The Everything Theodore Roosevelt Book (19 page)

Not a Good First Day

TR walked into chaos his first day on the job in the form of a piece of legislation designed to reform the police department and render him practically useless. That was the Ainsworth Bill, sponsored in the New York State Assembly by Danforth E. Ainsworth in his final year as an assemblyman.

Police Chief Thomas F. Byrnes was known for his brutal tactics when interrogating suspected criminals. He described it as giving them the “third degree,” a term attributed to him. He was an effective police officer and chief and a shrewd money manager. Byrnes amassed a fortune of $350,000 on a salary of $2,000 a year, based on “sound advice” from his Wall Street friends.

Among its provisions, the bill changed the title of chief of police to superintendent of police and increased the incumbent’s power. It also gave the superintendent the authority to try all cases of charges against members of the force. And, the bill stipulated that the superintendent could be removed from office only if he was deemed to be totally incapable of running the department. In effect, the superintendent would be untouchable.

Not surprisingly, the incumbent Chief of Police Thomas F. Byrnes supported the bill completely. The commissioners did not. They found an ally. Mayor Strong vetoed the bill, which did not pass. That spelled doom for Chief Byrnes.

According to a lengthy May 28, 1895, article in the
New York Times
, Chief Byrnes retired at his own request after thirty-two years of service. He was granted a $3,000 per year pension. Inspector Peter Conlin was named to replace him. The reporter noted that Byrnes’s retirement “effectually disposes of the statement which had gained circulation that charges were to have been preferred against the retiring chief.”

Two days after Chief Byrnes’s departure, Acting Chief Colin laid down the law to his administrators. He said: “The captains and acting captains were warned that there must be no laxity in the enforcement of [the excise laws] on Sundays and during the prohibited hours,” and that “courteous, polite treatment of citizens would be insisted upon.”

That same day, the board accepted the retirement of several other officers, except for one captain “against whom charges had been filed.” TR had been on the job only three weeks and he had already made it clear that reforms had started.

Beer, Telephones, and Walk-Arounds

TR took aim at the street patrolmen as well as administrators. He was the epitome of an equal opportunity enforcer of laws and police procedures. One of his goals was to emulate his Civil Service Commission days and make merit rather than patronage the system for hiring and promoting police officers. One attempt in particular got him into trouble with city residents and caused him to wonder if he really wanted to be the police commissioner.

New York City had a law against drinking on Sundays, which the police conveniently overlooked. He decided to enforce it, mainly because he believed laws had to be obeyed, even if he considered them unfair or impractical. That created a stir in the city.

Residents were forced to find outlets at places like Coney Island to grab a beer. German-Americans in particular were incensed that their beer gardens were closed on Sundays. They held an anti-Roosevelt parade. Some people went so far as to mail bombs to TR. Fortunately, they were defused.

TR was innovative. Once, when an anti-Semitic speaker from Germany came to New York City to deliver a speech, Jewish citizens asked TR to ban the speech. He told them he could not do that. Instead, he assigned the speaker a bodyguard of approximately forty Jewish policemen in order to make the speaker uncomfortable—and a bit foolish.

Commissioner Roosevelt could not get used to the constant resistance he received to even the best-intentioned moves to upgrade the police department. One of his fellow commissioners in particular, Andrew Parker, began opposing him on issue after issue. A feud developed between the two men that became counterproductive. The resistance perplexed TR.

TR wrote:

[We were] right in excluding politics from promotions … It was because of our acting in this manner, resolutely warring on dishonesty … and refusing to pay heed to any consideration except the good of the service and the city, and the merits of the men themselves, that we drew down upon our heads the bitter and malignant animosity of the bread-and-butter spoils politicians
.

In his brief tenure, TR and his fellow commissioners introduced a bicycle squad and pistol shooting practice, standardized officers’ use of pistols, installed telephones in station houses, implemented annual physical exams for officers, and instituted new disciplinary rules. They appointed 1,600 new recruits based on their physical and mental qualifications, rather than on their political affiliations.

TR did some positive things to boost the morale of the police force and improve officers’ efficiency. The board made it a point to reward officers for exemplary performance. “During our two years’ service we found it necessary over a hundred times to single out men for special mention because of some feat of heroism,” he wrote.

The Innovative Hiring Process

TR was aware that the merit approach was not perfect. He stated that competitive examinations were a means to an end. They did not always mean that the people who passed them would turn out to be ideal public servants. But, he explained, the examination system was better than the patronage alternative.

He cited as an example the appointment of 2,000 new police officers in New York City at one time when he was the police commissioner. There were 6,000 to 8,000 candidates for the openings. The commissioners had two choices in selecting the successful applicants: rely on outsiders’ recommendations or apply the competitive examination. He preferred the examination route, which the board chose.

Under TR’s leadership, all the applicants underwent rigid physical and mental examinations. Those who passed took the written competitive examination, which was not particularly rigorous. As TR described the test, it required “only the knowledge that any good primary common school education would meet—that is, a test of ordinary intelligence and simple mental training.”

As he said, the tests were not foolproof. Sometimes potentially good recruits failed and men who turned out to be bad cops passed. Generally, he said, “As a rule, the men with intelligence sufficient to enable them to answer the questions were of a type very distinctly above that of those who failed.”

In any event, the new competitive examination system marked an innovative step forward in the New York City police department’s hiring process—and a success for TR.

The list of accomplishments was impressive, but it was not all TR wanted to get done. Despite his good intentions, the job wore him down. He was ready for a new, less taxing job. President William McKinley came to his rescue and appointed him assistant secretary of the navy. It was back to Washington, D.C., for the Roosevelt family.

QUIZ

8-1 Grover Cleveland won the 1888 presidential election popular vote by 90,000 votes. Yet Benjamin Harrison became the president
.

A. True

B. False

8-2 TR transferred thousands of jobs from patronage-related to civil service positions during his six years as a Civil Service commissioner. How many?

A. 100,000

B. 1,014

C. 26,000

D. 47,000

8-3 The principal author of the 1890 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the first federal statute designed to limit the actions of cartels and monopolies, was:

A. former Union army general William T. Sherman.

B. Sherman Truman.

C. singer Bobby Sherman.

D. U.S. Senator John Sherman (R-Ohio).

8-4 Before George Mortimer Pullman invented the railroad sleeping car, he built:

A. coffins.

B. sewer covers.

C. cabooses.

D. reputations.

8-5 Hugh Smith Thompson, the former governor of South Carolina who served with TR as a United States Civil Service commissioner, died in New York City on November 20, 1904, from complications due to a malady that affected TR during his lifetime. It was:

A. malaria.

B. gun shot.

C. asthma.

D. polio.

ANSWERS

8-1. A: True. Harrison won the electoral college vote by a wide margin, 233–168.

8-2. C

8-3. D

8-4. A

8-5. C

CHAPTER 9

TR Tacks and Sails in a Different Direction

“As for the political effect of my actions, in the first place, I never can get on in politics, and in the second, I would rather have led that charge and earned my colonelcy than served three terms in the US Senate. It makes me feel as though I could now leave something to my children which will serve as an apology for my having existed.”

TR’s fascination with naval affairs got a boost in 1897 when President McKinley appointed him as assistant secretary of the navy. The president might as well have put him in charge. His navy “career” did not last long. When the Spanish-American War began in 1898, TR jumped ship and joined the army. Colonel Roosevelt led a famous unit named the “Rough Riders” in the war. For his efforts he earned the nation’s highest award for bravery, the Medal of Honor, although it took 103 years before he received it.

TR the “War Hawk”

President McKinley had taken notice of TR’s performance as the commissioner of police in New York City. He needed a man with TR’s energy and efficiency to run the civilian wing of the U.S. Navy, which was in need of an upgrade. Some of TR’s most reliable friends, most notably Henry Cabot Lodge, urged the president to appoint the brash young man as assistant secretary of the navy. He heeded their advice.