If I could not go to the war, I could at least go electioneering
with Roosevelt when he came back and try to help him out the best
I knew how in matters that touched the poor and their life, once
he sat in Cleveland's chair in Albany. I do not think he felt that
as an added dignity, but I did and I told him so, whereat he used
to laugh a little. But there was nothing to laugh at. They are
men of the same stamp, not saints any more than the rest of us,
but men with minds and honest wills, if they have different ways of
doing things. I wish some Cleveland would come along again soon and
give me another chance to vote the ticket which Tammany obstructs
with its impudent claim that it is the Democratic party. As for
Roosevelt, few were nearer to him, I fancy, than I, even at Albany.
No doubt he made his mistakes like the rest of us, and when he
did there were not wanting critics to make the most of it. I wish
they had been half as ready to lend him a hand. We might have been
farther on the road then. I saw how faithfully he labored. I was
his umpire with the tailors, with the drug clerks, in the enforcement
of the Factory Law against sweaters, and I know that early and
late he had no other thought than how best to serve the people who
trusted him.
Pages:
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429