The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1919-02-08

for him seems grossly incongruous. He
was so much a leader of men, so much
the inspiration of whole people, that
for him to be gone seems like taking
away the very heart of things. His
friends, who were legion, may well cry,
"Whom now shall we love?" His oppon-
ents, whom he of course had, may won
der, with whom now shall we contend?"
There is occasion for surprise in re-
view of his career, to see how long it
was and for how many years he was a
conspicuous figure in the public eye. He
vas not yet an old man; some of us who
are older will not admit the inevitable
impeachment; yet it was more than a
generation ago that he brought the at
tention of the state upon himself when,
STRIPPING Assemblyman in his first term
he defied bosses and party and the adj
monitions of friends by demanding the
investigation of public officer simply
because he was convinced that he ought to
be Investigated. 1t was thirty-five years
ago that he became national figure as
commanding leader of the forces of in
dependence and high ideals in Presiden-
tial campaign. There were not lacking
men of vision in those days who saw for
him future second to none in the annals
of the Republic; and their vision was not
in vain.
New York obtained fuller knowledge
of her son nearly third of a century ago
when he was recalled from the western
ranch where he had sought and found
renewed health and the spirit that domin-
ated him all the rest of his life, to be
candidate for the Mayorality. 1t was sig
nificant that he was opposed, on the one
hand, by the machine politicians, and on
the other by the motley throng Of Social
list and semi-Socialist agitators. He was
defeated, but he maze an impress upon
metropolitan politics that was not easily
to be effaced Thereafter for a number
of years he was Federal Civil Service
Commissioner at Washington, admins
tering that Merit System Of which he had
long been an advocate. Again he served
his native city as the head of its Police
Board, demonstrating that laws which
had been dead letters could be made very
much alive and very potent for the public
good when administered by really live
man.
1t has often and truly been remarked
that the only factor on the Allies side in
the present war that was ready for the
unexpected shock was the British Navy
which by its instant readiness saved the
whole situation. 1t is no less true that
the one efficient branch of our militant
services at the beginning of the Spanish
War was our Navy, which in two notable
battles won the war; and it is indisput-
able that the chief credit for that readi-
ness belonged to Theodore Roosevelt,
who had for more than year been Assist
ant Secretary of that Department. 1t is
fact of history that we owed to him the
circumstance of Dewey's being at Hong
Kong and going thence to Manila.
1t was to Theodore Roosevelt, too, re-
signing from the Navy Department to
enter the fighting ranks of the sarmy,
that the nation owed the entrance of Leo
nard Wood upon his career, first as a
most competent field commander, then
as singularly successful military and
civil administrator and diplomat, and
finally as the foremost soldier statesman
OF his time in our army. Of his own
achievements in the war, as fighting
commander in the field. and afterward
as the foe of the red tape which was more
fatal to our men than the Spanish SOL
diery had been, it is unnecessary to speak.
The nation is often forgetful, but there
are times when it remembers-when
there is nothing left but memory.
Concerning ROosevelts later and still
more eminent career, controversy has ev-
er been active, and may never entirely
ca1h csI p,.A L. r.