Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-01
Apostles of the Strenuous Life
(London Express)
MR. ROOSEVELT

II, We want to fight, and we can't
get enough" 1t was the song
of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders
in the Cuban war. 1t was shouted by
the president when he met his boys"
in Texas five years ago. 1t is the motto
of his life.
Mr.. Roosevelt is not a philosopher.
His set speeches are mainly remarkable
for the courage with which he repeats
trulsms. He has not initiated new de-
partures in sociology. He is a politician
rather than a statesman, and politi-
clan whose policy is neither consistent
nor well defined. Yet he stands with
the kaiser as one of the two most i'm
portant men of affairs in the modern
world. Because he is, above all things,
a hrst-class lighting man, and the
world is still for the fighting man.
Ftfty-two years ago Theodore Roose-
welt was born of mixed Dutch and
Scotch descent, and in his youth he was
remarkable mainly for languor and ILL
health. When he was % he began to be
strenuous. He came to Europe, and
climbed the Alps.
He went home again, and in 1881 be-
came a member of the New York legis-
lature at Albany, and in 1884 he gave
politics a rest, bought a ranch in Da-
kota, and spent two years hunting big
game, busting broncos and becoming
the perfect cowboy.
President Harrison appointed Mr..
Roosevelt United States civil service
commissioner in 1889, and that was
practically the beginning of his public
life. Until then nearly every public
office, no matter how unimportant, was
awarded for political service. He en-
couraged the system of appointment by
merit discovered by competitive exam
ination. He fought abuses and fur
thered reforms.
Then came his term of office as New
York police commissioner his squelch-
ing OF ByrneS, the famous detective
chief, who died last week, his fight with
the graft system, his struggle for
wholesome administration of the law.
AS police commissioner Mr.. Roosevelt
was notably strong. He was pictur-
esque, and, as always, he was hlstrion-
ic. He initiated Haroun al Raschid,
and prowled the streets at night, seek
ing tor knowledge and adventure. He
closed the saloons on Sundays, and
generally held high the banner of the
strenuous life.
In 1897 he was appointed assistant
secretary of the navy. The secretary
counted for as little after his appoint
ment as Lord Elgin when Mr.. Winston
Churchill was under-secretary for the
colonies. Mr.. Roosevelt began at once
to prepare for the war with Spain. He
t1,ff fn,, for. A-if
practice. He hustled. struggled, and
had his own way.
Then came the war, and Mr.. Roose-
welt had the time of his life. He was
not satisfied to sit in the navy depart
ment's palatial offices receiving reports
from admlrals who were doing as they
liked. He had a friend, an army doctor,
who was President McKinleys medical
aide. This friend was also ambitious.
His name was Wood. The doctor had
influence with the president, and per-
suadedi Mr.. Mckinley to appoint him
colonel of a rough rider regiment. for
which the assistant secretary of the
navy promised a goodly contingent of
cowboys on condition that he was made
lieutenant colonel.
1t all came out as they arranged. and
Wood is now a general next in rank to
the command-in-chief, thanks to the
friendship of his former lieutenant
colonel
The kaiser said last week that Mr.
Roosevelt was the first civilian to re-
view his troops. But he is civilian by
accident. Essentially his mind is as
military as Cromwelrs mind was. His
virtues are the soldiers virtues. His
limitations are the soldiers limitations.
In the glamour of Cuban glory he was
elected governor of New York.
Mr.. Roosevelt had never been loved
by the party leaders. The strong, ener-
getic personality is often a nuisance in
any party. He went his own way.
1t was decided that he should retire
into honorable obscurity, and in 1900 he
was nominated for the vice presidency
of all offices the most honorary and the
most out of the limelight-by the Re-
publican wirepullers. But fate dramat-
ically interfered, and in eighteen
months Theodore Roosevelt was called
to the White House by the tragic death
of Mr.. Mckinley. He was reelected In
1904, and he remains the strong man of
the west.
No one doubts, American or foreign
er, that he will in 1912 again become
the executive head of the United States,
elected not as representative of a party,
but as an individual and possessing a
personal power and prestige which GER
tainly no president has had since Abra-
ham Lincoln. 1t is certain that he must
nightly affect the evolution of the re-
public.