Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-10-28
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.

me leaQ1ng article IN the november
Forum is character sketch OF the new
president by A. Maurice Low. Among
other things he notes that Mr.. Roose-
welt, altho the youngest president. has
more comprehensive and intimate
knowledge OF the country than had any
OF his predecessors, and has also, seen
much OF Europe. He is, again, the only
president who served an apprenticeship
In one OF the great departments, and
thus gained knowledge OF the minu-
ltiae OF departmental AFFAIRS He says
in part:
Is The world is always looking for the
dramatic. 1t forgets dialogue, but all
Ways remembers q tableau. The colonel
Of the rough riders, watching his men
take their baptism of blood at Las
Guasimas, leading them up San Juan
HILL sharing with them the privations
of the trenches in front Of Santiago
that was the vivid picture people could
remember OF Theodore Roosevelt. They
forgot that with him war was merely
an Incident. For a few months he had
worn khaki because he had conceived 1t
his duty to offer his sword to his coun-
try; and with that adaptability which Is
the sixth sense possessed by Americans,
he had gone about his business of SOL
diering as naturally as II 1t We're the only
business he knew. But the public forgot
that against his few months of military
experience were the years he had spent
Ioo ,s,1cy In mr. Of
fairs. and I'M fitting himself for govern
ment by reading and writing history.
Roosevelt, the man on horseback the
beau ideal Of the cavalry commander, a
dashing superb figure. one that would
have delighted the heart of Carlyle. was
real and vivid enough to catch the emo
tional crowd. Roosevelt the essayist
the biographer of Benton and Morris,
the historian OF the west; Roosevelt who
had waged war against Tammany, who
had taken & corrupt, inefficient. and
brutal police force and had taught 1t
honesty efficiency and decency: who
had courageously made the civil service
law thing to be respected instead OF
thing to be Knocked at by designing
politicians-this was the dialogue OF the
play, to be forgotten before the act was
over; but the climax. the man on horse
back, was to be remembered long after
the curtain went down.
The policy of Mckinley had been ac-
cepted and endorsed by the country.
Under that policy there had been pros
perity and contentment: the United
States was happy at home and respect
ed abroad. Mr.. Roosevelt made that
policy his own; he made the men who
had helped to construct that policy as
the advisers of President Mckinley his
own advisers This step showed not
only wisdom, but courage and conf
dence in himself. A foolish man would
have been Indifferent to the delicate
balance on which at that moment
hinged commercial solvency, and would
have tipped the scale by justifying the
worst fears of the pessimistic; timid
man would have hesitated. temporized,
sought counsel and swung with the lat
est current of advice from selfish and
interested councillors: man who mis-
trusted himself would have feared the
inevitable comparison In the eyes of the
cabinet between Mckinley and himself;
and the cabinet, being 80 close to the
president. would have the best opportu-
Unity to weigh the living against the
dead. That he did not hesitate, that at
the most critical moment of his life he
acted with decision and wisdom, and
| that he showed himself willing to accept
counsel We're the highest proofs he could
give to the country of his sincerity, his
prudence and his understanding of the
responsibilities which had come to him
| when he took the oath of office. as pres
ident Of the United States.