REFORMER AND PEACEMAKER 
71 
There were some not ready to believe him, even when in December, 
1907, he reiterated his determination not to run for a third term. It 
was not until 1908, when he absolutely refused a nomination, that all 
the people felt that he meant just what he said. 
He might justly for other reasons have declined a re-election, for 
the Presidency for him had been no bed of roses. He had worked to 
win his aims with all the strength of his strong character and was 
justified in looking forward for a period of reprieve—not exactly of 
rest, but of occupation not quite so nerve-straining. 
During this term of office the President worked strenuously for 
the reform legislation he had at heart. That he got all he wanted 
cannot be said, for Congress was hard to handle, but he gained enough 
to make the path easier for later reformers. Chief among his victories 
over intrenched privilege was that of the Anti-Rebate Law, which 
forced the railroads to come out into the open and to desist from the 
unfair practices which they had so long maintained. Another was 
the pure food law, to save the people from being poisoned by villainous 
purveyors, and the law against the sale of unclean meats. Other acts 
sustained by him were those to protect the forest reserves and national 
parks, to enlarge the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission, 
and to prevent corporations from making contributions to election 
expenses. 
The old soldiers, especially the veterans of the Civil War, for 
whom he had a warm place in his heart, felt the benefit of his sympathy 
in the General Service Pension Act, which gave to each of them, 
whether injured or not, a liberal pension after he had reached his 
sixty-second year. In 1906 he made a speech advocating an inherit¬ 
ance tax, a measure of which his successor, President Taft, is strongly 
jin favor. 
All this was matter which brought him under the limelight of 
the people of his country. In 1905 he brought himself under the lime¬ 
light of the world, when he appealed to Japan and Russia to bring to 
an end their desolating war by negotiating a treaty of peace. The 
offer took hold. Both parties to the conflict were glad enough to see 
this hand stretched out to them across the two great oceans, bearing the 
olive branch of peace. While Europe dallied and delayed, America 
