Roosevelt as President

Home Affairs.

In domestic affairs his influence was even more far-reaching. His success in drawing the leaders on both sides of the social and economic struggle back from the danger zone where extremes meet in violent disturbance was possible only be cause he had to an unprecedented degree the support of the public, regardless of party. His vigour, his courage, his abounding vitality, his lack of presidential pomposity, his familiarity with all manner of men, even his loudness of action or utterance, and his undis guised delight in driving the "band wagon," all endeared him to "plain folks." He entered into men's lives, kindled fires in them, impelled them to scorn ease and safety and rejoice to do the fine, the difficult thing. His power to inspire his followers to take a pride in their country and her welfare brought to his side hundreds of young men of ability, who asked no greater privilege than to serve under him in an enterprise which in its details was prosaic enough but which he had somehow invested with the spirit of high adventure. The President gave them work to do in the Federal departments and in the island pos sessions. Their high quality impelled the British ambassador, James Bryce, an acute observer of governments, to remark to Roosevelt that he had "never in any country seen a more eager, high-minded and efficient set of public servants, men more useful and creditable to their country, than the men then doing the work of the American Government in Washington and in the field." Roosevelt had, indeed, the gift of stimulating men to raise themselves for the moment above the ordinary level of their abilities and their desires.

In March, 1909, Roosevelt retired from the Presidency. He adhered to a pledge which he had made after his election in 1904 not to accept the nomination for the Presidency in 1908, and gave his support to the candidacy of William H. Taft, his Secretary of War. Taft was nominated and elected. On April 23, 1909, Roosevelt, accompanied by his son Kermit, sailed for Africa on a scientific expedition under the auspices of the Smith sonian Institution in Washington.

Africa.

Roosevelt entered Africa at Mombasa, and for ten months, moving slowly northward, he hunted big game and col lected specimens. He was a keen naturalist, accepted by scientists in his field as a trustworthy observer who had added substan tially to the study of American fauna. He had a memory which all who came in contact with him agreed was astonishing in its tenacity and accuracy; and for one who had given only the off hours of a busy life to scientific study, his knowledge was wide and thorough; but he recognized its limitations and humbly yielded to instruction.

Roosevelt emerged from the wilderness at Gondokoro at the end of Feb. 191o. Nothing showed better the fascination which he exercised over the imaginations of men the world over than the interest which his reappearance created. An address at Khar

tum on orderly government created a mild stir, but another ad dress, delivered before the students of the University of Cairo, denouncing the assassination by nationalists of the pro-British premier, Boutros Pasha, brought him threats of assassination.

Europe.

Roosevelt's journey northward was in the nature of a triumphal procession. An official at the Vatican precipitated an unpleasant situation by stipulating certain conditions for an interview with the Pope, but Roosevelt's refusal to permit any limitation on his freedom of action was direct and emphatic. In Paris he made a public address at the Sorbonne on "Citizenship in a Republic," in Berlin he spoke at the University on "The World Movement," and, at the emperor's side, reviewed the Imperial Guard, the first civilian who had ever reviewed German troops.

Before he reached England, the king, Edward VII., died, and when Roosevelt arrived in London it was as President Taft's spe cial ambassador to the funeral. His Romanes lecture at Oxford on "Biological Analogies in History" was widely praised, but a speech at the Guildhall in London in which he criticized what appeared to him as the timid ineptitude of the British Government in Egypt brought sharp rebukes from both sides of the Atlantic, but had the endorsement of the new king and of his Foreign Secre tary. The address had certain momentous consequences in the ap pointment of Lord Kitchener as consul general to Egypt (in effect, governor) and the strengthening of a British position which, through its control of the Suez canal and the road to India, became of vital importance to the British Empire on the outbreak of the World War four years later. What remained to Englishmen, however, as the most striking memory of Roosevelt's stay in England, was the walk he took through the New Forest with Sir Edward Grey, when he proved that, though he had spent less than a month altogether in England since his boyhood, he could identify every bird which he saw or heard.

Roosevelt returned to the United States on June 18, 191o, disembarking at New York, and received a tumultuous welcome. He had already been put in touch with the political situation.

The struggle between the conservative and the progressive ele-• ments in the Republican party, which under Roosevelt had re mained under the surface, had, under President Taft, developed into what threatened to become a definite schism. A new tariff law, the dismissal of certain commissions which Roosevelt had appointed, the President's position in a bitter controversy re garding western lands, and the general mood of the Administra tion led Roosevelt to believe that Taft, instead of carrying forward the policies of the former administration, was definitely aligned with their opponents.