He was very explicit here in naming a sin which is commonly condoned as the privilege of the free but which the world now learns brings the worst affliction known to the flesh.

Nothing could divert his assaults on dangerous practices. Patriotic thrills were stirring a meeting at Madison Square Garden held to welcome the representatives of the sane republic which immediately followed the overthrow of the Czar in Russia. A few days before, a number of innocent Negroes brought into Saint Louis as strike breakers had been mobbed and murdered by white strikers. When Mr. Roosevelt spoke, he arraigned the Saint Louis rioters in no uncertain manner. He declared that when Americans extend greetings to the representatives of a "new" republic, we should at the same time explain to them that such lawlessness as appeared in East Saint Louis is thoroughly criminal. The life destroying riots were as inexcusable, he insisted, even though they were Negroes, as were the outbreaks upon the Jews in Czar-ruled Russia. He declared that since this conviction was upon him, he could not keep silent, he must express condemnation for such deeds "that give the lie to our words within our own country."

When Mr. Gompers followed he undertook to excuse the rioters because employers were warned against bringing in Negro strike-breakers. Mr. Roosevelt was aroused and amidst a divided audience, he arose again and protested that similar excuses had been made by the Russian autocracy for the pogroms of Jews. And then amidst Gompers'

further explanations and much commotion, he righteously shouted:

Oh, friends, we have gathered to greet the men and women of New Russia, a republic founded on the principles of justice to all. On such an evening never will I sit motionless while directly or indirectly apology is made for the murder of the helpless.

Some questioned the delicacy of Mr. Roosevelt's actions, but such a situation could not be handled with gloves, and he merely used the weapons at hand to assail an un-American doctrine. He always did that whether he struck capitalist or laborite.

As early as 1894, in writing on the "Manly Virtues and Practical Politics," he said:

No amount of intelligence and no amount of energy will save a nation which is not honest, and no government can ever be a permanent success if administered in accordance with base ideals.

He developed the idea later in an article in The Outlook:

The foreign policy of a great and self-respecting country should be conducted on exactly the same plane of honor, of insistence upon one's own rights, and of respect for the rights of others, that marks the conduct of a brave and honorable man when dealing with his fellows.

From his address at Christiania, Norway, on his return from Africa under the subject of "Peace," it seems fair to conclude that he favored some kind of association of nations, for he said:

It would be a master stroke if those great Powers hon

estly bent on peace would form a League of Peace, not only to keep the peace among themselves but to prevent by force, if necessary, its being broken by others. Each nation must keep well prepared to defend itself until the establishment of some form of international police power competent and willing to prevent violence as between nations.

He insisted that the "commonplace virtues" alone insure the perpetuity of a nation:

No prosperity and no glory can save a nation that is rotten at heart. We must see to it that not only our citizens in private life, but above all, our statesmen in public life, practice the old commonplace virtues which from time immemorial have lain at the root of all true national well-being (American Ideals, Gilder, p. 271).

In an address at Grant's birthplace, Galena, Illinois, in April, 1900, he said, concerning the power of the nation to produce men like Lincoln and Grant to meet future crises of the nation:

The men we need are the men of strong, earnest, solid character-the men who possess the homely virtues, and who to these virtues add rugged courage, rugged honesty, and high resolve.

Explaining his rule in appointing men to office, he said:

If I am in such doubt about an applicant's character and fitness for office as would lead me not to put my private affairs in his hands, then I shall not put public affairs in his hands.

A well-known Democrat was working hard for the

passage of some righteous bills when Governor Roosevelt, who was helping him to get them enacted, was warned that in thus doing he was aiding the author, Mr. Coler, to strengthen himself as a rival candidate for Governor. He replied, "Maybe so, but he is right and he is going to have those bills if I can get them through the Legislature for him."

In his Pacific Theological Lectures, he said: "I ask you people here, whatever your politics may be, to be nonpartisan when the question of honesty is involved." And again:

One great realizable ideal for our people is to discourage mere law honesty. . . . The best laws and the most rigid enforcement will not by themselves produce a really healthy type of morals in the community. In addition we must have the public opinion which frowns on the man who violates the spirit of the law even although he keeps within the letter (Realizable Ideals, p. 24).

That is a bit similar to the Master's declarations concerning the "legal" dodges of the Pharisees. Such actions eat out the very fiber of fine citizenship. Crooks still wear the livery of "legality" and respectability.

He rightly concluded that dishonesty was a rapidly multiplying disease germ that made its willing victim an unreliable citizen, and so he says in the same lecture:

The minute that a man is dishonest along certain lines, even though he pretends to be honest along other lines, you can be sure that it is only a pretense, it is only expediency; and you cannot trust to the mere sense of expediency to hold a man straight under heavy pressure (Realizable Ideals, pp. 97, 98).

Believing that moral disorders were as dangerous to the nation as infectious sores were to the individual, he had no patience with anyone who claimed to know about corruption in public life and then went no further than to deal in innuendoes. When, therefore, a noted free-lance author made general charges against the government in a novel, he sent for him and said:

We shall have a government investigation; if your charges are right, I will change the conditions; if you haven't got the facts, I will brand you as a liar to the American people.

On entering the Legislature he believed that the prominent men who moved in the same circle with and were friends of his father were opposed to political corruption. He was rudely awakened to find that many "respectable" citizens were mixed up in crooked politics as well as in crooked business and defended it as "practical." Political graft was condoned all over America. But Mr. Roosevelt was a Daniel born for this hour, and he knew not how to grow strong on such "meat" as the henchmen served. He was Jehovah's man and accepted his menu.

When full grown he came to power and immediately made efforts to save his country by reading the foreboding signs of the times and commanding repentance.

A corrupt judge had written a prominent financier that he was "willing to go to the very verge of ju dicial discretion to serve 'your vast interests.'" Mr. Roosevelt introduced a resolution to impeach him