Chapter I: Preface

All our lives my father treated his sons and daughters as
companions. When we were not with him he wrote to us constantly.
Everything that we did we discussed with him whenever it was
possible. All his children tried to live up to his principles.
In the paragraphs from his letters below, he speaks often of the
citizens of this country as "our people." It is for all these,
equally with us, that the messages are intended.

"New Year's greetings to you! This may or may not be, on the
whole, a happy New Year--almost certainly it will be in part at
least a New Year of sorrow--but at least you and your brothers
will be upborne by the self-reliant pride coming from having
played well and manfully a man's part when the great crisis
came, the great crisis that 'sifted out men's souls' and
winnowed the chaff from the grain."--_January 1, 1918._

"Large masses of people still vaguely feel that somehow I can
say something which will avoid all criticism of the government
and yet make the government instantly remedy everything that is
wrong; whereas in reality nothing now counts except the actual
doing of the work and that I am allowed to have no part in.
Generals Wood and Crowder have been denied the chance to render
service; appointments are made primarily on grounds of
seniority, which in war time is much like choosing Poets
Laureate on the same grounds."--_August 23, 1917._

"At last, after seven months, we are, like Mr. Snodgrass, 'going
to begin.' The National Guard regiments are just beginning to
start for their camps, and within the next two weeks I should
say that most of them would have started; and by the first of
September I believe that the first of the National Army will
begin to assemble in their camps.... I do nothing. Now and then,
when I can't help myself, I speak, for it is necessary to offset
in some measure the talk of the fools, traitors, pro-Germans,
and pacifists; but really what we need against these is action,
and that only the government can take. Words count for but
little when the 'drumming guns' have been waked."--_August 23,
1917._

"The regular officers are fine fellows, but for any serious work
we should eliminate two thirds of the older men and a quarter of
the younger men, and use the remainder as a nucleus for, say,
three times their number of civilian officers. Except with a
comparatively small number, too long a stay in our army--with
its peculiar limitations--produces a rigidity of mind that
refuses to face the actual conditions of modern warfare. But the
wonder is that our army and navy have been able to survive in
any shape after five years of Baker and Daniels."--_September
17, 1917._

"Along many lines of preparation the work here is now going
fairly fast--not much of a eulogy when we are in the ninth month
of the war. But there cannot be much speed when military
efficiency is subordinated to selfish personal politics, the
gratification of malice, and sheer wooden-headed
folly."--_October 14, 1917_.

"The socialist vote [in the New York mayoralty election] was
rather ominous. Still, on the whole, it was only about one fifth
of the total vote. It included the extreme pacifist crowd, as
well as the vicious red-flag men, and masses of poor, ignorant
people who, for example, would say. 'He'll give us five-cent
milk,' which he could have given as readily as he could have
given the moon."--_November 7, 1917_.

"Well, it's dreadful to have those we love go to the front; but
it is even worse when they are not allowed to go to the
front."--_Letter to Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., November 11,
1917._

"Yesterday mother and I motored down to the draft camp at
Yaphank. First, I was immensely pleased with the type of the
men, and the officers are just as good as the average of young
West Pointers. I believe that in the end that army there will be
as fine a body of fighting men as any nation in the world could
desire to see under its banners. But there is still, after
nearly three months that they have been called out, some
shortage in warm clothes; there are modern rifles for only one
man in six; there are only about four guns to an artillery
brigade."--_November 19, 1917._

"Of course, the root of our trouble lies in our government's
attitude during the two and one half years preceding our entry
into the war, and its refusal now to make the matter one in
which all good citizens can join without regard to party, and
paying heed only to the larger interests of the country and of
mankind at large.... I now strike hands with any one who is
sound on Americanism and on speeding up the war and putting it
through to the finish; but we _ought_ to take heed of our
industrial and social matters too."--_Thanksgiving Day, 1917._

"There is little I can do here, except to try to speed up the
war; the failure to begin work on the cargo ships with the
utmost energy ten months ago was a grave misfortune."--_December
23, 1917._

"The work of preparation here goes on slowly. I do my best to
speed it up; but I can only talk or write; and it is only the
doers who really count. The trouble is fundamental and twofold.
The administration has no conception of war needs or what war
means; and the American army has been so handled in time of
peace that the bulk of the men high up were sure to break down
in the event of war."--_January 6, 1918._

"Over here Senator Chamberlain's committee has forced some real
improvements in the work of the war department and the shipping
board. It is of course a wicked thing that a year was wasted in
delay and inefficiency. Substantially we are, as regards the
war, repeating what was done in 1812-15; there was then a
complete breakdown in the governmental work due to the pacifist
theories which had previously obtained, to inefficiency in the
public servants at Washington, and above all to the absolute
failure to prepare in advance. Yet there was much individual
energy, resourcefulness, and courage; much work by good
shipwrights; fine fighting of an individual and non-coherent
kind by ship captains and by occasional generals."--_March 10,
1918._

"How I hate making speeches at such time as this, with you boys
all at the front! And I am not sure they do much good. But
_someone_ has to try to get things hurried up."--_March 14,
1918._

"Wood testified fearlessly before the Senate committee, and the
country has been impressed and shocked by his telling (what of
course all well informed people already knew) that we had none
of our own airplanes or field guns and very few of our own
machine guns at the front."--_March 31, 1918._

"The great German drive has partially awakened our people to the
knowledge that we really are in a war. They still tend to
complacency about the 'enormous work that has been
accomplished'--in building home camps and the like--but there
really is an effort being made to hurry troops over, and
tardily, to hasten the building of ships, guns, and airplanes.

"My own unimportant activities are, of course, steadily directed
toward endeavoring to speed up the war, by heartily backing
everything that is done zealously and efficiently, and by
calling sharp attention to luke-warmness and inefficiency when
they become so marked as to be dangerous."--_April 7, 1918._

"Of course, we are gravely concerned over the way the British
have been pushed back; and our people are really concerned over
the fact that after over a year of formal participation in the
war our army overseas is too small to be of great use."--_April
14, 1918._

"The administration never moves unless it is forced by public
pressure and public pressure can as a rule only be obtained by
showing the public that we have failed in doing something we
should do; for as long as the public is fatuously content, the
administration lies back and does nothing."--_April 20, 1918._

"The people who wish me to write for them are divided between
the desire to have me speak out boldly, and the desire to have
me say nothing that will offend anybody--and cannot realize that
the two desires are incompatible."--_April 28, 1918._

"I spoke at Springfield to audiences whose enthusiastic
reception of warlike doctrine showed the steady progress of our
people in understanding what the war means."--_May 5, 1918._

"It is well to have had happiness, to have achieved the great
ends of life, when one must walk boldly and warily close to
death."--_May 12, 1918._

"We are really sending over large numbers of men now, and the
shipbuilding program is being rushed; but the situation as
regards field guns, machine guns, and airplanes continues very
bad. The administration never takes a step in advance until
literally flailed into it; and the entire cuckoo population of
the 'don't criticize the President' type play into the hands of
the pro-Germans, pacifists, and Hearst people, so that a premium
is put on our delay and inefficiency."--_May 12, 1918._

"The only way I can help in speeding up the war is by jarring
loose our governmental and popular conceit and complacency. I
point out our shortcomings with unsparing directness and lash
the boasting and the grandiloquent prophecies.

"The trouble is that our people are ignorant of the situation
and that most of the leaders fear to tell the truth about
conditions. I only wish I carried more weight. Yet I think our
people are hardening in their determination to win the war, and
are beginning to ask for results."--_May 23, 1918._

"The war temper of the country is steadily hardening and so is
the feeling against all the pro-German agitators at
home."--_June 2, 1918._

"In every speech I devote a little time to the 'cut out the
boasting plea.' Of course I really do think that in spite of our
governmental shortcomings we are developing our
strength."--_June 26, 1918._

"On the Fourth of July I went down to Passaic, where three
quarters of the people are of foreign parentage, the mayor
himself being of German ancestry. I talked straightout
Americanism, of course, which was most enthusiastically
received; the mayor's two sons have enlisted in the navy, and
one has been promoted to being ensign. The war spirit of the
people is steadily rising."--_July 7, 1918._

"I, of course, absolutely agree with you as to the tremendous
difficulties and possible far-reaching changes we shall have to
face after this war. Either _fool Bourbonism_ or _fool
radicalism_ may land us unpleasantly near--say halfway
toward--the position in which Russia has been landed by the
alternation between Romanoffism and Bolshevism."--_July 15,
1918._

"It is very bitter to me that all of you, the young, should be
facing death while I sit in ease and safety."--_July 21, 1918._

"I keep pegging away in the effort to hurry forward our work. We
now have enough troops in France to make us a ponderable element
in the situation."--_August 4, 1918._

"On Labor Day I spoke at Newburgh shipyard and spoke plainly of
the labor slackers and the unions that encourage them; and on
Lafayette Day, at the City Hall, I spoke of the kind of peace we
ought to have, and nailed to the mast the flag of Nationalism as
against Internationalism."--_September 9, 1918._

"The Germans have been given a staggering blow, and while I
_hope_ for peace by Xmas, I believe we should speed everything
to the limit on the assumption that next year will be the
crucial year."--_October 20, 1918._

"During the last week Wilson has been adroitly endeavoring to
get the Allies into the stage of note writing and peace
discussion with an only partially beaten and entirely
unconquered Germany. I have been backing up the men like Lodge
who have given utterance to the undoubtedly strong, but not
necessarily steady, American demand for unconditional surrender.
It is dreadful to have my sons face danger; but unless we put
this war through, _their sons may have to face worse danger--and
their daughters also_."--_October 27, 1918._

OYSTER BAY, August, 1919.

CONTENTS

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