Evening star., 1901-11-02
LUCK OF ROOSEVELT I
THE HAND OF FATE MANIFEST IN
THE PRESIDENTS CAREER.
Old Republicans Warm to the Chief
Magistrate Because of the wash
ingtOn Dinner.

People who have been saying all along
that Theodore Roosevelt's extraordinari-
ly rapid rise is sheer luck have now, at
length, at least; some solid ground Of ap-
pearance on which to rest their claim.
A great many things that seemed to be
comparatively trivial in themselves turned
out to his advantage; such as, for few
instances, his appointment to the civil SER
vice commissionership just when the spois
mongers were beginning to make them
selves so recklessly disgusting that decent
people were ready to throw up their hats
in honor of any man who could thwart
them; his entrance into the police commits
sionership of New York precisely at
time when everybody was sick and mad on
account of the corrupt feebleness of New
orks police force; his transfer to Wash
ington as assistant secretary of the navy on
the verge of the outbreak of the war with
Spain; a position from which it was easy
for Roosevelt to obtain the military ap-
pointment for service in Cuba which led
straight on to the picturesqueness of the
Rough Riders regiment and the Ell Cany
exploits, which more than made up in ap-
peals to popular imagination whatever may
have been lacking in solid warfare; and
the close of the Spanish American war pre-
cisely In time, not day too soon or too
late to furnish the very candidate whom
Senator Platt desperately needed to enable
him to "down" Gov. Black for insubordina-
ton, and at the same time to keep the state
of New York from slipping back into the
democratic hands, which it came perilous-
iy near doing.
Roosevelt at Albany.
But the rapid succession of events pro-
pitious to Roosevelt's rise did not come to
an end with his election in 1898 as governor
of New York. Roosevelt took his seat at
Albany by curious coincidence, at juno
ture when a dashing, daring, and at the
same time not too impractical" governor
had such an opportunity as no other re-
publican governor of New York has had in
forty years; to please the head of the party
organization by making himself both use
full and necessary; to bring delight to anti
boss republicans by kicking over the traces
now and then, and to make himself solid
with Independents by taking the bit be-
tween his teeth, and going his own pace,
without paying any other heed to the party
whip than slightly laying back his ears.
No wonder such a governor was hailed by
sharp-Sighted politicians as surely the COM
ing dark horse!
If Gov Roosevelt had been a bit more
subservient to Platt, the easy boss would
have insisted upon renominating him to that
Office; and political usage, to say nothing
of the governors own avoWed preferences
at that time would have brought it about.
On the other hand, if he had broken alto
gether with Platt, the Philadelphia conven-
tion would not have so far broken all prece-
dents as to nominate for place on the
national ticket man out of favor with
the party organization in his own state.
The Washington Dinner.
And now comes the Booker Washington
dinner. 1t was a little dinner. Considered
by any standard that Is usually employed
in measuring dinners in which the public
feels concerned, this one was singulariy
insignificant. 1t is doubtful If President
Roosevelt, shrewd as he is, had any slight
est idea in advance that he was doing any,
thing very remarkable when he invited,
to a private dinner with himself and fam
lily at the executive mansion, a distin-
guished gentleman, highly bred and schol-
arly, who is president of the Tuskeegee In
stitute. Probably President Roosevelt s
act had no other prompting than the nat
ural and hospitable impulse to welcome at
his table a gentleman whose conversation
could not fail to be in the highest degree
agreeable to cultivated man Of the world,
such as Roosevelt is. If there was any ad-
ditional motive. it was no doubt the wish
to talk over Informally the educational
movement, so fraught with the happiest
prospects for several millions of American
citizens, as is that at the head Of which
B. T. Washington has long stood.
Yet, what luck!' Not a dozen care
fully prepared campaign orations, not the
most brilliant and adroit presidential mas
sage sent to Congress, scarcely the most
striking triumph of diplomacy regarding
the canal treaty, or the Boer war. or re-
ciprocal trade, or our open door in China,
could have given President Roosevelt such
a sudden access of popularity among at
least three-fourths of the people of the
Union, as has come to him from inviting
Booker Washington to dinner.
Arouses Old Republicans.
1t has appealed like a trumpet note to
the chivalry of the lovers of freedom every
where. 1t has at one stroke aroused dor
mant enthusiasm in that very large number
of republican voters who are old enough
to retain memories of the war for the
Union and the days of reconstruction;
voters of whom not few have been lately
feeling extremely sore on account of what
has seemed to them a drift of the repub-
lican party back and downward from it's
best ideals.
At the same time, Americans young or
old, republican or democrat who like cour-
age, who admire sincerity whose hearts
respond to any out-hashing of manly in
dependence, instinctively admire President
Roosevelt for that act. They may not in
dorse 1t as expedient, but they applaud 1t
as 'spunky!" Perhaps they would not
have done it themselves, but they are proud
to live in a country with man at it's head
who dared to do it.