paid to captains of industry. Nevertheless, when a man was dismissed from the government printing office because he did not belong to a labor union, the President reinstated him. He said that the government of the United States could not bar a man from employment because he was a non-union man any more than because he was a Jew or a Christian, a black man or a white man. "I will not for one moment submit to dictation," he plainly served notice, "by the labor unions any more than by the trusts, no matter what the effect on the Presidential election may be. I will proceed upon the only plan possible for a self-respecting American President, and treat each man on his merits as a man."

There were reports of corruption in the Post Office Department. The general impulse among the officials and the politicians was to deny the report and "hush the matter up "lest it might "hurt the party." The President at once ordered a searching investigation and a clean sweep of the guilty. Some of his subordinates could not believe that he really meant in good earnest to expose rascality in his own party and he had to talk plainly to a good many of them in order to convince them that he was not

bluffing. In the end the wrong-doing was stopped and the wrong-doers were placed in the dock. Instead of hurting his party, the President had won for it the credit of reforming these abuses. There was no issue left for the opposition party. Toward the powerful men, high in the party, who were found to be stealing the public lands, he pursued the same policy. He would not spare them because of their party standing and because they had seats in Congress.

In tests like these the President constantly drew the great body of the people, the justice-loving, right-thinking American people, nearer and nearer to him. His efficiency excited their admiration only less than his fairness and independence. They saw that he was a man who knew how to get things done. He settled the coal strike, the Alaskan boundary dispute, broke up the postal and land frauds, successfully prosecuted the great railroad merger, and secured from Congress the legislation he recommended. "Trust the people" ever had been a familiar phrase in the mouths of men in politics. No one ever trusted the people more than President Roosevelt. He put his trust in them in every emergency, and they did not disappoint him.

AS A POLITICIAN

The new President astonishes the country by his capacity for political leadership. Some remarkable prophecies by Cleveland, Harrison, and others. Mr. Roosevelt's absolute reliance on the people. — Travelling fifty thousand miles in four years and explaining his policies in every state and territory.-Narrow escape from death in an accident. - Characteristic instances of his consideration for others. - His skill in wielding the mighty force of public opinion overwhelms opposition in Congress. His frank avowal of his candidacy. - June 23, 1904, unanimously nominated for President by the Republicans at Chicago. A campaign free from uncertainty. - November 8, 1904, elected by the largest plurality in history. The vote: Roosevelt, 7,623,486; Parker, 5,077,971; plurality, 2,545,515. In the electoral college: Roosevelt, 336; Parker, 140. His unexpected announcement on election night of his determination not to run again. - March 4, 1905, inaugurated. THE Country was surprised to find the new President a politician. The politicians themselves were taken quite unawares by his capacity for practical political leadership. Because he was known as an opponent of tricks and intrigues, they had set him down as an artless innocent, a simple novice in politics. They quickly learned, however, that the new man in the White House was as wise a politician as ever entered its doors.

A few prophets, indeed, had foretold this. In the beginning of his career, when it is said that Roscoe Conkling saw in him only a "dentificial young man with more teeth than brains," another observer, Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, is quoted as saying to his students: "Young gentlemen, some of you may enter public life. I wish to call your attention to Theodore Roosevelt, now in our Legislature. He is on the right road to success. It is dangerous to predict a future for a young man, but let me say that if any man of his age ever was pointed straight for the Presidency, that man is Theodore Roosevelt." Governor Sheldon of Nebraska recalls a similar prophecy, made only a few years later, when he was at Harvard. Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, as the Governor recollects, predicted that Mr. Roosevelt would be President.

A foreigner was gifted with equal foresight. This was Baron Speck von Sternberg, who was an attaché of the German Legation in Washington when Mr. Roosevelt was a Civil Service Commissioner. "I do not pose as a prophet," the Baron has said, "but when I first met Mr. Roosevelt I was deeply impressed with his powerful personality, his untiring

energy, and essential sincerity of purpose. It was this combination which convinced me that some day I should see him at the head of this great nation. When I congratulated him on his appointment as Police Commissioner of New York, I added:

"When I again congratulate you, you will be one step nearer the White House.' On hearing of his appointment as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, I wrote from Pekin, where I was then stationed:

"Permit me to congratulate you on this second step nearer the Presidency.' When he was elected Governor of New York, I telegraphed him:

"The next time I offer congratulations it will be to President Roosevelt.""

President Harrison was also among the prophets, for he wrote in 1898:

"Mr. Roosevelt is to-day one of the best examples of Presidential timber in the country. His varied life as ranchman, hunter, soldier, and politician has placed him in such close proximity with so many different men that they have had ample opportunity to judge of his qualities and to understand him when he says or does a thing."

Before that forecast was made, President Cleve