THEODORE ROOSEVELT 281 



lies in the work of just such men as and, indeed, of some of the men who are 

 assembled here. You who have come here, however, have come to combat 

 not a scourge confined to the tropics, but what is, on the whole, the most terrible 

 scourge of the people throughout the world. But a few years ago hardly an 

 intelligent effort was made or could be made to war against this peculiarly 

 deadly enemy of the human race. The chance successfully to conduct that 

 war arose when the greatest experts in the medical world turned their trained 

 intelligence to the task. It remains for them to find out just what can be done. 

 The task then will be for the representatives of the governments to give all 

 possible effect to this conclusion of the scientific men. 



"The change in the status of the man of science during the last century has 

 been immeasurable. A hundred years ago he was treated as an interesting 

 virtuoso, a man who was capable of giving amusement, but with whom no 

 practical man dealt with any idea of standing on a footing of equality. Now 

 more and more the wisest men of affairs realize that the great chance for the 

 advancement of the human race in material things lies in the close inter- 

 relationship of the man of practical affairs and the man of science, so that the 

 man of practical affairs can give all possible effect to the discoveries of the most 

 unforeseen and unexpected character now made by the man of science. 



" I feel that no gathering could take place fraught with greater hope for the 

 welfare of the people at large than this. I thank you all, men and women of 

 this country, and you, our guests, for what you have done and are doing. On 

 behalf of the nation I greet you, and hope you will understand how much we 

 have appreciated your coming here." 



The interest this great man took not only in the political, 

 economic, and social, but also in the sanitary, welfare of the 

 nation was so varied that he did not even recall in detail the 

 many things he had done for the betterment of the physical con- 

 dition of the masses during his official life. The author of this 

 sketch had occasion to correspond with Mr. Roosevelt a few years 

 after he had gone out of office concerning certain episodes in the 

 tuberculosis movement of the past. In reply he wrote: "I can- 

 not at the moment recall the details of my action as Governor and 

 as President, but I have always taken a very real and great inter- 

 est in the anti-tuberculosis cause I should not regard myself a 

 good citizen if I had failed to do so." 



His life-long friend, Major-General Wood, wrote the author 

 that Roosevelt always manifested the greatest interest in pre- 

 ventive medicine and tuberculosis. The same assurance of his 

 interest in tuberculosis was given by Mrs. Douglas Robinson, the 

 sister of Mr. Roosevelt. Mrs. Robinson says that in many con- 



