President Roosevelt's temper and method were in pointed contrast to McKinley's. Whereas McKinley seemed simply to hold the tiller, availing himself of currents that to the eye deviously, yet easily and inevitably, bore him to his objective, Roosevelt strenuously plied the oar, recking little of cross currents or head winds, if, indeed, he did not delight in them. Chauncey Depew aptly styled McKinley "a Western man with Eastern ideas." Roosevelt, "an Eastern man with Western ideas." This aspect of the new President's character gave him hold on both West and East. Roosevelt was the first President since William Henry Harrison to bring to his office the vigor and freshness of the frontier, as he was, anomalously, the first city-born or wealthy-born incumbent. [Illustration: Roosevelt on horseback.] Theodore Roosevelt, as Lieut.-Colonel of the "Rough Riders." [1901] The members of President McKinley's cabinet were invited to retain their portfolios, which they agreed to do. At the time, Roosevelt was reputed to be the foremost civil service reformer in the country. Politicians were soon made aware that the President regarded fitness for office as the first test. Unfortunately during the presidency of McKinley, some 8000 offices had been taken out of the competitive lists. During Roosevelt's first term, however, the list of offices placed under the merit system was greatly extended. Within the twenty-one years from the enactment of the first national civil service reform law wonders had been accomplished in that more than one-half of the 300,000 offices in the executive civil service were placed in the classified competitive service. President Roosevelt stood for liberal reciprocity with Cuba, urging this, at first, with results disastrous to party harmony. He was vindicated by public opinion, but learned wisdom. Though believed to be favorable to a decided easing of custom-house levies, his administration soon frankly avowed itself unable to proceed further than high- protectionists would follow. The evidence of his tariff convictions won him strong support in the West, which was prepared to go greater lengths than he. In the congressional campaign of 1902, ex-Speaker Henderson, of Iowa, a stanch protectionist, withdrew from public life, as was supposed, rather than misrepresent himself by acceding to tariff reform or his constituents by opposing it. Mr. Roosevelt signalized his accession by an effort to make the federal anti-trust law something more than a cumberer of the statute-book. His inaugural message and innumerable addresses of his boldly handled the whole trust evil and called for the regulation of capitalistic combinations in the interest of the public. Appreciation of the President's attitude on these matters may be assisted by some notice of the then threatening vigor and universality of the movement toward industrial combination. Mr. Beck, Assistant Attorney-General of the United States, declared in 1892: