The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-01-10


aimed to check unfair discrimination
in railway fares; and he also forced
the enactment of law to secure the
purity of American food products
rhe latter part of. his administration
was marked by dissension with cong
ress which grew, before its close, 10
actual hostility.
Made Trip to Africa.
Theodore Roosevelt, was the TWEEN
ty- sixth president of the United
States. Before his retirement from
the presidency in 1909 Mr.. Roosevelt
announced that on the expiration of
his term he would go 10 Africa on a
hunting expedition, and for the pur-
pose of collecting specimens in nat
ural hisory. The expedition was to be
known as the Smithsonian African
Expedition; but no part of its expen-
SEES were appropriated, either from
the funds of the institution or from
any government appropriation. They
were paid entirely by private sub
scription. During Mr.. Roosevelt's
last months in the White House
preparations were made for the ex-
petition so that at the time of his re-
tirement on March 4, 1909, they were
practically complete. He chose to
accompany him his son Kermit
Roosevelt, DIR. Edgar A. Mearns of
the United States army, Edmund
Heller, and j. Alden Loring A short
time previously Mr.. Roosevelt had
made the announcement that he had
joined the staff of The Outlook mag
azine as contributing editor and that
hereafter all his official utterances
would be made through that period
ical. He had also contracted with
Scribner's magazine to publish series
of articles on the african expedi-
ton, to be known as AFRICAN Game
Trails
All Sailed For Africa.
He sailed with his companions from
New York City on March "a and after
a briefastop in Naples reached Nom
hasa, British East Africa, on April
q, 1909. Here he spent eight months
collecting the specimens native to
that region and afterwards proceed :
ed through Uganda and down the
White Nile to Khartum, where he
arrived on March IA, 1919. During
his stay in the hunting fields, field
work was energetically prosecuted in
all parts of the regions visited, and
ample notes were made of its fauna.
The collection gathered by Mr.. Roose-
welt and his assistants will be found
described in the article Smithsonian
Institution. Il .csaoo
Mr.. Roosevelt spent several days
at Khartum WHERE under the guild
ance of Slatin Pasha, the governor, he
inspected the places of historic and
general interest. Here also he made
an address to the soldiers in the gar
rison ard others Leaving this city
he reached Cairo on March "a Here
great preparations had been made
for his arrival both by the British Of
ficials ard the people. On March 2S
he addressed the students of the Uni
versity, Of Egypt.seHe strongly COM
mendedIthe British rule and denounced
the murder of Boutros Pasha, the
premier, which, had occurred several
weeks previous to this.
misunderstanding With The Pope.
He left Egypt in the latter part OF
March and on April reached Rome
Here an unfortunate incident occur
red as result of a misunderstanding
between him and representatives of
the pope. Mr.. Roosevelt had several
weeks before written to the papal
authorities requesting an interview
with Plus x. On March 25, the Amer
lean Ambassador at Rome sent a
dispatch to Mr. Roosevelt when a,
Cairo which contained the following
communication, from the rector of the
American college in Rome.
1.-THE holy father will be de-
lighted to grant an audience to
Mr.. Roosevelt on April 5 and he
hopes nothing will arise to pre-
vent it, such as the much regret
ted incident which made the re-
ception to Mr.. Fairbanks impoS-
sible"
The Fairbanks Incident. o.
This allusion was to the fact thai
Vice President Fairbanks during a
visit to Rome had made an address
before the Methodist and Episcopa
Mission, between which the papal au.
thorities there had been for years q
feeling of bitter hostility, due, it is
alleged by Catholic authorities, to
attempts on the part of the Metho-
dists to proselyte among adherents OF
the Roman Catholic church. The am
bassador accompanied this dispatch
with another in which he implied
that the communication from the vat
lean contained covert threat. Mr.
Rooseveltat once replied as follows:
1T would be a real pleasure to
me TO be presented to the holy
father. for whom / entertain a
high respect, both personally and
as the head of a great church.
fully recognize his right 10 re-
ceive or not receive whomsoever
he chooses for any reason that
seems good to him and if he does
not receive me shall not for
moment question the propriety
of his action On the other hand,
I in turn must decline to make
any Stipulations or to submit to
any conditions which in any way
limit my conduct. trust that on
April he will find it convenient
to receive 49,"
Rooaevcit's Action Approved.
On receiving this the ambassador
at once sent final dispatch which
ended by quoting the rector of the
American College at Rome as saying
that: can audience could not take
place except under the understanding
avnroccod IN tho former message y