DEMOCRACY IN THE ARMY

Long before the United States entered the war Roosevelt with his friend, Major-General Wood, vigorously advocated a policy of national preparedness, urging universal military training for the nation’s youth. In explanation of his desire to see universal military service prevail the Colonel said:

“I want to see Mrs. Vanderbilt’s son and Mrs. Astor’s son, with Pat and Jim of Telegraph Hill, sleeping under the same dog tent and eating the same food. I want to see the officers selected from among them on the strict basis of merit, without regard to anything else. Then we will have a democratic system.”

Roosevelt took a great deal of pride in the five-star service button he wore. In a conversation with newspaper men some months after his boys had gone abroad, he told them that he had received news that Theodore had been in action and a bullet had struck his trench helmet and glanced off. Theodore wrote home, his father said, that he regretted he had not been wounded, just for the experience. Later, Theodore was to receive his full share of such experiences.

COLONEL ROOSEVELT AT SAGAMORE HILL

At the time of this conversation public announcement had just been made that “Archie” had been promoted in rank from second lieutenant to captain. Roosevelt told his hearers that “Archie” had led a raiding party out into No Man’s Land at night and that the promotion had been won by gallantry under fire during this raid.

The Colonel said further that Kermit, with the Anglo-Indian forces in Mesopotamia, as the leader of “a troop of Whirling Dervishes,” Indian cavalry, had also been in action.

Later the Colonel’s pride in his family’s war record was to extend to include the women of his family. Mrs. Roosevelt, in the heart-breaking trials she passed through, had proven herself a true heroine. Her daughters and daughters-in-law proved in many ways their devotion to their country’s cause. Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., did especially effective work.

She was the first American woman sent abroad for war service by the Y. M. C. A. She arrived in Paris a few weeks after Pershing. There she conducted a French class for Americans, with ambulance drivers for pupils. Then she worked in the first canteen in Paris, and was in charge of all the women’s work in establishing the first American officers’ hotel.

When she had been in Paris six months the army created “leave areas” for the American soldiers. These areas were put under the control of the Y. M. C. A., whose officials gave Mrs. Roosevelt charge of the women’s part of the work.

Requiem

“Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”

—Robert Louis Stevenson.

XVIII
“Great-Heart”

Since Roosevelt’s death there have been many suggestions made for a memorial to him. Many of the projects are highly commendable and well worthy of popular support, yet the fact remains that Roosevelt’s own works will bring coming generations their best remembrance of him.

Fortunately for posterity, this great American was a faithful recorder of his own works, and libraries and book stores are full of his writings or those of authorized biographers that give us a full range of his extraordinarily active life. Fortunately, too, for the world is the fact that Roosevelt recognized the film as another effective medium for bringing him in touch with the people, and authorized before his death the representation of his life and work in motion pictures.

The deep and permanent impression Roosevelt made on the people of his time—which will extend far into the future to influence coming generations of Americans, is due not only to his personal acts but also to his literary work. As an author and as an editor, the Colonel contributed historical writings and entertaining narratives to the literature of our country that earned him brilliant distinction and made his name and works familiar to all who read. His work as a historian led to his election in 1912 to the Presidency of the American Historical Association, and also to his admission into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Roosevelt served “The Outlook” as contributing editor from 1909 to 1914 and then joined the staff of the “Metropolitan Magazine,” remaining on its staff as contributing editor until his death. His contributions to these magazines on contemporary subjects were always interesting, forceful and constructive, and exercised a profound influence on the life and development of the nation.

That Roosevelt was born to be an author as well as a statesman is proven by the fact that no matter how busy he was he always found time to write. In college and while he was reading law in his uncle’s office, he found time to write “The Naval War of 1812,” a standard work on the subject. He wrote his “Life of Thomas Hart Benton” and his “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman” while he was pursuing his arduous career as a rancher. When his duties as Civil Service Commissioner at Washington were pressing upon him he yet found time to write several books on hunting, as well as part of his splendid work “The Winning of the West.” Thus it was throughout his career. Greater and greater grew the demands upon his time, yet the number of volumes to his credit mounted steadily.

Since his cattle-raising venture had failed, and since he knew the income from any public positions he should hold would be inadequate to the expenses of the office and generally uncertain, he determined that his pen should support him. The fact that, when he died, his income from his writings was about one hundred thousand dollars a year shows how well he kept his resolution.

Mr. J. H. Whigham, publisher of the “Metropolitan Magazine,” thus interestingly describes the way in which Roosevelt formed and kept his literary decisions:

“His first coming to the ‘Metropolitan’ was in keeping with all the Colonel said and did. The thing that worried him most in making a connection was whether he could faithfully carry out his part of the bargain. I had known Roosevelt first in Cuba when I lived for some weeks with the Rough Riders and shared the precarious but precious potatoes of the Colonel’s own mess. It didn’t require much perspicacity to see that he was the sort of leader to tie to and cherish. Naturally, therefore, when the ‘Metropolitan Magazine’ came into my control I looked around for Roosevelt. He was contributing editor of ‘The Outlook’ then, and there is no need to say that he couldn’t be weaned away from his allegiance to the Abbotts, for whom he always had the greatest affection. I managed, however, to get him interested in what we were trying to do with the ‘Metropolitan,’ and he promised to let me know if he ever changed his plans.

“When the war broke out I came back from Europe to find that the Colonel’s time with ‘The Outlook’ was up. Before I could see him, he had begun to publish some syndicated newspaper articles in which he denounced the invasion of Belgium. Hurrying over to his office, which was then in Forty-second Street, I caught him on the verge of closing a year’s arrangement with the syndicate. I reminded him of my prior claim which he freely granted. He couldn’t see, however, how he could deliver full value to a monthly magazine. The syndicate could publish two or three times a month and so get back their money. I told him that was our affair. We wouldn’t worry about not getting our money’s worth. But the Colonel said that he couldn’t avoid worrying. He didn’t like being in the position of not being able to deliver full value. He had never been in that position before, and he didn’t propose to be there now. I gave him excellent reasons, as I thought, why he would be worth as much to us as to any newspaper syndicate, and he was nearly convinced but not quite. I left him feeling pretty sure that he would decide against us. But I was determined not to lose him. After wracking my brains for two or three hours for a new argument I suddenly remembered that I had mentioned no period for the proposed association. Suppose that I offered him a three years’ contract instead of one, would not that give us a greater and more exclusive value and so satisfy the Colonel that both parties would profit by the agreement? It was late at night and I had difficulty in getting the number of his private wire at Oyster Bay. Nevertheless I finally brought him to the telephone and made my new proposal. He laughed; and said, ‘You seem to want me pretty badly. I’m sure I can’t think why. It’s true your new offer puts a new complexion on the matter. Come out and see me tomorrow at nine. I have to decide this business by ten in the morning.’

“I went, and it was decided in our favor. We never regretted it and I’m thankful to say the Colonel never regretted it either.”

The Colonel at the time of his death was also a regular contributor to the “Kansas City Star.”