18983 Theodore Roosevelt 



"It was to help along things Hke this, Dr. Jordan, 

 that I TOOK THIS job!" 



And it may be fairly stated that under him govern- 

 mental science reached its high-water mark. 



Our second meeting took place in Albany in 

 1898, while he was governor of New York, he having 

 wired me to stop and spend a night with him on the 

 way back from Boston. But when I arrived he had 

 been called to the metropolis to review a regiment 

 of militia and did not return until three in the morn- 

 ing. At eight, however, he bounced into my room, 

 scolding me in a big-boyish fashion for lying abed 

 so long when I ought to be up and doing. During 

 the morning we discussed the Philippines, an en- 

 tanglement from which he hoped we could get 

 honorably free. *'I wish to God we were out of the 

 Philippines," he said. Later he wrote suggesting 

 that I ought not to repeat the remark, it being a 

 matter of private conversation, which if made public 

 he would have to deny. This position really had 

 ample justification, because his impulsive utterances, 

 torn from their context, often gave a false impression. 

 As a matter of fact, in the letter to me he repudiated Anemthe 

 also an epigram, currently attributed to him, that ff?""^"^ 

 "McKinley had the backbone of a chocolate eclair." 

 In such fashion rose the famous "Ananias Club." 



One other subject touched upon in our conver- 

 sation in Albany concerned the slovenly treatment 

 of the American soldiers in Cuba — ■ especially in 

 matters of sanitation — and the inefficiency of a 

 certain general whom he held responsible. About 

 these things he spoke with much sharpness. 



His real interest, however, in seeing me at that 



C 309 3 



