THEODORE ROOSEVELT 419 servative in the truest sense of that word, demanding law and order that is compatible with reason and progress, making our nation an evolving organism, not a stationary machine which neither learns from its mistakes, nor profits from its successes. As a conservative, he is the embodiment of the spirit of our in- stitutions, interpreting them through the light of social prog- ress. As a practical politician Theodore Roosevelt is no recluse attempting to apply cobweb speculations or academic theories to practical life ; but a shrewd man of affairs seeking to con- trol men by the knowledge he has acquired in coming in con- tact with them. Hence of all the men in public life through- out the world there is none more successful than Theodore Roosevelt, none whom the future has a brighter promise for, none whom our nation can more safely engage in the solution of its problems of statesmanship in the years to come. Where we find a man so eminent in achievement, so en- dowed in qualification, it is well to search his biography to find, if possible, the causes that make him what he is in so far as it is possible to ascertain such facts in the lives of men. Little more than half a century ago (October 27, 1858), in the city of New York, Theodore Roosevelt was bom of Dutch parentage. He was carefully reared, but suffered the loss of his father before he reached maturity. As a child, he was weakly, and for that reason was not educated in the pubUo schools. From his infancy he was handicapped with a defect of eyesight, and had to forego many of the sports of childhood. But at an early age, seeing the absolute necessity of a sound physique in order to have a healthful mind, he became active in athletics and has kept up this interest throughout his Ufe. In acquiring habits he seemed to have known by instinct what would hamper him and what would help him in acquiring that mental and physical development necessary to carry out his ambition in Ufe. After completing his preparatory education in private schools and with tutors, Mr. Roosevelt went to Harvard Uni- versity, and later was graduated from that institution. Nat- urally one would think that a man of his extraordinary ability
