g about serious interruption to traffic. If the
reduction in wages is due to natural causes, the loss of business being
such that the burden should be, and is, equitably distributed, between
capitalist and wageworker, the public should know it. If it is caused by
legislation, the public and Congress should know it; and if it is caused
by misconduct in the past financial or other operations of any railroad,
then everybody should know it, especially if the excuse of unfriendly
legislation is advanced as a method of covering up past business
misconduct by the railroad managers, or as a justification for failure
to treat fairly the wage-earning employees of the company."

The letter closed with a request to the Commission to investigate the
whole matter with these points in view. But the investigation proved
unnecessary; the letter was enough. The proposed reduction of wages was
never heard of again. The strength of the President's position in a case
of this sort was that he was cheerfully prepared to accept whatever an
investigation should show to be right. If the reduction should prove to
be required by natural causes, very well--let the reduction be made. If
it was the result of unfair and unwise legislation, very well--repeal
the legislation. If it was caused by misconduct on the part of railroad
managers, very well--let them be punished. It was hard to get the better
of a man who wanted only the truth, and was ready to act upon it, no
matter which way it cut.

In 1910, after his return from Africa, a speaking trip happened to
take him to Columbus, Ohio, which had for months been in the grasp of a
street railway strike. There had been much violence, many policemen had
refused to do their duty, and many officials had failed in theirs. It
was an uncomfortable time for an outsider to come and make a speech. But
Roosevelt did not dodge. He spoke, and straight to the point. His speech
had been announced as on Law and Order. When he rose to speak, however,
he declared that he would speak on Law, Order, and Justice. Here are
some of the incisive things that he said:

"Now, the first requisite is to establish order; and the first duty of
every official, in State and city alike, high and low, is to see that
order obtains and that violence is definitely stopped .... I have the
greatest regard for the policeman who does his duty. I put him high
among the props of the State, but the policeman who mutinies, or
refuses to perform h