Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-03-08
Roosevelt-s Place in History.

As everybody of reading and reflection
should know this l. not tine tim" +" under
take L. fix Mr.. Roc ~cv"It.s pld'" IN his
tory Like all strong and DARING men. he
has aroused interIse feeling both Tor ana
against him His enemies describe him
as while President, = Veritahie bun In d
china shop. capable of. and accomplish
ing, only destruction. They regard ms
eight wears in the White House a. a mis-
fortune 10 the country. and believe we
shall he Years in recovering from II. some
dnuht il We ever entirety recover We
have had. III their opinion. long siege
OF Roosevelt feyer-as d.hiliiatlng IN It's
way as tie Cuban fever.
ON the other hand. Mr. Roosevelt : az
dent admirers can see Only virtue ana
wisdom of the loftiest description III MN.
They give him standing not only with
Washington and Lincoln among Amerl-
cans but with the greatest. men of any
age or cline. As President lac worked
only benefiCcnt wonders. You Will hear
them say that Washington established
the government. Lincoln sared it from
disruption through war and Roosevelt
saved il from ruin through corruption
In New York yesterday two Clergymen
toyed with this perious theme. Said one
Of them:
"T challenge contradiction by his critics
when | say call the roll OF the great
achievements of the Presidents, and you
will find nothing greater than he mas &C
complished-
ANYBODY familiar with the record may
safely challenge the reverend gentleman S
statement Let him call the roll HIM
self. and show what he considers great
presidential accomplishments.
But here is a gem OF purest ray serene.
Said the other clergyman:
Some people think that he was 4 great
statesman. Mr.. Roosevelt was not a
statesman: to his discredit he il said that
he was the SmarteSt politician of our
time He was destructive and not con-
structive. But il is through that that his
place in history is assured him. lie was
willing and had the courage To stake his
own party and the mere material pros
perity of the country. because he believed
that there was involved something higher.
something more important.
If America was saved from corruption
Rome and France were not. il was
through this man
To represent Mr.. Roosevelt as the
savior of society in North America is to
affront common sense and make him
ridiculous. That, greatly To his own
credit and greatly to the country's adj
vantage. he fearlessly attacked some great
abuses is fact. But all of those abuses
put together had not brought the country
to the brink of destruction. Mr.. Roose-
welt did not appear just in the nick of
time TO save the country from fate as
sad as Rome's. And what is the matter
with France? The French people have
redeemed themselves nobiy from the rot
tenness of the second empire
\ law should be passed restraining per-
sons with an undigested smattcring OF
history from parading in speech or print
attempted parallels or contrasts. Especial /
ly should Rome have rest, when the
latest word on the subject by a visiting
Italian historian of high reputation for
research and brilliancy of statement as
sures us that many widely accepted points
of Roman history are founded on myths
or mistakes.