The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-30
The Kansas Senator Contrib
utes an Entertaining Criticism
Of the Popular Rough Rider
ssTeddy".
HE ALSO MORALIZES
On the General Effect of the
War on Politics.
Roosevelt Compared to a Bron-
co Hard to Ride.

New York. Sept 3o.-The Journal pub
fishes the following from the pen OF ex-
Senator J. J. Ingalls,:
Politics is not one of the exact scien-
ces this year. It has no formulas, not
any logic, except the logic of events.
The prophet will not be without hon
or. even in his country, but it will be
sarer to predict what will occur after
the event has taken place.
The Office of the oracle and the func-
tlon OF the augurer are specially haz-
ardous at present, because the war
mas so largely disintegrated parties and
is changing all political frontiers.
war has always been the universal
solvent, which separates society into its
clements. 1t scales off the stucco from
ancient errors, peels off the varnish
from venerable institutions and the
veneer from the Turveydrops of states
manship and leaves states and nations
in the state of nature
The guns of Dewey and Schley and
miles nave brought about a revolution
in the United States quite as momen-
tous as tina in Spain. The emotions and
passions of 1885, the discomfort and pee
Vish ennm engendered by the fatigues
OF history are extinct. The issues econ
om1c, social, industrial and political, of
that great battle are already obsolete
Free silver, the gold standard, tariff
reform, prohibition, female suffrage, are
back numbers. They have the tender
grace of a day that is dead. Their per-
Iunctory mention in speech or platform
has the solemnity of an epitaph.
The points of the compass have disap-
peared from the political atlas. There is
no North, no South, no East, no West
We are all Americans. Above partisan
snip is patriotism, and over all the flag.
Strangest of all, the occupation of the
boss and professional reformer has been
suspended or abolished
The nomination of Roosevelt the re-
former, appears to be conceded, in a
Rem hiioan nj
ostensibly controlled by Senator Plat
-Four months ago his nomination would
have been impossible He would not
have accepted it under such conditions
nor would the managers have permitted
it.
He is a strong, resoIute, aggressive,
tumultuous personality, like a volcano
In a state of chronic eruption. Impa-
tient of restraint, he revolts against
peridy, corruption and hypocrisy, but
is not a Pharisee. Through instinct and
temperament he is a reformer, with the
reformer's. incapacity for recognizing
the obstacles which the defects and in
frmities of humanity present to the at
tainment of perfect political purity. He
has never been fully accepted by the
people at his own estimate.
Teddy" typifies him.
No one thinks of calling President
Mckinley Billy" nor Dewey" George"
son ANDY" but Roosevelt is Teddy
the Rough Rider.
To the staid, grave, tame, average
citizen he bears the same relation that
the bronco sustains to the cob and
hackney.
He has apparently consented to be
saddled and bridled, but the bronco
buster who rides him will need a long
Iariat, a strong girth and a heavy bit,
and the chances are even that with
these advantages he will be "bucked"
into the armament.
The coalition of Roosevelt and Platt,
the acceptance of Roosevelt by the ma
chine and of the machine by Roosevelt
is of the wars work 1t is one of the
most interesting phenomena of the revo-
luton through which we are passing.
Like Seth Low, the Independents in all
parties seem to have learned that this
is a government of the people, good, bad
AND Indifferent, and not exclusively by
academicians, saints and philosophers.
The attack upon Roosevelt on the
ground of his repatriation is too trivial
for refutation. It shows the desperate
weakness of hopeless antagonism.
There is no citizenship in Washington
The District of Columbia is a political
reservation, whose residents can acquire
no right to vote there and who by that
fact lose none acquired elsewhere. The
president lives in Washington and pre-
pays taxes there, but he does
not forfeit residence nor citizenship at
Canton. Roosevelt resided in Cuba a,
few weeks this summer, officially, and
it would be quite as pertinent for his
adversaries to spring this on him in the
convention.
Such frivolous results return to plague
the inventors. Instead of injuring their
object, they are distinct and valuable
reinforcements.
Roosevelt is not an ideal candidate,
and carries dynamite which may unex-
pectedly explode, but has courage, hon
esty, Independent thought, and the peo-
pie believe he will do what he considers
right regardless of consequences. This
is his strength, and he must be reck-
oned with as a distinct force in state
and national politics.
Senator Platt has been as wise as a
serpent. if not as harmless as a dove, in
his smiling acqUiescence in a situation
not wholly devoid of uncomfortable re-
Elections for himself and his cabinet.
If he can now succeed in propitiating
Black and his angry and Inundated
secure the cooperation of
the Independents, who are exasperated
by Roosevelt's apparent desertion, and
obtain the support of the devotees Of
liberty it will be a triumph of
that will justify the aphor-
ism of Sempronius and place him in the
first rank among the few great political
of American history.