Sold – Every Physically Fit Man Should Fight, Says T.R. in World War I

T.R. came to national attention for his service as a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War, and was eventually awarded a Medal of Honor for it. He strongly believed in military service and considered a brave soldier to be on a higher plane than the average man. Roosevelt was an early advocate of the U.S. entering World War I. When it finally did, he volunteered to serve abroad, but Pres. Wilson denied his request.

Thwarted, he turned his attention to campaigning for the war effort; he also sent every one of his sons to serve in the war on the front line.

Typed Letter Signed on his Kansas City Star letterhead, New York office, July 3, 1918, to Fred Payne, who had asked for his opinion on service in World War I. “I have always paid the highest tribute to the admirable work done by the YMCA in the Army and Navy and elsewhere. You tell me that you were rejected for army service for physical reasons and then did the next best thing and joined the YMCA work. You tell me that your associates have been unable to enter through the regular channels into the army and navy and are now using the YMCA as a medium to get into the war work and do their utmost to help. This is exactly what I have advocated, and I have said again and again that I have the very highest regard and admiration for the men who do the work under these conditions. I suppose that the persons who have told you that I have ‘criticized men engaged in such work’ refer to the fact that I have repeatedly said, and now say, that no man of fighting age physically fit to go into the army or navy and there do fighting work, should go into the Red Cross, YMCA or any other organization of the kind. This is exactly your position. You applied for Army service and were rejected for physical reasons. You have gone into the YMCA. I congratulate you and thank you as an American for what you have done; but if you had been fit to serve in the Army or Navy, and had avoided such service and taken up YMCA work as a substitute, I should have condemned you.”

A strong statement on the course of action a patriotic young man should take. T.R.’s son Quentin would be killed in action just 11 days after this letter was written. He was devastated by the loss, which contributed to his decline in health and death 6 months later. As for Payne, he may be the man of the same name who served as Assistant Secretary of War under Hoover and became a personal friend of Douglas MacArthur.