The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-10-05
FIN Estimate OF
Theo. Roosevelt


William NJ. Reedy, in the Mirror.
THE MOST incxplicahe thing in American
public affairs today is the manner in
4 which Colonel Roosevelt is attacked by the
yellow papers. To the ordinary person
| Colonel Roosevelt seems to be the sort of man
we have long been looking for in our politics.
| He is the sort Of man whose absence from our
politics we used to lament. He is young
man. He comes Of what may be called in tins
| country an old family. He is man of edu.
cation. He is combination OF the college man
and the man of means, to which some years
ago we looked for political salvation. He is
| not dreamer or a rainbow chaser. He has
done what came to his hand to be done. He
has sought experience in the world. lie has
mingled with men we'll as pored over books.
lie made Fifth avenue, New York, touch elbows
with the Wild West He studied the history
of his country and participated to some small
extent in the life of the newer part Of the
country until he knew it fairly we'll.
Mr.. Roosevelts career has been that Of a
gentleman and scholar and hustler. There Is
more about him Of the typical American, as
we generally conceive him, than about any
other man in public life. Nobody can justly
accuse him OF anything in the way of failure
to stand by his principles. He talks now just
as he did when he was civil service commits
sioner or when he was police commissioner in
New York city. He stands at once for inde-
pcndencc and for sane conception OF party
fealty. He is mugwump within the party and
he has not hesitated openly to deal with the
party boss. lie accepts things as he finds them
and he talks right out in meeting. No more
independent party man has this country ever
seen. lie never has shirked responsibility not
even the one now forced on him Of drawing the
fire of the enemy. He was a mugwump within
dscpn even in the army, as was shown by the
round robin at Santiago. There is no disput-
ing his courage or his consistency in Il difficult
middle course in politics and no one has ever
been able to find the instance in which he
played the demaeoguc. Wherever any one has
found Roosevelt, he has found him saying what
he thought and felt rather than what he thought
people wanted to hear.
No man could be more enanorcd OF work
along the lines of citizens duties and he is
the one conspicuous example OF the scholar gen.
tleman in politics who is not afraid to so to the
primaries or to get candlc.grcase or coal.oil on
his clothes in attending political meetings. The
man, in any reasonable view of him, is a COM
mcndable figure of the time. Ile looms up in his
party as the man who is most distinguished by
ightforwardncss and one OF the few who are
not the creatures of the crew that thinks
money does everything. Colonel Roosevelt is
an american OF tne americans anu II ms at
titude appears to have too much emphasis 1t is
because he is the man who expresses Americanism
without any Of the hypocrisy or cant or bogus
humanitarianism which are invoked by others
to gull the public.
Colonel Roosevelt is not trimmer nor q
twaddler nor snivelcr. lie is straightforward
and undplomatic. He doesn't codde the peo
pie. He is unpopular with the men who want
to do things in the dark, who want to say one
thing and mean another, who want a public
man to be always making door-mat Of him
self for the mob. The disingenuous dislike him.
The cranks rcvilc him for his lack Of humhug
in his adherence to reform ideas, Colonel Roose.
welt is the young American OF education, OF
position of moderate means, Of healthy expert
encc, Of broad but vigorous sympathy, Of the
practical turn for adjusting himself to circum-
stances without changing his principles that,
multiplied, must save this country from the
peril Of future Bryans.