The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-11-08

NEW 1ONN,-lhN Mall) p'lN Ing into the mine of 150,0oO letters which Thedore Roosevelt wrote during his public career, Joseph Buckltn Bishop the colonel's biographer, in the Oc- tober issue of Scribner's magazine brings to light a number ol gems in the intimate correspondence be tween the former President of the United States and Sir George Otto Treyelyan, Bart. O. NJ English statesman and author with whom the great American enjoyed rare friendship covering 20 years.
 Mr. Bishops paper, the second of of the series, entitled. Roosevelt and Treyelyan" reveals the many sided Roosevelt as "an unsuitable reader of books" his warm sympathy for au- thors and his broad and profound knowledge of ancient and modern lit erature Even amid the cares of the Presidency. MT Roosevelt it is shown. maintained a regular cores ponGence with leaders of literature and intellectual life both in this coun- try and Europe In Sir George Trey elyan. a nephew of the historian Mac aulay. he found a man singularly re- aponsive to his own intellectual tastes and knowledge. The cores rondence began when he was Gov enog of New York and continued until a few months before Mr Roosevelt's death.
 "I certainly would no, be willing hold the Presidency at the cost of failing to do the things which make the real reason why | care to aold il # all," he wrote to Sir George on May 2S. 1904 q had much rather be real President for three @ears and a half than a fgurehead for sey- en years and a half l think I can r-uthfully say that I now have 10 my credit a sum of substantial achieyc- ment and the rest must take care of itself"
 Previously in 1899. Trevelyan had sent Governor Roosevelt a copy ot the first part of his history. "The tmerf- can Revolution" which made deep impression on its recipient and which he praised for "its interest delightful humor, absolute fairmindedncss and eXactness of narrative" an opinion which was shared by Senator Lodge and Elihu Root. both of whom later joined with Roosevelt in buying a silver loving cup and sending it to Sir George as a token of their tppre- citation Roosevelt. his biographer says, was always on the alert for writers of only "even moderate fame" and of encouraging them with friendly letters and invitations to visit him at the White House or Oyster Bay.
 The books that made the President happy covered a remarkable range. history, fiction. philosophy, travel, zoology, ornithology, anthropology, re rgion and art and he said they gave him ease and relaxation he could get in no other way, mot even on norse- back"
 Statements and apothegms char- acteristically Rooseveltian abound in this collection of letters. Some of them are here reproduced for ,he first time in any newspaper:
 A great free people owes it to it. self and to mankind not to sink into helplessness before the powers of evil"
 Unfortunately for us. small men do most of the historic teaching in the colleges. The great historan must have the scientific spirit, able to marshal and weigh the facts.'
 The Presidential office tends 10 ut premium upon mans keeping out of trouble rather than upon his ac- cOmplishfng results. The electorate is very apt to vote with it's back to the future"
 q do not think the average Ameri- can mult-millionaire a very high type and do not much admire him. On the whole our people are, spiritually as well as materially, on the average better and not worse off than they were 100 years ago"
 Each man knows where his own shoe pinches. l have had most vivid realization of what it must have meant to Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the heartbreaking anXieties of the Civil War, to have to take un his time to satisfy candidates for