REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 71 



There were some not ready to believe him, even when in December, 

 1907, he reiterated his determination not to run for a third term. It 

 was not imtil 1908, when he absolutely refused a nomination, that all 

 the people felt that he meant just what he said. 



He might justly for other reasons have declined a re-election, for 

 the Presidency for him had been no bed of roses. He had worked to 

 win his aims with all the strength of his strong character and vv^as 

 justified in looking forward for a period of reprieve — not exactly of 

 rest, but of occupation not quite so nerve-straining. 



During this term of office the President worked strenuously for 

 the reform legislation he had at heart. Ihat he got all he wanted 

 cannot be said, for Congress was hard to handle, but he gained enough 

 to make the path easier for later reformers. Chief among his victories 

 over intrenched privilege was that of the Anti-Rebate Law, which 

 forced the railroads to come out into the open and to desist from the 

 unfair practices which they had so long maintained. Another was 

 the pure food law, to save the people from being poisoned by villainous 

 purveyors, and the law against the sale of unclean meats. Other acts 

 sustained by him were those to protect the forest reserves and national 

 parks, to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 

 and to prevent corporations from making contributions to election 

 expenses. 



The old soldiers, especially the veterans of the Civil War, for 

 whom he had a warm place in his heart, felt the benefit of his sympathy 

 in the General Service Pension Act, which gave to each of them, 

 whether injured or not, a liberal pension after he had reached his 

 sixty-second year. In 1906 he made a speech advocating an inherit- 

 ance tax, a measure of which his successor, President Taft, is strongly 

 |in favor. 



All this was matter which brought him under the limelight of 

 the people of his country. In 1905 he brought himself under the lime- 

 light of the world, when he appealed to Japan and Russia to bring to 

 an end their desolating war by negotiating a treaty of peace. The 

 oiTer took hold. Both parties to the conflict were glad enough to see 

 this hand stretched out to them across the two great oceans, bearing the 

 olive branch of peace. While Europe dallied and delayed, America 



