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Show I Objection to Phrase I "In God We Trust" is I Told By Roosevelt KJtj f NEW YORK, Dec 10. A new and Hill j I Interesting explanation of Colonel Bit I Roosovelt'.s objection to the use of the Hi I , uorase "In Guu V'c Trust" on United Hp I States coins, is afforded In an article Of the December Scrlbner's b Joseph r.ucklin Bishop, the former president's HI Biographer. He 'A Inter written by Mr Roosevelt or. Kijj -"jjv. 11, 1907, to a Clergyman who had lf(j j differed with him about placing ilv imoi to on l he coins i ead H j M j W hen the question of the new coin HI I I .-isc came up we looked Into thp law a Ad found there a ao warrant th re-H re-H M for putting 'In Cod We Trust' on, H tjie coins. As the custom, although , H1 wjthout lH,'al warrant, had mown up, H j however, 1 might have felt at liberty i 10 k-' p ih inscription had 1 approved H ' Of its being on the. coinage. Hut as Ij ctt not approve ol It, 1 did noi aired H And h should again be put on. Ofi R ! ' course the matter of the law is abso H hnely in the hands of congress, and ujy direction el congress in the mat Hy ?h ut- win be Inbn'edlately obeyed At! H1N I i ju-eseni, at I have said, there h no H ; i? I v arrant in law for the inscription, HI J "".My own feeling in th' matter is Hi 'I due to my very firm conviction that I to put Bttch a motto on coins, or to use J it Id any kindred tnannt r, not one HI B does no good but does positive harm. I HJ'lll and is in etfect Irreverence which Hi i ! comes dangerously close to sacrilege. Hill P I "A beautiful and solemn sentence HlfC such as the one in Question should be ! Htjj tueated and uttered only v. ith that; H l l II r f'nc reverenct which necessarily im- H, Plies a certain exaltation of spirit Hf I . Any use which t-nds to cheapen it, I H j and above all. an-, use which tends to HP It secure Its being treated in a spirit of: U i i . i from ev ery standpoint pro-foundly pro-foundly to be regretted. 'It is a motto which it Is indeed well to have inscribed on our great national monuments, in our temples of justice, in our legislative halls, and in buildings such as those at West Point and Annapolis in short, wherever wher-ever it will leud to arouse and inspire a lofty emotion in those who look thereon. But it seems to me eminenth iinwli lo chi open such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen cheap-en it by use on postage stamps, or in advei tlsements." Letters From Kipling Aiuon? the 15",(Mm letters written b Colonel Iloiisevelt during his public Career, Mr. Blshpp said he found a number from Kudyard Kipling, written writ-ten in that famous authn's characteristic character-istic way, that is. in the tiniest chnoj;-raphy. chnoj;-raphy. in a letter written in 1908 the Colonel Col-onel said- "Great-Heart" Is my favorite favor-ite character in allegory, just as Pil grfm's Progress is to mj mind one of the greatest books thai was ever writ ten; and I think thai Abraham Lincoln i i.w ideal 'Geeat-Hearl of public life." He returned to this Idea about Lincoln from time to time, a fact which explains the oricln Of Kipling's memorial poem entitled "Great-Heart," Written nhen the Colonel died Colonel Roosevelt's admiration for the (;reai Linancipaior was also Shown in a letter which he wrote on March 9. 10O5, a few dnvs alter his Inauguration) i 8ir (ieorse Trevelyan. Hi.- English bistort an and nephew of Macaula in which the Colonel said: "It has been peculiarl) pleasant to me to find that m supporters are to i" round unions the overwhelming m." jority whom Abraham Lincoln called the 'plaia people.' As I suppose yovi know. Lincoln Is my hero. He was a man of the people who always felt uith and for 'he people, but who had not the slightest touch of the demagogue dema-gogue in him '.' oo |
