AVERAGE AMERICANS

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, U. S. A.

ILLUSTRATED

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1919

To
THE OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE 26th INFANTRY

[v]

PREFACE

ALL our lives my father treated his sonsand daughters as companions. Whenwe were not with him he wrote to us constantly.Everything that we did we discussed withhim whenever it was possible. All hischildren tried to live up to his principles.In the paragraphs from his letters below, hespeaks often of the citizens of this countryas "our people." It is for all these, equallywith us, that the messages are intended.

"New Year's greetings to you! This mayor may not be, on the whole, a happy NewYear—almost certainly it will be in part atleast a New Year of sorrow—but at least youand your brothers will be upborne by the self-reliantpride coming from having playedwell and manfully a man's part when thegreat crisis came, the great crisis that 'sifted[vi]out men's souls' and winnowed the chafffrom the grain."—January 1, 1918.

"Large masses of people still vaguely feelthat somehow I can say something which willavoid all criticism of the government and yetmake the government instantly remedy everythingthat is wrong; whereas in reality nothingnow counts except the actual doing of thework and that I am allowed to have no partin. Generals Wood and Crowder have beendenied the chance to render service; appointmentsare made primarily on grounds of seniority,which in war time is much like choosingPoets Laureate on the same grounds."—August23, 1917.

"At last, after seven months, we are, likeMr. Snodgrass, 'going to begin.' The NationalGuard regiments are just beginning tostart for their camps, and within the nexttwo weeks I should say that most of themwould have started; and by the first of SeptemberI believe that the first of the National[vii]Army will begin to assemble in their camps.... Ido nothing. Now and then, when Ican't help myself, I speak, for it is necessaryto offset in some measure the talk of the fools,traitors, pro-Germans, and pacifists; but reallywhat we need against these is action, and thatonly the government can take. Words countfor but little when the 'drumming guns' havebeen waked."—August 23, 1917.

"The regular officers are fine fellows, butfor any serious work we should eliminate
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