held at the White House. A declaration of principles was drawn up
and the suggestion made that all the nations of the world should
be invited to meet in a World Conservation Conference. The
President forthwith addressed to forty-five nations a letter
inviting them to assemble at The Hague for such a conference;
but, as he has laconically expressed it, "When I left the White
House the project lapsed."



CHAPTER X. BEING WISE IN TIME

Perhaps the most famous of Roosevelt's epigrammatic sayings is,
"Speak softly and carry a big stick." The public, with its
instinctive preference for the dramatic over the significant,
promptly seized upon the "big stick" half of the aphorism and
ignored the other half. But a study of the various acts of
Roosevelt when he was President readily shows that in his mind
the "big stick" was purely subordinate. It was merely the ultima
ratio, the possession of which would enable a nation to "speak
softly" and walk safely along the road of peace and justice and
fair play.

The secret of Roosevelt's success in foreign affairs is to be
found in another of his favorite sayings: "Nine-tenths of wisdom
is to be wise in time." He has himself declared that his whole
foreign policy "was based on the exercise of intelligent
foresight and of decisive action sufficiently far in advance of
any likely crisis to make it improbable that we would run into
serious trouble."