Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-13
COLONEL ROOSEVELT
AS LONE OF THE FOLKS"
Great Men OF the Past Are Uninteresting
Because No One Has Preserved a
Human Record Of Them

10 De interested IN histories ana phlIOSO-
phies and other distractions.
This is why people in all parts of the
country have been discussing the case Of
William Tanner, the Chicago man who
died with his wife when she caught her
foot in the track in front Of an approach
ing railroad train. In order to understand
the situation it was not necessary to
know Greek and Latin, or to be able to
tell otfhand whether the pleistocCnc era
preceded the cocene, or to know whether
eschatology is akin to psychology. The
problem that confronted Tanner arose
out of the human relations which existed
before the orderly study Of language or
science or history was dreamed of.
History and biography are frequently
dull and unintercsting because the men
who write them busy themselves with
the eXternals, forgetting that the great
men were first Of all men Of like passions
with the rest Of us. Confucius lives today
as the maker of maXimS and the creator
Of a system Of philosophy. But we do
not know anything about Confucius the
man, whether he dislikcd to get up in
the morning and whether he loved his
children and had a pet cat. He is a mere
abstraction. No one has taken the pains
to write of the race to which he belonged
as if it were composed of human beings.
The Chinese, to us in the West, are
strange creatures, who, till a few years
ago, wore their hair in a queue down
their backs and ate rats. In the ninetieS
Of the last century, however, some one
translated into English a volume of Chi
ncse nursery rhymes, which did more
than all that had been written previously
to create the impression in the minds Of
those fortunate enough to read the book
that the Chinese are akin to men and
women on this side of the world. The
father would speak Of his little son as a
peach blossom; he would refer with
exquisite tenderness to the sleeping babe
and reveal the delight which the prattle
of children gave to him. After reading
the volume one could stretch his arm
across the ocean and clasp the hand of
the Chinese and call him brother.
Fifty years from now men and women
will be wondering what kind of a man
Theodore Roosevelt was. The histories
will be filled with his achievements, but
they will be achievements of the states
man. They will tell how he made peace
between Russia and Japan by persuading
Russia to send her delegates across the
Atlantic, and Japan to send her repre-
sentatives across the Pacific to meet in
America and agree upon the conditions
on which they would lay down their arms.
They will tell how he built the Panama
canal. They will discuss the wal that
he waged upon the stand patters and reac-
tionarIes in his political party, and will
announce that he was the first Vice
President, succeeding to the presidency
by the death of the elected man who
was himself elected to that high office.
But there is nothing human about all
this. 1t deals with the intellect. To
understand las significance one must be
we'll grounded in history and economics
and international law.
But those who come after US will not
be dependent on the formal histories for
their knowledge of Roosevelt the man, for
a collection of his letters to his children
has just been published, which will pre-
serve a picture Of him that will make
him understandable by the unlettered
Roosevelt himself had a longing that
he might be remembered as a human
being rather than as a statesman, for
shortly before his death he said that he
would rather have these letters published
than anything that had ever been written
about him.
There is nothing remarkable about the
letters. They are such as many a father
has written to his children. He addresses
them by pet names when they are small.
Quentin, who lost his life in France, was
"Quentyque"; Theodore was BLESSED old
Ted" and Ethel and Kermit and Archie
were Darling" and their mother, when
the children were away from home, was
described to them as coming in to dinner
looking sweet and pretty. He writes to
"Quentyque" about seeing "a real B'rer
Terrapin and B'rer Rabbit sitting SOL
EMMY beside one another when he was
out riding and how as his "horse walked by
B'rer Rabbit went lippity, lipp:ty, lippity
off into the bushes, and B'rer Terrapin
drew in his head and legs till l passed.
He tells them about Bill the lizard, and
how the dogs on one of his hunting ex-
cursions climbed the trees for the game,
AS the children grew older he gave
them good fatherly advice. He writes
/ of his interest in the fact that their
playmates when he was President regard.
: ed him without any awe, but as a sort of q
) big boy amusing himself with them. He
, says that he doubts if any one had
: greater pleasure in the White House thar
, he and Mrs. Roosevelt and frankly con,
|, fesses his delight with its quietness ant
> with its historical associations.
! The letters give to those who did moi
know him personally an intimate knowl
edge of the kind of a human being HI
was, and they make him so much likt
the rest of us that he can never become
an abstraction or a mere name.