the attitude of the men who controlled the mines as an insult to the chief magistrate of the nation and a defiance of public opinion. Thus a force was aroused, which no power in the land can withstand, and within two weeks of the day that the owners had turned their backs upon the President they were assuring him that they would agree to arbitration, if only he would appoint the arbitrators. At once the men returned to the mines, and soon the commission of distinguished men selected by the President was sitting in arbitration. It was an impressive exhibition of President Roosevelt's ability in employing public opinion.

Throughout his first term the President, without any flourish, but persistently, applied the laws as they stood to the railways and the trusts. In a few instances Congress strengthened the statutes and encouraged him in his work. At the outset of his second term, deriving his power now directly from all the people, he entered upon the task of getting new legislation. Before adopting any plan of railway regulation he sought the practical advice of the leading railway men of the country and endeavored to gain their support of some just meas

ures of governmental supervision. In this effort he failed. The active railway officials, the presidents and traffic managers, it was understood, were inclined to coöperate with him, but their masters in Wall Street restrained them, confident that they could prevent any legislation whatever.

There was a great fight in Congress, lasting through months. The President's strategy never was more severely tested. He demanded much more than he could possibly get, and probably more than he wished, and thus had something to concede in the game of give and take, which is the secret of successful statesmanship. In the end he led men who, in the beginning of the session, had opposed any regulation, cheerfully to accept the final modified bill, and it was passed by both houses almost unanimously.

At the same session the President proposed a law for the inspection of meat packing. He had learned from a secret report that this immense business was often carried on under such filthy and dishonest conditions as to imperil the health of all who ate the products of the packing houses, and to cheat the purchasers. Again the President tried to gain the

coöperation of the corporations, involved in passing a fair law. They defied him, as the railway magnates had defied him. In these circumstances he was obliged to send the secret report to Congress, and spread its disgusting revelations before the world. Nothing further was needed. Public opinion compelled the immediate enactment of a meat inspection law. A kindred statute, which the President successfully advocated at the same time, is known as the Pure Food Law, a law which was aimed at some of the oldest and most notorious abuses in American trade.

Meanwhile, through the Department of Justice, he was dragging the mighty Standard Oil Company into court, and convicting railways and shippers, in the East and the West, for giving and taking unlawful rebates. Through the Post Office Department he was adopting measures which would prevent the railways from any longer drawing out of the national treasury millions of dollars yearly in excess of their just dues for carrying the mails. A senator of the United States was convicted and imprisoned for attempting to influence an executive department contrary to the law, and another senator was

convicted for joining in a conspiracy to steal the public lands.

All these great transactions were done so soberly and in a spirit of such manifest fairness, that the very men whose practices were most affected by them found no chance to assail the motives of the President. They could not dismiss him as a cheap demagogue or accuse him of being the enemy of honest wealth. Their fellow-countrymen knew too well that they were getting nothing more or less than square deal," and the American people stood by President Roosevelt in his declaration that "this government is not and never shall be a plutocracy."

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Party lines and party prejudices were overwhelmed by the general confidence in him and in his policies. The opposing political parties in Congress vied with each other in their support of all his principal measures of legislation. Democratic leaders could only protest that he had "stolen their thunder," while the masses of both parties, East, West, North, and South, well-nigh forgot their ancient differences as they rallied around a President whom they hailed as the President of the whole people.

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.

go

"THERE is a homely old adage which runs, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will 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."

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.