HIGH IDEALS
Theodore Roosevelt’s 1911 Western Trip James G. Blase
Copyright 2020 James G. Blase St. Louis, Missouri
Cover photograph of Theodore Roosevelt with his first grandchild and granddaughter, Grace, at eight months. [Source: theodorerooseveltcenter.org] “If you as citizens fail to show practical sense in the achievement of high ideals, no governmental machinery which the wit of man can devise will save the community from disaster.”
~Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking in San Francisco, California on March 28, 1911 Dedicated to my wonderful first grandchild and granddaughter, Finley, who turns one year old on the date of the publication of this book. Contents
Foreword by Lou Holtz i
Author’s Preface ii
March 8: Departing Oyster Bay, Long Island 1 March 9: Georgia 2 Atlanta
March 10: Alabama 7 Birmingham
March 11: Mississippi and Louisiana 18 Jackson – McComb – Hammond – New Orleans
March 12: Texas 36 Beaumont – Houston – San Antonio
March 13: Texas 49 San Antonio – San Marcos – Austin – Georgetown Waco – Dallas
March 14: Texas 62 Fort Worth
March 15: Texas and New Mexico 67 El Paso – Las Cruses – Socorro – Albuquerque
March 16: Arizona 83 Flagstaff – Williams – Grand Canyon March 17: Arizona 84 Grand Canyon
March 18: Arizona 86 Phoenix and the Roosevelt Dam
March 19: Arizona 101 Roosevelt Dam and Mesa
March 20: Arizona 101
Phoenix – Beardsley
March 21: California – Day 1 116
San Bernardino – Riverside – Fullerton – Los Angeles Pasadena
March 22: Colorado – Day 2 128 Los Angeles
March 23: California – Day 3 144 Berkeley
March 24: California – Day 4 158 Stanford University – Berkeley – San Francisco
March 25: California – Day 5 173 Berkeley – San Francisco
March 26: California – Day 6 184 Berkeley March 27: California – Day 7 193
Berkeley – San Francisco
March 28: California – Day 8 208 Berkeley – San Francisco
March 29: California – Day 9 225 San Francisco – Ingleside – San Francisco
March 30: California – Day 10 229 San Francisco
March 31: California – Day 11 230 San Francisco
April 1: California – Day 12 231 San Francisco
April 2: California – Day 13 235
April 3: Nevada 237 Reno
April 4: California – Day 14 247 Sacramento
April 5: Oregon 257 Roseburg – Eugene – Portland
April 6: Washington – Day 1 276 Tacoma – Seattle April 7: Washington – Day 2 283 Spokane
April 8: Washington – Day 3 288 Spokane
April 9: Washington and Idaho 304 Spokane – Moscow
April 10: Idaho 307 Moscow – Standpoint
April 11: Montana 311 Missoula
April 12: Montana 315 Helena
April 13: Montana and North Dakota 321 Columbus – Billings – Miles City – Dickinson
April 14: Minnesota 324 St. Paul
April 15: Wisconsin and Illinois 325 Madison – Chicago
April 16: New York 330 New York City
About the Author 331
Foreword by Lou Holtz
Over the course of the last 45 years, I have gradually come to view myself as basically a God-fearing and principled person, and I have tried to teach my beliefs, values and practices to my children and to any other audience or individual who was willing to listen. I only wish I had developed these same beliefs, values and practices earlier. High Ideals: Theodore Roosevelt’s 1911 Western Trip , is the second in Mr. Blase’s two-volume set describing, in a highly creative “first-person journal style,” President Theodore Roosevelt’s two extended western vacation train trips during the first part of the 20 th century. Reading this second volume by Mr. Blase has allowed me to broaden the scope of my previously-held beliefs, values and practices. I would highly encourage everyone to read this book, and to read it cover-to-cover. I can guarantee you that, should you do so, you will not only grow to intimately appreciate Theodore Roosevelt’s approaches to all aspects of life, but you will also learn how to become a much better person, yourself, in the process, should you choose to put into practice even some of the “realizable ideals” the former President not only preached during the course of this five-week train trip, but actually lived. And I can also guarantee you one more thing: you’ll have a lot of fun, along the journey!
i Author’s Preface
This book represents the fifth of Theodore Roosevelt’s six first-person accounts describing the most extended vacation trips of his lifetime. The first account actually comprises a part of Theodore Roosevelt’s autobiography, published by the President 107 years ago this month, and still readily available for purchase today. In it the President describes, in endearing detail, two extended vacation trips abroad his parents took him on as a child, the first when he was only age 10, and the second when he was 14:
“When I was ten years old I made my first journey to Europe. My birthday was spent in Cologne, and in order to give me a thoroughly “party” feeling I remember that my mother put on full dress for my birthday dinner. I do not think I gained anything from this particular trip abroad. I cordially hated it, as did my younger brother and sister. Practically all the enjoyment we had was in exploring any ruins or mountains when we could get away from our elders, and in playing in the different hotels. Our one desire was to get back to America, and we regarded Europe with the most ignorant chauvinism and contempt. Four years later, however, I made another journey to Europe, and was old enough to enjoy it thoroughly and profit by it. . . . When I was fourteen years old, in the winter of '72 and '73, I visited Europe for the second time, and this trip formed a really useful part of my education. We went to Egypt, journeyed up the Nile, traveled through the Holy Land and part of Syria, visited Greece and Constantinople; and then we children spent the summer in a German family in Dresden. My first real collecting as a student of natural history was done in Egypt during this journey. By this time I had a good working knowledge of American bird life from the superficially scientific standpoint. I had no knowledge of the ornithology of Egypt, but I picked up in Cairo a book by an English clergyman, whose name I have now forgotten, who described a trip up the Nile, and in an appendix to his volume gave an account of his bird collection. I wish I could remember the name of the author now, for I owe that book very much. Without it I should have been collecting entirely in the dark, whereas with its aid I could generally find out what the birds were. My first knowledge of Latin was obtained by learning the scientific names of the birds and mammals which I collected and classified by the aid of such books as this one.
ii The birds I obtained up the Nile and in Palestine represented merely the usual boy's collection. Some years afterward I gave them, together with the other ornithological specimens I had gathered, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and I think some of them also to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. I am told that the skins are to be found yet in both places and in other public collections. I doubt whether they have my original labels on them. With great pride the directors of the "Roosevelt Museum," consisting of myself and the two cousins aforesaid, had printed a set of Roosevelt Museum labels in pink ink preliminary to what was regarded as my adventurous trip to Egypt. This bird-collecting gave what was really the chief zest to my Nile journey. I was old enough and had read enough to enjoy the temples and the desert scenery and the general feeling of romance; but this in time would have palled if I had not also had the serious work of collecting and preparing my specimens. Doubtless the family had their moments of suffering--especially on one occasion when a well-meaning maid extracted from my taxidermist's outfit the old tooth-brush with which I put on the skins the arsenical soap necessary for their preservation, partially washed it, and left it with the rest of my wash kit for my own personal use. I suppose that all growing boys tend to be grubby; but the ornithological small boy, or indeed the boy with the taste for natural history of any kind, is generally the very grubbiest of all. An added element in my case was the fact that while in Egypt I suddenly started to grow. As there were no tailors up the Nile, when I got back to Cairo I needed a new outfit. But there was one suit of clothes too good to throw away, which we kept for a "change," and which was known as my "Smike suit," because it left my wrists and ankles as bare as those of poor Smike himself.
When we reached Dresden we younger children were left to spend the summer in the house of Herr Minckwitz, a member of either the Municipal or the Saxon Government--I have forgotten which. It was hoped that in this way we would acquire some knowledge of the German language and literature. They were the very kindest family imaginable. I shall never forget the unwearied patience of the two daughters. The father and mother, and a shy, thin, student cousin who was living in the flat, were no less kind. Whenever I could get out into the country I collected specimens industriously and enlivened the household with hedge-hogs and other small beasts and reptiles which persisted in escaping from
iii partially closed bureau drawers. The two sons were fascinating students from the University of Leipsic, both of them belonging to dueling corps, and much scarred in consequence. One, a famous swordsman, was called ‘Der Rothe Herzog’ (the Red Duke), and the other was nicknamed ‘Herr Nasehorn’ (Sir Rhinoceros) because the tip of his nose had been cut off in a duel and sewn on again. I learned a good deal of German here, in spite of myself, and above all I became fascinated with the Nibelungenlied. German prose never became really easy to me in the sense that French prose did, but for German poetry I cared as much as for English poetry. Above all, I gained an impression of the German people which I never got over. From that time to this it would have been quite impossible to make me feel that the Germans were really foreigners. The affection, the ‘Gemuthlichkei’ (a quality which cannot be exactly expressed by any single English word), the capacity for hard work, the sense of duty, the delight in studying literature and science, the pride in the new Germany, the more than kind and friendly interest in three strange children—all these manifestations of the German character and of German family life made a subconscious impression upon me which I did not in the least define at the time, but which is very vivid still forty years later.” 1
The second first- person account, not actually written “by” the Theodore Roosevelt Funeral Procession on January 8, President but rather 1919. [Source: Library of Congress] written “for” the President, was “ghost authored” by the author last year, on the occasion of the 100 th anniversary of the President’s passing on January 6, 1919. The book, titled Keep it for Your Children , after the President’s famous speech at the Grand Canyon, chronicles a nine-week, coast-to-coast, “western trip” which the President
1T. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (Charles Scribner’s Sons 1926) at pp. 13-14, 19-21. iv made during the middle of the first term of his Presidency, from April 1 through the first week of June, 1903. This book created an “unauthorized” day-by-day, hour-by-hour journal of the 1903 western trip for the President. It documented both the pre-planning and every day during the President’s train tour of the western United States, based on the President’s own writings, the writings of those who traveled and camped with the President, the more than 250 speeches the President made over the course of the nine-week trip (the preparation for which no doubt accounted for the President’s inability to also keep a daily journal of the trip), and, most importantly, the local newspaper accounts from virtually every city or small town where the President’s train stopped.
The third account is a book authored by Theodore Roosevelt titled African Game Trails . Written by the President as part of a multi-part series published in Scribner’s magazine in 1909 and 1910, this book details the President’s hunting expedition in Africa.
The fourth first-person account is actually a 117-page typed letter Theodore Roosevelt wrote to the Right Hon. Sir George Trevelyan, Bart, 109 years ago this month. The account describes, obviously in detail, the President’s travels in Europe after leaving his African expedition in the early spring of 1910 and before returning to New York City in the late spring. This letter has been wonderfully preserved, in its original form, and is available to read online from the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University.
The sixth first-person account is a book authored by Theodore Roosevelt titled Through the Brazilian Wilderness. Again written by Theodore Roosevelt as part of a multi-part series published in Scribner’s magazine in 1914, this book details the President’s 1913-1914 trip to South America, including his expedition down the River of Doubt.
This book represents the fifth first-person account in the series. Similar to Keep it for Your Children , my intent in writing this book is to create a first person account of the now ex-President’s extended vacation out west in the late winter and early spring of 1911, as, similar to the situation which existed with his vacation trip in the spring of 1903, the President was too busy during this trip writing and giving speeches, participating in parades and banquets, and planting trees to be able to write a first-person account of his own.
v People have asked me how Theodore Roosevelt’s 1903 western trip differed from his 1911 trip. When they do, I give them these standard responses:
First and most obviously, the 1903 trip was made while Theodore Roosevelt was still President, while the 1911 trip was made while he was a private citizen. Theodore Roosevelt himself emphasized this point throughout the latter trip, so much so that the very last statement the President made to the reporters about his 1911 trip, upon his return to New York City (set out at the end of this book), was intended to give an indication of how much he was not paying attention to the current political climate of the time, while on the trip.
Second, while the route of the 1903 train trip was largely through the north part of the country and then back through the central, the route of the 1911 trip was predominantly through the south part of the country and back again through the north— or actually more of a “great loop tour” than the 1903 trip was said to be.
Finally, because he was no longer “vacationing” in his capacity as President, his speeches along the way of his 1911 trip were much more in the preaching mode. He spoke more “from the heart” than he had ever done previously, basically preaching to his audience about what he thought it took to be the best possible man, woman or child one could be. Thus the title of this book: High Ideals .
To put this all in more contemporary terms, one might even compare the 1903 and 1911 train trips to the two television series produced by and starring Michael Landon from the mid-1970s through the late 1980s. The first series, Little House on the Prairie, ran nine seasons, from the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, just as the series of books on which it was based consisted of nine volumes. Although the series had its serious moments, it was largely intended as entertainment. Nine seasons, nine volumes, and nine weeks it took Theodore Roosevelt to complete his 1903 trip.
The television series Highway to Heaven , on the other hand, lasted only five seasons, just as Theodore Roosevelt’s 1911 train trip lasted only five weeks. As its name implies, this second series produced by Michael Landon followed an obviously more serious tone than Little House on the Prairie , and focused on how one should live one’s life. Similarly, the speeches of Theodore
vi Roosevelt during his second and final extended train trip out west focused on what the former President liked to term “good citizenship” in all aspects of life.
Similar to the author’s previous effort, no attempt has been made in this “unauthorized journal” to paraphrase what the President wrote or said, or what others wrote about the President and his travels, but instead, wherever possible, the various accounts are included virtually verbatim. This is intentional, in order to allow the reader to experience these richly descriptive accounts, first hand. Now archaic words like “recreant” and “thither” have therefore been generously retained, and the more common 1911 spelling of words like “broncho” has been used in lieu of the more familiar “bronco” spelling today. Photographs are intentionally left untouched, so that they appear in the same less than perfect fashion they would have appeared in the newspapers of the time. Every paragraph of this journal is footnoted, and the reader should be assured that significant efforts have been made to include the best local newspaper articles, photographs and other materials which were available 109 years ago, relative to the various happenings during each day and hour of the President’s trip.
This new book, published on the first birthday of my first grandchild and granddaughter, calls to mine the cover photograph which depicts Theodore Roosevelt holding his first grandchild and granddaughter, Grace, who was born in August of 1911. No doubt the most enjoyable portion of the President’s 1911 great loop tour around the country was the time Edith and he were able to spend relaxing at the home of his son, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and his wife Eleanor, in San Francisco. Though not announced to the press, at the time Eleanor was pregnant with Grace.
As you travel along with President Roosevelt over the duration of his second cross-country train journey, notice how the President attempted to relate a message of high ideals in every speech which he made. And, most importantly, observe how the President lived these very same high ideals, himself.
Enjoy the reading! My goal again is that you just have fun with it.
James G. Blase St. Louis, Missouri October 25, 2020
vii March 8: Departing Oyster Bay, Long Island
Departing Oyster Bay railroad station, circa 1912. [Source: oysterbaytown.com] I left my home at Sagamore Hill early this morning, on my way to the Oyster Bay railroad station, which took me to New York City and my train to Atlanta, Georgia. I am traveling in an ordinary sleeping car which is well crowded. I occupy a drawing room compartment but I have made no effort to secure privacy unusual to patrons of sleeping cars. Several of my personal friends who happened to be aboard the train visited me at different times today. 2
The Secretary of War, Mr. Dickinson, who boarded the train in Washington, spent much time in my stateroom. Mr. Dickinson is to speak at the Southern Commercial Congress, now in session in Atlanta. He read his speech to me during the journey. Its subject matter was discussed in a casual way but the talk was purely a friendly chat, without suggestions. I smilingly refused to discuss any of the public questions of the day; either the Mexican
2The Chattanooga News (March 9, 1911), at p. 1. 1 situations or any other. Several of my callers made references to political development, but I passed them by without notice. 3
Telegrams asking me to widen the scope of my tour and take in many additional points in the west and south delayed the train during the day. No new points were added to the list, however, as it is impossible for me to do more than I already have planned to do. I have combined the opening of the Roosevelt Dam and the delivery of lectures at the University of California into a trip which will also permit me to comply with a few of the requests for addresses with which I have been bombarded from all part of the country. Every moment of my time for the whole trip is taken up in addresses and I can not extend the program. 4
There were no unusual events during the trip to Atlanta until the Georgia line had been crossed. At several stations in Georgia small crowds had gathered to greet me, but I did not acknowledge it, and they were disappointed. I was told that a number were waiting to greet me at Gainesville and I appeared on the platform a minute at that town, the first time during the trip. A woman in the crowd tossed me a bunch of Georgia violets by way of welcome to the state and I pinned them on my coat. 5 March 9: Georgia
Atlanta
On my arrival to the depot here I was met by a reception committee composed of officers of the Southern Commercial Congress, now in session here, and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce. I was taken to the Piedmont Hotel in an automobile escorted by a troop of the Georgia national cavalry. I received quite an ovation as I passed along the streets. As soon as I reached the hotel I held an informal reception in the lobby and later retired to my room. During the reception I mixed freely among the people in the
3Ibid . 4Ibid . 5Ibid . 2 Headed to the Piedmont Hotel from the depot, in automobile. [Source: The Atlanta Constitution (March 10, 1910, p. 14] lobby with the desire of impressing upon everybody the fact that I was present only in my capacity as a private citizen. 6
I was the guest of the Capitol City Club at luncheon. Afterwards I was brought to the living room, and there was presented to the ladies’ reception party who had assembled to greet me. The reception was informal, but delightful. The entire club house was decorated in flags and red and white flowers, and there were palms throughout the various apartments and in the ball room. 7
My first speech on the long trip was to the college of the Central Avenue Methodist church. The audience completely filled the church. Rev. J. A. Rush, pastor of the church, introduced J. W. E. Bowen, professor of historical theology at Gammon Theological seminary, who was chosen to present me. I then made my remarks, some of which follow:
“It is a great pleasure for me to be here this afternoon and speak to you. When Dr. Rush gave me the invitation I thought that it was a duty and a pleasure that I could not forego. In regard to what Professor Bowen has just
6Ibid . 7The Atlanta Constitution (March 10, 1911), at p. 8. 3 said, I want to repeat to you what I have been preaching wherever I have gone––that an ounce of effort is worth a tun of wine.”
“As has just been said, there has been a vast improvement in the negro race. When I was recently in Africa I met two educated negroes from the United States–one a doctor and one an agriculturalist, and looking at them made me think of the great difference between them and the native savages. It was an incident that illustrated the progress made by your people in America. Sir Henry Johnston has told me that the negro has a better chance in America than anywhere else.”
“There are two things that I want you to realize: First, that you have made much progress; and second, that you have a great deal further to go. I want you to realize the first, so that you may feel encouraged. I want you to realize the second, so that you may not get conceited. That would be the worst thing that could happen.”
“Remember that you are citizens of America. I want to impress upon the citizens of one color as I have been impressing it upon citizens of another color–that what you say of yourselves does not count, but what you do. As soon as we have a respectable negro cultivating a little farm intelligently, and owning his own beasts, we have a good citizen.”
“A negro criminal, no matter at whose expense he commits the crime, does infinitely more harm to the blacks than to the whites. On the other hand, the law-abiding, self-respecting negro, faithfully doing his work, is a center of law-abiding influence. He is the best possible antiseptic to lawlessness. It is to the interests of everybody in this country when anybody moves up. The negro has nothing to fear from the respectable white, who realizes this.”8
I then spoke of the modern trend of education toward vocational training, and told of the advantages that would accrue to the negro race from this, especially along agricultural lines. There must always be specialized education for certain individuals who are to carry on the professions, I said, but the great call is for trained farmers and mechanicians. 9
8Id . at p. 14. 9Ibid . 4 “The agricultural college,” I continued, “is one of the best influences at work in the country today. A great deal of alarm has been shown when cities grow at the expense of the country. This is bad for the whites, but infinitely worse for the negroes. I have seen too many sons of respectable farmers move to the city to become worthless loafers. It is for this reason that I have taken such interest in Clark university, which is doing excellent work along this line. It is for the good of both the whites and the blacks that the negroes should be competent farmers.” 10
I then concluded:
“I believe that a better day for the negroes is at hand. I do not mean by that that the millennium is just ahead, for there will be bitter disappointments and setbacks. The negro is working harder for advancement than he ever worked before, and the white man who is his neighbor is waking to the fact that it is not only his duty, but to his own interests to make the negro a better citizen.”
“The negro should remember that the good will of his white neighbor is of inestimable value to him. It is the white man of the south that he must get along with, and it is from him that he must win respect by showing that he is entitled to it because he has won it.” 11
The conclusion of my speech was received with cheering and I was compelled to force my way out of the church, so closely did the audience press around me in an effort to shake my hand. 12
Returning to the hotel after my address at the Methodist church, I enjoyed a couple of hours’ rest before dinner. From the Capital City Club dinner, where I was escorted by J. T. Holleman and Victor H. Kriegshaber, I drove to the Auditorium, where the final and most important event of the day––my address to the Commercial Congress––occurred. Fully 7,000 people were crowded in the hall to hear the other presenters and myself. So great
10 Ibid . 11 Ibid . 12 The Greenville News (March 10, 1911), p. 6. 5 became the crush that the doors were closed by order of the fire and police officers, and no further admissions were permitted. Good order prevailed throughout the meeting. 13
While I was speaking fire engines passed by the Auditorium going to a nearby fire, and there was an exodus of a hundred or more people. I waited for them to retire, admitting that a fire was a rival attraction against which I could not hope to compete. I said it recalled my days on the western plains where the practice was when the cattle became restless, and began milling, to remain on the outside and wait for them to quiet down. 14
I urged my southern auditors to strive for commercial success, and industrial prosperity, but always to hold tightly to the principles they had inherited from their forebears. There is stagnation where there is not progess, I said, but reminded them that material prosperity without character was worse than a misfortune. 15
I told the members of the Commercial Congress: “I want to see you go forward and prosper, but never to lose the idealism of the old south. A gathering like this could not have taken place thirty or forty years ago. We are realizing more and more throughout this land, speaking largely, that what benefits one part of us, benefits all of us. In the end we must go up or down together.” 16
I spoke with emphasis of the eager questions put to me in Europe by those who had read of political and commercial corruption, and mob violence in America. I said the man who would not be decent for his own sake and that of his family, would not be restrained by thoughts of how his conduct affected people on the other side of the world; but that such influences could not be overlooked. I spoke feelingly of the hope of millions of men and of ages to come, that would be disappointed if the American republic proved a failure, as
13 The Atlanta Constitution (March 10, 1911), p. 14. 14 Ibid . 15 Ibid . 16 Ibid . 6 so many other republics have fallen before. But I expressed conviction that this republic would not fail. 17
Honesty and civic righteousness and the square deal on the part of the people and in the attitude of the people toward the corporations, is needful, I said. If justice is not done to the corporations, the result will be fatal, I insisted, and I hastened to congratulate those who applauded the statement. I expressed the belief that it was impossible to prevent large combinations of wealth, but was satisfied that wealth could be regulated. I said I had not been in sympathy with much of the legislation passed in alleged regulation of corporations. 18
“Be on guard against demagogy and ignorance,” I said, as much as against greed and dishonesty. This government must never become a government by a plutocracy, or by a mob. If it becomes either, it is doomed and will deserve its doom. We bear upon our shoulders a great responsibility. If this republic fails, with it fails the hopes of the nations of mankind.” 19
Leaving at midnight, I resumed my western trip. 20 March 10: Alabama
Birmingham
Clad in a blue army cap, black slouch hat, and a smile, I stepped off the Pullman sleeper “Australia” at the Terminal station at 7 o’clock this morning to a choral accompaniment of “That’s him,” “That’s Teddy,” by numerous small boys, and to a more dignified, though equally sincere, welcome from a large committee headed by ex-Gov. B. B. Comer. 21
17 Ibid . 18 Ibid . 19 Ibid . 20 Ibid . 21 The Birmingham News (March 10, 1911), at p. 1. 7 Accompanied only by my private secretary, Frank Harper, and Kirke E. Simpson, representative of the Associated Press, I reached Birmingham from Atlanta at 5:20 o’clock am over the Southern Railway, but I had left instructions to be allowed to sleep until 7 o’clock am, and my will turned out to be the law governing the Pullman on which I slumbered. Mr. Simpson was up ahead of me, and made it clear to the Birmingham News reporter that I was not making any statements relative to matters of a political nature. I will become a private citizen when this trip shall have ended as I have a yearning for the delights of home and private life. 22
I made warm friends of both the conductor and porter on my car overnight, and at my request they kept me so secluded in my stateroom that many passengers on the train did not know I was traveling with them. One traveler, stepping out on the rear platform and seeing the committee standing in waiting for me to awaken, remarked: “Well, this certainly makes me feel good; I had no idea the people of Birmingham would come down to meet me at the train like this.” 23
As soon as I awakened, I was up and getting into my clothes, the committee having already arrived to escort me to the Hillman for 9 o’clock breakfast. Mr. Harper opened the door, and through it I came, and calmly said that, while I wanted to do what they asked of me, I must have a certain amount of rest, and when I was informed that I was to speak to my largest audience at Capitol Park at noon, I almost frowned until I was reminded that I had promised to do this, and a long speech would not be required of me. “Why, how do you do?” I remarked to The Birmingham News reporter, who entered my stateroom at this juncture. “Yes,” I said, in answer to a query, “I am absolutely without an opinion on any subject relating to political conditions or war. The Associated Press correspondent there will tell you that I have not had a word to say, even to him, on any of these subjects, and, of course, I cannot break my rule, even for Birmingham.” 24
22 Ibid . 23 Ibid . 24 Id . a pp. 1, 15. 8 Just as I turned to search for my slouch hat a man, following a huge vase of red, red roses, presented himself at the door of the stateroom and handed the floral offering to me. “That’s fine–how nice that is!” I said. “Now just let it be taken to the hotel, will you? That is certainly fine!” The card attached to the flowers bore the name of Joseph O. Thompson. I had practically “sworn off” on using my old favorites, “dee-lighted” and “bully.” Nowadays everything is “fine” to me unless that adjective will not describe it, and “dee- lighted” has been relegated to the rear with no exact substitute as yet in evidence. 25
When asked about my former visit to Birmingham, I could not remember the date, but I remembered very well that I was welcomed by Senator Johnston, whose son, Forney Johnston, served with me in the Spanish-American war. 26
“Tired?” I laughed in answer to a query to that effect, “why this trip has but begun, and you know an ex-president cannot afford to get tired––the people will not stand for it.” 27
I talked for a few minutes more on commonplace matters and very properly refrained from giving Birmingham a lot of fulsome praise before I really had a chance to see the city this time. I reiterated several times that I had no political opinions, but outside of that was glad to see and talk with newspaper men. 28
When told that the committee was awaiting me, I hurried through the final details of my toilet and announced my readiness to meet the people of Birmingham who had come to welcome me. Throwing my cape over my shoulders I walked out of the sleeper with an elastic tread and was soon shaking hands in a hearty fashion. I immediately took an interest in everything and no sooner had I been seated in my automobile than I arose in my seat and
25 Id . a p. 15. 26 Ibid . 27 Ibid . 28 Ibid . 9 leaned far over the back of the tonneau to talk with some one who had not enjoyed that privilege before. 29
As I passed several conductors who were lined up to watch me go by, I discovered a woman in the crowd and immediately raised my hat with all the grace that is supposed to accompany old-time Southern chivalry. My trip up town was made quickly, but I was using every opportunity to see as much of Birmingham as possibly during that brief ride. 30
I took breakfast at the Hillman hotel with ex-Gov. B. B. Comer and party. I then delivered an address of 20 minutes to the students of Birmingham High school at the High school auditorium at 9:15 am. I next went on a trip in an automobile with the reception committee, and spoke to the citizens of Ensley and to the citizens of Corey. I was accompanied by a large crowd of prominent business men of Birmingham in fifty special automobiles. Stopping first in Ensley, I addressed large crowds that had congregated in the streets. I spoke from the automobile of Mayor Culpepper Exum. 31
After being introduced by Mayor Exum, I arose and said: “I am proud to have the opportunity of addressing such a large and enthusiastic crowd as confronts me, and I wish to say that there is nothing I am more interested in then the development of the natural resources of the Southland.”
“Here in this city you have unlimited material advantages and are showing the country that you are eager and ready to take up the chances offered for the advancement of the city in which you live.” “ Y o u a r e getting a share of the good citizenship of the country, and you should remember that there can be no material prosperity without this same good citizenship. When all of the citizens of a community handle themselves rightly, prosperity comes to them and they carry on their material achievements
29 Ibid . 30 Ibid . 31 Id . at p. 1. 10 Speaking from the mayor’s automobile in Ensley. [Source: Library of Congress] with a rapidity that is astonishing to the rest of the world. Let Ensley continue the work she is doing.” 32
Amid the cheers of the crowds the procession left for Corey, going over the entire business and residence sections of that city. A large crowd was awaiting the coming of the fifty special automobiles. After making a tour of the grounds, I visited the steel mills, then returned to the central part of the city. 33
After a brief introduction by Mayor Exum, I said: “I have time for a few brief remarks only, for there is quite a delegation awaiting me in your larger city, Birmingham. However, I want to say that I am wonderfully impressed with the things I have seen in Corey, and it has been a delight to see ‘the man behind the gun’––the man who is doing things for us all.”
“It makes me feel proud that I am an American citizen, to see the wonderful work that is being carried on in this wonderful section, and I want
32 Ibid.
33 Ibid . 11 to tell you that you should realize that you are evolving along the most progressive lines.”
“Another thing that has favorably impressed me is the fact that you are not making the mistake so common to the industrial districts in general. You are building yourselves a beautiful city, while carrying on the work of your natural resources. You are not turning all your attention and work to the machinery.”
“There is nothing that can bring to a city such prosperity as good men and good women, and I see that you have them. I base my confidence in our country because of the good men and women in it.. The average American man is a good fellow. He is the kind who gets out and works, then lets the others tell him of his good qualities. Then if he is not all he should be, there is the American woman––and God bless her––to make him be what he should be and make him do what he should do for the good of his country.” 34
Speaking from my automobile in Corey. [Source: Library of Congress]
34 Ibid . 12 I was then set to deliver my public address at Capitol Park at noon, although I along with the committee that accompanied me to Corey did not reach Capitol Park until 12:10 pm. My arrival was apparently the signal for applause. The Industrial school band welcomed me with an inspiring martial air as I mounted the gaily decorated platform. Members of the reception committee also occupied the platform, and the crowd of about three thousand people swarmed around all sides of the Confederate monument and were packed in for half a block or more on Twentieth street. 35
Former Congressman S. J. Bowie opened the programme in his role of chairman, and introduced me in a brief, but appropriate manner. In his remarks he spoke with special reference to the importance of the convention which was the cause of my presence in Birmingham. He spoke of me in the most eulogistic terms, and commended me for my faithful services in the past. He concluded by introducing me as the “chief citizen of the world.” 36
I was given a warm greeting, and realizing my inability to reach all the members of the vast crowd, I said: “I’d give you all a show, if I could.” I next thanked Chairman Bowie and his eulogistic introduction and also thanked the band for its efforts. I said Birmingham was a potent factor in the progress of the South as a whole and declared it had made wonderful strides and was now one of the leading industrial centers of the land. “Though important,” I said, “the men and women behind them are of vastly more importance to the future welfare of the South and of the country.” 37
Here are some of the other remarks I made during the course of my speech:
“You must build from the home before you can build as a city. The same is true of the country at large. You must have a firm foundation of the right kind to build a superstructure that will stand the test.
35 Ibid . 36 Ibid . 37 Ibid . 13 I believe in the new South and I also believe we must adhere to the spirit exhibited by our fathers if we would lead the true ‘higher life.’
I speak under the Confederate monument and I am glad to realize that today we take an equal pride in what both sides have accomplished in those days that tried men’s souls.” 38 I was forced to pause at this juncture while the
Speaking in Capitol Park. [Source: Library of Congress] crowd gave “three cheers for the colonel of the Rough Riders.” I smiled and said: “I had some Alabama men in my regiment.” 39
“Birmingham is one of the South’s most progressive cities,” I continued, “and I am glad to see she has taken the advanced step of securing a commission form of government. It is a good thing, but I want you to remember that no form of government will be a success unless it is backed up by good citizenship. We must have good men––it is the same in war––a good rifle is necessary, but if there is not a good man to use it, it will perform a poor service. If your citizens do not uphold the laws and handle the new form of government as it should be treated, it will do you more harm than good. It is
38 Id . at pp. 1, 15. 39 Id . at p. 15. 14 you yourselves who fail in your duty if you do not make your form of government work well. I believe in the short ballot and I know it is in your hands to make good in your changed governmental conditions.” 40
I then remarked: “You are each your brother’s keeper, but understand me, the brother who will not help himself is not worth the trouble. Help your brothers up, but they must walk alone after they are on their feet.” 41
“I am glad to see you all––you know my views on the baby question––I like all your crops but I like your babies best––and may you take proper care of them, give them the proper schooling to the end that we will have an even better citizenship during the next generation.” 42
In concluding my address I again referred to the material advancement of the Birmingham and the South, and plead with my hearers to continue along these progressive lines, always remembering that the man behind the machinery was the most important factor of all. 43
After delivering my address at Capitol Park I was the guest at a business men’s luncheon at the Hillman hotel at 1 pm, and was tendered a general reception at the Country Club from 4 to 6 pm. I was a guest for dinner at the home of John L. Kaul at 6:15 pm. At 8:15 pm I delivered an address at the Orpheum theater. 44
The evening session of the National Child Labor conference brought forth the record crowd of the week. Long before the time set for my address people were crowding into the auditorium of the theater and many were later refused admittance on account of the theater being already filled to capacity. The subject of my address was “The Conservation of Childhood.” 45
40 Ibid . 41 Ibid . 42 Ibid . 43 Ibid . 44 Id. at p. 1. 45 The Birmingham News (March 11, 1911), at p. 18. 15 I spoke forcefully of the great need for the protection of children and was frequently interrupted by loud applause. I said, in opening, that I came to speak on one of the fundamental principles of the republic. I declared my great interest in the home, which was so closely related to the child labor movement. “We can’t go on well,” I said, “unless we have the right kind of home and family life and unless our children are so trained that we will have good men and women in the next generation. You must consider this matter with reference to other children as if they were your own children. Would you be content to have them work under a certain age? Would you be content to have them work at night? We ask you to give protection by law to those who are unable to give their children the same care and protection that you can give yours. Run over what I say in your own mind and see if it meets with your approval––that is what I ask. Consider the matter from a viewpoint that will bear directly upon your own children.” 46
I referred here to recent conditions in England, which country had allowed its manhood in the lower ranks to deteriorate. The yeoman was not improving and he afterward disappeared when the undersized, anaemic factory hand took his place. The first time the test came, those men failed. 47 I then said:
“Our present child labor laws are reasonably good, but are not what they should be by any means. You are now asked to see that better laws are enacted––to see that your stock does not go down as the stock of those in the parent country declined.”
“We in America are now proud of the deeds of valor of both Northern and Southern men––but never again in this republic will brother fight against brother, but it is to be hoped that, should we be called upon to attack a common enemy, we would still show the valor and spirit shown by those who fought from sixty-one to sixty-five.” 48
46 Ibid . 47 Ibid . 48 Ibid . 16 Here I repeated a part of my address at Capitol Park with reference to the necessity for good rifles but the greater importance of the men who are to handle them. “You have done much in Alabama to improve your stock,” I continued, “but how would you get on with your work if you plowed with a colt? I am asking that you give your children the same chance you give to the colt and the calf.”
“In the matter of child labor laws, the nation can do something but the states can do more. We are trying to establish juvenile courts all over the country and regulate the limit of the child labor laws. We would establish a child bureau––something akin to a labor bureau.”
“Congress will appropriate money for things it doesn’t need but it will not appropriate one-tenth of a cent in this matter of our children––children do not vote.”
“I ask you people before me to get committees to go into the mines and factories, and see for yourselves whether you are willing to abide by conditions as they exist at this time.”
“The claim that certain kinds of labor are good for the child from 12 to 14 years of age is often made by those who have an interest to serve. Study the conditions around you and learn for yourselves.” 49
I finished my address by stressing: “Here at the outset of your great industrial career I hope you will see to it that you have a proper workmen’s compensation act and that you will look after your children of tender years. The human being is the most important of all products––protect the children first, and above all, save the citizenship of the future––it is our greatest duty.” 50
The applause at the conclusion of my address was so long and loud that I was forced to rise and bow. At evening’s end I was escorted to my train by the reception committee that had been with me practically all day, and left Birmingham at 10 pm, on my way to Jackson. I said I had had a strenuous
49 Ibid . 50 Ibid . 17 day, but was most favorably impressed with this city and had enjoyed every moment of my visit. 51 March 11: Mississippi and Louisiana
Jackson, Mississippi
We reached Jackson over the Queen & Crescent railroad from Birmingham at 5:35 am, in the private car of D. D. Curran, president of the railway. Our private car was parked near the union station, and no signs of life were visible until about seven o’clock, when our party was awakened and hurried preparations made for the trip to the Governor’s mansion. Several members of the reception committee arrived shortly before eight o’clock, resplendant in silk hats and frock coats, and a few minutes later our party embarked in automobiles and carriages for the short ride to the executive mansion. 52
The first public event, at 9:45 am, after greetings had been exchanged with members of the reception committee who had assembled at the mansion, was a short address to the Boy Scouts of America, who had assembled on the mansion lawn. 53 The boys lined up at the foot of the mansion steps and with their hats off, gave the Scouts salute as I came down to greet them. 54 I responded with the full Scout salute, which I am entitled to use as vice- president of the great boys’ organization of which the sixty Jackson lads are the first Mississippi division. I then addressed the Scouts:
“I am glad to see you and to meet the organization of the Boy Scouts of Mississippi. I have been extremely interested and am an officer in that organization, because I want to see you boys of the next generation carry on the best American traditions, the traditions of courage, courtesy and usefulness. Always remember that a real man is necessarily a brave man, for it you haven’t
51 Ibid . 52 Vicksburg Evening Post (March 11, 1911) at p. 4. 53 Ibid . 54 Jackson Daily News (March 11, 1911) at p. 1. 18 got courage, you are not fit to be American citizens. The really brave man is always courteous, always polite, and always anxious to see if he cannot help those that are weak. Help small people, help women and help anyone who is weak or who is in trouble. This is the quality that helps to make the kind of men we want to be American citizens. I am mighty glad to have seen the Mississippi Boy Scouts, and if there was enough of me I would give you three cheers.” 55
The boys cheered lustily as I passed through their ranks on the way to the automobile which was to carry me to the state capital. 56
On the route to the state house our party stopped for a few minutes at the residence of the late Bishop Chas. B. Galloway, where I paid my respects to the widow of that distinguished divine, who was one of my intimate personal friends, and who died while I was in Africa on my hunting expedition. 57
Just prior to my main address of the day an informal reception took place in the Governor’s office, where I was presented to the members of the Ralph Humphreys chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, of which Mrs. Noel is regent, and other prominent Mississippi women who had assembled for the event. I was showered with the Southland’s fairest flowers. I enjoyed this feature of the program. 58
I spent considerable time in the state house, and was taken through the Hall of Fame by the reception committee. I expressed my appreciation of the efforts being made by the people of Mississippi to retain the memories of their historical periods. 59
Then followed my address, about one hour in length. It was an ideal day, with the thermometer flirting around the eighty mark, and an abundance
55 Id . at p. 5. 56 Ibid . 57 Ibid . 58 Ibid . 59 Jackson Daily News (April 11, 1911) at p. 5. 19 of bright sunshine, making it possible for me to deliver my address in the open air. I spoke from the steps of the capitol building, and was given a most enthusiastic greeting and respectful attention. It would have been impossible for the crowd to assemble in any building in Jackson, and, while the front of the capitol building is by no means an ideal place for a public gathering, owing to lack of seating facilities, all were able to hear me. 60
The crowd was estimated at approximately 7,500 persons. They had stationed themselves early at points of vantage on the steps and held them as though their very lives depended on their not leaving the building. There was an outburst of enthusiasm when I began my speech and I was forced to wait until the applause had subsided before I could continue my remarks. 61
Just before I was about to speak, an incident occurred that I as well as that portion of the crowd who witnessed it heartily appreciated. It was a simple and touching example of my love of children and was caused by the sudden appearance before the stone on which I stood of a little light-haired chap, only four years of age. The little fellow, who said his name was Charlie Gramp, marched boldly up to me and didn’t evidence a bit of fear as he held up his chubby little fist and said, “Hello, Mr. Roosevelt.” I gazed at the lad for a moment and then reached down, shook Charlie’s hand, and patted him on the head––and Charlie disappeared back into the crowd where his mother was wondering what had caused the child to take such a notion into his head. 62
Baring my head, and with the sun beating its fierce rays full upon me, I began my speech. I was told that every word of my address could be heard by the entire crowd. I gave the audience an exposition of the qualities which go to make up successful American citizenship:
“Mr. Governor, and men and women of Mississippi. My fellow Americans, I greet you and I assure you that I am glad to be your guest here today.
60 Ibid . 61 Ibid . 62 Ibid . 20 Speaking on the steps of the Capitol. [Source: The Time-Democrat , New Orleans, Louisiana (March 12, 1911) at p. 9]
The governor has told you of the famous men of Mississippi. I wish to congratulate you upon the way you are commemorating the memories of these men in your Hall of Fame––your Hall of Records––here in the building, and not only every citizen of Mississippi, but every citizen of the United States should only every citizen of Mississippi, but every citizen of the United States should feel as I felt when I took off my hat and stood before the flag of the first Mississippi regiment, the regiment of which Jefferson Davis was the colonel, the flag that went through it battles bravely and headed the regiment at Buena Vista with honor and glory.
I am glad that the southern women of Mississippi are preparing to erect a monument to the ex-confederate soldiers––not only to them, but to their wives. This last phrase was suggested by a confederate veteran who was standing near me, and in a wavering voice exclaimed, ‘their wives, too, Mr. Roosevelt.’ I hesitated for only a moment, just long enough to say, Good, by George, so glad to hear it. I do not call any soldier worth his salt if he won’t admit that his mother was great ahead of him.
As the governor has said, we are fortunate that within half a century after the close of the greatest, the most terrible, the most bloody conflict and war
21 since the end of the Napoleonic struggle, within less than half a century our people have grown to lose all the bitterness connected with it, and to feel that every American citizen has a co-interest with his fellows in the glory and honor won alike by the men who wore the gray, who bore testimony to the faith that was in them and who saw the light as it was given them the power to see the light in the great days that tried men’s souls. 63
Nothing ever gave me more pleasure when I was president than when I appointed Luke Wright, an ex-confederate soldier, as head of the American army, the head of the war department of the United States, and the thing that I like best about it was that there wasn’t a Union veteran in the north who didn’t say ‘Good, we’re glad to see it.’ And now, Mr. Justice White has been made chief justice of the United States supreme court, an office barely second to the president himself, and there was no more unanimous chorus of approval in the south than in the north. 64
I have traveled again and again from one part of this country to the other, from Maine to Texas and from Florida to Oregon, and wherever I have been, the thing that has struck me has been not the national differences of our people, but our national likeness. I base my firm belief in the future of the American people upon the fact that a good American is a good American wherever he dwells and because I know that the average American citizen is a pretty good fellow and his wife is a still better fellow. My friends, good citizenship in any part of this country helps to raise the standard of good citizenship everywhere else. 65
The most important virtues in life are the ordinary everyday, commonplace virtues. If a man lives up to what he says, and says what is true, he is an honor to the nation. But that man who in public service gets his place by saying what is false, who makes a promise that he cannot make good, is an enemy to the republic, and we have the right to expect that the man put up for public office make no promise that he would not hold sacred if made between man and man, and we have the right to expect that he will endeavor to keep his
63 Ibid . 64 Ibid . 65 Ibid . 22 word if elected. We must see, too, that he doesn’t make promises that he cannot keep. If we ask him for the millennium, he won’t promise that if he’s an honest man––and we’re still several years away from the millennium. 66
Friends, if there is another lesson on which I would like to lay stress, it is that the gospel of love is a good deal safer than the gospel of hate. I do not mean that you should not feel anger for an unworthy man in private life. If you draw the line between men who are well off and who are not so well off, you draw a line that is false, and not the true line between the decent and indecent. 67
You people who have served in the confederate army––you don’t find out whether your ‘bunkie’ was a butcher, a banker or a bookkeeper. You wanted to know if he stayed ‘put’––and I paused for an instant while a score of veterans standing a few yards away shouted ‘Sure.’ One of your officers was with me at Santiago when we went up to the blockhouse, by the way. 68 [A round of applause followed this remark, which subsided only after I resumed my address.]
When you had a fellow beside you digging a ditch, and when you hadn’t eaten anything for forty-eight hours, you wanted that fellow to divide up with you on the work and give you some of his hard-tacks. And if he was a good man at work and in fighting, and square on the hard-tack question, he was your comrade and the man with whom you would stand. 69
Let every man think of his neighbors, of the men with whom he deals, and he will find that he cannot draw any line of citizenship or character with them by reason of their differences in position. He will find men who are good and who are lower down. There are citizens who endeavor to make you look down on men because they are poor, and there are others who make you despise them because they are rich. If a man if a rich man and a good man, or a poor man and a good man, honor him. If he is a poor man and acts crooked––‘cinch him.’ That friends is a good western term but I guess it’s
66 Ibid . 67 Ibid . 68 Ibid . 69 Ibid . 23 understood here. But if he is a rich man and acts crooked, ‘cinch’ him and ‘cinch’ him just a little harder. He has had advantages and should have known better. 70
In the struggle for good citizenship, as I have said before, do not forget that the essentials are not such wonderful ones. They are things that we have a right to expect from the average man, or the average woman. It is not the great oratory or genius that will make a great state or a great nation. It is the possession by the ordinary man and woman of those qualities which we hold to be necessary for good citizenship. The ordinary woman plays an even greater part than the man. Our whole civilization rests upon the attitude of the wife and mother in the home, and shame to the man who does not recognize that he who does not do his duty to make things easier for the wife and mother, does not do his duty. 71
We all know the type of man who can go down to the crossroads store and tell how the nation should be run, and in the meantime, the only reason he has for living is because his wife takes in washing. Such a man is mighty little use elsewhere if he is not useful in the home. The first duty of every man is to ‘pull his own weight.’ If he cannot take care of himself and those depending upon him, he is of might little use in trying to take care of anyone else. 72
I do not care very much for the man who abounds in public enthusiasm, but whose friends have to pay his debts. Let him take care of his ordinary duties first. There is not one of us who will not stumble, and shame to any of us who will not help our brother who has fallen. If he falls, help him up, but if he lies down in the road, there is no use to try to carry him. He has to be able to do his duty to himself and those depending upon him before he is of any use to do his duty outside. He has got to remember his duty to the state, to the nation and the commonwealth. He has to join with his fellow-man to keep the elementary principles of good government. 73
70 Ibid . 71 Ibid . 72 Ibid . 73 Ibid . 24 What is needed by the private man and to the public man is not so much genius, as character. Character is made up of a good many qualities. But above all others are these three:
He has to be an honest man. I use the word honest in the widest and deepest sense. He has to be square in his dealings. It do not care how able a man is, if he is not honest then the more capable he is, the more dangerous he is. The ‘smart’ public man who hasn’t any conscience is a danger to everyone, and especially a danger to those who follow him. Don’t you ever put your trust in a man who says he will help you by hurting someone else, for when the time comes, he is going to help himself by hurting you. 74
In illustrating this type of manhood, I told a tale of my cowboy life, and of the malicious branding of a neighbor’s cattle with the Roosevelt brand because it had wandered away form its own ranch. It was a plain case of cattle stealing, such as was practiced on the ranges, but I said that I had discharged the cowboy who did the branding, saying, ‘If you will steal for me, you will steal from me.’ 75
We want honesty first, but honesty is not enough. I haven’t any use for the honest man who hasn’t courage. I do not care how patriotic a soldier is, his patriotism doesn’t count if he runs away when the bullets begin to come over. You cannot be a good citizen unless you have courage. And courage is not enough. I do not care how brave a man may be, he must have the saving grace of common sense. A brave man is no good if he’s a plain fool. To us here in America, the great essentials in making the successful citizen are these three ingredients of character––honesty, courage and common sense. 76
In closing, I recently took a trip abroad, and I saw something in each country by which we could profit. If you find a man who cannot learn anything he’s no good and you might as well bury him. I was fully aware of the shortcomings of my own country, and yet, after all is said and done, I came back to my own country feeling that there is no other country where it is so
74 Ibid . 75 Ibid . 76 Ibid . 25 entirely worth while for men and women to live––to develop the best that is in them––as here in our own land, and I ask you, my friends, to work with me, and to work in such fashion that we shall keep this land in the future what it has been in the past––the land in which there is the best chance of development of what is best in the manhood and womanhood of the nation and mankind.” 77
After my address the reception committee and I made a bee line for the waiting automobiles and were whisked away to The Edwards where a luncheon, at which about 150 persons were present, was served. This feature brought the program of the day to a close. I was turned over to a committee from the New Orleans Progressive Union, and, departing Jackson at 1 pm, sped southward on a special train over the Illinois Central for Louisiana. Only one stop was made en route. While engines were being changed at McComb, I delivered a short address to the school children of the city. 78
McComb, Mississippi
At McComb three minutes had been promised, but was stretched to ten, to allow the crowd to see me, and to receive a bouquet of flowers, the gift of school children. It had been planned to talk from the train, but when I saw a platform near the tracks, I walked over to it. Someone held an umbrella over me. “Put it away. I want to see the people, and I guess they want to see me, I said, and talked in the sun. 79 My speech follows:
“It is a peculiar pleasure to me to greet you today, and in greeting all of you, I want to say that I am especially glad to greet those citizens carrying small citizens. I like your stock and am glad to see it kept up, and I want to express my acknowledgement of seeing the elephant, but where is the lion?
You know I served my apprenticeship with the bear-hunters of the Mississippi cane-breaks, and, so, naturally, I had a good time in Africa. Now, my friends, I have but a moment in which to greet you, and am profoundly touched by meeting you here. As I said this morning at Jackson, the thing that,
77 Ibid . 78 Vicksburg Evening Post (March 11, 1911) at p. 4. 79 The Times Democrat (March 12, 1911) at p. 9. 26 as I have traveled through the length and breadth of our land, has impressed me most is not the differences, but the fundamental unity of our people—a good man is a good man anywhere and a good American is a good American wherever you find him, and there is only one person I rank above a good American and that is a good American wife.
All that is needed with our people is the putting into actual practice all the moralities which all of us believe in the abstract—I want to see the same thing that is preached on Sunday practiced on week days.
I have no use at all for a man who takes out his religion in a talk on one day which he offsets by practices of a different kind on six other days. I want to see the man who in actual everyday life practices that which he is glad to sit and hear preaching at him on the seventh day, and in just the same way I want to see politics managed so that after an election the man in the governmental office shall make good by his “doings” the words he has uttered on the stump.
I have only just time to greet you. I have had a fairly lively day already and the day does not end until 11 o’clock tonight. I have only time to say this word of greeting, and really it is not that I have to teach you, it is that I learn from you.
I do not see how any man who has occupied a high position can be greeted as you have greeted me there by your men, women and children and fail to fee within him the duty to so carry himself always as to do his part in making us a better and stronger nation, and I hope he has used every governmental resource to elevate ourselves, and yet to remember that when all is said and done it remains true now, as in the past, that it is righteousness that strengthens a people.
I thank you most heartily for having given me this opportunity to greet you, and I only wish I could stay here a longer time and talk at length. Good- bye and good luck.” 80
80 Jackson Daily News (March 12, 1911) at p. 7. 27 At the McComb railway station. [Source: mdah.ms.gov]
Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond was the first place in Louisiana to welcome me, and one of the most interesting incident of the strenuous day happened here. A crowd of youngsters came running along as the train slowed down. “Hello, Teddy,” yelled the boys. “Hello, Teddy,” echoed the girls. I was bending over the railing of the car platform in an instant and shaking hands right and left. 81
A mobilization of babies from far and near occurred here. As many hundreds of adults as could work their way through the infantile brigade were also present, and I was given a rousing welcome when I stepped on the rear platform of my car and tried to make a short speech. My voice had gone back on me, though, and it was with difficulty that I made myself heard, except by those who were fortunate enough to get within hand-shaking distance. 82
I greeted the babies cordially, and congratulated the fathers and mothers of Hammond on their prosperity. I turned to a friend on the car platform and said: “If the price of ‘peaches’ has gone up, in ratio with the soaring price of
81 The Times Democrat (March 12, 1911) at p. 9. 82 Id . at p. 4. 28 strawberries at this point, this ought to be a very, very wealthy neighborhood.” 83
All along the route I was on the lookout while in the rear of the car, and whenever I saw anyone waving, I had my slouch hat in hand and was at the door, waving an answer. While I sat in the car I talked with Mr. Wright, Mr. Wilson, or some of my other friends. 84
I was particularly impressed with the land which I saw from the train, and the chances of the future. “Just look at it, and think what is is and will be,” I remarked to a crowd in the car. “Did you see that lumber team of oxen, Mr Harper?” I asked my private secretary later. 85
Whenever possible I retired to the privacy of m own room, where I was never disturbed, but spent at least a third of the time while on the train bowing to the crowds, or talking with friends. Yes, I drank, and in public. I was seen to take one big glass of buttermilk, and another of water. 86
New Orleans, Louisiana
We arrived here a little after 6 pm. Our train was met by a committee of New Orleans citizens, headed by President Porch of the Progressive Union. Along the line from the Union Station to the Grunewald Hotel I was greeted by several thousand persons. It was the time for the closing of the stores and the majority of the workers waited to catch a glimpse. There was considerable handclapping and some cheers, but no great amount of enthusiasm. At the same time, the greeting was a friendly and cordial one. 87
All sorts of personal remarks were huried at me, and to many of them I responded. My hat was constantly in my hand, I smiled to the right and left,
83 Ibid . 84 Id. at p. 9. 85 Ibid . 86 Ibid . 87 Id . at p. 1. 29 waved my hat, bowed and smiled. Glad-U-Kum, the Shriners’ greeting, was shouted at me in St. Charles street by a man who stood close to the carriage as it passed. “Thank you,” I cried as I waved my hat. I had eyes for everyone in the crowd, and singled out various ones of my admirers to wave my hat as I passed. 88
Leaving the train depot with President Porch of the Progressive Union. [Source: The Time-Democrat (March 12, 1911), at p. 5] At the head of the column of the parade was a patrol of Scout cavalry. The Boy Scout Band, from the Jewish Orphans’ Home, came next. A division of Scouts marching in column of platoons followed. As a guard of honor in front of the carriage were two platoons from the First Battalion. On each side of the carriage marched a line of honor Scouts. The column moved without delay, marching in Howard avenues to St. Charles street, and down St. Charles street while the parade was moving, and the long column of 400 Boy Scouts, in wide, straight ranks, marching stanchly as soldiers, brought forth many words of praise and much applause from the onlookers. 89
88 Ibid . 89 Ibid . 30 The band was a big feature of the evening. Wherever along the line it stopped to play the crowd applauded lustily. Then, when the procession reached the Grunewald Hotel, the band went into the lobby and rendered several selections. The performance brought down the house. Shortly afterward the Golden City Troop, to which the band boys belong, joined the group in the lobby, and the entire troop was taken to a committee room to see me. “It’s fine, just great,” I told them, after the band had played a selection for me. “I’m mightily glad to see you––just the kind of band the Boy Scouts ought to have.” 90
The Boy Scouts accompanied me to the French Opera House for my 7:30 pm address, and a number of them were seated on the edge of the stage where I spoke. I was especially pleased at my escort of the Scouts and spoke of them in complimentary terms several times, and especially complimented the Boy Scout Band from the Jewish Orphans Home. 91
My speech dealt principally with the great benefits to be derived by the entire country, and to New Orleans in particular, from the opening of the Panama Canal. Forcefully and insistently, I prophesied for the benefit of as many people as could crowd into the French Opera House that the opening of the Panama Canal and the consequent changing of trade routes would mean more to their city than to any other on the globe. 92
The extraordinary prosperity in the South the past three decades, I said, had been confined to the interior cities. I declared that I hoped the seaport town of New Orleans would grow extraordinarily in the future. And it is of importance to the whole nation that New Orleans should grow with the same rapidity as seaport cities elsewhere. 93
I urged the people of New Orleans to see that the prosperity that must come with the opening of the canal be widespread, that it go to honest and right living men and not be restricted to a few multi-millionaires. I said that when
90 Ibid . 91 Ibid . 92 Id . at p. 4. 93 Ibid . 31 New Orleans came to re-repeat the industrial development of the North, I hoped the people here would avoid certain mistakes. The people should study what has been done elsewhere, I said, both to know what to do and what to avoid. The tendency should always be to improve, for when a man reaches the point when he can’t learn anything else he is only fit to be buried. 94
I declared that there was nothing done during my administration of which I was more proud than “putting through the Panama Canal.” If I had not put the matter before Congress I predicted that it would not be fifty years from completion. “They would be debating it now,” I said, and the vast audience laughed heartily. 95
I said that to hear that the Panama Canal was getting along well didn’t suit some people. It afforded no chance for a headline. It was only when the Panama Canal wasn’t getting along well, or somebody said it wasn’t, or thought it wasn’t, or some ingenuous person thought up a bit of scandal in connection with it, that they had a chance to use headlines, and then they were happy, I said. “With scientific exactness,” I said, “there was never a work as efficiently done with such an absence of scandal and with such moral and physical well-being of the people connected with it.” 96
I had much to say on the fortification of the canal, and in saying it I seemed to come closer to the audience than in any other of my utterances. I advocated the gospel of national preparedness. “As much as I dislike hardness of the heart,” I said, “it isn’t much worse than softness of the head.” The canal should be fortified, I pointed out, so as to leave the navy footloose. Only two countries, England and Panama, were under treaty to observe the neutrality of the canal. Any other nation could use it as an instrument for attacking this country or do anything else with it, I said, without violating any contract. It was necessary, therefore, to protect this gateway for offensive and defensive purposes. This part of my discourse evoked more enthusiasm and applause than any other, and at no time was this exhibition of feeling stinted. 97
94 Ibid . 95 Ibid . 96 Ibid . 97 Ibid . 32 I had strong words of commendation for the common people and equally strong words of denunciation for the trusts. I termed these latter “artificial entities” and I told the audience how they should be dealt with. I pointed out that when the ordinary man, accustomed to grappling with his ordinary fellow, such as the grocer, the baker or the blacksmith, meets this giant artificial adversary, the trust, he is compelled to rely on some stronger power than himself. Then the State or the national government should step in and assist him. The formidable trust should be faced with the still more formidable law. Then things will be equalled. But neither the government nor the people should be antagonistic to the trusts, I declared. The people should believe the big corporations intend to do right. When they do not do right, the people should make them. 98
“Abnormal success,” I said, should “be suspected.” But, on the other hand, I had a vigorous word of rebuke for the lazy, the idle and the vicious. Prosperity should be widely diffused, I said––distributed among the many who do well. 99
Anticipating my upcoming presentations at the University of California, I attempted to impress on my hearers that mine was a practical philosophy, that I believe in a morality that was feasible and in ideals that might be approximately realized. I said I had nothing but contempt for the preacher who preaches abstract morals, ignoring the body. Preaching without practice was abominable, I said, citing the well-known but peculiarly apt illustration of the man who sits around the cross-roads store and tells how the nation ought to be run. “This man,” I declared, “only lives because his wife takes in washing.” 100
“The high class citizen,” I said, “is neither the man who makes enough to support himself and family, nor the man who accumulates wealth and only lives to accumulate more. It is the honest, industrious man between these two who contributes something to the welfare of the community.” The nation is
98 Ibid . 99 Ibid . 100 Ibid . 33 like the man, I said. There can be no material prosperity unless there is a foundation of honesty and high principles, both in public and private life. 101
I strenuously advocated vigilance in public affairs. Some men could be trusted in private life and not in public, and vice versa. “Some men keep their conscience in private, separate compartments,” I said. The clever but unprincipled man is the one that should be watched in public life, I pointed out. This sort of cleverness, I said, was often excused with a laugh and a light observation such as: “They all do it.” The people should set their faces like of flint more against the clever scoundrel than against the scoundrel who fails. 102
In conclusion I said: “In the beginning I spoke of two of our national achievements which have particularly impressed foreign peoples. In closing I want to mention two conflicting attitudes of mind toward us. One is the position taken by those foreigners who feel they have had no fair show, who consider themselves outcasts of opportunity, and who turn longing eyes to this land of equal opportunity and justice. The other is the lamentable attitude taken by reactionaries, who delight in witnessing this, a truly republican form of government, beset by vicissitudes. Our periodical exposures of political corruption, of business misdealing, of mod violence and other disobediences of the law, have for them particular interest, and are received with sneering mirth. There are many such people in the world, and we owe it to all humanity, to every people which hopes, in course of time, to grow into republican government, to so order our affairs that popular rule shall not come into disrepute. They are watching us to see if our experiment, on a continent-wide scale, can be a success. God grant that their golden hopes shall not be blasted through fault of ours.” 103
I spoke a few minutes less than an hour. Twenty-seven Boy Scouts of the Seventh Battalion were grouped about the footlights, and their khaki hats and uniforms were strikingly suggestive of a notable period in my life. They made a distinct impression on me. Through all the crush I said to Scoutmaster
101 Ibid . 102 Ibid . 103 Ibid . 34 J. L. Nourse: “Captain, I want to thank through you all of these Boy Scouts for their presence here tonight.” Turning to a Time-Democrat reporter, and requesting him not to fail to quote me, I said: “There is no movement fraught with more good for the future than that of these little gentlemen.” 104
Upon the completion of my speech I returned to the Grunewald Hotel for a 8:30 pm banquet, and my election as honorary member of the Progressive Union. It was virtually 9 o’clock before I arrived from the French Opera House to take my place on the right of President Porch of the Progressive Union. While the guests were still standing invocation was delivered by Rev. S. H. Werlein. There followed a menu to which I did full justice––and that despite the day’s efforts. At each plate was a handsome souvenir booklet, inscribed to the guest. The ice cream was served in bust models of myself as a Rough Rider. 105
Before the banquet was half over, on account of the brevity of time, the speech making was begun. With little formal introduction, President Porch introduced Mayor Behrman. The Mayor’s speech of welcome bestowed highest praise on me in behalf of the city “when he lent the prestige and dignity of high office as a comforter to us in the hour of trial,” in 1905. In turn at the outset of my speech I told the banqueters that any President of the United States “worth his salt” would have done as I did when I entered the New Orleans fever zone in the summer of 1905. “I felt uncomfortable up in Washington that summer, when you were in distress,” I said in my address, “and I simply felt it my duty to come down. It was like my regiment being under fire, and me not being in command. You met the situation courageously, and it pleased me to come down.” 106
I then emphasized the need for a direct and regular steamship service between New Orleans and the countries to the south of us. I urged: “A service in which the liners shall sail on given days to given ports at given times.” I also dwelt on the prosperity that would accrue also to the inland cities of the Mississippi Valley as a result of the Panama Canal opening.
104 Ibid . 105 Id . at p. 5. 106 Ibid.
35 “Trade follows the flag,” I quoted, “and let it be the American flag. Let us give our foreign competitors some real competition.” 107
My thanks for the reception tendered me was in the form of a toast to “those Louisiana bear hunters who contributed largely to my success in the wild game preserves of Africa.” With nine minutes to catch my 11 pm train bound for Houston, I the elbowed my way out of th banquet hall, amid cries of “Come back, come back.” 108 March 12: Texas
Beaumont
We entered the state of Texas by way of Beaumont about 7:30 o’clock this morning. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people had been waiting at the depot to greet us. Intelligence of this had been telegraphed ahead and, as I was not out of bed, the train was stopped for a time that I might be in readiness. At the station the people crowded about me and I shook hands with as many as possible. Then I made a brief speech, referring particularly to the presence of so many infants in arms and added, smilingly but with emphasis, that I was glad to see so many babies. The sentiment was cheered. 109
“I am glad to be in Texas again,” I continued. “It was in this state that I organized my regiment and I am glad to get back among these people. Since I have seen the people of Texas I have traveled among elephants, tigers, lion and kings and I enjoyed immensely the experiences of my trip abroad. But it more firmly convinces me that the greatest opportunities for both men and country exists in our own beloved country.” At this point the train began moving off and I waved cheerfully as I said adieu. 110
107 Ibid . 108 Ibid . 109 The Galveston Daily News (March 13, 1911), at p. 1. 110 Id . at p. 5. 36 Houston
Our next stop was at Houston. When we arrived I was placed in an automobile and taken for a tour of the city and its environs, including a trip to the turning basin in the Houston ship canal. The automobiles were speeded up and the trip was made at a dizzy rate. No matter how wide the throttles on the other car were opened, my car was always far ahead. Returning to the city, our party repaired to the Auditorium. The great structure is said to have a seating capacity of 7,600. It was packed until hundreds were turned away unable to gain an entrance. 111
I was received with a mighty cheer. Here is the full text of my speech:
“Mr. Mayer, and you, men and women of Texas, my fellow Americans. It is the greatest pleasure to be back in this great, this marvelous state of yours. It is nearly a quarter of a century since I first set foot in Texas, and the change in that time, great as it has been in the country as a whole, has been greatest of all in the South and nowhere else quite so much so as in Texas. When I raised my regiment at the time of the Spanish war I came here to Texas to raise it, and I got just as many Texans as I could into it. And I had long made up my mind that after coming back from my trip in Africa and Europe––where I enjoyed everything from lions to kings––after coming back I wanted to have a chance to go around the country and, if possible, speak in each state, to say howdy and thank you, for any man who has been made president of the United States by the American people remains forever their debtor, and he is not worth his salt if he has not tried to be president of all the people, and his obligation is to all the people.
And although I am to speak to you today, clearly I have not come to teach so much as to learn. Houston is a might progressive place. And while there are certain things of peculiar interest to you as citizens of Houston, as citizens of Texas, yet after all, friends, in the interests that are fundamental, in the things that concern us most vitally, the interests are the same in every part of this country. I know this country, I think I can say, pretty thoroughly. I have gone through it, East and West, North and South, from Texas to Maine and to Oregon, and the more I see of my fellow citizens the more deeply I feel that the points of unlikeness are superficial; that the points of likeness are
111 Ibid.
37 fundamental. A decent American is a decent American wherever he is, and I put my faith in the future of the American people because I think that the average American is a pretty good fellow, and that his wife is a still better fellow.
Now, I have been very much interested in your experiments here in municipal government. I am a progressive myself. No man, according to my view, is fit to be an American if he is not progressive, but I want to be sure that the progress is in the right direction, and the only way to find that out is to make the experiment and test the plan by its actual working and judge it according to its fruits. I have been particularly interested, as a student of municipal conditions, in the apparent success with which you have carried on the commission system of government here, and I have been much interested in what the mayor has told me; that he tried it as mayor under the old system and under the new, and it is altogether easier to get decent results under the new system.
I believe emphatically in the short ballot and in responsibility in the public servant. It is for the interest of the politician to have issues confused and responsibility divided because he makes a business of politics and he can tell just what is happening. But the ordinary man who is hard at work is not able to pay the attention that the professional politician is able to, to all the details of public service, of political life, and for him, for us who are out of politics, the essential thing is that the system shall not be too complicated, that we shall know who we are electing to do any given job, and then we shall be able to follow him and see that he does the job and see whether he does it well or whether he fails. Now that is of vital consequence to each of us. In consequence we feel––and I am speaking of myself—that we do not want to vote for too long a ticket, for if you have to wade through the entire directory you don’t know who you are voting for. We want to vote for a short ticket and then we shall be able to tell how the man has done his job. I am especially interested in the way you here have worked out this system because I want to see it introduced in the North, introduced in the Northeast.
And now friends, I want to add just one word to that. I believe in doing everything to improve the system, but we must never make the mistake of thinking that any conceivable scheme of government will work by itself. It will work well just so long as the average man is a square man and takes the pains to see that he does work well and no longer. Now in our civil life it is
38 exactly as it is in war. It would be a crime not to give our soldiers the best weapons, not to give the man wearing our uniform the finest rifle that can be given, and if you put a brave man with a poor weapon against a brave man with a good weapon, the man with the good weapon will win; for it does not make any difference how the weapon is if the man is a poor creature, for it will not make a good soldier out of him.
You give the best magazine rifle invented to a coward and he is a coward still. It is a might important thing to have the right weapon but it is even more important to have the right man behind the right weapon. And so it is with the law in civil life. We need the right type of law, but the right type of law will amount to nothing unless the people back of the law are the right kind of people. Look in Central America. There are certain republics in Central America which have practically exactly our constitution and our laws. On paper you could not tell that there was any difference of a material kind between their government and ours; and yet the difference between them and us is really as great as the difference between the north and the south poles because they have not got the right type of men behind the laws. They have not got the right type of citizen to execute the constitution and to carry out the laws made under the constitution.
There has been a great deal of talk in recent years as to changes in methods of legislation. The initiative, for instance, and the referendum. Now, under proper supervision I believe in them. For instance, if I were a citizen of this city I would want at the moment to have a referendum as to whether you must keep the post office open on Sunday. That is just the kind of thing that the citizens should be allowed to vote on to decide for themselves.
Personally I think that as far as possible it is well to keep Sunday so that the minimum amount of work shall of necessity be done on it, so that the men and women shall have as much opportunity as possible to make it a day of rest and of rational enjoyment. Nobody but yourselves can decide for you whether or not you think that closing the post office on Sunday comes in the category of the things you wish done. You have to decide for yourselves if a certain amount of inconvenience due to the Sunday closing is offset by the desirability of freeing the men from Sunday labor.
My own personal view would be that it is offset by the desirability of freeing the men from such labor. But that is not my affair; it is yours, and it
39 seems to me peculiarly the kind of thing that ought to be determined by the citizens themselves voting upon it. I mention it simply as one instance of the kind of thing that can with advantage be submitted to a popular vote, but remember that there is nothing sacred in the popular vote any more than in the representative system.
In each case the system must be judged by its fruits. You must be judged by the kind of men you put in public office, by the kind of legislation that you insist upon those men giving you and upon the way in which you insist upon their enforcing the laws. If you elect a bad man by popular vote it does not help you that you get him by voting for him directly instead of by having the legislature voting for him. The point is, is he a straight man or is he a crook. Now if he is a crook, he remains a crook even if you all voted for him. And while I think that the crooked legislator is even worse than the crooked man in private life, because he not only betrays himself, but commits the added infamy of betraying his constituents; while I think that that man therefore is a worse man, remember, friends, that he is not as dangerous a man.
The danger is this republic will be if you and I, if the average man, becomes crooked. The stream cannot rise higher than its course. Our public men can not be better than the average citizenship of the community in the long run, and while I believe with all my heart in trying to do everything that can be done by legislation to make us better as a people, we cannot afford to forget that in the end and finally we shall succeed or fall according to the character that we develop in the individual average American citizen, if the average man is not a decent man, if the average woman is not a good woman, then all the laws that the wit of man can devise will not save us from ruin. And if we have the right type of average citizenship, if we develop the right type of manhood and womanhood, we will work through out difficulties somehow. The average man to be a decent citizen means that he has got to fulfill several different requirements.
In the first place, remember that intellect and intelligence, important though it is (and I realize to the full the importance of it), is not so important as character. Now, gentlemen, I don’t want you to misunderstand me. I believe in intelligence. Every now and then I meet a man who acts with a continual lack of wisdom, and tells me his conscience bids him do so and so, and he knows I would not have him act against his conscience, indeed, I have always answered, certainly, not. But if my conscience always made me act like
40 a fool, I want to take the conscience out and look at it. There must be intelligence, but the prime essential is character; and in making up character three elements beyond all others enter in.
In the first place, honesty. Now that is not a broad enough term; I mean decency, square dealing, with all its relations between man and man, between man and woman; decent behavior in the home. I have got no use whatever for the type of patriot who is enormously concerned with the welfare of the public, and whose own family breathes a sigh of relief the moment he leaves the house. We all of us know a certain type of man who is not uncommon at crossroads stores, who will go down there––he is a man of abundant leisure–– and will explain to any one who will listen to him how to save the country; and meanwhile he himself continues to live at all only because his wife takes in washing.
Let the man be decent in his own family first. If he is not a good husband, a good father, he cannot be a good citizen. Now it is not enough that he should be a good husband and a good father, but they are the first essentials. If he is not these he cannot fulfill his other duties. Before he can do extra in helping the rest of us as a whole he has got to pull his own weight, he has got to work so that he can support those dependent upon him. I have no use for the man who has lofty plans for the betterment of mankind, and meanwhile his wife and children exist on the charity of others. Let the man pull his own weight first.
All this is elemental, but the elemental things are the things that count. Let him pull his own weight first. Let him be decent in his household relations, a good husband, a good father, and then he must be honest––honest in the broadest and deepest and fullest sense of the word. He must be honest in his business relations, honest in his political conduct––and don’t let him have that type of mind which keeps his morality in separate close compartments. We all know the type of man who is a pretty good man at home, but with whom you had better not have a business deal; and we all know that other type of man who is all right in business, but you cannot put him in office and trust him around the corner. Every one knows of instances like these. Insist upon having honesty, decency, integrity, as the first and most essential elements in the making of character. And don’t go upon the theory that if the knave succeeds he ceases to be a knave. Undoubtedly many knaves lack courage, but
41 the dangerous scoundrel is not the scoundrel that fails, but the scoundrel that succeeds.
When I was president it fell to my lot to take action against a number of men high in business and high in political life. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I am not under any delusion as to any one class monopolizing all the virtues or all the vices. I have seen crooked rich men and I have seen crooked poor men, too, and I have not any patience with the orator who, immediately before election, cannot discover that there has ever been a crooked poor man. We must draw the line not between the rich man and the poor man, and between the crooked man and the straight man, and if a man falls on the wrong side of that line, whether he is rich or whether he is poor, cinch him.
We cannot afford to tolerate any appeal to us to discriminate between men on any other basis than the basis of conduct. Distrust equally the man who would seek to persuade you that all of your fellow citizens of one class have had peculiarities and he would seek to persuade you that all your fellow citizens of another class have good peculiarities. And above all else distrust the public man who tries to tell you that you ought to follow him because he will benefit you by hurting someone else. If a public man aks you to support him during a bad action, an action that is wrong, though it may be in your interest, distrust him. This is a representative government and the people must rule and must have their way, but it is the duty of the public man to try to lead them to take the right way and if they won’t take it then to say that you must take some other instrument than himself to get you what he conscientiously desires to be wrong.
Now, that is what I consider is the square and decent way of acting. So the first requisite in a private citizen and in a public man is honesty, decency, using the words in their broadest significance. And that is not enough. I do not care how honest a man may be, if he is afraid he is no good. It is exactly as it is with a soldier again. We want to have a soldier patriotic, devoted to his country, knowing what he is fighting for, devoted to the flag, but it does not make any difference how patriotic he is if he runs away. You cannot use him. He has got to be a patriot and he has got to be able to stay put. Now it is the same thing in private life. I want to see the good citizen scrupulous to avoid a brawl, scrupulous to avoid trouble of any kind if he can get honorably out of it, but if he comes to do his duty and a gentleman without any principles hustles him, I don’t want him to go home and say how ungentlemanly the other
42 man was; I want him to hold his own. The worst thing that could happen to this country would be to see a division into two camps; on the one hand of the men who are not decent but also are not afraid, and on the other hand all of the nice, good, well-behaved little people who have excellent intentions, but are timid about putting them into effect.
In addition to honesty there must be courage. And then friends, as I have already said, honesty and courage are not enough. In addition to honesty and courage you must have the saving grace of common sense, and there is nothing in which that common sense in a republic needs more to show itself than in the willingness to recognize differences of opinion among decent citizens. You cannot force other men to think exactly as you do. You must exercise a broad spirit of charity in dealing with them, and sink your differences upon the non-essentials in order that you may combine and work for the great fundamentals of righteousness, of plain living, and decent behavior.
Work for the betterment of things in social matters, in political, in industrial. You of the South are entering upon––that is not quite the correct term––you have already entered upon, you have already begun, an extraordinary career of industrial expansion. I believe that in the next half century there will be a greater growth of material prosperity here in the South than in any other portion of the union. Now that being the case I hope to see you profit not only by the wisdom of others, but by the folly of others. I hope to see you in that industrial expansion copy what has been good in the development industrially of the North and of England and to avoid what has been bad in it. In the last fifty years there has been altogether too much tendency to think only of material success. Material success is necessary. Just as I spoke to you about the individual and said he must first pull his own weight before he could help pull any one else, so it is true of the community. Unless there is a foundation of material well-being the community can not do well in other ways.
You take a community that is shiftless and it is no use to go there in the hope of finding high ideals. There must be a foundation of material prosperity, but woe to the community that thinks that the foundation is the whole house. There has been in parts of our country, to a certain extent all through our country, a tendency to treat money getting, to treat material prosperity as the be-all and end-all of life, and to treat a man successful in accumulating an
43 enormous fortune as the greatest citizen in the land, the man most to be envied, most to be copied, no matter how he made his fortune, or what uses he puts it to.
Now, we all know that is so and we all know that many of the very people who in the abstract and in the papers are the first to denouce with virtuous indignation the misdeeds of the rich man, will eagerly jump in private life at making that rich man’s acquaintance. Now we must get the right sense of values. A man who makes an enormous fortune has not achieved good citizenship. All he has done is to put himself in a position where he can be a striking example of either good or bad citizenship. If the fortune is made as an incident of service to the community as a whole, if each dollar that he gets represents a full dollar’s worth of service rendered to some one else, so that having gained that fortune means a good thing for the rest of the commonwealth, then to just that extent he has been a good citizen.
If he has made that fortune in ways that represent cheating his fellows, if instead of building a railroad he has wrecked one, if instead of honestly developing a region he has manipulated stocks, so as to put a fortune in his own pockets and water in the pockets of a great many other people, if he has done that, he occupies morally a position not one whit in advance of the ordinary cheap gambler at a country fair. He does not stand any differently from that man.
Friends, in closing, I want to say just this as an appeal to you, to all of us for good citizenship. Wherever I went in Europe last spring I was struck by two things. In the first place, everywhere the man who felt that life had gone unduly hard with him, that he had been oppressed and through no fault of his own he had not been given the opportunity to which he was entitled, that man looked eagerly toward our country, toward the United States as a country where a golden ideal had been at least partially realized, and at the same time, my friends, I was saddened to see that everywhere I went there was also a certain uneasiness as to the reported stories of violence, lawlessness and of political and business corruption here in America. Every time that there is a mob law here, every time that there is gross political or business corruption, the news is carried abroad to gladden the heart of every cynical disbeliever in popular government and to sadden these men who wish to believe that here in America, here in our land, we have solved the problem of securing popular
44 government and at the same time exercising self-mastery, self restraint with due justice for all.
I supposed, my friends, that if we will not do justice and insist on honesty for our own sake and for the sake of the children that come after us, it is not very likely that we shall do it for others; and yes I would like to make the appeal to all American citizens to remember that if they come short in their duty, if they permit the perversion of the ballot, if they permit lawlessness, corruption in politics or in business to go unpunished, not only do they harm themselves, not only do we harm the children that are to come after us, but we are doing an evil thing to the other nations and mankind, for we are killing the golden hope which each man in every country of the earth holds in his heart as he looks toward this land of ours with the belief and the prayer that here we shall show that government of the people and by the people can continue, can last in the interests of justice, of honesty in the interest of the well-being of all the people and all the men and women who live in this country of ours if only we keep the standards that we should keep, will achieve a measure of development such as has never before been known in any nation in the history of the peoples of mankind.” 112
The Trip to San Antonio
I used every minute of the time allowed me, and when my last word was uttered, I was whirled away with handshaking formality to our train, which pulled out a few minutes later on the long run to San Antonio. The long trip was made interesting aside from the speed at which the train traveled by the crowds which stood on every depot platform, eager to get a glimpse of us as our car hurried by. At Granger a brief stop was made for water and when I stepped out on the rear platform of my car, I faced hundreds of people and a great American flag which one enthusiast was waving almost under my nose. I made a few remarks, finishing just as the train began to move. I took advantage of the brief stop at Katy to shake hands and at one or two other places I appeared to wave at the people as we sped on our way. 113
112 The Galveston Daily News (March 13, 1911), at p. 5. 113 Ibid . 45 We arrived in LaGrange at 4:16 pm and made a stop of five minutes, then departed for San Antonio. Quite a number of citizens were at the station, some bearing United States flags. I made a short speech, in which I stated that I thoroughly enjoyed my trip in Africa and in Europe, and that upon my return to the United States I intended to make a trip to all sections and thank the people, as one who has been honored with the presidency should experience eternal gratitude. 114
San Antonio
We arrived in San Antonio at 8:45 pm. Immediately upon alighting the train I was taken in charge by the official reception committee and a committee of Rough Riders. The cheering crowds demanded a speech, but the automobiles worked their way out through the dense crowd and then proceeded down Commerce Street. All the way along the route I was compelled to wave my hat to the cheering crowds. I was greatly pleased with the warmth of the reception, and chatted gaily with those in the auto with me, which included the acting mayor. Down Commerce Street to Main Plaza the parade made its way, thence across to Houston and up Houston to Alamo Plaza, the crowds cheering and clapping their hands, and I waved my hat in recognition. 115
It was originally planned that our party, on arrival at the Menger Hotel, which was beautifully decorated with flags and bunting and illuminated with red, white and blue incandescent lamps, would halt. However, the leading car continued on its course. Our party sped on past the military post and continued out Riverside Drive and to the Blanco Road, where the return trip to the city was made. The air was cool and bracing and the long ride of fifteen miles was only marred by the dust, which in places was dense, covering the dress uniforms of the army officers until they almost looked like khaki. 116
Despite the fact that an hour had elapsed, the crowds remained packed densely on the plaza and in the Menger hotel lobby and parlors. It was with difficulty that I made my way through a crowd and up to my suite of rooms on
114 Ibid . 115 San Antonio Express (March 13, 1911), at p. 2. 116 Ibid . 46 the second floor, facing the plaza. I had intended to at once retire, but those who had waited patiently to see me were insistent in their demands that I make a speech, the ladies leading in the demonstration. So I opened the parlor door on the second floor and appeared on the balcony and delivered a brief speech in which I said:
“My Friends: I am very thankful for this welcome greeting. I am glad, indeed, to be back again in San Antonio, a city that is always to me a great one. I have been here before, first about twenty-five years, a quarter of a century, when I was in the cow business. Next, I was here when I organized my regiment. Again, I was here when I was President and when I attended the reunion of my regiment. Every time I came I was greeted with a warm welcome, which I greatly appreciate. Tonight I am glad to see the men and the ladies here and the children. I see a number of babies here who are up too late. So I will say to them and to you, good night, and go to bed.” 117
On re-entering the parlor I held an informal reception. Here I met the delegation from the Rough Riders, members of the reception committee, Generals Duncan, Schuyler and Smith and Colonel Dorst. I was also greeted by a number of ladies, to whom I was introduced and chatted briefly. 118
“But I must go back to my boys,” I said, as I excused myself to return to my “comrades,” as I called the men who had served with and under me in the campaign in Cuba. E. G. LeStourgeon of Troop F, Rough Riders, pinned a badge on the lapel of my coat and I acknowledged the gift with a broad smile. Surmounting the badge are two crossed sabers on which is inscribed the dates 1898-1911, Col. Theodore Roosevelt, First U. S. Voluntary Cavalry. 119
“I’m glad to meet you boys; it’s fine, fine. Yesterday at Houston I met four of our old boys, and at Jackson, Mississippi I met another, who is on the public force there. He was with us at Kettle Hill. He belonged to Sixteenth Infantry. It’s fine to meet my old comrades of the Rough Riders.” 120
117 Ibid . 118 Ibid . 119 Ibid . 120 Ibid . 47 One of the boys remarked that he was with General Lawton, and I quickly remarked: “You know, I always swear by the regulars.” When the name of Governor Currie of New Mexico was mentioned I remarked that he was a splendid fellow. “When my regiment was first organized,” I said, “I did my best to prevent it being designated as the ‘Rough Riders,’ but when I got to receiving orders to detail so many men from the ‘Rough Riders,’ I had to give in.” 121
I told the boys of a joke on one of my men. “We were on the ship going over and in the morning I heard a big, lanky Texan from up the Brazos River somewhere say to another man standing in front of my cabin door, ‘Say, Jim, my hat’s blown into the creek’––and the creek was the Atlantic Ocean.” I also told of one of the men bewailing the fact that at some point the water had all run out of the river, the soldier not knowing that the tide had flowed out during the night. 122
When General Duncan approached I grasped him heartily by the hand, “I know you, Duncan, but why do I know you?” “We used to go on walks together,” suggested General Duncan, and I laughed heartily because of the reference to my orders that army officers should take an annual hike. 123
Declaring that I wished to retire, it was agreed that I would be at Fort Sam Houston a little before 8 o’clock, where I will be received with a presidential salute. I will leave the hotel at 7:30 am, go to the military camp, and at 8:15 o’clock will review the school children in Travis Park. From 9 to 10:15 or 10:20 I will speak on Alamo Plaza, and will then leave over the Missouri, Kansas &Texas for Austin. 124
121 Ibid . 122 Ibid . 123 Ibid . 124 Ibid . 48 March 13: Texas
San Antonio
Arising at 6 o’clock this morning, refreshed by a good night’s rest, I repaired to the dining room of the Menger, ate my breakfast, and started out upon another strenuous day. I was escorted out to Fort Sam Houston, to the camp ground beyond, and back to the city, where I reviewed the school children and delivered an address on “Good Citizenship” on Alamo Plaza. 125
There was no formality, nor was thee any time lost, as our party entered the waiting autos and sped away to the military post at Fort Sam Houston. As we entered the Post grounds the battery belched forth a presidential salute. Although it was not yet 8 o’clock, a large crowd was at the Post waiting for us, among them being a number of equestriennes, who galloped along after the automobiles. From the Post our party was shirled over to the maneuver camp. On the way we met a regiment of cavalry and a battery of infantry. No parade or drill was attempted. 126
During this brief stop at the maneuver grounds the automobile in which I was riding was surrounded by the “war correspondents” who were anxious to interview me. Anticipating their purpose, I decided to do the interviewing. I asked the boys: “What do all these soldiers here mean?” “What’s the reason for these maneu-vers?” etc. This joke was on the correspondents, because I am in possession of some inside facts in connection with the army maneuvers–but not for publication. 127
After a stop of less than five minutes the trip back to the city was taken through clouds of blinding dust. Around Travis Park thousands of school children were massed, and as our party rode around the square I stood up in my automobile and waved my hat. The children responded by waving American flags and cheering heartily. 128
125 San Antonio Express (March 14, 1911), at p. 1. 126 Ibid . 127 Id . at p. 5. 128 Ibid . 49 At once I headed for Alamo Plaza, but it was only 8:25 and the time set for my speech was 9 o’clock, so Colonel Lyon suggested that the intervening time be taken up in riding over the city, which was done, our party traversing the principal streets and going out beyond the Driving through Alamo Plaza. [Source: johnwayne- Sap depot. Meantime thealamo.com] the people were assembling on the plaza, where a speaking stand had been erected. We returned promptly on time, and when I mounted the rostrum I faced an audience of 15,000 persons. 129
Here was my speech:
“Ladies and Fellow Citizens: It is a great pleasure to me once more to be in this favored city. It is nearly a quarter of a century since I first struck “Santone.” At that time I was carrying on business in the short grass country myself, and it is perfectly marvelous to see the changes that have come in those twenty-five years. It was here that I raised my regiment, and I got just as many Texans as I could get into it. So, naturally, San Antonio has a peculiar claim upon me. I was always particularly pleased that I was able to raise that Southwestern regiment here in the shadow of the Alamo, here where Travis, Bowie and old Davy Crockett had laid down their lives, and founded first the Republic of Texas and then an integral portion of the mightiest republic upon which the sun has ever shone.
And it has been a great source of pleasure to go out this morning and see Uncle Sam’s boys. And coming back here gives me pleasures that I couldn’t have anywhere else.
129 Id. at p. 5. 50 Gathering at Alamo Plaza. [Source: San Antonio Express (March 14, 1911) at p. 4]
When I was in Africa I made up my mind, already before reaching Europe, that when I got the chance just as soon as possible after returning home to travel around and see the different States, and I wanted to say to my fellow citizens “howdy” and “thank you.”
A man who has been made President by the American people is forever after under a debt of obligation to them, a debt which it is impossible to pay, but which I have endeavored to at least partially repay. I don’t think there ever was a man who enjoyed himself more as President than I did, and I know there never was an ex-President who has had as good a time as I have had.
I wanted to travel through the different parts of the country, because in so far as my powers permitted, I tried my best to be President of the whole country. I am an American, and I claim Texas as my own, just as much as Maine or Oregon, and there is not a Texan who has done any great deed in the past that I don’t claim a part of his glory as my glory.
51 My friends, I enjoyed my trip abroad, I enjoyed especially Africa––I think I had a better time than the lions did; I enjoyed Europe, too, enjoyed it to the full, and there is not any country I visited from which I don’t think I could learn something. If you get a man who thinks he can’t learn something, bury him when he has passed the age of learning, he has passed the age of being of any especial use. In every country I went to I could learn something, but I am thoroughly aware of our own mistakes and shortcomings, and so far as I have been able, I have tried to remedy them, and yet, friends, after all that is said and done, I came back here thinking that there is no other country on the face of the earth where it is so well worth while for the ordinarily decent man and the ordinarily decent woman to live, where there is the same chance for the average man and woman developing the best there is in them, as here in the United States.
And now, my friends, that ought not only to be a matter of great pride to us, but also impress on us the realization of our responsibilities. No man ever had a right, but that duty didn’t accompany it. You can’t have the right of being a free citizen, without having the duty of exercising that citizenship in a spirit and in a sense of the sober responsibilities to the people as a whole; and here in this mighty republic, having been given so much, that from us much will be expected.
We have institutions, we have conditions that make it possible to achieve the highest measure of material prosperity and a larger liberty of individual action than anywhere else on the globe. That being the case, we are in honor bound to try to keep and to make this country better than any other country on the face of the globe.
In other countries, if the government does what is wrong, the people can escape the responsibilities. They can say that the people are all right, that it is the sovereign who is wrong; but we are the sovereign here, we are the government, we are responsible, for we are the sovereign. Now, then, if anything goes wrong, we have but to blame ourselves. There is no use trying to shove it onto someone else, the responsibility is ours. If the people are crooked in public life, it is our place to see that they are straight. It rests in our hands to stop, to prevent every form of political and base corruption and to try and get a fair deal, fair dealing as between man and man.
52 Friends, in trying for good government, for decency and for fair dealing, I would ask that my fellow citizens always remember and thus beware especially of those who would seek to divide our people on any other lines than the lines which separate the men who act dishonestly from those who do not. Distrust the man who prejudices class and section hatred. Distrust the man who prejudices hatred against the rich man because he is rich, or against the poor man because he is poor.
Now I ask you, each of you, to think of your own associates, of the men whom he knows, and then try and draw a line between yourselves of good conduct and then of bad conduct, and you will find that the line which separates the good conduct from the bad conduct runs at right angles to the line of cleavage between the men who have more wealth and the men with less.
There are plenty of honest men on both sides of the line. Never attack a dishonest man because he has wealth, or because he is poor; attack him because he is dishonest. Now, if he is dishonest and wealthy, he is just a little worse than if he is dishonest and poor, simply because he has had more chance, so that if I have to discriminate between two crooks, I would cinch the rich crooks first, and so I didn’t make any mistake, I would cinch the poor crook, too, if I can get at him.
And in trying to work for a betterment, remember that human nature is essentially the same in the man who has wealth and the man who has not. Every now and then you will meet a rich man who is arrogant toward the man of small means, toward the poor man, who will disregard his rights and contemptuously treat the ordinary people as humbly born, get at that man. But don’t get at him because he is rich, get at him because he is not acting like a decent citizen should. You will hear plenty of people denounce and assail a man because he is well off. They take riches as such and strive to excite the envy and hatred of the men of the “have nots” against the men “who have.” Distrust them just as much as you would distrust those on the other side.
The envy of a man, the envy and hatred of the poor man against the rich man, and base arrogance and contempt of the rich man for the poor, we would only call bad, but they are really at bottom the same feeling. You show me a poor man who envies and denounces an honest man who has been successful in business, and I will show you exactly the same man who, if he were wealthy, would be arrogant toward the poor man, that arrogance and envy are the same
53 feeling on both sides, the same men; it is the same moral and mental qualities which the man in one case look down and try to trample upon the poor man that makes in the other case hate and envy and try to stir up trouble for the man who has been successful, the man who is not a poor man.
Speaking along the lines that make for good citizenship, you are now at the beginning of a great period, I say at the beginning, you entered upon a period of great industrial prosperity here in the South before this time, but from now on I believe we shall see within the next fifty years, the years within which the country as a whole will grow and prosper, and the South will grow and prosper more than any other section. But see that in getting that material prosperity, and I most earnestly hope that you will avoid the mistakes that have so often been committed in the past in other parts of our own country. And in this great industrial expansion, remember that material prosperity is essential as a means and not as an end. In other words, if you have prejudiced wealth at the expense of manhood and citizenship, you have paid too great a price for it.
In other words, now I don’t want you to misunderstand, I have no patience with the one that tells the people not to believe in material prosperity. I am not advising you, I would not advise my own sons. After my sons grow up, I expect them to earn their own livelihood, I expect them to be able to pull their own weight. I have no use for the man who has lofty aspirations for the benefit of mankind and in the meantime has to let his family live on charity. A man must be able to hold his own, he must have the material foundation for success before he can advance higher.
I can’t sufficiently impress upon you the evidence of material success I see as I go through Texas. All that I ask of you is that you shall remember that the material prosperity must be obtained if wealth is, and it must be realized that you can not afford to lose sight of manhood and of citizenship in getting that prosperity. I want to see it in the South, and I want to see the spirit of your forefathers kept up.
Now, my friends, I am glad to see you all. I wish I could be here at the cattlemen’s meeting next month, but I can’t. I have a strong feeling for the men who come from the short grass country, and I am a little prejudiced in favor of any man who wears the right kind of hat.
54 And in bidding you all goodbye, I want to say that the citizens of San Antonio whom I have been most pleased to see have been the small folks. I was mighty glad to see the children out, and they seemed to me to be all right in quality and in quantity. And I want to say, while speaking of the small citizens, I like all your crops, but I like the baby crop best. Goodbye.” 130
Immediately after the speech was finished I started for the Sunset-Katy Railway station, to embark for Austin. At the station another large crowd had gathered, mostly women and children, and for several minutes I was kept busy shaking the hands of the women folk and the babies, having something cheery to say to each. “Are you this little one’s older sister?” I asked of a lady holding up a baby to shake my hand. “No, I’m the aunt.” “Then the child certainly has a pretty aunt,” I remarked. 131
Promptly at 9:45 am the train pulled out over the Katy. On the way out to the station, with tears flowing, I expressed my appreciation of the manner in which I had been received by the people of San Antonio. When I first planned my westward trip San Antonio was not on the itinerary, but I insisted that I would not visit Texas without coming to San Antonio. 132
San Marcos
Amid the cheers of several thousand people assembled this morning to do me honor, our special train pulled into the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad station in this city at 11:10 o’clock. The crowd numbered approximately 5,000 people and was composed of the students of the several schools of the city to the number of over 2,000, as well as the citizens of the city and surrounding country. 133
As our train came to a stop I was bowing acknowledgements of the demonstration of the crowds. I had but a few moments in which to respond, but referred to my pleasure at being on Texas soil and the pleasure of my
130 Ibid . 131 Ibid . 132 Ibid . 133 Id . at p. 1. 55 former experiences in this State. My utterances were loudly and frequently applauded. 134
Austin
I was then a guest for an hour in Austin, during which time I addressed an audience of students and citizens which filled to overflowing the University auditorium. My special train from San Antonio, scheduled to arrive at 12:15 pm, was half an hour late. Fifteen hundred or 2,000 people had gathered at the station and jostled one another to catch a glimpse as our train, heralded by the screams of the power plant whistle, pulled in at the station. 135
General Webster Flanagan was the first man to greet me as I descended the steps from the rear of the train. Governor Colquitt’s automobile was in waiting by the curb, and a lane was made through the mass of humanity to this point. As fast as I moved through the crowd it closed up behind us. Everybody pushed good-naturedly and were tightly squeezed in the crush. 136
A number of ladies in carriages surrounded our automobile, and after the Governor and I had climbed in, I was kept busy lifting my black slouch hat. The smiling and the bowing continued at pretty regular intervals as progress was made up the Avenue. A dozen or more automobiles fell in behind us, and some of them arrived ahead of us as the University. 137
No students were to be seen. The faculty was grouped in force in the front entrance and on the steps, while President Mezes and Dean Battle awaited us in front. When I arrived, and in the midst of the greetings, I espied Captain Bill McDonald. “Why, hell, Bill,” I said, having been delighted to see him. President Mezes , Dean Battle, the Governor and I then took our way to the auditorium, marching onto the stage from opposite sides. 138
134 Ibid . 135 The Galveston Daily News (March 13, 1911) at p. 5. 136 Ibid . 137 Ibid . 138 Ibid . 56 It was when one entered the auditorium that one realized where the students were. They were there, all of them. When I entered the hall there was cheering––rounds of healthy, lusty, ordinary cheers like women and people utter, and a little later, when the yell machine got limbered up, the rafters rang. I was delighted indeed. I said so later when I was boarding the train for Waco; I said it recalled my own college days. 139
As the time was short for my presentation, I gave one of my characteristic sermons on morality and good citizenship. I was in bad voice, having had a strenuous day Sunday, and a troublesome falsetto would play me a trick when I attempted to make something especially emphatic. I predicted that in the next half century the most striking industrial progress to be made in this country would be in the South, and particularly in the Southwest. “In the South I hear much of the New South,” I said in the course of my remarks. “I hope you will go forward in the best spirit of the New South, but that you will keep the ideals of the Old South.” 140
I told the crowd that I was especially glad to visit Texas, for it was here that I started on the career that would up at the White House; it was at San Antonio that I recruited my Rough Rider Regiment, and, I said: “I got all the Texans in it that I could! I liked Texans; whether dealing with domestic affairs, foreign complications, or with wolves, they were game and of the right sort. 141
I said I felt of Texas in the Union much as I did concerning the Union in international affairs. It is an academic question to ask why the United States should play a great part in world affairs; she can’t help it. The important question is whether she shall do it well, or ill. In the same way Texas must play an increasingly important role in the affairs of the Nation. 142
I said that the changes which I had seen in the South within a comparatively short space of time amounted almost to a revolution; her
139 Ibid . 140 Ibid . 141 Ibid . 142 Ibid . 57 prosperity is great, she is being transformed industrially. But while material prosperity is indispensable, I declared that it is only the foundation on which to build a worthier superstructure, and I said that I hoped that my hearers would so regard it. 143
Good citizenship, I said, consists in doing extraordinarily well the ordinary duties of life; heroic moments come seldom, even in war, and are prepared for by months and years of preparation, a multitude of small things. Citizenship is gagged by the spirit in which one meets public questions as they arise. 144
Addressing the students especially I said: “Of you to whom much is given the country has the right to expect much in return.” The university student should make the best citizen, the most efficient member of the community in all walks of life, and it is those who have failed to measure up to their opportunities in this regard that have made it possible for some to say that education doesn’t pay. 145
I closed with remarks on athletics which could not have failed to meet a response of my audience. “I want to see you play often,” I said to the students, “and hard; but when you work––don’t play at all.” In closing I used words in which a football coach admonished a young player: “Don’t flinch, don’t foul, and hit the line hard.” 146
I was the recipient of a handsome bouquet, and as we were passing out the students went through their whole repertoire of yells. In leaving the platform I turned around and grinned as if I, too, would like to yell. 147
143 Ibid . 144 Ibid . 145 Ibid . 146 Ibid . 147 Ibid . 58 Georgetown
We stopped here five minutes this afternoon and I made a brief speech. Company E, the Southwestern Band, Southwestern University students, public school children, and about 2,000 people greeted us. I made a happy speech. 148
Waco
A reception committee from Waco boarded the train at Austin and I repeated my flying visit programme when I reach that place. It took me forty- five minutes to motor into town, speak to the big crowd gathered to hear me, and get back to the train, which started at once for Dallas. I spoke in the Cotton Palace coliseum, before 5,000 people. As I appeared on the stage the band played “The Star Spangled Banner,” while the audience waved innumerable small American flags. 149
In my speech I referred to the South’s marvelous industrial progress within the past two decades, but declared the matter of education must not be neglected. No state gave promise of a brighter future than Texas. While I favor the movement for a new South I want the idealism of the old retained. I believe in developing every product of Texas, especially its men and women. I declared I admired especially those in the audience who were carrying small citizens. I said no man was a good citizen unless he was a decent man in his own home. If a man won high position by merit the one who begrudged it to him was a poor citizen. In conclusion I declared leaders were needed in every enterprise, and the greatest soldier could not achieve success without a directing genius. I spoke thirty minutes, going here to Dallas.150
Dallas
We arrived in Dallas promptly on schedule time at 8 o’clock over the Katy. Our special was stopped on the Katy tracks at the foot of Main street, where I was met by the reception committee in five big automobiles. A squad
148 Ibid . 149 The Fort Worth Record and Register (March 14, 1911), at p. 9. 150 Ibid . 59 of fifteen mounted police led a parade up Main street; following was a band, then the local camp of Spanish War Veterans. Immediately behind them came my car, where I road bareheaded as I waved my black slouch hat in response. I did not speak in the open air as had been expected, but did say a few words, two or three times, after arriving at the Oriental hotel. On a stand erected on the Jackson street side of the Oriental I spoke for only a few minutes, telling the crowd of 5,000 or more how glad I was to repeat my visit to Dallas, referring to my coming here six years ago. 151
Then I was escorted within, and upon being seen mounting the stairs was again called upon for a speech. A local camp of Spanish War Veterans, some fifty strong, were drawn up on one side, and to them I remarked that I had selected my old Rough Rider company in Texas, and that I would not have been President had I not come to Texas to do so. After than I turned to the other side of the corridor and dealt in a few generalities as to my pleasure of being in Texas. 152
At 9 o’clock I was the guest of honor at a banquet in the grand dining room of the Oriental hotel, at which more than 300 persons were present. When I arose late tonight at the close of the long dinner, I related a humorous tale or two to the Texas idea of peace. Then I plunged into the subject of fortification of the Panama Canal, saying that during my trip through Europe I had found that only two things done in the past ten or twenty years by the United States had attracted more than passing attention, the building of the canal and the voyage around the world of the battleship fleet:
“I found at every capital of Europe I visited, that they were talking of the Panama Canal and the voyage of the battleship fleet around the world. And I am particularly pleased that we have decided to fortify the Panama Canal, because failure to do so would have been an act not only of folly but of criminal folly on our part and not that because I fear war, but because I want peace. People ask me now and then and say, ‘Do you anticipate war, and if not, why do you want to fortify the canal?’ to which I have always answered, ‘I don’t anticipate that my house will burn down, but I have insured it.’
151 Id at p. 1. 152 Ibid.
60 And I want to call your attention to this fact. Our treaties about the Panama canal were only with England and Panama. In the treaty with Panama we expressly reserve the right to fortify the canal. The treaty with England was made while I was President. I declined to submit it to the Senate until I had seen the written statement of the British ambassador that recognized our right to fortify the canal.
Now, let me point on this fact: No other nation in the world has any treaty with us or is under any treaty obligations or under any obligation of any kind as regards the neutrality of the canal, so that if ever we unfortunately became engaged in war with any nation whatsoever, aside from Great Britain or Panama, that nation would have the absolute legal and moral right to seize the Panama Canal. No other nation is under any obligation at all to respect the neutrality of that canal.
We have covenanted to make the neutrality respected. So that any nation would be obliged to respect it; but we have agreed that we will make it respected. When we appoint a sheriff as police officer, we appoint him on the presumption that he will keep the peace and there have been communities, gentlemen, it which it was necessary for a sheriff to carry a gun. He did not carry a gun for the purpose of war; he carried the gun because he was a peace officer. And when Uncle Sam spends his money to dig the canal, unless he is a fool, he won’t leave the canal to be taken by the first nation that is at war with him.
Now, as to the voyage of that battleship fleet around the world. Again I believe in peace and honesty in business. I hold that the nation should scrupulously avoid any color of wrongdoing toward any other nation, weak or strong, and I hold also that it should keep itself ready to prevent any wrong being done it in return.
And I was especially interested by the comments made to me by the statesmen of the great naval powers as to the trip of our battleship fleet around the world. One and all dwelt upon the fact that the voyage had been a signal help to all interested in keeping the peace. When I sent the fleet around the world a feeling had grown on the Atlantic coast that the fleet’s proper place was there and there was great indignation, especially among some members of the coordinate branch. One senator in particular published an interview in which he said that I could not do it, that it could not be allowed because there
61 was not enough money to take it around the world, and they would not give me money.
That was perfectly easy. I explained that I had money enough to send it to the Pacific and if they wished it to stay there they need not appropriate the money to take it back. And the fleet came back.
I gave renewed indorsement to the commission form of government and added the warning I have previously given that it is the honesty of the individual voter which must finally decide the success or failure of any form of government. I also discussed corporation control, renewing my stand for federal control of those engaged in interstate business on the ground that the national government was the only power big enough to deal with the combinations of resources.
In conclusion I spoke against mob violence and warned my hearers that popular government must find a happy medium between a plutocracy and mob rule. 153
We left Dallas after the banquet, our special train being parked several miles out of the city until early tomorrow morning, when we will run to Fort Worth. 154 March 14: Texas
Fort Worth
We arrived in Fort Worth this morning at 7:30 o’clock and greeted a crowd of several hundred anxious people who had been waiting since dawn in a drizzling rain on the Texas & Pacific station plaza. A tremendous cheer went up form the throng when I stepped on the platform of my private car and raised
153 Id . at p. 9. 154 El Paso Herald (March 14, 1911), at p. 3. 62 my hat. I entered the big automobile of Col. Burke Burnett, my host at breakfast. Twenty-five automobiles carried the immense reception committee to the Westbrook hotel, where breakfast was waiting. 155
Two brass bands had been lined up from our train to the waiting automobiles and as I walked down the line, escorted by Mayor Davis and Captain Burnett, the bands played “The Star Spangled Banner” while the crowds cheer vociferously. All along Main street crowds lined the sidewalks. Perhaps Main street never was so crowded at so early an hour in the morning before. School children, teachers, citizens and hundreds of visitors to the stock and horse show cheered us as our flag-bedecked automobile rolled up the thoroughfare. The automobiles turned down Fourth street and at once the big crowd on Main street surged around the corner to get a glimpse. When I stepped from the car the crowd cheered again and I raised my hat and smiled and bowed. 156
The breakfast guests had gone into the lobby of the hotel and Mayor Davis hurried me down the café steps on the Fifth street side. Then the police had to fight the crowd back to let the breakfast guests into the basement door. In the lobby just outside the English room, Colonel Burnett and Mayor Davis introduced the guests to me, one by one, as they passed in. 157
The breakfast was simple––pineapple juice, cocktails, grits, sliced tomatoes, rolls and butter, pork chops, toasts and potatoes. I ate my breakfast with relish, but was always ready to drop my knife and fork when someone started a song and led the song with mimic band director gestures. The breakfast guests numbered about 100. Breakfast was over at 8:45, and our party left at once for the Coliseum. 158
Speaking at the Coliseum began at 9:13 o’clock. As I mounted the platform with the escorting party, troops were thrown around it and the crowds were then admitted to the arena to be closer and to avoid voice strain. Just as
155 Fort Worth Star-Telegram (March 14, 1911), at p. 6. 156 Ibid . 157 Ibid . 158 Ibid . 63 I was seated on the platform, Charlie Buckholtz, a cook for the Rough Riders, took the stand on his crutches, accompanied by three of his six little children. Colonel Burnett had just risen to quiet the crowd in preparation for my speech. “Hold on a minute,” called Mayor Davis, “There’s something important first.” Ready hands assisted the old fighter and his children up the steps and in view of the thousands. The old soldier and I clasped hands. 159
Mr. Buckholtz is an applicant for a pension, which has become much involved in government red tape. His meeting with me was planned by Mayor Davis wish the confidence that if he could reach me the trouble would be ended. That the hope was justified was shown. “What’s the number of your claim?” I asked, when the old soldier seated at my side, and I immediately had the matter noted down by Mr. Harper. For a few moments we conversed together in low tones. “I’ll write now myself, I said. “I will do it today.” 160
Mayor Davis then rose to introduce me. “It is now 9:13,” said the mayor. “Colonel Roosevelt’s train leaves at 9:45. He address will, therefore, have to be short.” Renewed cheering swept through the building as I mounted to a chair on the platform and started. “Mr. Mayor,” I said, “I envy you a good many things and among them your voice, by George. I appreciate your introduction. I appreciate it genuinely. I thank the mayor for his kind words.” 161
I then turned towards Charlie Buckholtz. “Not only does my old comrade here have six children,” I continued, “so have I. I believe in practicing what you preach,” I continued as the laugher died down. 162
I then continued:
“When I received an invitation to come to Fort Worth, I jumped at the chance because it is Fort Worth and because the invitation came from old and valued friends––friends with whom I went on a wolf hunt while President.
159 Ibid . 160 Ibid . 161 Ibid . 162 Ibid . 64 As fine a spectacle as I ever saw was Col. Burke Burnett taking the late lieutenant general of the United States army in a buckboard over a cutback after a coyote. I tell you it would have made an Easterner’s eyes bulge. Tom Waggoner will remember when the big “B” dogs got him.
When we came back we came middling fast. There were twenty or thirty cowboys in the party and even an old gentleman like me gets somewhat hilarious in such a party. As we came into the town there was a political meeting going on in full blast. We took it to the station with us. There was one gentleman there mounted on a jaded mule. A jaded mule was not the steed for such an occasion.
“Remember the somersault he turned?” I inquired, turning to Tom Waggoner and Burke Burnett, who burst into laughter.
I can’t congratulate you enough on account of the hotel you’ve got here. It’s a wonder,” I said, to appreciative applause.
After that coyote hunt, I succeeded in getting Burke Burnett to the White House. I knew I couldn’t get his son there. They told me I’d have to blindfold him and back him in. After dinner I said, “Burke, I hope you enjoyed yourself. The fare wasn’t as good as we had at the back of that chuck wagon, but it was the best we could do.”
It is a pleasure for me to be here in Fort Worth within range of the short grass country and to see men like those with whom I was engaged in business thirty years ago.
The first time I met Colonel Simpson was on the Little Missouri, twenty- seven years ago. Colonel Simpson had bought a trail herd from the Panhandle and I was riding a young horse with which I was having a good deal of trouble. He was one of those horses that goes into figures at the proper time and I can tell you the incident was not one of as great unalloyed pleasure as I wished it.
I want to congratulate you on the astonishing growth of your city––the astonishing growth of your state. It is astounding to see the progress you have made.
65 And now I want to preach a little. They say I always preach. See to it that as you build your fortunes materially, you give the chance for the building upon it the superstructure of the high life—the life worth while. Give a chance for things of the spirit as well as of the body.
No one enjoys a good time better than I do, and I am always at it, but see that as you grow in property you grow in all things that tell for the higher civilization. I don’t give a snap for any man that’s not game, and I want him to be square, too. If you are not a good man in your family you are not a good citizen. I want to see you grow that sort in your state that will take such a Preaching at the Coliseum. [Source: prominent part in the affairs cowtowncoliseum.org] of the country.
I am glad to have been here. Goodbye. Good luck.” 163
The troops about the temporary stand erected over the judge’s stand endeavored to form a lane for the retirements of our party, but in an instant there was a surge about the steps and as I came down with my black slouch hat pulled down firmly on my head and my overcoat thrown over my shoulders, hands were thrust out on every side and I shook hands right and left as I was moved in a seething crowd out of the show ring and through the Coliseum where cars were waiting to take our party away. 164
163 Ibid . 164 Ibid . 66 We left Fort Worth at 8:45 am for El Paso, where we are expected to arrive by 7:30 am tomorrow morning. 165 March 15: Texas and New Mexico
El Paso, Texas
Our special train pulled up at the Mesa street crossing at exactly 7:10 am, where the reception committee was in waiting for me. I had not completed my toilet and it was several minutes before I came bulging from the rear door of private car No. 74, hat in hand. Col. Cecil Lyon, national Republican committeeman for Texas, preceded me from the car and was busy shaking hands with his friends when I emerged from the car and almost hopped down the steps onto the paving. 166
The reception committee was there in waiting to receive us, but I caught sight of George Curry, Maj. W. H. H. Llewellyn and Olin Ash, all old Rough Rider comrades of mine. Before president McNary, of the chamber of commerce, had succeeding in introducing me to any of the distinguished local citizens, I had a strangle hold on Ash’s hand and we were talking Rough Rider to the beat of the band. This was the signal for the Rough Rider contingent to get busy and they mobbed me with their friendly greetings and strenuous handshakes. 167
“Hello Ash. Mighty glad to see you. This is fine, fine. I’m mighty glad to see you.” “And there’s old George Curry. No, I don’t know him. I won’t have anything to do with him,” all the time patting the former governor of New Mexico on the back like a long lost brother he is. 168
“Colonel, your auto is waiting.” “Wait a minute, wait a minute. I want to see some of the boys, my boys. Hello Maj. Llewellyn, hello Johnny Kelly!
165 El Paso Herald (March 14, 1911), at p. 1. 166 Ibid . 167 Ibid . 168 Ibid . 67 Well, well; here’s Dave Leahy. Mighty glad to see all of you. This is fine, fine. Wow! It’s good to see you again. Fine, fine!” 169
The reception breakfast, speaking and ride over the city came dangerously near being merged into one grand whoop-em-up Rough Rider celebration out there in front of the Angelus, with the long Stetson, crowned Ash, from Columbus, N. M., Maj. Llewellyn, of Las Cruces, Dave Leahy, of Las Vegas, and the rest of the boys furnishing the entire entertainment for me. But I was finally rescued by the reception committee, dragged into Charles Bassett’s automobile, and with acting major J. I. Hewitt, started off. I was driven directly to the Toltec Club, where I was taken to the woman’s retiring room on the second floor. There I held an informal reception, Judge J. M. Goggin introducing me to a number of people who crowded around me before I entered the ballroom, where the breakfast had been prepared. 170
But it was slow progress, as I held an impromptu reception every time anyone wished to shake hands with me. “Mighty glad to see you–might-y glad. Fine; this is fine.” Finally I was seated in the center of the table which had been arranged for the guests under the north gallery of the ballroom. Upon my arrival the crowed which filled the breakfast room arose and strongly applauded. I laughed and shook my fist at them. The crowd drank a toast to me while they stood. I then sat down, took a deep red rose from a vase of flowers which had been arranged in front of me on the table, and fastened it in my button hole. 171
During the breakfast I talked incessantly with McNary and Hewitt, laughing and smiling constantly like a healthy boy on a holiday trip. After the breakfast I made my first speech of the day, saying:
“It is a peculiar pleasure to me to be here in the southwest, the country to which I have been so much attached and to which I owe so much. As I explained at San Antonio the other day, I raised my regiment there, and if it
169 Ibid . 170 Ibid . 171 Ibid . 68 had not been for the regiment I never would have been president. So you see, Texas has a good deal to account for.
Mr. McNary has been kind enough to allude to my share in bringing about the great national irrigation policy. I think it was time to have one president from the short grass country. The policies of my administration, which I feel were of most prominence, were conservation, which of course takes in much of the other policies––conservation and then the irrigation policy of the government and then the building of the Panama Canal. Texas benefitted as a gulf state from the policy connected with the building of the Panama Canal and the whole southwest and the region of the Rocky mountains was, of course, the region to which the development of our irrigation policy was essential.
In going through the southwest, I am of course struck every time I go through, as every man must be struck, by the extraordinary growth. The growth of the cities of Texas during the last couple of decades is something simply phenomenal, and yesterday as I passed over the old buffalo range, which nobody ever imagined would amount to anything in the way of cultivation, and saw it one of the great centers of cotton production, in addition to the almost limitless possibilities of development of this great country of ours.
I struck El Paso first about 25 years ago and there is quite a change. At that time it was one of the most wide open towns I ever saw. And it is astonishing to come into this beautiful building, which is one of the handsomest club buildings in any part of the country, and to realize the change that has taken place during the lifetime of the youngest among us here. The change is simply extraordinary.
The starting of the development of the west, of the great plains regions, of the rocky mountains, by irrigation, was a benefit to the country itself, of course, but it was also a benefit to every other part of our common land. More and more, I think our people are beginning to realize that the way to elevate part of them is to take part in the general movement for elevating all of them. You cannot permanently rise in this country of ours by trampling down someone else. There may be an occasional individual success achieved that way, but it isn’t the right kind of way to achieve permanent success, for it won’t achieve permanent success. That’s true of the public collectively and
69 individually, between class and class, between section and section. A man may rise by doing injustice to his customers or employees, but as a class that isn’t so.
The man of great wealth can enjoy a healthy prosperity only on condition of acquiring and using that wealth in ways useful in the rest of the country. Every dollar gained by rendering a dollar’s worth of service to other people represents just so much benefit to the community. The captain of industry who builds and manages a great railroad in such shape that he and those associated with him get a great financial reward for doing a good service, that man deserves our heartiest support. The captain of industry who gets a great fortune by unloading watered stock on other people is a menace to the community as a whole. In the same way, I hope that as the south builds up its industries, it will set its face like a flint against any improper exploitation of the people who work with their hands, against coining fortunes out of the work of children, or by grinding toil by others.
The welfare, the permanent welfare, of the community will depend upon the welfare of the other sections of the country, and so it is with the group of states. When I started to advocate the irrigation policy for the west it was violently opposed by people in the east, who took the position that to build up the west was to hurt the communities in the east. Not only in the east, but in the Mississippi valley. I encountered people who felt that it wasn’t right; they said it would hurt their country. It isn’t true. When you make one community prosperous, you benefit the community with which it does business. It is exactly among communities as it is among individuals.
This is so with communities, it is so with our great commonwealth. More than that, gentlemen, it is so among nations. I believe that more and more our people are growing to realize––I think that as a whole the nations of the world are growing to realize––the fundamental error of the old belief that a nation could permanently rise at the expense of its neighbors. Now, of course, what I say now as a general rule is subject to certain exceptions, which I need not discuss; but as a general rule, it helps any nation to have its neighbor nations prosperous. It is a help to the United States to have every other country on the western hemisphere a prosperous country.
You here who do business along the border know––I don’t have to tell you this, you know it yourselves better than I do––that it is an interruption to
70 your business, a check to your prosperity, to have turmoil and trouble in the adjacent republic. You know what a disaster to them reflects itself upon us, upon you along the border. I am particularly pleased to see here this morning the mayor and the collector of customs of the Mexican city which is your immediate neighbor. I am sure I utter the sentiments of every American when I say that all that the United States wishes to see in Mexico is prosperity, and that we wish to see it have the prosperity that means material well being, industrial success, coupled with order, justice and independence.
Our United States, the United States of America, the republic of the United States of America on this continent, is bound up with the welfare of all the other peoples on this continent; we wish well to Canada, we wish well to Mexico, we wish well to every other country in the western hemisphere and we ask them to do nothing for us excepting to do justice to themselves by securing their prosperity, securing their independence, through the practice of the great fundamental principles of civilization, order and justice.” 172
After the breakfast I returned to the retiring room for my hat and overcoat, which I had entrusted to the care of Col. Lyon. While there I met the committee of women who had assisted in preparing the breakfast. I continued shaking hands with my friends and making new ones until I was forced to leave for the auto, which was waiting for me downstairs surrounded by a crowd which filled the street. Just as I started out of the door of the retiring room, C. H. Converse, father of Lawrence Converse, a prisoner in Juarez, approached me and introduced himself as the father of one of the boys who was in prison in Juarez. “Mighty glad to see you,” I said, and passed down the hall. 173
After I entered the auto for the trip over the city, the crowd swarmed around me, shaking hands and shouting to me. A soldier who had fought in the Philippines crowded near me and I grasped his hand for a minute. A woman scrambled to shake hands with me, and went away happy. A crowd of Mexican and American children gathered around me and almost tore my coat
172 Id . at p. 7. 173 Ibid . 71 El Paso reception. [Source: Library of Congress] from my back trying to shake my hand. I eventually waved them away and withdrew my hand until they were forced back by the police. 174
It was my special request that I be taken to Juarez while on the sightseeing trip over the city, as I had never been in Mexico and was anxious to get a glimpse of the country while on the border. My auto was driven directly from the Toltec Club to El Paso street, down San Antonio, and from there to the international bridge and across. The trip was made down Juarez avenue to Comercio street and then past the plaza, the old church and city hall, market and jail. I was especially interested in the preparations that had been made for the expected attack. I had those who accompanied me explain the entire plan of attack, examined the loop holes in the old church, the sand bulwarks on the city hall, and other preparations for war. 175
174 Ibid . 175 Id . at p. 1. 72 The Juarez monument in the new municipal plaza was visited. I was much interested in the monument and studied it for several minutes. I explained to the party the deeds and history of Juarez. I was interested in the people, especially the children that I saw in Mexico. Their courtesy pleased me immensely, and I commented on what a fine class of citizens the schools of Mexico were rearing. I was alert to everything which took place on the trip and in every building that was passed, and enjoyed it greatly. While in Juarez I was stopped by H. Sprinz, who presented me with a handsome carved coffee wood cane, bearing the inscription “Teddy’s Big Stick.” 176
Returning to El Paso I was driven out to the viaduct, where I could get a view of the city as a whole. I was then driven down Boulevard and back to the Cleveland Square stand, where I delivered another public address. I said:
“It is a great pleasure to be with you here. I cannot express to you sufficiently my debt of obligations to the west. I cannot sufficiently thank them for the years that I lived and worked in the western country. Long before I was President, I was a staunch irrigation man because I had seen it work. I had seen the sage brush country, where they thought we need about 13 acres for a cow. I had seen that turned by irrigation into farm lands that infinitely surpassed in fertility the ordinary non-irrigated farms of the eastern country.
I have always regarded the reclamation act as one of the very proudest achievements of my administration of recent years. It has great promise of development to the plains and Rocky Mountain country. And, my friends, I prophesy a great future for you because you cannot succeed without a certain amount of intelligent work. The only kind of success that is worth having is a success that comes as the result of thought and fair dealing. A man who has taken up an irrigated farm is a man who must have forethought and great capacity to work. And that’s the kind of man who makes a good citizen.
I first came west of the Mississippi a little over 30 years ago. I first struck El Paso 25 years ago––and it was a very different type of town––and its struggle to make these changes has been fought out in the quarter of a century. In that time in all the west there was not a city approaching in every form of luxury such as El Paso now has. The change has been wonderful. The growth of your school system is wonderful. I welcome not only the evidences of your
176 Ibid . 73 abounding material prosperity, but I welcome the one in which you are laying the foundation for—the development of life that is the highest and best on earth.
Work and effort; they lie as the foundation stones of success. For that success you must build up the highest and finest type of civilization. I welcome the sight of a library in every city. I wish to see you as you make material progress, make progress also in everything that works for the production of the highest and finest type of citizenship. The pioneers conquered the land and opened it for the uses of mankind. Their children must strive to keep all their privileges and at the same time develop the qualities that could not be developed in the pioneer days. It is for that reason that I so especially congratulate you on the care that you have taken for the next generation.
Now I congratulate you on all your crops––I guess you know what I am going to say. I like the baby crop the best. And in greeting all your citizens I want to especially greet those citizens who are carrying smaller citizens. I like the stock and I want to see it kept up. Therefore I want to see them well trained. Just a word about that training especially to the women––to the mothers.
Too often we see a father and mother who have worked hard who are sufficiently foolish to try to save their children from all work. None of us are grateful in looking back for having been made soft. A boy is not worth his salt who cannot go out in the world and hold his own. It is a poor mother who brings up her boy as a softling, as a mollycoddle. The same is true of the girls. The parents say they try to bring them up as ladies, not in the real use of the term, but not to do any work. Those are of no early use. It is not kindness to the children to make them useless. Let a boy be tyrannical in the home and he will be a useless citizen. Don’t bring up a boy so that you take pleasure in him only when he is away from home. Don’t bring up the girls so that they sit in the rocking chairs and let their mothers do the work. It is not fair to the daughter and she will not be any use in the world.
I don’t care whether a man is multi-millionaire or a hobo. If he does not work he is an undesirable citizen. It is a mistake to think that the wife of a millionaire is the only class of worthless persons. I have seen just as worthless people in adobe huts. Decline to do your duty in any walk of life and you are
74 useless. Do your work right up to the handle and if you are worth your salt you have done your duty to yourself, your family and to your state. Right here I ought to apologize to the preachers for preaching a sermon. The reason is because you fellow Americans are people to whom my heart goes out, especially you people of the west. This is where I learned to treat each man as to his worth as a man. There are in this audience men who have served in the Confederate and Union armies. In their reunions they do not ask whether a man was a major or a drummer boy. What they ask is did he do his duty? If he did, he is admitted to full companionship. If he did not, out with him.
In the war I was in––it was not much of a war, but it was all the war there was––it was not our fault that there was not enough war to go around. We have an organization, the commander of which was an enlisted man. It makes no difference what position a man held so long as he did his duty. In that regiment we had every kind of man––bricklayers and bankers, lawyers and punchers (I have to explain in the east what a puncher is) and college graduates. I would not have had in my regiment a man who cared who or what his bunkey was so long as he did the trick. If you marched and one carried one-half of the grub and the other the other half, you wanted to be sure that the other man had not dropped his and thought you would divy up. And when the fight came you did not want to have to look over your shoulder to see if he was still there. We wanted a man who would stay put. If he did that, there was no concern as to what he did in private life. What you cared for was the essentials, not the nonessentials.
It is the same in citizenship as it is in war. Our business is to bring about good citizenship in this republic. I regard as a very bad habit of deifying what is called smartness––don’t misunderstand––I want a man to get ahead. I have no use for men who have lofty views about the uplifting of mankind but whose family depends upon charity. But I have no use for a man whose smartness takes him ahead by trampling those around him. I abhor crookedness and the abler a crook is the more dangerous he is. I am not afraid of a crook who fails but of the crook who succeeds.
Now that I have warmed up, I must go. I can’t teach you much, but you can and have taught me much. I am mighty thankful.” 177
177 Id . at p. 7. 75 After my speech in Cleveland Square I was introduced to Mexican consul Antonio Lomell, who had been designated by President Diaz and Minister Creel to greet me for these men and to express to me their best wishes for my personal welfare. I directed Consul Lomeli to thank Minister Creel and through him President Diaz for the expression of good wishes. “Say to the President through Mr. Creel that all I wish for Mexico is industrial success, order, prosperity and independence,” I said as I hurried to the train. Mayor Martinez and Collector of Customs Berea, of Juarez, also called upon me at the train and thanked me for my friendly expressions. 178 It was 10 am, and I was now on my way north to Albuquerque, accompanied by the New Mexico reception committee, to meet up with my wife, Edith, and my daughter Ethel. The three of us along with a friend of Ethel’s will travel together from there to San Francisco, to visit my son and his wife who are expecting there first child, and our first grandchild, this summer. 179
Las Cruses, New Mexico
Hundreds of citizens met us at the train at 11 o’clock this morning. We made a stop of ten minutes here, and I addressed the assembled populace on the question of statehood. After being introduced by Major Young, I said among other things: “You deserved statehood years ago and you are sure to get it in a few months.” I also had messages for General B. J. Viljoen, which I had brought all the way from old friends of the general in South Africa. 180
Socorro, New Mexico
One thousand people of Socorro and Magdalena and the surrounding country gathered at the station here at 3:55 this afternoon to catch a glimpse of our train. We stopped but five minutes, but, after I had been introduced by District Attorney J. E. Griffith, I told the people how glad I was to see them, especially the women and babies. I spoke for several minutes, touching briefly on matters of interest to New Mexicans. Irrigation, I said, was an important asset for New Mexico, and one which the people should look after. The engine
178 Ibid . 179 Ibid.
180 Albuquerque Morning Journal (March 15, 1911), at p. 2. 76 whistled and the train started while I was still talking. I waved good-bye and good luck, and the crowds cheered as we passed out of sight. A large number of school children, carrying small American flags, were at the station to greet us, as were also the students of the New Mexico School of Mines. The Magdalena band furnished splendid music for the occasion. 181
Albuquerque, New Mexico
My wife, Edith, and my 19-year-old daughter, Ethel, had spent the day in Albuquerque, having traveled separately from New, York, via Chicago. From the hour of their arrival today until late at night this evening they were kept busy in a round of pleasure. Edith, in her delightfully charming way, acted as though everything was good fun and really enjoyed the pleasures provided. The elegant suite of rooms, consisting of three bedrooms, reception, parlor and bath, reserved at the Alvarado for Edith, Ethel and Cornelia Landon, a friend of Ethel’s, were gay in their lavish decoration of flowers. Great clusters of American Beauties, fragrant jonquils and California violets, all added their fragrance and beauty to the pretty furnishings of the rooms. 182
The first thing on their agenda was the visit to the quaint Indian village twelve miles south of the city, which my wife and the young ladies had expressed a desire to see. Piloted by Mayor Elder, Edith, Ethel and Miss Landon motored to Isleta in two big touring cars. The weather was ideal, the road in excellent shape, and every condition, climatic and otherwise, prevailed to make the trip very enjoyable. Everyone was delighted with the quaint little village of adobe and spent over an hour taking in the points of interest and talking with the Indians who gathered around, garbed in their fantastic attire, and whose personalities were of sufficient interest to attract the attention of the three. 183
The party returned to the Alvarado by noon. Unostentatious, but pretty in the extreme, was the perfectly appointed luncheon given at 1:30 o’clock for Mrs. Roosevelt, my daughter and Miss Landon by Mrs. Robert Smart. Mrs.
181 Ibid . 182 Id . at p. 5. 183 Ibid . 77 Smart’s home, so often the gathering of distinguished people, and many times gorgeously decorated, never appeared to better advantage than yesterday with its profusion of cut flowers. With carnations and roses in the reception hall and drawing room, and sweet peas and elysium in the library, the breath of the springtime without prevailed in the fragrance within. The table decorations were in themselves the epitome of spring. The center piece was a huge silver bowl of narcissus and jonquils their golden beauty contrasting effectively with the white flowers. Down the length of the table were smaller clusters of springtime flowers in white and yellow, including jonquils narcissus, fresia, elysium, white hyacinths and white sweet peas. Smilax trailed the length and over the sides of the table affording the only contrast to the yellow and white, which color predominated in the candies, cakes, salad and ice. The table decoration was absolutely charming and in the careless, graceful arrangement of the blossoms suggested a transplanted bit of a spring flower garden more than any set decorative arrangement. The luncheon itself was not elaborate, nor long, consisting of but five courses. 184
My wife has graced many a distinguished and elaborate reception, but never more gracefully than she did the one given in the Alvarado parlors this afternoon from 3:30 to 5:30 o’clock. Attired in a simple gown of violet, with violet marabou trimmed scarf, wearing a big black hat and carrying a huge bunch of violets, Mrs Roosevelt was regal looking, smiling and gracious. The verandas and lobby were thronged during the hour of reception and at least 300 ladies shook hands with Mrs. Roosevelt. Many children passed with their mothers and for each of them my wife had a kindly word and a flower for her bouquet. My wife is noted for her fondness for children and this was exemplified charmingly yesterday afternoon. Ethel and her friend, Miss Landon, did not stand in line, but mingled informally with the crowd the last ten minutes of the reception. 185
Our train arrived in Albuquerque from the south at 6:30 pm, and by the time it put in an appearance the station platform and the verandas of the Alvarado, and adjoining available space were packed with people. This is the same place where we had arrived eight years earlier, during my 1903 train trip
184 Ibid . 185 Ibid . 78 to the Pacific coast. As I stepped from the car I was greeted with volleys of cheers, while the New State band struck up a patriotic air. 186
I was immediately met by Mayor John W. Elder, the governor and his staff, and the reception committee, and escorted between cheering crowds to the north veranda of the Alvarado, where I made a few brief remarks of commendation and appreciation to the Boy Scouts of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, who were drawn up erect and statuesque at the station in my honor, in their brand new uniforms. I was outspoken in my expressions of surprised admiration at the showing made by the scouts. I am deeply interested in the Boy Scout movement, and my little speech of a few minutes to the boys was sincerely and loudly cheered. 187
After this I immediately retired to our rooms in the Alvarado, and after exchanging greeting with my wife and my daughter Ethel, I reappeared a short time later and was escorted to the Elks’ theater, which was packed to the doors with people. My appearance on the platform was the signal for an ovation which compelled me to wait for several minutes before commencing my address. Every inch of standing room in the theater was occupied. Flags and bunting in profusion decorated the stage and theater. I was presented very briefly by Major Elder and at once plunged into my speech, which was punctuated with frequent laughter and applause from the audience. The duty of good citizenship in general and of good citizenship in particular to make New Mexico a great and well-governed state, were the subjects of my speech. 188
I opened my address with a warm tribute to New Mexico and her people:
“Governor Mills, Mr. Mayor and You, My Fellow Citizens, my Fellow Americans, Men and Women of New Mexico: It is naturally to me a very real pleasure to be here in New Mexico. It was in this territory that I got more than half of the members of my regiment, naturally a body of men to whom I feel bound by ties as close as those which could combine any men together. And
186 Id . at p. 1. 187 Ibid . 188 Ibid . 79 if it had not been for the regiment I would not have been president, so you see New Mexico has a good deal to answer for. Now, I want to come to you tonight, not only to say a few words of greeting, not only to express the pleasure I feel at being here and my appreciation of the greeting New Mexico has given me, but also to speak a little about your governmental problems and of what New Mexico owes to itself to do when it becomes a state.
At the outset I wish to say, and I wish to put in as strongly as I know how, that I feel that the national government has been guilty of a grave wrong to New Mexico in not putting New Mexico in as a state. Not only is it wrong, but I regard it as a breach of faith.” 189
“The national government,” I said, “has been guilty of a grave wrong toward New Mexico in not allowing her to enter the union. More than that, the government has been guilty of a serious breach of faith with New Mexico. The government laid down certain conditions for New Mexico; if she complied with those conditions she was to become a state. The promise has not been made good.” 190
I continued:
“I will go further and say that it has been no less the duty of the government to admit Arizona. But in the case of New Mexico there was absolutely no reason for not redeeming the promise. I am disappointed and chagrined not to come among you today to greet you as citizens of the new state of New Mexico. But that is no matter; you will be a state of the union very soon, and I want you to make New Mexico a state of which the whole union will be proud. I hope you will take your citizenship duties seriously. I want to see you a progressive state. I am a progressive, and I don’t see how a man can be a good westerner, or for that matter a good American, if he is not progressive. We must all either go forward or fall back. It would be impossible for a great democracy to remain great if it did not go forward. I want you to be progressive, but not progressive ‘with the bridle off.’ Breechin’ work is as necessary as trace work. You have got to be able to go ahead, but
189 Ibid . 190 Ibid . 80 you also have got to be able to hold back when the wagon tried to run over you going down hill.
Mere details of the form of your government are not the essentials, as compared to the real essentials of honesty and efficiency. A man unfit for public office is unfit, however elected, unfit as Lorimer, elected by a legislature is unfit, and unfit it as Governor Haskell of Oklahoma, elected by direct vote, is unfit. It is the duty of your citizens to remove the stain of such men as these from public life.” 191
“It would be easy and pleasant for me to do nothing but say how well I think of you––that would be not only easy, but true––because I have a peculiar feeling for you of this territory, the people of the great plans and the Rocky mountains. I was in the cow business myself for a good long time. I lived west of the Mississippi. When I was elected President I felt that I was the first President who had ever been really at home in the short grass country; and so I was able to do certain things, for instance, start the national irrigation policy of the government, just because I knew the needs of the west. I knew how necessary it was to put water on the land in the west; and I also knew how much the land would yield if the water was put on. I had to persuade some of our eastern people from both standpoints. In the first place they did not understand how necessary it was to get the water on the land, and in the next place the few of them who had seen the country did not see where you could grow anything where you only had sage brush. They did not know that all that was necessary was to put the water on.” 192
“And, friends, remember this also: It is all right to have our party differences, but there are certain points upon which we cannot afford to have any difference of party. When the issue is one of honesty as against dishonesty, you cannot afford to divide on party lines. Here in this state I hope that as soon as you start out on your career of statehood, you will take every step to eliminate the use of money in politics. You need a very severe corrupt practices act. Every state should have such an act and we need it better observed than it has been hitherto observed in most states. Now I want to see New Mexico lead on issues like that and not be content to lag behind. Your
191 Ibid . 192 Ibid . 81 first business is to govern yourselves. Usually we think of the people of the Rocky mountains as pretty radical and easterners as tending to be conservatives; but I do not know but that I am a little more radical than the people of New Mexico. At any rate your constitution is a thoroughly conservative document and I do not think anyone can complain on that score.
There are certain vital points upon which honest men cannot divide along party lines. They cannot so divide when the issue is plainly that of honesty against dishonesty. When I was President if I found a republican crook or a democratic crook in office I took off the heads of both, but gave precedence to the crook of my own party, as I felt a sort of responsibility for him.
I hope you of New Mexico will take every possible step to eliminate the use of money from politics. You need a severe corrupt practices act, strongly enforced. It is your first business to govern yourselves. Your constitution is thoroughly conservative; I don’t think there can be any complaint on that score. Without a good corrupt practices act, however, the honest man is always at the mercy of the knave. You must have the right kind of men behind the law. A man must first of all be a good husband and father, but that is not all; he must be clean and honest in both business and politics; not the kind of a man who has a compartment conscience and who is straight on Sunday to make up for being crooked all the week. You must have representatives who can be trusted to preserve the rights of the people against the corporations and also to give the corporations every assurance of their legal rights.” 193
Immediately on the close of my address we returned in automobiles to the Alvarado, for the banquet. The beautiful main dining room of the hotel was appropriately decorated with the national colors and flowers in profusion and all the appointments were in that exquisite taste which always characterizes a function of any kind at the Alvarado. Major J. W. Elder officiated as toastmaster. I made a very brief speech following the banquet, in which I said that I could not let the opportunity pass by to say how glad I was to be in New Mexico and with the men who made up half of his regiment of Rough Riders. I was suffering considerably from a sort throat, which was
193 Ibid . 82 treated by Dr. Robert Smart during the evening. 194 After the banquet our special car was attached to the regular train for the Grand Canyon, which passed through Albuquerque after midnight, Mrs. Roosevelt, Ethel and Miss Landon continuing the journey with our party. 195 March 16: Arizona
Flagstaff
The people of Flagstaff turned out several hundred strong this morning to greet us as we passed through the city in our private car on the way to the Grand Canyon and Phoenix. As the regular No. 9 rolled into the station we were greeted with cheers which brought me out on the rear platform where I was introduced by Governor Sloan. “Hello, Hogan,” were my first words, as I shook hands with Dan Hogan, an ex-member of the regiment of Rough Riders, “Where’s Wallace?” After greeting my old comrades, I proceeded to shake hands with the children of the different schools who had turned out in force. 196
Some one in the crowd yelled: “How about statehood?” To which I responded: “You should have statehood right now. I am squarely for it. I can’t make you a speech, but I want to congratulate the people on these––(pointing to the children)––I’m strong for them, too. When you get statehood it’s up to you people to use it right.” With this parting shot I returned to my car. 197 My son Archie, who is going to school in Mesa, also climbed aboard the car here, and will go with his mother, sister and I as far as Phoenix. 198
194 Ibid . 195 The Missoulian (March 16, 1911), at p. 1. 196 The Coconino Sun (March 17, 1911), at p. 1. 197 Ibid . 198 Argus-Leader (March 17, 1911), at p. 1. 83 Williams
We passed through Williams shortly after noon en route to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, where we will spend tonight. Our stay in Williams was less than an hour, and I confined myself to a train-end talk to the large crowd that had gathered at the depot to greet us. 199
While the handshaking was in progress someone shouted “Teddy for 1912,” and the smile that overspread my countenance indicated that the suggestion was by no means distasteful to me; in fact, I seemed to be dee- lighted with the idea. 200
Grand Canyon
Our car arrived at the Grand Canyon late this afternoon. Immediately upon leaving the car I spent several minutes gazing at the scenery. My stay here will be free of ceremony. In the party at dinner tonight at the El Tovar Hotel was Governor Richard E. Sloan, but it was a private affair with no speech-making. Tomorrow will be devoted to sight seeing and the train will leave at night for Phoenix. 201 March 17: Arizona
Grand Canyon
Today we lunched beside the boiling waters of the Colorado river, 4,200 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon. It was my first visit to the Canyon floor. I led a cavalcade composed of my daughter Ethel, my son Archie, Chief Justice Kent of the Arizona Territorial supreme court, and several others to the bottom of the gorge. I was dressed in leggings and khaki riding clothes. 202
199 The Modesto Herald (March 17, 1911), at p. 1. 200 Williams News (March 18, 1911), at p. 1. 201 Bisbee Daily Review (March 17, 1911), at p. 1. 202 The Hutchinson News (March 18, 1911), at p. 7. 84 I set a pace all the way and I was beaming with enjoyment of it all when I swung from my mule before the El Tovar, on my return. The whole day was devoted to the trip. The luncheon was a picnic affair on the banks of the stream. On my return, however, I returned to business, going over the address I will make at Phoenix Monday relative to the Arizona state constitution. I regard this as the most important address during my present tour, and it is the only one I will be preparing in advance. 203
Leading the cavalcade down to the Colorado river. [Source: Our party left the Library of Congress] Grand Canyon early this evening and will arrive in Phoenix tomorrow morning. From there we will take automobiles at once and hastened to the Roosevelt dam, distant a six hours’ journey. 204 The formal opening of the great irrigation project which bears my name was one of the reasons which led me to attempt this latest speaking tour, and I will press the button which will release the first flow of water over the huge structure. 205
203 Ibid.
204 Minneapolis Morning Tribune (March 18, 1911), at p. 1. 205 Great Falls Tribune (March 18, 1911), at p. 1. 85 March 18: Arizona
Phoenix and the Roosevelt Dam
To the left is our three-day area program itinerary which I clipped from the March 18, 1911 edition of the El Paso Times , though the 9 pm entry for Saturday appears to have been partially repeated, and there is no mention of my brief talk at the Phoenix Indian school. It was actually 9:20 am, and not 9:05, when our special train pulled into the Santa Fe station in Phoenix and ten minutes later I became visible to the public. With suddenness I emerged from the car, squinted through my spectacles at the crowd, and smiled and smiled and waved my black hat. I leaped from the railroad car and was shown by Mr. Heard to the automobile provided for me, some fifteen or twenty feet away. Smiling right and left and still waving my hat aloft, I hurried through the crowd. While Mrs. Roosevelt, Ethel and Miss Cornelia Landon, the ladies of our party, were being shown to their cars I stood up in the machine and again smiled and smiled. Instead of dying down the excitement became intense. I was given the front seat, on the left of the driver, Wesley A. Hill. In the rear seat were Governor Sloan, Colonel McClintock and Engineer Louis C. Hill. As soon as all were safely in pace the signal was given and car No. 1 began the journey to Roosevelt. Closely followed by the second car, it crossed the railroad track on First
86 avenue, west on Jackson to Central avenue and north through the city to the Indian school. In the second car were Mrs. Roosevelt and Archie, and in the third were Ethel and Miss Landon. The rest of the party was distributed among the other twenty-one cars. 206
At the Indian school, where the only stop between Phoenix and Granite Reef was made, the pupils were lined up by the girls’ building. Cadets, with shining rifles, were gay in natty uniforms; everyone from the teachers down to the tiniest child, was in holiday attire. A cheer for us went up.207
Superintendent C. W. Goodman and other members of the faculty came down the steps and shook hands with me. I then stood up in my machine and for five minutes talked to the students. In the beginning I warned the students that I intended to be a little “preachy.” “I am truly glad to be with you and look into your faces today,” I said. “I have always taken a great interest in all your people. In my regiment during the last war were numbered full-blooded members of your race, and I want to say to you here today that they made just as good soldiers as were in that regiment, to which (turning to Wesley Hill, who was driving the car and who was a Rough Rider) my comrade here can testify” 208
“But there is more than being good soldiers, and I want you all to understand that you have a great work to do in making use of the exceptional advantages given you here at this school, so that when you leave and go back to your people and to your work you will carry with you the knowledge and experience you have gained here.” 209
To the teachers I said:
“And I would impress upon you, in the great work you are doing, to bear in mind that these boys and girls should be taught so that they can make use of their knowledge even though not under as advantageous conditions as they
206 Arizona Republic (March 19, 1911) at p. 1. 207 Ibid . 208 Ibid . 209 Id . at p. 7. 87 have here. Teach them so that they can do their work in their homes, that they can cook just as well in the log cabin as here, even though they have no such utensils that they have been accustomed to at this school.” 210
“I am deeply interested in you and your future happiness. I wish you every good luck. I do not know of anything more that I can say to you. I have just shaken hands with a Methodist minister, and at times I have been mistaken for a member of the clergy, so I hope you will excuse my remarks. Good-bye and good luck, good luck, good luck.” 211
As I spoke down the Indian boys and girls again broke into applause. One strapping six-footer stepped up and cranked the auto. Reaching out of the car I shook his hand and thanked him. I was still waving my hat and smiling when the machine sped out of the grounds and on to Granite Reef. 212
To Granite Reef our party traveled as speedily as possible, stopping but briefly, but inspecting with an interest to be exceeded only by the events to follow. The road from Granite Reef to Desert Station on the Roosevelt road gave visitors their first real dash into primeval nature, as never did the word “desert” seem so much a misnomer. There was little dust and the vernal scenery enlivened by myriads of flowers, with cactus and native trees in wondrous variety, impressed one as a moving picture of garden glory. 213
At 4:15 pm our car rounded the point, giving me my first view of the great Roosevelt dam, for whose dedication I had made the long journey to Arizona. A salute of eleven guns reverberated through the canyon walls, the discharge fluttering the United States and Reclamation Service flags that floated over the parapets of the dam, and the assembled hundreds broke into a mighty cheer. I came marching down the roadway to the southern bridge
210 Ibid . 211 Ibid . 212 Ibid . 213 Id . at p. 8. 88 Arriving at the Roosevelt Dam. [Source: Library of Congress] followed by some hundreds of my escorts, servants, employees and workmen, including a phalanx of Apache Indians. 214
The other speakers and I then mounted the stand amid wild cheers, and John P. Orme, president of the Salt River Valley Water Users association, introduced Governor Sloan as chairman. The speaking program that followed lasted until 5:45. Having been introduced by Governor Sloan, the full text of my speech is included on the following pages. 215
214 Id . at p. 1. 215 Source: theodorerooseveltcenter.org 89 Speaking at Roosevelt Dam. [Source: commons.wikimedia.org]
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