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Theodore Roosevelt as President Writes Journalist about Son Kermit's Possibilities as a Runner!
Theodore Roosevelt as President Writes Journalist about Son Kermit's Possibilities as a Runner!
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Roosevelt Theodore

Theodore Roosevelt as President Writes Journalist about Son Kermit’s Possibilities as a Runner!

 

Typed Letter Signed, to Arthur Ruhl, March 24, 1907, Washington, D.C.  1 p., 7" x 8.75." Usual folds, excellent.

 

Complete Transcription

THE WHITE HOUSE

Washington

Personal

                                                                        March 24, 1907.

My dear Mr. Ruhl:

            That is a very nice letter of yours. It was a pleasure to see you. I have been using your memo [Added in Roosevelt’s hand: advice to make Kermit see if he can not fit himself to be a “two-miler”!

With regard, believe me,

                                                                        Sincerely yours,

                                                                        Theodore Roosevelt

Mr. Arthur Ruhl,

Care Collier’s,

416 West 13th Street, / New York.

 

Historical Background

In 1899, Roosevelt had given a speech entitled “The Strenuous Life” in Chicago, in which he called Americans to a “life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins ultimate triumph.” As a proponent of the “strenuous life” of physical and mental activity, Roosevelt admired journalist Arthur Ruhl’s sports writing.

 

While at Harvard University, nearly twenty years after Roosevelt, Ruhl was a runner and competed in the half-mile in the Harvard Athletic Association’s third Biennial Games. As a freshman, he placed third. Although he was not among the top Harvard track athletes, he never lost his enthusiasm for running. In 1905, he wrote the track and field portion of Rowing and Track Athletics, published by Macmillan.

 

Kermit Roosevelt (1889-1943) was the second son of Theodore Roosevelt and would have been seventeen years old when his father wrote this letter. He attended the Groton School in Massachusetts and enrolled at Harvard University in 1908. In 1909, he and his father, who had just finished his Presidency, went on a year-long expedition in Africa funded by the Smithsonian Institution. After a trip through Europe, Kermit Roosevelt returned to Harvard and completed four years of study in two and one-half years to graduate with the class of 1912.

 

 

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was born in New York City and graduated from Harvard University in 1880 and attended Columbia Law School. He served in the New York State Assembly from 1882 to 1884, and as president of the New York City Police Commissioners in 1895 and 1896, then as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1898. After service in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, he won election as Governor of New York and served from 1899 to 1900. He ran as Vice President to William McKinley in 1900 and became President in September 1901, when McKinley was assassinated. Reelected in 1904, Roosevelt was President until 1909. A prolific author and naturalist, Roosevelt was instrumental in the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century, helped preserve the nation’s natural resources, and extended American power throughout the world with a focus on a modern navy. In 1912, he again sought the Republican nomination for President, but when the convention chose incumbent William Howard Taft, Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party and outpolled Taft in the general election. The Republican division allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the presidency.

 

Arthur Brown Ruhl (1876-1935) was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Harvard University in 1899. While at Harvard, he wrote for The Advocate and Lampoon, and ran on the track team. After he graduated, the New York Evening Sun employed him as a reporter, and he was soon published in Century Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and Collier’s Weekly.  He traveled widely and wrote on a wide variety of topics, from sports to theatre to politics. He wrote about Latin-American affairs and was an authority on international relations. He wrote about a Mexican revolution, a volcano erupting in South America, the German and Turkish lines at Gallipoli, the world heavyweight boxing match in Reno, theatres in Moscow, a George Gershwin concert, the Wright Brothers’ experiments with flight, and many other topics. He died in Queens from pneumonia, contracted ten days earlier. He married Zinaida Yakovnchikoff (1904-1952), who was born in Russia and spoke German, in 1926, in Berlin, Germany. They had one son Arthur Paul Ruhl (1929-1997).

 

 

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