The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-06-27
The President at His Best.


| noted of many men In
public place. 1t was especially noted
| in the case of William Mckinley
| whose development since 1896 was
to the day of his death, the marvel
Of those who had known him chiefly as
a representative in congress and an ad-
| vocate of one economic doctrine. 1t
looks now as though n similar develop
| nent were to come to pass in his sue
| cessor.
| The speeches which Theodore RoOse-
welt has been making and the docu-
ments which he has written of late eX-
hibit one after the other, a steady
growth in mental power and equpoise
and self-confidence in no way akin
| to mere egotism. Take, for illustration,
| the two speeches which he made at the
Harvard commencement Wednesday, as
| published in full in the New York pap
ers. Not word in them went astray.
Not one was faulty chosen or embar-
| RAISING. With the distinctness of pis-
tol shots they conveyed his Il Aoughts so
| that the wayfaring man, though a fool,
might not err therein. A quotation or
two will better establish our point.
The presidents first speech was de-
livered at the alumni dinner, to an au-
dence of fellow collegians and to sons
of Harvard more especially. He took
that suitable occasion to pay his re-
spects to the three notably strong men
in his administration. each IA college
man and an admirable type of the COL
lege man at his best--Leonard Wood,
Governor Taft and lLlhu Root. Con-
cerning the first of these he said:
When in England they get man to
do what Lord Crcmer did in Egypt, when
a man returns as Lord J<itchner will
| return from South Africa. they give him
a peeragc and a great sum of money
He receives large and tangible reward
and cur Cromers, our men of that stamp,
come back TO the country, and if they are
fortunate they go back to private life
with the privilege of taking up what
they can find of the string left loose
Whcn they surrendered their old connec-
tioIs. and If they are unfortunate they
are accused of maladminstration in Office
laughter) not an accusation that hurts
them, but an accusation that brands
with infamy every man who makes it,
and that reflects but i'll on the country in
which it is made uoud applause)
Leonard Wood four years ago went
down to Cuba has served there ever
since, has rendered services to that coun-
try OF the kind which, if performed three
thousand years ago, would have made him
a hero mixed up with the sun god in
various ways, a man who devoted his
whole life to these four years and who
thought of nothing else, did nothing else
save to try to bring up the standard of
political and social life in that island
to clean it physically and morally, to
make justice even and fair in it. to found
Il school system that should be akin to
our own, to teach the people after four
centuries of misrule thar there We're such
things as governmental Righteousness and
honesty and fair play for all men on their
merits as men.
He did all that. lie is man of slender
means He did it on his pay as an army
officer and as governor OF the island.
Sixty millions of dollars passed through
his hands and he came out having had
to draw Oh his slender capital in order
that he might come out even when he
left the island Credit to him. Yes. in
way. In another no particular credit be-
cause he was built so that he could do
nothing else loud applause). lie came
cut having done hat and having devoted
himself as disirterestedly to The good
Of the Cuban people in all their relations
as man could. lie has come back here
and has been attacked. forsooth by peo-
pie who are not merely unworthy Of
having their names coupled with mis-, but
who are incapable of Understanding the
motives that have spurrcG him ON to
bring honor to this republic. cloud ap-
plause)
A tribute of equal warmth to Judge
Taft was followed by this reference to
Secretary Root, upon whom the oppo-
sition newspapers have recently CEN
tered concerted fire:
And now Elihu Root, who unlike my
SELF MI President Eliot. but like most of
you present, comes of the old New Eng
land stock whose grea grandfather STOOD
beside Leonard Woods Great-grand
er at Concord Bridge fapplause); Elhu
Root. who had workedxhis way up from
being a poor and unknown country boy
in New York to IL position where in
year or two he had the leadership. of the
bar of the great city within his grasp,
gave it up made the very great pccu>
mary sacrifice implied in giving it mp.
and accepted the position under President
Mckinley of secretary of war, Il posi-
ton which for the last three years and
at present amounts to being not only the
secretary for war but the secretary for
the Islands, the secretary for the col
onieS at the same time. who has done the
most eXhausling and most responsible
work of any man in the administration,
more so than the work of the president,
because circumstances have been such
that with IA man of Roots wonderful
ability, industry and conscientiousness the
president could not help but devoive upon
him work that made his task one under
which almost any other man ! know
would have staggered. lie has done it
absolutely disinterestedly
Nothing can come to Root in tho way
of reward, save that which is implied in
the knowledge that he has done some
thing which hardly any other man in the
Union could have done as well as he has
done it, Having brought DeforA him
continuously questions of the utmost in
tricacy to decide, questions upon which
life and death hang, questions the decis-
ion of which wiz affect our whole future
policy, questions that affect The millions
of people with whom we have been
brought into such intimate contact by the
events of the Spanish war and whose
welfare must he prime conslderatio'.
from now ON, he has done all tnat with
the certainty of attack with the GER
tainty of misunderstanding, with the csr-
tainty of being hampered by ignorance
ana worse than ignorance, so that he
could not do the best that was in him,
only the best that the conditions would
allow Of 1t was all Abraham Lincoln
could do. incidentally. Root has done
ii. Taft has done IT, Wood has done it,
Those three men have rendered that ser
vice. ! can do nothing for them. / can
show my appreciation of them in no way
save the wholly insufficient one of stand
ing m for them and for their works and
that ! will do, d.o.ns and continuous .ap-
MIA