Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt

Front matter

Qass_E.t£J7 Book A\3

5 77*?-

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AT WORK

Preface

This book makes no pretense of being a biography of Theodore Roosevelt. Nor will the reader find in it a chronological narrative of the events of his career. Those who wish to know these chronological facts are referred to his own Autobiography; to the forthcoming "Life and Letters" by Mr. Joseph Bucklin Bishop, who was named by Mr. Roosevelt as its authorized editor; to the introduction, notes, and appendices which I furnished for his volume of "African and European Address" ; and to the article on Theodore Roosevelt which I contributed to The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The purpose of the present volume is to record some personal impressions which this great American made upon me in the course of an acquaintanceship of twenty-two years, during the latter half of which our relations were those of intimate association and friendship. It is with the hope of supplying some useful details for the final portrait which will be painted by the historians of the future that this simple, informal, and free-hand sketch is

undertaken.

Lawrence F. Abbott.

The Outlook Office, New York, July 30, 1919.

Contents

CHAFTER

PAGE

I. Acquaintanceship 3

Chapter I

FORMED the Roosevelt habit early. In the autumn of 1881 Theodore Roosevelt was elected as a Republican to the Legislature of the State of New York. The story of that election is a characteristic and amusing one and will be referred to in more detail in the next chapter. On taking his seat in the lower house, or Assembly, of the Legislature he became at once a prominent if not a national figure. He was reelected in 1882 and 1883 and was selected by his party in the Legislature as its candidate for Speaker. All this happened when he was less than twenty-four years old. Naturally his success— based as it was on high standards and enduring, even pugnacious, courage, combined with human sympathy and democratic interest in all sorts of men, when they were real men — attracted the attention of hundreds of young Americans of his own age. They felt, somehow or other, that he was a symbol of what young America could do if it tried.

I was living in New York at the time, working as a clerk in a publishing office, and the picture of this young college man — a graduate of Harvard in the Class of 1880, scarcely a year older than myself, fighting for decency and honesty in politics at a time when American political morals were at a pretty low ebb — appealed to my imagination, and I followed his political career with intense interest.

But I was not, I think, altogether blinded by my admiration, for although I was born and brought up a Republican of a somewhat strict sect, I voted for Cleveland in the presidential election of 1884 as a protest against the forces behind Blaine, while Roosevelt, having opposed as strongly as he could the nomination of Blaine in the Republican National Convention, nevertheless voted for him as his party's regular candidate. And wisely, I think. For Roosevelt had deliberately chosen politics as his career, intended to make politics, if possible statesmanship, his profession; and in a two-party government like ours the political administrator and statesman must work with his party except in a crisis of the utmost national import. The ordinary citizen, on the other hand, may, and often should, use his vote as an independent instrument to serve as a check upon the unwise policies or unwholesome tendencies of the party in power.

It is difficult to look back over a span of thirtyfive years and recall all the details of one's feelings, even in the field of politics where, generally, the emotions, prejudices, and passions of antipathy or devotion are developed and manifested in their strongest form. But apparently my difference of opinion with Roosevelt in the Blaine campaign could not have been very deep-seated, for, in 1886, when he ran as Republican candidate for Mayor of New York City, I supported and voted for him with ardour. It was a " three-cornered campaign/' Abram Hewett being the Democratic (and successful) candidate while Henry George, the distinguished apostle of the single tax doctrine, represented the Radicals. Although Roosevelt ran third in the race his personality as a candidate made a deep impression upon me, and I remember that campaign as the starting point of a political career in which I have taken a constant and, whenever I could, an active interest. Whether it was because this mayoralty contest was a complete defeat or because Roosevelt's managers made it one of partisanship rather than of fundamental principles I do not know, but the fact is that it made little impression on him and apparently did not especially interest him as one of the milestones of his political progress, for I never heard him talk about it — as he was glad to do about his other political experiences — and he does not even mention it in his autobiography!

It was in this way that the foundations were laid for my later personal friendship with Roosevelt and for my sympathy with his political philosophy. But I did not make his personal acquaintance until 1895 when he was president of the Board of New York Police Commissioners.

William L. Strong, a well-known and publicspirited merchant of New York City, had been elected mayor on an anti-Tammany fusion ticket in 1894. One of the factors in his election was the work done by the "Good Government Clubs" which were organized in various districts of New York City. As a result of the impetus which I have received from the political work and qualities of Theodore Roosevelt, I entered with enthusiasm this Good Government Club movement and served as a watcher at the polls on Election Day in one of the toughest Tammany districts in what was known as the gas-house quarter on the East Side.

The election was being carried on under a new

Brown Brothers

Mr. Roosevelt as president of the Board of Police, New York City, 1895-97 law, which I had taken the pains to study. While at the outset the Tammany "heelers" and even the Tammany policemen endeavoured to browbeat and obstruct me, I found before the night was over (because they became convinced that I intended to be fair and was unwilling to throw out ballots on mere technicalities) that they were appealing to me for help in the canvassing; finally, they accepted both my advice and my decisions. This experience convinced me that Theodore Roosevelt's doctrines of political management and administration were workable. And so, when Mayor Strong appointed him one of the four police commissioners and he became president of the Board, I watched with more than ordinary interest his endeavours to make the police system of the city an honest and effective one.

One day Jacob Riis— at that time a representative of, I think, the Evening Sun at Police Headquarters—came into my office, when I told him of an experience that I had had with a drunken police officer, whose number I had taken the precaution of noting in my memorandum book. Riis asked me whether I had any objection to his telling the story to Roosevelt. On my assent he evidently related the incident to the new commissioner with all the colour and picturesqueness that characterized his work as a writer. For, in a day or two he came back and said that Commissioner Roosevelt wanted me to come down to Police Headquarters and make a complaint against the disreputable policeman. I went down, was ushered into Mr. Roosevelt's presence, and there met him for the first time. He had in the room to meet me the policeman whose number I had given to Mr. Riis. I recognized and identified the man and, at Mr. Roosevelt's request, made the proper complaint. The affair resulted in a police trial at which one of Mr. Roosevelt's colleagues, Commissioner Parker, presided. Commissioner Parker was not in sympathy with Mr. Roosevelt's efforts to take the police force out of corrupt politics, and although he was superficially courteous he made the day that I spent in the trial room one of the most uncomfortable of my life. What finally was the disposition of the case I do not know, for Commissioner Parker suspended judgment at the conclusion of the trial. But I have never regretted that day, miserable though it was, because it proved to be the beginning of an acquaintanceship with Theodore Roosevelt which later became an intimate one and developed into what was, to me, a deep and delightful friendship.

One of the most readable and entertaining chapters of Mr. Roosevelt's autobiography is his account of his work as Police Commissioner. He not only tells of some of his difficulties but relates stories of particular officers, like those of Otto Raphael and Captain Bourke that are as lively and as absorbing as any novel. His final estimate of his work with the police is as follows :

Let me again say that when men tell me that the police are irredeemably bad I remember scores and hundreds of cases like this of Bourke, like the case I have already mentioned of Raphael, like the other cases I have given above. It is useless to tell me that these men are bad. They are naturally first-rate men. There are no better men anywhere than the men of the New York Police force; and when they go bad it is because the system is wrong, and because they are not given the chance to do the good work they can do and would rather do. I never coddled these men. I punished them severely whenever I thought their conduct required it. All I did was to try to be just; to reward them when they did well; in short, to act squarely by them. I believe that, as a whole, they liked me. When, in 191 2, I ran for President on the Progressive ticket, I received a number of unsigned letters inclosing sums of money for the campaign. One of these inclosed twenty dollars. The writer, who did not give his name, said that he was a policeman, that I had once had him before me on charges, and had fined him twenty dollars; that, as a matter of fact, he had not committed the offense for which I finedliim, but that the evidence was such that he did not wonder that I had been misled, and never blamed me for it, because I had acted squarely and had given honest and decent men a chance in the Police Department; and that now he inclosed a twenty-dollar bill, the io IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT

amount of the fine inflicted on him so many years before. I have always wished I knew who the man was.

It was through his work as police commissioner that I first began to realize Theodore Roosevelt's deep-seated human sympathy and his understanding of human character. He was an indefatigable worker then as he was in every phase of his life. He was not too busy to ask me, a citizen unknown to him and holding no public position, to come down and make a complaint which might help in the work he was trying to do. Since his death, an old boyhood friend of mine, a practising physician in New York City, Dr. Matthew Beattie, has sent me fifteen letters which Commissioner Roosevelt wrote to him between August, 1895, and December, 1896. They are only a few of a much larger number, nearly forty in all.

Dr. Beattie gives me the following interesting account of his experiences with Mr. Roosevelt as to police reform :

Mr. Roosevelt had been in office only a few days when I called on him at Police Headquarters and told him that

No. and No. on the block on which I lived were,

and had been for a long time, houses of ill fame. Quick as a flash he replied with this question: "Doctor, will you wait here until I get your police captain?" Of course I said

" yes." Immediately Captain S. of the West Street

station was summoned. He was hardly seated and informed

ACQUAINTANCESHIP "

of my complaint when Mr. Roosevelt walked up rather close to him and said, with great determination: "Captain, I will give you just five days to close those three houses." = In three days all three houses became vacant and were respectable boarding houses for the following sixteen years to my personal knowledge.

A druggist, living about half a mile from my office, wrote to me asking me to use my influence with Police Commissioner Roosevelt to curb or punish a drunken policeman, named

M , who often insulted women in his drug store and on

the near-by streets. I presented the case to Mr. Roosevelt who at once asked me to aid him in a little detective work to

catch officer M . I was glad to do so, and secured the

help of Professor Harry Cushing, then of Columbia College,

who lived in my house. . . . M was found guilty

of being off post and fined on that count. Cushing and I, however, had not proved the character of the house of ill fame which we saw him enter. Therefore, he could not be dismissed from the force on our complaint, but I was informed that he was dismissed two weeks after the trial, on another charge.

Two of these letters to Dr. Beattie are typical of Mr. Roosevelt's methods. The first illustrates the directness with which he went to the point:

Dear Dr. Beattie:

I am very doubtful indeed about the captain in question, but keep a close eye on him.

As to your questions: I. Continue to make reports to me.

II. Grant the request.

III. Carry a pistol and apply for a permit to the Chief.

Very truly yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

The second letter illustrates his fairmindedness.

The Captain S who had been summoned to

Mr. Roosevelt's office, on Dr. Beattie's complaint, to close three disorderly houses apparently did his duty so well, after he found that he had a real backer in the new commissioner, that he brought down on his head the wrath of the powers of corruption. When Mr. Roosevelt found that he could be relied upon for honest work he supported him, as will be seen from the second letter:

December 7, 1896.

My dear Dr. Beattie:

Your letter gave me sincere pleasure. I have reason to

believe that Captain S has been persecuted, not for his

failings, but for his efficiency, and especially because of the way he has acted in support of you and your representatives — conduct that has cost him much bitter hostility. I trust you will be willing to appear as a witness to testify in his

behalf if he is put on trial.

Sincerely yours,

Theodore Roosevelt.

Beginning with his police commissionership I came into contact with Mr. Roosevelt occasionally, but it was not until he was about to leave the White House that the real association began upon which these impressions are based.

Not long after Mr. Roosevelt's election to the Presidency in 1904 he announced that he would not be a candidate for a second consecutive term. In the summer of 1905 I began to turn over in my own mind one day what Mr. Roosevelt would do when he left the Presidency. It seemed to me that after he retired from official life he must have some organized means of expressing his views and exerting his influence on public questions. He was not a lawyer by profession, as so many other ex-Presidents have been, and he could not go into active industrial or financial business. That had been tried by one ex-President, General Grant, with disastrous consequences. Since Mr. Roosevelt was not only a statesman but a man of letters, I wondered whether some form of journalism in which he could take part in discussions on social, economic, and political questions would not be appropriate. Would it be possible to have him associate himself with the Qutlook? With this idea in mind, I worked out a plan — coining the phrase "contributing editor" — and it was put before him. How he met it is described in a letter to me, dated March 5, 191 7, from which I quote:

It was your father and you yourself who personally brought to my attention the idea of my joining the Outlook as a contributing editor. This was in the White House at the beginning of the year 1906. I spoke of it again with your father that summer and in the following year, but I came to no definite decision until the spring or early summer of 1908, when you came to see me at Sagamore Hill, and I agreed definitely to go in with you on practically the basis on which I afterward did go in. It was your father who was the decisive factor in getting me to accept. I might have accepted your request alone; but I have a peculiar feeling for your father. I regard him and have long regarded him as a man who in a way stands entirely apart from all others in our national life, and, if the expression does not seem exaggerated, my regard for him has in it a little of that feeling of reverence which is perhaps the finest feeling an old man can inspire in younger men — even when these younger men, like myself, become old men! I felt honoured to be associated with him, and I was also very glad to be associated with the rest of you.

The result of these negotiations was that on the 7th of November, 1908, the Outlook was able to announce that "on and after the 5th of March, 1909, Theodore Roosevelt will be associated with the Outlook's editorial staff as special Contributing Editor." From that day until June, 1914, he was in a very real sense a member of our staff. He made his office with us and he regularly attended our weekly editorial conferences.

According to our mutual agreement he was to be free to express his own views over his own name and the Outlook was equally at liberty to state its opinion even when it varied from his on public questions. We rarely differed, but when we did he accepted the difference of opinion with perfect loyalty to the understanding which was the basis of our joint work. He believed in what he called

Roosevelt in cowboy costume during his early years as a

ranchman

"team-work," and practised his belief. He listened to the views of his colleagues, and often modified his own as a result of the interchange of opinion. He never wrote an article that he did not, before publication, submit to one of us, and he almost invariably accepted our suggestions, sometimes with regard to verbal expressions and sometimes with regard to change of ideas or views of the article. I do not mean to give the impression that he altered his mind frequently. On matters of principle he could be as fixed as adamant. But in methods of putting a principle into effect he habitually sought counsel and was eager to adopt suggestions. Not only did he contribute to our pages articles over his own name, but his wide experience, his comprehensive knowledge of men and affairs, and his unique ability as an interpreter of political and social movements found expression in our own editorials through the comments and suggestions which he made at the weekly conferences.

One of the first results of his prospective connection with the Outlook was that I had the very unusual, : if not the unique, experience of attending a semiofficial cabinet meeting in Washington. Mr. Taft was running for the Presidency against Mr. Bryan, and in the latter part of the summer of 1908 there was great anxiety among the Republican managers lest Mr. Bryan might be elected on the anti-corporation "trust-busting" issue. He was, it is true, defeated by so large a majority that these anxieties now seem hardly credible, but at the time they were very real. Governor Haskell of Oklahoma was the treasurer of the National Democratic Committee and Mr. Bryan's right-hand man in managing his campaign. The Outlook had learned that the university professors and educators of Oklahoma were very much upset by Governor Haskell's management of the educational system of that state. They felt that he was trying to prostitute it to partisan political ends. During a visit which my father had made to the State of Oklahoma shortly before the campaign of 1908 he was urged to defend in the Outlook the university and schools of Oklahoma against the political machinations of Governor Haskell. My father was very glad to do this and the Outlook, supported by documents and other proof, took up the issue with some vigour. For when political bosses endeavour to turn a state educational system into a political machine they are guilty of perhaps the worst form of political corruption. To debauch the public schools in this way is to pollute the very springs of our national life. Mr. Roosevelt knew and approved of the part which the Outlook had been taking in this controversy.

One September Saturday afternoon, while playing golf at my summer home on the Hudson about fifty miles from New York, the following telegram was repeated to me by telephone from my office in the city:

The White House, Washington, September 26, 1908. Lawrence F. Abbott

The Outlook New York City Letter received. If you want to write on Haskell I have many records to show you which you ought to see. Come on to see me this evening or to-morrow (Sunday) afternoon or evening. Don't forget the expression used by one of the Oklahoma senators in championing Haskell that Haskell is merely Bryanism in action.

Theodore Roosevelt.

In reply I telegraphed that I would report at the White House the next morning, Sunday, at nine o'clock. Reluctantly I left my game of golf, hastily packed a bag, and got a train for New York which enabled me to take the midnight express over to Washington.

When I presented my card at nine o'clock at the White House the doorman was a little dubious, owing to the very unusual hour of the call, but it was sent to the President who summoned me to join him. I found him at breakfast with Mrs.

Roosevelt at a small round table on the back verandah overlooking the pleasant garden with the towering Washington Monument in the distance. He explained that he and Mrs. Roosevelt were accustomed to breakfast alone on Sunday mornings, without even other members of the family, because in this way they could take one of the very few opportunities they had for an hour of uninterrupted companionship.

Mr. Roosevelt informed me that he was in the process of an exchange of open letters with Mr. Bryan on issues of the campaign; that he had written the first one; that Mr. Bryan had replied; and that he was about to write his second letter that afternoon. With the astute wisdom which he showed in all practical matters, Mr. Roosevelt had picked out the Monday morning newspapers as the medium for his open letters. Daily newspaper editors are always glad to get some striking feature for Monday morning since the Sunday issue has used up everything of sensational value in hand.

At the President's invitation I returned to take luncheon with him and afterward went up into his study, where a table was covered with documents and records of all kinds regarding the campaign. At three o'clock those members of the Cabinet who were then in Washington came to the room by appointment and Mr. Roosevelt began to dictate the open letter to Bryan, walking up and down the room as he talked to the stenographer in a characteristic fashion. Finally he came to a criticism of Mr. Bryan himself and was making the application of this criticism somewhat personal and vigorous, whereupon a member of the Cabinet remarked : "Mr. President, it does not seem to me wise tomake a personal attack upon Mr. Bryan and certainly not upon Mr. Bryan's integrity, for such an attack, in my judgment, would react in his favour." Mr. Roosevelt stopped and answered: "Mr. Secretary, I want to dictate this letter based on these documents and facts before me with perfect freedom of expression. I want you to listen and form your own judgment and to come back at nine o'clock this evening prepared to make any suggestions or modifications that occur to you." He then went on with his dictation and finished the article or open letter, which I should imagine would have taken the space of a column and a half or two columns of a daily newspaper. At the conclusion of the session which was attended by Secretary Cortelyou of the Treasury, Secretary Straus of the Department of Commerce and Labour, Secretary Meyer of the Navy, and, I think, one other member of the Cabinet whose name I cannot recall (these gentlemen being the only members of the Cabinet in town at the time) — I went back to my hotel much impressed with the fact that I had been a spectator of what was at least an informal Cabinet meeting in action. I was also impressed with the conviction that the secretary who raised the question about a personal criticism of Mr. Bryan was right in his judgment; and yet I thought I understood, from my conversations with him, Mr. Roosevelt's own point of view. I therefore wrote, and sent to the White House by special messenger, a note something like this:

My Dear Mr. President:

May I venture to say that it seems to me that Secretary

was right in deprecating anything that appears like an

attack upon Mr. Bryan's personal integrity, but on the other hand I do not understand that you desire to make such an attack. Is it not your purpose to point out that Mr. Bryan's close association with Governor Haskell, whose methods have been dishonourable, shows not a lack of honour but a lack of wisdom and sound judgment. What you wish to say to the American people, as I understand you, is that if Mr. Bryan can make so lamentable an error of judgment as to appoint a political spoilsman like Governor Haskell as his right-hand man and lieutenant in this campaign, what guarantee have they that he will not, if elected President, make a similar mistake of judgment in appointing the members of his Cabinet and other officers of the Government ?

Five minutes after this note had gone I would have given a good-sized cheque to get it back.

"What have I done?" I said to myself. "With only a limited acquaintance with the President, I have ventured to send him a letter of advice in a matter in which his Cabinet are his proper advisers! He is reported to carry 'a big stick/ What will happen to me when I go back to him this evening ?" For he had invited me to return at nine o'clock to be present when the letter was revised.

I dined with Secretary Meyer and went back to the White House at nine o'clock. As I entered the little study in which this piece of work was done I literally trembled in my shoes. The President was sitting at his desk, in a swivel chair, with his back to the door. He swung around, greeted Secretary Meyer, said good evening to me, and added: "Thank you for your note, Abbott. I was glad to get it. You are right. I shall modify the passage about Mr. Bryan accordingly."

He then asked the three or four members of the Cabinet who had heard him dictate the letter to sit down, and requested each one to read the typewritten transcript of the dictation, sheet by sheet, and to make their criticisms. I was also asked to read the pages as they left the hands of the last Cabinet officer. Suggested modifications were freely made by the Cabinet members (I, of course, was merely a silent observer) and were incorporated by Mr. Roosevelt with his own pen, until some of the pages were black with interlineation. Each revised page was sent out to be freshly copied, brought in for the President's final vise, and then sent to the telegraph office downstairs for immediate transmission through the Associated Press. Every suggestion, with one exception, was adopted by Mr. Roosevelt. I think it was Mr. Straus who asked for the modification of one sentence or phrase on the ground that it was a little too severe. The President turned to him and said : "No, Mr. Secretary, I think it should stand as it is. You must remember that this is a poster, not an etching !" This incident seems to me to be worth recording somewhat fully because it illustrates what was one of Roosevelt's striking characteristics and yet a characteristic which the general public, I think, was not aware of. I mean his constant practice of seeking the facts and complete information about a given matter from any source that he thought would be serviceable. It was this motive that led him to summon me— a comparatively unknown man, holding no public or cabinet position— that we might be able mutually to help each other in giving the public the facts about Governor Haskell. From this incident the reader will also get the impression, and I think it is the correct impression, that Mr. Roosevelt in all his public acts sought advice and followed suggestions. In this instance he summoned those members of his Cabinet who were available, had them give personally and collectively three or four hours* consideration to a newspaper-campaign letter, and invited and adopted their modifications and advice. It was these qualities of cooperation which made his public career on its human side so preeminently successful, and they have always seemed to me to be important traits of his character — so important that I shall recur to them more than once as I proceed.