Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-13
VS.. ROOSEVELT
A Review of Their Achievements
By w. C. Owen


real man of blood, and exposes, once
and for all time. the shallowness of
Tolstoy's thought. And Mr.. Roose-
velt's Judgment is the judgment OF an
ex-president. Moreover, was not there
a time when a board of experts sol
EMMY awarded him the Nobel peace
prize? ,-,, -,
guaee "That Count Tolstoy did not
see this affords curious illustration
of his complete inability to face facts;
of his readiness to turn aside from the
truth in the pursuit of any phantom,
however foolish: and of the utter
faulty of those who treat MIN as
A philosopher, whose philosophy shoull
be, or could be. translated into acton;
ITO turn aside from the truth! SO
it is in the matter of truthfulness that
Mr.. Roosevelt challenges comparison;
Mr. Roosevelt. whose memory again
must have conveniently slipped a cog
Do Won remember with what Virtuous
indignation this gentleman, on the very
eve of the election that seated him IN
the presidential chair, repudiated the
charge made by his opponent, Alton Is.
Parker. who declared that the corpora
lions were contributing largely to the
Republican campaign? Do you remem-
Der how our late president, awaiting
himself to the full of the weight his
official position gave to his solemn
declaration, announced with a Vehe-
nance peculiarly his own that such
charges, if true, would cover hlmselI
and Mr.. Cortelyou with everlasting in
fanny? And do you remember the sal
disclosures that the investigation or
the insurance companies led to shortly
afterward, to say nothing of the Har-
riman letters, according to which that
gentleman, single-handed. had raised
$780, 900 for the Republican campaign,
expressly, as he avowed, at Mr. Roose-
velt's request?
For my part 1 have the most dis
tinct recollection of the scornful laugh
with which a certain Republican poll
tician met me when / called attention
to these facts and of the cynicism with
which he replied that all great states
men lied on occasion.
Need | go into a criticism of Toll
stoys works to refute the charge OF
Inability to face facts" and readiness
to turn aside from the truth?' I nee1
not. for the simple reason that. as Kro-
potkin says, "in millions of copies his
works are read in all languages. We
know that of all men living Tolstoy
stands an isolated figure, not pretending
to follow the precepts of Christianity
but insisting on their literal accepta-
ton and exemplifying them alike by
WORD ana QeeQ. we KNOW lIldl, DtAltN-
ing that the Christ spoke honestly
when he announced himself as "the
Prince of Peace" Tolstoy has called
necessarily on men to lay down their
arms and live up to their professions.
We know that, believing in human
brotherhood as a vital truth he has
stripped himself of rank, privilege and
possessions that he may live life of
genuine brotherhood. We know how,
TOD I,4r o114 of nd
saved from Imprisonment solely by the
power of his position as a teacher, he
has fearlessly attacked without ceas-
ing those governments whose one aim
It is to maintain by force the spiritual
and material inequality of mankind.
No, we may not all see with the eyes
of Tolstoy. but we can all see that
this is not a man who has turned
aside from truth"
Tolstoy in particular has attacked
modern slavery the rule of money. He
has attacked it in essay, play and
story, using every weapon in the liter
airy armory which, as Mr. Roosevelt
admits, he has at his command. OF
all critics of our money civilization he
has been the most outspoken, the least
mealy-mouthed. He never hesitates to
declare that it Is founded on robbery
and murder and sustained solely by the
soldiers bayonet, the policeman's club
and the deliberate qualification of the
masses by church and state. Mr.. Roose-
Welt knows this we'll, yet he has not
been afraid to put his signature to these
lines: I'm the United States we suffer
from grave moral dangers; but they
are for the most part dangers which
Tolstoy would neither perceive nor
know how to combat. Moreover, the
real and dreadful evils which do in
fact share in his denunciation of and
attack upon both good and evil are
usually not evils which are of much
moment among US" How highly the
writer of those lines must value his
reputation as a critic!
I lack the patience to deal with Mr..
Roosevelt as a literary critic, and
merely call attention to the fact that
the one word of praise bestowed on
this towering personality is as author
of the following works: WAR and
Peace" anna Karenina," "The Co.'S
sacks" and "Sebastopol" The winner
of the Nobel prize has selected pre-
cisely the war novels for his common
dalton! On the other hand, the novel
of which Kropotkin says mo stronger
accusation against marriage for mere
outer attraction, without intellectual
union or sympathy of purpose between
husband and wife, has ever been writ
ten" is dubbed by Mr.. Roosevelt 1.-The
revolving Kreutzer Sonata" For my
humble part, while I differ from it's
philosophy, 1 cannot conceive of any
one with the most rudimentary critical
faculty reading that book and not un-
Outstanding that it is couched through
out in vein of the most lofty asceti-
cism, rejecting quite truly the image of
Tolstoy's Christian spirit as applied to
sexual matters.
The underlying animus of the attack
on Tolstoy is that he himself has out
spoken contempt for the practical
politician Let us congratulate our
selves on the fact that we live in an
age that is beginning to appreciate the
Righteousness of that contempt