i 4 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
definitely to go in with you on practically the basis on which
I afterward did go in. It was your father who was the de-
cisive factor in getting me to accept. I might have accepted
your request alone; but I have a peculiar feeling for your
father. I regard him and have long regarded him as a man
who in a way stands entirely apart from all others in our
national life, and, if the expression does not seem exagger-
ated, my regard for him has in it a little of that feeling of
reverence which is perhaps the finest feeling an old man can
inspire in younger men — even when these younger men, like
myself, become old men! I felt honoured to be associated
with him, and I was also very glad to be associated with the
rest of you.
The result of these negotiations was that on the
7th of November, 1908, the Outlook was able to
announce that "on and after the 5th of March,
1909, Theodore Roosevelt will be associated with
the Outlook's editorial staff as special Contributing
Editor." From that day until June, 1914, he was
in a very real sense a member of our staff. He
made his office with us and he regularly attended
our weekly editorial conferences.
According to our mutual agreement he was to
be free to express his own views over his own name
and the Outlook was equally at liberty to state its
opinion even when it varied from his on public
questions. We rarely differed, but when we did
he accepted the difference of opinion with perfect
loyalty to the understanding which was the basis
of our joint work. He believed in what he called
Roosevelt in cowboy costume during his early years as a
ranchman
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 15
"team-work," and practised his belief. He lis-
tened to the views of his colleagues, and often modi-
fied his own as a result of the interchange of opin-
ion. He never wrote an article that he did not,
before publication, submit to one of us, and he al-
most invariably accepted our suggestions, some-
times with regard to verbal expressions and some-
times with regard to change of ideas or views of the
article. I do not mean to give the impression that
he altered his mind frequently. On matters of
principle he could be as fixed as adamant. But
in methods of putting a principle into effect he
habitually sought counsel and was eager to adopt
suggestions. Not only did he contribute to our
pages articles over his own name, but his wide
experience, his comprehensive knowledge of men
and affairs, and his unique ability as an interpreter
of political and social movements found expression
in our own editorials through the comments and
suggestions which he made at the weekly confer-
ences.
One of the first results of his prospective connection
with the Outlook was that I had the very unusual, : if
not the unique, experience of attending a semi-
official cabinet meeting in Washington. Mr. Taft
was running for the Presidency against Mr. Bryan,
and in the latter part of the summer of 1908 there
16 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
was great anxiety among the Republican managers
lest Mr. Bryan might be elected on the anti-
corporation "trust-busting" issue. He was, it is
true, defeated by so large a majority that these
anxieties now seem hardly credible, but at the
time they were very real. Governor Haskell of
Oklahoma was the treasurer of the National Demo-
cratic Committee and Mr. Bryan's right-hand man
in managing his campaign. The Outlook had
learned that the university professors and educa-
tors of Oklahoma were very much upset by Gover-
nor Haskell's management of the educational sys-
tem of that state. They felt that he was trying
to prostitute it to partisan political ends. During
a visit which my father had made to the State of
Oklahoma shortly before the campaign of 1908 he
was urged to defend in the Outlook the university
and schools of Oklahoma against the political
machinations of Governor Haskell. My father was
very glad to do this and the Outlook, supported
by documents and other proof, took up the issue
with some vigour. For when political bosses en-
deavour to turn a state educational system into a
political machine they are guilty of perhaps the
worst form of political corruption. To debauch
the public schools in this way is to pollute the very
springs of our national life. Mr. Roosevelt knew
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 17
and approved of the part which the Outlook had
been taking in this controversy.
One September Saturday afternoon, while play-
ing golf at my summer home on the Hudson about
fifty miles from New York, the following telegram
was repeated to me by telephone from my office in
the city:
The White House, Washington, September 26, 1908.
Lawrence F. Abbott
The Outlook
New York City
Letter received. If you want to write on Haskell I have
many records to show you which you ought to see. Come
on to see me this evening or to-morrow (Sunday) afternoon
or evening. Don't forget the expression used by one of the
Oklahoma senators in championing Haskell that Haskell
is merely Bryanism in action.
Theodore Roosevelt.
In reply I telegraphed that I would report at
the White House the next morning, Sunday, at
nine o'clock. Reluctantly I left my game of golf,
hastily packed a bag, and got a train for New York
which enabled me to take the midnight express
over to Washington.
When I presented my card at nine o'clock at the
White House the doorman was a little dubious,
owing to the very unusual hour of the call, but it
was sent to the President who summoned me to
join him. I found him at breakfast with Mrs.
18 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Roosevelt at a small round table on the back
verandah overlooking the pleasant garden with
the towering Washington Monument in the dis-
tance. He explained that he and Mrs. Roosevelt
were accustomed to breakfast alone on Sunday
mornings, without even other members of the
family, because in this way they could take one
of the very few opportunities they had for an
hour of uninterrupted companionship.
Mr. Roosevelt informed me that he was in
the process of an exchange of open letters with
Mr. Bryan on issues of the campaign; that he had
written the first one; that Mr. Bryan had replied;
and that he was about to write his second letter
that afternoon. With the astute wisdom which he
showed in all practical matters, Mr. Roosevelt had
picked out the Monday morning newspapers as
the medium for his open letters. Daily newspaper
editors are always glad to get some striking feature
for Monday morning since the Sunday issue has
used up everything of sensational value in hand.
At the President's invitation I returned to take
luncheon with him and afterward went up into his
study, where a table was covered with documents
and records of all kinds regarding the campaign.
At three o'clock those members of the Cabinet
who were then in Washington came to the room by
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 19
appointment and Mr. Roosevelt began to dictate
the open letter to Bryan, walking up and down the
room as he talked to the stenographer in a char-
acteristic fashion. Finally he came to a criticism of
Mr. Bryan himself and was making the application
of this criticism somewhat personal and vigor-
ous, whereupon a member of the Cabinet remarked :
"Mr. President, it does not seem to me wise tomake
a personal attack upon Mr. Bryan and certainly
not upon Mr. Bryan's integrity, for such an attack,
in my judgment, would react in his favour." Mr.
Roosevelt stopped and answered: "Mr. Secre-
tary, I want to dictate this letter based on these
documents and facts before me with perfect free-
dom of expression. I want you to listen and form
your own judgment and to come back at nine
o'clock this evening prepared to make any sug-
gestions or modifications that occur to you." He
then went on with his dictation and finished the
article or open letter, which I should imagine would
have taken the space of a column and a half or two
columns of a daily newspaper. At the conclusion of
the session which was attended by Secretary Cortel-
you of the Treasury, Secretary Straus of the Depart-
ment of Commerce and Labour, Secretary Meyer of
the Navy, and, I think, one other member of the
Cabinet whose name I cannot recall (these gentle-
20 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
men being the only members of the Cabinet in town
at the time) — I went back to my hotel much im-
pressed with the fact that I had been a spectator of
what was at least an informal Cabinet meeting in ac-
tion. I was also impressed with the conviction that
the secretary who raised the question about a person-
al criticism of Mr. Bryan was right in his judgment;
and yet I thought I understood, from my conver-
sations with him, Mr. Roosevelt's own point of view.
I therefore wrote, and sent to the White House by
special messenger, a note something like this:
My Dear Mr. President:
May I venture to say that it seems to me that Secretary
was right in deprecating anything that appears like an
attack upon Mr. Bryan's personal integrity, but on the other
hand I do not understand that you desire to make such an
attack. Is it not your purpose to point out that Mr. Bryan's
close association with Governor Haskell, whose methods have
been dishonourable, shows not a lack of honour but a lack of
wisdom and sound judgment. What you wish to say to
the American people, as I understand you, is that if Mr.
Bryan can make so lamentable an error of judgment as to
appoint a political spoilsman like Governor Haskell as
his right-hand man and lieutenant in this campaign, what
guarantee have they that he will not, if elected President,
make a similar mistake of judgment in appointing the mem-
bers of his Cabinet and other officers of the Government ?
Five minutes after this note had gone I would
have given a good-sized cheque to get it back.
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 21
"What have I done?" I said to myself. "With
only a limited acquaintance with the President,
I have ventured to send him a letter of advice
in a matter in which his Cabinet are his proper
advisers! He is reported to carry 'a big stick/
What will happen to me when I go back to him this
evening ?" For he had invited me to return at nine
o'clock to be present when the letter was revised.
I dined with Secretary Meyer and went back to
the White House at nine o'clock. As I entered the
little study in which this piece of work was done
I literally trembled in my shoes. The President
was sitting at his desk, in a swivel chair, with his
back to the door. He swung around, greeted
Secretary Meyer, said good evening to me, and
added: "Thank you for your note, Abbott. I was
glad to get it. You are right. I shall modify the
passage about Mr. Bryan accordingly."
He then asked the three or four members of the
Cabinet who had heard him dictate the letter to sit
down, and requested each one to read the type-
written transcript of the dictation, sheet by sheet,
and to make their criticisms. I was also asked
to read the pages as they left the hands of the last
Cabinet officer. Suggested modifications were
freely made by the Cabinet members (I, of
course, was merely a silent observer) and were
22 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
incorporated by Mr. Roosevelt with his own pen,
until some of the pages were black with interline-
ation. Each revised page was sent out to be
freshly copied, brought in for the President's final
vise, and then sent to the telegraph office downstairs
for immediate transmission through the Associated
Press. Every suggestion, with one exception, was
adopted by Mr. Roosevelt. I think it was Mr.
Straus who asked for the modification of one sen-
tence or phrase on the ground that it was a little too
severe. The President turned to him and said : "No,
Mr. Secretary, I think it should stand as it is. You
must remember that this is a poster, not an etching !"
This incident seems to me to be worth recording
somewhat fully because it illustrates what was one
of Roosevelt's striking characteristics and yet a
characteristic which the general public, I think,
was not aware of. I mean his constant practice of
seeking the facts and complete information about a
given matter from any source that he thought
would be serviceable. It was this motive that led
him to summon me— a comparatively unknown
man, holding no public or cabinet position— that we
might be able mutually to help each other in giv-
ing the public the facts about Governor Haskell.
From this incident the reader will also get the
impression, and I think it is the correct impres-
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 23
sion, that Mr. Roosevelt in all his public acts
sought advice and followed suggestions. In this
instance he summoned those members of his
Cabinet who were available, had them give per-
sonally and collectively three or four hours* con-
sideration to a newspaper-campaign letter, and
invited and adopted their modifications and advice.
It was these qualities of cooperation which made
his public career on its human side so preeminently
successful, and they have always seemed to me to
be important traits of his character — so important
that I shall recur to them more than once as I
proceed.
Roosevelt was not only a staunch advocate of
the doctrine of military preparedness — to which,
by the way, he gave expression at the age of twenty-
two in his "Naval History of the War of 1812,"
referred to more fully in a later chapter — but prac-
tised preparedness in every activity of his life. His
desk was always clear, although he wrote more
letters probably than any other man of his time.
His articles were always finished on the day and
the hour when they were promised — often a little
beforehand. He pressed his work instead of being
pressed by it, and was never confused or worried
by an accumulation of duties. He was the busiest
man I ever knew, and yet he never seemed to be
24 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
hurried. In other words, he was a remarkable
executive, partly because he knew how to handle
men and get them to work, but very largely, I
think, because he practised preparedness.
For example, he took with him into the African
wilderness a supply of stationery, with sheets of
carbon paper like those that are used on the ordi-
nary typewriter, and indelible pencils, and wrote
in duplicate by means of the carbon paper, under
what to most men would have been impossible
conditions, some of his book, "African Game
Trails,'' and at least one of the important addresses
that he delivered in , Europe. He was distinctly
what some of my Yankee forbears would have
called "forehanded."
A significant instance of this forehandedness was
his first editorial act as a member of the staff of
the Outlook. He relinquished the Presidency on
March 4, 1909, and sailed for Africa on March 23 rd.
In characteristic fashion, he instantly turned from
the work of President to that of editor. Indeed,
while still President he had written half a dozen
editorial articles and had them all ready for pub-
lication. Wednesday, March 10th, was his in-
auguration day as one of the editorial board.
When it came his turn to suggest a topic for edito-
rial consideration he said: "I wonder whether
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 25
you would be willing to tell the story of the
Government's prosecution of the Sugar Trust
for its criminal attempt to evade paying cus-
toms duties? The Government, in the face of
incredible difficulties, has won its case, and the
Sugar Trust has been convicted of smuggling sugar
by the daily use of a fraudulent device extending
over a period of some years. Unfortunately, for
mysterious reasons which it is not wholly difficult
to explain, the New York daily press has practically
ignored the Government's victory and its dramatic
incidents, and the public therefore does not know
all it should about the crime, and the success of
the Government in ferreting it out and punishing
it. There may be good reasons why you do not
want to go into this matter, but if you do I shall
be glad to see that you are supplied with all the
facts in the case."
Of course we instantly said that we should be
glad to take the matter up and would do all we
could, with his help and direction, to make the case
public. With a smile he responded: "I rather
thought that would be your decision, and so I have
taken the liberty of asking United States District
Attorney Stimson and his assistant, Mr. Denison,
to come here this morning; they are now outside in
the reception room with a large bag full of docu-
J
26 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
ments and other interesting pieces of evidence
that we used in the trial/'
Mr. Stimson and Mr. Denison were instantly
invited to ioin us, and they related one of the most
dramatic stories of fraud and prosecution that I
have ever listened to. They had with them some
of the incredibly ingenious and delicate mechanical
devices which the Sugar Trust had used in making
the scales on the pier where the sugar was unloaded
register false weights. The result of this story led
us to take the matter up with care, and Mr. Harold
J. Howland, of our editorial staff, wrote an article —
after a very careful study of the case, aided by both
Mr. Stimson and Mr. Denison — entitled: "The
Case of the Seventeen Holes." It was published
in the Outlook a month later, and created some-
thing of a sensation. It may be added that Mr.
Stimson later became Secretary of War in the
Cabinet of President Taft; and Mr. Denison be-
came Secretary of the Interior of the Philippine
Islands and member of the Philippine Commission.
It seems worth while to make these brief records
of Mr. Roosevelt's essays in journalism because
probably it was the first time in the history of the
United States that an ex-President had chosen
journalism as his professional career on returning
to private life. After leaving the Outlook in 1914,
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 27
Mr. Roosevelt became editorially associated with
the Metropolitan Magazine, and, still later, an
editorial contributor to the Kansas City Star.
Thus he was engaged in active journalism for ten
years from the time he ceased to be President in
1909 until his death. Indeed, he wrote editorials
for the Kansas City Star almost up to the very
hour of his death, for one of his last acts, the
evening before he suddenly and unexpectedly
passed away, was to correct the proof of a Star
editorial. His success as a journalist is only an-
other striking illustration of his almost unmatched
versatility. Historians say that he might have
been a historian; biologists and zoologists, that he
might have been a scientific naturalist; soldiers, that
he would have made a great professional soldier. It
is equally clear that if the environment of his early
life had so influenced him he might have become a
great newspaper editor. He had the instinct for
news and the faculty for interesting the public in it.
He also had what is more important, but too often
lost sight of in modern journalism: definite views
as to the moral standards which ought to apply
to the trade or profession of newspaper men as
rigorously as the ethics of the medical profes-
sion or the obligations of the Hippocratic oath
apply to doctors. In his first editorial he used
28 IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
these words of one of the banes of American
newspaper life:
Yellow journalism deifies the cult of the mendacious,
the sensational, and the inane, and, throughout its wide
but vapid field, does as much to vulgarize and degrade
the popular taste, to weaken the popular character, and to
dull the edge of the popular conscience, as any influence under
which the country can suffer. These men sneer at the very
idea of paying heed to the dictates of a sound morality; as
one of their number has cynically put it, they are concerned
merely with selling the public whatever the public will buy —
a theory of conduct which would justify the existence of every
keeper of an opium den, of every foul creature who ministers
to the vices of mankind.
To these words he added the comment upon his
new editorial associates that "it is perhaps not
especially to their credit that they have avoided
this pit; fortunately they are so constituted that
it is a simple impossibility for them to fall into it."
He defined his journalistic creed as follows: "It
is not given to humanity never to err"; but the
right-minded editor "makes a resolute effort to
find out what the facts actually are before passing
judgment." He "believes that things in this
world can be made better," but he "does not in-
dorse quixotic movements which would merely
leave things worse." He "feels a peculiar desire
to do all that can be done for the poor and the op-
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 29
pressed, and to help upward those struggling to
better themselves"; but he "has no sympathy
with moral weakness or sentimentality." All
that he can he "does and will do for the cause of
labour;" but he "will in no shape or way condone
violence or disorder." He "stands for the rights
of property, and therefore against the abuses of
property." He "believes in a wise individualism,
and in encouragement of individual initiative;
and therefore all the more ... in using the
collective force of the whole people to do what, but
for the use of that collective force, must be left
undone."
It may not be inappropriate to conclude this
chapter of journalistic reminiscences with one of
the amusing incidents connected with Mr. Roose-
velt's new journalistic venture; I say "amusing,"
although at the time it was vexatious and dis-
turbing.
The late James Stillman, one of the foremost rail-
way financiers and bankers of the United States,
had been for more than thirty years a personal
friend as well as a neighbour of my father and
had aided him in the purchase of the journal which
later became the Outlook. The result was that
he was a stockholder in the Outlook Company
although he owned less than a tenth interest.
3 o IMPRESSIONS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT
In becoming a stockholder he had simply performed
a generous act for a personal friend and he had
never in any way attempted to influence the policy
of the paper. He had never even attended a
stockholders' meeting either in person or by proxy.
He was in 1909 closely associated with the Stand-
ard Oil Company both through family and finan-
cial connections. A New York daily newspaper
in search of a sensation announced that Mr. Still-
man was a stockholder of the Outlook and that,
therefore, Mr. Roosevelt had connected himself
with a journal controlled by the Standard Oil
Company. In view of Mr. Roosevelt's attitude at
that time toward the great corporations and the pro-
ceedings at law which his administration had in-
stituted against the Standard Oil Company, the
newspapers took this piece of gossip up and it
created a lively though temporary furore. The
facts were frankly stated in the pages of the Out-
look, and Mr. Roosevelt himself, in November,
1908, made the following statement through the
public press:
The President has not the slightest concern with the ques-
tion as to who are the stockholders of the Outlook. His
concern is with the general policy of the paper, which is and
has been consistently admirable in every respect. The
President will be responsible only for what he himself writes;
Theodore Roosevelt in 1885. This picture was taken in
North Dakota four years after Joe Murray started Mr.
Roosevelt's political career
ACQUAINTANCESHIP 3 1
and his probable future attitude must be judged by his action
in the past.
Referring to this episode President Roosevelt
wrote me from the White House on November 14,
1908:
1 You need not be in the least sorry. I was not caused the
slightest annoyance by the statement about the Standard
Oil control of the paper. On the contrary, the only effect
was to give the heartiest enjoyment to the entire Cabinet at
the Cabinet meeting — and the Cabinet meetings are rarely
melancholy anyhow! I wanted very much to issue a state-
ment to the effect that if the Standard Oil really controlled
the Outlook, I thought they must have experienced a change
of heart when they hired me to write editorials for it! But
I thought it was not worth while. Last summer your father
told me substantially what you tell me now, namely, that
. . . Mr. Stillman who was an old friend and neighbour
. . . owned less than a tenth of the stock, and never
made any effort to influence the course of the paper. It was
on the tip of my tongue to say that that was self-evident