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.There were, of course, many Senators and members of the lower housewith whom up to the very last I continued to work in hearty accord, and witha growing understanding.I have not the space to enumerate, as I would liketo, these men.For many years Senator Lodge had been my close personal andpolitical friend, with whom I discussed all public questions, that arose, usu-ally with agreement; and our intimately close relations were of course un-changed by my entry into the White House.He was of all our public men theman who had made the closest and wisest study of our foreign relations, andmore clearly than almost any other man he understood the vital fact that theefficiency of our navy conditioned our national efficiency in foreign affairs.Anything relating to our international relations, from Panama and the navy tothe Alaskan boundary question, the Algeciras negotiations, or the peace ofPortsmouth, I was certain to discuss with Senator Lodge and also with certainother members of Congress, such as Senator Turner of Washington and Rep-resentative Hitt of Illinois.Anything relating to labor legislation and to mea-sures for controlling big business or efficiently regulating the giant railwaysystems, I was certain to discuss with Senator Dolliver or Congressman Hep-burn or Congressman Cooper.With men like Senator Beveridge, Congress-man (afterwards Senator) Dixon, and Congressman Murdock, I was apt todiscuss pretty nearly everything relating to either our internal or our externalaffairs[.] There were many, many others.The present President of the Senate,Senator Clark, of Arkansas, was as fearless and high-minded a representativeof the people of the United States as I ever dealt with.He was one of the menwho combined loyalty to his own State with an equally keen loyalty to thepeople of all the United States.He was politically opposed to me; but whenthe interests of the country were at stake, he was incapable of consideringparty differences; and this was especially his attitude in international mat-ters including certain treaties which most of his party colleagues, with nar-row lack of patriotism, and complete subordination of National to factionalinterest, opposed.I have never anywhere met finer, more faithful, more dis-interested, and more loyal public servants than Senator O.H.Platt, a Repub-lican, from Connecticut, and Senator Cockrell, a Democrat, from Missouri.They were already old men when I came to the Presidency; and doubtlessthere were points on which I seemed to them to be extreme and radical; buteventually they found that our motives and beliefs were the same, and they08_069 Ch 15.qxd 4/7/08 1:40 PM Page 179The Presidency; Making an Old Party Progressive 179did all in their power to help any movement that was for the interest of ourpeople as a whole.I had met them when I was Civil Service Commissionerand Assistant Secretary of the Navy.All I ever had to do with either was toconvince him that a given measure I championed was right, and he then atonce did all he could to have it put into effect.If I could not convince them,why! that was my fault, or my misfortune; but if I could convince them, Inever had to think again as to whether they would or would not support me.There were many other men of mark in both houses with whom I could workon some points, whereas on others we had to differ.There was one powerfulleader a burly, forceful man, of admirable traits who had, however, beentrained in the post-bellum school of business and politics, so that his attitudetowards life, quite unconsciously, reminded me a little of Artemus Ward sview of the Tower of London  If I like it, I ll buy it. There was a big gov-ernmental job in which this leader was much interested, and in reference towhich he always wished me to consult a man whom he trusted, whom I willcall Pitt Rodney.One day I answered him,  The trouble with Rodney is thathe misestimates his relations to cosmos ; to which he responded,  CosmosCosmos? Never heard of him.You stick to Rodney.He s your man! Outsideof the public servants there were multitudes of men, in newspaper offices, inmagazine offices, in business or the professions or on farms or in shops, whoactively supported the policies for which I stood and did work of genuineleadership which was quite as effective as any work done by men in publicoffice.Without the active support of these men I would have been powerless.In particular, the leading newspaper correspondents at Washington were as awhole a singularly able, trustworthy, and public-spirited body of men, and themost useful of all agents in the fight for efficient and decent government.As for the men under me in executive office, I could not overstate the debtof gratitude I owe them.From the heads of the departments, the Cabinet of-ficers, down, the most striking feature of the Administration was the devoted,zealous, and efficient work that was done as soon as it became understoodthat the one bond of interest among all of us was the desire to make the Gov-ernment the most effective instrument in advancing the interests of the peo-ple as a whole, the interests of the average men and women of the UnitedStates and of their children.I do not think I overstate the case when I say thatmost of the men who did the best work under me felt that ours was a part-nership, that we all stood on the same level of purpose and service, and thatit mattered not what position anyone of us held so long as in that position hegave the very best that was in him.We worked very hard; but I made a pointof getting a couple of hours off each day for equally vigorous play.The menwith whom I then played, whom we laughingly grew to call the  Tennis Cab-inet, have been mentioned in a previous chapter of this book in connection08_069 Ch 15.qxd 4/7/08 1:40 PM Page 180180 Theodore Rooseveltwith the gift they gave me at the last breakfast which they took at the WhiteHouse.There were many others in the public service under me with whom Ihappened not to play, but who did their share of our common work just as ef-fectively as it was done by us who did play.Of course nothing could havebeen done in my Administration if it had not been for the zeal, intelligence,masterful ability, and downright hard labor of these men in countless posi-tions under me.I was helpless to do anything except as my thoughts and or-ders were translated into action by them; and, moreover, each of them, as hegrew specially fit for his job, used to suggest to me the right thought to have,and the right order to give, concerning that job.It is of course hard for me tospeak with cold and dispassionate partiality of these men, who were as closeto me as were the men of my regiment.But the outside observers best fittedto pass judgment about them felt as I did.At the end of my AdministrationMr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]