g THE SUNDAY OREGONIAy, PORTLAND. JUNE 8, 1913.
Published by special arrangement with the
Outlfti, of which Theodore Roosevelt Is
the contributing editor, through the Mc
Clure Newspaper Syndicate. Copyright.
1913. by the Outlook Company. All rights
reserved, including rights ot translation.
IK THE Legislature the problems with
which I dealt were mainly problems
of honesty and decency and of leg
islative and administrative efficiency.
They represented the effort, the wise,
the vitally necessary effort, to get ef
ficient and honest government. But
as yet I understood little of the effort
which was already beginning, "for the
rnost part under very bad leadership,
to secure a more genuine social and in
dustrial justice. Nor was I especially
to blame for this. The good citizens I
then knew best, even when themselves
men of limited means men like my
colleague Billy O'Nell, and my back
woods friends Sewall and Dow were
no more awake than I was to the
Changing needs the changing times
were bringing. Their outlook was as
narrow as my own. and. within Its lim
its, as fundamentally sound.
I wish to dwell on the soundness of
our outlook on life, even though as yet
It was not broad enough. We were no
respecters of persons. Where our vis
Ion was developed to a degree that en
abled us to see crookedness, we op
posed It whether in great or small. As
a matter of fact, we found that it
needed much mora courage to stand
up openly against labor men when they
were wrong than against capitalists
when they were wrong. The sins
against labor are usually committed,
and the improper services to capitalists
are usually rendered, behind closed
doors. Very often the man with th
tnoTal courage to speak in the open
against labor when it Is wrong is the
only man anxious to do effective work
for labor when labor is right.
Sham Reform.
The only kinds of courage and hon
esty which are permanently useful to
good institutions anywhere are those
shown by men who decide all cases
with impartial justice on grounds of
conduct and not on grounds of class.
"We found that in the long run the men
who in public blatantly Insisted that
labor was never wrong were the very
men who In private could not be trust
ed to stand for labor when it was
right. We grew heartily to distrust
the reformer who never denounced
wickedness unless It was embodied In
a rich man. Human nature does not
change: and that type of "reformer" is
as noxious now as he ever was. The
loud-mouthed upholder of popular
rights who attacks wickedness only
when It is allied with wealth and who
never publicly assails any misdeed, no
matter how flagrant, if committed
nominally In tho interest of labor, has
cither a warped mind or a tainted soul,
and should be trusted by no honest
man. It was largely the indignant and
contemptuous dislike aroused in our
minds by the demagogues of this class
which then prevented those of us whose
Instincts at bottom were sound from
going as far as wo ought to have gone
along the lines of governmental control
of corporations and governmental In
terference on behalf of labor.
Practical Reform.
1 did. however, have one exceedingly
lseful experience. A bill was intro
duced by the Clgarmakers' Union to
prohibit the manufacture of cigars In
tenement houses. I was appointed one
of a committee of three to investigate
conditions in tho tenement houses and
see if legislation should be had.
Of my two colleagues on the com
mittee, one took no Interest in the
measure and privately said he did not
think it was right .but that he had to
vote for it because the labor unions
;were strong in his district and he was
pledged to support the bill. The other,
& sporting Tammany man who after
;wards abandoned politics for the race
track, was a very good fellow. He told
me frankly that he had to be against
the bill because certain Interests which
were all-powerful and with which he
had dealings required him to be
against It. but that I was a free agent,
and that If I would look Into the mat
ter he believed I would favor the leg
islation. As a matter of fact, I had
supposed I would be against the legis
lation, and 1 rather think I was put on
the committee with that idea, for the
respectable people I know were against
it: It was contrary to the principles of
political economy of the laissez falre
kind; and the business men who spoke
to me about it shook their heads and
said that It was designed to prevent a
man doing as he wished and as he
had a right to do with what was his
own.
However, my first visits to the tenement-house
districts in Question made
me feel that, whatever the theories
might be. as a matter of practical com
mon sense I could not conscientiously
vote for the continuance of the condi
tions which I saw. These conditions
rendered It Impossible for the families
of the tenement-house workers to live
so that the children might grow up
fitted for the exacting duties of Amer
ican citizenship. I visited the tenement-houses
once witii my colleagues
of the committee, once with some of
the labor union representatives, and
once or twice by myself. In a few of
the tenement-houses there were suites
of rooms ample in number where the
work cn the tobacco was done In rooms
not occupied for cooking or sleeping
or living. In the overwhelming major
ity of cases, however, there were one.
two or three-room apartments, and the
work of manufacturing the tobacco by
men. women and children went on day
and night In the eating, living, and
sleeping rooms sometimes in one
room. I have always remembered one
room in which two families were ltv
lns;. On my Inquiry as to who the
third adult male was I was told that
he was a boarder with one of the fam
ilies. There were several children,
three men and two women In this
room. The tobacco was stowed about
everywhere, alongside the foul bedding
and in a corner where there were
scraps of food. The men. women and
children in this room worked by day
and far on into the evening, and they
slept und ate there. They were Bo
hemians, unable to speak English, ex
cept that one of the children knew
enough to act as interpreter.
Legalism and Life.
Instead of opposing the bill I ar
dently championed it. tl was a poorly
drawn measure, and the Governor.
Qrover Cleveland, was at first doubtful
about signing It. The Cigar-Makers'
Union then asked me to appear before
the Governor and argue for It. I ac
cordingly did bo, acting as spokesman
for the battered, undersized foreigners
who represented the union and the
workers. The Governor signed the bill.
Afterward this tenement-house cigar
legislation was declared Invalid by the
Court of Appeals in the Jacobs deci
sion. Jacobs was one of the rare tenement-house
manufacturers of cigars
who occupied quite a suite of rooms, so
that In his case the living conditions
were altogether exceptional. What the
reason was which influenced those
bringing the suit to select the excep
tional Instead of the average worker
I do not know; of course such action
was precisely the action which those
interested In having the law broken
down were anxious to see taken. The
Court of Appeals declared the law un
constitutional, and in their decision the
Judges reprobated the law as an as
sault upon the "hallowed" influences
of "home." It was this case which
first waked me to a dim and partial
understanding of the fact that the
courts were not necessarily the best
judges of what should be done to better
social and industrial conditions. The
Judges who rendered this decision were
well-meaning men. They knew nothing
whatever of tenement-house conditions;
they knew nothing whatever of the
needs, or of the life and labor, of three
fourths of their fellow citizens in great
cities. They know legalism, but not life.
Their choice of the words "hallowed"
and "home." as applicable to the re
volting conditions attending the manu
facture of cigars in tenement-houses
showed that they had no Idea what it
was that they were deciding. Imagine
the "hallowed" associations of a "home"
consisting of one room where two
families, one of them with a boarder,
live, eat and work! This decision com
pletely blocked tenement-house reform
legislation in New York for a score of
years, and hampers it to this day. It
was one of the most serious setbacks
which the cause of Industrial and social
progress and reform ever received.
I had been brought up to hold the
courts in especial reverence. The peo
ple with whom I was most intimate
were apt to praise the courts for just
such decisions as this, and to speak of
them as bulwarks against disorder and
barriers against demagogic legislation.
These were the same people with whom
the Judges who rendered these deci
sions were apt to foregather at social
clubs, or dinners, or in private life.
Very naturally they all tended to look
at things from the same standpoint. Of
course it took more than one experi
ence such as the tenement cigar case
to shake me out of the attitude In
which I was brought up. But various
FOOL AND HIS MONEY WERE SOON
But Now "Coal Oil Johnny' Says He Is Better Off and Happy on $50 a Month So His Tragedy Ends Happily After
tti HAD a mighty good time, but if
I I had kept all the money It
would have been millions now I would
be far more worried than I am at
present. Tou see, I have my health
and $30 a month."
A personage of the long ago, a
man many believed dead, was talking
one day recently in Warren. Pa. He is
"Coal Oil Johnny" Steele. famous
spender of the sixties, who set a swift
pace for six months with the -wealth
Pennsylvania oil wells gave him, and
who since then has lived on recollec
tions of the his spendthrift days.
"Coal Oil Johnny" the name still
clings to Steele at 70 was visiting
in the state where his reputation was
made.
"I'm only a hard-working station
agent now, out at a little one-horse
town in Nebraska. But I'm not kick
ing. I'm still lucky. I had Just been
transferred from Ralston, Neb., to Port
Creek, in that state, when a tornado
came along and all but wiped out the
town of Ralston. So, you see, fortune
has not altogether deserted me. I have
no desire to be throwing money around
like sawdust now. as I did when young
er and not so wise."
Fortune knocked at the door of the
poorhouse in Franklin County, Penn
sylvania, in 1S57. and found Johnny
and his little sister waiting. Her ad
vance agents were William McCUntock
and his wife, owners of a small farm
of not very productive land on Oil
Creek, in the same county. The Mc
Cllntocks adopted Johnny and his sis
ter. The boy was then about 12 years
old. A little more than a year later
the farmer died, leaving the place to
the widow. Feeling the uncertainty
of llfo, Mrs. McCUntock then made
her will, leaving to her adopted
daughter about $2000 in cash she bad
saved. The farm she bequeathed to
Johnny.
In 1859, soon after she made the will,
oil was struck on the farm by Colonel
Drake, to whom she had leased one
eighth of an acre for prospecting pur
poses. No one knew whether there was
any oil there to speak of when Mrs.
McCllntock's lease was made, calllns
for a royalty of one-half the total num
ber of barrels that should "be brought
in."
Under the hard rock beneath the
surface of that old farm there m-ist
have been a lake of oil waiting tj be
tapped, for it flowed and gushed from
that first well. For every other oar
relful that came forth Mrs. McCUntock
got $15. The uncertainties of life were
brought home to Johnny one March aft
ernoon in 1S62, when he returned after
r ? - " t iw wmmsm imam mctjkf, zzsr"-
decisions, not only of the New Tork
court but of certain other state courts
and even of the United States Supreme
Court, during the quarter of a century
following the passage of this tenement
house legislation, did at last thorough
ly wake me to the actual fact. I grew
to realize that all that Abraham Lincoln
had said about the Dred Scott decision
could be said with equal truth and
Justice about the numerous decisions
a days work in hauling oil to find
the farmhouse in ashes. His foster
mother had tried to quicken a slow
fire with oil and had lost her life In
the fire that followed.
Within a short time Johnny's farm
for he was the owner then by the
terms of the will was gushing oil In a
steady stream. Almost every eighth
of an acre parcel of it was studded
with a derrick, for he leased it out to
oil operators. Royalties went on pil
ing up. Some say that Mrs. McCUn
tock had accumulated $80,000 in royal
ties before her death. This sum, de
posited in a national bank, gave
Johnny his start in life, while the roy
alties continued to roll In.
Surrounded by money, Johnny be
gan a futile attempt to keep ahead
of the supply coming In. Several
"friends" who attached themselves to
him showed him how to keep his head
above the rising tide of greenbacks.
One of these was a man named Slo-
WAR TOYS MOST EXPENSIVE THINGS
NEAR Okehampton the other day a
dummy village that had been
especially built for the purpose
was blown to pieces by shell fire from
a battery of heavy guns placed some
distance away, the object of the curious
and costly experiment being, of course,
to find out exactly what would happen
to a real village in like cfrcum stances.
The idea, which is not exactly a new
one. was borrowed originally from Ger
many, where, some very elaborate ex
periments on similar lines have been
conducted.
One of these involved the construction
of an exact model to scale of the great
Fortress of Spandau. The model was not
a toy. but a real fort in miniature, cov
ering over four acres of ground and
costing flSo.000 to build.
Walls, bastions, glacis, redoubts, were
all solidly and substantially made. A
powder magazine, in which some scores
of barrels of powder were stored, was
placed In exactly the same position as
the real powder magazine occupied in
the real fortress. Even the money
tower," wherein Is kept a Spandau, ever
since 1874, the sum of six million
pounds in coin for the purpose of
immediate use in case of war,
was duplicated, and dummy "treas
ure chests," filled with steel ingots,
were placed inside it. When all was
ready the bombardment commenced.
The guns used were real cannons, but
they were fitted inside the bores with
which in our own day were erected as i
bars across the path of social reform,!
and which brought to naught so much
of the effort to secure Justice and fair
cum. With Slocum, Johnny left his
home and a young woman whom he
had married in 1862, and his baby, a
boy. Together they went to Philadel
phia. There they met W. H. Wick
ham, a New York oil operator, who
offered Steele $1,000,000 for the farm,
agreeing to pay $80,000 down. Steele
closed the deal. Slocum was cheered
by the newest good fortune that had
overtaken his friend and they started
out to wake up Philadelphia.
Falling in with the owners of a min
strel show, Johnny magnanimously of
fered to buy It and take it out on the
road for a tour. The show owners
were willing and the tour that fol
lowed through Pennsylvania and New
York State towns became a riotous
money-spending Journey. The show
did good business at first, but the
method of traveling on regular trains
was too slow for Johnny and his
friends. So he bought a locomotive
and cars and the minstrel troupe pro
inner "jacket" tubes, so as to admit of
miniature shells being fired at the
miniature fortress'.
Four hundred shots were fired, but
the magazine remained unexploded, al
though every effort was made to de
molish it. The money tower, however,
was wrecked and the "treasure" was
scattered in all directions.
A far more elaborate experiment, also
conducted by Germany, was made in
1869. when Bismarck and Moltke to
gether were planning to attack France.
A scale model of Paris was built, with
the fortifications and principal build
ings all carefully marked out. These
were then bombarded at various dis
tances, and the effects carefully noted.
As a result, when the real Paris came
to be bombarded in grim earnest some
two years later, the German artillery
men were able to place their shells
within the doomed city exactly how and
where they liked, having previously got
the ranges by experimenting on the
model.
It will doubtless surprise many peo
ple, too, to learn that similar tactics
have been adopted by Germany as re
gards England. Large-size scale models
of the fortifications of Portsmouth, at
all events, were constructed and blown
to pieces by shell fire some little time
back on a lonely spot in the Island of
Rugen, in the Baltic Sea, and doubtless
other experiments of a like nature have
been carried out. These facts are not
dealing for workingmcr
women, and for plain r!"
and working-i
- - generally. I
Some of the wickedne
ss and ineffi
then displayed j
clency In public life was
ceeded by special train, opening cham
pagne between stations. They jumped
from town to town and business
jumped from bad to worse. Johnny
woke up one morning and found he
had flipped away several hundred thou,
sand dollars.
Back in Philadelphia he met a cab
man at the hotel, who told him his
wife wanted a diamond ring.
"Ride me around the block," said
"Coal Oil Johnny," " and I'll give you
$3000 for your cab." 'You bet," said
the cabman; "get in."
When they had completed the circuit
and were back again at the Olrard
House, "Coal Oil Johnny" gave the cab
driver the money.
"Go buy your wife that diamond."
he said, "and keep the cab. I do-i't
want it"
Johnny resented the cold manner 'n
which a clerk at the Continental Hotel
met his request to "see the proprietor."
But he finally met the owner cf the
common knowledge, of course, but our
intelligence office knows all about
them.
Our own War Office rather shrinks
from conducting any experiments of
this nature, possibly on the score of the
heavy outlay they Involve. We did.
however, upon one occasion, actually
bombard in grim earnest one of our
own forts, a proceeding never attempt
ed by any other nation.
This happened at Plymouth so far
back as the year 1868, when a great
storm of popular excitement arose be
cause it was said that the forts then
newly erected there were Incapable of
resisting the attack of a hostile fleet.
Expert opinion was pretty evenly di
vided for and against, so in order to
settle the matter one of the recently
built forts was subjected to a furious
bombardment by heavy guns firing 600
pound shells.
The result was a triumph for the
military authorities. For although the
whole of the other works were totally
demolished in a very short while, the
Inner kernel, containing the magazine,
big guns, and the casements for the ar
tillerymen, was not even penetrated by
so much as a single shot.
Ecuador Cooks Hate Stoves.
Ecuador offers no market for stoves.
The native cooks declare that the heat
from them causes fever.
in simpler fashion than would probably
now be the case. Once or twice I was
a member of committees which looked
into gross and widely ramifying gov-
PARTED
AIL
house, and, falling to buy him out,
leased the hotel for a day at $8000 ren
tal. The first thing Johnny did was
to fire the haughty clerk. He and
his friends took charge and hun -p
a sign outside thnt read:
Open House Today.
Everything Free.
All Are Welcome.
It was a merry lark while It lasted,
and when the day was over the owner
took charge again and reinstated the
objectionable clerk. This made Johnny
so mad that he went right over to the
Glrard House, bought the hotil, furni
ture, fixtures and all and got gjed ( nd
even with the manager of tho Conti
nenetal by reducing the ratfa so ;hat
the Glrard House took all the patron
age away from Its rival. it was a
grand little revenge while It lasted.
Johnny tired of Philadelphia and
went to New York for a fling on
Broadway. Fling is the word, all right,
because when he wasn't asleep "Coal
Oil Johnny" was getting rid of the
green and yellow stuff that clogged
up hiB pockets. Broadway from the
Battery to the Twenties, which was
some distance In those days, knew
Johnny well, and everywhere he went
there were wine dinners and gay
little old times. But while Johnny was
away tho production of oil dwindled.
The supply under his farm, which he
had believed inexhaustible, was play
ing out. Mr. Wickham declined to
carry out his agreement to purchase
the property, and Johnny went back to
Philadelphia to find that he not only
had no Income any longer, but that
he also was head over heels In debt.
He was forced into bankruptcy, owing
more than $35,000. Of this sum $20,000
was to the Girard House; lawyers had
nicked him for $10,000 (foxy devils); a
Jeweler who had exchanged diamonds
for $200,000 of Johnny's money still
had $5000 coming: $2000 was unpaid
for liquors; the same amount for an oil
painting, and $300 for hats. Other
smaller items made up the grand total
of liabilities. Assets were fond mem.
orles. Johnny went back to his wife.
He was almost broke. There was no
place else to go. In later years they
removed to Nebraska, where Johnny
became station agent and has lived
happily ever since.
So, says Johnny philosophically, as he
walks down the street in Warren, Pa.
"You bet I had a good time while It
lasted. I would only be worrying If
I had all that money now. I'm enjoyln'
life and feelln' fine. Look In up some
of my old pals for a few days, and
I'm buyin' beer Instead of wine. What's
the difference?"
ernmcntal abuses. On tho whole, the
most important part I played was in
the third Legislature in which I served,
when I acted as chairman of a commit
tee which investigated various phases
of New York City official life.
The most important of the reform
measures our committee recommended
was the bill taking away from the
Aldermen their power of confirmation
over the Mayor's appointments. We
found that it was possible to "get citi
zens interested In the character and
capacity of the head of the city, so
that they would exercise some intelli
gent interest in his conduct and quali
fications. But we found that as a mat
ter of fact it was impossible to get
them interested in the Aldermen and
other subordinate officers. In actual
practice the Aldermen were merely the
creatures of the local ward bosses or
of the big municipal bosses, and where
they controlled the appointments the
citizens at large had no chance what
ever to make their will felt. Accord
ingly we fought for the principle, which
I believe to be of universal application,
that what is needed In our popular
government Is to give plenty of power
to a few officials, and to make these
few officials genuinely and readily re
sponsible to the people for the exercise
of that power. Taking away the con
firming power of the Board of Alder
men did not give the citizens of New
York good government. We knew that
if they chose to elect the wrong kind
of Mayor they would have bad govern
ment, no matter what the form of the
law was. . But we did secure to them
the chance to get good government if
they desired, and this was Impossible
so long as the old system remained.
The change was fought in the way in
which all similar changes always are
fought.
The corrupt and Interested politicians
were against It, and the battTe cries
they used which rallied to them most
of the unthinking conservatives were
that we were changinw the old constitu
tional system, that w-e were defacing
the monuments of the wisdom of the
founders of the government, that we
were destroying that distinction be
tween legislative and executive power
which was the bulwark of our liber
ties, and that we were violent and un
scrupulous radicals with no reverence
for the past.
Of course the investigations, dis
closures, and proceedings of the in
vestigating committee of which I was
chairman brought me into bitter per
sonal conflict with very powerful
financiers, very powerful politicians,
and with certain newspapers which
these financiers controlled. A number
of able and unscrupulous men were
fighting, some for their financial lives,
and others to keep out of unpleasantly
close neighborhood to state's prison
This meant that there were blows to
be taken as well as given. In such
political struggles those who went in
for the kind of thing that I did speed
ily excited animosities among strong
and cunning men who would stop at
little to gratify their animosity. Any
man engaged in this particular type
of militant and practical reform move
ment was soon made to feel that he
had better not undertake to push mat
ters home unless his own character was
unassailable. On one of the investi
gating committees on which I aerve-J
there was a countryman, a very able
man, who, when he reached New York
City, felt as certain Americans do when
they go to Paris that the moral re
straints of his native place no longer
applied.
With all his ability, he was not
shrewd enough to realize that the Po
lice Department was having him as
well as the rest of us carefully shad
owed. He was caught red-handed by a
plainclothes man doing what he had
no business to do; and from that time
on he dared not act, save as those who
held his secret permitted him to act.
Thenceforth those officials who stood
behind the Police Department had one
man on the committee on whom they
could count. I never saw terror more
ghastly on a strong man's face than on
the face of this man on one or two
occasions when he feared that events
in the committee might take such a
cqurse as to force him into a position
where his colleagues would expose him
even if the city officials did not. How
ever, he escaped, for we were never
able to get the kind of proof which
would warrant our asking for the ac
tion in which this man could not have
Joined.
The Crime of Hitting Softly.
Traps were set for more than one of
us, and if we had walked into these
traps our public careers would have
ended, at least so far as following them
under the conditions which alone make
It worth while to be in public life at
all.
A man can. of course, hold public
office, and many a man docs hold pub
lic office, and lead a public career of a
sort, even If there are other men who
possess secrets about him which he
cannot afford to have divulged. But no
man can lead a public career really
worth leading, no man can act with
rugged independence in serious crises,
nor strike at great abuses, nor afford
to make powerful and unscrupulous
foes. If he Is himself vulnerable In his
private character. Nor will clean con
duct by itself enable a man to render
good service. I have always been fond
of Josh Billings' remark that "it is
much easier to be a harmless dove than
a wise serpent." There are plenty of
decent legislators, and plenty of able
legislators; but the blamelessnesg and
the fighting edge are not always com
bined. Both qualities are necessary for
the man who is to wage active battle
against the powers that prey. He must
be clean of life, so that he can laugh
when his public or private record is
searched; and yet being clean of life
will not avail him If he is either foolish
or timid. He must walk warily and
fearlessly, and while he should never
brawl If he can avoid it, he must be
ready to hit hard If the need arises.
Let him remember, by the way, that the
unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do
not bit at all If it can be avoided, but
never hit softly.
(Continued next Sunday.)