ROOSEVELT WILD LIFE STATE MEMORIAL 



By Dr. Charles C. Adams 



Director, Roosevelt Wild Life Forest Experiment Station, 

 Syracuse, N. Y. 



With the passing of Theodore Roosevelt the nation and the world 

 naturally turned to estimate his place in the galaxy of great men. 

 He was the most thoroughly and widely informed man of his time, 

 and was aware of the significance of his own acts as few men in 

 history have been. He did not drift about ; he worked in whatever 

 direction forward movement could be made toward a clearly defined 

 goal. He reduced random movements to a minimum and took 

 every possible advantage to hasten progress. The chemist and 

 physiologist calls a substance a catalyzer or enzyme which hastens 

 changes which otherwise proceed slowly, and there is no better word 

 to describe Roosevelt's influence. His effect was that of a good 

 yeast. He speeded up progress, which without him would have 

 required many more years for accomplishment. For example, the 

 Panama Canal would ultimately have been dug by some one, but 

 not in our generation, and very probably not so much to the 

 advantage of the United States. 



The magnificent grasp which he possessed of historic events and 

 of existing social, economic and political conditions of the world, 

 made it possible, with his mental poise, to estimate, as has been 

 said, very accurately the value of his own work. Evidently his 

 chief method of procedure was to find out what was of the greatest 

 importance, and then get behind it and work to the limit of his 

 ability. 



What was his supreme achievement? Some students of public 

 affairs hold in highest esteem the influence which Roosevelt's ideal- 

 ism exerted on our public life. This was of the highest order and 

 belongs in the same supreme place with that of Washington and 

 Lincoln. He made concrete to our generation the living standards 

 of these men as no other man has done. Others consider the 

 Panama Canal as his greatest achievement, and still others his con- 

 servation program — the proper or highest use of nature's bounty 

 for the best welfare of the people. It seems to me that this is 



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