The times., 1898-09-28

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, late COM
mander of the First Volunteer Cavalry,
has been nominated to the high office Of
Governor Of the State of New York by
the Republican organization of that
great Commonwealth. sitting in conven-
ton at Saratoga Unless the Empire
State Democracy should make the mon
umental mistake Of opposing his candi-
dacy with man who bolted the ma
tional platform of his party in 1896,
there is very remote. if any, danger
that Colonel Roosevelt will occupy the
executive mansion at Albany during
the remaining years of the nineteenth
century.
IT is a strange nomination, illustrat-
ing the straits in which the Republi-
can boss who dictated it finds himself,
as a result of national Indignation at
the maladministration and corruption
of his party in the conduct of the Span
ish war, and of national and State af-
fairs generally. As affecting his and
its interests, the result at Sara toga last
evening amounts to a misfortune TO
both 1t leaves the Republican party in
the Empire State with nothing to de-
pend upon for success at the polls, at
the end Of the present campaign, but
the hope that the Democratic leaders
and convention may be stricken with
political insanity and throw the op
portunity of the hour to the dogs.
Colonel Roosevelt is candidate with
out any legitimate following. He does
not represent the machine which has
~
convenience and at that only as an
available, highly-colored jumping
jack. with which to tickle an assumed
passing popular fancy. Neither Platt's
adherents nor the lesser machine
leaders have any liking for him
For years he has been an active
unit in small but noisy bunch
of singing political insects, whose
only object Of existence has been to
wcTry that machine. He has deliber-
ately and mortally affronted the indie
pendents with whom he trained until
now He is the object of intense ami
mostly on the part of the German ele-
ment in every city and town of the
State. because of his vigOr and enter
prise, while police commissioner of New
York city. in denying to citizens the
right of peaceable assemblage for the
purpose of enjoying the harmless Gus
tomary glass of beer.
Throughout his comparatively brief
but always pyrotechnic career, Colonel
Roosevelt has persistently played to the
galleries. With characteristic lack of
taste he is Just now attempting to sud-
brought back with him from Santiago.
We do not desire to say anything in
deprecation of those laurels After
their kind they are splendid enough;
but il may not be improper to direct at
fention to the fact that theS are not ex-
clusively the property of Theodore
Roosevelt, but something that he is en-
titled to hold only in common with all
the other Rough Riders who were with
him under the Spanish fire in Cuba. 1t
must be said. with due respect and ad-
miration, that Colonel Roosevelt was
more than willing to be shot at, if
thereby he could attract the attention
of the press and public, and win enough
of advertising glory TO hew him into
timber appropriate TO the uses of politi-
cal organizations in feverish quest of
available material for band wagon pur-
poses. 1t would be ungracious to blame
him much for that. There are not so
many men who would take the chances
of a Mauser bullet in order to gain a
possible political nomination with no
sure thing for success at the far end of
it. But both the colonel and the New
L..
of proportion in the premises. If Roose-
Welt is entitled to be the standard bear
er Of a party in his State, whose chiefs
and organization ne has hitherto con-
temned and iouted most yenomously,
because of an exhibition of personal