Kev: Better American Families 



33 



Robert Barnwell Roosevelt showed 

 wide versatility, making his mark in 

 many fields including politics, litera- 

 ture and sports. He w^as a popular 

 contributor to magazine literature, 

 where he showed vivid imagination and 

 genial humor, practiced law for twenty 

 years and most of this time was actively 

 engaged in politics ; he was editor of the 

 New York Citizen, a reform organ, and 

 was in the front rank in the fight with 

 the "Tweed Ring." Elected to Con- 

 gress, his course was independent and 

 above the demands of his party's 

 leaders. He was an enthusiastic sports- 

 man and organized clubs for the pres- 

 ervation of game, besides founding the 

 New York Fish Commission which he 

 served as commissioner for twenty 

 years without pay. "He inherited and 

 exemplified the rugged virtues, sterling 

 honesty, indomitable courage and per- 

 sistent patience, together with the 

 sincere kindliness of his Dutch ances- 

 tors. . . . His outspoken independ- 

 ence and fearless honesty combined 

 with his high ideals of citizenship did 

 not qualify him to be a successful 

 politician. He was content to be a 

 statesman." It will readily be seen 

 that these were traits which made for 

 leadership in his nephew. Roosevelt's 

 father, though primarily an importer 

 and banker, was active in many re- 

 forms of his day. He was a patron of 

 the arts, a lover of the woods, shared 

 in every athletic sport, "a man of 

 untiring energy, of prodigious industry, 

 the most valiant fighter of the day for 

 the right, and the winner of his fights." 

 Roosevelt's mother, though gracious 

 and retiring, entirely lacking in the 

 combativeness characteristic of her son, 

 united in herself several strains known 

 for courage in their devotion to the 

 public weal. She was a fine horse- 

 woman and absolutely fearless. Cor- 

 nelius Roosevelt, the paternal grand- 

 father, made a fortune as a banker, 

 devoting the latter portion of his life 

 to charity, while his wife, from a 

 Pennsylvania family not so well known, 

 numbered among her relatives many 

 who had the courage and rugged inde- 

 pendence that characterized the grand- 



son who became the most representa- 

 tive American of the age. 



With such a concentration of gifts 

 from both sides of his family, it seems 

 almost inevitable that his course should 

 have been what it was. Still the part 

 played by peculiar conditions — indus- 

 trial, social and political — in bringing 

 out Roosevelt's salient abilities is not 

 inconsiderable. Furthermore, the char- 

 acteristic intellectual and moral reac- 

 tions of his family, were in him asso- 

 ciated with an unusual physiologic 

 condition, which made it possible and 

 even necessary, that every undertaking 

 be followed out with great intensity. 

 His father had this in considerable 

 measure, as did his uncle Robert. 

 Added to this is the fact that Roose- 

 velt's strongest tendencies were in 

 close accord with certain dynamic 

 forces in American life. He entered 

 public life just when the nation was 

 entering into a significant period of 

 development. Re-united after the 

 Civil War, the country's unexampled 

 industrial growth was rapidly giving 

 it world-leadership in industry with an 

 importance in international relation- 

 ships hitherto undreamed of. Big 

 business was dictating state, national 

 and international policies and the 

 American conscience was becoming 

 restive under the distortion of ideals 

 which this dictatorship too often en- 

 tailed. It was natural that a forth- 

 right, courageous nature, loving conflict 

 and loving the rights of the common 

 people more, should find here a fertile 

 field for the development of its highest 

 powers. The appeal which he made to 

 the conscience of the American people 

 was inevitable as was the reciprocal 

 effect of the sense of his national 

 responsibility on his initial tendencies. 



In his battle with the trusts, to take 

 one example, he sensed their unscrup- 

 ulous and irresponsible activities as 

 directly in opposition to the fundamen- 

 tal tendencies of the American people. 

 The trust had organization, wealth and 

 prestige in its favor, tremendous odds, 

 but through his understanding of the 

 people, Roosevelt was able to rally 

 their strong though inchoate strivings 



