue:
Dewey is all right" he said. He |