The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-15

Roosevelt escaped the Blaine contagion and
took the New York delegation away from
that statesman. He formed a combination
| between the Arthur and Edmunds men and
defeated the Blaine following. He sent
TO the Chicago convention with Andrew ID.
| White, George William Curtis and a num-
Der or Other famous men. 1t may be writ
ten here that Mr.. Roosevelt never left the
Republican party, but he has always felt
| that upon a question of principle he was
| bound TO act upon his own judgment. He
| has held that city politics should be di-
/ VOrced from those of the State and the Ma
| ton; that politics is not a grab game for
| spols, but dignffed, honorable science to
/ De unSelnShly pursued, and yet he recOg
| nizes the fact that in order to do good work
| IN politics one must work with his party,
| which is TO say with an organization. AS a
| legislator he was q sore spot TO machine"
| partisans or men Of corrupt inclina lions.
! Courageous men loved him. 1t is TO be
| noted, though that very bad man and
extremely lmpracucable "refOrmers' have
never liked him.
] While in the Legislature he secured the
/ passage OF the measure which gave the
mayor of New York the power and oppor-
/ tunlty TO do his best in welding the an
| pointing power in connection with the po-
/ lice force. Prior to this the old Tweed
| charter had vested in the aldermen the
| power of rejecting or accepting the mayors
| appointments The Roosevelt bill took this
| power from the aldermen The Roosevelt
| investigation of the same year placed the
| county clerks Office, which had been reap
| ing SS2O00 year in fees, upon q salary, and
! various other reforms were effected In
! 1886 Mr.. Roosevelt ran for MAYOR of New
! York and pOlled a larger proportion of the
/ total vote than was polIed by any Repub-
| lican candidate until w. l.. Strong was
/ elected. When General Harrison came to
! the presidency he appointed Mr.. Roosevelt
/ clVll-SerVlce commissioner, and that posi-
! ton he held until he became police COM
| missioner of the city of New York. In the
/ six years that he was civil service COM
| missioner he saw the law applied to twice
as many offices when he took the office:
in fact, he added 10000 offices to the scope
I of f1an 10 no 10 81
executed while he was in office He was
/ willing to fight for the principles involved,
/ and he did fight, and better still accom-
/ plished. When he accepted the police COM
/ missionership he said:
/ Il thought the storm center i'm New
/ York and so I came. I like to take hold of
work that has been done by a Tammanv
I leader. ard do it as well, only by approach
/ ing it from the opposite direction. n thing
| that attracted me to it was that It was to
be done in the hurly-burly, for 1 don't like
| cloister life"
N NAVY AND ARMY.
From the police commissionership he
passed to the position Of assistant secretary
of the navy, where he woke up the fossils,
gave Dewey the Manila opportunity in
/ fused new vigor into the offfcialsm of
! Washington, made some people dislike him
and a great many more care for him, and
then when war was threatened jumped into
/ the center of action with Colonel Leonard
] S. Wood and organized the Rough Riders
1 Two years ago to-day he and his regiment
were landing III Cuba. On the 2ith they
| were lighting like demons at Las Guasimas.
/ They passed on to Kettle Hill, to San Juan
/ and to Santiago lie was on the firing line
always, taking just what his men did, ask
ing no mere. Regular army officers called
| him an ideal commander" His regiment
| was cared for as few were during the short
1 period of the Spanish-American war. From
1 Santiago he came to Camp WikOff, and
/ thence to the governorship of New York
j by popular will. As Governor he marked
/ himself by his persistent fight against legis-
| latlVe corruption and in favor OF fair cor
poration taxation. The Ford bill which is
| Wrenchlng more taxes of just nature out
! OF New York corporations than ever were
| secured before. was backed by him and
| carried through after every corporation in
the State had used the best of its wealth
| and power to defeat the measure.
| As an author his reputation commenced
| in his college days. He was editor of the
! Harvard Advocate. but his first book of
! note was his Naval War of 1872" The
! book is now quoted in the English Bras
! seys Naval Annual-the year book of Eng
| fish naval affairs. His book on Western
| experiences and ranch life was written in
| 1885. This was followed by life of Thomas
| II. Benton, also of Gouverneur Morris. The
| Hunting Trail appeared in 1888. The book
| he personally cares the most for is The
Winning Of the West" He is also the au-
thor of history of New York city.
| Essays Practical Politics. The
| Wilderness Hunter" Hero Tales from
American History and big Game of the
HIS AMERICANISM.
OF his own quality of Americansm he
has given this glimpse in one of his works:
''I have no wish to excuse or hide our
| faults; for I hold that he is often the best
| American who strives hardest to correct
| American shortcomings. Nevertheless 1 am
just as little disposed to give away to I'M
| due pessimism to undue and arrogant
| optimism. In speaking TO my own country
men there is one point upon which l wish
! to lay special stress; that is the necessity
! Tor a Keeling OF broad, radical, intense
! Americanism If good work is 10 be done in
| any direction. Above all the one essential
! for success in every political movement
! which is 10 do lasting good is that our cit
| liens should act as Americans; not as
| Americans with prefix and qualification
not Irish-Americans, German-Ameri-
| cans, native Americans-but as Americans
! pure and simple In short. the
! most important lesson taught by the his
| tory of New York city is the lesson Of
| Americanism-the lesson that he among us
| who wishes to win honor in our life and to
| play his part honestly and manfully, must
| be indeed American in spirit and pur-
pose, in heart and thought and deed"
| Mr.. Roosevelt married Miss Edith Ker-
/ nit Carow i'm 1885, and they have five chill
dren. three boys and two girls. His home;
| where all his children were born, is called
! Sycamore Hill and is at oyster bay, Long
| island. In New York city he sometimes
! occupies a rented house. Mrs Roosevelt
/ and the children are essentially a part of
I his life. While his official duties kept him
/ away from them they were never absent
from his thought nor he from theirs His
| home life is as ideal as his public life is
| clean. To those who know him best and
who care for him the most his career
| seems TO be summed up in this message of
his. given once 10 the young men Of New
| \ ork city
! First and foremost be American heart
| and soul. and go in with any person, heed
| less of anything but that persons qualifi-
| cations. For myself I'd as quickly work
! beside Pat Dugan as with the last descend
/ ant of a PATRON; il literally makes no
! difference 10 me so long as the work Is
| good and the man is in earnest One other
| thing I'd like 10 teach the young man Of
| wealth. That he who has not got wealth
| owes his first duty to his family but he
| who has means owes his first duty 10 his
| State. 1t is ignoble TO try 10 heap money
| on money. i would preach the doctrine Of
| work 10 all, and to the men of wealth the
| doctrine of unremunerative work" That
| is Theodore Roosevelt.
Ericsson Statue Unveiled.