"In this hour of deep and terrible bereavement, I wish to state that it shall be my aim to continue absolutely unbroken the policy of President McKinley for the peace and prosperity and honor of our beloved country."

The President then invited the members of the Cabinet present to remain in office, urging upon them the necessity of their doing so that he might the more fully carry out his pledge. He said he had been assured that the absent members of the Cabinet would retain their portfolios. After a moment's consultation among themselves the Secretaries informed the President that they had decided to forego the usual custom of presenting their resignations and would remain as he had requested.

Thus President Roosevelt, at the very outset, paid the highest possible tribute to the late President McKinley's genius and worth by adopting his policy and expressing his intention of carrying out all his plans of a public nature that he had outlined in any way.

CHAPTER XX.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE NATION.

PRESIDENT

ROOSEVELT TAKES THE HELM OF GOVERNMENT IN WASHINGTON-FIRST OFFICIAL ACT-AIMS TO BREAK UP SOLID SOUTH BY NEW METHODS-SUMMONS BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TO A CONFERENCE-APPOINTS REFORM DEMOCRATS TO OFFICEFRIEND OF LABOR.

President Roosevelt brought to the duties of his high office a personality with which the politicians of his party found at once they had to deal, whether or not they wished to do so. All the character-building of his life since, when a delicate boy, he had been inspired to virtue by the glorious writings of that sage, Plutarch, through the years of struggle and adventure faintly chronicled in the previous chapters of this book, up to this most important epoch in his remarkable career, now resulted in a poise that marked him at once as a wise man of lofty vision and patriotic motives; a man to whom the word duty meant more than all else in life: duty to God, duty to country, duty to man, duty to home. His

initial acts when he had taken in his hands the helm of government answered to his nature, growth and development as the overture of a grand opera answers to the theme that has gone to its creation. "I am going to be President of the United States and not of any section," was his first declaration to the politicians. "I don't care the snap of my fingers for sections or sectional lines." To a group of Southern members of Congress he said: "When I was Governor of New York I was told I could make four appointments in the army. When I sent in the names three of the four men were from the South and the other was from New York. They were brave men, who deserved recognition for services in the Spanish War, and it did not matter to me what States they were from."

The first official act of importance performed by President Roosevelt following the initial Cabinet meeting, was signing the papers appointing Mr. William Barrett Ridgley, of Springfield, Illinois, Comptroller of the Currency. The office had been previously held by Charles Gates Dawes, of Chicago, who had resigned to enter the race for United States Senator. President McKinley had already announced his intention of

appointing Mr. Ridgley and President Roosevelt gave an earnest of his intention to carry out the wishes of his predecessor at the first opportunity.

His next step was to prove his fealty to the merit system. This he did in a most characteristic way. Booker T. Washington was invited to come to Washington and give his views to the President concerning the best way to reform the political abuses of the South. Mr. Washington is a negro, but in the founder of the Tuskegee industrial school for the people of his race, and in his manner of conducting it President Roosevelt discovered a kindred spirit, one who believed in beginning at the root of things and working toward a definite end along practical lines. He knew Professor Washington to have a better understanding of the affairs of the South than almost any other living man. He also had reason to believe in his honesty and was convinced of the soundness of his judgment. The President was not looking for prejudiced opinion, but for honest, outspoken counsel. He was seeking truth, and his sincerity and fearlessness in pursuit of it were never better exemplified than when he asked advice from this representative of an inferior race.

When Booker T. Washington arrived in the capital of the United States upon the invitation of the President, he went, as was his custom, to a small hotel kept for negroes, named the Southern. All the more pretentious hotels in the capital were closed to negroes, even though it might be one honored by the President with a summons that would have turned the head of many a public man high in the councils of his party. To this hotel President Roosevelt sent a summons from the White House. The President of the United States sought this negro, not because he was a negro, but because he was an old friend, whose judgment he regarded as better than that of most men on some questions which were of great importance to him as Chief Executive of the United States. The problem he had in mind was the distribution of federal patronage in the Southern States. Twenty-five years of experience had not improved the political situation in the South. The distribution of federal patronage, albeit through no fault of the President who had distributed it, had become a scandal which honest citizens of all sections deplored, but for which no adequate remedy had been found. This patronage had been the bone of profit over which