The age-herald., 1901-11-06

| Washington, November 2.--An Presi-
 dent Rooseveits spare time Just now,
 that Is, every minute he can save from
 the official routine of his exalted position,
 is given to the preparation of hls first an-
 nuaI message to Congress. Under the
 precept Of the Constitution that docu-
 ment is a report on the state of the Union. its relations with respect to the | world in general and to the states in par | ticular. In the evolution of our politics
 the states have become subordinate. | They have in fact, dropped out. No | President within the memory of living
 men, has paid the slightest attention in
 his message to what concerns them. And | yet there was a time when the President | thought the concerns of the states to be
 of paramount importance in the govern ment That period has passed away. The
 United States has become world-power; as 1t Is in the fashion to call it, and the
 States have dwindled into nothing. It | marks the progress of standardization, against which Jefferson contended; and whether he was right or wrong Is still question to be argued on one side and the other.
 President Roosevelt will not reopen that exploded controversy He lives in the present. not the past, although the past as shown in some of his books holds a certain fascination for him. As a states man he has no use for the generations that are dead and all that they did, ex- cept In so far as their wisdom and ex- periance furnish light to guide those who have succeeded them Roosevelt is triple armored. So to speak. He is a thinker, a man of action and an idealist. This Is trinity of great qualities, endowments or whatever else they may be called and the position Mir. Roosevelt holds gives the fullest opportunity for the development on the bfoadest lines of the genius that he undoubtedly possesses.
 No wonder the. that President Roose- velt's first words to Congress are, even in prospective, of keen interest In literary point of view he Is one of the four best equipped Presidents the Repub- lie has had. The first was the elder Adams. Next came Jefferson, and then John Quincy Adams, the best educated and most cultured man at the head of government in the nineteenth century. Roosevelt, in point of literary achieve ment. Is the equal if not the superior of any one of them, and so 1t is safe to pre- dict that 1t will not contain word that the severest critic would erase. But apart from this verbal finish, there is another point in which 1t will be of supreme in terest. The greatest of all the parties that have controlled the destinies of the Republic will look to 1t as the charter that shall guide it in the future. Fate, destiny, or whatever 1t may be termed has given to Theodore Roosevelt this su- preme opportunity of crystalizing In a few words the governmental policy that shall sway millions of the human race, and lead the world upward and onward to the full fruition of government of the people, by the people, for the people. President Roosevelt is In truth fortunate. In him the man and the opportunity have met.
 If the great trusts and the highly-pro- tected interests that have not yet been consolidated can accomplish it there will be neither reciprocity treaties nor tariff reduction on a single on of the schedules during the coming session. Many of them have already stripped for the strug- gle and, through some of their cham pions in both houses thrown down the gauntlet. The watchword has gone forth, | ''the principle of protection Is sacred; | on It's preservation depends the prosper | ity of the country and the success of the | Republican party" These selfish con-
 cerns cannot see beyond the narrow hor-
 izon of their own mills. The great agri- | SoAsaA oA AhAcA ool upOH WHICH lle pTOSpeT-
 ity of all may be said to be founded Is | completely ignored by these monopolists, who are so highly protected that they can undersell the foreigner in his own market. Foreign markets for everything that we make are. of course desirable, but 1t will not do to win them at the expense of the hundreds of millions worth of food products that we raise over and above our own consumption. If we impoverish our foreign customers by closing up their factories through our competition, where will they find the means to purchase what they must have in order to exist, and what our farmers must sell in order to make both ends meet. This Is a new question. Never be- fore have we had to deal with It. So long as the American manufacturer was content with the home market all went well. In endeavoring to seize and appro- priate to himself the consumption of the