Men don't fully understand them, for that
matter; women certainly do not."
"I am aware of all that," said the President. "What is your plan to
remedy it?"
"Have a department in my magazine, and explain your ideas," suggested
Bok.
"Haven't time for another thing. You know that," snapped back the
President. "Wish I had."
"Not to write it, perhaps, yourself," returned Bok.
"But why couldn't you find time to do this: select the writer here in
Washington in whose accuracy you have the most implicit faith; let him
talk with you for one hour each month on one of those subjects; let him
write out your views, and submit the manuscript to you; and we will have
a department stating exactly how the material is obtained and how far it
represents your own work. In that way, with only an hour's work each
month, you can get your views, correctly stated, before this vast
audience when it is not in trolleys or railroadcars."
"But I haven't the hour," answered Roosevelt, impressed, however, as Bok
saw. "I have only half an hour, when I am awake, when I am really idle,
and that is when I am being shaved."
"Well," calmly suggested the editor, "why not two of those half-hours a
month, or perhaps one?"
"What?" answered the President, sitting upright, his teeth flashing but
his smile broadening. "You Dutchman, you'd make me work while I'm
getting shaved, too?"
"Well," was the answer, "isn't the result worth the effort?"
"Bok, you are absolutely relentless," said the President.
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