Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-28
FEELING TOWARD
ASSASSINS TOLD
BY ROOSEVELT.
Writes Sir Otto TreveIyan
That Public Man Should
Not Have Mind on
Fear of Death.

!. A new lot of Roosevelt's own let
prs appears in the October Serb
her's magazine. This group of let
ters will not only appeal to those in
terested in important political at
fairs. but are of the widest appeal
to men and women of literary and
social appreciation. They contain
letters written to the nephew and BIZ
ographer of Lord Macaulay, Sir
George Otto Trevelyan, who wrote
what Roosevelt called "the very best
history of the American revolution"
These letters cover period of 20
years, beginning while he was gov
ernor and coming down to the most
exciting period of the great war. We
are privileged to reprint one of these
letters in full. It is interesting to
note that the Edward Grey men
toned in the last paragraph is Wis
count Grey, who has just arrived in
this country as British ambassador.
Letter About Shooting.
On October Ia, 1912, Roosevelt,
while on speaking tour in the west
as the progressive candidate for the
presidency, was shot and slightly
wounded by half-crazed fanatic in
Milwaukee. Four days later, when
it was known that the injury was
not dangerous, Trevelyan wrote him
a charming letter of sympathy.
In replying to this letter Roose-
welt gave expression to views about
the assassination of public men
which his intimate friends had often
heard him utter. It was frequent
saying of his. There are worse
deaths than for a man to be killed
in the service OF his country"
Expected Assassination.
Oyster Bay October 20, 1912.
"Your letter touched and pleased
me very much. | shall always keep
it. | have not yet reached the
point where it is wise for me to
write with my own hand, SO I shall
only send you these few typewrit-
ten lines of greeting.
1T is just as you say; prominence
in public life inevitably means that
creatures of, morbid and semi-crimi-
nal type are melted thereby to muir
derous assault. But, my dear Sir
George, ! must say / have never
understood public men who get
nervous about assassination. For
the last II years | have, of course,
thoroughly understood that | might
at any time be shot, and probably
would be shot some time. | think
/ have come off uncommonly we'll.
But what / cannot understand is
any serious minded public man not
being so absorbed in the great and
vital questions with which he has
to deal as to exclude thoughts of
assassination. / do not think this
is question of courage at all. I
think it is question of the major
interest driving out the minor inter-
est. It is exactly as it is in the
army. i can readily understand any
enlisted man having qualms about
his own safety, but the minute that
a man gets command Of others and
has responsibilities for more than
his own personal safety, especially
when he becomes a colonel or a
general. / don't see how, in the mid
die of his wearing anxieties, he has
chance to wonder whether he per-
sonally will be shot. A a say, it
is not a question of courage; it is
question Of perspective, of proper
proportion. If tomorrow I were to
go fox-hunting ! would probably
feel little more need of hardening
my heart when | approached an un-
commonly stiff Jump than ] would
have felt so years ago; just because
there would be no responsibility in
the matter, no duties to be first
nothing whatever to ap-
peal to me except the chance of
smash-up as balanced against the
fun of the hunting and the gallop-
ing. But if had division of cav
airy and were in battle with it,
so far I thought selfishly at
all, it would be as to whether | were
the cavalry creditably. 1t
would not be as to whether was
i'll danger of being shot. So that
l never have felt that public men
who were shot whether they were
killed or not, were entitled to any
especial sympathy; and | do most
emphatica1ly feel that when in dan
ger it is their business to act in
the manner which We accept as
commonplace when the actor is an
enlisted man of the army or navy,
or a policeman, or fireman, or
man, or a miner, or deep
sea fisherman.
Il am really pleased at what you
tell ME about Edward Grey. I have
felt toward him almost as l feel
toward you-and that is as strongly
as ] feel toward any man not i'll my
J:,.> A.,:f,,