Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1901-12-06
00lindham County 2rformer
BRATTLEBoRo, VT, FRIDAY, DEC. 8, 1901.
THE MESSAGE.

Presto dent Roosevelt Is always NiIlle
and interesting fellow, and though IN
one Of the longest messages with
which the country has ever been af-
ficted we find his characteristic siren
uosit, somewhat sobered by a sense
of responsibility and eprigams sub
stituted to large extent for definite
recommendations it is still an unus-
ually readable document, in parts most
admirable in tone, and in purely lit
erary quality unequalled by preslden-
tial productions, save perhaps LIN
coins, John Quincy Adams and JEFF
ferson's.
1t is only what the Reformer read
ers eypected that his much-heralded
Illumination against the trusts should
prove a flash in the-pan. Roosevelt
does not lack pluck, but he is also
too much of a politician to prot ose
party suicide by any real attack on
trusts So after writing brilliantly
about their evils and at the same time
about the great service the captain 5
of industry are doing the country, he
sees nothing to recommend for the pres
ent but publicity, enforced by federal
law, regarding their organization and
operations. 1t is a curious if not viii
full blindness that sees no response
billy in the tariff or any other govern
mental action for the existence OF
trusts, when the truth is that 1t is
there exactly that all that is evil IN
them, their monopoly power, gets It's
footing, and there precisely that the
dividing line is to be found for that
care and deliberation he invokes not
to strike at legitimate enterprise and
progress while fighting what in now
law-guarded extortion. And it is one
of those half truths as evil in effect
as lies when he points to trusts IN
other countries as proof of his posi-
tion. 1t is hard to believe that man
of his intelligence does not know that
trusts in the sense of monopollzlng
production or unjustly controlling
prices, or as anything more than large
firms or companies, are everywhere the
product of tariffs or governmental
favor and their evil power everywhere
exactly measured by the extent of
their protection. "
OF course, arguing this way, he OBJ
iects to any revision of the tariff,
echoing the old Carey argument, as
often disproved as seemingly supported
by dates, that such revisions cause
business panic. OF course also he Is
decidedly -Rooseveltian in the gin
perlv way he handles reciprocity,
which he wants to be only the hand
maiden of protection. He omits to
saw what he thinks should be done
with the pending reciprocity treaties:
but if his language has any meaning
at all, it is that these treaties should
be rejected, and already he has stepped
out of the Mckinley path in which he
proclaimed his purpose to follow.
But with regard to Cuba he speaks
like the old manly Roosevelt He gets
enthusiastic in speaking of her as a
new republic and of the weighty rea-
sons of morality and national interest
and "every consideration of honor
that call for lower duties on Cuban
products. The lain duty" he here
declares means a hard fight with our
tobacco and sugar interests, but we
may expect to see him stand by his
guns.
As to the Philippines there is no
word of a future policy, but a practi-
cal admission that civil rule has been
a failure, which means of course a re-
turn to military rule. His description
of our purposes as only to "help those
people upward along the stony and
difficult path that leads to self-gov-
eminent reads nicely until we see what
exact an echo it is of Napoleonic and
British self-excuses for similar agrees
sions, and without specific recommen- !
dations it means Just nothing. His
comparison of our philanthropic efforts
in their behalf with other conquerors of
tropical peoples is true enough but it
was not long ago that the republic
would have felt insulted by being told
she was a little better in this respect
than the old world.
On civil service reform the presi-
dents words again have the true ring, /.
and performance thus far accords with I
promise that we shall again see prog .
ress in this line like that of Grover I,
Cleveland's time.
The paragraphs on anarchy contain .
some brilliant writing: his recommen-
dations for the regulation of immigra
tion go beyond what is just or rrac-
ticable, but his suggestions for max
ing a distinct crime for federal courts
to deal with, of attempts on the life of