Colonel Roosevelt - Edmund Morris [446]
1 Epigraph Robinson, “The Revealer (Roosevelt),” The Town Down the River, 127.
2 “With T.R.” Baker, notebook VIII.63, 11 Jan. 1916 (RSB).
3 “In the present crisis” Ibid. Contributing to the “crisis” atmosphere was the recent sinking, by an Austrian-flagged submarine, of the Italian liner Ancona, with 25 American citizens aboard. The submarine was actually German, but this inflammatory fact was kept secret for years.
4 “I can understand” Baker, notebook VIII.63–64, 11 Jan. 1916 (RSB).
5 Roosevelt was regretfully Street, The Most Interesting American, 32–33; TR to KR, 27 May 1915 (TRC).
6 “I’m a domestic” Street, The Most Interesting American, 33.
7 “Most certainly” Ibid., 53.
8 the possibility of uniting On 11 Jan. 1915, the Progressive National Committee, strong-armed by George W. Perkins, had publicly indicated a willingness to unite with the GOP under “a common leadership,” if Republicans would adopt a sufficiently Rooseveltian (i.e., patriotic, pro-preparedness, and socially fair) platform for the coming campaign. See TR, Letters, 8.1000, and Mowry, TR, 331.
9 persons lacking manly qualities For the effeminacy imputed to pacifists by TR and his fellow interventionists in World War I, see Gerstner, Manly Arts, 53ff.
10 “The way to treat” Sullivan, Our Times, 5.202.
11 the winter so far Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, 391–93; The New York Times, 28, 21 Jan. 1916.
12 an appreciable minority The phrase is TR’s, in Letters, 8.1013.
13 Owen Wister’s bestselling Wister, The Pentecost of Calamity, chap. 14. For TR’s influence on the draft of this elegant little book, see Wister, Roosevelt, 349ff.
14 millions of poilus Edith Wharton, Fighting France: From Dunkerque to Belfort (New York, 1915), 238. Mrs. Wharton begged TR in the fall of 1915 to visit the Western Front and publicize the plight of the French. He declined, saying he would do so only when allowed to fight there. “But I won’t have the chance to try. The shifty, adroit and selfish logothete in the White House cannot be kicked into war.” (1 Oct. 1915 [EW].) She replied that she felt the same way about WW. “I think it was the saddest moment of my life when I realized that my country wanted him to be what he is.” (19 Oct. 1915 [ERDP].) Later TR wrote the introduction to Wharton’s The Book of the Homeless (New York, 1916), an anthology raising funds for war refugees.
15 “Does anybody understand” The New York Times, 28 Jan. 1916.
16 “a proper and reasonable” Ibid. At another dinner at the Biltmore later that evening, WW, speaking extemporaneously, made an obtuse reference to certain “humbugs” who had “been at large a long time,” and could be silenced only by allowing them to expose themselves to public ridicule. His audience of movie producers listened mystified as the President rambled on about watching himself on film, in tones that implied he had drunk one toast too many.
17 Wilson proceeded Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson, 376–79; Sullivan, Our Times, 5.228–30, 277–78; The New York Times, 30 Jan., 4 Feb. 1916. Actually WW had asked Congress to double the size of the standing army to 140,000, and to increase the size of the fleet to 27 battleships, plus ancillary vessels—the largest defense appropriations yet requested in American history.
18 “Each of these” Sullivan, Our Times, 5.230.
19 epithets like “skunk” TR, Letters, 7.809.
20 “a Byzantine logothete” TR, Works, 20.243.
21 “If any individual” Ibid., 20.245–46.
22 “jungle fever” TR.Jr. to KR, 8 Mar. 1916 (KRP).
23 mountains of Allied money Mowry, TR, 333, notes that the earnings of the Dupont Company of Delaware increased from $5.6 million in 1914 to $57.8 million in 1915. For a detailed account of TR’s swing to the right, 1915–1916, see ibid., chap. 13.
24 Roosevelt still talked Ibid., 334–35.
25 He allowed Judge Elbert The New York Times, 19, 21 (editorial), and 22 Dec. 1915.
26 “Behind it all” Leary, Talks with T.R., 49–50.
27 “I dislike” Ibid., 51.
28 When Roosevelt stepped The following account is based on Louis Achille, Visite de M. et de Mme. Roosevelt à la Martinique,