VOLUME 101 January 27, 1915 to March 9, 1915 SERIES 2120 562 Abbott, Ernest Hamlin, 44, Abbott, Dr. W.L. 64, Aldrich, Evelyn, 177, Alexander, Henry E. 203,[C] Dr. W.S. Bigelow, 1, Bayles, G.W., 30, Bacho, Fred. W., 36, Beaupre, A.M. 49, Bush, Frederic M. 59, Baetzer, Charles H., 95, Brodie, Col. Alex, 104, Buxton, G. Edward 115, Boog-Watson, Charles B. 120, Brind, W.L., 123, Bonaparte, Hon. Chas. J., 180, Buick Motor Company, 182, Borak, Hon. Wm. E., 186, 207, Beardslee, Raymond, 187, Barron, C.W., 208, Brown, Wm. M., 211, Brewer, Dr. George, 256,[C] [D] Cahalane, Inspector, 21, Childs, William H., 25, Coit, Mrs. J.H., 46, Curtis, Edward S. 68, Chanler, Winthrop, 88, Cochran, Alexander 90, 222, Clayton, Joseph C. 98, Coudert, Frederic R., 99, Chapman, Frank M. 101, 289, Coe, William I, 110, Curtis, Smith 111, Cutling Bronson, 119, Cantwell, H.J. 122 Callaghan, Thomas J. 127, Colanna, Mrs. B.A. 129, Cristadoro, Charles, 144, Arthur D. Call, 153,D Cook, S. Arthur, 184, Cho, Todd, 188, Cannon, Frank, 210, Clapp, Hon. Moses E. 230, Chandler, Winthrop, 262 Cole, Fremont, 272 Chopin, Madame Leonie, 273, Collins, P.V. 275, Davis, Charles J. 33, Deming, E.W., 34, 173, Dana, Alfred W., 133, Donovan, Prof. M.J., 157, Dodge, Cleveland H. 264,Cook, S. Arthur, 184, Cho, Todd, 188, Cannon, Frank, 210, Clapp, Hon. Moses E., 230, Chandler, Winthrop, 262, Cole, Fremont, 272, Chopin, Madame Leonie, 273, Collins, P.V. 275, [D][D] Davis, Charles J. 33, Deming, E.W., 34, 173, Dana, Alfred W., 133, Donovan, Prof. M.J., 157, Dodge, Cleveland H. 264,[E] Evans, Frank Taylor, 31, Edwards, Mrs. E.G.N. 102, Edmunds, Mrs. Ellis, 164,[F] Fuertes, Louis A., 26, Flinn, Hon. Wm., 97, 158, Finn, Frank, 100, Fullerton, W. Morton, 106, FitzHugh, Carter H., 126, Fox, Dr. Carroll, 130, Faver, S.J. 266,[G] Gaines, John, 17, Grey, Sir Edward, 28, Goldzier Miss Alma, 39, Green, H.A., 42, Gardner, Gilson, 219, Grenfell, Dr. W.T., 223, Gwynne, H.A., 225, Grant, Madison, 240, Gill, Wilson L., 242, Gray, David, 245, Green, Miss Belle Costa, 252, Gunst, M.A. 257,[H] Hamilton, Rt. Rev. John W., 15, Hill, Arthur D., 16, Heard, Dwight B., 22, Hayes, Rev. Dennis A., 27, Hepburn, A. Barton, 103, Hale, Mathew, 116, Hinshaw, Virgil G., 138, Hunter, Charles O., 142, Hrdlicka, Dr. A. 166, 438 Howard, Clarence W., 175, Heyward, Frank de Jouve, 195, Hulscher, W.T., 197, Howe, Wm. D., 204, Heller, Edmund, 228, Howard, Miss Lily, 253,[I] Iglehart, Dr. F.C., 83, Ingersoll, James M., 145,[J] Jennings, N.A., 89, Jusserand, Hon. Jules, 92, 287, Johnson, Dr. F.M., 137, Jilson, W.R., 214,[K] Key, Commander, 38, Kellor, Miss Frances A., 48, Knickerbocker, Mrs. Helen L, 163, Kaneko, Baron Kentaro, 167, Keen, Alfred R., 183, Kingsbury, Hon. John, 199, Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 200, Kelly, Luther S., 201, Knox, Frank, 276,[L] Lodge, Henry Cabot, 14, 76, 165, 250, Lester, Henry M., 37, Leon, Maurice, 56, Linquist, Oscar E. 62, Lawson, Harry, 108, Lawrence, Richard, 109, Leech, Rev. S.V., 134, Lissner, Meyer, 202, Lothrop, Mrs. E.J., 215, Lewis, Wm. Draper, 237,[M] Mahan, Lyle Evans, 47, Millard, Thomas F., 50, Miller, Kelly, 61, Munsterberg, Miss M., 67, Mathews, Brander, 73, Morgan, V.B., 131, Mitchell, Langdon, 198, Marburg, Theo., 206, Murdock, Victor, 229, Marvin, Langdon, 241, Markham, Edwin, 243, Mackey, Major R.M., 244,[Mc] McCarthy, Charles, 11, McConnell, Burt, 41, MacDonald, J.H., 52, McCleary, James F., 93, McCormick, Medill, 112, McBee, Mrs. Silas, 114, McCarthy, C.E., 118, McDowell, Mrs. Harriet, 146, McGovern, Francis E., 152, McIlhenny, Miss Edith P., 209, McIlhenny, Mrs. Mary E., 213,[N] Newcomb, Hon. J.T., 40, Niblack, Capt. Albert P., 63, Norris, Hon. George W., 77, Nelson, E.W., 124, Nellis Jr., George W., 178, Newton, F. Maurice, 255,[O] Osborn, Prof. Henry F., 20, O'Laughlin, J.C., 80, 220, Owsley, H. Bryan, 179,[P] Poindexter, Hon. Miles, 12, Poling, Daniel A., 43, Peet, J.J., 60, Pennington, Frank R., 65, Price, Rev. T.L., 79, Pierson, T. Gilbert, 81 Perkins, George W., 84 Pease, Sir Alfred, 105, Parker, John M., 125, Punnett, Mrs. Gertrude R., 140. Pope, Gustavus D., 174, Perry, Philip, 217, Potter, James Brown, 236, Perkins, Geo. W., 247, Punnett, Mrs. Gertrude, 254. Parkington, A.R., 270, Pyles, A. Zane, 274,[R] Roosevelt, Kermit, 3, 147, 234, Roosevelt, Archibald B., 10, Roberts, Isaac, 18, Roosevelt, Philip, 35, Russell, Isaac, 58, Rowe, L.S., 74, Rainsford, Dr. W.S., 75, 249, Roosevelt, Mrs. J. West, 82, Robbins, Dr. Jane E., 91, Roosevelt, W. Emlen, 121, 156, Reynolds, John H., 132, Remsen, J.E., 135, Reed, Rev. C. Fenwick, 161, Rublee, Mrs. Juliet Barret, 168, Roosevelt, Nicholas, 193, Robbins, Capt. Edward J., 196, Read, Semner, 212,Roosevelt, Theodore, Jr., 224, Roosevelt, Mrs. Kermit, 231, Rodin, M.A., 238, Robinson, Mrs. Douglass, 265, Renney, Oliver, 278, Roper, Joseph W., 279,S Schoff, Mrs. Hanna, 19, Scott, Temple, 32, 221, Shillady, John R, 44, Sargent, Col. E. E. Stevens, Mrs Edward F., 53 Schufeldt, Dr. R.W, 72, Spring Rice, Hon. Cecil, 85, 150, 258, 288, Sewall, William W., 94, Sampson, Ernest, 117, Schwartz, Miss Irene, 128, Storer, Tracy I, 139, Suffern, Robt. Adams, 172, Shartel, Hon. A. F., 205, Scharschug, Geo. J, 216, Stilwell, Mrs. Horace, 239, Shafer, John C, 268, Sullivan, Mark, 269,Shank, Samuel, 271, Smith, Harold H, 280, Scribner, Charles, 281, 282, Stone, Hon. Wm J. 283,[T] Taylor, Walter P., 45, Trevelyan, Sir George, 107, Thornton, Capt James, 248,[V] Von Mack, Edmund, 66, Von Schleinitz, Mr. Emil, 189, Von [?]hering, Dr. H. 277,W Welling, Miss. Katherine, 55, Watson, Thomas E., 57, Watson, James Reade, 136, Wolwyche-Whitmore, Rev. H.B, 141, Woodward, Philip, 143, Wallace, Hon Albert, 162, Washburn, Charles G, 176, Wilson, J. Victor, 181, Whitney, Casper, 185, Woods, Hon. Arthur. 218,1 January 27, 1915. Dear Sturgis: Yes, that book was mine and I thank you for it. Do tell Watson that I genuinely appreciate that letter you sent me. I don't suppose my book will have any circulation, because, as far as my articles are concerned, I find that they are only read in newspaper or magazine form and that their circulation in book form is so small that some, of what I hope is my most serious work, Scribner is only able to publish because he has previously used it in the magazine. As for my lunching with the Germans, really I get a little bit impatient at the criticism. It reminds me of the criticism that used to be showered upon me, because I would breakfast with Platt. If they had taken the trouble to see, they would have noticed that after I had breakfasted with Platt, I always did something he didn't want. If they think that my little book is too pro-German , why, then they are right in attributing it to the sinister influence of Munsterberg and von Mach. But the Germans at least are not under the impression that my book is too pro-German! What you say about Bethmann-Hollweg is exactly true. His2 -2- original statement had a certain sincerity that partially redeemed it; but meaning misrepresentation, mental crookedness, and the furious assault on the unfortunate Belgians whom they have so deeply wronged merely add immeasurably to the original offense. That was a bully question of the Amherst Student's to Dernberg. By the way, the man who wrote about my "sloppy, unintelligent interest in forests" was the great Boston tree man. Was not his name Sargent? It was some typically Boston name; and he viewed Presidents, New Yorkers of Dutch descent, and other poor white trash from the proper Brahmin standpoint. Now Sturgis, if you ever can make up your mind to it, when spring come, do come on and spend the night out with us. You will be left absolutely alone; but there are really quite a number of things I would like to show you. Meanwhile, I and all my family will descend upon you A la harpy whenever we are in the neighborhood of Boston. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. W. S. Bigelow, 56 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.3 147 I have just seen Reyband. He is particularly anxious you should call on Calderon and establish good relations with the prominent men in public life. He thinks this will be good from a business standpoint; I agree with him. January 27th, 1915 Dearest Kermit: I have just received your letter, not dated, telling me that one of mine addressed to you in "Brazil" had arrived. I will do my best to see that no similar mistake occurs again. I have written you several times; and Mother has written you every Sunday. She and I love your letters and Belle's; and tell dearest Belle that hers are so humorous that we always laugh over them. I was much put out at the Scribners changing the name of the book; for it seemed to me very much a change for the worse. "A Hunter-Naturalist in the Brazilian Wilderness" meant a great deal more than just "Through the Brazilian Wilderness." However, like so many other things, it is to be credited to the fact that I had to take a violent part in the obsequies of the Progressive Party and did not have time for anything else. Your letter is not only most sympathetic but most understanding about the Progressive Party. You have exactly my feeling; and you see the situation just exactly as it was. But, you blessed old fellow, you were having an even harder time than I was having, in fact, a very much harder time; and I understood that thoroughly; and you need never bother your head about not being congenial or pleasant to have around - I think I understand you and I know I sympathize with you and I thoroughly realized the4 2 awful amount you had to worry about; and after you and her mother there was nobody more nervous about Belle than I was, I am so sorry that she has been feeling the heat; and of course it is very hard that in Buenos Aires there is not any place that one can go off to. I don't suppose you could get a week off and take her to the Andes, could you? Did I tell you that I went down to the City Bank and gave a speech to the employee's association? Ted engineered it; and he felt that it might do you good and anyhow was a thing I ought to do because of your connection with the Bank. Ted sat by a Vice-President of the Bank, named Rich, who was once a newsboy; and Rich suddenly divulged to him that at Santiago he had been camping in New Mexico with one of the four men who followed me when I started to head the charge that did not come off. The other three men were shot; but I lost track of this man and never knew who he was and whether he had been killed or not, until that night at the bank. Now for a letter on the situation here. My immediate and acute trouble is over. The Progressive party cannot in all human probability make another fight as a national party; and, if it does, there will be no expectation that I will have to lead. I am through my hard and disagreeable work. I do not mean that there won't come unpleasant and disagreeable things in connection with the party; but there won't be any such heart-breaking and grinding work as I had last summer. The trouble was that most of5 3 my lieutenants, who were good, fine fellows, as disinterested and upright as possible, could not realize that the rank and file had left them; and they felt that I was going back on them if I refused to head the old-style type of fight. I had to make it; and that was all there was to it. All my life in politics, I have striven to do just what you and Ted are striving to do in business and in your life generally, that is, to make the necessary working compromise between what you would like to do and what you have to do, between the ideal and the practical. If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it , then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful. If, on the other hand, he does not work practically, with the knowledge that he is in the world of actual men and must get results, he becomes a worthless head-in-the-air creature, a nuisance to himself and to everybody else. My chief knowledge of the working out of this theory is in politics. From the time I was elected to the legislature in 1881 until 1911, when it became evident that I would have to part company with the Republican organization, I steadily strove to be loyal to my ideals and yet to strive to realize them in practical fashion. I always tried to administer each office well. I never did one thing personally that was not as straight as a string; and, where I had to work with other men, I tried my best to get the common result of as high a quality as possible, without in-6 4 sisting upon so much that it would mean a break-up with my associates. On a big scale I handled things just as I tried to handle them on a smaller scale as regards Father Zahm and Sigg and Fiala and our Brazilian friends on our trip. I was on the whole successful. When, after the Spanish War, I got to a position of such importance that a good deal of consideration had to be paid me, I was very successful; and, as President, I was able to do a great deal that I wished to do. This was done merely because I utilized the reformers without letting them grow perfectly wild-eyed; and I yet kept in some kind of relation with the machine men, so as to be on a living basis with them, although I had to thwart them at every turn. But, when I got back from Africa, I found that everything had split. Taft had thrown in his lot with the sordid machine crowd, as had most of my former efficient political supporters. On the other hand, the reformers of the type of good Gifford Pinchot had begun to run wild and to associate with a set of so-called reformers, who came dangerously near the mark of lunacy. I spent eighteen months in the vain effort to get them together on some kind of a basis that would permit of efficient joint action. It proved impossible; and, when the break had to come, I had to stand by the reformers as against the sordid apostles of self-interest. But the reformers showed enough that was mean and base in addition to enough that was foolish themselves! What happened afterwards you know.7 5 It may be that after I left the Presidency I ought not to have tried to take any part in politics at all. But all the men of highest type made the strongest kind of appeal to me not to desert them. Gifford Pinchot came to Italy to meet me and make the plea. There was no use of my talking about virtue in the abstract, unless I applied it to concrete cases; and I either had to do just as I did or else completely abandon all effort to say anything on any public question whatsoever. Perhaps I ought to have done this; but, if I had done so, it is quite possible that I should now be feeling that I had a little shirked my duty. Well, as things are now, I am entirely out of touch with the American people. I abhor Wilson and Bryan; their attitude in foreign affairs is the worst we have seen since the days of Buchanan; and there is always the chance that they will bring the country to real disaster and disgrace. In addition I think that they are both hypocrites; and I mind Wilson more than I do Bryan. I am quite serious when I say that I think a man like Penrose would probably be a better President than Wilson; and some of the things done in the public service, in connection with San Domingo, for instance, and in connection with the threatened purchase of German merchant vessels, are as bad as anything that the most crooked politician could do in the Presidency. I have been writing on some of these matters; but I do not expect that any heed will be paid to8 6 me. Yet I am not willing to fail to make the protest. There is just one chance in a thousand that it may be of some consequence; and it is a dreadful thing to me to see us as a nation mishandling ourselves as we have been doing. My libel suit will be tried in April. I shall make a showing against Barnes which, if he were capable of shame, would drive him out of court. But, of course, he is not capable of shame; and his pressing the suit shows that he and his lawyers think they have more than a good chance of winning. I don't know whether they are right or not. Of course, I feel that I will prove my case so that no honest man of intelligence can question the facts. But I know also that the general feeling in New York in both the old parties, and especially among the great financial and political leaders, without regard to party, is so strong against me that there will be a very real effort made to have Barnes win, simply for the purpose of getting at me. Of course, I shall feel badly if he wins, but not so very badly after all. I shall make my case as clear as a bell, so that if anyone cares to look at it some years hence, when the bitterness has died down, they will feel that I am right. There is just one element of relief to me in the smash that came to the Progressive Party. We did not have many practical men with us. Under such circumstances the reformers tended to go into sheer lunacy. I now can preach the doctrines of labor and capital just as I did when I was President, without 9 7 being hampered by the well-meant extravagances of so many among my Progressive friends. Good-bye and good luck! Your loving father, Theodore Roosevelt Kermit Roosevelt, Esq., The National City Bank of New York, Casilla de Correo 1396, Buenos Aires, The Argentine.[10] January 29th 1915 Dearest Archie: All right; the book is going to you forthwith. I had forgotten I had promised it to you; and I did not know that you would care for it. Well, I never have had and I never shall have a pleasanter dinner than that one you gave me; and indeed I think my whole stay in Cambridge was the greatest kind of a success, thanks primarily to you and secondarily to Howland Shaw. I hope to see you soon. Your loving father, T.R. Mac [?] [?] great thinks of you! Archival B. Roosevelt, Esq., Claverley Hall, Cambridge, Mass.11 January 29th, 1915 Dear McCarthy: I greatly appreciate your letter. First, let me thank you for your allusions to me. They both touch and please me. I am anxious to see you whenever you get to New York. The other day I saw Ross and Ely. I was much struck by some of the things Ely told me. He is a very sound political economist, is he not? Now, for the main part of your letter. I am sure that the reaction in Wisconsin and, indeed, over the nation, is only temporary. As regards the nation, we have certainly suffered partly for the sins of some of the extremists. Reformers are the salt of the earth, and without salt one cannot get a decent dinner; but a dinner composed exclusively of salt is not worth much! Here in New York some of the men who nominally stayed with us, like Amos Pinchot, really tried to turn the Progressive Party into an aid to the I. W. W., or a kind of parlor-anarchist association; and the public finally became convinced that we were altogether too much tainted with lunacy. But in Wisconsin it seems to me as though your University work, and such work as that of your own special bureau, have been so excellent as to deprive people of any cause of revolt. I absolutely sympathize with your purpose as outlined in the volume you sent me. I absolutely agree with what you say as to the absurd attitude of so many of our universities. Now, whether I will be able to do as you suggest in the way of writing about this in public, I do not know; but if I do get the chance I shall certainly take advantage of it and comment upon that report. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt CHARLES MCCARTHY, ESQ, [Madison, Wisconsin?]12 January 30th, 1915. My dear Senator Poindexter: I thank you for your letter. Now it seems to me clear that this is not a real case of a desire to purchase ships for use by the Government at all. It is really an effort to interfere in this war on behalf of one of the belligerents by purchasing its interned ships. I am informed that all amendments to prevent the purchase of belligerent-owned ships have been voted down. If this is so, I feel most strongly that it is the duty of every good American to vote against the bill in question. The voting down of such amendments shows that the intention of the Administration is to buy the German ships. If that is done, and these ships, owned by the United States Government, go to sea, the Allies will have a perfect right to refuse to recognize the transfer of the flag. If they do so and treat them as German ships, they are liable to be captured or in case of resistance to be sunk. This would bring us very close to war not only with England alone, but with all her allies, with England, France, Russia and Japan. I think it is literally a criminal act for this Administration to go into this without considering the gross breach of neutrality which it would be to relieve Germany of these ships and pay her thirty or forty million dollars of public money. I most earnestly hope that you can see your way clear at least to vote for the [training subsidies?]. Of course, I hoped you would be against the whole bill. But under no circumstances ought we to be put in the position where it is possible for the Administration to purchase these ships owned by Germany13 -2- and interned in our ports. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Miles Poindexter.14 76 January 29th, 1915 Dear Cabot: In response to Borah's request I wrote both Poindexter and Clapp against the Shipping Bill; and I shall ask Murdock at least to try to get any remaining Progressives to refuse to vote for the bill unless an amendment is put through prohibiting the purchase of any ship belonging to any nation now at war. The Metropolitan article contains nothing with which you are not familiar; but I thought it as well to put it out. In the next issue of the Metropolitan I return to Mexico and to our unpreparedness for war, taking exactly the lines of your speech and of Fall's. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. P. S. I had a rather inconclusive answer from Poindexter. I shall write him again at once and put it as strongly as I know how.15 January 29th, 1915. My dear Bishop Hamilton: I appreciate your kind letter. I entirely sympathize with you about the University; and I have always said that there were in all the Union no men upon whose backing I more relied than upon the Methodists; but, my dear Bishop, I cannot do as you request. In the first place, I wish to devote that fund to more immediate needs. In the second place, I believe in Peace on the Peter Cartwright or circuit-rider basis; and my experience is that these professorships of Peace do positice [sic] harm and not good. In this country I am certain that the pacifist movements of the last thirty or forty years have on the whole represented a real weakening of public fibre; and in the world at large they have done more harm than good during the same space of time. I very earnestly believe in Peace. I will always work for it; but it must be the Peace of Righteousness, not the peace that Peter obtained for a moment by abjuring his Lord; and the pacifists at this moment and for years past are seeking and have sought Peace on the basis of abjuring righteousness. I hope you will look at my little book "America and the World War." Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rt. Rev. John W. Hamilton, 386 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.16 January 27, 1915. Dear Arthur: Will you kindly tell Mrs. Chase that it is out of the question for me to make any such Address as that she requests. If I began making speeches it would literally open an endless vista. I suppose I have refused during the last three months fully three or four hundred invitations to speak; and this will give you an idea of the utter impossibility of accepting Mrs. Chase's kind request. It was a great pleasure to see you the other day. Give my love to Mrs. Hill. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Arthur D. Hill, Esq., 53 State Street, Boston, Mass.17 January 27, 1915. My dear Mr. Gaines: In what way do you wish me to help? I of course entirely agree with you. I doubt, however, if there is much I can do toward educating the public. Would you care to have me write to Senators Borah and Lodge about the Bill? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt John M. Gaines, Esq., The Camp Fire Club of America, New York City, N.Y.18 January 27, 1915. My dear Mr. Roberts: I thank you for your book. I see that you have made the effort to have it interesting, which is not always attempted by our political economists. I am sure I shall enjoy reading it. Sincerely yours Theodore Roosevelt Issac Roberts, Msq., c/o Robert & UC. 833 Real Estate Trust Bldg., Philadelphia. PA.19 January 27, 1915. My dear Mrs. Schoff: I thank you for having sent me the copy of the Wayward Child. I am sure I shall enjoy reading it. With all good wishes, believe me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Hanna Kent Schoff, Author of The Wayward Child, c/o Bobbs Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Ind.20 January 27, 1915. Dear Fair: Of course I will do that gladly; but will you give me a little information about what Fish has done. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, American Museum of Natural History, New York, N.Y.21 January 27, 1915. My dear Inspector Cahalane: I thank you for having sent me a copy of "Police Practice and Procedure". I congratulate you upon the book itself. It seems to me capital in every way. For example, take what you say about the failure of parents properly to supervise children and on the other hand the trouble caused by too much misdirected supervision. I am very proud of my connection with the Police Department of New York and it is always a pleasure to me to see one of its members do as good a piece of work as you have now done. Present my warm regard to my friend, Commissioner Woods. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Inspector Cahalane, Police Department, New York City.[*22*] January 29th, 1915 Dear Mr. Heard: I wish I could improve on your letter to Nat Hale, with its recommendations; but I don't think that it is possible. The only difference that I would make is that you speak altogether too favorably of Wilson. To my mind he does not represent the Progressive ideal at all. I do not think we have ever had a more reactionary President than Wilson, in every real sense of the word "reactionary." Moreover, I think him entirely insincere; and he and Bryan, with the able assistance of Daniels, have in all international matters put this country lower than it has been for a century. I rank Wilson with Buchanan. The one achievement of his Administration which seems to me to have something of good in it is the finance measure; and this measure was taken almost bodily from that prepared by the stand-pat Republicans under Aldrich. Even as regards this, I may be mistaken in my belief that it is a good measure; for I know mighty little about Finance. In half-hearted fashion he finally, in his trust policy, adopted a little of the Progressive platform; but it is quite impossible to [see] be sure that he adopted enough really to help the situation; and in what he did do, he broke faith. As regards Mexico and the European War, he has been beneath contempt. I firmly believe that he has yielded to the pressure of great commercial interests in pushing his Ship Purchase Measure, a measure which may very well embroil us with both England and France. I speak quite seriously when I say that I think Charles Murphy and Roger Sullivan would be preferable at this moment at the head of our nation to Wilson and Bryan.[*23*] -2- All that you say in your letter to Nat Hale is true. We represented the principles to which this country ought to have come. But the country would not come to them. One reason is that it got it fixed in its head that we were presenting reform as an alternative to prosperity; and, if they had to make the choice, they intended to choose prosperity. As a matter of fact, I do not think that Perkins had [?] cold feet still; some of the men who were at that dinner at Medill McCormick's who accused him of timidity, were really timid themselves. My judgment is that we ought to do as you say, that is, do nothing for a year or thereabouts and see how things shape themselves. Unless there is a complete change, it would be merely silliness to try another fight for a straight Progressive ticket, east of [Missouri?] the Rockies. Medill McCormick has written me that the attempt would be entirely hopeless in Illinois. Most of the Indiana men feel the same way; and Flinn tells me the same thing in Pennsylvania, as does Murdock, of Kansas. In New York and New Jersey we would simply make ourselves a laughing-stock, if we tried to make an active fight as things are now. In this state we could not get any man worth standing beside to make such a fight at this time. I spent every ounce of time, effort and money I could put into the campaign last fall; and it was flogging a dead horse. Of course, it is a hair-trigger situation; and it may entirely change; but at present all I see is for us to sit tight and await events. It may be that the Republicans will take such an attitude that men like myself will have to vote for some third ticket merely as a conscience vote. Under no circumstances does it seem to me that I could vote for Wilson. I am not even sure that I could vote for him if the Republicans put up Taft or Nicholas Murray Butler! Still, I won't definitely commit myself, if there was such a frightful alternative offered; I certainly wouldn't vote for either of them. Of course, the ideal thing would be if we could[*24*] 3 get the Republicans to endorse a man of the type of Hiram Johnson; but I don't suppose there is any shame of this. Please treat this letter as entirely confidential. I do wish I could see you in person. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dwight B. Heard, Esq., Phoenix, Arizona.25 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Childs: I don't think that anything would be accomplished by such a movement as that now. The Commission by immediate action would probably make a fool of itself. I think it [we] would expose itself [ourselves] to derision if, uninvited, such a Commission approached the warring powers at present. The suggestions about the treaty of Peace are absolutely worthless because they make no provision for enforcing the decisions of the tribunal. I do not care to be quoted in this matter, but it really seems to me that the proposal is about on a level with the various proposals for peace parades and the like that we have seen. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt William E. Childs, Esq., 17 Battery Place, New York City.26 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Fuertes: I like that pamphlet so much that I have sent it n to have it bound in cloth, so as to have it permanently in my library. I so wish you and Nelson would write some big ornithologies about our own and other American birds. You and he have the ability to write that Hudson showed in his description of Argentine birds; and in addition you have the scientific knowledge that Hudson lacked. I was greatly pleased with your account. Of course, in my case, I compared the birds with our native birds all the time! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Louis Aggassis Fuertes, Esq., c/o American Museum of Natural History, 77th St. & Columbus Avenue, New York City.27 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Dr. Hayes: You say that one of your townsmen recently stated, a propos of the atrocities in the Belgian Congo, that they were so fearful that "our government was about to demand of Belgium that the atrocities stop and then the Roman Catholic political machine began to work and our Government obeyed the Pope and did nothing." The statement is an absolute falsehood, without any foundation whatsoever in fact for this assertion. You ask me what is there in fact that lends color to these charges against our Government. My answer must be that there is nothing; and I cannot even admit that there is any color of fact to the charges. They are pure sensationalism. I enclose you a copy of a letter I recently wrote which will put as clearly as I know how my own stand in matters of this kind. It is of course not possible for me to say that there is not now and then some man in this country and, for the matter of that, in every other country, who may be improperly influenced by racial or sectarian hatreds or prepossessions. But I can only say that any such man is in no true sense an American. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Dennis A. Hayes, 65 Pierson Street, Coldwater, Mich. Enclosure.28 February 1st, 1915. My dear Grey: Just after having sent you my long letter, I receive yours of the 18th of December. I only hope, by the way, that the feats of the submarines in sinking incoming merchant vessels, which have occurred since I wrote you, will not justify the fear I had in my mind, and which partly influenced me in writing you. As you read what I wrote in the Posse Comitatus article, I have taken the liberty of sending you a small book I have written called "America and the World War." I entirely agree with the three objects which you say you have to fight on for. As for the third, I also agree that probably the movement must come from within Germany itself. I do not know how it can be secured; but some such agreement as that I have sketched in outline would be one of the methods for securing it. I am very much pleased at what you say as to the evaporation of your former views about Hague Conventions and international treaties. I have been frantically denounced by the pacificists because I would not enter into these treaties. But the reason was simply that I would not enter into any treaty I did not intend to keep and think we could keep. I regard with horror the fact that this government has not protested under the Hague Convention as to the outrageous wrongs inflicted upon29 Belgium (I would have made it particularly effective!) [??] that no treaty of the kind should hereafter ever be made unless the powers signing it bind themselves to uphold its terms by force if necessary. Well, I wish I were able to do something more efficient that merely talk. May all good fortune come to your country and to you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Right Honorable Sir Edward Grey,30 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Bayles: I regret greatly that I will be unable to be present at the funeral of Mrs. Charles H. Bayles. Will you permit me to express my very sincere sympathy? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. E. W. Bayles Oyster Bay, New York.31 February 3rd, 1915. Dear Taylor I don't believe I shall go to Panama, because, if the Treaty by which we propose to pay Colombia twenty-five million dollars is justified, then I am not justified in going, and nobody is justified in asking me to go! Of course, I think it infamous to propose such a treaty. If by any chance I do go, there is nobody I would so much like to have as you as my aide; and I will ask for you for it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Franck Taylor Evans U. S. Naval Training Station, Newport, R. I.32 221 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Scott: By George, that's an awfully tough thing! Sometimes it seems to me that the tendency is to pay men in inverse proportion to the value of what they write nowadays. Incidentally, as far as it goes, I may mention that I am paid almost in inverse proportion to the value of what I write! Or, when this is not the case, I am paid enormous sums for magazine rights for what brings in very little in book form. I shall at once make an effort to see if I cannot help in realizing your idea of what can be done for Carman. That would be about five or six thousand dollars, would it not? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt [signature] Temple Scott, Esq., c/o Brentano's, Fifth Avenue & 27th Street, New York City. 33 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Davis: I am very much obliged to you. I shall ask my lawyers to get in touch with you at once. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles J. Davis, Esq. 25 North Pearl Street, Albany, New York. 34 173 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mrs. Deming: Yes, I know about your husband's work. I am most deeply and sincerely grieved at what you say; but I fear I am absolutely helpless. I will, however, most gladly stop to see the work. And, for Heaven's sake, don't send the kiddies out of the way, for I should particularly like to see them too. I have a young cousin, who is on the Globe; and perhaps he will come with me and write up what has been done. I will communicate with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. E. W. Deming, 5 Macdougall Alley, New York City.35 February 3rd, 1915. Dear Phil: Read the enclosed. If I go round there, would you go round with me; and then write it up if you thought it worth it? Faithfully yours, T. R. Philip J. Roosevelt, Esq., enclosure36 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Bacho: It is a pleasure to hear from you; and I particularly appreciate such a letter coming from a man with your record. As yet, I don't believe there is anything for us to do excepting to sit tight. Medill McCormick, as I understand it, merely acted with the Republicans in the Legislature, doing what I think was the wise and proper thing to do. I wish I could see you here, for I would like to talk over the whole situation with you. I do not care to put it down on paper. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Fred W. Bacho, Esq., 66 St. Francis Street, Mobile, Alabama.37 February 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Lester: Unfortunately your letter reached me too late for me to write you in time. I should have particularly liked to have met the two clergymen of the French Reformed Church of whom you speak. I hope I shall see them while they are over here. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Henry M. Lester, Esq., Huguenot House, New Rochelle, N. Y.38 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Commander: Would you be willing to have some one look into this and see if there is anything that ought to be done for the man. I don't know whether there is or not. Good luck! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Commander Key, Chattanooga, Tennessee. enclosure.39 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Miss Goldzier: The Legal Aid Society was founded especially to meet cases such as you allege this to be. Will you communicate with Mr. Arthur von Briesen, 25 Broad Street, about it? Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Miss Alma M. Goldzier, 220 Broadway, New York City.40 January 30th, 1915. My dear Senator Newcomb: The libel suit comes on in Syracuse in April. I regard you as one of my star witnesses, especially on the Alds matter and on the primary legislation, perhaps also the racing bill. I have asked Bowers & Van Benschoten to get in touch with you. They particularly want to show Barnes's personal interest in some of the matters that were going on in Albany, the fact that he was around the Capitol in the Chamber looking on or talking to members and things like that. It was a great pleasure seeing you at Oyster Bay. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. T. Newcomb, 334 Convent Avenue, New York City.41 February 1st, 1945. My dear Mr. McConnell: I don't think there is the least use of my trying to make an appeal by myself, or being the foremost man to make an appeal in behalf of Steffanson. There is a natural tendency to try to get me to make every kind of appeal, with the result that, if I yielded, finally no one would listen to any appeal I made. But I feel so strongly about Steffanson and his people that I will willingly join in any call that can be made. Why don't you take this letter, go to Fairfield Osborn and tell him that I will join with him in making any appeal he chooses to make or will endorse any appeal he makes or join with him in taking any other action which he thinks will be efficient in the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Burt McConnell, Esq., West Side Y. M. C. A., 57th Street, New York City.42 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Comrade: I have received your kind telegram. I do not know when I am to be in San Francisco; and I would not venture now to make any engagement; but I particularly appreciate your kindness and I would particularly like to meet the conrades if it is at all possible. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt H. A. Green, Esq., Reinheld Richter Camp No. 2, San Francisco, Cal.43 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Poling: Through some mistake your letter only reached me on Monday. I am exceedingly sorry. It would be a great pleasure to see you, although I suppose I can be of no use to you. Will you let me know when you are apt to be in my neighborhood again, writing as far in advance as possible. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Daniel A. Poling, Esq., Christian Endeavor House, Mt. Vernon & Hancock Sts., Boston, Mass.44 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Shilladay: That part of the speech was furnished to the papers in advance and I read it out, so there was no excuse for the error of the reporter in question. Of course, what I said was that our present methods of getting employer and employe together were "primitive as an ox-team." I alluded to the Municipal Lodging House only to praise it. You must have seen the speech in full, and correctly reported, in some of the papers. The entire speech was submitted to Messrs. Bruere and Kingsbury before being sent to the papers and was approved by them. Very truly yours, T. Roosevelt John R. Shillady, Esq., Room 852, Municipal Building, New York City?45 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Taylor: I thank you for your allusion to that little article of mine on the Conservation of Wild Life. No, I have not read Booth; but I am acquainted with the facts which he evidently has put forth. I entirely agree with you as to what the Protestant denomination should do; as you know I have written again and again on that subject. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Walter P. Taylor, Esq. University of California, Berkeley, Cal.46 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mrs. Coit: That's a mighty nice letter of yours; and I thank you for it and appreciate it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. J. H. Coit, 120 East 31st Street, New York City.47 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mahan: I am very glad you liked that article. The first chance I get to have you meet Ted, I shall take advantage of it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lyle Evans Mahan, Esq., 111 Broadway, New York City.48 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Miss Keller: What do you think of the enclosed? Of course, treat it as confidential. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Frances A. Keller, 95 Madison Avenue, New York City. Enclosure.49 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Beaupre: That's a mighty nice letter of yours! I am glad that you think I put those facts fairly. As for mentioning you, my dear sir, you were one of the men who did honor to our diplomatic service. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt A. M. Beaupre, Esq., 4224 Hazel Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.50 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Millard: I thank you for the letter and those clippings and appreciate you having sent them to me. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Thomas F. Millard, Esq., The China Press, Canton & Kiangse Roads, Shanghai, China.51 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Colonel Sargent: I appreciate your letter. Indeed I do know how you have stood up for Preparedness. I thank you again for having written me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel H. H. Sargent, Medford, Oregon.52 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr Macdonald: I thank you for writing me and I am pleased to hear from you. I will gladly autograph that card if you will send it to me. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt J. H. Macdonald, Esq., c/o Blakeslee Galleries, 565 Fifth Avenue, New York City.53 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mrs. Stevens: I would not send a weak boy to a ranch. The ranch life is very hard. But I should think that the young lad of when you speak would do very well at The Mesa School, at Phoenix, Arizona. I don't know if there is a vacancy there now or not. One of my boys was there; and I felt it was invaluable for him. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Mrs. Edward F. Stevens, 10 Hawthorne Road, Wellesly Hills, Mass.54 February 3rd, 1915. Dear Ernest: I am concerned to learn about Lawrence. Will you tell him that I had already read his letter to his German-American friend and think it capital. I am very glad you like my article on the Colombian Treaty. I hope later on to spend a week or so in New York; and in that case I will ask if I cannot come to the Outlook to lunch again. At any rate I want to see the Abbott family and their immediate associate! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Ernest Hamlin Abbott, Esq., 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City.55 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Miss Welling: I thank you for your letter; but I am afraid I cannot give the Government more advice than I am now doing! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Katherine Greene Welling, 112 Mercer Street, Princeton, N. J.56 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Leon: It seems to me that the thing to do now is to follow out the course I have outlined in my little book on "America and the World War." I trust you have seen it. At present, I have no further suggestions to make than those contained in the book. With thanks, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Maurice Leon, Esq., 60 Wall Street, New York City.57 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Watson: It is always a pleasure to hear from you; even when I disagree with you. I don't want to go into that matter more at length in writing. Are you ever in New York? It would be a real pleasure to see you at my house; and I would like to speak over not only this but many other things with you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Thomas E. Watson, Esq., Thomson, Georgia.58 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Russell: I am genuinely interested in your letter; and of course I am now doubly glad that I made the stand for Whiting that I did. I am surprised at what you tell me about Kingsbury; and especially shout his relations with Whiting. I had supposed he would, as a matter of course, back Whiting up. I am much more concerned, however, at what you say about the Private Charities business. I suppose that there is always a tendency for organizations of that type to fossilize. I don't know whether I can do anything; but I am going to make enquiries. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Isaac Russell, Esq., 408 Manor Avenue, Woodhaven, L. I., New York. Personal. Not for publication.59 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Bush: Yes, that's very amusing. I thank you for having written me. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Frederick M. Bush, Esq., 135 Waterville Street, Waterbury, Conn.60 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Peet: I particularly appreciate such a letter as yours, coming from a former naval officer. With high regard, Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt J. J. Pest, Esq., 940 Twen tieth St., Des Moines, Iowa.61 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Miller: I wish I could advise you; but I can't. I am not a man of means and my relations with the very rich men of the country are not such as to warrant me in giving you advice in such a matter. With regret, Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Kelly Miller, Esq., Howard University, Washington, D. C.62 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Linquist: That's a mighty nice letter of yours! I thank you for it and appreciate it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Oscar E. Linquist, Esq., Dassel, Minn.63 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Captain Niblack: These are fine photographs - infinitely better than the similar ones we got. If ever you are in this neighborhood, do let me know. I should like to see you again. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Albert P. Niblack, U. S. S. Michigan, Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y.64 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Dr. Abbott: I am obliged to you for having told me that it was the Labor Party that got New Zealand and Australia their universal service laws. I do not seem to make any headway here; but at any rate I am doing what I can. I sometimes feel as despondent as you say you do; but there is no use in feeling that way. We have got to do the best that is possible to make our people wake up. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. W. L. Abbott, Aldine Hotel, Philadelphia, Pa.65 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Pennington: Mr. Charles E. Comick is a very competent man, who has done a good deal of work for me. He has been associated with me and my nephew, Mr. Theodore Douglas Robinson, for several years; and we have a very favorable impression of him. I should certainly employ him if I had any work for him to do. I most gladly testify to his habits, character and ability. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Frank R. Pennington, Manager The Oliver Typewriter Company, 310 Broadway, New York City.66 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. von Mack: I have received your letter and the three pieces from the Transcript; and I shall read them with the care with which I always read anything of yours. [But I doubt if I have much to add to what I have written.] I count it a particular pleasure to have met you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edmund von Mack, Esq., 48 Shepard Street, Cambridge, Mass.67 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Miss Munsterberg: Your letter has come and the book; and I shall read it with real interest. I shall especially read it for what it has to say about Art. We have got to get a different view-point of Art in America before we can begin to do our duty as it should be done from the international stand-point - for each civilization is to be tested in the end by what it contributes to the sum total of all civilizations. I was so glad to see you at that delightful lunch at your father's house. With warmest regards to all your family, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Margarete Munsterberg, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge, Mass.68 February 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Curtis: I wish I could come in and go to that Indian Picture Drama of yours. It would give me real pleasure; but is just a sheer impossibility for me to undertake anything else at present. I am really sorry. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edward S. Curtis, Esq., 437 Fifth Avenue, New York City.69 January 29th, 1915. Dear Henry: I cannot answer your letter in full; but I just want to make two points. In the first place, my dear Henry, there is a personal question I want you to consider. You represent a family which, because of its service in the Civil War and of the attitude of its members in civic matters since, seems to me to embody my ideal of Americanism. I have just heard from another man whom I regard as being about as good an American as one can find - Charles McCarthy of the University of Wisconsin. On the whole, the best American in New York, whom I knew, right up to the time of his death was Jake Riis. You are of German parentage. McCarthy is of Irish parentage. Jake Riis was Danish by birth. Bonaparte, who sat in my Cabinet, was French by descent, Wilson was Scotch by birth, Meyer was German by descent. On my trip last year, of my three companions, Fiala was of Czech (Bohemian) parentage; Miller's father was born in Germany and his mother in France. Cherrie's father was born in Scotland, and his mother in Ireland. In Africa, of my three naturalists one was of German parentage, one was of [S???], and of English, German ancestry [?????] But all these men [?????????] and, nothing else.] Now, my dear Henry, if all these men think in foreign matters according to their ancestral blood, I cannot but feel that by just so much they tend to mar our common American citizenship. You have my letter to my friend who wished me to join the Anglo-American alliance. You see that I take exactly the same ground about England that I do about Germany or France or Austria. I cannot but feel, my dear Henry, that it is very regrettable [?????????????] to take any other ground. It is an evil thing for us Americans not to act purely as Americans; and to judge each foreign nation by its conduct on the given occasion which we are required to pass judgment.70 -2- [???????????????????????] with Germany. Our [????] there has named [??????????] any rate he was of German parentage. But [???????] took the straight American view. He did not care a rap whether we were dealing with Englishmen or Germans; and, indeed one of his letters, being published, gave considerable offence in Germany. The German naval officers were indolent; and our Admiral had to call them down; and he no more thought as a German under such circumstances than I would think as a Hollander or Huguenot. Again, a little later, when the diplomatic representatives met, it was the Gorman who took the right view and the Englishman the wrong view; and our representative, though of English descent, promptly sided with the German - who, by the way, was one of the closest friends I ever had, Speck von Sternberg, afterwards Ambassador to this country. It seems to me that in these cases the American of German parentage and the American of English descent both showed just the right attitude. Now, I want to say something that you are not to quote. I have purposely only spoken of [the case of] Belgium as giving an example of what might befall us if Germany smashed the Empire of England. But I have other and excellent reasons, which I do not think it advisable to put on paper, but which I will tell you, Henry, whenever you come that, which make me feel as positive as I possible can be that, if [?????] now crushed her opponents and destroyed the British Empire, in a very short space of time, we would either have absolutely to abandon the Monroe Doctrine and submit in other ways to German dictation or come to a show-down. When you hear what I have to tell you, you will come to the conclusion that I have ground for what I say. I think I have seen the papers about Belgium to which you refer. It seems to me that they showed clearly that Belgium, ever since Germany began to double-track the railroads to the Belgian frontier, obviously for military reason, was in great terror lest just what has happened might happen; and that the correspondence71 3 only has reference to defensive action [by her in conjunction with England] if Germany violated her neutrality and not to any permission [to England] to use Belgian territory against Germany unless there had been action by Germany. I know of my own knowledge that during the past few years there have been times when Belgium has hated England with peculiar fervor and when France has been extremely doubtful if Belgium was not going to side with Germany. In any event, Henry, we can only judge what was actually done; and the actual wrong was done to Belgium by Germany. The dreadful think about such wrong is that, having been done, it must make outsiders feel that similar wrongs would be committed against them if there was sufficient interest to make it desirable; [and that no promise given by the wrong does can be treated as ????ding.] I absolutely agree with what you say as to the fervor of the German people and their belief in the righteousness of their cause. Nothing finer can be imagined than the uprising of the German people in this war. But, my dear Henry, remember that the Southerners, my mother's people, showed a like fine and splendid heroism in the Civil War. They believed with all their heart that they were right. In this case, I feel, as I have said in these articles, that there is no use of outsiders assailing a people that has [taken such action] as the German people has [taken] unless they can remove the fear which [was the cause of the action.] I would like to see America introduce universal military service [on the Swiss model] and then guarantee Germany against invasion or subjugation by any other powers or all the powers around her; and, if we did this, we could with a clear conscience guarantee small states like Belgium against all the big states. As yet, I suppose such a guarantee is in the realm of Utopia; and as yet it seems to me that the one prime necessity for [us of] the United States is to prepare, and keep ourselves prepared, to defend ourselves [as Americans, and nothing else!] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt72 February 3rd, 1915 My dear Dr. Schufeldt: I was greatly interested in the cretaceous diver and in the capital photograph of the last wild pigeon. What a melancholy tragedy that has been! With thanks, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. R. W. Schufeldt, Washington, D. C.73 February 3rd, 1915. Dear Brander: I will read that book of Boas with the greatest pleasure. What is he - a German or a Jew or what? I am familiar with his name; but with very little else. [?????????????????????????] Faithfully yours, [?????????????????] Brander Matthews, Esq.,74 January 27, 1915. My dear Rowe: I am very glad to welcome you back to this country. Whenever you get to the neighborhood of New York be sure to let me know, so that if possible you can come to Oyster Bay to take lunch with me. Sincerely yours, L. S. Rowe, Esq., American Academy of Political & Social Science, West Phila. Station, Phila., Pa. Theodore Roosevelt P. S. Feb. 3rd, 1915 Kermit's Christmas presents have come; it was mighty nice of you.75 [*249*] February 3rd, 1915 My dear Dr. Mainsford: Through some mistake your note did not get to me in time for me to write you an answer. This Munday unfortunately we already had the house full - and still more unfortunately I had a relapse of jungle fever and could hardly see my guests. Can you come down on February 17th, Sunday. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. W. S. Mainsford, Hidgefield, Connecticut.76 14/165 February 6th, 1915. Dear Cabot: The enclosed is a copy of my letter to Norris, which I have just sent. You can show it to Borah. I only hope it will do some good; but of course I cannot be sure. By the way, I am told that the proposal no among the Republican extremists is to renominate Taft next time. There are a great many Progressives, including myself, who under no circumstances would support Taft. Personally, it does not seem to me that I could support Wilson even against Taft; but there are plenty who would not stop even at that; and it does not seem to me to be wise to put him up, with the certainty that the Progressives as a whole will either come out for Wilson or run a third ticket. I have got all the Naco business in my next article. I have seen a good deal of Wood; but I knew more about the Naco business than he did. The American Collector of Customs is now in Jack Greenway's hospital, having been shot in his office on American soil by Mexicans from the other side of the line. I think you will be satisfied with the tone of my Mexican article! Always yours, T. R. Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, Washington, D. C.77 Private February 6th, 1915. My dear Senator Norris: Because of our old acquaintance I venture to write you as regards the Shipping Bill; for the issue here is one vitally affecting the honor and welfare of our beloved country and far transcends any question of ordinary party politics. I feel that the seven Democrats who took their political lives in their hands to beat the Wilson-Bryan machine in this matter are entitled to the highest praise and to the heartiest support. As of course you know, I feel that Wilson and Bryan are fast putting us in a position where they imperil the safety of the country and that everything else ought to be laid aside in order to stop this danger. Not since the days of Buchanan have we had a President who has been as untrustworthy in vital matters as Mr. Wilson; and we have never had a Secretary of State as unworthy of the position as Mr. Bryan. It is our duty as good Americans to shear them of their influence for harm. The Bill for government-owned ships in its present shape, especially after the German notice of yesterday, is setting us in the pathway toward war. Messrs. Wilson and Bryan are pushing us to a position which may finally force the nation to face the alternatives of war or shameful humiliation. It is not the first time that an incompetent and incapable administrative, from sheer vacillating indecision, has brought a country into the very war which in theory he desired to avert. It seems to me that the essential thing now is for every Republican and every Progressive to fight straight with the seven Democrats until the bill is recommitted to the Committee without instructions as to amendments or as to the78 -2- time of reporting it. I do not trust the Wilson-Bryan people to prepare or stand by any amendments that will really meet the difficulties of the situation. My interest in the bill is to see it rendered impossible to purchase the ships of the powers now at war - and the big foreign banking firms that are pushing the bill here in New York undoubtedly hope to make a profit on a very large scale by selling to the Government these interned ships. But this amendment in order to make it satisfactory should be prepared by the opponents of the present bill, after it has been put back into Committee. It seems to me that all good citizens should join on this issue to beat Messrs. Wilson and Bryan, because they are emperilling the safety of the country and that the issue should be forced straight on them, and all men opposed to them kept together, until the bill is recommitted to the Committee. Then the time for conferences and for possible future movements will come. There is no use of appealing to Senator LaFollette's patriotism, for I regret to say that I am not sure that it exists; but I have written to you just as I have written to my party opponents, Lodge and Borah, and to my party associates, Poindexter and Clapp, in this matter. With good wishes, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. George W. Norris, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.79 February 4th, 1915. My dear Mr. Price: I should have been down to hear Dr. Iglehart on Sunday; but unfortunately I was laid up with a sharp attack of jungle fever. I am very sorry. Tell Mrs: Price she is a trump and understands things exactly. I cannot possibly undertake another engagement of any kind. It was awfully good of you to remember me and think of me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. T. L. Price, Oyster Bay, New York.80 220 February 4th, 1915 Dear Cal: You must not ask me to do that. I cannot take the Presidency of any League now; and I cannot bind myself to do public work. My dear Cal, you cannot imagine the pressure there is upon me even to keep abreast of my mail. It is a serious thing to have been President, just on account of the overwhelming work it entails afterward. As for going to San Francisco, I cannot yet tell what day I can go. I suppose I shall visit San Francisco during the Exposition; but I only want to go once and I have yet to find but when that can be. Sincerely yours, T. R. J. C. O'Laughlin, Esq., The Chicago Herald, Washington, D. C.81 February 4th, 1915 My dear Mr. Pierson: I thank you for your letter. I should like to see you. Later in the Spring I shall have you come in to see me some time when I am in town. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt T. Gilbert Pierson, Esq.,82 February 4th, 1915. Dearest Laura: That's a mighty nice note of yours and I appreciate it! I wish I could have seen you. Good luck ever! Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. J. West Roosevelt,83 February 4th, 1915. My dear Dr. Iglehart: I thank you for your letter. Unfortunately this Sunday I had a sharp attack of fever and so I was not able to go down to church to hear you, as I should so like to have done. I do not believe I am going to be able to give that money to the unemployed, because the Democratic majority in Congress won't return the Nobel proze to me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. F. C. Iglehart,84 February 5th, 1915 Dear George: It seems to me that if Amos Pinchot is chosen to speak on "Big Business," the name of the club should be changed to that of "The Twilight Sleep Club." There is something lovely in having him speak at the same time with an Assyrian poet who writes about "Myrtle and Myhrr." Faithfully yours, T. R. George W. Perkins, Esq., 71 Broadway, New York City.85 150 February 5th, 1915. Dear Cecil: Just after sending you another letter to Grey, I received one from him dated December 18th. I don't know why it took six weeks to reach me. Since I wrote the long letter to Grey, the success of German submarines against merchant vessels has given me a very uneasy feeling lest what I hinted at may come to pass, and the submarines may make effective war against the merchant vessels going into England. This would be a very serious business and might mean that your whole chance of going on with the war at all depended upon American merchantmen bringing you in food. This is something, of course, that your own people ought to consider when they make protests about neutrality rights or confiscate cargoes. However, I assume they know their own interests and their own capabilities. I have felt that if they choose to protest against our [??] purchasing German interned ships, they had a right to do so; and accordingly I have done all I could to prevent the passage of this bill of the Administration, a bill which is pushed by the German interests here an by the Jewish bankers who are doing Germany's business. Now, my dear Cecil, I hope your people will remember that it is they who must determine what their own interest is and that if they find afterwards that they were mistaken, the responsibility will be upon them and not upon those who have tried to help them. Moreover, do let me say as strongly as I know how that I hope that at86 -2- all costs your people will avoid a clash with us, where we are right. On grounds of expediency, as you know, I hope you will not have a clash with us if it can possible be avoided, even although we are wrong - just as it was expedient for the United States to avoid a clash with Great Britain or France during the Civil War, even although they were wrong. For it would be a veritable calamity for you to put yourselves in a position where you were wrong and where America had to stand against you or else herself abandon the right. In such a case I and those who think as I do would, however reluctantly, be obliged to take a stand against you, because we would be obliged to do the thing that was right. Your government evidently feels a great contempt for the Wilson-Bryan Administration; and I don't wonder. They are truckling to the German vote; they are utterly selfish and insincere; and they are timid to the last degree. Doubtless your people feel that they could not be kicked into a war. But it is just weak and timid but shifty creatures of the Wilson-Bryan type who are most apt to be responsible for a country drifting into war. I would regard it as an unspeakable calamity if a war should come between the United States and Great Britain. You do not need to be told that everything I can do I am doing, have done and shall do to prevent wrong conduct, offensive conduct, by this administration and to make your path smooth; I feel that the case of Belgium alone ought to put us absolutely on the side of the Allies. It is for this very reason that I so earnestly hope that you will under no circumstances yourselves do something wrong, something evil, as regards which I and the man like me will have to clearly take the stand on the other side. By the way, if the Allies have to act against us on some point, where they are clearly right and we clearly wrong, I wish it could be a French an not a87 -3- British ship that thook the action. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency Sir Cecil Spring-Rice.88 February 4th, 1915 Dear Winty: Your letter came just as were discussing Haster's marriage, which has pleased me immensely. And your letter itself was both a joy and a sorrow - for I suppose at our age there always must be some sadness in looking back at the times when we were all your together and when we did so enjoy ourselves. Of course I remember "the tidy little Bartholomew bear pig"; and I also remember the Spencerian quotation that applied to me. I have forgotten the exact words; but I think that the inference was that I had forty couple of hounds making a noise in my belly. [??????????????????????????????????????] I also remember that dinner at Gardner Roberts well and the ski-ing entertainment and all kinds of other occasions. I hear nothing but what is good of young Pickman. John Lodge was telling me about him. Through some mistake your letter only reached me a day or two ago. I could not have come on to the wedding anyhow; but I would certainly have written you, if I had known it was to take place. I do wish we could see Daisy and you. Now a day or two I have been laid up with a return of jungle fever; but it is not serious. I had a most amusing and interesting letter from Willy the other day, entreating me to come over and head a band of "free companions" in an assault on Germany. So let me see you. There have been no two people [men] I have been more anxious to see than you and Dan Wister; and I haven't had a glimpse of either of you for I don't know how long. [Can't you ????????????????????????????????? to see us when good ???????????] Faithfully yours, T. R. WINTHROP CHANLER, ESQ.,89 February 5th, 1915. My dear Mr. Jennings: I have just received your very interesting letter and enclosure. I should use it in what I am writing in the Metropolitan; but unfortunately this is the last day I have before the final proof is sent in; and, as I cannot tell when the Herald will publish the piece, I do not feel at liberty to quote it myself. It is very striking and significant. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt N. A. Jennings, Esq., c/o American Consulate, Vera Cruz, Mexico.90 [*222*] February 4th, 1915. My dear Cochran: Will you read the enclosed letter through? Have you any acquaintance with the poems of Bliss Carman? Some of this Ballads have really been capital; and I wish to heaven there were some way that we could be saved the discredit of having a man like him die of want, because the advertisers of automobile supplies do not think his poetry is "breezy" and "snappy" and "up-to-date." From the letter you will see that what is wanted is some employment at a salary of five hundred dollars a year for Carman or five thousand dollars to get him the annuity. When I was President, I cheerfully outraged the feelings of the ultra-Civil-Service Reformers by fishing a similar poet - I think an even better man - Arlington Robinson, out of a Boston Millinary store, where he was writing metrical advertisements for spring hats, and put him in the Custom House. This got him a start; and he has done well ever since, although it is perhaps needless to say that Taft promptly turned him out. I write you chiefly as founder of the Elizabethan Club. Would there be anything he could do at a salary of five hundred dollars a year annually that could be given him or any steps that could be taken toward getting that annuity for him? The demands made upon me are so innumerable that I am not physically able to meet one in ten of them - and, as you may have noticed, Congress won't even give me back the Nobel Peace Prize to make use of it. It was delightful having you and Bob Perkins out here. Do you know Alec Lambert? If you do, would you care to include him on that trip; when we go up to the Elizabethan Club in the spring? He is an awfully good fellow. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Alexander Smith Cochran, Esq.,91 February 4th, 1915 My dear Dr. Robbins: It would be of no consequence for me to write another letter to Mrs. Riis. Mine was merely explaining to her that the people to whom ordinarily I could give her letters of introduction in London were all at the front, including, as I understand it, even the Bishop of London; and, in any event, they would not be able to deal with the things she had at heart. If the Democratic majority in Congress would only let me put the Nobel Prize gift to some use, I should be able in a small way to help out your neighborhood settlement. It is one of the many things I would like to do and am helpless to do. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Jane E. Robbins,92 Private [*287*] February 6th, 1915. My dear Jusserand: I thank you for your letter. I am sick at heart at what is being done by the Administration in these matters. I very greatly wish I could have been President to deal with the Mexican situation and with this war - and Heaven knows I say this without any kind of regard for my own interest. I do wish that every effort could be made to circulate in every way throughout the country such documents as those of which you speak and which you enclose to me. As for Bartholdt and his people in that movement, I of course believe that we will have more trouble than is now imagined from it in the future. It is very hard for me to keep cool about it. It is unnecessary to say that I take absolutely the view that you do in your letter to me about the whole contraband business and have done everything I could to make our people accept those views. But as a matter of expediency I very earnestly hope that the English and French governments will act toward this administration as Lincoln's administration acted towards the English and French Governments in our Civil War, when the official classes of England and France were hostile to us or at best were engaged in acting toward us as Wilson and Bryan now act toward the Allies. Good by, my dear fellow, and good luck! Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt HIS EXCELLENCY JULES JUSSERAND,93 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. McCleary: It does me good to hear from you again; and I am particularly pleased to know how well you are doing. I always believed in you, as you know. I thank you for the information you give me with the letter and for sending me the Monthly Bulletin. Good luck to you always! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt James F. McCleary, Esq., American Iron and Steel Institute, 30 Church Street, New York City.94 February 6th, 1915. Friend William: Bully for you! You are talking good sound sense. I feel exactly as you do about Wilson and Bryan. It was infamous of them to shirk their duty about Belgium and to scream the minute the dollars were touched. It was particularly bad in view of their loud protestations that they were not concerned with dollars; were too lofty to think of them; and were only interested in humanity. Their conduct in Mexico has been atrocious beyond belief. Moreover, the attitude of Wilson and Bryan, between ourselves, is due in my judgment to the basest kind of pandering to the German vote; and I am very much angered at the way many Germans here are trying to use their American citizenship against the interests of America and in favor of Germany. Such men have no business in this country. I am partly of German descent' I admire and respect Germans; but the man who comes here ought to be straight United States and nothing else. All of this of course is for your own eye only. Now, as to what you say about the Progressives. I don't know. In Maine I should follow what Vernon and Gardner did. Perhaps you can get the decent wing of the Republicans into some kind of joint action with you. As yet I do not wish to be quoted, because I want to see how things come out. It is a hair-trigger situation; and nationally we ought to sit tight for a year and await developments.95 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Baetjer: I thank you for that pen-and-ink sketch of the Bishop of London. I would not have recognized him, as naturally I have never seen him in such a garb. It was very good of you to have sent it to me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles H. Baetjer, Esq., Baltimore Club, Baltimore, Maryland.96 -2- I am glad to hear how well you are. Give my warm regards to all my friends. Good luck always! Your friend, Theodore Roosevelt William W. Sewall, Esq., Hook Point Camps, Mattawamkeag Lake, Island Falls, Maine.97 [*158*] February 6th, 1915. Dear Senator: That's a capital letter of yours to Record! Of course, his proposal represented in part a confiscation of railroad properties, which would in my judgment be improper morally (although I have no doubt that Record thinks it would be all right) and which would throw this country into a panic and depression and a condition of ruin such as we have no idea of. I do not believe that Record is a man of good judgment. Let me thank you for sending him that letter. Good luck to you! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William Flinn, Highland Building, Pittsburgh, Pa.98 [*Private*] February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Clayton: I want to thank you for both your letters and for the capital essay. I will send it to The Outlook, as you suggest; but you must remember I am not connected with it any longer; and they will value purely their won judgment of the matter. Indeed, I am not certain that I am acting wisely in sending it, for it may be that it would be better for you yourself to do so. However, as you make the request, I will gladly do it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Joseph C. Clayton, Esq., 189 Montague Street, Brooklyn, New York.99 February 6th, 1915 My dear Coudert: In view of your letter I am sending my check to the France-America Committee and will continue my membership. Under no circumstances would I have people think that I am going back on France now. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frederic R. Coudert, 2 Rector Street, New York City.100 February 5th, 1915 My dear Mr. Finn: No, I did not get a copy of that book - Wild Animals of Yesterday and Today. Doubtless it was due to my own fault; and so I shall ask you, as a favor to me, to direct your publishers to send me a copy, with the bill. I am very pleased that you are now editing the Zoologist. I wish I had been able to get at you while I was in London last year. I tried but failed. I am obliged to you for sending me that very interesting clipping of yours. It was so good that I wish it could have been put in a permanent form. It is literally true that the dry-as-dust scientists of the present day, who are not observers of nature, are preaching Mythology rather than Zoology. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frank Finn, Esq., c/o Grindley & Co., 54 Parliament Street, London, S. W., England.101 [*89*] February 6th, 1915 Dear Chapman: I am highly pleased that you liked that article. Confidentially, Ingersoll wrote protesting strongly against my praise of Nelson as a writer; and Hornaday wrote protesting strongly that I should have praised him when he did not stand up for Bird Protection! I will see what I can do with Scribner. What kind of an article on Mexico would you suggest having Nelson write? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frank N. Chpaman, Esq., Bratton Inn, Ormond Beach, Florida.102 February 6th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Edwards: Indeed, I do remember that trip well, and of course I remember you well. I am glad that first-rate fellow and first-class fighting man, your husband, is out doing his duty; and I know he will do it well. I do wish that you had been in England when I was there last Spring. I have at once sent your letter to Mr. Barton Hepburn here to find out if there is anything we can do to help in East Africa. I have got my own hands more than full with the Belgians and with our own poor devils who are out of employment. I wish I knew where Mrs. Macmillan was. I would particularly like to see her. With warm regards and good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. E. G. N. Edwards, 113 Coleherne Court, South Kensington, S. W., London, England.103 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Hepburn: The enclosed explains itself. The writer was the wife of the Chief of Police of Uganda. I have answered her that I was not a man of means. About all I can give has been given to the Belgians and to our own people. Do you think anything could be done among Americans who have visited British East Africa, along the lines she indicates? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt A. Barton Hepburn, Esq., Chase National Bank, New York City.104 February 6th, 1915 My dear Colonel: Will you extend my warm sympathy to Mrs. Brodie? Anything that happens to her or to you appeals very strongly to Mrs. Roosevelt and to me. With all good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel Alexander O. Brodie, 343 Kings Highway East, Haddonfield, N. J.105 February 6th, 1915. My dear Pease: It is good to hear from you! I hope you have gotten hold of the little book I wrote called "America and the World War." I am sick at heart over the way our Administration has acted. Wilson and Bryan have behaved in this war precisely as Palmerston and Gladstone behaved in our Civil War. It is characteristic of them that, being professional pacificists, they should give all the encouragement they can to outrages such as that committed on Belgium. They are partly influenced by physical fear; partly by their desire to placate the German vote; and in a very small degree by a twisted flabbiness of principle. Of course, the Unite States should ask all neutral powers at once to act just as you say we ought to have acted. You know, I have always believed that the best Quaker people, those actuated by high principle, made uncommonly good fighting men. I remember our conversation on the Kapiti Plains well; and I am delighted that your two sons and your son-in-law and most of your kinsmen are in the service and that you are doing your part too. My dear fellow, I believe in you with all my heart; and you are acting exactly as I knew you would act. Give my warm regards to Lady Pease. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt SIR ALFRED PEASE 106 February 6th, 1915. My dear Fullerton: That's a mighty nice letter of yours! I shall give my daughter the Carman [or Carmen] letter at once. When I see you, I will tell you of a rather melancholy coincidence in connection with the receipt of your letter. Yes, I have been reading through the revised edition of "Problems of Power"; and I took particular note of the very points to which you allude in your present letter. I have just sent for the February copy of the World's Work. I am sick at heart over the antics of Wilson and Bryan. It is dreadful that they should be in power at this crisis of the world's history. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt W. Norton Fullerton, Esq., 195 Newberry Street, Brockton, Mass.107 February 6th, 1915. Dear Sir George: That's a mighty nice letter of yours; and I was very glad to get it. It touched me deeply. How I wish I could see you! Have you seen a copy of the little book I have published, called "America and the World War?" I believe that you will like the stand I take there. I am sick at heart over the actions of Wilson and Bryan. Tell your son George that I have been quoting again and again the extracts be gives of John Bright's letters to Sumner when Palmerston and Gladstone went wrong in our Civil War and am doing all I can now to preach the same doctrine that John Bright did at that time. Of course, if I had been President, I would have gone to any extreme necessary to put the United States on the side of justice and humanity and civilization in this contest. I am glad George is in Servia. Will you give my warm regards to Lady Trevelyan? I wish there was something I could do more than merely write my views. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sir George Trevelyan, Welcombe, Stratford-on-Avon, England.108 February 6th, 1915. My dear Sir Harry: That's a particularly nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. I am glad that you like the story. With all good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Sir Harry Lawson, The Telegraph, Fleet Street, London, E. C., England. P. S. I have just seen the editorial in the Telegraph; and I want to thank you particularly for it. I genuinely appreciate it. Be sure to give me the chance of seeing you if you ever come to this side of the water.109 February 6th, 1915 My dear Comrade: I wish I could help you; but I am absolutely powerless. There is nothing in the world that I can do and nothing that I can advise. Of course, the Kansas Courts would resent any effort whatever of mine to aid you in your proposed appeal or in any other action before them. I am very sorry. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Richard Lawrence, Esq., c/o Foster & Bullock, Russell Building, Dodge City, Kansas.110 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Coe: It is always a pleasure to hear from you. You are entitled to any advice I can give; but at this moment I don't know what to advice you. It is not that I have not very strong views; but that when I speak what I say is accepted as applying to many different places where the conditions are totally unlike those existing in the place as to which I did speak. There are a very few districts in the country where the party has been so handled as to make us feel that there is a legitimate show for its future - or at least would be if conditions were different elsewhere - but I need not say that this has not been the rule. If you are to be in New York, I would like to talk with you personally. [About all we at least quarters can now do nationally is to sit tight and await events! ????????????? you] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt William T. Coe, Esq., 728 McKnight Building, Minneapolis, Minn.111 February 6th,1915 My dear Mr. Curtis: I appreciate your letter and thank you for it, both as regards what you say about Belgium and as to what you say as regards the court decision to which you refer. We will never have to apologize for the position we have been taking! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Smith Curtis, Esq., 232 Granite Building, Spokane, Washington.112 February 6th, 1915. Dear Medill: You are very welcome to send a copy of my letter to you to White, Allen and Murdock (and of course also a copy of your letter which it ???????) - but only for their private information. This is a hair trigger situation; all we can do is to sit tight and await events. With most of what you say in your letter of February 3rd, I entirely agree. Of course, I am a very strong believer in the heavily progressive and, after a certain time, well-nigh ex-propriatory taxation of swollen inheritances. I do not care much for the Income Tax; and I dislike both the tax on small income and the tax on small inheritances; but the only way to get at the swollen fortune is by the kind of tax above-mentioned on big inheritances. As you know, I advocated this when I was President. My objection to Amos Pinchot and George Record and the other gentlemen who have left us was not that they were too far in advance. There were some measures on which they were right but were at present too far in the front; but the real trouble was that they were too far off to one side. The I. W. W. does not represent advance. It doesn't represent anything but mere destruction. Meyer and Haywood and the MacNamaras are fundamentally merely part of the problem with with the police have to deal. They are given their power by bad social conditions which we must cure; but they themselves do not represent any faint fore-shadowing even of the113 -2- way in which to deal with that problem. With best wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Medill McCormick, Esq., The Illinois House of Representatives Springfield, Illinois.114 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mrs. McBee: I am exceedingly distressed to learn of the sickness of your dear husband. I hope he will soon be all right. It was a matter of very great regret to me not to see him at breakfast. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Silas McBee, The Devon, 70 West 55th Street, New York City.115 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Buxton: I appreciate your letter. Your conversation was most valuable to me and gave me two or three if the very points I most wished. As to the two statements in my book, to which you except, one, that of Belgium's preparedness, was an error on my part. What I really meant was that, as compared with Luxembourg, she was prepared; but I shall show, when I get the chance, how unprepared she was compared with Switzerland. Evidently, about Antwerp, I was misled by statements appearing at the time of the dropping of the bombs by airships. I wish you could help found such a league as that of which you speak. Why don't you get in touch with Mr. Huidekoper, Secretary of the Army League of the United States, Washington, D. C.; General Leonard Wood, Governor's Island, New York; Lawrence F. Abbott, of the National Defense League, whom you can reach at 287 Fourth Avenue, New York; and Colonel William Cary Sanger, Montague Terrace, Brooklyn, New York? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. G. Edward Buxton, Jr., Providence, Rhode Island.116 February 6th, 1915 Dear Mat: There is nothing immediate. I want just to talk over the future politically. I am very glad that you are on the road to betterment. Have you seen W. Morton Fullerton's "Problems of Power" and "Drift and Mastery" by Walter Lippman? I think both would interest you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Matthew Hale, Esq.,117 February 6th,1915 My dear Mrs. Sampson: You are most kind. There are no men in whom I believe more than in the enlisted men of the United States Army and Navy. I cannot promise to make any visits, however, while I am in California. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Ernest Sampson, West Garrison, Angel Island, California.118 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. McCarthy: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept the kind invitation of the Bronx Aerie No. 491, Fraternal Order of Eagles, to address that public meeting. I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I shall have to make exceptions in literally scores of other cases. I am really sorry. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt C. P. McCarthy, Esq., Secretary, 538 East 138th Street, New York City.119 February 6th, 1915. Dear Bronson: That's very nice of you! Of course, you were not to blame in any way. Roberts is really an astounding scoundrel. He came to see me as Curry's former private secretary, who was anxious to give me information about Villa; and then he put most of this alleged information into an interview, which he attributed to me! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bronson M. Cutting, Esq., Santa Fe, New Mexico.120 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Boog-Watson: Your letter is so pleasant and friendly that I must write to tell you that I appeaciete it. With high regard, Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Charles B. Boog-Watson, Esq., Huntly Lodge, 1 Napier Road, Edinburgh, Scotland.121 [*156*] February 6th, 1915 Dear Emlen: Here is a remote course of ours in difficulties. What would you advise me to answer poor Gertrude? Always yours, T. R. W. Emlen Roosevelt, Esq., 30 Pine Street, New York City.122 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Cantwell: I thank you for your courteous letter; but I am going to ask you not to try to see me about the Indian question, unless you have something definite as to which you want me to do something; and, if so, will you please write me about it in advance? I am utterly unable to do one in a hundred of the things I am asked to do. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt H. J. Cantwell, Esq., Room 609, Natl. Bank of Commerce, St. Louis, Missouri.123 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Brind: I thank you for your courtesy in sending me that binder. It will enable me to keep the articles in convenient form. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt W. L. Brind, Esq., c/o Cosmofotofilm Co., 110 West 40th Street, New York City.124 February 6th, 1915 Dear Nelson: That's a nice letter of yours! I am glad to get it. It was a pleasure to me to write as I did. Good luck always! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. W. Nelson, Esq., 305 The Northumberland, Washington, D. C.125 February 6th,1915 Dear John: Good for you! That's fine. I am very much pleased. Always yours, T. R. John M. Parker, Esq., 816 Union Street, New Orleans, La.126 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. FitzHugh: I thank you for your letter and am interested in what you say. I think that Mahan ought to have a statue in Washington, for I regard him as a great public servant. I will get that "Life of Lord Lyons" at once. With hearty thanks, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Cart er H. FitzHugh, Esq., Lytton Building, Chicago, Ill.127 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Callaghan: I do remember you, although only as the son of your father. He was a fine fellow; and I am glad to see from what you tell me that his son is following in his footsteps. Good luck to you! Will you give my warm regards to the little Western bride? I send you the photograph gladly. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Thomas J. Callaghan, Esq., P. O. Lock Box 1244, Salt Lake City, Utah.128 February 6th, 1915. My dear Miss Schwartz: Your letter pleases me; but it saddens me even more. I feel the very keenest regret that we should be having times that make it so hard to get employment. With real regret, Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Irene Schwartz, 398 Fifteenth Avenue, Newark, N. J.129 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mrs. Colonna: The appeals which have been made to me because of the lecture are innumerable. I am sorry to say that I know of no way in which I can be of assistance to your brother. I am sincerely sorry. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Mrs. B. A. Colonna, 140 B. Street, N. E., Washington, D. C.130 February 6th, 1915 My dear Dr. Fox: That's very nice of you; and I greatly appreciate the fact that a scientific man should have thought of me. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Carroll Fox, U. S. Public Health Service, Toledo, Ohio.131 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Morgan: That's a mighty nice letter of yours! Will you give my warm regards to your father and mother? Just add that it is good to hear of a family of nine boys and seven girls of that type. With hearty good wishes and expressing my deep appreciation of the photograph you have sent me, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt V. B. Morgan, Esq., United States Post Office, Dunn, North Carolina.132 February 5th, 1915. My dear Mr. Reynolds: I cannot go into that case. You doubtless know that the Menace has been attacking me with especial venom. It is a thoroughly un-American and unpatriotic paper. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt John. H. Reynolds, Esq., Muskegon, Michigan.133 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Dana: I am both touched and pleased by your letter. Nothing could have given me more real pleasure. Wishing you all good fortune, I am Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Alfred P. Dana, Esq., Franklin, Mass.134 February 6th, 1915. My dear Dr. Leech: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. I need hardly say that I agree absolutely with your estimate of the present occupant of the White House. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. S. V. Leech, The De Soto, Washington, D. C.135 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Remsen: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. It's always a pleasure to hear from you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. E. Remsen, Esq., East Norwich Enterprise, East Norwich, Long Island, N. Y.136 February 6th, 1915. My dear Mr. Watson: That's mighty nice of you! I appreciate your having sent me the account of what you are doing in the Polytechnic High School Cadets. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James Reade Watson, Esq., 1397 Forty-eighth Avenue, San Francisco, Cal.137 February 6th, 1915 My dear Dr. Johnson: I thank you for your letter and am concerned at my inability to help you. As you of course know, I have innumerable calls upon me; and in very few cases does it happen that I have the ability to respond. I have not the slightest idea how to advise you in this case. With real regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. F. M. Johnson, 43 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass.138 February 6th, 1915. My dear Sir: I thank you for your kind letter; but just at this time I am not taking any part in any general political movement. Moreover, there are certain positions you take, with which I am not prepared at this time to express my sympathy. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Virgil G. Einshaw, Esq., 106 North LaSalle Street, Chicago, Illinois.139 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Storer: I do not know what means would be the best. I am not a great hand for dictation as regards permanent work, unless the man will go over it with great care afterwards. Vernon Bailey is a very fine fellow. If Fuertes, Vernon Bailey, Merriam and Shiras, together with Nelson, could be employed to write a genuine natural history of the land vertebrates of all North America, they would make a work that would be in fact, not merely in name, monumental. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Tracy I. Storer, Esq., Assistant Curator of Birds, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, Cal.140 February 6th, 1915 Dear Gertrude: Your letter causes me much concern. wish I knew how to [?] about [?]. I am very much afraid that being [?] [?] [?] you may [?] I have taken the liberty of writing and [?] his advice. I will [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Gertrude R. Punnett.141 February 1915. Dear Harry: I thank you for your letter. Have you seen the little book I have published called "America and the World War?" I [??????] put my views as emphatically as I possibly could. I must hardly say that I am bitterly [????????????????????] this administration has taken. Will you give my [?????????????] the little war bride? By the way, [??????????????] of Dutch descent, is he not? With love [??????????????] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. H. B. Wolryche-Whitmore, Thedden Grange, Hants, England142 February 6th, 1915. My dear Mr. Hunter: I thank you for your kind letter. That would be a history more than well worth writing; but it would be, I think, literally a life work; and I would not feel competent to do it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles C. Hunter, Esq., The Fowey Hotel, Fowey, Cornwall, England.143 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Woodward: That's a fine photograph! I want to congratulate you and above all your wife on such a family. Good luck to you all! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Philip Miner Woodward, St. Cloud, Minnesota.144 February 8th, 1915 My dear Mr. Cristadoro: I thank you for your letter and the very interesting clipping; but I am sorry to hear that you are so much under the weather. The doctrines that you teach are of course doctrines that every one of our people should take to heart. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles Cristadoro, Esq., Pt. Loma, California.145 February 6th, 1915 My dear Mr. Ingersoll: I thank you for your letter and for the enclosures you sent me. They are very interesting. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt James M. Ingersoll, Esq., Pocatello, Idaho.146 February ?th, 1915 My dear Mrs. McDowell: I thank you for the report, which I shall read at once. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Mrs. Harriet McDowell, Jacob Riis Settlement, 48 Henry Street, New York City147 3 234 February 8th, 1915. Dearest Kermit: Mother has just come back from visiting Quentin at Groton, Quentin having timed her visit so as not to be near the visit of Auntie Bye - for, as he explained, he was anxious not to "bunch his hits." Quentin is in fine fettle and is really doing excellent work with the Grotonian. I have all kinds of interesting letters from Kipling and King Haakon and King Albert and Edward Grey; but I don't like to send them to you for fear they will get lost. Nick has written me very intelligently and interestingly; and I think he would appreciate a letter from you. His address is care The American Embassy, Paris, France. Archie comes home tomorrow. Mac, who is taking this dictation, saw him when he, Mac, went up to play a hockey game at Boston recently and took dinner with him, after a game in which (Mac now has the smile of the convicted criminal) Mac was finally ordered off the ice, thanks to gross favoritism of a large ex-football captain umpire, Mac relieving his feeling by punching the ex-football captain in the stomach (in justice to him it should be said he only did this to show a natural resentment at having the football captain's hands put on his shoulders.) Archie says Mack was absolutely right -- but Archie is distraught. A week ago this Sunday, Ted and Eleanor came out for148 -2- the night and were just dear. They brought Bob Perkins and Alec Cochran with them. Next day I had a little bout of fever; but it was completely gone after three or four days. It means nothing - simply that every now and then there will be a recurrence, exactly as happened after my return from Cuba and again after my return from Africa. I suppose you have occasional attacks. Mr. Rowe sent on the presents; and we were immensely pleased with them. We all came to the conclusion that they were exceedingly learned and wise! I suppose Belle [or Nelle] understands the expression? I made a speech at the Opera House for the Unemployed; and we really did very well, raising twenty thousand or thirty thousand dollars and starting a movement which resulted in the raising of very much larger sums. The suffering has been very great. Miss Kellor engineered the meeting and Auntie Corinne took hold of it, together with Mrs. Grace Vanderbilt; and they two really did most to make it a success. I have become really attached to Grace Vanderbilt. She is a nice woman; and I like her. After the meeting, she had a supper which I went to and thoroughly enjoyed. Mother would not go to the meeting or to the supper. There was no reason why she should have gone to the former; but I think if she could have made up her mind to it she would have really enjoyed being at the supper, for she is just as pretty and attractive as ever; and there were plenty of people in whom she might have been interested. However, she not only would not come but persists in thinking that I was bored but didn't know it! As a matter of fact, I had an extremely good time. I should go quite crazy if I had to stay149 -3- more than a very few days in New York; and I am more grateful then I can say that I have Sagamore Hill at which permanently to reside. But every fortnight or so I like to get in town for a day or a night to see a few people in whom I am interested. Ethel and Dick have a dear house and are just as happy as possible. They have their friends and are so busy and do such nice things. In fact, I am very proud of the two little households here in New York - and am at least as proud of the little household in Buenos Aires and only wish I could visit it as often. Auntie Corinne is a dear; and I have seen quite a little or her recently. The other afternoon I got her to go round with me to Eleanor's and see the first party of Gracie and Theodorethe 3rd. The guests ranged in age from six months to four years; and they seemed to be having a lovely time, which is by no means always the case at parties of that nature. I am having you sent the Metropolitan. Some of the articles I write in it may have a certain interest for you. I have no responsibility for anything except what I myself write. With dearest love to Belle, Ever yours, [?????????????] Kermit Roosevelt, Esq., National City Bank of New York, Casilla de Correc 1396, Buenos Aires, The Argentine.150 [*85*] [*258*] February 9th, 1915. Dear Cecil: Your two letters have come. My letters to you will hereafter go in envelopes without my name on them, so as to attract as little attention as possible. Now, my dear Cecil, do not feel too badly over things. I am bitterly humiliated at what this Administration has done. I am not merely humiliated, but profoundly angered by the attitude of the professional German-Americans. But don't forget that there are lots of Americans of German descent who do not sympathize with these men. My doctor at Oyster Bay is one. My collaborator in the work of The Life Histories of African Big Game is another. Our Progressive candidate for Governor of Vermont is a third. All three of these men are of German parentage, their fathers and mothers being born abroad. All three of them are emphatically against Germany in this fight and all three of them resent being called German-Americans. We are not an alert people. We do not understand foreign affairs and, when a President misleads us, as Wilson has done, some very good people tend to follow him; but I believe, my dear Cecil, that down at bottom this people is sound, just as I have believed that down at bottom your people were sound. But you are quite right in saying that each nation must trust only to itself. In your letter you say that your people must trust only to yourselves and also to your present allies. I151 2 believe that they will stand by you through this war; but twenty- five years hence you may be siding with Germany against Russia for anything you can tell. The extra-ordinary thing is that the professional pacificists, the very people who have howled most about the hundred years of peace between Britain and the United States have in this contest done nothing to stand up for Belgium and for the Allies. That task has been left to men who are not professional pacificists, like myself. Do get on here. I ought to have a talk with you. I will come in town and meet you at any one of a dozen private houses where nobody will know that you have been. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, British Embassy, Washington, D. C. [An Englishmen named Thompson has offered me an opportune time to write a book [?]. Wilson to 16 [?] and furiously [?] out in the great that any [?] of Columbia was far more than Germany's [?] of Belgium. There are flamboyant fools and [?] [?] of [?] Our own nation [?]!*]152 February 9th, 1915. My dear Governor: I wish to heavens I could help you; but I simply have not got the money. There is nothing that I think is more important then to have just such a paper as that, you propose trying to get. Unfortunately I have had requests from at least fifty [responsible] sources to help in the purchase of papers; and I am physically unable to do what I am asked to do. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Francis E. McGovern, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.153 February 4th, 1915. My dear Sir: There is scant need for me to repeat my position. It is set forth at length in the little book I have published, called "America and the World War." You claim that you and your associates in your Society have stood for what is right; and you protect against my condemning you. I do not know, save very vaguely, what you have stood by; and, so far as I know, I have never mentioned the name of your society. Your own record, collectively and individually, must determine whether or nor you have been condemned by me. Have you as a Society, have your President and other members supported by voice, and, where they had the power, by vote the policy of fortifying the Panama Canal? If you have done so, you have done well. If you have not done so, you have offended against righteousness and you are among those who are rightly condemned in the book I wrote. Are you and your associates at this moment backing up the effort to give us an army of a couple of hundred thousand men, to secure universal military training of an effective kind for our young men on a thoroughly democratic basis and to bring our Navy up to the highest point of perfection? If you are doing so, you are doing well and have no cause to feel hurt at what I have said. Sixteen years ago we went to war to free Cuba. "Peace" had been kept for a number of years, while Cuba was trodden under heel by tyranny and a million of her people, most of them women and children, died. We went to war and by the sacrifice of a couple of154 -2- hundred men (instead of a few hundred thousand women and children) we brought peace to the island and prosperity such as it had never known in all its history before. This was a real victory for Peace; and we conferred the same benefits on the Phillipines that we did on Cuba. Has your Society, and have you and your associates individually, cordially supported this policy? If so, you have done well. If not, you have offended against the cause of Peace and Righteousness, and you should amend your ways. There is one paragraph of your letter, however, in which you take an attitude incompatible with wise and genuine love of peace and righteousness. You say: "war is a relic of a barbaric age, an insane futile and intolerable nuisance. x x x x x war must therefore pass away, as has the code duello, piracy, the thumbikin the screw and the rack." In this paragraph you clearly lump all wars together, righteous and unrighteous alike. You use language which must be understood to mean that you class the war fought under Washington for American Independence and under Lincoln for the Union of this nation and the freedom of the slave in the category with the wars of Attila and Genghis Khan. This is precisely and exactly as if you classified the use of the knife by a great surgeon to safe life with the use of the knife by Apaches to torture to death a victim. This sentence of yours clearly means, and can only mean, that you classify young Shaw and young Lowell in the Civil War and the men of Bunker Hill and the stormers of Stony Point in the Revolution as in the same category with the men who used the thumbscrew and the rack. Such an attitude would be both base and silly were it not presumably merely a case of hysteria. But hysteria does not tend to edification. You speak of the "six hundred peace agreements" and the like, which [had?] [????????] prior to the opening of the present war, it would not be of the155 -3- slightest consequence whether there were six thousand or sixty. The worth of a promise lies in the keeping of it. Have you specifically denounced President Wilson and Secretary Bryan for their failure to uphold the Hague Conventions to which this country attached its signature, when, in defiance of them, Belgium was trodden under foot? If you have not done so, you have been derelict in your duty and are derelict now. It is not of the slightest use to praise Peace in the abstract, if you are afraid to stand up effectively for peace - of course the peace of righteousness, for any other kind of peace is abhorrent - in the concrete. The Hague Court was an absolute nullity when I became President. It never had been used. The first case before it was put before it by my directions by John Hay in a dispute between ourselves and Mexico. My action gave it life, and was a greater concrete contribution to the cause of the peace of righteousness than had been accomplished by all the Peace Congresses and Peace Societies with which I am acquainted. I believe in Peace; but I believe in the Peace of Justice and not in the Peace that consecrates misdeeds of successful violence. I have acted on my beliefs. I have brought Peace and served Peace in many ways. An ounce of performance is worth a ton of windy declamation about wrong in the abstract; above all when there is failure to take any steps against wrong in the concrete. If you have denounced Messrs. Wilson and Bryan for the ridiculous arbitration or commission treaties that they have been passing by the score at the same time that, with timid consequences to wrong-doing, they have failed to protect Belgium, then you have a right to say that you are for Peace; but not otherwise. Yours truly, Theodore Roosevelt Arthur D. Call, Esq., Colorado Building, Washington, D. C.156 [*121*] February 11th, 1915. Dear Emlem: If those bills came from the proper authorities, please pay them. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt W. Emlem Roosevelt, Esq., 30 Pine Street, New York City.157 February 13th, 1915. Dear Mike: Will you send the enclosed letter. Make any suggestions if you do not think it satisfactory. You are quite right about getting Arthur out of the boxing game. I am a great believer in the Boxing Game; but I believe in it as a boxing game and not as a life profession. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor M. J. Donovan, New York Athletic Club, New York City.158 [*97*] February 1?th, 1915. My dear Mr. Flynn: On account of our old acquaintance I take the liberty of writing you on behalf of as fine a young fellow as I know, Arthur Donovan, known in the ring as "Young Mike Donovan." The boy is the same of one of my oldest and best friends, Mike Donovan, of the New York Athletic Club. He takes after his father; he is as trustworthy and straightforward and honest as the old man; and more than that no human being can say. He is a strapping young fellow, who has won over fifty fights, never having a decision rendered against him excepting in one fight, in favor of Mike Gibbons. He has never touched a drop of liquor; and he is as straight as a string and as game as a bulldog. He is very anxious to get into the Secret Service. I believe he would make as good a man as such friends [of mine] as Frank Tyree, Steve Connell and Jim Sloane. It is a very real pleasure to me to write this on his behalf. I neither know nor care anything about his politics. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. William J. Flynn, [??????] Secret Service Bureau, Treasury Department, Washington, D. C. Theodore Roosevelt159 February 13th, 1915. In the death of W. Woodville Rockhill the Club loses one of its most distinguished members. Mr. Rockhill was one of those not too common men who rendered distinguished service in two entirely different lines of work. He was a public servant of marked ability, of whom it is not too much to say that as a diplomat he did a unique work for our people. He was also one of the most distinguished explorers and travelers who have ever reflected honor upon the American name. He served for a long time as Assistant Secretary of State and in other positions in the Department of State at Washington; and he was also Ambassador to Russia; but most of his service was rendered in Asia, particularly in China - although also in Turkey. In the Far East he achieved for himself and his country a reputation such as only two or three men had ever achieved and such as no other American had ever achieved. He was far and away the most distinguished and ablest and most useful representative we have ever had in China; and his usefulness was almost as great to the country to which he was accredited as to the country from which he came. He was an adventurous man and had served with distinction in the French Foreign Legion in North Africa and elsewhere. His explorations [??????] and in other parts of the little known or wholly unknown [??????????] of Central Asia were worthy to be compared with [??????]160 -2- [???????] done by any other explorer of those regions. He was a [????] [?????????????] of the Royal Geographical Society; and in some ways his [???????????] were better known to the geographers and explorers of France, England, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Sweden than to our own people. He was one of the most distinguished members of this club and was emphatically one of the most useful citizens of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt161 February 1?th, 1915. My dear Dr. Reed: I hardly know how to advise you. I am of course not on good terms with this administration. Would it not be possible for the young man to get his Congressman to see someone having authority in the Navy Department and consult him directly? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. C. Fenwick Reed, 710 East Washington Street, Greencastle, Indiana.162 February 13th, 1915. My dear Governor Wallace: It is a pleasure to hear from you. I think you have stated the position exactly. I am heartily and entirely opposed to Messrs Wilson and Bryan; but if the Republicans renominated Mr. Taft, as some of them are now talking of doing, on the old standpat ticket with the old machine men of the type you speak of at the helm, I do not see how it is possible for them to expect Progressives to assist them. Faithfully yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] Hon. Albert J. Wallace, 621 Union Oil Building, Los Angeles, Cal.163 February 1?th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Knickerbocker: Your letter gives me real concern, because I am absolutely powerless to help your son. I have no business connections. It is barely possible that my brother-in-law, Douglas Robinson, would be able to give him some advice. All I can suggest is that he call upon him. With real regret, Sincerely yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] Mrs. Helen Laurance Knickerbocker, Englewood, New Jersey.164 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Edmunds: I am very sorry to say that I do not know any concern needing a photographer and have no means of finding out; but if you can find out such a concern, I will write telling of my experiences with you and of how good we thought that photograph you took of me. Mrs. Roosevelt has been particularly pleased with it. You are very welcome to show this letter to anyone with whom you seek employment. I believe you will do first-rate work if given a chance. Sincerely yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] Mr. Ellis J. Edmunds, 16 Cornelia Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.165 [*76*] [*250*] February 13th, 1915. My dear Cabot: I am writing to Borah by this mail about this same matter. The Camp Fire Club of America has taken a very intelligent interest in the proposed reserve of the Grand Canon in Arizona. The position they take seems to me eminently right. I venture to ask you to look at the papers that I have enclosed and see if you can help them. Faithfully yours, [Theodore Roosevelt] Hon. H. C. Lodge, United States Senate. Washington, D. C.166 February 13th, 1915. My dear Dr. Hrdlicka: I have been much interested in your recent article on ancient man. While in the Argentine, I went to the La Plata Museum. Every one there disbelieved in Ameghinos' alleged discoveries of very ancient men and proto-men in Patagonia. But Dr. Moreno gave me a small piece of skin of the mylodon and other remains of it which he had found with the remains of men and of various great extinct [mammals?] in a cave in the Southern Andes. You of course know all about the discovery, which apparently does show that Indians who used the bolas and cut hay for beds, precisely as the present Patagonians do, were contemporary with the last of the wonderful South American pleistocene fauna, uncluding not only the mylodon but a gigantic cat like the lion, a very aberrent horse, and certain extra-ordinary undulates and edentates - to use archaic terminology. Dr. Moreno said that these finds were certainly recent but whether ten thousand years ago or thirty thousand he was not prepared to say, as he did not believe we could with accuracy translate even modern geologic time into years. By the way, I had supposed that the ice age was more than eight thousand years in the past. Have you any idea as to the antiquity of the human and animal remains thus found by Dr. Moreno? I put the specimen he gave me in the American Museum of Natural History. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt167 February 13th, 1915. My dear Baron: It is a real pleasure to hear from you. I take the liberty of having you sent the Metropolitan Magazine, containing an article of mine based upon the recent report about Korea by Count Terauchi. I wish I could see you myself. Will you give my warm regards to the Baroness? I trust all your charming children are well. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Baron Kentaro Kaneko, Tokio, Japan.168 February 9th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Rublee: I assume from your letter that you have not read my recent little book, called "America and the World War" and that you wish my judgment about joining that peace organization. I emphatically advice you not to join that organization. The platform of principles enclosed seems to me both silly and base. This does not mean that all those signing and championing it are silly and base. It is unfortunately true that the very worst movements in human history have sometimes had very high-minded men and women enlisted in their support. According to my views, the effort to break up this Union, in order to perpetuate slavery, would have meant most dreadful woe to mankind, if successful; yet my own kinsfolk on my mother's side all took part in it; and I do not believe there ever was a movement which enlisted the more ardent support of high-minded men and women or which was served with greater fervor and disinterestedness. Fifty years ago the Copper-heads of the North held exactly the views about Peace which are set forth in the platform you enclosed; and to a man they voted against Abraham Lincoln. They did all they could to break up the Union and to ensure the triumph of Slavery, because they put Peace as the highest of all goods, just exactly as it is put by the people who have constructed that paper per169 -2- sent me. Some of the finest and most honorable men I have known in my life were former Copperheads. One of the men of whom I am fondest at this present day is a former Copperhead. Nevertheless I should stigmatize the Copperhead movement of fifty years ago exactly as I stigmatize the movement preached by individuals whose paper you enclose to me. [Moreover a very large ??????? of the peace -at-any-price or copperhead sympathizers were undoubtedly physical ?????? and undoubtedly a ???????????? of the ultra-pacifists of today, ??????????????????????????? in the paper you enclosed are really most influenced by physical cowardice, because they fear death or pain of discomfort beyond everything else, and ?????????? fear ????????? high ???????????? words.] I speak with scientific accuracy when I speak of this movement as both base and silly. It is silly because it is resolutely futile. It proposes to go on with just the same kind of futile agitation which, by the experience of a century and above all by the experience of the last thirty years, has proved wholly useless and on the whole slightly mischievous. Not one particle of good will be obtained by any such action as that outline in that paper you sent. But this is not all. It is base as well as futile. There is nothing more repulsive than to see people agitating for general righteousness in the abstract when they dare not stand up against wickedness in the concrete. On the whole, there is nothing that does so much damage to a Church as to have a minister who thunders continually against the wrong of thousand years ago and who cannot be persuaded to stand up against wrong in the concrete, [and the present pacificist leaders in the United States are in exactly this position.] I assume, of course, that you are for peace in reality and not merely for the name of peace, and that you are for peace based on justice and right and not for peace that consecrates successful wrong-doing [- for a peace that consecrates wrong is usually worse than any war.] Well, the paper you enclose is in effect exactly as much an endorsement170 -3- endorsement of the peace [and] obtained at Warsaw by trampling liberty and humanity under foot as far [of] the peace obtained at the same time in the United States by restoring the Union and freeing the slave. Any movement that fails emphatically to discriminate between the two kinds of peace and the two kinds of war is [an] evil and not a good movement. Any movement that speaks against war in terms that would apply as much to the [such a] war [at that] waged by Lincoln as to the war waged to destroy free peoples is a thoroughly base and evil thing. Above all, it is base and evil to clamor for peace in the abstract at the very moment when silence is kept about hideous wrongs done to humanity. Belgium has been trampled into bloody mire. Frightful wrongs have been committed upon the men, women, and children of Belgium. The Belgians have fought valiantly against their oppressors. Yet this paper you enclose does not contain one protest against the commission of such wrongs as have been committed on Belgium and does denounce war in such fashion as to include in the condemnation the Belgians just as much as the oppressors of Belgium. There is nothing easier, there is nothing on the whole less worth-while entering into, than vague and hysterical denunciations of wrong in the abstract, or vague and hysterical demands for right in the abstract. Congresses that pass resolutions against war and in favor of peace [in the abstract] do no do one particle of good, because their resolutions are utterly meaningless; and must be utterly meaningless unless they are reduced to concrete cases. We have before us that concrete case. Let the people who advocate the platform and principles you enclosed hold a meeting specifically to denounce the invasion of Belgium [by Germany] and to demand that in the interests of peace the171 -4- United States do what it can to put a stop to these wrongs. Let them denounce Messrs. Wilson and Bryan for trying to force through the Ship Purchase Bill in the interest of the power that wronged Belgium and in spite of the fact that this may tend to bring us into war with the powers that have sought to defend Belgium. Let them do something practical, something that shows that they mean what they say and that they are really striving for righteousness. Until they do this, let every wise and upright man and woman refuse to have anything more to do with a movement which is certainly [both] foolish and noxious, [which is accompanied by a peculiarly ignoble? abandonment of national duty, and which if meaningful in this country would do only harm and would rightly expose our people to ??????????? contempt.] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Juliet Barret Rublee, Washington, D. C.172 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Suffern: I thank you for your letter I feel about the conduct of the present Administration precisely as you do; and I hope you have seen my little book called "America and the World War." Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Robert Adams Suffern, Esq., Royal Societies Club, St. James Street S. W. London, England.173 [*34*] February 13th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Deming: That's a nice letter of yours! I greatly enjoyed my visit to the studio. I brought my sister with me because I thought it barely possible there was some way she could be of help. She is going to try. I wish there was something serious I could do. I loved the kiddies. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. E. W. Deming, 5 Macdougall Alley, New York City.174 February 13th, 1915. My dear Pope: I will read the book with the utmost interest; and I want to thank you for your letter. It did me good to receive it; and it always does me good when I see you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Gustavus D. Pope, 20 Locust Street, Detroit, Michigan.175 February 13th, 1915. My dear Howard: I will read that pamphlet with the greatest pleasure. But I am not competent to give you any statement upon it. It is a case where I want to learn, no teach. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Clarence W. Howard, Esq., Commonwealth Steel Company, St. Louis Missouri.176 February 13th, 1915. Dear Charlie: I did send you that address; and you acknowledged it. It was in a little volume called "Progressive Principles." I hope you have seen my little book, called "America and the World War." Good luck! Always yours, T. R. Charles G. Washburn, Esq., Worcester, Mass.177 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Aldrich: I am sorry that it is impossible for me to comply with your request. But if I endorsed such a plan as that, I would be opening a literally endless vista. I am really sorry. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Evelyn Aldrich, 775 Garden Street, New York City.178 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Nellis: I am extremely sorry to hear of your case. I would like to be able to help you; but unfortunately I don't know anybody connected with the Travellers' Insurance Company and so can do nothing. With regret, Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Mr. George W. Nellis, Jr., 14 Westbourne Street, Roslindale, Mass.179 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Owsley: I thank you for your letter and for the interesting enclosure. All that you say about Rockhill is absolutely true. I never knew his politics. I doubt if he had any party politics. His treatment by Mr. Wilson was simply scandalous. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt H. Bryan Owsley, Esq., The Tracy, Philadelphia, Pa.180 February 13th, 1915. Dear Bonaparte: Will you send me back the enclosed when you are through with it? You may not have known exactly the facts about Rockhill, which were rather exceptionally scandalous as regards Messrs. Wilson and Bryan. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles J. Bonaparte, 216 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland.181 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Wilson: I thank you for your courtesy. I wish I could accept your invitation to attend the play of which you speak. I never grant authority to have music dedicated to me. It is often dedicated to me; but not in consequence of any authorization on my part. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. Victor Wilson, Esq., The Strand Theatre, New York City.182 February 12th, 1915. Gentlemen: The car recently purchased from you has not proved as satisfactory as that which my son had last year. I have already sent it to your repair shops once and it has returned in no better condition than before it was sent there. The engine does not seem to develop much power and misses continually. I feel that you would like to know this, as it must be an exception to the general run of your machines. Could you arrange to have one of your men look over it in New York some day in the near future? Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt The Buick Motor Company, 1733 Broadway, New York City.183 February ??, 1915. My dear Mr. Keen: I cannot write a letter [???] such as you suggest to Mr. Wilson, unless Mr. Wilson will write to me; but if you will refer him to me or get him to write a line to me, I will very gladly write to say that at Atlanta and elsewhere I have been at hotels under your management and have found them excellent in every way. It would be a pleasure to do this. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Albert R. Keen, Esq., c/o Hotel Algonquin, 59 West 44th Street, New York City.184 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Cook: I have received your book; and I thank you for having sent it to me. Sincerely yours, [????????????] S. Arthur Cook, Esq., [?????????] Minn. 185 February 13th, 1915. Dear Whitney: The enclosed is about the only photograph I have got; but I take pleasure in sending it. I agree with every word you say about Mexico. Taft's handling of the Mexican situation was frightful; but Wilson's has been even worse. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Caspar Whitney, Esq., The Hotel, Beverly Hills, Cal.186 [*207*] February 13th, 1915. My dear Senator Borah: I am writing to Senator Lodge by this same mail. The Camp Fire Club of America has taken a very intelligent interest in the proposed reserve of the Grand Canon of Arizona. The position they take seems to me eminently right. I venture to ask you to look at the papers that I have enclosed and see if you can help them. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William E. Borah, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.187 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Beardslee: I thank you for your courtesy in sending me that volume. I am sure I shall enjoy reading it. Very truly yours, Raymond A. Beardslee, Esq., Springfield, Vermont.188 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Cho: I thank you for your kind and courteous letter. I regret that I have not the time to write you fully as you desire. My views on the question to which you refer are expressed in an article which will appear in the Metropolitan Magazine (issued about February 20th) for March. Very truly yours, Mr. Toda Cho, 519 Hemlock Street, San Francisco, Cal.189 February 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. von Schleinitz: I thank you for your letter. You say that neither your letter nor my answer will be published without my consent, of which I am glad, because I do not care to go into more public discussion, in the shape of published correspondence with private individuals, than is necessary, and because the tone of your letter forces me to be more condemnatory of Germany than I intent to be in public, unless I am obliged to be. If you have seen my book, called "America and the World War", you will see that I did defend the Kaiser. As for the "slanders", of which you speak, on the German soldiers, I have not discussed them at all, because I am not sure of the facts. If I had discussed them, I should have been obliged to say that the information I had was on the whole to the effect that very great barbarities had been perpetrated by the German soldiers and that, what was worse, it looked as if these barbarities were part of a deliberate plan to terrorize the civilian population, a plan encouraged from high up, a plan to make the Germans behave "like Huns" in order to produce a terrorizing effect. I did not make these statements public because I have not gone sufficiently into the matter; but, when you ask me the question, I answer you directly. Of course, to190 -2- say that American newspapers by commenting on these outrages have been guilty of conduct "far worse" than that of those committing the outrages seems to me silly. Now, as to the main part of your statement- the comparison between Belgium and Mexico. No such comparison as you seek to make is possible. If Mexico were a thoroughly civilized nation and if Japan, England and the United States had explicitly guaranteed its neutrality, most emphatically I should not dream of invading Mexico. One of the difficulties of this situation is that I know from first hand and intimate conversations with big German officers, what no intelligent German officer would in good faith deny; that for a least fifteen or twenty years the invasion of Belgium has been looked upon by Germany as something that she would unhesitatingly undertake if engaged in war with France. The documents which have been found in Brussels show nothing whatever, excepting that Belgium know this fact, just exactly as I know it and as all other people who has studied the matter know it, and that she was trying to keep herself in shape for self-defense. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that Belgium's first desire was to keep out of the war and that she would no more have permitted France and England to violate her territory than she would have permitted Germany to do so. Bethmann-Hollweg's original statement was truthful and manly. It was not "egregious blunder", unless it is considered to be a blunder for a man to tell the truth. His subsequent statements191 -3- have hurt and not helped Germany. Now, my dear sir, there is nothing I can add to what I have put into my book. If you see Henry Cochems, I hope you will ask him to show you my last letter to him. I do not acknowledge in this country any right of any class of our citizens to act as members of any given nationality or church instead of as good Americans. I am not for Protestant or Catholic or Jew; I am not for German-American or English-American or Irish-American or French-American or Dutch-American; I am just plain and simple United States and nothing more. I think that the worst wrong that can be committed to this country is to perpetuate here lines of division based on differences of creed or difference of racial origin. I am partly of German descent myself- two of my ancestor were among the founders of Germantown, having come over here when Turenne ravaged the Palatinate. I have hardly any English blood in me, although I have Scotch and Irish, as well as Dutch and French. But I am an American pure and simple. I hold that we Americans should honestly strive to work for the betterment of mankind. The first essential is that we shall be true primarily to the United States. The second essential is that we shall judge each nation on its conduct in any given emergency. You quote the case of a German-American who you say has gone back to Germany because of his disgust with the United States for not being more pro-German. I am heartily glad he has gone back. Every such man should return to Germany. He has no business to here unless he is in good faith prepared to be and192 -4- to act as a loyal American citizen, and only as such. Sources of my closest friends are American or German parentage or descent; but they are no more "German American" than I am a "Dutch American". They and I are not hyphenated Americans at all. We are Americans, pure and simple; and we hold that no man is normally entitled. So American citizenship unless with all his heart he holds the views or the duties of American citizenship set forth in this letter, set for in my correspondence with enclosures to Henry Cochems, and set forth in my little book called "America and the World War;" and over and over again in my speeches and writings. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Emil von Schleinitz, Editor-in-Chief of Germania, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.193 February 13th, 1915. Dear Nick: I was greatly interested in your letter and promptly showed it to Archie. I don't know whether that hard-hearted young gentleman's withers were wrung or not. I am very busy and have time to send you only a few lines. I directed that a copy of my little book be forwarded to you at once. The attitude of the German-American press is infamous. There are any number of first-class Americans of German parentage and descent who are acting purely as Americans; but I greatly regret to say that there are also large numbers who seem to wish to try to build up nationality groups in this country; and Bryan and Wilson are catering to them in every way they dare. We have never seen more contemptible men in public office in this country than these two men; and not since the days of Buchanan have we had men as bad. Archie is now home for the holidays and is already worrying a little as to what he is going to do in active business as soon as he leaves college. I think you know that I am writing for the Metropolitan. I want to go on with my work until I get Quentin about ready to be launched in the world; but whether I will be able to or not I cannot tell. Meanwhile, I am extremely pleased at what you are doing and at what Oliver is doing. The war and the Mexican situation are the most interesting194 -2- interesting matters we have to face here. Wilson and Bryan have not an idea of taking any steps in the way of preparation. They have been flailed into beginning to put the navy into some kind of condition; but they are taking no adequate steps. I don't know whether I mind the mere brutal materialists or the unspeakably silly professional pacificists most. Now and then I catch a glimpse of your dear mother. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Nicholas Roosevelt, Esq., c/o American Embassy, Paris, France.195 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Heyward: I am concerned at what you write me; and I am particularly sorry I am not able to give you the letters of introduction you wish; but I am sure you will realize that I know nothing of your business capacity and I never give letters unless I can in good faith vouch for what appears above my signature. My letters would lose all value, if I gave them in such fashion. With real regret. Sincerely yours, Mr. Frank de Jouve Heyward, 747 President Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.196 February 13th, 1915. My dear Captain Robbins: I thank you for your kind letter. I will, as you request, have forwarded to you my books on my African and South American travels and my book on "America and the World War," which I should think ought to be of interest to all good Americans who believe in the necessity of national preparedness. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Edward J. Robbins, 1322 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.197 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Hulscher: It is a pleasure to hear from you! Of course I remember you. I am sorry to say I cannot give you any information about the case of Austin. I did not permit such action, when I was President; but my successor, Mr. Taft, took a different view, and so, I understand, does Mr. Wilson. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt W. T. Hulscher, Esq., 243 Champion Street, Battle Creek, Mich.198 February 13th, 1915. Dear Mitchell: I am very glad to get your letter. When can you come down here to spend a night? Can't you get hold of Owen Wister and bring him with you; or, if you can get Tom Robins and Dr. White, I would like to have all four of you and talk over just the issues you raise in your letter. I agree with much of what you say about the Progressives; but they were better than Penrose. However, when it comes to Wilson and Bryan, I agree with you absolutely. I almost think I would take Penrose in their place. I would not take Taft, for he is just as feeble and foolish and fundamentally unpatriotic as they are. Have you seen my little book called "America and the World War?" I think you will like it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Langdon Mitchell, Esq., 2320 DeLancey Place, Philadelphia, Pa.199 February 13th, 1915. My dear Commissioner Kingsbury: The enclosed letter explains itself. Semmes Read was one of the best officers in our naval service. He was sent to hospital some years ago for what was then believed to be a fatal injury. His sister is a lady; and all that I hear is to her credit. Now, all I ask you to do is to look at her record and length of service and find out her fitness for the position. Then, if she is entitled to it, I know you will give it to her. You will notice that Read simply asks that attention be given to her record. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Hon. John A. Kingsbury, Commissioner of Public Charities, Municipal Building, New York City.200 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Kelley: I thank you for your book and for your letter. As for the argument in your letter, of course you don't need to make it to me. For three years now I have laid most stress upon the fact that in a democracy the people must be masters of their own constitution, if the democracy is to be real. But the trouble has been that I could not get the people to take an interest in the matter or to look at it my way when they did take an interest. The workingmen themselves by an overwhelming majority have stood by the Democratic candidates in New York and the Republican candidates in both New York and Pennsylvania on this very issue. I am a little at sea to know how to make the appeal any more strongly than I have already made it. I suppose that a constant succession of cases such as these of which you speak will finally awaken people; but, upon my word, they are a long time being influenced by [it] any thought Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Florence Kelley, National Consumers' League, 6 East 39th Street, New York City.201 February 13th, 1915. My dear Kelly: It is a real pleasure to hear from you. I did not know where you were. As you know, I have always been glad that you were connected with my administration. You are the type of American in whom I believe. That was a capital article of yours on peace and war. The closing sentence ought to be blazoned in letters of gold in every school house of this land; and all the professional pacificists should be obliged to learn it by heart. I hope you will see the next Metropolitan, in which I have a brief statement about Mexico. I had an interesting time in South America; and that's an interesting and remarkable description of yours of what you saw in Alaska. If I had your physique, I would go up there and make an exploration; but I am afraid my days for that kind of work are nearly over. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Luther S. Kelly, Esq., Lida, Nevada.202 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Lissner: The Murdock choice has been announced. He had told me that he thought that there should be just as little blare of trumpets about it as might be; and every Progressive leader I had seen had said that he thought the less we called attention to ourselves at this time, the better it would be; and that the way to have the change brought to the attention of the public mind was by the utterances and actions of Murdock on every crisis. He is now Chairman of the National Committee; he is the recognized spokesman for the Progressive party organization; he has ample opportunity to speak for the party and to do all that you propose. May I suggest that you write to him personally? If he does not speak for the party on every occasion, I [?] [?] make [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Meyer Lissner, Esq., Lissner Building, Los Angeles, Cal.203 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Alexander: I am obliged to you for that interesting quotation from the Argentine Ambassador. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Henry E. Alexander, Esq., The New Willard, Washington, D. C.204 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Howe: That's a capital quotation; and I think I shall use it, in something I am writing. It expresses exactly the views that good Americans ought to have. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt William D. Howe, Esq., 250 Front Street, New York City.205 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Shartel: I am not competent to express my views in detail on that bill. I am most cordially with you in your desire to conserve the wonderful forests of California; and I am very much pleased to learn the active interest you are taking in the matter. Sincerely yours, Hon. A. F. Shartel, California Legislature, Sacramento, Cal.206 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Marburg: I thank you for your courtesy and appreciate it. That was a most interesting discussion! [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] Sincerely yours, Theodore Marburg, Esq., 14 Mt. Vernon Place, W., Baltimore, Maryland.207 [*186*] February 13th, 1915 My dear Senator Borah: I have no excuse whatever for sending you the enclosed, beyond the fact that it does seem to be a very hard case. I don't know the woman at all. She is the wife of a letter carrier; has been left a widow with four children to support; and apparently she has been done out of her homestead claim in Idaho. Would you be willing to have your secretary find out from the Interior Department what the facts are and if there is any chance of doing anything for the poor woman? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William E. Borah, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.208 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Barron: I thank you for your kindness. I have not seen those "Audasious War" articles; and I should be glad to see them. Would you send them, care of my secretary, Mr. J. W. McGrath, 30 East 42nd Street, New York; but I must ask you not to request an opinion from me as to the usefulness of your publishing them. Sincerely yours, C. W. Barron, Esq., 30 Kilby Street, Boston, Mass.209 February 13th, 1915. My dear Miss McIlhenney: Have you seen my little book, called "America and the World War?" Nobody can speak out more emphatically and strongly than I have there spoken out. I hope you will look at it. Sincerely yours, Miss Edith Potter McIlhenney, The Moorings, Whithy, Yorkshire, England.210 February 13th, 1916. My dear Mr. Cannon: I wish I could be present at the Old-Timers Banquet at Wibaux and see my old friends. I have eaten Brophy Spuds at Brophy's Ranch in the old days, when I was hunting stray horses; and some of the family, I think, will remember it. With all good wishes, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frank Cannon, Esq., Box 325, Wibaux, Montana.211 February 13th, 1915 My dear Mr. Brown: I hope I shall soon be able to address you as "Brother Brown." I cordially sympathize with your purpose of getting a D. K. E. Chapter at Washington and Lee University. I wish you all success in the endeavor. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt William M. Brown, Esq., Box 75, Lexington, Va.212 February 1[?]th, 1915 My dear Read: It is a pleasure to hear from you. I do not know that I will be able to do any good, but I will write to Mr. Kingsburg at once. I am so pleased to learn that you are improving. With all good wishes, Faithfully yours, Semmes Read, Naval Hospital, Washington, D. C.213 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mrs. McIlhenny: That's a dear letter of yours! I appreciate it to the full and thank you for it. Sincerely yours, Mrs. Mary R. McIlhenny, 1233 Second Street, New Orleans, La.214 February 13th, 1915. Dear Brother Jillson: I have not any photographs to send you; but I am happy to say that I still have two volumes which I am glad to send you under separate cover. Fraternally yours, W. R. Jillson, Esq., University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.215 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Lothrop: I am concerned at your letter and all the more so because I do not suppose I can be of the least assistance to you; but I shall write to my friend, Senator Borah of Idaho, and find out if anything can be done. I wish I could hold out more hope to you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. E. J. Lothrop, 65 1/2 Ceylon Street, Dorchester, Mass.216 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Scharschug: I have your letter; and of course would be glad to see the report you mention. But I wish to state with all emphasis that I have the very highest opinion of Mr. Newell. You speak as if he were a wealthy man and lived in great luxury. This I know not to be the case. I have a very high regard for Mr. Franklin Lane. I have stood by him again and again; but I should need very strong proof to convince me that Mr. Newell had not been a good and faithful public servant. He was certainly such under me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. George J. Scharschug, 653 North Central Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.217 February 13th, 1915. My dear Mr. Perry: I thank you for your letter and appreciate it. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Philip E. Perry, Esq., Lexington, Mass.218 February 17th, 1915 My dear Commissioner Woods: This will introduce to you M. Francis Beirne, who has had difficulty in connection with his application to enter the Police Department. He has been a special officer in this building during the nine months that I have had my offices here, since I returned from South America. I have been impressed by his alertness, efficiency and faithful performance of his duty. I know nothing of the trouble which he wishes to go over with you; but he is the kind of man who, from my experience in the Police Department, I believe would make a good officer. I therefore venture to ask you to accord him a personal interview and look into his case yourself. With all good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Arthur Woods, Police Commissioner, Police Department, New York City.219 February 17th, 1915 Dear Gilson: I am awfully pleased at what you tell me; and I sincerely regret I cannot give you an interview; but under my engagement with the Metropolitan I do not see how it is possible. I could of course give you an interview of a hundred words or thereabouts; but I think more than that would be unfair to the Metropolitan people. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Gilson Gardiner, Esq., Northeastern Enterprise Association, Washington, D. C.220 80 February 17th, 1915. Dear Cal: I never wrote that I would accept anybody but Taft; but I did write to Lodge that they must not expect us to come back to Taft. Lodge is the only person to whom I have written. Will you take this letter to Lodge and talk the matter over with him? He understands that the letter was for him personally and is not to be quoted. Would you prefer that I wrote him this myself instead of asking you to go and show him this letter. I still think that it is not time for me to speak in public in any shape or way. Whenever you get the chance, come on here and see me and talk over anything. I was much interested in your report about the Christmas ship. I am particularly pleased by your account of Germany and England and especially of the feelings of both of them toward this country. That may wake up brother Wilson. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. Callan O'Loughlin, Esq., The Chicago Herald, Washington, D. C.221 32 February 17th, 1915. My dear Mr. Scott: Well, thanks to Alexander Smith Cochran, the matter is arranged, as you will see by the enclosed letter. I need hardly say that I shall ask you to keep my part in the affair entirely secret. The very fact that I have been able to do this in one case means that I won't be able to do it in any other; whereas the average fool will think that it means I can do it in all other cases; so we mustn't let the average fool know what has happened. You can tell mark Sullivan but no one else. I cannot be sufficiently grateful to Alex Cochran. In order to save Bliss Carman's feelings, we must arrange to have him perform some duties in connection with The Elizabethan Club. I would like to send Alex Xochran[sic] that very handsome two-volume edition of Bliss Carman's poems which was gotten out eight or ten years ago. If I can't otherwise get it, can you get it for me? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Temple Scott, Esq.,222 90 February 17th, 1915. My dear Cochran: Upon my word, I am quite overwhelmed; I wrote you on the off chance and had no idea that you would do more than be one of a number of men to undertake the task; and I would have subscribed according to my ability myself. I shall arrange to have you sent for The Elizabethan Club a very handsome two-volume edition of his works. I will also let you know where to send the money; and I will consult with you, if you will permit me, as to whether some duties in [connection] with The Elizabethan Club can be imposed upon him. Would you be willing some day to lunch with me to meet him and say Scribner and Bridges, and perhaps Frank Dolby, who is a very amusing man? They are all literary people! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Alexander Smith Cochran, Esq., The Ritz-Carlton, New York City223 February 17th, 1915 My dear Dr. Grenfell: Under no circumstances would I permit anyone to make any allusion in public to those pictures of the Kaiser and myself with his handwriting on them. I showed them only to men and women in whose honor I had complete confidence. Moreover, as regards Carnegie, I absolutely and completely agree with him. I think Carnegie has done harm and not good to the peace cause; and in as much his activities were distinctly pro-German and anti-English, but of course futile in every respect, I am glad the Kaiser spoke as he did. I trust you have seen my little book called "America and the World War." The Kaiser's remarks about Carnegie were completely justified. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, St. Anthony, Newfoundland.224 February 17th, 1915. Dear Ted: This will be presented to you by Madame Dupage, whom I met in Brussels and who is the wife of one of the most eminent Belgian surgeons. She is here to try to raise money for the Belgian soldiers, that is, for the Field Hospitals, which will of course be strained to the limit when the heavy fighting beings in the Spring. Much has been done here for Belgium; but it has been done for the non-combatants. Madame Dupage's mother and father and son are among these non-combatants, who are suffering and of whose fate she is herself ignorant. But she feels that something must be done for the Belgian soldiers, upon whose success in the last resort depends the righting of the dreadful wrongs from which Belgium has suffered. I have told her that I do not know whom to advise her to apply to here, for the simple fact is that the application has been made again and again and again and again. She has suggested that perhaps in California there would be a chance of finding people upon whom less demand has been made. Can you talk over this with her? Would it be worth while giving her letters to Mrs. Crocker and to that Californian who took lunch with us - I have forgotten her name but it seems to me that either your or Sister told me she was very wealthy. The only Californians I could give her letters of introduction to are the Progressives whose fortunes amount to about five cents apiece. Can't you and Eleanor and perhaps Mrs. Alexander talk the matter over with Mrs. Dupage and give her any advice that can be given. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. 14 Wall St., New York City.225 February 9th, 1915. My dear Sir: I am sorry to say that there was no room for misunderstanding at all in this matter. Major Belcher wrote me from Washington stating that Congressman Bryan was writing me vouching for him, that he was a British officer recently serving with the New Zealand territorials, and that he would like to discuss with me some phases of the Oriental question with which he was more or less familiar because of the fact that he was just returning from the Far East and New Zealand, and was to report to the War Office. There was nothing in his letter to show that he was a correspondent of any paper, but simply a British officer on Government duty, and indeed from your letter it appears that he was not a correspondent of your paper but that after his return to England he offered to write some articles for you about the Far Eastern situation, which articles were refused by you, and that thereupon he informed you that he had had an interview with me, which he was at liberty to give to the press. The letter of Congressman Bryan recited that "Major Ernest A. Belcher, of the Reserve of Officers, British, is returning to England from New Zealand to report to the War226 -2- Office." The letter stated that Major Belcher was a newspaper man of experience, who helped to write a book on the Pacific Ocean questions, but laid stress on the fact that he was now resuming his former military duties. There was not a word about Major Belcher having an interview with me for publication but simply a statement that he would like to discuss briefly with me a some of these questions affecting New Zealand, Australia and the Orient, and that his purpose was "to report to the War Office." Mr. Bryan further stressed that President Wilson had seen Major Belcher. Accordingly I made an appointment for Major Belcher to call at my home. As soon as Major Belcher appeared, I explicitly stated to him that I could not speak with him at all unless it was understood that I was to speak entirely confidentially and that nothing was for publication. He assented, and assured me that of course he would not publish anything I said, but wished to get some ideas to help him in the work -- of a confidential nature-- which he was doing in connection with Australia and New Zealand as regards Japan, and which I gathered he was doing for your War Office. He took no notes of what I said. Some of the statements he has attributed to me are substantially, but not verbally accurate; others are absurd falsehoods. This letter is not for publication; although I of course reserve the right to publish it, if I see fit, and if227 -3- you publish any statement of Major Belcher, I do not desire to enter into a public controversy with a man who has behaved as Major Belcher has behaved; and your paper has no right to request me to do so. You should at once have called to know if such an interview was genuine; for on its face it was suspicious. I have already explicitly and in detail publicly given the facts about the interview. There was no misunderstanding whatever. Major Belcher was guilty of conduct which was entirely incompatible with the assumption that he is "an officer and a gentleman." Yours truly, Theodore Roosevelt H. A. Gwynne, Esq., Editor, Morning Post, London, England.228 February 18th, 1915. Dear Heller: Just after sending you my letter I have received yours, which gives me exactly the information that Archie needs. I am very much obliged to you. I will send him Banff. _ I do hope you can come back by Buenos Aires. As you know, Kermit is devoted to you and you would be giving him the greatest possible pleasure. Last year he became very much attached to Cherrie and as the highest praise he could give him he would mention to me that he was almost up to "old Heller" - Cherrie being of course considerably older than "old Heller." Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Heller, Esq., The Smithsonian, Washington, D. C. 229 February 19th, 1915 Dear Victor: I wish to congratulate you upon your admirable speech at Philadelphia. It seems to me you struck the keynote. The thing to do is to fight for our principles and get all of them if we can and if, as appears likely, our countrymen at the moment won't accept more that a few of them, then good-humoredly to get these few without abandoning our faith in the others and when the time comes to strive for the others likewise. At present it does not seem as if it was likely that we could fight for these principles through the medium of the Progressive party as a separate national party. But while this does not seem likely, it is possible; and what we have to do now is to sit tight, keep our organization together and hold ourselves ready to meet whatever the emergency may demand a year hence. Such speeches as that you have made do real good. As George Record sent to Flinn a copy of the speech which he wished me to make in advocating our immediate return to the Republican party and my announcement that I intended to be a candidate for the nomination for President in the Republican primaries, I send you the copy that Record sent me. Please return it to me. I did not agree with all the principles he set forth (and of them I entirely disagreed with) and I think that as a matter of expediency the action he advised would have been unwise to thelast degree. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Victor Murdock230 February 19th, 1915 My dear Senator Clapp: I want to congratulate you upon your excellent speech at Philadelphia. You took just the right stand. I have hoped that the Progressive party would last as a national party. It is possible that it will; but at the present moment of course it seems unlikely. However this may turn out and whatever action we may have to take a year hence, our duty is to fight for the principles which we have set forth and to take whatever step may at the time be wise in order most effectively to secure the triumph of these principles. Do let me see you whenever you get the chance. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Moses E. Clapp, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.231 February 17th, 1915 Dearest Belle: Today your letter came together with Kermit's. I am glad you are making friends among some of the natives. Colonel Reyband came in to see me the other day and was just as nice as possible and he dwelt upon the fact that Kermit ought to see as much as possible of the men high up in Argentina and he mentioned especially one man in the Cabinet to whom I think he said he had given Kermit a letter of introduction and who has general supervision of the banking and industrial affairs. The [?] must be really good friends. Of course, in a way, I am sorry that Kermit has to work so hard; and in another way I am not; for I know him well enough to know that he would not be happy otherwise. I do hope you and he can get that holiday up at Rickard's. I am sending Rickard the book, care of Kermit, as Kermit requested. Do ask Kermit to let me know if Dr. Moreno does not get his. It was sent to him direct from Scribners some little time ago. Tell Kermit I don't wonder he feels very warlike. This nation is not in good shape. It has been criminal for us not to have been preparing during the last seven months. But Wilson, who is an even worse man than Bryan, is influenced partly by doctrinaire reasons and partly, I think, by sheer physical timidity and has refused to allow any preparations to be made. In consequence [we] are232 -2- just as helpless as we were last July, neither the army nor the navy being in better shape, and all the time conditions are becoming slightly worse in Mexico, while at the same time the conduct of Germany and sometimes even the conduct of England and France threatens to involve us in trouble in Europe. If trouble should come, we would be in the ludicrous position of having failed to profit in even the smallest degree by the lessons that have been writ large before our eyes during the last seven months. Wilson and Bryan have been trying to pander to the German vote. It looks to me as if German's recent action will force even them into a position of tepid antagonism. The little families here are all as cunning as possible. George and Julia are as happy as they can be. Ethel is having a lovely time with Dick and the baby and her "open house." She has all the hospitable inclinations of her Auntie Bye and Auntie Corinne and she is able to entertain and make everyone love being with her. Her house is a center for all the Roosevelt boys. Ted and Eleanor have a really dear little home and Ted has delightful books and he and Eleanor lead the nicest kind of a life together. The other day I stopped in to see the first party given by Eleanor for the two babies. There were five or six guests, ranging in age from eight months to four years; and it was altogether a very nice little company. Ethel was out [here] for twenty four hours on Sunday in company with Cornelia and went straight back to being a little girl again, She and Cornelia working industriously at the bonfires with Archie and one of his233 -3- class mates who was staying with him. Tomorrow Mother goes in to the Opera. She has several times been to the Opera this winter and I always feel very much pleased when I get her to take a little spree. It has been such a wild winter that we have not had to spend any time in New York. Your loving father, [Theodore Roosevelt]234 147 February 17th, 1916. Dearest Kermit: Archie came on from Harvard last week. He is really a very dear boy. About all he wanted to do was to stay out here in Oyster Bay and rest. Like you, and like Ted after his sophomore year, he is very anxious to leave Harvard and get to work. He told me he was enjoying himself and I think he is. He is absolutely independent and self-reliant , almost too much so, because more than any person I have ever met, except Mother, he is genuinely indifferent to the opinion of outsiders and sometimes carries this excellent trait to an excess. He did not care for his first half-year as a freshman but since then he has found his place and is enjoying himself. Like Phil, he is Treasurer of the Stylus; and I should think the fuss he is having over paying bills would be a good training for him in the future. He is already thinking very seriously about business and planning what to do. Well, that little cub has his troubles before him! I am as yet all at sea as to what to advise him to undertake, because he has no special tastes. However, he will certainly work hard. This year he shall have another hunt. I think he will take it from Banff, because, if he went to Alaska for any serious hunt, he could not get back until after College opened; and he is much too wise to wish to jeopardize his getting through college in three years just for the sake of a hunt. What he desired in his holiday was a week's rest at Sagamore Hill. Most of the time he simply went around with Mother and myself. All of the children have now become enthusiasts in burning brush-heaps as a result of my labors among small trees; and Ted, Eleanor, Ethel, Dick, Archie, Quentin, not to235 -2- speak of Mother, all come down to burn the brush heaps. One day Archie took Mother in to the opera in the car; he himself went to the theatre with Cornelia. On Saturday Ethel and Cornelia came out here; and Archie had one of his class mates. Mother revelled in having Ethel with us. Ethel's small son is the dearest baby imaginable. Ted and Eleanor's house is to me a delightful house; and Eleanor is a darling little housewife and mother and hostess. Well, I am delighted that you are in South America and more delighted than I can say that Belle married you. But I do hope that after four years you will be able to come back and live in this country. I do wish that Buenos Aires was more attractive from the living standpoint. Unfortunately the Cities where one does best in business are rarely the most picturesque and pleasant. Ever yours, Father Kermit Roosevelt, Esq., National City Bank of New York, Casilla de Correo 1396, Buenos Aires, The Argentine. I enclose a poem of [Robinson?] which is [?]236 February 18th, 1915. Dear Jim: Many thanks for your letter and the enclosures. I shall read them with great interest. I had a delightful lunch with Grace the other day. What a trump she is! Faithfully yours, James Brown Potter, Esq.,237 February 18th, 1915. Dear Dean: I would not accept either invitation, as you probably imagined. Some time or other I want to see you and talk over the situation. I have just seen your speech; and it seems to me capital. You had a really fine dinner at Philadelphia. I am extremely glad. In New York it would have been foolish this year to try to have a dinner. Of course, we have had the rather unpleasant experience not only in New York but elsewhere of finding that we can get most enthusiastic crowds at dinners and meetings without seeming to be able to make a corresponding show in votes. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt William Drapor Lewis, Esq.,238 February 18th, 1915 My dear M. Rodin: I have just received your welcome letter. Unfortunately I do not write French sufficiently well to respond in your own beautiful language. I send you the copy of a little book I have written called "America and the World War." I mourn that I am not able on behalf of my country to exercise the influence I wish I could exercise and that America most surely ought to exercise in this great crisis. But I am powerless to do more than to express my individual opinion, as I have in this book expressed it. With thanks and profound regard and sympathy, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt M. Auguste Rodin,239 February 18th, 1915. My dear Mrs. Stilwell: I thank you for your very nice letter. The only articles I have written on South America were those in the Outlook, which I presume you have seen. As to your Progressive Service, I feel just as you do. The most important side of the Progressive platform to me was what may be called the human welfare side; but our people as a whole do not agree with us in this matter. It was partly the fault of some of our own leaders. [?] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Horace Stilwell,240 February 18th, 1915 Dear Grant: I cannot write that matter up. I have got too many things to do. Of course, I agree with you entirely. When you come to put in Cadwalader's biography may I suggest that you leave out the word "aristocrat?" My experience is that when the friends of a man speak of him as an aristocrat, they are apt to convince those who do not know him that neither the man himself nor his friends are aristocrats! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Madison Grant, Esq.,241 February 18th, 1915 Dear Marvin: I wish I could accept; but it just is not possible for me to be in town that night. Good luck to you! Let me know if you want me to write that letter for Hamilton Rice. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Langdon Marvin, Esq., 27 West 44th Street, New York City.242 February 18th, 1915 My dear Mr. Gill: I thank you for having sent me the two volumes. I am sure I shall enjoy them. With all good wishes and hopes for your success, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Wilson L. Gill, Esq.,243 February 18th,1915 My dear Mr. Markham: I am sure I shall enjoy your book on California. But I am not now connected with The Outlook; and so I shall send it direct to them as soon as I have myself looked through it. Again expressing my appreciation, I am Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edwin Markham, Esq.,244 February 18th,1915 My dear Major Mackay: Your much too flattering card has come, with the German War Book, for which I thank you sincerely. I shall read it with very real interest. I trust you have seen my little book, called "America and the World War." Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major R. M. Mackay,245 February 18th, 1915. Dear Dave: You so exactly phrase my views that I feel I must see you. It is unnecessary to say that I agree absolutely with you about Messrs. Wilson and Bryan. Have you seen the little book I wrote, called "America and the World War?" Do glance at it if you get the chance. Now you must bring Mrs. Gray with you. Come out for a night or for a week end. Let me know when there is the chance of seeing you. What you say about collectivism again represents exactly my view. I wish to use collectivism chiefly as a corrective of the kind of unbridled individualism which means the crushing out of all individuals except in one or two persons. Also I would like to see a less inequality of reward; but the very greatest injustice is equal reward for unequal service; and the most appalling tyranny is the tyranny of improper constraint of individuals. Undoubtedly we had with us in the Progressive party a number of ultra-collectivists and a number of pure cranks. However, I will talk about this when I see you. I entirely agree with you that if we can get the Progressives back with the Progressive-Republicans, that would be the ideal; and in Maine I believe our people should go in with Fred Hale and his side. Alas, also, for Wintie; the golden sands have run through his fingers and there is nothing sadder than the tragedy of such a246 brilliant creature. But, my dear fellow, it is as you say. We must face the common lot without flinching or grumbling; and there isn't anything more important for this nation than to understand what the pacificists and their like tend to conceal from us, that dread of pain, of discomfort, of risk and of death is an ignoble thing and if indulged in means the breeding up of a contemptible stock of men and women. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt David Gray, Esq., R. F. D. 4, Portland, Maine.247 February 18th, 1915. Dear George: I am immensely pleased with your letter to Macadoo; and I am greatly impressed by the copy of the speech you delivered. Some of it is so good that I shall paraphrase it in what I write. A good deal of it I myself said at different times in the past, as you know. If you happen to have my "Presidential Addresses and State Papers" turn in Volume 2 to page 610 and 651 and the speeches beginning on 429 and 432. Twelve years ago I was preaching exactly the doctrine which you and I are now preaching. Also turn in Volume one to page 151, where you will see that I spoke just as you have spoken of the fact that the change in our problems has been due to the change in transportation and communication through steam and electricity. On pages 273 and 276 also you will see this. Incidentally half of what I said is really the denunciation of just the type of agitator that Amos Pinchot and George Record have become. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt George W. Perkins, Esq., 71 Broadway, New York City.248 February 18th, 1915. My dear Captain Thornton: It will be a pleasure to see you, although of course, if I see you, it must be distinctly understood that under no circumstance will you quote me. What I say must be said over my own signature and not second-hand. Under these conditions it will be a real pleasure to see you at Oyster Bay; or can you wait in at Program's Headquarters next Sunday? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain James Thornton,249 [*75*] February 18th, 1915 My dear Dr. Rainsford: When you come back, will you let me know? I must see you. I want to talk over this war with you. I am particularly interested in that remark of your nephew, who was formerly a Civil Engineer in Egypt. It is absolutely true. I hope you have seen my little book on "America and the World War." Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. W. S. Rainsford, Camden, S. C.250 165 February 16th, 1915 Dear Cabot: I think this administration is the very worst and most disgraceful we have ever known. My Mexican article is already in type and I can add nothing to it. In any event, I should be doubtful whether these frightful cases of which you speak are sufficiently authenticated for use. I have not a question that they are true. Have you any idea how I can get at them accurately? I am writing another piece on military preparedness and I might use this in that piece. Thank Heaven, I no longer have to consider the effect of my actions upon any party; and accordingly I have temperately but with the strongest possible emphasis attacked the German- American propaganda and the effort by German-Americans to use the United States as an instrument in the interest of Germany. Cal O'Loughlin tells me that Smoot spoke of my having written to you that I would accept any Republican save Taft. I think you had better not quote what I said to you in any way to have it get around, as it would be very unwise thing for me now to be announcing my position, and especially to the announcing it through indirection. I congratulate you on the Shipping Bill. I had what was on the whole a pretty satisfactory letter from Norris. It seems to me that you have made no mistake. I think Wilson worse than251 -2- Bryan; and that's saying a good deal, for I loathe Bryan! Root has done capitally. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.252 February 18th, 1915 My dear Miss Green: Mr. Gutzon Forglum has sent me your letter of December 29th. I cannot find any manuscript about Panama written at the time, I suppose because all my work was then done by dictation. There are very few official documents of mine in my own handwriting; and those are of no consequence. Would you care in the least to have some of the original notes of my Autobiography or of my African or South American hunting trips? Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Belle Da Costa Green,253 February 16th, 1915 Dear Miss Howard: It was a real pleasure to hear from you. Mrs. Roosevelt sends you her love. I am glad you like what I have written. I hope you have by this time seen my little book, called "America and the World War" . I sincerely regret that I have now no influence with my fellow countrymen. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Lily Howard,254 February 18th, 1915. Dear Gertrude: I have sent your letter to Emlen and discussed the matter with him; and I am very sorry to say neither he nor I see anything that can be done now. You do not need to be told that at this time it is the hardest possible thing to get a job of any kind and no men take any interest in the reduction of hours of labor. My dear Gertrude, I sincerely regret my inability to be of service; but probably you have no idea of the multitude of demands made upon me and of my absolute helplessness. With real regret, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Gertrude R. Punnett,255 February 18th, 1915 My dear Newton: Your letter pleases me very much. I did not write as I felt about your father, because I did not wish to seem exaggerated - and if I had said exactly what I felt outsiders who did not know him intimately would have thought I was speaking with exaggeration. Dr. Rainsford had already written me how immensely impressed he was by the service. May all good fortune ever be with you and yours! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt F. Maurice Newton, Esq., 27 West 44th Street, New York City.256 February 18th, 1915 My dear Dr. Brewer: I am sending you back the manuscript report on the outrages, which Alec Lambert left with me with the request that I send it back to you. It is one of the most horrible documents I have ever read. I began by being entirely incredulous as to the reports of the outrages; but I have begun to feel most uncomfortably convinced that there is good warrant for them. I suppose that deification of brutality, as expressed in the famous phrase that the German soldiers in China were expected to act "Like Huns" inevitably produces the kind of thing we now read of. With great regard, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. George E. Brewer, 16 East 64th Street New York City.257 February 18th, 1915 Dear Mr. Gunst: Thank you for sending me the pamphlet about the Exposition. Evidently it is going to be all that we hoped. I am looking forward eagerly to my visit to it. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Mr. M. A. Gunst, San Francisco, Cal.258 150 288 February 18th, 1915. Dear Cecil: I thank I have been writing you in rather too sombre a vein recently; and this is just to say that everything will come out all right. Tell this to Jusserand also. The one thing of which I feel certain is that England and France will be immensely benefited as the result of this war. Personally I think the Allies will win. I know they ought to win. Indeed, am sure. the victory will to some degree [???] I am not sure that the victory will come in such fashion as to secure justice being done to Belgium and a chance being given for the peoples of middle and south-eastern Europe to develop as they should develop. But I am nearly sure as can be that England and France will benefit immensely by the war. Both of them have shown ugly traits at times during the life-time of the generation that has recently grown to manhood and perhaps it was necessary that their manhood should be tried and purged in the ordeal of this dreadful fiery furnace. We Americans [???] You and Jusserand are doing what is very fine, perhaps the finest thing that men do; that is, you are rendering the utmost service to your country when your country most needs such service and when your country is engaged in a struggle in which your success is for the benefit of mankind. I would not have said this of England and France in the time of our Civil War, whereas I would most emphatically have said it of our own people at the time of our civil war. I would not even have said it of 259 -2- England and France in the Crimean War or of England in 1878 in connection with Russia or of France in 1882 in connection with Egypt. But in this great crisis you stand for the vital interests of your own two nations and you stand for humanity, for mankind; and in all human probability the war will come out to the benefit of both of you. I earnestly hope that it will come out so much to the benefit of both of you as to ensure the wrongs of Belgium being righted, as to give the people of Alsace and Lorraine the chance to determine their own destiny, and to give the lesser Slav people the chance to develop that they ought to have. But even if my hopes are fallacious in these respects, I am sure they are not fallacious as regards England and France. Both of these nations will come out immeasurably better because of what they have done and of what they have suffered in this war. If I were willing to let myself grow cast down, I should be pretty well cast down at the fact that in this great crisis America, because of having unworthy leaders, has played an unworthy part. But there is no use in the people of our age feeling needlessly cast down. In our Civil War, France and England did ill; and yet they have now risen to great pitches of patriotism and heroism. I do not doubt that the same thing will be true of the United States. Give my love to dear Lady Springy. I do wish we could see you both. Bakmetieff and his wife came out here the other day for lunch. Don't you think that very unostentatiously you could some 260 -3- out for a night or for lunch some time? I don't believe that anyone would know it. If that is impossible and if you will give me sufficient warning I will come in town to meet you. By the way, I am rather amused at the fact that Maxse's National Review, which is fairly jingo about Britain, should keep Maurice Low as its American correspondent, in view of the fact that Maurice Low is perfectly willing to do all he can for any anti-English c[r]eature here, if it will suit his own book. When I see Lady Springy, I want to tell her all about my grandchildren. I question if even the good diplomatic father would tolerate the kind of anecdote which this grandfather would like to inflict upon a presumably equally fond mother. I received a very pathetic letter from Winty Chanler the other day. Winty is such a delightful person and such a real faun that I hate to think of the misfortunes of our common humanity falling on him -- you and I are eminently human and it is all right we should have those misfortunes; but Winty ought by rights to enjoy himself to the very last. In his letter he made it evident that he was thinking often of the old times when, even if we were not all of us completely care free, we all of us had youth and the power of looking forward that gives youth its unconquerable spirit. But, Springy, the true way to look at things is to realize how very fortunate we have all been, taking it as a whole. You and your wife, and my wife and I -- we have encountered troubles and at times disaster and we cannot expect to escape a certain greyness 261 -4- in the afternoon of life -- for it is not often that life ends in the splendor of a golden sunset. But all four of us have led the kind of life that is emphatically well worth living and we all have cause to be deeply thankful that our lives have laid in the places where they have laid. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice,262 February 18th, 1915 Dear Winty: I must send you just another line to say how really pleased I was with your last letter. I was not able to answer it adequately, partly because I really felt too strongly over it and partly because, like Martha, I am cumbered about many things. One of the penalties paid for having led a somewhat notorious life is that when the chance for being useful has pretty well come to an end, one is still unable to get rid of a frightful inheritance of petty troubles. My correspondence is really a serious nuisance. Of course in a way it is only a petty nuisance; but the bulk is so enormous that I cannot see more than one letter in ten; and no inconsiderable portion of my time is taken up in answering letters which I have to answer and yet which are emphatically not worth answering. In politics, the kaleidoscope has been shaken and I am out of touch with the present trends of thought and feeling. Yet there remain good people who persist in thinking that somehow or other I can help them, if I choose to, toward the realization of ideals in which they believe and in which I believe; and they cannot understand that I am utterly helpless, that it is foolish for me to try. I hate to feel that this country is at this great crisis under the ignoble lead of Wilson and Bryan. They are a wretched263 -2- pair, especially because of the fact that they thoroughly realize the requirements of our people on the most sordid and least exalted side. They represent the desire of our people to live peacefully and make money and indulge in cheap little pleasures and strut about and pretend that they are doing something lofty and useful when they prattle little cheap platitudes and pass little cheap resolutions. I do not entirely agree with Willy that we should live dangerously for the sake of living dangerously. But I do most emphatically believe that neither a man nor a nation is worth anything if he or it is not ready and eager to live dangerously when a great ideal demands such a life. Give my warmest love to Daisy. I have recently had a very nice letter from David Gray and also one from Langdon Mitchell and a very melancholy letter from poor Dan Wister. I do wish I could see you and Daisy here; and I should like to see Dan and perhaps Langdon Mitchell and the David Grays too, for they could be congenial company. Give my love to the Lodges. I have been doing what I can to help Cabot in his Senatorial fights recently; but I am not of much use. Ever yours, T. R. Winthrop Chanler, Esq.264 February 20th, 1915. Dear Cleve: This will be presented to you by Rev. Stuart L. Roussel, a French Protestant pastor, and Mr. Percy J. Glibborn, an Irishman. Mr. Roussel is here on behalf of the French Protestant Churches, which have been brought down to such a pitch by the present war that they may shortly have to close. I have told him that I know you have many, many calls made upon you; that you have been doing all you can for Belgium; but that as these churches are in the Presbyterian Alliance, it is a possibility that you may be able to indicate some way by which they can be helped. He of course represents the old Huguenots. He is a fine and high fellow; and I hope you can see him. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Cleveland H. Dodge, Esq., Riverdale on Hudson, New York.265 February 20th, 1915. Darling Corinne: Rev. Stuart L. Roussel; a French Protestant pastor, is over here trying to raise some money for the French Protestant Churches, which are in the very direst need on account of the war. He is, with Mr. Percy J. Glibborn, staying at the Hotel Chelsea in West 23d Street. Would you be willing to arrange to have Roussel and Glibborn come in to see you and talk with them? They are anxious to give certain drawing room talks and did not know but that Mrs. Willard Straight might be interested in their work. I have given Mr. Roussel a letter to Cleve Dodge; but I do not know what else to do for him. Perhaps you can do nothing; but I think if you would be willing to see the good fellow and talk with him, you might at least give him some advice. Ever yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Douglas Robinson, 9 East 63d Street, New York City.266 February 19th, 1915. My dear Mr. Faver: The article you speak of referred to Brazil and not to the Argentine: I believe that an American negro would do far better in Brazil than in Africa, for he would find the surroundings in every way more congenial. In Brazil you would have to learn the language and you would have to be very cautious about investing your money until you were thoroughly familiar with the situation; but I believe that a negro who has accumulated twenty thousand dollars in twenty years in farming and stockraising in Oklahoma could also do well in Brazil. I can only give you this advice generally. I cannot give it in your specific case, for of course I do not know you; and in any event there is always such an element of chance when a man transplants himself that no one has a right to advise him. But in Brazil there is practically no color line drawn whatever. There are fine opportunities for stockraising and the country has a great future. But remember that there is always an element of doubt in making such a change as that of which you speak. I should strongly advise you to learn the language well yourself before you invest and then to invest in a very small way and try out the situation after you have been on the ground sometime before you go into things heavily - if you decide to go at all. No one can267 -2- give you a full and satisfactory answer. You would have to go down yourself to Brazil, after, I should hope, taking preliminary lessons in Portuguese; look about on the ground and then decide for yourself. If you decide to go down, I will give you a letter of introduction to our Ambassador there, saying that I hope he will help you in every way, for I have much sympathy with your attitude. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. S. J. Faver, East View Stock Farm, Meridian, Oklahoma. R. F. D.268 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. Shafer: I tried several times to get you at the Biltmore last Thursday and Friday but was unsuccessful. I am extremely sorry to have missed you. When next you come on, can't you give me warning in advance; and if possible, won't Mrs. Shafer and you come out to lunch or dinner at Oyster Bay? The weather will now soon be fine; and it is a pleasant motor trip. There is so much I would like to talk over with you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt John C. Shafer, Esq., The Evening Post, Chicago, Ill.269 February 19, 1915 Dear Mark: That' s an interesting interview: I wonder if you were struck as I was by the common type of quality it revealed in Wilson. He has the regular professional cultivation and is a trained elocutionist; but at heart he is neither a gentleman nor a real man. Did you notice the way in which he says that everybody whom he meets is a conceited egoist and a liar? My experience has been that the man who takes this view himself suffers from the qualities he attributes to others. Tell Mrs. Sullivan that I think that the Virginia house that you two have gotten is the very nicest thing I have ever seen. We loved the picture of it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mark Sullivan, Esq., c/o Collier's Weekly 416 West 13th St., New York City.270 February 19th, 191 My dear Mr. Pardington: I regret to say that I have not the time to go into that matter now, much as I should liketo. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Mr. A. R. Pardington, Dime Savings Bank Bldg., Detroit, Michigan.271 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. Shank: I thank you for your courteous letter and I appreciate the compliment implied in the suggestion of the gentlemen with whom you are connected. But I doubt seriously whether such an organization could at this time do any good; and I am absolutely certain that I could do no good in connection with it. I trust you have seen my little book, called "America and the World War." Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Samuel H. Shank, Esq., American Consul, Palermo, Italy.272 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. Cole: Your letter gives me very great concern. Pray, my dear Sir, accept my very deep sympathy. I think it is fine of you at such a time to think as mush as you are thinking of our country. Of course, I entirely agree with you in what you say. I am glad you heard from Fred Kruse. I am sure he is all right in the present situation and has not joined the anti-American wing of the so-called German-Americans. May all good fortune attend you always, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Fremont Cole, Esq., Little Neck, Long Island, New York.273 February 19th, 1915. My dear Madame Chopin: I have just received your courteous and touching letter, together with that from Senator Pierre Foudin. I regret that, although I can read French, I do not write it well enough to warrant my responding in your tongue. My dear Madame, I wish I were able to do as you demand; but it is a simple physical impossibility for me to undertake more work than I am already doing. I trust you have seen the little book I have written called "America and the World War". My daughter and her husband, Dr. Derby, spent three months in Paris in the American Ambulance Hospital, doing what they could for the French wounded. I have given all the support I am able to various movements on this side to help those who have suffered so terribly in this war. I greatly regret my sheer inability to do more. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Madame Leonie Chopin, Merignal par Cerdon Ain France.274 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. Pyles: That's a most interesting letter of yours and most interesting answers to the questions sent you. These peace-at-any-price people often have a basis of the most sordid commercialism in their souls. I thank you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. A. Zane Pyles, Valley Ranch, New Mexico.275 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. Collins: I thank you for your interesting letter and enclosures. I wish to say how particularly I appreciated your very kind allusion to me. You and I have fought for decency and we have no cause to be ashamed of what we did. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. P. V. Collins, Minneapolis, Minn.276 February 19th, 1915 Dear Frank: Your letter contains sound common sense. The danger in the situation comes from the Old Guard, who believe that the demoralization of the Democratic Party is so great that they can nominate any reactionary stand-patter. If they renominated Taft, for instances, I don't think our people would support him. I know I would not; for I don't think there is enough difference between him and Wilson to warrant our doing so. I am going to hit Wilson and Bryan again and again all I know how. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frank Knox, Esq., The Manchester Leader, Manchester, N. H. Private.277 February 19th, 1915 My dear Mr. von Ihering: I have just received your kind letter. I hope you have by this time received the copy of my book, which I have sent you. I wish I could help you to dispose of that collection; but time are very bad here and I don't think there is any chance of it. I have not been able to get my own African Natural History published in proper form through the Smithsonian. I regret this and wish I could be of service to you. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. H. von Ihering, Museu Paulista, Sao Paolo, Brazil.278 February 19th, 1915. My dear Mr. Renney: I wish I could help in that matter. I believe nothing would be better than to have such a paper; but it is an understatement to say that I have been approached to try to help in getting at least fifty papers, all of which ought to be started. I haven't any money, I am helpless in the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Oliver E. Renney, Esq., 632 Thirty-fourth Street, Milwaukee, Wis.279 February 19th, 1915. My dear Mr. Roper: I thank you for your letter and the copy of the Outlook, which I return. You deal with a most important subject; but I do not know enough of the matter to warrant my attempting to discuss it with you. Have you been in touch with Mr. Myron T. Herrick, of Cleveland, and Mr. B. F. Harris, of Champaign, Illinois, on the subject? They also have studied it and I think you ought to be in touch with them. Faithfully yours, T. Roosevelt Joseph Welwood Roper, Esq., 226 Halsted Street, East Orange, N. J.280 February 19th, 1915. My dear Mr. Smith: You are very kind; but I simply have not the time to write the only kind of piece I should be willing to write on such a subject. I do not write easily and I am not willing to deal with a matter of importance unless I say something that I am content to abide by. I have no chance to do that now. With regret, Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Harold H. Smith, Esq., Editor "Tropical Life," 112 Fenchurch Street, London, E. C. England.281 February 22nd, 1915 282 [?r] Scribner: This is an article which I suggested to Leo Miller, [?] companion in South America, that he should write, saying that I [?ould] put it before you to see whether you thought it would do for the magazine. It seems to me his experiences were really interesting and the photographs are quite remarkable. When I see you, which will be in a few days, I will speak of the article with you. If you think it would be worth while to take it and also worth while for me to write [?] few lines of introduction telling about Miller, I will gladly do so. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles Scribner, Esq., 48th Street & Fifth Avenue, New York City.282 281 February 22nd, 1915. [?] Scribner: It seems to me that Pearson should be notified that the title, which is evidently meant to be attributed to me, is not mine and that the pamphlet is merely one of the chapters in the book that Murray is about to publish, set forth under a title which [was?] falsely attributed to me. It is the chapter that appeared in the Independent. I do not feel that I should rest under this falsehood without making some denial of it. The Times reviews your book, the real book, on January 28th; and on February 4th the Daily [?] reviews this chapter with the false title. I do not [?] can be avoided, to go into the controversy personally [?] [?] that if you were willing to make this correction as from the [?] that would meet the situation. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles Scribner, Esq., 48th Street & Fifth Avenue, New York City.283 February 23rd, 1915. Hon. William J. Stone, Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington, D. C., Sir Late yesterday evening I received your telegram stating that you intended to report the Columbian Treaty tomorrow and asking that I put in writing before you my objections thereto prior to that time. As this of course gives me no time in which to prepare anything new, I beg to incorporate the article I wrote on the subject in the February number of the Metropolitan Magazine, running as follows:284 In addition to the above statement I desire to call your attention to the speech of Senator Joseph B. Foraker, of Thursday, December 17th, 1903, in the Senate of the United States, as contained in the Congressional Record. It runs in part as follows:285 As is shown by the above statement by Senator Foraker, the original agreement [in the shape of a protocol,] was with Columbia for the sum of seven million dollars, for she was most anxious that we should adopt the Panama and not the Nicaragua route. She then altered the agreement and made [??????] the sum [??????????] ten million dollars. Very great difficulty was incurred in securing the ratification of the treaty in the Senate because of the objection to paying so much as ten million dollars. As has been shown above, Columbia was under a dictatorship, the President being Mr. Marroquin, who had not been elected to that position but who exercised all the administrative and legislative functions of the state and who had, and officially avowed to this government that he had, complete and absolute control over the Congress and could make it, and avowed that he could make it, do whatever he wished. The pretense that Congress was not in sympathy with and acting in accordance with the Orders of President Marroquin is a pretense pure and simple. As I have shown above, from the report of Minister Beaupre, an admirable representative of the United States Government and most jealous of its interests, we could have obtained the ratification of the Treaty if the French Canal Company had been willing to pay the bribe of ten million dollars demanded of it by the Colombian [????????]. When the French Company declined to pay this bribe, then, as Senator Foraker has shown, one of the Colombian Government officials stated to the newspapers that they would not agree to the Treaty unless they received twenty five million dollars instead of ten million. In other words, the same party that negotiated the treaty then proceeded to reject it an (after we had acted) then proceeded to offer to us immediately to carry it out [its original treaty] if we would prove false to Panama and turn the people of the isthmus over to their former oppressors. Their reason for refusing [to carry out their own treaty] Treaty was because286 neither the French Company nor the United States Government would yield to the demands of Colombia and [pay] be bribes. To decline to execute a Treaty unless in consideration of a bribe is to commit blackmail. The proposed Treaty which you inform me you are endeavoring to have adopted by the Senator of the United States is a Treaty of blackmail pure and simple. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt287 [*92*] February 23rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Ambassador: This will be presented to you by Brigadier-General James A. Drain, N. G. W., retired. I have known General Drain for many years. He was one of my appointees while I was President. He is a man with whom I was intimately associated. While Secretary Root was at the head of the War Department he spoke to me again and again in the highest commendation of the services General Drain rendered in connection with the War Department. He is a man of great efficiency and of high character. His specialties have been rifleshooting and ordnance supplies. In all my dealings with him I have found him to be both honest and trustworthy; and it is a pleasure to me to write this letter for him. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency M. Jules J. Jusserand French Embassy, Washington, D. C. 288 [*258*] February 23rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Ambassador: This will be presented to you by Brigadier-General James A. Drain, N.G.W. retired. I have known General Drain for many years. He was one of my appointees while I was President. He is a man with whom I was intimately associated. While Secretary Root was at the head of the War Department he spoke to me again and again in the highest commendation of the services General Drain rendered in connection with the War Department. He is a man of great efficiency and of high character. His specialties have been rifle shooting and ord nance supplies. In all my dealings with him I have found him to be both honest and trustworthy; and it is a pleasure to me to write this letter for him. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, Washington, D. C.289 101 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Chapman: I am really obliged to you for your letter and for Nelson's. I was little exasperated at receiving [those] two letters reflecting on Nelson. I did not think it generous. One of the troubles with some scientific people is their unwillingness to be generous to others. I know that Scribner would not object in the least to Miller publishing that Gy-parana account. Now, I am to see Scribner about that manuscript of Miller's when you sen it; and I had better not talk to him about Nelson's first. I will take both of them up at once. I earnestly hope we can get Nelson the chance. It is like you to be acting the way you are acting in connection with this affair. I hope you will soon be in excellent health and I look forward to seeing you as soon as you return. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frank M. Chapman, Esq., Brentton Inn Ormond Beach, Florida.290 February 22nd, 1915 Dear Dave: Just at present I cannot accept that invitation, because my libel comes in April; and there has got to be more [???ss] preparation in advance. Moreover, I have been a little doubtful as to the advisability of my talking in Canada at the present moment. I wish to speak to my countrymen, for I think my countrymen are not behaving well - or at least that the Administration is not behaving well, which in effect is the same thing. Now, I don't like to say this to other people, and it does not do any good if I do say to other people. The preaching I can do must be at home; altho I gravely doubt if it has any material effect there [?????????] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt David Goodrich, Esq., 60 Broadway, New York City.291 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Senator Fall: I thank you for your letter. I am glad you are now in good health. I greatly regret that I did not receive your letter in time to incorporate its statements in an article which will be out in three or four days. I am utterly horrorstruck at the attitude of this Administration. We are now ambling in sidelong fashion dangerously near entanglement in the European War; and of course I do not see how we can refrain from action in Mexico much longer. Yet this Administration, with wicked folly, has declined to take any action toward making us ready for events. If seven months ago we had begun to prepare actively and at the same time had behaved in straightforward fashion, we would have been in far less danger than at present of going to war. With hearty thanks, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Albert B. Fall, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.292 February 22nd, 1915 Dear John: Three cheers for you! I am horribly afraid that if I had been anywhere near your district I should have abandoned my political principles and supported you with ardor! Yes, it does seem funny to think of the days when I first saw you. You had earned the name of Whistling John and had lost everything you had in the world in the [forest] fire and mere riding one of those two horses bareback with the other following. I congratulate you, John, and I am proud of the way you have made your way up. As to what you say about the wire-pulling and crooked legislation in Montana, I suppose there are only a few states exempt from it; and certainly New York is not. Ugh! I wonder when our people will get ready to insist upon straight politics. I shall doubtless go to the Panama Exposition; but I don't know by what route. It would be a real pleasure to me to stop at Glasgow if I am able to be in the neighborhood. Indeed, you do not know how you please me when you [???] that I had anything whatever to do with getting you to lay aside the [??????????] shirt and the mocasins and become a citizen. In a way you [????] right as to the change not being an improvement; but the trouble is [????] does not stand still in this life; and if you had stayed in the [?????????????????????????????] you would have gone backwards.293 -2- Be sure to look me up; [if ever you can come here;] and, if possible, I will get hold of Lambert and George Bird Grinnell to take dinner with us. I am mighty glad you are so interested in protecting the mountain sheep and the black tail. The last time I was through your country I was very much struck by the exact changes of which you speak. It was turning the cow country into a farming country. As you say, they are doubtless very good people, these newcomers; but they are not our type. I am much amused at what you say, Joh, of your change in view from your earlier life. Have you ever read about the Vikings! They were a set of as wild, out-throat pirates as ever lived. They sailed out of Scandinavia and ravaged Europe a thousand years ago. The things they did were right in their eyes; but their descendants would not do them now and are very respectable, quiet people. Well, out in the West in your youth, you were living in the Viking days of this republic. The only difference was that here the change took place in one generation whereas it extended over thirty generations in Europe. Good luck to you, John! I was really interested in your letter. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. John Willis, Montana Legislature, Helena, Montana.294 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Pulsifer: That's really kind of you to send me Robinson's poem! I shall show it at once to Mrs. Roosevelt. I am greatly struck by it. As soon as I get the chance, I want to see you to tell you of an experience I had in connection with another poet. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Harold Pulsifer, The Outlook Company, 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City.295 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Sutherland: I wish I could accept that invitation; but I simply cannot. Bitter experience has taught me that if I do one such thing it means that I rob myself of power to decline a hundred other invitations without causing real offense. I hate to have to answer you in this way both for your own sake and for the sake of Haskett, who is a very fine fellow. With real regret, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Leslie Sutherland, Esq., Yonkers Railroad Company, Yonkers, N. Y.296 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Fitzhugh: That's very kind of you! I have, however, already got the book on Lyons; and so I shall ask Scribners not to send it. With regard, Theodore Roosevelt Carter B. Fitzhugh, Esq., Chicago, Ill.297 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Noyes: It seems to me that you have got just the right idea. I am not prepared to go for National Prohibition now, because I do not as yet see that that would mean an advance for temperance; but I emphatically approve of the Federal Government taking active means to see that the rights of local option districts and states are recommended along the line you suggest. I do not think it wise for me to come out about this yet. The immediate questions before this country are foreign questions and the people's eyes are properly fixed on these. Wilson and Bryan are the most awful creatures to deal with international affairs that we have had since the days of Buchanan. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Laverne W. Noyes, Esq., Chicago, Ill.298 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Cheshire: I am very much obliged to you. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Melba peaches; and I am very glad to find that we owe it to a friend like yourself. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. A. B. Cheshire, Oyster Bay, New York.299 February 22nd, 1915 Dear Charlie: I am sorry to say I have not got that letter to Senator Hoar. He came out very fearlessly attacking the A. P. A. business; and I wrote him cordial approval; but I have forgotten the details of it. I will make another effort to get Progressive Principles sent you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles G. Washburn, Worcester, Mass.300 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Childs: It seems to me that that is a first-class speech of yours. I haven't got any criticism to make. I thought what you said about the reformers and visionaries in capital taste, and most apt; and I am much amused at your comments upon President Wilson and booeys. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt William H. Childs, Esq., 17 Battery Place, New York City.301 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Ambassador: May I trouble you to send the enclosed copies of the Geographical Journal, one to His Excellency Secretary Lauro Muller and the other to Colonel Rondon? They contain my address at London in which I call especial attention to both of them. With all good wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, The Brazilian Ambassador, Washington, D. C.302 February 22nd, 1915 Dear Lawrence: I hope you are now in pretty good shape. This is just to say that I liked so much your reply to the pro-German letter. I entirely agree with the pro-German in what he says about manliness and in his attack on the slush and sentimentality of our people. But he has committed the dreadful error that is so often committed by men of his stamp; and in his revolt against molly-coddle-ism he goes into a deification of mere brutality. Moreover, he is entirely wrong in his facts. With love to your father, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lawrence F. Abbott, Esq., 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City.303 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Robinson: I thank you for the book. Of course the already-published poems I was familiar with. Many of them I am very fond of, perhaps fondest of all of Twilight, the former closing poem of the book. I am delighted with the translations of the Anthology. I wish also to tell you how much pleased I have been with your poem that is to appear in The Outlook. I got them to send me a special copy of it, first to show Mrs. Roosevelt and then to send down to Kermit. Congratulating you, I am Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. A. Robinson, Esq.,300 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Schaap: Some time or other come in to see me. I see you appeared against the bill making compulsory the reading of the Bible in the Public Schools. If I were in the Legislature or Governor, I should vote against or veto that bill, because I believe in absolutely non-sectarian public schools. It is not our business to have the Protestant Bible or the Catholic Vulgate or the Talmud read in those schools. There is no objection whatever, where the local sentiment favors it, for the teacher to read a few verses of the ethical or moral parts of the Bible, so long as this causes no offense to anyone. But it is entirely wrong for the law to make this read compulsory; and the Protestant fanatics who attempt to force this through are playing into the hands of the Catholic fanatics who want to break down the Public Schools system and introduce a system of sectarian schools. I shall ask you to treat this letter as private, because I have so many fights on my hands that there is no use my going into another; and just at present our people do not wish me to embark on a general course of lectures to them as to what they should do in the public schools. [You can show this letter, however, to Hamilton Fish, our own Progressive legislator, if you wish.] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Michael Schaap, Esq.,305 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Egan: I have been very much pleased with your recent attitude on the war. I enclose you for your own private use a copy of a letter I sent to an Anglo-American friend, which puts my position clearly. some time or other I want to see you. I enjoyed so much seeing some of your family in Santiago. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Patrick Egan.306 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Duval: I do not know what action the Progressives here will take. If they take any action, would it not be wise for them to endorse Scotty Thompson for Constable again? My understanding is that he has done excellently. What is your judgment in the matter? Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Robert W. Duval, Esq., Oyster Bay, New York.307 February 23rd, 1915 My dear Colonel Heybaud: On February 18th I received the following telegram: "Coming from Buenos Aires with a letter for you. I beg ask where to meet you and when. Doctor Pelliegrini, Grand Hotel, New York." I immediately had my secretary wire Dr. Pelliegrini at the Grand Hotel asking him to meet me at my office on the 20th. He did not come; and I have just received word that my telegram was not delivered to him, as he was not at the Grand Hotel. Have you any idea where he is? Pray present my warm regards to Madam Heybaud when you write; and remember we expect you at our house. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel Eduardo Heybaud, The Argentine Embassy, Washington, D. C. 308 February 23rd, 1915 Dear Cal: Here is that article from the Spectator. I should be glad if it could be printed in the Middle West; and I think it would be good to have it printed in the North American. It was fine seeing you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. O. O'Loughlin, Esq., Chicago Herald Bureau, Washington, D. C.309 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Colonel Jannicky: The newspapers this morning state that at a meeting in the Forty-seventh Regiment Armory in Brooklyn yesterday you announced that I had telephoned you that I was unable to attend the meeting because of illness. I of course assume that this statement is incorrect. I trust that you will at once deny it and add that not only I never telephoned to you but that I never received any message from you or from anyone else asking me to make a speech, as far as I know, nor did any human being ever suggest to me that I should make any such speech. I was not sick; and nobody suggested that I was sick. The whole story of the invitation and acceptance, so far as I know, was made out of the whole cloth. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Colonel E. E. Jannicky, Forty-seventh Regiment Armory Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.310 February 22nd, 1915 Dear Curtis: Don't think of that matter again. If I had been able to do so, nothing would have given me more pleasure than to speak, as Miss Frick requested, in connection with your Indian pictures. The trouble is that by bitter experience I have found that I cannot do the things I would like to do because to do them entails such work on me in the way of the acceptance of scores and often of hundreds of other invitations which I have debarred my self from refusing when I accept one. With real regret, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edward S. Curtis, Esq.,311 February 23rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Viskniski: This will present to you Madame Vandervelde, the wife of the eminent Socialist Deputy, who has been sent over here by the Belgian King. I have the honor of Madame Vandervelde's acquaintance; and she is a very exceptional woman. I believe she can do work of the kind which she desires such as no other person can do and that it would be of great value. May I beg of your courtesy that you accord her an interview and go over the matter. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Guy T. Viskniski, Esq., The Wheeler Syndicate, 373 Fourth Avenue, New York City.312 February 23rd, 1915. My dear Madame Vandervelde: Is the enclosed all right? It is a great pleasure to send it. I hope I need not tell you how much both of us enjoyed your visit. I am only sorry I could not have seen you the following morning. You must remember to let me know whenever you come back to America. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Madame Lalla Vandervelde, c/o Miss Caldwell, 131 East 66th Street, New York City,313 February 19th, 1915. My dear Mr. Einstein: I was much interested in your article on "America Peace Dreams." But you must pardon my saying that I do not think you do justice to me when you only quote what I said about my plan for peace. Taft, Wilson and Bryan stand on an absolutely and completely different footing from me in this matter, because they explicitly or implicitly propose to substitute paper agreements for the potential use of force and explicitly or implicitly treat these proposed paper agreements as reasons why America should not prepare to defend itself. Moreover, they treat their proposals as being immediately realizable, as offering immediate substitutes for war; and, what is to my mind most important of all and fundamentally utterly immoral, they dare not say one work for righteousness but advocate peace in terms that would consecrate wrong. My proposal was a wholly subordinate part of the lesson I was teaching I hope you have seen the little book in which it appeared, called "America and the World War." I explicitly stated that a world league for peace is not now in sight; that it may never be created; and that at present the prime necessity is that our nation shall be able to defend by its own strength its honor and its vital interest; and that this is the most important lesson taught the United States by the present war. I wish to make good people who314 -2- abhor unjust war feel, as I myself sincerely feel, that the men who think as I do do not offer strength or force as the only permanent solution of international questions, that we believe it should be combined with righteousness, with fair dealing. I desire to hold this up as an ideal, a possibly realizable ideal. I do this both because I believe in the ideal and because I believe furthermore that by making good citizens understand that this is genuinely our ideal, we can also make them go with us in the immediately and vitally important part of our policy, which is preparation to use our own strength to defend our own rights. Now, if you will look at my book I think you will see that Messrs. Wilson, Bryan and Taft stand at the absolutely opposite pole from me. For example, I emphatically do [??????] that we should not sign Hague Conventions with European powers unless we are willing by the use of force to try to make those conventions effective in just such a case as that of Belgium. As regards America, I was very careful to limit the number of nations as to which such a court would be applicable. It would be pure damage to establish in this hemisphere such a court so far as the affairs of Mexico, of most of the Central American and of most of the northern South [????????????] states are concerned. In other words, my dear Mr. Einstein, I was just a little [????] disappointed that you, with your admirable historic sense, should [????????????] that Messrs. Wilson, Bryan and Taft propose immediate [?????????] which are false and mischievous, because they make no effort [???????????] for keeping promises and because they treat the315 -3- making of foolish promises as a substitute for efficient preparation on our part; whereas my ground is that no promise is to be made unless it is to be kept; that no promise is worth anything unless there is a method of enforcing it; and that as things are at present it is criminal for a nation to blind itself to actual facts and to fail to prepare to defend itself with its own strength. In what I have been doing I have not been acting in the interest of England as such or against the interest of Germany as such; I have been acting in the interest of the United States and also in accordance with what I believe to be our duty of judging each nation by its conduct in any given case. I should do this in any event. But the National Review, as edited by Mr. Maxse, itself shows how foolish it would be not to follow this course. His American correspondent is Maurice Low. I know Low; and he is a contemptible creature. He is eager and anxious to sacrifice English interests to this own spites and animosities. In this number wherein your article appears, Low is really writing a defnse of Wilson. Now Wilson has of course in most scandalous fashion abandoned American interests. I do not object to Low's disregard of this fact, because Low is not an American and cares nothing for America. But Wilson has undoubtedly been himself controlled by his desire to placate the German vote. Between ourselves, Professor Munsterberg told me that Wilson had written him and had sent Mr. McCombs to see him to find out what the Administration could do to make the German-Americans content with his attitude toward German. Maurice Low knows [about his attitude]316 -4- perfectly well, as every one in Washington knows it. But he cares more to defend Wilson than to stand up for right or justice or to support the country to which he nominally belongs, England - whereas I have said I do not mind his being hostile to America. He does all he can to defend and sustain Wilson in Wilson's doing injustice to the United States; in his neglect of duty to Belgium; and in his pandering to the German vote; and he does this in what is theoretically an ultra-British, ultra-Imperialist English magazine! I thoroughly distrust Low; and I think he is quite capable of having under hand relations with the German-Americans, because all his past conduct in the United States would make him their natural ally. But it is not Low in whom I am interested. What I am interested in is the fact that the Editor of the National Review should be giving prominence to the man whose work is in effect to sustain the American statesmen and politicians who are against England. I am neither for England nor against England I am for her when she is right and against her when she is wrong, just as I am with Germany or any other nation. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Lewis Einstein.317 February 22nd, 1915 Dear Strachey: I am very much pleased with your letter. I am glad you liked the book. Moreover, you exactly meet my view when you say that while you love America you do not in the least place America on the same level in your affections as your own country or anywhere near it. This is exactly the attitude you ought to take. It is exactly the attitude I take about America and England; and I am convinced that it makes it far more possible for Englishmen and Americans to be cordial and deep friends when they take that attitude than when they [????] and indulge in insincere gush, which makes both sides [????] like hypocrites when their actions are compared with their words. You say that most Englishmen are a little sore at what they consider my coolness toward England in the book and my desire to be just to Germany. I expect this. At the same time remember that I emphatically state that England was right; [and] that England had put [made] all peace lovers her debtors by her action toward Belgium; but I thought it very unwise to indulge in hysterics in the matter. I am trying to look at things as dispassionately as possible. I have more close and warm personal friends in England than anywhere else outside of America; [??????] England I have these close and warm personal friends in Germany. [Next to any ??? country I put England first; I am in closest sympathy with her.] [?????????????] German-American in this country as fundamentally [????????????????] citizen [????????????????????????????????????][*318*] -2- at the moment. He loathes me personally; and if (which will not be the case) I were ever again going to be in politics, he would oppose me with the utmost bitterness politically. But I wish especially to avoid being driven by his misconduct into injustice on my part. In a month I shall send you an article I am writing for the Metropolitan Magazine, in which I deal without gloves with the German-Americans here. I can do so, while retaining my self-respect because I am scrupulously careful to do them justice. One word about what you say as to the temper of your people now exactly corresponding with the temper of our people in the North during the Civil War, and your saying that you will brook no interference with your right to resist a ruthless, remorseless enemy. I do not wish you to brook any interference; but I do earnestly hope in you own interest that you will so far as possible act as John Bright, through Sumner, counselled Abraham Lincoln to act in the Civil War. You will find his letters in young Trevelyan's Life of John Bright. Palmerston and Gladstone were acting toward the United States at that time as badly as Wilson and Bryan are now acting toward England; Indeed they were acting much worse. The friends of the United States in England earnestly besought the Union party in America not to permit themselves to get embroiled with England; and this not primarily in England's interests but in the interests of the United States. In just the same way and for just the same reason, I earnestly hope you will not permit yourselves to get embroiled with the United States. Remember, my dear Strachey, that England has acted pretty roughly as regards therights of neutrals[*319*] -3- during the past few months. She has not behaved as badly as Germany; and I hold it infamous of our people to protest when they did not protest about Belgium. But after all our neutral trade is ninety percent of it, probably ninety-five per cent of it, to the advantage of the Allies and to the disadvantage of Germany. Germany knows this; and there is nothing she so wants as to have a break between us and England. For heaven's sake, help those of us on this side who are doing everything we can to avoid a break. I shall keep on hammering just as strongly as I know how. I am seeking in every way to influence any countrymen by dwelling on the one hopelessly wrong attitude of Germany, that towards Belgium; I am fighting Wilson's ship purchase bill tooth and nail. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt St. Lo Strachey, Esq., Editor The Spectator, London, England. Private. P. S. I have just read your article in the Spectator. I very much appreciate it. Now a work as to the final paragraph. Perhaps you feel that I do not sympathize with you because of the fact that I feel very real sympathy with so many people in each of the nations. Surely you must realize, if only from the bitterness expressed toward me by the Germans, that I have unequivocally expressed[*320*] -4- my sympathies with the Allies and my denunciation of Germany and my abhorrence of a neutrality which is neutral between right and wrong. But remember that I am writing primarily to influence my own people to do what I regard as right. I have distinctly stated that in what England did for Belgium she has set the right example for the United States. I have spoken in the highest terms of your Army and Navy; of the attitude of the upper classes and of large sections of your people. I have explicitly stated that you have done better than we would have done. I have held you up as being better compared to us. I should not be telling the truth if I said that I thought that the people of England, as a whole, had in point of unity, of understanding of the situation and of a self-devotion both serious and passionate, shown to advantage compared to Germany and France. Here again I say that you have done better than we would have done. But you have not done anything like as well as if you had possessed the national foresight and character to have followed the advice of Lord Roberts. You have not shown such utter ineptitude as Wilson and Bryan have shown during the last seven months. They have actually refused to take one single step toward preparedness during these seven terrible months; and so they have made themselves of less account either as regards defending their own rights or securing the rights of others. When I without any hesitancy condemn my fellow-country men, you I know expect me to speak with what I believe to be justice of others. Moreover, my dear Strachey, while I most deeply sympathize[*321*] -5- sympathize with your feelings and realize the great tension you are under, yet I cannot accept your view that you have been careful to respect the rights of neutrals, or even wise from you own standpoint as regards your attitude toward neutral vessels. There has been an unpleasant resemblance in this war to what was done over a century ago when the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon and the British Orders in Council rendered it hopeless for a neutral to expect good treatment from either belligerent. If the United States had done its duty in protesting against the invasion of Belgium (and if I had been President the protest would have been made very emphatically and I would have gone very far! of course, between ourselves, I should have backed the protest by [force?].) and if we had protested with no less emphasis against the cruelties and brutalities on non-combatants in Belgium and France by the Germans, I should also have protected against the use of mines in the North Sea by the British and now with even more emphasis against the War Zone established by the Germans around Britain. Surely you must know that the German-Americans in the United States have been exceedingly anxious to have us put a stop to all shipments to the belligerent countries. This is because, as I have said, at least ninety per cent of the benefit of these shipments goes to the Allies. Now the English position has been that you will take advantage of your strength on the sea to secures for yourselves the ninety per cent to which you are entitled and to prevent your enemies getting the ten per cent to which under the Hague Conventions and in accordance with international law they are entitled. This is a complete abandonment of the theory of the existence of right and a substitution[*322*] -6- [sub]stitution for it of the German doctrine that there is no such thing as right and that only might need be considered. If you had openly and avowedly taken the ground that the violation by Germany of the Hague Conventions made it imperative on you in your turn to carry out her policy to its proper development by refusing to recognize in her favor any of the doctrines which she violated so unhesitatingly, then your position would have been defensible. But I do not understand that you have ever taken this ground. It was an ignoble thing of us, when our people were screaming and yelling about our peacefulness and our neutrality, to protest about your seizure of copper destined for Germany, when we had refused to protest about Germany's invasion of Belgium. But the protest would have been quite right if we had made the original protest in Belgium's case. From your standpoint it is infinitely more important that you should continue to get food stuffs, munitions and the like from America than that you should stop a few cargoes going into Germany. It would have been infinitely better if our protests against the invasion of neutral rights at sea had been directed against Germany solely, instead of our being, as at present, really uncertain whether it is a British or a German floating mine that [we] [our shipment?] struck in the North Sea. Another thing, my dear Strachey: don't forget that your own people in their hearts are deeply convinced that they and we are entirely separate peoples and that your people often show this conviction in very unpleasant ways. I think only trouble comes from taking the opposite view. I think your view is exactly the right view. I try to act on just such a view myself. I feel far greater sympathy[*323*] -7- [sym]pathy with England than with any other people, and this although only a small amount of English blood flows in my veins. But I feel that sympathy largely because I am not a [mere?] transplanted Englishman; I am an American pure and simple. There are any number of Americans descended from all kinds of peoples whom I can get to set with me on the grounds I set forth, who would be immediately revolted if I sought to get them to act in the very spirit which I condemn among the German Americans, that is, if I sought to get them to act as Anglo-Americans. Most naturally, you and your people, being human, cannot look at some of your problems as an outsider must. Most of my English friends with whom I am in close touch socially look upon the Irish as my Magyar friends look upon the Slavs, my German friends on the Poles. They sincerely believe in each case that the Lord has created them superior and that it is impious for others not to accept this view. Now, I cannot accept this view in any one of the three cases. I appreciate to the full your difficulties, from the Imperial standpoint, in dealing with Ireland; but if you will read Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century", you will find it set forth in full why men like myself must hold that the dreadful wrongs that have been done for centuries to Ireland must now be undone, even though undeserved trouble comes upon the descendants of some of the agents of the wrong-doers. This is exactly what I feel about the Roumans and the Slavs whom the Magyars hold down, exactly what I feel about the Poles whom the Germans hold down, and about the Finns and Caucausians when the Russians oppress them. Remember that Lecky, when be came to present-day politics, was[*324*] -8- a violent anti-Home-Ruler; and this renders all the more impressive his extraordinary array of facts as a historian, facts which seem to me to point to action by the present the direct reverse of that which in the present he advocated. Remember also, my dear Strachey, what I think I have already said, that the average Englishman down at the bottom of his heart feels that the American is an alien. I think the Englishman is right. I think that it is better that we should get along on the basis that we are two closely-knit and friendly nations rather than by making believe that we are the same people divided into two camps. You have no idea how even a man like myself has continually to encounter from Englishmen things which I treat as amusing but which would be exasperating if I were trying to adopt the position of being practically of the same nationality as themselves. Of course, as I need hardly say, Englishmen have to submit to exactly as much from Americans, the irritation in this case being of a different kind but at least as bad in its manifestations. Moreover, the English business man in South America, as I happen to know personally, does all he can to interfere with the American business man, just as the German does; and frequently be united with the German in order to keep the American out. I have, as you know, fought hard to prevent this nation doing anything against England in this war of seeking profit in a commercial way by the war; I have fought hard to make us take action against Germany. But the Englishman is, I think quite properly, doing his best to turn the situation to his present and future advantage; this is especially the [???] English businessman; and this country ought not, when such is the case, to refuse itself to shape its course so that as[*325*] -9- far as properly may be its own commercial future shall be cared for. You know that ever since the Spanish War - I think before that time but certainly since then - that is, for seventeen years, I have in every way shown myself a friend to England and the British Empire; and I have done it practically. But while I was President I had a rather eye-opening experience with your people about the Alaska Boundary. Literally, not figuratively, the Canadians had no more right in their claim than Norway would have to the Orkneys if she now redeemed her pledge in money and demanded to have the Orkneys back (you of course know that the Orkneys came as pledge for the non-payment of the dowry of the Maid of Norway when she married one of the Scottish kings). Canada had not a shadow of right; and the Canadian maps and the British Admiralty maps alone should have decided the case. But Canada thought that England could get her what she was not entitled to; and England was anxious, as a reward for Canada's action in the Boer War, to show her devotion to Canada, right or wrong. I explained then that I would arbitrate the Newfoundland Fisheries or Lake Fisheries Questions or any other question excepting the question of giving to Canada territory to which she had no more title than the United States had to the Isle of Wight. I went into the arrangement finally made only after I had explicitly stated to two British Ambassadors in succession that I would not make any arrangement which would jeopardize this territory and that they must understand that I was only doing it at their requests to allow them an opportunity out of a different situation. Now, I am not blaming England for standing up for Canada, even when Canada was wrong. But when[*326*] 10 such is the attitude of the British Government, even a most sincere friend of England, as I think I can say I have shown myself to be, must keep to his duty as an American and must not slop over or gush too much and make his words falsify his deeds. If you will read Maxse's National Review, you will see the kind of Englishman whose existence I have to take into account on one side just exactly as I take into account on the other side the existence of you and Arthur Lee. In exactly similar fashion you have to take into account the existence of Americans like myself and the existence of Americans like Wilson and Bryan. By the way, in that number of the Spectator, I greatly enjoyed what you said about Haldane. I thought the attack on him in the National Review really outrageous; and I think its attitude is a pretty doubtful attitude from the Imperial standpoint at this moment. An amusing feature of the National Review is that its American correspondent is a Jew of cosmopolitan sympathies named Maurice Low, a man who, because of his conduct as a representative of one of the American yellow newspapers, I had to forbid entry to the White House. In consequence he has persistently used the National Review to exalt Wilson and Taft, who really have been largely anti-British, and to assail me, who am the only conspicuous American leader who in time of crises has stood up for the English side. I do not in the last mind this; but it is extremely comic in view of Maxse's condemnation of the cosmopolitan Jew attitude in Great Britain itself and of his American views. Another thing that I liked was the brief memorandum[*327*] 11 in which you exposed the prophecies of the English pacificists of only a year ago. Evidently you have almost as big fools as we have in the pacificist line - in [which] case they have reached the nadir of timidity, weakness and folly. One thing may be of interest to you. England has been about as bad as the United States in willingness to pass universal arbitration treaties, which cannot be put into effect. Both England and France cheerfully signed the Wilson-Bryan universal arbitration treaties or commission treaties some eight months ago. Well, Bryan the other day told a man I know that it was necessary for us to at all costs avoid getting into trouble with Germany, because we had no such treaty with Germany; but that we could perfectly well afford to get into trouble with England or France because we had those treaties with France and England; and therefore we should have to investigate for a year before there could be any resort to hostilities! This is a curious commentary on the Wilson-Bryan pacificist crowd here and a curious commentary on the wisdom of the French and English statesmen who went into these preposterous treaties with a vague idea that they were thereby advancing, if not the cause of peace, at any rate the good relations between themselves and the United States. By the way, you exactly sized up Wilson in that statement of your. He is, however, in addition, an absolutely cold and self-seeking man. He is a good politician; his aim is to keep the German and Irish and the pacificist votes behind him; and, if he does this, he thinks (and he is probably right) that he will be re-elected in 1916. One of the small ironies of life was shown the other[*328*] 12 day, incidentally, by the enthusiasm with which the Canadians got Taft up to lecture there. You doubtless remember that Taft openly avowed that the object of his reciprocity treaty was to make Canada tributary to the United States; and I took, at the time the not very popular ground that we should not have any such intention, that our aim simply should be to get along on terms of closest friendship with Canada as with the rest of the British Empire. But national memories are as short as individual memories - and the memory of my countrymen is, I should think, a little the shortest of all. More and more I come to the view that in a really tremendous world struggle, with a great moral issue involved, neutrality does not serve righteousness; for to be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong. The neutrality our Government now boasts, like yours in '61 or '90, serves ease and selfishness at the moment; but it does not serve morality, nor in the long run real national interest. My dear fellow, you or those like you are playing heroic parts; I admire and respect you; I bitterly regret that my own people are not at this time rising to the same level. T. R.329 February 25th, 1915. My dear Mr. Keltie: I very greatly appreciate what you were able to do about those maps. If you had not reproduced them, they would not have been reproduced at all, for I could not get the people on this side of the water to take much effective interest in the matter. I am exceedingly glad that you were able to use the information that I furnished as to the latitude and longitude in such shape as to make the maps available. Pray present my regards to Mr. Freshfield and tell him how much pleased I am with the shape in which the mater has been put up. I have sent copies of the magazine to both Dr. Lauro Muller and Colonel Rondon. It is natural and proper that these really eminent Brazilians should be pleased at having their services acknowledged in the leading geographical magazine of the world by the leading geographical society of the world. Will it bother you also to tell Mr. Evans how much I appreciated his review of my book in the same number of the magazine? Tell him confidentially, what you already know, that all he says about the lack of preparation was quite true but that is sprang from certain traits of Brazilian character which it would have been unkind and ungenerous on my part to allude to in my book. If I could have had Kermit make the preparations for me, Fiala bringing down from New York what Kermit advised, together with the four canoes which Fiala and I would330 -2- on our own initiative have taken, we would have made the journey with fewer accidents, with more comfort and in two weeks less time. The enormously heavy tents were provided with the greatest pride by the Brazilian government and Colonel Rondon, although they were utterly unsuited for the work. At the very outset, before we started on the mule trip, I had to get rid of half of them. I got rid of half the remainder before we had finished the mule trip; and then when we got on the Unknown River I had to insist on throwing away those that were left. On each occasion I had to exercise real tact, because it almost broke the heart of good Colonel Rondon. Now Kermit and I used to long for Cuninghame and Tarlton, the Scotchman and the Australian, with whom we went in Africa! As I say, if Kermit and I could have handled the thing entirely by ourselves, there would have been no trouble at all; but the Latin mind, or at least the Latin-American mind, puts a totally different emphasis on things. [from ours] Our companions cared immensely for what they regarded as splendor. It was not only the question of the tents. They had all [kinds] of this stuff. The government, for instance, furnished me with a most elaborate silver-mounted saddle and bridle. In my eyes [it was] they were exquisitely unfit for such a trip; but I would have given deep offense to very good and kind people if I had not used it. It was the same thing about the heavy tents. Half way across the plateau, when our transport was breaking down, I cross-examined Colonel Rondon, just as far as I could without having an actual break, to find out if he had all the things necessary. He positively assured me that he had. I told him that if there was any question about this we ought to turn our saddle-mules into331 -3- pack animals; and we ourselves walk. He would not have minded the walk at all from the physical standpoint; but he simply could not bear to have us take action which he regarded as an admission that we were not doing the thing in splendid style; and in consequence when we got on the Unknown River I found out that in spite of his explicit assurances to the contrary he had left behind several mule loads of provisions for our boatmen, including the sugar, which is so necessary on an exhausting trip. Of course there was then no remedy for this; and I simply cut down our own rations one-half at the outset giving the rest to the paddler. We therefore began with half-rations. I was well aware that there was a chance of disaster because of this rather absurd lack of forethought; but I was not going to give up the trip. Of course, it would have been mere folly for me to have quarreled with my companions about what it was then too late to remedy. I simply took charge of things from that time on, exercising through Kermit a close supervision over everything that was done but being more than courteous and polite and friendly with my Brazilian companions. Inasmuch as they were doing their level best, as they were really very fine fellows and as I would not have been able to take the trip at all if it had not been for the action of the Brazilian Government, I felt that it would have been more than ungrateful to let any of these things be public. It would accomplish absolutely no good. But I am glad that you, Freshfield and Evans should, for your own information purely, know the truth. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. Scott Keltie, Esq., Secretary, Royal Geographical Society,332 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Curtis: I want to see you as soon as you get East. I have been thinking a great deal about Prohibition. Now I need not tell you, who have been good to be a real friend of mine, that I want to do anything real against the liquor traffic. But I do not want merely to say something or seem to do something; and it is my experience that sometime if [we] try to take the second step first, we don't get the first step at all. My entirely tentative feeling is that the proper course to take for the moment is to put the national government emphatically back of every community, whether state, country or district, that goes prohibition, to use the national government to see that the community is really and not nominally dry. Is not this the best thing as a first step? I do not mean I have definitely come to this conclusion; but I would like you to think it over and see me when you get back. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Franck G. Curtis, Esq., Jamestown, New York.333 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Neild: I heartily thank you for your letter. You have the fact stated exactly as it is. I hope you saw my recent article in the Metropolitan on the Panama subject. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James R. Neild, Esq., 819 Second Avenue, New York City.334 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Father Fox: I genuinely appreciate your letter; and it is perhaps unnecessary to say how strongly I feel about the cruel wrongs committed on Belgium. With high regard and assurance of my appreciation, I am Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Thomas Fox, S. M. Catholic Mission, Suva, Fiji.335 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Dreher: It is a real pleasure to hear from you. I had not heard of your promotion; and I am very much pleased by it. It is a fine thing to be in Toronto. I am also interested in what you tell me about Mr. Taft's address. I regret all the more that when tested by deeds his conduct should not have corresponded more closely with his words. With regard, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Julius D. Dreher, Esq., American Consulate, Toronto, Canada.336 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Sir: I thank you for your kind letter. I suppose you have seen the little volume I have published, called "America and the World War." One word, however, about your statement at the close of your letter that sometimes you are tempted to be ashamed of your country and transfer your allegiance to another land, presumably England. It is well to have the historic sense in these matters. Remember that both England and France during our Civil War behaved a great deal worse than the United States is behaving now and that England in the Franco-German war of 1870 behaved little better than the United States is behaving now. Of course, I cannot too heartily reprobate our conduct in not having stood up for Belgium when the Hague Conventions to which we were a party were so shamelessly violated. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Oscar Parker, Esq., "Harvard" St. Margaret's Bay, Kent, England.337 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Burdsall: I thank you for your letter. It does not seem to me that it is wise at this time for me to be writing political letters of the kind that you request. I suggest that you write to Mr. Victor Murdock, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. He entirely agrees with me that it is better for me not to write in such matters. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Chas. S. Burdsall, Esq., 204 Lincoln Inn Court, Cincinnati, Ohio.338 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Sir: It is a matter of real regret to me that I am unable to accept your kind invitation to address the Canadian Club of Ottawa. It is a sheer physical impossibility for me to be out of New York before your season closes. I am very sorry I have to answer you in this way. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. J. E. Macpherson, Honorary Secretary, The Canadian Club, Ottawa, Ontario. Canada.339 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Johnson: I am not surprised at what you tell me. I am glad to learn that Cooper came out so well, and the others you mention. Sincerely yours, T Roosevelt Robert Underwood Johnson, Esq., Century Club, New York City.340 February 22nd, 1915. Dear Mr. Castle: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I appreciate it! Do give me the chance to see you if you are ever in the neighborhood. Ted, I need hardly say, would greatly like to see you also. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt William E. Castle, Jr., Esq., 3 Gray's Hall, Cambridge, Mass.341 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Ely: I believe that Mr. Hill will give you a first-class series of addresses; but if I begin endorsing anybody in the manner you request I would stop myself from refusing to endorse countless of my friends. It would be a bad precedent. With regret that I cannot meet your wishes, I am Sincerely yours, T Roosevelt Robert E. Ely, Esq., 147 West 48th St., New York City.342 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Mathews: It is not possible for me to grant requests such as that contained in your telegram, and especially when they take the form of requests for [???????] messages containing two hundred words. If I did it in one case, I would have to do it in innumerable others. The [???????] thing to do would be to look up some of the carefully-prepared statements that I have made about the Y. M. C. A. [and use them.] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. C. Mathews, Esq., General Chairman, Y. M. C. A. Campaign Committee, Norfolk, Va.343 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Beitler: The very handsome volume on the Gettysburg reunion has come. I thank you for having sent it to me; and I congratulate you and the Commission on the work you have done. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lewis B. Beitler, Esq., Secretary, Pennsylvania Gettysburg Commission, Harrisburg, Pa.344 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Cahill: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. I am very much pleased that you liked my book. I hope you have seen the last issue of the London Geographical Magazine. I think the argument about the River of Doubt has about died out. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edward S. Cahill, Esq., College Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H.345 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. van Cortlandt: I shall read that address of yours with real interest. It is a subject in which I take great concern. I don't know much about it, except as an outsider. Have you read Myron T. Herrick's book on the same subject, which he has just published? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt R. B. van Cortlandt, Esq., The Knickerbocker Club, New York City.346 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Dr. Rixey: There is no letter that could have touched and pleased me more than yours. Only the other day Mrs. Roosevelt and I were saying that no other man whose friendship we had won in later life had ever been as much of a friend to us and had meant so much to us as you. We talk of you all the time and the children talk of you all the time. Just the other day Archie, who is now a sophomore in Harvard and a fine fellow, was describing his experience as a very small boy when you took him out to hunt. I regard you and dear Mrs. Rixey as having been among the best influences for my children. I feel that they and we owe both of you very much. That was a fine tribute that Dr. Braisted paid you and that Admiral Dewey paid you; and both were absolutely deserved. As for me, my dear doctor, I am practically through. I am not a man like you who keeps his youth almost to the end; and I am now pretty nearly done out. I would not say this except to my old friend who was also my old physical adviser, because it is rather poor business to speak about one's personal ailments; but the trouble is that I have rheumatism or gout and things of that kind to a degree that makes it impossible347 -2- possible for me to take very much exercise; and then in turn the fact that I cannot take exercise prevents my keeping in good condition. I am more pleased than I can say that I was able to take the South American trip. I knew it would be my last thing of the kind. I was pleased but amused, my dear fellow, at your saying that I had work to do in the future. I have none. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. All the combinations are new and I am out of sympathy with what seems to be the predominant political thought in this country. With warmest love to dear Mrs. Rixey, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Surgeon-General P. M. Rixey, 1518 K. Street, N. W., Washington, D. C.348 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Professor Farrand: I wish I could accept that request of your sister-in-law; but I cannot do it. If I make one such speech, it means that I have to make an indefinite number; and I just have to be brutal and firm! Mrs. Roosevelt and I are looking forward eagerly to seeing you and Mrs. Farrand at Mrs. Jones's. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor Max Farrand, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.349 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Governor: Many thanks for your last letters. If I had known that Fremont Older was taking that view of Wilson, I doubt if I would have written him anything! Wilson and Bryan by their attitude toward the European War and toward Mexico have not only put the United States in a humiliating position but have run the risk of letting us drift into war when we are utterly unprepared for it. As soon as this war broke out, they should have begun to put the arm and navy into good shape to fight and raised them to the highest point of efficiency. This would have tended immensely for peace. Then they should have been scrupulously careful to live up to our obligations and to insist upon our rights. They have done neither. In the case of Germany they have taken the attitude which as equivalent to making a demand upon Germany itself to do something and then when Germany refused, they have not supine and refrained from making their threats good. I cannot too strongly express my abhorrence of the position to which the have put us. I speak seriously when I say I would quite as [????] returned to the days when Buchanan was President. [Taft is backing up Wilson. One is as bad as the other.] On the other hand, I strongly agree with you about the attitude of what seems to be the imminant focus in the Republican350 -2- Republican party at the moment. Here in New York especially the powers of reaction believe that their triumph has been complete. That is one explanation of Barnes's libel suit. He is a man of much ability, as of course a boss has to be; and he feels that this is the chance once and for all to establish himself. Inspirited by Penrose's success in Philadelphia, I am told that he regrets he did not himself run for Senator this year and believes he would have been elected. I am inclined to think that his is right. The people of this state last fall simply declined to consider any question of immorality in either business or politics and took the view frankly and openly that they were sick and tired of reformers and muckrakers of all kinds and that they did not care a rap whether there was corruption in business and politics or not so long as they could have a reasonable return of prosperity. Workingmen, business men and farmers all took this view alike. As you know, for Governor, we did not poll more than one vote in twenty-five or thirty. The other voters went for the Barnes and Murphy candidates or else for the impeached Governor, whose record was no more open to question that Abe Ruef's. Barnes is reported to have said the other day at the Republican Club with entire cynicism that of any twelve jurymen certainly eleven, and probably all twelve, will be men who last fall voted against the things that I claim and in favor of what he claims and of what he is and that they will vote the same way when it comes to351 -3- the verdict. There is not one newspaper in the state of any consequence that is now supporting our party or me personally, and the labor men are just as emphatically on the Barnes-Murphy side as are the business men; and of course all of the big interests are doing all they can to back Barnes. Some of them are favorable to Wilson; some of them favorable to the Republican machine; but they are very nearly as contented with one as with the other, for they know that in business affairs and as regards civic, political and social corruption or as regards the war against corruption and against wrong-doing generally, there is really not the slightest difference between the Wilson-Bryan people and the Penrose-Barnes combination. These people wish Mr. Wilson renominated and the Republican machine enthroned in absolute power on the other side; and then they will be satisfied whichever way it comes out; and they can count upon the Fremont Olders and Amos Pinchots, who claim to be their most furious opponent, to in actual fact be their most efficient allies. [Our extremists have been as damaging to us as [?????????] have been.] All we can do at present is to sit tight and await events. What will happen a year hence I do not know. Of course, it is possible that we shall have to cast a conscience vote for some third candidate whom there is not a possibility of electing. It is barely possible but very improbable that the Republicans will set in such a way that it is possible to support them Well, California is about the only bright spot in the [????] at present. I saw our Colorado chairman the other day. He told me that it would not be possible [??????????????????????]352 -4- fight in Colorado and that this year the overwhelming issue there, although Colorado was prosperous, was the feeling against the Federation of Miners. He said that although there was reprobation of the Rockefeller people it was swallowed up in the anger over the murders and excesses of the miners and that the cry of "Law and Order" carried the state. He said we were very much hurt because Costigan had been the counsel for the miners and that it was impossible to get people to support him. Victor Murdock told me that Kansas was prosperous but that the people had definitely determined to oust the Democratic party; that they were against Wilson and Bryan; and that they regarded the Republican party as the only alternative; and he said he did not see how we could run a third ticket again. But he entirely agreed with me that we had nothing to do except to sit tight and await developments, because things may change during the course of the next year. He said that Wilson's Indianapolis speech had aroused the greatest possible indignation in Kansas and the neighboring states and that the feeling against him had grown greatly since election. Medill McCormick's course you have probably followed in the newspapers. His actions were all right; but his remarks were unfortunate. Well, we are in the backwash at present; but whatever happens to us personally, as regards the cause I think everything will come out all right in the end. I still have a din of hope that the decent Republicans may wake up to the fact that you or some man like you will offer the way out, because what you are doing is really conservative353 -5- conservative, if one uses the word "conservative" in the right sense, and represents real Abraham Lincoln Republicanism. At any rate I have no doubt that in the end our principles will triumph. I turned the other day and reread the speeches and extracts of speeches of mine which are contained in the little book issued by the Progressive Service, called "Progressive Principles"; and it was quite a comfort to see that there was not one thing I had said three years ago that I now have to take back and not one principle I put forth for which I have to apologize. Of course, I am entirely willing to change the methods after they have been tested by actual experience. For instance, you have [practically] tried most of these reforms in office, in power; and I should largely be guided as regards the methods of applying all the things for which we have fought by your judgment based upon your actual experience. With regards to Mrs. Johnson and all the family, including the boxer, I am Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Hiram W. Johnson, Sacramento, California. P. S. [?????] you quietly find out if it is true that there has been some day set aside at the Fair as "Roosevelt Day"? Heaven knows, I don't want them to set a day aside, but if they have set it aside, I should [?????????] know, so as to see if it is possible for me to be out at that [?????] I shall [???????????????????????] at the time that [???????????]354 February 25th, 1915. Dear von Stumm: Your letter and the enclosure greatly interested me. Now, you end by saying: Judge not that ye be not judged. My dear fellow, that is all right if the man has not assumed the obligation of judging; [???] in becoming a party to these Hague Conventions the United States assumed certain duties which it has not performed. You can of course show this letter privately to any one you wish; but I must ask you not to make any public use of it because I am obliged to speak disparagingly of my own government. I entirely agree with you in your condemnation of the failure [by us and other nations] to perform certain acts; and of course what you describe in Russia was unpardonable. Without giving your name or any hint of who you were, I quoted in an article I recently wrote, with the most cordial approval, what you said to me about Mexico; and I have stated in public that though I do not approve of the blood-and-iron policy of Germany, I think it better than the milk-and-water policy of the United States, better not only from the stand-point of one's own nation but from the standpoint of the world. You reiterate your belief that Belgium was guilty in intent against Germany. Frankly, my dear fellow, I do not think there is any proof whatever of this; and, moreover, one has to judge by the actual event and not by the platform. But remember that, if you are right, than my proposed course would have355 -2- enabled you to respect the neutrality of Belgium without any fear of its being abused in the interest of England and France, as I have in public most emphatically stated that I would, if President, have taken action on behalf of neutrality only on the assumption that it would be taken just as quickly against England and France, if they violated the neutrality, as against Germany. I do not believe in being neutral as between right and wrong; and, above all, I do not believe in making promises unless we live up to them. I hold not brief for England; on the contrary, my English friends are almost as hurt and angered over what I have said and done as are my German friends. The Spectator, for instance, bitterly reproaches me for my lack of sympathy, of appreciation and of comprehension of England and with my coldness toward the British people. In this war I am trying to serve two objects. First, I am trying to act as a good American. I am outraged at the action of those Americans who, because they are of German birth or origin or in some cases of Irish birth or origin, attempt to force this country to behave toward other nations not according to its own interests, not according to its duties to mankind, but in accordance with their likes or animosities; not as Americans but as Germans or Irishmen. Against this I shall protest in the most emphatic way. Your children are half-Americans by blood; but I would be the very first to insist that they must be wholly German and nothing else. Let them have a kindly feeling of sentiment toward the United States - which, after all is simply the feeling I have toward Germany and England, France and Austria and Russia; and toward individuals of each nationality. But let them be wholly German. It is just the same thing356 -3- about our own citizens here. Second, I wish to judge each nation on its conduct. On the whole, I think that in the past thirty years I have more often held up Germany and the German people as worthy of admiration and imitation by the United States than any other nation or people. I have always spoken with the most cordial warmth and friendship of Germany; but I am in honor bound, according to my views, to judge each nation by its conduct. So it is with the belligerents. I do not admit that belligerents, after war is on, have a right to change neutral obligations and neutral rights. If we had taken action about the invasion of neutral Belgium by Germany, I should have advocated taking action about the British sewing the North Sea with mines - my information is that most of the mines in the North Sea, although not all, were set adrift by the British. I should then have in the same way taken action about this proposed War Zone [by Germany.] Meanwhile, and here is the most striking point of difference between myself and the present Administration, I should have begun last August with the utmost industry to bring the Navy and Army and the reserve forces of the United States up to a high point of efficiency. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rerr F. von Stumm, German Legation, The Hague.357 February 26th, 1915 My dear Mr. Barron: I have read "The Audacious War" with great interest; and I really want to see you and compare views. I believe that the type of international organization I advocate is substantially along the lines of that which you advocate. But I do not believe that it is at present in sight. [There are strong ? with before willing ? to reach agreements; and ? shall have ? until in the ? ] I believe that the one vital thing I'd do now is for the United States to prepare itself. Second only in importance to this, I believe it is our duty in the clearest manner to repudiate every agreement which we are not prepared to make good by force if necessary. President Wilson said he would not recognize Huerta because his government was stained with blood. But he has put in his place a government stained with infinitely more blood. There is no see? in talking about any international organization such as you and I have advocated unless first and foremost we have it understood that the United States is to treat such things as the Hague Conventions as expressions of more than merely platonic and colorless affection for peace. WIlson and Bryan have behaved in a way to drag the honor of our country in the dust, both as regards Mexico and as regards Europe, [?] It will be a pleasure to see you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt C. W. Barron, Esq., Boston, Mass.358 February 26th, 1915 Dear Fred: That's a fine article of yours to the Evening Post. Of course, I feel exceedingly indignant over the way that Wilson and Bryan have behaved, both as regards Mexico and as regards the European situation. They have followed along Taft's lines and have done rather worse than Taft. I take up the German-American agitation in next month's Metropolitan. I think you and President Elliot can do real good along the lines you indicate. I have not been dealing with the Dernburgs but with the American citizens who to my mind have come dangerously near treason to the United States in some of their notions. I hope Mrs. Allen is now well. Give her my warm regards. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Frederick H. Allen, Esq., Aiken, S. C.359 February 26th, 1915. Dear Cabot: For Heaven's sake, don't think about that Taft matter again. You acted exactly right; and the only reason I wrote you at all was because I did not want Cal, who is one of my very good friends, to suddenly promulgate of his own account something I would have to deny. I hope you have got wind of the Shipping Bill. Lord, I'm feeling warlike with this Administration; I believe you will like my Mexican article, which is out now; and I think you will also like my article next month in which I go for the German-Americans. On M'orre's? telegram I sent him a letter which I think fitly called the Columbian treaty. Dearest love to Ranais. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. H.C. Lodge, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. 360 February 26th, 1915 My dear Mr. von Mach: I shall read Rohrbach with the greatest interest. I appreciate your having sent it to me. Give my regards to all my friends, including especially Munsterberg and Franke. You won't agree with me when I say that Professor Franke seems to me to have taken exactly the right position as regards this so called-German-American movement. I think it is a most dangerous thing to introduce into American political life a group system based on creed or nationality. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Edmond von Mach, Cambridge, Mass. 361 February 26, 1915 My dear Dr. Shufeldt: I thank you for both pamphlets. You are very good to remember me. By the way, I think it a very interesting thing that that Hungarian publication should be in both English and Magyar. What a beautiful publication it is! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. R.W. Shufeldt, Washington, D.C.362 February 26th, 1915 My dear Mr. Sutherland: You are most kind; and I am greatly interested in your bill. More power to your elbow! I am especially interested in what you say in your last paragraph. Affairs in the two old parties are certainly most discouraging. Wilson and Bryan have given us the worst handling of international affairs that we have had since the days of Buchanan. Their conduct in Mexico has been dreadful beyond belief - and that of Taft was bad enough, Heaven knows! As for putting a stop to war, the only possible chance I see is that advocated by me in the little book that I recently wrote, called "America and the World War", which I hope you have seen; and the only efficient alternative to the brutal view that Might makes Right is a movement to put Might back of Right. Unless men show themselves363 -2- able and ready to use force in support of righteousness, we can be absolutely certain that there will be no stop put to international wickedness. [But ??????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????] I would very much like to talk with you if you ever got to this neighborhood. Give my regards to Seth Bullock, if you see him. With hearty regards and best wishes, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt John Sutherland, Esq., Pierre, South Dakota. 364 February 26th, 1915 My dear Major Mahan: That's a first class article of yours; and I am mighty glad to have it. If our people are wise, they will realize the utter [li??] with which the professional pacifists of the United States have covered themselves. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major Mahan, 51 Avenue Montaigne, Paris, France 365 February 26th, 1915 My dear Mr. Kohns: Mr. Stoddard has been to see me about your courteous invitation. Believe me, I appreciate it and understand the great work that you are doing. It is a physical impossibility for me to accept such invitations; for I have learned from bitter experience that if I accept one such invitation, I either have to accept literally scores of others or cause heart-burnings to many of my good friends. With real regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lee Kohns, Esq.,366 February 24th, 1915 My dear Mr. Howard: If I get the chance to help in that matter I shall be glad to do so. I may perhaps quote your own letters. I am obliged to you for sending me the account of the Association of Corporation Schools. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Clarence W. Howard, Esq., President, Commonwealth Steel Company, St. Louis, Mo.367 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Richards: I shall look carefully at these article. I am obliged to you for sending them to me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Bernard G. Richards, Esq., 108 Second Avenue, New York, City. 368 February 24th, 1915. Dear Augie: I am really obliged to you for that letter of yours and my answer, which I had completely forgotten. Now, ill you look at my letter to you of last fall and your answer? When I will take the first opportunity that I am in New York to see you, and will make my bark drift near yours! I wish we could both have gotten on to the February dinner. Good luck always, My dear Augie! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt August Delmont, Esq., 43 Exchange Place, New York City.369 February 25th, 1915 Dear Victor: Don't you think I had better wait and get that bear-skin before I divide it? I see no symptoms of receiving the Nobel Prize Fund as yet! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Victor Murdock, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.370 February 20th 1915. My dear Mr. Braun: I wish it were possible for me to accept; but it is not. If I should accept one such invitation, I should have to accept numerous others. Good luck to you! With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Marcus Prawn, Esq., 501 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 371 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Fosdick: That' very kind of you! I am anticipate seeing your book; and I know I shall enjoy it. [????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????]. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Raymond B. Fosdick, Esq., 17 Battery Place, New York City.372 February 26th, 1915 Dear Lawrence: I would particularly like to do that for Fosdick, except for the fact that I am now entirely out of touch with modern police needs. Remember, I have not considered the matter for twenty years; I have been dealing with other subjects. The result is that now I should not write an article worth reading. Instead of my giving instruction, what I would like to do would be to turn to Woods and Rosdick and get instruction from them. With real regret, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Lawrence F. Abbott, Esq., 287 Fourth Avenue, New York City.373 February 26, 1915. M dear Senator: That is a first-class letter of yours; and you are exactly right. There isn't any nation, not even our own, which will benefit from that canal as Colombia will; and if more equity was paid attention to, she would have to pay something toward it! I shall be delighted to come before the committee and answer any question of any kind, sort or description. You doubtless saw Senator Stone's telegram to me. My letter as merely in answer to that telegram. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William Alden Smith, United State Senate , Washington, D. C.374 February 25th, 1915 Dear Miss Kellor: I am glad you like the few words I said about the Brooklyn Bundle Bay work. They were plagiarized from remarks of yours to me. I do not understand why Mann should have objected. As far as I can get at it down there, the statesmen are adopting the wise attitude of each objecting to whatever the other side does, good or bad. Well, we are in the backwash just at present; and that is all there is about it! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Frances A. Kellor, 95 Madison Avenue, New York City.375 February 26th, 1915 My dear Senator Fall: May I make one suggestion? I earnestly hope you will not try to bring in Brazil, the Argentine and Chile to co-operate [????] in policing Mexico. I have a great regard for those three countries; and I would not want to interfere with them in such a matter [??] Paraguay, for instance. But very naturally they are somewhat jeal??? and suspicious of us; and very naturally they cannot look at the Mexican situation as we may have to look at it. [Mexico ???? Paraguay]. We are quite [com?????] to do that job ourselves; and when Wilson has accepted or [???] for the aid or outside powers he has done it merely to dodge responsibility. I think we ought to be more than careful about giving him the chance thus to dodge it by acquiescing in his trying to throw the burden on other nations. I wish you would show this letter to Lodge and Borah and consult with them in the matter. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. A. B. Fall, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.376 February 26th, 1915 Darling Corinne: Indeed, I understand perfectly; and I felt like a swine when I wrote you. But poor, dear Pastor Roussel was such a pathetic figure that from sheer mushy weakness I yielded and strove to do something for him. I have given him a letter to Cleve and another letter to a Philadelphia man. I don't mind making Cleve suffer - a supporter of Wilson's ought to suffer! Ever yours, [?????????????????] Mrs. Douglas Robinson, 9 East 63rd Street, New York City.377 February 26th, 1915 Dear Van: Apropos of my use of the word "corruption", if you will turn to Lecky's "History of England in the Eighteenth Century, a standard book, and his use of the word "corruption" in describing the Anglo-Irish rule in England toward the close of the [1?]th century and the means by which Pitt, Castlereagh and Cornwallis secured the Union, you will find the word used with exactly the significance with which I have used it. Of course, I have no question that Barnes and Murphy have added to their individual fortunes by certain features of their political activity. But primarily in discounting the corruption of New York politics, which their activities brought about, I used the word exactly as it is used by this standard historian in describing the corruption by which Pitt and Cornwallis, both of them personally scrupulously honest men, brought about the Union between Ireland and England. Castlereagh did not profit himself but his family and followers did profit by what Lecky calls corruption. It seems to me that if Ivins cross-examines me about corruption, I can use this as an illustration of what I meant. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt W. H. Van Benschoten, Esq., 46 Cedar Street, New York City.378 February 26th, 1915 Dearest Ruth: I enclose a letter to Arthur, which explains itself. I hope you got the other letters I sent to your care, together with the book. We think of you always; and we earnestly wish we could be of some comfort and aid to you. Ever faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Arthur Lee, Chequer's Court, Butlers Cross, Bucks, England.379 February 26th, 1915. Dear Arthur: I hope you received my last letter with the copies of my letters to Spring-Rice and Grey and that you also received the copy of my little book. I shall send you soon, care of Ruth, an article I have written dealing with the German-Americans. I disapprove of what the German has done in this war; but I can understand how the average German can honestly and sincerely believe that he is right. When it comes to the German-American, however, I have no patience at all with his attitude. I stand for the American of German birth or origin in exactly the same way that I stand for any other American. But I do not stand for any species of hyphenated American at all. I take a sort of sardonic amusement in Maxse and the National Review. He attacks Haldane especially, but also the present Government, in a way which I think is of very doubtful expediency just at present from the Imperial standpoint. He is very severe about the Jew element in English life and its attitude toward the present war. He is properly sever about the United States. He is unwisely and improperly regretful that England has not always backed up Canada when Canada was wrong in its dealings with the United States. At the same time he keeps Maurice Low to give him the view of American public [???????]. Maurice Low is a Jew of the type that he condemns in England [??????????????????????????????????????????????????? by me because of ?????]380 -2- conduct in the interests of an American yellow newspaper which he represented. Since then he has done whatever tiny thing he could do to traduce me in English eyes and to exalt Wilson and Taft; and this with entire disregard of the fact that it is I and not Wilson and Taft who have striven to make this country do its duty by England whereas both Wilson and Taft have always shown themselves and are on showing themselves willing to get votes by pandering to any anti-English sentiment. Since I wrote you, there has been a very perceptible increase of sentiment here on behalf of England and the Allies and against Germany, this springing largely from Germany's action about the War Zone. I hope that what I have written has had dome very small affect; but of that I am not sure. Wilson and Bryan are of course industriously doing all in their power to divert action and discussion into channels that will ultimately again put us in controversy with the Allies. Wilson has great adroitness; and he ingeniously endeavors to take some ground that will appeal to the mushy pacificist people and yet will be one that will antagonize England and France and not Germany. I have been helping all I can in the fight to prevent the passage of his shipping bill. Whether we shall be successful or not, [????] not know. I do hope that the English will not put themselves381 -3- the wrong by adopting rules as to the rights of neutrals and belligerents different from those embodied in the Hague Conventions, unless they do it explicitly on the ground that German by her initial action toward Belgium and by her subsequent actions has herself repudiated those conventions and that England is obliged in dealing with her to treat them as no longer applicable. Bryan has announced to a number of people something which beautifully illustrates the damage the pacificist crowd can do. We in the United States have been the worst offenders in pretending to go in for peace by treaties and engagements which are fundamentally unwise and improper. But the English and French people have played a close second to us. England and France adopted the Wilson-Bryan universal arbitration commission treaties. The pacificists of the three countries chirped and bleated about the good that would follow. It is possible that Edward Grey was deceived in thinking that good might follow; but if so he was a woolly lamb on this point. Well, Bryan has announced to a number of people recently that we cannot possibly quarrel with Germany, because we haven't got any such treaty with her; but that we can make any issue with England and France without danger of being misunderstood because in the event of a quarrel we would have to appoint a commission to deliberate for a year and so no [??????] could possibly come. If he could get such a commission, all382 -4- the fools of the United States will scream with relief and say that this proves what wonderful statements Wilson and Bryan are and that we do not need any preparation for war and that arbitration treaties and investigating commission treaties are all that anyone needs. Personally I have come more and more to the conviction that neutrality, when a great moral issue is at stake, is all wrong, because it amounts to neutrality between right and wrong; and that is equivalent to taking a stand against right. I am of course very interested and anxious to see just how much the Germans can do by their submarines in interrupting British commerce. I should suppose that soon Kitchener's army would be pouring into France. I was chagrined at the victory of the Germans in East Prussia. The Russian Ambassador, Bakmetieff, was out to lunch with me the other day and assured me with all possible emphasis that Russia would never abandon England and France and would fight this war to the end and that temporary checks meant nothing. It seems to me that disunion among the Allies is the one thing that can by any possibility give Germany the victory; that otherwise the utmost she can possibly hope for is a draw - and this I hope is impossible. Well, Arthur, I take off my hat to you and those like you and I believe that this man has been of the greatest possible benefit to England and [?????] to France, and I should not be surprised383 -5- use it prove of the utmost benefit to Belgium in spit of the hideous present disaster. On the other hand, I think it is a serious blow to the United States that in this great world crisis the actions of our people have been shaped by the leadership of men such as Wilson and Bryan. Always yours, Theodore Roosevelt [?????????] Arthur Lee.384 [*Private*] February 26th, 1915 My dear Mr. Gordon: I thank you for your letter and appreciate it. You over-estimate what I have done; and I am sorry to say you entirely and hopelessly over-estimate any influence I may have here. But it was just one of the cases where I felt I had to strike out. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt C. I. Gordon, Esq.,385 February 26th, 1915 My dear Mrs. Potter: Through my daughter I have already been taking the action that I think is the wisest to take as regards a memorial to dear Margaret. I thank you for your courtesy in writing me. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. James Brown Potter,386 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Carter: I am well aware of the troubles of which you speak. This year the demands from every side are simply overwhelming. It is most bewildering to know what to do. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt William R. Carter, Esq., The Topeka Industrial Institute, Topeka, Kansas.387 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Burdick: I thank you for your letter. I appreciate your friendship and have at once sent your letter to my attorneys. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Irving E. Burdick, Esq., Bridgewater, New York.388 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Hammond: Of course it is not possible for me to answer that question. I was surprised myself. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt H. Jay Hammond, Esq., 4220 Main Avenue, Norwood, Ohio.389 February 22nd, 1915 My dear little friend: That's a very nice note of yours and a very dear picture! I wish you all success in life; and I am sure you are a very good little girl. Give my love to your mother. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Thelma Sterling, Conneautville, Pa.390 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Pass: I thank you for your kind invitation. I wish I could accept; but it is not possible. I cannot undertake any speaking engagements at present. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Richard H. Pass, Esq., The Speakers Club, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.391 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Rhoads: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I appreciate it. It makes me all the more sorry that I cannot give you a definite answer to your question. I can only say that my ability to read rapidly has come from incessant practice entered into under duress - in other words, like old man Kangaroo, it was because I had to ! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt John W. Rhoads, Esq., 27 University Hall, Providence, R. I.392 February 22nd, 1915 Dear little Miss Wynn: Yes, we went up the San Juan Hills. The first hill we went up was Kettle Hill. Then we charged across and took San Juan Hill proper. [The ??????? ask the ???????????????????????????? before ??????????????] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Bryan Wynn, 510 North Cheyenne, Tulsa, Oklahoma.393 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Gilbert: That's a mighty nice letter of yours and I thank you for it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Newton W. Gilbert, Esq., Room 209 Chaco Bldg., Manila, Phillippine Islands.394 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Therry: I wish I could help you; but the demands upon me are more than you can have any idea of. I am simply powerless to do anything for you. With real regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt John J. Therry, Esq., 1998 Madison Avenue, New York City.395 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Miss Lindsey and Miss Dickbreder: That's a very nice letter of yours and I thank you cordially for it. You have the right spirit and you are good Americans. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss Helen Lindsey, and Miss Bessie Dickbreder, Portales, New Mexico.396 February 22nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Cuthbertson: The little miniature of the Yale Bowl has come. I thank you for it. It was very kind of you to remember me. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. J. Cuthbertson, Esq., 868 Chapel St., New Haven, Conn.397 February 22nd, 1915. My dear Mr. West: Many thanks for your letter. I congratulate you upon the success of the meeting in Washington. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James E. West, Esq., The Fifth Avenue Building, New York City.398 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Stuart: I am sorry you were not able to use my note to Kipling; but doubtless you were right about his being so very busy. I suppose all England is. You must have had an interesting trip. With all good wishes, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt H. E. Stuart, Esq., The Rookery, Chicago, Ill.399 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Roberts: I must ask you not to use that letter. I cannot be quoted about books. You have no idea of the multitudes of requests made of me. I am sorry to have to answer you in this way. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Isaac Roberts, Esq., c/o E. A. Jackson & Bro., 50 Beekman St., New York City.400 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Greostad: May I thank you and, through you, Dr. Baltasar Brum, that eminent statesman, for the courtesy of sending me his address? I appreciate it. With high regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Nicolay A. Greostad, Legation of the United States, Montevideo, Uruguay.401 February 25th, 1915 Dear Mr. Drake: I have Goit's book and I was much impressed by it. Now, if you will get from the public library my collected "Speeches and Addresses" while President and refer to the index, you will, I think, be able to find out what I have said about the Monroe Doctrine. I am glad to hear what you tell me about the Progressives of Camden. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Herbert A. Drake, Esq., 546 Federal St., Camden, N. J.402 February 25th, 1915 Dear Paul: That's an interesting clipping. I thank you for sending it to me. Good luck always! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Paul V. Bunn, Esq., E. C. Simmons Hardware Co., St. Louis, Mo.403 February 25th, 1915 My dear Mr. Steadwell: I thank you for your letter. As you say, in my writings I have done my best to speak in the clearest possible manner on this question, a literally vital question. But, my dear sir, it is not possible for me at this time to go into any other movement of any kind, sort or description. I simply cannot do it. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt B. S. Steadwell, Esq., President, World's Purity Federation, La Crosse, Wis.404 February 26th, 1915. My dear Mr. Hackett: It is always a pleasure to hear from you. I am sorry that it was not possible for me to accept that invitation. If I once begin going to those affairs, it would be literally endless. Good luck! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt James K. Hackett, Esq. New York City.405 February 26th, 1915 Dear Mr. Bryan: All right! I will read that speech with the utmost interest - as I always do anything you recommend to me. [?????????? on the matter was first ????????????????????????? ????? of the ????????] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. J. W. Bryan, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.406 February 26th, 1915. My dear Mr. Roussel: I am exceedingly sorry to tell you that my sister write that it is an absolute impossibility for her to do anything more than she has already done; that she has not the face again to ask people to come to her house to listen to an appeal on behalf of either the French or the Belgians nor to ask any person among her friends to make contributions again. You see, my dear Mr Roussel, the trouble is that during the last six months every imaginable appeal has been made on behalf of the French and Belgians; and now in addition to this there has come the great suffering among our own people; and it is very difficult to find men and women who have not already [????] contributed. I have sent you a letter to Cleveland Dodge; and I enclose another to Dr. White of Philadelphia, whose sympathies are ardent in behalf of the Allies; but I do not know that either of them will be able to be of help. I wish I could write you more encouragingly. It was a very real pleasure to see you the other day. In answer to a cablegram I have just advised Rostand not to come over here on the very ground that I have given you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev Stuart L. Roussel, c/o Mr. Percy J. Clibborn, [?????] Chelsea, West ??nd Street, New York City. Enclosure407 February 26th, 1915 Dear Oscar: I am so pleased to hear from you; and I am very glad to learn that your dear wife is now all right. Well, Oscar, how fortunate you and I are in our families, including not only the children but the grandchildren! I entirely agree with what you told Parker, Pearl Wight and Garford. All we can do is to remain in cold storage for a year; and then see what things happen. It is possible that we may have to support some third candidate; and in that case all we will be doing will be to casr a conscience vote; and we cannot expect most of our former associates to stay with us. Of course, to my mind, Wilson and Bryan have behaved dreadfully. Their record in international affairs is the worst we have had since the days of Buchanan. I have no question that what Creel said to you is absolutely true. I saw another ex-Ambassador from Mexico, Cassuses, the other day. He told me that unquestionably the Taft Administration had actively encouraged the Madero insurrection. He is perfectly right as to the iniquity of Wilson's refusal to recognize Huerta and his championship of Villa. I have taken up the Mexican situation in the issue of the Metropolitan that is just out. Good luck to you! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt [???] OSCAR STRAUS408 March 1st, 1915 Dear Whitney: Not having a book, I sent you at once an autographed photograph. Did you receive it? I sent you a letter at the same time. I am very sorry that there should have been the slip-up. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Caspar Whitney, Esq., Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, Cal.409 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Cupples: That's an interesting letter! I thank you for sending it to me and I return it herewith. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt J. G. Cupples, Esq., Monmouth Court, Brookline, Mass.410 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Fuller: I read through your long and interesting letter very carefully. It is to me particularly interesting because of your coming to the conclusion to which you have come with genuine reluctance. I too held my tongue about Mexico, as I held my tongue about our actions as regards Europe, for a long time, because I believed that the President had some plan. He evidently has not. I am inclined to think that what you say as to our probable future action is correct. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. Dean Fuller, Esq., 2 Rector Street, New York City.411 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Deming: I enclose $2.00 for those tickets. I hope I shall be able to be present; but I fear it is impossible Have you any preference as to where I should send the tickets in case I should find myself unable to come? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. E. W. Deming, 5 Macdougal Alley, New York City. 412 March 1st, 1915. My dear Dr. Leavitt: That's a very interesting letter of yours; and you touch upon a subject of the most far-reachine importance; but I really don't feel competent to deal with it. With what you say in the latter part of your letter I am in hearty agreement. It is a great deal more important to be able to deliver one's self from evil than it is not to be led into temptation. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. Sheldon Leavitt,413 March 1st, 1915 Dear Billy: I am not coming on to the Overseers' Meeting; and your invitation is the only temptation I have had to do so; but it is not possible for me. Don't forget that you are to come on here some time at your convenience. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt William Roscoe Thayer, Esq., Cambridge, Mass.414 February 27th, 1915 Dear Grant: Glad you liked the Life Histories; and I can only cry "Peccavi" as to my sins in not calling the Zoological Park by its right name. I will do so hereafter. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Madison Grant, Esq., New York City.415 February 27th, 1915 Dear Grinnell: I wish I could accept that invitation; but it is not possible. I am very sorry; but the amount that I can do is very, very limited. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt George Bird Grinnell, Esq., New York City.416 March 1st, 1915 Dear Sir: It gives me very great pleasure to write on behalf of the admission of Hamilton Fish, Junior, to The Boone & Crockett Club. He has shot elk and mule deer in Wyoming; goat in British Columbia; white sheep in Alaska; and moose in New Brunswick. He was one of the best athletes in Harvard in his day; and, among the young men of the community, is distinctly a rising as he is an attractive figure. By birth and descent, by personal accomplishments and by record he is a man whom it would be a fortunate thing to have in the Club. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt George Bird Grinnell, Esq., Committee on Admissions, Bone & Crockett Club, New York City.417 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. White: This will be presented to you by Rev. Stuart L. Roussel, a French Protestant pastor, who is over here trying to raise funds for the relief of the French Protestant churches, which have been brought to destitution because of the war. I have told Mr. Roussel that I don't know that you will be able to help him; but I feel sure that you will see him and give him the benefit of your advise. [It a peculiarly worthy cause.] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. J. William White, Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Pa.418 March 1st, 1915. Dear Fair: I have written at once for Ham Fish. He of course ought to come in; and I hope we can get him in. I return his letter. A little later I shall claim the fulfilment of your promise to have me at lunch and show me over the Museum yourself. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Henry Fairfield Osborn, Esq., President, American Museum of Natural History, 77th St. & Columbia Avenue, New York City. enclosure419 March 1st, 1915 My dear Professor Ross: I am entirely in sympathy with your purpose; but it is my deliberate conviction that just at present I would do damage and not good by any action of mine. Moreover, if I should go in, I would want to take up especially the Supreme Court Decisions. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor E. A. Ross, Madison, Wis.420 March 1st, 1915 Dear Williams: That's excellent! I am very much pleased. Do let me see you if you ever come in this neighborhood. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James Williams, Esq., The Transcript, Boston, Mass.421 March 1st, 1915. My dear Dr. Powell: I entirely agree with you as to the importance of Magna Charta. It is a real regret to me that I cannot accept [?your invitation?]; but I have had to lay down an inflexible rule not to accept any invitations to speak. The only speech I have made is for the unemployed; and that was not so much a speech as a form of action to meet an immediate and pressing need. I am really sorry that I am unable to accept your very kind invitation. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Lyman P. Powell, Hobart College, Geneva, New York.422 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mrs. Dietz: I was really interested in the account of your Nile trip and was much amused when "Charles" asked not to be bothered for anything less important than a lion; and [????] you had to take him out to see the elephants. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. C. A. Dietz, 428 South 38th St., Omaha, Neb.423 March 1st, 1915. My dear Barone di Sen Severino: It was very kind of you to send me those press notices about your book. Unfortunately, I am unable to review it, as I am no longer connected with the Outlook. With assurances of regard, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Barone Bernardo Quaranto di San Severino, Villa San Severino, Portioi (Napoli) Italy.424 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Wood: I wish I could help you; but it is a physical impossibility. I would not know how to prepare such a statement; and it would take me about a month's hard labor, doing nothing else, if I tried to do it. I appreciate your kindness and am really sorry that I cannot do as you request. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Rev. Stephen S. Wood, Peru, Vermont.425 March 1st, 1915 My dear Miss Giffin: I am sorry that I cannot do as you request. You have no idea of the multitudes of demands that are made upon me and of my inability to comply with one in twenty of them. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Miss E. J. Giffin, National Library for the Blind, 1729 H. St. N. W., Washington, D. C.426 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Hartzell: I hate to have to answer you "No"; but I cannot do such things as that. If I did it, it would be literally endless. Sincerely yours, T. Roosevelt Robert C. Hartzell, Esq., Blue Ash, Ohio.427 March 1st, 1915 My dear Dr. Beattie: Of course I agree absolutely with what you say; but I am powerless to help you. Most of the yells made about my so-called lawlessness or lack of reverence for the Constitution has merely meant that I have refused to give heed to red tape. I am mighty pleased to read of the way you smashed that drunken father. Good for you! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Lee W. Beattie, D. D., 432 Third Avenue, New York City.428 March 1st, 1915. My dear Mr. Jenks: I thank you for your letter; but I do not quite understand it. I hope you have seen my little book, called "America and the World War." My views are contained in full in that book. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Albert E. Jenks, Esq., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn.429 March 1st, 1915 Dear Borglum: I am sorry I could not be present at your lecture; but it was a simple physical impossibility. I am looking forward to seeing you about the other matter whenever you come in. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Gutzon Borglum, Esq., 166 East 38th Street, New York City.430 March 1st, 1915. My dear Mr. Peck: Indeed I would send you that photograph with the greatest pleasure; but I have not got one to my name. At one time I tried to keep some but the demands were so perfectly impossible that I was forced to give up the habit. With real regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt L. B. Peck, Esq., Dept. of Agrivulture, Albany, N. Y.431 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Kennedy: It is a matter of regret to me that I am unable to accept the kind invitation of the New York County branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians to speak at the St. Patrick's Day Celebration. I wish I could do so; but it is simply a physical impossibility. Bitter experience has taught me that if I accept one such invitation I estop myself from refusing scores of similar invitations. Good luck to all of you Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Roderick J. Kennedy, Esq., 2043 Ryer Avenue, The Bronx, New York City.432 March 1st, 1915. My dear Professor Thompson: I thank you for your letter and appreciate it. I am sorry that I have not the time to give you in detail the reasons why I think the Shipping Bill a dangerous measure; but I am convinced that if it became a law, we would, as has been well said, "purchase a quarrel barrel with every ship." [Will you read the speeches of Senator Lodge & Root in the matter?] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Professor D. F. Thompson, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.433 March 1st, 1915 My dear Mr. Barde : I thank you for sending me that volume on "Outdoor Oklahoma." It was good of you to think of us. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt F. B. Barde, Esq., Guthrie, Okla.434 March 1st, 1915. My dear Mrs. Hagemann: I thank you for your letter and appreciate it; but there is nothing more that I am able to do in this situation. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. Christian Hagemann, The Beverly, 265 West 81st St., New York City.435 March 1st, 1915. My dear Wheeler: That's awfully nice of you! I am very glad to see the list of the birds of the Berkeley campus; and I am still more glad to hear from you. If I get out to California, you can guarantee that you won't be able to escape from me. Why is it that California seems positively hostile to making any preparations for defense? It is California's attitude toward the Japanese that is one of the main reasons why I think we ought to be in shape to defend ourselves. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, Berkeley, Cal.436 March 1st, 1915. Dear McCarthy: Really, that is one of the most extraordinary conditions of things that I have ever known. Well, the great comfort is that you are holding your own. But I do not understand how it can be possible that you have "not the shred of a political party or faction behind" you". I suppose this means that there are not any Progressives left in Wisconsin; for if there is one point upon which I should think all Progressives could unite with enthusiasm, it would be in support of you. What you tell me about the Judges merely makes me more than ever satisfied with the position I have taken during the last three years. I have not a thing to take back; and in the end our people are going to come round to the positions that you and I and some of the rest of us have held. More power to your elbow! Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles McCarthy, Esq., Legislative Reference Bureau, Madison, Wisconsin.437 March 1st, 1915. My dear Dr. Walcott: On the suggestion of Mr. Langdon Marvin, it gives me pleasure to write approving the consideration of the name of Dr. Alexander Hamilton Rice for an honorary degree of Master of Arts. Last year on my return from Brazil Dr. Rice made certain news paper comments on what I had done which were not warranted by the facts. [?Later] he came from Madrid to London to listen to my address before the Royal Geographical Society; and, after he had heard me, he wrote me a very frank and manly letter expressing his deep regret at what he had done, saying that he was entirely convinced by my lecture [withdrew all his ?previous? ?remarks?] and would be glad to have me publish his letter. His letter was accordingly published. I answered him that I much appreciated his frank and manly letter, and would not think of the incident again. Dr. Rice has done some really noteworthy South American exploration. He has shown exceptional hardihood and endurance. He has added very materially to the sum of our geographical knowledge and to the scientific knowledge generally of the region he traversed. Very few Harvard men of recent years have done anything to be compared with this feat of his; and it is eminently fitting that Harvard should recognize him by granting the degree which is asked for. He combines high scientific attainments and practical power of achievement in the field to a very unusual degree. [He has been given the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society.] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt MR. HENRY P. WALCOTT438 March 1st, 1915 My dear Dr. Hdrlicka: I thank you for your kind letter and for the very interesting pamphlets which you sent me. I am reading them with the utmost interest and with reasonable intelligence! As regards South American man and as regards the origin of the Indians from the people of northeastern Asia, it seems to me that your point has been completely made. As yet I have not seen your allusions to the Moreno finds. Moreover, of course owing to my own ignorance, I am still not quite clear as to the [?interval? & ?????????] time that has elapsed since man had reached the degree of culture that the early Indian settlers of American had reached. In the Journal of Heredity which you sent me, I notice that Dr. Detweiler - speaking with a theological dogmatism, by the way - asserts that at least fifty thousand years back the ancestors of the present Europeans or at least of the present Germans were agriculturalists, who raised barley and wheat. From other sources I have concluded, perhaps erroneously, that these later paleolithic men were actually physically nearer to us of the present day, their possible descendants, than the present Indians are. If this is so, I suppose it means that the Indians may have come here fifty thousand years ago and have been contemporary with the last survivors of the wonderful American pleistocene fauna.439 -2- I notice that Setweiler spoke with dogmatic certainty as to the Aryans having originated south of the Baltic. I did not know that this was treated as a proved fact. Indeed I had understood that it was quite possible that Aryan was merely a linguistic term and not a term of race and that it was a language that had come from Asia with the round-headed people who penetrated from the East into Middle Europe, and that it might not have been the original tongue of the tall long-headed blondes who through slow ages developed in the land south of the Baltic a civilization which certainly for some thousands of years before Christ and some hundreds of years afterwards was inferior to the Mediterannean, Mesopotamian and Nilotic civilizations. I was also interested in your "study of old Americans" in that journal. If we were in Washington, we would come in to see you and be measured ourselves. Our ancestors were all here prior to the Revolution and some of them have been here three centuries; and we are a fairly healthy outfit. [- ourselves our children & our grandchildren] Again most heartily thanking you, I am Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Dr. A. Hrdlicka, National Museum, Washington, D. C.440 March 1st, 1915. My dear Mr. Keevin: I have your letter and thank you for it. You ask me if I still adhere to the views on boxing expressed in my Autobiography. If you will turn to my Autobiography, you will find the following paragraph: "Naturally, being found of boxing, I grew to know a good many prize fighters, and to most of those I knew I grew genuinely attached. I have never been able to sympathize with the outcry against prize fighting. The only objection I have to the prize ring is the crookedness that has attended its commercial development. Outside of this, I regard boxing, whether professional or amateur, as a first class sport; and I do not regard it as brutalizing. Of course matches can be conducted under conditions that make them brutalizing. But this is true of football games and most other rough and vigorous sports. Most certainly prize fighting is not half as brutalizing or demoralizing as many forms of big business and the legal work carried on in connection with big business. Powerful vigorous men of strong animal development must have some way in which their animal spirits can find vent. When I was Police Commissioner, I found (and Jacob Riis will back me up in this) that the establishment of a boxing club in a tough neighborhood always tended to do away with knifing and gun fighting among the young fellows who would otherwise have been in murderous gangs. Many of these young fellows were not naturally criminals at all; but they had to have some outlet for their activities. In the same way I have always regarded boxing as a first class sport to encourage in the Young Men's Christian Association. I do not like to see young Christians with shoulders that slope like a champagne bottle." It give me great pleasure to reiterate now what I thus wrote in my Autobiography and to tell you that I still adhere441 -2- as strongly as ever to the views expressed above. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. E. Keevin, Esq., Winthrop Bldg., Boston, Mass.442 March 2nd, 1915. Dear Clark: It is a real pleasure to send the enclosed. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Edward B. Clark, Munsey Building, Washington, D. C. 443 March 2nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Ambassador: It is a real pleasure to me to introduce to you Mr. Edward B. Clark, who is about to sail for Europe as a correspondent of the Chicago Evening Post. If possible, I hope you will do whatever you legitimately can to make easier his way in England. Clark is an old and valued friend of mine. He happens to be a first-class ornithologist; and I have been brought into close touch with him in that way. But in addition he is a thoroughly good citizen. He was seven years a correspondent while I was President. I was in the closest touch with him. I was able to repose absolute confidence in his good faith and his judgment. He never failed to ring true on every occasion; and he is one of that limited number of men whom I have known to stand absolutely straight for decency, when it was to his own hurt and when it would not even be known that he had behaved himself. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt His Excellency, Sir Cecil A. Spring-Rice, The British Embassy, Washington, D. C.444 Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, February 22nd, 1915 To The American Legion: I am in the most cordial sympathy with your purpose, and I believe that the method you are adopting, that of raising what you style "The American Legion", is an excellent way of realizing this purpose. I very earnestly hope and believe that there will be no war; but the surest way to avert war is to be prepared for it; and the only way to avert disaster and disgrace in war is by preparation, both military and naval, in advance. In the event of war, I should ask permission of Congress to raise a division of Cavalry, that is, nine regiments, such as the regiment I commanded in Cuba; and unquestionably the ranks of these regiments would largely be filled from men of the Legion and would in their entirety be filled by men such as those in the Legion; for in the event of war there will be no time to train the men first called upon is such duties as shooting, riding and taking care of themselves in the open. We should as a nation have begun to prepare ourselves the minute that this war broke out seven months ago. It is absolutely [?impossible?] to be sure, when there is such a tremendous445 -2- [?war?] that we shall not be drawn into it against our will. The people of this country are only beginning to realize the extent of our military and naval unpreparedness. Your proposal will help to accomplish one of the important things needed for defense, the formation of a first reserve, which is now entirely lacking in this country. Even the most extreme advocate or peace at any price can hardly raise an objection, since the Legion will only unify, classify and co-ordinate defensive factors already in existence. You must of course work in connection with the best men in the Regular Army; and I am pleased to learn that your scheme is heartily backed by our leading regular officers. I shall be glad, in response to the invitation from your Executive Committee, to serve as Chairman of the Board of Honorary Advisors. The indispensable thing for every free people to do in the present day is with efficiency to prepare against war by making itself able to defend its rights. It is idle for us to trust to arbitration and neutrality treaties unbacked by force. It is idle to trust to the tepid good will of other nations. It is idle to trust to alliances. Let us act justly toward others and let us also be prepared with stout heart and strong hand to defend our rights against injustice from others. I earnestly hope that all good American citizens will through you put at the disposal of the country the qualifications and the training, such as each may possess, that will render him valuable to our country in war time. In the event of war we shall at once need446 -3- thousand of chauffeurs, thousands of men able to organize a railway corps, hundreds of aviators, thousands of engineers and many scores of thousands of men able to march, to shoot, to dig trenches, to take care of themselves when they live in the open and, above all, able to show that at need they have the fighting edge. Those men should register themselves so that their services may be immediately available if, which may Heaven forfend, war should break out. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt447 March 2nd, 1915. My dear Mr. Collins: I am deeply concerned at what has befallen you. I wish it was possible for me to do more than to express alike my very deep sympathy and my very great admiration for your services to lofty ideals. I suppose we must make up our minds to the fact that those who do most for their fellows are apt to be especially unjustly treated by their fellows. I am glad that McCleary is a friend of yours. I had a very pleasant letter from him the other day. I am afraid there isn't any opening I am likely to hear of; but most emphatically if there is I will do all I can in your behalf. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt P. V. Collins, Esq., Northwestern Agriculturist, Minneapolis, Minn.448 March 2nd, 1915 Dear Pope: I would particularly like to do that; but just at present I don't want to go anywhere. I have found by practical experience that I can't go anywhere without its being universally advertised. Later, if I am able to take advantage of your offer, I most certainly shall do so. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Gustavus D. Pope, Esq., c/o Digestive Ferments Co., Detroit, Mich.449 March 2nd, 1915 My dear Hinebaugh: You are an awfully good friend; and I very much appreciate it. I do not, however, believe that anything whatever can be done with me as a candidate. Can't you get over here to see me before you go west and let me talk over various matters with you? [I shall be in New York Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; I'd come in Saturday to see you if you come over.] Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William H. Hinebaugh, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.450 March 2nd, 1915 Dear Judge: Of course I absolutely agree with the views you have expressed. If the conservatives were really wise and really conservative, they would realize that the time to solve problems in a common sense forward movement is when they have the power and when the movement can be under their lead and not under the lead of well-meaning but wild visionaries. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William L. Ransom, Justice of the City Court, New York City.451 March 2nd, 1915 My dear Mr. Thomson: I am utterly at sea what to advise you. Rather bitter experience has taught me that nothing but harm comes from my interference in local contests; the people resent it. In making the run, you have to consider two things, first the principle and next the amount of good that will practically be secured. There is absolutely no question that in your case the interests of Chicago would be severed by your action. But if the people of Chicago are overwhelmingly of different opinion, it might be inexpedient for you to run. I simply do not know what to advise you. I suppose you will talk with Medill McCormick, Shaffer, Raymond Robins, and your fellow-Progressive Congressmen from Illinois before you decide. I wish I could be of some help to you. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Charles M. Thomson, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.452 March 2nd, 1915 Dear Miller: The enclosed letter from Bridges explains itself. I am very much pleased. I earnestly hope you will accept their suggestion abut cutting the article down a little. I want you to get this article into Scribner's. I told them I would write a few lines of introduction, describing your services and what you had done. Hoping to hear from you, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Leo E. Miller, Esq., care American Museum of Natural History, 77th St. & Columbus Avenue, New York City. To be forwarded453 March 2nd, 1915 Dear Bridges: First, as Scribner has gone, I thank you for the communication about the sales of my books and for the check. Next, I am very much pleased with what you say about Miller's article. He is off in South America now; but I have not a question he will agree with what you propose. I have written him enclosing your letter and advising him of course to accept. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Robert Bridges, Esq., care Scribners, 48th St. & Fifth Avenue, New York City.454 March 2nd, 1915 Dear Dan: Langdon Mitchell was here the other night and said that your play was a great success. Now, as soon as the weather grows decent, can't you come out to Oyster Bay for a night or a week end? But if you prefer not, then let me know some time you are to be in New York and I will come in and we will havelunch together. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Owen Wister, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa.455 March 2nd, 1915. Dear Van: I am concerned to learn that you have been at the hospital. I hope you are all right now. In the next Metropolitan you will find I have follwed your lead on this German-American business. There is a great comfort in being no longer responsible for the welfare of a party, so that I can tell needed truths without regard to their reacting politically upon any organization with which I am connected. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt E. A. Van Valkenburg, Esq., The North American, Philadelphia, Pa.456 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Thompson: Of course I agree absolutely with what you say about arbitration treaties and the like. I am glad you will join the Legion and I believe you would make a first class member of such a cavalry division as I have in mind, if it ever became necessary to raise one. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles H. Thompson, Esq., Montpelier, Vermont.457 March 3rd, 1915 Dear Cleve: You are entirely right; and I am quite ashamed of having sent good Pastor Roussel to you. I just had not thought the matter out, partly, I suppose, because I have been dealing with our own unemployed. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Cleveland H. Dodge, Esq., Riverdale, New York.458 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Captain Amilcar: I thank you and through you I thank Colonel Rondon for the volumes containing the account of the work of the Brazilian Telegraph Commission and its scientific results. I trust that by this time you have received the copy of my volume, which I sent you. You were one of those to whom it was dedicated. I have also sent to Colonel Rondon the number of Royal Geographical Magazine of London which contained the account of my lecture and the publication of the map of the river we descended. With assurance of my high regard, Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Captain Amilcar Armando Botelho de Magathaes, care Commissao de Linhas Telegraphicas Estrategicas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, South America.459 March 3rd, 1915 Dear Joe: Nothing could be more satisfactory than the statement of Colonel Goethals; and he has put it in exactly the right way. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Joseph B. Bishop, Esq., The University Club, 5th Ave & 54th St., New York City.460 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Soderstrom: It was very good of you to remember me. You had most interesting experiences. I am obliged to you for your courtesy. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Alfred Soderstrom, Esq., Warroad, Minn.461 March 2nd, 1915 My dear Mrs. Alexander: I congratulate you upon all that you have been doing. It will be a pleasure to see you. Would you be willing to stop in on Tuesday next at five o'clock at Le Marquis Hotel, 12 East 31st Street, New York City, or would you prefer to come to the office on Monday morning at twelve o'clock? Give my regards to your husband. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. William Alexander, Hotel St. Regis, New York City.462 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Haworth: I thank you for sending me your book. I am looking foward with pleasure to reading it. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Paul L. Haworth, Esq., West Newton, Indiana.463 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Father Flannery: I thank you for sending me those essays. I am looking forward with pleasure to reading them. Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Rev. Edward Flannery, St. Bernard's Church, Hazardville, Conn.464 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Parker: That's a nice letter of yours and I appreciate it! Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Edward C. Parker, Esq., 2141 No. Howard St., Philadelphia, Pa.465 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Sir: I have just received your letter of January 28th. I am genuinely pleased that you should have thought of me in such a connection. If it were possible for me to undertake any new work at present. I would most gladly do as you desire; but it is a simple physical impossibility for me to do so. I cannot go into anything new; and I should not be willing to write for your Bulletin unless I devoted ample time to it. With assurance of my distinguished regard, believe me Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Ing. Tomas Amadeo, Secretario General, Museo Social Argentino, Buenos Aires, The Argentine.466 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Van Cortlandt: That's good of you and I appreciate it! Just at present I am not dealing with anything that would [need] especial attention, [???????] to the land credits [matter]; and it is a physical impossibility for me to take up all the questions in which I am interested; but if, as is very likely, I do have to take up this particular subject, I will gladly remind you of your kind offer. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt R. B. Van Cortlandt, Esq., The Knickerbocker Club, New York City.467 March 2nd, 1915 My dear Governor MacCorkle: I am very much interested in your book; and I am in substantial agreement with it. I only wish you could make your party take the view that you do and prepare to make that view count by putting us as a nation in a position to resist foreign interference with its [?doctrine?] which means that we must do our duty, as we did in Cuba & San Domingo and Panama, while I was President. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. Wm. A. MacCorkle, Sunrise, Charleston, West Va.468 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Newton: I value your letter and thank you for it. I wish I could have said a great deal more than I did say. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Francis Newton, Esq., 130 West 57th St., New York City.469 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Sir: I have received your very kind letter of February 10th. The envelope was addressed to me; but inside the letter was addressed to "Monsieur le President", which of course I am not. It is possible, therefore, that I am not entitled to it. However, I am very much interested in the letter and the enclosure. I hope it is not necessary for me to say how deeply I have sympathized with the Belgian people. You may perhaps have noticed my writings on the subject. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt M. Ferdinand Passelecq, Directeur du B. D. B., Ministere de la Guerre, Le Havre, France.470 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Ingersoll: I am much interested in the letters you sent me. Some time I must again have the chance of talking with you. Most of the Progressive leaders who write me confidentially do not take a very cheerful view of our prospects for running a straight ticket next year. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Col. J. M. Ingersoll, Pocatello, Idaho. Personal.471 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Macrae: I thank you for sending me that book by Professor Cramb. I am looking forward to reading it. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt John Macrae, Esq., E. P. Button & Co., 681 Fifth Avenue, New York City.472 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Sir: I was treated with such courtesy and hospitality throughout my South American trip and received so many kindnesses that it is not possible for me to say that your gift reached me. If it had reached me and with it your address, I should most certainly have acknowledged it. I take this belated occasion to thank you for your courtesy. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt M. Americo Martin, Praca da Republica N.25, Santos, Brasil.473 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Sir: I thank you for your kind note, informing me of my re-election as Honorary President of The American Peace and Arbitration League. I assume of course that you have seen my recent book, called "America and the World War" and [?] that [?] and with that understanding I take pleasure in accepting the election. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Andrew B. Humphrey, Esq., 31 Nassau Street, New York City.474 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Mr. Shoemaker: I shall of course read "Contrary Mary." I am naturally pleased that the author should quote what I have always regarded as my main message to my fellow-countrymen. Just at present I cannot, however, give opinions on any novels. You have no idea of the multitude of such requests that I receive. With real regret, [many thanks] Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Charles C. Shoemaker, Esq., 925 Filbert St., Philadelphia, Pa.475 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Fraser: I thank you for your letter and for the interesting articles by your son, the freshman. Now, as to your request that I advise you whether he should be encouraged to educate himself for writing. It is not possible for me or anyone else to give such advise. The rewards of a literary career, from the substantial side, are so small - I am speaking of a career of genuine literary work from the permanent standpoint - that no man can advise another to go into it, unless that other is so bent upon doing so that he will go into it anyhow without regard to what the effect is upon himself. Wishing that I could give you more advise, I am Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt James A. Frazer, Esq., 207 Essex St., Boston, Mass.476 March 3rd, 1915 My dear Sir: I am concerned at what you tell me; but I do not think that there is anything that I at this moment can do. Naturally you feel very strongly. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mr. Psang Ly, 27 Graduate House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.477 March 3rd, 1915. Dear White: I don't think I have ever read a more interesting and thrilling description of a more interesting and thrilling lion hunt than your adventure with the four lions. It was a great feat. Patterson's account of the men eaters of course stands by itself; but in the actual hunting I do not recall any incident that is to be compared with yours. When is your book coming out? By the way, you have doubtless seen that we are getting ready to supply by individual effort the shortcomings of our government to the very partial degree in which it is possible by enrolling the men who in the event of war ought to be instantly available. I have suggested that they ask you to serve on the Advisory Council. Our people are a queer people; they seem incapable of learning except by disaster. I am informed that California is enthusiastically behind Wilson in his policy of feeble avoidance of duty and of declining to prepare; they take this attitude on the ground that they are for peace; and yet it is California because of its attitude toward the Japanese which is especially responsible for my sentiments about Japan and my feeling that we ought to prepare, so that Japan shall not be tempted to478 -2- think us an easy prey. Give my warm regards to Mrs. White, Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Stewart Edward White, Esq., Lake Tahoe, California.479 March 3rd, 1915. My dear Mr. Benedict: You have stated in fine shape one of the prime reasons why I have so warmly championed the Progressive party. It has offered the one chance of getting rid of sectionalism in the United States. Like yourself, I am a Protectionist and believe not only in political honesty and in working for the betterment ment of the men [??????] in the community with whom life has grown hardest but also in making government such as it can only be made by a sterling business party. What the future will be I cannot say; and I do not think it advisable at the moment to write privately what I am not willing to say in public; even to a gentleman like yourself. All we can do now is to sit tight and await events. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt John L. Benedict, Esq., Lombard Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind.480 March 3rd, 1915. Dear Leonard: I look forward to the receipt of the copies of the copies of the Scientific American; and I know I will like them. McCoskry Butt has just given me some figures that are a genuine surprise. He says that in the Civil War out of 2,800,000 men who enlisted only forty seven thousand were over twenty-five. I had no idea that the war was fought by such young men. But I suppose it means that where there is no military training a man after twenty-five is usually unfit for military life. One of the disheartening things is that the states which are most warlike are least military. The West has strongly disapproved of the things I have written, apparently on the ground that it is unpatriotic to state that we need to prepare for war in advance. California is enthusiastically supporting Wilson's policy of unpreparedness and antagonizing the views of [?], while at the same time it is perfectly ready to insult the Japanese and bring on trouble. [?] to be going well. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Major-General Leonard Wood, Governor's Island, New York.481 March 3rd, 1915 Dear Jack: I am interested in your letter. I think its tone is due to the fact that you are living in England and not in Germany. Of course, America could do something toward stopping the war by prohibiting the shipment of supplies, including war material and food. This would be equivalent to action in behalf of Germany and would rightly be accepted as not only hostile to Belgium, Great Britain, and France, and favorable to the aggressors in this war - for it is sheer nonsense of course to argue that Germany and Austria were not the aggressors in this war - but would also be a violation, after the war last begun, of the covenants we had entered into in the Hague covenants with all these other nations [???????????] before the war began. In other words, it would be a thoroughly dishonorable act on our part. Before any war comes, it is proper for us to announce that we will never permit food or munitions or other supplies to be sent to any belligerent. Mind you, I say it is proper; I do not say it is wise; and I do say that it is wildly improbable that our people would make such an agreement. To do it would of course put a premium upon the conduct of those nations that in time of peace diverts all their energies toward preparing for war; and it would force nations that did not wish thus to divert their energies nevertheless to do so, because they would be unable to get anything from outsiders after once war had482 -2- begun. Arguments can be made on both sides of the question. But no serious argument can be made on behalf of our adopting new rules after the war has begun, these new rules working to the terrible disadvantage of one side and being the greatest possible benefit to the other, which other has been the aggressor and is at fault in the matter. Of course, if you would rather be a Luxembourgian than a Belgian at the present time, why, that's a matter of personal preference. To me it means likes saying that you would rather be a [?] You say you agree with Wilson that none of the experts can tell us what sort of ships to build; and yet in the same sentence you add that we should benefit by the experience of the war and build submarines and build other boats, both cruisers and battleships, that are fast and heavily armed. I agree with the latter part of your sentence, which contradicts the first part. Again, you say you do not agree with me about having the our cities destroyed instead of ransomed [?] Here again it is a question of personal preference. The defenders of Salamanca and the people of Moscow took the position I advocate and thereby defeated Napoleon and immensely benefited their own nation. But unquestionably they had to be willing to suffer in person and in goods in so doing; and if a people prefer an ignoble safety for life and property, why of course they will not follow my views; and they will always offer a peculiar temptation to brave and unscrupulous foes. I think our papers take your views. I have not a doubt that the English are largely thinking of their mercantile interests in trying to discourage the483 -3- rise of our shipping. Apparently you believe that we should insist upon behaving as the British behaved to us in our Civil War. I have always insisted that the British behaved very badly during our Civil War; and I should be utterly ashamed if I now cynically turned and advocated our doing the very things that in their case I have reprobated. With you advocacy of our being prepared for War, I am of course in the heartiest sympathy. When you say that we should be prepared for war against England, I of course do not sympathize with you at all. We should be prepared for war against any antagonist, against any nation, that behaves badly to us, whether England, Germany or Japan. England is much less likely to attack us than either German or Japan; simply because Canada is her heel of Achilles. From purely selfish reasons and disregarding everything except what is most grossly materialistic, I should rather see war with England than with either Japan or Germany. This is because at present, if Germany were victorious or if the peoples of Europe fought themselves to a standstill from exhaustion and Japan is given a free hand, it would be quite possible that in the one case Germany and in the other Japan might win a complete and easy victory over us and leave us in the position where we would be helpless to do anything in return. If our people follow Wilson's advice, which you praise, in reference to being inactive in the Navy because we do not know what types of ships to build, then in the event of the war turning out [on] either of the way I have indicated, either Germany or Japan could easily establish naval superiority over us. In the one case Germany 484 -4- could become dominant in South America; would take the Canal, probably Hawaii and certainly all our West Indian stations. In the other case Japan would take the Philippines, Hawaii, Alaska and the Canal. Our people would be impotent to act against them; and we should have to go into a long career of upbuilding a navy and of developing a large regular army, capable of aggressive campaigns over seas, before we could win back what we had lost. On the other hand, if Great Britain went to war with us, while I have no question that she could easily at the outset defeat us with Kitchener's army and with her navy (on the assumption that Germany has been beaten to the ground in this war) yet in the long run we would develop a force that would enable us to conquer Canada. What I have above said, however, takes into account only the material and utterly selfish and sordid side of things. From the higher standpoint, I can conceive of nothing more disastrous to this world, and certainly this hemisphere, than a war between us and England, in which we were obliged to undertake the conquest of Canada. The Canadians are exactly like ourselves. There are hundreds of thousands of them in the United States; and they are entirely indistinguishable from the people born in the United States. To be forced to fight them; to be humiliatingly beaten back from their land; or to conquer their land would be a frightful calamity. It would leave a legacy of hatred and evil on this continent which it would be quite impossible to over-estimate. I wish that the Canadians were part of our country; but I would in the strongest manner oppose their 485 -5- being made a part of our country unless they themselves desired it; and, as long as they are part of another empire. I wish to get on with them on terms of absolute good will and, as far as possible, to treat them precisely as we would treat our own citizens. I cannot imagine any Administration being wicked enough to go into a war against Canada [?] England, I hold [?] to be [?] Of course, if the Empire of which Canada is a part insisted upon going into war with us, then, however bitter my regret I should accept the dreadful issue that had been forced upon us; but it would be an unspeakable calamity. The one redeeming feature in such a war as that which you anticipate and which you say you desire to prepare for, that is, a war with England, would be that it would correct in drastic fashion the principles of those Americans who have taken the pacificist views, which until eight months ago you held and which I am now genuinely glad to hear that you have dropped. It would be a great good fortune for this country if in the even of war we not merely lost our insular possessions but suffered an invasion by a great army and had our big cities captured and ransomed or destroyed; because it would waken our people up to the fact that they have been living in not only a fool's paradise but in an uncommonly cheap type of fool's paradise. During the last seven months each of the warring nations has shown great and splendid qualities; each has borne itself so as to gain respect. America alone stands lower then she did seven months ago. I entirely agree with what you say as to the unfriendliness toward us of the British people. It is not as great as the unfriendliness felt for as to the German people; and the attitude of the German Americans486 -6- here has been inconceivable bad, whereas the attitude of the American citizens of British birth and descent has been entirely proper. Because of the way in which Wilson and Bryan have handled themselves we have acquired not only dislike but contempt from all the powerful belligerents on each side. We should immeasurably increase this contempt if we adopted your plan of stopping the export of food stuffs and munitions to the nations that have tried to right Belgium's wrongs after we had failed to protest against the acts of the nation that had committed such frightful brutalities against and in Belgium. We ought to have lived up to our obligations and at the same time have defended our rights. But it is entirely possible that after this war we may ourselves be involved in war with Germany or Japan or even England. I am no more an English-American than I am an Irish-American or a German-American. I am nothing but plain United States. I want us to do our duty toward other nations; but I also desire that we keep in shape to do our duty to ourselves. Therefore I wish to see us thoroughly prepared now to hold our own. It was inexcusable for us not to begin to prepare seven months ago. I quite agree with you that the English are not really friendly to us; that they feel very much exasperated at the things we have done and left undone; and that, having Kitchener's great army and knowing we are entirely unready, it [will] is quite possible that they will adopt a hostile attitude toward us. There are plenty of them that would do anything to harm the United States they could. These are the men like the man Kennedy who487 -7- recently wrote a book called "Imperial America." He wishes England to attack America as regards the Monroe doctrine; as regards Mexico; as regards the Panama Canal. Of course, if he and his type ever obtained the upper hand and power to shape the destinies of England and acted on his view toward us, I would go in as gladly to fight them as I would go in to fight the Germans, if they carried out toward us the doctrines now advocated by so many of their people and actually applied in the case of Belgium. I shall send you the next issue of the Metropolitan in which I discuss one or two of these points. Our policy should be along several lines. First, before everything else, we should prepare for our own self defense. Secondly, we should treat all nations well, judging each by its conduct in any given case. Thirdly, in a great world war like the present, we should not be neutral between right and wrong; we should live up to our obligations; we should insist upon our rights; and we should not under any circumstances alter, or permit the alteration, pending the war, of the rules as to the duties and rights of neutrals to which we all solemnly assented in time of peace in the conventions at the Hague. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt John K. Roosevelt, Esq., 18 Charlton Road, Blackheath, England. 488 March 5th, 1915. My dear Mr. Thayor: I thank you for your very interesting letter. I am glad that Cabell Bruce, whom I much admire, feels as you do. That's a capital quotation about Pontius Pilate. Curiously enough, in the next number of the Metropolitan, I had quoted not that action of Pontius Pilate but St. John's denunciation of being neither hot nor cold, as applying to us. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt W. S. Thayor, Esq., 405 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, Maryland.489 March 5th, 1915. My dear Count Apponyi: I hardly know how to answer you; for you are in the midst of a life-and-death struggle, where your country has everything at stake and I am sitting relatively at ease in a neutral country. Therefore I do not wish to [?] the strain you are under Yet, my dear Count Apponyi, I cannot be understood as acquiescing in what you say. You must remember that as late as last June you were writing to me somewhat reproachfully on the ground that I was not aiding you and your friends in their violent anti-Austrian crusade. As late as last June the Magyars of your kind, including you, were using language about Austria which is in effect exactly like what you now say about those who are fighting Austria and Germany. When you were over here, you felt I was lukewarm for liberty because I told you that I earnestly hoped the Magyars would make every effort to stay in with Austria, for otherwise they would be in danger both from Berlin and St. Petersburg. For years all your complaints to me have been against Austria. You have not said one word about Russia; and this continued until within thirty days of the outbreak of the war. You say that this is a struggle against Russia. Yet Berlin announces [?] it is primarily a struggle against England; and the [?] [?] which the Germans all sing against England certainly490 -2- goes to show that this is the common German feeling. It appears that at [????] the very least Russia strove to get out of the war by asking that the Hague Court the court in which you used formerly to believe so strongly and [to] which you avowed your allegiance to more strongly than ever I did should take up the question between Austria and Servia. As for what you say about Belgium, I can only express my profound disagreement. I do not believe the present British government would have gone into the war if Germany had immediately [agreed] to observe the neutrality of Belgium. France agreed to England's request that she should absolutely abstain from any infringement of that neutrality. The sufferings of the Poles have been horrible and the sufferings of the Belgians horrible. It is a lamentable thing that so far in this war the most dreadful punishment has fallen upon the peoples who are in no shape or way responsible for it. My heart has been wrung by what has occurred. You do not need to be told how I admire the Hungarians; and now [at present] you will not object to my saying that I also admire both the Austrians and the Germans. I have many friends among them all. I have many friends among the English and French - there are very few Russians whom I know. My chief concern in this war has been, inasmuch as we cannot render any aid in bringing it to a conclusion, to see that America now does try to prepare herself so that she shall not in her turn suffer disaster; and [I hope] that all pacificists [will] understand hereafter that it is a criminal thing to enter into any agreement or491 -3- convention or treaty or take part in any movement supposed to be for peace unless it is carefully considered whether such promise or agreement or treaty can be kept and unless it is understood that force will, if necessary, be used to prevent its breaking. You will not be satisfied with this letter; but, believe me, I am as staunchly as ever your friend and admirer and the friend and admirer of your people. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Count Albert Apponyi, Eberhard, Hungary.492 March 5th, 1915. My Dear Sir: It is [utterly] impossible for me to reply to newspaper attacks like that of the Springfield Republican, because these do not represent an honest difference of opinion on observed facts nor an honest mistake as to facts but a deliberate and purposeful mis-statement of the facts. [For very many years I have regarded the editors of the Springfield Republican as that ? unfortunately too large ? of men who, lacking the ? virility themselves to take part in public affairs, ? what ability they have in deliberate and ingenious mendacity about the men who actually do try to make things better in this country.] I must therefore? decline to go into any public discussion with them; [such persons] for its useful purpose would be served badly? {Make this editorial to which you refer.] Korea's case afforded not the slightest analogy to Belgium's; and of course the writer knew this fact perfectly well. Korea had been impotent to keep order at home or to defend herself from attack abroad. It had been impotent to protect the lives and property of foreigners, to secure justice for itself or for anyone else. It had submitted absolutely to Russia's domination. Under such conditions it would have been an empty form, a piece of hypocrisy, to go through a ver-493 -2- bal pretense of saying something on its behalf. If Belgium had for years been in the throes of partial or complete revolutionary disturbance; if it had been incompetent to preserve order at home or to protect the lives of people wihtin its borders; and if finally it had accepted and submitted to the domination of France, then neither I nor anyone else would have dreamt of protesting against ? ? All these facts are familiar to the editors of the Springfield Republican and are deliberately suppressed by them. So as to the quotation it makes about the Hague Conventions. Its position is simply nonsensical, for if it be accepted as correct it would mean that the Conventions were all to be held binding only as against the powers which really did not need to be bound. Of course when Belgium and ourselves signed, it means that we were under obligations to do what we could to protect Belgium's rights under those conventions. The clause in question simply means that we are not bound to respect the conventions or enforce them or pay regard to them so far as ? ? up non-signatory powers are concerned. But there really isn't any need of going into these elaborate arguments. If you have seen my book on "America and the World War", you will find the case stated. In the present war either the Hague Conventions meant something or they did not. They have been violated in every essential respect again and again, Germany being the first and greatest but seemingly not the only offender. If the Hague Conventions meant anything, then it was the494 -3- duty of neutral powers, and above all of the biggest neutral power, ourselves, to protest. If the Springfield Republican's interpretation is correct, then the Conventions are absolutely meaningless; and it was folly and waste of time to sign them. I presume the Springfield Republican has applauded the preposterous universal peace treaties which Messrs Wilson and Bryan have been negotiating by the score. If so, there is a peculiar baseness and hypocrisy in its applauding our entering into new and thoroughly silly treaties, while from sheer timidity or selfishness the administration, with the approval of the Springfield Republican, declines to do its duty under the engagements already entered into and entered into with the cordial and enthusiastic approval of the Springfield Republican. Very truly yours, Theodore Roosevelt Moffitt Ford, Esq., 30 South Merriam Ct., Pittsfield, Mass.495 March 5th, 1915 My dear Mrs. Graham: I touch my hat to you, as the daughter and mother of brave men and as braver than those men themselves. You have exactly expressed my idea. I loathe war. When I went to Cuba, I left my wife not yet recovered from the birth of her last baby. I left six children behind. In the night before each fight, I never fared to think of either my wife or children because it really tended to unman me. I doubt if there exists a more thoroughly domestic man than I am or one more devoted to the homely pleasant things of the life of the home. But I should be ashamed of my sons if they shirked war, just I should be ashamed of my daughters if they shirked motherhood. You say that you have gone down to the edge of the grave to open the door of life to your children. You have exactly expressed it. I have seen my wife, for whom of course I care infinitely more than for myself, nearer to death in childbirth than ever I was on the battlefield. Surely if it would be wrong for her to shirk one danger, it would be infinitely worse for me, infinitely more cowardly and less excusable, if I shirked the other. I remember John Mason Brown, formerly of your city, telling me that in 1861 he returned from a year's hunt in the Rockies to find that the Civil War had broken out. His father 496 had served in the Mexican War and was dead. As soon as he came home, his mother brought him his father's sword, saying: "My son, this is your father's sword. I hope you will draw it under the flag for which you father fought; but draw it you must, for one side or the other." That woman, like you, my dear Mrs. Graham, and all the women of our stamp, represents the women whom I wish to see exercise a decisive influence in voting and in the political affairs of this country. As a matter of fact, the present pacificist administration has one dreadful and foolish little war with Mexico, whereas during my seven and a half years of administration, not an American soldier or sailor was killed in action with any foreign power. Preparedness against war is the best means of averting war; but if it is important to avert war save at the cost of dishonor, then the women of your type and of the type of John Mason Brown's mother, and their sons will face the dangers of battle, the dangers of war, just as these women faced the dangers of childbirth. It is our duty individually and as a nation to avoid all quarrels, to avoid every species of brutality, of wrong-doing, of wanton offense, to try to inculcate gentleness and fair and upright dealing as between man and man, nation and nation; but it is also our duty to keep ourselves masters of our own souls and possessed of themselves virtues for the lack of which no softness of manners, no gentleness of nature and, above all, no soft and easy course of life, will in any way atone. Very sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Mrs. John C. Graham, 1347 Floyd St. Louisville, Ky497 March 8th, 1915. My dear Senator Fletcher: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Senator Duncan U. Fletcher, United States Senate, Washington, D. C.498 March 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. Jackson: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Wayman Craw Jackson, Esq., Muskogee, Okla.497 March 8th, 1915. My dear Senator Fletcher: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Senator Duncan U. Fletcher, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. 498 March 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. Jackson: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Wayman Craw Jackson, Esq., Muskogee, Okla.498 March 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. Jackson: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Wayman Craw Jackson, Esq., Muskogee, Okla. 499 March 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. Hart: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Chas. E. Hart, Esq., Muskogee, Okla.499 March 8th, 1915. My dear Mr. Hart: I regret that it is impossible for me to accept your kind invitation; but I have had to refuse all speaking engagements. If I make an exception in one case, I would have to do it in literally scores of other cases. With regret, Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt Chas. E. Hart, Esq., Muskogee, Okla. 500 March 9th, 1915. My dear Senator Flinn: This will introduce to you Mr. William Halpin, of New York, an old friend and supporter of mine. While I was President, Mr. Halpin was Chairman of the New York County organization and was at the White House as my guest. For the past three years he has been an active member of the Progressive party. I take particular pleasure in introducing him to you and in asking that you accord him the courtesy of a full interview. Faithfully yours, Theodore Roosevelt Hon. William Flinn, Highland Building, Pittsburgh, Pa.