THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Dynamic Geographer 



By FRANK BUFFINGTON VROOMAN, F, R, G, S, 



(Contiuucd) 



(The length of Mr. Vrooman's paper requires that it be condensed. Following the 

 August section, the author next discusses the career of Theodore Roosevelt, his work in 

 the Navy, especially in bringing "the efficiency of the American gunner from that of about 

 the lowest to a place as high as that of any in the world," and his part in the Spanish war. 



Tn speaking of Mr. Roosevelt's administration, the author says: "The administration 

 of Mr. Roosevelt is as noteworthy for what he has tried to do as for what he has done. 

 One can say of those policies and measures in which he has been thwarted by members of 

 his own party that they are not lost. They have lodged in the moral consciousness of 

 ihe American people, and must be reckoned with hereafter." 



Mention is made of his settlement of the coal strike, his promotion of meat inspection 

 and pure-food laws "to keep the American people from being poisoned at so much profit 

 per head," and his part in making of the War Department not a mere fighting machine, 

 ijut an effective agency for constructive work. 



Under the head of "The Big Stick," Mr. Vrooman says: 



"It became evident to the President that it was only a question of a short time 

 when the people must settle once for all the question as to whether the people or the 

 corporations should rule the Nation. * * * Yit also set to work the vast national 

 scientific machinery to build up what rampant individualism had torn down. * * * The 

 Department of Commerce and Labor was created within two years after Mr. Roosevelt 

 became President. Its work was inaugurated 'to do for labor everything that the law- 

 permits the department to do, and to give the manufacturer all the knowledge the 

 department can secure.' " The President is quoted as saying, "There is grave danger in 

 our free institutions in the corrupting influence exercised by great wealth suddenly concen- 

 trated in the hands of a few. We should in some manner try to remedy this danger 

 in spite of the sullen opposition of those very few powerful men, and with the full 

 purpose to protect them in all their rights at the very time we require them to deal 

 rightfully with others." 



The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Hepburn act are discussed. The 

 writer closes the section by saying: "The old saying which passed muster so long, that 

 the law is a web which catches the little flies but which the big flies break through, has 

 begun to have a certain remoteness, for the principle has been not only asserted but 

 enforced that ])ig and rich corporations are not better than the law. The billionaire 

 anarchist has felt the big stick." Editor.) 



co.xsi'.KNA rioN The fact that stich ;i World's Congre.ss 



should be called to meet at The Hague. 



TiWi last days of his administration instead of Washing-ton or London or 



I)resented the last public policy some other great ca])ital, shows at once 



and one of the largest ideas which some of the ideas in the President's 



President Roosevelt has ever offered to mind, beyond the mere principle of 



the world. The Canadian and ]\Iexican utilizing the resources of the earth, or 



Commissicjners of the North American for making and comparing inventories 



Conservation Congress, in session at the of the natural wealth of the world. The 



State Department with the American man who is responsible for calling the 



representatives and the President, gave second Peace Tribunal at The Hague, 



their approval to the President's plan and who was awarded the iS.ooo Nobel 



and re(|uested him to take the initiative Peace Prize, and who immediately de- 



in calling an International Congress of voted the money to the further interests 



Conservation to be held at The Hague, of peace in the establishment of better 



550 



