The daily progressive-miner., 1916-05-03
ROOSEVELT AND
 PREPAREDNESS
AN INTERVIEW GIVEN TO ONE OF OUR WESTERN EDITORS
 AND NEwSPAPERMEN.

A most interesting article about ex-President Roosevelt, appeared il the Seattle Sunday Times of Apri 30. The article was written by c B Blethen, editor of that paper whs is now in New York and shows ths man as he is today Likewise. how he impressed and led the great edi, tor to the conclusion that Roosevelt was the man. of the hour. An ex, cerpt of the article follows:
 Older. graver. stronger.
 Such were the first mental mega lives I got of Theodore Roosevelt each made as fast as could turn up my cranial films. Older. gravel and stronger than 1 had pictured him. than I believed him to be ! from the utterly unconscious i'm pressions recorded through the car soOns. dispatches. disparagemenss distortions current in our nldgaxines and newspapers since he left the White House and set out on his anlazing, incredible, comical. won- derful journey to the River of Doubt.
 1 The final portraits 4 man who kept the peace. A man who will keep the peace of America as safe { ly the next time the opportunity comes An American. 4 states man, a diplomat. family man. 4 natural leader A fearless man. One of the most distinguished and sim pie gentlemen of the century. An advocate of real preparedness be- cause his sanity drives him to it. The only man of note in civil life who understands what real pre- paredness Is and has a sane. work able. simple plan to save America from the bayonets of her foes.
 To retouch the negative finally ob- tained let us add that he Is avari- cious of knowledge and utterly in capable of realizing that his naive interest in everything he encounters and his frank comments thereon has been the cause of most of the ridi- cule his enemies heap upon him. Simple sincerity accounts for the River of Doubt. the man-eating fish. the nut-eating bird Simple sin eerity made him say that America didn't want him to be President again unless it was prepared to ac- cept him in an heroic mood.
 Not Posing as Hero
 Nothing Is sillier than the thought that Colonel Roosevelt meant to au- nounce himself as a hero. Unfor- tunately, he meant big thing and used intensely picturesque America Tn describing what he thought If l may venture a guess he meant
 Don't take me if the majority of the voters still expect to retain the benefits of government without ac- eepting it's obligations. Don't take me If you expect to be allowed to shirk your duties Don't take me II you expect the pork barrel to take precedence over Americas de- fense- Don't take me if you exuect 10 face the possibility of war with hired soldiers to protect you. Don't take me if you expect me to toler ate an America made up of a lot of Istle hyphenated Americas. Fin ally don't take me if you expect a continuance of the Wilson policy. in foreigl or continental affairs" This Is ely 3 guess; Colonel Roosevelt didn't. say this; it didn't come up in the conversation.
 But this simple sincerity is what makes him Teddy" and CT. R." to those who know him Not that they address him that way by a long shot But they can't help calling him one or the other as terms of respectful affection. His intimatess by the way, refer to him simply as 'the Colonel" His son Archie calls him "the Boss" And it is this trait that makes the average American realize that Colonel Roosevelt would not only show interest in the new paddock on the barn door; he would actually feel that interest.
 Can't Depend on Democrats. It is no news to the readers of The Seattle Times and The New York Herald that the writer is greatly interested and deeply con cerned in the cause of real pre- parednss. A month, not idly spent, in watching from ringside seat the antics of our mis-representative Congress and our misguided and misinformed administration, convinc- cd me that adequate preparedness ! was not to be expected from the party in power. For two reasons Congress does not understand the sentiment of the country any more than does the administration, Nol does either understand what ade-