66 IN THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR 



old American position. The Monroe Doctrine is not international law, 

 but there is no necessity that it should be. All that is needful is that 

 it should continue to be a cardinal feature of American policy on this 

 continent. If we are wise we shall strenuously insist that under no 

 pretext whatever shall there be any territorial aggrandizement upon 

 American soil by any European power, and this no matter what form 

 the territorial aggrandizement may take." 



These extracts serve not alone to indicate President Roosevelt's 

 attitude in certain particulars ; they serve also to give some conception 

 of his oratorical manner. Fluent as he has shown himself as a speech- 

 maker, he has the faculty of dealing mainly with hard facts. It is the 

 same with his messages to Congress. Some of them have been so 

 expanded that he seemed rather writing a book than a message. But 

 his seeming wordiness came from a desire to omit no matter of national 

 interest and to leave none without a comprehensive treatment. Yet 

 in them all he hammers away with hard facts. Flowery language and 

 inconclusive verbosity have no place in his category. 



During Roosevelt's first term in office he did little in the way of 

 proposing radical legislation. He felt that his hands were tied in that 

 respect by the way into which he came into the Presidency. But he 

 showed his untrammeled character in a dozen other ways. Precedents 

 had no sacredness for him; he was always breaking them. One 

 instance was that in which he invited Booker Washington to dinner. 

 The event raised a stir out of all accordance with its significance, for 

 Roosevelt was not the first President to have a colored man at his 

 table, and Booker Washington had shown himself a man whose 

 presence at their tables would honor kings. The storm broke and the 

 thunders of denunciation rolled, but they passed innocuously over 

 Roosevelt's head. 



He never hesitated to step outside the lines of routine and break 

 through the cobwebs of red tape. When a coal strike broke out in 

 Pennsylvania and went on with such obstinacy as to threaten disaster 

 to the people he stepped resolutely into the breach and by his influence 

 settled the labor war. The sticklers for precedent cried out in dismay. 

 No President has done such a thing before ! It is a dangerous stretch 

 of the executive power! But those citizens whose fires threatened to 



