Theodore Roosevelt had a varied career, and made the most of all his opportunities
The Mid-90s: At Loose Ends
Still in his early-to-mid 30s, Theodore Roosevelt, aristocratic and wealthy New Yorker, had jam packed decades into his young life. He was a Harvard graduate, married and widowed, remarried and a young father of a growing brood, a well-regarded and prolific author, an energetic NY Republican Assemblyman, a cowboy-rancher in the Dakotas, a politician with growing clout, and a federal appointment to the newly created Civil Service Commission. He was also a well-known hobnobber of the movers and shakers of Washington, DC.
His appointment as a Civil Service Commissioner gained him recognition not only in the Benjamin Harrison Administration, but was held over for a while in the returning Grover Cleveland Administration. POTUS GC, having been a NY Governor, remembered the youthful (and noisy) Assemblyman from a decade earlier, and liked him.
But having done about as much as could to be done with the Civil Service Commission, TR was antsy for some new challenges – but they had to be nifty! The City of New York came to his rescue with an offer of Police Commissioner.
Nifty Indeed
It was like inviting a six-year-old to play cops and robbers… as one of President TR’s pals later said “you have to remember he [TR] is only six.” The new commissioner had a grand time of it.
TR had learned early on, that the power of the press was indeed powerful – if you used it effectively – and he was a master! He had become acquainted with Jacob Riis, a journalist/photographer and Danish immigrant, whose early days in the US had been swathed in squalor. He never forgot those struggles, and devoted most of his coverage to “how the other half lives,” which became the title of one of his best selling books.
Riis escorted TR around to the seamier and impoverished sections of tenements and filth, inflaming the latent social conscience of the aristocratic Roosevelt. Social conscience was never far from TR’s thoughts; his father spent most of his too-short life working actively for civic and charitable causes. Riis and Roosevelt would be friends for life.
TR’s favorite “game” was to wander around the Tenderloin, and other seedy areas of NYC late at night, to check on the policemen, making sure they were “doing their duty” when they were on duty. They weren’t – at first. But once they realized that their new Commissioner was a) on the prowl, and b) pounced in places they never expected, they shaped up, and most of the NY police force loved him. TR was fair. He cared about their welfare. He was also exciting to be around. Things happened when he showed up. Of course there were a few cops who weren’t so enthusiastic, especially when their look-the-other-way income was curtailed.
And, of course, the New York journalists had a field day of it! Their cartoonists found a meal ticket in the bespectacled patrician with the toothy grin. The newspapers regularly carried stories of his “inspection” routines, and his efforts to bring good law enforcement to the rough neighborhoods.
Oops…
TR got into trouble when he attempted to enforce a standing law that mandated closing the saloons on Sundays. The Temperance folks had insisted they be shuttered – at least on the Sabbath. The saloon owners were unhappy since they were losing business. The working men, particularly in the German-speaking areas, were livid. They were not habitual drunkards, but merely men accustomed to a convivial beer or two on their only day off. And many an agreeable officer who looked-the-other-way was likewise angry at losing his lucrative pre-speakeasy partnership.
Theodore Roosevelt was not a drinker, other than wine with dinner, and whether he personally approved or not, the law was the law, and he was charged with enforcing it. He was also not a gambler, but charged with upholding the laws against gambling. He was also a puritan when it came to sex – but charged with enforcing the laws against prostitution. All of the above were rampant in New York City’s seedier areas.
Naturally the proponents of these popular vices found creative ways to skirt the law. They formed “private clubs” to provide unregulated vice. They adapted their premises to serve (at least on paper) as a hotel or restaurant. “Patrons” could simply cross the new bridge, and go to Brooklyn for their Sunday pleasures.
TR’s happy relationship with the press took a big hit and he knew it. But at least he “did his duty.” And he learned a valuable lesson in treading lightly with those vices that were more effectively chastised (maybe) from the pulpit rather than the precinct. And he would never forget the lesson of ridicule as an effective weapon.
The Effective Weapon
Theodore Roosevelt was a deeply moral man, but he was also a practical one. He too could find creative methods of keeping within the law, especially when it jibed with his own high ground.
While he was Police Commissioner, Herman Alwardt, a virulent anti-Semitic German clergyman from Berlin, came to New York City to preach his hatred of Jews. Commissioner TR was tasked with providing police protection for his talk.
In 1895, NYC had a large and growing population of Jewish immigrant-citizens, many of whom had risen to places of prominence, and feared the pervasive anti-Semitism that had driven so many of them to US shores. They petitioned Roosevelt to prevent the speech and refuse police “protection.” In his own words, he told them it was impossible and “if possible would have been undesirable because it would have made him a martyr. The proper thing to do was to make him ridiculous. Accordingly I detailed for his protection a Jew sergeant and a score or two of Jew policemen. He made his harangue against the Jews under the active protection of some forty policemen, everyone of them a Jew!”
TR sent 40 of “New York’s Finest” – a small army of burly, well-trained Jewish policemen – to protect Rev. Ahlwardt from any harm – except the ridicule.
Sources:
Brands, H.W. – TR: The Last Romantic – Basic Books, 1997
Dalton, Kathleen – Theodore Roosevelt: A Strenuous Life
Marschall, Rick – Bully! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt – Regnery History, 2011
https://www.history.com/news/theodore-roosevelt-new-york-politics-governor-police-commissioner
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