Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-04
MR.. ROOSEVELT


terial good, President Roosevelt, from
whose hands the reins of power as
chief executive of this nation are to-
day transferred to those of Mr.. Taft,
has earned the vacation from labor
which he proposes to take.
The Herald believes that when an
other generation writes the history of
the nearly two terms which the retir-
ing president has served and weighs
and measures the man, the verdict will
be that the president who has made
such record as Mr.. Roosevelt leaves
behind him is the most remarkable fig
ure that the public life of this country
has produced in fifty years. and is, in
some respects, the most remarkable
that It has ever produced.
Mr.. Roosevelt's career has been char
acterized to an unparalleled extent by
the qualities of both versatility and
initiative. He has not only been ocou-
pied successfully in many fields of rou-
tine official effort, but he has during
his term of office initiated several gov
is Of sufficient Importance to give to
it's author a reputation for construc-
tive craftsmanship that will last as
long as our nation endures.
The Panama canal, which his magni-
ficent initiative and energy changed
from the dream of half a century to
the realization of the present decade,
is, in its effect upon both the commerce
of the nation and the world, a matter
of the most important and far-reaching
constructive craftsmanship.
The improvement of the waterways
of the country which Mr.. Roosevelt
inaugurated and has carried to a point
where it is now only question of real
izing the details of a well-laid plan,
is another piece Of constructive states
manship of enormous and everlasting
economic Importance and value to his
country.
The movement for the conservation
Of our national resources of timber,
minerals, and water power originated
by the president and carried so far as
to leave to his successor only the mat
ter of following out it's details, is of
such far-reaching and tremendous ma
terial Importance as to entitle the
statesman responsible for 1t to ever
lasting fame in his country's history
and the unending gratitude of the I'M
born millions of his country's people.
Mr.. Roosevelt also did for national
irrigation what he did for the Isthmian
canal. By applying his remarkable in
itiative and energy to it, a matter that
before his time had largely remained
in the realm of theory, has been given
a practical significance which ulti-
mately, and shortly, means a living for
tens of millions of people and an added
wealth of billions of dollars to his
country.
But it is not alone in the practical
business affairs of government that
Mr. Roosevelt has shown his remark
able capacity. The country, when he
took the helm of the ship of state. was
rapidly drifting on to the dangerous
shoals of uncontrolled corporate power
and the unlawful ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
wealth.
Mr.. Roosevelt, with the clarity of WIS.,
Lincoln, among all of our public men
of the past, saw the danger which the
country was rapidly approaching and
took immediate steps to so change its
course as to avoid the threatened dan
ger
Under the impulsion of his energet-
ic insistence and with the assistance of
able men with whom he surrounded
there was breathed into the
interstate commerce and Sherman anti
trust laws which had almost fallen into
a state of innocuous desuetude, a life
and strength which have made them
efficient instruments for the protection
of the rights of the people against the
unlawful aggressions of wealth and
special privilege and have carried ter
ror to wealthy malefactors. who, be-
fore Mr.. Roosevelt's advent upon the
scene, had pursued their aggressions
upon the peoples rights with so little
with their unlawful course
as to have imbued them with thor
ough contempt for the laws of the
and the rights of it's citizens.
Mr.. Roosevelt has led his country
men in such a moral awakening in
favor of law enforcement and the
square deal' as they have never seen
before, and has probably never been
paralleled in the history of any people.
It is questionable whether the moral
benefits of Mr.. Roosevelts administra-
ton will not in the end outweigh the
material benefits OF his constructive
craftsmanship, great as they have been
and will be.
There is no doubt that, thanks to his
moral leadership, every branch of gov
eminent in this country today is sur
rounded by much higher moral at
mosphere than it has ever been be-
fore, and It is the belief of most, and
the hope of all, good citizens that this
influence will not only continue to ex-
list but will grow as our country grows
in age and experience.
Mr.. Roosevelt has also been the
means Of working great good to his
country in the attitude which he has
taken upon industrial questions. His
settlement of the anthracite coal strike
of 1902 was one of the most remarkable
examples Of the power of personality
ever known in the history of our coun-
try, and it and other actions of the
president toward the disputes of labor