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306   My Brother Theodore Roosevelt

From that moment, "squaring," as he always did, "conviction with action," Theodore Roosevelt set his strong shoulder to the political wheel which he hoped with all his heart would put Charles E. Hughes into the White House.

In my brother's own "Autobiography" he says: "I have always had a horror of words that are not translated into deeds, of speech that does not result in action; in other words, I believe in realizable ideals and in realizing them; in preaching what would be practicable and then practising it."

He put the same idea in somewhat different words in a speech in that very campaign of 1916: "Of course, the vital thing for the nation to remember is that while dreaming and talking both have their uses, these uses must chiefly exist in seeing the dream realized and the talking turned into action. . . . Ideals that are so lofty as always to be unrealizable have a place,sometimes an exceedingly important place in the history of mankind-if the attempt, at least partially to realize them is made; but, in the long run, what most helps forward the common run of humanity in this work-a-day world, is the possession of realizable ideals and the sincere attempt to realize them."

Never did my brother more earnestly fulfil the convictions expressed in the above sentence than in his campaign for the election of Mr. Hughes. Never did he give himself more selflessly, and with more tireless zeal, than when he tried to put one so lately a rival for the presidental nomination into the White House, because of his strong belief that to do so would be for the good of his beloved country.

On June 23, just before the meeting of the Progressive Convention, he writes to me: "I should like to show you my letter to the National Committee which will appear on Monday afternoon. I will then, I trust, finish my active connections with Politics." And again, in another letter on July 21, he says: "For six years I have been, I believe, emphatically right, emphatically the servant of the best interests of the American people; but just as emphatically,-the American people have

steadily grown to think less and less of me, and more definitely determined not to use me in any public position, and it is their affair after all. Your Teddy [my son at the time was running for the nomination for New York State Senator] may experience the same fate and may find that through no fault of his,in my case the fault may have been mine,-his talents may be passed by."

It is interesting to note that although so frequently a justified prophet in national affairs, my brother's prophecies concerning himself rarely came true. The above prophecy was no exception to this rule, for during the years to come, the Republican party was to turn once more to Theodore Roosevelt as its greatest leader, and to pledge its support to him both inferentially and actually in their great effort to make him the nominee for governor of New York State. In the campaign of 19 18 the leaders of the Republican party turned to him as almost one man, feeling as they did that his election again to that position would positively secure him the election to the presidency

in 1920.

Perhaps the hardest thing for him to bear connected with the political situation in 1916 was the keen disappointment of those Progressives for whom he had such devoted affection when he refused to run on the Progressive ticket as the candidate for President. He felt that in the hearts of many there was, in spite of their personal devotion to him, a sense of disillusion, and he tried with earnest effort to make them see the point of view which he was convinced was the right point of view, which made him support the candidate of the Republican party.

A Mrs. Nicholson, of Oregon, for whom he had a sincere regard, having written to him on the subject, he answers on July 18, r9r6:

"My dear Mrs. Nicholson:... You say you do not understand `Why we men make such a fetich of parties.' I cannot understand how you include me with the men who do so.

"Do It Now"

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