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ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed letter signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”) to Dr. Alexander Lambert (1861-1939), New York, 10 August 1917. 2 pages, 4to, Metropolitan stationery, a few corrections in Roosevelt’s hand.
ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Typed letter signed (“Theodore Roosevelt”) to Dr. Alexander Lambert (1861-1939), New York, 10 August 1917. 2 pages, 4to, Metropolitan stationery, a few corrections in Roosevelt’s hand. “I WAS ENTHRALLED WITH YOUR VERY GRUESOME ACCOUNT OF THE GAS BUSINESS,” TR tells Lambert, his family physician. “Good Lord, think of how ignorant our people are, and how entirely the administration has failed in this situation...it was a year and a half before the English began to stop blundering. We are now doing worse than the English did...” TR thinks the U.S. will “not really begin to exert our great strength until 1919, unless there is a complete change in the conduct of the Administration.” T.R. was a blistering critic of Wilson’s neutrality policy between 1914 and 1917, and now with the U.S. in the war he is still frustrated. “Here, I am at my wits end to know just how to handle the situation,” he tells Lambert. “I uphold Wilson in everything he does for efficient action, and I attack every opponent of his of the LaFollette, or Stone, or Hearst type; but I feel that it is simply ruin not to make Wilson feel that he must act up to the handle if he wishes to avoid trouble.” He thinks that Wilson would “give right up” on the U.S. war effort “if he thought he was immune from assault.” T.R. also mentions his three children who were in the fight already: “both Ted and Archie are now in line positions in infantry regiments. Of course you won’t see either of them, and I don’t suppose you will see Quentin, but I hope you will see Eleanor...” All three sons would become casualties: Theodore, Jr. was gassed at Soissons; Archibald was severely wounded but survived; Quentin Roosevelt died in combat in 1918.