Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/499

 effect an announcement to me that in the event of differences between the coal operators and the coal miners in Pennsylvania he intended to take charge of the matter as he had done before. I had always regarded the appointment of the coal commission not only as a stretch of the authority of the national executive, but also as an interference with the sovereignty of the state and an unjustifiable assumption of a duty which pertained to that sovereignty alone. I listened in silence, with the inward determination that in the event of the emergency he had forecasted he should have nothing whatever to do with its settlement, unless the resources of the state proved inadequate. In a preceding chapter I have given my letters to President George F. Baer of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company and to John Mitchell, head of the labor organization, my proclamation to the people of the state, and have narrated the use of the state constabulary and the steps taken which led to the settlement of the coal strike by the authorities of Pennsylvania. I had, however, touched Mr. Roosevelt in his most sensitive nerve and I have always felt that he did not forgive me.

On the 4th of October, 1906, I rode through the streets of Harrisburg with him in a barouche in which was also the mayor of that city. He was on his feet nearly the whole time almost throwing himself out of the carriage in energetic recognitions of the vociferous shouting and cheers of the crowd. The mayor found a chance, with some difficulty, to express a most earnest hope that Mr. Roosevelt would permit the people again to elect him to the presidency. I was perhaps called upon by the situation to concur in this maladroit compliment, but refrained. The President naturally made no response. As he threw himself to right and left, I said: “I do not know what to make of you,” to which he in like manner made no response. To some comment of mine upon the responsibilities and powers of the President, he took time to say: “It is a great office.” Rh