The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-06

\ feSSlO!1 was law Dut Inc dclsitleS That
! were to come left him no time n
which to practice it. In 1882, 1888
and 1884 he was elected to the New
York state assembly, where his ef-
forts on behalf of good government
and civil service reform attracted at
tention. When the Republican ma
tional convention of 1884 was held in
Chicago he was chairman of the New
+ York state delegation
| After this experience ne dropped
out of politics for two years. Going
west, he purchased ranches along the
Little Missouri river, in North Dakota,
and divided his time between outdoor
sports, particularly hunting, and lit
/ erary work. Here he laid the founda-
ton for his series OF books. THE
Winning of the West which was pub
lished from 1889 to 1896. and of other
volumes of kindred character.
+ Ran for Mayor.
Returning to New York. he be-
came the Republican candidate for
MAYOR. in 1886. He was defeated.
| President Harrison in 1889 appointed
him a member of the United States
civil service commission and President
Cleveland continued him in this office,
which he resigned in 1895 to become
| New York City's police commissio Ter.
"A thing that attracted me to this
office" Roosevelt said at the time he
accepted this appointment, was that
/ it was to be done in the hurly- burly,
for 1 don't like cloister life" Hon
esty was the watchword of this ad-
! ministration, and the two years of his
occupancy became memorable thru
the reforms he inaugurated, attract
! ing the nations attention while hold
ing a position which was obscure in
comparison with the events to come.
Illicit liquor traffic. gambling, vice in
general-of these evils he purged the
city in the face of corrupt political
opposition, and the reputs ton he es-
tablished as a reformer won him the
personal selection by President Nc
Kinley as assistant secretary of the
navy. in 1897. A year later the Span
ish-American war broke out.
The Roosevelt temperament did not
allow the man to retain a deputy cab
met position with war offering some
thing more exciting Leonard Wood,
now a major general, was then Presi-
dent McKinley's physician and one of
Roosevelts staunchest friends.
With the Rough Riders.
The famous Rough Riders were or
ganized by Wood and Roosevelt
band of fighting mel the mention of
whose name today suggests immedi-
ately the word Roosevelt" They
came out of the west-plainsmen
miners, rough and ready fighters who
were natural marksmen, and Wood
became their colonel and Teddy" as
he had become Familiarity called by
the publi-, their lieutenant colonel. In
company with the regulars of the
army, the, took transports to Cuba,
landed at Santiago and were soon en-
gagged in the thick of battle. Among
the promotions which this hardy regi-
ment's gallantry brought about were
those n hTieJ
and Roosevelt to coIonel-and this
title Theodore Roosevelt cherished
until the end. Some of the Rough
Riders formed the military escort
when he was elected president a few
years later.
Roosevelt returned to New York. A
gubernatoria1 campaign was in swing,
with the Republican party in need of
a capable candidate. Roosevelt was
nominated. Van Wyck. his Demo-
cratic opponent was defeated. The re-
semblyman he now had the oppor-
tun1ty to consummate, together with
others of more Importance, and it was
during this administration that he is
said first to have earned the hostility
of corporations. When the Republi-
can national convention was held in
Philadelphia in 1900 his party in New
orll state demanded and attained his
nomination for vice preside; on the
tcket with illiam Mckinley. In No
vember of that year this ticket was
elected.
The policies of Mckinley. Roosevelt
e14deavored to carry out after h sue
ceeded the former upon the presidents
tragic death at the hands of an as
Sa SSin- Roosevelt retained his prede-
cessor's cabinet as his own and he
kept in office the ambassadors and
ministers whom Mckinley had ap-
pointed. As much as two years be-
fore the presidential campaign of 1904
Republican organizations in various
states began endorsing him as their
next candidate.
1t was thus that 1.-The man of des-
tiny idea became associated with his
life. Ostensibly, Roosevelt, leaving
the governorship of New York to be-
come vice president, was moving for
ward from state politics into national
politics, o his political opponents pro-
fessed publicly to believe; but it was
their secret desire to ''shelve'' t-ls
man and eliminate him from promi-
neLce in their own community it was
said, that prompted these political
fees to obtain for him the vice-presi-
dental nomination, which he person
ally did not desire.
His Presidential Achievements.
At the height of his public and po-
litic"l career, during the four years Of
tat term for which he had been
elected, Roosevelt accomplished
achievements which historians will
rank high i'll the international All in
duStrial prog ess of the country. They
Included his Influential negotiations
which. condU cted at Portsmouth, n.
H. effected peace between Russia and
Japan; maintenance of the Monroe
Doctrine at a period when European
Powers were interested in the affairs
of Venezuela; the recognition of Pana-
ma as a republic and his treaty with
Penama by which the inter- oceanic
canal thru that country was put under
way; and the settlement, thru his
moral influence in the face of a situa-
ton in which there as no adequate
federal legislation, of the PennSyl-
vania coal mine strike. For his part
in terminating the Russo-Japanese
co flict he was awarded the Nobel
peace prize l. 1906. Four years later