Anadarko daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 1901-190?, 1902-06-04
26h PRESIDENT of The ". S.

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 I'M
I'll May 1. 1895, 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 n 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, and 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. Pestilence
ravaged the prison lodgings, but still they
| stayed. ! know what that fight meant,
| for l was one of a committee that waged
| 1t year after year, and suffered defeat
| every time until Theodore Roosevelt
| came and destroyed the nuisance IN a
| night. l remember the caricatures OF
| tramps shiverlng In the cold with whlch
| the yellow newspapers pursued him at
the time, labelling him the poor man
foe" And I remember being just little
| uneasy lest they wound him, and perhaps
make him think he had been hasty. But
| not he. 1t was only those VINO dld not
| know him who charged him with being
hasty. He thought thing out quickly
| yes, that is his way; but he thought II
| out, and, having thought 1t out, suited ac-
| tion to his judgment. OF the consequences
/ he didn't think at all. He made sure he
was right and then went ahead with per-
feet confidence that things would come
out right.
His AdVice 10 OrSanfzed Labor.
Mr.. Riis says ho never saw Roose-
welt to better advantage than when he
once confronted the labor men at their
meeting-place, Clarendon Hall:
The police were all the time having
| trouble with strikers and their 'pickets.
Roosevelt saw that IT was because Meth
| er party understood fully the position OF
the other, and with his usual directness
sent word to the labor organizations that
he would like to talk 1t over with them
At his request | went with him to the
meeting. 1t developed almost immedi-
ately that the labor men had taken a
wrong measure Of the man. They met him
as n politician playing for points, ana
hinted at trouble unless their demands
were met. Mr. Roosevelt broke them on
short:
a, fhat N
of the Jaws that always made people lis
ten-'I asked to meet you, hoping that
we might come to understand one anoth-
er. Remember, please, before we go fur
ther, that the worst injury anyone OF you
can do to the cause OF labor is TO counsel
violence. 1t will also be worse for him
self. Understand distinctly that order
will be kept. The police will keep II. Now
we can proceed
1 was never so proud and pleased as
when they applauded him to the echo. He
Redeemed with pleasure for he saw that
the best In them had come out on top
as he expected II would.
Attracted by "ysHotO" NesOS'
paperS.
II was Of this incident that a handle
was first made by Mr.. Roosevelt's enc
/, mics in and out OF the police board
, and he had many-to attack him:
II happened that there was music
hall In the building in which the laboi
men met. The yellow newspapers circu
! lated the lie that he went there on pur
, pose to see the show, and the ridiculous
story was repeated until actually thu
, liars persuaded themselves that II was so
| They would not have been able to under
a stand the kind of man they had to d'
with. had they tired Accordingly the!
fell into their own trap. 1t Is tradition
! of Mulberry Street that the notoriou
4 seeley dinner raid was planned by his en-
p emies In the department of which he wa
the head in the belief that they woul'
5 catch Mr. Roosevelt there. The dinner
. were supposed to be his "set"
e Some time after that. Mr.. Riis wa
e in Roosevelt's Office when a police OF
j ficial of superior rank came in, and re
d quested a private audience with him
S They stepped aside and the policema
r spoke in an undertone, urging somethin
a strongly Mr.. Roosevelt listened Sud
y denly l saw him straighten up as ma
q recoils from something uncean, and dis
y miss the other with a sharp; mo, sir!
, don't fight that way" The polcema
, went out crestfallen. Roosevelt took tw
y or three turns about the floor. strugglin
g evidently with strong disgust. lie tol