Beschreibung:

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, President . Autograph manuscript signed ("Theodore Roosevelt") of his introduction to "The Book of the Homeless," edited by Edith Wharton, Oyster Bay, New York, 1 October 1915. 2 pages, 4to, written on the rectos of two sheets of personal stationery, titled at head . "THE PART THAT AMERICA HAS PLAYED IN THIS WORLD TRAGEDY HAS NOT BEEN AN EXALTED PART" An emotional plea for Americans to aid the Belgian refugees, blasting the warring nations of World War I for their barbarity and the neutral nations for their antipathy. "The fate that has befallen Belgium is as terrible as any that befell... Middle Europe during the Thirty Years War and the wars of the following half century. There is no higher duty than to care for the Refugees and above all for the child Refugees who have fled from Belgium. This book is to be sold for the benefit of the American Hostels for Refugees, and for the benefit of the children of Flanders Rescue Committee, founded in Paris by Mrs. Wharton in November 1914... My daughter who... was in Paris... has told me much about the harrowing tragedies of the poor souls who were driven from their country and drifted into Paris, on the verge of starvation, without food or shelter, without hope, and often with the members of the family separated from one another... I appeal to the American people to picture to themselves the plight of all these poor creatures and to endeavor.... to secure their safety... Nothing that our people can do will wholly remedy the frightful wrong... Nothing that can now be done by the civilized world... can undo the dreadful wrongs of these unhappy children, these desolate men and women. But all that can be done surely should be done to ease their sufferings. The part that America has played in this world tragedy has not been an exalted part... We owe this assistance for the sake of the good name of America and above all for the sake of humanity..."