Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Oyster Bay, N. Y.
Dear Sir: -

During the past month I have received for review the little book by Julian Street, Charles G. Washburn's Biography and your own recent work, "Fear God and Take Your Own Part". I want to offer one American's thanks for the latter.

Five years ago I thought I was a thorough Socialist; and while I recognized yours as the most powerful personality in American politics, I feared you. Since that time it has been my duty to wade somehow through something like fifteen hundred current books; and as a result I found that my political views were undergoing a profound change. Everywhere was the impressionistic note coupled with an overwrought humanitarianism, flabby sentimentality, and what seemed to be a general womanization of thought. The he-principle seemed to be oozing out of society, and I began to cast about for some philosophical explanation. I thought I found it in the exaggerated idea of democracy, which, having become sentimentalized, had "slopped over" into the non-political realms of thought and had become impressionism — the tendency to repudiate standards and to set up individual caprice. I saw this tendency at work in painting, music, poetry, philosophy, morals and religion; and since the outbreak of the great war I have certainly seen something quite like it at work in statecraft. As a result my political credo runs thus: "I believe in a strong rule by the Fit for the good of the Many, that more of the Many may become fit".

I, for one, want to feel a wise and unquestionable authority over me in all things, because I, like all men, gain strength through obedience. And it is for this reason that I venture quite humbly to express my gratitude for the spirit and letter of your recent book. Since it is becoming increasingly apparent that one of these times we shall have to face some great national danger, it is good to know that there is one in our land who has the timeless vision of things, and about whom we might rally in that great mood which makes Plutarch good reading.

Yours,

John G. Neihardt