>^OOSEVELT'S  new  and  personally  conducted  Winning
j^\  of  the  West  has  been  notable  in  many  ways.  Presiden-
tial tours,  if  few,  have  always  been  interesting  ;  but  in
several  important  particulars  this  one  was  different.  Of  all  our
Presidents,  Roosevelt  is  the  one  who  least  needed  to  come  West
to  get  his  eyes  opened.  He  was  essentially  Western  already —
Western  by  sympathy.  Western  in  self-control,  breadth  and  de-
cision, and  Western  by  the  personal  experience  which  was  really
the  determining  coloration  of  his  extraordinary  life.  He  under-
stood the  West  already,  better  than  many  of  his  predecessors
could  have  done  had  they  lived  here  all  their  lives — and  per-
haps that  is  one  reason  why  he  wished  to  come,  and  see  further
and  deeper  into  the  great  region  wherein  lies  the  hope  of  the
nation.  At  any  rate,  he  has  profited  by  the  coming  ;  he  knows
more  than  he  did,  and  so  do  we ;  and  so  for  that  matter  does
the  whole  country.  As  he  has  remarked  :  "  I  was  a  pretty  good
American  before,  but  this  has  made  me  a  better  one."

But  the  most  extraordinary  thing  about  his  Western  tour  is
neither  its  unprecedented  extent  for  a  President ;  nor  bis  pre*
paredness  to  enjoy  and  profit  by  it  ;  nor  the  hearty  welcome  a
President  may  expect  in  any  section  of  the  country  ;  nor  the
marvelous  development  which  he  found  and  which  astounded
even  him  ;  nor  the  endurance,  patience  and  balance  with  which
he  met  the  innumerable  lateral  strains  upon  him.  The  marvel-
ous thing  is  to  see  a  President — or  any  other  American  states-
man of  this  day — going  about  the  country.  East  or  West,  Mean-
ing what  he  Says,  and  talking  straight,  plain.  Horse  Sense.  Our
ears  have  been  attuned  to  the  falsetto  of  the  political  siren.
