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"Theodore Roosevelt"
When one is travelling in the foothills of a mountain range,
it is difficult to appreciate the heights and grandeur of the
peaks. It is only at a distance that we are able to judge clearly
relative heights, and pick out the main peaks of the range. So it
is with great men, their lives and work. We may appreciate in a
way their greatness while living, but the true measure of it comes
to us only with time.
Theodore Roosevelt was the most dominating and inspiring
figure in American life since Abraham Lincoln. Dominating and
inspiring because he stood for the square deal, because he simply
was as broad as the world, limited neither by race nor creed. We
appreciated his strength while he lived, but as time goes by, he
looms up greater and greater, and now we know him to be one of
America's greatest Presidents.
In time of peace, Roosevelt was a devoted public servant. In
time of war, he offered his life freely in the service of his
country. His life was characterized by the spirit of service and
sacrifice. He stood for America, law abiding and prosperous at
home, and respected abroad. He loved America. He believed in her
institutions -- saw in her the hope of countless millions yet
unborn. He breathed the spirit of intense Americanism. In his
opinion there was no room in America for those who were part
American, and part something else. He was intolerant of shams,
detested snobs, and hated insincerity.
America lost, indeed the world lost, its soundest and most
effective advocate of peace when Theodore Roosevelt died. The
soundest and most effective because while hating war, as do most
normal men, he realized that the peace of righteousness is often
maintained through preparedness to do our duty even through war, if
necessary; and that arbitration is most effective when a nation is
not only right, but also able to use force, if needed, to back up
the right. He understood that a nation is most effective as a
force for peace and for justice when it is of resolute faith, and
understands that the strength of right must be organized against
the day when it may be necessary to meet the forces of wrong. He
understood, as few have, that it is not enough to be filled with
the spirit of sacrifice -- to have lofty ideas -- but that if our
sacrifice is to be effective, if our ideals are to be realized, we
must have ready the necessary force and organization, moral and
physical. To him, empty words and lofty sentiments, unsupported by
a resolute and brave spirit, and a determination to do one's
[clear] duty, were hateful things, contemptible, dangerous, and
unworthy of an upstanding and right-thinking people.
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