Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-10-01
ROOSEVELTiS POSITION
How He viii Get on With Platt is Being
Asked.
His Courage shown In Hurryinr
Ammunition to Dewey, Making
Possible the Victory at Manila.

Every one who knows Roosevelt wonders
| what there Will be left for Platt after the
! fight in New York has been won. It is not
at all certain that in adopting Roosevelt as
the machine candidate for governor OF New
York Platt will be able to use him for ma
chine purposes Platt would probably not
! have had Roosevelt nominated II he could
well have helped himself The Rough
Rider is very independent, and has some
| decided notions of reform which he has the
courage to put into practical application
| The designation of "Platt's man will not
fit on him. Roosevelt is much at home
when he gets in the saddle. and he prob
| ably will not let Plat lead the horse
Some people are speculatng as to whether
| the nomination Of Roosevelt does not mark
| the decline of the power of Platt In some
| respects Platt is much more clever leader
| than Mr.. Quay, who is making a fight TO
! retain his power in Pennsylvania. Plat
! is clever enough sometimes to accept what
| he cannot prevent. and in doing what he
| must to try to make it appear that he
WlIled ii so. Roosevelt was nominated as
! Platts candidate, but II is safe enough to
| say that he will not be Platts governor if
| he is elected.
| He is an extraordinary character His
| career as police commissioner OF New York
| made PlattS back teeth ciatter. He is the
| sort of man who has always given shock
| to Platts nervous system. Feeding the
| machine with him is like putting a file into
| a sausage grinder. There is sort of hu-
| NOR in his peryerSeness when he is put in
a place where he is expected to serve some
| selfish interest. the sort of humOr that is
| suggested by the thought of a hungry man
| trying to eat hardtaCk without any teeth
| is what was witnessed daily here when he
/ was civil service commissioner and MEM
bers Of his own party were trying to get
| past him some ingenious scheme for the
| evasion of the law that limited their pat
| ronage. Even the President himself was
| once suspected of being a victim of this
| quaint humor. He gave Harrison many
| uneasy moments while trifiing with the
delicate sensibilities who wanted little
! things done for the good of the party" not
| that the President lacking in SYM
/ pathy with civil service reform, but on ac-
! count of the peculiar delight Roosevelt
| used to take in rubbing the reform in just
| on the tenderest spots of the party cuticle.
| 1t seems strange for such man to be
| tected as Platts candidate for anything. IL
| is not less paradoXical to see men who dur
ing the past two sessions of this Congress
were restrained with very great difficulty
| from enacting anti-civil service reform laws
| and who never lost an opportunity TO de-
| nounce the civil service law now throwing
| up their hats for the man who, above all
| others, is the champion of the civil service
| reform principle and has done more than
! any other man TO irritate, embarrass and
| anger the men who would like a little pa
| tronage for the party's sake" 1t is being
| asked what chance is there with such a
man for those workers in New York who
would make profit out Of politics; what
| bond of sympathy can there be between him
| and Platt? II would not be at all consist
ent with his disposition for Roosevelt to do
| anything that Platt may want him to after
| he becomes governor of New York, and he
| can be depended on to be strictly independ-
| ent-
| Sent Ammunition to Dewey.
| In the approach OF the war with Spain
| Roosevelt scented the battle long before
the President or any member of his cabinet
| could be brought to believe that war was
| inevitable. The first official war prepara-
| tions were made by him far in advance of
! the administrations expectation of war.
| Three months or more before the war
Roosevelt, who had earnestly been work
| ing to that end for a long while. succeeded
! in having shipped to Dewey a large amount
| of ammunition and supplies. These ship
| ments were in excess of the needs in time
| of peace, and the assistant secretary had a
great deal of trouble about having them
sent. He was allowed to have his way,
| and it was largely to get rid of his impor-
tuniues and to avoid the difficulty of COM
| batting his arguments of precaution that the
| shipments were made. But for these sup
plies having been sent so far in advance OF
the known need Dewey's victory would
| have been impossible.
Improved the Gunnery.
| To Roosevelt's efforts is largely due the
| efficiency of the gunnery in our navy
| Through his efforts the system OF promo
| ton among the "Jackies' was changed so
| as to make the only road to advancement
| through proficiency in gunnery. Before
| that a tar might get to be chief gunner or
| yeoman get any of the advancements
| that tars expect through being efficient as
| a carpenter from good general service
| and rQS attached In efficiency
| in gunnery. The result of the change was
| that all the sailors sought to perfect them
| selves in gunnery. To facilitate this he
gave orders to use ammunition freely for
practice. This was a great extravaganza
which the department had not before in
| dulged in, and there was a great deal of
doubt and hesitation in the minds of MANY
When an appropriation much larger than
| usual for ammunition asked for MEM
bers of the naval committee asked what il
meant and what had become of all the am
| muniton bought with the last years ap-
preparation.
| The official TO whom these questions were
put referred the committee to Roosevelt
! Roosevelt was called before the committee
and was asked how ii was that so much
ammunition had been used when there was
| no war and no possible use for IL. Evident
| 1y some wise representative thought he
had struck leak.
Roosevelt informed the committee that
! the ammunition had been shot off-throwu
aWay-in practice, and that as q result he
| mad the best gunners Of any navy in the
world.
There is no one in Congress now who will
| want to ask what became of that powder.
L III.