in view of the knowledge. Many persons publicly and privately protested against the move on the ground that Japan would accept it as a threat. To this I answered nothing in public. In private I said that I did not believe Japan would so regard it because Japan knew my sincere friendship and admiration for her and realized that we could not as a Nation have any intention of attacking her.... When in the spring of 1910 I was in Europe I was interested to find that high naval authorities in both Germany and Italy had expected that war would come at the time of the voyage. They asked me if I had not been afraid of it, and if I had not expected that hostilities would begin at least by the time that the fleet reached the Straits of Magellan? I answered that I did not expect it; that I believed that Japan would feel as friendly in the matter as we did; but that if my expectations had proved mistaken, it would have been proof positive that we were going to be attacked anyhow and that in such event it would have been an enormous gain to have had the three months' preliminary preparation which enabled the fleet to start perfectly equipped. In a personal interview before they left, I had explained to the officers in command that I believed the trip would be one of absolute peace, but that they were to take exactly the same precautions against sudden attack of any kind as if we were at war with all the nations of the earth; and that no excuse of any kind would be accepted if there were a sudden attack of any kind and we were taken

"The cruise did make a very deep impression abroad.... But the impression made on our own people was of far greater consequence. No single thing in the history of

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the new United States Navy has done as much to stimulate popular interest and belief in it as the world cruise. "I first directed the fleet of sixteen battle-ships to go round through the Straits of Magellan to San Francisco. From thence I ordered them to New Zealand and Australia, then to the Philippines, China and Japan and home through Suez. . . . Admiral Evans commanded the fleet to San Francisco; there Admiral Sperry took it. . . The coaling and other preparations were made in such excellent shape by the Department that there was never a hitch, not so much as the delay of an hour, in keeping every appointment made. All the repairs were made without difficulty, the ship concerned merely falling out of the column for a few hours, and when the job was done steaming at speed until she regained her position. Not a ship was left in any port; and there was hardly a desertion. As soon as it was known that the voyage was to be undertaken men crowded to enlist, just as freely from the Mississippi Valley as from the seaboard, and for the first time since the Spanish War the ships put to sea overmanned and by as stalwart a set of men-of-war's men as ever looked through a porthole, game for a fight or a frolic, but also self-respecting and with such a sense of responsibility that in all the ports in which they landed their conduct was exemplary. The fleet practised incessantly during the voyage both with the guns and battle tactics and came home a much more effective fighting instrument than when it started sixteen months before. 1...

"It was not originally my intention that the fleet should visit Australia but the Australian Government sent a 1 For the torpedo boat destroyers incident see Autobiography, 596.

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most cordial invitation which I gladly accepted. reception accorded the fleet in Australia was wonderful and it showed the fundamental community of feeling between ourselves and the great commonwealth of the South Seas. The considerate, generous and open-handed hospitality with which the entire Australian people treated our officers and men could not have been surpassed had they been our own countrymen.

"The most noteworthy incident of the cruise was the reception given to our fleet in Japan. In courtesy and good breeding, the Japanese can certainly teach much to the nations of the Western world. I had been very sure that the people of Japan would understand aright what the cruise meant and would accept the visit of our fleet as the signal honor which it was meant to be, a proof of the high regard and friendship I felt and which I was certain the American people felt for the great Island Empire. The event even surpassed my expectations. I cannot too strongly express my appreciation of the generous courtesy the Japanese showed the officers and crews of our fleet and I may add that every man of them came back a friend and admirer of the Japanese. On October 28, 1908, Admiral Sperry wrote me that in Yokohama as many as a thousand English-speaking Japanese college students acted as volunteer guides. . . In Tokyo there were a great many excellent refreshment places, where the men got excellent meals and could rest, smoke and write letters and in none of these places would they allow the men to pay anything though they were more than ready to do so. The arrangements were marvellously perfect." 1

1 Autobiography, 592 et seq. This citation and the other citations which I have made from the Autobiography are from the Macmillan

On the return of the fleet from their voyage round the world President Roosevelt on February 22, 1909, ten days before he was to give up the cares and delights of office, reviewed the fleet, addressing the officers and men in fitting words.1

President Roosevelt was fully alive to the Japanese situation. We cannot let in the Japanese, he said in private conversation during May, 1908, while the fleet was on its way round the world but before it visited Japan. I once thought that we could but I have given up that idea. My efforts have been to get the Japanese to stop emigration. The agreement which I now have is working fairly well but not perfectly. An exclusion Act may have to come and that may cause trouble. One reason for my desire of the increase of the Navy was the Japanese situation. We know what the Japanese are saying in their cups and there is a desire on the part of a certain class in Japan to go to war with us. But the Elder Statesmen are opposed to it. The sending of the fleet to the Pacific stopped the Japanese talk of war.

Co. edition of 1913. George P. Brett wrote to me under date of Dec. 23, 1921, that the Macmillan Company parted with their publishing rights in the Roosevelt Autobiography some two years ago and the reference in my manuscript to that book should therefore credit its publication to the Messrs. Scribner instead of to the Macmillan Company.

1 Autobiography, 602.

CHAPTER XVII

NINETEEN hundred eight was the year for the election of a President and it seemed almost a foregone conclusion that the Republican candidate could be chosen, and he would be named by the Republican Convention which met in Chicago during June. No man stood so strong with the people as Theodore Roosevelt and no doubt remains that he could have been nominated and elected by an overwhelming majority. But he insisted publicly and privately that on no account whatever would he be a candidate. "There has never been a moment," he wrote to Lyman Abbott on May 29, "when I could not have had the Republican nomination with practical unanimity by simply raising one finger." There can be no question that this statement was absolutely true. Roosevelt would not accept the presidency because he had a high regard for Washington's example which had dictated his pronouncement on election day, 1904, and for the further reason that, as he felt now that the people were back of him, they might say that he had prevailed upon their support in order to further his own ends should he now stand for a third term. But he was in no respect tired of his job. "I have had an exceedingly good time,” he wrote to William Allen White; "I have been exceedingly well treated by the American people; and I have enjoyed the respect of those for whose respect I care most."2 He would have liked to remain President. He loved 2 Nov. 26, 1907, Bishop, ii. 51.

1 Bishop, ii. 86.