Theodore Rex (182 page)
Authors: Edmund Morris
76
“The passenger pigeon”
Lindsey, “Was Theodore Roosevelt?” notes that the last known surviving passenger pigeon died in captivity in Ohio, on 1 Sept. 1914.
77
the last bird
William B. Mershon,
The Passenger Pigeon
(Deposit, N.Y., 1907), 223. A more recent authority cites a specimen shot in Fairfield County, Conn., in 1906. Lindsey, “Was Theodore Roosevelt?”
78
saw no evidence
See also Alton A. Lindsey, “The Sighting at Pine Knot,”
Natural History
, Nov. 1977.
Historical Note:
Only after TR got back to Washington did he ponder a remark about some “wild carrier pigeons” by Dick McDaniel, the foreman of a farm adjoining Pine Knot, and realize that he had a possible supporting witness. Subsequent interviews with McDaniel, whose reliability was vouched for, established that birds matching the ones TR described had been sighted on the farm six days earlier. Lindsey, “Was Theodore Roosevelt?” subjects TR’s claims to exhaustive scrutiny and concludes that he was indeed the last qualified observer of wild passenger pigeons. Nine years later, at the height of the Great War in Europe, TR wrote: “The extermination of the passenger pigeon means that mankind was just so much poorer; exactly as in the case of the destruction of the cathedral at Rheims.” TR,
Works
, vol. 4, 227.
: S
UCH A
F
LEET AND
S
UCH A
D
AY
1
“D’ye think?”
“Mr. Dooley” in Chicago
Record-Herald
, 20 Oct. 1907.
2
The agreeable
James R. Reckner “ ‘I Had Great Confidence in the Fleet’: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet,” in Naylor et al.,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 383. Elihu Root remained TR’s principal foreign-policy adviser, but the multilingual, much-traveled Meyer was the Administration’s expert on the social aspects of diplomacy. On this date, Root was in Clinton, N.Y., recovering from illness. Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 2, 23.
3
“Nothing during my”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 671–72.
4
calling for war
Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 2, 23.
5
Elihu Root did
Ibid.
6
Roosevelt was not so
Ibid., 6–23; Dorwart,
Office of Naval Intelligence
, 83; TR,
Letters
, vol. 7, 393. See also Abbott,
Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt
, 111; Jessup,
Elihu Root
, vol. 2, 24.
7
The Office of
Dorwart,
Office of Naval Intelligence
, 83.
8
He had asked
Reckner, “ ‘I Had Great Confidence,’ ” 383–84.
9
COLONEL W. W
.
Ibid., 383.
10
Roosevelt said
Ibid.; Wimmel,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet
, 220. See also TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 729–30, and James R. Reckner,
Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet
(Annapolis, 1988).
11
The idea was
Wimmel,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet
, 220; Dewey to TR, qu. in Jusserand,
What Me Befell
, 308. See also TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 725–26, and Louis Morton, “Military and Naval Preparations for the Defense of the Philippines During the War Scare of 1907,”
Military Affairs
13.2 (1949).
12
Wall Street’s stock
Strouse,
Morgan
, 564–65; Adler,
Jacob H. Schiff
, 45.
13
He had private information
TR,
Autobiography
, 564.
14
He issued
Reckner, “ ‘I Had Great Confidence,’ ” 384.
15
When someone asked
Wimmel,
Theodore Roosevelt and the Great White Fleet
, 221.
16
Metcalf was authorized
Reckner, “ ‘I Had Great Confidence,’ ” 385, claims that TR bungled the announcement, first by allowing it to be leaked, then by issuing a series of conflicting statements about the fleet’s true destination. According to Francis B. Loomis, TR did have some initial qualms about the possibly inflammatory consequences of his order, not only on Japanese war sentiment but on the much more truculent “yellow” newspapers of the United States. In the event, Japanese reaction was encouragingly muted, and by late July TR’s resolve had hardened to a calm self-certainty. See Beale,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 332 and esp. 543–44.
17
“a practice cruise”
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 709.
18
twenty-nine million
Sullivan,
Our Times
, vol. 3, 497–98; Strouse,
Morgan
, 573–74. Rockefeller was right. The fine was canceled on appeal.
19
Conservatives blamed
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 746.
20
Roosevelt, who
Ibid., 745–46.
21
“The present trouble”
Ibid., 747.
22
“Please do not”
Ibid., 763. Bonaparte consulted, on TR’s orders, with Herbert Knox Smith, who informed him that the Sherman Act was “an economic absurdity … impossible of general enforcement.” On 24 September, TR instructed Bonaparte to abandon his case against International Harvester. Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 218.
23
With that, he
TR to George Otto Trevelyan, 23 Aug. 1907 (TRP). On Wall Street, feelings of foreboding persisted, mixed with recriminations against Roosevelt for his alleged fiscal irresponsibility.
24
ONE THING THE ROMANS
Ferrero was much on TR’s mind at this time. See TR,
Presidential Addresses and State Papers
, vol. 6, 1374.
25
WJ McGee, the visionary
Lacey, “Mysteries of Earth-Making,” 379, nicely describes McGee’s concept as “a scheme to restore the commons through water, rather than land.”
26
“a comprehensive plan”
M. Nelson McGeary,
Gifford Pinchot: Forester-Politician
(Princeton, N.J., 1960), 94. See also Pinkett,
Gifford Pinchot
, 108ff., and Lacey, “Mysteries of Earth-Making,” 379–82.
27
By the time
WJ McGee, ed.,
Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in the White House, May 13–15, 1908
(Washington, D.C., 1909), vi–vii (hereafter
Governors’ Conference Proceedings)
. For TR’s own account of his Mississippi cruise, see TR,
Letters to Kermit
, 216ff.
28
A sense that
TR to Archibald Roosevelt, 7 Oct. 1907 (fragment, TRB); Herbert Knox Smith, “Roosevelt’s Leadership,” address to Roosevelt Memorial Association, [n.d.] 1924, copy in TRB.
29
Roosevelt made his
TR,
Presidential Addresses
, vol. 6, 1432–33.
30
“There is an”
Ibid., 1431.
31
These implosions
The Washington Post
, 16 Oct. 1907.
32
“a simultaneous deficiency”
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, 347.
33
“I can’t go on”
Pringle,
Theodore Roosevelt
, 438.
34
“Do I look?”
Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 165. In 1918, shortly before his death, TR admitted that his only real regret was his misjudgment of the panic of 1907. He had acted “without a clear knowledge of business affairs.” Jack Cooper interview, Oct. 1919 (TRB).
35
By now, most
Strouse,
Morgan
, 578.
36
The President was
Wood,
Roosevelt As We Knew Him
, 439. See also TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 747–49.
37
ALTHOUGH A TOTAL
Strouse,
Morgan
, 580–84.
38
Judge Gary said
Watson,
As I Knew Them
, 69; Strouse,
Morgan
, 587–88; TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 830–31. A congressional investigation in 1911 revealed that Gary and Frick may have taken advantage of TR’s fiscal naïveté when they protested their reluctance to acquire Moore & Schley (whose name they declined to reveal to him over breakfast). What they demonstrably got, along with an assurance of antitrust indemnity, was a bargain investment and a considerable enlargement of U.S. Steel’s presence in the South. Strouse,
Morgan
, 590.
39
Gary called
Strouse,
Morgan
, 588.
40
ON 11 NOVEMBER
TR,
Letters
, vol. 5, 838–39;
Collier’s
, 30 May 1908; press release file, 1908 (TRP).
41
WALL STREET’S
currency
Gould,
Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
, 248–49. 501
“I am absolutely”
TR,
Letters to Kermit
, 224.
42
“There may be”
TR,
Works
, vol. 17, 482.
43
Mr. E. H. Harriman
List copy, 25 Dec. 1907, in GBC.
44
“If there is one thing”
Barbara Tuchman,
The Proud Tower
(New York, 1966), 124.
45
“I am Commander-in-Chief”
Wimmel,
Great White Fleet
, 223.
46
“I have not”
The New York Times
, 12 Dec. 1907.
47
MONDAY, 16 DECEMBER
The following account is based on newspaper accounts in Presidential scrapbook (TRP), and on the detailed report of the British Embassy naval attaché in
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 13, 6–7.
48
“By George!”
Qu. in Wimmel,
Theodore Roosevelt
, xv.
49
When the presidential
Washington
Evening Star
, 16 Dec. 1907.
50
Less audibly
Robley D. Evans,
Admiral’s Log
(New York, 1910), 413–14. TR later claimed to have warned Evans that the Japanese threat was serious. “Admiral,
I am very fond of you, but if you or your ships are surprised in port or at sea, don’t come back to me.” Leary,
Talks with TR
, 11–13.
: M
ORAL
O
VERSTRAIN
1
He’s a gr’-reat
“Mr. Dooley” in Chicago
Record-Herald
, 20 Oct. 1907.
2
“THE REACTION AGAINST”
Adams,
Letters
, vol. 6, 94.
3
“I find I”
Leary,
Talks with TR
, 206.
4
he was insane
Current Literature
, Mar. 1907.
5
At the annual
British Documents on Foreign Affairs
, vol. 12, 246.
6
To Ambassador James Bryce
James Bryce, “General Report on the United States for the Year 1907,” in ibid., 349.
À outrance =
to the knife.
7
“The oppression”
Ibid.
8
Bryce left vague
Ibid., 350.
9
He was definite
Ibid.
10
The President’s initial
TR,
Letters
, vol. 6, 103–4.
11
Moral Overstrain
Written by George W. Alger (Boston, 1906).
12
Roosevelt had tried
At the same time, it was noted that he had not yet given the Secretary of War a formal endorsement, so Taft remained chosen, but not blessed.
13
“Charles the Baptist”
Sam McCune Lindsay, “Recollections” (manuscript memoir, 1955, in TRB). Finley Peter Dunne flatly states, “Nobody liked Hughes—nobody at all” in “Remembrances” (FPD).
14
a Special Message
Davis,
Released for Publication
, 69–71, misdates Hughes’s speech as 30 Jan. 1908, but is otherwise a prime source for this typical Roosevelt publicity ploy.
15
much harsher language
Frank B. Kellogg, one of TR’s more influential field advisers, wrote on 25 Jan. 1908 to warn him that the Special Message would be “a mistake,” in that his views were already well known and did not have to be so brutally repeated. Further, he believed that the Message would “tend to alienate … conservative businessmen and good Republicans” from TR’s candidate for the 1908 GOP presidential nomination, William H. Taft. Frank B. Kellogg Papers (LC).
16
As a result
The New York Times, 1
Feb. 1908.
17
He demanded
The complete text of TR’s Special Message is reprinted in TR,
Letters
, vol. 6, 1572–91.
Historical Note:
George E. Mowry remarks that historians of the Progressive Era have frequently ascribed TR’s radicalization in 1910 and 1912 to the publication of Herbert Croly’s
Promise of American Life
in late 1909. “A glance at his messages and speeches of 1907 and 1908 would seem to argue that Roosevelt may have had as much influence on Croly as Croly had on him”
(Era of Theodore Roosevelt
, 222). Elting E. Morison further observes that these same two messages “proposed in some detail the basic national reforms achieved under Taft and Wilson.” TR,
Letters
, vol. 6, 922.