細節
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President. Typed letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") to E. A. Van Valkenburg of The North American, with numerous ink corrections and interlinear additions by Roosevelt, totalling some 50 words, New York, N.Y., 5 September 1916. 2 1/4 pages, 280 x 215 mm. (11 x 8 1/2 in.) typed on rectos only, first page on letterhead of Metropolitan magazine, first page browned.
A FORMER PRESIDENT CONSIDERS HIS PRESIDENTIAL RECORD WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IN A THIRD TERM
An exceptionally revealing letter on his political past. Roosevelt, who had failed in 1912 in a bid for a third term in the White House and strongly disagreed with the policies of Wilson, responds to a friend's question about his plans for the future. "[A]s regards myself I have no doubt....[M]y usefulness to this country depended so largely upon the conditions of national and international politics that its real need for me has probably passed....My great usefulness as President came in connection with the Anthracite Coal Strike, the voyage of the battle fleet around the world, the taking of Panama, the handling of Germany in the Venezuela business, England and the Alaska boundary matter, the irrigation business in the west, and finally, I think, the toning up of the government service generally. Any decent and forceful man could handle the irrigation business, and could tone up the government service, and build up our navy and army, But as to the other matters I am unsure. My usefulness in 1912 and again this year would have been because we were facing a period when there was need of vision in both national and international matters." But, if he had been chosen President in 1912 and 1916: "I would have done my best work in connection with the European War, the Mexican situation, and the Japanese and Chinese situation; and also in connection with universal military service... of prime consequence to us socially and industrially. I would...have fought for the industrial regeneration of this country along the lines of the 1912 platform....and...for that wise and farsighted justice which no more fears organized labor than it fears Wall Street."
But he will not be a contender for the presidential nomination in 1920: "...I am already an old man, and the chances are very small that I will ever again grow into touch with the people of this country to the degree that will make me useful as a leader; and a man who has been a leader, is very rarely useful as an advisor when the period of his leadership has passed. People always used to say...that I was an astonishingly good politician and divined what people were going to think. This really was not an accurate way of stating the case. I did not 'divine' how the people were going to thnk; I simply made up my mind what they ought to think, and then did my best to get them to think it. Sometimes I failed....Sometimes I succeeded, and then they said that I was an uncommonly astute creature..."
A FORMER PRESIDENT CONSIDERS HIS PRESIDENTIAL RECORD WHAT HE MIGHT HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IN A THIRD TERM
An exceptionally revealing letter on his political past. Roosevelt, who had failed in 1912 in a bid for a third term in the White House and strongly disagreed with the policies of Wilson, responds to a friend's question about his plans for the future. "[A]s regards myself I have no doubt....[M]y usefulness to this country depended so largely upon the conditions of national and international politics that its real need for me has probably passed....My great usefulness as President came in connection with the Anthracite Coal Strike, the voyage of the battle fleet around the world, the taking of Panama, the handling of Germany in the Venezuela business, England and the Alaska boundary matter, the irrigation business in the west, and finally, I think, the toning up of the government service generally. Any decent and forceful man could handle the irrigation business, and could tone up the government service, and build up our navy and army, But as to the other matters I am unsure. My usefulness in 1912 and again this year would have been because we were facing a period when there was need of vision in both national and international matters." But, if he had been chosen President in 1912 and 1916: "I would have done my best work in connection with the European War, the Mexican situation, and the Japanese and Chinese situation; and also in connection with universal military service... of prime consequence to us socially and industrially. I would...have fought for the industrial regeneration of this country along the lines of the 1912 platform....and...for that wise and farsighted justice which no more fears organized labor than it fears Wall Street."
But he will not be a contender for the presidential nomination in 1920: "...I am already an old man, and the chances are very small that I will ever again grow into touch with the people of this country to the degree that will make me useful as a leader; and a man who has been a leader, is very rarely useful as an advisor when the period of his leadership has passed. People always used to say...that I was an astonishingly good politician and divined what people were going to think. This really was not an accurate way of stating the case. I did not 'divine' how the people were going to thnk; I simply made up my mind what they ought to think, and then did my best to get them to think it. Sometimes I failed....Sometimes I succeeded, and then they said that I was an uncommonly astute creature..."