New-York tribune., 1919-01-07


Colonel Roosevelt was. None lived in
thought and action more completely up
| 20 the true ideals of democracy.
We think of the early Virginian Presi
dents as retaining something of the
hauteur of the Colonial gentleman. We
think of Andrew Jackson as over-em-
I phasizing his predictions for frontier
4 uncouthness as matter of politics. We
4 recall Presidents who reflected in Office
! the provincial prcjudices of New Eng
I land or the South or whatever other
] section they happened to come from.
But Colonel Roosevelt's ubiquity of
sentiment and viewpoint lifted him
above all such insularity. State lines
and sectional groupings meant little to
him. AS a Republican President he was
not even afraid to expunge at times the
dreaded Mason ana Dixon boundary.
He abhorred all artificial distinctions of
race, religion or social caste And he
practised as we'll as preached the un-
finching doctrine Of equality of right
among Americans
Colonel Roosevelt was one of the
extraordinary accidents of politics. He
was nominated for Vice President as the
result chiefly Of mannuvre by Platt,
Quay and other Republican bosses to
annoy and humiliate Marcus A. Hanna.
The Republican politicians would prob
ably never have dreamed Of giving Col
onel Roosevelt the Presidential nomina-
ton to succeed Mckinley in 1904. No
Nlce-President in our time has ever
been nominated for President
Roosevelt, in spite Of his spectacular
service in the Spanish War, still labored
under the reputation among the politi-
clans of being ''lterary man."
spokesman for "the better element"
''reformer" His record as a Federal
Civil Service Commissioner under the
Harrison and Cleveland administrations
had confirmed the opinion in Washing
ton that he was dilettante in politics.
Fate knew better. Colonel Roosevelt's
relative aloofness from active political
life had enabled him to preserve just
that freshness of view, that intensity of
faith in the ideas he had cultivated and
that zest to put them to a fair trial which
made his seven years in the Presidency
one of the most stimulating periods in
our history.
His freedom from obligation to the
politicians permitted him to break more
easily with the past And it was time
to break with the past. Colonel Roose-
Welt belonged intellectually to a newer
generation than that which had been
intrenched in power in Washington
since the war. He had the enthusiasm,
he fervor and the daring of youth The
Years between the end Of Harrson's
term and the death of Mckinley were
lears of profound dissatisfaction in this
country. People wanted to see the
dead hand Of sectional politics lifted.
n vague, half-conscious way they
were eager for greater national unity,
for economic progress, for a period of
construction which would replace the
period Of division and stagnation follow
ing the war
A mind attuned to these popular long
ings was needed in the White House. The
Nf1O1 eNAi4Ny IOl q lllIllU Vi lllGU SOIJ 10
test its quality in struggle with the
forces Of materialism and reaction
conceded with Roosevelt's accession to
the Presidency. He gave the new ideas
Of larger democracy and broader nation
allsm spokesman exceptionally qualified
to champion them and possessing the
moral courage to fight for them with all
l 3I., H., I-14z L.
hand
With Colonel Roosevelt in the White
House there was no power behind the
throne. He received his office as clear
trust from the people and administered it
as such. He assumed control of his
! own party and had the fervent support
Of the country. He grew stronger with
the years. There was never period in
his term when he could not have gone
before the people for an Endorsement OF
his policies and obtained it without hest
tation on their part.
Colonel Roosevelt laid the founda-
tions of the new order of larger de-
I nocracy and fuller economic opportunity
which is still in course of development
/ He cleared the way for modern progress.
4 lie has been reproached for emphasiz-
ing too continuously the ancient and
! common virtues. But these virtues
fa;rncss, honesty, sincerity were the
ones which were most sadly lacking in
our political practice. What America
lad been suffering from before Roosc-
Welt began to preach and threaten were
sham democracy, sham equality and
. aham patriotism. Since his days in the
White House the American people have
1 begun TO drop the empty formulas Of
Z 81 irresponsible individuaism and to
q fCrn toward enrirhtcl natinn q srn