USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Milwaukee > History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I > Part 58
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Warnings and Admonitions .- "Now, friends, what we who are in this movement are endeavoring to do is to forestall any such movement by making this a movement for justice now,-a movement in which we ask all just men of generous hearts to join with the men who feel in their souls that upward lift which bids them refuse to be satisfied themselves while their fellow country- men and countrywomen suffer from avoidable misery. Now, friends, what we Progressives are trying to do is to enroll rich and poor, whatever their social or industr'al position, to stand together for the most elementary rights of good citizenship, those elementary rights which are the foundation of good citizenship in this great republic of ours.
"My friends are a little more nervous than I am. Don't you waste any sympathy on me. I have had an A-1 time in my life and I am having it now. . I never in my life had any movement in which I was able to serve with such whole-hearted devotion as in this,-in which I was alde to feel as I do in this for the common weal. I have fought for the good of our common country. ( The speech throughout was constantly responded to by enthusiastic applause and cheers).
"And now, friends, " continued Mr. Roosevelt in his speech, "I shall have to ent short much of my speech that I meant to give you, but I want to touch on just two or three of the points. In the first place, speaking to you here in Milwaukee, I wish to say that the Progressive party is making its appeal to all our fellow citizens without any regard to their ereed or to their birth- place. We do not regard as essential the way in which a man worships his God or as being affected by where he was born. We regard it as a mat-
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ter of spirit and purpose. In New York, while I was police commissioner, the two men from whom I got the most assistance were JJacob Riis who was born in Demnark, and Oliver Van Briesen who was born in Germany, both of them as fine examples of the best and highest American citizenship as you could find in any part of the country.
Birthplace and Good Citizenship .- "I have just been introduced by one of your own men here, Henry Cochems. His grandfather, his father and that father's seven brothers, all served in the United States army, and they en- tered it four years after they had come to this country from Germany. Two of them left their lives,-spent their lives on the field of battle. I am all right-1 am a little sore. Anybody has a right to be sore with a bullet in him. .Yon would find that if I was in battle now I would be leading my men just the same. Inst the same way I am going to make this speech.
"At one time I promoted five men for gallantry on the field of battle. Afterwards, it happened to be found, in making some inquiries about them, that two of them were Protestants, two Catholics and one of them a Jew. One Protestant came from Germany and one was born in Ireland. I did not pro- mote them because of their religion, it just happened that way. If all five of them had been Jews, I would have promoted them, or if all five had been Protestants, I would have promoted them: or if they had been Catholics it would have been the same. In that regiment I had a man born in Italy who distinguished himself by gallantry. There was a young fellow, a son of Polish parents, and another who came here when he was a child from Bohemia, who likewise distinguished themselves: and friends, I assure you that I was in- capable of considering any question whatever, but the worth of each indi- vidual as a fighting man. If he was a good fighting man then I saw that Uncle Sam got the benefit from it.
"I make the same appeal in our citizenship. I ask in our civie life that we in the same way pay heed only to the man's quality of citizenship, to re- pudiate as the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries to get us to dis- eriminate for or against any man because of his creed or his birthplace. Now. friends, in the same way I want our people to stand by one another without regard to differences or class or occupation * *
An Appeal for Organized .Labor .- "It is essential that there should be . organizations of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize. My appeal for organized labor is twofokl. to the outsider and the capitalist I make my appeal to treat the laborers fairly, to recognize the fact that he must organize, that there must be such organization : that it is unfair and unjust that the laboring man must organize for his own protection but that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and not hinder him in organizing. That is one-half of the appeal that ] make.
"Now the other half is to the laboring man himself. My appeal to him is to remember that as he wants justice, so he must do justice. I want every laboring man, every labor leader, every organized union man to take the lead in denonneing erime or violence. I want them to take the lead in denouncing disorder and inciting to riot, that in this country we shall proceed under the protection of our laws and with all respect to the laws, and I want the labor-
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ing men to feel in their turn that exactly as justice must be done them So they must do justice; that they must bear their duty as citizens, their duty to this great country of ours, and that they must not rest content without. unless they do that duty to the fullest degree."
Prolonging the Speech .- Mr. Roosevelt continued with seareely unabated energy to diseuss the issues and the attitude of the old parties. Much un- easiness began to appear among the doctors and friends seated on the plat- form behind him as they feared he was over-exerting himself considering the condition he was laboring under. Noticing this anxiety he turned to friends on the stage, and inquired, "How long have I been speaking," to which one replied that he had been speaking three-quarters of an hour. "Well," he replied, "I will take a quarter of an hour more, " and proceeded with his ad- dress. In the course of his speech he returned to the subject of the old parties, pointing out their faults and short-comings with characteristic in- eisiveness and force.
"All through his talk, it was evident that his physicians feared his injury had been more serious than he was willing to admit," says Mr. Cochems in his account. "That a man with a bullet embedded in his body could stand up there and insist on giving the audienee the speech which they had come to hear was almost ineredible, and it was plain the physicians as well as the other friends of the Colonel on the stage were greatly alarmed. 'Sit down, sit down,' he said to those who, when he faltered onee or twice, half rose to come towards him.
"Finally, a motherly-looking woman a few rows of seats back from the stage, rose and said, 'Mr. Roosevelt, we all wish you would be seated. To this the Colonel quickly replied, 'I thank you, madam, but I don't mind it a bit.' The only time Colonel Roosevelt gave up and took a seat was when he came to a quotation from La Follette's Weekly which paid him a tribute for his work as president. This was read by Assemblyman T. J. Mahon while the Colonel rested."
Mr. Mahon then read the following editorial from La Follette's Weekly in its issue of March 13, 1909: "Roosevelt steps from the stage gracefully. Hle has ruled his party to a large extent against its will. He has played a large part of the workl's work for the past seven years. The activities of his remarkably forceful personality have been so manifold that it will be long. before his true rating will be fixed in the opinion of the raee. He is said to think that the three great things done by him are the undertaking of the construction of the Panama canal and its rapid and successful carrying for- ward, the making of peace between Russia and Japan, and the sending around the world of the fleet.
"These are important things but many will be slow to think them his greatest services. The Panama canal will surely serve mankind when in operation ; and the manner of organizing this work seems to be fine. But no one can yet say whether this project will be a gigantie success or a gigantic failure ; and the task is one which must in the nature of things have been undertaken and carried through some time soon, as historie periods go, any- how. The peace of Portsmouth was a great thing to be responsible for. and
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Roosevelt's good offices undoubtedly saved a great and bloody battle in Man- «huria. But the war was fought out, and the parties ready to quit, and there is reason to think that it is only when this situation was arrived at that the good offices of the President of the United States were, more or less indirectly, invited. The fleet's cruise was a strong piece of diplomacy, by which we informed Japan that we will send our fleet wherever we please and whenever we please. It worked ont well.
"But none of these things, it will seem to many, can compare with some of Roosevelt's other achievements. Perhaps he is loath to take eredit as a reformer, for he is prone to spell the word with question marks, and to speak disparagingly of 'reform.' But for all that, this contention of 'reformers' made reform respectable in the United States, and this rebuke of 'muck- rakers' has been the chief agent in making the history of 'muek-raking" in the United States a national one, conceded to be useful. lle has preached from the White House many doctrines: but among them he has left impressed on the American mind the one great truth of economic justice conched in the pithy and stinging phrase. 'the square deal.' The task of making reform respectable in a commercialized world, and of giving the nation a slogan in a phrase, is greater than the man who performed it is likely to think.
"And then there is the great and statesmanlike movement for the con- servation of our national resources, into which Roosevelt so energetically threw h'mself at a time when the nation as a whole knew not that we are ruining and bankrupting ourselves as fast as we can. This is probably the greatest thing Roosevelt did. This globe is the capital stock of the race. It is just so much coal and oil and gas. This may be economized or wasted. This same thing is true of phosphates and other mineral resources. Our water resources are immense, and we are only just beginning to use them. Our for- ests have been destroyed : they must be restored. Our soils are being depleted : they must be built up and conserved.
"These questions are not of this day only, or of this generation. They belong all to the future. Their consideration requires that high moral tone which regards the earth as the home of a posterity to whom we owe a sacred Inty. This immense idea, Roosevelt, with high statesmanship, dinned into the Pars of the nation until the nation heeded. He held it so high that it attracted the attention of the neighboring nations of the continent, and it will so spread and intensify that we will soon see the world's conferences devoted to it.
"Nothing can be greater or finer than this. It is so great and so fine that when the historian of the future shall speak of Theodore Roosevelt, he is likely to say that he did many notable things, among them that of inaugurat- ing the movement which finally resulted in the square deal, but that his greatest work was inspiring and actually beginning a world movement for staying terrestrial waste and saving for the human race the things upon which, and upon which alone, a great and peaceful and progressive and happy race life can be founded.
"What statesman in all history has done anything calling for so wide a view and for a purpose more lofty?"
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Character and Achievements of Mr. Roosevelt .- Perhaps there is contained in no review or utteranee of the time a more forcible presentation of the salient points of Theodore Roosevelt's character and of the work he accomplished, or a statement in clearer and more vigorons language of the judgments of his fellow countrymen, than the summary quoted above from La Follette's Weekly, or is more worthy the attention and consideration of the readers of this history. One may thus arrive at a true estimate of the eminent statesman whose career, in one of its most exciting episodes, we have here before ns.
Colonel Roosevelt at the Hospital .- " After Colonel Roosevelt had finished speaking at the Auditorium," continues the account prepared by the editors of the volume previously mentioned, "the effect of the shock and loss of blood from the shot was quite manifest in his appearance. Despite this fact, how- ever, he walked with a firm step to an automobile waiting at the rear of the big hall, and guarded by a group of friends was driven rapidly to the John- ston Emergency hospital. Preparations had there been made for a careful examination and for treatment by Dr. S. L. Terrell who attended Colonel Roosevelt during his entire trip, Dr. R. G. Sayle and Dr. T. A. Stratton, both of Milwaukee.
"At the hospital, Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood, a surgeon of the faculty of Johns Hopkins university, was invited into the consultation. The Colonel's first thonght had been to reassure Mrs. Roosevelt and his family against any unnecessary fear, and before he received treatment he sent a long reassuring telegram, together with a telegram to Seth Bullock, whose telegram was one of the first of the stream of telegrams which began pouring in for news of the patient's condition.
"During the preliminary examination of the wound by the doctors in the Johnston Emergeney hospital, preparations were completed to secure X-ray pictures under the direction of Dr. J. S. JJanssen, of Milwaukee. Doctor Janssen secured his views and left for his laboratory to develop the negatives. While these negatives were being secured, it was determined by the doctors that no great additional danger would be ineurred if Colonel Roosevelt were moved by special train to Chicago, which plan he had proposed, so that he might be nearer the center of his fight. Ile was moved by ambulance to the train which left Milwaukee shortly after midnight.
Description of the Wound .- "In the meantime, the completion of the X-ray picture disclosed the fact that the bullet lay between the fourth and fifth ribs, 31% inches from the surface of the chest on the right side, and later examinations diselosed that it had shattered the fourth rib somewhat, .
and was separated by only a delicate tissne from the pleural cavity. By a miracle it had spent its force, for had it entered slightly farther it would al- most to a certainty have ended Colonel Roosevelt 's life.
"Upon Doctor Janssen's report of the location of the bullet, there was a period of indecision, during which the train waited, before the surgeons con- cluded that the patient might be taken to Chicago, despite the nature of the wound, withont seriously impairing his chanees. Arriving at Chicago about 3:00 o'clock in the morning of October 15th, an ambulance was procured and
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the Colonel taken to Merey hospital, where he was attended by Dr. John B. Murphy, Dr. Arthur Dean Bevan and Dr. S. L. Terrell.
"A week later, during which time the surgeons concluded that the wound was not mortal, and having recovered his strength somewhat, he was taken East to his home at Oyster Bay, Long Island. 'The bullet lies where it em- bedded itself,' says one of the reports. 'It has not been disturbed by probes, because the surgeons have concluded that such an operation would ineur addi- tional danger.' That the shot fired by Schrank didn't succeed in murdering Colonel Roosevelt was a miracle of good fortune. A 'thirty-eight, long, Colt's cartridge,' fired from a pistol frame of 'forty-four' caliber design, so built be- cause it gave a heavier drive to the projectile ; and fired at close range, meant almost inevitable death.
"The aim was taken at a lower portion of Colonel Roosevelt's body, but a by-stander strnek Schrank's arm at the moment of explosion and elevated the direction of the shot. After passing through the Colonel's heavy military overcoat and his other clothing, it would have certainly killed him had it not struck in its course practically everything which he carried on his person which could impede its force. In his eoat pocket he had fifty sheets of manu- script for the night's speech, which had been doubled. and through which the bullet passed.
"It had struck also his spectacle case on the outer concave surface of the gun-metal material of which the case was constructed. It had passed through a double fold of his heavy suspenders before reaching his body. Had anyone of these objects been out of the range of the bullet, Schrank's dastardly pur- pose would have been accomplished beyond any conjecture."
The Telegram to Mrs. Roosevelt. Just before he went to the operating room in the Emergency hospital Colonel Roosevelt directed the following tele- gram to be sent to Mrs. Roosevelt: "Am in excellent shape, made an hour and half speech. The wound is a trivial one. I think they will find that it merely głaneed on a rib and went somewhere into a cavity of the body: it certainly did not tonch a hing and isn't a particle more serious than one of the injuries any of the boys used continually to be having. Am at the Emergency hospital at the moment, but anticipate going right on with my engagements. My voice seems to be in good shape."
The surgeons issued a bulletin from the Emergency hospital, as follows: "The bleeding was insignificant and the wound was immediately cleansed ex- ternally and dressed with sterile gauze by Dr. R. G. Sayle, of Milwaukee, . consulting surgeon of the Emergency hospital. As the bullet passed through Colonel Roosevelt's clothes, the doubled manuscript and spectacle case, its force was much diminished. The appearance of the wound also presented evidence of a much bent bullet. The Colonel is not suffering from shock and is in no pain. Hlis condition was so good that the surgeons did not objeet to his continuing his journey in his private ear to Chicago where he will be placed under surgical care." This bulletin was signed by Drs. S. L. Terrell. R. G. Sayle, Joseph Colt Bloodgood and T. A. Stratton.
Another bulletin was issued just before Colonel Roosevelt was taken to the special train which carried him to Chicago, as follows: "Colonel Roose-
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velt has a superficial flesh wound below the right breast with no evidence of injury to the lung. The bullet is probably lodged somewhere in the chest walls, beeause there is but one wound and no signs of any injury to the hing. His condition was so good that the surgeons did not try to locate the bullet. nor did they try to probe for it." This bulletin was signed by Drs. Terrell and Sayle.
Characteristic Good Nature of Patient .- Miss Regina White, superintendent of the Emergency hospital in Milwaukee, declared afterwards that Colonel Roosevelt was "the most unusual patient who ever was ministered to in the Johnston Emergency hospital. He was absolutely calm and unperturbed, and he influenced every one about him to be so, although excitement and unrest were in the very atmosphere, and he was suffering mich.
"Colonel Roosevelt had not been in the hospital fifteen minutes before every one he eame in contact with was willing to swear allegiance to the Bull Moose party, and personal allegiance to the genial Bull Moose himself. Ile was so friendly and cordial, so natural and free, so happy and genial and so inelined to 'jolly' us all. that we felt on terms of intimate friendship with him almost immediately ; and yet, through all this freedom of manner, he main- tained a dignity that never for an instant let us forget we were in the presence of a great man. It is almost unbelievable that he could have been so unruffled and apparently unconcerned as he was when he really was suffering. and when he did not know how serious the wound was."
"I asked the Colonel how he felt about the prosecution of the man who shot him," said Miss White: "and he said, 'I've not decided yet, but God help the poor fool under any circumstances.' And the tone he used was one of kindly sympathy and sincerity, and without one trace of maliee or sarcasm. Hle seemed kindly interested in everything that any one said to him. Miss Elvina Kneko, one of our nurses, shook hands with him when he was about to go and said she was sorry the shooting had happened in our city. The Colonel consoled her by saying it might have happened anywhere."
At Mercy hospital in Chicago Colonel Roosevelt won the hearts of all. "Ile was the best patient I ever had, " said Miss Welter, "he was considera- tion itself. He never had a word of complaint all the time he was at the hospital, and his chief worry seemed to be that we were not comfortable. We had expected to find him 'strenuous' and possibly disagreeable. On the con- trary we found him most doeile ; he chafed at being kept in bed, but he tried not to show it, and he never was ill-humored or peevish as many patients in a similar position are."
On the Road to Recovery .- Many unimportant details are included perhaps in this story of Colonel Roosevelt's exciting experience. But they are justified in the words of the preface to the valuable account which we have had the privilege of quoting from: "This little book presents an accurate story of the attempt upon the life of the ex-president." The aim of those who pre- sented it was that, being an accurate narrative, it should be "a contribution to the history of the United States." That shall be the aim, likewise, of the writer of these pages. Nine years after the volume was issued it shows its use- fulness and value be recalling the details of the event which occurred in the pie- .
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turesque and varied career of "the foremost man in all the world." Seldom, if ever, has a man who was not a world conqueror achieved in one lifetime such a boundless fame, as wide and extensive as the boundaries of all the na- tions of the globe. No detail ean be regarded as trivial or unimportant in such a connection as this.
"Mrs. Roosevelt reached Chieago, " continues the account, "with her son, Theodore, and her daughter, Ethel. She was driven directly to Merey hospital and took charge of her husband as soon as she had greeted him. She was quite composed on her arrival and placidly directed affairs all through. As a result of her presener the Colonel's visiting list was materially cut down : he devoted less time to reading telegrams and discussed the campaign very little. Part of the morning he spent in reading cablegrams of sympathy and congratulation on his escape, from Emperor William. King George, the presi- dent of France, the king of Spain, the president of Portugal, and the Crown Prinee and Princess of Germany.
"Among his few callers were Col. Cecil Lyon, Medill McCormick. Dr. Alexander Lambert, his family physician, who had accompanied Mrs. Roose- velt to Chicago, Doctor Evans of Chicago and Dr. Woods Hutchinson, a writer on medical topies and a warm personal friend. As soon as he saw Doctor Lambert the Colonel said, 'Lambert, you'd have let me finish that speech if you'd been there after I was shot, wouldn't you?' .Perhaps so,' returned the doctor a little dubiously, 'but I should have made sure you were not seriously hurt first.'
"Before Mrs. Roosevelt arrived the Colonel was insistent that he be al- Jowed to go to Oyster Bay shortly. After a talk with Mrs. Roosevelt he said he would leave that question to her. 'It will probably be ten days at least before we go,' she said. 'It is too far distant to attempt a prophecy.' A more careful examination of the X-ray prints taken of the patient diselosed the fact that his fourth rib was slightly splintered by the impact of the bullet lodged against it. This accounted for the discomfort that the Colonel suffered."
Irrepressible Desire to Talk .- While receiving a number of the newspaper men in his party Doctor Terrell eame in at the conclusion of the conversation, and expressed the fear that the ex-president was exerting himself beyond his strength. "You do too much, " said Doctor Terrell. "The most uncomfort- able hour I ever spent in my life was while I sat on the platform in Mil- waukee wondering where that bullet was and in what imminent danger you were. How could you be so incautions as to make a speech then? It was all very well for von to say the shot was not fatal but how could you tell?" The Colonel raised his arm heavily, trying not to show the pain that came with every movement. "I did not think the wound was dangerous," he said. "1 was confident that it was not in a place where much harm could follow, and therefore I wished to make the speech. Anyway, even if it went against me,- well, if I had to die,-1 thought I'd rather die with my boots on."
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