The weekly Alaska citizen., 1920-01-19
,YHY ROOSEVELT
 0pP0SFD USEs [
 M0T'T(l ON COIN

MSIiU ON CIlN
 NEW YORK, (P A new and in teresting explanation of Colonel Roosevelt's objection to the use of the phrase Tn God We Trust" on United States coins, is afforded in an article in the December Scribner's by Joseph Bucklin Bishop the former Presidents biographer.
 A letter written hy Mr Roosevelt on Nov II i907 flo a clergyman who had differed with him about placing the motto on the coins read:
 When the question of the new coinage came up we looked into the law and found there was no warrant therein for putting In God We Trust on the coins As the custom altho without legal warrant, had grown up, however. I might have felt at liberty to keep the inscription had approved of its being on the coinage But as did not approve of ii I did not direct that it should again be put on. Of course the matter of the law is absolutely in the hands of congress, and any direction of congress in the matter will be immediately obeyed. At present. as have said, there is no warrant in law for the inscription.
 My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins or to us it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence which comes dangerously close to sacrilege.
 "A beautiful and solemn sentence such as the one in question should be treated and uttered only with that fine reverence which necessarily i'm plies a certain eHaltation of spirit. Any use which tends to cheapen it, and above all, any use which tends to secure its being treated in a spirit of levity. is from every standpoint profoundly to he regretted.
 "It is motto which it is indeed well to have inscribed on our great national monuments, in our temples of justice, in our legislative halls and in buildings such as those at West Point and Annarolis in short wherever it will tend to arouse and inspire a lofty emotion in those who look thereon But it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such 8 motto by use on coins just as fl would be 10 cheapen it by uso on post age stamps, or in advertisements"
 Among the 15o.OO0 letters written by Colonel Roosevelt during his pub lie career, Mr. Bishop said he found d number from Rudyard KipIins, writ- ten in that famous authors charac- teristic way that is in the tiniest chirography.
 In a letter written in 1908 the colonel said; "Great-Hoart is my fav- orite character in allegory. just as Pilgrims Progress is to my mind one of the greatest bool-s that was eyer written and I think hat Abra raln Tin. coin is the ideal Craat-HoarF or public life.' He returned to this idea about Lincoln from time to time. fact which explains the origin of kipling's memorial poem entitled "Great-Heart' written when the ! colonel died
 Colonel Roosevelt's admiration for the Great Emancipator was also shown in letter which he wrote on March s, 19O5 a few days after his inauguration, to Sir George Trevelyan. the English historian and nephew of Macaulay in which the colonel said:
 "It has been peculiarly pleasant to me to find that my supporters are to be found among the overwhelming majority whom Abraham Lincoln call ed the plain people, As I suppose you know, Lincoln is my hero. He was man of the people who always felt with and for the people but who had not the slightest touch of the demagogue in him."