The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1901-10-19
26hpRESIDENTl y The Us.

United States Civil Service Commits
sion. His ability and rugged honesty
in the administration Of the affairs OF
that Office greatly helped to strengthen
his hold on popular regard. +
Police Commissioner in Metz,
York.
Roosevelt continued in that Office un-
til May /, 1896, when he resigned to
accept the Office of Police Commits
sioner from Mayor Strong. He found
the administration Of affairs In a de-
moralized condition, but he~soon
brought order out of chaos. Says James
A. Riis. who is an intimate friend of
President Roosevelt:
We had been trying for forty years to
achieve a system of dealing decently with
our homeless poor. Two score years be-
fore, the surgeons Of the police depart
ment had pointed out that herding them
in the cellars or over the prisons OF police
stations in fostering heaps, n turning
them out hungry at daybreak to beg their
way from door to door. was indecent and
inhuman. Since then grand juries, acad-
emies of medicine, committees On phil
anthropic citizens, had attacked the foul
disgrace, but to no purpose. Pesttlence
,ravaged the prison lodgings, but sun tney
stayed. I know what that fight meant.
for I was one Of q committee that waged
it year after year, and suffered defeat
every time, until Theodore Roosevelt
came and destroyed the nuisance IN 9
night. I remember the caricatures OF
tramps shivering in the cold with wnlcn
the yellow newspapers pursued nm -
the time, labelling him the poor a.
foe" And I remember being Just q little
uneasy lest they wound him.. and perhaps
make him think he had been nasty. but
not he. 1t was only those who DID not
know him who charged him with being
hasty. He thought a thing gu qu1ckIy-
yes, that is his way; but he thougnt II
out, and, having thought It out, suited &c
tion to his Judgment. OF the consequences
he didn't think at all. He made sure ne
was right, n then went ahead with per
feet confidence that things would come
out right.
His AdJice to OrSanixed Labor.
Mr.. Riis says he saw Roose-
welt to better advantage than when ne
once confronted the labor men at tnear
meeting-place, Clarendon Ha4:
The police were all the time having
with strikers and their "pickets.
Roosevelt saw that it was because neAIu.
er party understood fully the posltloh -
the other, and, with his usual directness.
sent word to the labor organizations mat
he would like to alk 1t over WIN ent ~.
At his request I went with him to the
meeting. It developed almost immeol-
ately that the labor men had taken q
wrong measure of the man. They met MN
as a politician playing Tor points. ~
limited at trouble unless their ~
were met. Mr.. Roosevelt broke them on
short:
"Gentlemen!,' he said-with that snap
Of the Jaws that always made people Ns.
tent asked to meet you, hoping mat
we might come to understand one anotn-5
er. Remember, please. before we go fur-
Their, that the worst injury anyone O You
do to the cause Of labor Is 70. connsel
violence: t win also a,o4, ne worse tsa uol oader
viii be kept. The police will keep It. NOV
we can proceed"
I was never 80 proud and pleased AZ
they a~pplauded him to the ecno. Ee
Redeemed with pleasure. for he saw tnas$
the best in them had come out on top.
as he expected it would.
Afsacksd ~ '.J,sAoh0' Neesss-
papsrs.
It was Of this incident, that.a handle
was first made BY Mr.. Roosevelt's3 ene-
mics In and out Of the police board
and he had many-to attack him:
II happened that there was e. music
in the building in which the iapor
men met. The yellow ewspape circn-
lated the lie that he went there @. puI-g
pose to see the show. and b
story was repeated until 3 actually the
liars persuaded themselves that y vas 20.
They would not have been. able 50 under under
stand the kind Of man they hadstc.do
with. had they tired. Accordlnely they
fell into their own trap. SltAi9sa fraditlons
Of Mulberry Street that the notorious
dinner raid was q ~ his; en-
.emies In the department Of he was
the head a the belief that they Would
scatchI8Nr. Roosevelt there.
were supposed to be his set #Nsas
soms time after that. Mr.. Riis was
81 Roosevelt omceswhen q policesot-5
.aciai 81 superior rank came insiand re-
jdusested private audience with him:
iThsy stepped aside and the policeman
sspoke3s In an nndertoile urging somethtng
strongly, Mr.. RooSevelt listened. Sud-
denly I saw him straighten q - 9 man
1recoiIs from something unclean.sahd disc
miss the other With q harp:$ssNo.Ts ir!9 IS
DON'T Tight that way.s.s@&F This policsnaan
went out crestfallen. Roosevelt took two.
- xy.~nA Ansskptfsl ANaNs1 ikAtNOI2MA2