White House gossip

by Edna M. Colman

Of his recruiting a regiment of hardy plainsmen, cowboys, miners, athletes—his own friends of the West, men who could ride, shoot, fight, and stand hardship, the Rough Riders—everyone knows. Dr. Wood was made Colonel and Roosevelt Lieutenant Colonel. They were commissioned, and the regiment speedily organized and ready for service in five weeks. They were sent to Cuba with the regulars, landing for the trouble around Santiago. They rendered valiant services from the beginning. Colonel Wood was promoted, and Roosevelt became the commander of the regiment. Their storming of Kettle Hill when almost a fifth of them were killed or wounded has been told again and again.

With the fighting over, Roosevelt came back to stir up interest in better care for the health of our soldiers, and he began his fight for an adequate army and navy—large enough for any sudden emergency.

His gallantry in the war carried him into office as Governor of New York in 1893, with a large majority, and his administration was conspicuous for its reform work. His nomination as the candidate of his party for President appeared to be a foregone conclusion as far back as 1902. Even at that early date, some of the States began to endorse him and pledged their support.

President Roosevelt’s action in the great coal strike of 1902 restored order and secured a return of the miners to their work, at the same time making the workingmen feel that their cause had not suffered from his counsel. The country applauded his work at this time, although some of the big corporations showed hostility. This was the most important internal question in his first administration—that is, it vitally affected more people than any other. There was no law by which he could interfere to end the strike, and he proceeded to use his great moral influence to bring the interested parties together. He brought about a resumption of work pending a settlement by a commission appointed by him. His counsel during this critical period was given while he was confined to his room owing to his wounded leg. In the same year and the next, he handled carefully the complications growing out of the Venezuelan trouble. He maintained the Monroe Doctrine in all negotiations with European powers interested, and was honoured by Venezuela in being named as an acceptable arbiter, which duty he gracefully avoided by proposing the Hague tribunal as the proper means for arriving at a peaceful solution.

In the matter of the uprising of Panama and the recognition of that country by the United States, the President was both applauded and criticized. The great majority of the people upheld his treaty with Panama, by which the territory of the Panama Canal passed into the hands of the United States, so that the beginning of work on that giant construction should not be longer delayed.

He established a reputation of getting things done. During his seven and a half years as President, the navy was nearly doubled in tonnage, the Russo-Japanese War was ended by the Treaty of Portsmouth, the battleship fleet was sent around the world, the Consular Service of the United States was reorganized, the National Irrigation Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act were passed, the Panama Canal was begun, the Department of Commerce and Labour was established. No President ever created so many new lines of public welfare, or so many projects of business for government functioning.

Some of the policies recommended by Roosevelt were the Inheritance Tax, the Income Tax, the Parcel Post Service, and the increase of the army and navy forces. His most noteworthy achievement, in the estimation of many of his fellow citizens, was the fact that he “changed the attitude of government toward property, and gave the Republic a new ideal of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship.”

Visitors of all descriptions made the White House their mecca; perhaps the most picturesque was Ezra Meeker, with his long white hair, who called on November 29, 1907, in his prairie schooner of the period of 1849, drawn by its team of oxen. This quaint vehicle, reminder of another vivid page of our national history, contained an elderly man and woman and a collie. It drew up by the doors near the Executive Office, and the nimble trail blazer went in to pay his respects to the President. A few minutes later, Mr. Roosevelt accompanied his caller to the wagon, where his appreciative comment included due attention to the collie.

Another day, the President left an important group in order to greet Eli Smith, who had travelled all of the way from Nome, Alaska, on his sled on low wheels drawn by six dogs. He had been a year on the journey.

When Mr. Roosevelt’s carriage arrived at the entrance to the President’s room at the Union Station, after the inauguration of President Taft, there were gathered fully three thousand of his admirers waiting to bid him farewell. He had to pass between two rows of people, fully a dozen deep, and had to respond to the greetings of the crowd. He and Mrs. Roosevelt were accompanied by Secretary William Loeb and a large group of close personal friends. As his train pulled out he called out, “Good-bye, good-bye, good luck!”