The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1919-01-10
WITH THE EDITORS
THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The man who has passed was great American
and a great statesman-a greater statesman than
We, his contemporaries always realized or admit
| ted He had become our main national reliance
we depended upon him to say the word to give us
guidance to cast the light to pierce the dark; he
had been so often right, and the rest of US had so
often to catch up with him. He had SO many
times taken a running jump and landed on the
right spot-just how, he perhaps could not have
told himself. But we knew he had prescience,
almost intutive, and insensibly we have depended
on his faculty.
Therefore, although the peak of his career had
been crossed time back, nevertheless his loss
will be felt as present well an historic one
The conscience of the man was very nearly the
peoples own, while in vision he outranged every
leader that we had We have had able men like
Root and Lodge, adequate leaders of their kinds
like Bryan and Wilson. But the mind and spirit
of Roosevelt ran before like signal, through
the desert of their difficulties the pillar Of cloud
by day and the pillar of fire by night piloted the
wandering Israelites. !
Many of US at times have been perplexed by him
and we have complained of him. For he under
stood the arts of the politician and practiced them
no doubt, at times But it is his distinction, aye,
his glory, that if he exercised the power and per-
suasion of the great demagogue, he did so for the
aims and in the spirit of comprehensive and, no
doubt, profound craftsmanship. In genera
ton of politicians he was our one statesman.
z.Demagogue" in the original Greek sense was
leader of the people, and in that sense Theodore
Roosevelt was the superde magogue: AS one who
understood the people, who 4Wishedsto be their
servant in the highest gsnaG he expounded#to
them his gospel He taught them what they need
ed He interpreted their best requirements. BY
his art of tongue and pen he gained power, he
reached great office, he gained for himself the
opportunity to play the statesman.
| For he had the knowledge and the wisdom of
the statesman. If his methods were sometimes
frantic, his use of power wasI sanp and solid
he counselled sometimes furiously, what be coun-
selled has turned out almost invariably to. be wis
dom to the degree of indispensability.
He captured the imagination of the Country
with his force, his fearlessness, with the COM
polling quality of his personality And he might
so easily have used what his fellow-citizens grant
ed him for shallow purposes, to vicious conse-
quences. Instead, he was, taken by and large,
constructive. AS pure force his career will COM
pare with those that have turned the history of
people or the wcrld Not every statesman vouch-
safed to democracy is successful demagogue
enough, and few demagogues are proved states
men by events. 1~~'-,,.
The man changed his time; perhaps he saved it
likewise How much he changed it, in how many
ways of politics and ethics and custom, it will re-
main for the historian fully to ascertain. BY his
changes he averted trouble, very grave perhaps.
The Country which was in the grasp Of the subli-
lol Jofo
stress. But Roosevelt INTERVIEWED He had CON-
prehension of the vastness and the complexity of
the Country and of its needs. He knew infinitely
more than business did. He consulted more than
business, called into direction the other estates.
That was a very courageous and difficult achieve
ment. And it was salutary to the degree of saliva
ton for the Republicans nearly all of US can see
now.
| The man was not simple. He was compounded
of various qualities and contradictions. Had he
been simple, we should have understood him more
easily But he would not have been Theodore
Roosevelt so adequate for his work. What stead
led him amidst his own contradictions and the
dstracting problems of his time was rectitude,
American rectitude, that which our greatest men
have all possessed, whose lack the people instinc
lively sense, whose possession they recognize and
trust.
| The latest phase of Roosevelt has been bene-
fcent. The United States is not an international
boarding house. There is no room in America for
anybody but Americans. These are excellent
preachments. Indeed, unless they are needed,
there will be no American nation.
| Let us go forward now in the path which this
great American foresaw that we must take. Let
us reap the full fruitage of durable peace for the