The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-08
Tribute to Hay and Root.

Oyster Bay. July 7.-President Roosevelt
 paid an appropriate and eloquent ribute
 to the life and services of the late Sec
 retary Hay, in his address before the national educational association at Ocean
 Grove today. He followed this tribute
 with an estimate of the personal sacri-
 fee Elihu Root had made in becoming
 Secretary Hays successor in office. The
 example of these two men. not entirely
 unique. as the President Indicated in a
 reference he made to other members of
 hi scabinet. enabled h,m 10 point A more effective moral
 At the conclusion of his prepared ad-
 dress the President put aside his notes l and with manifest earnestness and feel ing. spoke as follows to the great au- die~ea:
 | "n r I want to speak to you 1 of h tain things, some of which hay happened and some of which have
 been suggested to me by what has hap pened in the past week. emphasize what 1 I have said to you as to the importance l to this country of having within it's linn
 it's men who put the realizatier of high
 ideals above any form of money mak- ing.
 Great Statesman Is Gone. within a week this country has lost | a great statesman. who was also a great 1 man of letters n man who occupied I peculiar and unique position in our coun- ! try. man of whose existence we would i each of us be proud, for the United States I as whole was better because John Hay | lived. John Hay entered the public ser | vice as young man just come of age, ac f11a nfurx xf Dtor 1 He served in the war and was a mem Der of the loyal legion. He was trusted l by and was intimate with. Lincoln as I hardly any other man was. He then went on rendering service after service, and always able-this was one of his great 1 advantages, and great merits. at any moment to go to private life unless he could continue in public life on hls own i terms. He went on rendering service af- l ter service to the country until as the climax Of his career he served as Sec- 1 retary of State under two successive ad- ministrat tions, and by what he did and
 by what he was contributed in no small
 degree to achieving for this republic the
 respect of the nations of mankind. Such
 service as that could not have been rem dered save by man who had before him ideals as far apart as the poles from those I ideals which have in them any taint of what is base or sordid.
 Great Pecuniary Sacrifice. | Now. wished to secure as John Hays | successor the man whom I regarded as I of all men in the country best fitted to | be such successor. In asking him to l accept the position of secretary of state | l was asking him to submit to a very | great pecuniary sacrifice and I never even thought of that aspect of the question for l knew he would not either. I knew that whatever other consideration he had to weigh for and against taking the posi- tion, the consideration of how it would affect his personal fortune would not he taken into account by Elihu Root and he has accepted
 T am not speaking of Hay and Root as solitary exceptions. On the contrary. am speaking of them as typical of a large class of men in public lire
 Even when we hear so much criticism of certain aspects of our public officers and of certain of our public servants, crit
 csms which I regret to state is in many cases deserved, 1t is well for us to re- member also the other side of the picture to remember that here in America we now have and always have had at ths command of the nation in any crisis fp any emergency, the very best ability to be found within the nation and that abit ity has heen given with the utmost free dom. given lavishily and generously. af. though at great pecuniary loss to the man giving 1t.
 Financial Disadvantage to All.
 There is not in my cabinet one man to whom 1t Is not a financial disadvantaee to stay in the cabinet. There is not in my cabinet one pan who does not have to give up something substantial often very much that is substantial, sometimes what Is very great hardship for him to give mp, in order that he may continue in the service of the nation and have the only record for which he looks or for which he cares. the consciousness of having done a service that was worth rendering. I hope more and more through out this nation to see the spirit grow which makes such service possible.''
 President Roosevelt's references to both Mr. Hay and MT. Root were received with tremendous applause, his statement that the latter had accepted the office of Sec retary of State, a fact of which many of his auditors were not aware. bringing the audience to its feet cheering.