G
Game—Extermination of
The rates of extermination of the different kinds of big game have been very unequal in different localities. Each kind of big game has had its own peculiar habitat in which it throve best, and each has also been found more or less plentifully in other regions where the circumstances were less favorable; and in these comparatively unfavorable regions it early tends to disappear before the advance of man. In consequence, where the ranges of the different game animals overlap and are intertwined, one will disappear first in one locality, and another will disappear first where the conditions are different. (1905.) Mem. Ed. III, 124; Nat. Ed. II, 497.
Game Hunting—Abuse of
The custom of shooting great bags of deer, grouse, partridges, and pheasants, the keen rivalry in making such bags, and their publication in sporting journals, are symptoms of a spirit which is most unhealthy from every standpoint. It is to be earnestly hoped that every American hunting or fishing club will strive to inculcate among its own members, and in the minds of the general public, that anything like an excessive bag, any destruction for the sake of making a record, is to be severely reprobated…. The professional market hunter who kills game for the hide, or for the feathers, or for the meat, or to sell antlers and other trophies; the market men who put game in cold storage; and the rich people, who are content to buy what they have not the skill to get by their own exertions—these are the men who are the real enemies of game. Where there is no law which checks the market hunters, the inevitable result of their butchery is that the game is completely destroyed and with it their own means of livelihood. (1905.) Mem. Ed. III, 269-270; Nat. Ed. III, 88.
Game Laws—Need for
We need, in the interest of the community at large, a rigid system of game-laws rigidly enforced, and it is not only admissible, but one may almost say necessary, to establish, under the control of the State, great national forest reserves which shall also be breeding-grounds and nurseries for wild game; but I should much regret to see grow up in this country a system of large private game-preserves kept for the enjoyment of the very rich. One of the chief attractions of the life of the wilderness is its rugged and stalwart democracy; there every man stands for what he actually is and can show himself to be. (1893.) Mem. Ed. II, 412-413; Nat. Ed. II, 353-354.
____________. If we are really alive to our opportunities under our democratic social and political system, we can keep for ourselves—and by “ourselves” I mean the enormous bulk of men whose means range from moderate to very small—ample opportunity for the enjoyment of hunting and shooting, of vigorous and blood-stirring out-of-doors sport. If we fail to take advantage of our possibilities, if we fail to pass, in the interest of all, wise game laws, and to see that these game laws are properly enforced, we shall then have to thank ourselves if in the future the game is only found in the game preserves of the wealthy; and under such circumstances only these same wealthy people will have the chance to hunt it. (1905.) Mem. Ed. III, 211; Nat. Ed. III, 39.
Game Preserves
The true way to preserve the mule-deer . . . as well as our other game, is to establish on the nation's property great nurseries and wintering grounds, such as the Yellowstone Park, and then to secure fair play for the deer outside these grounds by a wisely planned and faithfully executed series of game- laws. This is the really democratic method of solving the problem. Occasionally even yet some one will assert that the game “belongs to the people, and should be given over to them”—meaning thereby that there should be no game-laws, and that every man should be at liberty indiscriminately to kill every kind of wild animal, harmless, useless, or noxious, until the day when our woods become wholly bereft of all the forms of higher animal life. Such an argument can only be made from the standpoint of those big-game dealers in the cities who care nothing for the future, and desire to make money at the present day by a slaughter which in the last analysis only benefits the wealthy people who are able to pay for the game; for once the game has been destroyed, the livelihood of the professional gunner will be taken away. Most emphatically wild game not on private property does belong to the people, and the only way in which the people can secure their ownership is by protecting it in the interest of all against the vandal few. (1905.) Mem. Ed. III, 233-234; Nat. Ed. III, 58.
____________. Game reserves should not be established where they are detrimental to the interests of large bodies of settlers, nor yet should they be nominally established in regions so remote that the only men really interfered with are those who respect the law, while a premium is thereby put on the activity of the unscrupulous persons who are eager to break it. Similarly, game-laws should be drawn primarily in the interest of the whole people, keeping steadily in mind certain facts that ought to be self-evident to every one above the intellectual level of those well-meaning persons who apparently think that all shooting is wrong and that man could continue to exist if all wild animals were allowed to increase unchecked. (1910.) Mem. Ed. V, 13; Nat. Ed. IV, 11.
Game Preserves —Benefits of
The preservation of game and of wild life generally—aside from the noxious species—on these reserves is of incalculable benefit to the people as a whole. As the game increases in these national refuges and nurseries it overflows into the surrounding country. Very wealthy men can have private game-preserves of their own. But the average man of small or moderate means can enjoy the vigorous pastime of the chase, and indeed can enjoy wild nature, only if there are good general laws, properly enforced, for the preservation of the game and wild life, and if, furthermore, there are big parks or reserves provided for the use of all our people, like those of the Yellowstone, the Yosemite, and the Colorado. (1916.) Mem. Ed. IV, 10; Nat. Ed. III, 192.
Game Preserves —Types of
Game- preserving may be of two kinds. In one the individual landed proprietor, or a group of such individuals, erect and maintain a private game-preserve, the game being their property just as much as domestic animals. Such preserves often fill a useful purpose, and if managed intelligently and with a sense of public spirit and due regard for the interests and feelings of others, may do much good, even in the most democratic community. But whereever the population is sufficiently advanced in intelligence and character, a far preferable and more democratic way of preserving the game is by a system of public preserves, of protected nurseries and breeding-grounds, while the laws define the conditions under which all alike may shoot the game and the restrictions under which all alike must enjoy the privilege. It is in this way that the wild creatures of the forest and the mountain can best and most permanently be preserved. Even in the United States the enactment and observance of such laws has brought about a marked increase in the game of certain localities, as, for instance, New England, during the past thirty years. (Foreword to The Master of Game by Edward, second Duke of York; February 15, 1904.) Mem. Ed. XIV, 480- 481; Nat. Ed. XII, 352.
Game Protection
It will be a real misfortune if our wild animals disappear from mountain, plain, and forest, to be found only, if at all, in great game preserves. It is to the interest of all of us to see that there is ample and real protection for our game as for our woodlands. A true democracy, really alive to its opportunities, will insist upon such game preservation, for it is to the interest of our people as a whole. (Introduction to A. G. Wallihan's Camera Shots at Big Game, dated May 31, 1901.) Mem. Ed. XIV, 580; Nat. Ed. XII, 437.
____________. In order to preserve the wild life of the wilderness at all, some middle ground must be found between brutal and senseless slaughter and the unhealthy sentimentalism which would just as surely defeat its own end by bringing about the eventual total extinction of the game. It is impossible to preserve the larger wild animals in regions thoroughly fit for agriculture; and it is perhaps too much to hope that the larger carnivores can be preserved for merely æsthetic reasons. But throughout our country there are large regions entirely unsuited for agriculture, where, if the people only have foresight, they can, through the power of the State, keep the game in perpetuity. There is no hope of preserving the bison permanently, save in large private parks; but all other game, including not merely deer, but the pronghorn, the splendid bighorn, and the stately and beautiful wapiti, can be kept on the public lands, if only the proper laws are passed, and if only these laws are properly enforced. (1905.) Mem. Ed. III, 252; Nat. Ed. III, 73.
____________. When genuinely protected, birds and mammals increase so rapidly that it becomes imperative to kill them. If, under such circumstances, their numbers are not kept down by legitimate hunting—and some foolish creatures protest even against legitimate hunting—it would be necessary to have them completely exterminated by paid butchers. But the foolish sentimentalists who do not see this are not as yet the really efficient foes of wild life and of sensible movements for its preservation. The game-hog, the man who commercializes the destruction of game, and the wealthy epicure—all of these, backed by the selfish ignorance which declines to learn, are the real foes with whom we must contend. True lovers of the chase, true sportsmen, true believers in hunting as a manly and vigorous pastime, recognize these men as their worst foes; and the great array of men and women who do not hunt, but who love wild creatures, who love all nature, must discriminate sharply between the two classes. (Outlook, January 20, 1915.) Mem. Ed. XIV, 570; Nat. Ed. XII, 428.
Game
See also Conservation; Forest; Hunting; Wild Life.
Games
See Athletics; Boxing; Football; Gymnastics; Sports.
Garfield, James R.
The appointment on March 4, 1907, of James R. Garfield as secretary of the interior led to a new era in the interpretation and enforcement of the laws governing the public lands. His administration of the Interior Department was beyond comparison the best we have ever had. It was based primarily on the conception that it is as much the duty of public-land officials to help the honest settler get title to his claim as it is to prevent the looting of the public lands. (1913.) Mem. Ed. XXII, 469; Nat. Ed. XX, 403.
Garfield, James R.
See also Cabinet; Conservation.
Garland, Hamlin
Hamlin Garland is a man of letters and a man of action, a lover of nature and a lover of the life of men. For thirty years he has done good work; and never better work than he is doing now. The forests and the high peaks, the green prairies and the dry plains, he knows them as the city man knows his streets and he brings them vivid before the eyes of the reader. Moreover, he knows the men and women of the farms, the cattle-ranchers, and the little raw towns; he knew the old-time wilderness wanderers in their day; and their successors, the forest-rangers, the stockmen who own high-grade cattle, the officers of the law, are his friends today. His heart is tender with sympathy for those beaten down in the hard struggle for life, and aflame with indignation against every form of evil and opression. Whether the crime be one of cunnng or of brutal violence; whether it be by the rich man against the poor or by the mob against the doer of justice; whether it be by the white against the Indian or by the foul man-beast against the woman—it matters not, against all alike he bears burning testimony. And above all, his people are real men and real women; and those for whom he cares, we, who read of them, grow likewise to love; and we are more just and gentle toward our fellowmen, and toward the women who are our sisters, because of what he has written about them. (Appreciation by Theodore Roosevelt used as Foreword.) Hamlin Garland, They of the High Trails. (Harper & Bros., N. Y., 1916), p. viii. GEORGE V. I like him thoroughly. He is a strong man. He is going to make himself felt, not only in England, but in the world, and he will keep well within the constitutional limitations. I don't think he has the tact of Edward, from what I hear; but that may come. But he struck me as one who has a thorough hold on himself and thorough knowledge of the people he is to rule. (Recorded by Butt in letter of June 30, 1910.) Taft and Roosevelt. The Intimate Letters of Archie Butt. (Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, N. Y., 1930), I, 428.
German-Americans
The American citizen of German birth or descent who is a good American and nothing but a good American, and whose whole loyalty is undividedly given to this country and its flag, stands on an exact level wth every other American, and is entitled to precisely the same consideration and treatment as if his ancestors had come over on the Mayflower or had settled on the banks of the James three centuries ago. I am partly of German blood, and I am exactly as proud of this blood as of the blood of other strains that flows in my veins. But—I am an American, and nothing else! (Metropolitan, October 1915.) Mem. Ed. XX, 325; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 278.
____________. No man can retain his self-respect if he ostensibly remains as an American citizen while he is really doing everything he can do to subordinate the interests and duty of the United States to the interests of a foreign land. You made it evident that your whole heart is with the country of your preference, for Germany, and not with the country of your adoption, the United States. Under such circumstances you are not a good citizen here. But neither are you a good citizen of Germany. You should go home to Germany at once; abandon your American citizenship, if, as I understand, you possess it; and serve in the army, if you are able, or, if not, in any other position in which you can be useful. As far as I am concerned, I admit no divided allegiance in United States citizenship; and my views of hyphenated-Americans are those which were once expressed by the Emperor himself, when he said to Frederick Whitridge that he understood what Germans were; and he understood what Americans were; but he had neither understanding of nor patience with those who called themselves German-Americans. (To Viereck, March 15, 1915.) George Sylvester Viereck, Roosevelt. A Study in Ambivalence. (New York, 1919), p. 125.
German-Americans — Contributions of
The German element has contributed much to our national life, and can yet do much more in music, in literature, in art, in sound constructive citizenship. In the greatest of our national crises, the Civil War, a larger percentage of our citizens of recent German origin, than of our citizens of old revolutionary stock, proved loyal to the great ideals of union and liberty. . . . I believe that this country has more to learn from Germany than from any other nation—and this as regards fealty to non-utilitarian ideals, no less than as regards the essentials of social and industrial efficiency, of that species of socialized governmental action which is absolutely necessary for individual protection and general well-being under the conditions of modern industrialism. (1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 250; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 215.
German-Americans—Discrimination Against
It is an outrage to discriminate against a good American in civil life because he is of German blood. It is an even worse outrage for the Government to permit such discrimination against him in the army or in any of the organizations working under government supervision. Let us insist on the immediate stopping of such discriminations, which cruelly wound good Americans and tend to drive them back into the ranks of the half-loyal. (April 16, 1918.) Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, 137.
German-Americans—Duty of
As regards my friends, the Americans of German birth or descent, I can only say that they are in honor bound to regard all international matters solely from the standpoint of the interest of the United States, and of the demands of a lofty international morality. (Independent, January 4, 1915.) Mem. Ed. XX, 181; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 155.
German-Americans, Professional
These men [professional German-Americans] have nothing in common with the great body of Americans who are in whole or in part of German blood, and who are precisely as good Americans as those of any other ancestry. There are not, and never have been, in all our land better citizens than the great mass of the men and women of German birth or descent who have been or are being completely merged in our common American nationality—a nationality distinct from any in Europe, for Americans who are good Americans are no more German-Americans than they are English-Americans or Irish-Americans or Scandinavian-Americans. They are Americans and nothing else. . . . The professional German-Americans of this type are acting purely in the sinister interest of Germany. They have shown their eager readiness to sacrifice the interest of the United States whenever its interest conflicted with that of Germany. They represent that adherence to the politico-racial hyphen which is the badge and sign of moral treason to the Republic. (To Progressive National Committee, June 22, 1916.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 571; Nat. Ed. XVII, 420.
____________. The time has come to insist that they now drop their dual allegiance, and in good faith become outright Germans or outright Americans. They cannot be both; and those who pretend that they are both, are merely Germans who hypocritically pretend to be Americans in order to serve Germany and damage America. At the moment, the vital thing to remember about these half-hidden traitors is that to attack America's allies, while we are at death grips with a peculiarly ruthless and brutal foe, or to champion that foe as against our allies, or to apologize for that foe's infamous wrongdoing, or to clamor for an early and inconclusive peace, is to be false to the cause of liberty and to the United States. In this war, either a man is a good American, and therefore is against Germany, and in favor of the allies of America, or he is not an American at all, and should be sent back to Germany where he belongs. (New York Times, September 10, 1917.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 36; Nat. Ed. XIX, 31.
German-Americans In War-Time
There is no permanent use in half-measures. It is silly to be lackadaisical over men of German origin having to fight the Germans of Prussianized Germany. Washington and most of his associates were of English origin; nevertheless they fought the British king. If they had not done so we would not now be a nation. If the Americans of German blood do not now fight against Germany and feel against Germany as strongly as the rest of us they are not fit to be Americans at all. (1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 330; Nat. Ed. XIX, 302.
German-Americans
See also Americans, Hyphenated.
German Designs on Latin America
I find that the Germans regard our failure to go forward in building up the navy this year as a sign that our spasm of preparation, as they think it, has come to an end; that we shall sink back, so that in a few years they will be in a position to take some step in the West Indies or South America which will make us either put up or shut up on the Monroe doctrine; they counting upon their ability to trounce us if we try the former horn of the dilemma. (To H. C. Lodge, March 27, 1901.) Lodge Letters I, 484.
German Dislike of America
It was evident that, next to England, America was very unpopular in Germany. The upper classes, stiff, domineering, formal, with the organized army, the organized bureaucracy, the organized industry of their great, highly civilized and admirably administered country behind them, regarded America with a dislike which was all the greater because they could not make it merely contempt. They felt that we were entirely unorganized, that we had no business to be formidable rivals at all in view of our loose democratic governmental methods, and that it was exasperating to feel that our great territory, great natural resources, and strength of individual initiative enabled us in spite of our manifold shortcomings to be formidable industrial rivals of Germany; and, more incredible still, that thanks to our navy and our ocean-protected position, we were in a military sense wholly independent and slightly defiant. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 287; Bishop II, 246.
German Immigration
It is almost exactly two hundred and twenty years ago that the first marked immigration from Germany to what were then the colonies in this western hemisphere began. As is inevitable with any pioneers those pioneers of the German race on this side of the ocean had to encounter bitter privation, had to struggle against want in many forms; had to meet and overcome hardship; for the people that go forth to seek their well-being in strange lands must inevitably be ready to pay as the price of success the expenditure of all that there is in them to overcome the obstacles in their way. . . . Throughout our career of development the German immigration to this country went steadily onward, and they who came here, and their sons and grandsons, played an ever-increasing part in the history of our people—a part that culminated in the Civil War; for every lover of the Union must ever bear in mind what was done in this Commonwealth as in the Commonwealth of Missouri, by the folk of German birth or origin who served so loyally the flag that was theirs by inheriance or adoption. (At the Saengerfest, Baltimore, Md., June 15, 1903.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 42- 43; Nat. Ed. XVI, 36-37.
German Invasion of Belgium
This crime of Germany was a crime against international good faith, a crime against the soul of international law and fair dealing. It is to this act of unforgivable treachery that every succeeding infamy is to be traced; from terrorism and indiscriminate slaughter on land to terrorism and indiscriminate massacre of noncombatants at sea. And this crime of Germany has been condoned by the recreant silence of neutral nations, and above all by the recreant silence of the United States and its failure to live bravely up to its solemn promises. (Metropolitan, October 1915.) Mem. Ed. CSX, 333; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 286.
German Invasion of Belgium
See also Belgium; Hague Conventions; World War.
German Leaders—Policies of
Those responsible for Germany's policies at the present day are most ardent disciples of, and believers in, Frederick the Great and Bismarck, and not unnaturally have an intense contempt for the mock altruism of so many worthy people who will not face facts—a contempt which Bismarck showed for Motley when Motley very foolishly thrust upon him advice about how to deal with conquered France. Having been trained to believe only in loyalty to the national welfare, and in the kind of international morality characteristic of one pirate among his fellow pirates, they are unable to understand or appreciate the standards of international morality which men like Washington and Lincoln genuinely believed in, which have been practiced on a very large scale for two or three generations by your people in India, and latterly in Egypt and which are now being applied by our own people on a smaller scale in the Philippines and the West Indies. (To sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XL, 266; Bishop II, 228.
German Organization
The efficiency of the German organization, the results of the German preparation in advance, were strikingly shown in the powerful forward movement of the first six weeks of the war and in the steady endurance and resolute resourcefulness displayed in the following months. Not only is the German organization, the German preparedness, highly creditable to Germany, but even more creditable is the spirit lying behind the organization. The men and women of Germany, from the highest to the lowest, have shown a splendid patriotism and abnegation of self. In reading of their attitude, it is impossible not to feel a thrill of admiration for the stern courage and lofty disinterestedness which this great crisis laid bare in the souls of the people. I most earnestly hope that we Americans, if ever the need may arise, will show similar qualities. (New York Times, October 11, 1914.) Mem. Ed. XX, 54; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 46.
German Patriotism
Our people need to pay homage to the great efficiency and the intense patriotism of Germany. But they need no less fully to realize that this patriotism has at times been accompanied by callous indifference to the rights of weaker nations, and that this efficiency has at times been exercised in a way that represents a genuine set- back to humanity and civilization. (Everybody's, January 1915.) Mem. Ed. CSX, 155; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 133.
German People—Admiration for
I feel not merely respect but admiration for the German people. I regard their efficiency and their devoted patriotism and steady endurance as fraught with significant lessons to us. I believe that they have permitted themselves to be utterly misled, and have permitted their government to lead them in the present war into a course of conduct which, if persevered in, would make them the permanent enemy of all the free and liberty-loving nations of mankind and of Civilization itself. But I believe that sooner or later they will recover their senses and make their government go right. I shall continue to cherish the friendliest feelings toward the Germans individually, and for Germany collectively as soon as Germany collectively comes to her senses. (1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 252; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 217.
German People and Government
There are plenty of Americans like myself who immensely admire the efficiency of the Germans in industry and in war, the efficiency with which in this war they have subordinated the whole social and industrial activity of the state to the successful prosecution of the war, and who greatly admire the German people, and regard the Germain strain as one of the best and strongest strains in our composite American blood; but who feel that the German Government, the German governing class has in this war shown such ruthless and domineering disregard for the rights of others as to demand emphatic and resolute action (not merely words unbacked by action) on our part. Unfortunately, this ruthless and brutal efficiency has, as regards many men of the pacifist type, achieved precisely the purpose it was intended to achieve. (Metropolitan, August 1915.) Mem. Ed. XX, 356; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 305.
German Sympathizers
The men who oppose the war; who fail to support the government in every measure which really tends to the efficient prosecution of the war; and above all who in any shape or way champion the cause and the actions of Germany, show themselves to be the Huns within our own gates and the allies of the men whom our sons and brothers are crossing the ocean to fight. (October 1, 1917.) Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, 8.
German Unrest—Cause of
He [William II] kept saying that he thought it was the business of those who believe in monarchical government to draw the teeth of the Socialists by remedying all real abuses. I went over the problems at length with him from this standpoint. Of course it was not necessary or advisable that I should speak to him about one thing that had struck me much in Germany, namely, that the discontent was primarily political rather than economic; in other words, that the very real unrest among the lower classes sprung not from a sense that they were treated badly economically, but from the knowledge that it rested not with themselves, but with others as to how they should be treated, whether well or ill, and that this was galling to them. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 301; Bishop II, 257.
German War Plans
The German war plans contemplate, as I happen to know personally, as possible courses of action, flank marches through both Belgium and Switzerland. They are under solemn treaty to respect the territories of both countries, and they have not the slightest thought of paying the least attention to these treaties unless they are threatened with war as the result of their violation. (To H. C. Lodge, September 12, 1911.) Lodge Letters II, 409.
German Women
I hope it is not ungallant of me to say that the North German women of the upper classes were less attractive than the corresponding women of any country I visited. They have fine domestic qualities, and if only they keep these qualities, then the question of their attractiveness is, from the standpoint of the race, of altogether minor importance. But these domestic virtues seem to have been acquired at the cost of other attributes, which many other women, who are at least as good wives and mothers as the German women, do not find it necessary to sacrifice. Perhaps they are cowed in their home life. Their husbands, who also have fine qualities, not only wish to domineer over the rest of mankind—which is not always possible—but wish to, and do, domineer over their own wives. Whether because of this, or for some other reason, these same wives certainly did not seem attractive in the sense not only that their more southern neighbors were, but their more northern neighbors, like the Swedes. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 293; Bishop II, 251.
Germany—Condemnation of
Germany has trampled under foot every device of international law for securing the protection of the weak and unoffending. She has shown an utter disregard of all considerations of pity, mercy, humanity, and international morality. She has counted upon the terror inspired by her ruthless brutality to protect her from retaliation or interference. The outrages committed on our own People have been such as the United States has never before been forced to endure, and have included the repeated killing of our men, women and children. The sinking of the Marina and the Cheming the other day, with the attendant murder of six Americans, was but the most recent in an unbroken chain of injuries and insults, which by comparison make mere wrong to our property interests sink into absolute insignificance. As long as neutrals keep silent, or speak apologetically, or take refuge in the futilities of the professional pacifists, there will be no cessation in these brutalities. (To F. W. Whit-ridge, December 15, 1916.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 538; Bishop II, 460.
____________. In international relations, the Prussianized Germany of to-day stands for ruthless self- aggrandizement, and contempt for the rights of other nations. She stands for the rule of might over right; of power over justice. If Germany now conquered France and England, we would be the next victim; and if the conquest took place at this moment we would be a helpless victim. (1917.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 5; Nat. Ed. XIX, 5.
Germany—Debt to
From Germany this country has learned much. Germany has contributed a great element to the blood of our people, and it has given the most marked trend ever given to our scholastic and university system, to the whole system of training students and scholars. In taking what we should from Germany, from this great kindred nation, I wish that we could take especially the idealism which renders it natural to them to celebrate such an event as Schiller's life and writings; and also the keen, practical common- sense which enables them to turn their idealistic spirit into an instrument for producing the most perfect military and industrial organizations that this world has ever seen. (At Clark University, Worcester, Mass., June 21, 1905.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers IV, 393-394.
Germany—Peace Terms With
We should accept from Germany what our Allies have wrung from Austria and Turkey—unconditional surrender. This ought to be our war aim; and until this war aim is achieved the peace terms should be discussed only with our Allies and not with our enemies. In broad outline, it is possible now to state what these peace terms should include: Restitution by Germany of what she has taken and atonement for the wrong she has done; her complete military withdrawal from every foot of territory outside her own limits; and the giving not of "autonomy "—a slippery word used by slippery people to mean anything or nothing—but of complete independence to the races subject to the dominion of Germany, Austria, and Turkey. (1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 255; Nat. Ed. XIX, 237.
Germany — Roosevelt's Reception in
It was curious and interesting to notice the contrast between my reception in Germany and my reception in the other countries of Europe which I had already visited or visited afterward. Everywhere else I was received, as I have said, with practically as much enthusiasm as in my own country when I was President. In Germany I was treated with proper civility, all the civility which I had a right to demand and expect; and no more. In Paris the streets were decorated with French and American flags in my honor. . . . In Berlin the authorities showed me every courtesy, and the people all proper civility. But excepting the university folk, they really did not want to see me. When I left Sweden I left a country where tens of thousands of people gathered on every occasion to see me; every station was jammed with them. When I came into Germany a few hundred might be at each station, or might not be. They were courteous, decorously enthusiastic, and that was all. It was just the same on our trip from Berlin to London. We were given the royal carriage, and every attention shown us by the officials; at each station there were a few score or a few hundred people, polite and mildly curious. . . . The Germans did not like me, and did not like my country; and under the circumstances they behaved entirely correctly, showing me every civility and making no pretense of an enthusiasm which was not present. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 286; Bishop II, 245, 246.
Germany—Treatment of
As for crushing Germany or crippling her and reducing her to political impotence, such an action would be a disaster to mankind. The Germans are not merely brothers; they are largely ourselves. The debt we owe to German blood is great; the debt we owe to German thought and to German example, not only in governmental administration, but in all the practical work of life, is even greater. Every generous heart and every far-seeing mind throughout the world should rejoice in the existence of a stable, united, and powerful Germany, too strong to fear aggression and too just to be a source of fear to its neighbors. (New York Times, October 11, 1914.) Mem. Ed. XX, 58; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 49.
____________. Those of us who believe in unconditional surrender regard Germany's behavior during the last five years as having made her the outlaw among nations. In private life sensible men and women do not negotiate with an outlaw or grow sentimental about him, or ask for a peace with him on terms of equality if he will give up his booty. Still less do they propose to make a league with him for the future, and on the strength of this league to abolish the sheriff and take the constable. On the contrary, they expect the law officers to take him by force and to have him tried and punished. They do not punish him out of revenge, but because all intelligent persons know punishment to be necessary in order to stop certain kinds of criminals from wrong-doing and to save the community from such wrongdoing. We ought to treat Germany in precisely this manner. It is a sad and dreadful thing to have to face some months or a year or so of additional bloodshed, but it is a much worse thing to quit now and have the children now growing up obliged to do the job all over again, with ten times as much bloodshed and suffering, when their turn comes. The surest way to secure a peace as lasting as that which followed the downfall of Napoleon is to overthrow the Prussianized Germany of the Hohenzollerns as Napoleon was overthrown. If we enter into a league of peace with Germany and her vassal allies, we must expect them to treat the arrangement as a scrap of paper whenever it becomes to their interest to do so. (Kansas City Star, October 26, 1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 418; Nat. Ed. XIX, 379.
Germany and America
As an American I should advocate—as a matter of fact do advocate— keeping our navy at a pitch that will enable us to interfere promptly if Germany ventures to touch a foot of American soil. I would not go into the abstract rights or wrongs of it; I would simply say that we did not intend to have Germans on the continent, excepting as immigrants, whose children would become Americans of one sort or another, and if Germany intended to extend her empire here she would have to whip us first. (To Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice, August 11, 1897.) Mem. Ed. XXIII, 92; Bishop I, 78.
____________. Of all the nations of Europe it seems to me Germany is by far the most hostile to us. With Germany under the Kaiser we may at any time have trouble if she seeks to acquire territory in South America. (To F. C. Moore, February 5, 1898.) Mem. Ed. XXIII, 92; Bishop I, 79.
Germany and Democracy
Germany stands as the antithesis of democracy. She exults in her belief that in England democracy has broken down. She exults in the fact that in America democracy has shown itself so utterly futile that it has not even dared to speak about wrong-doing committed against others, and has not dared to do more than speak, without acting, when the wrong was done against itself. (Metropolitan, November 1915.) Mem. Ed. XX, 386; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 330.
Germany and England
I do not believe that Germany consciously and of set purpose proposes to herself the idea of a conquest of England, but Germany has the arrogance of a very strong power, as yet almost untouched by that feeble aspiration toward international equity which one or two other strong powers, notably England and America, do at least begin to feel. Germany would like to have a strong navy so that whenever England does something she does not like she could at once assume toward England the tone she has assumed toward France. The Morocco incident shows how far Germany is willing to go in doing what she believes her interest and her destiny demand, in disregard of her own engagements and of the equities of other peoples. If she had a navy as strong as that of England, I do not believe that she would intend to use it for the destruction of England; but I do believe that incidents would be very likely to occur which might make her so use it. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 1, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 296; Bishop II, 253.
Germany
See also Algeciras Conference; Arbitration; Belgium; Frederick The Great ; Hague Conventions; Lusitania; Monroe Doctrine; Patriotism; Submarine Warfare ; William Ii; World War.
Giraffe
See Animals—Protective Coloration of.
Gladstone, William
Mr. Gladstone's wide range of scholarship, and extensive—possibly more extensive than profound—acquaintance with many different branches of learning, none would deny; yet it is perhaps not unfair to say that his speculations attract attention less for their own merits than because of the fame their author has won as an orator and politician. (Cosmopolitan, December 1892.) Mem. Ed. XIV, 370; Nat. Ed. XII, 304.
Goat, White
Of all American game the white goat is the least wary and most stupid. In places where it is much hunted it of course gradually grows wilder and becomes difficult to approach and kill; and much of its silly tameness is doubtless due to the inaccessible nature of its haunts, which renders it ordinarily free from molestation; but aside from this it certainly seems as if it was naturally less wary than either deer or mountain-sheep. The great point is to get above it. All its foes live in the valleys, and while it is in the mountains, if they strive to approach it at all, they must do so from below. It is in consequence always on the watch for danger from beneath; but it is easily approached from above, and then, as it generally tries to escape by running uphill, the hunter is very apt to get a shot. Its chase is thus laborious rather than exciting; and to my mind it is less attractive than is the pursuit of most of our other game. Yet it has an attraction of its own, after all; while the grandeur of the scenery amid which it must be carried on, the freedom and hardihood of the life, and the pleasure of watching the queer habits of the game, all combine to add to the hunter's enjoyment. (1893.) Mem. Ed. II, 115-116; Nat. Ed. II, 101-102.
____________. The white goat is the only game beast of America which has not decreased in numbers since the arrival of the white man. Although in certain localities it is now decreasing, yet, taken as a whole, it is probably quite as plentiful now as it was fifty years back; for in the early part of the present century there were Indian tribes who hunted it perseveringly to make the skins into robes, whereas now they get blankets from the traders and no longer persecute the goats. The early trappers and mountain-men knew but little of the animal. Whether they were after beaver or were hunting big game or were merely exploring, they kept to the valleys; there was no inducement for them to climb to the tops of the mountains; so it resulted that there was no animal with which the old hunters were so unfamiliar as with the white goat. The professional hunters of to-day likewise bother it but little; they do not care to undergo severe toil for an animal with worthless flesh and a hide of little value—for it is only in the late fall and winter that the long hair and fine wool give the robe any beauty. So the quaint, sturdy, musky beasts, with their queer and awkward ways, their boldness and their stupidity, with their white coats and big black hoofs, black muzzles, and sharp, gently curved, span-long black horns, have held their own well among the high mountains that they love. (1893.) Mem. Ed. II, 118-119; Nat. Ed. II, 104.
Goethals, George W.
The work [of digging the Panama Canal] as a whole has been done under the direction of an army officer, Colonel Goethals, whose name is not very familiar to the people here in the United States; and yet, I think, this country at this time owes as much to him as any country in the world owes to any public men now performing a public duty. I am not speaking hyperbolically. I have had some historical training myself, and I am using exactly the words that I think describe the case, when I say what I have said. I believe that, excepting a certain number of men who have taken part in the wars which founded and perpetuated this Republic, there is no body of our citizens of similar size which has more emphatically deserved well of the Republic than the men engaged in doing that work down at Panama, men like Doctor Gorgas, Mr. Bishop, all the engineer officers, and above all Colonel Goethals. It is he to whom we owe most— to whom we owe more than to any other one man for what has been done down there. . . . And remember, Colonel Goethals does not profit pecuniarily by doing that wonderful work in our interest. He will finish it as part of his duty as an army officer and then take any other detail to which he is assigned; and so far from being properly rewarded by this government, he will be uncommonly lucky if he is not ferociously attacked should any effort be made to recognize his great services by giving him some special promotion. (At Harvard University, Cambridge, December 14, 1910.) Mem. Ed. XV, 556-557; Nat. Ed. XIII, 602-603.
Gold Standard
We . . . believe in the gold standard as fixed by the usage and verdict of the business world, and in a sound monetary system, as matters of principle; as matters not of momentary political expediency, but of permanent organic policy. In 1896 and again in 1900 far-sighted men, without regard to their party fealty in the past, joined to work against what they regarded as a debased monetary system. The policies which they championed have been steadfastly adhered to by the Administration; and by the act of March 14, 1900, Congress established the single gold standard as the measure of our monetary value. (Letter accepting nomination for Presidency, September 12, 1904.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 508-509; Nat. Ed. XVI, 380-381.
Gold Standard
See also Currency; Silver. Golden Rule. See Ten Commandments.
Good Government
See Government.
Gorky, Maxim
The Gorky class of realistic writer of poems and short stories is a class of beings for whom I have no very great regard per se; but I would not have the slightest objection to receiving him, and indeed would be rather glad to receive him, if he was merely a member of it. But in addition he represents the very type of fool academic revolutionist which tends to bring to confusion and failure the great needed measures of social, political, and industrial reform. (Letter of April 23, 1906.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 15; Bishop II, 12.
Governing Class, the
The weakling and the coward are out of place in a strong and free community. In a republic like ours the governing class is composed of the strong men who take the trouble to do the work of government; and if you are too timid or too fastidious or too careless to do your part in this work, then you forfeit your right to be considered one of the governing and you become one of the governed instead—one of the driven cattle of the political arena. (At the Harvard Union, Cambridge, February 23, 1907.) Mem. Ed. XV, 487; Nat. Ed. XIII, 563.
____________. Mr. Taft's position is perfectly clear. It is that we have in this country a special class of persons wiser than the people, who are above the people, who cannot be reached by the people, but who govern them and ought to govern them; and who protect various classes of the people from the whole people. That is the old, old doctrine which has been acted upon for thousands of years abroad; and which here in America has been acted upon sometimes openly, sometimes secretly, for forty years by many men in public and in private life, and I am sorry to say by many judges; a doctrine which has in fact tended to create a bulwark for privilege, a bulwark unjustly protecting special interests against the rights of the people as a whole. This doctrine is to me a dreadful doctrine; for its effect is, and can only be, to make the courts the shield of privilege against popular rights. Naturally, every upholder and beneficiary of crooked privilege loudly applauds the doctrine. It is behind the shield of that doctrine that crooked clauses creep into laws, that men of wealth and power control legislation. The men of wealth who praise this doctrine, this theory, would do well to remember that to its adoption by the courts is due the distrust so many of our wage-workers now feel for the courts. I deny that that theory has worked so well that we should continue it. I most earnestly urge that the evils and abuses it has produced cry aloud for remedy; and the only remedy is in fact to restore the power to govern directly to the people, and to make the public servants directly responsible to the whole people—and to no part of them, to no "class" of them. (At Carnegie Hall, New York City, March 20, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 213; Nat. Ed. XVII, 162.
Government—the People and the
The attempt has recently been made to improve on Abraham Lincoln's statement that "this is a government of the people, for the people, by the people." As a substitute therefor it is proposed that this government shall hereafter be a government of the people, for the people, by a representative part of the people. It is always a dangerous matter to try to improve on Lincoln when we deal with the rights and duties of the people, and this particular attempt at improvement is not a happy one. In substance it of course means nothing except that this is to be a government of the whole people by a part of the people. We have had such a government in various parts of this Union from time to time, and stripped of verbiage it simply means a government of the people by the bosses; a government of the whole people against instead of for the interest of the whole people by a part of the people which does the bidding of the holders of political and financial privilege. (At St. Louis, Mo., March 28, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 234; Nat. Ed. XVII, 172.
____________. We propose that the people shall control both the legislatures and the courts, not to pervert the Constitution, but to overthrow those who themselves pervert the Constitution into an instrument for perpetuating injustice, instead of making it what it must and shall be made, the most effective of all possible means for securing to the people of the whole country the right everywhere to create conditions which will tend for the uplift of the ordinary, the average men, women, and children of the United States. (Before National Conference of Progressive Service, Portsmouth, R. I., July 2, 1913.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 527; Nat. Ed. XVII, 387.
____________. We hold that all the agencies of government belong to the people, that the Constitution is theirs, and that the courts are theirs. The people should exercise their power, not to overthrow either the Constitution or the courts, but to overthrow those who would pervert them into agents against the popular welfare. We believe that where a public servant misrepresents the people, the people should have the right to remove him from office, and that where the legislature enacts a law which it should not enact or fails to enact a law which it should enact, the people should have the right on their own initiative to supply the omission. We do not believe that either power should be loosely or wantonly used, and we would provide for its exercise in a way which would make its exercise safe; but the power is necessary, and it should be provided. (Century Magazine, October 1913.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 550; Nat. Ed. XVII, 405.
Government, American
This great Republic of ours shall never become the government of a plutocracy, and it shall never become the government of a mob. God willing, it shall remain what our fathers who founded it meant it to be—a government in which each man stands on his worth as a man, where each is given the largest personal liberty consistent with securing the well-being of the whole, and where, so far as in us lies, we strive continually to secure for each man such equality of opportunity that in the strife of life he may have a fair chance to show the stuff that is in him. (At Jamestown Exposition, Va., April 26, 1907.) Mem. Ed. XII, 595; Nat. Ed. XI, 314.
Government, Free
Free government is only for nations that deserve it; and they lose all right to it by licentiousness, no less than by servility. If a nation cannot govern itself, it makes comparatively little difference whether its inability springs from a slavish and craven distrust of its own powers, or from sheer in capacity on the part of its citizens to exercise self- control and to act together. Self-governing freemen must have the power to accept necessary compromises, to make necessary concessions, each sacrificing somewhat of prejudice, even of principle, and every group must show the necessary subordination of its particular interests to the interests of the community as a whole. When the people will not or cannot work together; when they permit groups of extremists to decline to accept anything that does not coincide with their own extreme views, or when they let power slip from their hands through sheer supine indifference; then they have themselves chiefly to blame if the power is grasped by stronger hands. (1900.) Mem. Ed. XIII, 424; Nat. Ed. X, 304.
____________. It is no light task for a nation to achieve the temperamental qualities without which the institutions of free government are but an empty mockery. Our people are now successfully governing themselves, because for more than a thousand years they have been slowly fitting themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, toward this end. (First Annual Message, Washington, December 3, 1901.) Mem. Ed. XVII, 128; Nat. Ed. XV, 110-111.
____________. All of us, you and I, all of us together, want to rule ourselves, and we don't wish to have any body of outsiders rule us. That is what free government means. If people cannot rule themselves, then they are not fit for free government, and all talk about democracy is a sham. And this is aside from the fact that in actual life here in the United States experience has shown that the effort to substitute for the genuine rule of the people something else always means the rule of privilege in some form or other, sometimes political privilege, sometimes financial privilege, often a mixture of both. (At St. Louis, Mo., March 28, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 236; Nat. Ed. XVII, 173.
Government, Good
The end is good government, obtained through genuine popular rule. Any device that under given conditions achieves this end is good for those conditions, and the value of each device must be tested purely by the answer to the question, Does it or does it not secure the end in view ? One of the worst faults that can be committed by practical men engaged in the difficult work of self- government is to make a fetich of a name, or to confound the means with the end. The end is to secure justice, equality of opportunity in industrial as well as in political matters, to safeguard the interests of all the people, and work for a system which shall promote the general diffusion of well-being and yet give ample rewards to those who in any walk of life and in any kind of work render exceptional service to the community as a whole. (Outlook , January 21, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 97; Nat. Ed. XVII, 62.
Government, Good—Ends of
The ends of good government in our democracy are to secure by genuine popular rule a high average of moral and material well-being among our citizens. (Before Ohio Constitutional Convention, Columbus, February 21, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 169; Nat. Ed. XVII, 124.
Government, Good—Essentials for
There isn't any great genius needed to carry on our government well. We need ability, but it is the kind of ability that is common enough among average citizens, only it is the ability carried to a greater degree of perfection than the average man possesses. You want to have a man of ability just as you want to have a man of ability as the engineer of a first-class flying express- train. In the next place you want a man of honesty, and when I say "honesty" I do not mean merely that the man won't steal himself. I don't mean merely that kind of timid honesty which travels in blinders and if told that there is corruption on the right and left hand, says with nervous haste, “But I don't see it,” because he can't see it. I mean truculent, aggressive honesty. (At Elmira, N. Y., October 14, 1910.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 45; Nat. Ed. XVII, 35.
Government, Good—Foundation of
There never can be, there never will be a good government in which the average citizen is not a decent man in private life. It is a contradiction in terms to speak of a good government if the good government does not rest upon cleanliness and decency in the home, respect of husband and wife for one another, tenderness of the man for those dependent upon him, performance of duty by woman and by man, and the proper education of the children who are to make the next generation. The vital things in life are the things that foolish people look upon as commonplace. The vital deeds of life are those things which it lies within the reach of each of us to do, and the failure to perform which means the destruction of the State. (At Montgomery, Ala., October 24, 1905.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers IV, 529.
____________. It cannot be too often repeated that there is no patent device for securing good government; that after all is said and done, after we have given full credit to every scheme for increasing our material prosperity, to every effort of the lawmaker to provide a system under which each man shall be best secured in his own rights, it yet remains true that the great factor in working out the success of this giant republic of the Western continent must be the possession of those qualities of essential virtue and essential manliness which have built up every great and mighty people of the past, and the lack of which always has brought, and always will bring, the proudest of nations crashing down to ruin. (At Pan- American Exposition, Buffalo, May 20, 1901.) Mem. Ed. XV, 312; Nat. Ed. XIII, 446.
____________. In achieving good government the fundamental factor must be the character of the average citizen; that average citizen’s power of hatred for what is mean and base and unlovely; his fearless scorn of cowardice and his determination to war unyieldingly against the dark and sordid forces of evil. (At Antietam, Md., September 17, 1903.) Mem. Ed. XII, 624; Nat. Ed. XI, 337.
Government, Invisible
The selfish opposition of the great corporation lawyers and of their clients is entirely intelligent; for these men alone are the beneficiaries of the present reign of hidden, of invisible, government, and they rely primarily on well-meaning but reactionary courts to thwart the forward movement. (Century Magazine, October 1913 Mem. Ed. XIX, 551; Nat. Ed. XVII, 407.
Government, Popular
In every great crisis of the kind we face to-day, we find arrayed on one side the men who with fervor and broad sympathy and lofty idealism stand for the forward movement, the men who stand for the uplift and betterment of mankind, and who have faith in the people; and over against them the men of restricted vision and contracted sympathy, whose souls are not stirred by the wrongs of others. Side by side with the latter, appear the other men who lack all intensity of conviction, who care only for the pleasure of the day; and also those other men who distrust the people, who if dishonest wish to keep the people helpless so as to exploit them, and who if honest so disbelieve in the power of the people to bring about wholesome reform that every appeal to popular conscience and popular intelligence fills them with an angry terror. According to their own lights, these men are often very respectable, very worthy, but they live on a plane of low ideals. In the atmosphere they create impostors flourish, and leadership comes to be thought of only as success in making money, and the vision of heaven becomes a sordid vision, and all that is highest and purest in human nature is laughed at, and honesty is bought and sold in the market-place. (At Chicago, June 17, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 312; Nat. Ed. XVII, 227.
____________. For years I accepted the theory, as most of the rest of us then accepted it, that we already had popular government; that this was a government by the people. I believed the power of the boss was due only to the indifference and short-sightedness of the average decent citizen. Gradually it came over me that while this was half the truth, it was only half the truth, and that while the boss owed part of his power to the fact that the average man did not do his duty, yet that there was the further fact to be considered, that for the average man it had already been made very difficult instead of very easy for him to do his duty. I grew to feel a keen interest in the machinery for getting adequate and genuine popular rule, chiefly because I found that we could not get social and industrial justice without popular rule, and that it was immensely easier to get such popular rule by the means of machinery of the type of direct nominations at primaries, the short ballot, the initiative, referendum, and the like. (Outlook, October 12, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 436; Nat. Ed. XVII, 316.
Government, Popular—Fitness For
Many eminent lawyers who more or less frankly disbelieve in our entire American system of government for, by, and of the people, . . . believe, and sometimes assert, that the American people are not fitted for popular government, and that it is necessary to keep the judiciary "independent of the majority or all of the people"; that there must be no appeal to the people from the decision of a court in any case; and that therefore the judges are to be established as sovereign rulers over the people. I take absolute issue with all those who hold such a position. I regard it as a complete negation of our whole system of government; and if it became the dominant position in this country, it would mean the absolute upsetting of both the rights and the rule of the people. If the American people are not fit for popular government, and if they should of right be the servants and not the masters of the men whom they themselves put in office, then Lincoln’s work was wasted and the whole system of government upon which this great democratic Republic rests is a failure. I believe, on the contrary, with all my heart that the American people are fit for complete self-government, and that, in spite of all our failings and shortcomings, we of this Republic have more nearly realized than any other people on earth the ideal of justice attained through genuine popular rule. (Before Ohio Constitutional Convention, Columbus, February 21, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 188; Nat. Ed. XVII, 140.
Government, Strong
A strong people need never fear a strong man or a strong government; for a strong government is the most efficient instrument, and a strong man the most efficient servant, of a strong people. It is an admission of popular weakness to be afraid of strong public servants and of an efficient governmental system. But it is an even more culpable weakness for the people not to shape their governmental system so that they retain in their own hands absolute control over both their servants and their agencies of government. Outlook , November 15,1913, p. 590.
____________. In the past free peoples have generally split and sunk on that great rock of difficulty caused by the fact that a government which recognizes the liberties of the people is not usually strong enough to preserve the liberties of the people against outside aggression. Washington and Lincoln believed that ours was a strong people and therefore fit for a strong government. They believed that it was only weak peoples that had to fear strong governments, and that to us it was given to combine freedom and efficiency. (Outlook, September 23, 1914.) Mem. Ed. XX, 30; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 26.
Government and the Individual
While we are not to be excused if we fail to do whatever is possible through the agency of government, we must keep ever in mind that no action of the government, no action by combination among ourselves, can take the place of the individual qualities to which in the long run every man must owe the success he can make of life. There never has been devised, and there never will be devised, any law which will enable a man to succeed save by the exercise of those qualities which have always been the prerequisites of success—the qualities of hard work, of keen intelligence, of unflinching will. Such action can supplement those qualities but it cannot take their place. No action by the State can do more than supplement the initiative of the individual; and ordinarily the action of the State can do no more than to secure to each individual the chance to show under as favorable conditions as possible the stuff that there is in him. (At Providence, R. I., August 23, 1902.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 80-81; Nat. Ed. XVI, 67-68.
Government
See also Administration; Bureaucracy; Division Of Powers; Experts; Initiative; Legislation; Municipal Government; Parliamentary Government; Popular Rule; Primaries; Recall; Referendum; Republican Government; Self-Government.
Government Control of Business
I do not believe in the government interfering with private business more than is necessary. I do not believe in the government undertaking any work which can with propriety be left in private hands. But neither do I believe in the government flinching from overseeing any work when it becomes evident that abuses are sure to obtain therein unless there is governmental supervision. (Fifth Annual Message, Washington, December 5, 1905.) Mem. Ed. XVII, 321; Nat. Ed. XV, 275.
____________. [The] extension of the national power to oversee and secure correct behavior in the management of all great corporations engaged in interstate business will. . . render far more stable the present system by doing away with those grave abuses which are not only evil in themselves but are also evil because they furnish an excuse for agitators to inflame well-meaning people against all forms of property, and to commit the country to schemes of wild, would-be remedy which would work infinitely more harm than the disease itself. The government ought not to conduct the business of the country; but it ought to regulate it so that it shall be conducted in the interest of the public. (At Harrisburg, Pa., October 4, 1906.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 87; Nat. Ed. XVI, 73.
Government Control
See also Business; Combinations; Corporations; Industrial Commission; Insurance Companies; Interstate Commerce Commission; Monopolies; Railroads; Sherman Anti-Trust Act; Trusts.
Government Employees—Care of
The National Government should be a model employer. It should demand the highest quality of service from its employees and should care for them properly in return. Congress should adopt legislation providing limited but definite compensation for accidents to all workmen within the scope of the Federal power, including employees in navy-yards and arsenals. (At Jamestown Exposition, Va., June 10, 1907.) Mem. Ed. XVIII, 242; Nat. Ed. XVI, 179.
Government Employees
See also Civil Service; Eight-Hour Day; Labor Unions; Merit System; Open Shop.
Government of Law and Men
Ours is a government of laws, but every one should keep always before him the fact that no law is worth anything unless there is the right kind of man behind it. In tropical America there are many republics whose constitutions and laws are practically identical with ours, yet some of these republics have, throughout their governmental career, alternated between despotism and anarchy, and have failed in striking fashion at every point where in equally striking fashion we have succeeded. The difference was not in the laws or the institutions, for they were the same. The difference was in the men who made up the community, in the men who administered the laws, and in the men who put in power the administrators. (Outlook, January 21, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 98; Nat. Ed. XVII, 63.
____________. This is a government of law, but it is also, as every government always has been and always must be, a government of men; for the worth of a law depends as much upon the men who interpret and administer it as upon the men who have enacted it. (Outlook, March 4, 1911.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 126; Nat. Ed. XVII, 88.
Government of Law and Men
See also Constitution; Courts; Judiciary; Justice; Law; Legalism.
Government Ownership
Government ownership should be avoided wherever possible; our purpose should be to steer between the anarchy of unregulated individualism and the deadening formalism and inefficiency of wide-spread State ownership. From time to time it has been found, and will be found, necessary for the government to own and run certain businesses, the uninterrupted prosecution of which is necessary to the public welfare and which cannot be adequately controlled in any other way, but normally this is as inadvisable as to permit such business concerns to be free from all government supervision and direction. Normally, and save where the necessity is clearly shown, our aim should be to encourage and stimulate private action and co-operation, subject to government control. (Before Republican State Convention, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., July 18, 1918.) Mem. Ed. XXI, 400; Nat. Ed. XIX, 363.
Government Ownership
See also Individualism; Municipal Ownership ; Railroads; Socialism.
Government Regulation
It is not possible to lay down a hard-and-fast rule, logically perfect, as to when the State shall interfere, and when the individual must be left unhampered and unhelped. We have exactly the same right to regulate the conditions of life and work in factories and tenement- houses that we have to regulate fire-escapes and the like in other houses. In certain communities the existence of a thoroughly efficient department of factory inspection is just as essential as the establishment of a fire department .How far we shall go in regulating the hours of labor, or the liabilities of employers, is a matter of expediency, and each case must be determined on its own merits, exactly as it is a matter of expediency to determine what so-called “public utilities” the community shall itself own and what ones it shall leave to private or corporate ownership, securing to itself merely the right to regulate. (At Labor Day Picnic, Chicago, September 3, 1900.) Mem. Ed. XVI, 513; Nat. Ed. XIII, 484.
Government Regulation
See also Individualism; Laissez-Faire; Liberty.
Governmental Action
We decline to be bound by the empty, little cut-and-dried formulas of bygone philosophies, useful once, perhaps, but useless now. Our purpose is to shackle greedy cunning as we shackle brutal force, and we are not to be diverted from this purpose by the appeal to the dead dogmas of a vanished past. We propose to lift the burdens from the lowly and the weary, from the poor and the oppressed. We propose to stand for the sacred rights of childhood and womanhood. Nay, more, we propose to see that manhood is not crushed out of the men who toil, by excessive hours of labor, by underpayment, by injustice and oppression. When this purpose can only be secured by the collective action of our people through their governmental agencies, we propose so to secure it. We brush aside the arguments of those who seek to bar action by the repetition of some formula about "States rights" or about "the history of liberty" being "the history of the limitation of governmental power," or about the duty of the courts finally to determine the meaning of the Constitution. We are for human rights and we intend to work for them in efficient fashion. Where they can be best obtained by the application of the doctrines of States rights, then we are for States' rights. Where, in order to obtain them, it is necessary to invoke the power of the nation, then we shall invoke to its uttermost limits that mighty power. (At Madison Square Garden, New York City, October 30, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 458; Nat. Ed. XVII, 336.
Governmental Policy
Our whole governmental policy should be shaped to secure a more even justice as between man and man, and better conditions such as will permit each man to do the best there is in him. In other words, our governmental ideal is to secure as far as possible the even distribution of justice. (At Pacific Theological Seminary, Spring 1911) Mem. Ed. XV, 627; Nat. Ed. XIII, 661.
____________. To sum up, then, our position is, after all, simple. We believe that the government should concern itself chiefly with the matters that are of most importance to the average man and average woman, and that it should be its special province to aid in making the conditions of life easier for these ordinary men and ordinary women, who compose the great bulk of our people. To this end we believe that the people should have direct control over their own governmental agencies; and that when this control has been secured, it should be used with resolution, but with sanity and self- restraint, in the effort to make conditions of life and labor a little easier, a little fairer and better for the men and women of the nation. (Century, October 1913.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 553; Nat. Ed. XVII, 409.
Governmental Power-Concentration of
Governmental power should be concentrated in the hands of a very few men, who would be so conspicuous that no citizen could help knowing all about them; and the elections should not come too frequently. Not one decent voter in ten will take the trouble annually to inform himself as to the character of the host of petty candidates to be balloted for, but he will be sure to know all about the mayor, comptroller, etc. It is not to his credit that we can only rely, and that without much certainty, upon his taking a spasmodic interest in the government that affects his own well-being: but such is the case, and accordingly we ought, as far as possible, to have a system requiring on his part intermittent and not sustained action. (Century, November 1886.) Mem. Ed. XV, 139; Nat. Ed. XIII, 98.
Governmental Power — Extension of
So long as governmental power existed exclusively for the king and not at all for the people, then the history of liberty was a history of the limitation of governmental power. But now the governmental power rests in the people, and the kings who enjoy privilege are the kings of the financial and industrial world; and what they clamor for is the limitation of governmental power, and what the people sorely need is the extension of governmental power. . . . The only way in which our people can increase their power over the big corporation that does wrong, the only way in which they can protect the working man in his conditions of work and life, the only way in which the people can prevent children working in industry or secure women an eight-hour day in industry, or secure compensation for men killed or crippled in industry, is by extending, instead of limiting, the powers of government. There is no analogy whatever from the standpoint of real liberty, and of real popular need, between the limitations imposed by-the people on the power of an irresponsible monarch or a dominant aristocracy, and the limitations sought to. be imposed by big financiers, by big corporation lawyers, and by well-meaning students of a dead-and-gone system of political economy on the power of the people to right social wrongs and limit social abuses, and to secure for file humble what, unless there is an extension of the powers of government, the arrogant and the powerful will certainly take from the humble. (At San Francisco, September 14, 1912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 420, 423; Nat. Ed. XVII, 307, 309.
Governmental Power-Limitation of
There once was a time in history when the limitation of governmental power meant increasing liberty for the people. In the present day the limitation of governmental power, of governmental action, means the enslavement of the people by the great corporations who can only be held in check through the extension of governmental power. (At San Francisco, September 14, 912.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 427; Nat. Ed. XVII, 313.
Governmental Power
See also Congress; Constitution; Courts; Division Of Powers; Executive; Judiciary; President.
Governmental Theory
I do not fear to depart from our theory of government, when experience shows that the theory in some particular case works badly. (In New York Assembly, March 12, 1884.) Mem. Ed. XVI, 59; Nat. Ed. XIV, 36. GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK. Compared with the great game of which Washington is the centre, my own work here is parochial. But it is interesting too; and so far I seem to have been fairly successful in overcoming the centrifugal forces always so strong in the Republican party. I am getting on well with Senator Platt, and I am apparently satisfying the wishes of the best element in our own party; of course I have only begun, but so far I think the state is the better, and the party the stronger, for my administration. (To Hay, February 7, 1899.) William R. Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay. (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1915), II, 338.
____________. So far I am getting along well but it means an infinity of hard work and a great deal of resolution with no small amount of tact and good nature. The satisfaction which I have is that I don't look for anything more in politics. People are continually writing me that my career has only begun, and they make me almost angry, for my usefulness in my present office is largely conditional in the fact that I don't expect to hold another, and so nobody has got a twist on me in any way. I could not get along at all if I had to try and shape my course with a view to favors to come, either from the people or from the politicians. I hope to keep the party united and to make a good Governor, and if I can go out having done that, I shall be more than contented. (To Andrew D. White, February 10, 1899.) Mem. Ed. XXIII, 139; Bishop I, 1169.
____________. Oh Lord! I wish there were more of you. I think I have made a pretty good Governor, but I am quite honest in saying that I think you would have made a better one; for in just such matters as trusts and the like you have the ideas to work out whereas I have to try to work out what I get from you and men like you. (To Root, December 15, 1899.) Philip C. Jessup, Elihu Root. (Dodd, Mead & Co., N. Y., 1938), 1, 210.
____________. I have thoroughly enjoyed being Governor. I have kept every promise, expressed or implied, I made on the stump and I feel that the Republican party is stronger before the State because of my incumbency. Certainly everything is being managed now on a perfectly straight basis and every office is as clean as a whistle. Now, I should like to be Governor experience shows that the theory in some particular case works badly. (In New York Assembly, March 12, 1884.) Mem. Ed. XVI, 59; Nat. Ed. XIV, 36.
Governor of New York
Compared with the great game of which Washington is the centre, my own work here is parochial. But it is interesting too; and so far I seem to have been fairly successful in overcoming the centrifugal forces always so strong in the Republican party. I am getting on well with Senator Platt, and I am apparently satisfying the wishes of the best element in our own party; of course I have only begun, but so far I think the state is the better, and the party the stronger, for my administration. (To Hay, February 7, 1899.) William R. Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay. (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1915), II, 338.
____________. So far I am getting along well but it means an infinity of hard work and a great deal of resolution with no small amount of tact and good nature. The satisfaction which I have is that I don't look for anything more in politics. People are continually writing me that my career has only begun, and they make me almost angry, for my usefulness in my present office is largely conditional in the fact that I don't expect to hold another, and so nobody has got a twist on me in any way. I could not get along at all if I had to try and shape my course with a view to favors to come, either from the people or from the politicians. I hope to keep the party united and to make a good Governor, and if I can go out having done that, I shall be more than contented. (To Andrew D. White, February 10, 1899.) Mem. Ed. XXIII, 139; Bishop I, 1169.
____________. Oh Lord! I wish there were more of you. I think I have made a pretty good Governor, but I am quite honest in saying that I think you would have made a better one; for in just such matters as trusts and the like you have the ideas to work out whereas I have to try to work out what I get from you and men like you. (To Root, December 15, 1899.) Philip C. Jessup, Elihu Root. (Dodd, Mead & Co., N. Y., 1938), 1, 210.
____________. I have thoroughly enjoyed being Governor. I have kept every promise, expressed or implied, I made on the stump and I feel that the Republican party is stronger before the State because of my incumbency. Certainly everything is being managed now on a perfectly straight basis and every office is as clean as a whistle. Now, I should like to be Governor
Governor of New York
See Also Election of 1898; Franchise Tax.
Grand Army of the Republic
You men of the Grand Army by your victory not only rendered all Americans your debtors for evermore, but you rendered all humanity your debtors. If the Union had been dissolved, if the great edifice built with the blood and sweat and tears by mighty Washington and his compeers had gone down in wreck and ruin, the result would have been an incalculable calamity, not only for our people—and most of all for those who in such event would have seemingly triumphed—but for all mankind. The great American Republic would have become a memory of derision; and the failure of the experiment of self-government by a great people on a great scale would have delighted the heart of every foe of republican institutions. . . . It was because you, the men who wear the button of the Grand Army, triumphed in those dark years, that every American now holds his head high. (At Antietam, Md., September 17, 1903.) Mem. Ed. XII, 620; Nat. Ed. XI, 335.
____________. You men of the Grand Army, you men who fought through the Civil War, not only did you justify your generation, not only did you render life worth living for our generation, but you justified the wisdom of Washington and Washington's colleagues. If this Republic had been founded by them only to be split asunder into fragments when the strain came, then the judgment of the world would have been that Washington's work was not worth doing. It was you who crowned Washington's work, as you carried to achievement the high purpose of Abraham Lincoln. (At Osawatomie, Kan., August 31,1910.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 10; Nat. Ed. XVII, 5.
____________. The veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic . . . deserve honor and recognition such as is paid to no other citizens of the Republic; for to them the republic owes its all; for to them it owes its very existence. It is because of what you and your comrades did in the dark years that we of to-day walk, each of us, head erect, and proud that we belong, not to one of a dozen little squabbling contemptible commonwealths, but to the mightiest nation upon which the sun shines. (At Osawatomie, Kan., August 31, 1910.) Mem. Ed. XIX, 12; Nat. Ed. XVII, 7.
Grand Army of the Republic
See also Civil War; Veterans.
Grand Canyon
In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which, so far as I know, is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it in your own interest and in the interest of the country— to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I was delighted to learn of the wisdom of the Santa Fe railroad people in deciding not to build their hotel on the brink of the canyon. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel, or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see. We have gotten past the stage, my fellow-citizens, when we are to be pardoned if we treat any part of our country as something to be skinned for two or three years for the use of the present generation, whether it is the forest, the water, the scenery. Whatever it is, handle it so that your children's children will get the benefit of it. (At Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903.) Presidential Addresses and State Papers 1, 370.
Grant, Ulysses S.
In the Union armies there were generals as brilliant as Grant, but none with his iron determination. This quality he showed as President no less than as general. He was no more to be influenced by a hostile majority in Congress into abandoning his attitude in favor of a sound and stable currency than he was to be influenced by check or repulse into releasing his grip on beleaguered Richmond. It is this element of unshakable strength to which we are apt specially to refer when we praise a man in the simplest and most effective way, by praising him as a man. It is the one quality which we can least afford to lose. It is the only quality the lack of which is as unpardonable in the nation as in the man. It is the antithesis of levity, fickleness, volatility, of undue exaltation, of undue depression, of hysteria and neuroticism in all their myriad forms. (At Galena, Ill., April 27, 1900.) Mem. Ed. XII, 462; Nat. Ed. XIII, 433.
____________. Grant was no brawler, no lover of fighting for fighting's sake. He was a plain, quiet man, not seeking for glory; but a man who, when aroused, was always in deadly earnest, and who never shrank from duty. He was slow to strike, but he never struck softly. He was not in the least of the type which gets up mass-meetings, makes inflammatory speeches or passes inflammatory resolutions, and then permits overforcible talk to be followed by overfeeble action. His promise squared with his performance. His deeds made good his words. . . . Part of Grant's great strength lay in the fact that he faced facts as they were, and not as he wished they might be. He was not originally an abolitionist, and he probably could not originally have defined his views as to State sovereignty; but when the Civil War was on, he saw that the only thing to do was to fight it to a finish and establish by force of arms the constitutional right to put down rebellion. (At Galena, Ill., April 27, 1900.) Mem. Ed. XII, 465, 470; Nat. Ed. XIII, 436, 440.
Great Adventure, the
See Death; Life.
Great Britain
See Boer War; England; India; Monroe Doctrine; Naval Armaments; Panama Canal; Parliamentary Government; Revolutionary War; War Of 1812; World War.
Great Men
See Moral Influence.
Greatness--Source of
Greatness comes only through labor and courage, through the iron willingness to face sorrow and death, the tears of women and the blood of men, if only thereby it is possible to serve a lofty ideal. (1916.) Mem. Ed. XX, 259; Nat. Ed. XVIII, 223.
Greatness
See also National Greatness; Success.
Greece, Ancient
I am not quite sure that I agree even with your carefully guarded statement as to your liking to have lived in Greece in the classic age. The proviso you put in includes a great deal! We should have to get rid not only of our present conventions of morality, but of what has come to be our ordinary instincts of humanity, in order to tolerate even the best and simplest of the society of that day; and we should have to lose entirely the beautiful love of husband and wife, with all that it has so incalculably meant for the home. What a strange thing it is that those wonderful Greeks, so brilliant that I suppose Galton is right in placing the average Athenian in point of intellect as far above the average civilized man of our countries as the latter is above the upper-class barbarian, yet lacked the self-restraint and political common sense necessary to enable them to hold their own against any strong aggressive power. (To Sir George Otto Trevelyan, October 7, 1905.) Mem. Ed. XXIV, 180; Bishop II, 154.
Greek—Study of
See Education, Liberal.
Greek Literature
See Latin Literature
Greenbacks
See Currency.
Gregory, Lady
See Abbey Theatre.
Grey, Sir Edward
I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in England. The men I met were delightful, and I felt at home with them. As a whole, they had my ideals and ways of looking at life. But the twenty-four hours I really most enjoyed not only in England but in all Europe were those I spent with Edward Grey the last twenty- four hours I was in England. He is very fond of birds, and I had been anxious to hear and see the English birds which I knew so well in the books. He took me down to the valley of the Itchen, which we tramped along, and then motored to an inn near the New Forest where we took tea—having already eaten our lunch on a bank— and then tramped through the New Forest, reaching the inn on the other side of it about nine in the evening, tired and happy and ready for a warm bath, a hot supper, and bed. Grey is not a brilliant man like Balfour, or a born leader like Lloyd George, but he is the kind of high-minded public servant, as straight in all private as in all public relations, whom it is essential for a country to have, and I do not remember ever meeting anyone else except Leonard Wood to whom I took so strong a fancy on such short acquaintance. (To David Gray, October 5, 1911.) Saturday Evening Post, December 26, 1931, p. 65.
Grey, Sir Edward
See also Belgium. Grizzly. See Bears.
Gunnery
See Marksmanship; Navy—Efficiency of.
Gymnastics
There is little point in the mere development of strength. The point lies in developing a man who can do something with his strength; who not only has the skill to turn his muscles to advantage, but the heart and the head to direct that skill, and to direct it well and fearlessly. Gymnastics and calisthenics are very well in their way as substitutes when nothing better can be obtained, but the true sports for a manly race are sports like running, rowing, playing football and baseball, boxing and wrestling, shooting, riding, and mountain-climbing. Harper's Weekly, December 23, 1893, p. 1236.
Gymnastics
See also Sports.