New-York tribune., 1920-01-06
Flaming Stoords
From Elihu Roots address dt tho Rocky
Mountain Club Dinner, October 81,
1919, the anniversary Of Colonel
Roosevelt's birthday.

He was strong, powerful, but he be-
gan weak and puny. He trained him.
self to strength and power. So can all
American boys. He was born and bred
under the disadvantages of wealth and
fashion, with the paving stones Of a
city between him and the earth. He
broke over the barriers and became the
friend of every farmer, of every ranch.
Aman, Of every huntsman, of every Ia
borer, of every good and true man and
woman in this great land. No pent-up
city, no learned institution, no social
convention restrained his universal and
mighty sympathy. He trained himself
to the habit OF courage. So can every
American boy. From the habit of cour-
age came the natural reaction of truth
That is within the grasp of every
American boy.
He was sincere and simple, not ornate
and florid. He spoke not the tongue Of
the poet or the philosopher. He had
not what Macaulay credited to Glad.
stone, "a command of a kind Of lan-
guage, grave and majestic, but of vague
and doubtful import" No one evef
misunderstood what Theodore Rooss'
velt said. No one ever doubted wis!
Theodore Roosevelt meant No ore
ever doubted that what he said he BE-
lieved, he intended and he would DO.
He was man not of sentiment or eI'
preston, but of feeling aud of action.
His proposals were always tied "
action. He uttered no fine sentence
satisfied that that was the end, the
thing accomplished. His words wer
always the precursors of effective &C.
ton. He cultivated promptness In
action until it became his natural re-
action and made him an almost perfees
executive-not an administrator. o"
an executive gifted with the power Of
swift and unerring decision.
Yet he was as free from self-cones"
as any man ever knew, His conscious
ness of strength was in the streng'n
of his purpose, in the cause ne sdso'
Gated, and not at all in his own merits
He was as modest as a girl about n'H''
self. He was the most hospitabe
advice of any man ever knew. lie "s'
eager for knowledge. He thirsted io'
h. f,,. al
his public duties he sought every
where from all manner of men, 70
know their thought, their contribu''o"
of information. He talked little aboS'
common counsel, but he practiced
universally and always, and he did co'''
to know the very heart Of the Aneries'
people by actual contact. He WIS ,"
unapproachable genius, unlike every Q"
else.
He did not originate great 10,
truths, but he drove old fundamen&..
truths into the minds and the hearts "
his people so that they stuck and do%
mated. Old truths he insisted upe''
enlarged upon, repeated over ana o's'
in many ways with quaint and inteFes'
ing and attractive forms of express'o''
never straining for novelty or for ei'k
inality, but always driving. drss'@
home the deep fundamental truths =
public life, Of a great sclf-govern'ss
democracy. the eternal truths npss
which Justice and liberty must depss.
among men. SAvonarola originates .
truths, nor Luther, nor Wesley, ncrsn
of those flaming swords that cut snus
the consciousness Of mankind with y.
old truths that had becn overlookee :
indifference and error. wrcng-hsas
ness and wrong head dednsss.