Page:Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star.djvu/25

Rh accomplishment outside of party ranks was impossible.

It is interesting to look back over the growth of the mutual understanding and the fondness of the two men for each other dating from that visit in 1900. After leaving Kansas City, Colonel Roosevelt sent back a letter expressing his delight at the day spent at Oak Hall, closing with "How I do wish I could spend the week in your library instead of upon this infernal campaigning trip!"

When the assassin's bullet struck down President McKinley, Mr. Nelson sent a telegram to Colonel Roosevelt expressing his horror at the deed and pledging the whole-hearted support of his newspaper in aiding him to carry the great burden which had been placed on his shoulders.

Mr. Nelson had no wish to be a distributor of federal patronage; he was concerned in higher things. When Colonel Roosevelt turned to him for advice on political matters, he was reluctant to give it, feeling his own lack of real knowledge of the politics of Kansas and Missouri and of the men who sought appointments. Late in 1901 Colonel Roosevelt, asking about conditions in Missouri, wrote, referring to St. Louis men, "I think they have been rather after the offices and not after success. ... I should like to have some office-holder in Missouri to whom I could tie."

Mr. Nelson asked the political writers of The Star to write their estimate of the men seeking office and leadership, and these were sent to the President