THE MAGNETISM OF ROOSEVELT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 100, 22 January 1919, Page 4

THE MAGNETISM OF ROOSEVELT

I PERSONAL SKETCH OF THE LATE is'-. :•■.- EX-PRESIDENT

Jl HIs'TFAMOUS'CtEAN-SWEEP I-

(By Sydney Brooks.)

%.; The first time I met Mr; Roosevelt £ was some thirteen or fourteen years "■.. Sago at a friend's and brother-sports-S man's house in New York. He was, ■"' %at the time, as he has been.pretty well 'I? ever, since, the most talked-of man_ in §the: citjV'.;-A ; whirlwind of passion around him that in »vf sheer fury, the- most tumultuous crises -.' ,%bf his Presidency*. : And itscause was : i« very simple. Mr, ■' Roosevelt was the iSPolicb Commissioner of the metropolis {j and governing with an iron hand, with $ dramatic midnight sallies round the ' '/£ men's .beats,: the well-nigh ungovern- / iu able polico force of New York 1 City. , ;i..:, That in itsolf .was enough to make ■4him a- man .'of mark. An hon-riet' Commissioner; in New York, '1 bent on expelling' politics ind blaek--•femail from the force and .on breaking 3 its.alliance,with the criminal cksses, s :£has' 'always/his. ;Wbfk cut : out. But k-Mr. Roosevelt had aggravated all his ~;'.by;'.by- a, .characteristically I'Roo'seveitfan 'decision. There was on '[ . **the Statute Book a.law forbidding Suudrinking in.New York. v it was •.'■ of the many laws that Now Ybrk- ■ : /-ers pass to. please the Refomisrs and Kbreak to please themselves. No one | had seriously thought of e-jforcing it : and thorougbly. v/h? ;<< police and Tammany had grown rich by , :>'■ selling ovasion from. its. effects to all; ;?, the saloon-keepers who'could afford the" ' /Sprioe and by prosecuting only those who j '$ could'not.,;' '■•■■■■■'.:'.". ■■-..';; : ■■■' "■ -| '■•" £'• It came, on; New .York;like a.'.dap'of . •''£''thnnder; when-Mr.--Roosevelt nMir.ian.e- ---; J. -jV ed that he intended cnfoiciug the law ~''. ?■ to ; the Jetter and ! without disorficina-.. S* tion. It took half the police force to . fe.do it,, but he did it. ,'. Sunday .after I '■■':■ i? Sunday for three months: on end the . ;fjoity was: like an armed camp, and ''''. aaytiing but a peaoer'ul cue. _ Opinv>iion was convulsed., .i The wulkin rang : ;Sfor beer and whisky, Mbnetor parades '.' .jiwere organised as a protest against | ''■'.& ihe brimih'aJrty offenforcing such a Jaw %in subh a city; and at one of them— JI. remember, how my heart warmed :■ 'S/wben I read of itf-Mr. Roosevolt him-.| accepting a perfunctory inritagitibn, appeared on the reviewing sttnd. | The Police Tsar. .''•' ;< The' processionpassed by,, mile after , I'. mile ' of. it, : with' bands, badges, and / 3'flags/all complete. "Send the Police fi.Tear to Russia," "Roosevelt's Razzle--dazzle Reform- Racket," were the :*> legends on two of the banners. RooseS'veit greeted both with a laugh, and ]\ sent a policeman to beg the.gitt of the '." ■ . y/iigns' as 'souvenirs: A German passing. . S.the reviewing 'stand and crying out in .' 5 .German'■ ."'Where's your Roosevelt ii.now?"' was struck dumb by a beaming : |. face-leaning rail towards-him ,-■ 3; a'nd':answering,"aiso'ih German, 1 "Here ; ' I am. What do you want/,comrade?" ; 31owly the'news of his "presence passed ".■■ 'down-the lino,; and'.the parades, cheer-.' ','■'.'■'.■. ./ed\the man theyi:had come but: to de- ' ; jounce. "Bully for Teddy!" "He's all : right!" "Good boy I'.' were the approv- : - ing shouts. It waa.'all,,l,'see now,'ab- ] ?solutery;Roosaveltian. He was teaching v '; New York not'to put; laws on; the .'Statute Book that it did not wish to .-'■ }be. enforced;, he was doing .his duty;, • '[he;, had a 'stiff and' boisterous fight on ihis hands; and he was getting.no end .■. ;i>f: fuiiV out of it. ;r ' '> •. ~4lt was shortly after this that I met (Mm.. VHe had come on to his friend's ,r£.oms?ffom.;a prize fight he had had : to .'.-'".. "Sttend','as.h'.ead of the police; and he de,scribed}'jvitll broad humour the struggle •;that:was'going on in hjm, as he watch;ed it,'between the Police Commissioner ■; tahdithe-sportsman,: the' sportsman say- . :'aiig,t:''Hit him;,as,hard as you can,-". ■' JaHd-Hha,.'Police" Commissioner' adding r"N6,'.yb'u mustn't'hit'him so hard." "As' a boxer from boyhood—he was the ■■ -first suppose, '.'.whomever., '' ■'' p'utjtho gloves oh in the AVhito House —He;'Beemed''to'.have : thoroughly enjoyed to 'be eager to tell all about it. One took to him.at once. One felt that something had happened . wheriTiie 'came into the room.': Hearty, spirited, voluable, spontaneous, he gave > oufclaniinstantaneous-impreision of benot orie'.of: the,rank and ; file." Axkindly; .man: tool : "When • it '.'■■., wme s <out/_that- < I''. : waß interested in :..'.■ ,thiigß administrative he invited me on tSe'j.Bp'ot- to -come and.sit by him incourtjtße.'.yery next, morning.' ■>; ', The inevitable. Creating.

He-liad -been. President for five yearsbefore I saw him.again, before I found myself waiting with'my wife in an ■ ante-room,of the White House to be received. by. him. It seemed absurdly like'a- familiar';tale come true to hear . him snap out, with,harsh distinctness, "I—am'-^-dee:lightedv : t6 see you," the famous ijieyitabjo'-greeting. He led 't%-/ wa £,ffi to ', £ ' n - inner'room,., and.it ; was characteristic-of him to pause perceptibTy?pn the .threshold. The man in him was disinclined to enter a room before a lady; the President had no" option in the. matter.' But the momentary, hesitation "•■ was so palpable that he felt impelled to an apology. "I > > never: can," he said, "and neyer shall !.ito_thev«nd 'of :ihy get' used 'to ■; going into a room ahead of my guests ■/; and of ladies and of old men. I don't ; *of course, with Mrs. Roosevelt in private life.!' ~ ~" ■/■

-:,'. He-asked'us fo be seated, and'for ft- the next,forty-minutes talked with'a U freedom and vigour that even T, who i:bad followed' his career pretty closely "and had discussed him with scores of ;[peopks who knew him well, was hardly \. prepared for. Ho looked, I thought, '■•' K " lucll as * remembered him, as li.nt and muscular as ever, the very of physical force and intensity. But there".was a new look oii'liis ■•face of inquiry, reflectiveness, porplex;ity. People seeing liim to-day, for the ; first time might find-it hard to believe ;that ho could ever have been, or ever ,| have looked, more "strenuous" '' and j,exuberant, than now. Vet such is cer-,-tainly the.fact. Experience and hard -contact with the complexities of affairs r nave left their mark in a greater air of i massiveness, maturity, and deliberation. He cou never, indeed, be anything but electrifying. A tremendous confidence and dogmatism and'mnstcr- ' fulness will stamp every word and gesture. But the broad effect "is less overbearing, Jess torrential, more negotiable, .than it was.

> ; An Example to the World. ■ Being President was 'a great opportunity, but it was also a great game. It appealed to the reformer and tho idealist in him, the leader and the' administrator, tho preacher arid the" politician, and it appealed just as much to the sportsman and tho fighter 'And every aspect'of it, all its strifes • and incidents; found him armed, gleeful, voluble, and dominant/full of the work and conflict, allowing 'everyone, . even the most casual, caller, to .see that, whether he lost or won, he was having,; as he said himself, "a porfect- . ly.corking time." ■■■A President with, a taste for belli- "■;■- gerenoy is never likely to find the rVVhite House an abode of peace or dullIn.Mr. Rooseveltjs case his polities, his personality, and his lan- " euage combined to accumulate a collation of feuds that must, I should .think, hnvo satisfied even his pugilistic instincts. All his life ho has been "answering back,", but his answers were never so pointed and resonant, or caused such a tumult of ex-

citement, as when ho was President. He baa never, I tlfink, quito done jus-, tice to tho value of "manner" in politics ; brusque, headlong, inclined to bo hectoring, superabundantly sure of himself-, much given to.the short cutins assaults are instinctively frontal ; tact and tho tedious waiting while stupidity makes up its mind, and' the little compliments and attentions and deferences that oil the wheels of life are not for him'; his preference is all for downright statement, instantaneous decisions, and-action'.forthwith. Tho Lesson of His Life.

It is as a sort of political evangelist that Mr-. Roosevelt has thus far won bis greatest triumphs. In saying that I am not forgetting by any means his more / tangible achievements. But I still hold that his best work has been of a kind that cannot be directly tabulated.' After all, what higher tribute can one pay to a statesman than to say he has' affected the thoughts, tho ideals, the instinctive- ways of looking at things, of the people over whom ho ruled? : ' - ; «■ ' But, above all, Mr. Roosevelt is valuable for what he is, for the encouragement his life holds out to the least among us. For here is a mail who is emphatically self-made, who from being a weakling iu constitution and physique has turned himself into a superb specimen of hardihood and endurance; who, though not by any means an exceptionally clever man and with little or no originality, A has yet raised himself to a position of inttuenco unequalled' among the. men of his. time; and who has done all this by means of the simple, obvious virtues and faculties which nearly all of us are 1 endowed with at birth, but which most of us neglect to cultivate, by application, by study, by keeping fresh and green within him his sense of humanity and his interest in tho best that life arid literature and nature have to offer, by a wise economy of time, by never lotting his idealism outrun his practicability, by jutting ambition, ideas, and aspirations to the immediate test of action, by training, his judgment through direct contact with affairs—in a word, by making the mo3t and the best of himself. -,