The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1912-10-14


met together in editorial conference
and at luncheon once week. I have
seen him in his office at work, and I
have seen him in his home at play.
In temperament we are very differ
emit. Mr.. Roosevelt physically is an
electric battery of inexhaustible en-
ergy. / have been compelled all my
life carefully to conserve such physi-
cal energy as I possess, and to do my
work within the limits which a not
naturally strong constitution has i'm
posed upon me. Mr.. Roosevelt is by
temperament. soldier; in phrenologi-
cal language, his combativeness is
large. I am by temperament a teach
er, and avoid battle Of every descrip-
ton when it can be avoided without
cowardice or dishonor. Mr.. Roosevelt
has, either by inheritance or by long
training, great decision of character.
My decision of character-and l do
ne. think 1 am wholly without it-has
been laboriously built up by conscious.
deliberate effort persistently continu-
ed ever since the days when as a boy
/ 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 difficult 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.
Sinuous 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 recognize. as / do not
think Mr.. Roosevelt often does, the
advantage of sometimes resorting to
flank movement rather than to a di-
rect attack.
1 think, therefore, 1 can understand
the reason why Mr.. Roosevelt is per-
soma non grata to men of certain tenn
peraments. Those who think that eau
ton 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 char
acter. Those who are accustomed to
reach their conclusions in the quiet of
the study, after careful deliberation of
the pros and cons, attribute his quick
executive action to a rash and heed
less temper Mr.. Roosevelt abhors
that which is evil He hates, as David
did the enemies of Jehovah, with a
perfect hatred, impurities, mean
nesses, falsehoods, shams, dishones-
ties of every description. He is fight
ing honest. Easygoing good nature
is natural American vice, and Mr..
Roosevelt's hearty. and in the main
| healthy, hatred of wrong-doing and
wrong doors, always vigorously but
not always temporarily expressed, Of
tends the taste of gentle natures.
1t is not true, however, that Mr..
Roosevelt acts from impulse, or that
he is rash, needless or impetuous. l
am accustomed to play solitaire, some
times with a companion whose eyes
are much quicker than mine. The
cards are laid out on the table. l have
to look at them one by one. My COM
panion sees at a glance their relations
to each other and what can be done
with them. Present any problem to
Mr.. Roosevelt, and he instantly sees
all the conditions of the problem, and
forms his judgment, not without care
full thought, but without the delay in
volved in elaboration. l have not al
ways at first agreed with him, but
when l have given to the problem the
deliberate study which my temper re-
quires, l have come either to the con-
clusion that Mr.. Roosevelt was cor
rect or that the difference between us
was less than l had thought it to be-
| When he ordered the discharge of the
Brownsville soldiers, | thought he had
acted rashly. l went to the law Ii
! brary, spent a morning in investiga-
ton of the authorities and came to the
conclusion that he had acted fully
within his constitutional and legal
| powers, and was fully sustained by
| military precedents. Later, taking up
! the official reports, l could come to
/ no other conclusion than that he was
equally sustained by the facts.