Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [236]
He did not mention a financial threat that loomed ahead of him: the $50,000 libel suit he had brought on himself, last July, by accusing William Barnes, Jr., of aiding and abetting the “rotten” state government of New York. The case had been expensively delayed and relocated from Albany to Syracuse, on the ground that Boss Barnes’s dominance of the former city would preclude a fair jury. It was now due to be tried in April. Roosevelt knew from his libel suit against George Newett that even if he successfully defended himself, the costs he would incur were likely to be enormous. If he lost—and Barnes was a wealthy and formidable adversary—Quentin might have to be “launched” much sooner than 1918.
Metropolitan was a large, lavishly illustrated monthly owned by Harry Payne Whitney, a racehorse breeder so blinkered with wealth that he did not seem to notice that its editor, Henry J. Whigham, had a radical bias that veered close to socialism. Roosevelt was willing to live with that as long as Whigham let him preach his own, more paternalistic brand of politics. The magazine, in addition, was a strong supporter of preparedness.
“After this January,” he told White, “I shall do my best to avoid mentioning Wilson’s and Bryan’s names.”
AS THE NEW YEAR progressed, however, he managed to mention them often, and harshly. Always his anger was directed at their interpretation of neutrality. They seemed to think it was a right that could be proclaimed, he wrote, whereas in fact it was only a privilege conceded by belligerent nations—for as long as those nations felt so disposed. Nor was it necessarily virtuous: “To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong.” Roosevelt felt that American apathy about the war was solidifying, and decided to move quickly before it became a cement resistant to chipping. Taking advantage of the New York publishing industry’s extraordinary ability to print and distribute a bound book in little more than two weeks, he edited his ten war articles of the previous fall for publication before the end of January. He supplemented them with two newer pieces on military training and “utopian” peace plans.
“A LARGE, LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED MONTHLY.”
Metropolitan magazine, TR’s main journalistic outlet from 1915 to 1918. (photo credit i20.1)
The resultant twelve-chapter volume, entitled America and the World War, was issued by Scribners. It made permanent the breach between him and the administration, and established him as Wilson’s doctrinal foil. Critical reaction, when not dismissive, was divided. To Roosevelt’s chagrin, reviewers sympathetic to Britain, Belgium, and France accused him of favoring Germany. The reverse obtained with those who described themselves as “German-American,” a locution he detested.
In a letter to a woman asking him to announce that he was an “Anglo-American,” he disclaimed all hyphenated allegiances. “England is not my motherland any more than Germany is my fatherland. My motherland and fatherland and my own land are all three of them the United States.”
His new book, hortatory by purpose, lacked such plain eloquence. Its few statesmanlike passages were obscured by a surf of words so repetitive and overstated as to numb any reader. Roosevelt had always excused his habit of saying everything three, or thirty-three times with the rationale that it was the only way to drum certain basic truths into the public mind. But America and the World War took repetition to the point of pugilism, as if he wanted to knock out everyone who did not feel as strongly as he did.
Many bookstore browsers glancing through its table of contents felt that they had already gotten the Colonel’s message, and would gain little by reading further:
THE DUTY OF SELF-DEFENSE AND OF GOOD CONDUCT TOWARD OTHERS
THE BELGIAN TRAGEDY
UNWISE TREATIES A MENACE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
THE CAUSES OF THE WAR
HOW TO STRIVE FOR WORLD PEACE
THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
AN INTERNATIONAL POSSE COMITATUS
SELF-DEFENSE