New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-09-24
Anglo-Anerican Memories
CXXXVIII.
Mr.. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
III
copyright. 1911. George W. smalley)


seemed full Of meaning 1t was an ex-
preston Of assent He meant. indeed
that his personal attitude to the Prince
should be seen of all men. He knew
very well what was in the mind Of the
German Emperor Later the President
was asked:
If there arose between Germany and
the United States a controversy, how
much would the mission Of Prince Henry
affect the policy Of your Government
touching that controversy"
BY not so much as the weight Of my
little finger" answered the President
The phrase my Government" was al
most as often in his mouth as the phrase
" my policy" So it became a custom for
others TO say to him, your Govern
ment"
When Baron Won Holleben, the Ger
man Ambassador at Washington, went
home on leave Of absence he brought
back with him an account of the audi
ence granted him by the Emperor say
ing, in substance:
His Imperial Majesty asked me many
questions about the President. which I
answered as freely as l thought con-
sistent with the respect due both to the
Emperor and the President I had al
ways considered they had much in COM
mon, personally and as rulers. OF course,
I could not say that to the Emperor.
but I answered his questions in such a
way that presently he exclaimed: Why
Mr.. Roosevelt must in some respects be
very much like me-"
The German Ambassador gave his ac-
count of this incident to the President
and the President in turn repeated it TO
various persons. All their narratives
agreed I'm substance. so the Holleben
story may be accepted as true. He was
not tho man to have invented it, nor
had he in any high degree the gift Of
imagination; nor would he risk mourning
his masters wrath by an inaccurate YER
sion Of a story sure to find its way back
to Berlin and to Potsdam. Mr.. Roose-
velt's admiration for the Kaiser was
such that he cannot have taken his
friends comparison amiss.
There We're, however, critics who held
and expressed a different view. To es-
tablish a likeness Of character between
the Kaiser and the President was. If you
listened 70 them, TO establish a likeness
Of conduct. II helped explain TO their
minds Mr.. Roosevelt's preference for ar
bitrary methods. The Kaiser, as we all
know, is the ruling force In Germany,
and still more is he, as King, the ruling
force in Prussia. Neither the Reichstag
nor the Landtag is good example Of
what we understand and intend by rep
resentative government. The efficient
principle alike in the Empire and in the
Kingdom, is not Parliamentary, but
kingly. And there We're at that time
many men in both Senate and House OF
Representatives who thought they dis
covered in Mr. Roosevelt a disposition
70 put his own convictions Of right above
the considered convictions Of the Ameri-
can people, expressed in statutory law.
Mr.. Roosevelt, according to a recent
cable dispatch from Washington TO the
London papers, said 10 the investi-
eating committee which inquired into
his action in promoting or permitting in
1905, the sale Of the Tennessee Coal and
Iron Company:
What l did was absolutely wise and
absolutely right"
His critics seem TO think he violated
or, to say the least, disregarded, and
enabled others to disregard, the law. 1
have heard that opinion expressed in
England where the phrase dispensing
power" has a sinister historical signif-
canoe. And I have heard Newman
quoted as gaying, before he went to
Rome:
THE Pope's claim 10 infallibility i'm
plies an additional claim. He must not
only be infanible but infallibly certain
he is infallible."
That Pope and Kaiser and President
were all acting from high motives and
from profound belief that they were
doing good in the world is in each case
equally evident.
Holding the views he did, it is no mat
ter for wonder that the President should
sometimes pay scant attention TO eti-
ouette in his dealings with the Ambassa-
doris in Washington. One Of them said:
Your President thinks nothing Of
sending for US at any hour Of the day or
night It is not usual that the personal
representative Of a Sovereign should be
sent for but we waive that and go.
once at the White House he says TO us
whatever comes into his head. We are
Iectured. chided for our own faults or
those Of our governments, told to be-
have better in future, and so dismissed.
We do not take offence. We recognize
the good intentions Of the President.
Wa know that he cannot always control
his impulses or .conhne his apostolic mis-
sion TO purely domestic affairs. But we
do not think it is a good way Of doing
business nor one that tends to smooth
away diplomatic differences"
Rut that was not the limit Of the
Presidents diplomatic activities. II was
M secret in Washington that the recall
of Sir Mortimer Durand. British Ambas-
sador from 1903 to 1906, was due, d.
rectIv or indirectly, TO the Presidents
dislike of him and to his expressed opin-
ion that Sir Mortimer was not man
with whom you could do business
There were other complaints which need
no, ba dwelt on. Yet Sir Mortimer had
had a distinguished career in india
where he had been Foreign Secretary for