The Sauk Centre herald., 1912-10-24

up by conscious, deliberate effort per-
sistently continued ever since the
days when as boy l read Fosters
Essay on Decision of Character" and
discovered my own native weakness.
Mr.. Roosevelt acts upon questions
presented to him with a celebrity of
judgment which takes ones breath
away. l am accustomed to follow my
grandfather's advice, and, when a diff
ficult question is presented to me, to
sleep on it. Mr.. Roosevelt always
goes to his goal as directly and as
swiftly as one of his rifle balls. Sim
uous ways are abhorrent to him, and
ways of indirection distasteful l am
always more inclined to persuade an
opponent than to vanquish him, and
in conflict recogize, as do not think
Mr. Roosevelt often does, the advan-
tage of sometimes resorting to a flank
movement rather than to a direct at
tack.
81 think, therefore, l can under
stand the reason why Mr. Roosevelt
is persona non grata to men of cer-
tain temperaments. Those who think
that caution is the sum of all the
virtues are afraid of his courage.
Those who are unwilling to sacrifice
peace to obtain Righteousness dread
his militant character. Those who
are accustomed to reach their con-
clusions in the quiet of the study, af-
ter careful deliberation of the pros
and cons, attribute his quick execu-
tive action to rash and needless
temper. Mr.. Roosevelt abhors that
which is evil. He hates, sas David did
the enemies of Jehovah, with per-
feet hatred, impurities, meanness,
falsehoods, shams dishonesties of
every description. He is fighting hon
est. Easy-going good nature is ma
tural American vice, and Mr. Roose
velt's hearty, and in the main healthy
hatred of wrong-doing and wrong-do-
ers, always vigorously but not always
temperately expressed, offends the
taste of gentle natures.
''It is not true, however, that Mr..
Roosevelt acts from impulse, or that
he is rash, needless, or impetuOus. l
am accustomed to play solitaire,
sometimes with companion whose
eyes are much quicker than mine.
The cards are laid out on the table.
have to look at them one by one.
My companion sees at a glance their
relations to each other and what can
be done with them. Present any
problem to Mr.. Roosevelt and he in
stantly sees all the conditions Of the
problem, and forms his Judgment, not
without careful thought, but without
the delay involved in deliberation.
have not always at first agreed With
him, but have given to the problem
the deliberate study which my tenn
per requires / have come either t.
the conclusion that Mr.. Roosevelt
was correct or that the difference be-
tween us was less than I thought it
to be. When he ordered the discharge
of the Brownsville soldiers, thought
he had acted rashly. went to the
law library, spent a morning in in
vestigation of the authorities, and
came to the conclusion that he had
acted fully within his constitutional
and legal powers, and was fully sus.
tanned by military precedents. Later,
taking up the official reports, could
come to no other conclusion than that
he was equally sustained by the facts.
and this was the result as the reader
will remember, reached by the United
States Senate after three or four Of
fetal Investigations. He. opposed the
arbitration treaty negotiated by the
Taft administration. / supported that
treaty. His views and mine We're
both given to the readers of The Out
look in its pages. But when our
views were compared we found the
difference amounted simply to this.
We both agreed that the new treaty
could accomplish nothing more for
peace than the treaty which it sup
planted. He was opposed to it be-
cause it assumed to do what it could
not do.
Interest In FelloWmen. 4
"Most enigmatical men cease to be
enigmas if you can get the key to
their character. The key to Mr..