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Show IF WILSON WERE PLAIN CITIZEN I AND ROOSEVELT PRESIDENT I y B Editor Standard: Please reproduce the following: ( The wolves are after Wilson, with Roosevelt in the van, jj H So Teddy Roosevelt, stand up and answer man to man : H If you were at the helm of state in this distress of war, j H And needed all the wit and grit that you are noted for, j H And had your eye fixed on the marks and had the rudder set To clear the reefs and sandbars and the river devil's net, j H And some ex-pilot who might chance to join you on the trip, H Convinced he was the fittest man on earth to sail the ship, i H Should stand in front of you and shout, and wave his foolish arms, H And swear at you and call you names and yammer wild alarms, H And call the other passengers to witne'ss that he knew ' H A blamed sight better how to steer the ship of state than you Jn Now, honest, Teddy Roosevelt, what do you think you'd do? I Ton know as well as I do that in less time .than it takes u H To shake your widely famed "Big stick you'd have him in the J H brakes, 3 H Or, what is still more likely, you would chuck him overboard, H And feel quite easy when it came to settling with the Lord. jjj H I hate to talk to you like this, dear Teddy Roosevelt, 1 H For you have been the idol to whom many of us knelt; H But to undermine the captain when the foe is in the field H Is as bad as for the enemy a weapon blank to wield ; H And to stay or stop the pilot when the pilot's at the lielm H Is a crime of the first magnitude in every land and realm. 1 H Yet it seems to me that this is just precisely what you've done, H . Which is why I ask you, Teddy, to stand up and face the fun ; H Speak out and say if anything could possibly prevent H The man who tried to hamper you, from taking punishment, H If Wilson were plain citizen and you were President? 1 William Herbert Carruth. I Stanford University, January 25, 191S. j |