In Roosevelt’s opinion and in the opinion of the entire country, his act in sending the fleet upon its world mission did more to favorably advertise the United States to the world and to establish cordial international relations, than any other of his deeds as President. His object in sending the battle fleet on this voyage was to prove to foreign nations that American battleships could be assembled in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the Atlantic, without this movement assuming the nature of a threat against any Asiatic or European power.
The impression prevailed among foreign navies that the American fleet could not pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The English and German naval authorities thought it impossible to take their own fleets of great battleships around the world, and, of course, they did not believe that the American fleet could make the voyage.
Then, too, Europe was expecting a war between the United States and Japan and thought that if such a fleet sailed into the Pacific, Japan would think that the United States intended to attack her. Roosevelt desired to clear up all of these notions. He wanted to establish friendly relations with Japan and he wanted more than anything else to arouse the pride of the American people in their navy.
All of the President’s purposes were accomplished. The cruise made a deep and favorable impression abroad, and no single thing in the history of the new United States Navy did as much to stimulate the American public’s enthusiasm as this voyage. Everything worked out just as was thus predicted by the “London Spectator” when the fleet sailed from Hampton Roads:
“All over America the people will follow the movements of the fleet; they will learn something of the intricate details of the coaling and commissariat work under war-like conditions, and in a word their attention will be aroused. Next time Mr. Roosevelt or his representatives appeal to the country for new battleships they will do so to people whose minds have been influenced one way or the other. The naval programme will not have stood still. We are sure that, apart from increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet, this is the aim which Roosevelt has in mind. He has a policy which projects itself far into the future, but it is an entire misreading of it to suppose that it is aimed narrowly and definitely at any single power.”
The fleet of sixteen battleships which, though it may seem small in comparison with the navies that have been engaged in the world war, was a large one in those days, went through the Strait of Magellan to San Francisco. From there Roosevelt ordered them to sail to New Zealand and Australia, stopping at the Philippines, China and Japan, then home through the Suez Canal, stopping in the Mediterranean. There was never a hitch or a delay in the schedule. The most notable incident of the cruise was the warm reception given to the fleet by the Japanese. When the fleet returned after its sixteen months’ voyage, Roosevelt greeted it in Hampton Roads. The battleships arrived there on Washington’s Birthday, February 22, 1907.
Roosevelt’s views on the success of this expedition are best summed up in the following address, which he spoke on the flagship of the admiral to the officers and enlisted men:
“Over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor, and over the world’s rim, and this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon. You have been in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; four times you have crossed the line; you have steamed through all the great oceans; you have touched the coast of every continent. Ever your general course has been westward; and now you come back to the port from which you set sail. This is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe. Those who perform the feat can but follow in your footsteps.
ROOSEVELT ARRIVING AT GARDINER, MONT., ON THE WAY TO YELLOWSTONE PARK
“The little torpedo flotilla went with you around South America, through the Straits of Magellan, to our own Pacific Coast. The armored cruiser squadron met you, and left you again, when you were half-way round the world. In all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention has happened to a single battleship, nor yet to the cruisers or torpedo boats. You left this coast in a high state of efficiency and you return with your efficiency increased; better prepared than when you left, not only in personnel, but even in material. During your world cruise you have taken your regular gunnery practice, and skilled though you were before with the guns, you have grown more skilful still; and through practice you have improved in battle tactics, though here there is more room for improvement than in your gunnery. Incidentally, I suppose I need hardly say that one measure of your fitness must be your clear recognition of the need always steadily to strive to render yourselves more fit; if you ever grow to think that you are fit enough, you can make up your minds that from that moment you will begin to go backward.
“As a war machine the fleet comes back in better shape than it went out. In addition, you, the officers and men of this formidable fighting force, have shown yourselves the best of all possible ambassadors and heralds of peace. Wherever you have landed you have borne yourselves so as to make us at home proud of being your countrymen. You have shown that the best type of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear to the utmost possible advantage when his business is to behave himself on shore, and to make a good impression in a foreign land. We are proud of all the ships and all the men in this whole fleet, and we welcome you home to the country whose good repute among nations has been raised by what you have done.”
Roosevelt’s chief service to his country while President was undoubtedly that of preventing the huge combinations and trusts which threatened to gain control of the country during his administration.
For years great business corporations had been in formation. They controlled enormous wealth and their financial power led them to disregard public opinion, even to the extent of defying the law.
Public disapproval was growing stronger and stronger. Independent newspapers and magazines had informed the public of the oppressive methods of these trusts. A leader was wanted. Roosevelt became that leader.
The foe was mighty. It had entrenched itself in Congress, yet Roosevelt won several noteworthy victories and started the nation in the way of ending this evil.
The warfare against the trusts was continued throughout Roosevelt’s entire administration. Measures for the control of the trusts were prepared and pressed on Congress with Rooseveltian strenuosity.
A railway rate bill was passed, forbidding under severe penalties the fraud of rebates. A general pure food law was passed, penalizing the act of adulteration, and requiring that every article of medicine or food should be labeled and sold for just what it was. With these and several other measures, corporation fraud was thus brought to a halt.
At this period Roosevelt was a flaming fire. His spirit was as a fierce blaze consuming the materialism that had crept from the ranks of business into public life. Popular grievances against unjust exploitation by leaders of industry became to him the signal to attack. His ordering of the suit of dissolution against the Northern Securities Company subjected him to the enmity of powerful men, yet before a short time passed the opinion became general that his decision had been vital to the public good.
He aroused the bitter opposition of Big Business by his successful endeavors to control it, but time proved that by his act on behalf of the people he had saved the vested interests from the wholesale division by Congress of such monopolies had they been formed.
While he was the first of our Presidents to come into conflict with corporate power, he nevertheless favored and promoted legitimate business, and he stood for the protection of American industries from the cheap labor of Europe.
His suit for the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company was one of the most significant acts of his administration. This suit was not brought to a successful conclusion until 1911, but the credit for its prosecution is due mainly to him.
In all these measures Roosevelt was simply carrying out his doctrine of the square deal, which he began to preach when he assumed public office and which in different language, but with unvarying purpose, he preached to the end of his life.
His doctrine of fair dealing is best summed up in this speech spoken at Dallas, Tex., April 5, 1905:
“When I say I believe in a square deal I do not mean, and probably nobody that speaks the truth can mean, that he believes it possible to give every man the best hand. If the cards do not come to any man, or if they do come, and he has not got the power to play them, that is his affair. All I mean is that there shall be no crookedness in the dealing. In other words, it is not in the power of any human being to devise legislation or administration by which each man shall achieve success and have happiness; it not only is not in the power of any man to do that, but if any man says that he can do it, distrust him as a quack.... All any of us can pretend to do is to come as near as our imperfect abilities will allow to securing through governmental agencies an equal opportunity for each man to show the stuff that is in him; and that must be done with no more intention of discrimination against the rich man than the poor man, or against the poor man than the rich man; with the intention of safeguarding every man, rich or poor, poor or rich, in his rights, and giving him as nearly as may be a fair chance to do what his powers permit him to do; always providing he does not wrong his neighbor.”
This view he re-emphasized at another place:
“When I say a square deal I mean a square deal; exactly as much a square deal for the rich man as for the poor man; but no more. Let each stand on his merits, receive what is due him, and be judged according to his deserts. To more he is not entitled, and less he shall not have.”
“This government was formed with, as its basic idea, the principle of treating each man on his worth as a man, of paying no heed to whether he was rich or poor, no heed to his creed or social standing, but only to the way in which he performed his duties to himself, to his neighbor, to the state. From this principle we cannot afford to vary by so much as a hand’s breadth.”
It would be a mistake to think that while attacking the evils of corporate power he did not also attack those men of Bolshevik tendencies who out of mere discontent, tried to stir up class feeling.
This is what he had to say about these men:
“In dealing with both labor and capital and the questions affecting both corporations and trade unions, there is one matter more important to remember than aught else, and that is the infinite harm done by preachers of mere discontent. These are the men who seek to excite a violent class hatred against all men of wealth. They seek to turn wise and proper movements for the better control of corporations and for doing away with the abuses connected with wealth into a campaign of hysterical excitement and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to madness the brutal passions of mankind....”
One shudders to think of what fate would have befallen the United States if the monopolies which Roosevelt curbed while he was President had been allowed to flourish until this era of revolution. That the working people of America are contented and peace-loving today is largely due to Roosevelt’s saving them from exploitation by the trusts.
Most important in his own estimation and from the standpoint of personal credit, was Roosevelt’s work for the conservation of the natural resources of the country. In May, 1908, he called a conference of the Governors of all the states for this purpose.
The natural wealth of the nation was disappearing at an alarming rate. The forests were being destroyed by wasteful methods of lumbering and by devastating fires. The coal supply was being wastefully handled. Ignorance and greed were exhausting the fisheries. These things needed wise and honest treatment and the conference led to the formation of a National Conservation Commission to take these matters in hand.
While President Roosevelt coined many expressive terms that still remain as part of American speech—such phrases as “Malefactors of great wealth,” “Speak softly but carry a big stick,” “Swollen fortunes,” originated with him.
He branded so many men as liars that a newspaper humorist coined the name “Ananias Club,” and used it to include most of those who had incurred Mr. Roosevelt’s enmity. The name stuck, but it did not deter Mr. Roosevelt from going right on calling a spade a spade.
Roosevelt kept his mind fresh in the stifling political atmosphere of the Capitol by keeping in touch with his Rough Rider and cowboy friends.
In spite of his strenuous battles, Roosevelt always found time for play and diversion while he was an occupant of the White House. He it was who started the army upon a course of physical training that undoubtedly had a bearing upon its efficiency in France. Old swivel-chair officers secretly rebelled against his order that they should show their physical ability by periodical long-distance hikes and rides, but when the President showed that he was willing to lead the way and undergo the same tests, there was nothing to do but submit.
Roosevelt was now confronted by the problem as to whether he should run for a third term. Previously, in a public address, he had made the statement that he would not be a candidate for a third term. If he had listened to the pleadings of his friends and allowed himself to be nominated there is no doubt that he would have been elected.
His answer to the pleas of his admirers and to the voice of perhaps his own ambition was to select William Howard Taft as his successor and to urge his nomination, taking care to let the Republican national convention know that he himself would refuse a nomination. Taft was nominated on the first ballot.
On March 4, 1909, William H. Taft was inaugurated as President of the United States. That day Roosevelt left Washington.