THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XVI. 



CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1901. 



NO. 2 



Theodore 

 Roosevelt. 



For the third time in 

 this generation has the 

 assassin's bullet caused the nation 

 to mourn, and with unmeasured 

 sorrow has it buried its dead; with 

 hope it now turns to the living. 



President Roosevelt, so suddenly 

 and unexpectedly elevated to the 

 head of this great nation, has 

 doubtless had the most remarkable 

 career of any man now living in 

 this country. This is due some- 

 what to unusual opportunities, but 

 chiefly to the man himself with his 

 uncommon faculty for creating his 

 own opportunities and for making 

 the most of those which other peo- 

 ple would not even see. 



Although descended from a long 

 line of distinguished ancestors and 

 born into the most aristocratic so- 

 cial circles of New York City, no 

 man was ever more thoroughly 

 democratic or more heartily des- 

 pised every form of snobbishness 

 and superciliousness than our pres- 

 ent president. This has often been 

 demonstrated, most noticeably per- 

 haps In his relations with the cow- 

 boys on his Dakota ranch. 



Always possessed of a keen fond- 

 ness for study, he has had every 

 opportunity to gratify it. which his 

 health would permit. He grad- 



uated at Harvard in 1880 and has 

 pursued graduate study at Colum- 

 bia. He has written a number of 

 popular books, all in a racy, imag- 

 inative, original style, and show- 

 ing great observation and other 

 deep research. Some of the most 

 important are: "Ranch Life and 

 the Hunting Trail," "The Winning 

 of the West," " A History of New 

 York City," "Essays on Practical 

 Politics, " ; ' Hero Tales from Ameri- 

 can History," and "The Naval War 

 of 1812." 



His political career began in 

 1881, when at the age of twenty- 

 three he became a member of the 

 legislature at Albany from his own 

 district in New York City. To ac- 

 complish this, he fought and de- 

 feated the Republican party ma- 

 chine there; and the most remark- 

 able thing about his career from 

 that day to this, is that his rise has 

 been always in spite of and often 

 opposition to party machines. Con- 

 sequently no one has ever come to 

 the presidency more absolutely un- 

 trammelled by party dictation or 

 by political promises. During his 

 three years at Albany he advocated 

 and pushed through the legislature 

 the state civil service act and the 

 act regulating primary elections,. 



