Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-22
rHE NArunAL noosEvrLr.
His teal Self ExprOssed In Hts cOa-
s~ervatfon Policy.


J. e Chamberlain In n. Y. Mail.
When a man Is muitifoid. like Roosevelt.
there is. nevertheless. a man inside OF him
who is single, In the last spiritual anaiy-
sis, a man can be but one: and out in the
world somewhere there Is a person who
knows that one man. that inside man, and
Is aware that In reality there is no other
that all this manysidedness is mere APP
pearance.
fancy that John Burroughs knows the
real inside OF Roosevelt as well as any
other. But the president has left the KEY
of himself for us all. He exposed that in
side mar to general view in his first annual
message, and he has kept on revealing him
In every subsequent message.
Let me explain the riddle. The one strong
big part OF Roosevelt's first message was
the portion OF II which bore upon the for
ests, the flowing waters, and the great
plains and broad valleys OF the far west
that look upward to the sun and ask mois-
ture. There may be uncertainty about rail-
road rates, and halfheartedness about rect
procity. but there IL neither vagueness nor
about what Roosevelt says of the
forests and the waters. TIL first message
rings loud and clear with Il. and the sec
ond takes up the subject eloquently where
the first left off. and the advocacy gains
In strength and force TO the very last: so
that, In spite Of congressional contempt
and Indifference, the whole country, the
whole continent. lIstena az last.
These forest utterances OF Rooseveh's,
these appeals In behalf Of vested natural
resources, are a cry Of the heart; in them
stands the man himself.
The administration Of Theodore Roose-
welt will stend for at least six great for
ward steps In the advance OF the nation.
before 1 enumerRte these steps let me
make this assertion-that the dearest Of all
his " works to him Is the arousing of
the general conscience In the matter OF the
conservation of the natural resources, with
Its attendant blessings Of the insurance of
many thousands OF acres of sacred wood
land from the AK. and the springing UP of
the green grass upon the vast desert ex-
panses.
The mar who keenly desires that 30 much
Of the country as is not forest shall be
garden, so that the people shall have the
bowers OF paradise all about them, can
never be anti-patriotic, and can never be a
bad politician. Theodore Roosevelt's child
endowed him with a passionate love
OF the woods, and to his special forest love
was in that period added a tender respect
for the plowsd field and the husbandman.
1t is possible that the supremacy Of his
sentiment in Roosevelt has re-
stricted his subtlety as a statesman. Per-
haps the real lover OF the forest can never
become old enough to be a perfect man of
state; Emerson. we know. says that 'in the
woods a man casts off his years, as a snake
his slough, and II always a child; in the
woods Is perpetual youth" 1 know that
Roosevelt. in spite OF his occasional can
niness as. q politician. Is q man of simple,
youthful. forest mind. But the people
would rather have him hat than any other
kind of man, and I am convinced that the
record OF his accomplishment in the affairs
Of the nation would be much shorter today
II he were not the boyish outdoor fellow
that he is.