Hagerdorn, in his excellent "Boy's Life of Roosevelt", has put this situation into a succinct paragraph. "Roosevelt's struggle was not a simple one. He could repudiate Platt and his confederates, and win popular applause by doing it. Or, he could accept Platt's dictation and thus secure the support of the powerful 'Machine' in his future career. If he took the former course, he would be unable to execute real reforms in any direction. If he took the second course, he would forfeit his own self-respect. Seeing this dilemma he took neither horn of it. He neither accepted Platt as 'Boss', nor did he repudiate him, wholly. He coöperated with him whenever that was possible, and he fought him only on fundamental issues of right and wrong."

Thus was made manifest Roosevelt's growth in wisdom since the days when as an assemblyman he aimed at similar reforms, but aimed at accomplishing them single-handed and alone.

The four measures which I have named reform, essentially gave him opportunity to put forth all that vigor and unyielding determination which was in him; in the case of the Ford Franchise Bill, approved by Roosevelt and disapproved by Platt, the young Governor fought the aged Boss and his minions to a finish. He sent an urgent message with the Bill into the Legislature; but

the Speaker, in a rage, tore it up. Again looking carefully over the merits of the Bill, Roosevelt sent to the Legislature another message, urging the passage of this important Bill, and intimated that if it were not properly read, he himself in person would go to the Assembly Hall and present it. That bold stand carried a panic into the opposition and they passed the Bill with a rush.

As I try to analyze and even catalogue Roosevelt's extraordinary qualities, the Insurance Bill especially draws my attention. In this way. Platt wished the then Superintendent of Insurance to be retained. Roosevelt believed that a change was needed in that office, and resolved to fight the matter through. He went over a little toward the Boss by suggesting a man who was Platt's friend. Then he stood squarely on that position. Letters passed between Platt and Roosevelt, each man unyielding. It was a deadlock.

Then came a situation, unique in itself and illuminating as to Roosevelt's character. When I was in college, I was indulgently given two hours' instruction in the murky, strabismic game of poker. The lesson cost me two dollars and sixty cents. All the knowledge I now retain concerning that unfriendly pastime is a sense of the singular factitious power of "bluff." This "bluff" was

never better exemplified than in that case of the Insurance appointee.

Roosevelt had determined upon a certain candidate, a reasonably efficient, desirable man, really one of Platt's friends. Platt demurred and warned Roosevelt in so many spoken words that it was now "war to the knife." Soon afterward a message came from one of Platt's henchmen, asking where he could meet Roosevelt. Roosevelt named the Union League Club. Accordingly the two met there. The authorized agent of Platt's went over all the ground afresh, trying to persuade Roosevelt to put in Platt's chosen man. The dramatic scene might be put into dramatic form, thus:

Platt's Agent: "This is your last chance, Governor Roosevelt. Ruin is ahead of you if you continue to disregard Senator Platt's wishes."

Roosevelt (shaking his head negatively): “There is nothing to be added to what I have already said." Platt's Agent: "You have made up your mind?" Roosevelt (firmly): "I have."

Agent: "You know it means your ruin?" Roosevelt: "Well, we'll see about that." Agent: "The fight will begin to-morrow and will go to the bitter end. You understand?"

Roosevelt: "Yes, I understand." (He opens

the door to go out. As he does this, Platt's agent suddenly calls to him.)

Agent: "Hold on! We accept. Senator Platt will withdraw his opposition."

That ended the game. And that it was a real game of Poker, with the "bluff" feature strong on the agent's part, Roosevelt indicates when he says of the interview, with his sense of humor showing through: "His face, throughout the interview, was as impassive and inscrutable as that of Mr. John Hamlin, in a poker game.'

This situation was a vital and typical one, in Roosevelt's career. He once said to a group of us college friends, as he looked back over his public career, "Two or three times in my life I have stood as with my back to a wall, facing impending and probable defeat and ruin, so far as my public career was concerned. But in those two or three cases the scales of good fortune turned my way. Perhaps that is what they sometimes call 'Roosevelt Luck.' But it was 'Luck' only in part, at least." And he said one day to our Class Secretary, Mr. John Woodbury, as the two walked down Park Street, Boston, together, "There are some things I can do, some I can't do, and some I simply won't do."

That yielding to Platt, that continuing an incompetent henchman of Platt's in an important

office was one of the things "I won't do." And the point which I enjoy most, in that temporary break with the powerful New York Boss, is the tenacity of purpose which Roosevelt evinced. If you had seen Roosevelt at a dinner party, or in a group of friends, you might have said readily, "A brilliant man. But has he got stability and persistence in a long fight?" That Insurance controversy with Platt is a sufficient reply. And we are confirmed in our affirmation that an important element in Roosevelt's greatness was his possession, in a remarkable degree, of diverse qualities usually found only singly in men. The old saying has it that "Take Hold is a good dog, but Hold Fast is a better." In Roosevelt's fighting equipment both qualities were combined.

During those joyous two years of his governorship, the glamor of a growing popular support did not blind him to the inherent fickleness of popular favor. He looked facts and conditions straight in the face and did not delude himself. In a letter to his sister at this period, he said, "Just at this moment I am on the crest of the wave. But I know that after a crest comes a hollow." This same figure of speech he used years later, on his return from Africa, as he talked at a complimentary dinner given him at Sherry's in New York City. But, even as he did in the gubernatorial days,