For his action in this, President Roosevelt was the first American
to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This was a sad reverse to the
predictions of those who had been so sure that he was longing to
start wars, instead of end them. Indeed, men who prophesied evil
about Mr. Roosevelt, as well as those who tried to catch him in
traps, had a most disappointing experience. The Nobel Prize
consisted of a diploma, and an award in money of $40,000. This he
tried to devote to helping the cause of peace between capital and
labor in America. When Congress failed to take the needed action
to apply his money for this purpose, it was returned to him.
During the Great War he gave all of it to different relief
organizations, like the Red Cross, and other societies for helping
the sufferers.
The President assembled the most powerful fleet we had ever had
together, sixteen battleships, with destroyers, and sent them on a
cruise around the world. This was bitterly opposed at the time.
Public men and newspapers predicted that the fleet could never
make the voyage, or that even if it could, its effect would be to
cause war with some other nation. The most emphatic predictions
were made by a famous newspaper that the entrance of the fleet
into the Pacific Ocean would be the signal for a declaration of
war upon us by a foreign power. Nothing of the sort happened.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97