The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-07-12
did Roosevelt Euer Swearo
Legend Should be Accurate
Kohsaa Quotes Late Ex-President as Saying Damn Fine
Fellow Darn Often in His Mouth-Friends
Might Correct Possible Mistake

should be determined accurately. The
writer, indeed, regards it as important
that the human qualities of Roosevelt,
the respects in which he was kin to
the ordinary Manufacturing some of
the ordinary mans most commonplace
traits-should be reproduced surely in
the picture that history is to have of
him.
Roosevelt as He Was.
In addition to the concern any one
has to make history accurate, it is i'm
portant that history should enable fu-
ture Americans to see Roosevelt ex-
actly as he was. 1t will be more use
full for history to picture him as a
man sufficiently like all of US that
any youth may hope to initiate him
than to set up a myth of an impecos--
BILE, impossible Roosevelt. 1t is with
no such purpose that the present ar
| ticle is written. But in the interest of
making it certain that history shall
know Roosevelt exactly as he was, it
seems entirely possible-and, if posi-
| BILE, most advisa ble-to have this point
about Roosevelt settled now.
! There are literally scores of persons
who can give adequate testimony on
| this point; and it would be useful if
they would set down their recollection
as to whether Roosevelt used profan-
| ity habitually or ever. AS TO the pres
ent writer, his clear recollection is
that in the course of many, many con-
versations, under every conceivable
circumstance, Roosevelt never used
the word damn" l cannot conceive
that Roosevelt improvised any temp
orary expurgation of his vocabulary
because of any lady-like quality in me
the number of persons who habitu
ally use the term damn fool" both
to me and about me, negatives any
/, such theory as that.
II l, as merely one witness, can, of
course, go no further than merely to
say that l never heard Roosevelt make
use of profanity. But my conviction
that he did not goes further than my
own experience. Aside from the testi-
mony of others who used to see Roose-
welt frequently, and with whom l used
to talk about it, l have a feeling. al
! most as convincing as if it rested on
concrete testimony, that no man whose
mind was so sharp-edged as Roose-
velts could possibly be a habitual or
even frequent or occasional user of
such wabbling, loose-jointed means
OF expression, as profanity is.
/ Many Who Could Testify
To mention only a few of the very
large number of persons who can give
adequate testimony on this point and
thereby help to keep straight the
Roosevelt legend now crystallizing,
there are, l call to mind, especially
those who had associations with him
over considerable series of years.
William Loeb. Jr., Frank Harper,
and James McGraw, who at various
times were associated with Roosevelt
in the capacity of private secretary;
Elihu Root, Chief Justice Taft, ex-
j Senator Albert ]. Beveridge of Indian
apolis; E. A. Van Valkenburg of
philadelphia; Lawrence Abbott, who
was associated with Roosevelt on the
Outlook; Frank Knox of Manchester,
n. H, and John Greenway of Arizona,
who were with Roosevelt in the
Rough Riders; Alexander Lambert,
who was Roosevelt's physician; Gift
ford Pinchot, James r. Garfield Sen
ator kellogg of Minnesota, and Gov.
Allen of Kansas.
William Allen White; Raymond
> Robins; Everett Colby of New Jersey;
Senator Mccormick of Illinois: George
; E. Cortelyou, Frank Hitchcock, Gov.
; Dixon of Montana; Joseph Bishop. who
is one of Roosevelt's biographers !;
Senator Lodge; William Hamlin Childs,
and Horace Wilkinson of New York !;
William Flynn and Alexander P. Moore
/, of Pittsburgh; Herman Hagedorn, who
is one of the heads of the Roosevelt
Memorial association; Irwin B. Kirk
wood and Ralph Stout of the Kansas
City Star; John c. Shafer of Chicago;
, Governor John NJ. Parker of Louisiana
Arthur w. Page of the Worlds Work
: Regis H Post who was Roosevelt's ap.
pointee as Governor of Porto Rico;
William w. Sewall of Maine: Albert
Shaw of the Review of Reviews.
Henry L. Stimson of New York
who was Roosevelt's secretary of war
!, and Senator Newberry of Michigan
who was his secretary of the navy;
: Oscar Straus of New York, who was
also in Roosevelts cabinet; Genera,
Leonard Wood, R. J. Cuddihy of the
, Literary Digest; Henry c. Wallace
1.-THE present secretary of agriculture
!. Gen. George w. Goethals, Richard V
tOulahan of the New York Times, who
\ as a Washington correspondent, in
, vented the phrase, Rough Riders
Carl E. Akely, who was with Roose
: welt in Africa; Charles Schibner, Mr.