things that were good to do, but the very inmost muscle and marrow of goodness itself, goodness with teeth, with a fist, goodness that smiled, that ha-ha’d, and that leaped and danced—­perpetual motion of goodness, goodness that reeked—­has been reserved for Theodore Roosevelt.  We have had goodness that was bland or proper, and goodness that was pious or sentimental and sang, “Nearer My God to Thee,” or goodness that was kind and mushy, but this goodness with a glad look and bounding heart, goodness with an iron hand, we have not had before.  It is Mr. Roosevelt’s goodness that has made him interesting in Cairo, Paris, Rome, and Berlin.  He has been conducting a grand tour of goodness.  He has been a colossal drummer of goodness, conducting an advertising campaign.  He has proved himself a master salesman for moral values.  And he has put the American character, its hope, its energy, on the markets and on the credits of the world.

With all his faults, those big, daring, yawning fissures in him, he is news about us, faults and all.  Though I may be, as I certainly am much of the time, standing and looking across at him, across an abyss of temperament that God cut down between us thousands of years ago, and while he may have a score of traits I would not like and others that no one would like in any one else, there he is storming out at me with his goodness!  It is his way—­God help him!—­God be praised for him!  There he is!

I know an American when I see one.  He is a man who is singing.

A man who is singing is a man who is so shrewd about people that he sees more in them than they see in themselves and who does things so shrewdly in behalf of God, that when God looks upon him he delights in him.  Then God falls to of course and helps him do them.

When American men saw that there was a man among them who was taking a thing like the Presidency of the United States (that most people never run risks with) and putting it up before everybody, and using it grimly as a magnificent bet on the people, they looked up.  Millions of men leaped in their hearts and as they saw him they knew that they were like him!

So did Theodore Roosevelt become news about Us.

CHAPTER X

AMERICAN TEMPERAMENT AND GOVERNMENT

I would like to say more specifically what I mean by an American or singing government.

The thing that counts the most in a government is its temperament.  A German government succeeds by having the German temperament.  An American government must have the American temperament.

If we are fortunate enough to have in America a government with an American temperament what would it be like?  And how would it differ from the traditional or conventional temperament, governments are usually allowed to have?

If I were confined to one or two words I would put it like this: 

If a government has the conventional temperament, it says “NO.”