Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Lester Pearson

Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done. Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, -- One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. Tennyson's _Ulysses_.

Not many months after Roosevelt came back from South America, the Great War in Europe broke out. It is but dreaming now to surmise what might have been done in those fearful days of July 1914, when the German hordes were gathering for their attack upon the world. Once before, and singlehanded, this country had made the German Kaiser halt. Had there been resolution in the White House in 1914, could all the neutral nations have been rallied at our side, and could we have spoken in tones so decisive to the Hun that he would have drawn back even then, have left Belgium unravaged, and spared the world the misery of the next four years? It may be so; Germany did not expect to have to take on England as an enemy. If she had been told, _so that there was no mistaking our meaning_, that she would have us against her as well, then it might have been her part to hesitate, and finally put back her sword.