Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-12-17
Flow ROOSEVELT RULES
Instances That Illustrate His
Disciplinary Methods.
FIRM STAND TAKEN IN EACH CASE

Why the President Made Public His
Reasons For Removing Governor
jenkins of Observation-Disclosures In
the Marine Service In Which a
Surgeon Was Reprimanded.
The appeal of Mrs. Jenkins, wife Of
the governor of Oklahoma recently re-
moved by President Roosevelt, shows
how little she understands the temper
of the executive with whom she has to
deal, writes the New York Posts spe-
cial correspondent at Washington.
1.-THE president does not know my hus-
band as know him." she is quoted as
saying. with pathetic fervor, "or he
would not have removed him." And
! she is evidently counting upon the as
surance of some superserviceable
friend that the president had said that
he did not regard Governor jenkins as
guilty Of the least dishonesty, but that
his blunder was one of indiscretiOn.
This Is as absurd misconstruction of
| the presidents attitude as several 9TH
ers which have been forthcoming from
| time to time. 1t would be safe to wa.
ger anything that the president never
made such an assertion. What he
doubtless did say was that Governor
| jenkins appeared to be and doubtless
| was quite unconscious Of having done
wrong, but that was all the more rea-
son for removing him, not for letting
| l,t &c,
shown pretty we'll by his frank state
| ment in his own exculpation, in which
| be gave in full facts that cost him his
official head.
The trouble with Governor jenkins
!! was that in calling upon corporation
i to which lie had given an official favor
| to set apart a block of its stock for dis
| tribution at half price among his polit-
| ical friends he was SO blunt Of percep-
| ton as to believe that he was engaged
! in perfectly vlrtuous enterprise. An
other bad thing for his cause was the
fact that in spite Of the general knowl-
edge in the territory that he had done
| this he was upheld by the most re-
| spectacle citizens, the president and
! the secretary of the interior having
! been fairly showed under with letters
! and kilograms urging his retention in
Office and commencing his fine moral
qualities. These testimonials came
from clergymen, physicians, lawyers,
| merchants, bankers-from members of
,, all those classes, indeed, whose stand
ards Of conduct one would expect to
find of the highest. When some of the
governors sponsors were faced with
, his own statement of his case, they
took the same view of it as he appears
to have taken-that he had showed
chivalrous sense of duty and nice
regard for the dignity of his position in
asking these reciprocal favors for his
friends instead of pocketing the whole
block Of stock for himself!
In view OF the silence maintained by
the president in the Bidwell case,
where he had been strongly urged to
let his reasons be known for substitute
, ing another collector of customs at
| New York, there was widespread SUP
prise at his deliberate publication of
prepared statement in the jenkins case
/ The two matters are not parallel how
ever, in several important particulars.
, In the jenkins case not only was the
wrongdoing of the man himself stated
and confessed, but the community in
which it occurred approved of it. 1t
therefore became important that public
sentiment in Oklahoma should undergo
some reformation for the moral health
of the territorial government generally.
If we could suppose the existence of a
body Of people in the United States
among whom theft and arson were not
regarded as crimes, it would be the
business Of some one in authority
president, governor or judge-to admin
lister such a rebuke to the whole pOpu-
lace as would be understood and felt.
The mere punishment Of thief or a
house burner when detected would not
be enough. 1t would satisfy society $
demand for vengeance perhaps and
have disciplinary effect upon the
culprit himself, but the moral atmos-
phere which encourages virtue or
makes vice easy Is not palpably i'm
proved. To reach that blow must
be struck home and with such force
that every one concerned will share
the shock. This was unquestionably
in the presidents mind when tic ac-
companied his announcement of the
governors removal with an eXplana-
ton which must have put to shame
the governors reputable supporters,
unless their skins were hardened past
the piercing point, and, though the
dawn Of new ethical light upon the
average Oklahoman mind may not fol-
low at once, the upper stratum of citi-
zenship there at least know where the
president and men Of his type stand,
so that more mistakes Of the same sort
as jenkins cannot be made In igno-
rance.
The late governor Of Oklahoma Is
not the only sufferer from President
Roosevelt's idea Of emphasizing the ex-
emplary element In the penalties he
imposes. 1t will be recalled that the
xv,fo NJ Iananeso consul was sinh