President Roosevelt's maxim is to "speak softly and carry a big stick." A great peacemaker. Secretary Hay's tribute to his diplomacy. — Directness and courtesy the characteristic qualities of the Roosevelt policy. - May 10, 1902, sending a representative to the Pope. - Saving the Arbitration Court at The Hague. - February 6, 1903, skilfully checks British and German bombardment of a Venezuelan port. - July 1, 1903, delivering to Russia, in spite of her protests, the petition against outrages on the Jews. President Roosevelt's crowning victory. June 12, 1905, ending the great Russo-Japanese War. August 29, 1905, Russian and Japanese representatives agree at Portsmouth. - A triumph of peace, one of the noblest achievements of American diplomacy.

"THERE is a homely old adage which runs, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.' If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far." THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

That phrase, "a big stick," has gone round the world. Everywhere President Roosevelt has been pictured as the apostle of the big stick. The first part of the old adage was entirely lost on many people.

Nevertheless to "speak softly" is a very significant part of the Roosevelt policy. It is the only key to it. Leave it out, and you have a man who goes about like a bully, looking for trouble and spoiling for a fight. President Roosevelt, on the contrary, has always spoken softly, and never has had to use the big stick at home or abroad. And he has gone far.

It is true that he is ever armed with a big stick. Generally, however, the weapon in his hand takes the form of a righteous cause, charged with the irresistible force of public opinion. Such was the big stick which he swung over the heads of the miners and operators in the coal strike, and he was enabled to go far in that instance. He had not a law nor a soldier behind him. Time and again it has served him in his contests with senators and bosses and with the magnates of the railways and the trusts. It has been equally effective in the relations of this government with foreign nations.

Many must look back with amusement upon the fear with which they saw President Roosevelt take the helm of the great ship of state. Those who assured themselves that he would not upset all our affairs at home, were alarmed lest he might seek to

gratify his supposed thirst for warfare by plunging into strife with other countries. To a caller early in his administration, who earnestly begged him not to rush into an international conflict, the President smiled broadly. "What," he cried, "a war, and I cooped up here in the White House? Never!" Still conservative people for a long time felt that only John Hay, at the head of our State Department, stood between them and havoc.

For four years they cherished this opinion, and then, when they saw the President, while the Secretary of State was absent in Europe on sick leave, win the applause of the world by his skilful and tactful arrangement of a peace between Russia and Japan, they learned for the first time that Mr. Roosevelt was the capable master of the State Department, as well as of all other departments. When Secretary Hay returned, and his chief told him how glad he was to have his help once more, he replied: “It looks to me, Mr. President, as if you don't need a Secretary of State." Mr. Hay's successor, Mr. Root, has said that Mr. Roosevelt himself holds the most important portfolio in the Cabinet-that of "Secretary of Peace."

Nor has he adopted "shirt sleeve diplo

Frankness, courtesy, and good faith have been the characteristic qualities of President Roosevelt's foreign policy. He has never resorted to the old diplomacy of indirection and deceit. what is sometimes termed the macy" of rudeness and bluster. you mean to shoot" is a maxim which he has brought from the frontier. He has simply tried to have this nation bear itself toward other nations as an honorable and well-bred man bears himself toward his neighbors.

"Don't draw unless

The people of the Philippine Islands most earnestly objected to the continued presence of the Spanish Friars, an order of Roman Catholic priesthood, and to their large holdings of land. The Pope had the power to withdraw the Friars and to settle the question of their lands. But the government of the United States had no official relations with the Pope. That did not restrain President Roosevelt for a minute. The Pope was the man to see, and a representative was sent to the Vatican. The Pope readily consented to the recall of the priests and to the sale of their property. Thus the matter was adjusted quietly and sensibly, as between two gentlemen.

The President refused to let himself be bound hand and foot in red tape abroad, no less than at home. Terrible outrages on Jews had been committed in Russia, outrages which horrified the civilized world. Nevertheless, no voice was lifted in protest among the nations, because to do so would be contrary to the rules of diplomacy. Moreover, the Russian government had served notice that it did not care for any foreign advice on the subject. Jewish citizens called upon the President and begged him to forward a petition from them to the Czar, appealing for mercy toward their co-religionists. The President asked them to bring their petition to him. He knew that Russia would decline to receive it, but he was determined that the government at St. Petersburg should be made to feel the moral weight of the document.

The diplomats of Europe were amazed at this temerity. The American government would surely be rebuked, if it forwarded the petition, and the world wondered how it would bear the reproof. When the time came, the President merely sent the petition by cable to the American ambassador and instructed him to read it to the Czar's minister of