Under
Four Administrations
FROM CLEVELAND TO TAFT
RECOLLECTIONS OF
OSCAR S. STRAUS, Litt.D., LL.D.
Three Times Minister and Ambassador to Turkey
Former Secretary of Commerce and Labor
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
Boston and New York
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
SECOND IMPRESSION
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE·MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE U·S·A
DEDICATED TO
MY GRANDCHILDREN
AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES
OF EVERY RACE AND CREED
PREFACE
I am drawing these memories to a close in my log cabinin the primitive Maine woods, where my wife and Ihave been coming for rest and for fishing for the pasttwenty years. Here we renew our youth, and far fromtumult and crowds, near to nature, we realize anew howlittle is required in order to be contented and happy.Here I am taken back to the memories of my childhoodin the little town in Georgia where too our home was alog house, but for appearances had the luxurious outerand inner dressing of clap-boarding painted white. Thelogs of the upper story where we children played and slepthad no covering, which pleased us all the more.
In a highly organized society, we are often attractedby pomp and circumstance, rather than by qualities ofheart and mind, which after all are the true measure ofenlightenment. Here in these woods, fair dealings andhuman relations are not regulated by statutes, but by thegolden rule of conduct. We need not hide our possessionsbehind locked doors, honesty is the accepted rule of life;there are no treasures to hide and no bars to break.
It has been permitted me to do useful work and tohave interesting experiences. Privileged opportunitieshave been afforded me for public service. Of these Iwrite.
Perhaps in chronicling the experiences of a life whichat many points touched vital affairs and the most interestingpersonalities, I may be able to add something tothe record of men, movements, and events during thosedecades still absorbing to us because they are so near.[viii]
The story is one of service at home and abroad, ofpersonal relations with six of our Presidents, with diplomats,labor leaders, foreign rulers, leaders of industry,and some plain unticketed citizens who were the salt ofthe earth and certainly not the least of those whom itwas a pleasure to know.
To write of one's self requires a certain amount ofegotism. The autobiographer usually tries to justify thisvanity by explaining it as a desire to gratify his childrenand kinsmen, or as a yielding to the urgent request of hisfr