

Introduction vii 



supported by extraordinary physical strength and 

 vigor. 



Yet the President's speeches have not been care 

 lessly prepared, nor have they ever been left as 

 some speakers profess to leave theirs to the "in 

 spiration of the moment/' Mr. Roosevelt has un 

 usual powers of concentration ; and his achievement 

 of so much work is due to his ability to turn prompt 

 ly from one thing to another and to give each suc 

 cessive task his whole undivided attention. With an 

 excellent memory and a disciplined mind, he is able 

 to summon to his aid at a given moment all his past 

 resources of reading, study, and thought upon a 

 given topic. Thus, before going on several of the 

 long trips in connection with which a great number 

 of addresses in these volumes were made, the more 

 important of the speeches for which dates had been 

 fixed were dictated one after another to his sten 

 ographers late in the evening when the day's work 

 was cleared away, social or official guests had de 

 parted, and an hour or two of uninterrupted time 

 was at the President's disposal. 



This, indeed, is the same method by which a num 

 ber of the essays and addresses which have become 

 familiar in the collected volumes entitled American 

 Ideals, and The Strenuous Life, had been pre 

 pared at former periods when Mr. Roosevelt was un 

 der stress of much occupation. There has been no at 

 tempt to polish sentences or to make fine phrases, yet 



