The Washington herald., 1913-12-28
DepIores the Attitude Of Pub
lie Writers and Speakers
Who Insult the Japanese
People, Whom He Greatly
Admires.

ADDED to the now unassaiIable Roosevelt
arEenal. Why should people wonder thaE
MIR. Bryan clings to silver? Has not Mr.
Roosevelt absorbed and sequestered every
yestage Of the Kansas City platform that
had a shred Of practical value? Suppose
that Mr.. Bryan had been elected Presi-
dent. What could he have accomplished
compared with what Mr. RooseS SeIt has
accomplished? viii his most passionate
followers pretend for one moment that
Mr.. Bryan could have conceived, much
less enforced, any such pursuit OF the
trusts as that which Mr. Roosevelt has
jHst brought to a triumphant issue? VIII
Mr.. Bryan himself intimate that the
Federal courts would have turned to his
projects the friendly countenance which
they have lent 10 those Of Mr. Roosevelt?
Where is government by Injunction
gone to? The very emptiness of that once
potent phrase is beyond description A
regiment of Bryans could not compete
with Mr.. Roosevelt in harrying the trusts,
in bringing wealth to its knees, and in
converting into palpable actualities OF
action the widest dreams OF Bryan's
campaign orators. He has outdone them
all.
And how utterly the President has
routed the pretensions Of Bryan and of
the whole Democratic horde in respect
to organized labor, How empty were
all their professions, their mouthings and
their howlings in the face of the simple
and unpretentious achievements OF the
President! In his own straightforward
fashion he inflicted upon capital in one
short hour Of the coal strike a greater
humiliation than Bryan could have visited
upon ii in a century. He is the leader
of the labor unions Of the United States.
Mr. Roosevelt has put them above the
law and above the Constitution, because
for him they are the American people"
This last, 1 need hardly say, is merely
a rhetorical method Of saying that gave
the labor union precisely the same treat
ment as the corporation)
Senator La Toilette, in the issue Of his
magazine Immediately following my leay-
ing the Presidency in March, 1909, wrote
as follows: o
Roosevelt steps from the stage grace
fully He has ruled his party to a large
extent against its will. He has played
a large part in the worlds work for the
past seven years. The activities OF his
remarkably forceful personality have
been so manifold that it will be long
before his true rating viii be fixed in the
opinion of the race. He is said to think
that the three great things done by him
are the undertaking Of the construction
Of the Panama Canal and its rapid and
successful carrying forward, the making
Of peace between Russia and Japan. and
the sending around the world of the fleet.
These are important things. but many
will be slow to think them his greatest
services The Panama Canal wilt surely
serve mankind wheHs IN Operation; and
the manner Of organizing this work seems
to be fine. But no one can yet say
whether this project will be a gigantic
success or a gigantic failure; and the task
is one which must g IN the nature OF
things. have been undertaken and carried
through seme time soon, as historic peri
DDS go, anyhow. The Peace Of Ports
mouth was a great thing TO be responsible
for, and Roosevelt's good offices IN
doubtedly saved a great and bloody bat
tie in Manchuria- But the war was
fought out, and the parties ready to quit.
and there is reason to think that II was
only when this situation was arrived at
that the good offices of the President OF
the United States were, more or less in
directly invited. The fleets cruise was
a strong piece of diplomacy, by which We
informed Japan that we will send our
fleet wherever We please and whenever
We please. 1t worked out well.
But none of these things, il will seem
to many, can compare with some of
Roosevelt's other achievements. Perhaps
he is loath TO take credit as a reformer.
for he is prone to spell the word with
question marks. and to speak dispara-
gingly OF reform
But for all that, this contemner of
'reformers' made reform respectable in
the United States, and this rebuker of
'muck-rakers' has been the chief agent
in making the history of undertaking
in the United States a national one, con-
ceded to be useful. He has preached from
the White House many doctrines; but
among them he has left impressed on
the American mind the one great truth
of economic justice couched in the pithy
and stinging phrase, the square deal
The task Of making reform respectable
in a commercialized world, and of Civ
ing the nation a slogan in phrase. is
greater than the man who performed il
is likely to think.
And, then, there is the great and
movement for the conserva-
ton of our national resources, into which
Roosevelt so energetically threw himself
at time when the nation as a whole
knew not that We are running and bank
rupting ourselves as fast as we can This
Is probably the greatest thing Roosevelt
did, undoubtedly. This globe is the cap
ital stock of the race. 1t is just so much
coal and oil and gas. This may be econ
omized or wasted. The same thing is true
of phosphates and other mineral re-
sources. Our water resources are i'm
mense, and we are only just beginning
tC use them. Our forests have been de-
stroyed: they must be restored. Our soils
are being depleted; they must be built
up and conserved.
These questions are not OF this day
only or of this generation. They belong
all to the future. Their consideration re-
quires that high moral tone which regards
the earth as the home of a pOsterity to
whom We owe a sacred duty.
This immense idea Roosevelt. with
high statesmanship, dinned into the ears
of the nation until the nation needed.
He held 1t so high that It attracted the
attention Of the neighboring nations of
the continent, and will 50 spread and In
tensify that we will soon see the worlds
conferences devoted to It,
Nothing can be greater or finer than
this 1t is so great and so fine that when
the historian OF the future shall speak
Of Theodore Roosevelt he Is likely to say
that he did many notable things, among
them that of inaugurating the movement
which finally resulted in the square deal,
but that his greatest work was inspiring
and actually beginning a world move
ment for staying terrestrial waste and
saving for the human race the things
upon which, and upon which alone,
great and peaceful and progressive and
happy race life can be founded.
what statesman in all history has
done anything calling for so wide a view
and for a purpose more lofty?