Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-07-18
FAIR.
ENOUGH
BY Westbrook
PeeIer


III soldier and officer and
gentleman that have ever
known, and I make no excep-
tiOns," Mai. Gen. r. o. Barton,
commander of the Fourth Divi-
sion, said OF Brig. Gen. Theo-
dore Roosevelt when young Ted
died of exhaustion in Normandy.
Tha, could express the opin-
ion of others who had the priv
ilege of knowing young Ted and
/ dare say that others besides
me feel truly humble in the
presence of this great Ameri-
cans character and honored by
the personal friendship OF a man
who always was naive in his
patriotism and a simple funda-
mentalist in personal honor.
Young Ted held fast TO his
ideals all through time OF pop
ular cynicism when his continu-
ing interest in soldering. as the
personal duty of a citizen to
his country, was rewarded with
the blase, alcoholic sneers of a
licentious intelligentsia and he
was called. variously. perpet-
ual boy scout and an American
junker.
At one stage of his long trial
he was depicted as an aristo-
cratic feudalist because some
member OF his family had said.
or written. unguardedly. that
when in France in the first
world war he was sent 10
hospital, gassed and wounded.
he was restless to set back to
his troops"
This was held TO be an I'M
conscious revelation of the ariS-
tocrats feeling that the soldiers
of his battalion were. so TO
speak. his serfs.
incidentally. on that occasion
when he was restless to get
back to his troops" he went
back against orders in order to
lead them in new attack.
Young Ted was slight and
little fellow physically and so
polite to louder but lesser per-
sons that one who did not know
him might have met in a crowd
one of the finest American SOL
diers, one of the great patriots
OF American history and passed
hum quickly but unimpressed. to
join some wittier group across
the room.
Not that he was at all re-
ticent. for Ted was garrulouS
in his mood.
But he remained a Kipling
| type. fond of soldiers stories
and heroic poetry when patriot
ism was being ridiculed as the
folly of the masses and the
treaty Of Brest-Litovsk was
DANGEROUSLY praised as smart
business by Leon Trotsky, even
though il turned the German
armies unreservedly against the
Americans in the west and left
the Communists free TO or
ganize the terror that begot
Mussolini and Hitler and. even
tually, the present war.
Ted bored many of the intel
lectuals Of his time and set be-
cause he had earned the right
TO talk of battles, as others
spoke of ephemeral plays and
books in which they had a part.
| IN POLITICS, Young Ted had
L been eliminated early. for
when AL Smith laughed him off
in their campaign for the gov
ernorShip in 1924 with the re-
mark that "the young Teller
amt there he measured his
opponents political size with an
accurate eye.
For number OF reasons he
Just wasn't there as a politician.
which was unfortunate, for his
ideals were decency in private
and public life and pure pa
| trlotism
As head of the clan of Re-
publican or "out of season
Roosevelts,' he was oversha-
dowed during the reign of those
whom he called the Mavericks
and 1t is one of my own regrets
that, under the political hypno-
tiSm of repeal and the strains
of happy days are here again"
l once added my voice to the
soothing of man whose quail
lty the country, TO its damage.
did not know.
He fought, in the circle of
his acquaintance. the propa-
ganda that loose living was but
self-expression and that pov-
erty was an adequate excuse
for bad morals.
He defended his belief that
parents. poor or rich. owed
their children good example
and should maintain the family
unit and the home at any sac
rifice. l never knew man
more loyal 10 his word.
Z