Evening star., 1937-04-08
BY PHILIP C. JESSUP.


London on the I'd of September, 1920,
Elihu Root looked up at it and said:
1t is there / had an interesting inter-
view with Roosevelt. And if he had
done as he promised me-kept out Of
things pohtical-we should have been
spared much Of our past trouble.
The interview had been in May,
1910, when Roosevelt was just winding
up his African trek and his triumphal
tour Of Europe, and Root, then Senator
from New York, was on his way to
argue the North Atlantic coast fish,
cries case at The Hague. There were
already tremors which political seis-
mograph would have recorded as
clashes between Roosevelt and Taft,
but there was as yet no breach.
Root and Lodge used to chuckle over
Roosevelt's articles in Scribners on
the progress of his African hunt. "Of
course" Root said as they discussed
one account, Theodore shot three
ions with one bullet and Kermit shot
one lion with three bullets" To which
Theodore replied, when the story was
relayed to him by Lodge:
Tell Root that I don't at all like
his hardened skepticism about the
lions. If this kind of thing goes ON, I
shall have to head an insurrection to
put Tom Platt in Roots seat" In the
Senate.
,"Cabot and l." wrote Roosevelt,
"have been much pleased by your re-
cent statement in Scribner's that Ker-
NIT Speaking of warthogs) shot a
noteworthy SOW We have elected
the noteworthy SOW to the Society of
the Milkfaced Grub, the Angleworm
and the Wild Ass of the Desert
Roosevelt Praised Root.
1t was the same old bantering
friendship. In February, 1910, Roose-
velt was exhausting his ample store
OF superlatives in writing to Andrew
Carnegie about Root-"the man OF my
cabinet, the man on whom most
relied, to whom I owed most, the
greatest Secretary OF State we ever
had, as great cabinet officer as we
have ever had, save Alexander Hamil-
ton alone"
In September Of 1910 Roosevelt pre-
sided SIS temporary chairman Of the
New York Republican convention at
Saratoga, and Root followed him as
permanent chairman. They worked
together In complete harmony and
won the nomination OF Henry L..
6timson, just as two years before
they had co-operated in getting the
nomination of Hughes. Yet a month
before the 1910 convention Roose-
velt had been touring the West,
preaching his new nationalism. one
OF the ancestors of the New Deal
Root wrote to Taft that the only
objection he had to it was calling it
new" But he thought Theodore"
said more about the courts than he
really meant. II don't care 50 much
about his grumbling at the decisions
Of the court. We all do that.
The question as to how and when and
In what words man expressed such
an opinion about decision Of the
court depends very much on tempera-
men and training. shall be curious
to know whether he really meant
that he would, II he could, deprive the
courts of the power to pass upon the
constitutionality of laws. OF course, I
have always considered that the most
valuable contribution of America to
political science"
When, on February S, 1887, later
Rooseveltian attack was made upon
this principle, Mr.. Root was in his
last illness; two days later he died.
Interval of Enmity.
In 1910, although there was no
breach between him and Theodore,
the latter had slipped out Of his old
habit of submitting all his speeches
to Root for comment before they were
delivered. It WAS to be some eight
years before that practice was re-
sumed, and meanwhile all the vials Of
Roosevelt's wrath were to be poured
on Roots unresisting head
In October, 1910, Root was again
In campaign speech defending T. r.
against the attacks of Wall Street, but
this was incidental to a general de-
Tense of the party, support for Taft
and for Stinlson's gubernatorial can
didacy. Through 1911 the breach be-
tween Taft and Roosevelt continued
to widen. AS late as February, 1912,
Root was writing long friendly letter