ROOSEVELT 



5071 



ROOSEVELT 



questions. It was at this time that the car- 

 toonist first introduced to national attention 

 the now familiar shining teeth. A scared po- 

 liceman, "seeing things at night" in the form 

 of two rows of teeth glistening in the darkness, 

 was a favorite subject for cartoonists. 



In the Navy Department. In April, 1897, 

 President McKinley recalled Roosevelt to 

 Washington to become Assistant Secretary of 

 tin N ivy. Roosevelt already foresaw the like- 

 lihood of a war with Spain, and he set about to 

 put the navy in readiness. One of his first tasks 

 was the reorganization of the system of ranking 

 and promotion among naval officers. Target 

 practice was one of his hobbies. To Roosevelt 

 belongs most of the credit for whatever pre- 

 paredness the American navy possessed when 

 the war broke out. But when the war actually 

 came Roosevelt gave his services to the nation 

 in another capacity. 



The Rough Riders. He resigned from the 

 Navy Department in April, 1898, after he had 

 taken the initial steps to raise the first United 

 States Volunteer Cavalry, which was nick- 

 named "the Rough Riders." These riders were 

 a remarkable lot. Most of them were plains- 

 mencowboys. There were Cherokee Bill, 

 Smoky Moore, Rattlesnake Pete, Happy Jack 

 and others with interesting names. There were 

 a few Indians, and an ex-city marshal from 

 Dodge City, Kan., whose ear had been, as he ex- 

 plained, "bitten off." A sharpshooter from the 

 Carolina mountains and a bear hunter from 

 Wyoming rode side by side with "cow-punch- 

 ers," stage drivers and miners. And there was 

 McGinty, a famous "broncho buster," who 

 could not keep step on parade for the simple 

 reason that he had almost forgotten how to 

 walk. There was, too, a sprinkling of Eastern- 

 ers, many of them college men, and there were 

 New York policemen, eager to serve again un- 

 der the ex-commissioner. 



Of the motley crowd Roosevelt was at first 

 lieutenant-colonel; Leonard Wood was colonel. 

 Later, when Wood was made a brigadier-gen- 

 eral, Roosevelt rose to the command, and as 

 colonel of the regiment he led the famous 

 charge up San Juan Hill, a charge \\lnch made 

 the Rough Riders immortal and made Roose- 



velt a popular idol. (See SPANISH-AMERICAN 

 WAR.) 



Governor of New York. The Spanish-Ameri- 

 can War was only a little war, but it made 

 Roosevelt governor of New York. The Re- 

 publican party was in dire straits, and it needed 

 new men. The "machine," headed by Senator 

 Platt, the political "boss" of the state, agreed 

 on Roosevelt as a savior. Without attempting 

 concealment Roosevelt discussed the matter 

 with Platt, much to the alarm of some reform- 

 ers, who feared needlessly that he might be led 

 astray. Roosevelt was nominated without giv- 

 ing pledges, and was elected by a plurality of 

 18,000 votes over the Democratic candidate, 

 Augustus Van Wyck. 



As governor he made a remarkable record. 

 He worked with men of all kinds, reformers as 

 well as machine politicians, and in almost every 

 case got what he wanted. He directed an in- 

 vestigation of the state's canal system, about 

 which there had been much talk of fraud, and 

 persuaded the legislature to vote an appropria- 

 tion for a systematic survey of needed improve- 

 ments. He incurred the hostility of large cor- 

 porate interests by approving a bill providing 

 for the taxation of corporation franchises. Far 

 from obeying the orders of the "machine," 

 Roosevelt had made the "machine," in most 

 instances, do as he wished. He, too, was a poli- 

 tician, he knew how to handle men and issues, 

 but he did it honestly. Yet he was too trouble- 

 some a man, and the politically powerful deter- 

 mined to render him harmless by making him 

 Vice-President, a political tomb from which no 

 man had emerged with power for half a cen- 

 tury. Senator Platt later asserted openly that 

 he got rid of Roosevelt by forcing him to ac- 

 cept the nomination for Vice-President. 



Roosevelt wanted to be governor of New 

 York for a second term, but he finally agreed 

 to accept the Vice-Presidency, for which the 

 Republican convention nominated him by ac- 

 clamation. In the campaign Roosevelt took an 

 important part; he delivered nearly 700 

 speeches and contributed largely to the suc- 

 cess of the ticket. McKinley and Roosevelt 

 received 292 electoral votes to 155 for Bryan 

 and Stevenson. 



The Administration of Theodore Roosevelt 



Six months after his inauguration as Vice- 

 nt, Roosevelt became President of the 

 < s through the assassination of Wil- 

 liam M He was only forty-three years 



old, the youngest man who has ever become 

 President. President Roosevelt retained the 

 late President's policies. McKinley's plans for 

 trust regulation, for reciprocity with other 



